SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1615 (76), Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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TITLE: Sobyanin’s Star Rises At Moscow Mayor Talks
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fueled speculation about the identity of Moscow’s next mayor by holding a United Russia meeting Friday with only one of the potential candidates in attendance.
Sergei Sobyanin, Putin’s deputy and chief of staff, was promptly tagged by the media as the main favorite after attending the meeting to discuss mayoral nominees at Putin’s residence outside Moscow.
The 52-year-old Sobyanin is not seeking the job, but his chances of getting it anyway have increased, Kommersant reported Saturday, citing unidentified officials.
“According to Kommersant’s information, he is not very excited about this. But the party — or at least its leader — could say: ‘It is necessary,’” the newspaper said, quoting a Soviet-era slogan in an apparent reference to Putin, who heads United Russia but is not a card-carrying party member.
Sobyanin, a former governor for his native Tyumen, headed the Kremlin administration from 2005 to 2008 when Putin was the president.
But Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Sobyanin was unlikely to become the frontrunner because Putin needed him too much in his current position.
“Putin will have to look for a person to replace Sobyanin, who is now in charge of the government’s communications with the governors,” Petrov said by telephone Sunday, saying Sobyanin’s potential appointment would be a big sacrifice for Putin.
Pictures from the meeting in Novo-Ogaryovo featured Sobyanin sitting on Putin’s right, facing senior United Russia officials. Also in attendance were Kremlin first deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov and party officials Boris Gryzlov, Andrei Vorobyov, Oleg Morozov and Vyacheslav Volodin.
Gryzlov, the State Duma speaker who heads United Russia’s faction in the lower chamber, told journalists after the meeting that the new mayor would have “experience managing big projects,” United Russia said on its web site.
Gryzlov also pledged that the new mayor would retain social benefits for Moscow residents, including city-sponsored payments for pensioners, who formed the backbone of Luzhkov’s support base.
United Russia must present its mayoral candidates to President Dmitry Medvedev by Tuesday. Yury Luzhkov was fired by Medvedev over a “loss of confidence” last Tuesday.
Putin hosted the party officials after meeting with Medvedev briefly earlier Friday. Putin told Medvedev that he would start talks on the mayorship later the same day, the Kremlin said in a statement. The prime minister usually ignores party consultations over the appointment of regional leaders.
It remained unclear Sunday whether United Russia had finalized its list of candidates. All discussions on the next mayor are going on behind closed doors, and no officials have proposed considering the opinion of Muscovites.
Analysts say the party needs a loyal mayor to secure victory in 2011 State Duma elections.
Other mayoral candidates listed by the media include Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu; Alexander Khloponin, a former business executive who now serves as the presidential envoy to the turbulent North Caucasus Federal District; former Luzhkov deputy and Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev; and Vladimir Kozhin, head of the Office of Presidential Affairs.
Meanwhile, acting Mayor Vladimir Resin has appointed Vladimir Shukshin as a deputy mayor in charge of investment issues and cooperation with the law enforcement agencies, Interfax reported Saturday.
The appointment was an apparent attempt to fill a vacancy left by deputy Mayor Alexander Ryabinin, who resigned after being questioned by investigators in a bribery case pending since March.
Ryabinin, who oversaw construction and land issues, remains at liberty. The Investigative Committee promised earlier to wrap up his case “soon.”
Meanwhile, Resin confirmed in televised remarks Saturday that the scandalous construction of a storage facility for Kremlin museums near the Kremlin had been frozen amid criticism over the project’s architectural design. But, Resin said, the matter was decided by federal authorities and was not related to Luzhkov’s dismissal.

TITLE: Limonov Opens Local Branch of Other Russia Party
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Author and Kremlin political opponent Eduard Limonov opened the St. Petersburg branch of his newly formed party, The Other Russia, at a conference at the Angleterre hotel on Saturday. 
Regional branches of The Other Russia were earlier launched in Ryazan and Krasnoyarsk. Saturday’s conference in Komsomolsk-Na-Amure in the Far East was disrupted by the SOBR (The Special Rapid Response Unit), who detained participants and took them to a police precinct to forcibly fingerprint them.
Although several police cars and an OMON special-task police bus were present on St. Isaac’s Square close to the hotel, the officers did not leave their vehicles or disrupt the proceedings.
The conference, attended by 120 delegates, opened with the party’s unofficial anthem, composed by Dmitri Shostakovich Jr., a pianist and the grandson of the eminent composer. The stage was decorated with a black, yellow and white flag, which was used in Russia in the 19th century and has been adopted by The Other Russia.
“The Other Russia” was originally the title of a Limonov book published in 2003 and later, after 2006, the name of a coalition featuring Garry Kasparov’s United Civil Front (OGF) and Mikhail Kasyanov’s Russian Peoples’ Democratic Union, most memorable for the large-scale Dissenters’ Marches. The coalition has been mostly inactive since Kasparov formed the Solidarity Democratic Movement in December 2008.
The Other Russia was established as a party in Moscow on July 10. Limonov’s earlier party, the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) was banned by court as “extremist” under then-President Vladimir Putin’s Law on Countering Extremist Activities in 2007.
“We got back the name, which belongs to us by right,” Limonov said at the conference.
“For some time we lent out our name, and the Other Russia coalition used our brand name with success, and I think that along the way, during those couple of years the Other Russia coalition became liked by people. We have got our brand name back with interest.”
Limonov said that the party’s goal was to break the power monopoly in Russia no later than by the December 2011 parliamentary elections. He dismissed political analysts’ predictions that The Other Russia would not stand a chance because it would not be registered with the state elections committee.
“We have a plan; we’ll go a totally different way. It’s we who will not register them!” he said.
The program of the party, which Limonov described as “centrist,” includes democratization, the restoration of free elections and an independent court system, the abolishment of army conscription and the nationalization of natural resources industries.
“I’m sure that most of the population in Russia shares the ideals stated by us — these are socialism in economics, democracy in [domestic] policy and nationalism in foreign policy,” said Andrei Dmitriyev, leader of the local National Bolsheviks. Dmitriyev was elected chair of The Other Russia’s St. Petersburg branch at Saturday’s congress.
The Other Russia’s local agenda features the direct election of the St. Petersburg Governor, a “real election system of local self-governance,” regional taxation of the use of foreign labor and a moratorium on construction in the historic center of St. Petersburg.
Alexander Skobov, a Soviet-era political prisoner and Solidarity activist, supported the formation of The Other Russia.
“I welcome the establishment of the Other Russia party,” said Skobov, speaking at the conference on Saturday.
“I am not sorry that I was one of the first in the liberal opposition who spoke for cooperation with the Natsbols (National Bolsheviks). I’ve been speaking for such cooperation as a principle since as early as 2004. I think that the Natsbols have won the right to be called ‘democrats, ’ because ‘democrat’ is a broader notion than ‘liberal.’”
Skobov said he supports a broad democratic front featuring the pro-democracy communists, the Natsbols and the liberals who share democratic values.  
“Not all the liberals share democratic values — you all know this all too well. There are Pinochet supporters among liberals,” he said.
Late last month, Limonov announced The Other Russia’s long-term “Gandhi-style” campaign of civil disobedience “to break the power monopoly of the Putin/Medvedev group.” The campaign’s first act of disobedience will be nonparticipation in the national general population census due to take place from Oct. 14 to 25. 
“Let them first return the status of citizens to us, the opportunity to elect those who we want to see in power, and only after this we will speak to census takers,” Limonov wrote in his address to Russian citizens.

TITLE: Sutyagin  Recounts Spy Swap, Prison Life
AUTHOR: By Howard Amos
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: LONDON — Igor Sutyagin, the only convicted spy from this summer’s swap to profess his innocence, is an unlikely figure to have participated in the most dramatic public episode of international espionage since the Cold War.
“I would not defecate on the same field as them,” Sutyagin said of his accusers.
“How can you be humiliated by a dog?” he said, softly. “You can be beaten … but not humiliated.”
Despite his disdainful words, Sutyagin, 45, spoke in a resigned, matter-of-fact tone during an interview with The St. Petersburg Times in London, where he has been living since he was deposited there in July by a U.S. plane that collected him and three other Russians convicted of espionage.
A small, quiet man with thinning hair and dressed in unassuming new clothes, he speaks broken English with a meticulous elegance. This former nuclear researcher has deeply invested his intelligence to refute the allegations first leveled at him 11 years ago.
In the interview, Sutyagin recounted a difficult prison life that included bright moments teaching English classes and even lecturing on nuclear bombs. He described his moral dilemma at being asked to sign a statement of guilt to secure the release of himself and the three other convicted spies. And he recalled his flight to freedom, which included goodie bags and whiskey courtesy of “big and intense” U.S. guards.
Sutyagin initially faced 106 accusations after Federal Security Service officers detained him while waiting for a taxi outside his apartment in the Kaluga region town of Obninsk in 1999. The allegations included an interview he had given to The St. Petersburg Times’ sister newspaper, The Moscow Times, “an American business supported paper” (later dropped), and providing information on Russia’s military capabilities to a Western-intelligence front organization registered in Britain called Alternative Futures (of which he was convicted).
Sutyagin, speaking in the interview Friday, acknowledged that he did not know whether Alternative Futures was a front. But he maintained that all the information he used for his reports was publicly available, noting that he had similar contracts with Swiss and Japanese companies.
Sometime in 2004, he said, as he tipped five sachets of sugar into his tea, he began to understand that FSB investigators “did not want to know the truth.” Soon afterward, he was sentenced to 15 years.
From his outward placidity to the novelty of wearing a wristwatch, it is clear that prison, “the world where nothing happens,” as he put it, has left deep scars.
“Now it’s a part of me, and that’s why it’s very difficult to cope with life” in London, he said.
After his sentencing, he was moved from his Moscow detention center to a series of penal colonies, the first near the Urals and, for the last five years of his imprisonment, just outside Arkhangelsk in the north of Russia.
He was never able to blend in with the other prisoners. “I could not hide or disappear,” he recalled. “I was constantly under a floodlight.”
He was told that the FSB phoned every month to check up on him. He said the guards admitted that they could never say he was living well — they were obliged, for their own sakes, to ensure that he was made uncomfortable. He spent many days performing some of the most dirty and difficult odd jobs in the prison’s industrial area. Among other things, he unloaded logs and planks and helped build spindles to be wrapped with cable.
But his notoriety and education also brought relief. He taught English and once delivered a lecture to inmates and guards on “how a nuclear bomb explodes.”
Letters proved another lifeline. In one penal colony of 1,260 men, he was the recipient of every 10th letter that arrived, he said. Although his own mail was read and often delayed, he wrote upward of 800 letters in his last five years. He said that now that he is free, and despite speaking to his family every day through Skype, they miss his correspondence and recently asked him to write more frequently.
Sutyagin’s wife, two daughters and relatives made the 70-hour round trip to Arkhangelsk to see him for his allotted visiting times whenever they could. Only on one occasion was he moved from the tolerable “general conditions” to the more severe “strict conditions” — for 13 months. He was caught with a banned mobile phone in an incident that he is sure was contrived to give the authorities a pretext to refuse a plea for a presidential pardon he had submitted.
“I respect them for doing a good job,” he said, without a hint of a smile.
In early July, he was moved from Arkhangelsk back to the Lefortovo prison in Moscow. Sutyagin said he had no inkling that his release might be imminent. He only began to understand when he noticed a bag belonging to Sergei Skripal, sentenced to 13 years in 2006 for passing the names of Russian agents to the British; heard talk of others in the building serving time for “Article 275,” the article under which he had been imprisoned; and was photographed in a smart shirt and tie.
Shortly after this realization, he was ushered into the prison warden’s office and introduced to two Russian generals and three Americans from the embassy. All gave only their first names. They told Sutyagin that their countries had agreed on an exchange of spies and that he was “on the list.” He was to be flown to Britain but could return to Russia at any time — as long as he would confess.
Reluctant to sign, Sutyagin said he tried to gauge the situation by suggesting that he might refuse to cooperate. The Americans gave no direct response about the consequences. But the Russian generals, more visibly confused and agitated, told him that the exchange was one list for another and nobody would be freed if he was difficult.
Sutyagin signed a pre-typed confession within two hours. He was not granted access to a lawyer. He said he not only felt responsible for the fate of others but also caught up in forces outside his control.
“I can’t stop a deal between two presidents — I can’t be the stone which stops this deal,” he explained. “You can imagine what would happen to that stone.”
On July 9, Sutyagin was transferred to Domodedovo Airport along with Skripal and the two other convicted spies, Gennady Vasilenko and Alexander Zaporozhsky. Their plane to Vienna was a Russian government Yak-42 jet, and Sutyagin remembers its number, DRA42446, and name, Vladimir Kokkinaky, after the famous Soviet pilot.
“It was interesting for me,” he said with a small grin by way of explanation for this feat of memory.
Although he did not yet know the names of the others he was with, he spoke a little to Skripal before they were separated by nervous guards inside the plane. Saddened by leaving Russia, he recalled that the others were “excited.”
The plane landed in Vienna, where the four Russians were swapped for 10 Russian agents detained just weeks earlier in the United States.
Once in the American Boeing 767-200 and guarded by “big and intense” men in white shirts and black ties, the atmosphere became more jovial. They were all given a “goodie bag” containing, among other things, clothes and Russian movies. The other three wanted a drink to celebrate and, at the last moment, a bottle of whiskey was found.
Skripal and Sutyagin disembarked at the Brize Norton air base, about 105 kilometers west of London, and were driven to a hotel in West London. The other two Russians flew on to the United States.
Unlike the others included in the exchange, U.S. government officials have always denied that Sutyagin worked for them. His inclusion in the swap is described by officials as a humanitarian gesture.
Sutyagin has permission to stay in Britain for three more months and is looking into how to apply for a new visa.

