SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1642 (4), Wednesday, February 9, 2011
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TITLE: Residents With Leaking Roofs Slam Matviyenko
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg residents whose apartments have been damaged by leaking roofs are demanding the dismissal and punishment of City Governor Valentina Matviyenko and other officials they believe to be responsible for the mismanagement of funds resulting in what they have described as “the complete collapse of the municipal services system.”
“We are informing you that St. Petersburg has ceased to be a European city today; it has turned into an emergency zone and poses significant danger to peoples’ lives,” the participants of one of the three rallies on the topic that took place in St. Petersburg during the last 10 days wrote to President Dmitry Medvedev.
Protesters say that housing and municipal services have deteriorated in the past few years and describe the situation in St. Petersburg as a “catastrophe.”
Officially, 31,500 apartments located on the top floors of buildings were damaged because of leaking roofs last year. Despite the authorities’ claims that the problems had been fixed, the roofs began leaking again when winter set in late last year.
Residents complain that their apartments have been water-damaged and infested with mold and fungus as a result of shoddy and ineffective repair work.
“We know from media reports that 500 million rubles ($17 million) was allocated and spent on repairing roofs,” they wrote in a letter to City Hall. 
“We would like to know how exactly this money was spent. The examples of our buildings show that no serious roof repair work has been carried out.”
City Hall should start repairing the leaking roofs immediately, issue reports on the work being carried out on the Housing Committee’s web site and develop a mechanism for the payment of out-of-court compensation for residents who clean and repair roofs at their own expenses, they wrote.
Critics say that City Hall tends to shift responsibility to management companies or respond with vague reports about how much work has been done, and sometimes even with what activists describe as blatant mockery.
One group of residents suffering from leaking roofs planned to picket the Housing Committee last week, but City Hall refused to authorize the event, claiming that snow-clearing work would be carried out at the site throughout the day. As a result, the protesters were sent to a square far from the committee’s offices.
Solidarity Democratic Movement leader Olga Kurnosova, who organized a rally to criticize the municipal services Sunday, said her apartment has also suffered from a leaking roof, even though she does not live on the top floor.
According to Kurnosova, most of the buildings that currently have leaking roofs are those that City Hall renovated in 2006, 2007 and 2008. “It says a lot about the quality of the work,” she said.
She said that the problems stem from the fact that City Hall has taken control of the majority of municipal powers and funds.
“All the managerial powers and, as a result, the city budgets are in the hands of City Hall, but they don’t want to take on any responsibility — that’s the problem,” Kurnosova said by phone Tuesday.
“You can’t manage the clearing of snow from every single roof or every single snowdrift from Smolny [City Hall’s offices]. There should be a full-scale system of local self-government established, with powers given to local councils — in accordance with the convention signed by the Russian Federation and the self-government law which exists in this country.
“Then it would be clear to whom you should go with your demands. Now, though, City Hall possesses everything, but doesn’t want to answer for anything.”
Apart from leaking roofs, City Hall has been criticized for ineffective street-clearing and icicles that have caused deaths and injuries during the past two years. Last year, the authorities cited the “abnormal winter” as being the cause of the problems and said that measures had been taken, despite similar problems being experienced this year.

TITLE: Taking the Law into Their Own Hands, With Mixed Success
AUTHOR: By Philip Parker
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As Russia’s police force gears up for its controversial rebranding from Militsiya to Politsiya, followed by major cuts in its ranks, concerned citizens have been stepping forward left, right and center to ensure that law, order and public morality are upheld, come what may. 
While vigilantes and busybodies have been all over the news commenting on traditional policing, however, the “cybermilitia” being formed by leading telecom companies aims to patrol cyberspace, not cyborgs. Some might believe that an incorruptible man-robot is probably what’s needed on these shores, but instead the industry body will be developing technology to protect Russian web users from child pornography and, more sinisterly, other “negative” and “extremist” content. 
Cleaning up the streets has been left to regular humans, so the results have unsurprisingly been mixed. In Moscow, a group of residents in the northeast of the city calling themselves Patrol have so far failed in their goal to find a hammer-wielding robber who has attacked five middle-aged women in the last fortnight, one of whom later died from the injuries sustained. According to Gazeta.ru, the group has identified several suspects, all of whom have been cleared by the police. Then members of the group were themselves briefly detained by police while distributing leaflets about the attacker. 
St. Petersburgers proved more efficient at tracking down the city’s deviant with a tool. The long-running saga of the man who pokes young women with sharp objects on the metro probably came to an end on Friday evening, when a group organized on the social networking site Vkontakte.ru placed under citizen’s arrest a 28-year-old man of Ukrainian origin. According to Fontanka.ru, the man, who has gained the not particularly snappy online nickname “the reflexotherapist,” has apparently confessed to at least seven of the reported incidents, citing “simple hooliganism” as his motive. He was released by police Tuesday. True, he was the second man held by the Vkontakte group, and reports suggest his weapon of choice was a long drawing-pin, rather than an awl as previously reported. 
One of the people pretending to be a police officer turned out, in fact, to be a police officer, although possibly not a very good one. It was revealed by Fontanka.ru on Monday that the owner of a Mini Cooper painted in an almost exact copy of standard Highway Patrol livery, but with a couple of obvious orthographic alterations, was in fact Lieutenant-Colonel Valery Slavin. The car had been found parked illegally and without number plates by traffic police last week. Slavin, who works for the administrative division of the Northwest Federal District police force, managed to stop the car being towed, but may yet face charges for the unsanctioned display of police insignia on a vehicle. His colleagues assured Fontanka.ru that it was all just a “humorous joke,” but at least one senior officer has called for his dismissal.  
Last week, the city’s Cossacks offered a bit of moral guidance. Best known outside Russia for banditry, romantic rebellion and rather less romantic pogroms, the ethnic group’s official representation in St. Petersburg is the Cossack Guard, a semi-militaristic organization with 1,200 members. Last week, they issued an open letter to law enforcement agencies calling for a crackdown on prostitution in St. Petersburg. In the letter, as reported on Fontanka.ru, St. Petersburg was described as “one of the leading cities for sex tourism” and prostitution was described as “a sickness of society… reflecting both the depravity of women and the pathological weakness of men who are prepared to turn their back on their own wives and daughters.” 
As a solution, the Cossacks proposed introducing heavy fines of 500,000 to a million rubles ($17,000 to $34,000) on prostitutes, so that “women would think carefully before taking that path.” 
Given the level of tact and grasp of gender issues displayed in that comment, the local Cossacks would perhaps be better off following the code published on their own web site: “A Cossack does not interfere in women’s affairs.”

TITLE: Vodokanal Employs Snails to Monitor Air Quality
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: It’s a snail-paced solution to pollution woes.
The city’s municipal waterworks company Vodokanal is putting six giant gastropods to work monitoring emissions from a sewage incinerator. The African snails, the size of rats, are attached to sensors that will show them getting sick if they take in too much bad air.
Some environmentalists say the unusual move is just a publicity stunt aimed at distracting attention from unsafe practices at the incinerator. But Vodokanal says it’s a serious attempt to improve control over what comes out of the smokestack.
The plant uses conventional gauges to check emissions, but company officials said they also wanted to keep an eye on compounds that might be produced in concentrations too low for the gauges to detect or that might harm humans when combined with other substances.
“Live organisms won’t deceive anyone about the danger of pollution,” said Olga Rublevskaya, director of wastewater disposal at Vodokanal. The company also uses crayfish to monitor the quality of the city’s water.
“This is very strict control for us. Now we are under the watch of snails and crayfish all the time!” she said.
The snails, which grow up to 20 centimeters long, live in a fish tank inside the city’s Southwest Waste Water Treatment Plant. They are attached to sensors that measure their heartbeat and other vital signs. Three breathe clean air, the other three diluted air coming from the plant’s chimney.
If sensors register an unfavorable change in the latter group’s behavior and condition, it would be an immediate signal that air coming from the burnt sewage residue was dangerous.
“The African snails, which can live for up to seven years, will also help to test the influence of possible accumulating substances over a long period,” said Sergei Kholodkevich, an ecological researcher who came up with the idea of using the snails.
Kholodkevich, who works at an institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said he chose snails because they had lungs and breathe air “like people do.”
“Their other advantage is a sedentiary lifestyle compared to mice, which run all the time. The third is that they have shells to which sensors can be affixed, and no limbs with which to scratch themselves and kick off the sensors,” he said.
Steinar Sanni, a biologist from Norway’s International Research Institute of Stavanger who has studied the program but is not connected to it, said snails and other animals can be very effective for monitoring industrial emissions and water quality.
“We’ll definitely see more such ecological solutions in the world in future,” he predicted.
Local environmentalists, however, are skeptical and say the waterworks is trying to fend off criticism of the sewage treatment plant, which they say is burning toxic industrial waste.
Dmitry Artamonov, who heads Greenpeace’s St. Petersburg office, accused Vodokanal of hiding information about the plant’s effects on the environment. He said Greenpeace was denied permission to inspect the city’s treatment facilities.
“And we understand the reasons for that. The issue is that the local treatment facilities are designed for the treatment of domestic waste, and not for the treatment of industrial waste, which contains toxic substances and also gets dumped into the sewage waters,” Artamonov said.
Civilized countries, he said, no longer burn such residue, and the city government should require local industries to introduce new cleaning technologies and forbid them from dumping polluted waste into sewage waters.
“As for snails, it can be hard for them to indicate the environmental danger immediately, because such substances as dioxins, for instance, can accumulate in an organism over a long period of time and only decades later cause cancer,” Artamonov said.

TITLE: Preservationists Attacked
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A group of preservationists and residents who blocked trucks in an attempt to stop the controversial demolition of the historic Literary House at 68 Nevsky Prospekt said they were beaten by people they believed were employed by the developer Sunday.
“I was punched in the face, then they slammed my arm against a Kamaz truck, my finger was cut and I was thrown to the ground,” Viktoria Andreyeva, one of those present on the scene, said by phone Tuesday.
Andreyeva said that police officers present did not prevent the beatings and at one point assisted the attackers in driving protesters to one side to make way for a truck. A video of the incident showing a truck nudging the protesters, who are then attacked by unknown men, is available on the Internet.
Legislative Assembly deputy Sergei Malkov, who was present at the site during the incident, wrote a letter to City Governor Valentina Matviyenko on Monday. 
Malkov cited many violations allegedly committed by the developer both during the demolition work and during the transportation of trash, and drew her attention to the attack by “unknown men” and the police’s failure to stop it.
Inna Karpushina, press officer of the site’s developer Avtokombalt, denied the attack.
“There were public disturbances near the site on Saturday and Sunday,” Karpushina said.
“The protesters were not letting trucks carrying construction trash out. The police enabled the transport to pass.”
Karpushina said that a private security firm had taken part in the incident, but declined to give any further detail.

TITLE: Freed Activists Face Charges
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Four local activists imprisoned for seven days for taking part in the most recent Strategy 31 rally in defense of the right of assembly that took place on Jan. 31 were released Monday, but they say a new criminal case against the opposition is pending.
As soon as the four were released late Monday, two of them, The Other Russia party members Andrei Milyuk and Igor Chepkasov, were taken by anti-extremism Center “E” officers to the Prosecutor’s Investigative Committee’s offices for questioning.
Originally, Milyuk was sentenced to 15 days in prison, but an appeal court shortened the term Monday, finding it “excessively severe,” Milyuk said.
The activists were found guilty of violating the law on meetings and demonstrations and failing to follow the police officer’s lawful orders.
Milyuk said that the Investigative Committee is considering filing a criminal case against Chepkasov because he said “Corrupt cops should be shot” during his speech at the Meeting Against Ethnic Crime and Corruption last month.
Chepkasov might be charged under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code that punishes incitement of hatred toward national, religious or social groups.

