SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1633 (94), Friday, December 10, 2010
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TITLE: Governor Scraps Plans for Okhta Center Tower
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The controversial Okhta Center project was scrapped Thursday, as St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko canceled her Oct. 2009 decree allowing the planned Gazprom skyscraper to increase its height to 403 meters, contrary to the 40-meter limit for the area set by the law.
“We had talks with Gazprom and took a mutual and final decision about moving the project to another site,” she was quoted as saying by Ekho Moskvy radio station.
Matviyenko made the statement during a planned meeting with journalists during a congress of construction businesses in St. Petersburg. She said she had already signed the decree.
Last week, Matviyenko first admitted that the move was possible. “We are interested in ensuring that the city is unified, that there is no tension and confrontation,” she was quoted by City Hall’s official web site as saying on Dec. 3.
A new site for the planned skyscraper has yet to be selected.
Okhta Center’s press officer Tatyana Yuryeva said she had no comment when called Thursday.
St. Petersburg residents, preservationists and the political opposition have been battling against the project since it was announced in 2006 — despite considerable pressure from the authorities as both the Kremlin and City Hall demonstrated full support for the project.
Opponents warned that the planned skyscraper, which was to house the headquarters of Gazprom Neft, threatened to destroy St. Petersburg’s UNESCO-protected skyline, among other objections.
Another fear was the threat to archeological findings on the site that was once home to two medieval Swedish fortresses and a Neolithic settlement.
“It’s a victory for the whole of St. Petersburg, it can be credited to all those who fought against all the odds, in the face of being told that doing anything was hopeless; it’s a victory of the spirit over the belly, a genuine achievement for civil society,” said Maxim Reznik, chair of the local branch of the Yabloko Democratic Party.
According to Reznik, the party’s firm stance against the project led to his party being dismissed from the local parliamentary elections, when the signatures needed for the party to be registered for the elections were declared “inauthentic” by the St. Petersburg election committee in 2007.
“We paid a high price, but it was worth it,” Reznik said.
“It was strange to have to fight for four years for things that are so obvious,” said Pyotr Zabirokhin of the preservationist organization Living City.
“It’s a first concrete move that should put an end to the project in its current form, which is exactly what the defenders of St. Petersburg have fought to achieve over the past few years.”
The Other Russia political party’s local chair Andrei Dmitriyev described the Okhta Center’s cancellation as a “great victory for the whole of civil society and the opposition,” but warned that other controversial projects could appear under the political system created by former president Vladimir Putin.
“I wouldn’t want to indulge in euphoria; we will only be able to solve our problems when the St. Petersburg authorities are accountable to city residents,” Dmitriyev said.
“A hundred Okhta Centers could appear in every sphere of life, and until we start electing the governor, until we have honest elections and until we have normally organized self-government, such situations will appear all the time, and we should demand political reforms.”
Putin abolished the election of governors in 2005 as a “security measure” following the 2004 terrorist attack in Beslan.
TITLE: Stars Turn Out For Charity Concert
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A galaxy of Hollywood and other international movie stars including Sharon Stone, Kevin Costner, Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell and Mickey Rourke will attend a major charity concert in support of Russian children with cancer and serious ophthalmology problems in St. Petersburg on Friday.
Stone said the event would be “a terrific opportunity to work on behalf of these children.”
“It’s wonderful for me and other celebrities to be able to use our fame for the opportunity to be of service for these children,” Stone said at a press conference in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
Paul Anka, an American and Canadian pop and rock-n-roll singer who came to take part in the concert, said it was very important to collect money for cancer research and prevention.
“Any way you can contribute to it is great,” Anka said at the press conference.
Rourke said he always remembered how his friend who was dying from a brain tumor had told him about visiting children who suffered from the same illness.
“My friend was struck by how those children were struggling for their lives, and he stopped fearing for himself then,” Rourke said. “Those children took his fear from him and gave him strength,” he said.
Stone and Rourke on Thursday went to visit young cancer patients in the city’s hospitals.
Friday’s charity event, which is not open to the public and whose program remains shrouded in mystery, aims to unite the efforts of the authorities, business and society in finding additional new sources to support Russian children with cancer and serious ophthalmological diseases.
It is being organized by the Federation innovation and charity fund headed by Vladimir Kiselyov, head of the once popular pop band Zemlyane. The program will feature performances by children, as well as by some of the stars.
Kiselyov said the organizers had invited hundreds of celebrities to join the project, but only several dozen of them agreed.
More of the star guests will visit children’s hospitals and clinics before the concert to meet young patients and give presents to them.
The concert, to be held at St. Petersburg’s Ice Palace, will also be attended by Russian and foreign political and business elite, leading doctors and famous people who have been affected by cancer.
Letters in which the children share their long-cherished dreams will be laid out on tables in the Ice Palace. People willing and able to do a good deed will have a chance to make the children’s dreams come true.
On Saturday, the organizers of the event will hold a charity auction, the proceeds of which will be transferred to a special relief fund for centers that treat children with cancer and serious eye diseases. The centers, located in various parts of the country, will receive the diagnostic equipment they need, medical instruments and expensive medicines.
Stone, an American fashion model and film star, is also well known for her humanitarian work. She has been active in the fight against malaria in Africa and AIDS globally, as well as fighting for human rights in Tibet and women’s rights in south and southeast Asia.
Recently Stone launched her own jewelry collection, part of the proceeds from which will go to building wells to provide clean water in Africa.
TITLE: Local Government to Restore Bombed Lenin Statue
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The monument to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin that was blown up by an unknown party in St. Petersburg’s satellite town of Pushkin on Monday night will be restored, the administration of the Pushkin district said.
“The monument to Lenin will be restored but the terms of restoration are to be determined after an expert evaluation,” a representative of the district administration said, Interfax reported.
Staff at St. Petersburg’s City Sculpture Museum said the monument was not of any artistic or historical value.
“The monument was erected in 2006 to replace a previous one that was damaged, but that doesn’t make the act of vandalism any less sad,” a museum representative was quoted by Interfax as saying.
St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said she “was outraged to hear about another act of vandalism.”
“Those who attack monuments attack the history, art and feelings of our citizens,” Matviyenko said Tuesday.
Unknown people set off explosives near the monument to Lenin at Malaya Ulitsa. The monument remained standing, but the glass in the windows of the neighboring buildings was shattered.
The police have opened a criminal case into hooliganism.
Members of the Communists of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast organization demanded that the authorities equip all the city’s Lenin monuments with video cameras.
“Otherwise, we’ll consider that all the conditions for vandals are in place,” the organization said in its statement.
The organization said the new explosion was a result of the inactivity of local police in finding criminals who previously committed similar acts of vandalism against Lenin monuments.
Maxim Reznik, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko political party, said that even if those who attacked the monument had political motives, it was “the wrong way” to deal with the issue.
“In any case, it seems to be an act of vandalism, and a dangerous one, for it could result in injuries and victims among ordinary people,” Reznik said.
“Of course we still have too many monuments to Lenin all around the country, and many of them have no architectural value.
“We should ask ourselves why we have so many monuments to that person and who that person is. But that’s a different issue. It has nothing to do with acts of vandalism,” he added.
Vladimir Timofeyev, director of the City Sculpture Museum, said there are about 100 monuments to Lenin in St. Petersburg.
“At one time, all state organizations considered it their duty to have a monument or a bust of Lenin. There are 85 such monuments in St. Petersburg,” Timofeyev was cited by Interfax as saying.
In addition, the city has about 15 monuments to Lenin of federal significance and about 25 Lenin memorial plaques and bas-reliefs.
Monuments to the Bolshevik leader have seen repeated attacks in recent times, both in Russia and in other parts of the former Soviet Union.
In 2009, a historic monument to Lenin near St. Petersburg’s Finland Railway Station was seriously damaged by an explosion. The restored monument was returned to its plinth on April 15.