TITLE: Reports: Baturina Rents Foreign Home
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Inteko billionaire Yelena Baturina mysteriously rented a humble residence in a village some 50 kilometers south of Vienna together with Inteko vice president Oleg Soloshchansky, Austrian media reported.
In March, Baturina, wife of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, rented a 150-square-meter house in the center of Breitenbrunn, which has fewer than 2,000 inhabitants, but nobody in the village remembers seeing her there, Vienna’s Die Presse newspaper reported Friday.
The landlord, Josef Kloyber, said the one-year rental contract had been canceled recently. “[Baturina’s] lawyer called and asked for an annulment,” he was quoted as saying.
Kloyber also said he had never seen his tenants because all paperwork was done through an agent. The only thing they added to the two-story building was a couch set, he said.
The report also said Baturina, Soloshchansky, who is the No. 2 executive at Inteko, and a third unidentified Russian citizen are registered residents in the village. It did not say where it got the information from.
A day earlier, Vienna’s Kurier newspaper reported that Baturina had registered a residency in Breitenbrunn, adding that the village mayor had never seen her. “Otherwise I would have made her an honorary citizen,” Mayor Josef Tr?llinger was quoted as saying.
Both Tr?llinger and Kloyber did not reply to requests for comment Friday.
Spokespeople at Inteko did not answer repeated calls and did not reply to e-mailed questions.
The reports come days after President Dmitry Medvedev fired Luzhkov following allegations that Inteko owes much of its success in Moscow’s property market to the marriage of its boss. Analysts expect that the company will face an uphill struggle to defend its position.
Moscow law enforcement authorities have opened corruption investigations into several City Hall officials in recent months, and speculation has been rife that Luzhkov and Baturina might relocate to Austria, where Baturina owns a posh chalet in the western ski resort of Kitzb?hel.
But it was unclear why Baturina would choose to register a residence in an obscure village at the other end of the country.
Breitenbrunn, however, is just a short drive from Vienna’s Schwechat Airport, and local media reported in 2008 that Baturina set up a family trust called Beneco in the Austrian capital.
Last week, Inteko denied a report by French magazine L’Express that Beneco was a vehicle to move Baturina’s assets out of the country.
On Friday, the company denied a report by Kurier that it was interested in buying a luxury hotel in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. “This is the latest nonsense,” Inteko spokesman Gennady Terebkov told Interfax.
Baturina and Luzhkov have never made a secret of their love for Austria. It was at her chalet that Luzhkov spent a weeklong vacation to celebrate his 74th birthday the week before he was fired.
But Baturina might soon move out of the chalet because of privacy concerns. “The house is quite close to the street, and she does not like it when strangers peek into the windows,” Baturina’s lawyer in Kitzb?hel, Emilio Stock, told Die Presse.

TITLE: Rights Advocate Faces Charges Over Meeting
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Ella Polyakova, one of the city’s most prominent human rights advocates and the chairwoman of the Soldiers’ Mothers pressure group, is on trial for “participating in an illegal protest meeting” and “resisting the police.”
   Polyakova was among 12 local residents who were detained by the city’s police during an opposition event on Palace Square on Aug. 31. The meeting was held as part of a series of events calling for the authorities to respect the 31st article of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right to assembly.
    The demonstration, which attracted around 1,000 participants and lasted for more than two hours, was heavily policed, and as soon as the protesters started to gather around the Alexander column at the center of the square, the officers began detaining the activists.
   “In our hands we were holding printouts of letters that together formed the phrase ‘For Freedom of Assembly!’” said Polyakova. “I was also carrying one of the printouts.”
   Asked to comment on the “police resistance” charges, Polyakova said: “A defenseless woman approaching retirement age against strapping guys armed with clubs and other weapons: Who do you think was injured? It was me who was bruised, because the police used force to prevent us from moving.”
    Polyakova said that failing to document her bruises at a medical center immediately after the protest event had been a mistake.
    The meeting was part of the Strategy 31 series of events in St. Petersburg, aimed at defending the right of assembly. They are held on the 31st day of months that have 31 days.
    These rallies — there have been five so far — have been routinely banned by the authorities and broken up by the police. There have been arrests at each of the meetings. As yet, however, none of the arrests have resulted in serious punishments. At court hearings held in the past, all the detained protesters have either been acquitted or ordered to pay modest fines.
    In one of the most resonant cases, Andrei Pivovarov, the local leader of Mikhail Kasyanov’s People’s Democratic Union (RNDS) and a local organizer of Strategy 31 events, was detained at the Aug. 31 rally and charged with violating the law on holding public events and failing to obey a policeman’s orders. Pivovarov was sentenced to 14 days in prison but released on appeal.
    Polyakova is one of the most active members of the St. Petersburg Human Rights Council, an informal organization that was created in 2007 as an alternative to the city’s human rights ombudsman at the time, Igor Mikhailov. 
Its member organizations include, alongside Polyakova’s Soldiers’ Mothers, the human rights groups Citizens’ Watch, Memorial, For Russia Without Racism and the League of Voters, the environmental organization Bellona and the non-governmental Museum of the Galina Starovoitova Foundation. 
    The next hearing in Polyakova’s case is scheduled for Oct. 15.

TITLE: OSCE Observers Call For ‘No Restrictions’ at Polls
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — European election monitors, who backed out of observer missions for Russia’s 2007 and 2008 elections because of Russian restrictions, want to be invited for 2011 and 2012 elections without limitations.
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is seeking to deploy monitors for Russia’s next two national elections “without any restrictions,” ODIHR director Janez Lenarcic told Kommersant in an interview published Friday.
Lenarcic said it was “in the interests of” Russian authorities “not to limit the activities of international observers.”
Otherwise, “it gives the impression that Russia has something to hide,” he said.
State Duma elections are scheduled for 2011, while voters will elect a president in 2012.
Alexander Kynev, an analyst with independent elections watchdog Golos, called the presence of foreign monitors at Russian elections “a litmus test of the intention of authorities’ to carry out serious reforms.”
Kynev said it was important for invitations to be sent to OSCE observers far ahead of the elections and for the number of observers to be maintained, so as to “not to provoke a refusal” of foreign observers to attend.
For the 2007 Duma elections, Moscow slashed ODIHR observer numbers from 400 to 70 and sent invitations just a month beforehand. ODIHR then canceled its mission amid complaints that Russian authorities were slowing down the process of delivering the visas.
For the 2008 presidential race, ODIHR again canceled after Moscow delayed the visit and limited it to 70 observers.
Lenarcic, who became ODIHR director in July 2008, said he has managed to “build close cooperation” with Russian authorities.
Last year, Russian authorities complained twice that the OSCE had appointed Russian citizens to foreign observer missions without discussing the move with Moscow.

TITLE: Court Case Over Petrik’s Water Filters Begins in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A Moscow court began hearings Thursday on a lawsuit against inventor Viktor Petrik on accusations that he developed and promoted water filters that were ineffective and potentially harmful.
The lawsuit against the Golden Formula company, which is owned by Petrik, a friend and protege of United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov, was filed in July by the Consumer Rights Protection Society, the group’s spokeswoman, Yulia Sharapova, said Thursday.
The next hearing at the Perovsky District Court is scheduled for Oct. 18, the judicial news web site RAPSI said.
A study conducted by ROSA, an independent Moscow-based water control center, found Petrik’s filters to be ineffective, Sharapova said.
She said the watchdog reviewed the filters after receiving a complaint from the Council of Native Novgorod Residents, a public group.
In 2009, Novgorod became the test region for a United Russia-endorsed program to install Petrik’s water filters in every school nationwide.
Anna Cherepanova, a member of the Council of Native Novgorod Residents, said the group decided to complain after the Russian Academy of Sciences said in the spring that Petrik’s filters use harmful materials.
“This experiment on our children should be stopped,” she said by telephone.
Cherepanova added that Petrik’s filters have been installed in most of the region’s public schools and kindergartens.
Petrik was not available for comment Thursday. In an earlier interview with The St. Petersburg Times, he said his filters helped to reduce sicknesses among local children. “I have done it for the future,” he said.
The Consumer Rights Protection Society also complained over Petrik’s decision to name one of filters “Shoigu” in honor of Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, saying the inventor was not authorized to use the minister’s name to endorse the product, Ekho Moskvy radio reported Thursday.

