SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1663 (25), Wednesday, June 29, 2011
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TITLE: Matviyenko to Run for Councilwoman
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko is preparing to become a councilwoman in one of St. Petersburg's 111 district councils — a step that will pave the way for her to be appointed speaker of the Federation Council.
At least three St. Petersburg districts — Rzhevka, Porokhoviye and Finlyandsky — have publicly voiced their readiness to hold an early election and welcome Matviyenko as councilwoman.
Matviyenko's deputy and possible successor, Mikhail Oseyevsky, said Thursday that most of the city's 111 districts were ready to call an early election for the governor and a final decision would be announced next week, Interfax reported.
Matviyenko, who has not participated in a direct election since first becoming governor in 2003, has to be a lawmaker to be appointed senate speaker. But since St. Petersburg cannot hold an election for its city legislature until December, the authorities have decided to focus on a district.
Matviyenko, who has served eight years as governor, accepted President Dmitry Medvedev's offer to become Federation Council speaker earlier this week.
Politicians and analysts have said the Kremlin wants to replace the increasingly unpopular governor ahead of State Duma elections in December, and the speaker appointment will allow her to save face.
If Matviyenko is elected councilwoman, she will resign from the governor's office in August, Oseyevsky said, RIA-Novosti reported. In mid-July she is going on a planned vacation. Oseyevsky will replace Matviyenko for the 10-day vacation period.
A Just Russia, whose former leader Sergei Mironov was ousted as Federation Council speaker by the St. Petersburg legislature, urged other political parties to join it in campaigning against Matviyenko's election bid.
"She is running the election only to be appointed to the Federation Council," Mironov said, Interfax reported. "It's clear from the beginning that she won't be working for the district where she is elected."
The Communist and Yabloko parties were considering the invitation to join forces with A Just Russia under the slogan "Petersburg Against Matviyenko." The parties said they would hold a general meeting before making a decision.
On Wednesday, Duma Deputy Oksana Dmitriyeva of A Just Russia criticized Matviyenko's work in St. Petersburg during a talk show on Ekho Moskvy, prompting the governor to call the radio station and speak out in her own defense. She said hundreds of people have been asking her not to leave in recent days. It was a "very hard" decision to accept the Federation Council post, she said.


TITLE: Matviyenko Accepts New Job 
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Three days weren’t enough for St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko to make up her mind.
But a closed-door Kremlin meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev did the trick Tuesday, and his spokeswoman announced afterward that Matviyenko had accepted the speaker’s seat in the Federation Council.
“Valentina Matviyenko will hold all necessary consultations with the governing body of the Federation Council and will proceed with election to the upper chamber,” spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said, Interfax reported.
Matviyenko made no public comments after the Kremlin announcement, but St. Petersburg blogs and Internet forums buzzed with excitement that the “iron lady,” as she has been nicknamed, was on her way out after eight years as governor.
But at a first, regular meeting with Medvedev earlier Tuesday, Matviyenko left the president hanging when he officially offered her the speaker’s seat. She told him that she would think about it.
“I’m in an ambivalent state of mind,” Matviyenko said. “On one hand, I feel responsibility before the city, on the other hand, I consider the Federation Council post a huge responsibility.”
“I think that it would be good for the state if you headed the upper chamber of parliament,” Medvedev replied, according to a Kremlin transcript.
Medvedev said he would leave the final decision up to Matviyenko and backed a proposal by her to consult with Federation Council senators and other regional governors first.
He then called her into the closed-door meeting.
The idea to appoint Matviyenko as Federation Council speaker was first raised at a meeting between Medvedev and a group of governors Friday. Matviyenko, who did not attend the meeting, said the same day that she would only comment on the proposal this week.
Her comments to Medvedev on Tuesday were her first on the issue.
Medvedev, who praised Matviyenko’s work Friday, reiterated his satisfaction with her leadership at the first meeting Tuesday. The Kremlin spokeswoman did not elaborate on what was said during the closed meeting.
Matviyenko said at the first meeting that she had come to Medvedev to seek his advice about her career.
Medvedev’s job offer signaled that the Kremlin wanted Matviyenko out as governor, and her apparently flustered reply indicated that she hadn’t been prepared for the decision.
Politicians and analysts have said the Kremlin wants to replace the increasingly unpopular governor ahead of State Duma elections in December, and the speaker appointment would allow her to save face. While the speaker’s post would leave Matviyenko second in line for the presidency, the governor’s office wields more influence.
The speaker’s post has been held by an interim speaker since the St. Petersburg city legislature ousted Sergei Mironov last month amid his critical rhetoric as a founder of the Just Russia party. Mironov has accused Matviyenko of orchestrating his ouster.
The St. Petersburg legislature will have to elect Matviyenko to the Federation Council for her to become speaker. It made no immediate announcement Tuesday on when it might elect her. But she won’t face election earlier than the fall, because the legislature adjourns for a two-month summer recess starting Thursday, St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov said before the Kremlin announcement.
Nonetheless, Matviyenko, a United Russia member, should not have difficulty winning a majority of votes in the legislature, which is dominated by United Russia.
The Kremlin made no comment on her possible successor in St. Petersburg. Among the possible candidates named by observers are her chief of staff Mikhail Oseyevsky, Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin and his deputy Alexander Beglov.

