SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1612 (73), Friday, September 24, 2010
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TITLE: Russia Leads
In Youth Murders
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia has the worst record in Europe and Central Asia on homicides of young people, ranking ahead of Albania and Kazakhstan, and the world’s highest youth suicide rate, according to recent reports.
Experts attributed the grim statistics to social problems such as violent programming on state-run television, which they said undermines young people’s sense of value for human life.
The rate for violence-related deaths among people aged 10 to 29 in Russia is 15.85 per 100,000 individuals — 34 times higher than in Germany, the World Health Organization’s European bureau said in its first report on youth violence.
The findings, presented Tuesday in London, said 40 young people are murdered daily in the 53 countries surveyed, bringing the annual number of killings for the age group to about 15,000 in the greater European region. Eighty percent of victims are males, the report said.
Albania ranked second, with 11.2 deaths per 100,000 people, while Kazakhstan was third with 10.66 deaths. Germany had the lowest rate, with 0.5 violent deaths per 100,000 young people, the report said.
Young Russian and Turkish migrants contribute to the German rate more than ethnic Germans, the study added, linking this to “factors relating to social disintegration and culture (such as parenting styles and masculinity norms).”
Homicide is the third most common cause of death, following road incidents and suicides, for the surveyed age group, the report said. Chronic poverty in some countries and the global economic downfall also contribute to the death rate.
Knives and other sharp weapons are the most frequent murder weapons in the region, accounting for about 40 percent of the homicides perpetrated by youngsters, the study said. In Russia, another 21 percent of the victims were beaten by blunt objects, 20 percent strangled and 10 percent shot to death.
“Exposure to adversity in childhood is also associated with greatly increased risks of alcohol and drug misuse, depression, suicide, smoking, risky sexual behavior, physical inactivity and obesity,” the report said.
“There is renewed concern that the recession will increase mortality from homicide and suicide,” the report said. It called the deaths an “enormous loss to society,” and said many murders could be averted by proper social and criminal justice policies.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said Wednesday that regular police reports include no data on the age of perpetrators, but admitted that the study looked plausible.
“There is nothing surprising in those figures. It’s common knowledge that the level of crime is higher in Russia than in European countries,” the spokesman, Oleg Yelnikov, told The Moscow Times by telephone.
His words echoed a study released by UNICEF’s Russian office last week that said the mortality rate among adolescents in Russia was four times higher than in most European countries.
Moreover, the suicide rate among Russian minors is the highest in the world and three times higher than the global average for this age group, said the report, called “Adolescent Mortality in the Russian Federation.”
“About 45 percent of young women and 27 percent of young men in Russia have thought, at least once, about committing suicide,” UNICEF said in a statement.
Boris Altshuler, head of the children’s rights watchdog Right of the Child, said the data in both reports look realistic.
“The main reason for such figures is that no one cares about children in Russia,” Altshuler said by telephone. “There is no social environment for them.”
In particular, he cited violence and other questionable content in popular entertainment, particularly on state-owned television channels, which encourage dangerous behavior among impressionable young people.
Anna Balayeva, a psychologist who works with young offenders at the Perekryostok support center for teenagers, also said Russian society cultivates tolerance toward violence, which causes young people to develop a low regard for human life.
TITLE: Horns, Putin Open $500M Hyundai Plant
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Trumpeters dressed in white uniforms and long-legged drummer girls in blue jackets and cocked hats were playing marches Tuesday as Hyundai Motor launched its first Russian car assembly plant in St. Petersburg.
The company invested a total of $500 million in the facility, which will work in pilot mode until the end of this year and start commercial production in January.
The plant will manufacture the new C-class Solaris, a subcompact car created specially for the Russian market. Production of the four-door sedan will start in January, while manufacturing of the hatchback is scheduled to begin in May.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who took part in the opening ceremony, and Hyundai Motor chairman and CEO Chung Mong-koo kicked off production. Putin took Hyundai officials for a short drive across the plant in the first red Solaris, after which he and Chung signed the hood of the car.
Putin said the enterprise would generate more than 30 billion rubles ($965 million) in tax revenue in the coming years, adding that the opening was a heartening event for Russian motorists.
“This is the opening of a high-tech, world-renowned enterprise with the highest quality standards, which will manufacture cars specially designed for Russian conditions,” he said at the ceremony.
Putin thanked Hyundai officials, who started building the plant in June 2008 “in the full swing of the financial crisis.” The prime minister also attended the grand opening of one of three car-part facilities by Canada’s Magna International later that day.
The South Korean automaker said it took into account Russia’s long, cold winters and the driving habits of the country’s motorists when creating the “strategic” Solaris.
The vehicle’s name, chosen in online voting, originates from the Latin word “sol” meaning the sun.
“While launching Solaris, Hyundai plans to become the sun on the Russian market,” said Kim Wong-il, director of the product strategy division at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus, Hyundai Motor’s subsidiary in Russia.
Hyundai expects the plant to reach an annual capacity of at least 105,000 cars by late 2011. It anticipates the figure to increase to 150,000 vehicles in 2012 as the plant will introduce three working shifts.
The company also plans to expand the model range depending on demand and growth of the Russian market, said Kim Syn-thaek, head of the foreign business division at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus.
Hyundai, which was merged with another South Korean carmaker Kia in 1998, may also launch production of Kia vehicles at the plant “in order to use the facility more effectively,” he said at a news conference at the plant.
Kim Syn-thaek said the company was also considering exporting the vehicles it produces in Russia, although sales domestically would remain the priority.
Hyundai plans to nearly double its sales in Russia to 130,000 vehicles next year, said Karry Cho, chief executive of Hyundai Motor in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The company will have to continue importing vehicles to Russia from South Korea to meet that target.
The company expects to sell 75,000 vehicles in Russia this year. It already sold 47,200 cars in the first eight months, up 22 percent from a year ago and outperforming the market’s 14 percent growth.
Hyundai’s plant is the first full-cycle facility by a foreign carmaker in Russia, located on a 200-hectare site. Production at the plant will include stamping, welding, painting and assembling.
The company hopes to produce the vehicles at low cost, largely through its cooperation with 11 South Korean auto-parts suppliers that have built facilities in St. Petersburg and in the Northwest Federal District in the past two years.
The government has stressed that foreign automakers will need to boost the amount of locally made components they use in Russia in coming years. In a government meeting on localizing more auto-parts production in Russia, Putin promised that foreign-branded carmakers working in Russia deserved the same treatment as Russian brands.
The area around St. Petersburg has already attracted investment from a number of foreign carmakers.
Most recently, Nissan opened a plant producing X-Trail SUVs and the Teana sedan in June 2009. General Motors has made its Opel Astra, Opel Antara, Chevrolet Cruze and Chevrolet Captiva models at a factory that opened in 2008, while Toyota has been manufacturing its Camry in the region since 2007.
Magna’s openings Tuesday included two facilities that are part of its joint venture with Shin Young, a Korea-based supplier of major stampings, welded assemblies and tooling. The joint venture, Cosym, will operate one plant in Shushary, outside St. Petersburg, to produce body, chassis and energy-management systems for customers including Hyundai, General Motors, Nissan and Volkswagen, Magna said in a statement.
The other plant, in Kamenka outside St. Petersburg, is a Hyundai-dedicated production site for body sub-assemblies based on parts stamped in Shushary.
Magna said it also opened a plant in Kolpino, also outside St. Petersburg, to produce exterior and interior components for customers including Ford and Nissan. The three plants represented a total investment of 74 million euros ($97 million).
“We expect the Russian automotive market to grow significantly,” Magna chief executive Don Walker said in the statement. “We have expanded our footprint to help our customers grow in this region as well as regions around the world, especially on global platforms.”
Magna operates two other facilities in Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga.
Putin, who also attended the Magna opening, said he was pleased that the two companies had jointly planned their investment in Russia.
TITLE: ‘Animal’ Cop Hospitalized After Alleged Attack
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As a police officer under investigation for beating peaceful demonstrators during a rally was hospitalized after allegedly being attacked, activists claim they had nothing to do with the incident and suggest it was a trick to hinder the investigation.
