SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1614 (75), Friday, October 1, 2010
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TITLE: Progress Made On New-Look Pulkovo
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Vozdushnye Vorota Severnoi Stolitsy (Northern Capital Air Gateway) consortium has begun preparations for the construction of a new terminal that will replace St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo 1 and Pulkovo 2.
The consortium’s authorities are also negotiating with at least 20 international airlines with the aim of persuading them to start flying to and from St. Petersburg.
At the 16th World Route Development Forum held earlier this month in Vancouver, Canada, the consortium discussed the possibility of opening new routes to St. Petersburg in 2011 with airlines from Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East and Pacific regions, a representative of VVSS said.
Sergei Edmin, head of VVSS, said that only 70 airlines currently operate flights to St. Petersburg, and that such a number is not big enough for an international city such as St. Petersburg, Fontanka.ru reported this week.
The consortium plans to increase the number of flights at Pulkovo by introducing a system of discounts for airlines. Lower tariffs will be given to those who agree to offer flights outside of peak hours and to certain destinations.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the middle of the night, but there are periods of time during the day when there are only a few take-offs and landings,” said Edmin. “In addition, we are ready to offer more profitable conditions to those willing to bolster the availability of flights during the slow winter season,” he added.
VVSS continued to attract new carriers at the Vancouver summit, which gathered representatives of the world’s biggest airlines and airports, said Vladislav Borodulin, director of VVSS’s strategic development department.
“We negotiated with more than 20 carriers, but the problem is that after the current financial crisis, they are quite conservative and prefer to increase frequency on the routes they already fly, and only then to think about new ones,” Borodulin said, Fontanka reported.
Foreign carriers may also shy away from St. Petersburg due to the conditions at Pulkovo 1 and 2, which are poor compared to Moscow’s airports. By December 2013, however, the situation should change drastically when the consortium opens a new cutting-edge three-story terminal. The new terminal will have two levels for arrivals and departures, and an express train will link it to the city.
VVSS began preparing the construction site at the end of September and will select a principal construction company by December.
Following the opening of the new terminal, Pulkovo-2 will lose its international status. The building will be used for registration and luggage-processing for both international and domestic flights.
The current Pulkovo-1 will be renovated to take on a new role in the future hub, housing customs, border control services and a waiting zone for passengers. 
The VVSS consortium was formed by VTB Capital; Fraport, a German company that manages Frankfurt’s airport; and the Greek Copelouzos Group. In October last year, VVSS, Pulkovo Airport and City Hall signed a public-private partnership agreement for the reconstruction, development and use of the airport for 30 years.  
Investment in the project is expected to total about 1.2 billion euros.
Pulkovo Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Russia by passenger traffic.

TITLE: Ousted Luzhkov Weighs His Legal Options
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Ousted Mayor Yury Luzhkov weighed his options Wednesday as federal authorities vowed to pursue corruption investigations into the city’s old guard.
Luzhkov said in an interview released late Wednesday that he would not challenge President Dmitry Medvedev’s decision to fire him a day earlier, The New Times magazine reported on its web site.
But a close friend said earlier in the day that the mayor would go to court.
Amid signs that a new political era was beginning, acting Mayor Vladimir Resin said City Hall was working as normal even though its leadership collectively tendered its resignation Wednesday.
“Our task is to maintain the development that we have had for all those years in the future and to boost it,” he told reporters, according to a statement on City Hall’s web site.
All city administration officials had to formally resign the day after the mayor’s departure as stipulated by law, City Hall said in a statement.
President Dmitry Medvedev fired Luzhkov on Tuesday, saying he had lost confidence in him. The decision followed an unprecedented anti-Luzhkov campaign on state-controlled television.
Luzhkov, who had ruled the capital for 18 years, will challenge Medvedev’s decision in court, even if it seems pointless, State Duma Deputy Iosif Kobzon said, according to news reports.
“He said he will do it anyway, so people learn about his position,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda. 
A legendary crooner, Kobzon is a close friend of Luzhkov and spent hours with the mayor after his dismissal Tuesday.
Kobzon said he did not know which court Luzhkov would appeal to, but lawyers quoted in news reports said the Supreme Court would be the arbitrator of such a lawsuit.
But The New Times, citing an interview with Luzhkov that will be published Monday, said the former mayor would not complain to the Supreme Court. It did not elaborate.
Analysts said Luzhkov’s time in politics was over. 
“There is no place for him in the existing parties and no time to set up a new one. The best thing he can do now is become a pensioner,” said Alexei Mukhin, an analyst with the Center for Political Information. 
Federal investigators promised Wednesday to pursue corruption investigations involving City Hall officials that were opened in recent months. But Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin denied reports that new investigations had been opened since Luzhkov’s ouster, RIA-Novosti reported.
Acting Mayor Resin said a deputy mayor accused of corruption had resigned and that he had halted a controversial construction project near the Kremlin.
Deputy Mayor Alexander Ryabinin “tendered his resignation for personal reasons, and I approved this,” Resin said, Interfax reported. 
Ryabinin, who was responsible for construction and land issues, was under investigation on suspicion that he pressured a businessman into handing a retail property over to his own daughter.
Ryabinin was the most senior Moscow official to be targeted by investigators in what analysts said was part of a Kremlin campaign to unseat Luzhkov.
Resin also announced the halt of construction of a Kremlin museum annex on Borovitskaya Ploshchad. 
The project has come under fire from architectural preservationists, who say the new building will ruin views of both the Kremlin and Pashkov House, a historic palace located on the same square, which is part of a UNESCO world heritage site.
Resin said he made his decision after seeing television coverage that criticized Luzhkov over the project. 
He said, though, that Luzhkov had nothing to do with the construction because it was overseen by the federal government. “I withdrew the building permit to have it discussed by the architectural council. Let specialists have their say,” he said, adding that City Hall would seek compromises in disputes with preservationists.
Konstantin Mikhailov, an activist with the Arkhnadzor preservation group, said he hoped that the decision marked the start of a policy change. “Many other scandalous projects in this city are continuing, and I would like to see them being reconsidered, too,” he told The St. Petersburg Times.
But in a typical Catch-22, the Kremlin museum said it would ignore Resin’s decision. Museum director Yelena Gagarina told RIA-Novosti that she was not subject to City Hall and that construction could only be halted by the Culture Ministry or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Also, city authorities for the first time ever have sanctioned a gay rights rally, an activist said. The city’s central district prefecture has allowed the rally to go ahead this Friday, Nikolai Alexeyev, the organizer of repeated attempts to hold gay pride marches, wrote on his blog.
Under Luzhkov, who called homosexuals “satanic,” City Hall regularly banned gay rallies, leading to violent clashes with activists.

TITLE: Off-Plan Development Victims Start New Hunger Strike
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A group of ten cheated investors in off-plan residential property developments began an indefinite hunger strike Thursday at the local headquarters of the democratic party Yabloko at 13 Shpalernaya Ulitsa.
Seated on inflatable mattresses, the strike’s participants — seven of them women — are determined to survive on nothing but water until their campaign attracts the attention of City Hall.
The initiative looks to have little chance of success, as half a dozen similar events have already been held during the past five years. Previous protests yielded no results except for promises that were never fulfilled, and several strikers being hospitalized, including one being admitted to the emergency care ward.
“Despite the discouraging history of the previous strikes, we are willing to make this one the longest one — and a successful one,” said striker Natalya Dunayeva.
Most of the locals on strike had invested their money into apartments in a residential building at 13 Prospekt Pyatiletok, but never received their homes, having fallen victim to a scam. 
The company that received permission from City Hall to construct the building is registered on the Bahamas, which makes bringing any legal action against the company extremely difficult.
The investors said they have recently been denied meetings with St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko nine times, with the governor’s secretaries repeatedly turning down the petitioners’ requests.
In the past, Matviyenko insisted that the cheated investors resolve their problems in court, but almost all of the investors who are currently on hunger strike have been through several years of fruitless legal battles.
The local administration has remained adamant that hunger strike is not a remedy and is not a method that will ever work.
“Going to courts and paying lawyers does not always help,” said Dunayeva. “In many cases, there are so many falsifications used and tricks played that even the best lawyers and best judges simply cannot get to the bottom of things.”
During the past five years, off-plan investors in other Russian cities including Moscow and Ulyanovsk have held hunger strikes as part of a nationwide protest campaign. In 2007, 38-year-old Igor Vosevoi died suddenly of a heart attack during a hunger strike in Ulyanovsk.
One of the most common ways in Russia to buy an apartment in a residential block that is under construction is to sign an investment contract.
Investors typically pay a downpayment — usually 20 percent to 30 percent of the total cost of the apartment — before construction work begins. The rest of the money is paid on a monthly or quarterly basis during the construction period.
Under such terms, the total cost of an apartment is far lower than it would be after the residential block is completed, thanks to rising property prices. The system also allows future apartment owners to gradually invest in their property instead of paying one lump sum.
Although it is the investors’ money that makes construction possible, their legal position has been dependent on the construction company, sharing all the risk — from natural disasters to local authority certification.
But large numbers of off-plan investors across the country have been caught in limbo, having being trapped by various kinds of scams on the part of construction firms.
Construction companies may ask investors for extra, unplanned payments amounting to thousands of dollars, or, despite having provided full or partial payment, the investors may discover that what they thought they had bought had already been sold to another person already claiming ownership. In other incidents, construction is stopped due to lack of funds; or rogue firms make off with the money before the apartment block is completed.
Victims of construction scams compare such investments with gambling. 
“You bet your money, and you hope you’ll win,” they say. “But you may not.”
For the past several years, local off-plan investors have been urging City Hall to follow in the footsteps of former-Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and the Moscow city government, which used budget money to complete unfinished construction projects and intervened in construction disputes. The problem was solved in Moscow several years ago.
The hunger strikers argue that at this stage, it is entirely a question of political will, and essentially the difference between the two cities’ attitudes toward the issue is very much like that between a man who teases a woman about marriage and a man who has the guts to tie the knot.