TITLE: Umarov Claims Responsibility for Bombing
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: A web site affiliated with Chechen rebels has released a video in which insurgent leader Doku Umarov claims responsibility for last month’s deadly suicide bombing at Russia’s largest airport and threatens more bloodshed if Russia does not leave the region.
Kavkazcenter.com web site says it received the video late Monday. It was not clear when or where the video was recorded. 
The Jan. 24 attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport killed 36 people. Russian investigators say the bomber was a 20-year-old man from the Caucasus region that includes Chechnya, but have not released his name or other details.
“You see this special operation carried out by my order ... more special operations will be carried out in the future,” Umarov says in the video, wearing a camouflage uniform and a skullcap.
“Among us there are hundreds of brothers who are prepared to sacrifice themselves” in further attacks, Umarov says in the video. “We can at any time carry out operations where we want.”
Over the weekend, the Kavkazcenter.com released another 12-minute video of Umarov in which he threatened more attacks, saying 2011 would be “the year of blood and tears.” The undated video had been received earlier Friday, according to the web site.
Speaking in an emotionless voice, Umarov, flanked by two figures in military camouflage, said the video was recorded during his visit to a brigade of suicide bombers called Riyadus Salikhiin, or Gardens of the Pious in Arabic.
“We will make this the year of blood and tears,” Umarov said in his statement. “I won’t say there are hundreds of us, but some five to six dozen can be found, and special operations will be carried out monthly and weekly.”
He identified the man on his left as “mujahed Seifullakh,” assigned to carry out an unspecified counterstrike in response to the federal government’s actions in the North Caucasus.
Umarov did not elaborate and made no reference to the suicide bombing at Domodedovo, but Novaya Gazeta speculated Saturday that Umarov’s statement could have been recorded ahead of the airport attack and thus referred to that bombing.
Chechen rebels have fought two full-scale wars against Russian forces since 1994. Major offensives in the second war died down about a decade ago, but the insurgency has continued with small clashes in Chechnya and in neighboring Caucasus republics.
The rebels have claimed responsibility for an array of terrorist attacks, including last year’s double suicide bombing of the Moscow subway system that killed 40 people.
Umarov, who seeks to create a Caucasus emirate independent from Russia and governed by Sharia law, said in the earlier video that he could call on 50 to 60 suicide bombers if necessary.
The blast at Domodedovo, south of the Russian capital, raised strong concerns about Russia’s strategy against the insurgents and about its ability to protect against future attacks. The day after the bombing, President Dmitry Medvedev said that terrorist attacks in the country increased in 2010, although he did not cite figures.
Meanwhile, Moscow faced a new wave of false bomb scares, prompting calls to step up punishment for prank calls about upcoming terrorist attacks.
Umarov’s statement was made in a video released late Friday by rebel mouthpiece Kavkazcenter.com, which said it received the undated 12-minute video by e-mail earlier the same day.
The blast in Domodedovo was allegedly carried out by Magomed Yevloyev, 20, a native of Ingushetia, a law enforcement source told Interfax on Sunday. He also said two ethnic Ingushes, Adam Ganizhev and Islam Yevloyev, were placed on a federal wanted list as alleged accomplices of the suicide bomber.
Novaya Gazeta said “mujahed Seifullakh” in Umarov’s video resembled Yevloyev, but the claim is hard to maintain because of the low quality of the footage.
The third man in the video was identified as Amir Khamzat, chief of Riyadus Salikhiin. The group was responsible for Moscow’s 2002 Dubrovka hostage crisis, also involving suicide bombers, which left more than 100 civilians dead. It also claimed to have staged the deadly accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant in 2009 as part of the “economic war” against Russia. Officials denied allegations that the accident, which killed 75, was a terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, pranksters have contributed to the chaos caused by the Domodedovo blast, as a shopping mall, a metro station and all nine main train stations in Moscow had to be searched over the weekend because of anonymous reports of explosives planted in them.
The downtown Atrium shopping mall and the Kievskaya metro station were checked by bomb squads on Saturday. The metro station scare took place on Sunday, when an anonymous caller claimed that bombs were planted at three stations.
The callers were not identified on Sunday, but police reported earlier detaining at least four people over other such reports that have poured in since the Domodedovo bombing, RIA-Novosti said.
About 20 false reports have been received in Moscow this year, police said. Shopping malls, the metro and train stations have had to be searched almost daily since the January blast, though North Caucasus terrorists never announce their attacks in advance.
Enraged officials on Friday called for stepping up punishment for false reports of terrorism. The offense currently carries a maximum sentence of three years or a fine of 300,000 rubles ($10,200), but a bill pending hearing at the State Duma proposes increasing the sentence to five years. 
SPT/AP

TITLE: Guardian Reporter Refused Entry
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Britain’s Guardian newspaper said Monday that its Moscow correspondent had been expelled from Russia after he used WikiLeaks’ cables to report on allegations that Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin had become a “virtual mafia state.”
Luke Harding, who had been back in London for two months to write a book on WikiLeaks, was refused entry by Russian authorities when he tried to return to Moscow last weekend, the paper’s editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said.
Harding’s Russian visa was revoked and he was put on the next plane back to London after being held in a detention cell for 45 minutes, The Guardian said. No explanation of the decision was offered to the journalist, the newspaper said in a statement, adding that it was trying to establish further details.
“This is clearly a very troubling development with serious implications for press freedom, and it is worrying that the Russian government should now kick out reporters of whom they disapprove,” Rusbridger said.
Britain’s Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary William Hague had been in contact with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seek clarity on the expulsion.
“We are awaiting a reply,” a spokesman said.
Harding had previously been detained in April 2010 in Ingushetia after he visited the Caucasus region, according to the newspaper.
The journalist said on Twitter late Monday: “The Russians have been unhappy with my reporting for a while. But it seems WikiLeaks may have been the final straw.”
The Guardian published an article by Harding on Dec. 1 in which he quoted leaked U.S. diplomatic cables as saying Russia is a corrupt autocracy centered on the leadership of Putin.

TITLE: Mascots Audition for Olympics
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The potential mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi premiered on the air Monday night in the first public presentation of the images after months of collecting ideas and design work.
Only two of the 10 mascots — shown on Channel One — will eventually represent the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Viewers will vote for the candidates during a “grandiose” show on the channel at the end of this month, the government’s Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee said. 
The committee started collecting ideas for the mascot online on Sept. 1, raking in more than 24,000 images by the close of the competition on Dec. 5. Afterward, a jury, including Channel One chief executive Konstantin Ernst, theater and film directors, athletes and musicians, selected ideas for professional designers to further develop.

TITLE: Liberal
Leaders 
Mull Party Registration
AUTHOR: By Nikolaus von Twickel
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Liberal leaders have pledged to get a new party registered as the country prepares for the State Duma and presidential elections, but skeptics doubt if the apparently futile effort is worth it.
Leaders of the Party of People’s Freedom were adamant Monday that even if chances were slim, it was vital to file for registration to establish political credibility.
“Yes, it will be hard, but we need to demonstrate to voters that we want to work for them,” party co-founder Vladimir Milov told The St. Petersburg Times.
Current law requires political parties not represented in the State Duma to prove that they have at least 45,000 members in more than half of the country’s 83 regions to be registered.
At a party convention in Moscow over the weekend, activists promised to set up organizations in 57 regions and to collect more than 50,000 members before applying for official registration with the Justice Ministry in April. 
First styled under the name For a Russia Without Arbitrariness and Corruption, the coalition was revamped in December as the Party of People’s Freedom under the acronym “Parnas” — the Russian name for Mount Parnassus, home of the Muses in Greek mythology.
But analysts said Parnas was unlikely to obtain registration as no entirely new party has managed to do that since the 45,000-member threshold was introduced for the 2007 Duma elections.
“It seems that this is only possible by using existing party structures or uniting with them,” Alexei Makarkin of the Center for Political Technologies said about registration for new parties.
He cited the example of Right Cause, a liberal party formed in 2009 with Kremlin support on the basis of the Union of Right Forces.
Each of the four Party of People’s Freedom founders — Mikhail Kasyanov, Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Ryzhkov in addition to Milov — has his own political movement, but none of those are officially registered.
The Justice Ministry has also rejected registration requests from other movements created by prominent opposition leaders, including Sergei Udaltsov’s Left Front and Eduard Limonov’s The Other Russia.
Leading members of Nemtsov’s Solidarity, the best-known of the four, have argued that filing for registration is futile because the Kremlin would never allow uncompromising political opposition to partake in elections.
“The problem is that there is practically no chance to get registration. Because of this, it is questionable why so many resources should be spent on it,” said Oleg Kozlovsky, a member of Solidarity’s political council.
While he said he does support People’s Freedom, he would abstain from working on the task of getting political registration for it, Kozlovsky said.
Instead, he will focus on forming a new noncommercial organization to strengthen civil society. “With such a weak civil society, parties are useless. This is where we have to start,” Kozlovsky said.
Another prominent Solidarity leader, former chess master Garry Kasparov, has so far refused to support Parnas publicly.

TITLE: Japan PM Leads Rally for Disputed Islands
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TOKYO  — Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan led a large rally Monday demanding the return of several islands held by Russia since the end of World War II and calling the recent visit there by Russia’s president an outrage.
The dispute over the southern Kuril islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, has long been a sticking point in relations between the two countries and has kept them from signing a formal peace treaty ending their World War II hostilities.
Japan has designated Feb. 7 as “Northern Territories Day,” saying that a treaty dating back to that day in 1855 supports its claim to the islands.
Kan was the top speaker at a government-backed rally of about 1,500 people in Tokyo that has been held annually since 1981 to mark the anniversary. He vowed that Japan will not back down from its claim and said visits there by Russian leaders are “an unforgivable outrage.”
A smaller rally and march were held on the northern island of Hokkaido.
Asked about Kan’s statements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said they were “undiplomatic” and contrasted sharply with the positive tone of a meeting between Kan and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Yokohama last fall.
Lavrov said that Russia was ready to cooperate with Japan and continue talks on a peace treaty.
“The most important thing now is to develop economic, social and investment ties, cultural and humanitarian cooperation as well as cooperation on international issues, then it will be easier to conduct a dialogue on more difficult issues,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s position on its own claim to the islands appears to be getting more assertive in recent months.
In November, Medvedev became the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit the islands. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov inspected military garrisons on the islands last week and said Moscow is planning to upgrade the troops’ weapons there.
Both trips generated sharp protests from Tokyo, which claims Soviet army occupation of the territory just before Japan’s surrender in 1945 was an act of illegal aggression.
The islands are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are believed to have offshore oil and natural gas reserves, plus gold and silver deposits. They lie as close as six miles (10 kilometers) to Japan’s Hokkaido island and are also near undisputed Russian territory.
Japan’s foreign minister is scheduled to visit Moscow from Thursday and the islands dispute is likely to be at the top of his agenda. Progress is not expected.
Russia has said that it is tired of discussing the issue. Medvedev said after his visit that he considered the islands part of Russia’s sovereign territory and will return there whenever he pleases.
Russia is seeking increased economic ties with Japan to help develop its Far East, and has tried to keep the territorial issue separate from economic relations. But Japan has been slow to embrace fuller trade and growth without progress toward an agreement on the islands.
Japan also has longstanding disputes over islands with China and South Korea.