Vadim Boiko was “hit on the head with a heavy object,” by an unknown man on Sept. 15, Interfax reported on Tuesday, citing a “source with the law-enforcing agencies.” The attacker made it clear that it was an act of revenge for Boiko’s behavior during the rally, according to Interfax.
Boiko was filmed hitting a man in the face with his police baton and dragging a woman by her hair while dispersing a July 31 rally outside Gostiny Dvor in defense of the right of assembly. Four people filed complaints with the prosecutor, which resulted in a criminal case being opened last month.
Boiko was diagnosed with a “closed craniocerebral injury,” Interfax reported.
A Fontanka.ru reporter who visited Boiko in hospital found him looking well and watching television. He refused to comment on the attack, saying “What are you, crazy? Get out of here,” Fontanka.ru reported Tuesday.
Soon after Interfax’s report, the Strategy 31 organizing committee in St. Petersburg denied any involvement into the attack on Boiko.
“The ideology of events in defense of the freedom of assembly is nonviolent struggle,” it said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s impossible to overcome the authorities’ arbitrariness by using their own methods.”
Local activists in Strategy 31, the campaign in defense of the right of assembly, found the news suspicious.
“It sounds fishy; it’s not clear why it came to light a week after he was attacked,” said Andrei Dmitriyev, the local leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party (NBP) and a Strategy 31 activist.
“It was said that he was hit so hard that he could not resist or chase the attacker, who must be quite a physically fit man.
“So it’s not improbable that this is a provocation by his fellow policemen to present him as a victim and spare him from the criminal prosecution that is underway.”
On Sept. 2, the St. Petersburg Interior Affairs Department (GUVD) said that it had found no violations in how the police acted during
the July 31 rally in its own inter-
nal probe, which lasted a full
month.
“If the case of Boiko goes to court and he is sentenced, it will set a precedent for the country of a policeman who illegally dispersed and beat protesters going to prison,” Dmitriyev said.
“This may also result into St. Petersburg police chief Vladislav Piotrovsky losing his job. The police superiors are trying to save Boiko and themselves.”
Boiko was officially charged with “exceeding his authority with the use of violence and tactical police equipment” earlier this month. The offense is punishable by three to ten years in prison.
Boiko, who has sworn in
writing not to leave the city and to “behave appropriately,” pleaded not guilty.
TITLE: Jurgens House Under Threat
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A 19th-century building in the city center is under threat of demolition, preservationists said this week.
Unofficially known as the Jurgens House, after the architect who built it, the three-story building was earlier this month surrounded by a fence, closing off half of the road in that section of the street.
Living City, an organization which seeks to preserve St. Petersburg’s historic appearance, was due to hold a series of one-man pickets outside the building at 19 Ulitsa Zhukovskogo from Wednesday through Friday.
Activists warn that demolition may start at any moment. “If proved later that it was illegal, the developer will get off with a small fine,” Living City said in a statement.
A local law prohibits the demolition of historic buildings, defined as those built before 1917, in the area, except for those that are in a critical state and are impossible to repair. The work, if started, may also damage buildings 17 and 21, which are attached to the Jurgens House.
The building’s owner, Luksor, claims it ordered an expert analysis that concluded that the building is in critical state, but preservationists contest the results and are collecting signatures for a petition to be given to St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko demanding that an independent expert analysis be conducted.
“Several people working [on the construction site] contacted us, on condition of anonymity, saying that the building is in good condition,” said Living City activist Antonina Yeliseyeva.
“Neighboring residents have been in the building, they have photographs, and there is not a single crack. It’s unclear where this irreversible ‘critical state’ has come from. It’s not like they have ever built a metro under the building.”
Living City demands an independent examination of the building. “It should be paid for not by that organization [Luksor], but by an unbiased party, possibly the city administration,” she said.
Yeliseyeva said the developer is planning to build either a hotel or a bank, which could be five or six stories high.
The house was built by Emmanuil Jurgens, a leading Russian architect (1827-1880), for his family in 1865. Many buildings built by Jurgens in St. Petersburg are protected by the state.
Luksor representatives were not available to comment Thursday. On Wednesday, Alexander Rotshein, a company representative, said that the building would be demolished but its facade would be preserved, Karpovka.net reported. He said the developer has yet to decide what the new building will be for and what its height will be.
Since Matviyenko took office, more than 100 historic buildings in the city center have been destroyed, often to make way for unattractive business centers or hotels, preservationists say.
Developers target two- or three-story buildings in the center because it is easier and cheaper to move the residents out of them.
TITLE: Thirteen Judges Ask Police for Help
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Working as a judge is a dangerous job, with 13 Moscow judges seeking police protection since January and the city’s top judge receiving threats, the top judge, Olga Yegorova, said Tuesday.
“For the first time in many years, threats have been directed against me,” Yegorova told a packed news conference of about 45 reporters and several television channels, including Channel One, TV Center and Ren-TV.
Yegorova refused a question by The Moscow Times to elaborate on the time and essence of the threats. “Life is not easy for me as it is, but you are curious,” she said, testily. “When I get killed, probably everyone will be curious.”
Yegorova, chairwoman of the Moscow City Court, said in an interview on the sidelines of the news conference that 13 judges had sought police protection since the start of the year. She did not appear to be among the 13, with a court spokeswoman explaining that the judges had complained to their direct superiors and Yegorova. Several hundred judges work under Yegorova.
Yegorova also said she had not received complaints about law enforcement and government officials putting pressure on city judges. But she suggested that some judges were not acting independently, saying she had “information that some judges are biased.”
A few years ago, former Moscow judges Alexander Melikov and Olga Kudeshkina accused Yegorova of pushing for their ouster after they refused to bow to pressure from prosecutors for harsher sentences.
Yegorova has denied wrongdoing.
Yegorova said Tuesday that city courts rule in favor of City Hall in 70 percent of cases where Muscovites appeal their decrees.
TITLE: Police Cars Flipped Over in Graft Protest
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Several police cars were overturned in St. Petersburg in a stunt taken credit for on Monday by the same group of artists that painted a huge penis on a drawbridge in June.
An artist with the group, Voina, or War, published photos on Monday on his blog of what he called an anti-police “Palace Revolution” in the vicinity of the downtown Mikhailovsky Palace.
The first car was overturned after a ball belonging to a child of one of the artists rolled under it, the artist-blogger, Alexei Plutser-Sarno, said on his blog. After that, the artists targeted four to six other police vehicles.
It took the activists nine seconds to flip each car, he said.
The group wanted to provoke a discussion about widespread corruption and power abuse in the police force, Plutser-Sarno said in an e-mailed statement. He added that Voina did not fear prosecution.
“More than 10 criminal cases have been opened against the group. There will be one more, so what?” he said.
“They don’t need us: We have neither money nor property, so there’s nothing to get from us, and the ‘werewolves in epaulets’ don’t work for no reason and for free,” Plutser-Sarno said, referring to a nickname for corrupt policemen.
A spokeswoman for the St. Petersburg traffic police confirmed Monday that at least one car sustained slight damages when it was overturned by unidentified attackers last week.
Police are looking into the incident, the spokeswoman told Ekho Moskvy radio, without elaborating whether any Voina members face charges.
Voina has previously staged other radical performances bordering on hooliganism. They organized a sex orgy in the Biological Museum in Moscow in 2008 and painted a 65-meter penis on a St. Petersburg drawbridge on the eve of an international economic forum in June.
David Riff, an expert on Russian art, said prosecution would allow Voina to draw even more attention to their activities. “The aim of art is to provoke and oppose, and Voina is the only group now which still performs these kinds of things,” Riff said by telephone. “But it doesn’t mean that they can’t be prosecuted. It’s their own choice.”
TITLE: Firm Sues Khimki Protesters for Losses
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Teplotekhnik, the company contracted by the federal government to clear part of Moscow region’s Khimki forest for a new highway, has sued environmental activists for a quarter million dollars for blocking its work this summer, Interfax reported Tuesday.
Moscow’s Savyolovsky District Court is to consider the lawsuit Thursday.
The company has sued 11 people, including Yevgenia Chirikova, leader of the campaign to protect the forest, claiming 7.99 million rubles ($257,000) in damages for blocking logging equipment from entering the forest.