TITLE: Activists Besiege Belarussian Office
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A judge refused to hear a case against four local anarchists who seized the Belarussian Embassy representative office in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, citing irregularities in the police reports and sending them back to the police precinct to be rewritten, one of the activists said by phone Thursday.
The anarchists entered the office to demand a meeting with the head of the embassy representative office, whom they wanted to petition for the release of arrested anarchists in Belarus, they said. 
Ten anarchists were arrested in Belarus after somebody threw a Molotov cocktail on Aug. 30 on the territory of the Russian Embassy in Minsk, causing minor damage to a car belonging to the embassy.
The previously unknown anarchist group Friends of Freedom claimed responsibility, stating that the attack was an act of solidarity with the defenders of the Khimki Forest.
The three Belarussian anarchists — Alexander Frantsevich, Nikolai Dedyuk and Igor Trukhanovich — remain in prison. Frantsevich and Dedyuk were arrested on Sept. 3, and Trukhanovich on Sept. 24. No charges have been pressed.
The activists were denied a meeting with the representative office head, as it was not a walk-in day. 
According to an activist who identified himself as Fillip, the protest lasted approximately 40 minutes before broken up by the police, who arrested the participants. 
Officers were summoned by workers at the Belarussian embassy representative office after they were unable to convince the protesters to leave the premises. 
After spending around four hours in police precinct No. 76, the protesters were charged with “disorderly conduct,” an offense punishable with anything from a 700-ruble ($23) fine to 15 days in prison.
Earlier, protests against the repressions of the Belarussian anarchists took place in Moscow, Berlin, Vienna and Vilnius.

TITLE: Shnurov Defends Khimki Song
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Rock musician Sergei Shnurov denied this week that he had intended to attack activists and musicians campaigning for the preservation of Khimki Forest amid a controversy caused by his reformed band Leningrad’s new song.
In a sarcastic rap song called “Khimki Forest,” Shnurov, singing in the first person, describes himself as the “last singer of democracy” who is writing a song about the Khimki Forest. The forest has been the subject of controversy since felling there began to make way for a Prime Minister Vladimir Putin-backed paid highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the song, Shnurov sings that if the forest is saved, “there will be happiness for everyone.” At the end of the song, it becomes apparent that the fictional musician in the song is simply using the issue to increase ticket sales and make more money.
The Russian media mostly interpreted the song, which was uploaded on YouTube late last week, as being a swipe at St. Petersburg rock band DDT frontman Yury Shevchuk, as well as at the defenders of Khimki Forest themselves. Shevchuk visited Khimki Forest to support activists camping there and headlined a rally in Moscow in August.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Shnurov said by phone this week. 
“There’s not a single line about the Khimki Forest defenders [in the song]. Not a single line. Where did they read this? It’s rubbish. Only somebody not very bright could think so.”
He said he used the name Khimki Forest metaphorically.
“I think the ‘Khimki Forest’ has become a sort of idiomatic expression that has nothing to do with the geographical site itself. Kind of an idiom, due to frequent use.”
Pro-Kremlin youth movements promoted the song on their web sites and blogs, while activists opposing the construction suggested Shnurov’s song was commissioned by the authorities, labeling him a “singer of the Kremlin” and “state whore,” among other things.
“I think the country has split in two [over the song],” said Shnurov, adding that he wrote the song “in two minutes” earlier this month. 
Shnurov said that the song was more profound than it may seem at first glance.
“Any explanation I offer will narrow the field of interpretation, but some angles could be named,” he said.
“The song is about sincerity, about the erosion of ideas, about informational pressure, about many things.”
Shnurov said he did not mean that the musicians who campaigned against the destruction of Khimki Forest were insincere. 
“There’s nothing like this [in the song], it’s rather about the creation of topical blockbusters — that’s what the song is about,” he said. 
“And don’t forget that I sing it in the first person. It’s about me, too, to a certain extent. It’s about everybody, isn’t it?”
Although President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a temporary halt to construction after the protests in August, Shnurov’s song was released during the international campaign to release the “Khimki Hostages” — activists Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov, who have been imprisoned since a rally in front of the Khimki administration building in July. 
Gaskarov and Solopov, who have both spent two months in custody, had their pre-trial detention prolonged for another two months earlier this week. 
Shnurov said he only had a vague idea of the situation surrounding Khimki Forest.
“It’s easier for me; I’ve switched off my Internet and I don’t have television, so informational noise reaches me indirectly — through what friends tell me,” he said.
“That’s why I can’t follow it and can’t say anything about it. I have a position about the Okhta Center [controversial Gazprom skyscraper], because it’s near, and it’s clear what it is. But Khimki Forest — I have never been there. I don’t know what it is at all.”
The main Kremlin-controlled television channels either ignored the protests or presented them in a negative light, but Shnurov criticized what he called “liberal censorship.”
“The liberal censorship that is emerging now is the scariest thing,” he said.
“If your opinion differs from the opinions of certain people, you are listed as a ‘singer of the Kremlin’ automatically. It’s monstrous. No dialogue is possible, because it all comes down to the level of ‘You’re a jerk,’ anyway.”
“Khimki Forest” also referred to rapper Noize MC’s song “Mercedes S666,” which was a protest against a senior Lukoil manager allegedly transferring the blame for a fatal traffic accident in which two women were killed from his vehicle onto the victims’ vehicle.
Noize MC declined to comment on Shnurov’s song. “I’ve written a song [about it]; I’ll publish it on the web soon,” he told music web site Zvuki.ru on Tuesday. 
Earlier this month, Shnurov reformed Leningrad, which he disbanded back in November 2008. He said he had reformed the once hugely popular band due to his new musical ideas.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: <strong>Murder on Marata</strong>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A businessman was fatally stabbed in front of his home in the city center on Wednesday evening, Fontanka.ru reported Thursday. 
Fifty-nine-year-old Boris Khachinsky was stabbed in the chest area multiple times at about 8:10 p.m. outside 84 Ulitsa Marata by an unidentified stocky man aged 20-25. Khachinsky was the owner of the Com. Trade company, as well as a number of other real estate concerns, Fontanka reported. 
Khachinsky died from his injuries at the scene.

<strong>TV Awards Admit Error</strong>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The board of the Academy of Russian Television (ART) has admitted that it made a mistake during the TEFI 2010 awards ceremony which took place in St. Petersburg on Saturday by failing to announce the name of Manana Aslamazyan, despite the fact that ART members had awarded her a prize for “outstanding contribution to the development of Russian television,” Fontanka.ru reported Thursday.
“It should be noted that during a press conference held online during the ceremony, a press release was distributed and information published about the awarding of the prize to Manana Aslamazyan,” the ART said in a statement. 
“At a meeting of the board of ART, it was decided that the prize will be awarded to Manana Aslamazyan during her next visit to Russia, as agreed directly with her during a telephone conversation. Most likely this will happen in November 2010.”

<strong>Heating Season Begins</strong>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Central heating will be turned on in St. Petersburg at 12 noon Friday in a test regime, Fontanka.ru reported the press service of TEK St. Petersburg as saying Thursday.
An order was issued by the Committee for Energy and Engineering on Wednesday due to the expected decrease in nighttime temperatures, the web site reported. According to the order, priority will be given to the heating of schools, medical centers, social and cultural sites, and residential and public buildings. 
Regular heating of the city’s buildings will begin when the outdoor air temperature reaches a daily average of 8 degrees Celsius or below.

<strong>Sailors in Hazing Trial</strong>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Four sailors were convicted by the Pushkin garrison military court of hazing resulting in the suicide of a fellow soldier, Fontanka.ru reported Wednesday. 
Igor Chernov, Artur Gridchin, Alexei Kuptsov and Alexander Sukhov were each found guilty by the prosecutor of the Leningrad Military District of violating established rules governing treatment of fellow soldiers leading to grave consequences.
The court ruled that from May 6 to May 19 last year, the four military frigate division sailors repeatedly and systematically beat a total of 23 new recruits in order to degrade and humiliate them, simultaneously forcing them to do push-ups and squats to the point of physical exhaustion.
One sailor whose last name was given as Bakholdin was unable to withstand the abuse and committed suicide on May 19, 2009.
In accordance with the criminal code, the court sentenced Chernov to seven years in prison, Gridchin to 6.5 years, Kuptsov to six years and Sukov to 5.5 years, all to be served in a penal colony.