TITLE: Moscow’s Police Permit Football Fans to Rally
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Surprising nationalists and opposition politicians alike, Moscow’s notoriously tough police force took no action as about 1,000 football fans chanting nationalist slogans blocked Moscow’s Leningradsky Prospekt Tuesday for an unsanctioned protest against the death of one of their own in an interracial brawl.
Moreover, Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin pledged Wednesday that his agency would seek justice in the death of Yegor Sviridov, 28.
Sviridov, an active member of the Union, a group of football fans supporting Spartak Moscow, died after taking four shots from an air gun in a brawl with North Caucasus natives in northern Moscow late Sunday.
A main suspect in the case, Aslan Cherkesov, 26, a Kabardino-Balkaria native, was detained Wednesday but said he fired in self-defense, fighting for his life, RIA-Novosti reported.
Cherkesov also told investigators that he feared Sviridov’s supporters might try to take revenge on his family.
He faces up to 15 years in prison if charged and convicted of murder.
Bastrykin said in a statement that the 1,000-member protest late Tuesday played a role in his decision to open an investigation into the death, which he said has caused “a wide social reaction.”
The protest, organized by a Spartak Moscow fan club called Fratria, or Brotherhood, was staged near an Investigative Committee office on Leningradsky Prospekt in northern Moscow.
The crowd chanted nationalist slogans such as “Russia for Russians” and “Moscow for Muscovites,” lit flares, stood on cars and obstructed busy evening traffic, according to videos posted on YouTube and LiveJournal.
Police, known for crackdowns on unruly sports fans and opposition protesters, only sought to shepherd participants off the street, without resorting to violence or detaining anyone. Some videos showed riot police officers negotiating with the rally leaders.
“I’ve been a fan for a long time, but this is the first time that I have seen the police treating young Russians with such respect,” an unidentified Spartak fan told Gazeta.ru at the rally.
Law enforcement agencies learned about the rally in advance by tracking forums on fan web sites, and took care that the most potentially violent fans did not attend, a Moscow police official told Kommersant.
“They were informed that they would have serious problems if serious unrest broke out,” the unidentified official said. “As a result, the most active groups of football hooligans … didn’t take part.”
A Moscow police spokeswoman could not be reached for comment on police actions at the rally Wednesday.
TITLE: Tajik Rebel ‘Vegetable King’ Busted
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A reputed Tajik rebel leader-turned-crime boss accused of killing at least 43 people, including 19 Russian soldiers, in 25 attacks was detained working as a vegetable seller in a Russian region, the Federal Security Service said Wednesday, Interfax reported.
The FSB did not provide details on Abdulvosit Latipov’s arrest other than to say he resided in the Chelyabinsk region. NTV television said he was detained in the Volgograd region.
The FSB said Latipov and two suspected associates, Yusuf Dzhalilov and Boimurod Khodzhayev, who were detained in December 2009 and April 2010, respectively, would be extradited to Tajikistan.
The FSB said Latipov and his men trained in terrorist camps in Iran and on the Afghan-Pakistani border and served in the United Tajik Opposition, a rebel faction during the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s.
Participants of the civil war were granted amnesty in 1998, but Latipov and his group switched to lives of crime, in particular kidnapping people for ransom, which led to them being convicted in absentia and placed on an international wanted list in 2001.
The trio moved to Russia in 2004, obtaining Russian citizenship and setting up small businesses, possibly as a cover for criminal activity, the FSB said.
TITLE: World Bank To Give Loan To Silver Ring
AUTHOR: By Howard Amos
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The World Bank has approved a $100 million loan to preserve cultural heritage sites in four northwestern regions that have been dubbed the “Silver Ring,” the bank said Wednesday.
“This is another opportunity for the regions to use their cultural heritage and to include it in their economic strategy,” said Marina Vasilyeva, a spokeswoman for the World Bank’s Moscow office.
The Russian government will contribute an additional $150.5 million to the “Preservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage” project which will be run by the Culture Ministry from 2011 to 2017. The program foresees that restored sites will have a snowball effect on tourism and related infrastructure.
A World Bank statement released in Washington late Tuesday said the project was in line with Russia’s stated long-term goals of using culture as a strategic source for social and economic development. The project will function in the Pskov, Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad regions, an area that the World Bank’s project appraisal report describes as a “gateway to Europe.” The report also says the four regions are part of an ancient transportation route between the north and the south, and make up the “cradle of Russian history.” The area contains historical monuments from the 10th to the 19th century.
Yekaterina Shorban, a representative of the State Institute of Art Studies, said there are a “huge quantity of ruined monuments” in this area of Russia, and that if they are not supported, “they will simply disappear.”
At particular risk are crumbling tsarist estates and churches in places where there are now few people living. She estimated that in the Tver region alone there were more than 600 such buildings in need of maintenance. They are a “part of our European heritage,” Shorban said, and they need more urgent attention than more visible monuments in bigger urban areas.
The list of pilot interventions for the project, however, contains only one site that is outside a major city.
Defending the scope of the project, Nicolas Perrin, the World Bank’s project team leader speaking from Washington, said work “would not be limited to the main cities.” Not only would a second round of proposed interventions be submitted in two years’ time, he said, but museums and other cultural institutions throughout the regions would be able to apply for grants of up to $500,000 for smaller projects.
Perrin added that they were also employing the idea of clustering in the initial stages, concentrating the first phases of the project together, to encourage the development of a tourist infrastructure.
The World Bank’s project appraisal also raises the specter of corruption. The document talks of “serious weaknesses at the lower levels of local government.”
TITLE: New Train Brings Helsinki Nearer
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A new high-speed train, the Allegro, will reduce the journey time between St. Petersburg and Helsinki to just three-and-a-half hours when it is launched on Sunday.
In order to reduce the journey time by two hours, modern rolling stock has been introduced, railway tracks reconstructed and border procedures accelerated. The new train, whose name means “fast” in Italian, can travel at up to 220 kilometers per hour.
With first-class tickets priced at 134 euros and second-class at 84 euros, the high-speed train is primarily targeted at business travelers, and the train’s range of services has been expanded accordingly.
“Business travelers are attracted by speed,” said Valeri Pentinen, sales support coordinator for Finnish state rail operator VR Group. “From May 29, 2011 there will be four daily services and businessmen will be able to make one-day business trips to St. Petersburg or Helsinki, staying in the city for eight to 10 hours.”
“People can save both time and money on hotel expenses. Every seat is equipped with electrical sockets, and there is also a meeting room in the first-class carriage,” he added.
Another target group of customers is families, as there is a designated area for baby strollers and an outer space-themed play area.
The train possesses ample space for wheelchair passengers and a lift for easy boarding, and the second-class section has designated seats where people traveling with pets can secure their animals.
The Allegro will replace the Sibelius and Repin trains that currently operate between St. Petersburg and Helsinki.
“Now there are only two trains per day, but from May 2011 there will be four daily services to each destination, so everyone will be able to find a time of departure that suits them,” said Pentinen. “So the [continued] presence of slow trains on this route would seem strange.”
The Russian night train, the Leo Tolstoy, continues to run between Moscow and Helsinki.
High-speed trains are not an innovation for Finland.
“Pendolino high-speed trains have been running in Finland for more than 10 years, and there is already a reliable experience of providing traffic safety,” said Pentinen.
In Russia, the first high-speed train, the Sapsan, was launched a year ago between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
The introduction of the Allegro aims to increase the passenger traffic between St. Petersburg and Helsinki.
“We expect that within 10 years, the rail passenger traffic between Finland and St. Petersburg will increase by about 2.5 to 3 times,” said Pentinen.
“But we are not competing with any other kind of transport, rather we complement one another. Compared with the Princess Maria ferry, we have different segments of clients. The Allegro is for those who want to get to their destination quickly and in comfort, while people who travel by ferry first of all wish to enjoy the journey, to relax and attend the show-programs on board,” he said.