TITLE: Officials Say Dump Fire Not Dangerous to Health 
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: An excess of harmful emissions was registered during a fire at the Krasny Bor waste dump outside St. Petersburg last week.
The emissions levels were not hazardous for people’s health, Yulia Pykhtyreva, St. Petersburg’s prosecutor for environmental affairs, said at a press conference Monday, Interfax reported.
“There might be a threat to the environment, but we still have to figure out how significant the harm will be. We are expecting a verdict on the situation from Russian Nature Watch by the end of the week. After that the decision on whether to open a criminal case will be made,” Pykhtyreva said.
Nikolai Sorokin, deputy head of the city’s Committee for the Use of Natural Resources, Environment and Ecological Safety, said harmful substances become dangerous when they exceed the limit by 10 times. St. Petersburg’s air-monitoring stations did not show an excess on that scale, and the fire did not affect the environment, Sorokin said.
On Thursday, the day of the fire, St. Petersburg’s Greenpeace branch recommended that city residents, especially those living in the southern suburbs, remain indoors and close the windows at home to avoid the effects of smoke from the fire.
Dmitry Artamonov, head of Greenpeace’s St. Petersburg branch, said the burning of waste from the dump could lead to emissions of cancerous substances and heavy metals.
City officials, however, said that Greenpeace should not have issued a warning, because there are certain rules about when to warn the population about such dangers.
“We’d have issued a warning if the concentration of harmful substances had exceeded the norm by 10 times,” Sorokin said.
Nature and Ecology Minister Yury Trutnev said it was necessary to speed up the completion of maintenance work on the Kransy Bor dump.
“It’s not the first fire the dump has had, and its reconstruction should be completed as soon as possible,” he said.


TITLE: Abortion Bill Ignites Anger  
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Concerned citizens of St. Petersburg protested draft bills introduced by State Duma deputies from pro-Kremlin parties late last month and earlier this month with the purpose of lowering the number of abortions and increasing the birth rate.
The draft laws introduced by A Just Russia’s Yelena Mizulina and United Russia’s Valery Draganov include measures such as the obligatory written agreement of the husband — or the parents if the woman is a minor — to an abortion, interviews with psychologists and priests and a ban on after-sex contraceptive pills.
Twenty activists from organizations such as the Crisis Center for Women, the feminist and LGBT rights organization Gender-L, the pressure group For Feminism and the Russian Socialist Movement came to Malaya Sadovaya Ulitsa with banners and posters reading “You Who Have Stolen Everything, Don’t Teach Us Morality,” “No to Attacks on Women’s Rights” and “Fight Abortions, Not Women.”
“We do not believe abortion is good,” For Feminism’s Marina Lakis said in a news release.
“But we are sure that the restriction of access for women to abortions would not help either to lower the number of abortions or to increase the birth rate.”
Instead of restrictive measures, activists called for social guarantees for women and stressed the need for higher levels of sex education.
According to the organizers, the proposed measures contradict the Constitution and the Family Code, as well as a number of international documents ratified by Russia, including the UN’s 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The activists are worried that the restrictive measures would lead to criminal abortions, female infertility and a rise in the death rate, as was seen during the Stalinist era.
Abortions were banned in the Soviet Union in 1936, and legalized again in 1955, two years after the death of Stalin. 


TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>New Metro Stations</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — According to a new plan for the development of the St. Petersburg metro, seven new metro stations will appear in the city before 2015, and in total 45 stations will be built by 2025. New underground railways will connect the center of the city with Pulkovo airport, Gazprom’s Lakhta Center and Zenit’s new football stadium. 

<b>More Traffic Lanes</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — More than 80 separate traffic lanes for trams will be built in St. Petersburg by 2025, and more than 40 bus lanes will be constructed, Stanislav Popov, chairman of the city’s Transport Committee, said Tuesday.
As well as separate lanes there will be 41 new lanes for both trams and buses. 
The number of public transport routes on which the interval of service is less than 10 minutes will increase by 40 percent, said Popov. “We plan to make public transportation more effective and better by using high capacity transport,” he added.

<b>Finland Added to Route</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The St. Peter Line ferry operator has added a weekly stop in Helsinki to the schedule of the Princess Anastasia ferry, whose route also includes Stockholm and Tallinn. From August 4, passengers will be able to visit the Nordic cities in four days, spending a day in each capital. 
The decision was taken due to the growing popularity of the Stockholm and Tallinn route with Russian tourists, the company said. Helsinki’s administration was encouraged by the possibility of increasing the volume of tourists from Russia and has granted the ferry a central berth near the Helsinki Cathedral.
The Princess Anastasia will retain its regular Monday trips directly from St. Petersburg to Stockholm and back, without stopping at the other cities. 

<b>Beer and Kvas Festival</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The annual Beer and Kvas festival will take place Saturday at the Peterburgsky Sports and Concert Complex (SKK). 
According to organizers, this year’s festival will be less alcoholic and more cultural. Various master-classes, lectures and a photo exhibition will be open to visitors, and sports activities such as football, volleyball and imitation windsurfing will be available. Among the musicians participating in the concert shows are Mashina Vremeni, Neschastny Sluchai, Voskresenie, Kirpichi and others. 
The festival will be open from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. Entrance is free.

<b>Support for Skyscraper</b>
¦ ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The majority of residents of the Primorsky district in the northwest of the city feel positive about the Lakhta Center skyscraper project that is to be built in their neighborhood, Interfax reported Tuesday. 
According to a survey conducted by the Romir investigation center, 68 percent of the Primorsky district’s citizens want to see St. Petersburg develop in all directions, including in business and tourism, while 17 percent want the city to be primarily a cultural and museum center.
Out of 70 percent of citizens aware of the planned construction of Gazprom Neft’s Lakhta Center, 67 percent feel positive or neutral about it, 24 percent are against it and 9 percent of respondents didn’t know how to respond. 
Asked about the district’s main problems, 48 percent of respondents complained about traffic, 39 percent about the ecological situation and 38 percent about garbage in the streets. Only 16 percent of citizens identified the Lakhta Center as the district’s main problem.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents hope that the building of the business center will help to solve many of the district’s transport and infrastructure problems, and 51 percent think it will help to increase the district’s prestige and attractiveness. 