TITLE: Luzhkov’s Ouster Rattles Moscow’s Teachers and Police
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Although Yury Luzhkov made a fair share of enemies during his 18 years as mayor, he also won respect from thousands of public sector workers and pensioners by using municipal funds to boost their income.
With Luzhkov’s ouster, teachers, police officers and pensioners voiced concern Tuesday about cuts to their incomes — cuts that some said they had already heard were in the pipeline.
Moscow City Duma Speaker Vladimir Platonov offered assurances Tuesday that social benefits would remain the same.
“All the social benefits that have pleased Moscow citizens will stay,” he said on Channel One television.
Any shakeup in social benefits could trigger unrest in the capital, something that the Kremlin certainly wants to avoid.
“He has done a lot for teachers, and the reason that we have free breakfasts for elementary schoolchildren is down to him,” Lyudmila Krukova, principal of one of Moscow’s public schools, said in an interview, adding that she learned about Luzhkov’s dismissal from her students.
Like many teachers, Krukova is afraid that school employees will be stripped of so-called “Luzhkov bonuses,” the extra income paid by City Hall to supplement their federally mandated salaries.
Moscow teachers earn more than $1,000 a month, three times more than their counterparts in the regions.
On the Moscow police force, officers receive half their salaries from City Hall, said Mikhail Pashkin, head of an independent police trade union. He said by telephone that he has already received calls from police officers who were told by their superiors that City Hall would cut off the extra funds in October.
A master of populist politics, Luzhkov also paid benefits to pensioners, who constituted the core of United Russia party supporters in the capital. Luzhkov was a senior United Russia official before he quit the party Tuesday.
According to City Hall’s estimates, about $2.5 billion was spent to support about 3 million pensioners in 2009, or nearly 8 percent of the city’s 1 trillion ruble budget ($33 billion). The city’s average monthly payment to a pensioner amounted to $100.
“Luzhkov has invested a huge amount of money into the social sphere. The people who will come after him will face a difficult task continuing in this path,” said Yevgeny Gontmakher, deputy head of the Institute of Modern Development.
Gontmakher said the next mayor will face a public backlash if he cuts the Luzhkov bonuses.
Yelena Lukyanova, a lawyer and member of the Public Chamber, said the next mayor would probably keep the city’s social safety net in place to prevent unrest. “If the welfare system collapses, Moscow will blow up immediately,” she said.
She noted that while many teachers and doctors have voted for United Russia in Moscow, their colleagues across the country often prefer the Communist Party.
Just several days before Luzhkov’s ouster, several prominent culture figures including actors Alexander Kalyagin and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan wrote a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev to support Luzhkov and criticized anti-Luzhkov broadcasts on state-controlled television.
“I don’t like these kinds of campaigns, not because there were no problems, which are natural for such a big city, but because I know how much the mayor has done for culture and theaters — and my theater in particular,” Vladimir Urin, director of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko musical theater, said Monday, RIA-Novosti reported.
But Alexander Gelman, a respected figure in the art world, said Luzhkov only helped some theaters financially, “according to his personal taste.”
“He acted like some noblemen during the Middle Ages who presented gifts to peasants and received gratitude from them,” he told The St. Petersburg Times.

TITLE: New Probes Into Five Journalists’ Deaths Opened
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Investigative Committee said Thursday that probes have been reopened into the deaths of five journalists after it received new information from a U.S. media watchdog.
The decision was made after a meeting between agency head Alexander Bastrykin and representatives of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Media activists welcomed the news but voiced doubt that it would lead to tangible results.
The five deaths, occurring between 2001 and 2006, include Valery Ivanov and Alexei Sidorov, both editors of the Tolyatti-based Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye newspaper. Ivanov was shot in 2002, and his successor Sidorov was stabbed a year later.
Investigations also will be reopened into the 2001 shooting of Eduard Markevich, editor of the Sverdlovsk region Novy Reft newspaper; Natalya Skryl, a business reporter beaten to death in Taganrog in 2002; and Tula reporter Vagif Kochetkov, who died in early 2006.
Nina Ognianova, a spokeswoman for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said her group had presented investigators with the results of its own investigation and pinpointed flaws in the investigators’ work.
“We asked them questions which they had never answered,” she said by telephone, adding that committee officials did not say during Tuesday’s meeting that they would reopen the investigations.
“We are very pleased that they are picking this up now, and we hope that this will lead to solving those crimes,” she said.
The investigations were decided after Bastrykin ordered a review of the cases, the Investigative Committee said.
Bastrykin held a closed-door meeting Tuesday with a delegation headed by Committee to Protect Journalists chairman Paul Steiger.
Bastrykin told the attendees that bringing the killers to justice was a matter of honor and “of proving our professionalism,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said on its web site.

TITLE: Communist Poll Boycott Is Banned 
In Krasnodar
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — An election campaign took an odd turn when the Central Elections Commission banned the Communist Party from boycotting the upcoming legislative vote in the Krasnodar region.
The Communists decided last week to withdraw all 39 candidates from the Oct. 10 election after four of them had their registrations canceled on a court order over paperwork problems.
But election officials informed the party Wednesday that the boycott violated the party’s charter and infringed on the rights of the other candidates.
It was unclear whether all candidates on the Communist ticket in Krasnodar had supported the boycott.
“Some of the candidates have already withdrawn their bids. Maybe they all will be withdrawn by tomorrow,” Sergei Obukhov, a State Duma deputy with the Communist Party, told The St. Petersburg Times on Thursday. 
Central Elections Commission chief Vladimir Churov told City FM radio late Wednesday that at least three of the Communist Party’s candidates in Krasnodar had refused to withdraw from the race. 
But Obukhov said the three were not Communist members and planned to run as party supporters.
The party’s Krasnodar branch called the election commission’s ruling “illogical” on Thursday, saying that only the Constitutional Court was entitled to review a party’s charter. 

TITLE: Thumbing Noses at WTO, Pirates Try to Set Sail
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — These “pirates” may be sailing against the tide, but they are riding a wave of popular opinion.
A group of activists in their 20s who advocate modernizing the economy by “copying everything” are trying to register as a political party just as Russia tightens its anti-piracy policies in a bid for membership in the World Trade Organization.
The Pirate Party of Russia, which claims 15,000 registered online supporters, decided last month to apply for official party registration with the Justice Ministry. The so-called pirates will need to gather at least 45,000 signatures by March 12 to meet the government’s criteria — though that is little guarantee of state recognition.
But many ordinary Russians seem to agree with the party’s platform that Internet users should be paying for speed and quality of information, not just information itself, when they go online.
In fact, the Pirate Party, whose web site bears the slogan “Copy Everything!” next to a black flag, is a revival of an earlier Russian pirate group.
“We realize that Russia’s membership in the WTO is unavoidable, but we will speak up against reaching it by all means,” Pavel Rassudov, chairman of the Pirate Party of Russia, told The Moscow Times.
Going against everything the Pirate Party stands for, the State Duma on Friday voted unanimously in a third and final reading to pass anti-piracy amendments that will bring Russian law in line with the TRIPS agreement, required for membership in the WTO. The amendments say authors and other copyright holders can seek reimbursement for the use of intellectual property in private settings like the home.
The Pirate Party opposes the changes because they will make criminals out of an estimated 60 million Russians.
The Pirate Party’s deputy chairman, Stanislav Shakirov, said the group does not oppose paid software and does not plan to sell pirated DVDs. Instead, it is focused on broader issues, said Shakirov, a 23-year-old programmer.
The Russians are part of an international movement led by Sweden’s Pirate Party that is pushing for changes of patent and copyright systems to allow free access to information and open government. Sweden’s Pirate Party won two seats in the European Parliament after the 2009 elections.
On the Russian pirates’ web site, they prominently say copyright laws and other laws “should not be grounds for punishing those who take part in the noncommercial exchange of information, restricting an author’s right to choose which publisher to work with, or censorship.”
The free-information ideology isn’t mirrored by Russian law, Rassudov said. In one example, widely recognized Creative Commons copyright licenses can’t be used under current Russian law.
“Authors can’t give up their work for free use under the current legislation in the country,” said Rassudov, a 27-year-old consultant who lectures businesses and politicians on harnessing the Internet.
Denis Voyevodin, a partner on intellectual property issues at the Salans law firm, confirmed that free licenses just don’t exist in Russian legislation. “An author can give away his work, but the authorship will still belong to him,” Voyevodin said. “In Russia, intellectual property is protected by law, but there is little control,” he added. “Russia is a big country where there is little respect toward one’s copyrights.”
The pirates said their platform echoes the modernization campaign spearheaded by President Dmitry Medvedev. The president has named five industries for revamp, including telecommunications and information technology. Part of his plan is to develop an innovation center in the Moscow region town of Skolkovo.
The pirates said Medvedev’s initiatives will not succeed without changes to Internet and copyright laws. “Skolkovo won’t be able to write its own programs until free licenses appear,” Rassudov said.
Unsurprisingly, the head of the Russian Anti-Piracy Organization strongly opposes the creation of a pirate political party.
“Of course, we will make a stand against such a party,” Viktor Zemchenkov said by telephone. “We don’t have the money to make movies because pirates are using our marketing and doing nothing.”
He may not need to worry about the pirates’ political future. Authorities routinely deny registration to parties and candidates outside United Russia, the country’s dominant party, and the pirates’ prospects for becoming a full-fledged party appear dim because of the political climate, said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank.
Just this month, the Justice Ministry denied registration of the Rot Front party, led by Left Front opposition campaigner Sergei Udaltsov, citing technical mistakes in the group’s application.
“Maybe later, when the power changes,” Pribylovsky said of the Pirate Party’s chances.
“But any group advocating for freedoms in Russia deserves support,” he said.
In any case, the pirates seem uninterested in making any political alliances, and their number of active participants is tiny. Though its online supporters number about 15,000, the group only attracted about two dozen people to the Moscow region town of Malakhovka on Sept. 12 and 13 for its first convention, including Gregory Engels, co-chairman of the Pirate Party International.
The group is “against everyone, both the opposition and the ruling authorities,” Rassudov said.
The group is targeting Internet users, especially the young, as potential voters. Supporters are largely professionals and active Internet users, aged 20 to 30, including small entrepreneurs and artists, Shakirov and Rassudov said. The two are searching for young, brilliant activists to build their cause.
Piracy of DVDs, software and other copyrighted goods is rampant. A new study by the Higher School of Economics in Moscow estimates that $30 billion in counterfeit goods a year are sold in Russian stores, Kommersant reported Friday. 
The study said counterfeit goods included medicine, cosmetics, alcohol and clothing, and their sale is growing after declining in recent years, the newspaper said, without giving figures. 
Sixty-seven percent of the software installed on personal computers in 2009 was unlicensed, according to a May report by International Data Corp. and the Business Software Alliance. Russia was ranked as having the third-highest commercial value of pirated software last year, at $2.6 billion, after the United States’ $8.4 billion and China’s $7.6 billion.
Russia’s loose attitudes toward illegal uses of intellectual property have been a huge stumbling block in its 17-year-old bid to join the WTO.
As recently as June, U.S. officials reiterated that a major reason Russia’s WTO accession was being held up was its failure to carry out promises from a 2006 anti-piracy agreement with the United States.

