SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1617 (78), Tuesday, October 12, 2010
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TITLE: United Russia Set toWin
In Samara
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: SAMARA — Young and the old alike, most residents of Samara’s rundown neighborhood of Zheleznodorozhny made no effort to conceal their support for Dmitry Azarov, a slick-looking 40-year-old who ran against the incumbent mayor, Viktor Tarkhov, in Sunday’s elections.
“I don’t care for what Tarkhov has been doing,” said German Prokopov, 62, a retired tractor driver, as he walked out of a polling station. “The garbage is still around my area, and nobody takes care of it.”
“I voted for Azarov, we need younger people,” said Natalya, 45, a candy factory employee, who refused to give her last name. “The incumbent mayor was not doing anything for the city. He even destroyed the things that were built before he took office.”
She said her teenage daughter, who accompanied her to the polls, also voted for Azarov.
The strong support for Azarov, an environmental official in the Samara regional government, is a feat because he ran as an opposition candidate despite being a member of the ruling United Russia party, which controls all regional capitals nationwide — except Samara, which voted for A Just Russia member and former businessman Tarkhov in 2006.
Azarov appeared headed for victory late Sunday night, according to early results. The outcome was predicted by most pundits interviewed by The St. Petersburg Times, but it came after a campaign rife with fraud allegations and the removal of many mayoral candidates, some of whom, analysts said, had good chances of spoiling Azarov’s bid.
Posters of Azarov far outnumbered those of Tarkhov in the streets of Samara in the days before the election. Most local media, including the weekly Samarskoye Obozreniye, controlled by the influential Volgapromgaz energy group, also fawned over Azarov, while his opponent was left with his back to the wall.
“We are in a strange situation: We are the authorities, yet we are in the opposition,” said Yelena Lebedinskaya, a campaign strategist for the 62-year-old Tarkhov, a seasoned politician who was a Yukos vice president at one point in his career.
She said ahead of Sunday’s vote that the media attacked Tarkhov and local television, influenced or controlled by business groups close to United Russia or the party-dominated regional government, refused to give him coverage.
“They did have their own administrative resources, but it was incomparable to what the other side had,” Lyudmila Kuzmina, a Samara representative of the independent election watchdog Golos, said about Tarkhov’s team.
Tarkhov did his best to capitalize on still-strong public discontent with United Russia in the city, even portraying his campaign as a military battle, down to campaign posters with the slogan, “The last line of defense.”
But analysts and Tarkhov’s rivals alike said his apparent downfall had more to do with his inability to solve problems plaguing the city of 1.1 million people, known for its space industry and the Soviet-era Zhigulevskoye beer.
Despite minor achievements such as improving street lighting and providing new buses and trams, Tarkhov largely failed to improve the quality of Samara’s poor roads, ease traffic congestion and modernize ramshackle infrastructure.
Tarkhov could not do much because his hands were tied, said Alexander Paulov, a prominent Samara lawyer and member of the Solidarity opposition group.
“He was burdened with obligations and couldn’t act independently,” Paulov said.
“People voted for him in protest because they disliked the previous mayor, Georgy Limansky, but he turned out not to be the real master of the city,” he said.
Alexander Fetisov, a Samara businessman who ran for the Samara city legislature on the United Russia ticket on Sunday, accused Tarkhov of selling assets to businesses that supported him.
But a local independent political analyst, Dmitry Loboiko, said Azarov would likely do the same because he also has close ties to Samara business groups, especially Volgopromgas, whose boss even lobbied for Azarov to be included in President Dmitry Medvedev’s “staff reserve” of officials and businessmen.
Paulov said he disliked both candidates and chose to destroy his ballot — the only available means of protesting at an election after voting for “none of the above” was banned nationwide in 2006.
Some mayor hopefuls, in fact, entered the election campaign with a good chance to sweep the protest vote. One of those was Mikhail Matveyev, a Samara regional legislator not affiliated with any party and a long-time pen pal of the late writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Matveyev, a historian who earned Solzhenitsyn’s praise through his studies of self-rule in Russia, was called a potential “third force” in the Samara mayoral elections. But he spent the eve of the election instructing an assistant who ran for the city legislature after he was taken off the mayoral ballot along with more than 130 other candidates by election officials who cited various paperwork errors.
“I think the only reasonable thing to do is to get more independent people elected in order to not allow United Russia to get an absolute majority,” Matveyev told The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: 3,000 Attend Rally to Protest Tower
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An estimated 3,000 rallied against the construction of Gazprom’s planned skyscraper and the destruction of historic buildings on Saturday, as news broke that the controversial Okhta Center project had been given state approval.
The annual March for the Preservation of St. Petersburg, organized by Living City, Yabloko and other preservationist and political organizations, was held as a stationary meeting, because City Hall has refused to authorize a march since the first one took place in 2007.
According to local Yabloko leader Maxim Reznik, the organizers did not even discuss holding a march this year, but agreed to hold a meeting at Pionerskaya Ploshchad near the Theater of Young Spectators (TYuZ).
“Our task was to get authorization as soon as possible in order to start informing the public,” Reznik said by phone Monday.
A speech and brief performance by singer Yury Shevchuk, the frontman of local stadium rockers DDT, was the rally’s highlight.
“When a house is on fire, you have to save your nearest and dearest — in this case, to save the great architecture of this city. This is our nearest and dearest, with whom we live,” said Shevchuk, who was a guest performer at U2’s Moscow concert in August, to applause from the protesters.
“Secondly, we have self-esteem, we’re not slaves, that’s the most important thing. We’re not slaves, not cattle — we shouldn’t sit still and be silent while our masters do whatever they want. It’s our self-esteem that brought us to this square, and it is growing and widening across the country, and people are starting to understand what that means.”
Having referred, ironically, to his televised confrontation with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in May, Shevchuk performed his perestroika-era song “Motherland.”
Other artists who spoke at the rally included actor Igor Sklyar and film directors Yury Mamin and Andrei Nekrasov. Singer-songwriter Alexander Gorodnitsky was not present but had recorded a poem about St. Petersburg that was played at the rally.
The first March for the Preservation of St. Petersburg was held in 2007, when the movement against the Putin-backed plan to build a 403-meter skyscraper to house the offices of Gazprom Neft grew substantially. This year, the site was surrounded by police officers, while OMON special-task force trucks lined the site and nearby streets. The police did not, however, attempt to disrupt the meeting or detain protesters.
At the beginning of the rally, a group of young men raised cards with question marks on them and threw leaflets claiming that oppositional political parties join preservationists’ protests in order to obtain grants from their alleged foreign sponsors.
“Most likely these people are supervised by the cops, the Center E [anti-extremism agency],” Reznik said.
“I don’t think it’s the [pro-Kremlin youth organization] Young Guard or anything like that. I think it was some punks who found themselves in the police’s clutches for drugs or some other misdemeanors. And they use them for pouring paint or slops on somebody, or for staging a provocation like this.”
The Okhta Center project has been criticized for being a threat to St. Petersburg’s UNESCO-protected skyline and to the archeological findings on the site, which belong to the destroyed medieval Swedish fortresses Nienschanz and Landskrona.
On the morning of the rally, news broke that Glavgosekspertiza, the state body in charge of issuing building permits, had issued the project with the federal-level construction permit it required. Now the Okhta Center project only requires a construction permit from City Hall, which has thrown its weight behind the project from the start. Last year, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko signed documents exempting the skyscraper blueprints from the law, which limits building heights in the area to 100 meters.
Reznik, however, expressed doubts about the importance of the Glavgosekspertiza permit. “These questions are not solved in Russia like they are in a normal country,” he said.
“Decisions are taken by much higher-positioned officials, in secrecy from society. I don’t see any grounds for panic. I don’t think the authorities will be bold enough to start construction during an election year.” The State Duma elections are due in December 2011, followed by the presidential election in March 2012.
Matviyenko and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were targeted as the prime “Destroyers of St. Petersburg” by protesters on Saturday. Matviyenko, who has come under fire for allowing the demolition of more than 100 historic buildings to make space for business and retail centers and for overseeing the destruction of city parks and infill construction since she took office in 2003, did not show up, despite being invited.
Matviyenko did however speak to the press to defend herself on Saturday. “More efforts than ever before have been made [by the current city authorities] to preserve the historic center,” she was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Speaking on Monday, Reznik dismissed her words as untrue.
“It’s lies from the beginning to the end. Absolutely outrageous, cynical lies,” he said.
In May, President Dmitry Medvedev urged Matviyenko to reconsider the height of the Okhta Center in a letter, arguing that it was important “for a constructive dialogue with UNESCO and to prevent Russia’s reputation from being damaged.”
TITLE: Sobyanin Called Shoo-In as Moscow Mayor
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow’s next mayor will be one of four candidates nominated by United Russia over the weekend, and analysts said the clear front-runner is Sergei Sobyanin, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff.
Medvedev, who actively participated in deliberations with United Russia over the mayoral shortlist, said Saturday during a meeting with the party’s leadership that he had pushed strongly for all four candidacies and would pick one as a successor to former Mayor Yury Luzhkov within 10 days as required by law.
Apart from Sobyanin, who is a deputy prime minister and widely seen as a Putin loyalist, the list of candidates includes Transportation Minister Igor Levitin, Nizhny Novgorod Governor Valery Shantsev and Lyudmila Shvetsova, a longtime Luzhkov deputy in charge of social policies.
“I believe that each of these candidates in general is capable of becoming the head of a big city, of our capital, Moscow,” Medvedev said at the meeting with United Russia officials at his Gorki residence outside Moscow.
The meeting was also attended by Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of the presidential administration and the Kremlin’s pointman on domestic politics.
Medvedev said he had met with all four candidates.
Medvedev ousted the entrenched and self-confident Luzhkov on Sept. 28 in what political commentators have described as his boldest political move since his inauguration as president in spring 2008. Medvedev said he fired Luzhkov over a “loss of confidence” but has never elaborated on his reasons for removing the mayor after 18 years.
Sobyanin, a member of United Russia’s supreme council, was tipped as a leading mayoral candidate even while Luzhkov, who resigned from the supreme council after his ouster, remained in office.
Political analysts have watched him closely since 2005, when then-President Putin elevated him from the post of governor of the oil-rich Tyumen region to Kremlin chief of staff. At the Kremlin, Sobyanin replaced Medvedev, whom Putin appointed as a first deputy prime minister as he groomed Medvedev to be his successor.
Analysts concurred Sunday that given Sobyanin’s high status in the government, Medvedev has little choice but to pick him as the next mayor or risk undermining the stability of his ruling tandem with Putin and dealing a blow to Sobyanin’s reputation.
“Sobyanin is as pro-Putin as he is pro-Medvedev,” said Alexander Morozov, head of the Center for Media Studies, a think tank. “He has long experience working with the president, and will be an agreeable mayor for the capital for him.”
In 2007, Medvedev appointed Sobyanin as his campaign chief, a decision that still divides some analysts on whether he should be seen as Putin’s or Medvedev’s candidate for the job.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Court Backs Gay Pride
ST. PETERBURG (SPT) — The Moskovsky district court in St. Petersburg has partially upheld the complaint of the city’s gay community against the banning of a gay pride event last summer, Interfax reported Monday.
According to Maria Yefremenkova, a representative of the St. Petersburg Gay Pride organizing committee, the court has ordered the Moskovsky district authorities to allocate the group a place and time to hold a demonstration.
“We are going to choose a date and will discuss the format of the event with the administration,” said Yefremenkova, adding that the parade would probably take place at the beginning of November.
Last week, St. Petersburg’s Admiralteisky district court ruled that City Hall’s banning of last summer’s gay pride event was illegal.
City Hall repeatedly turned down the requests of gay pride event organizers to hold the meeting on June 26. Despite the interdiction, activists tried to go ahead with their march on Palace Square, but were stopped by the police.