<b>DFI to Triple by 2015</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — City Hall approved a program for improving St. Petersburg’s investment climate through 2015 on Tuesday, Interfax reported.
It is expected that the volume of foreign direct investment will triple by 2015, said Yevgeny Yelin, head of the Economic Development committee. The average annual growth of investment in the city’s fixed capital will be 115  percent and the figure will be almost 900 billion rubles ($3.2 billion) by 2015.

<b>1/4 of City Likes Party</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Twenty-seven percent of St. Petersburg citizens support the United Russia party, according to the Social Information Agency. 

TITLE: Gay Pride Demonstrators Attacked at Rally 
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The unauthorized Slavic Gay Pride march, which lasted just four minutes, was first attacked by neo-Nazis and then dispersed by the police in St. Petersburg on Saturday. 
A dozen activists shouting “Russia With No Homophobes” and “Equal Rights With No Compromise” marched to the Bronze Horseman in central St. Petersburg. They carried rainbow flags and posters such as “God is With Us, Hatred With You,” “Russians Are Not Homophobes” and “Don’t Be Scared: Homophobia Is Curable.”
The poster “Matviyenko! Alcoholism Is a Disease. Homosexuality Is Not” referred to St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, whom the activists declared responsible for “everything that happens” during the event by virtue of the local authorities’ repeated refusal to authorize the rally.
Only one minute into the event, one activist was attacked by a hooded man, who punched him in the face, while two or three others rushed at the demonstrators seizing and tearing up the posters — despite the massive presence of the police on and near the site.
The police arrested the hooded attacker and proceeded to detain the activists, but, when the arrests were made, another group of activists produced posters on the steps of the Constitutional Court across the street. The police ran to arrest them as well.
While two activists from Belarus, who avoided arrest, were being interviewed by a television crew, a counter protester wearing a T-shirt with the word “Russia” and a double-headed eagle intervened claiming that Russia is a “traditionalist country… the Third Rome.”
The 14 arrested activists were taken to Police Precinct 2, where they were held overnight in a cell until Sunday afternoon. According to one of them, an officer admitted in a private conversation that this was done due to “pressure from Moscow.” 
The detained attacker was soon released from the precinct, the activists said. The protester who was attacked, Alexander Sheremetyev of St. Petersburg LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights organization Ravnopraviye (Equal Rights), was later diagnosed with contusions to the head and lips.
The activists were charged with violating the regulations on holding public events and failure to obey a police officer’s orders. On Sunday, the court imposed fines of between 500 and 1,000 rubles ($18 to $35) for the former offense, but sent the cases regarding the latter to the activists’ respective local courts. Failure to obey a police officer’s orders is punishable with up to 15 days in prison.
According to Ravnopraviye’s chair Yury Gavrikov, three applications to hold the rally submitted to district administrations and one application to City Hall were rejected by the authorities on questionable grounds. Pionerskaya Ploshchad, a frequent site for various meetings, was rejected as a venue on the grounds that a rehearsal by a youth theater group was scheduled to be held there on June 25, though the time of the planned rehearsal was not specified, he said. 
The route from Sportivnaya metro to Ploshchad Sakharova, also occasionally used for authorized marches, was refused because the matchers would distract the attention of drivers which might result in traffic accidents, while a children’s excursion would be held on Ploshchad Sakharova on that day. 
The authorities said the protesters could not use Ploshchad Yevropy, the site behind Park Inn Pribaltiiskaya Hotel, because it would hinder work to assemble a summer entertainment park there, although Sheremetyev, who checked the location, said there were no works in sight.
Finally, the authorities suggested a site on Kozhevennaya Liniya on Vasilyevsky Island, described by Gavrikov as an “unpopulated, industrial area,” between warehouses and boiler rooms, but when the activists agreed to it, issued a refusal on the same day. 
In their final letter to the organizers, the authorities said that spare parts would be delivered to a boiler house located there between June 20 and 25, and that any disruption could result in failures in the 2011/12 heating season.
That was on the last day that applications could be submitted by law.
“I do not know what this is — mockery, cynicism, rudeness?” Gavrikov said. “I haven’t seen cynicism on such a scale anywhere outside St. Petersburg,” Moscow activist Nikolai Alexeyev said.
“They suggested an industrial, totally unpopulated area, and then they banned it themselves… It looks like they expected we would not agree to it.”
The organizers said they were left with no choice other than to hold an act of civil disobedience, choosing the lively, tourist site near the Bronze Horseman — the celebrated monument to Peter the Great — because Peter the Great “founded St. Petersburg as a European city, a city with European values.”
“We were left with no option other than to hold an act of civil disobedience to attract the attention of people to the St. Petersburg authorities’ lawlessness with regard to us,” Gavrikov said.
Nikolayev said that the authorities have repeatedly refused to discuss the issue of discrimination against the LGBT community with activists for the past six years.
“I think it’s impossible to talk with the authorities, it can only be done if they change their attitude and start to obey the law,” he said.