A lawyer for one of the defendants, Andrei Margulev, said the lawsuit should be thrown out because Teplotekhnik’s contract to clear the forest expired in 2009.
Environmental activists were threatened by unidentified thugs and pressured by police to leave as they camped out in the forest in July to prevent the cutting down of the trees.
About 60 hectares of the 144 hectares slated for demolition to make way for the $8 billion highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg were eventually cleared despite public protests.
President Dmitry Medvedev in late August halted the work and ordered public hearings to decide the fate of the road, which protesters say can be built bypassing the forest.
TITLE: Russian Railways Launches Regular Service From Moscow to France
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In a throwback to pre-revolutionary days, Russian Railways this week will kick off a regular train service between Moscow and Nice, a southern French city popular among Russian glitterati and wealthy businessmen.
The route operated during tsarist times but was canceled almost 100 years ago, according to Italia-ru.it, a web site for Russians in Italy, one of the countries included in the new train route.
The new train service, which will operate once a week, will leave from Moscow’s Belorussky Station on Thursdays and arrive in Nice 50 hours later, Russian Railways’ media outlet RZD-Partner said. The return train will leave Sunday afternoon and arrive in Moscow late Tuesday. The train will travel through Smolensk, Minsk, Warsaw, Vienna, Milan and Genoa.
The train has 12 carriages, including a restaurant car. The cheapest fare is 306 euros ($400), and the most expensive offer, which includes a large bed, a separate shower and a toilet, costs 1,200 euros.
Foreign cities already connected to Moscow via regular train routes include Beijing, Berlin, Budapest, Helsinki, Prague and Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
TITLE: U.S. Trial Starts in Ballet Sex Case
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A U.S. lawyer and arts philanthropist has gone on trial in Philadelphia on charges that he sexually abused a Russian ballet dancer he helped support, the Associated Press reported.
Kenneth Schneider began a relationship with Roman Zavarov in 1998, when the boy was 12, prosecutors said, RIA-Novosti reported. They say he paid for the boy’s ballet school and had him move into his Moscow apartment.
Zavarov, who is currently a dancer for Ballet Arizona, said Schneider used “pressure and coercion” to force him into a relationship, the report said.
Zavarov also said that he did not resist Schneider’s advances because he could not afford ballet education otherwise.
Schneider has denied all charges.
Defense lawyer Joseph Green Jr. tried unsuccessfully to get the charges dismissed on statute-of-limitation grounds ahead of the start of the trial Tuesday.
Schneider, 45, has been in custody since being detained in March in Cyprus.
He is the founder of the Apogee Foundation, a New York-based arts group, and has worked for a number of companies, including a finance firm owned by Roman Abramovich, RIA-Novosti said, without identifying the firm.
Schneider is also accused of bringing Zavarov to Philadelphia for a 2001 summer program and continuing the sexual relationship for several years after that.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Woman Abducted
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A St. Petersburg woman stated that unidentified assailants abducted her from the parking lot of a shopping center on Murmanskoye Shosse, after which they robbed her and threw her out of the car near Rybatskoye metro station, Fontanka.ru reported.
At about 9.15 p.m. Monday, unknown attackers put a bag over the woman’s head in the parking lot of Mega Dybenko shopping center and forced her into a car, the 28-year-old woman reported. They then threw her out at Rybatskoye, taking her purse, which contained 29,000 rubles ($934).
Police: Crime Down
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The St. Petersburg Police Department announced decreases across the board in reported crimes on Thursday, Fontanka.ru reported.
During January to August this year, St. Petersburg registered 43,500 crimes, while the Leningrad Oblast reported 18,800 — decreases of 15 and 11 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year, the local news site reported.
The number of reported robberies showed the most substantial declines, at 37.4 and 18.4 percent, while serious and very serious crimes declined the least at 8.4 and 9.4 percent for the city and region.
The number of people charged with committing crimes stayed at about the same level, with declines of 5.2 and 3.4 percent registered.
Puppet Swindle Busted
MOSCOW (SPT) — The director of Moscow’s Obraztsov Theater, the biggest puppet theater in the world, has been detained by police on embezzlement charges, RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday, citing a law enforcement source.
The director, Andrei Luchin, is accused of swindling almost 12 million rubles ($385,000) of state funds allotted for production of puppets for several plays, the Investigative Committee said, Interfax reported.
Police were preparing Wednesday to file fraud charges against Luchin, who faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the case, the report said.
Hitler Quotes in Buses
MOSCOW (SPT) — Perm prosecutors were looking into a peculiar advertising mishap that saw stickers with a quotation from Adolf Hitler posted in the city’s mass transit system earlier this month, Interfax reported Wednesday.
The quote read, “We will defeat Russia when Ukrainians and Belarussians will believe they aren’t Russians,” Kommersant reported Saturday.
The probe was opened at the request of the city administration, which supports the program to place stickers with quotations from well-known people in the city buses, but denied sanctioning the inclusion of Hitler’s quote.
Minister Wanted Online
MOSCOW (SPT) — Modernization of local bureaucracy reached a new height after the Ulyanovsk regional government published a vacancy for an information minister on the job search web site Superjob.ru, Gazeta.ru reported Wednesday.
The head of the newly established ministry will get a monthly salary of 60,000 rubles ($1,930) and must have at least seven years of professional experience in the IT industry, according to the vacancy.
TITLE: Missing Fighter Detained in Norway
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A mixed martial arts champion who fled a St. Petersburg psychiatric facility has been detained in Norway after applying for asylum.
An Oslo police official said Vyacheslav Datsik was detained Wednesday on suspicion of violating the country’s law on gun ownership and having possible links to organized crime. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Datsik, also known as Tarzan the Redhead, surrendered to immigration officials earlier Wednesday and asked for political asylum, Interfax reported.
A video posted on YouTube shows Datsik entering a building described only as a Norwegian immigration office. The police official said it was an immigration police office.
Dmitry Dyomushkin, a friend of Datsik and leader of the banned ultranationalist Slavic Union, confirmed the authenticity of the video, saying it had been filmed by supporters in Norway.
“I wished him all the best and told him not to act like a nutcase,” Dyomushkin said by telephone.
The video shows Datsik, 30, wearing a sweatshirt with Nazi insignia and saying, “Sieg heil,” as he raises his arm in a Nazi salute before entering the office.
Once inside, Datsik, speaking through an interpreter, tells an immigration official that he arrived in the country by boat and hands over a pistol and his driver’s license. He also asks the official to google his name.
Last year, Datsik, a world heavyweight champion in mixed martial arts, was found guilty by a St. Petersburg court of carrying out several robberies. But he was sent to a prison psychiatric hospital after a psychological examination deemed him insane.
Datsik was transferred in July to a regular psychiatric facility in the Leningrad region, which he fled on Aug. 21, reportedly tearing a hole in the wire fence with his bare hands. Police have linked him to the robbery of 7,000 rubles ($225) and a cell phone from a local cell phone shop the next day.
A St. Petersburg police spokesman said Wednesday that Datsik is wanted by federal authorities on robbery charges but no Interpol warrant has been issued for his arrest, Interfax reported.
A spokesman for local branch of the Federal Guard Service said by telephone that his agency was not aware of the case. He said, though, that if Datsik had crossed the Russian border illegally, he could have gone through the Murmansk region, which borders Norway, or Karelia, which borders Finland. Illegal border crossing is punished by up to two years’ imprisonment.
Datsik told Interfax that he would seek asylum in Norway, a longtime favorite destination for Chechens who fled Russia during the Chechen conflicts. Among those who have asylum is Anzor Maskhadov, son of late Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
Ksenya Nelson, a lawyer with the Andersen & Bache-Wiig AS law firm in Oslo, said asylum seekers must prove that they are being harassed by the authorities. “His political views are not a matter,” she said, adding that it has gotten more difficult for Russians to obtain asylum in Norway nowadays.
Norwegian immigration officials were unavailable for comment, but a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said government policy barred the release of information about asylum cases, a precaution meant to ensure the safety of applicants.