TITLE: Outgoing Leader of Kalmykia Keeps Job at World Chess Federation
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the outgoing leader of the Kalmykia republic, managed to keep his other job last Wednesday, winning elections to head the World Chess Federation, or FIDE.
A State Duma deputy said Ilyumzhinov’s FIDE bid, backed by Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich, was meant by Russian authorities as a sinecure for the flamboyant politician, who has governed the impoverished Buddhist republic of 300,000 people since 1993.
Ilyumzhinov, who has headed FIDE since 1995, needed all the support he could get because of tough competition from former chess master Anatoly Karpov. But he managed to win 96 out of 160 votes from FIDE member states at the elections held in Khanty-Mansiisk in West Siberia.
Karpov, who earlier accused Ilyumzhinov of nepotism and corruption, secured support from his former chess nemesis-turned-Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov for his bid.
Karpov’s supporters tried to disrupt the vote by accusing opponents of violating the rules on countries that authorize other delegations to vote for them. But that did not prevent Ilyumzhinov from securing a win.
In an attempt to mend fences with Karpov, the victorious Ilyumzhinov offered him the post of his deputy at FIDE, the Sovetsky Sport daily reported. Karpov, who personally informed the newspaper about the offer, said he was thinking it over.
Ilyumzhinov conceded that his re-election had been hard fought. “I never thought that I would struggle with Anatoly Karpov or Garry Kasparov,” he told RIA-Novosti, describing them as “great sportsmen.”
Dvorkovich wrote on his Twitter blog that Ilyumzhinov’s victory had not surprised him. “As expected, Ilyumzhinov got more votes than Karpov. … It is time to concentrate on work,” he said.
“It was a good decision,” said Rumen Rayev, a member of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, speaking by telephone from Sofia. “Maybe Mr. Karpov is a better chess player, but Mr. Ilyumzhinov is a better manager.”
 Oleg Shein, a Duma deputy and longtime Ilyumzhinov critic, said he believed that the Kremlin backed Ilyumzhinov’s re-election in return for his departure as Kalmykia’s leader. Ilyumzhinov announced several weeks ago that he would step down when his current, fourth term ends next month, and President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Kalmykia’s first deputy prime minister, Alexei Orlov, as his successor.
“FIDE will be his gardening plot, like bees for Luzhkov,” Shein said, referring to former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s fondness for beekeeping.
Shein, speaking by telephone, said Ilyumzhinov’s victory bode poorly for Russian chess, which he said has never regained its Soviet-era popularity because Ilyumzhinov has focused on high-profile tournaments.
“Chess today does not get the place that it deserves,” said Mikhail Glotov, a Moscow-based chess coach. “If I could vote, I would give Karpov, who has more credibility as a player, a chance.”
Karpov and Ilyumzhinov waged a heated campaign after Karpov was unexpectedly backed by the Russian Chess Federation in April.
Then Dvorkovich, who chairs the Russian Chess Federation, nominated Ilyumzhinov as the Russian candidate, forcing Karpov to campaign from the U.S. Chess Federation.
Earlier this month, Karpov challenged Ilyumzhinov’s nomination in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the Swiss city of Lausanne, but his lawsuit was thrown out.
Ilyumzhinov, himself an avid chess player, said before the vote that he was sure he would win. He has claimed to have attracted more than $50 million to FIDE over the years, partially from his own wealth.
Dvorkovich wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that some FIDE delegates had accused Kasparov and Karpov of trying to hack the vote. “Is this what they call a democracy?” Dvorkovich said.
Another Ilyumzhinov supporter, FIDE deputy head Georgios Makropoulus, accused Kasparov and Karpov of “dirty tricks” in an interview published in Sovetsky Sport.
Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Yabloko party whose members distributed anti-Ilyumzhinov leaflets near the elections venue, said the re-election would “damage the reputation of FIDE.”
Yabloko has a long-running feud with Ilyumzhinov, whom it accused of involvement in the killing of opposition journalist and party member Larisa Yudina in 1998. Ilyumzhinov has denied wrongdoing.
“The investigation into Yudina’s murder has not finished, but if Ilyumzhinov is elected again, nobody will care about it,” Mitrokhin said hours before the vote.

TITLE: No End In Sight For Norilsk War
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of United Co. RusAl, said he could see no early resolution to the shareholder conflict around GMK Norilsk Nickel, in which the aluminum producer owns 25 percent, Bloomberg reported Monday.
“It’s hard to forecast when it will end, but I think it won’t be soon,” Vekselberg told reporters on Saturday in Yalta, Ukraine, the news wire reported.
The battle for control of Norilsk, Russia’s largest mining company, between RusAl co-owner Oleg Deripaska and billionaire Vladimir Potanin began in 2008 and reignited after an annual general meeting in June.
RusAl said the board election, which left it with three seats — one less than Potanin’s Interros Holding — was manipulated, a charge Norilsk and Interros have denied. The General Prosecutor’s Office probed the voting without finding evidence that it violated the law. RusAl is seeking to have the results overturned in a regional court.
The conflict hasn’t made Norilsk an undesirable investment, Vekselberg, a RusAl shareholder, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. 
“It always makes sense to invest in Norilsk because it’s the leading company in its industry,” he said.

TITLE: Dealers Owed Cash In Clunker Scheme
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Tyomkin and Maria Buravtseva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: During the six months that a nationwide cash-for-clunkers style initiative has been underway, 12,603 cars have been given in for recycling in St. Petersburg. City car dealers, however, are reporting serious delays in receiving compensation for discounts given to buyers.
Under the program, which began on March 8, owners of cars older than 10 years are eligible for discounts from dealers when purchasing a new Russian-made car, providing they hand in their old vehicle for recycling. The Ministry of Trade and Industry had allocated 10 billion rubles ($328 million) to reimburse dealers for the discounts, and subsequently doubled the amount in June.
Each new purchase with an accompanying trade-in is eligible for a 50,000-ruble ($1,640) discount. In St. Petersburg, 44 dealers are participating in the program. If all the people who have given in old cars for recycling purchased new cars, then these dealers are owed about 630 million rubles ($21 million).
So far, the ministry has paid out 3.26 billion rubles ($107 million) to car dealers across the country, but local dealers have so far only received 305.5 million rubles ($10 million) in compensation.
The city’s biggest participant in the program, AvtoVAZ dealer Piter-Lada, has sold 3,842 cars with the discount, said marketing director Viktoria Chibysheva. According to her, the Ministry of Industry has not yet provided full compensation. Chibysheva admitted that the cash gap is creating a difficult financial situation, but for the AvtoVAZ dealer, the program is too important to abandon: 70 to 80 percent of their sales are made under it, she said.
Three car dealers have received compensation only for cars sold in May, employees told Vedomosti. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has not even begun to compensate all dealers for summer sales, including Ford dealer Alarm Motors, said sales director Mikhail Shevelkov. 
GM dealer Atlant-M Lakhta, whom the ministry has owed one million rubles ($33,000) since May, stopped honoring the program this summer, said the company’s general director Yevgeny Pekarsky.
Another GM dealer, Laura, hasn’t stopped offering the discounts, but is keeping sales under the program to a minimum so that it doesn’t have to wait months for reimbursement from the ministry, admitted board member Mikhail Logutenko.
Discount sales make up only 10 percent of all Ford purchases, estimated Shevelkov. According to him, manufacturers are offering dealers a two-month grace period on paying back the sum discounted under the scheme. A Ford representative confirmed this privilege. But the ministry is delaying payments for longer than two months, according to Shevelkov.
An abundance of red tape, ever-changing rules, and an excessive delay on payments have made the program pointless for dealers, Pekarsky said.
According to a ministry representative, incorrect paperwork is the biggest reason for a delay in compensation payment: With correct and timely preparation of documents, compensation may reach the dealer in a month.
Dealers are not allowed to deny certificate-holders participation in the recycling program, and if complaints are received from buyers, the dealer will be excluded from the program for the remainder of its term, said the ministry representative.

TITLE: Bread Manufacturers Warn Prices Will Rise
AUTHOR: By Yelena Dombrova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Manufacturers of bread and confectionary goods have been warning retailers of price increases of 5 to 10 percent since August.
Abnormal weather conditions, namely the drought and wildfires, caused crop failures and are now leading to a five to 40 percent increase in primary commodity prices, according to a letter from Karavai manufacturer, a copy of which was obtained by Vedomosti.
Sugar prices have increased 25 percent, flour has doubled, and cocoa is up 120 percent, according to cake producer Globus Elite. This rise in intermediate costs justifies a final goods price increase of five to ten percent, they say.
Manufactures of bread and baked goods warned of 3 to 10 percent price increases at the end of August, but negotiations are still underway, said Amera Carlos, public relations manager for the northwest division of X5 retail group. But according to Mikhail Lomonosov, commercial director for Food Exchange Holding, deliveries of bread at inflated prices have already begun. Production prices have already increased by 15 percent, and contracts with retailers are currently being renegotiated, according to a representative of Globus Elite.
Karavai CEO Nikolai Tyutyunnikov said that prices for basic bread types have not increased, while the rest have increased no more than 7 percent. According to Tyutyunnikov, prices grew back in September.
The Krupskoi Factory has already hiked wholesale prices due to increased raw goods costs, and negotiations with suppliers are ongoing, said Olga Agafonova, a company representative. According to one retailer, Pekar-branded products have gone up 4 percent, while Azart products have risen 7 percent.
Dieta-18 and Kvartal products have not become more expensive, according to company representatives. Prices are kept at a stable price both by the government and by market competition, according to Sergei Rybakov, regional commercial director of Viktoria, part of the Kvartal chain.
Lomonosov said that prices on the shelves would remain the same due to competition, while Igor Bernstein, deputy director of the Dieta 18 network, disagreed, saying that prices will rise, although not on the same scale as input costs. 
Rosstat, the state statistics service, reported a consumer price index of 100.2 percent between Sept. 7 and 13.