TITLE: Public Heckles Skyscraper Architect
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Tony Kettle, an architect with British RMJM — the firm behind the design for the controversial Gazprom tower — had to cut his presentation short amid shouts of “Shame on you,” “Time’s up!” “Go home!” and other hostile reactions from the planned skyscraper’s opponents at a public hearing in St. Petersburg on Friday.
Kettle, RMJM’s design principal for the European studio and the skyscraper’s architect, arrived in person to present and defend the much-criticized high-rise project, which was moved from the Okhta area after years of public outcry, protests from UNESCO and the Russian Culture Ministry.
Although Gazprom has moved the planned skyscraper to a far more remote location on the shore of the Gulf of Finland in Lakhta, in northwestern St. Petersburg, the project has continued to cause controversy.
Local legislation sets the height limit for construction in the area at 27 meters because of birds’ migration routes, but Okhta Public Business Center, the Gazprom subsidiary responsible for the project, has announced plans to build a building that would be even taller than the 403-meter structure originally planned for Okhta. 
In Lakhta, the subsidiary now plans to build a tower of 500 meters, which is 18.5 times higher than the maximum allowed in the area.
The company held the public hearing as a step in obtaining exemption from the law limiting the height. Gazprom insists that economically, the building of lower buildings is not feasible in the area because of the plot’s configuration. Opponents point out that the company freely chose the plot and could find another location where it would not be subject to height limitations.
They were not impressed by the promotional film shown to demonstrate that the city’s UNESCO-protected historic views would only be marginally affected by the structure, describing the 3-D model as “misleading.” In addition, the captions on the video said that the calculations were made for a building with a height of 472 meters, rather than the planned 500.
The Okhta Center’s representatives said that although detailed research and expert evaluations were yet to be carried out, the company had nevertheless begun the process of applying for an exemption from the height regulations.
Kettle, who was attending a public hearing for the project for the first time, said that the new location presented a “huge opportunity to do something really special,” describing his firm’s project as a “new piece of architecture worthy of the city.”
Kettle said that the inspiration for the skyscraper came from the spires of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Admiralty. He argued that the city’s protected skyline has already been affected by the 310-meter-tall television tower, built in 1962.
When Kettle said that his tower would be “a new dominant worthy of the city,” a woman from the audience shouted back, “We already have a dominant — the Peter and Paul Angel.”
Kettle made a comparison between the newly-designed base of the planned skyscraper and the stone beneath the Bronze Horseman, simultaneously demonstrating a projection of the historic monument on the screen. This elicited a burst of laughter from the audience.
Kettle stopped after about 25 minutes amid shouts from the audience that his speech was not relevant to the subject of the public hearing — the exemption from the height regulations — and after a district administration official who was moderating the hearing asked him to sum up.
During the session of questions and remarks from the public that followed the speeches, Yelena Malysheva, an activist with the anti-skyscraper preservationist organization Okhtinskaya Duga confronted Kettle with a question, asking whether he knew that he was violating both Russian and international laws.
“I am not aware of that,” Kettle replied.

TITLE: ‘A Hot Evening in Early July’: City to Celebrate Dostoevsky 
AUTHOR: By Yelena Minenko

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg will celebrate Dostoevsky Day for the second year running on Saturday. 
Last year’s celebration was dedicated to the writer’s classic novel “Crime and Punishment,” whose action opens “on an exceptionally hot evening in early July.” Although this year’s program has been expanded and will include more venues, the date will remain the same. 
“We’ve widened our borders. This year events will take place in St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk and be more open to the public,” said Sergei Sereichik, director of the Lermontov libraries and curator of the project. “Last year it was more intimate. That is why this year we organized events such as an open-air opera in the courtyard of the Mikhailovsky Castle.” 
Celebrations will start at 11 a.m. at Dostoevsky’s grave in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and then continue on Kuznechny Pereulok and Bolshaya Moskovskaya Ulitsa, where the writer lived and where a monument to him is located. 
Just after the midday gunshot at the Peter and Paul Fortress, people all over the city will be invited to ring small bells. In the 19th century, when Fyodor Dostoevsky lived, bells were used as means of communication. In order to be allowed entry into someone’s house, the bell had to be rung first. Dostoevsky mentioned these doorbells in every one of his novels. A bell that belonged to the writer himself can still be found in his apartment as part of the permanent exhibition of the Dostoevsky Museum on Kuznechny Pereulok.
People gathered around the monument to Dostoevsky on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Ulitsa will walk to the writer’s house, where from the balcony, Fyodor Dostoevsky (played by actor Sergey Borkovsky) will greet the procession. 
In order to create the atmosphere of a bygone age, the neighborhood will be decorated with specially designed commercial signs written in pre-revolutionary Russian. Actors will perform sketches dressed in 19th-century-style clothing, and on Kuznechny Pereulok, characters from Dostoevsky’s novels will participate in a fashion parade. 
The Dostoevsky Museum will take high school students on themed excursions to places featured in “Crime and Punishment,” “The Double,” “The Idiot” and Dostoevsky’s own life. Maps with significant places marked on them will be handed out near Sennaya Ploshchad and Vladimirskaya metro stations.
Concerts and performances will also be held at Pavlovsk. “Pavlovsk was the most democratic and fashionable suburb during Dostoevsky’s lifetime,” said Nikolai Tretyakov, director of the State Pavlovsk Reserve. “We want to recreate the atmosphere of the time described so well in ‘The Idiot’.” 
“We want to celebrate this day in a bright and modern way, without any glamour or formality,” said Alexander Platunov, deputy chairman of the Culture Committee. “We want all young people to get Dostoevsky’s books and start reading right away, because the answers to many of today’s burning issues can be found in those novels.”
A full version of the event’s program is available at www.lplib.ru.