Sleet, Cold Weather
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Cold weather with strong winds and frequent rain and sleet will hit St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast this week, Interfax reported on Monday, citing the St. Petersburg Weather Bureau.
Temperatures below normal are expected in the region, with temperatures falling as low as minus 3 degrees at night, and hovering between 1 and 6 degrees during the day.
Rain and sleet will start to fall from Tuesday and continue at intervals for the rest of the week. Ice may form on the streets during the night and in the early hours of the morning.
Northerly winds will intensify from Tuesday, reaching 10 to 15 meters per second inland and 18 meters per second in the Gulf of Finland.
Cop Charged for DUI
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A police officer has been charged with running over two girls in the Volosovsky district of the Leningrad Oblast while under the influence of alcohol, Interfax reported Monday, citing the regional prosecutor’s office.
An officer identified only by his surname, Kotenev, is accused of running over two girls aged eight and twelve while driving his car under the influence of alcohol from Volosovo to the village of Gubanitsa. The girls were in a critical condition in the Volosovsky central hospital, Interfax reported.
TITLE: Polls Yield High Turnout, Fatal Shooting in Dagestan
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova and Alexandra Taranova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Election officials reported unexpectedly high turnout, early United Russia victories and at least one death Sunday as voters took part in 7,865 polls involving about 100,000 candidates in 77 of the country’s 84 regions.
Early results indicated that turnout topped previous regional elections, exceeding 50 percent in the Belgorod region alone, said Leonid Ivlev, deputy head of the Central Elections Commission.
The elections, a last rehearsal before the 2011 State Duma vote and the 2012 presidential poll, ended without any serious violations but, like last year’s regional elections, was tarnished by violence in Dagestan, the elections commission said.
Despite efforts by election officials and police to maintain peace in Dagestan, the head of the Dagestani settlement of Khadzhalmakhi, Abdulmuslim Nurmagomedov, was shot dead in a clash involving about 500 residents on Sunday afternoon after 4,500 ballots were stolen overnight, said a spokeswoman for the regional police.
“The incident happened near the building of a local election committee in the settlement of Khadzhalmakhi,” the spokeswoman said by telephone.
At least two other people were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, she added.
The fight started while election committee officials tried to carry inside new ballots to replace the stolen ones, police said. It was not immediately clear who had stolen the ballots and shot the settlement’s head.
Nurmagomedov was not running in the elections, Ivlev told journalists.
Ivlev’s boss, Central Elections Commission chief Vladimir Churov, promised last week to install more than 300 surveillance cameras in Dagestani polling stations to maintain calm.
Churov went to the Dagestani city of Derbent on Sunday to oversee the rerun of a mayoral election there after serious violations sparked violent protests during the last vote in October 2009. No violence was reported Sunday.
Mayoral elections were also held in Samara, Makhachkala and Pyatigorsk. Voters elected legislatures in seven regions, and the Central Elections Commission said late Sunday that United Russia was winning a majority in at least four of them: Tuva, Chelyabinsk, Magadan and Novosibirsk.
United Russia appeared set to sweep most of the polls after election officials refused to register many opposition candidates on technicalities. The Yabloko opposition party only managed to get registered in the Chelyabinsk region.
“We are content with the results of the elections,” Tatyana Voronova, a State Duma deputy with United Russia, told The St. Petersburg Times on Sunday night.
Voronova said the party noticed a decrease in violations compared with previous years and praised the reported high turnout. “Voters clearly link their fates to the elections,” she said.
But Golos, the country’s only independent election watchdog, said its monitors had observed widespread manipulations with absentee ballots to increase the turnout.
TITLE: Shutov Case Goes to European Court
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The European Court of Human Rights has begun investigating one of the most high-profile organized crime cases in Russia — that of Yury Shutov, a former lawmaker and advisor to the late St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak.
Shutov was sentenced to life imprisonment by a St. Petersburg court in 2006 for a series of contract killings and organized crime convictions.
According to prosecutors, Shutov, who had a Soviet-era criminal conviction, headed a group of more than 20 racketeers who carried out six contract murders in 1998 and seized control of local enterprises by threatening and blackmailing their owners.
The St. Petersburg City Duma stripped Shutov of his lawmaker’s immunity from prosecution only in late 2000 — more than a year after he was arrested on murder charges.
The trial of Shutov and his fellow defendants began in September 2001. In 2002, Shutov was re-elected to the City Duma, but was not released from prison. Tahe trial ended in 2006.
Several other members of the Shutov gang were given between seven and 18 years in prison. One of the suspects, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, was killed in prison just days before sentencing, causing speculation that he had been killed to stop him from giving evidence that would influence the verdict. When the judge read out the sentences, it became apparent that he was not aware of the murder.
The crimes with which Shutov was charged included the murders of Dmitry Filippov, chairman of the board of directors of Bank Menatep St. Petersburg, who was killed by a radio-controlled bomb in October 1998; local attorney Igor Dubovik, an adviser to the governor who was shot in February 1998; Yevgeny Agarev, the City Hall official in charge of cemeteries and burials, killed by a bomb in September 1998; and Nikolai Bolotovsky, the chairman of the board of directors for the local defense contracting firm Istochnik, shot six times in the head in June 1998.
Shutov was also charged with plotting to kill State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Shevchenko, a member of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party, and State Duma deputy Alexander Nevzorov. The latter is alive, but the former was murdered in unclear circumstances in Cyprus in 2004.
The European Court of Human Rights has contacted the Russian authorities with an official information request on the case. Russia is expected to provide the information by Jan. 18, 2011.
Shutov’s lawyers, who sent an appeal to the European Court immediately after he was convicted in 2006, are convinced that the intervention of the Strasbourg court and its decision will prompt the reopening of the case and ultimately perhaps even lead to Shutov’s full acquittal. Shutov and his lawyers argue that the trial against him was unfair and conducted with multiple violations.
The European Court of Human Rights does not have the authority to overturn a decision by a country’s court, but if its lawyers prove that a convict’s right to a fair trial — which is guaranteed by the Russian constitution — was violated, then Strasbourg will demand that another trial be held.
Shutov served five years in prison in the 1980s on convictions for forgery and embezzlement, and then served another 18 months in the 1990s while awaiting trial for extortion, smuggling and arson charges. He was eventually acquitted of the charges by a local court.
Shutov is the author of “Sobchachye Serdtse,” or “Heart of Sobchak,” a bitterly critical book about former city mayor Anatoly Sobchak written as a parody of Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic novel “Sobachye Serdtse” (“Heart of a Dog.”)
“Sobchachye Serdtse,” in which the author accuses the late St. Petersburg mayor of corruption, includes a photo of the author lying in a hospital bed — he hints that Sobchak had him roughed up — and allegations of corruption that Shutov said he learned about while working for a single month as an adviser to Sobchak before being fired.
Russia joined the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998. In doing so, it agreed to abide by the Strasbourg court’s decisions.
Since Russia entered the convention, the court has received about 50,000 complaints against the country.
Since 2002, Russia has been the leading member nation of the court as a source of new complaints, accounting for 21 percent of new complaints to the court in 2006. There are currently more than 20,000 complaints pending against Russia in the court.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Suicide Bombing Case
MOSCOW (SPT) — An announcement by the National Anti-Terrorism Committee that a ring of female suicide bombers was busted in Dagestan this summer proved to be exaggerated, with only two of the 10 detainees facing charges — for illicit possession of firearms, Kommersant reported Saturday.
Eight women, all widows of Islamist militants, were detained with two men in Makhachkala in July, the committee said at the time, adding that guns, books on jihad and suicide notes were found in their possession.
But Kommersant reported that none of the detainees face any terrorism-related charges, and most of them have been released.
Lawyers of the suspects confirmed that all terrorism charges were dropped but would not elaborate because of non-disclosure agreements they had signed with investigators.
Politkovskaya Charges
MOSCOW (SPT) — Former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, acquitted last year in connection with the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been charged a second time, Interfax reported Friday.
But Khadzhikurbanov’s lawyer said the new charges were identical to the initial ones and called them an attempt to convince the public that the investigation has not stalled on the fourth anniversary of Politkovskaya’s death, which occurred Thursday.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported ear- lier in the week that police have linked Khadzhikurbanov, who is currently serving an eight-year term for extortion, to an underground workshop that produced the gun used to shoot Politkovskaya.
Police think that Khadzhikurbanov was a middleman in the 2006 contract hit on Politkovskaya, carried out at the request of unidentified people irked by her publications, Kommersant reported Friday.
Art Unbanned
MOSCOW (SPT) — The Culture Ministry has overturned its own ban on four art pieces by Avdei Ter-Oganyan that it had prohibited from being featured at an exhibition of modern Russian art in the Louvre in Paris for being “too provocative.”
The ministry reported the ban’s re- moval on the front page of its web site Friday. The exhibit, called “Counter- point: Russian Modern Art,” is to run from Thursday to Jan. 24.
Ter-Oganyan, who lives in the Czech Republic, wrote about the ban on his blog in late September. The ban prompted other artists invited to pro- vide works for the Louvre exhibition to threaten a boycott.
Moscow Goat Rage
MOSCOW (SPT) — Police officers in northern Moscow faced an unusual assignment Sunday when they were dispatched to capture a stray goat that disrupted traffic by running on the road and trying to ram passing cars on northern Moscow’s Pribrezhny Proyezd, Interfax reported.
It took the officers half an hour to capture the goat, which was then brought to the precinct’s yard, the re- port said. The officers then tried to es- tablish its owner by a fire brand on the animal’s ear, a police source said.
It remained unclear whether the goat managed to damage any cars.
TITLE: SKA Beats Carolina Hurricanes
AUTHOR: By Christopher Hamilton
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Maxim Sushinsky scored twice in the third period and led SKA St. Petersburg to a 5-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2010 Compuserve NHL Premiere exhibition game last Monday night at the Ice Palace.
Sushinsky broke a 3-all tie on a powerplay goal 44 seconds into the third period. From behind the net former NHL star Alexey Yashin fed the puck to Sushinsky, who one-timed it past netminder Justin Peters. That dynamic duo struck again in a 4-on-4 situation at 46:36 when Yashin crossed the puck to Sushinsky, who easily beat Peters.
The enthusiastic capacity crowd in St. Petersburg witnessed what turned out to be more of an event than a hockey game, hyped as the first time an NHL team has played on former Soviet soil in over twenty years and a rematch of the super series of the 80s and 90s. “Many of those super series games were famous, and others were infamous,” said Senior Vice-President of NHL International Ken Yaffe at a pre-game press conference.
The NHL-KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) showdown was an exciting, rough-and-tumble game that got contentious in the second period, when Carolina’s Tim Gleason fought SKA’s Alexei Petrov and both received fighting majors and game misconducts.
Continued chippy play unfortunately led Carolina Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice to hold team captain and star Eric Staal out of the game during the third period. Carolina had nothing on the line, and wanted to protect its players for its two-game season opener Thursday and Friday in Helsinki against the Minnesota Wild.
The Hurricanes ended up piling on the penalties as the flow of the game was all but destroyed. SKA ultimately capitalized on those power plays, taking the lead in the third period and never looking back. Hurricanes defenseman Joni Pitk?nen ruined any chance for a comeback when he was given a major penalty and game misconduct for spearing a SKA player with 5:45 left in the game.
Carolina had fought back by scoring three goals in the second period to twice tie the score. Trailing 2-0 after the first, both Tuomo Ruutu and Patrick Dwyer scored early in the second for the Hurricanes to tie the game at 2, before the roughhousing started.
SKA regained the lead at 33:07 when Yashin made it 3-2 an incredible solo goal. Peters fell for Yashin’s deke and Yashin easily found the upper left corner with a wrist shot over the prone goalie.