TITLE: Nabiullina Seeks to Postpone Prohibitive Timber Duties
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Economic Development Ministry is proposing to extend existing export duties on timber for the next year, which would further delay the government’s initial plan to raise the tariffs to a prohibitive level, Minister Elvira Nabiullina said Wednesday.
“In my view, most likely there will be a need to decide to extend the current duties for another year,” Nabiullina said, Interfax reported. She added that the government had not yet made a final decision.
Russia hopes that the eventual shift to prohibitively high duties will help the country develop the local timber industry, but the European Union has said the move would contradict free-trade rules of the World Trade Organization, which Russia wants to join.
Russia has twice postponed an increase of duties to the highest level under a program that initially envisaged doing so as of 2009. Both times Russia made the move while negotiating permission by Finland, a major importer of Russian timber, to lay a Gazprom-backed pipeline under the Baltic Sea, the Nord Stream.
Lower duties helped the Russian timber companies survive the global economic downturn, and Nabiullina said the industry was only beginning to emerge from the crisis.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia remained committed to the longer-term goal of exporting unprocessed timber.
“Russia must abandon the model of exporting raw resources,” he said. “It’s a matter of the past.”
Over the past years, Russia increased exports of building materials, paper and pulp by 7 percent to 13 percent, while it reduced the exports of logs by 4 percent, Putin said.
In the wake of the forest fires that hit Russia last summer, Putin said that the government was working on creating a new federal agency that will be responsible for forest management. 
The agency will concentrate the power and responsibility for the state of the wood processing industry, Putin said, without specifying when the new agency would start its work.

TITLE: Yota Makes Peace to Get Frequencies
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: Wireless provider Skartel, which operates under the Yota brand, hopes to get back the frequencies it was planning to use to build its fourth-generation network that were taken away by the government, without having to go to court.
Russian Technologies, which owns 25 percent of Skartel, is leveraging its general director, Sergei Chemezov, and his relationship with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to facilitate a resolution to the conflict. 
Skartel asked the Moscow Arbitration Court to delay an initial hearing of its lawsuit against the Federal Communication, IT and Mass Media Inspection Service. The lawyer for the service agreed with the request, so the court rescheduled the hearing for Oct. 27. 
The two sides are discussing how to resolve the disagreement amicably, a court spokesman said. 
Inspection Service spokesman Mikhail Vorobyev said they are carefully studying a proposal of Skartel. 
Skartel has a chance to resolve the dispute outside the courtroom, said company general director Denis Sverdlov.
The operator filed two claims against the inspection service on Aug. 26. The operator protested an order of the inspection service that took away frequencies in the range that can be used for 4G technologies WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE), which were received by the company between January and May 2010, for 170 Russian cities. 
The inspection service explained that it had conducted an internal audit and found that those frequencies were granted in violation of an order dated Aug. 19, 2009, by the State Committee for Radio Frequencies that forbade the issuing of frequencies in that range. Skartel insists that the inspection service violated procedures in taking away the frequencies. 
A senior executive at one of the major mobile operators told The St. Petersburg Times that Skartel got the licenses under the pretext of providing data services using WiMax technology but intends to use them with LTE, which is the 4G technology that all the major mobile operators want to use. He said the situation highlights the fact that the industry is desperate for some formal policy from the ministry about next-generation mobile technology standards and how frequencies will be distributed, but up till now nothing has been clarified.
Negotiations for an out-of-court settlement are the result of Chemezov’s intervention, confirmed sources close to Skartel and the State Committee for Radio Frequencies. In August, when the inspection service issued the order to take back the frequencies, Chemezov was on vacation. But in the first half of September, he met jointly with Putin and Communications and Press Minister Igor Shchyogolev, and then with President Dmitry Medvedev. At both meetings the problem of Skartel’s frequencies was discussed, a source told Vedomosti. 
On Sept. 10, Putin told Shchyogolev to settle the matter, the source said. 
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the confiscation of frequencies from Skartel was discussed and Putin tasked the minister with finding a resolution. A source told Vedomosti that Russian Technologies hopes the frequency issue will be solved in the first half of October. Sources close to the Communications Ministry say Shchyogolev discussed the situation with Chemezov, who promised that Skartel would drop the lawsuits. 

(Vedomosti, SPT)

TITLE: Inflation Grows For 2nd Month
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s annual inflation rate grew for a second month in a row after the country’s worst drought in at least half a century hindered agricultural output, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Prices rose 7 percent from a year earlier, compared with 6.1 percent in August, the news wire reported the Federal Statistics Service as saying Monday. Consumer prices advanced 0.8 percent from the previous month, after rising 0.6 percent in July. Both figures matched the median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of 15 economists.
“Inflationary pressures intensified in September,” driven by food and metals costs, HSBC Holdings said Oct. 1, citing data compiled by Markit Economics. “Manufacturing growth moderates, while price growth accelerates,” raising the question of whether Russia is heading for “stagflation,” the bank said in a statement, Bloomberg reported.
Russia faces an “acute” grain shortage after record heat led to crop losses, despite the government’s ban on grain exports, according to the Moscow-based researcher SovEcon. Rising food prices may push the inflation rate to 8 percent by the end of the year, central bank chief Sergey Ignatiev said Sept. 24.
Bank Rossii will continue monitoring “inflationary processes,” the central bank said in a statement, Bloomberg reported. “Signs of unstable economic growth remain.”

TITLE: Putin’s Ride Boosts Ripe-Lemon Car Sales
AUTHOR: By Yelena Vinogradova, Alexei Nepomnyashchy and Maxim Tovkailo
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — AvtoVAZ is starting production of a bright yellow Lada Kalina Sport — just like the one Prime Minister Vladimir Putin used for his road trip on the Amur highway at the end of August.
“After the event, there was a barrage of phone calls to the AvtoVAZ hotline from people who wanted to buy this kind of car,” company spokesman Igor Burenkov said.
The factory decided to respond to the demand and from November will produce “ripe lemon” colored Lada Kalina Sport cars in limited numbers, he said.
By the end of the year, about 500 cars will be available — all of which have already been ordered by dealers. AvtoVAZ now makes about 100 Kalina Sport cars per month in seven different colors — red, burgundy, blue, white and three shades of gray.
The new Ladas will be equipped just like the one that Putin drove, except for a Glonass satellite guidance system, which will be installed in cars from next year.
The Kalina Sport costs 370,000 rubles ($12,200) with a 1.6-liter engine, versus the 270,000 ruble price of a standard Kalina.
Demand for all AvtoVAZ cars has surged since Putin’s trip, dealers said.
“Now demand for the whole line of AvtoVAZ cars is very high, and the sales volume is determined by the production capacity of the factory,” said Vladimir Yarkin, president of Avtotrade, a Tolyatti-based car dealership. “If AvtoVAZ increased production of the yellow Kalina Sport, they would sell out quickly.”
Putin is an ideal ambassador for the Lada brand in the eyes of the target audience,” said Oleg Katskiv, manager of Auto-Dealer.ru. “His comment that now is the best time to buy cars under the cash-for-clunkers program generated huge interest in AvtoVAZ’s product line — even the non-yellow ones.”
An AvtoVAZ spokesman said that “by mutual agreement” he could not comment on why the prime minister had driven an AvtoVAZ car on the Amur highway. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the initiative came from the factory, which proposed several colors but strongly recommended yellow. “The prime minister agreed,” he said.
Yellow cars were not particularly popular before, but now AvtoVAZ is ready to paint other models the same color chosen by Putin. The company’s web site, Avtovaz.ru, was showcasing the now well-recognized yellow Kalina at the top of its home page last week.
The factory presented the Cabinet with three cars for the Amur trip, two of which were returned to AvtoVAZ. Putin drove one; the second was in his motorcade; and the third was transported on an accompanying truck. Putin gave his car, which he autographed, to the AvtoVAZ museum, and another he gave back to the factory to present to a veteran. He presented the third car to Oleg Trushin, one of the workers who constructed the highway.
After the road trip, which was shown on all national TV channels, dealers in Tolyatti raised prices by 6,000 rubles, but now the situation has stabilized.
Regardless of the increasing demand, prices have remained within the recommended range, said a spokesman for the Avtostat agency, starting at 339,000 rubles for a car with a 1.2-liter engine. This is because of the fact that from Friday, AvtoVAZ started fining dealers who exceed recommended prices.

TITLE: Planned Seaport Would Turn Murmansk Into Major Hub
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A new seaport may be built in Murmansk as part of a government initiative to develop the northern city as a key transportation hub, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday.
Murmansk represents one of the country’s most promising transportation hubs because its waters do not freeze in the winter and provide ships with direct access to the ocean, Ivanov said.
The government could build “a modern port with a big cargo turnover,” Ivanov told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Presidium.
He said the Sea Board, a government body that oversees maritime issues, would meet Saturday to consider an investment plan for Murmansk that includes the construction of a new seaport in Murmansk Bay.
The Sea Board meeting, which Ivanov will chair in the Murmansk region, will also consider how to enforce the government’s policies on Arctic development through 2020, he said.
Analysts said Murmansk had a number of advantages as a seaport. “It’s very close to Europe, while St. Petersburg is already overloaded. Russia needs more deep-water and non-freezing ports accessible to Europe,” said Mikhail Ganelin, a transportation analyst with Troika Dialog.
Ivanov declined to provide an investment estimate for the project, but Ganelin said it might run into the billions of dollars. Building additional needed infrastructure would likely increase the costs, Ganelin said.
Separately, Deputy Transportation Minister Viktor Olersky said in St. Petersburg on Thursday that work on the Murmansk transportation hub would only begin after the government issued an order to create a special economic zone in Murmansk, industry newswire PortNews reported. He said the order might be signed as soon as October.
The project will be financed by private investors rather than the federal budget, PortNews said.
Olersky said two major investors — coal mining company Kuzbasrazrezugol and the Sibir business union — were ready to invest, but “the existing mechanism is hindering this.”
A coal terminal that would be part of the transportation hub would have the capacity to transfer more than 20 million tons of coal a year, while an oil terminal would have the capacity of 12 million to 13 million tons a year, Olersky said.
He said the planned container terminal was unlikely to manage the 1 million transit containers that are anticipated annually.
Thursday’s Presidium meeting also discussed Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization and state support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Putin said Russia would fulfill all WTO membership requirements only after it joins the world trade body and not before.
“No restrictions connected with the membership process must come into force until we completely join the organization,” he said.
“This process could last forever, and we could face the prospect of being bound to restrictions without being able to use the advantages of full membership in the organization,” he said.