TITLE: Luzhkov: His Political Legacy
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Yury Luzhkov will be remembered by posterity as a fan of newsboy caps, multistory construction, bees and monuments designed by Zurab Tsereteli. 
Critics will also link Luzhkov’s name to the success of his wife’s construction business, tight control over courts, corruption, infill construction, cutting down trees, tearing down historical buildings and harassing sexual minorities. 
The former mayor, who turned 74 last week, oversaw an unprecedented construction and economic boom in the capital since being appointed mayor by President Boris Yeltsin in 1992.
Luzhkov promoted easing of restrictions for small businesses; introduced additional allowances for pensioners, teachers, the disabled, war veterans and low-income families; reconstructed the Moscow Ring Road; and created the third and planned fourth ring roads, the monorail road and new metro stations in an attempt to ease traffic movement in the city.
Here is a look at Luzhkov’s legacy:
?  In 1987, Boris Yeltsin, who at the time headed the Moscow branch of the Communist Party, appointed Luzhkov first deputy head of the Moscow City Executive Committee, City Hall’s predecessor. There he met his future wife, Yelena Baturina, who worked as the committee’s secretary.
Subsequently, Baturina founded construction giant Inteko and has become Russia’s richest woman, according to Forbes, with an estimated wealth of $2.9 billion.
Critics have linked Luzhkov’s name to the success of his wife’s business. Luzhkov and Baturina repeatedly appealed corruption allegations in court, winning most lawsuits.
?  In 1991, then-Mayor Gavriil Popov appointed Luzhkov as his deputy. In 1992, Yeltsin appointed Luzhkov as mayor.
?  Luzhkov was subsequently thrice elected to the post: in 1996 with 88.5 percent of the vote, in 1999 with 69.9 percent and in 2003 with 79.4 percent.
His opponents in elections included former Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko, former head of the presidential property department Pavel Borodin and Liberal Democratic Party Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov in 1999; and billionaire banker Alexander Lebedev and coffin magnate German Sterligov in 2003.
In June 2007, two years after a law abolishing gubernatorial elections took effect, then-President Vladimir Putin appointed Luzhkov for another four-year term, which was to expire in July 2011.
?  In 1998, Luzhkov founded the political group Fatherland, saying he would run for president in 2000.
?  In August 1999, Fatherland united with a group of powerful regional governors to form the election bloc called Fatherland-All Russia.
?  In State Duma elections in December 1999, Fatherland-All Russia came in third, after the Communist Party and the pro-Kremlin Unity Party, winning 13.33 percent of the vote and 46 seats.
?  In February 2000, Luzhkov dropped his plans to run for president and ordered Fatherland to support the candidacy of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
?  In 2001, Fatherland-All Russia merged with Unity to form a new party that was renamed United Russia in December 2003.
?  In November 2008, Luzhkov angered Medvedev by publicly supporting the return of direct gubernatorial elections, prompting Medvedev to issue a statement saying that “displeased governors are welcome to resign.” According to some media reports, Luzhkov then submitted his resignation, but Medvedev rejected it. Several days later, Luzhkov said direct elections should be returned but not in the near future.

TITLE: Medvedev Fires First Official For Reporting False Income
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev has fired a Defense Ministry bureaucrat for providing false information about his earnings, marking the first time that someone has been dismissed in connection with a Kremlin order requiring state officials to release income declarations.
But a Defense Ministry source called the ouster a “show flogging” and said the man was likely to be hired back soon, Gazeta.ru reported Wednesday.
Major General Viktor Gaidukov’s dismissal was announced on the Kremlin’s web site late Tuesday. The Kremlin statement gave no details about the officer’s wrongdoing, and both the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry refused to provide official comments.
But Gazeta.ru’s ministry source said Gaidukov failed to mention several banking accounts he owned. He did not specify how much money was deposited in the accounts.
Gaidukov worked in the ministry’s directorate responsible for nuclear safety in the military, a source in the Siberian Federal District administration told Interfax.
Gaidukov declared an income of 1.1 million rubles ($36,000) for 2009 and said he owned no cars or real estate, Vedomosti reported Wednesday, citing the ministry.
Gaidukov’s wife said she earned 220,000 rubles ($7,200) in 2009 and owned an 86-square-meter apartment, a 1,102-square-meter land plot and a Honda sedan.
Gaidukov’s declaration was examined on the order of Medvedev’s anti-corruption council, the Kremlin said on its web site.
It was the first time that the body has exercised its powers, which it received last September under a presidential decree that allows it to order a check into an official’s income declaration at the request of another official.
“The council recommended that the Defense Minister pay attention to the case and take action,” senior council member and lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said by telephone Wednesday.
Kucherena refused to say what was wrong with Gaidukov’s declaration, calling it private information.
Kucherena said many officials have been fired by their bosses recently for violations in their income declarations but not on the council’s recommendation. He gave no examples.
Last Thursday, the liberal Yabloko party asked the Kremlin and the government to examine declarations of State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and two State Duma deputies, Ashot Yegiazaryan of United Russia and Sergei Levchenko of the Communist Party. No inquiries have been announced.

TITLE: Medvedev Shows He’s His Own Man
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — “Wow! It looks like we’ve got a president after all.”
This was the typical reaction from political commentators in the Russian blogosphere Tuesday after the news emerged that President Dmitry Medvedev had fired the entrenched and defiant Mayor Yury Luzhkov — and many political analysts agreed. 
The dismissal represents Medvedev’s biggest power play since his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, installed him in the Kremlin in 2008. Moreover, unlike many previous political decisions announced by Medvedev, this one is widely being perceived as his own, rather than one devised by the Medvedev-Putin tandem.
“This was a lesson for all the Russian elites, and this strongly added to Medvedev’s clout over the country’s political system,” said Tatyana Stanovaya, a political analyst with the Center for Political Technologies.
Luzhkov’s dismissal marks the first time that Medvedev has used the humiliating and harsh excuse that he had “lost confidence” in a regional leader, and he said other regional bosses might be sacked for the same reason.
Putin has used this excuse only three times to fire regional leaders. But none of them came anywhere close to wielding the clout that Luzhkov did in the Kremlin’s vertical of power, where Luzhkov was a critical pillar responsible for the biggest and most politically active subject in the Russian Federation, the city of Moscow.
Shortly after becoming president, Medvedev strived to project himself as an independent decision maker, insisting that he sought Putin’s advice rather than guidance on important issues. 
The first test of his resolve came with the war with Georgia in August 2008, and Medvedev repeatedly and publicly claimed afterward that he had made the ultimate decision to send Russian troops to Georgia. His statements were met with some doubt, even by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose animosity with Putin is well documented.
Medvedev’s other major political initiatives, like police reform, battling corruption and the creation of the innovation center in Skolkovo, have been widely viewed as naive, wishful thinking, mainly perhaps because few heads have rolled in the police and anti-corruption reforms.
The decisive removal of Luzhkov is the biggest evidence of Medvedev’s political solvency so far and a major step toward strengthening his position ahead of the 2012 presidential election, said Stanovaya and Alexander Morozov, head of the Center for Media Studies.
Luzhkov grew overly confident after striking a deal with Putin, who appointed him to a fourth term in 2007, and allowed himself to neglect Medvedev, Stanovaya said. Medvedev forced Putin into a corner by escalating a faceoff against Luzhkov in recent weeks, leaving Putin with the choice of either dumping Luzhkov or shattering the stability of the ruling tandem, she said.
Morozov described Luzhkov’s dismissal as a big move but said it represented just another step in Medvedev’s gradual effort to build his own power configuration that would rule Russia for the next decade.
He ticked off a list of Medvedev initiatives that marked strong departures from Putin’s foreign policy course, including a return to membership talks with the World Trade Organization, closing a gap with NATO and supporting Iran sanctions in the UN.
Stanovaya added Medvedev’s decision in late August to suspend construction of a highway through the Khimki forest, a project previously approved by Putin. 
“No new political actors have emerged in Putin’s camp. Whatever political life is taking place is around Medvedev,” Morozov said, referring to a recent flurry of efforts to create public groups backing Medvedev’s modernization agenda.
If there is a conflict in the tandem over the distribution of power, Putin could have put an end to all these developments swiftly, Morozov said, suggesting that Medvedev was thus being groomed to run in 2012.
Moving forward, Medvedev faces a new test in selecting the next mayor and a chance to prove that his talk of modernization is not empty rhetoric, said Sam Greene, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
It is not so important who will be appointed to run Moscow but how the next mayor will proceed, he said, adding that the mayor will need to demonstrate tolerance toward the opposition, allow more pluralism, revise Luzhkov’s scandalous general plan for the city’s development and treat historical buildings with more respect.