Rookie winger Jeff Skinner then leveled the score at three apiece with 4:56 left in the second period with an equally slick goal. He caught a pass on his skate, kicked it to his stick and then wrapped it around SKA goaltender Yevgeny Nabokov. Both Yashin and Skinner were named the game’s best players. Konstatin Panov and Maxim Rybin rounded out the scoring for the Russians
The hyped-up rock em’ sock em’ game was really supposed to be cathartic for the two leagues, which have been in a number of disputes in recent years, particularly over player poaching. KHL Chairman and former Soviet and NHL great Vyacheslav Fetisov recalled meeting with numerous officials over coffee to help broker the exhibition games along with KHL President Alexander Medvedev. Yaffe announced that the two leagues signed an agreement of mutual respect of contracts on Oct. 1, so no more players should be jumping leagues in the future.
TITLE: Alternatives to Oil Sought In Electricity Production
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia may be associated more with long, dark winters than sun-drenched days. But that is not stopping private companies from tapping into a growing market for solar energy.
The jury is still out as to whether the sun can compete long term with traditional energy sources, but some industry players say solar energy has good potential — even though the government largely ignores renewable energy sources and Russia’s economy is firmly based on the petrodollar.
Then there’s the issue of a lack of sun.
“Russia has been considered as a northern country for a long time. … There was an opinion that it’s better to use solar energy in countries where there’s a lot of sun,” said Marat Zaks, chief executive of Solar Wind, a Krasnodar-based solar panel manufacturer.
“But the fact is that there’s a lot of sun in Russia as well. Germany is the world’s No. 1 solar energy consumer. But is Germany a sunny country?” he said.
Solar Wind produces panels mostly for export but wants to see the domestic market grow.
“If we get an order from a Russian customer, we try to complete it quickly to aid the market development in the country,” Zaks said.
A number of Russian private companies are creating joint ventures with Rusnano, the state technology corporation, to address local needs.
Solar Wind is starting a 4.8 billion ruble ($160 million) project, with Rusnano as a partner, in which it will make double-sided solar panels for domestic use. These are panels that collect solar energy from both sides. Zaks said there are only a few companies in the world making such panels.
The plant, which may start working at the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2011, will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 30 megawatts at the start, and will eventually ramp up to 120 megawatts per year.
The volume of Solar Wind’s domestic sales is still much smaller compared with exports, Zaks said, though he declined to name the percent. He said private firms and regional governments are his customers locally, and the company exports solar panels to more than 22 countries, including Germany, Britain and the United States.
Industry insiders said solar energy could become a real alternative for traditional energy sources in a number of the country’s regions.
“The Krasnodar region and most parts of Siberia have insolation levels [average exposure to the sun’s rays] comparable to the south of France and central Italy, where solar energy is currently booming, while the Zabaikalsky region gets more solar energy than Spain,” said Vasily Malakha, head of the environment monitoring department at the Electricity and Energy Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Malakha said the daily insolation per square meter in Krasnodar is 4 kilowatts per hour to 4.5 kilowatts per hour.
Russia is, however, behind Japan, the United States and Europe in promoting renewable energy. Many governments have support and incentive programs. Several states and countries have mandated that their power companies reach specific thresholds for share of power from renewable sources.
But Yevgeny Nadezhdin, executive director of UNESCO’s Sustainable Energy Development Center, said construction of solar power stations in Russia’s midland would make no sense because of the lack of sunshine. He said that using solar energy might be suitable for Sochi or the Caucasus republics, “where there are enough sunny days.”
The Krasnodar region started paying attention to solar energy after it launched an energy-efficiency target program in 2006. A total of 7,000 square meters of solar panels have been deployed in Krasnodar since then, according to the regional government’s web site.
The region is using solar panels not only for electricity production, but also for heating water. The roof of the central hospital in Ust-Labinsk, a town 60 kilometers northeast of Krasnodar, is being covered by 300 solar panels. The installation, whose total area is 600 square meters, will heat water for the hospital’s daily needs year-round, said Alexander Kiselyov, deputy chief doctor of the hospital, adding that the solar panels would heat 28 cubic meters of water every day.
“The efficiency of this system is likely to be minor in winter, because it’s cold, but the water will be hot anyway. … We need water day and night,” he said by telephone from Ust-Labinsk. Kiselyov said the hospital’s administration was happy to get an additional energy source, which will save 1.5 million rubles per year.
A request last week for additional information from the energy department of the Krasnodar region administration went unanswered.
At least one billionaire intends to cash in on solar energy’s potential. Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova group has a joint venture with Rusnano to build a solar panel factory in Chuvashia. Vekselberg highlighted the project in a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin late last month.
“Today full-scale construction of the enterprise is under way,” Vekselberg said at the meeting.
He said the plant, which will use thin-film technology, would reach its full production capacity in 2012.
“It is the first such enterprise in Russia. There is no equivalent,” he said, according to the government’s web site.
Rusnano holds a 49 percent stake in the 20 billion ruble project, while Renova owns 51 percent. Launching the venture based on technologies from Swiss conglomerate Oelikon, which is partly owned by Renova, “will allow for the creation of a base for developing the sector of alternative solar energy in our country,” Vekselberg told the prime minister.
TITLE: U.S. Doctors Lend a Healing Hand in Local Surgeries
AUTHOR: By Thomas Burr
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: An outfit of American cardiac surgery experts finished a weeklong trip to St. Petersburg on Saturday for the Healthy Heart Foundation, formerly the Almazov Foundation for the Development of Medical Science and Education.
The medical professionals, including Drs. Al Haddadin, Jamie Gerber and Michael Dewar, along with PAs Michael Lalaonde and Tim Dutton and RN Zuzana Svitek took part in the foundation’s 15th annual exchange, this year providing medical assistance at the St. Petersburg State University I.P. Pavlov Medical Center.
This, however, was no ordinary humanitarian trip.
While the medical team assisted in performing much-needed procedures —four coronary artery bypass surgeries and one complex mitral valve repair — the ultimate goal of the foundation is to promote self-sustaining cardiac surgery expertise in northwest Russia. Through their example, they hope to change what they believe is a fundamentally flawed model of the “medical mission.”
According to 15-year foundation veteran Dewar, what often happens is that a group of western doctors will travel to a developing nation to perform surgeries for a week while the local doctors stand back and watch, if anything. When the foreign experts go home, the area is left no more capable of caring for its needs than when they came.
Making matters worse, if a developing country is incapable of training its professionals domestically, the best and the brightest are often sent to the West to receive medical training. Once abroad, Dewar says, only about five percent will ever return home for work.
Russia is no stranger to this brain drain. Commenting last week on two expatriate Russian physicists winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, President Dmitry Medvedev said that “[Russia] does not have a normal system to stimulate our young specialists, talented people, so that they stay to work in this country.”
According to the Healthy Heart Foundation web site, “The key problem is to educate specialists without causing them to emigrate from their home countries which need their services so badly. In short, we provide education without causing emigration.”
To accomplish this goal, the foundation provides young Russian doctors with “short-term, focused” training sessions at Yale-New Haven Medical Center in New Haven, Connecticut, where they learn the latest techniques of the field and earn real experience, performing surgery under the guidance of senior surgeons.
With these short-term programs, the Russian doctors are less likely to anchor themselves in America than if they received a full medical training there.
Following these training sessions, the American doctors make annual visits to northwest Russia for a week to “operate, intervene, lecture and monitor the adoption of the advanced techniques in the trainee’s home environment.” According to the team, they try to keep the former to a minimum, running the annual follow-up visits as hands-off as possible, providing mostly assistance and advice and performing surgery only when absolutely necessary.
So far the approach seems to be working. Of the 22 young doctors from northwest Russia who have participated in the one to two-month training programs at Yale University, only one has left the Russian Federation. He wound up at Yale.
In St. Petersburg, the group has also been able to establish self-sustainability on a local level. In the past, the group has worked with the Federal Almazov Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Center, but was able to move on now that former program participants Drs. Mikhail Gardeyev and Andrei Kutin are performing international level heart surgery and even transplants on their own there.
Despite these successes, the group remains modest, noting that it is only a small drop in the bucket of cultural inertia needed to overhaul Russia’s medical system.
While this system boasts 44 physicians per 10,000 people, besting the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 31, Russia’s physicians are severely underpaid and do not command the same level of respect as in western nations. According to a 2007 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report, “Health workers earn between $70 and $175 a month, while surgeons can hope for a monthly salary of about $400.”
In the U.S., cardiac surgeons averaged $425,000 a year over the same period.
To say that the system has a particular problem in training advanced specialists would be a gross understatement. According to Dewar, northwest Russia (population 14 million) has only enough cardiac surgeons by U.S. standards to service New Haven County in Connecticut (population 800,000).
The problem is even more acute in the sub-specialties. When the team came to Russia last summer, former participant Dr. James Heim told The St. Petersburg Times, “For the whole of the St. Petersburg region there’s only one experienced specialist in this field (pediatric congenital heart defects) — Dr. Vadim Lyubomudrov. He does a great job, but one surgeon is not enough.”
Dr. Lybomudrov is now working in Dubai, leaving the whole of northwest Russia without a qualified specialist in this field.
The problem, Dewar believes, stems from a lack of formalized, rigorous training standards and top-level assessment of needs. All the while Dr. Lybomudrov was the only sub-specialist in the region, no real attempt was made at a higher level to meet this urgent need, which has now become a tragedy. It’s a system, he says, that’s “so disorganized it doesn’t make sense.”
In the U.S., cardiac surgeons can spend over a decade in training after medical school, completing a five-year general surgery residency followed by a multi-year cardiac surgery fellowship, with further training required for sub-specialties such as pediatric cardiac surgery and cardiac transplants.
Along the way, there are rigorous board certification exams with detailed surgery requirements that ensure the proper, uniform training of each specialist.
In Russia, Dewar says, training is closer to the medieval guild model. If a young doctor finds himself working under a disinterested or unqualified senior, he may never receive proper training. Nonetheless, he may eventually find himself in a full surgery position at a regional hospital.
The lack of any concerted attempts at reform on a national level may simply be a matter of diminishing marginal returns: In a country with a life expectancy of 66 years, the world’s 13th highest HIV/AIDS death rate, and where the leading causes of death are alcohol and smoking related, highly specialized surgery for rare congenital defects may not be the most cost-effective target.
According to Dewar, however, it’s a problem of awareness and effort rather than a financial issue: “The Russians have money, and it’s easy to stock a heart center.” Total expenditure on healthcare as a percentage of GDP is 5.4 percent in Russia, compared to over 15 in the United States.
While the program has been working so far by using an inside-out model of social progress, expansion plans include lobbying higher-level officials for change. In February, local program director Dr. Maria Prokudina will speak at a regional governors’ meeting about challenges facing the Healthy Heart Foundation and the medical system as a whole.
Despite the considerable adversity, the American doctors have found the spirit of the local medical community to be alive and well. Dewar referred to the Russian doctors as “brilliant,” praising their resourcefulness and ad-hoc solutions to problems: “It’s always like a conversation, you learn from them too.”
TITLE: Ministry Caught in Web Site Corruption Row
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said Monday that it had not received any complaints over a state tender offering $1.8 million to create a web site in just over two weeks, even after a top blogger asked his readers to complain.
The Health and Social Development Ministry is seeking bids to build a social networking site for doctors, and it posted details of the tender on the main web site for state purchases Oct. 5.
The ministry required that the site be ready within 16 days and that the bid be no more than 55 million rubles ($1.8 million).
Alexei Navalny, a prominent lawyer and anti-corruption activist, posted details of the tender on his blog over the weekend and asked readers to file complaints with the anti-monopoly service.
“If President [Dmitry] Medvedev said during his trip to Silicon Valley that his government creates $2 million web sites in 16 days, the people out there would have had a good laugh,” Navalny wrote.
The blogger said he suspected the web site was already finished by a company that had paid a kickback to the ministry. Judging by the price, the web site had to be “complicated,” he wrote, making the deadline unrealistic for a firm with no prior knowledge of the tender.