TITLE: Top 500 Takes First Hit During Crisis
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Cumulative revenue for Russia’s biggest 500 companies in 2009 fell by 3 percent over the previous year, according to an annual rating published by Finans magazine last Monday.
It is the first time in the ranking’s four-year history that the number has dropped.
The total revenue in 2009 amounted to 31.42 trillion rubles, just under the $1 trillion threshold, Finans said.
But a few corporations prospered during the crisis.
Russian Railways moved up one notch to fourth on the list, also ranking fourth in terms of operational profits, with 234 billion rubles ($7.5 billion).
Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin told reporters last Monday that the train monopoly was also planning to double its forecasted net income for 2010 to 40 billion rubles, up from the original 17 billion rubles.
“We basically doubled our traffic figures in comparison with what we had forecast together with the government, which is why our profit volume will also increase,” Yakunin said.
But the secret of the company’s success is not some magic potion, analysts say. Like many others on the list, the state-run company had to tighten its belt and cut back on expenses, including employees’ salaries. Oil prices and state subsidies also helped.
“Subsidies on federal and regional levels increased fourfold last year. Combine that with the decrease in fuel costs due to the drop in oil prices and major cuts in salaries, and you will get Russian Railways’ numbers,” explained Sergei Libin, an analyst at Metropol.
Russian Railways also had to halve its development budget for 2009 through 2011 because of the crisis.
The crisis did not shake the positions of Gazprom, which is the consistent leader, followed by oil giant LUKoil. But the state-run gas behemoth was responsible for one-third of the total decrease in cumulative revenues.
The crisis is also why more than 120 new participants appear on the list: Their needs to secure loans and cope with other challenges resulted in additional transparency that allowed them to participate in the ranking process, Finans said.
Analysts and market participants say major Russian companies have become much more cautious in their prognoses and spending. They also became much more conservative in risk assessment.
“Analysis of the largest companies’ financial statements brings us to the conclusion that many of them have prepared themselves for a slowdown in economic growth,” said Vasily Koshelev, president of Creation and Development consulting firm, according to Finans.

TITLE: Bashneft, Surgut Only Bidders For Trebs, Titov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Bashneft, controlled by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s AFK Sistema, may be favored to win Russia’s largest undistributed oil fields as one of only two producers cleared to bid, Bloomberg reported.
Bashneft and Surgutneftegaz, which has the largest cash pile in the country’s oil industry, are the only two companies, out of six contenders, that are approved to proceed with bidding in the tender, Natural Resources Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Koverga said last Monday by telephone, without elaborating.
“Bashneft is the favorite,” Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib, said in a research note. “Bashneft, now that it is part of the well-connected Sistema group, is making rapid progress from the second division of Russian oil producers to the premier league.”
Five Russian oil companies and a unit of India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp., known as ONGC, submitted documents for the planned tender before the Sept. 20 deadline. The government found “significant” errors in most applications, Kommersant reported. LUKoil, Gazprom Neft and TNK-BP had applied.
Trebs and Titov, in the western Arctic, may hold more than 200 million metric tons of recoverable reserves, according to the government. This is about half the reserves of Rosneft’s Vankor, the country’s largest new oil development. The winner will be announced on Dec. 2.
“Were Bashneft to acquire the Trebs and Titov fields, that would double the company’s reserves and be a major positive trigger for the stock,” VTB Capital said in a research note Monday.
Sistema jumped the most in three months in London last Monday. The Global Depositary Receipts rose 4.9 percent to $24.96 at the 4:30 p.m. close in London, their biggest gain since July 2. Surgutneftegaz closed up 1.6 percent at 28.937 rubles in Moscow, its biggest gain since Sept. 1.

TITLE: Foreign Ministry Warns U.S. Against Magnitsky Sanctions
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Foreign Ministry has warned U.S. legislators against passing a law that would punish Russians linked to the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, saying it would undermine cooperation, Reuters reported.
A bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday would bar 60 Russians from the United States and its financial markets, sanctions that would be lifted only after those responsible for Magnitsky’s jail death were brought to justice.
Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer for what was once Russia’s top equity fund, died in November 2009 after a year in Moscow jails.
Colleagues and human rights activists say he was denied adequate medical treatment and subjected to conditions amounting to torture in a plot led by the same law enforcement officials he had accused of committing a multimillion-dollar tax fraud.
The Foreign Ministry said the legislation “dissonates with the current level of interaction between our countries, evoking associations with the Cold War era.”
In a statement, the ministry said the bill was a bid to turn the tragedy of Magnitsky’s death into a “political show.”
“Such games by American legislators will certainly not aid the search for the truth, and will introduce a serious irritant into our relations,” it said.
It warned that the legislation would undermine cooperation between U.S. and Russian law enforcement “in such important areas as the fights against international organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking and other modern-day threats.”
Former colleagues of Magnitsky have called his death a test of President Dmitry Medvedev’s commitment to his stated goals of curbing corruption and reforming the justice system, from police and prosecutors to prisons and courts.
Medvedev fired several prison officials after Magnitsky’s death and urged the authorities to examine the circumstances, but nobody has faced charges and few of the 60 Russians named in the legislation have faced any consequences.
U.S. Senator James Cardin, a Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, who also chairs the U.S. Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency that monitors human rights, said Wednesday that “the leading figures in this scheme remain in power in Russia.”

TITLE: Operation Luzhkov
AUTHOR: By Michael Bohm
TEXT: A vivid example of how detached from reality Yury Luzhkov became in his last weeks in office was when he gave an interview to Ren-TV’s “Nedelya” program on Sept. 18. He was asked what percentage of City Hall’s contracts were fulfilled by Inteko, the construction company owned by Yelena Baturina, his billionaire wife.
“Only 2 percent,” Luzhkov answered.
By all basic standards and definitions of conflict of interest, that is 2 percent too much.
Amazingly, Baturina appeared to contradict her husband a week later when she told The New Times magazine that Inteko had won only one city building tender — and had been forced to abandon it when local authorities failed to meet their obligations.
Apparently, they can’t seem to get their stories straight. The seeming contradiction between Luzhkov’s and Baturina’s statements raises new questions about Luzhkov’s activities as mayor for the past 18 years.
One of Moscow’s largest contracts — the restoration of sculptor Vera Mukhina’s classic “The Worker and Collective Farm Girl” statue — is a good example of how city contracts are awarded to companies owned by immediate relatives in “tenders.” Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov wrote in his investigative booklet “Luzhkov. Results” that there were two companies that put in bids in the February 2009 tender: Oryol and Strategia, which is controlled by Inteko. After Oryol was disqualified based on “improper documents,” Strategia was declared the winner. The original tender was in the amount of 2.395 billion rubles ($78.4 million), but after the contract was signed the amount was increased by 500 million rubles ($16.4 million) to 2.905 billion rubles ($95 million), Nemtsov wrote.
Other than Nemtsov, few are talking about arresting and trying Luzhkov on corruption charges. Of course, the constitutional right of presumption of innocence applies to Luzhkov as it does to any citizen. But only one of the dozens of corruption allegations that Nemtsov laid out in detail in “Luzhkov. Results” should be enough justification for prosecutors to open an investigation and file criminal charges against Luzhkov.
In the United States, defense attorneys joke that it is so easy for prosecutors to get a grand jury to approve a criminal indictment that they could indict a ham sandwich if they wanted. But in Russia, the exact opposite is true when the target is a political heavyweight the size of Luzhkov.
Nemtsov has been trying for a year to convince the Prosecutor General’s Office to open a criminal case, but all of his requests have been rejected over what prosecutors claimed was a “lack of grounds.” Luzhkov, meanwhile, sued Nemtsov for defamation over allegations he made in the booklet as well as in an interview with Kommersant. In November, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court partially upheld Luzhkov’s claim and ordered Nemtsov and Kommersant to pay 500,000 rubles (about $17,000) in damages and to refute several points. Both are appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.
Pursuing a criminal case against Luzhkov while he was mayor would have been senseless. He and Baturina almost never lost the defamation lawsuits they repeatedly filed against anyone who accused them of corruption.
Last October, Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky publicly called Luzhkov and his top aides the ringleaders of “the Moscow mafia.” He repeated this charge in April from behind the podium in the State Duma. Luzhkov sued for defamation and won 500,000 rubles in damages, a ruling upheld by the Moscow City Court in July.
Defamation or not, Zhirinovsky was correct about one thing: To survive and prosper in a criminal world, you must be willing to give a “fair share” of your proceeds to your krysha (protectors). This may explain in part why Luzhkov’s business and political relationship with the Kremlin elite was so close throughout the 2000s.
But even the closest relationships are subject to irreconcilable differences, particularly when they involve large competing egos, huge sums of money and control over Moscow’s economy. It is clear that the reasons for the Kremlin-Luzhkov fallout were much more serious than Luzhkov’s tame criticism of President Dmitry Medvedev in a recent Rossiiskaya Gazeta interview, which many observers singled out as the casus belli. The Luzhkov affair smacks much more of an economic turf battle than a political one.
Luzhkov’s leadership as mayor proved largely successful. He enjoyed broad support from Muscovites and, for much of the past decade, from United Russia members and Putin himself.
But several years ago, the dizziness of being the king of Moscow seemed to have gotten the best of him, and the natural side effects of hubris and megalomania set in. As a result, he lost touch with Muscovites and even more so with Medvedev, with whom he had never gotten along. More important, however, he alienated himself from his biggest patron — Putin. It was critical that Putin replace Luzhkov with a less ambitious and controllable mayor. This may be why Putin’s ally Vladimir Kozhin, who heads the Office of Presidential Affairs, is considered a frontrunner to replace Luzhkov.
Now that Luzhkov has been sacked, many are wondering what will happen to him. Just before Luzhkov left for vacation in Austria two weeks ago, he was reportedly summoned to the Kremlin and offered an attractive package if he agreed to resign. One option that was supposedly discussed was a sinecure in the Federation Council — where senators enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution. But after Luzhkov announced on Monday that he would not step down, this became a non-issue. Alternatively, Luzhkov could form a new opposition movement to fight for the return of direct gubernatorial elections, as one City Hall official said he was considering. (But if he wants to hold an opposition rally in Moscow, he may have trouble getting approval from the new administration in City Hall.)
In the end, Luzhkov’s fatal mistake was that he got too big for his britches. Putin doesn’t tolerate governors — or anyone else under his patronage for that matter — who are overly ambitious. What he really likes are loyal yes-men. Blind loyalty is the foundation on which his vertical power structure is based. That is a key reason why, in 2004, then-President Putin gave himself the power to appoint governors and fire them if they ever get out of line.
The biggest winners in Luzhkov’s sacking are Putin and his vertical power structure. It is now highly unlikely that regional leaders or other political appointees will risk criticizing or butting heads with Putin or Medvedev. “Operation Luzhkov” will have the same chilling effect on politicians that “Operation Khodorkovsky” had on oligarchs.
After Luzhkov was fired, Putin’s vertical power structure became even more vertical and more powerful. Putin once again showed who’s the boss.

Michael Bohm is the opinion page editor at The Moscow Times.