TITLE: U.S. Reps Introduce Bill Targeting Magnitsky’s Enemies
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Two U.S. congressmen, Benjamin Cardin and James McGovern, introduced a bill Wednesday that would freeze assets of and block visas for individuals responsible for the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Magnitsky died of health problems in a pretrial detention center in Moscow last November. He was placed under arrest by Interior Ministry investigators after he accused senior ministry officials of embezzling millions of dollars in government funds.
The bill calls for the U.S. government to lift the sanctions only after Russia conducts a thorough probe into Magnitsky’s death and the fraud he was investigating and brings offenders in both cases to justice, the official U.S. human rights watchdog, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in a statement.
Cardin first proposed a visa ban in April, saying it should cover 60 Russian officials implicated in the tax fraud and Magnitsky’s death.
Both legislators backing the bill are members of the Democratic Party.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office to open an investigation into Magnitsky’s death amid an international outcry, but investigators have failed to name any suspects and ruled that all officials involved had done their jobs correctly. A separate police investigation into the actions of officers linked to the tax fraud also has produced no results.

TITLE: Former Kalmykia Senator Faces Rape Allegations
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A former senator has been detained in Moscow on suspicion that he sexually assaulted at least two young women, one of whom claims that he lured her into his posh Lexus sedan for a quick ride, news reports said Wednesday.
Igor Provkin, 43, who represented the Kalmykia republic in the Federation Council from 2001 to 2004, was detained last Thursday and faces up to 20 years behind bars if charged and convicted of rape, RIA-Novosti reported.
Provkin, a father of five who serves as chairman of PV-Bank, has denied wrongdoing. 
The case was opened in July on the complaint of a 23-year-old Moscow student, the spokeswoman said.
The student told investigators that a man offered her a ride on June 30 but raped her in the car after beating her into submission, the tabloid Lifenews.ru reported, adding that the man also asked for her telephone number after the attack. The report said the girl was 24.

TITLE: New Holland Tender On Cards
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Tyomkin and Nadezhda Zaitseva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: City Hall and St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko are preparing to announce the terms of a second competition for the reconstruction of New Holland Island. The terms of the tender are set to be less restrictive than they were in 2006.
Investment in the project will be no less than $300 million, while the starting price for renting the site for the entire period will be 300 million rubles, according to Vyacheslav Semenenko, chairman of City Hall’s construction committee.
City Property Management Committee Chairman Dmitry Kurakin said that the construction of a business and cultural complex on the site will take seven years.
The first competition for developing the 7.8-hectare island took place in 2006 and was won by Novaya Gollandiya, a company owned by businessmen Shalva Chigirinsky and Igor Kasayev. The two were planning to invest around $320 million in a multi-function complex designed by Norman Foster, the center of which was to be a 3000-seat Palais des Festivals. Under the terms of the competition, this was to be handed over to the city, and the investors decided to withdraw from construction. 
Under the new terms, the investor is only obliged to give the city authorities 1,200 square meters of the new complex and build two bridges to the island, said Semenenko.
Novaya Gollandiya’s project should have been completed in August this year, but construction was never begun. The investors spent about $70 million on preliminary work on the territory and the demolition of several buildings. These expenses will not be compensated, Matviyenko has said.
Due to internal deadline violations, the contract was terminated in March this year, and the City Property Management Committee is currently seeking 507.7 million rubles in lost rent from Novaya Gollandiya in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast arbitration court.
Due to the need to reconstruct old buildings, the project is very risky and has uncertain profitability, said Nikolai Kazansky, CEO of Colliers International in St. Petersburg. According to him, major Russian businessmen from the commodity industry may show interest in the project, for political rather than economic reasons.
Representatives of Glavstroi developer (owned by Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element) and Open Investments (part of Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim) told Vedemosti last week that they were no longer considering the project. Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse has shown interest, however, according to a source close to the company. 
A Millhouse representative declined to comment.

TITLE: H&M to Open 2 New Stores in City Center
AUTHOR: By Yelena Dombrova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The Swedish clothes retailer H&M is to open its fourth store in St. Petersburg in 1,541-square meter premises in the Galeria retail and entertainment complex next to the Moscow Train Station. 
H&M has signed a long-term contract for the lease, said a representative of Jones Lang LaSalle, which is responsible for leasing the complex. The rental rate at Galeria is at least 2,000 rubles ($66) per square meter per month, and operators may additionally pay a percentage of their turnover, said Sergei Fyodorov, CEO of Praktis. 
The opening of the mall is scheduled for November of this year. Also scheduled to open in November is the nearby Stockmann Nevsky Center retail and office complex, where H&M will rent an area of more than 2,000 square meters. 
Galeria has good potential due to its location in a very busy area, and its proximity to the Stockmann Nevsky Center is not likely to be a problem, said Yekaterina Prosvirkina, CEO of H&M in Russia.
H&M currently has stores in the Mega Dybenko mall and at 80 Nevsky Prospekt, and also rents 1,700 square meters in the Leto mall. 
In the mass-market fashion sector in which H&M operates, a large number of outlets are needed, said Anna Memeshkina, advertising and PR manager for Bosco Neva boutique operator.

TITLE: TNK-BP Ups Its Game In Vietnam With Deal
AUTHOR: By Derek Andersen
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — TNK-BP intensified its involvement in Vietnam on Wednesday by signing a contract for oil deliveries and discussing deals on a Vietnamese oil refinery and BP natural gas assets there.
“This long-term contract for oil deliveries to Vietnam marks a key step in securing TNK-BP’s footprint in the Asia-Pacific over the long haul,” said Maxim Barsky, deputy chairman of TNK-BP’s management board.
Under a contract signed last week between TNK-BP and the state-run Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam, 100,000 metric tons of oil will be delivered via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline to Vietnam in November. 
Wednesday’s contract extends that cooperation for a year. The volume of oil shipped will be decided on a monthly basis. 
Bloomberg, citing TNK-BP senior vice president Jonathan Kollek, reported that the price of the oil would be linked to Dubai marker rates. 
It was also announced Wednesday that PetroVietnam is offering TNK-BP a 50 percent share in its Dung Quat oil refinery in exchange for access to Russian oil fields. PetroVietnam already produces oil in Russia in a joint venture with Zarubezhneft.
Dung Quat was built at a cost of $3.5 billion and has a capacity of 6 million tons. That capacity would be raised to 10 million tons, Barsky said. The companies are set to form a joint refining and production venture next month.
TNK-BP hopes to buy BP gas assets in Vietnam. The British company is selling assets worth $30 billion worldwide as a recovery measure after the disaster at its facility in the Gulf of Mexico. A 35 percent share in Block 6.1 in the Nam Con Son Basin off the southeast coast of Vietnam and other assets, for a total value of about $966 million, are on the block.
“We have an offer from BP,” Barsky stated Wednesday. A decision on it is likely to be made at the TNK-BP board meeting Thursday. BP co-owns TNK-BP equally with a consortium of three Russian billionaires.
Other companies have expressed interest in BP’s Vietnam holdings as well. 
“BP is looking for the best price. The return on the investment could be attractive,” noted independent industry analyst Chirvani Abdoullaev. The Vietnamese market for natural gas is developing rapidly and is still largely dependent on imports.
Abdoullaev took a favorable view of TNK-BP’s plans. “If you find it difficult to grow domestically and have capital to invest, why not Vietnam?” he said, adding that its offshore reserves present “interesting opportunities” and it is fairly easy for Russian companies to establish themselves there because of the historical ties between the two countries.

TITLE: Deposits Competition May Be Frozen
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A court may suspend the competition for the Trebs and Titov oil deposits if any of the four companies disputes its removal from the running, Interfax reported Wednesday.
A Natural Resources and Environment Ministry commission decided Monday that just two companies — Surgutneftegaz and Bashneft — qualified to compete for the right to develop the two largest undistributed oil fields. It removed four others on technicalities.
TNK-BP chief executive Maxim Barsky said Wednesday that the company planned to challenge the decision to strike down the country’s third-largest oil producer as a participant. LUKoil’s board chairman Valery Graifer said Tuesday that it will dispute its removal as well.
Should they take the matter to court, a judge may suspend the competition, which is scheduled to culminate on Dec. 2, said a source close to the ministry’s commission, Interfax reported.