The Finnish authorities advise Russian travelers to go to Finland by train, especially during the period of the winter holidays, as they predict record passenger volumes on the Finnish-Russian border. The Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg alone has already issued more than 700,000 visas this year — 30 percent more than previous years. While the checkpoints cannot cope with such a large volume of cars, on the train, all customs and border procedures are done on board the train without incurring any additional delays.
TITLE: Poll Gives Medvedev Win in Vote
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev would easily win re-election if the vote were held today and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stayed out of the race, according to a new survey by the Kremlin-friendly VTsIOM.
Medvedev would scoop up 50 percent of the vote, followed at a distant second by Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 5 percent, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov with 4 percent and Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu with 3 percent, according to the poll on whom voters would pick if elections were held next Sunday.
Medvedev and Putin have remained coy about whether either of them might run for election in 2012.
VTsIOM researcher Stepan Lvov said Putin was removed from the survey after he gave up the presidency to Medvedev in 2008 but could not explain why the prime minister remained absent despite the fact that the elections were drawing near.
He said by telephone that the survey was “comprised of names of politicians who don’t intersect.”
Lvov also said VTsIOM offered a separate survey on the public’s trust toward politicians that could be used to compare Putin’s and Medvedev’s ratings. Putin topped Medvedev in the most recent VTsIOM poll, with a 48 percent trust rating compared with the president’s 42 percent.
TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: Transport Prices Rise
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Prices for public transport in the city will increase from Jan. 1.
Tickets for buses, trolleybuses and trams will increase from the current 19 rubles ($0.60) to 21 rubles ($0.67), while a metro journey will cost 25 rubles ($0.80) next year, up from 22 rubles ($0.71) this year, according to information published on City Hall’s web site, Interfax reported Wednesday.
Hermitage Prices
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The State Hermitage Museum will not join other local museums in abolishing the system of different ticket prices for foreigners and Russians, the museum’s director Mikhail Piotrovsky said at a press conference Tuesday, Interfax reported.
“Despite the fact that the existing discounts do not suit some travel agencies and a range of other organizations, we will keep the existing system,” Piotrovsky was cited by Interfax as saying.
Most local museums have a two-tier pricing system under which Russian citizens are eligible for “discounted” tickets. Entrance to the Hermitage currently costs 100 rubles ($3.20) for Russian citizens and foreigners who can prove they are resident in Russia, and 400 rubles ($12.80) for foreign visitors.
The Isaakievsky Sobor museum complex that includes St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood recently announced that from Jan. 1, tickets would cost 200 rubles ($6.40) for all visitors, replacing the current charges of 320 rubles ($10.20) for foreigners and 130 rubles ($4.15) for Russians.
TITLE: Leaks Detail Ex-Soviet Hedonism
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON — A diplomat’s life is not just caviar and coattails. It is rubbery fish in Brussels, a nauseating revolving restaurant in Kazakhstan and an epic three-day Dagestani wedding featuring “stupendous” quantities of alcohol, a golden pistol, dancing women, the scent of danger and cauldrons of cows boiled whole.
It is not all receptions and speeches. It also is the psychological terror of getting a phone call saying your spouse has died in an accident, but not really. A diplomat’s life also can be a rather exasperating conversation with a British prince who lords it over everyone in the room.
The secret cables surfacing in the WikiLeaks disclosures offer myriad glimpses into the world of diplomacy, that oh-so-guarded enterprise.
U.S. diplomats, it turns out, are not stuffy at all. They are raconteurs, adventurers and under-the-radar operatives. Some may even be spies.
Think of the rapier wit of James Bond, the gravity of John Adams in the Court of St. James and the groovy antics of Austin Powers.
Together, the cables suggest the former Soviet Union is party central. Oil wealth, corruption, an intimidating security service, oligarchies and hearty appetites for hedonism make for a potent brew in Russia and the republics that split away.
And U.S. Embassy officials, known in cable-speak as emboff, are flies on the wall.
They shadowed the Kazakh prime minister as he danced with abandon at a nightclub (‘’Emboff lingered close to Masimov’s group”). They reported having “eyes on” a defense minister who liked to loosen up in the “’homo sovieticus’ style — i.e., drinking oneself into a stupor.” They strolled not just the palaces and villas of those in government but the hideaway mansions of the political elites who really pull the strings.
For sheer voyeurism, it is hard to top a cable signed by William Burns, now a top State Department official, when he was ambassador to Russia. The cable reported from a lavish August 2006 wedding at the summer home of the chief of Dagestan’s oil company in the North Caucasus, a compound where the entire floor of a grotto is the glass ceiling of a massive aquarium. (No word on sharks circling underneath.)
In marrying his son to a classmate, oilman Gadzhi Makhachev presided over a bizarre affair drawing together revelers from the wilds and from the establishment — “the slick to the Jurassic,” as the cable put it. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who came with a small army, danced “clumsily with his gold-plated automatic stuck down in the back of his jeans,” and joined the host in showering children with $100 bills before disappearing into the night.
The unidentified U.S. diplomats in attendance inadvertently insulted a drunken security service colonel when they would not let him add cognac to their wine, despite his protestation that “it’s practically the same thing.”
“We were inclined to cut the Colonel some slack,” says the cable. “He is head of the unit to combat terrorism in Dagestan, and Gadzhi told us that extremists have sooner or later assassinated everyone who has joined that unit.”
It was all in a day’s work for diplomats seeking to understand the politics of clan, alliance, land and ethnicity, as the cable described the currents coursing through the party.
Just as an army marches on its stomach, food is the fuel of diplomacy. In Dagestan, that meant watching fragments of boiled carcasses dumped on a table for the guests.
For Richard Hoagland, ambassador to Kazakhstan, it meant meeting his Chinese counterpart for dinner in a fancy hotel built by China’s national petroleum company in Astana. The Chinese ambassador preferred to talk in a public place or the U.S. Embassy because he feared his own quarters were bugged.
America’s eyes and ears at that June 2009 meeting soaked up the architecture, the menu and much else. America’s belly, though, was a bit wobbly that day.
“The marble lobby is impressive, if a bit too totalitarian-austere,” said the cable signed by Hoagland. “We were the only guests in the restaurant, although an untouched full buffet was laid out. The revolving restaurant provides a spectacular panorama of Astana, and the empty steppe beyond, but it seems to revolve at varying speeds and sometimes can be a bit too fast on a full stomach and after a few glasses of wine.”
In Kyrgyzstan, the top U.S. diplomat joined a hotel brunch in October 2008 to brief British royalty, Andrew the Duke of York, before his meetings with local officials. Ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller’s cable barely conceals annoyance with the prince.
“Astonishingly candid, the discussion at times verged on the rude (from the British side),” it says. As with the other cables, it is signed by the ambassador but appears to have been written by a lower-level diplomat at the event.
Andrew is diplomatically described as “super-engaged” as he rails about British anti-corruption investigators interfering with business deals, curses journalists for poking their noses into everything, and displays “almost neuralgic patriotism” whenever the United States and Britain come up in the discussion.
“The Americans don’t understand geography,” the cable quotes him as saying. “Never have. In the U.K., we have the best geography teachers in the world!” The prince talked so much the meeting went twice as long as planned.
The life of a diplomat is one of risk, too.
More than 200 Americans have died in diplomatic service, starting with William Palfrey, lost at sea in 1780. They have perished from disease, murder, natural disasters and from trying to save others.
Danger always lurks in the age of terrorism, just as in all times of war and calamity. But diplomats have to watch their backs everywhere.
A November 2009 cable signed by John Beyrle, now ambassador to Russia, set the scene for FBI Director Robert Mueller before his visit with law enforcement and security counterparts. It sketched a growing climate of harassment of U.S. diplomats by elements of the Federal Security Service, or FSB.
“Family members have been the victims of psychologically terrifying assertions that their USG [U.S. government] employee spouses had met accidental deaths,” the embassy reported. “Home intrusions have become far more commonplace and bold, and activity against our locally engaged Russian staff continues at a record pace.
“We have no doubt that this activity originates in the FSB. Counterintelligence challenges remain a hallmark of service at Embassy Moscow.”