TITLE: Soviet Collapse Ruined the U.S.
AUTHOR: By Alexei Bayer
TEXT: In 2005, then-President Vladimir Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. As time passes, I find myself agreeing with him more and more.
To be sure, my regrets are fundamentally different from Putin’s. I’ve been a U.S. citizen for three decades, and my son is as American as they come. The United States is clearly my home, and I consider myself a patriotic American. This is why I decry the disappearance of the Soviet empire. Its demise may have dealt a potentially mortal blow to the United States.
The Soviet Union strained its resources and pauperized, exploited and oppressed its own people in order to compete with the United States, the embodiment of the bitterly adversarial capitalist system. Most Soviets didn’t believe the authorities who told them they were living and working in a “workers’ paradise.” It was a struggle that its leaders believed would prove the supremacy of communism. It was bad for the Soviet Union but a godsend for the United States.
The Soviet propaganda droned incessantly about how workers are impoverished and exploited under capitalism. It tried to flip the truth on its head: to deny that the U.S. government after the Great Depression implemented policies that helped raise incomes while drastically improving the working conditions and financial well-being of workers.
In the 1950s, things got even better for U.S. workers. The gap between the rich and the poor was the narrowest in U.S. history, and the U.S. middle class reached new levels of prosperity.
Soviet forays into post-colonial Africa and Asia and the revolutionary movements it fomented in Latin America forced Washington to pay attention to those countries and assist in their development. Even discounting support for the occasional tyrant, it did much good and helped spread U.S. influence and American values around the world. Even if they are not always followed in practice, democracy and free enterprise have become dominant political values globally.
To counter the Soviet “Evil Empire,” the United States willy-nilly had to go for the moral high ground and become a moral arbiter in world affairs. Now, China is gradually replacing U.S. influence the world over.
Finally, the Soviet Union strained its dysfunctional economic system to create a first-rate scientific and military complex. Sputnik, launched in 1957, galvanized the United States into action. A huge government effort to improve math, science and engineering followed. Funding for education and research increased sharply, and the government and private universities expanded programs for the brightest students to go to the best universities, regardless of their parents’ ability to pay. The space race did little for the average Russian, but it did create a broad infrastructure for science and technology in the United States that set the foundation for U.S. supremacy in innovation, which the United States enjoys to this day.
After the Soviet collapse, Washington found a different adversary: al-Qaida. As a result, the leading 21st-century military and economic power is wasting its resources on a medieval war, gradually descending to the level of its new foe.
Osama bin Laden may be history’s greatest military strategist. He made Washington abandon its lofty moral ideals, forced the United States into a sea of debt and played a key role in pushing the United States off its pedestal of being the world’s supreme economic power. But ultimately, it is the collapse of the Soviet Union that is to blame.

Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist.

TITLE: Film, Show for Tsoi 20 Years On
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky and Alec Luhn
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Twenty years ago, Russia’s only true rock martyr died in a car crash at the age of 27. Viktor Tsoi, lead singer of rock band Kino, left behind a brooding series of songs that still remain deeply popular among younger generations.
This fall, cinema screens are showing Tsoi once again in a remake of the cult film, “Igla,” or “Needle,” and on Thursday, musicians will play his songs in a concert in Moscow titled “20 Years Without Tsoi.”
Originally shot in the Gorbachev-era Soviet Union, “Igla” tells the story of Moro, played by Tsoi, who goes to Alma-Ata to collect a debt. There he finds out that his ex-girlfriend Dina, a hospital nurse, is a drug addict, and he faces up to her drug dealer, a doctor called Artur, played by musician and actor Pyotr Mamonov.
When it was released, the film’s dark tones seemed to match the fin-de-siecle ambience of the Soviet empire. When it was first screened, Tsoi famously said to the premiere audience: “This film is not for you.”
“It was very different from any other films that had come out. It was edgier,” said Joanna Stingray, an American punk who lived in Leningrad at the end of the 1980s and was close friends with Tsoi and his band. “It was a film young people could relate to.” 
“Igla” created a new ethos with its quick edits, odd characters who use catchphrases from cartoons, and its setting among the dark alleys of Alma-Ata and the dried-up Aral Sea.
Director Rashid Nugmanov said he wanted to update “Igla” for a new generation with “Igla. Remix,” the original having lost close to 40 percent of its original content because of Soviet censors.
“I was asked to make a follow-up of ‘Igla,’ and I was always against it,” Nugmanov said. “But then I saw there are a huge number of his fans, many of whom were born after his death. I think they deserve to see their idol on the big screen.”
Reaction to the film, which throws in manga comics, archival footage of Tsoi and new scenes with some of the original actors like Mamonov, has been decisively mixed.
Newspaper and magazine reviews have been overwhelmingly bad, and Kino fans have not taken to it kindly.
“It’s a disaster,” said Alisa Lyudinshina, 22, a philosophy student. “The imperfection of the previous version added a kind of charm to the movie that reflected the atmosphere of the 1980s in the Soviet Union. This has been completely taken away by Nugmanov’s new approach.”
Stingray, however, welcomed the remake. “It was such a classic film when it came out, it’s kind of cool on the anniversary of Viktor’s death to remake it. … I think it’s great timing, obviously perfect, and I hope to see it,” she said in a telephone interview from the Los Angeles area.
If the film is not to your taste, then on Oct. 7, hard rock band Alisa, folk group Melnitsa, rapper Noize MC and symphony orchestra Globalis among others will interpret the glum angst that is quintessential Kino. Zemfira headlines.

TITLE: Bolshoi, Preljocaj Combine for ‘Creation 2010’ World Premiere
AUTHOR: By Raymond Stults
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Moscow Bolshoi Theater’s 235th season got off to a highly unusual start with the world premiere of a new ballet by the celebrated French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, co-produced by the Bolshoi and the choreographer’s own Aix-en-Provence-based Ballet Preljocaj.
Titled “Creation 2010 — And Then One Thousand Years of Peace,” the ballet brought together 10 dancers from the Bolshoi — all but one of them (soloist Anastasia Meskova) drawn from the theater’s corps de ballet — and 11 from Preljocaj’s company. Rehearsals began in late spring and lasted throughout the summer, first in Aix and eventually in Moscow.
From all reports, the two sets of dancers found their collaboration an extremely rewarding experience, and their execution of Preljocaj’s unconventional choreography proved exemplary, with the Bolshoi’s classically-oriented contingent blending almost to perfection with Ballet Preljocaj’s highly experienced interpreters of contemporary dance.
As for “Creation 2010 …,” expectations ran high, given the acclaim Preljocaj has received not only for stagings with his own troupe, but also for his work with such prestigious companies as those of the Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the New York City Ballet. And no doubt some local ballet enthusiasts anticipated something on the same high level of creativity displayed by Preljocaj at his troupe’s debut in Moscow, as part of the unfortunately short-lived Grand Pas festival, seven years ago.
But the new ballet proved disappointing. It is difficult to imagine any choreographer, even the most talented of all, successfully filling an unbroken stretch of nearly two hours with abstract dance. But that is precisely what Preljocaj attempted. On opening night, the obviously exhausted audience gave it all a very tepid reception. Two nights later, the greeting was a few degrees warmer, but seemed to be aimed more at the work of the dancers than that of the choreographer.
The ballet was originally called “Apocalypse.” But even with the less off-putting title under which it eventually appeared, it remained a dance representation of Preljocaj’s rather unorthodox interpretation of the Apocalypse, as described in the New Testament Book of Revelation. In a program note, the choreographer pointed out that “the very word Apocalypse (from the Greek apo: ‘to lift’ and calypsis: ‘veil’) evokes the idea of revealing, unveiling or highlighting elements that could be present in our world but are hidden from our eyes. It should evoke what is nestled in the innermost recesses of our existence, rather than [prophesying] … catastrophe, irreparable destruction or the imminent end of the world.”
Perhaps by viewing a few more performances some real connection might be found between that statement and what occurs on stage. In overall effect, the ballet seemed unfocused, with the choreographer simply throwing into it everything he could think of (including what appeared to be a row of kitchen sinks).  And apart from several very well-crafted and quite erotic (in one case, audaciously homo-erotic) duets, there was very little that fit a normal definition of dance. Instead, a great deal of what passed for choreography amounted to a series of gymnastic-like exercises and a great deal of crawling about on the floor.
For music, decor and costumes, Preljocaj assembled what appeared on paper to be a crack team of collaborators. But much of the electronic score composed by famed French disc jockey Laurent Garnier seemed nothing more than random noise and wore out its welcome long before the curtain finally descended. The minimalist set by India’s leading installation artist, Subodh Gupta, consisted mainly of four box-like structures, moved about in various configurations and at one point mounted by male members of the cast in seeming imitation of a military drill. Russian designer Igor Chapurin, with four other Bolshoi ballet productions already to his credit, provided the costumes, all of which fit the mood of the ballet, though none could really be called an outstanding piece of design.
Following its run at the Bolshoi, “Creation 2010 …” is now on an extensive tour of Western Europe, which will include an appearance at Europe’s most prestigious dance festival, the Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, in France, and will come to an end in December with performances at the Palace of Versailles.
Following the tour, the ballet will be produced separately by both the Bolshoi and Ballet Preljocaj, with each company casting the work exclusively with its own dancers. How often it will actually reappear at the Bolshoi remains open to question. Most members of Moscow’s ballet audience are unlikely to wish to see it more than once. And it is almost certainly not the sort of ballet to which visitors to Moscow, on whom the Bolshoi much relies to fill its seats, are likely to flock.
Still, despite a less than successful outcome, the Bolshoi deserves great credit for its bold step in taking a chance on Preljocaj, as well as in allowing ten of its younger dancers to spend eight months immersing themselves in the world of contemporary ballet.