Navalny’s post had more than 650 replies by Monday afternoon, with many of the commenters saying they had filed complaints the day before.
But Yelizaveta Aksyonova, a spokeswoman for the anti-monopoly service, told The St. Petersburg Times on Monday that no complaints had been received.
A Health and Social Development Ministry spokesman did not return a request for comment.
The head of the ministry’s information department, Oleg Simakov, told Cnews.ru in an interview published Friday that the web site’s most expensive element would contain information on medicine and diseases, as well as medical news.
The ministry needs the web site quickly because officials must report on the projects they have completed by mid-December, Simakov said, without elaborating. His spokeswoman directed inquiries Monday to the ministry’s press office.
Federal law does not regulate pricing for state tenders on anything except construction, but the Finance Ministry monitors expenses and requires state organizations that request money from the federal budget to explain how they will use the funds.
By law, the anti-monopoly watchdog will examine a tender’s legitimacy after someone asks for it.
The state began requiring that tenders be posted publicly online since July 2005 to cut back on corruption, although transparency advocates say the bidding is still often rigged to favor well-connected companies.
The Health and Social Development Ministry was accused this summer of violating the law on competition by colluding with pharmaceuticals companies to inflate costs for the drugs it purchases.
The anti-monopoly service announced in August that it was investigating the pricing scheme, but the ministry has denied wrongdoing.
TITLE: Pay TV Faces Static-Filled Future
AUTHOR: By Derek Andersen
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Pay television executives have predicted that the industry will remain modest as many households are unwilling to accept bills for the service.
A major obstacle is costs. Worldwide, paid television service is significantly cheaper than cell phone use, but in Russia the situation is the opposite, Andrei Semerikov, chief of ER-Telekom Holding, a major regional Internet broadcasting and cable operator, said Tuesday at a round-table discussion.
Although 20 million Russian households, almost half of all families, pay for their television viewing, many other viewers are unwilling to do so, said the round table’s moderator, IKS Consulting analyst Konstantin Ankilov.
Dmitry Bagdasaryan, deputy chief of cable provider Comstar Regions, said the cable audience in Russia was small compared with other East European countries.
Bagdasaryan attributed the slow market growth in Russia to a “mental barrier.” People “are used to free television,” he said at the event.
The cable ad market is worth 14 billion rubles ($470 million), Bagdasaryan said. That sum is only a quarter of over-the-air ad income, and its small size is another impediment to growth.
The share of subscriptions in the revenue structure rose from 40 percent in 2002 to 45 percent in 2009, with a corresponding decrease in ad revenue, he said.
Vladimir Shevardenidze, deputy chief of Red Media, a producer of television niche content for cable and satellite, said the average television viewer in Russia had 17 channels to choose from.
Russian cable viewers may watch up to 260 channels, but Europeans can have up to 8,600, he said.
Digitalization will create many new channels and greater ad income, Shevardenidze said, but it also raises new issues related to where to obtain content and whether channels will make or buy it.
The government is planning for television to go completely digital in 2015. Under Russian law, eight channels must be provided for free in any format.
Lyudmila Mikhailina, chief of state satellite operator Kosmicheskaya Svyaz, said satellite transmission will play a large role in the development of the television industry because of the inaccessibility of many areas of the country to other forms of delivery.
Satellite television capacity, now critically low, will be greatly increased in 2012 with the launch of three new units for digital television. HDTV is available from one of the three existing services and plans are afoot for 3D-TV, she said.
Ksenia Achkasova, deputy director for television at the TNS Russia market research company, said digitalization was making new equipment necessary for audience monitoring.
Alternative viewing, such as over mobile devices, from remote locations — such as watching sports events in bars — or in prerecorded form, is also a challenge to the monitoring industry, she said.
TITLE: India Announces Order For Up to 345 Warplanes
AUTHOR: By Derek Andersen
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony announced on Thursday that his country would make hefty purchases of military aviation produced jointly with Russia.
India will buy 45 multipurpose transport planes and 250 to 300 fighter planes, Antony said at a news conference in New Delhi after the 10th meeting of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, Interfax reported.
“The next decade of military-technical cooperation between Russia and India is tied to these two joint projects,” Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said at the same news conference.
The fifth-generation fighter planes will be produced by Russia’s Sukhoi and India’s National Aerospace Laboratories, it was announced. A Russian-drafted contract has already been submitted for India’s approval.
“It is too early to talk about the price of the deals,” said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, because the contracts would only be signed during President Dmitry Medvedev’s planned visit to India in December.
Makiyenko suggested maximum prices of $100 million for the fighter planes and $50 million for the transport planes, which could bring the value of the deal up to $32.25 billion. Economic conditions at the time of contract signing will have an impact on the price, he said.
Design of the aircraft will cost $300 million, and the first planes should be ready by 2015, Interfax reported.
TITLE: Putin Offers $3 Billion For ‘Acute Problems’ in Budget
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — An additional 91 billion rubles ($3 billion) will be funneled into the federal budget by year’s end to “solve a number of acute problems without waiting until January,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a Presidium session last Tuesday.
Putin, who made the announcement after consultations with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin shortly before the session, ordered the government to adjust spending accordingly so the money would go directly to support a housing program, Russian Railways and economic zones.
He also promised state guarantees to kick-start investment projects in Chechnya.
While a combination of anti-crisis measures and savings has brought in additional money, government spending has increased by 44 billion rubles this year, leaving the budget in the red.
Still, government officials seem optimistic about reducing the budget deficit and keeping inflation at bay.
Earlier Tuesday, Putin told a VTB investment forum that Russia was on course to start slowly reducing the budget deficit, currently at 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, or 2.38 trillion rubles ($79.2 billion), and to bring it down to zero over the next five years.
“We are now living through a historical moment with the lowest inflation since the beginning of 1990s,” Kudrin said at the forum.
A jump in inflation over the past two months is something the government considers a one-off phenomenon, Kudrin said, sticking firmly to his forecast to curb both inflation and the budget deficit.
The government projects include the allocation of 11 billion rubles to create special economic zones, including one in Tolyatti. Putin also spoke about new investment projects in Chechnya, saying the republic would receive 3.8 billion rubles’ worth of state guarantees for loans for the projects.
TITLE: Sovkomflot Buys Moika Market For New HQ
AUTHOR: By Nadezhda Zaitseva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The Krugly Rynok building on the River Moika embankment was sold for 200 million rubles ($6.7 million) to Sovkomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company, at auction last Wednesday.
Two bidders applied to take part in the auction for the property, which comprises a 4,326-square meter building and a 1,883-square meter piece of land at 3 Naberezhnaya Reki Moiki. But the lot went without bids to Sovkomflot Barandei, the local subdivision of state-owned Sovkomflot, for its starting price of 200 million rubles, said Maxim Klyushin, head of Sovkomflot’s new projects department.
The company signed a 49-year rental agreement for the premises, classified as a federal monument, back in 2006 with the aim of transforming them into its headquarters. The price of the annual rent was set at 465 rubles ($15.60) per square meter, said Olga Barashkina, a spokeswoman for the City Property Management Committee.
According to Klyushin, who declined to reveal the volume of investment in the project, renovation work will be finished by the middle of next year, and the company will move in immediately afterwards. Sovkomflot’s press service said that the building would house a training center for sailors working in icy conditions, along with some of the group’s units in charge of shipping management for oil and gas projects on the Russian Arctic shelf.
Employees from the company’s regional branches and even from abroad will move in, said a Sovkomflot representative, adding that the company also plans to set up a scientific and technical naval center in the building.
Most of the renovation work is almost complete — only the roof and engineering infrastructure are still in progress, said a company employee. According to him, half of the repair work is now finished.
Firms usually rent such properties with an eye to possibly purchasing them in the future, said Andrei Krylov, head of the St. Petersburg Real Estate Agency. Owning a building is always better than renting it, especially if it is for sale with a plot of land, he said, adding that 200 million rubles is a small price for such a property.
It is not expensive for a monument in such a prestigious location, agreed Zosya Zakharova, head of analytical research at the Agency for Real Estate Development and Research. She added that opportunities to buy a detached property in a good location are very rare.
The investment will be paid off after only a few years if it is taken into consideration that City Hall would have raised the rent once the renovation was complete, Zakharova said, and renting an office in a comparable location would have cost the company around 51 million rubles a year.
Zakharova estimated the volume of investment required for reconstruction work at $1,500 to $3,000 per square meter.
TITLE: City Permits Trezzini House Conversion
AUTHOR: By Yelena Dombrova, Maria Buratseva and Nadezhda Zaitseva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: City Hall issued a decree on Sept. 13 allowing the transformation of the Trezzini House at 21B Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya into a 2,000-square-meter four-star boutique hotel of 40 rooms.
The investor, Otel (Hotel) company, is part of the Concorde holding owned by restaurant owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Concorde spokesperson said. The investor will have to pay 8.9 million rubles ($297,000) to the city budget for the development of infrastructure on the 705-square meter plot of land and no less than 16.5 million rubles ($551,000) for restoration work that must be carried out within 26 months. These figures were calculated in 2002, when the leasing contract for the building was signed. Had the agreement been concluded in July 2010, the sum would have amounted to 141.7 million rubles ($4.7 million), a spokesperson for City Hall’s Construction Committee said.
Prigozhin signed a 49-year rental contract for the mansion, which is classified as a local monument, in 2002. According to the City Property Management Committee, his company paid the rent — four million rubles — in advance. The project was accepted by the City Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments back in 2008, on the condition that the investor renovate the building, in particular the decorations of the front door stairs and on the second floor, said Ksenia Cherepanova, an adviser to the committee’s chairman.
However, the decree allowing work to start on transforming the building’s interiors into a hotel was only issued recently. According to Prigozhin, this long delay is due to structural reconstruction work, in which he invested about 20 million dollars, being carried out. When the property was submitted for large-scale repair work, it was classified as a non-residential building, added Anna Prozoroza, head of Concorde’s real estate department. According to Prozorova, gathering all the necessary documents took a very long time.
With a beautiful view on the Neva River, good public transport links and pedestrian accessibility, the place is ideal for opening a four-star hotel, said Zosya Zakharova, head of analytical research at the Agency for Real Estate Development and Research. She estimates the investment needed at 8 to 10 million dollars, or 150,000 dollars per room.
The entrance of restaurant owner Yevgeny Prigozhin on the hotel market represents an attempt to diversify his business and seek better opportunities to make a profit, said Fyodor Ragin, head of consulting at the St. Petersburg International Management Institute (IMISP). The synergic effect of the two different areas of business is however not obvious, said the expert.
? The Trezzini House is not the only recent addition to local entrepreneur Prigozhin’s portfolio. Last week, Prigozhin said that Paritet company, which won the auction for the right to a ten-year rental agreement for the former Yeliseyevsky store on Nevsky Prospekt, belongs to him. Dmitry Kurakin, chairman of City Hall’s Construction Committee, confirmed that information. At the time of the sale, on Sept. 21, the name of Paritet’s owner had not been revealed.
Paritet won the auction for the historic premises after bidding 21.2 million rubles ($700,000) for the annual lease agreement — about 70 percent more than its starting price, which had been set at 12.5 million rubles ($417,000).
TITLE: Uranium Agreement Faces New Objections from U.S.
AUTHOR: By Derek Andersen
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian uranium producer Atomredmetzoloto maintained a calm front Friday in the face of objections by powerful U.S. legislators to a deal that would give it control over a uranium mining operation in the United States.
The Rosatom subsidiary is completing a complex transaction with Canada’s Uranium One that would raise its share in the Canadian company to 51 percent. The transaction requires approval from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment because of Uranium One’s mining activities in Wyoming.
“We have provided all relevant information requested in the U.S., and elsewhere and we expect approval in due time,” ARMZ spokesman Dmitry Shulga said. He declined to comment further.