Decades earlier, the cables show, U.S. diplomats in Tehran tried to comprehend the Iranian revolution in its earliest throes and explain to Washington the near impossibility of reasoning with Iranians.
Bruce Laingen, charge d’affaires, signed a biting critique of what he saw as the Iranian mindset, contending “statements of intention count for almost nothing,” “the single dominant aspect of the Persian psyche is an overriding egoism,” “cultivation of goodwill for goodwill’s sake is a waste of effort,” and the “almost total Persian preoccupation with self … leaves little room for understanding points of view other than one’s own.”
Laingen was on to something: impending trouble. A few months after, ideologues overran the embassy and diplomats lived the lives of hostages for 444 days.
TITLE: Pop Star Kirkorov Blames Assault on ‘Fits’
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Filipp Kirkorov, the quintessential Russian pop star of the 1990s, has apologized to a television director he attacked last week and blamed the outburst, which could land him in jail, on an unspecified mental disorder.
“Twice a year I have serious fits when I don’t remember anything and am unconscious of my actions,” Kirkorov said in his apology to Marina Yablokova, 29, a director of the still-unaired television show “Golden Gramophone.”
“I am actually horrified by this, and it’s only now that I understand that I have to undergo serious treatment,” Kirkorov, 43, said in the statement posted on his web site Wednesday.
Kirkorov kicked Yablokova and dragged her by the hair on the film set Saturday, venting anger over stage lights that he said were “too bright,” news reports said.
Yablokova, who suffered a concussion and multiple bruises, plans to file a lawsuit, her lawyer, Sergei Zhorin, said by telephone.
Zhorin said the apology looked “more like an excuse” to evade criminal responsibility.
He declined to provide his client for comment, saying she would not talk to reporters because she was “embarrassed” of being beaten in front of “many people who knew her.”
Yablokova went to a police precinct Wednesday to speak with investigators working on the case, Interfax reported.
Kirkorov’s lawyer Tatyana Akimtseva told The St. Petersburg Times that Kirkorov went to a hospital for an examination Tuesday and was waiting for the results.
The only serious illness linked to Kirkorov has been cancer, which killed his mother in 1994. He underwent a check for cancer in 2008, but the results were never made public.
Kirkorov wants to meet Yablokova to apologize in person, but she has refused, Akimtseva said.
The lawyer admitted that the beating took place, but said the story was overblown by unspecified people looking to cash in on the incident. “We won’t meet any insane financial claims,” she said, adding that Kirkorov does remember attacking Yablokova.
Some people in the music industry voiced outrage over the incident.
“If you’re sick, stay in the hospital,” prominent music producer Iosif Prigozhin told The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Pipe Makers Fear Ukrainian Rivals
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Pipe makers lamented the level of government support against cheap imports at an industry conference Wednesday, and asked for an extension on protective duties for oil and gas pipes from Ukraine.
Anti-dumping duties run an average of 15 to 20 percent. The rates for certain types of piping made in the Ukraine and being sold to Russian oil and gas companies are even higher, but are set to expire in January.
Alexander Deineko, director of the Pipe Industry Development Fund, said industry leaders concur that while the market has not yet recovered to the pre-crisis level, there will be limited but stable growth for the pipe market over the next decade.
Today, domestic pipe makers, in contrast to their industry counterparts in other areas of the world, have very few ways to protect themselves from cheap imports, Deineko said.
The United States has anti-dumping and compensatory duties that have proved effective against countries with cheaper products, especially China.
For example, for specific types of pipe and tube products used in the petroleum industry, U.S. manufacturers are protected by up to a total of 130 percent anti-dumping tariffs and compensatory duties levied by the government, Deineko said.
Russian pipe producers are exposed to unfair competition because of low anti-dumping tariffs, Deineko said.
The piping industry protects itself by investigating cases of price dumping by specific companies, in liaison with the Industry and Trade Ministry. Such investigations, however, can take 18 to 27 months to bring to a conclusion, he said.
Industry leaders are lobbying hard to maintain their existing perks. They have asked the Industry and Trade Ministry to set import duties at 18 to 30 percent on Ukrainian oil and gas pipes through January 2015, Deineko said.
The market dynamic has been consistent with other industries affected by the crisis.
Russian steel makers spoke of July 2008 as “the last month of good life” for pipes produced for the oil and gas industry. The bottom dropped out during the crisis, with the market down 38 percent by summer 2009. From that point it began a steady recovery, gaining 26 percent by August 2010, he said.
“The trend is that of steady recovery, but there is still volatility,” Deineko said.
Industry leaders are divided as to whether to raise prices in the first quarter of next year.
United Metallurgical Company president Vladimir Markin told reporters that the company is not planning to be the “initiator of a price increase” in early 2011.
Konstantin Temerikov, managing director of TMK, the country’s largest steel pipe manufacturer and exporter, said he did not agree with that approach, and that his company might raise prices.
The automotive industry has already complained to the Industry and Trade Ministry over attempts by metal companies to increase prices of rolled metal, a key material used in piping, by as much as 40 percent starting next year, Kommersant reported Wednesday.
Some pipe makers said that increasing metal prices may force them to raise prices for their products in 2011.
TITLE: Hyundai to Step Up Production Next Year
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Tyomkin and Alexei Nepomnyashchy
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Hyundai will increase its 2011 production target for its new factory in St. Petersburg from 150,000 to 200,000, the manufacturer announced at the opening of a new facility this week.
Bae Jeong-soo, CEO of Sungwoo Hitech Rus (the parent company of Hyundai’s consortium of suppliers) made the announcement Wednesday at the industrial park in the Kamenka industrial zone in the north of St. Petersburg, where Hyundai’s regular suppliers opened seven factories following an investment of about $200 million.
The new production lines will manufacture seating, body parts, dashboards, interior trim and exhaust and air conditioning systems. At present, the new facilities have capacity to supply 150,000 vehicles a year, with plans to increase that figure to 200,000 by 2012, Bae Jeong-soo said. These plans have been coordinated to tie in with those of Hyundai, he explained.
Hyundai’s representative declined to comment. A source close to the company said its management is considering the option of expanding production.
Expansion of the production capacity will begin in the spring of 2011, said Anton Buchnev, deputy chairman of City Hall’s Committee for Investment and Strategic Projects. He said that Hyundai believes it can increase its forecast for sales in Russia. The possibility of increasing production capacity in the existing workshops, as well as the construction of new facilities, is being examined, Buchnev said.
The Hyundai factory in the Kamenka industrial zone began operations in September. The production facilities are at present geared up to make Hyundai’s new budget model, the Solaris, which is priced at between 379,000 rubles ($12,240) and 634,000 rubles ($20,472).
Yevgeny Voitenkov, president of the St. Petersburg dealership group Olympus, believes the Solaris is well priced. The first hundred cars, due to be delivered in February and March, were sold in advance within a few days. The next orders will probably be taken for April, he said.
Hyundai’s spokesperson declined to disclose the number of orders already taken for the Solaris. Officially, dealers can only start accepting orders at the end of December, while individual dealerships have been authorized to accept them now, he said.
Kia will begin manufacturing cars at its St. Petersburg factory in the autumn of 2011, a company representative said. Together, the Hyundai and Kia companies sold 174,224 cars during the first 11 months of this year, their sales growing by 16 percent and 55 percent year on year respectively, according to the European Business Association. Both companies have a good range of vehicles in the most popular segments.
According to Avtostat, passenger car sales will rise next year by 25 percent to 2,200,000 units in Russia. At these growth rates, it makes sense to invest in expanding production capacities, especially as it is relatively inexpensive, the bulk of the investment having been made in the construction of the original factories, said Ivan Bonchev, head of the automotive practice at Ernst & Young.
TITLE: Putin Offers $3.9Bln to Revamp Drug Sector
AUTHOR: By Roland Oliphant
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday promised 122.9 billion rubles ($3.9 billion) in federal funding to modernize the medical and pharmaceuticals industry.