Despite his psychological evaluation, Datsik is a “sane person,” Dyomushkin said.
TITLE: Preschool Intruder Stabs Cook And Police
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Siberian man took a female cook hostage and stabbed her and several police officers early Wednesday after gaining access to a deserted kindergarten in central Moscow by convincing the sole security guard that he was thirsty.
The attack is the latest in a series of incidents that have raised questions about the ability of private security guards to ensure safety.
The guard at the privately owned kindergarten, Raduga, located at 50 Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya, let the stranger onto the premises at about 1 a.m. when the man said he needed a drink of water, Investigative Committee spokesman Maxim Koryakin said.
The visitor, Irkutsk resident Sergei Bychkov, was fleeing from police after stabbing a taxi driver at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday near 10 Ulitsa Khamovnichesky Val, about 200 meters away, because he did not want to pay the taxi fare, Koryakin said.
Koryakin did not give Bychkov’s age or profession. Lifenews.ru said he was 58.
The guard could not detain Bychkov because he had no legal right to do so, but he called the police, Raduga head Anna Korolyova said.
Police stormed the kindergarten and detained Bychkov at about 3 a.m., after two hours of unsuccessful talks, Koryakin said.
During the negotiations, Bychkov took a cook as hostage and stabbed her in the shoulder and arm. The extent of her injuries was unclear.
Bychkov told Lifenews.ru that he took the hostage because he wanted the guard to give him a gun to commit suicide.
Bychkov locked himself with the 30-year-old cook in the bathroom, the report said.
Bychkov also attacked the acting captain of the Khamovniki police precinct, who took part in his detention, the Investigative Committee said in a statement, without identifying the official or the nature of his injuries.
A police source told RIA-Novosti that Bychkov bit the police captain and stabbed several other police officers, but without inflicting serious injuries.
The taxi driver was hospitalized.
A city police spokesman refused to comment on the incident.
Investigators have opened a criminal case against Bychkov, who has not been charged. A charge of attacking a police officer carries up to five years in prison, while attempted murder is punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
The work of private guards has been under scrutiny since guards at a Moscow supermarket failed to prevent police Major Denis Yevsyukov from going on a shooting rampage that killed two people and wounded six in April 2009.
Late last month, unidentified masked intruders tied up the sole security guard at a Moscow-based office belonging the Moscow regional branch of the Investigative Committee at night, rifling through 18 offices and cracking open 25 safes.
According to Interior Ministry statistics, private security guards only manage to fend off one out of every 20 attacks at most.
TITLE: Two Scientists Held In Murky Spy Case
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Taranova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Two St. Petersburg scientists have been arrested on spy charges that signal the resumption of criminal cases by a resurgent Federal Security Service against researchers accused of divulging state secrets.
Human rights activists accuse FSB officers of fabricating the latest case to show their superiors that they are working.
The arrests have received little media attention, all but eclipsed by a summer spy scandal that saw the United States swap 10 Russian agents for four Russians imprisoned on spy charges.
One of the scientists, Svyatoslav Bobyshev, now 57, was arrested at his apartment on March 16, Bobyshev’s daughter, Yekaterina, told The St. Petersburg Times.
The other scientist, Yevgeny Afanasyev, was also arrested on March 16, news reports said. He was 57 at the time of his arrest.
The duo, who worked at Baltic State Technical University and specialized in gas dynamics, the study of the motion of gases and its effects, are accused of passing sensitive information that could damage Russia’s national security to unidentified Chinese citizens, Ekho Moskvy radio reported Sept. 14.
The FSB has made no statement about the arrests. A written request for comment sent last Wednesday was not answered by Tuesday.
Yekaterina Bobysheva said the charges against her father were groundless and stemmed from his work in China. She said she had no further information.
Afanasyev also has denied wrongdoing, news reports said.
If convicted, the professors face up to 20 years behind bars.
Bobyshev’s lawyer, Dmitry Agranovsky, reached by telephone, declined to comment on the case, citing a nondisclosure agreement that he had been forced to signed with the FSB. He said, however, that Bobyshev and Afanasyev are jailed in Moscow’s maximum-security Lefortovo prison and have no complaints about their conditions there.
Last Tuesday, the Lefortovsky District Court extended their pre-trial detention by another four months as FSB investigators prepare their case.
Baltic State Technical University has a cooperation agreement with China’s Harbin Engineering University, which Bobyshev and Afanasyev have visited at least six times to deliver lectures together in recent years, said Yury Kruglov, chairman of the department where they work, according to an interview published in Ogonyok magazine on March 29. The two professors most recently visited China in May 2009, he said.
Every Russian university has staff who scrutinize articles written by professors and texts of their lectures for foreign conferences before they are published or presented in public.
Baltic State Technical University’s former rector, Yury Savelyev, expressed doubt about the treason charges, saying lectures undergo triple checks: first by the department chairman, then by the university’s security department, and finally by a special commission on export controls.
“Moreover, every professor goes through a special instruction procedure before going abroad,” Savelyev told Ogonyok in March.
TITLE: Rival Lenta Chief Executives Speak to Press
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya and Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Jan Dunning, one the two chief executive officers of St. Petersburg-based hypermarket chain Lenta currently embroiled in a shareholder conflict, denied allegations that he is not legally permitted to work in Russia at a press conference held in the city on Thursday.
Dunning was answering a question raised after the other side of the shareholder conflict alleged that his status was illegal and he had no permission to work in Russia.
Dunning also denied that Lenta was planning to move its head office to Moscow, as had been suggested.
“Lenta is such a St. Petersburg based company; St. Petersburg is part of our identity,” he said.
“I hope the situation around Lenta will stabilize in the near future,” Dunning said in his short comment on the conflict within the company. Most of the press conference was dedicated to Lenta’s development.
The conflict escalated Tuesday when chief executive Sergei Yushenko and board chairman Dmitry Kostygin claimed at a hastily organized news conference in Moscow that rival chief executive Dunning had taken control based on a fraudulent document.
The conflict, which intensified in August, is between two shareholder factions. Yushenko is backed by a company called Svoboda, owned by American businessman August Meyer. Another shareholding company, called Luna, backs Dunning, and consists of U.S. equity firm TPG Capital and Russia’s VTB Capital.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which purchased 11 percent of the company in 2007 for $125 million, also backs Dunning.
Yushenko and Kostygin said Tuesday that Luna “conducted a hostile takeover” of Lenta’s main office in St. Petersburg in mid-September and instated Dunning as CEO, relying on improperly formed corporate decision documents.
Luna doesn’t agree. “Svoboda continues to make various claims to distract attention from the fact that they seized the operational control of the company against the will of the majority of shareholders and the majority of the board,” a TPG spokesman told The St. Petersburg Times.
What is really at stake, sources close to TPG said, is the company’s future and development plans. Big words such as “corporate raiding” and “hostile takeover” are aimed at distracting the public’s attention from the essence of the conflict, which they said was attempts by Svoboda to place its own man behind the company wheel.
While most of the attacks at Tuesday’s news conference were targeted against TPG, Yushenko and Kostygin expressed bitterness over other shareholders’ reluctance to take a stand in the dispute. The EBRD, they said, even suggested that Lenta be sold to avoid a seemingly unsolvable dispute.
EBRD spokesman Richard Wallis said the words were taken out of context. He also said that while an EBRD representative might have mentioned out of frustration the idea of selling the company, during a shareholder meeting held in August in London, it was by no means an official statement.
“We’re not a short-term speculative investor, and we do not head for the doors as soon as there is trouble,” Wallis said. “We have no interest of exiting the market just when our presence as shareholder is more needed than ever.”
With 37 stores in St. Petersburg and an annual turnover of roughly $1.8 billion, Lenta is tough competition for other retailers. Despite rumors to the contrary, there are no talks on a possible takeover by the world’s largest retailer, U.S.-based Walmart, a source close to Luna said.
Kostygin and analysts said the dispute would have little effect on the overall investment attractiveness of the company. While reputation is important to foreign investors, the fight has had little, if any, effect on Lenta’s operations, they said. Analysts believe that a good solution to the conflict would be to find a third neutral candidate, someone other than Dunning or Yushenko. But this is probably easier said than done.