TITLE: The End of a Political Era
AUTHOR: By Nikolai Petrov
TEXT: The story of Yury Luzhkov’s ouster is extremely interesting and instructive, and it reveals a great deal about the structure of the current political system. 
Although Luzhkov’s firing is in line with President Dmitry Medvedev’s policy of dismissing heavyweight governors, this case is clearly different. It is noteworthy that Luzhkov is the first governor that Medvedev has dismissed and the fourth — counting three governors from remote regions that then-President Vladimir Putin fired between 2005 and 2007 — to have been fired over a “loss of confidence.”
The political hunting season on influential governors began only recently, but it also will very shortly end. Last fall, United Russia could not have obtained the fantastically high results in the Moscow City Duma elections without Luzhkov. And immediately following the upcoming elections on Oct. 10, preparations will begin for the State Duma elections in 2011 and the presidential vote in 2012. Knowing that perfectly well, Luzhkov openly declared that United Russia would not make a strong showing in Moscow without his aid. He understood the time limits involved and clearly tried to bluff his way by upping the ante. It is uncertain who is actively opposing Luzhkov, but it is obviously an alliance of influential forces and not Medvedev operating alone. 
Moscow’s mayor has repeatedly been subjected to similar attacks and had, until now, always managed to fend them off. This is partly because most, if not all, of the influential business and political clans opposing him had united in their determination to oust him but could not agree on a candidate to replace him. And with each attack, Luzhkov had to pay for his political survival by conceding some of his power, gradually weakening his position. As a result, the figure of the Moscow mayor is now only a pale shadow of what it was 10 years ago. 
When he returned to work on Monday after vacationing in Austria for a week, Luzhkov repeated once again that he would not resign under any circumstances. It was clear he had no grasp whatsoever of the gravity of the situation. 
Who won and who lost in the dramatic, mud-slinging Luzhkov affair? The revelations on television about Luzhkov’s alleged corruption and negligence cast a dark shadow over the entire government, and this extends all the way to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, despite his efforts to distance himself from the scandal. Medvedev will come out a loser if Luzhkov wins his appeal of his dismissal in the Supreme Court, although this is a long shot. Medvedev will emerge as a winner if he manages to handpick the new mayor. 
There is no substantive competition between Putin and Medvedev. They are in completely different weight categories. The theory that Putin actively backed Luzhkov while Medvedev fought against him doesn’t hold water. Putin has stayed on the sidelines throughout the affair, most probably because he found it less risky to stick with the “devil he knew” than to search for a replacement and rock the boat.
What happens next? If one of the competing clans puts its man in the mayor’s seat, it could upset the political balance of power. But dividing City Hall’s leadership between two positions — the mayor himself and the head of the body that represents the city of Moscow as a federal jurisdiction — could help solve the problem. First, it will be easier for major competing clans to reach a compromise over a pair of weaker leaders than over one strongman and, second, it would enable the prime minister to name a successor from Luzhkov’s own team, such as acting Mayor Vladimir Resin, thereby ensuring the continuity of government. In any case, the next mayor will probably be only a temporary appointee and not a true city boss. The search for that person will be long and difficult. 
In the end, Luzhkov will come out all right from the scandal, once he gets over the initial heavy blow to his ego. But things could take a turn for the worse if he decides to seek revenge, something that cannot be ruled out considering Luzhkov’s tenacious character. Most importantly, he will probably be allowed to keep most of his and his wife’s holdings. Permitting Luzhkov to keep his assets will help guarantee a peaceful, calm power succession. 
Luzhkov’s ouster marks the end of an entire political era. It might be the last sharply competitive political struggle between rival camps that we will see under Putin’s political structure. But whether Putin’s system is able to outlive Luzhkov’s remains to be seen.

Nikolai Petrov is a scholar in residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

TITLE: Emulating Luzhkov
AUTHOR: By Alexei Pankin
TEXT: During the past few weeks, Russians watching state-controlled television channels were treated to a spectacle as President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin competed to prove who could better copy Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who was sacked by the president on Tuesday. 
One example was when Medvedev traveled to the Voronezh region where he dug up potatoes and lamented that they were no larger than peas. Then he was off to Kursk to personally check the quality of bread sold in a store for war veterans. Not to be outdone, Putin was shown overseeing the construction of new dwellings for residents of Verkhnyaya Vereya in the Nizhny Novgorod region who lost their homes during the summer’s wildfires. On Friday, he held a videoconference to discuss the resettlement of residents of the Siberian town of Tynda from their old and dilapidated houses. 
All these methods are a direct imitation of Luzhkov’s management style that he introduced in 1992. That was when he took over the job from so-called democratic mayor Gavril Popov, under whose administration rotting trash piled up in the streets for days, the stench reaching as far as the city center. 
Medvedev’s and Putin’s desire to adopt Luzhkov’s style is understandable, but the president and prime minister haven’t quite got it down yet. For example, several years ago, new benches and children’s playground equipment suddenly appeared in our courtyard to replace those that had been destroyed by vandals. An elderly neighbor who keeps abreast of all the latest developments told me, “Luzhkov announced plans to visit a locale in our vicinity, and since he never makes his route known in advance, the officials decided to spruce up the whole neighborhood, just in case.”
Can you imagine how Russia would change if Medvedev and Putin could master the same management skills? Let’s say that when Medvedev was planning a trip to the Voronezh region, he didn’t mention whether he would be digging up potatoes or checking on local businesses to see if they are using innovative technologies. At the same time, he could have hinted that he might make unscheduled stops to the neighboring Tula and Lipetsk regions. That would be the best way to accelerate modernization without having to employ pressure tactics. 
This raises a question: What stands behind the open attacks against Luzhkov on the state-controlled Channel One, Rossia One and NTV television stations? My guess is that as the new television season gets under way, those stations are simply jealous of TV Center, the television station controlled by Luzhkov. Two names are sufficient proof: Alexei Pushkov, the conservative host of TV Center’s weekly analytical program “Postscript,” and Leonid Mlechin, the liberal anchor of historical programs. Those two examples alone demonstrate that the number of independently minded journalists at Luzhkov’s channel surpasses the other three combined. What’s more, Luzhkov has two more quite decent television channels that broadcast only to Moscow: Stolitsa and Doveriye. 
The best way for Putin and Medvedev to demonstrate their independence from the state-controlled stations and strengthen their admiration for Luzhkov would have been to give the top nationwide frequencies occupied by Channel One, Rossia One and NTV to TV Center, Stolitsa and Doveriye.
In this way, the 74-year-old Luzhkov could have quietly resigned with his reputation intact as a senior statesman who rescued Moscow from heaps of garbage and who took initial steps toward the creation of public television in Russia. Medvedev and Putin could only have gained from such a move.

Alexei Pankin is editor of WAN-IFRA-GIPP Magazine for publishing business professionals.

TITLE: Northern neighbors
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Ismo Alanko is a Finnish living legend. Having started out as a teenager with the prog-rock band Sight, Alanko went on to front Hassisen Kone, the new wave band which won the annual Finnish Rock Championship in 1980, and then the avant-rock Sielun Veljet. He had a successful solo career before performing with Ismo Alanko Saatio — a band featuring avant-garde accordion player Kimmo Pohjonen. Over the years and with different lineups, he has released more than 20 albums of original and very diverse music, but always with the Finnish spirit.
Despite his fame, gold records and multiple awards, Alanko has never performed in St. Petersburg. His first concert in the city will be on Saturday at Tantsy, where he’ll play with his current band Ismo Alanko Teholla. Although it consists of just two people — Alanko and percussionist Teho Majamaki — Teholla sounds like a full line-up and is described as “perhaps small in size, but not in sound.” 
Alanko spoke to The St. Petersburg Times by phone ahead of the concert.


<strong>Is this your first visit to Russia?</strong>
No, I played in Moscow a couple of times in the 1980s with my former band, Sielun Veljet. 
I have visited St. Petersburg maybe twice as a tourist, but never played there, so this will be the first time. 

<strong>According to the promoters, the idea of the concert is to “introduce Finnish music to Russia,” because Finnish music is not very well known in Russia. Don’t you think that that is a bit strange, considering the two countries are so close both geographically and historically? </strong>
I’m really looking forward to playing in St. Petersburg, because Finnish and Russian music have something in common; they’re close to each other. They both have these melancholic melodies, Slavic feeling. 

<strong>It’s interesting that you mentioned Slavic feeling, because the Finnish people are a totally different nation and the language is Finno-Ugric, which is very far from the Slavic languages.</strong>
Yes, the language is different, but I think we are so close to each other; the nature and climate are similar. I think the climate is the key thing. We have long cold winters, dark nights for most of the year and a short summer.

<strong>What was the title of your first album, “Taalta tullaan Venaja?” (“Russia Here We Come”) from 1980, a reference to?</strong>
[Hassisen Kone] was a new-wave/postpunk band, and we were criticizing vodka tourism — Finnish people going to Russia to drink cheap vodka and so on. It was a critique of these people, who drank and behaved badly — and behaved like the owners of the Soviet Union. These ordinary Finnish people who went there and were transformed into pigs. But it was a long time ago.

<strong>Your current band, Ismo Alanko Teholla, is just two people. How did it come about and what was the idea?</strong>
The idea is that we’re a two-man band, a duo, but that we sound like a big rock band. It’s very dynamic. We use a lot of different instruments. I play piano, organ, and acoustic and electric guitars, and I use these octaver things [octave-effect boxes], so there’s a lot of bass. The sound is really big. And the other guy [Teho Majamaki], is a percussionist, he has a vibraphone and different kinds of drums, as well as homemade instruments. So it’s very rich in color, our sound. The idea is that in one song we’re really sensitive; we play beautifully — small, quiet, just the piano and vibraphone — and in the next song we play like a rough punk band, with a huge sound influenced by different music styles. It’s kind of a rock band, but influenced by a bit of punk, Finnish folk music, British pop, maybe even a little progressive rock. We also both have a classical background. The percussionist has played percussion in a symphony orchestra, and I played cello. Sometimes even now I play it in the studio. So it’s a fusion of different kinds of styles. I use different kinds of harmonies and melodies when I compose, compared to most rock music. That’s another thing that’s typical of our music. 