“These serious resources are to act as a sort of seed capital for the modernization of the industry, for a quality breakthrough in innovation,” he said, Interfax reported.
Putin said he wanted 90 percent of Russia’s vital medicines and 50 percent of its medical equipment to be domestically produced by 2020.
He also set a target of increasing exports eightfold.
The essential medicines that Putin was talking about make up about 47 percent of the total pharmaceuticals market, said Nikolai Bespalov, head of analytical research and consulting at Pharmexpert.
That fits with a plan for the development of the pharmaceutical industry unveiled earlier this year, which calls to increase local producers’ share of total drug sales to 50 percent by 2020, from about 20 percent now.
Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko told a meeting attended by Putin that the federal funding was vital to reaching the target because of anticipated growth in the pharmaceutical market.
“At the most conservative estimate, the pharmaceuticals market will grow sixfold over the next decade. So our industry will have to grow 12-fold,” he said.
TITLE: U.S., Russia Reach Uranium Deal
AUTHOR: By Roland Oliphant
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia and the United States agreed Tuesday to carry out a study on removing bomb-grade uranium from Russian research reactors.
“Together we’ve done a great deal in returning fuel from third countries. But it is right that we set an example in our countries, too,” Rosatom general director Sergei Kiriyenko said as he signed the deal with U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman in Moscow.
This is the first time Russia has committed to replacing the weapons-grade fuel in its own research reactors under a U.S. led program to secure the world’s vulnerable nuclear materials, even though it has taken a lead role in repatriating fuel from other countries.
There are an estimated 120 to 130 research reactors in the world that are fueled by weapons-grade uranium, about half of which are in Russia. Fearing that terrorists could use stolen material to make a bomb, the United States has been sponsoring a drive to convert reactors to use less-enriched fuel.
Kiriyenko said the feasibility studies would examine the economic implications of converting six research reactors to low-grade fuel. He declined to set a date by which the process of conversion might be completed.
The Rosatom chief said Russia and the United States had so far been concentrating on repatriating fuel from countries with more vulnerable facilities, together importing 2,700 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, which he said was enough to make 112 warheads.
Nuclear security expert Matthew Bunn hailed the deal as “important progress,” but said it had been “a long time coming.”
“I would like to have seen by now actual action on the ground to convert quite a number of these reactors, which are plainly feasible to convert. But it’s better than nothing,” said Bunn, who publishes an annual report entitled “Securing the Bomb.”
TITLE: Superheroes Without a Superpower
AUTHOR: By Alexander Golts
TEXT: It is very easy to predict the Kremlin’s reactions. Amid the general euphoria over the rapprochement between Russian and U.S. leaders at the November NATO-Russia Council summit in Lisbon, I predicted in a previous column that any cooperation between Moscow and Brussels was doomed to be limited in scope. This was based on the fact that the Russian leadership has always expressed its irritation with the West — and tried to cover up its inferiority complex — by using the bluster of military threats against the West.
Only two weeks after the initial Lisbon euphoria, both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have returned to their old habit of provoking NATO and the United States. In his state-of-the-nation address last week, Medvedev threatened a “new arms race” if the West remained deaf to Russia’s proposal for a “sectoral” missile defense system.
Apart from the fact that Medvedev’s threat amounted to an ultimatum, NATO leaders are skeptical about his sectoral proposal for several reasons — not least of all because the Kremlin itself doesn’t understand what it is proposing. Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to NATO, tried to explain the proposal: “If there is a missile flying over our territory that is heading toward the United States, we will shoot it down. If there is a missile coming toward Russia over the U.S. zone of responsibility, then the Americans will shoot it down. But in either case, Russia retains control over its own missile defense system, and NATO over its own.”
If you take Rogozin’s explanation at face value, NATO would have no need for its own missile defense system in Europe since every possible medium-range or long-range missile trajectory from Iran toward Europe or the United States would pass over Russian territory.
The problem with Rogozin’s overly confident assurance of protecting Europe is that Russia doesn’t have a unified system of missile defense that is capable of shielding all of the country’s territory. The only protection it has is a limited, outdated missile defense system that covers Moscow — one that was built 40 years ago and is based on a Cold War-era strategy of intercepting oncoming missiles in outer space using nuclear weapons. This system is clearly unable to respond to modern-day missile threats against Russia, much less Europe.
In addition, Russia has an S-400 missile defense system along with the yet-to-be-produced S-500 system. But the manufacturer of these weapons, Almaz-Antei, has been unable to start production. The total number of S-400 missiles has remained unchanged for several years and is limited to just two air defense battalions. Most likely, production of those interceptors will begin only after a new manufacturing facility is built, which is a long shot under the best of circumstances.
Moscow is also demanding that any U.S. or NATO radar installations cannot include Russian territory within its range. Thus, Russia is once again playing the spoiler role because a quick look at the map shows that any missile defense system placed in Eastern Europe to defend against an Iranian missile would automatically capture parts of Russia. This is very convenient for the Kremlin, which will always be able to claim that any NATO or U.S. missile defense system deployed in Europe is designed to weaken Russia.
Putin expanded on this theme during his recent interview on “Larry King Live.” When King asked whether Russia had repositioned tactical nuclear weapons on its western border in the spring, Putin said Moscow was forced to respond to the threat from the West.
The real reason for this latest round of saber rattling has little to do with U.S. missile defense, which Russia’s leaders know doesn’t threaten the country at all but can’t admit this publicly, and a lot to do with WikiLeaks — in particular, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ comment that “democracy in Russia has disappeared” and that governors pay bribes to Kremlin officials, according to one U.S. Embassy cable. Most important, no matter what Putin or Medvedev might say or do in the future, they know that they are perceived by the West as being little more than the comical Batman and Robin. Offended by these comments, Putin used the only political weapon in his arsenal: the empty threat of deploying new nuclear weapons and sparking an arms race.
The irony is that both sides know that Moscow does not have the resources to develop new nuclear weapons that could compete with the United States in terms of quantity. Even if Russia were foolish enough to try to compete with the United States militarily, the only thing it would ruin is its own economy, just as the Soviet Union did.
When Medvedev and Putin don’t know how to respond to a crisis that reveals Russia’s weaknesses — whether it be WikiLeaks cables, NATO expansion or incriminating evidence of the country’s military backwardness — the only thing they know how to do is to issue empty threats about a new arms race, new nuclear weapons and “retaliatory measures.”
If there is another round of WikiLeaks cables, we might see reports in which U.S. diplomats explain the Kremlin’s strategy of relying on meaningless military bravado and grandstanding for internal political reasons. If these cables surface, Putin and Medvedev will be terribly offended again, and we can expect yet another round of militaristic bluster and hot air aimed at the West.
Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.
TITLE: Kremlin Leaks
AUTHOR: By Yulia Latynina
TEXT: While leading publications like The Guardian, El Pais, Der Spiegel and The New York Times were publishing in-depth analytical articles based on documents released on WikiLeaks, the web site’s Russian partner, Russian Reporter magazine, created an unpleasant surprise by running a series of articles containing outright lies. The first article focused on the Russia-Georgia war of 2008: “Reading the reports of U.S. ambassadors to Georgia … no one in the world had any illusions about the fact that [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili started the war.”
But U.S. ambassadors had the exact opposite opinion on who was responsible for the conflict.
Andrei Illarionov, former economic adviser to then-President Vladimir Putin, has suggested that we are dealing with a new disinformation campaign by the authorities. Unable to refute the compromising information contained in U.S. diplomatic cables, Russia’s intelligence services are trying to minimize the damage by distorting their content, using Russian Reporter as a conduit.
And that was not the only surprising statement that appeared in the magazine’s articles. It also reported that the sources on whom the U.S. ambassador to Moscow relies when he prepares reports to Washington are “experts who slander the ruling regime year after year.”
One article claims that “before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the UN General Assembly, the U.S. State Department sent a directive to all European countries indicating when their representatives should leave the hall.” The Swedish ambassador was instructed to leave the room once he heard the word “holocaust,” the article claimed, but Ahmadinejad unexpectedly never pronounced the word.