TITLE: Talk of Aeroflot in $45Bln Sell-Off
AUTHOR: By Howard Amos

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Monday that the government hoped to raise $45 billion in a second round of privatization that could include stakes in Aeroflot.
A three-year, $30 billion privatization is already under way, and the figure mentioned by Kudrin means that the government could end up raising a total of $75 billion.
Kudrin spoke at a Renaissance Capital conference packed with foreign and Russian investors, some of whom had heard President Dmitry Medvedev promise to expand the government’s privatization program at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17.
“In the next three to five years, [the state] should leave practically all key companies in which it currently has a major stake,” Kudrin said.
“I am talking about the financial sector, the oil sector, communications and transportation companies starting with Sovcomflot, Aeroflot and others,” he said.
He said the amount generated by the second round of sell-offs will be about 25 percent to 50 percent more than the $30 billion expected from the first round, which includes assets in 1,300 companies from Russian Railways and international shipping firm Sovcomflot to oil giant Rosneft, Interfax reported.
The government kicked off the privatization program in February with a $3.3 billion sale of 10 percent of VTB. A 7.6 percent stake in Sberbank is slated to be privatized in September. 
Aeroflot had not previously been included in the list of companies heading for privatization. The state owns 51.17 percent of the airline, while the Central Bank has another 11.8 percent.
Investors reacted positively to the focus on reducing the state’s presence in the economy, but some voiced concern about whether the program would be carried through within the announced time frame. 
Jacob Grapengiesser, a partner at asset management company East Capital, told The St. Petersburg Times that although there was a “very positive reaction” among investors, “unfortunately we have heard many times about privatization. … They need to go ahead and put those stakes on the market.”
“For investors, seeing is believing,” he added.
Sergei Guriev, rector of the New Economic School, said privatization would be a “game-changer” because it would represent “an irreversible step forward.”
During his keynote speech to the St. Petersburg forum, Medvedev described the government’s privatization agenda as “too modest” and ordered it to be adjusted by Aug. 1. 
Medvedev’s economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich, speaking after Kudrin on Monday, told delegates that “quicker, more aggressive” privatization was needed. Speaking to reporters on the fringes of the conference, Dvorkovich added that Rosneft and VTB were potential candidates to have an increased share of their state-owned stock put up for privatization, Interfax reported. 
Dvorkovich said June 17 that the state might relinquish a blocking stake in Rosneft, where it currently controls more than 75 percent. 
As well as offering lucrative shares to international investors, Kudrin stressed that a successful privatization process should “help improve corporate governance, … improve transparency and add private investment.”
Yelena Shaftan, director at Jupiter Asset Management, agreed that the government’s talk about potentially selling majority stakes was positive above all because it “is going to push corporate governance.”
Some investors said the price of oil was still the most significant factor when looking at Russia as a destination for capital.
Guriev said that despite attempts at economic diversification, by some measures Russia’s dependence on oil was actually increasing. Five years ago, he said, an oil price of $50 was needed to balance the country’s budget, whereas in 2011 the figure is $105 and is expected to rise to $120 next year. 


TITLE: Ex-Spymaster Convicted Of Betraying Chapman
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A senior intelligence official was sentenced in absentia Monday to 25 years in prison for betraying Anna Chapman and the nine other sleeper agents in the United States who flew to Moscow in a spy swap last summer.
The Moscow District Military Court said Colonel Alexander Poteyev, who oversaw the sleeper agents as deputy head of the “S” department of the Foreign Intelligence Service, fled Russia shortly before the United States announced the spy bust last June and ditched a business meeting at intelligence headquarters in his haste to leave the country.
“Mary, try to take it calmly. I’m leaving not for some time, but forever,” Poteyev wrote his wife in a text message mentioned in the court verdict. “I didn’t want to, but I had to. I am starting a new life, and I will try to help the children.”
Poteyev, using another person’s passport, traveled to Belarus and then Germany before arriving in the United States, according to the verdict, which was carried by Interfax and Itar-Tass.
The court convicted Poteyev, 59, of high treason and desertion in a closed-door trial and stripped him of both his military rank and an award for his service in the Afghan War. Poteyev served in the elite KGB task force Zenit that took part in a successful Soviet-backed coup to kill Afghan strongman Hafizullah Amin in 1979.
Poteyev’s court-appointed lawyer, Andrei Kucherov, said he would appeal, RIA-Novosti reported. 
He also said Poteyev’s wife does not believe her husband is guilty and wanted to join him in the United States.
The court said a request to U.S. authorities for information about Poteyev’s whereabouts has gone unanswered. 
Poteyev, who graduated from the prestigious KGB school in Minsk in the mid-1970s, is the son of Nikolai Poteyev, a tank commander decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union award for his bravery during World War II. 
Chapman has testified that a U.S. undercover agent approached her using a code known only by Poteyev and her personal handler in Moscow, the verdict said. 
Other intelligence officials testified that only Poteyev had access to the information that allowed the betrayal of the 10 agents, it said.
Chapman and the other nine agents pleaded guilty for conspiring to serve as unlawful agents of a foreign government and were exchanged in July for four Russians jailed on espionage charges in Russia.
The spy swap, conducted at Vienna airport, was the biggest since the Cold War, and the agents received state awards on their arrival in Moscow. But several former U.S. intelligence officials have downplayed the significance of the information that the Russians might have collected.
“You can’t ignore that public recognition may be accorded for propaganda reasons having nothing to do with the actual merits of the case or the success of the spy,” Peter Earnest, a former CIA officer, said in e-mailed comments in January.
Andrei Soldatov, a security expert with Agentura.ru, speculated that the Russian agents might have been involved in a commercial operation on behalf of Russian companies. 
He pointed to a 2007 speech by then-President Vladimir Putin that the security services should more actively defend the interests of Russian companies abroad. “This means the defense of Russian interests is the defense of Gazprom’s interests,” Soldatov said by telephone. 
Poteyev’s wife, who was initially reported to be in the United States, was called to court to testify in connection with the trial, court spokeswomen Lyudmila Klimenko told Interfax last month.
Curiously, Poteyev and his family got some unwelcome attention in 2003 when their apartment in northwestern Moscow was robbed, Novaya Gazeta reported, citing a robbery report filed by Poteyev’s wife. The robbers, who identified themselves as police officers and carried pistols, stole more than $3,000 and 30,000 rubles and tied up Poteyev and his son Vladimir. It was unclear whether the robbers were found. 
The whereabouts of Poteyev’s son is unclear.
Poteyev also has a daughter who lives in the United States.
A former Russian intelligence officer who worked in North America during Soviet times expressed surprise Monday that the Poteyev family was not watched more closely.