Referring to Dunning, Wallis of EBRD said, “Why would anybody want to replace a CEO who has outperformed the market?”
At Thursday’s press conference, Dunning and his team said that Lenta had been very successful during the period when Dunning was in charge of the office, particularly during the first half of this year, when it showed 19.6 percent sales growth — the highest figure among St. Petersburg retailers, according to Dunning.
Antony Page, commercial director for Lenta’s food section, said Lenta had improved its market position, largely due to its price leadership policy.
“Our main aim is to have the lowest prices in town,” Page said.
At the same time, Dunning, criticized by the other side for failing to implement the company’s expansion policy in other regions, said that too intensive activities in that sphere could affect prices.
“If we invested too much in our new projects, we’d have less opportunities [to implement] our price policy,” Dunning said.
Pavel Sergeyev, head of Lenta’s development and construction sector, said the company still planned to open two new stores in Pskov and Rostov-on-Don in December this year.
TITLE: New Law for Businesses
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Economic Development Ministry is drafting a law to encourage small business by allowing more businesses to simply notify the authorities of the start of their operation, rather than apply for permits before starting, Minister Elvira Nabiullina said Wednesday.
The new law, Nabiullina said, will expand the list of types of activity that do not require advance approval and permits from the existing list that went into effect in 2008. It “will make it possible to expand the notification procedure and, in essence, make it the main procedure,” she said in a speech at the Federation Council.
A law passed in December 2008 identified 13 broad categories of activity, including trucking, publishing, retail and wholesale trading. Companies and individuals establishing a new business in one of those areas became able to notify the government of the setup after the fact, rather than seeking permits in advance.
TITLE: Why Russia Needs a Strong NATO
AUTHOR: By Yevgeny Bazhanov
TEXT: Some of my friends and colleagues are still talking about Russia’s “shame” when it decided to allow troops from NATO-member countries to take part in the Victory Day parade on Red Square, although the event happened more than four months ago. “What is going on?” they still cry. “We let the enemy march right into the very heart of Russia — into the holy of holies, right up to the Kremlin gates!”
What is most interesting, though, is that the people who scream the loudest about the dangers of Russia being “encircled” by NATO are the same people who gladly take vacations in NATO countries, buy real estate there, send their children there to study and even root for those countries’ football teams.
The Czech Republic is a good example. Although the country is an active participant in NATO, Russians have practically “occupied” its spa town of Karlovy Vary. Popular Russian songs are heard in the evenings along the central wharf, all the signs at the town’s resorts are written first in Russian and then in other European languages, and the restaurant menus all cater to Russian tastes. In Britain, nearly half the castles are now owned by Russian oligarchs, and it is more common to hear Russians swearing on Trafalgar Square than the native Cockney banter. Hordes of Russians buy up wine, perfume and cheese in France, and in Italy they besiege the expensive boutiques of Milan.
And the United States — the heart of NATO and ostensibly Moscow’s least-loved member country — attracts tens of thousands of Russian visitors every year like a powerful magnet. Hollywood films dominate Russia’s movie theaters and television screens. Moreover, several million Russians now call the United States their home. Among the immigrants are hockey stars, world-class computer programmers, composers, businesspeople, singers, political scientists and journalists. Even former diplomats, Soviet-era professors who taught Leninism-Marxism and the history of the Communist Party and former Soviet and Russian intelligence agents have relocated in huge numbers to the United States and other NATO countries. Meanwhile, Russia imports billions of dollars of goods from NATO countries, such as medical supplies and equipment, computers, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, cleaning systems, automobiles and airplanes.
For all the bilious demagoguery we hear about NATO and its evil intentions, there seems to be a lot of admiration and warm feelings toward the alliance’s member countries.
In short, Russia needs those countries, it depends on them, and it is attracted to them. That being the case, why do so many Russians despise and fear NATO so much? Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, has NATO ever called Russia its enemy? Is the alliance planning to invade Russia and seize its gas, oil and metals resources? If Russia really believes that such a threat exists, it should immediately stop flirting with the enemy, using their products and buying up Western castles and football teams. Russia must go on the defensive and prepare for war with them. It must form an alliance with North Korea, Iran and even al-Qaida to defend against NATO encirclement or invasion.
Instead, Russia has a self-contradictory, schizophrenic relationship to NATO. It is friends and enemies of NATO countries at the same time. It loves them and hates them, distrusts them and relies on them. There are a number of factors that play a role in this phenomenon: the inertia of Cold War animosities and rivalries; Russia’s wounded pride over the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of the country’s superpower status; its chronic social and economic backwardness; cultural differences; and, to be fair, the West’s historically arrogant attitude toward Russia. The other important factor is that Russia — like many other countries, including the United States — needs to have external enemies to help rally the people and divert their attention from domestic problems.
Meanwhile, Russia faces a deluge of real threats that have nothing to do with NATO whatsoever. The raging forest and peat bog fires that suffocated millions of Russians this summer is a good, recent example. It turned out that Russia’s firefighting capabilities were woefully unprepared, underfinanced and understaffed. Russia has an abundance of intercontinental ballistic missiles but an acute shortage of firefighting equipment. Does this make sense?
In addition, Russia is crippled by other internal problems such as high levels of drug addiction, poverty, corruption, a huge gap between the rich and poor, and “experts” wholly lacking in professional qualifications because they purchased their college diplomas on the Internet. There are counterfeit medicines, substandard food products, ethnic and sectarian strife and chauvinism, alcoholism, substandard hospitals and schools, and, of course, terrorism.
Russia needs to forget about NATO as an “enemy” and mobilize its resources to fight these pressing internal problems. And because some of these issues clearly cross borders into Europe and the United States, Russia should work with NATO countries to fight these problems together.
There were several tragic periods in Russian history when the country all but ignored its internal problems and spent most of its resources battling external, mythical enemies. This ended in one tragic result — collapse of the country. It happened in 1917 and again in 1991.
During the second half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union had built enough missiles to easily destroy any external enemy. But those missiles remained unused in their silos while the Soviet giant collapsed under the weight of its massive internal problems. It is time Russia learned not to tilt at windmills, but to confront the real threats to its national security, if not its very existence as a sovereign country. In this context, it is appropriate to repeat the warning of 18th-century French philosopher Charles de Montesquieu — a maxim that has particular relevance to Russia’s troubled history: “Small counties perish from external enemies, and large countries perish from internal ones.”
Imagine for a minute that the dreams of Russia’s NATO bashers come true: that NATO is dissolved. They will dance in the streets, singing, “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead!” But once the initial ecstasy passes, they would need to ask themselves, “How will European security be weakened without NATO?” Without a basic system of collective security, a dangerous cycle of rivalry, mistrust and rearming would likely be unleashed among European NATO members. Without NATO, Germany will certainly look much more suspiciously at France than it does today, for example, as will France at Britain and Poland at Russia. Europe could once again become a cauldron of simmering conflicts. History has shown that in this environment, all it takes is one lit match to ignite a new military conflict. And as we know all too well, during a war in Europe, it is Russia that suffers the most. The sacrifice Russians made in the two world wars should be enough to finally bring that lesson home.
Yevgeny Bazhanov is vice chancellor of research and international relations at the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy in Moscow.
TITLE: Crying Over Squirrel Institutes
AUTHOR: By Konstantin Sonin
TEXT: On Saturday, pages from the English version of the Russian Academy of Sciences web site contained several amusing translation errors. For example, the renowned Institute for Protein Research was incorrectly named “Squirrel Institute.” (The Russian word for protein, belok, is similar to the word for squirrel, belka.)
Bloggers — many of whom are employed by Russian Academy of Sciences institutions — did not know whether to laugh or cry. In fact, there were a number of amusing mistakes, all of which seemed to be the result of running the Russian text through online translators and then failing to edit the result.
The sad part is that these mistakes went unnoticed for quite some time. This episode was just one more blow to the reputation of the academy’s leadership, especially following Russian Academy of Sciences president Yury Osipov’s recent comment that there is no compelling need for Russian scholars to know English.