“The representatives of other countries left, but the Swedish diplomat remained in the hall, sending alarm signals and asking his American mentor, ‘What should I do?’” Russian Reporter wrote.
There is just one problem with this claim: Russian Reporter made all of this up. The diplomatic cables posted on WikiLeaks said nothing of the sort.
The co-author of the Russian Reporter articles was Russian-Israeli journalist Israel Shamir. He is infamous for denying the Holocaust and writing about the conditions under which Jews are willing to sacrifice children. Shamir is also infamous for claiming that many Jews received text messages warning them in advance of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Shamir has offered his services not only to Russian Reporter but to Kommersant as well. Considering Shamir’s reputation, it is no surprise that Kommersant declined the offer.
Reputable newspapers took a completely different and more responsible approach to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s leaks. They carefully sorted the archives made public on WikiLeaks and then published in-depth, balanced analytical articles examining the content of what they had found.
In contrast, Russian Reporter published articles written by a notorious anti-Semite who didn’t even bother reading the original documents.
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.
TITLE: The winter season
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The French connection is key to this year’s international Arts Square Festival, St. Petersburg’s premier classical arts winter event. The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Chausson trio and pianist Francois Weigel will represent France at this year’s event, which is packed with performances of French composers’ work, from Ravel and Debussy to Boulez and Faure and contemporary masters such as Philippe Fenelon.
The musical fiesta kicks off on Dec. 14 at the Shostakovich Philharmonia with a performance by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic orchestra under the baton of Yury Temirkanov, the festival’s founder and the artistic director of the Philharmonic. The program is comprised of several works by Maurice Ravel, including La Valse, the Mother Goose Suite, piano concerto for the left hand (soloist Elisso Virsaladze), and suite No. 2 from the ballet “Daphnis et Chloe.”
“The festival will strike the final chord of the Year of France in Russia and the Year of Russia in France,” Temirkanov said at a press conference this week. “In this respect, our main ‘treat’ is a concert by the superb Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the baton of the fantastic Korean conductor Myung Whun Chung on Dec.17.”
The world-renowned French orchestra will perform Ravel’s “Le tombeau de Couperin,” Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and the opus “Metaboles” by Henri Dutilleux. Born in 1916, Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, whose work continues the tradition of Ravel.
On Dec. 22, the Shostakovich hall of the Philharmonic will see French composer Philippe Fenelon’s opera “The Cherry Orchard” performed in a concert version by soloists from Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater symphony orchestra under the baton of Tito Ceccherini. The opera, which is loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s classic play of the same name and is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the writer’s birth, saw its premiere in Moscow on Dec. 3 and 4. The opera was born out of a joint initiative between the Paris Opera and the Bolshoi Theater. Fenelon was commissioned to write the score, and the libretto was written by the Russian poet and novelist Alexei Parin. A stage version is slated to take place next year in Paris and then in Moscow.
Fenelon’s opera focuses exclusively on the final act of “The Cherry Orchard,” which revolves around a farewell party organized by the owners of a manor house before they move out after selling their beloved property, complete with its pretty garden, to a dishonorable man who has no sentiments about its beauty and no personal connection with it.
In 2011 and 2012, the Bolshoi looks set to develop the Russian-French theme further by producing a ballet rendition of Honore de Balzac’s novel “Lost Illusions,” with music commissioned from the St. Petersburg composer Leonid Desyatnikov.
Temirkanov founded the Arts Square Festival in 1999 with the aim of restoring the pre-Revolutionary tradition of a “winter season,” with concerts, balls, masquerades and parties sweeping the city during the New Year holiday.
Originally, the festival encompassed celebrations of “Western” Christmas (Dec. 25), New Year, Orthodox Christmas (Jan. 7) and Russian Old New Year (celebrated on Jan. 14, as a result of the adoption of a new calendar after the Revolution). The festival originally featured an extravagant ball held on New Year’s Eve at the Yusupov Palace. In recent years, the festival’s dates have moved toward mid-December and the ball tradition was suspended owing to financial restrictions.
Arts Square, at the center of which stands a statue of Russia’s national poet Alexander Pushkin, is surrounded by some of the city’s finest cultural assets. Most of them — the State Russian Museum, the Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall, the Mikhailovsky Theater and the Musical Comedy Theater — are at the heart of the Arts Square Festival. But this year, the festival has reached out to a new venue: On Dec. 21, a concert of Russian sacred choral music performed by the Smolny Cathedral Chamber Choir under the baton of Vladimir Begletsov will take place at the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood.
For the first time in its history, this year the Arts Square festival features an opera premiere. On Dec. 18, the Mikhailovsky Theater will stage a new production of Czech composer Leos Janacek’s “Katya Kabanova,” a favorite with the world’s leading opera houses since it first premiered in Brno in 1921. Responsible for the Mikhailovsky premiere is German director Niels-Peter Rudolph, who has worked with a number of leading theaters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Inspired by Nikolai Ostrovsky’s drama “The Storm,” which tells the story of a married woman who becomes desperate after falling in love with another man and finding herself unable to live with the overwhelming sense of guilt, the opera has never been staged locally until now and is rare in the repertoires of Russian opera theaters.
“Musically, ‘Katya Kabanova’ fuses Slavic folk tunes and the Viennese classical musical culture, while celebrating Janacek’s own unique musical language,” said Peter Feranec, the musical director and principal conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theater. “This opera is one of the composer’s finest operas, a jewel of expression.”
At the festival’s closing concert on Dec. 24, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra led by Temirkanov will perform an exclusively Russian program of Anatoly Lyadov’s “The Enchanted Lake” and “Kikimora;” Modest Mussorgsky’s vocal cycle “Songs and Dances of Death” and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
The Arts Square festival runs from Dec. 14 to Dec. 24 at venues around the city. For a full program, see www.philharmonia.spb.ru
TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: Elton John’s visit to St. Petersburg this week to perform with percussionist Ray Cooper seems like an echo from the Soviet past, as the same duo came to Moscow and Leningrad in 1979, and Elton John is now remembered as “the first Western star to tour the Soviet Union.”
It should be noted, however, that three years before Elton John’s first visit, Cliff Richard, who was making a comeback tour in support of his 1976 “I Am Nearly Famous” album, played a few shows in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but the singer, who was once seen as “the British answer to Elvis Presley” was almost unknown in the Soviet Union.
Elton John’s Soviet tour was part of a cultural exchange program between the U.S.S.R. and the U.K., and Soviet cultural officials duly inspected his show in London to make sure that it was appropriate for Soviet audiences. Presumably, they felt that piano and percussion were safer than electric guitars.
Even if Elton John’s best years were already in the past — with his most recent album at that time being “A Single Man,” his first without lyricist Bernie Taupin — the shows in Moscow and Leningrad drew extraordinary attention from the Soviet public.
But few genuine music fans managed to catch the shows. In Leningrad, for instance, Oktyabrsky Concert Hall was mostly filled with bureaucrats, party officials and even cadets, precious few of whom had any idea who Elton John was — tickets were not sold at the city’s box-offices.
Times have changed, but some great moments of the tour — especially the sights of the virtually deserted and car-less 1970s Leningrad — have been captured in the documentary “To Russia with Elton,” which makes worthwhile viewing.
The Afghan war and consequent international isolation of the U.S.S.R. started just a few months later, and no Western acts of any note followed, until UB40 put an end to the cultural blockade by coming to the country during Gorbachev’s perestroika era in 1986.
Elton John and Ray Cooper will perform at the St. Petersburg Sports and Concert Palace (SKK) on Monday.
Finnish virtuoso accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen will come to the city with an unusual production called “Haitari Painia” (Accordion Wrestling.)
According to his web site, the performance, featuring Pohjonen and ten Finnish wrestlers, is a revival of Finnish wrestling traditions from the early to mid-1900s when an accordion player provided musical accompaniment for wrestling matches.