<strong>Is it all in Finnish?</strong>
Yes, normally we sing in Finnish, but we have also recorded some songs in English, though they haven’t been released yet. Finnish is part of the sound and part of the music. But we can also sing some songs in English, so people can understand a little what the lyrics are about.
I really like the Finnish language, which is my instrument. I think it sounds really good in rock music. It’s tough but it’s also really beautiful. Long vowels and tough consonants — I think it’s great.

<strong>It has been said that your lyrics are untranslatable. Is this due to wordplay?</strong>
Yes, there’s a lot of wordplay, and also they are related to Finnish culture quite a lot. But I wouldn’t say they are untranslatable. I think [at Saturday’s gig] we’re going to sing a couple of songs in English, so people who can speak English can get the idea.
You were born in Helsinki, but grew up in Joensuu. What was being a teenager in Joensuu at that time like?
I was only a couple of months old when we moved to Joensuu, and I lived there for 25 years. We lived really near the Russian border. It’s a small town of about 40,000 people.
I liked being there, because I started to play music when I was really young, like seven or eight years old. I started to play piano first and then cello, and I was really into sport too. So I had plenty to do there, and even though it’s a small town, I didn’t feel it was boring at all. But when I finished school, I was really keen to get out of there and see the world, because it was such a small town. So I moved to Stockholm and worked there for a year after school. But I didn’t find any people to play with in Stockholm, because it was really tough for Finnish people to make friends with Swedish people at that time. So I went back to Joensuu and created my first band there.

<strong>Do you come from a musical family?</strong>
Yes, my father was a musical man. He wasn’t a professional, but he wanted us all to play music. He told us, “Yes, yes, yes, you should play something, because I couldn’t — I had to work, because music doesn’t give bread to a family.” Actually, all of my brothers and sisters are professional musicians now. My sister plays violin in Helsinki in a Philharmonic Orchestra, my brother plays flute in a Radio Symphony Orchestra, and my other brother makes pop music too.

<strong>How did you get hold of music at that time? Was it difficult to get records from England or the U.S.?</strong>
Not so difficult. It wasn’t like now, there wasn't so much music coming all the time. So even though it was a small town, you could buy the best-known records in the music store. And records you couldn’t find in the music store, it was possible to order by post. It wasn’t that difficult, so I was really into rock music from when I was 12 or 13 years old.

<strong>What music influenced you when you were young?</strong>
First I listened to glam rock, Slade and bands like that. Then I discovered David Bowie in the mid-1970s, “Hunky Dory,” “Aladdin Sane,” “Space Oddity.” Maybe the biggest thing that ever happened to me in terms of music was David Bowie. Then there was Alice Cooper and things like that. Then came progressive rock, Genesis, Pink Floyd, things like that. And then after that came punk, which was an explosion for me, a really important thing that happened. And then these New York art bands like Talking Heads. 
I listened to lots of different music styles, and at the same time I played classical music. 

<strong>I read that the idea for your first band, Hassisen Kone, was to “play punk rock in Finnish.” Is that correct?</strong>
In a way, yes. But it wasn’t real punk rock, it was more like a new wave band, like postpunk. We were already influenced by bands like Talking Heads. But it was also quite straight rock. It was definitely influenced by punk a lot, but I wouldn’t call Hassisen Kone a punk band.

<strong>Were there many bands like that in Finland at that time?</strong>
Yeah, there was a big punk and postpunk movement. The attitude that you don’t have to be a brilliant musician to play in a band — it was like “Wow! What an idea. Everybody can play.” So a lot of young people created bands, and everybody started to sing in Finnish. Before that, most bands sang in English.
There were very many good bands, and great Finnish lyrics in the 1980s when bands started singing in Finnish. Before that, there were only a couple of good people who wrote good Finnish lyrics. 

<strong>Do you think Finland was different in this respect from other European countries?</strong>
Maybe. It was the spirit of the time that everybody started to sing in Finnish. And since then, we have had a tradition of good lyrics in Finnish rock music. 

<strong>In Finland, on the radio you can hear international songs— including Russian ones — translated into Finnish. Would you say there is a tradition of translating songs into Finnish?</strong>
Oh yes, it’s been like that since the 1960s, I think. People have made international pop songs in Finnish. We definitely have this tradition. 

<strong>Sielun Veljet was your second band — was it also a kind of new wave band?</strong>
Kind of, yes. That’s typical of all my bands; we made really different kinds of albums. Also, we made rock albums, kind of new wave, a bit punkish. And then we made these acoustic albums, one in English, this “Softwood Music [Under Slow Pillars],” which was influenced by oriental music, and there were acoustic guitars and some flamenco things and an Indian influence, things like that. So we made a lot of different kinds of things. 
It was a pretty unpredictable band, we could do anything on stage. Sometimes we didn’t play at all, we just had a play of “Little Red Riding Hood,” when people were expecting rock music. So it was kind of a mixture of a rock band and experimental performance group or something like that.

<strong>In one interview, you described all your work as folk music. How serious were you being?</strong>
I can’t remember everything I said (laughs). But in a way, all music is folk music...
I don’t know what I meant, but there’s some kind of Finnish spirit in my music. And it’s something that’s separate from the rest of rock music. And maybe that is what I meant by “folk music.” Because I don’t play traditional Finnish folk music or American folk music, I didn’t mean that. More like Finnish spirit, Finnish nature, something like that. 

<strong>What would you say is specific to Finnish music?</strong>
Maybe it’s a kind of craziness. There are a lot of bands that are really unpredictable. There is also a huge heavy metal scene in Finland, but if we’re not talking about that, if we’re talking about more underground, independent bands, some people are doing experimental things, crazy things, using different kinds of instruments, playing things that are not normal in the tradition of rock music. There are a lot of bands that can surprise you. We are definitely one of them! (Laughs.)

<strong>Could you name some interesting contemporary Finnish bands?</strong>
I was just touring in Lapland with The Bad Ass Brass Band, who are great. They’ve just released their first album. There are about 15 people, and they play really strange brass music. And, of course, Kimmo Pohjonen is great, and Lapko who is playing with us [on Saturday] is also great. And another Fullsteam band — the same record label as us — is Rubik, they’re also great. But they sing in English.

<em>Ismo Alanko Teholla will perform alongside Lapko at 9 p.m. on Saturday at Tantsy, located at 49 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa. Tel. +7 950 001 6506.</em>

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: <strong>Sergei Shnurov</strong> seems to have miscalculated the reaction he would get when uploading the song “Khimki Forest” by his reformed band <strong>Leningrad</strong> onto YouTube late last week. (See article, page 3).
Making a comeback two years after it disbanded, and with two concerts in Moscow and one stadium show in St. Petersburg already scheduled for November and December, the once hugely popular band needed something really strong to attract attention to themselves. 
Shnurov, who once was a PR manager at a radio station and knows that the best advertising is controversy, came up with two songs: “Sweet Dream,” in which female vocalist Julia Kogan sings: “I love having a big thick dick in me so much,” and “Khimki Forest,” which suggested that musicians who write social and political protest songs do so for self-publicity — ultimately, for the money.
Neither of the songs really did the trick. The former went largely unnoticed, while the latter caused such a negative reaction that the ever-charming Shnurov sounded somewhat confused when asked about the meaning behind the song, denying he was referring to either the protesters who defended the threatened forest or to the musicians who supported them.  
Pro-Kremlin youth organizations are delighted with “Khimki Forest,” while some old fans have tried to justify Shnurov, coming up with their own interpretations, while still others say they have changed their attitude to his work for good.
Leningrad was fun in its early years (the late 1990s and the early 2000s) until it began to focus on corporate parties, entertaining Russian oligarchs at the upscale Courchevel ski resort in the French Alps, and performing at the notorious party on St. Petersburg’s historic ship the Avrora, at which oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko were present.  
The songs might be a success with these kinds of audiences, obviously — or were they written for them from the start?
The politically-conscious band <strong>Televizor</strong> — fronted by Shnurov’s opponent  <strong>Mikhail Borzykin</strong> — will perform at Orlandina in its new location Friday.
Saturday is a Finnish day. <strong>Ismo Alanko Teholla</strong>, the band led by Finnish living legend Ismo Alanko, will perform at Tantsy (see interview, pages 5 and 6.) 
Sharing the bill is Lapko, an alternative rock trio formed in Harjavalta in 1996 and dubbed “the princes of melancholy.”
<strong>The Capital Beat</strong>, a Finnish ska band, will perform on the same night at The Place. 
Formed three years ago, the eight-member band blends elements of authentic ska, reggae and soul. The Capital Beat released its successful debut album, “A Greater Fire,” in 2009. 
Check the Gigs section for the dates of the <strong>Aposition</strong> music forum, an annual avant-garde/experimental music event held in the city this week. This year, it features <strong>Peter Principle</strong> of Tuxedomoon, along with other artists.