This episode highlights a problem deeper than a mere oversight by the web site’s administrators. During the summer, I attended a conference organized by the European University that brought together highly accomplished scholars and scientists to discuss the future of Russia’s sciences. At the conclusion of the conference, the participants attempted to pass a resolution reflecting the overall consensus. Not surprisingly, there were many hotly debated arguments among the participants, many of whom were distinguished Russian scholars working both in the country and abroad.
Despite heroic efforts by the conference moderator, that discussion continued through correspondence for another 90 days before finally resulting in a statement that was published in Vedomosti, Troitsky Variant and Polit.ru. These three media outlets have spent more time and space than others discussing the fate of Russian science. But the only reference the document makes to the Russian Academy of Sciences is a passing remark about the need to give the academy more funding.
Why were the participants unable to reach a consensus regarding the academy? The answer is simple: In addition to bringing world-class research centers in mathematics, chemistry and biology into a unified structure, the Russian Academy of Sciences also includes institutions whose existence and funding cannot be justified. For example, in the field of economics — my area of expertise — the academy includes a significant number of institutions where not one scholar has published research in a journal of international standing.
In the end, of course, the words “Squirrel Institute” on the Russian Academy of Sciences web site will not in any way discredit the Institute for Protein Research because the true reputation of that institution derives from the scientific accomplishments of its own scientists and researchers.
But by listing all of the academy’s institutions on a single web site, it puts serious, reputable organizations and those that truly deserve to be called “squirrel institutes” on the same level.
Konstantin Sonin is a professor at the New Economic School in Moscow and a columnist for Vedomosti.
TITLE: Celebrating Shostakovich
AUTHOR: By Jacob Gordon
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Since his death in 1975, both the popularity and critical reputation of Shostakovich’s music have climbed steadily. This is especially remarkable, given that the terrible historical realities that shaped it are fading from the world’s collective memory. In spite of the controversy over the composer’s political allegiances that has raged over the years — the Soviet regime bestowed several prizes on him, and he joined the Communist Party in the early 60s — it now seems clear that Shostakovich was an unhappy man who loathed his Kremlin masters, and that he voiced his outrage at the terrors of his era in his music.
Nevertheless, the music has proven able to stand on its own. Knowledge of the historical circumstances that produced it will certainly provide a deeper understanding of certain details, but its anger and pathos speak eloquently enough for themselves. And more of it is finding its way onto concert programs; works that were dismissed or simply not noticed in their own time are being listened to once again and reassessed.
Conductor Nikolai Alekseyev and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra will perform two such pieces Saturday evening in honor of the composer’s birthday. Neither the song-cycle “From Jewish Folk Poetry” nor the Eleventh Symphony is among Shostakovich’s best-known works, but both pieces are held in much higher esteem now than when they were premiered. “From Jewish Folk Poetry,” in particular, is perhaps the purest expression of Shostakovich’s compassion for the downtrodden and oppressed.
These songs — scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and either piano or chamber orchestra — were composed during one of the bleakest periods in the composer’s life. In 1948, the Soviet government issued a decree condemning Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and several lesser composers for “formalism” (a perceived tendency toward Western-style abstraction, frowned upon by the state). This decree had little to do with what Russian composers were writing at the time, and everything to do with the state’s desire to put Russia’s artists in their place after the relative freedom they had enjoyed during the war years. Almost overnight, Shostakovich found himself isolated from friends and colleagues, and was reduced to composing blandly patriotic cantatas to support himself and his family.
At the same time as he was clamping down on Russia’s artists, Stalin’s lifelong anti-Semitism was finding new and virulent expression. Jews were expelled from the Soviet Union’s scientific and artistic establishments, and historical evidence suggests the dictator was preparing a series of anti-Semitic purges at the time of his death in 1953. Shostakovich, though not Jewish, was a battered man and personally identified with Jewish suffering; “From Jewish Folk Poetry” is both an act of protest against what he saw happening around him and a personal cry of despair. (Shostakovich wanted the piece performed as soon as it was written, but friends talked him out of it. It was premiered in 1955).
Perhaps needless to say, it is not an uplifting work, but it is a very moving one. The songs are full of grief, death and violence, though Shostakovich’s trademark sarcasm leavens the mood at times. Their pared-down quality — the simplicity of the lyrics, matched by Shostakovich’s uncomplicated vocal writing — gives them a directness that can be deeply shocking in a great performance. But the piece isn’t technically difficult, and doesn’t ask much of the singers other than that they blend well and sing with feeling, so almost any performance is bound to make an impact. Saturday evening’s singers — soprano Anastasiya Kalagina, mezzo-soprano Natalya Yevstafyeva, and tenor Dmitry Voropayev — are all Mariinsky Theater soloists with broad repertoires, and have been praised in Russia and abroad.
The Eleventh Symphony, which concludes Saturday’s program, is far less inspired, but it’s a better piece than it was thought to be in 1956, when it first appeared. Outwardly a pro-Soviet work about the tsarist government’s brutal suppression of the 1905 revolution — it bears the subtitle “The Year 1905” — many commentators have come to see it as a subversive commentary on the U.S.S.R.’s then-current suppression of the Hungarian revolution. No amount of virtuous intent on Shostakovich’s part can conceal the fact that the piece sprawls all over the place. It lacks the cogency and terseness of his finest symphonies, but it does have a cinematic sense of immediacy, and can certainly make an impact in a good performance.
The St. Petersburg Philharmonic has a closer relationship to Shostakovich than any other orchestra. Along with the Eleventh, it premiered six of his 15 symphonies. Since the Soviet days, the orchestra’s sound has become a bit more Western — the woodwinds less piercing, the brass less wobbly — but much of its distinctive sound remains. The conductor, Nikolai Alekseyev, is young and not a superstar, but he has been acclaimed for his work in Russian music in the former Soviet bloc and the West. Anyone wanting to explore two somewhat unfamiliar sides of one of Russia’s greatest composers could hardly ask for a better opportunity.
The St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Shostakovich’s “From Jewish Folk Poetry” and Symphony No.11 on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall,
Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa 2.
Tel: 710 42 90.
TITLE: Word’s worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Îòîâàðèòü: to buy or sell something with a chit or coupon, to hit someone (slang)
Mr. Putin gave another of his language lessons recently. This lesson was about the verb îòîâàðèòü, which is derived from the noun òîâàð (merchandise, commodity).
As far as I can tell, the verb îòîâàðèòü appeared during the Soviet period. It meant either selling or buying food and other goods for ration cards or certificates. You can find dozens of examples of this usage in literature and newspaper articles. The word can be difficult to translate, since we express the concept a bit differently in English. Õëåá âûäàâàëè ïî êàðòî÷êàì, êîòîðûå íå âñåãäà ìîæíî áûëî îòîâàðèòü (Bread was distributed by ration cards, but you couldn’t always find it; literally, “[the cards] couldn’t always be traded”). Today, you find îòîâàðèòü used to describe chits for free medicine: Ëüãîòíèêè ìåñÿöàìè ïûòàþòñÿ îòîâàðèòü âûïèñàííûå ðåöåïòû (People with vouchers spend months trying to get their prescriptions filled).
Îòîâàðèòü produced another verb, îòîâàðèòüñÿ, which today has two meanings. One is to successfully use some kind of voucher to buy something. Ïî ýòèì êàðòàì ìîæíî îòîâàðèòüñÿ â ïðîäóêòîâûõ ìàãàçèíàõ (You can use the vouchers to buy what you need in grocery stores). The second meaning is to go on a shopping spree. Åäó â Òàèëàíä îòîâàðèâàòüñÿ (I’m taking a shopping trip to Thailand).
Somewhere along the line, îòîâàðèòü became camp slang for beating someone up, similar to the English expression “giving it to someone.” And then this meaning drifted into mainstream Russian, although it still seems to be a slangy term. Putin used it in this sense when talking about how protesters who didn’t receive a sanction for their demonstrations should be treated. As is his want, he cited the alleged way that protesters in London are treated by the cops when they demonstrate in a place that’s off-limits. “Ãäå íåëüçÿ, áüþò äóáèíîé ïî áàøêå. Íåëüçÿ? Ïðèø¸ë? Ïîëó÷è, òåáÿ îòîâàðèëè.” (Where they can’t [demonstrate], they’re hit over the head with a billy club. Is it a forbidden place? Did you come anyway? Take it — you’re going to get smacked.)