TITLE: Parasailing Donkey Dies
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The female donkey that made headlines after its owner sent it parasailing last year over the Sea of Azov died of a heart attack at a horse farm in the Moscow region, RIA-Novosti reported Friday.
Veterinarians were unable to say whether the death of the 40-year-old animal, Anapka, was caused by stress it suffered during its 30-minute flying stint in July or resulted from old age, a representative of the farm said.
The animal was in good form when it arrived at the farm, Strely Yarily, or Arrows of Yarila, but suffered from occasional dizzy spells, eventually becoming unable to eat, the report said, adding that the creature had to be placed on life support.
The wildly braying Anapka was sent to the sky near the beach of Golubitskaya village in the Krasnodar region, apparently as an advertising stunt for a local parasailing business.
Outraged beachgoers filmed the airborne donkey and posted the video online, attracting the attention of media and police.
Animal rights activists, including ex-movie star Brigitte Bardot, slammed the owner, but police were unable to press any charges because only killing or maiming an animal is punishable under Russian laws.
The British tabloid The Sun tried to buy Anapka in order to place it in an animal shelter in Britain, but the overseas trip was deemed too dangerous for its health, and the donkey was placed in a high-class Kremlin-owned stable.
It was later transferred to Strely Yarily because it needed the company of other donkeys, which was not to be found in the Kremlin stable, Moskovsky Komsomolets said.

TITLE: City Hall Moves to Seize Neglected Monument
AUTHOR: By Nadezhda Zaitseva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: For the first time, the city authorities are attempting to seize a historic building from private owners.  
The Committee for State Control and Preservation of Mounuments (KGIOP) has filed a suit with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast against Prestige for forfeiture of the Rogov House, a cultural heritage monument located at 3 Zagorodny Prospekt, said Deputy Governor Igor Metelsky. The owner is not fulfilling demands to preserve the building, in which case KGIOP has the authority to seize the property, added his press secretary, Yelena Bodrova.   
The property is owned by Prestige. Dmitry Golovanov, Prestige’s general director, said all work on the building had stopped a year ago and declined to comment further. 
The house of the merchant Rogov was built at the beginning of the 19th century, and Prestige began its demolition in February last year. They planned to build in its place a business center with underground parking. 
Employees of the State Construction Inspection and Evaluation Service (Gosstroinadzor) announced last February that the demolition was illegal, as the sub-contractor — Setinzhencom — did not have the necessary approvals for construction work. Gosstroinadzor brought charges and fined the company 50,000 rubles ($1,712). 
Prestige managed to remove only part of the top floor of the three-story building. Since then, the property has been left with a partly demolished roof. At the end of last year, the city authorities decided to make a temporary covering, paid for by the city budget. 
Yevgeny Baklagin of the St. Petersburg International Board of Lawyers said the city has the right to confiscate a building when historical preservation requirements are not met. The owner of the property is entitled to compensation but this could be less than the fines for violations. Article 240 of the Civil Law Code provides for the seizure of mismanaged properties of cultural significance, either through acquisition by the authorities or through auction, says Mikhail Boitsov, managing partner of Rightmark Group. 
Both Baklagin and Boitsov said that they had never before heard of a similar case in St. Petersburg. This is an unprecedented situation, and therefore it is difficult to predict the outcome of the case, said Boitsov.

TITLE: Fast Food Spurs Rapid Growth
AUTHOR: By Yelena Dombrova and Alla Tokareva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The foodservice industry has fully recovered from the crisis thanks to fast food and low-cost restaurants. The fine dining sector, however, is still in stagnation.  
Turnover in the foodservice industry in St. Petersburg in 2010 was 4.4 percent greater than in 2009, according to state statistics bureau Petrostat. Market volume surpassed the pre-crisis level of 2008 by 4.8 percent.  
Fast food hardly suffered at all, while the crisis inflicted the worst damage on expensive restaurants, the turnover of which dropped by 50 percent, said Pyotr Alyeshin, managing partner of Beerproduction (the management company behind Pivnaya Bashnya and Baltika Brew). The stagnation in expensive restaurants continues, said Pavel Matskin, general director of Public Foods. He noted that there is no basis for growth, as ingredients and utilities are becoming costlier, while average bills stay the same.
The crisis has played into the hands of fast food chains and people are more often choosing inexpensive establishments, agreed Tatyana Bogomyakova, development consultant for Subway Russia in St. Petersburg. According to her figures, the Subway chain in Russia doubled growth from 82 percent in 2009 to 167 percent in 2010. 
During the crisis, revenue at affordable restaurants fell by around 15 percent, says Silina. Mid-level restaurants suffered, but proved more resistant than those at the top, losing 20 to 30 percent of income, said Alyeshin.
The positive trend began in the second half of 2009 and revenue for Rosinter in the final quarter grew by 12.7 percent against the average quarterly revenue for the first nine months, while in 2010 revenue increased by almost 17 percent, and the number of customers by 6.5 percent, says Silina.
According to data in Comcon’s “Russian Index of Target Groups,” St. Petersburg families spent 2,914 rubles  ($99) on eating out in the first quarter of 2010. In 2008, the average amount was 2,769 rubles, and in 2009 it fell slightly to 2,623 rubles.
Groceries have increased in price by 40 percent since 2008, but menu prices stay the same. It’s a measure designed to keep customers, said Alyeshin. This year, growth will undoubtedly continue, at a rate of about 20 percent, and the company plans to open more restaurants by the end of the year, added Alyeshin.

TITLE: New Holland Developer Close to Bankruptcy
AUTHOR: By Nadezhda Zaitseva
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The former developer of the historic New Holland island, which owes the city budget more than 500 million rubles ($17 million), could be declared bankrupt.
Novaya Gollandiya, controlled by Shalva Chigirinsky and Igor Kesayev, had its contract with the city annulled in March last year. 
A suit seeking to have Novaya Gollandiya declared bankrupt was filed with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast on  Feb. 4 by Geoizol, which was contracted to strengthen the foundations of buildings on the island and is owed a total of 171 million rubles by the developer.   
There were 10 claims filed in court against Novaya Gollandiya in 2009. The developer owes the largest sum to City Hall for the right to conclude an investment contract. According to a settlement agreement signed in the fall of 2010, the company has a year to pay the authorities 505 million rubles.

TITLE: IT Market Shows Signs of Recovery, Approaching Pre-Crisis Glory Days
AUTHOR: By Olga Razumovskaya
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Extraordinary potential” is how then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described Russia’s technological future during his visit in October, encouraging investors to participate in the Skolkovo innovation hub and tap into the intellectual capital on offer.
While the hub begins to form in the suburbs of Moscow, and may someday bring research and development dividends to President Dmitry Medvedev’s hoped-for diversified economy, the ongoing business of information technology is returning to its pre-crisis glory.
In 2010, Russia’s IT market value was an estimated $20 billion, according to International Data Corporation, or IDC, a prominent international IT analytics firm.
In comparison, the U.S. market is estimated at $531 billion, while BRIC leader China did $96 billion in IT business last year.
Last year was “surprisingly good” to the IT industry, said Robert Farish, regional director at IDC for Russia and the CIS, adding that the 30 percent growth was nearly twice what had been forecast.
The potential is evidenced by key industry metrics. With an installed base of 69.1 million personal computers by the end of 2010, the country achieved a penetration rate of 43.6 percent. The Communications and Press Ministry estimates that that will grow to 52 percent by the end of 2011, while last year’s 66.4 million regular Internet users will grow to 80.2 million.
Though computer hardware sales returned to pre-crisis levels by mid-2010, and many mid-sized projects were ordered and completed, expected major outsourcing deals — in which companies divest themselves of their IT departments and allow external service providers to do their IT — did not materialize.
This year, industry players expect continuing growth while the government prepares to spend big to provide Internet-based services to the populace. Observers have consistently seen a direct link with Russia’s IT spending and the price of oil. So with black gold approaching $100 per barrel, the market looks good for 2011.
The “election” hiccup, which also results in deferred IT spending every time there is a major election — as government decision makers avoid big commitments prior to possible management changes — is also being factored into IT suppliers’ plans in light of December’s State Duma race.
But the overall mood is optimistic. “Certainly the continued mobilization of resources focused on Skolkovo and President Medvedev’s innovation agenda was a highlight of 2010,” said Ron Lewin, managing director at TerraLink, a major IT services company in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Skolkovo is trying to differentiate itself by focusing on research and development in science and technology, and not just information technology. But the local view of the project is sometimes skeptical.
“2010 has not changed anything in my perception of this project,” said Nikolai Komlev, managing director at APKIT, a Russian IT lobby. “I still view it as a dubious undertaking — or at least the kind that has little to do with the development of the IT business … in Russia.”

TITLE: Mortgage Market Not Yet Over Crisis
AUTHOR: By Natalya Biyanova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: During the financial crisis, one in seven mortgage loans issued in 2006 and 2007 had to be restructured, and now one in 10 is in default.
In the past two years, the Mortgage Loans Restructuring Agency has assisted more than 63,400 borrowers looking to restructure their mortgages, said Andrei Yazykov, the agency’s director. 
Of those, 45,000 were able to restructure their loans. About 8,500 restructured via the agency, and the rest came to agreements with banks. According to Yazykov, the majority of applicants for restructuring loans came from borrowers who took out loans in 2006 or 2007.
According to Federal Registration Service data, roughly 328,000 mortgages were issued in 2006 and 2007. Thus, every seventh loan later underwent restructuring. 
Some banks issue loans without full documentation, which means that the actual proportion of unpaid loans could be lower, said Anna Lyubimtseva, head of analysis at the Mortgage Lending Agency. But she pointed out that, according to her agency’s data, by 2010 every tenth mortgage was overdue.
Before the crisis, the proportion of overdue loans was less than 1 percent.
There were several reasons for overdue mortgage payments during the crisis, said Raiffeisenbank board member Andrei Stepanenko. A significant number of loans were in a foreign currency, businessmen collateralized loans with their apartments, and many loans had floating interest locked in to money market rates. 
During the crisis, the ruble fell 30 percent, business ground to a halt, and interest rates doubled, Stepanenko said. That is why so many loans needed to be restructured. 
The level of deferrals is still high. As we recover from the crisis, people’s salaries are growing slowly but their savings have been spent, Lyubimtseva explained. And if someone defaults on one loan, it’s difficult to get another one. Because of this, many borrowers have been unable to restructure their loans, and they are paying off their loans the best they can, Yazykov said.
Yazykov considers the restructuring program a success. By year-end 2010, more than half of borrowers who restructured via the Mortgage Loans Restructuring Agency stopped needing the agency’s support and regained financial stability, and 266 people paid off their loans before they were due. 
“We expected that there would be more repeat defaults,” Yazykov said. 
Thanks to correctly selected parameters — such as the interest rate on new loans and the size of payments — 87 percent of restructured loans were paid off without a single deferral.