The performance, which premiered in Turku in April, is part of the program of Turku as Europe’s 2011 cultural capital and will be held at Music Hall on Tuesday.
The local branch of Chinese Pilot Jao Da will celebrate its first anniversary Saturday and Sunday, while Kosmonavt will host the French band Nouvelle Vague on Saturday and showcase the punk band PTVP’s new album on Thursday.
— By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: Seeking refuge in the arts
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Heroes and villains of Russian history are at the heart of a new exhibition that opened in the Benois Wing of the State Russian Museum on Wednesday. Entitled “The Favorites of Clio,” referring to the Classical Greek muse of history, the display showcases around 350 works by some of Russia’s finest 19th-century artists such as Ilya Repin, Nikolai Ge, Valentin Serov, Vasily Perov, Mikhail Nesterov and Konstantin Makovsky.
The subjects of the paintings encompass more than 1,000 years of Russian history. Russia’s controversial rulers and field-marshals, rebels, warriors, martyrs and sinners form a fascinating exhibition that succeeds in both investigating Russia’s past and gaining a deeper understanding of its modern history.
The paintings are from the Russian Museum’s own collection as well as from Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery, the St. Petersburg History of Religion Museum and other galleries.
In the meantime, the Stroganov Palace of the State Russian Museum is playing host to a photography exhibition comprised of work by Oleg Kaplin, one of the laureates of the Russian Museum’s First Photobiennale. The show offers a selection of several themed collections produced by the photographer between 1974 and 2009 and dedicated primarily to religious topics. The central characters of Kaplin’s mainly black-and-white works are people close to Russia’s churches, from priests to parishioners to beggars. Compassion is key to understanding Kaplin’s art. The artist is moved by the plight of the country’s people in need: disabled war veterans, starving beggars and poverty-stricken rural residents.
Never one to be left behind, the State Hermitage Museum also unveiled some new exhibitions this week to keep people busy throughout the winter months. The “Glass Beaded Salon” presents panels from the Chinese Palace in the park-and-palace ensemble of Oranienbaum that have been scrupulously restored at the Hermitage.
Another new display at the museum, presented as part of its series “Masterpieces of the world’s museums at the Hermitage” is a bronze arm adorned with a Roman two-headed eagle. The precious sculpture, dating back to the 1st century AD, is on loan from the Archeaological Museum in Alicante (Spain) and can be seen through March 9.
Simultaneously, the Hermitage is marking the 90th anniversary of its internationally respected Oriental department with a series of displayed acquisitions in its Antechamber. The artifacts come from Urartu and include decorative art objects as well as sculpture and applied art.
Meanwhile, in another part of the never-ending state museum complex, the Hermitage Theater will host an exotic concert program entitled “The Aroma of Korean Traditional Music and Dance” on Dec. 14. Folk songs and dance as well as Korean traditional court music will feature in this one-off concert, which is part of the “Aroma of Korea” festival that has been running throughout 2010, comprising numerous events in film, dance, music and gastronomy.
For more information about forthcoming events at the Hermitage and Russian Museum, visit www.rusmuseum.ru and www.hermitagemuseum.org
TITLE: East meets West
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: From the people behind the miniature soup and sandwich cafe Soup and Wine and the Italian restaurant Testo, both located on Kazanskaya Ulitsa, now comes the pan-Asian cafe Ping Pong. Located in the same district as its older siblings, it is considerably larger than both, occupying a full three rooms in spacious, high-ceilinged premises fronted by huge windows. The feeling of space inside is accentuated by the light green walls and smooth sanded floor.
The menu may be southeast Asian, but Ping Pong’s style has the same Western feel to it as Soup and Wine, with small blackboards peppering the wall behind the bar, the day’s specials chalked up on them, including hot business lunches for 290 rubles ($9.30) served on weekdays from 12.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. A solitary waving cat is the one concession to the stereotypical trimmings of Asian restaurants abroad, while several paintings depicting Asian scenes and figures serve as a gentle nod to the origins of the menu.
The impression remains one of a kooky British joint, however — a feeling only added to by the presence of refreshing pear cider on the menu at 160 rubles ($5.15) per half-liter.
The interior is simple and uncluttered, yet still manages to feel homely, with a small diverse jungle of spiky plants adorning the wide windowsills behind the original broad and curvy wooden window benches, and several brightly colored ping pong balls on sticks arranged in green bottles on the tables like futuristic flowers.
The overall effect is one of an exercise in moderation, with both the chilled-out lounge music and lighting set at just the right pitch.
But on to the food, the most important aspect of any eatery, regardless of how agreeable the atmosphere may be. The menu encompasses Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian and Singapore cuisines, with an emphasis on spring rolls and dim sum. Ping Pong’s chef appears to have a predilection for sweet and sour, which will delight some more than others. From the cold appetizers, fresh rolls with shrimps (190 rubles, $6.10), served with a small jug of soy sauce, certainly lived up to their description as fresh, but among the finely chopped shrimps and vegetables were concealed mango chunks that had not been mentioned on the menu and may not be a welcome surprise to those who do not like combinations of savory dishes and fruit.
Likewise, the main course of sauteed vegetables (230 rubles, $7.40) was overwhelmingly sweet and syrupy. The mixture of baby corn, bell peppers, carrot, bean sprouts, snow peas and the occasional cashew nut appeared to have been marinated in pineapple syrup, with pineapple chunks thrown in for good measure. This dish will suit those with a sweet tooth, but those offended by a rogue piece of mango in a savory spring roll should certainly steer clear of it.
This is however ultimately a question of personal taste, and not a condemnation of the chef’s overall skills, which were evident in the crisp and crunchy vegetable spring rolls (190 rubles, $6.10), served piping hot with separate servings of soy sauce and Thai sweet chili sauce.
Vegetable egg-fried rice (150 rubles, $4.80) was another top vegetarian hit, and a reason in itself to return to Ping Pong. The refreshingly sugar-free icing on the top of this generous bowl of rice fried with egg and green beans, red and green bell peppers and more baby corn was a generous sprig of fresh coriander that complemented the dish exquisitely.
Of the Thai-influenced dishes, chicken fillet in a green curry sauce (320 rubles, $10.30) was served lukewarm. Despite containing a spice identity parade including cumin, lemongrass, aniseed, ginger and sesame that combined to create a delicate flavor, it was not enough to make the dish actually spicy — it seems that at Ping Pong, as usual, levels of spiciness have been numbed so as not to overpower the Russian palate, for which black pepper is generally more than hot enough.
Despite these imperfections, the more successful dishes at Ping Pong, complemented by the warm and friendly service, warrant return visits. Its dessert menu, which includes the inevitable ice-cream tempura as well as mango mousse and an intriguing-sounding Indian muffin, looked tempting.
For office workers, Ping Pong is perfect for lunch — certainly it is streets ahead of both McDonald’s and Yevraziya, onto which its windows look, while remaining in the same price range — or for after-work dinner and drinks.
TITLE: China Anti-Nobel Campaign Wins No Friends
AUTHOR: By Christopher Bodeen
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIJING — China’s campaign to vilify this year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and sabotage the award ceremony showed signs of backfiring Thursday, as criticism of Beijing rose and the imprisoned Chinese dissident seemed to be turning into a celebrity.
While China has successfully pressured more than a dozen countries not to attend Friday’s ceremony to honor Liu Xiaobo and began blocking foreign media coverage of the event on the Internet Thursday, analysts said its efforts also appeared to be galvanizing the West, reminding democracies of the gulf between themselves and Beijing.
Despite the criticism of Beijing’s response, China remains too big and too important to be shunned for long: Its role as the world’s factory floor and banker to the West rule out both political and economic retaliation.
The high-pressure tactics continued unabated Thursday, the same day China handed out its newly inaugurated Confucius Peace Prize — hastily created as a riposte to the Nobel.
Amnesty International said members of Norway’s Chinese community were being pressured by Chinese diplomats to join anti-Nobel protests planned for Friday and had been threatened with retaliation if they failed to appear. Instead, some pro-democracy protesters showed up Thursday in Oslo in support of Liu.