Mr. Putin thoughtfully provided some contemporary synonyms of îòîâàðèòü for us foreigners, all involving äóáèíà, which I like to translate as “billy club.” For example, he said: “Âûøëè, íå èìåÿ ïðàâà, ïîëó÷èòå ïî áàøêå äóáèíîé” (If you come out and don’t have permission, you’re going to get hit upside the head with a billy club). And here’s another example, in his version of the protesters’ intentions: “… ìû âàñ áóäåì ïðîâîöèðîâàòü íà òî, ÷òîáû âû íàì äàëè äóáèíîé ïî áàøêå” (… we’re going to provoke you to whack us upside the head with a billy club). Lots of verbs — only the billy club stays the same.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. A collection of her columns, “The Russian Word’s Worth,” will be released by Glas in late September.
TITLE: One day in the European Union
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Europe Day comes to town on Saturday with a string of film screenings, gastronomic feasts, intellectual discussions, classical music concerts and cutting-edge art exhibitions.
Organized by the Goethe German Cultural Center and the French Institute in St. Petersburg jointly with local consulates and cultural centers of EU member states, this grand-scale culture festival will plunge locals and visitors to St. Petersburg into the world of European diversity.
The event opens on a serious note, with a political debate titled “The Internet and Freedom of Speech” which starts at 10 a.m. at the Astoria hotel. Taking part in the discussion will be numerous highly respected European scholars and experts, including Susan Pointer, director of European Public Policy at Google; Klaus Beck, a professor with the Institute for Information and Media of the Free University in Berlin; Leonid Smorgunov, head of the political management department at St. Petersburg State University; Daniil Kotsubinsky, journalist and historian and Oleg Reut, an associate professor with the Petrozavodsk State University.
Nikita Lomagin, a professor of the global economics department at St. Petersburg State University, will moderate the discussion.
In Russia, Europe Day is being held simultaneously in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Arkhangelsk. The event arrived in Russia in 2005, and was first held in St. Petersburg in 2008.
Any local resident can take part in the festivities. As the event’s organizers put it, the only thing necessary to join in is curiosity about what contemporary Europe — unified Europe — is. The project’s founders are convinced that every visitor to Europe Day will be able to discover something unique and special to them about Europe.
Europe Day is linked to the history of the foundation of the European Union. Following the end of World War II, European leaders sought economic cooperation and political consolidation. The unification process began on May 9, 1950, with the Robert Schuman declaration. Schuman, then serving as the French Foreign Minister, suggested that West Germany, France and other European countries unite their coal and steel industries. Having secured the support of West Germany’s Konrad Adenauer and other European politicians, Schuman was successful with his plan.
“World peace cannot be safeguarded without the undertaking of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it,” read the declaration. “The contribution which an organized and living Europe can bring to civilization is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations.[...] Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity. The coming together of the nations of Europe requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of France and Germany. Any action taken must in the first place concern these two countries. With this aim in view, the French Government proposes that action be taken immediately on one limited but decisive point.”
On April 18, 1951, the six founding member states — West Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Luxemburg — signed the Treaty of Paris that established the European Coal and Steel Community. In the wake of the initiative’s success, the Treaties of Rome, signed in 1957, created the Economic Community and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Community. Today, the European Union incorporates 27 member states.
Saturday will see an Open Doors Day (from 11 a.m. through 6 p.m.) at the Consulate General of Finland, the Consulate General of Cyprus, the Consulate General of Norway, the Adelante Spanish Language and Culture Center, the Danish Culture Institute, the Goethe Institute, the French Institute and the Dutch Institute, welcoming guests to exhibitions, lectures, language classes and discussions.
Throughout the day, Rodina movie theater will show films by some of the finest up-and-coming European directors. Tickets are a bargain at 100 rubles ($3.20).
Loft Project Etazhi arts center invites food lovers to a gastronomic show, led by the internationally established Bulgarian chef Uti Bychvarov, who will offer a culinary journey into Balkan cuisine.
Seventeen St. Petersburg restaurants including Cafe Jam, Dickens Pub, Paulaner Bar, Morane pubs, Oliva Tavern, Grad Petrov bar, Pizza da Marino, Mama Roma restaurant chain, KwakInn Belgian beer cafe, Green Room cafe, Don Pepe restaurant and Brasserie de Metropol will serve up special dishes and set menus priced at 400 rubles created especially for the event.
For more information, visit
www.eur.ru
TITLE: Two many cooks
AUTHOR: By Thomas Burr
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: With its innovative, two-story location just seconds from the Gostiny Dvor metro station, ParmaSushi could have probably squeezed the last few drops from the saturated downtown sushi market with any respectable offering of Western-style sashimi and rolls.
Perhaps the market research showed otherwise: What we have instead is not just an Italian/Japanese fusion restaurant, but rather two wholly independent chefs under one roof. Unfortunately, what ensues is a bit of a tale of two kitchens.
The first of Alliance Group’s planned St. Petersburg chain, ParmaSushi bills itself as a 24-hour bistro with rapid-service, restaurant quality fare and a great atmosphere.
Regarding the latter, the restaurant delivers with a bright, welcoming ground floor and a more intimate candle-lit balcony, with seating for 150 divided evenly between the two. A wide mahogany staircase connecting the floors serves as the focal point of the restaurant, just one example of decor that is effortlessly sophisticated and cozy without being cramped.
The detailing, including angular ebony tables, wicker chairs and plasma screen televisions broadcasting the marine segments of “Planet Earth,” gives the restaurant a decidedly oriental feel that, in retrospect, was the first marker of a decidedly uneven contest.
As advertised, the service was exceptionally fast. This could have been a great strength, an incentive to work your way around the menu spontaneously. Having finally adjusted to the more customary Russian method of ordering all courses at once, however, we regretfully eschewed this option.
In what appeared to be a coordination problem between the separate chefs, dishes came flying out of the kitchen with such haste that our otherwise accommodating and helpful waiter was halted only by the complete exhaustion of space on our table.
Sticking to our intended progression, my companion and I rearranged our plates to start off with the beef carpaccio (170 rubles, $5.50) and miso soup (70 rubles, $2). The soup was par for the course, which is to say pleasantly thick and savory for a meatless dish. The beef carpaccio, on the other hand, was on the wrong side of freezing-cold and came with an overwhelming helping of salt and pepper instead of the more traditional capers and dressing.
Not wanting to deny any dish a fair chance to impress, we diligently sampled our way through a few bites of the remaining five dishes before they cooled. Two dishes, the four-cheese penne (270 rubles, $8.70) and the Udon noodles with chicken (conspicuously listed on the Italian menu, 230 rubles, $7.40), were wholly undeserving of this courtesy.
As with the carpaccio, these two dishes from the Italian side clearly suffered under the demands of rapid service. The meld of cheeses on the penne was soupy enough to be confused with a curdled Alfredo sauce, and the chicken that came with the Udon was tasteless when it really should have been an inspired counter to the traditionally bland noodles.
If anything, these dishes were a wake-up call to stop pushing against the gravitational pull of the sushi.
We ordered three rolls: the Philadelphia (250 rubles, $8), ParmaSushi (280, $9), and Tokyo (290, $9.40). Oddly, no additional description was given on the menu. For those poorly versed in both sushi terminology and Russian marine animal vocabulary, this presents a bit of a problem.
Luckily, it would be hard to go wrong here.
Each roll was large, well balanced, and refreshingly chilled. Among the highlights were clean cuts of salmon and tuna, crunchy cucumber, and deftly portioned cream cheese.
These rolls were good enough that we were genuinely excited to try the sweet roll (140 rubles, $4.50) of apples and bananas, the lone Japanese item on a diminutive dessert menu filled with more traditional dishes such as tiramisu and cheesecake (100 to 200 rubles, $3 to $6). When it turned out that it was unavailable, a return trip to Italy seemed unnecessary.