TITLE: Suspect Detained in Laser Attacks
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A suspect has been detained on suspicion of blinding pilots of passenger airplanes with laser beams near the Rostov-on-Don airport, police spokesman Alexei Polyansky said Monday.
Polyansky did not identify the suspect, but Interfax said he was 22 and had denied blinding anyone. He was released shortly after his detention Sunday, and the case remains under investigation, Interfax said.
The police received a tip from residents who saw the man shining a laser beam toward the Rostov-on-Don airport, the report said.
Five laser attacks, one of which targeted a police helicopter, have been registered in Rostov-on-Don this month, with the last two occurring Thursday night, Polyansky said by telephone.
Polyansky said punishment in these types of cases depended on the motive. He could not say exactly what kind of punishment would await anyone who blinded pilots on purpose, adding that a court would have to decide that.
Since January, the number of registered incidents across Russia has reached 45, compared with the five reports in 2010, Federal Air Transportation Agency spokesman Sergei Izvolsky said by telephone.
Most of the incidents occurred in Rostov-on-Don and Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports.
Though none of the reported incidents ended badly, laser beam attacks are a growing concern for the Federal Air Transportation Agency.


TITLE: Union of Architects Snubs Putin’s Front
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Russian Union of Architects became the first public group to snub Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s All-Russia People’s Front on Monday, days after the front listed it among hundreds of federal and regional public entities on its web site. 
The union, a professional public organization, said in a statement that it “unites architects and urban planners of various political views whose professional activity should be free of any political component.”
“No one in the union’s leadership has agreed to join the people’s front, to say nothing about the rest of the organization,” union spokeswoman Natalya Palkina said in comments carried by Gazeta.ru.
She said the front had sent an invitation to join, and the union’s leadership had decided to reject it at a meeting Monday.
As of late Monday afternoon, the union was still listed on the front’s web site.
Under Putin’s initiative, the front was created in early May to consolidate public groups around United Russia and mobilize the public around the Putin-led party ahead of State Duma elections in December. Members of the front have been offered United Russia seats in the Duma.
Hundreds of public groups and associations have been swept into the front, with some of their members learning about it after the fact and then sharing their surprise on their Internet blogs.
Among them was Union of Architects member Yevgeny Ass, who published an open letter on June 23 that said he had found the union listed on the front’s web site and that he would quit the union if it remained a part of the front.
More than 100 union members joined Ass in his protest.
Maria Lipman, a political analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the architects’ demarche would not have a big effect on the front’s prestige and would not result in any punishment for the union.
“This only has meaning for those who are interested in politics, and everyone else doesn’t care,” she said.