TITLE: The Boogeyman the Kremlin Loves to Hate
AUTHOR: By Alexander Golts
TEXT: It is often said that young lovers argue for one main reason: To experience the sweet pleasure of making up shortly thereafter. The exact opposite is true in Russian-NATO relations: The only reason they make up is to argue once again shortly thereafter. Indeed, no sooner had the two sides announced a reconciliation last year, than they once again reverted to the usual expressions of distrust and resentment.
The source of conflict this time is an idea that was originally intended to prove that NATO-Russian relations are no longer built upon confrontation: a joint U.S.-Russian or NATO-Russian proposal to develop a pan-European missile defense system. The problem, of course, is that the Kremlin’s proposal for a “sectoral missile defense” is a nonstarter. According to this plan, NATO would be responsible for defending against Russian-bound missiles that travel over its territory, and Russia would be responsible for NATO-bound missiles that travel over its territory.
The biggest problem with the sectoral idea is that NATO has little faith in the ability of Russia’s missile defense system — which is limited to an outdated installation in the Moscow region — to shoot down missiles headed for a NATO member that travel over Russian territory.
The other problem is that the Russian missile defense system is based on fundamentally different principles than the U.S. system. It is designed for a Russian missile to intercept an incoming enemy missile with a nuclear explosion as it arcs through space toward Moscow. What’s more, the goal is simply to intercept the first wave of enemy missiles in order to give Russia’s leaders an extra 30 minutes to reach safe command centers. The fate of their millions of fellow Muscovites is not the top priority. NATO aims to protect the entire population of all its member states.
In short, NATO’s and Russia’s missile defense systems are inherently incompatible, and NATO officials have no desire to waste time on pointless negotiations. This is why NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen last week, while addressing Russian journalists (myself among them), said: “The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is responsible for protecting the territory of NATO member states and for the safety of their populations. We do not intend to transfer that responsibility to anyone else.” This was Rasmussen’s very diplomatic way of saying to the Kremlin, “Thanks, but no thanks,” regarding Russia’s sectoral idea.
This polite refusal follows what amounted to President Dmitry Medvedev’s ultimatum to NATO when he said during a Dec. 24 meeting with Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to NATO: “We have two options. Either we agree on certain principles with NATO and create a joint [sectoral] system to resolve missile defense tasks, or we fail to reach an agreement, and then we will have to make a number of unpleasant decisions regarding the deployment of offensive nuclear missile installations.”
Speaking at this week’s security conference in Munich, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov outlined the list of Russian complaints. First, NATO plans for a missile defense system are moving in two directions at once — the creation of a system for NATO itself, and only afterward will NATO address the issue of unifying that system with Russia. Second, Lavrov complained that NATO is moving faster with plans for its own missile defense system than it is with talks for the joint system in the framework of the NATO-Russia Council. Moscow is worried that, in the end, it will be invited to join a system that was developed without its participation in a “take it or leave it” deal.
Lavrov’s second objection is that the third and fourth stages of the U.S. “phased adaptive approach” for developing an expansive missile defense system in Europe by 2020 would allegedly undermine Russia’s strategic nuclear potential — the only military area that puts Russia on par with the United States. In other words, Russian leaders are worried that the United States could deliver an unexpected nuclear first strike, and that if Moscow were to fire its remaining missiles in retaliation, they would be intercepted by the NATO missile defense system. Russia’s top brass has convinced the Kremlin that by 2020, the NATO missile defense system would be able to intercept any Russian nuclear missiles fired at the United States along a North Pole trajectory. According to this theory, NATO will try to hide its ships equipped with Aegis missile defense systems in the Norwegian fjords. Therefore, the argument goes, the Kremlin must convince NATO to sign a legally binding agreement promising not to deploy missile defense systems on any territory over which Russia’s nuclear missiles would travel.
This idea takes Russia back to the worst, primitive Cold War years of mutual nuclear deterrence. What is particularly absurd about the Kremlin’s overreaction is that the U.S. and NATO system is designed to intercept only medium-range missiles, and not strategic missiles that Russia still claims is so crucial to its national security vis-a-vis NATO and the United States.
The latest cries from Russia over missile defense once again show that the Kremlin is willing to go to absurd extremes to keep alive the imaginary boogeyman from the West.

Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.

TITLE: Bringing Investment to a Standstill
AUTHOR: By Karina Chichkanova and Maria Kaidanovskaya
TEXT: On July 29 last year, St. Petersburg was included on a state list of historic settlements that are entitled to special protection and town planning regulations.
In part, these new regulations include the requirement that any town planning documentation developed for a historic settlement be approved by the federal body for the protection of cultural heritage sites.
According to article 59 of the federal law “On cultural heritage sites (historic and cultural landmarks) of the Russian Federation,” a historic settlement is an urban or rural settlement that includes within its borders cultural heritage sites: Landmarks, compounds, noteworthy places, and other culturally valuable sites created in the past that have an archeological, historical, architectural, town-planning, aesthetic, scientific or socio-cultural value, and which are of great importance in maintaining the identity of the peoples of the Russian Federation and their contribution to world civilization. From a formal perspective, therefore, the federal law delineates historic settlement territory as the entire territory of a settlement that has been placed on the list of historic settlements.
Consequently, as of St. Petersburg’s inclusion on the list of historic settlements, any town planning documentation developed for any area of St. Petersburg — including areas in which there are no cultural heritage sites — must also be approved by the federal watchdog in charge of monitoring compliance with cultural site protection laws (Rosokhrankultura). 
In practice, this could bring town planning activities in St. Petersburg to a virtual standstill, as approving town planning documentation for all areas, including the city’s outskirts, would create such a workload that Rosokhrankultura’s staff will be unlikely to complete their task in the 30 days allotted for it under current law. 
The city authorities believe that this protection is unnecessary, and that the special protection regulations should apply only to the historic center and areas in which cultural landmarks are located. 
In a letter from Rosokhrankultura to the cultural heritage protection authorities dated at the end of January, it appears that Rosokhrankultura’s position is on the whole very close to that of the city authorities. The letter states that the borders of a historic settlement may not necessarily coincide with those of the respective population center. Rosokhrankultura also believes that, until the borders of the historic settlement are established, draft planning documents for sites within the historic settlement as set by the historical and cultural base map that outlines protection zones for cultural heritage sites are subject to their approval.
 In other words, Rosokhrankultura is offering its own interpretation of the federal law’s provisions, which may in part clear up the stagnation in city planning activities in St. Petersburg. However, this interpretation is not certain, and other law enforcement authorities — the prosecutor’s office in particular — may not agree. We believe that this issue can only be conclusively resolved by making the corresponding changes to either the law or to the list of historic settlements by specifying the territory of St. Petersburg that is included as historic settlement territory. 
In addition to city authorities’ concerns with including all of St. Petersburg on the list of historic settlements, private investors have their own worries connected with the federal law’s lack of a clear definition of the term “town planning documentation.” As a result, it is not clear exactly which documents must be approved by Rosokhrankultura. 
Various executive authorities have on more than one occasion attempted to close this gap at the bylaw level by providing their own definition for “town planning documentation” or by describing what comprises it. However, not only have these attempts not clarified the situation, they have created more grounds for concern. For example, Rosokhrankultura Decree No. 9 of December 15, 2008 — “On the temporary procedure for reviewing design documentation for the protection of cultural heritage sites of federal significance, designs for their protection zones, town planning documentation, and town planning regulations established for territory within cultural heritage sites of federal significance, historic settlements, and their protection zones” — includes within the definition of town planning documentation, besides area plans and surveying plans, town planning plans of land plots. 
If such a broad interpretation of “town planning documentation” is adopted with respect to the approval of town planning documentation for historic settlements, town planning activity in St. Petersburg could come to a standstill, the timeframes for investment projects could become unpredictable, and as a result, the cost of such projects could grow considerably. 
This goes completely against the general effort to fight the bureaucratic overload on businesses. It seems that the consequences of the above acts have not been very well thought out, particularly with respect to such a dynamically evolving metropolis as St. Petersburg.

Karina Chichkanova is a partner and head of Real Estate and PPP practice and Maria Kaidanovskaya is a senior associate at Salans international law firm in St. Petersburg.