<em>— By Sergey Chernov</em>

TITLE: Northern soul
AUTHOR: By Thomas Burr
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Located on a streetlight-less corner across from the Chernyshevsky Gardens, Laplandia has been intriguing passers-by for months with its frosted windows that glimmer with the hues of the northern lights. 
The walk to the restaurant, starting among the hustle and bustle of Nevsky Prospekt, down the more subdued Grechesky Prospekt, and finally along a quiet, residential stretch of 5aya Sovietskaya Ulitsa, is both a literal and romantic progression away from the center of St. Petersburg. Once behind Laplandia’s opaque exterior, however, the city becomes altogether invisible.
Seamlessly relieving guests of their coats and escorting them to seats, the staff at Laplandia, dressed in either business attire or traditional Norwegian clothing, do a great job of maintaining this suspension of reality. 
The main dining hall of the restaurant, an all-wood affair resembling an enormous dacha or banya, is spacious and judiciously adorned with trinkets from the namesake region of Fennoscandia. A large screen projecting images of the subarctic outdoors further opens the hall.
Laplandia’s leather-and-fur-bound menu is divided into Lapland and Scandinavia halves, each with enough variety and substance to serve as stand-alone offerings. On neither side do vegetables feature prominently, and the meat-and-potatoes-style affair will only become more appealing as the winter months descend upon us.
My companion and I began with two seafood dishes: Lohikeitto cream of salmon soup (390 rubles, $13) and Danish mussels with North Sea prawns (510 rubles, $17).
The soup was an alluring match to the homey decor, and while the thick cream of potato at times overpowered the salmon, it felt like an appropriate start to the meal. While the mussels and prawns were typical of a general movement toward blander, farm-raised seafood, this was more than made up for by a plentiful layering of a superb caramelized tomato paste.
These appetizers certainly fit the bill, though one would not do wrong by heading straight for the main courses, where Laplandia truly shines. 
Among these are many expected staples of Northern cooking, such as codfish (570 rubles, $19) and duck breast (1100, $36). The dishes are accented so intriguingly (pruneplum sauce and Lapin Kulta beer foam), however, as to make each dish a truly unique experience.
Not to be missed is the signature entree, venison filet and wild boar tenderloin brought to the table on a Lapland hot-stone (1,270 rubles, $42). Each cut was brought out at an absolutely textbook medium-rare, though any degree of cooking could be achieved by pressing slices into the sizzling plate, garnished with sea-salt. 
The venison was top-shelf by itself, but when dipped in the lingonberry marmalade sauce became a truly spectacular dish, masking the gamy taste that turns many away from deer. While the wild boar was unavailable — perhaps understandable on a relatively empty Tuesday night — the substituted filet mignon was both charred and succulent, not to mention tender enough to render knives a mere formality.
With the second entree, we gave the salmon a much-deserved second chance with the Norwegian filet (820 rubles, $27). Whereas the texture of the fish was lost in the appetizer, here it was as meaty and fleshy as the filet mignon was soft. For those who steer clear of the flakey texture of some preparations, this is the salmon to order. A shrimp and soft cheese potato salad was an excellent complement.
Although the generous portions of meat and potatoes may finish some diners off, it would be a shame to miss out on some of the more creative dessert combinations such as the pancakes with whiskey-malted barley ice cream (290 rubles, $10).
If one dessert item beckoned more than others, both in terms of the nature of the restaurant and the trickle down of molecular gastronomy, it was the Lapland cheese with cinnamon ice cream and cloudberry jam (350 rubles, $12). Served on a sizzling cast iron pan, the first few ravenous bites before the ice cream melts are an appropriate last-hurrah for the restaurant, while the final warm spoonfuls of what remains bring about a melancholy end to a fantastic meal.

TITLE: Foreigners Prepare for Business After Luzhkov
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel and Justin Lifflander
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s departure won’t deal a body blow to the country’s economy, but foreign company executives and analysts said business in the capital is facing harrowing uncertainty that will result in a temporary slump, especially in the real estate sector.
Luzhkov and his team have been linked to rampant corruption, but the political machine that they built has provided predictability for businesses over the years, people interviewed for this article said.
Now all connections with City Hall — a key ingredient to doing business in Moscow — are up in the air after President Dmitry Medvedev fired Luzhkov on Tuesday.
“We’ve spent years working with the various authorities — fire, health — to satisfy their capricious demands. Now I guess we’ll have to start all over again, and this will take time and money,” said the head of a leading European service industry company’s Russian operations.
City Hall officials seem “very nervous and worried, waiting to see what happens,” the executive said in an interview in his office.
The businessman, like other foreigners interviewed for this story, requested anonymity in order not to jeopardize their companies’ work.
The head of a major U.S. company’s Russian operations expressed fear that the coming weeks, if not months, would see a standstill at best and a power struggle at worst in City Hall.
“It looks like all [City Hall] officials will now be busy focusing on their positions, and therefore not a lot of productive activity can be expected,” he said.
The U.S. executive expressed fears that Luzhkov’s ouster might result in open warfare. “Since there is so much money involved, things could even get ugly,” he said.
Clearly, the stakes are high. Moscow is both Russia’s political center and its financial heart. About 80 percent of the country’s finances flow through the city, and one-fifth of its gross domestic product is generated here, making the question of who is in charge of the capital and its population of more than 10 million a question of national importance.
While City Hall has little say in how the country’s economy is run, it has a quasi-monopoly over one of the city’s key wealth-generating sectors: real estate.
Luzhkov’s wife, Yelena Baturina, has been accused of amassing an estimated $2.9 billion fortune at her real estate company Inteko through her ties to the mayor.
While some observers said Inteko’s main asset was its ability to have a final say over who participated in construction projects in Moscow, Baturina has denied getting any special treatment. Luzhkov has said she would be even wealthier if she had not married him. 
Inteko has won only one city building tender during Luzhkov’s 18 years in power and was forced to abandon it because local authorities did not meet their obligations, Baturina said in an interview with The New Times magazine last week. She said all of Inteko’s other deals involved the federal government or private people.
Foreign projects account for less than 10 percent of Inteko’s business, company spokesman Gennady Terebkov said in a statement.
Now, many expect that Inteko will face a serious challenge under the city’s new management.
“They will have to form a relationship with the new city leadership like everybody else,” said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Uralsib.
Inteko might even face a “Yukos lite,” Stanislav Belkovsky, a Kremlin insider during Vladimir Putin’s presidency, said, referring to the oil firm that went bankrupt after its former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed on politically tinged charges.
“They will probably just bar Inteko from access to administrative resources,” Belkovsky added, referring to the belief that Inteko had a say in who worked in Moscow’s real estate market.
Inteko on Monday denied a French media report that Baturina has moved most of her assets, managed through Beneco, a Vienna-based family trust, outside Russia.
While Luzhkov’s dismissal puts a question mark over Moscow’s property market, industry insiders said they hoped that things would change for the better.
“There is a lot that can be done in order to improve the general situation in Moscow, and many people hope that the change in the administration will start such processes,” said Denis Sokolov, head of research at Cushman & Wakefield Stiles & Riabokobylko.
Vladimir Krivchenko, sales director for Prime Realty, another leading realtor, predicted that life after Luzhkov would be better for consumers, saying that his departure would accelerate a fall in prices. “If the near monopoly over cement and land is broken, there is a chance for real competition, leading to better availability and better prices,” he said. Krivchenko said the market has been at a standstill for two years because many sellers remain under the delusion that the pre-crisis price of $6,000 per square meter for residential space will come back. 
“By spring, I think they will have realized it isn’t going to happen, and prices should fall to a nearly reasonable $3,000. It is already happening in the regions,” he said.
However, others argued that the change of power would result in higher prices — at least initially — because of a reduction in development activity.
“Prices will probably go up at least in the medium term because supply will slump,” said Holger M?ller, managing director of UFG real estate.
While much depends on who succeeds Luzhkov, the real estate market had anticipated his departure and fundamental improvements to Moscow’s highly regulated real estate market are highly unlikely, said Darrell Stanford, managing director of the CB Richard Ellis realtor.
“All of the smart developers have already been planning for his departure,” Stanford said. “The process of real estate development will be disrupted for up to two years. But it is hard to imagine it getting much slower or more difficult.”
City policy practically rules out private land ownership and forces developers to lease plots under “investment contracts” that often give a share to the city. 
“The main problem for Moscow real estate is that there is no land market,” said Igor Vasilyev, an analyst with Troika Dialog. 
“It is very unlikely that the new administration will write new rules from scratch, said Sokolov of Cushman & Wakefield. “The federal government will not let that happen.”
The skepticism was echoed by Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the opposition Yabloko party and a long-time Moscow City Duma deputy.
He said Luzhkov was not ousted because of corruption but only because he had dared to criticize the Kremlin.
“He just got into a political battle with other political clans,” Mitrokhin told The St. Petersburg Times.
Nobody will reform the system, where corruption is endemic, he added. “Some will lose their interests,” he said, “and others will step into their places.”