Four Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging him to block the Russian-Canadian deal, The Washington Times reported Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, the lawmakers pointed out past links between Rosatom and Iran, and wrote that the Russian federal agency has “shown little if any inclination to effectively address the widespread and continuing corruption within Russia, particularly its energy sector.”
Additionally, the senators wrote that they “remain concerned that Iran could receive uranium supplies through direct or secondary proliferation,” despite Uranium One assurances to the contrary.
Rosatom spokesman Vladislav Bochkov responded to the mention of corruption with perplexity.
“It’s some sort of nonsense,” Bochkov said Friday. “ You can only respond emotionally to that kind of statement. What are they referring to? It’s hard to speak without facts.”
The legislators, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Spencer Bachus of Alabama, Peter King of New York and Howard McKeon of California, stand to become heads of House committees that could potentially intervene in the deal, should the Republicans take control of the House in the November elections.
Uranium One controls 20 percent of the U.S. uranium market through its mines in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The United States is the world’s largest consumer of uranium products.
Anton Khlopkov, director of the Center for Energy and Security, saw the U.S. politicians’ actions as an example “of how Russian business can or cannot work abroad, especially in the U.S.”
“People understand this is unfair, especially when the Iran issue is raised,” Khlopkov said.
President Dmitry Medvedev’s decree canceling a contract for the delivery of S-300 missiles to Iran and banning the export of a number of other forms of military hardware to that country was made public Thursday.
“After the recent decree by Medvedev, this is a bad signal for people in Moscow who think we should align our position with the West,” Khlopkov said.
He said he expected the situation to “complicate business in the future” between Russia and the United States.
TITLE: French Firm To Make Gas In Nizhny
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — French industrial gas producer Air Liquide said Thursday that it planned to start construction of an air separation unit worth 60 million euros ($84 million) in the Nizhny Novgorod region and that it would increase investments in Russia over the next five years.
The plant, whose opening is scheduled for 2012, will supply oxygen, nitrogen and dry compressed air to RusVinyl, a joint venture of Sibur and Belgian polyvinyl chloride producer SolVin, and will also supply liquid gases to other industrial customers in the region.
“The industry modernization in Russia is part of the modernization of the country,” Benoit Potier, chief executive and chairman of Air Liquide, told journalists. “I personally consider Russia as a very interesting market for us. The time for investment is good. … We are investing for the long term in Russia.”
The plant will be located in the town of Kstovo, 30 kilometers southeast of Nizhny Novgorod, and will produce 350 tons of oxygen per day.
Potier said the company had invested a total of 150 million euros in Russia in the past five years and planned to invest another 150 million euros by the end of this year. He also said Air Liquide’s total investment in Russia might reach 1 billion euros by the end of 2015.
Analysts said the company’s ambitious plans were likely to be realized because Russia’s industrial gas market has excellent potential for growth.
Russia’s industrial gas market, which had moderate growth until 2009, is likely to grow by 15 percent to 20 percent this year, said Konstantin Yuminov, an oil and gas analyst at Rye, Man & Gor Securities. “The growth rates will be high over the coming five years, on the one hand, and it’s the right time now to come to the market, because the market is young and the number of competitors is small,” he said.
He said Air Liquide had a good chance of getting the bigger share of Russia’s market compared with its rivals, Air Products and Linde Gas, because of its good customer portfolio and bigger investment volumes.
Yuminov said many industrial producers in segments like oil and gas, metals and chemicals plan to build additional facilities and to revamp old ones over the coming five years to remain competitive. “And this indicates that the growth rates of Russia’s industrial gas market will be higher than the growth rates of the world market,” he said.
Potier said signing a supply agreement with RusVinyl was “a very important new step” after the company’s deal with Severstal.
Air Liquide, which launched an air separation unit at Severstal’s steel mill in Cherepovets in 2007, signed an agreement with the company earlier this year to build another similar unit at the plant.
The company’s plant in Kstovo will deliver more than half of its gas to RusVinyl through a pipeline, and Air Liquide may build another pipeline if it finds more big customers in the Nizhny Novgorod region to “set up a sort of network of pipelines for five or six customers,” Potier said.
TITLE: Putin Hints at German Entry in South Stream Project
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday that German companies were now considering joining South Stream and that a number of new European firms were showing “great interest” in entering the gas pipeline project.
Putin repeated the statement about German participation during a meeting Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in St. Petersburg. The Italian leader responded that having a “certain German company” join the project would be a “positive contribution,” according to his translated comments on the Russian government’s web site.
The 20 billion euro ($27.8 billion) South Stream project is run by Gazprom and Italy’s Eni. In June, Russia signed a memorandum of understanding giving France’s EDF a minimum 10 percent stake in the project, to be taken from the Italian share.
The comments came just days after leading German oil and gas producer Wintershall, a unit of chemical concern BASF, downplayed rumors of its possible participation in South Stream, which will transport Russian gas to Europe via Bulgaria starting at the end of 2015.
Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni said last week that he thought Wintershall was considering entering South Stream, renewing a tide of speculation. He added, however, that he had not been in touch with the company.
“I know that some major European companies — which were not part of the project earlier — are already showing great interest toward it,” Putin told Gazprom chief Alexei Miller on Friday, according to the transcript published on the government web site.
“And if this happens, if they enter this project, then it will really — in the true sense of the word — become international, pan-European. We already have Italian … [and] French companies there, and now the German ones are starting to show interest,” Putin said.
Wintershall’s focus is on “expanding our upstream activities in our core region, Russia,” spokesman Stefan Leunig said Friday in an e-mailed statement to The St. Petersburg Times.
“In addition to production at the source, we are also involved in the construction of infrastructure projects such as the Nord Stream pipeline, its connecting pipelines OPAL and NEL, as well as the construction of natural gas storage facilities in Europe. However, there are no concrete projects at the current time,” he said.
The German company has repeatedly denied rumors about its possible participation in South Stream, but analysts believe that there has to be a grain of truth to the persistent speculation.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Valery Nesterov, an oil and gas analyst at Troika Dialog, told The St. Petersburg Times. Talks about potential new participants have been up in the air for the past six months, he said.
“There are different kinds of perceptions. [With this project] there is a strong desire to indulge in wishful thinking. There is a very complicated battle of interests in the region,” Nesterov said, referring to the Nabucco gas pipeline project, considered South Stream’s main rival.
The Turkey-Austria pipeline is to be operational in 2015 and is aimed at cutting Europe’s reliance on Russian gas, but an Austrian newspaper reported Friday that a final decision to invest in Nabucco would be pushed back to next year over difficulties in securing supplies for the project.
Nabucco declined to comment on whether new participants in South Stream would affect its plans.
“We are fully focusing on the realization of our project, and it is progressing well,” Nabucco spokesman Christian Dolezal told The St. Petersburg Times on Friday.
“We are currently finalizing the detailed engineering, started the environmental and social impact assessments and started the appraisal process. … The shareholders are currently negotiating gas supply contracts,” he added.
A Gazprom spokesman could not be reached for comment Friday to specify which companies had shown interest in South Stream.
TITLE: Court Drops Arbat Prestige Tax Claims
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Moscow Arbitration Court has ruled that unpaid tax claims against the now-bankrupt cosmetics chain Arbat Prestige were illegal, raising the hopes of defense lawyers that criminal charges against former owner Vladimir Nekrasov and reputed crime boss Semyon Mogilevich will be dropped.
The court on Friday canceled the decision of a Moscow branch of the Federal Tax Service to levy 155.1 million rubles ($5.2 million) in taxes and fines against Arbat & Co., the company that operated Arbat Prestige, Arbat & Co. lawyer Olga Surovova said by telephone.
The ruling comes almost three years after Nekrasov and Mogilevich were surrounded and arrested by about 50 police commandos outside Moscow’s World Trade Center.
Following the January 2008 arrests, the men were released in July 2009 after signing agreements to remain in Moscow for the duration of the trial.
Two lawyers for Nekrasov, Alexander Dobrovinsky and Alexander Asnis, told The St. Petersburg Times that they hoped law enforcement officials would use Friday’s ruling to drop tax evasion charges against their client and Mogilevich.
“If the ruling comes into force, it will be of fundamental importance to the criminal case,” Asnis said.
Asked whether the criminal case could be closed, Dobrovinsky replied, “We hope so.”
On Tuesday, Moscow’s Tushinsky District Court returned the criminal case against Nekrasov and Mogilevich to prosecutors after ruling that it lacked “documents without which it was impossible to issue a verdict,” Asnis said.
If investigators manage to produce documents implicating Nekrasov and Mogilevich in wrongdoing, the trial, which began last September, will start over, Asnis said.
Nekrasov’s lawyers will appeal Tuesday’s ruling within 10 days, as permitted by law, because the court was legally required to issue a verdict with the available documents, Asnis said.
After the two men were arrested, distributors cut off deliveries to Arbat Prestige’s stores, which numbered about 100 nationwide. The company closed its last outlets in December.
Asked Sunday about Arbat Prestige’s assets, Asnis said the company’s assets no longer existed and refused to elaborate.
Mogilevich was using the name Sergei Shnaider when he was detained. Alexander Pogonchenkov, who insisted that he was a lawyer for Shnaider and not Mogilevich, refused to comment when reached by The St. Petersburg Times.
Mogilevich is one of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” criminal fugitives. He was indicted in 2003 in connection with a Pennsylvania-based company that bilked investors out of $150 million. Russia does not extradite its citizens.
Nekrasov and Mogilevich have maintained their innocence, and Nekrasov has said he was the target of a corporate raider who wanted to put him out of business.
TITLE: AvtoVAZ Meets Euro-5 Standards
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — AvtoVAZ will begin production this month of three-door Lada 4x4s for export that comply with Euro-5 environmental standards, Interfax reported Thursday, citing the company’s press service.
“Apart from the SUVs, automobiles in the Lada Kalina and Lada Priora families … also certified under the new standards. Production of Euro-5-version export Kalinas and Prioras will begin in January 2011,” the company said. The new environmental standard enters into force next year.
Automobiles for the local market will continue to be outfitted with Euro-3 compliant components. Euro-5 rules require that vehicles have to comply with toxic-emission limits after being driven 160,000 kilometers. Russia has been building Lada automobiles meeting Euro-4 standards for export to Europe with modern catalytic converters and new electronic calibration for engine operation since 2006, Interfax reported.
TITLE: Study: Russia Beats U.S. in Oil Disclosure
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia ranks ahead of the United States in disclosing government revenue from producing oil and mining minerals, a new study says.
The study by Revenue Watch Institute and Transparency International put Russia at No. 3 in a list of 41 countries that are rich in natural resources.
The United States ranked 11th, said the study released in Washington late Wednesday.
Brazil and Norway topped the list; Turkmenistan was at the bottom.
The study for the first time measured how well the resource-rich countries make public their management of the national oil, gas and minerals, including the money they receive and contracts they conclude.
“Government openness about its income is essential to combat high-level corruption,” the organizations that sponsored the study said in a statement.
“Transparent, accountable management of these revenues is also fundamental to economic development and political stability.”
Russia is ahead of countries such as the United States, Mexico, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in how often it updated statistical databases of its oil and mining revenue and the frequency with which lawmakers reviewed the information, the study said.
New York-based Revenue Watch Institute and Berlin-based Transparency International are independent groups tracking corruption.
Independent consultants gathered the information to complete each country questionnaire from November 2009 to April 2010.
Research concentrated on identifying publicly available information covering a period from January 2006 to December 2009.
TITLE: Thieves Should Go to Jail!
AUTHOR: By Michael Bohm
TEXT: On the day President Dmitry Medvedev fired Yury Luzhkov, reporters asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to comment on the reason. “The Moscow mayor didn’t get along with the president,” Putin said.
Medvedev’s own explanation wasn’t any more substantial. “As the president of Russia, I have lost my trust in Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov as the mayor of Moscow,” he told journalists in Shanghai on Sept. 28, the day he signed the dismissal order.