TITLE: Tampere: Rock City
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Finland’s best-known bands internationally might be metal bands such as HIM and Rasmus, but behind the commercial facade, the country is bursting with exciting and challenging music. With its tradition of revolt and fresh ideas, the industrial city of Tampere in Finland’s southwest — dubbed “Manse,” short for the “Manchester of Finland” — was an inevitable candidate to become one of the country’s burgeoning rock music scenes.
With a population of more than 210,000, Tampere is the country’s third largest city after Helsinki and Espoo, and one of the country’s main industrial centers. The city’s history is closely linked with the Scottish industrialist James Finlayson, who came to Finland via Russia and founded a cotton mill in Tampere in 1820.
It was in the Worker’s Hall of Tampere that Lenin and Stalin first met over beers in 1905 — an encounter depicted in a painting kept in Tampere’s Lenin Museum, established in the building in 1946. Owned by the Finland-Russia Friendship Society and supported by Tampere City and the Ministry of Education, the museum advertises itself as the “first in the West and one of the last ones in the world.”
Tampere was built by Sweden’s Gustavus III in 1779 on an isthmus between the Nasijarvi and Pyhajarvi lakes, alongside the Tammerkoski rapids, and is now the largest inland city in the Nordic countries.
During the 1918 Civil War, Tampere was a stronghold of the Reds, with much of the city destroyed in a decisive battle during the White push led by General Mannerheim to reconquer southern Finland in 1918.
Manserock — as rock music from Tampere is termed — is believed to have originated in 1969, when the hippie-era musical “Hair” arrived in the city. It played at a local theater with the participation of several local musicians. Manserock acts from the 1970s included Juice Leskinen, the seminal rock singer/songwriter who died in 2006, and bands such as Virtanen, Kontra and Kaseva. Tampere’s punk and new wave owes much to Poko Records, the city’s first record label. Founded in 1977, the label’s bands included Popeda, dubbed “Finland’s Rolling Stones;” Eppu Normaali, formed as a punk band in Ylojarvi, a small town near Tampere in 1976, and probably still the biggest band in the city; and Sielun Veljet, though the band hails not from Tampere but from Joensuu.
Of more contemporary artists, the band Risto fronted by Risto Yliharsila is pretty popular, (though Finns insist knowledge of Finnish is essential in order to understand the craziness of his lyrics), as well as some other bands to be found on the local Fonal record label that releases Risto’s records. Tampere’s new record label Gaea Records is also worth checking for interesting local acts.
Most Tampere bands sing in Finnish, and there is a strong tradition of lyric-writing in the country, with many songwriters such as Leskinen reputed to be nothing short of poets, although the music can be appreciated even without knowledge of the language.
According to Paulina Ahokas, director of Music Export Finland (Musex), an export association that represents the entire Finnish music industry, music was fundamental in awakening the national consciousness of the Finns, a small nation of 5.3 million — a population comparable to that of St. Petersburg alone.
“Music has been really incredibly important for Finland,” she says, pointing to Finland’s greatest composer Jean Sibelius’ symphonic poem “Finlandia,” which played a crucial role in raising the national spirit against the Russian Empire after it was composed in 1899. Seven out of ten Finns say that they listen to music daily, she says, and much of this music is Finnish.
“The music industry in Finland is very domestic repertoire-oriented,” Ahokas says.
“Fifty-seven percent of sales of units are Finnish repertoire. This is not based on quotas, because we don’t have radio quotas or anything — I like to say that it’s because Finnish music is good that it works here on the market.” 
Music Export Finland organizes the annual Musikki & Media (Music & Media) music industry conference and awards, along with by the Lost in Music festival in Tampere.
It seems as though musical entertainment can be found to suit any taste in Tampere. During the Lost in Music festival held annually in late October, many concerts take place simultaneously in a dozen venues around the city, with the public drifting from one club to another. On one of the days of last year’s festival, most wanted to see Einsturzende Neubauten, the German experimental-rock band that headlined the most recent event by marking its 30th anniversary and performing a lot of early songs at the club Pakkahuone. Others preferred to listen to Finland’s own Ismo Alanko Teholla, a duo of legendary guitarist and singer Ismo Alanko and drummer extraordinaire Teho Majamaki, who played to an enthusiastic crowd at Yo-Talo.
Pakkahuone, which means “warehouse,” can hold up to 1,200 and shares a building with a smaller, 350-capacity club named Klubi. For major concerts, the two clubs are turned into one vast venue. 
Both are located in the Old Customs House (Tullikamari) designed by local architect Georg Schreck and opened in 1901 as the headquarters of the Tampere District Customs Office. Located at 2 Tullikamarin Aukio, it was redesigned to host cultural activities in the mid-1980s, and since then has built up a reputation as one of Finland’s best-known venues.
This month, Pakkahuone will host Finnish punk legend Pelle Miljoona (Feb. 18) and Michael Monroe (Feb. 25), the former vocalist of the prominent 1980s Finnish glam-rock band Hanoi Rocks, which sold up to 10 million albums around the world.
Unlike in St. Petersburg, where venues generally try to cram in as many paying customers as possible, there is a strict limit to the volume of revelers permitted in Finnish clubs, and for more popular events at Pakkahuone, long lines of fans form outside, hoping that somebody will leave earlier.
Yo-talo, another of Tampere’s most popular music clubs, is also located in a historic building — this time built by architect Gustav Nystrom to house a bank in 1901. The old art nouveau-style building located at 10 Kauppakatu was owned by Tampere’s Student Union in the 1960s, hence the name, which is a shortened version of a “students’ house.”
Doris (20 Aleksanterinkatu) is a cool smaller underground club opened in 1986 with a smoking room downstairs, though the club was so packed on a recent visit that it was difficult to see what was happening on stage. Smoking in public places was banned in Finland three years ago. Smokers go to a terrace at Pakkahuone or simply onto the street at Yo-talo, where they stand in groups encircled by a rope.
Right opposite Yo-talo, at 9 Kauppakatu, is Artturi bar, a cozy, relaxed place that recently hosted a free concert by Sami Kukka, a great folk singer who accompanied himself on guitar and kantele, a Finnish traditional plucked string instrument of the zither family. At one point Kukka, whose music has been described as “Nick Drake meets The Church Bells of Konevets” (Konevets is an island on Lake Ladoga famous as the site of the Konevsky Monastery), was joined by two other kantele players.
There is such an abundance of music in Tampere that it pours out onto the streets. Outside Henry’s Pub, an Irish bar at 13 Hameenkatu, you might see a man playing banjo, accompanied by an accordion player. Moments later you might be told he was not in fact a busker, but the nationally famous singer J. Karjalainen — once described as “the Bruce Springsteen of Finland” — who had perhaps decided to advertise his concert there, but having attracted the attention of some passers-by, was obviously having a lot of fun. The accordion player turned out to be Veli-Matti Jarvenpaa, a Cajun, Zydeco and Tex-Mex musician responsible for “Fin-Mex,” a combination of Finnish traditional music and Tex-Mex.
Something completely different and unique is Hameensilta, a 200-seat dancehall attended by an older public who can be seen dancing in couples to retro tunes. The faces of performers depicted on the venue’s posters appear to be from the mid-1960s. Located on the seventh floor of the same old building as Henry’s Pub, right in the center, visitors enter a separate doorway with a ticket seller sitting behind a desk. There are two lifts, each of which has only one button inside. Once inside, the club’s windows offer great views of Tampere.
Most of the music clubs are right in the city center, and are within easy walking distance of one another. Sokos Hotel Ilves is a convenient orientation landmark. Built in 1986, the 19-story, 63-meter-tall building — standing right across the Tammerkoski rapids from the still-functioning 19th-century red-brick paperboard Taco factory — was inspired by American hotels (and a matchbox), and was given its name Ilves (which means “lynx”) as the result of a popular vote. It is one of the tallest buildings in Finland outside Helsinki.
During the Music & Media days, Ilves hosts panels, debates, showcases and — perhaps best of all — celebrity interviews. Two years ago, the Ramones were the focus, with original Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone and Seymour Stein, a co-founder of the band’s original label Sire Records, being asked questions before an audience of 200, while late last year the interviewee was Rein Lang, who in the 1980s was an underground Estonian rock promoter and is now Estonia’s Minister of Justice. Later in the day, Lang was awarded the first annual Tampere Music Award for Exceptional Achievement in the Music Business, established by the City of Tampere in 2010.
The Lost in Music festival and Music & Media event are organized in October by Music Export Finland, while Tampere’s own music festivals include the Tampere Jazz Happening, the Tampere Vocal Music Festival and the Tampere Biennale.
Tampere Biennale, which aims to introduce contemporary classical music by Finnish composers, will next be held in spring 2012, while this year will see The Tampere Vocal Music Festival that includes a popular international contest for vocal ensembles, as well as free concerts around the city in June, and the Tampere Jazz Happening, a festival of improvised music, world music and rock-influenced jazz in November.
Music aside, Tampere is famous for its architecture, museums, film festival, nature and the local culinary specialty mustamakkara — black sausage eaten with lingonberry jam. And behind all of these symbols of Finland’s third city lies the promise of plenty of other aspects just waiting to be explored.

The St. Petersburg Times was a guest of Music Export Finland (Musex), 16A Pieni Roobertinkatu, 5th floor, 00120 Helsinki, Finland. Tel: +358 (0)20 730 2230, www.musex.fi

How to get there
Tampere is a little more than 400 kilometers from St. Petersburg and 180 kilometers from Helsinki. From St. Petersburg, the city can be reached by taking a train to Helsinki and then another to Tampere. There are also bus services available. From Helsinki, it is a two-hour bus ride.

Where to stay
The Sokos Hotel Ilves is a city landmark and is centrally located.
1 Hatanpaan Valtatie, 33100 Tampere, Finland
Tel. +358 20 1234 631
ilves.tampere@sokoshotels.fi

TITLE: The dark side of the soul
AUTHOR: By Nellee Holmes
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: LOS ANGELES — Film director Darren Aronofsky, whose latest movie “Black Swan” opened in Russia on Saturday, gained inspiration for the film from a visit to St. Petersburg, he told The St. Petersburg Times in a recent interview.
The keenly awaited thriller “Black Swan,” which has been nominated for five Oscars, is set in the New York ballet world and stars Natalie Portman as the perfectionist ballerina Nina. Cast in the lead role of a new production of “Swan Lake,” Nina is the ideal Odette, the innocent white swan princess, but is pushed by choreographer Thomas (played by Vincent Cassel) to develop her portrayal of Odette’s double Odile — the seductive black swan.
It is one thing to lose yourself in your art. Caught up in a web of intrigue involving a younger rival, Lily, who effortlessly embodies the black swan (Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis), Portman’s ballerina loses her mind.
“Mila’s Slavonic ancestry did influence us at the start,” said Aronofsky. “ We thought about her having an accent, since ballet is so international, but as we worked on the character we liked her coming from San Francisco better.” 
The Brooklyn-born Aronofsky is keenly conscious of his Russian heritage. 
“I feel a deep connection to Russia,” he told The St. Petersburg Times. “My grandparents came from Russia and so many of my family traditions are connected to the country.”
The prolific director, whose previous films include “Pi” (1998), “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), “The Fountain” (2006) and “The Wrestler” (2008), said he had originally been attracted to ballet because of his connection to actors.
“When you are in front of the curtain, it’s all beauty and light. When you go backstage, you see the dancers are out of breath and sweaty — it’s anything but effortless. And you realize there is all this competition. As a director, that got me really excited.”
What were the major influences on the film? “More than any other film I’ve done, this one has been compared to other’s people work,” he said. “The biggest influence was Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘Swan Lake.’ We tried to build the entire film from the fairytale.” 
Aronofsky visited St. Petersburg several years ago when he brought his last film, “The Wrestler,” which was nominated for two Oscars, to the city. 
“I loved St. Petersburg when I visited with ‘The Wrestler;’ I can’t wait to get back,” he told The St. Petersburg Times. “I hope to bring ‘Black Swan’ to the city. When I was in St. Petersburg, I took in a production of ‘Swan Lake.’ The ballet was amazing, the dancers were staggeringly beautiful and the musicians were tremendous. But I was stunned that the production had a happy ending. I’d never seen it before! And in Russia? Needless to say, my film’s ending isn’t as bright.”
Aronofsky is now working on his next project, a new adventure thriller titled “The Tiger.”
The movie, based on John Vaillant’s book “The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival,” has been optioned by Focus Features, with Brad Pitt potentially taking a leading role.
The story — which is being scripted by Guillermo Arriaga — tells the tale of poachers in the Primorye region in Russia’s Far East who are tracked and hunted by an “almost” supernaturally-powerful Siberian tiger. 
“This is the first time I have adapted a screenplay, since I have previously only written original screenplays,” said Guillermo.
“I chose to adapt this story because I have a profound love for the outdoors and the intense tension between man and nature that the book reflects.”
Among the few remaining wild tigers left in Russia, there may be a future Darren: To encourage Aronofsky to venture beyond St. Petersburg and Western Russia and visit the country’s Far East, Alexander Doluda, the director of the “Pacific Meridian” Vladivostok Film Festival, has promised to name a tiger after the director.

TITLE: Word's Worth: Risking Life and Limb
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Ðèñê: risk
As I’ve watched events unfold in Egypt, my mental storehouse of differences between Russians and Americans got a new load of evidence. American tourists on a luxury cruise ship docked near Luxor said they were comfortable, had plenty of food and were in absolutely no danger, but yet demanded that their government immediately airlift them out — at the taxpayers’ expense, incidentally.
Russian tourists splashing around the Red Sea not only didn’t demand immediate evacuation by their government, they refused to leave. That is, the stereotypes of self-reliant Americans conditioned to take care of themselves and dependent Russians craving cradle-to-grave state aid were turned on their heads. Either great swaths of the populations don’t fit the stereotypes, or common wisdom is uncommonly stupid.
Or we have vastly different expectations of what our governments can and should do for us.
And then there’s my pet theory that we generally have vastly different notions of acceptable risk.
In any case, risk is a relatively young word in both English and Russian. It came to Russian via French, and to English via Portuguese or Spanish. Some etymological dictionaries claim that the origin of the word is unknown. Others suggest that the original meaning was a cliff that posed danger to sailors, which morphed into the danger of sailing uncharted waters and then into the modern notion of potential danger of any kind.
In Russian, you subject yourself to risk by using either ïîäâåðãàòü ñåáÿ ðèñêó or ïîäâåðãàòüñÿ ðèñêó. Çàÿâèòåëü ÷àùå âñåãî ïðîæèâàåò íà òåððèòîðèè ñòðàíû áåç äîêóìåíòîâ è ïîäâåðãàåòñÿ ðèñêó áûòü çàäåðæàííûì ìèëèöèåé (The applicant usually lives in the country without documents and runs the risk of being detained by the police). Or you can use the verb ðèñêîâàòü (to risk) with what you risk in the instrumental case: Ìû èìååì ïðàâî ðèñêîâàòü ñâîåé æèçíüþ (We have the right to risk our own lives). Or if you are talking about a specific bit of risky business, you can use the phrase èäòè íà ðèñê (literally, “to go for the risk”): Ìíîãèå âîäèòåëè øëè íà áîëüøîé ðèñê è ñóùåñòâåííî ïðåâûøàëè ïðåäåëüíî äîïóñòèìóþ ñêîðîñòü (Many drivers took a big risk and went way above the speed limit).
If you are taking full responsibility for your actions — however fraught with risk — you can use the phrase íà ñâîé ñòðàõ è ðèñê (literally, “at one’s own risk and peril”). Êîãäà òû ïîñîë, ÷àñòî îò öåíòðà íå ïîëó÷àåøü ÷¸òêèõ äèðåêòèâ è âûíóæäåí äåéñòâîâàòü íà ñâîé ñòðàõ è ðèñê (When you’re an ambassador, you often don’t get clear instructions from the home office and have to act on your own authority).
There are also a number of set phrases for risk taking. If someone says a business deal is áåç âñÿêîãî ðèñêà (without any risk), chances are you are being sold the Brooklyn Bridge. You should say no, even if the seller says he’ll äåëèòü ðèñê ïîïîëàì (share the risk).
On the other hand, if someone tells you that jumping off the bridge is ñ ðèñêîì äëÿ æèçíè (with risk to life and limb), you probably should believe him. If you jump anyway, you are in what is called ãðóïïà ðèñêà, a calque from the English “group at risk” (now called an “at-risk group”).
You’d probably agree with the saying: Ðèñê — áëàãîðîäíîå äåëî (risk is a noble endeavor). But keep in mind — it’s the motto of gamblers.