TITLE: N. Korea Releases Image of Heir Apparent
AUTHOR: By Jung Ha-Won
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: SEOUL — Secretive North Korea on Thursday published a photograph of the youngest son and heir apparent to the communist state’s ailing leader Kim Jong-Il, the first official image of him ever released.
The photo of Kim Jong-Un was taken after the ruling party’s highest-level meeting for 30 years, which bestowed powerful posts on him in a clear sign he was being groomed for the next dynastic succession in the communist state.
Official media carried a photo of leading ruling party officials. Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun listed the son Jong-Un as one of the people in the group.
It did not say where he is seated. South Korean experts and a government official identified a chubby young man sitting next but one to the leader as Jong-Un.
“We believe he is Kim Jong-Un,” said unification ministry spokewoman Lee Jong-Joo of the man dressed in a dark Mao-type suit.
The young man who seems set to take over the impoverished but nuclear-armed nation is a mystery to the outside world. No adult photo had previously been seen outside the North.
“The publication of his picture is tantamount to a declaration that Jong-Un is the heir apparent,” Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies told AFP.
“This is also a signal that the junior Kim is launching official activities.”
Yang said Jong-Un takes after his grandfather Kim Il-Sung but is short and stout like his father.
The United States and other nations are scrambling for more information about the Swiss-educated Jong-Un, believed to be aged about 27.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta will arrive in South Korea Saturday to exchange information about the succession process, Yonhap news agency reported.
The son’s name was not mentioned by official media until this week, when leader Kim appointed him a four-star general just before Tuesday’s meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
Analysts say the North will likely seek to ease overseas tensions as it prepares for an eventual power transfer from the ailing 68-year-old leader to his son.
But the first inter-Korean military talks for two years ended without progress Thursday as Seoul demanded an apology from Pyongyang for the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, the South’s defense ministry said.
South Korean officers “strongly urged North Korea to admit to, apologize for and punish those responsible for the attack on the Cheonan warship,” the ministry said in a statement.
It also demanded the North “immediately stop its military threats and aggressive behavior at sea borders.”
The North refused to accept the findings of a multinational investigation which blamed the March sinking and the death of 46 sailors on a North Korean torpedo.
The two sides failed to set a date for the next round of talks, a ministry official told Yonhap.
After months of high tension over the ship, the North has lately made apparent conciliatory gestures to South Korea and the United States.
But it still vehemently denies involvement in the naval tragedy and describes joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercises being staged as a show of strength as a rehearsal for attack.
South Korean officials “remain unchanged in their ulterior intention to harm the (North), backed by their American master,” cabinet newspaper Minju Joson said Thursday, accusing Seoul of trying to spark a nuclear war with the latest joint drill this week.
Defense Minister Kim Tae-Young told a forum Seoul has detected signs of possible provocations by North Korea, especially in 11 border areas where the South has set up propaganda loudspeakers as part of reprisals for the warship sinking.
They have not yet been switched on.
Kim said Pyongyang “seems to be mainly focusing on forming a platform for power succession and easing its food shortage and economic troubles.”
The North has expressed conditional willingness to return to stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. But it wants a U.S. commitment to hold separate talks on signing a permanent peace treaty.

TITLE: Middle East Peace Talks See Support
AUTHOR: By Nasser Abu Bakr
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — U.S. envoy George Mitchell and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton converged on Israel and the Palestinian territories Thursday in a bid to rescue peace talks on the verge of collapse.
Mitchell began talks early afternoon with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, while Ashton was due to arrive in the region for two days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Abbas and Mitchell.
An EU official in Jerusalem said Ashton would land in the early evening and meet Abbas at around 8:30 p.m. (18.30 GMT).
She is to meet Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Friday morning then have talks with Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the official added.
The diplomats are seeking to stave off the breakdown of peace negotiations, which only restarted this month, in the face of Israel’s refusal to extend a 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, as demanded by the Palestinians and urged by the European Union and the United States.
The moratorium ran out on Sunday but the Palestinians have said they will take no final decision or whether or not to quit the talks until after Abbas has conferred with Arab foreign ministers.
The Palestinian leader had been due to meet the ministers in Cairo on Oct. 4 but the Arab League announced on Thursday that the meeting has been put off until Oct. 6 to give more time for U.S.-led efforts to save the peace talks.
“It has been decided that the meeting of the Arab League peace committee will take place on Oct. 6,” Ahmed Eissa, spokesman for Arab League chief Amr Mussa, told AFP in Cairo.
The postponement was intended to “allow Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to attend the meeting, in light of the latest developments and efforts by the United States for peace talks,” Eissa said.
Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition depends heavily on nationalist hardliners close to the settler movement, has baulked at renewing the partial freeze on construction while urging Abbas to stick with the talks, which were relaunched on Sept. 2 after a 20-month hiatus.
Following a meeting with the U.S. envoy on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s office quoted Mitchell as saying he had come to bring a message of reassurance about Washington’s commitment to reaching a comprehensive peace in the region, despite the numerous “potholes” along the way.
Israel’s Maariv daily reported that in return for a 60-day extension of the settlement freeze, President Barack Obama was offering Netanyahu a guarantee that he would supply Israel with advanced weapons and block any attempt to bring the issue of Palestinian statehood to the UN Security Council.
Israel’s Y-net news web site said senior Obama advisor Dennis Ross had told key senators that the president wanted “two months more of a freeze.”

TITLE: Scientists Find Evidence That ADHD Is a Genetic Disorder
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: PARIS — Parents of hyperactive children should not be blamed for poor parenting, according to scientists who found that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a genetic condition.
One in 50 children are affected by the disorder — which makes children restless, disruptive and easy to distract — and has often been attributed to bad parenting or too much sugar in the child’s diet.
The evidence, published Thursday in the British medical journal The Lancet, derives from a comparison of the genetic code of 366 children with ADHD and 1,047 who do not have ADHD.
The study brought up telltale differences between the two groups.
Children with ADHD were more likely to have small but important segments of DNA that were either missing or duplicated in their genome compared to the “control” group.
These segments, known as copy number variations (CNVs), play an important role, acting rather like a control valve over genes, which make the body’s all-important proteins. If CNVs are missing or duplicated, they can alter the dosage of genes by 50 percent, up or down.
“We’ve known for many years that ADHD may well be genetic because it tends to run in families in many instances. What’s really exciting is that we’ve found the first direct genetic link,” said Anita Thapar, a professor of neuropsychiatric genetics at Cardiff University, Wales.
Even more intriguing is the discovery that these CNVs appear to cluster in key areas, notably in Chromosome 16, that overlap with regions implicated in autism and schizophrenia — two other enigmatic, but now firmly acknowledged, brain disorders.
“ADHD can be stigmatizing because there’s a lot of public misunderstanding about it,” Thapar said in a press conference webcast from London.
“For example, some people say it’s not a real disorder or it’s the result of bad parenting, and parents and children can encounter much stigma because of this. So finding this direct genetic link to ADHD should help clear this misunderstanding and address this stigma.”
Despite the discovery, a long road lies ahead before ADHD is fully understood and a cure for the condition emerges, the authors caution. At present, ADHD is tackled by hefty medication and behavioral exercises.

TITLE: U.A.E. Works to Clone Prize Camels
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: ABU DHABI — Cutting-edge camel breeding technology, including embryo transfers and cloning, is being pioneered in the United Arab Emirates to reproduce the prized desert beasts that now fetch staggering sums.
At an auction in the desert near Abu Dhabi in February, an Emirati paid 24 million dirhams (6.47 million dollars) for three camels, including one which cost 2.72 million dollars.
Known as “ships of the desert” and used since ancient times as four-footed transportation across the sands of Arabia, camels are hugely popular with Gulf residents, but the field of camel biology barely existed three decades ago.
Now the UAE now has the most advanced camel research centers in the world, said Abdul Haq Anouassi, the Moroccan director of the Veterinary Research Centre (VRC) in Sweihan, Abu Dhabi, which breeds camels on a commercial basis and for research.
Research on camel breeding has been driven by the popularity of camel racing in the Gulf and the demand for improved stock, he said.
VRC, which is owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahayan and Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, two brothers from the Abu Dhabi royal family, is the only center to perform embryo transfers on a commercial basis, Anouassi said.
It employs four veterinarians, another researcher with a doctorate, and eight technicians, and is home to 1,500 camels, he said.
The Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai, which is owned by the emirate’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum and houses about 150 camels, is for research only, said Julian Skidmore, the English woman who runs it.
Researchers from the center participated in the world’s first successful cloning of a camel, which was named Injaz and was born in 2009, Skidmore said, and the center has also produced a “cama,” or a camel-llama hybrid.
Female camels only give birth to one baby every two years, which covers the gestation period of 13 months and breast-feeding for a year, as camels cannot be weaned as quickly as cows, Anouassi said. VRC therefore uses an embryo transfer technique to increase the number of offspring from prized camels, he explained.
“We collect the embryo from the uterus of a she-camel and we transfer it into the uterus of a receiver,” said Anouassi, adding that “we take the elite females that won races and we try to produce the maximum we can.”
“Instead of giving you one baby every two years, she will give you 10 or 20 in one year. The baby is gestated in a receiver female but with the genetics of elite male and females,” he said.