Since then, Medvedev hasn’t explained any further. Although the law apparently allows Medvedev to get away with this vagueness, the president has an obligation to explain the exact reasons why he sacked the Moscow mayor, who held one of the most powerful positions in the country.
Backing the ruling tandem’s silence, one of United Russia’s top leaders, Vyacheslav Volodin, commented the day Luzhkov was sacked: “The president’s decision shouldn’t be discussed. It should be carried out.”
The tandem missed a golden opportunity to make an example of Luzhkov and show that they are serious about tackling corruption. A crackdown on the nation’s top corrupt officials could have a trickle-down effect on mid- and lower-level bureaucrats, as well as businessmen.
Considering their well-known dislike for opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, it wouldn’t be surprising if Putin and Medvedev hadn’t read his investigative report “Luzhkov. Results,” where he lays out in detail several dozen corruption allegations — gathered from open sources — against Luzhkov. Baturina made most of her multibillion-dollar fortune, Nemtsov wrote, by receiving prime Moscow land on an exclusive basis — by Luzhkov’s mayoral decrees — to develop huge commercial real estate projects. Only one of Nemtsov’s allegations would be more than enough to open a criminal investigation into Luzhkov and Baturina.
Even if Putin and Medvedev didn’t read “Luzhkov. Results,” they could have easily watched the “Delo v Kepke” and “Dorogaya Yelena Nikolavna” programs on NTV television last month, which mentioned several corruption allegations against Luzhkov and Baturina. As a last resort, there was always the Federal Security Service, which surely has a thick dossier on Luzhkov’s and Baturina’s activities.
The ruling tandem’s response looks ridiculous and amateurish: The whole country is aware of the corruption allegations, while Putin and Medvedev act as if they know nothing about them.
There are three main reasons why Putin and Medvedev can’t — and won’t — touch the corruption allegations. First, if corruption were included as one of the reasons why Medvedev “lost confidence” in Luzhkov, then both members of the tandem would have to explain why they kept silent about the former mayor’s purported abuses during Putin’s 10 years in power and why the Prosecutor General’s Office never opened a criminal investigation into his activities. Who was protecting Luzhkov all those years?
Second, trying Luzhkov in court could open up a Pandora’s box of accusations and counteraccusations — including against Putin’s closest allies and perhaps Putin himself. The last thing they want is for Luzhkov to reveal the extent of corruption at the highest levels of government. Luzhkov understood that the tandem was backed into a corner on the issue, which helps explains his intransigence and hubris in the month-long public showdown with Medvedev before his firing.
Corruption by no means started on Putin’s watch, but it has increased sixfold — from roughly $50 billion a year at its peak in the 1990s to more than $300 billion a year in 2009, according to Indem. One reason for this is that the number of state employees sharply increased under Putin — from 485,566 in 1999 to 846,307 in 2008, according to the State Statistics Service. The link is clear and direct: The more bureaucrats, the more corruption.
The third and most important reason why no investigation has been opened into Luzhkov is that corruption is one of the foundations on which Putin’s vertical power system is built. Far from fighting corruption, Putin allows it to flourish.
Putin’s system of loyalty is highly dependent on the ability of his army of bureaucrats to embezzle and take bribes. Those who became wealthy under Putin obviously want to keep the current system in place for as long as possible. This is one reason why they are happy to lobby voters to support United Russia and “Putin’s Plan.”
Luzhkov is not the only regional leader to avoid criminal charges. Former Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov fended off an Audit Chamber investigation into allegations of seizing a host of petrochemical companies and helping his son become the 54th richest Russian, with a net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes Russia. What’s more, in July Rakhimov was awarded a pension of 750,000 rubles ($24,500) a month. Primorye Governor Sergei Darkin, former Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev, former Sverdlovsk Governor Eduard Rossel and Kalmykia leader Kirsan Ilyumzhinov are other examples of how deeply entrenched leaders are able to avoid the short arm of the law.
Under Putin, corruption has become a widespread government institution, and this explains why there are so few criminal charges brought against senior officials. Notable exceptions are the selective punishment of Kremlin opponents and the recent charges brought against former Deputy Mayor Alexander Ryabinin — part of a Luzhkov-era investigation that was widely seen as a Kremlin attempt to weaken Luzhkov.
The problem of not pursuing corruption charges, however, goes much deeper than regional leaders. The open secret to closing a criminal investigation — or making sure that one is not opened in the first place — is to pay bribes to prosecutors and investigators. This creates a self-perpetuating chain in which the person being investigated uses money acquired through corruption to bribe himself out of trouble. This begets even more corruption, and the vicious circle keeps going.
The exception is in political cases, where no amount of money can stop real or fabricated charges from being filed against an opponent whom the authorities want to punish. Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a case in point.
The Kremlin’s so-called battle against corruption is a farce. Putin’s system in which corruption is tolerated — and thus encouraged — needs to be fundamentally changed, starting at the very top. By filing charges against Luzhkov, Putin would set a high-profile example — something that is badly needed considering that Medvedev’s two-year anti-corruption campaign has brought few results.
In June 2009, Putin famously asked in connection with alleged corruption at Cherkizovsky Market, “Where are the prison terms?” Good question. A real battle against corruption must include jail sentences and the confiscation of illegally acquired property. In addition, State Duma deputies and Federation Council senators should be stripped of their immunity from criminal prosecution.
Since corruption permeates all of society, it would be impossible, of course, to try the hundreds of thousands of people implicated in corruption in one form or another. But at the very least, the battle should begin at the top. A fish rots from the head down.
In the 1970 Soviet classic film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed,” Vladimir Vysotsky, who played a police investigator, declared, “A thief should go to jail!” You would think that the bigger the thief, the more compelling it would be to bring criminal charges against him. Not in Russia.
With Khodorkovsky’s arrest in 2003, Putin showed that he has the political will to make a high-profile example as a deterrence to others. Now he should answer his own question, “Where are the prison terms?” by applying his self-declared “dictatorship of the law” to everyone.
Michael Bohm is the opinion page editor of The Moscow Times.
TITLE: $800M Membership Dues
AUTHOR: By Richard Lourie
TEXT: Sometimes what doesn’t happen counts most. In late September, President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree banning the delivery of the S-300 air-defense system to Iran after Moscow had signed a contract for the system in 2007 worth $800 million.
The figure may be much higher — from $11 billion to $13 billion — since other weapons were covered by the presidential decree: “battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles or missiles systems as defined for the purpose of the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms,” to use the language of the recent UN resolution placing sanctions on Iran. Why are the Russians willing to incur such losses? Or to put it another way, what are they getting for that money?
The United States and Israel had always been strongly against the sale of the S-300s, which can destroy multiple aircraft and missiles at a range of 150 kilometers and at altitudes of up to 27 kilometers. If Israel wanted to take out Iranian nuclear facilities, it would have to be done before the S-300s were installed. A sale would have essentially started the countdown to an Israeli attack.
Russia wants better relations with Israel, including a $300 million deal to set up a joint-venture drone plant in Russia. But that might now fall through since Russia has refused to scrap its deal to sell supersonic naval cruise missiles to Israeli enemy Syria. At the same time, though, Syria does not pose an existential threat to Israel in the same sense that Iran does. What Israel may actually fear is that Syria will transfer the technology to Hezbollah, which used a similar weapon to attack an Israeli warship during the 2006 Lebanon war. Still, subsequent Israeli investigation of the incident concluded that human error was at fault; the warship’s defense system, under normal conditions, should have stopped the attack.
Iran’s defense minister, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, said Russia’s decision to not sell the S-300s to Iran “lacks logic” because the weapons system is not banned under the UN resolution, which concerns only conventional weapons. Vahidi is correct in a narrow sense.
But there is a wider logic in Russia’s decision, although it is neither the logic of commerce nor that of an overly strict interpretation of the UN resolution. Russia has made a fundamental decision to throw its lot in with the West. Russia sees the West as a source of investment and know-how and an ally against ravenous China. Many Russians both in the power elite and the opposition see China as the adversary in the resource wars of the future. Russia, the only European country sharing a border with China, also has border disputes with Beijing. The eastern Russian territory is so sparsely populated that Chinese guest workers must be imported, an abhorrent vacuum.
The refusal to sell S-300s to Iran is Russia’s $800 million membership dues in the exclusive club of the West. The next decade will bring political, economic and even military rapprochement. Russia will enter the World Trade Organization and work more closely with NATO. Soon, the next time a Russian oligarch buys a major sports team like the New Jersey Nets, it will be accepted calmly.
This is a sea change. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may be still at the helm, but one suspects that it is Medvedev who is increasingly plotting the course. But what matters most is the slow, sure swing of the ship in a westerly direction.
Richard Lourie is the author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”
TITLE: Wife of Chinese Nobel Laureate Detained
AUTHOR: By Robert Saiget
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: BEIJING — Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has tearfully dedicated his award to victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, activists said, as his wife was held under house arrest on Monday.
“This award is for the lost souls of June Fourth,” the U.S.-based group Human Rights in China quoted Liu Xiaobo as telling his wife Liu Xia, referring to the bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on democracy protests at the vast Beijing square.
The 54-year-old writer, who was jailed for 11 years last December after authoring a bold petition calling for democratic reforms, was awarded the prize on Friday, sparking a furious reaction from Beijing.
Via her Twitter account, Liu Xia said she had been placed under house arrest at her Beijing home both before and after traveling to the prison in northeastern China where her husband is held to inform him of his prize.
“Brothers, I have returned home. On the eighth (of October) they placed me under house arrest. I don’t know when I will be able to see anyone,” said the Sunday night Twitter posting.
“My mobile phone has been broken and I cannot call or receive calls. I saw Xiaobo and told him on the ninth at the prison that he won the prize. I will let you know more later. Everyone, please help me (re)tweet. Thanks,” she said.
Liu Xiaobo’s wife was taken to the prison under police guard, his lawyers said over the weekend.
At least two dozen police, plainclothes officers and other security personnel were seen deployed Monday at the compound where Liu Xia lives, interrogating returning residents and preventing journalists from entering.
Calls to her mobile phone were met with a recording saying it was out of service.
Liu Xiaobo is the first Chinese citizen to win the Peace Prize issued by the Oslo-based Nobel committee and China immediately lashed out at the award, calling it “blasphemy,” and labelling Liu a “criminal.”
It also summoned the Norwegian ambassador to warn him it would damage relations.
Liu, a former university professor, helped negotiate the safe exit from Tiananmen Square of thousands of student demonstrators before military tanks crushed the six weeks of peaceful protests in the heart of Beijing.
He has spent much of the intervening period in jail, under house arrest or other restrictions yet continued to seek the release of those jailed due to the protests.
Liu dedicated the award to Tiananmen victims to honor their “non-violent spirit in giving their lives for peace, freedom, and democracy,” Liu Xia was quoted as saying by Human Rights in China.
She said her husband was moved to tears as he discussed the subject, according to the group.
After Liu was awarded the prize, authorities arranged to take Liu Xia to the prison in Liaoning province where he is serving his sentence, rights activists said. They said she went to the prison on Saturday and returned on Sunday.
Roads to the prison were blocked by police Sunday, with only officials or residents allowed into a large area around the jail.
Police and officials at the roadblock refused to tell journalists why they were not permitted to approach the prison and politely urged them to leave the area. Telephones at the prison went unanswered.
Liu is one of three people to have been awarded the prize while being jailed by their own government. The other two are Myanmar’s Aung Sang Suu Kyi in 1991 and German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935.
Leaders around the world including U.S. President Barack Obama — last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner — lauded the 2010 winner and called on the Chinese government to release him immediately.
TITLE: Miner Rescue Operation in Chile Nears End
AUTHOR: By Paulina Abramovich
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — The operation to bring 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for more than two months back to the surface neared its final stage on Monday as engineers worked to reinforce a shaft through which the workers will be hoisted.