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, whose collection of columns, “The Russian Word’s Worth,” has been published by Glas.

TITLE: Chernov’s choice
TEXT: The underground club Zoccolo had to close its doors at one point last week when it became clear that the crowd that had turned out to see a debut concert by <strong>Zorge</strong>, the band formed by former Tequilajazzz frontman and songwriter Yevgeny Fyodorov, could not fit in. The turnout was highly unusual for a band that has no recordings and that nobody has heard, as one musician in the audience ironically remarked, but it was obvious that those present were fans who would otherwise have come to a Tequilajazzz gig, if the band had not split up.
Even if Fyodorov describes Zorge’s music as “art rock,” the band is pretty much in the Tequilajazzz tradition, if of the latter period. The debut at Zoccolo was the first and last concert of the band as a trio, according to Fyodorov. From the next concert, scheduled at Sixteen Tons in Moscow on Feb. 18, Zorge will start performing as a quartet. 
In fact, the demise of Tequilajazzz has spawned two new bands. The other two members, guitarist Konstantin Fyodorov (no relation) and drummer Alexander “Duser” Voronov, have formed an electro-acoustic duo called KOD that will perform at Griboyedov club on Friday, Feb. 11. 
The two tracks available from the band’s web site sound reminiscent of Tequilajazzz in terms of rhythm and mood, but KOD relies more on keyboards than on guitars.
KOD’s own Zoccolo concert will follow on Feb. 25.
Although by right there ought to be a certain rivalry between the two bands, both have preferred to go forth as the “Tequilajazzz Family.” According to Fyodorov, the bands came up with the decision to cross-promote each other so as “not to increase the entropy.”
It should be added that <strong>Zoccolo</strong> is still an excellent venue and is always worth visiting.
Speaking of new releases, <strong>Vasily Shumov</strong>, the founder of the Moscow band Center, has produced a superb new song that was released on YouTube on Saturday. 
Clad in a carefully chosen tasteless red shirt, Shumov sings from the perspective of a Russian musician who makes good money by playing corporate parties “for oil and gas companies, as well as for banks” and boasts about going on holiday to Italy. 
The character is “not a revolutionary and has never been one” and feels good about the fact that the authorities do not change, because he has influential friends at the very top.
As to violations of the law and the constitution, he “takes no responsibility.” “I don’t worry much that criminal cases against the opposition are being fabricated and that police officers give false testimonies,” Shumov sings sarcastically.
But if there are people who do not like the situation, “let them get out of the country.”
The song is called “I Feel Good!” (Mne Khorosho!). Now whom does it bring to mind?

<em>— By Sergey Chernov</em>

TITLE: Something old, something new
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: According to legend, in 1902, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was hunting in the state of Mississippi. His attendants, wishing to help their boss, caught a small black bear and tied it to a tree, but Roosevelt refused to shoot the animal and set it free. A few days later, the Washington Post published a cartoon depicting the bear cub and humane president. The cartoon inspired a couple by the name of Michtom who owned a toy shop to create a new toy: A stuffed bear cub that was displayed in the shop window beside a sign reading “Teddy’s bear.” This was the origin of the teddy bear. 
More than a hundred years have passed since then, and teddy bears have become far more than toys for children. 
Now they are collectors’ items, and the most valuable ones are stored in museums and private collections. Interest in these lovable creations shows no signs of fading, and as evidence of this, two different exhibitions of bears are on show at the same time in St. Petersburg. The first one, which opened Monday in the Doll Museum, showcases old collectable Russian bears. In pre-revolutionary Russia, teddy bears were a rarity and were brought from Western countries. Exhibits at the Doll Museum include a unique bear made in 1910 from overcoat fabric, one of the first stuffed bears in Russia. 
In the 1930s, an order was given to create technology for producing bears that didn’t resemble their Western counterparts. Insight into the Soviet bear can be gained by observing a test model of a stuffed bear. Soviet artists produced only five copies of this bear, which have now become collectables. During the war, production stopped, and bears dating back to the pre-war years are now extremely valuable among professionals. There are toys on display at the Doll Museum that lived through the 900 days of the devastating Siege of Leningrad together with their owners. The museum’s collection also includes bears created especially for the 1980 Summer Olympic Games held in Moscow. Most of the Olympic bears are made of porcelain. 
As well as being toys and collectors’ items, teddy bears may also be the subject of art experiments. This aspect is the focus of another local exhibition called TeddyFun, where photographers, designers, sculptors, architects and decorators offer their own contemporary view of the teddy’s image. To create the avant-garde, it is essential to research the classics of a genre, believes Olga Lakhina, the organizer of the TeddyFun exhibition in St. Petersburg.
 “The first teddies that emerged in the early 20th century had triangular, pointy faces, black button eyes and bodies stuffed with straw. But the main thing that distinguishes real collectable teddies from ordinary bears is that they could stand up and walk — I mean, they could stand upright on their paws and they mimicked human beings in terms of the position of their body, their clothes and facial expressions,” said Lakhina.
“It requires the highest skill for teddy artists to recreate classical teddy bears, with all their proportions, moods and movable details such as the limbs and head.”
While most original old bears are in museums and private collections, contemporary teddies can be observed at various exhibitions.
“We wanted to attract artists from different spheres of art to allow them to show their ideas via the format of the teddy bear,” said Lakhina. “And for most of these artists, who are all successful in their own areas of expertise, this is their first experience and first bear.”
The bears presented at the TeddyFun exhibition are created from various materials, from classical plush fabric and mohair to papier-mache, wood and plastic. The exhibition is not only limited to bears; their friends are welcome too. The term used among bear aficionados, “teddy bear and friends,” is illustrated at the TeddyFun exhibition by the creations of designer Polina Krik, whose “hare-bear” has become a symbol of the exhibition.
Artists who devote themselves to creating bears have an official name: Teddyists. 
“Some do it for a hobby, while others have progressed from being amateurs to professionals, having made the creation of teddy bears their main job and source of income,” said Lakhina.
The average price of a collectable designer bear is $100 to $500. There are waiting lists for the works of the most eminent masters. 
“The main idea of the TeddyFun exhibition is not the propaganda of bears as a hobby, but as an exhibition that attracts and unites professional artists and their bears,” said Lakhina.
One of the projects that best reflect the exhibition’s idea is the “ShoddyBear” photo project. Here, the organizers explain, the word “shoddy” should be interpreted as artificial or unreal.
“None of the bears in the project look like classic teddy bears,” said photographer Pasha Sestrova. “It is the idea of the bear, just art, the concept of the bear.”
The photographers have made a series of images depicting each bear with various images of its owner. Twenty of the photos will be displayed at the exhibition.

The “TeddyFun” exhibition runs from Feb. 10 to 13 at the Artists Union of Russia Exhibition Center, 38 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa. Tel: 314 3060. 

The “Bears of Russia” exhibition runs through April 10 at the Doll Museum, 8 Kamskaya Ulitsa. 
Tel: 327 7224.

TITLE: Backdated Apologies
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
TEXT: Last week, ballerina Anastasia Volochkova emerged as a staunch supporter of jailed oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, five years after signing a letter backing his jail sentence. Bloggers buzzed at the prospect of Vladimir Putin doing live comedy, and a very strange video of a woman in a polo neck jumper was watched more than a million times on YouTube.
Volochkova, the “fat ballerina” axed from the Bolshoi, gave an interview to Radio Liberty as it questioned all the public figures who signed an open letter supporting Khodorkovsky’s first conviction, saying it was not politically motivated. Volochkova said she never saw the text of the letter and was told by United Russia party organizers that it was in support of Khodorkovsky. She used expletives to describe the party in an emotional outburst.
Rather touchingly, she told the station that no one had ever asked her about the letter, almost as if her views on politics carried no weight. “Everyone asks me why I went topless or why I’m big and fat,” she said sadly.
The ballerina, who recently posted photographs of herself sunbathing naked on her blog, later used it to post a statement saying she was leaving United Russia, after joining in 2003. Here she gave a somewhat different version, saying she knew the letter called for the jailing of people who stole from the country.
The letter was also signed by United Russia stalwarts including singer-songwriter and Duma deputy Alexander Rozenbaum and former rhythmic gymnast and Duma deputy Alina Kabayeva.
As Volochkova emerged as an unlikely dissident, bloggers discussed the possibility of United Russia leader Putin making an even more unlikely crossover into comedy.
Putin visited state-owned Channel One and rumor had it that he would appear on ProjectorParisHilton, a late-night current affairs comedy show, which airs Saturday. The show is recorded in front of a live audience and does not announce its guests before airing, but has had A-listers including actors Hugh Grant and Mickey Rourke. There’s no question of anything close to the bone politically, but the presenters are sharp and funny. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied the rumors, and sadly, Putin indeed failed to make an appearance on the show.
Putin is probably surrounded by people who find his jokes very funny, but he likes to tell them cruel and crude. His joke about the Kursk submarine — “What happened to it? It sank” — was in the worst of taste. He also joked about the Israeli president Moshe Katsav being charged with multiple rape, calling him a “mighty man” and adding that “we all envy him.” But then again, his target audience is probably not the hipsters who watch ProjectorParisHilton.
Last week, Channel One was the joke as more than a million people watched a YouTube video of its show “Living Healthily.” The schoolteacher-like host, Yelena Malysheva, decided to demonstrate circumcision — not the norm in Russia — and struggled to find the right euphemistic visual aid. She called a woman from the audience in a polo neck jumper and pulled the neck over her head to represent the foreskin. Then she sprinkled glitter on the top of the woman’s head to show an infection. Grabbing a pair of scissors, she said cheerily “we’ll give you back the sweater,” and chopped off the top of the jumper. She also seemed to take quite a bit of the woman’s hair away. To cap it all, a rabbi was watching in dismay in the studio.
Express Gazeta joked that “even experienced Internet users who have seen every possible perversion have never seen anything like this.”