TITLE: Progressive Nordic Neighbors Set Example for City
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Three of the five most ecologically clean countries in the world — Sweden, Norway and Finland — are situated in the Nordic region. The average Finn drinks 23.5 kilograms of coffee a year. The longest car tunnel in the world is in Norway. The oldest flag in the world belongs to Denmark. None of these facts are well known in Russia, but the Nordic Week in St. Petersburg, which started Sept. 25 and runs through Oct. 10, intends to change all that by putting St. Petersburg’s Nordic neighbors in the spotlight.
Together, the Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — are home to 25 million people, and represent one of the most progressive regions in the world.
“Nordic countries have came to the conclusion that it is better and more profitable to promote themselves together, as they have historical links and have always been close to each other,” said Andrei Anisimov, adviser for the Nordic Council of Ministers’ information office in St. Petersburg.
“Thanks to events that unite all the countries of the region, people pay more attention to the Nordic countries and learn more about these countries,” said Mika Boedeker, director of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ information office.
The “week” of Nordic-themed events actually includes more than 20 events, and runs for well over seven days. All the events have been coordinated by the Nordic Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg, which promotes the interests and international cooperation of the Nordic countries in Russia, develops networking between Nordic and Russian partner organizations and coordinates the implementation of a range of programs in a variety of spheres. The Nordic Week is organized in cooperation with Nordic consulates general and cultural institutions in St. Petersburg.
One of the aspects of Nordic life in focus this week is “new Nordic food,” with several St. Petersburg restaurants and bars including Nordic-flavored dishes in their menus. 
“The concept of new Nordic food emerged several years ago by uniting leading chefs and culinary experts from the five Nordic countries,” said Anisimov. “Before that, people didn’t really realize that the region has certain culinary traditions. There was even an opinion that Nordic food is rather poor.”
There are two basic principles of Nordic cuisine: Ingredients should be local, and dishes should reflect the season.
“We have good ingredients here,” said Boedeker. “There are plenty of fish, as the Nordic region has many lakes, rivers and the sea. We have also poultry and venison, and Iceland has mutton.
“We have good, pure products and we do not use spices, such as chili pepper, that are not Nordic. Of course, there are things that should be imported. We combine culinary traditions with outside impulses. For example, we cannot yet produce wine,” he said.
New Nordic cuisine even has its own manifesto, which was established in 2004 in Copenhagen, where Nordic chefs devised a concept for the cuisine. One of the main aims is to express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics associated with the Nordic region. One of the participants of this manifesto — the Copenhagen restaurant “Noma” — has even been named the best restaurant in the world.
“[New Nordic food] is not only expensive cuisine, but also traditional dishes, such as pea soup, or pancakes with jam,” said Boedeker.
Among other cultural Nordic events that can be attended this week are concerts of Swedish and Finnish classical and modern music, a Swedish film festival, a photo exhibition of Helsinki street fashion and an exposition of comics. In an original twist, one of the photography shows is on display at St. Petersburg’s Moscow Railway Station.
“In the main vestibule there is an exhibition of more than 60 photos of Norwegian landscapes,” said Boedeker, adding that about 150,000 people visit the railway station every day.
Another city station — the Finland Railway Station — will see the presentation of the new high-speed St. Petersburg to Helsinki train, Allegro, on Thursday. The new train will reduce the traveling time between the two capitals to just three-and-a-half hours. 
The diverse range of Nordic Week events also includes innovative and social projects presenting various aspects of the Nordic countries’ activities. At the Innovation Forum held at Lenexpo last week, Nordic Week was represented by a seminar devoted to “green cities.”
“The seminar showed the process of turning industrial Nordic cities into ecologically pure and comfortable places in which to live,” said Anisimov.
“Nordic countries are also progressive in city planning,” said Boedeker. “A city is considered to be good if pedestrians can walk about freely in the center.” 
Another seminar held as part of Nordic Week was devoted to energy efficiency: The Nordic countries are leaders in the use of energy-saving technologies.
The Nordic Council of Ministers, which has operated in St. Petersburg for 15 years, works in a variety of spheres covering education, research and innovation, environment, climate and energy, including the Baltic Sea, promotion of economic co-operation and trade, and co-operation in the mass media and between NGOs. One of the organization’s most important projects is a social scheme aimed at the support of social rescue centers for family and children, promotion of gender equality and prevention of human trafficking. 
“We organize study trips to Nordic countries to present the methods and experience that are used in our region in order to further cooperation,” said Boedeker.

<i>To learn more about the Nordic Week events, visit www.nordicweek.ru</i>

TITLE: Europe on Alert After Terror Attack Warnings
AUTHOR: By Roland Lloyd-Parry
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: PARIS — Japan on Monday became the latest country after Britain and the United States to issue a travel alert for its citizens amid growing fears of a major Al-Qaeda attack on landmark sites in Europe.
Tokyo joined Washington and London in issuing an alert warning of a “possible terrorist attack” by Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups against their citizens traveling in Europe.
The U.S. State Department said in its alert on Sunday that attackers may use “a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests” in Europe.
Britain immediately backed the U.S. alert and warned its own citizens of a “high threat of terrorism” in France and Germany.
The Japanese alert urges its citizens living or traveling in Europe to exercise full caution at possible attack targets, such as government and police facilities, public transport systems and tourist spots.
U.S. channel Fox News, citing unnamed intelligence officials, said militants had a list of targets in France and Germany, including Paris’s Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the city’s central railway station and the Alexanderplatz TV tower.
Fox cited a senior western intelligence official as saying that the information about the target list was provided by “a German-Pakistani national interrogated at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.”
The Eiffel Tower, France’s most-visited tourist attraction, was twice evacuated last month because of telephoned bomb warnings, but French officials said there was no reason to raise the current threat level from red alert to scarlet, which would mean it considered an attack imminent.
A small number of soldiers patrolled as usual at the foot of the Eiffel Tower early Monday as long lines of visitors waited to climb the tower, a magnet for many of the 74.2 million visitors to France last year.
Though there were no visible signs of heightened security, some tourists said they felt more vigilant than usual.
“We decided not to go up the Eiffel Tower because of the possibility of what could happen” after hearing of the travel advisory on CNN, said Eileen Carbrello, 60, a tourist from Virginia.
“This to me seems usual. It’s the same kind of security we have in Washington,” said her friend Joanne Molinari, a resident of the U.S. capital, referring to the armed soldiers.
Likewise, the security threat level in Germany had not changed, the interior ministry said.
U.S. tourists in Berlin were undeterred Monday as they visited a surviving piece of the Berlin Wall at Postdamer Platz.
“We are not going to allow terrorists to change our plans or our lifestyle. That’s one way they win if they change your lifestyle or the way you do things,” said Mark Yblood, 61, a sales executive from Texas.
“I think we’ll be okay. You just have to be smart and aware of your surroundings, be aware of what’s going on around you.”
Tim Souza, 51, a mechanical engineer from California, said: “Yeah, we’re worried about it but they’re not going to leave us scared. We are just being more cautious, keeping our eyes open for things that are suspicious ... Germany is a very secure country.”
“We’re not changing our plans. Because when you do, the terrorists win,” his wife Janet said. 
Of the 10.6 million Americans who visited Europe last year, 1.5 million visited Germany, 250,000 of them going to Berlin. 
Another key European tourist draw is Italy, where Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Monday the threat level remained “high” but that no specific targets had been identified as being under particular threat. 
“The terrorist alert has never been underestimated, it remains high and our security forces are watching the situation closely,” Maroni said on Canale 5 television network. Italy has been on high alert since the attempted bombing last year of a police barracks in Milan, near the San Siro football stadium. 
“U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling,” said the U.S. alert, which is one step down from a travel warning.

TITLE: Brazilian Presidential Race Goes To Runoff
AUTHOR: By Aldo Gamboa
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BRASILIA — Dilma Rousseff, the woman President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants to succeed him in office, faces a runoff vote after falling unexpectedly short of an outright victory in Brazil’s presidential election.
The official tally for Sunday’s vote showed that Rousseff, Lula’s former cabinet chief, won 47 percent of the vote against 33 percent for her nearest rival, former Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra.
That was short of the 50-percent-plus-one-ballot threshold Rousseff needed to avoid an October 31 knockout round against Serra — a vote all pre-election surveys said Rousseff should have been able to avoid.
Serra’s attempt to tar Rousseff with scandals swirling in her camp and the ruling Workers Party in the days before the election appeared to pay off.
But the real benefactor was Green Party candidate Marina Silva, Lula’s former environment minister, whose 19 percent share put her in third place, far higher than the 14 percent she was forecast to win.
“We defended a victorious idea and Brazil heard our cry,” Silva, 52, told reporters after the vote.
Silva is seen as a kingmaker because her votes could prove decisive to either Rousseff or Serra in the runoff election. 
“I go into this second round with courage and energy because it gives me a chance to better lay out my proposals and plans,” Rousseff told disappointed supporters in Brasilia, flanked by Worker’s Party officials with deflated looks.
Pre-vote surveys predicted Rousseff would win 50 to 52 percent of the ballots, They also suggested Rousseff would handily beat Serra in the second round to become Brazil’s first woman president.
At a noisy post-vote event Serra thanked his supporters. “We’re heading towards victory and the presidency!” he told his cheering supporters.
Serra called on “the parties, politicians and well-meaning Brazilians” to “build a better country.”
Carlos Alberto de Melo, a political analyst at the Insper Institute in Sao Paulo, said the shift to Silva “was a protest vote by part of the electorate who weren’t convinced by Dilma or Serra, and who finally voted for Marina to play for time and force a second round.”
In local races, the opposition held on to the governor’s seat in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil’s two most populous states, but Lula supporters won a crushing victory in Rio de Janeiro, an oil state where the 2016 Olympics will be held.
In the senate, early results show that the Worker’s Party and its allies are likely to have 49 of the 81 available seats, increasing their number by six. The makeup of the lower house however was unclear.
Voting is compulsory in Brazil.

TITLE: IVF Developer Edwards Wins Nobel Prize
AUTHOR: By Nina Larson
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: STOCKHOLM — Robert Edwards of Britain won the Nobel Medicine Prize Monday for the development of in vitro fertilization.
Edwards, 85, won the prestigious prize for his work on in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which has helped millions of infertile couples to have a child.
“His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine,” the Nobel Assembly at the Swedish Karolinska Institute said.
“His achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity including more than 10 percent of all couples worldwide,” it added.
The IVF procedure entails taking an egg from a woman and fertilizing it in the lab-dish with sperm donated from a man.
The egg divides, is allowed to develop into an early-stage embryo and is then inserted in the woman’s uterus where, if all goes well, it will become a baby.
Edwards began working on developing the process in the 1950s, and “his efforts were finally crowned by success on July 25, 1978, when the world’s first ‘test tube baby’ was born,” the prize jury said.
Since Louise Brown’s birth, around four million people have been born through IVF.
“A new field of medicine has emerged, with Robert Edwards leading the process all the way from the fundamental discoveries to the current, successful IVF therapy,” the jury said. 
Edwards developed his laboratory findings “from experiment to practical medicine” with the help of British gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988.
Together they established the Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, the world’s first centre for IVF therapy.
Today, 20 to 30 percent of eggs fertilized by IVF lead to the birth of a child.
“Long-term follow-up studies have shown that IVF children are as healthy as other children,” the Nobel jury said.
The Medicine Prize kicked off a week of prestigious award announcements, with the two most watched, Literature and Peace, to be announced on Thursday and Friday.
The announcements of the Physics and Chemistry Prizes will be announced Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Economics Prize will wrap up the Nobel season on Monday, October 11.
Last year, an American trio of researchers, Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, won the Medicine Prize for identifying a key molecular switch in cellular ageing.
They were honored for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the role of an enzyme called telomerase in maintaining or stripping away this vital shield.
This year’s laureates will receive 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.49 million, 1.09 million euros) which can be split between up to three winners per prize. 
The Peace Prize will be handed out in Oslo on December 10. 
Other Nobel laureates will pick up their prizes in Stockholm on the same day.

TITLE: Early Results: Dodik Wins 
Bosnian Serb 
Presidency
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: SARAJEVO — Hardline Bosnian Serb nationalist Milorad Dodik won presidential elections in Bosnia’s Serb-run entity Republika Srpska (RS), partial results showed Monday.
Dodik, currently RS prime minister, won 53.13 percent of Sunday’s votes with 73.3 percent of ballots counted, the electoral commission said. Trailing behind was rival hardliner Ognjen Tadic with 37.12 percent of the vote, the partial results showed.
In voting also on Sunday for Bosnia’s tripartite presidency another hardline Bosnian Serb nationalist Nebojsa Radmanovic won 49.9 percent of votes in the race for the Serb spot with 92 percent of the votes counted.
Bakir Izetbegovic, who campaigned for dialogue between Bosnia’s deeply divided ethnic groups, leads the race for the Muslim spot in the presidency, with 34.82 percent of votes.