In the end, while ParmaSushi nobly attempts to inject a new idea into an area characterized by plenty of stand-alone sushi joints, the Italian menu is an ultimately forced and distracting conceit. With such a fantastic atmosphere and convenient location, it would be a shame if the split kitchens continue to hold the restaurant back.
TITLE: UN Summit Ends With Pledges, Pessimism
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: UNITED NATIONS — U.S. President Barack Obama called for greater urgency in the fight against the world’s social ills as a UN poverty summit ended with tens of billions of dollars of pledges but lingering pessimism about the impact.
Obama unveiled a new “big hearted” but “hard headed” U.S. aid policy to push the poorest countries toward prosperity. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched a 40 billion-dollar drive to save the lives of millions of women and children. Britain, China and Japan also promised more help.
But many leaders still accused wealthy nations of failing to keep their promises to provide assistance. Aid groups said millions would still die unnecessarily in the final five years of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) initiative launched in 2000.
Obama and the UN chief highlighted advances made to reduce poverty and disease, spread education and increase opportunities for women since the Millennium summit in 2000 set eight key development targets.
But the U.S. leader said progress “has not come nearly fast enough.”
“Not for the hundreds of thousands of women who lose their lives every year simply giving birth. Not for the millions of children who die from the agony of malnutrition.”
“We must do better,” Obama told the assembled leaders.
Obama said the United States would now concentrate on countries that invest in their future and boost democracy, good governance and free trade.
“Our focus on assistance has saved lives in the short term, but it hasn’t always improved those societies over the long term,” he said.
“Consider the millions of people who have relied on food assistance for decades. That’s not development, that’s dependence, and it’s a cycle we need to break.”
“We need to be big hearted but also [have] a hard headed approach to development.”
The UN chief said governments, philanthropists and private groups pledged 40 billion dollars in initiatives to boost the health of women and children.
Ban estimated that his Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health would save 16 million lives by 2015.
Of the eight key development targets set a decade ago, reducing deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth and those of children younger than five have seen the least progress.
Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan promised five billion dollars over five years to help meet the UN’s health goals and 3.5 billion dollars for attempts to meet the target of establishing universal primary education.
British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg vowed that his country’s aid would reach 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2013. He called on other countries to follow suit.
Among the final speakers before the summit close Wednesday was Melinda Gates, whose husband Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, is ploughing much of his fortune into the fight against disease.
Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the “gaps” left in the final five years of the MDG campaign.
“But this week, we also heard a catalogue of progress. In reducing poverty. Expanding primary education. Fighting killer diseases. Ensuring clean water.”
Doubts were expressed inside and outside the summit chamber though.
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, said rich nations were behind many of the obstacles stopping nations becoming more prosperous.
TITLE: Obama Pushes For Middle East Peace Deal
AUTHOR: By Stephen Collinson
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: NEW YORK — U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday told world powers at the United Nations they could help seal a deal within a year to welcome a new member — Palestine — by backing his Middle East peace drive.
Obama is wagering substantial political and diplomatic capital on his effort to forge an elusive deal, calling on Arab states and the rest of the world to overcome the paralysis surrounding regional peace talks for years.
The president told the United Nations General Assembly it is time for key regional players to draw on traditions of tolerance common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity to forge peace.
“If we do, when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations — an independent state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel,” Obama said, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.
Obama’s calculated but risky move comes at a critical moment for his Middle East peace initiative, with an Israeli moratorium on most settlement construction in the occupied West Bank set to lapse at the end of this month.
It also coincides with a moment of high domestic political vulnerability for the president, with his Democratic Party fearing heavy losses in mid-term congressional elections in November.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has threatened to walk out of peace talks painstakingly brokered by Washington if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not extend the settlement ban.
Obama raised the stakes for the current Middle East talks, acknowledging that many observers are “pessimistic” about the direct talks he relaunched this month between Israelis and Palestinians.
He noted that rejectionists on both sides of the conflict will try to disrupt the process with “bitter words and with bombs” and noted that many people believe peace is not possible.
“But consider the alternative. If an agreement is not reached, Palestinians will never know the pride and dignity that comes with their own state.
“Israelis will never know the certainty and security that comes with sovereign and stable neighbors who are committed to co-existence.”
Obama also made the point that if the current round of talks collapse, hopes of peace may founder for a generation.
TITLE: Crisis Talks Held Over Commonwealth Games
AUTHOR: By Adam Plowright
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: NEW DELHI — India’s prime minister convened a crisis meeting on the Commonwealth Games on Thursday, facing warnings of a mass pullout and frantic work to save the event from disaster with just 10 days to go.
Manmohan Singh summoned top ministers as more teams delayed their athletes’ departure for the Indian capital and eight countries reportedly told organizers they will withdraw if their concerns about security and hygiene are not met.
“The Commonwealth Games is the only point of discussion on the agenda,” a senior official in Singh’s office said on condition of anonymity.
The head of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Michael Fennell, was expected in Delhi on Thursday to seek an urgent meeting with Singh before touring the much-maligned athletes’ village on Friday.
Some 700 cleaners have been pressed into action to scrub the residential blocks, the Times of India reported, after delegations complained that they were “filthy” and “unfit for human habitation.”
Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna promised the Games would be a success, despite a shambolic buildup that has tarnished India’s hopes of showcasing its modern dynamism.
“I can assure you with all the confidence at my level that we will be able to deliver on the Commonwealth Games and it will be one of the most successful games that the Commonwealth will have undertaken,” he said.
But several world-class athletes have already pulled out of the October 3-14 event and New Zealand on Thursday joined other nations including Canada and Scotland in delaying its team’s departure.
“It’s tremendously disappointing,” New Zealand’s games chief Mike Stanley said in a statement. “The long list of outstanding issues has made it clear the village will now not be ready for New Zealand athletes to move in as planned.”
Andrew Pipe, the president of Canada’s games delegation, launched a scathing attack on the Indian organizers.
“Their indifference at times has seemed to border on the intransigent to us, and that’s just unacceptable,” he told the BBC.
Months of warnings to the organizers about security, shoddy infrastructure and the state of the village “have fallen on deaf ears,” Pipe said.
Eight countries have written a joint letter to the Indian organizers, demanding a list of conditions covering security and hygiene be met or they will refuse to compete, the BBC reported without naming the nations.
New Delhi had been expecting 7,000 athletes and officials for the multi-sport showpiece for Commonwealth countries, mostly nations and territories formerly in the British Empire.
India was hoping to show off its progress and growing economic might — the “shining India” of nine percent economic growth, high-tech software companies and new diplomatic clout on the international stage.
But a footbridge collapse this week and a shooting outside New Delhi’s main mosque have brought simmering disquiet to a head, coming after well-documented delays, political infighting and allegations of corruption.
A top Indian builders’ union said the rush to finish venues in time — seven years after the country was awarded the Games — had compromised safety and quality.
India’s leading business lobby group also voiced fears of the damage to the country’s image abroad.
“It is a sad state of affairs indeed and, psychologically, puts a question mark against India’s capacity to deliver,” said the general secretary of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Amit Mitra.
Australia and New Zealand’s swimming teams said they were mulling an alternative meet if the Games were called off.
But Singapore laughed off suggestions that it might step in as a last-minute replacement venue, after successfully hosting the inaugural Youth Olympics last month.
TITLE: Protests in France Over Raising Of Retirement Age
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: PARIS — French unions staged another day of protests and strikes Thursday, hoping to bring more than two million onto the streets to defy President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to hike the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Sarkozy, already under attack from the European Union for deporting Roma and from the media over a lingering financial scandal, is facing fierce opposition to his pension reform plans, but says he will press on regardless.
The issue is central to both his reform program and his personal political survival strategy, with less than two years to go before he seeks re-election.
Between one and three million French workers took to the streets two weeks ago to fight the reforms and now unions are hoping for an even bigger day of demonstrations to keep the right to retire at the age of 60.
But the pension reform bill has already been passed by France’s lower house of parliament and will be debated from October 5 by the upper house, the Senate, where it is expected to pass comfortably.
Walkouts will hit schools and transport hardest, with only around one train in two running nationally, although Eurostar services to London and Thalys trains to Brussels are predicted to be normal.