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne told reporters the men could begin the ascent, one by one, on Wednesday.
After the shaft is secured, workers will install a metal cage and a complex pulley system needed to lower the cage to the miners and lift them out.
Each miner will be pulled up 622 meters for one and a half to two hours in a container barely wider than a man’s shoulders.
The first group of miners to exit will be several of the strongest men, followed by a group considered the weakest due to chronic health problems like high blood pressure or lung ailments, and ending with more of the stronger ones, officials said.
If the timetable holds, all the miners could expect to end their ordeal of nearly two and half months by Friday.
They have been trapped deep beneath the desert floor in a chamber the size of a living room after a partial collapse that blocked the mine exit on August 5, surviving longer than anyone has before under similar circumstances.
For weeks the men were feared dead. But on August 22 they attached a note to a drill bit that had broken through to the chamber where they had taken shelter, saying they were all alive, well and awaiting rescue.
In their subterranean shelter, exercising, praying, reading and working have been ways to pass the time as the miners await their exit cage prepared.
“They have a shift-system, which is typical in mining,” chief psychologist Alberto Iturra said. “One group from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., another from 4 p.m. to midnight, and the last from midnight to 8 a.m.”
Health Minister Jaime Manalich told a press conference near the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile on Sunday that he had already discussed with the miners the details of the operation.
“I questioned them and mentioned we were working on an order in which they would be brought out,” Manalich said. “I said the order would be determined by technical factors.
“And what was their reaction? ‘Mr. Minister, that’s fine but I want to go last please.’ And then another guy said, ‘No, my friend, I said that I was going to be the last one up.’ ‘No, no, really — I want to go last, please,’ another guy started saying.”
By being able to put aside their needs and wanting their colleagues to have a chance at freedom and fresh air first, “they have had a really commendable spirit of solidarity and commitment to their friends,” Manalich stressed.
As to their health condition, the minister said they were in “very good shape. The people at the bottom of the mine were healthy people the day of the accident.”
In addition “they are mature people and very self-sufficient people who have been able to face a test the likes of which probably no one has in human history,” Manalich said.
The miners will begin a special liquid diet about 12 hours ahead of the rescue operation expected to start Wednesday. The aim is to reduce any nausea and vomiting during their removal from the depths of the mine, while still keeping up their caloric intake.
Engineers, meanwhile, were reinforcing the shaft that will be used to finally free the men.
Gerardo Jofre, head of the board of Chile’s state copper giant Codelco, maintained that the rescue effort has put Chile at the forefront of such operations.
“The technology we have used in the digging and building the access to the miners are really on the cutting edge because these technologies had never been used at such great depths or for these objectives,” Jofre said. “This is a landmark in mining worldwide in terms of rescue operations.”
The deep shaft to the emergency shelter where the men have survived was completed on Saturday.
TITLE: Greek Policeman Jailed for Murder That Sparked Mass Rioting
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: AMFISSA, Greece — A Greek court sentenced a policeman to life in prison on Monday for murdering a 15-year-old schoolboy in a shooting nearly two years ago that sparked rioting across the country.
Epaminondas Korkoneas, 38, was convicted of culpable homicide by a court in the town of Amfissa over the killing of Alexis Grigoropoulos during a December 2008 night patrol in the Athens district of Exarchia.
The panel of three judges and four jury also found Korkoneas’s patrol partner Vassilios Saraliotis, 32, guilty of complicity in the crime. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The defense has pledged to appeal the sentences.
The December 2008 incident sparked days of rioting across Greece, with initial anger at the police compounded by the country’s worsening economic situation.
The trial was held under heavy police guard after a far-left extremist group threatened to kill Korkoneas, prompting authorities to relocate the trial from Athens to Amfissa, 200 kilometers northwest of the capital.
TITLE: Karzai: Negotiations Held With
Taliban
PUBLISHER: Agence France Presse
TEXT: WASHINGTON — Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed in a U.S. television interview that his administration has been holding unofficial talks with the Taliban “for quite some time” to try to end the nine-year war.
“We have been talking to the Taliban as countryman to countryman, talk in that manner,” Karzai told CNN’s Larry King when asked about a Washington Post report on secret high-level talks between the two sides.
“Not as a regular official contact with the Taliban with a fixed address but rather unofficial personal contacts have been going on for quite some time,” he said in excerpts of the CNN interview to air in full Monday.
Last week the Washington Post said the secret talks were believed to involve the Afghan government and representatives authorized by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan, and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
The Karzai interview is being aired a day after Afghanistan’s former president Burhanuddin Rabbani was elected chairman of a new peace council, a Karzai brainchild set up to broker an end to the war with the Taliban.
“Now that the peace council has come into existence, these talks will go on and will go on officially and more rigorously I hope,” Karzai told King.
The Taliban, which have been fighting an increasingly violent insurgency, have said publicly they will not enter into dialogue with the government until all 152,000 U.S.-led foreign troops based in the country leave.
In a statement last Thursday marking the start of the war in 2001, the Taliban claimed to control 75 percent of Afghanistan and said its “jihad” remained as strong as ever.
Karzai said there had been “no official contacts” with any Taliban entity.
“That hasn’t happened yet and we hope we can begin that as soon as possible,” he said. “But contacts of course have been there between various elements of the Afghan government at the level of community and also at a political level.”
The High Peace Council is intended to open a dialogue with the Taliban insurgents who have been trying to bring down his government since the U.S.-led invasion overthrew their hardline Islamist regime in October 2001.
The 68-member council, hand-picked by Karzai, was set up following a nationwide conference in June and was inaugurated on October 7.
But Karzai said he would not reach out to groups such as Al-Qaeda or other “terrorist networks”.
“Whether they are against Afghanistan or whether they are Al-Qaeda and the terrorist war against the United States or our neighbors in Pakistan, those of course cannot be accepted.”
Karzai also dismissed claims in a new U.S. book about his mental health.
“He’s on his meds, he’s off his meds,” the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, is quoted as saying.
TITLE: Paris in the Autumn: An Art Lover’s Earthly Paradise
AUTHOR: By Chris Gordon
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: While the image of springtime in Paris may be the city’s official calling card, the considerable pleasures of the French capital in autumn are overlooked at the risk of any experienced traveler’s reputation. October and November are in fact when the city truly reveals itself. Gone are the heaving throngs of tourists, long queues and sweaty midday rests that the blazing sun demands, to be replaced by crystalline days that morph into cool, crisp nights. With their own special magic, they make pulling on a cashmere cardigan even more deliciously sensual than usual.
While it is true that the rain may fall a bit more often and come down a bit colder, what could be more romantic than settling into a corner booth of a cafe with a cup of hot chocolate and gazing contentedly through the misted windows as the world passes by? After a day spent tramping through the galleries and boutiques, it’s a reward that doesn’t feel the least bit extravagant but rather like an absolutely necessity. Choose the famous Laduree patisserie, and you have the added advantage of being able to sample some of the twenty-six flavors of macaroons that have achieved near-cult status.
For those interested in what the city is most famous for — art and fashion — autumn in Paris is a true paradise. It’s when the new Season gets into full swing, when the latest collections become available in the shops, long-awaited premieres hit the stages and the most important museum and gallery shows are unveiled.
As a city that has lived and breathed art since the Renaissance, there is always something hanging on the walls to tempt one to spend both time and money lavishly. Traditionally, all the action is located near the sublime Tuilleries gardens, the former royal preserve created by Catherine de Medici and opened to the public following the revolution. In October, when the leaves begin turning bright gold and red, the annual art fair known as FIAC moves into the neighborhood and sets up shop for a week of wheeling and dealing. The attendant influx of gallerists and collectors that descend on Paris lend the city an even more cosmopolitan feel than at any other time of the year.
Now thirty-seven years old, FIAC has had its highs and lows. At the moment it’s on a big swing upwards as galleries whose survival depends on attending art fairs are beginning to choose Paris over nearby but often expensive and self-satisfied neighbors. With 197 galleries from twenty-four countries, the more prestigious occupy the Grand Palais, while those showing younger artists take up residence in a courtyard of the Louvre. Combined with the numerous projects scattered around town, FIAC makes seeing the latest artworks from countries it could take a lifetime to visit as simple as a trip to Paris.
Bookended by the Jeu de Paume gallery and the Louvre, and connecting the two central poles of attraction at FIAC, the Tuilleries hosts an exhibition of outdoor sculpture that runs for the duration of the art fair. In the middle of this axis is Le Meurice, the palatial setting that is currently hosting an exhibition of the finalists for its annual contemporary art prize. In its third year, Le Prix Meurice honors the hotel’s incredible 200-year history by granting a cash award to the winning artist and his or her primary gallery to support promotion of the artist’s work abroad. The first award was presided over by Amanda Lear — a work of art in her own right — and this year sees the selection committee led by designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. The work of this year’s winner, Eric Baudart, and that of the seven other finalists will be on view through Oct. 25, offering visitors the chance to discover some of the best young artists working in Paris.
Further afield, the trendy and slightly gritty Palais de Tokyo is pulling out all the stops with the sprawling group show “Fresh Hell” alongside smaller exhibitions by Eric Tabuchi and Carol Bove. While across town, a stone’s throw from Notre Dame, the Centre Pompidou presents the work of Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco including his vertiginous sculpture a of spliced Citroen DS, the icon of French automotive futurism that philosopher Roland Barthes said looked as if it had “fallen from the sky.”
When the time comes for edible art, as it surely will, Paris doesn’t need any introduction. There are more restaurants here per capita than anywhere else in France and the choice is dizzying. While any number of clip joints aimed at tourists clamor for the attention, the classics remain solidly dependable, delivering on both atmosphere and gustatory delight.
One of the best for a luxurious lunch or memorable dinner is Le Grand Vefour. Situated in the arcades of the Palais Royal and just a short stroll from the boutiques of Place Vendome, it has been serving Paris’s beau monde for more than two centuries. On the lower end of the spectrum, but nearly as historic, is the classic “bouillon,” Chartier. Becoming popular as a canteen at a time when a kitchen in the home was a luxury, the striking turn-of-the-century interior hasn’t changed much since 1896. It draws a mix of regulars and tourists for hearty, old-school classics served in a typically gruff yet amusing manner at prices that won’t necessitate a call to your bank manager.
For the more adventurous, there are plenty of new restaurants owned by young chefs that blend a casual sociability with an experimental approach to traditional ingredients. One such place is L’Office where reservations are an absolute must as the tiny dining room seats only a lucky few each night. Located on a nondescript street not far from Folies Bergere, the restaurant’s rather austere interior belies a passionate and well-judged approach in the kitchen that has won it numerous fans.
Once it’s time to turn in for the night, Paris offers more than enough hotel rooms to comfortably lodge the upwards of 30 million tourists who pass through every year. With budget accommodations that start at a mere 50 euros a night, but will certainly land you on the outskirts of the city, those with a passion for art and the well-heeled can do no better than a stay at Le Meurice.
On the chic rue du Rivoli, the five-star Meurice sits right in the middle of all the events surrounding FIAC, making it possible to roll out of bed and wander over to whichever exhibition catches your fancy. And with a long historical association with royalty and the art world — Salvador Dali called it home every year for a month and it has hosted numerous kings and queens — the reverently restored interiors by Philippe Starck make it a dream of opulent indulgence. From its three Michelin-starred restaurant to the Penhaligon toiletries that honor the hotel’s long-standing nickname ‘City of London,’ there is no other place that combines the comforts of home with the glamorous buzz of Paris as well. Once ensconced in one of the rooms facing the Tuilleries, it becomes all too easy to luxuriate late into the morning. But then, why not? If you have come all this way to indulge body and soul, a good lie-in at one of the best addresses in the city is about as good as it gets.
Practical information
Most major airlines offer connecting services from Pulkovo to Paris, but only Air France has 14 non-stop flights per week.