In China, Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, and dozens of friends, colleagues and sympathizers are under house arrest or tight surveillance in order to prevent them from attending the ceremony. Attempts to reach them by phone were met with messages saying their numbers didn’t exist.
Liu, a 54-year-old literary critic and democracy advocate, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion handed down last year after he co-authored a bold appeal for human rights and political reform. Previously almost unknown even within China, he has in recent weeks been transformed into a cause-celebre among global rights activists and a source of curiosity to young, Internet-savvy Chinese.
Several news websites, including the BBC’s and Norwegian broadcaster NRK’s, were blocked in China on Thursday, apparently to blot out coverage of the ceremony. Some Nobel-related reports on CNN’s website were also inaccessible. But this campaign has taken a toll on China’s efforts to win foreign friends by projecting a more mild image of the country through foreign aid, investment, media and educational exchanges.
Li Heping, a civil rights lawyer, said the government’s harsh reaction to the prize was an eye-opener for the West.
“In the past, the West didn’t have a consensus on China. But this affair, this Nobel prize, has created one because it is linked with the West’s core values,” said Li, who was disbarred after pursuing human rights cases.
The U.S. Congress and prominent rights groups repeated their calls for Liu’s release, saying China’s actions violated both domestic laws and Beijing’s international commitments.
China’s “very public tantrum has generated even more critical attention inside and outside China and, ironically, emphasized the significance of Liu Xiaobo’s message of respect for human rights,” Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement Thursday.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley reaffirmed U.S. support for the award.
“We think there absolutely should be a ceremony. We think there absolutely should be recognition. We think that Mr. Liu and his wife should be there to be able to receive the award,” Crowley said at a Wednesday briefing.
While 18 governments — mostly close allies and fellow authoritarian states — have said they would not attend the ceremony in Oslo, the decision by the Philippines and Serbia to boycott the ceremony drew heated protests from human rights groups.
Questioned about China’s pressuring countries not to send representatives to the ceremony, the Foreign Ministry’s Jiang said attendance would be viewed as a sign of disrespect for China.
TITLE: Security Firm Put On U.S. Blacklist
AUTHOR: By Heidi Vogt
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. military is cutting ties with an Afghan security firm run by relatives of President Hamid Karzai that has been accused of bribing both government officials and Taliban commanders, according to documents obtained Thursday.
The move is part of U.S. efforts to clean up a contracting process in Afghanistan that has been riddled with corruption and has allowed U.S. funds to pass to insurgents.
It follows a Congressional report in June that said the Watan Group bribed Afghan officials to get exclusive control over a key NATO supply route in southern Afghanistan and paid Taliban commanders to avoid attacks along the highway.
As of Dec. 6, Watan has been given a “proposed debarment status” — which prevents it from signing new contracts with the U.S. government or renewing existing contracts — according to U.S. military letters sent to the company’s top officers and obtained by The Associated Press. The action was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Watan’s subsidiary Watan Risk Management is headed by two of Karzai’s cousins — Ahmed Rateb Popal and Rashid Popal. According to the U.S military letters, the two acknowledged the bribes in the Congressional report and also told Congressional staffers that the company guards regularly use illegal weapons, according to the letters.
A Watan representative confirmed the company received the letters but stressed it had not violated any rules.
“The Watan Group takes the accusations of the army and its actions seriously,” said Simon Hilliard, the managing director. “The Watan Group believes it has been in full compliance and that it can demonstrate this to the Army once it is given its chance.”
Watan has 30 days from the receipt of the letters to submit its argument against the debarment. Hilliard said they planned to reply. If their appeal is rejected, the temporary ban will be extended for up to three years, according to the letters.
If a full ban goes into effect, Watan will be the seventh Afghan company or individual to be blocked from future U.S. contracts this year, according to a senior U.S. military official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not officially released.
Afghan law bars any security firm from operating if it has direct ties to government officials.
TITLE: Snow Causes Euro Travel Chaos
AUTHOR: By Crystal Becerril
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — Travelers in Paris and Frankfurt slept at the airport after snow and ice caused travel chaos. Pop singer Shakira canceled a concert in Germany, while the French prime minister missed a gala at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater.
Many European commuters suffered through traffic jams on slushy streets Thursday, and Scotland even called in the army to clear the snow. Flights out of Paris and Frankfurt were still delayed after bad weather forced the temporary closing of airports a day earlier.
Paris, a city of frequent rain, proved unprepared for snow. Amid Wednesday’s snowfall of 10 centimeters (4 inches), bus service was shut down, traffic backed up, tourists were ushered out of the Eiffel Tower and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport was forced to close for an hour and a half.
Shakira canceled a Wednesday night concert in Frankfurt because she couldn’t take off from Paris, German news agency DAPD reported.
Concert organizers did not hear of the problem until an hour before the concert, when they had to tell 11,000 fans already gathered in the concert arena to head home. A spokesman for the concert organizers told DAPD that a new date for early 2011 will be set soon.
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon missed a special gala by Russian and French dancers at the Bolshoi because of delays leaving France.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — no stranger to snow — offered to have the Bolshoi re-run the event in Fillon’s honor, the RIA-Novosti news agency said.
On Thursday, delays of up to an hour persisted at Charles de Gaulle. Some passengers huddled under blankets after a long night sleeping at the airport.
“The airport last night was giving out towels, mattresses to sleep on, water, and they were coming around constantly to see if everything was OK,” said Lynne Seavor, whose flight home to Britain’s East Midlands Airport was delayed by 24 hours.
The sun was out Thursday in Paris, melting snow off roofs. Sidewalks were slick, and traffic was still badly disrupted.
The Eiffel Tower’s first floor reopened to tourists, a day after it was entirely shut down. Officials say they can’t use salt there because it could cause damage to the monument.
A combination of snow, rain and temperatures hovering right around the freezing point caused traffic chaos in Germany, with hundreds of accidents reported across the country and scores of miles-long traffic jams.
TITLE: WikiLeaks’ Payment Processor Plans To Take Card Companies to Court
AUTHOR: By Raphael G. Satter
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — WikiLeaks’ payment processor said Thursday that it was preparing to sue credit card companies Visa and MasterCard over their refusal to process donations to the secret-spilling website.
Andreas Fink, the CEO of Iceland’s DataCell, told The Associated Press that he would seek damages from the American financial companies over their decision to block WikiLeaks funds.
“It’s difficult to believe that such a large company as Visa can make a political decision,” Fink said in a telephone interview from Switzerland. In an earlier statement, his company had defended WikiLeaks, saying, “it is simply ridiculous to think WikiLeaks has done anything criminal.”
WikiLeaks has been under intense pressure since it began publishing some 250,000 U.S. State Department cables, with attacks on its websites and threats against its founder, Julian Assange, who is now in a British jail fighting extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.
A host of U.S. internet and financial companies have severed their links to the controversial website, some citing terms of use violations. Earlier this week, Visa and MasterCard said they would stop processing payments to WikiLeaks, although they have not offered a detailed explanation of why. Supporters have reacted with outrage — with many noting that unsavory organizations such as the American KKK and the far-right British National Party both claim to accept Visa and MasterCard.
MasterCard has declined repeated requests for comment. Visa Europe Ltd. spokesman Simon Kleine said organizations could receive funds through Visa so long as they were legal and didn’t breach the company’s operating rules.
But he said that when issues arise “we need to ensure that they’re in compliance with our operating rules and in compliance with local laws.”
He declined to say what those issues were in WikiLeaks’ case. “We investigate on a commercially confidential basis,” he said.
Fink said that he was officially notified of the dual suspensions through Danish financial services company Teller, which runs part of the payment infrastructure. He said a team from Teller was on its way to Iceland to conduct what he described as “due diligence.”
Meanwhile, he said, credit card donations to WikiLeaks were frozen at least until next week, something which he said was costing his company money.