TITLE: Dining: Finland’s finest
AUTHOR: By Philip Parker
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Creative cooking and northern romance” is the slogan of Helskinki Bar, a new DJ-bar-cum-restaurant on Vasilyevsky Island. Opened in December, Helsinki Bar — a side project for the director of Svetlaya Muzika, the concert promoters who run the Stereoleto festival — is already a venue for after-parties and word-of-mouth acoustic gigs, and also has a “bring your own vinyl” evening. 
Helsinki Bar is located at the northern end of Kadetskaya Liniya, close to the River Neva and a fair hike from the metro. Having walked from Nevsky Prospekt over terrain that would have tried the patience of a penguin, we arrived with cold feet and slightly frayed tempers. Our first thoughts were, inevitably, of alcohol, and we decided to try the khrenovukha (120 rubles, $4) chalked up among the homemade drinks above the bar. 
Vodka infused with raw horseradish, khrenovukha is one of those Russian pleasures that — like ice swimming and bare-knuckle fighting — are more invigorating than actually enjoyable. Alongside truly alarming quantities of horseradish, this version had considerable garlic and, thankfully, quite a bit of honey in it, too. It assaults the senses and one might easily be fooled into thinking it has medicinal properties, but it was an effective antidote to the miserable conditions outside, and put us in a better mood to examine the menu. 
Consisting of only three pages, it begins with “MinFin,” a selection of mostly cold zakuski that could reasonably be described as northern tapas. We chose roast reindeer with blueberries (180 rubles, $6), smoked mackerel with jam (120 rubles, $4) and “Hot Finnish Guys” (150 rubles, $5), small pies stuffed with meat, salmon and spinach. Also on offer were salmon with a potato cake, gnocchi, salo (cured pork fat), and pickled mushrooms, all priced at around 150 rubles ($5). 
From the second page of the menu, devoted to soups and salads, we decided to share mushroom soup with reindeer meat (350 rubles, $11.70), and for entrees we chose northern cod with wild rice in hazelnut sauce (380 rubles, $12.70) and pork with asparagus in onion sauce (370 rubles, $12.30).   
The reindeer and mackerel came first, just in time to accompany the remains of the khrenovukha. Remarkably, the latter had not completely obliterated our taste buds, and the reindeer — eight slices of fillet cooked to leave the center still pink and very slightly mushy — proved a promising start, its delicately gamey flavor complemented by blueberries and redcurrants that, remarkably, appeared not to have been frozen (except, presumably, while still on the tree). The mackerel was less noteworthy, but then it’s hard to mess up smoked fish. In this case it was neither too salty nor too dry, but some might consider the jam an unnecessary embellishment. 
Sensibly, the waitress decided without prompting to bring the soup and pies together, once we had finished the first two dishes. The pies were piping hot and, to judge by their crispness and irregular forms, homemade and freshly baked. There were three — two with meat and one with salmon — and they were small but very satisfying. The soup had an aroma that was richly earthy with an intriguingly smoky edge to it. It was based around a generous serving of chanterelle mushrooms, and it took a couple of spoonfuls to realize that the black shapes that had sunk to the bottom of the bowl were not a second type of fungus, but more slices of reindeer fillet charred to a crisp and then soaked back to chewy tenderness. This revelation was a welcome one. 
The entrees were no less of a success. The cod was properly succulent, the rice was cooked to a tee, and the sauce was creamy and nutty, in just the right quantity to soften but not muffle the taste of the fish. The pork came in two pieces, each wrapped around a stalk of asparagus and cream cheese, served with slices of potato, red bell pepper and green beans. The onion sauce was as much lemon as onion, though neither flavor was overpowering, and it provided a tangy accompaniment to the creamy pork and asparagus. 
With one eye on our waistlines and the other on the bill, we were obliged to eschew dessert. The only downside to Helsinki Bar is that the prices are authentically Finnish.

TITLE: Project Seeks Romantic Donors
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Loving couples know how to share. This simple truth is at the heart of a social project that calls upon local couples to share their blood with those in need on St. Valentine’s Day.
Titled “Heart to Heart,” the initiative was launched by the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Red Cross and the St. Petersburg Blood Transfusion Center in 2009 and has become an annual event. Nearly 60 local couples took part in the project during the first two campaigns, and their blood donations helped more than 300 patients of the city’s hospitals.
Hospitals across the country struggle with shortages of blood, and St. Petersburg is no exception. The web sites of local charitable organizations are inundated with requests for urgent blood transfusions. 
Couples are being invited to donate blood on weekdays through Friday, Feb. 11 at any of the local blood donation points (a full list is available on the project’s web site, www.volonte.ru).
Donors can also register to take part in a draw to win two tickets to the “Big Love Show” concert that will take place at St. Petersburg’s Ice Palace on Feb. 14, featuring pop singers from Russia and beyond. 
During the past 10 years the number of blood donors in Russia has shrunk from 4 million to 1.8 million people, according to state statistics. In St. Petersburg there are 12 blood donors per 1,000 people, which is slightly below the national average of 13 donors per 1,000 people, and a far cry from the number needed. Doctors are extremely concerned about the blood shortage and say that at least 40 blood donors per 1,000 people are essential to deal with emergency situations.
Russian clinics on average currently possess only 40 percent of the blood stocks and 10 percent of plasma stocks that they need to operate.
According to a nationwide sociological poll sponsored by the Russian Federal Hematology Research Center in January 2011, more and more Russians are leaving behind their multiple prejudices about donating blood. If in 2009 in a similar poll, only 36 percent of respondents believed that blood donation was safe, this year that view was shared by 75 percent of the survey’s participants.
The survey also showed a decline from 33 percent to 19 percent in those who are convinced that blood donors are driven exclusively by financial motives. More optimistically, the percentage of the Russian people who see themselves as potential donors has increased by 25 percent since 2009, with every fourth Russian responding positively to the question in last month’s survey. The most enthusiastic supporters of the idea of blood donation include younger people aged 14-18 and those with a university degree.
Russian donors typically receive around 500 rubles ($17) in compensation for donating blood. The remuneration is described as “lunch cost compensation.” 
“In comparison, in many European countries, donors receive only small token souvenirs,” said Andrei Dyachkov, a spokesman for the St. Petersburg branch of the International Red Cross. 
“This is done in an effort to raise the safety of the blood, as it is believed that donors who are not interested in monetary compensation will not be interested in concealing any compromising medical information about any health conditions that might prevent their blood from being accepted.”
The Red Cross is currently campaigning for the implementation of these international  standards and is researching public attitudes toward the idea. Dyachkov said however that the concept faces strong opposition from both blood donors and medical professionals. Many regular donors still rely on the fee, while doctors are afraid that the blood shortage will be exacerbated even further if 100 percent voluntary blood donation is introduced.
“When I arrived in St. Petersburg several years ago, I just wanted to donate blood to help people, and did not expect any compensation for it,” wrote Oleg Zhukov, now a regular donor who gives blood once a month, in a commentary posted on www.volonte.ru. “At the time, I was rejected on the grounds that I had no local registration. That senseless bureaucracy left me absolutely dumbstruck. Eventually, the local authorities changed the rules and allow people with temporary registration to become donors, and I even discovered that blood donations were a paid service. Now that I have become so involved with it, I think I could even give blood for free.”

TITLE: Valentine’s in Russia: 
A Hit or a Miss?
TEXT: Olga Marshkova, 54, an editor:
I hate this celebration because it is a forced one. It was invented by French PR people when they needed to sell a large volume of flowers.
For Russia, it’s a completely foreign concept and I don’t celebrate it, though my children do. They give their partners flowers or something sweet on Valentine’s Day.

Artyom Mushakov, 33, an emergency rescue worker: 
Sure, we celebrate this day. We send greetings and Valentines to the people we care about. Last year on Valentine’s Day I gave my girlfriend flowers, took her out for dinner in a restaurant and then we went to a nightclub.
One of my acquaintances bought his wife a trip to the Maldives for Valentine’s Day. He originally wanted to go together with her, but then he couldn’t take time off work for those dates and she went alone.
I have positive attitude toward this day, because it offers us another opportunity to be in a good mood and to do something nice for those close to us.

Vyacheslav Putintsev, 28, an emergency rescue worker:
I’m indifferent to all celebrations and see them only as an occasion to meet with my friends. I respect only Victory Day, because we won the war. None of the other holidays are serious. 
However, I have given girls perfume before on St. Valentine’s Day.

Valeria Vasilyeva, 25, a photographer:
I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day very much, but I do get presents on that day. For instance, my boyfriend once gave me a ticket for a package holiday to Egypt on Valentine’s Day. Other presents might also include flowers, jewelry, a daytrip to the countryside, or a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. I give presents on that day too.

Svetlana Bystrova, 34, a bank employee:
I don’t celebrate it because it’s not really a Russian celebration. I haven’t been given any presents for it, and I don’t buy gifts for it either.

Yelena Akhundova,  51, a manager:
We celebrate Valentine’s Day now and then. Usually my husband brings home flowers and a cake. If you don’t believe that the day is mainly celebrated for advertising reasons and to increase sales, then I think it has the right to exist, because it’s a day of love and kindness. 
Love comes above everything else, so there is nothing wrong in celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Valery Plotnikov, 50, a teacher:
There are two women in my family: my wife and my daughter. So of course I try to make Valentine’s Day nice for them, and give them nice gifts like a camera or a laptop.

Valentina, 24, a trainee hairdresser and Alexei, 26, an electrician:
We celebrate it a bit; we give each other little presents. I think we should have Valentine’s Day because it’s a happy celebration that gives us another excuse to do something nice for other people.

TITLE: Love in a Cold Climate: Romance in St. Petersburg
AUTHOR: By Olga Kalashnikova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Even in the winter, St. Petersburg is a romantic city with plenty of places that seem as though they were created especially for love-struck couples. Newlyweds from all over the world come to spend their honeymoon here. With Valentine’s Day approaching on Feb. 14, couples are spoilt for choice by popular romantic places and activities appropriate for all phases of a modern-day love story, from first dates to weddings. 

Potseluyev Most 
(Bridge of Kisses)
This bridge over the Moika is one of the most famously romantic locations in St. Petersburg. Thanks to its name, the Potseluyev Most (Bridge of Kisses) has long been a meeting place for lovers — it is said that those who kiss here will be happy and enjoy true love. The name of the bridge has given birth to many romantic legends. It was said that in the 18th century, the boundary of the city was located here, and the bridge was the scene of meetings and farewells. According to other legends, prisoners used to bid farewell to their loved ones here, as there was a prison nearby. People also believed that in olden times, the bridge was a meeting place for sweethearts who had to conceal their feelings for various reasons. In fact, the true origin of the name is far more prosaic. In the 18th century, there used to be a tavern near the bridge called Potseluy, after its landlord — Potseluyev. The tavern was well known in the city, and soon the bridge also acquired this name. 

Zimnyaya Kanavka 
(Winter Canal)
Even unrequited love in St. Petersburg becomes a mutual feeling — unhappy lovers simply need to know where to go and what to do there. According to local folklore, one of the most romantic places in St. Petersburg is the Hermitage Bridge and the Winter Canal that connects the Neva and Moika rivers in the vicinity of the Winter Palace. At the end of Tchaikovsky’s opera “The Queen of Spades,” the main character Liza throws herself from the bridge into the water. According to legend, to make unrequited love become reciprocal, lovesick mortals should go to the Hermitage Bridge and throw some coins into the water while thinking about the object of their affections, who should soon feel just as passionately about them.

Ice-Skating
At the beginning of a romance, a classic romantic activity is to go ice-skating. The city is home to many rinks, both outdoor and indoor. One of the most romantic open-air skating-rinks is that on the snowy, tree-covered Yelagin Island, which forms part of the city’s Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Of the indoor rinks, the one inside the equally snowy (but more centrally located) Tavrichesky Gardens is one of the most popular. Hardcore romantics can even go skating at night — for example at the Academy of Figure Skating, which is open at night on weekends.
The Colonnade of
St. Isaac’s Cathedral
This is a place for lovers who are not afraid of heights. The climb up the 262 steps is worth it for the view of the picturesque panoramic view of St. Petersburg and the Neva that unfolds from the top. The most romantic time, however, is in the summer during the white nights, when there are night excursions and the raising of the bridges can be observed. 