TITLE: Billionaire Prokhorov Eyes Foreigners, Putin’s Job
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov seized the reins of the pro-business Right Cause party over the weekend with ambitious plans to expand direct elections, to coax foreigners unhappy with the climate at home to invest in Russia, and to perhaps become prime minister after State Duma elections.
Prokhorov, 46, who easily won election as party leader at a Saturday congress, declared he intended to make Right Cause the Kremlin’s second base of support, after United Russia, in the Duma. 
“Let’s forget the word ‘opposition.’ This is a word linked to marginal parties that have lost their connection to reality long ago,” Prokhorov told 114 party delegates gathered in Moscow’s World Trade Center. 
“There should be two parties of power, while there is only one now,” he said. “We are only trying to group our forces, but United Russia has challenged us, and we should accept this challenge.”
Prokhorov, who spoke without notes, laid out a party platform balanced enough to be embraced by both the Kremlin and liberal-minded voters. His remarks resembled a speech to a business conference, devoid of the fiery rhetoric common among other party leaders who have taken on United Russia, led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
He reiterated an earlier promise to make Right Cause the country’s “second party of power” in the Duma elections in December. He also suggested that he would run the party like he does his business empire, with an authoritarian hand at the wheel. Prokhorov is Russia’s third-richest person with a fortune of $18 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and his assets include electricity, metals, high technology and the New Jersey Nets basketball team.
“He is the tsar, God and a military commander all together,” said Boris Nadezhdin, a senior Right Cause official and former member of the Union of Right Forces, which merged with the Civil Force and Democratic Party to form Right Cause in 2009.
Nadezhdin said Right Cause, which has accomplished little over the past two years, was being turned into “a military machine.”
Indeed, Prokhorov didn’t mince words in describing his role as party leader ahead of Duma elections. “We are climbing out from under the ground, and we have a task ahead — although later we will make the party’s program more democratic,” he said.
He told a separate news conference that he did not exclude the possibility of becoming prime minister if his party is elected to parliament. 
Speaking about the politically tinged case of jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his associate, Platon Lebedev, Prokhorov said both should be freed through parole. The two former businessmen are both eligible for parole and have applied for release.
Prokhorov is also expected to become the main financial backer of Right Cause, taking over a role previously linked to Anatoly Chubais, who co-founded the Union of Right Forces while heading the now-dismantled electricity monopoly Unified Energy System.
Chubais will leave Right Cause soon, his adviser Leonid Gozman told Kommersant on Saturday. Gozman, who served as one of three Right Cause co-leaders before Prokhorov’s election, will remain in the party as an ordinary member. 
Another former co-leader, Boris Titov, head of the Delovaya Rossiya business association, will also remain as an ordinary member, while the third, Georgy Bovt, a former senior Izvestia editor, took a seat on the party’s new 11-member leadership council.
Turning to the party platform, Prokhorov said more power should be given to the regions and federal districts. He called for direct elections of mayors, chief judges, prosecutors and the heads of police precincts. He said single mandate seats should be returned to the Duma.
“Our country is called the Russian Federation, but judging by the leadership it is an empire where only the executive branch is working,” Prokhorov said. 
He said a top goal would be to invite foreign companies hit hard by crises in their home countries to look for opportunities in Russia.
His remarks echoed comments made by President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting of visiting U.S. fund managers on May 25, 2010. “We invite all those who suffer at home to come to Russia,” Medvedev said.
Before the party congress began, about a dozen members of Young Guard, United Russia’s youth group, rallied against Prokhorov outside the World Trade Center with signs like “Prokhorov: Criminalized Politics.” One young man, dressed in a smart suit, stood on an old-fashioned wooden cart pulled by attractive young women screaming, “Prokhorov! Skiing! Courchevel!” 
French police detained Prokhorov, who has the reputation of being a playboy bachelor, at the Courchevel ski resort in 2007 on suspicion of being part of a prostitution ring. The businessman was released without charges. 
At the news conference, Prokhorov said women have played an important role in his life. “I’m the last person who can be accused of ignoring women — that would just be an insult,” he said. “I believe in love. I’m waiting to meet my second half and to have the life that normal people lead.”
During his party speech, Prokhorov addressed fears that Right Cause might become a party of tycoons, saying its electoral base could comprise heads of households and young people. 
“Today, everything connected to human capital, education and culture is in a state of degradation,” he said. “I believe that spending for health and education should remain ahead of spending for defense and law enforcement agencies.”
Prokhorov’s election was carried by state television over the weekend. Analysts said a key factor that will determine whether Right Cause clears the 7 percent threshold to win Duma seats will be whether it gets access to airtime on television.
Prokhorov’s party platform won praise from Medvedev’s top economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich. “The majority of the issues voiced by Prokhorov are attractive to me. Some needed to be discussed further,” Dvorkovich wrote on his Twitter account.
But it is to early to say whether Right Cause might become Medvedev’s political base, said Alexei Mukhin, an analyst with the Center for Political Information. “The electoral base for the party like that is around 3 percent,” he said. 
Mukhin also cautioned that even if the party won airtime, the coverage might not translate into votes on Election Day. “If you blow up a balloon too much, it can pop,” he said. 
Medvedev said he spoke to Prokhorov before he laid out his aspiration to lead Right Cause earlier this year. “It is to early to say how it will turn out for him. As a leader, he has both strengths and weaknesses,” Medvedev said in an interview published Friday in state-owned Moskovskiye Novosti.
In an interview with the Financial Times published last week, Medvedev said he regretted that liberal-minded Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin had declined to join the party. 
One Right Cause official said liberal-minded officials in the Kremlin needed a support base to counter United Russia. “You can’t play chess with yourself,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Alexander Kubayev, chairman of Right Cause’s Yaroslavl branch, expressed hope that a leader like Prokhorov would give regional officials the confidence to voice support for Right Cause more openly. 


TITLE: Medvedev Tells Duma To Cut 7% Seats Threshold
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday submitted a bill to the State Duma that would return the threshold to win Duma seats to 5 percent from the current 7 percent, the Kremlin said. 
Medvedev suggested in an interview published Friday that the threshold could be lowered further. 
“All political forces that have significant popular support should be represented in the parliament,” Medvedev told Moskovskiye Novosti. 
“It does not mean that fringe elements should be present in the Duma as well. This is why we have the barrier,” he said. “But 7 percent is too much, while 5 percent is a more realistic threshold. If that is too much we will make it 3 percent.” 
But opposition parties said the proposed change was only cosmetic because it would not apply to Duma elections this year but only to the next vote in 2016. 
“What delight can we have in this extended carrot if it doesn’t apply to the upcoming elections?” said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a co-leader of the Party of People’s Freedom, or Parnas, which was denied registration to run in the elections by the Justice Ministry earlier in the week. 
“Medvedev is just making a gesture to play down Western criticism, in particular concerning the denial of registration for Parnas,” Ryzhkov said. 
Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin called the bill “a cosmetic change” and noted that whoever was elected president next year could cancel it. 
Duma deputies largely supported Medvedev’s initiative, Itar-Tass reported. “I think that the president’s idea is rather rational,” senior United Russia Deputy Oleg Morozov was quoted as saying. 