• FIAC runs from Oct. 21 to 24 and tickets are available online at www.fiac.com or on the doors at the Grand Palais.
• Le Palais de Tokyo, 13 avenue du President Wilson
• Centre George Pompidou, Place George Pompidou (just off of Blvd. Sebastopol)
• Laduree, 16 rue Royale, a box of four macaroons from 15 euros, walk-ins only
• Le Grand Vefour, 17 rue de Beaujolais, 75 euros and upwards, reservations on 01 42 96 56 27
• Chartier, 7 rue de Faubourg Montmartre, 15 to 20 euros, walk-ins only
• L’Office, 3 rue Richer, prix fixe from 25 euros, reservations on 01 47 70 67 31
• Hotel Le Meurice, 228 rue de Rivoli, published rates starting at 665 euros per night, www.lemeurice.com
TITLE: Rest and Recuperation in the Land of the Kalevala
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: There is far more to Finnish tourism than shopping trips to Helsinki, as more and more Russian tourists discover every year. Retail therapy is far from the only attraction of neighboring Suomi, which offers a diverse range of holiday activities from relaxing spa-breaks to energetic activity holidays.
To learn more about Finland’s celebrated national epic poem, “The Kalevala,” the Kajaani region is the place to visit. It was here that Elias L?nnrot compiled his collection of Finnish and Karelian folklore and mythology. Alongside researching history, there are plenty of opportunities for exploring nature and attempting adventure sports.
The Kajaani region has many tempting destinations, the most popular of which is Vuokatti — the most versatile holiday resort in the whole of Scandinavia. It doesn’t matter what the season is here, as Vuokatti offers a multitude of indoor and outdoor activities. The autumn is a wonderful time of year to undertake the oldest hike in Finland through 13 hills — a tradition that dates back more than 60 years.
FUN IN THE SNOW
Every year, mountains of artificial snow are produced in Vuokatti, which alongside the region’s natural snowfall, makes skiing possible from early October. The resort is also home to the longest ski-tunnel in Europe, which operates throughout the year. Many professionals use its 1,210-meter route for training in summer.
There are 13 downhill ski slopes, and as Vuokatti is a family resort, there is something to suit all members of the family. The “blue” slope is suitable for beginners, while more experienced skiers may want to try the “black” one. The “Tenavarinne” slope is perfect for kids. All slopes use the SkiData system, meaning tourists who have purchased smart cards don’t have to stand in long lines. Cards can be purchased and skiing sessions reserved in advance on the Internet.
In addition to downhill skiing, Vuokatti has excellent snowboarding facilities, including a 400-meter Super Pipe and a separate “street” for doing jumps and tricks.
Cross-country skiing is currently undergoing a revival among Russian tourists, and Vuokatti boasts almost 150 kilometers of ski routes.
For those who prefer skates to skis, the most experienced sportsmen can reach maximum speeds on a 10-kilometer trail on the ice of Lake Nuasj?rvi, with the help of sticks that also give shoulders and arms a good workout.
BONDING WITH NATURE
Dog sledging or horse-riding can be enjoyed in every season. During the summer and off-season, the dogs pull sledges on wheels. There are various routes that take from one-and-a-half hours to five days. Participants can learn about the habits of husky dogs, visit a husky farm for tea, and even try their hand at driving a team of dogs themselves.
The front pair of dogs in the team understands commands such as “left,” “right” and “straight on,” and a guide can tell the individual story of every dog and of the breed in general.
Although dog sledding is available during the whole year, the best season is winter, when the surrounding scenery is breathtaking and the dogs have developed their full, luxuriant winter coats.
Huskies can also accompany people on hikes through pine forests, in which a dog is harnessed in front of the hiker with a trekking belt. The dog is chosen according to the character and aim of the hiker — from active hikers to people in search of a relaxing walk.
Vuokatti has four horse-riding schools at which lessons can be taken, or from which horses can be taken out for a ride, which is good for both beginners and experienced riders. Winter rides are usually on Icelandic pony-sized horses, as they have a heavy winter coat and very strong short legs for climbing paths in frozen winter forests.
Ultimately, though, the national symbol of Finland is neither the husky nor an Icelandic horse. It is the brown bear. Eastern Finland is a home to a large number of brown bears, and from April to October, the Wild Brown Bear Center located an hour’s drive from Vuokatti offers visitors the opportunity to watch the bears in their natural environment. Tourists can go on nighttime tours to especially designed bear hides. In addition to bears, lucky spectators may observe various birds, deer and even wolverines. Accommodation in this area is available in the form of cottages.
Golf fans will find more than 100 golf clubs in Finland, which together have more than 130,000 members. According to statistics, every 40th Finn plays golf. The golf season in Vuokatti starts in May and ends in October. Holiday Club Kaltinkulta offers an 18-hole golf course and ample practice facilities, as well as recommended lessons with professionals.
REST & RECUPERATION
After a hard-won game of golf or a thrilling day on the slopes, the ideal wind-down is to go to Kaltinkulta spa center and take advantage of the more than 20 pools offered by the biggest holiday center in Vuokatti. There are various types of pools, ranging from an open-air one to a 25-meter exercise pool, different Jacuzzis and hydro massage pools, as well as water slides for children and adrenaline junkies. The temperature of the water is a comfortable 30 degrees.
Alongside classical Finnish saunas, there are also a Roman thermal bath and traditional Russian “black banya” in which the smoke escapes through a hole in the ceiling. After scrubbing oneself in the baths, a wealth of spa treatments and various kinds of massages and other wellness programs are available.
The St. Petersburg Times was a guest of Holiday Club Kaltinkulta, Katinkullantie 15, Vuokatti, Tel: +358 20 1234 904.
www.holidayclubspahotels.com
Practical information
How to get there
Finnair operates several daily flights from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and Helsinki to Kajaani, whose airport is 40 kilometers from the resort.
There are several daily trains from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, from where a bus can be taken from the train station to Vuokatti.
By car, Vuokatti is 630 kilometers from St. Petersburg. The nearest border-crossing point is Ljuttja-Vartius, not far from Kostomuksha (Russia) and Kuhmo (Finland).
Where to stay
Holiday Club Kaltinkulta is an excellent choice due to its location near to most of the resort’s facilities and its luxurious spa complex. In addition to hotel rooms, guests can choose to stay in fully equipped apartments that include a fireplace, sauna and terrace.
The Holiday Club also offers a time-share program for tourists who want to return to the region every year. One week costs between 4,500 and 37,000 euros, depending on the location of the home, its size and the week selected. From next year, Petersburgers will be able to take advantage of all these facilities at a location closer to the border: Holiday Club is set to open a new hotel in the ecologically clean region of Lake Saimaa in Lappeenranta, 230 kilometers from St. Petersburg. The new complex will include more than 500 rooms and apartments, as well as a water park, golf course, badminton courts and wellness area, plus a range of activities to occupy children.
TITLE: New Business Focuses on Globe-Trotting Toy Trend
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Dear Mum, couldn’t stand the loneliness any longer. Gone off to see the world. Don’t be worried, I’ll be back soon. Love Bilbo xxx.” Thus read a note found by a woman in the space formerly occupied by a gnome in her garden in a suburb of Sydney.
The story was reported in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald in 1986. For many, the incident marks the world’s first example of a new phenomenon — toy travel.
The trend developed rapidly and led to the foundation of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. Its crusading members wanted to return garden gnomes “to the wild,” stealing them and sending them off on distant voyages, their photos being taken in all manner of exotic locales, before returning them to their original owners.
The traveling toy phenomenon developed further popularity after the release of the film “Amelie” (2001), which featured a traveling gnome.
And then, a year ago, commerce finally got in on the act, when the world’s first genuine, official tourist agency for traveling toys was opened. Four people from the Czech Republic — all of them already working in the tourism and business spheres — decided to provide this service to Czechs.
According to the company’s owners, the world is home to about 1.2 billion teddy bears, gnomes and other creatures, and they’re all ready and waiting to take off on voyages. They have become good friends to their owners, so it’s only natural that the latter should want to do something for their “little friends,” such as send them off abroad.
The first destination offered by the firm was Prague, but now you can send your toys wherever you want — even to St. Petersburg, which now has its own toy travel company, the first in Russia. The firm welcomes toys sent from all over the world and promises to ensures that they have a comfortable journey.
The logistics of sending a toy on a trip are much the same as those for humans. First of all, the owner selects a tour on the Internet. For example, if you want to send your toy to St. Petersburg, you can choose from various programs with different services, from walking tours around the city and visits to museums and theaters, to massage and aromatherapy treatments. Prices range from 3,000 to 9,000 rubles ($100 to $300).
“The toy arrives by post and from then on the journey depends on the program. The toy might go to see the bridges being opened in St. Petersburg, or we have a Dostoyevsky’s Petersburg program,” says Leonid Itskovich, director of Toy Traveling in St. Petersburg. “Alternatively, the owner can select a museum they want their toy to visit, or a palace.”
“Once, an owner from Canada ordered a trip to the theater for his toy — it was the rat Remy from the cartoon ‘Ratatouille.’ We were asked to go with the toy to the Maly Drama Theater (Theater de L’Europe). We took the rat to the theater and took some photos,” he said.
“Another order was to switch on certain music every evening before the toy was supposed to go to sleep. The choice of music was quite strange — it wasn’t exactly what a human being would usually choose to go to sleep to, but we still fulfilled the customer’s wishes,” said Itskovich.
A trip to St. Petersburg usually lasts anywhere from three days to a couple of weeks. Journey time by mail should also be allowed. The toys are usually sent in specially equipped boxes, sometimes even with blankets. After the cultural program, the toys, along with their photos and some souvenirs, are sent back to their owners.
St. Petersburg is a popular destination for toy travel. Seven to eight toy tourists arrive weekly, according to the toy travel agency. There are tourists from Germany, Belgium, Canada, the U.S. and even Iran. The St. Petersburg and Czech agencies offer combined St. Petersburg – Prague – St. Petersburg tours.
“Our main clients are foreigners who want to send their friends to St. Petersburg,” said Itskovich. “They are mostly young women aged from 22 to 35. There have been several tourists sent from within Russia, but these are quite rare cases. Russians aren’t in the habit of sending their toys on trips alone.”
“People in Russia have a very different attitude to toy travel,” he added. “Russian girls, I think, aren’t prepared to entrust their toys to strangers, the postal system and foreigners.”
Itskovich’s thoughts are echoed by St. Petersburg resident Natalya Khandoga, who says she isn’t prepared to send her beloved toy off on a trip on its own, preferring to take it with her when she travels.
“There is a widely held opinion about post office workers in Russia, and people think their beloved little toys will probably just end up lying about somewhere in the post office, deprived of love and care,” said Khandoga.
“It would be strange for me to send my toy-friend traveling alone, because if there’s any danger he’s just not the sort to reach for the phone to ask for help! For me, toy travel is just a good opportunity to do an unusual photo shoot on fairly standard tourist routes. And, first and foremost, I’d like to visit all these interesting places myself,” she added.
In the past, Khandoga preferred to travel alone, rather than being dependent on fellow travelers. All that changed, however, when she found a new friend in a toyshop. Mr. Chick is now Natalia’s regular traveling companion.
“I’m a shy person, but my toy-friend helps me to overcome that and meet new people,” she explained. “For example, you can say to a person: ‘You have such a wonderful hat. Can I take a photograph of my toy-friend with it?’ That makes it much easier to continue the conversation.”
The bulk of the toy-tourist contingent, according to toy travel agencies, is made up of teddy bears, followed by cartoon characters.
In Russia, people have been slow to regard traveling toys as a genuine growth industry.
“If we focus more attention on this, and really treat it as a real business, the profits could be comparable with those at a real tourist agency,” says Itskovich.
St. Petersburg’s toys, Itskovich says, can now be sent wherever their owners please — it’s just a matter of how much the owners are prepared to pay.