Ice festival 
Every year, the Peter and Paul Fortress hosts a festival of ice sculptures, which also attracts couples in search of romantic sights. This year, a date at the festival will enable lovers to admire ice replicas of iconic Petersburg buildings such as the Admiralty, Kazan Cathedral and the Naval Museum, as well as characters from popular cartoons including “Ice Age,” “Shrek” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Some of the sculptures this year are inspired by the famous mock wedding between two jesters of Empress Anna Ivanovna. While the festival opened its doors last month, more sculptures will be unveiled on Feb. 14 especially for Valentine’s Day.

Boat trips 
In the summer, the loss of the ice festival is more than made up for by the opportunity to enjoy boat trips along the city’s rivers and canals. Such trips usually take in part of the Neva and many historic mansions and palaces along the Fontanka and Moika rivers, while a trip along the winding, tree-lined Griboyedov Canal is especially romantic. There is a tradition of kissing when the boat passes under the bridges. Couples can also rent boats on the picturesque Yelagin Island.
The Spit (Strelka) 
of Vasilyevsky Island
This place is more popular with wedding parties than with courting couples. Newlyweds traditionally come here to take photos, drink champagne and then smash the glasses in order to bring happiness. Several years ago, the latter tradition was prohibited because of the volume of litter that is left behind after such wedding parties. Even the installation of a policeman to keep order on the Strelka now has not spoiled the romance of this place, however.

Love locks
The custom of locking a padlock to the railing of a bridge and throwing the key into the water symbolizes everlasting love, and newly-weds in Russia and many other countries follow this tradition. The most popular bridges for this tradition in St. Petersburg are the Potseluyev Bridge, the Malo-Konyushenny Bridge that joins the Moika River and Griboedov Canal near the Church on the Spilled Blood, the Lion Bridge over the Griboyedov and the Pevchesky Bridge across the Moika.

The Atlantes 
on Millionaya Ulitsa
Another stop popular with newlyweds are the Atlantes adorning the fa?ade of the New Hermitage building. According to legend, the couple can ensure happiness by touching the Atlantes’ enormous toes. The Alexander Column on Palace Square is also a much-loved symbol among newlyweds. It is said that the groom should lead the bride around the column. The number of times walked around the column will equal the number of children born into their family. 
While St. Petersburg is full of romantic places and traditions, every couple has its own customs and locations. And more often than not, these are not necessarily places with a traditionally romantic atmosphere, but are places that are unforgettable to lovers because of their own feelings and associations.

TITLE: In Brief
TEXT: The St. Petersburg Times
Official festivities for St. Valentine’s Day have been banned in the Belgorod region by the local governor, who reportedly said the holiday goes against Russian cultural traditions, Rusnovosti.ru reported.
Yevgeny Savchenko introduced the ban last year with the blessing of the local archbishop, Ioann, the news agency reported last week. A decree, signed this year by Savchenko’s first deputy, Oleg Polukhin, reiterated the ban for the sake of “spiritual safety,” the report said.

TITLE: Mubarak Creates Committees for Reform
AUTHOR: By Hamza Hendawi and Maggie Michael
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak set up a committee Tuesday to recommend constitutional amendments to relax presidential eligibility rules and impose term limits — seeking to meet longtime popular demands as a standoff with protesters seeking his ouster enters its third week.
Mubarak’s decrees were announced on state television by Vice President Omar Suleiman, who also said that Mubarak will set up a separate committee to monitor the implementation of all proposed reforms. The two committees will start working immediately, he said.
The government has promised several concessions since the uprising began on Jan. 25 but has refused the protesters’ main demand that Mubarak step down immediately instead of staying on through September elections. Tuesday’s decision was the first concrete step taken by the longtime authoritarian ruler to implement promised reforms.
Mubarak’s efforts to stay in office got a boost from the Obama administration, which conceded that it will not endorse calls for the president’s immediate departure, saying a precipitous exit could set back the country’s democratic transition.
After several days of mixed messages about whether it wants to see Mubarak stay or go, Washington stepped up calls for a faster, more inclusive national dialogue on reform in Egypt. Under Egypt’s constitution, Mubarak’s resignation would trigger an election in 60 days. U.S. officials said that is not enough time to prepare.
“A question that that would pose is whether Egypt today is prepared to have a competitive, open election,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “Given the recent past, where, quite honestly, elections were less than free and fair there’s a lot of work that has to be done to get to a point where you can have free and fair elections.”
“I think that would be a challenging undertaking,” he said.
Mubarak also ordered a probe into last week’s clashes between the protesters and government supporters as well as mass detentions of human rights activists and journalists. The committee will refer its findings to the attorney-general, Suleiman said.
“The youth of Egypt deserve national appreciation,” he quoted the president as saying. “They should not be detained, harassed or denied their freedom of expression.”
The committee considering constitutional and legislative changes will be led by the head of Egypt’s highest appellate court and composed of six senior judges and four constitutional experts, according to a statement issued later by the official news agency MENA. It will make its recommendations to Suleiman by the end of this month.
The latest government announcement came two days after Suleiman met for the first time with representatives of opposition groups, including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood — the country’s largest and best organized opposition group — to debate a way out of the ongoing political crisis.
The fundamentalist Islamic group issued a statement earlier Tuesday calling the reforms proposed so far as “partial” and insisting that Mubarak must go to ease what it called the anger felt by Egyptians who face widespread poverty and government repression.
The Brotherhood also accused pro-Mubarak thugs of detaining protesters, including Brotherhood supporters, and handing them over to the army’s military police who torture them.
“We call on the military, which we love and respect, to refrain from these malicious acts,” said the statement.
The president went on with official business Tuesday, receiving the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Thousands of protesters, meanwhile, remained camped out in the central Tahrir Square, many hoping for an appearance by Google Inc. executive Wael Ghonim, a 30-year-old marketing manager who has emerged as a rallying point after he was released Monday after 12 days in custody.
About 90,000 people have joined a Facebook group nominating Ghonim to be their spokesman. Many demonstrators reject a group of officially sanctioned and traditional Egyptian opposition groups that have been negotiating with the government on their behalf in recent days.
Some on the square chanted “Wael Ghonim is coming today,” although reports that he planned to appear couldn’t be confirmed.
Protesters have lacked a clear, representative voice and many worry the traditional parties are trying to hijack the uprising, which began when activists used the Internet’s social networks to mobilize the hundreds of thousands who first took to the streets.
The demonstrators have said they would not enter negotiations with the regime before Mubarak’s departure. Mubarak insists that he intends to serve the remainder of his current, six-year term, which expires in September, and that he would die in Egypt, thus rejecting any suggestion that he should leave the country.

TITLE: Assange In Court To Fight Extradition
AUTHOR: By Jill Lawless
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — A Swedish legal expert said Tuesday there were serious irregularities in the way prosecutors built their sex crimes case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Sven-Erik Alhem, a former chief prosecutor in Sweden, said prosecutor Marianne Ny “should have made sure Assange was able to give his version of events in detail.”
Assange’s lawyers say prosecutors have rebuffed his offer to be questioned from London about rape and sexual misconduct claims by two Swedish women. The head of the secret-spilling web site denies wrongdoing.
Alhem, a defense witness, also said it was “extraordinary” that a prosecutor had leaked Assange’s name to the media.
Assange’s lawyers claim publicity about the case and the Swedish custom of hearing rape cases behind closed doors mean he would not get a fair trial if he is sent to Sweden. His attorney, Geoffrey Robertson, said Monday that closed-door hearings would be “a flagrant denial of justice.”
But the British lawyer representing Sweden, Clare Montgomery, countered that Swedish trials were based on the principle that everyone deserves “a fair and public hearing.” Evidence is heard in private in some cases, but it will often be published after the trial and recited in the judgment.
Montgomery said Ny had issued an arrest warrant for Assange only after making repeated unsuccessful attempts to arrange an interview with him.
In a court document read aloud by Montgomery, Ny said that “it must have been crystal clear to Julian Assange ... that we were extremely anxious to interview him.”
But, Ny said, an interview could not be set up and at one point Assange’s Swedish lawyer was unable to contact him for several days. Ny said given this background, “We consider Julian Assange is an obvious flight risk and it cannot be considered an overreaction to detain him.”
Assange’s wide-ranging arguments against extradition range from criticism of Ny to claims that he could eventually be extradited from Sweden to the United States, and even sent to the detention center at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The 39-year-old Australian, wearing a blue suit, sat in the dock at London’s Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court on the second day of a two-day hearing.
American officials are trying to build a criminal case against WikiLeaks. Assange’s lawyers claim the Swedish prosecution is linked to the leaks and is politically motivated.

TITLE: U.K. Report: Govt Backed Release for Bomber
AUTHOR: By Robert Barr
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON — Britain’s previous government did “all it could” to help Libya win the release of the only man convicted of the Pan Am bombing in Scotland in 1988, though it insisted the decision was made entirely by Scottish officials, Britain’s head of civil service said Monday.
However, Sir Gus O’Donnell, the leader of the Cabinet Office, also said he found no evidence that the central government had put any pressure on Scottish authorities to grant the release.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the terrorist attack, was granted a compassionate release from a Scottish prison in August 2009 on the ground that he was suffering from prostate cancer and would die soon.
He is still alive.
The bombing of the U.S.-bound Pan Am jumbo jet killed 270 people, most of them Americans, and al-Megrahi’s release has been criticized by members of the U.S. Congress.
Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the British coalition government that took power in May, asked O’Donnell to conduct the review. Cameron has strongly criticized al-Megrahi’s release in the past.
Cameron’s office said he discussed the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday at a security conference in Munich and that they had “strongly agreed” the prisoner release was a mistake.
“He was convicted of the biggest mass murder in British history, and in my view he should have died in jail,” Cameron told the House of Commons.
O’Donnell said British policy regarding al-Megrahi developed after former Prime Minister Tony Blair negotiated a prisoner transfer agreement with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2007.
Policy then developed that the government should “do all it could” to facilitate an appeal by the Libyans to the Scottish government for Megrahi’s transfer to be released under the prisoner transfer agreement or on compassionate grounds, O’Donnell said.
“Nonetheless, once Mr. Megrahi had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2008, (government) policy was based upon an assessment that U.K. interests would be damaged if Mr. Megrahi were to die in a U.K. jail,” O’Donnell said.
“The development of this view was prompted, following Mr. Megrahi’s diagnosis of terminal illness, by the extremely high priority attached to Mr. Megrahi’s return by the Libyans, who had made clear that they would regard his death in Scottish custody as a death sentence and by actual and implicit threats made of severe ramifications for U.K. interests if Mr. Megrahi were to die in prison in Scotland.”
Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, met Gadhafi in July 2009, a month before the release, and had said he could not interfere in the Scottish decision, O’Donnell said.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings last year on whether the British-based oil company BP had sought al-Megrahi’s release to help get a $900 million exploration agreement with Libya moving. Former BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward refused to testify before the committee last year.

TITLE: Romanian Witches Face Legislation On Fortune-Telling
AUTHOR: By Alison Mutler
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BUCHAREST, Romania — There’s more bad news in the cards for Romania’s beleaguered witches.
A month after Romanian authorities began taxing them for their trade, the country’s soothsayers and fortune tellers are cursing a new bill that threatens fines or even prison if their predictions don’t come true.
Witches argue they shouldn’t be blamed for the failure of their tools.
“They can’t condemn witches, they should condemn the cards,” Queen witch Bratara Buzea told The Associated Press by telephone.
Superstition is a serious matter in the land of Dracula, and officials have turned to witches to help the recession-hit country collect more money and crack down on tax evasion.
In January, officials changed labor laws to officially recognize the centuries-old practice as a taxable profession, prompting angry witches to dump poisonous mandrake into the Danube in an attempt to put a hex on the government.