TITLE: New Investigators Take Up Browder Case
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Under a barrage of pressure from Hermitage Capital, a tax evasion case against the fund’s head, William Browder, has been transferred from the Interior Ministry’s investigative committee to another branch of the ministry in an attempt to add objectivity to the investigation, news reports said Monday.
Browder, a U.S.-British businessman who with business partner Ivan Cherkasov has been accused of not paying about 2 billion rubles ($70.5 million) in taxes, claims that the case is revenge by the Interior Ministry’s investigative department, which he has blamed for the death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow jail in 2009.
The investigation was transferred to the Interior Ministry’s main directorate in the Central Federal District on Friday, Kommersant reported Monday.
“The criminal investigation into Browder and Cherkasov has been marked by constant pressure on the investigators of the Interior Ministry’s investigative committee from Hermitage Capital’s representatives, who publicly have accused the officials of involvement in the death of their auditor Sergei Magnitsky and of their personal interest in the prosecution,” an unidentified law enforcement official told Interfax on Monday. 
“Now the case will be investigated by officials not related to the prosecution of Magnitsky,” the official said, adding that it would make the inquiry “more objective.”
Magnitsky accused a group of officials, including members of the Interior Ministry’s investigative committee, of organizing a $230 million tax fraud but was quickly arrested on charges of organizing the $230 million tax fraud. Supporters say Magnitsky, 37, a lawyer with Firestone Duncan law firm, died after being denied proper treatment for existing health problems.
Magnitsky’s supporters have released a series of videos exposing the luxurious life of tax and law enforcement officials involved in his case.
Browder, who was banned from entering Russia in 2005 on unexplained national security concerns, has also been removed from an international wanted list by Russian authorities, Kommersant reported, speculating that the case against him might be closed soon because the statute of limitations will expire this year.
A Hermitage Capital spokesman downplayed the transfer of the Browder investigation, saying by e-mail that Russian officials were only trying “to add an appearance of objectivity” to the case. Browder vowed to press ahead in his efforts to seek punishment for officials linked to Magnitsky’s case.
“I, and all of Sergei’s colleagues, are going to fight for justice for Sergei until all of those responsible are properly prosecuted under the law,” Browder said in an e-mailed statement. 
“The whole world is watching what Russia will do, and there are no half measures that will be acceptable,” he said.
Last month, President Dmitry Medvedev urged Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to step up efforts to complete an investigation into Magnitsky’s death and the tax evasion case.


TITLE: New Options Ease Funding for Local Film
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The domestic film industry will become more transparent and attractive for private investors after an independent organization is created this year to ensure that projects are completed and a new investment fund is set up to provide financing for a local project, market players said Friday.
The Denmark-based European Film Bond company and Sistema Mass-Media, AFK Sistema’s mass media unit, agreed to establish a joint company to oversee the film shooting process and guarantee investors that their funds are being spent properly and the film is completed in a timely manner. 
The system, known as completion bond, which is widely used in Europe and the United States, will be operational locally by the end of this year, said a spokeswoman for Sistema Mass-Media.
The joint company will oversee projects and reinsure risks, sharing liability with other insurance companies, she said by telephone, adding that investors will have to pay 2 percent to 3 percent of the film’s budget for the services. 
Sistema Mass-Media and European Film Bond signed a memorandum on establishing the company at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum earlier this month. The project got support from the Federal Cinema Fund.
The sides’ stakes in the joint venture are under discussion, Sistema Mass-Media said on its web site. 
The new initiative is expected to eliminate the lack of transparency that is one of the biggest problems hampering investments in the domestic film industry, said chief executive of film maker Bazelevs Group, Nikita Trynkin.
“A producer always knows much more about his project than an investor and can exaggerate the project’s advantages when presenting it to investors,” he said at the sidelines of the Film Finance Forum in Moscow. 
In an attempt to increase transparency and attract investors, Trynkin said, several mutual funds will be set up later this year to allow private investors to finance films produced in Russia. 
The first fund, which is being managed by Troika Dialog investment company, was created to finance a full-length 3D animated movie based on “Smeshariki,” co-produced by film director Timur Bekmambetov’s Bazelevs Group.
“Smeshariki” is an animation television series for children. It follows the lives of ball-shaped characters, including a rabbit, a hedgehog and a lamb, that live in a fairytale world.
The fund will target qualified private investors, which can get returns in 12 to 18 months, said Troika Dialog’s chief business officer Jacques Der Megreditchian.
According to the Federal Service for Financial Markets, the criteria for a qualified investor include for individuals holding equities of at least 3 million rubles ($107,000) and closing at least 10 deals worth a total of 300,000 rubles every quarter over the last four quarters, and for private companies having revenues of at least 1 billion rubles and assets of 2 billion rubles in a single year. 
Investors participating in the fund will get “the complex returns,” which include the film’s box office earnings, as well as the revenues from selling DVDs, television broadcast rights, toys and computer games, Der Megreditchian said. 
Both Trynkin and Der Megreditchian declined to comment on the expected size of returns provided by the fund. 
The fund is expected to finance “a substantial part” of the film’s $8 million budget, Trynkin said. 
Films are usually financed by either one or two film studios like Universal or 20th Century Fox, or through private equity funds, with returns to be received in five to 10 years, said Der Megreditchian, adding that most private investors can’t be involved in such projects.
Investors that will finance the movie through the new fund will “in fact become co-producers,” Der Megreditchian said.
“If this approach is properly developed in the future, it will determine the pace of the film industry growth,” he said by telephone.
According to Trynkin, the mutual fund is a new investment tool to provide funding for local film projects. 
Trynkin said he hoped that such a scheme would help attract local and foreign investors and get financing for more projects in the future. 
The Russian film industry, whose elite is currently gathering at the Moscow International Film Festival, has shown disappointing results in the last two years. According to industry magazine Kinobiznes Segodnya, only six of the 69 movies produced locally last year appeared to be profitable.
Ensuring the global distribution of locally produced movies would increase the industry’s attractiveness and boost interest among investors, including those from abroad, said Brian Marler, senior vice president at Houlihan Lokey, an international investment bank providing advisory services, including valuing intellectual property projects in the media and entertainment industry.
“You can do a worldwide release, maybe team up with a U.S. distributor … and there will be more interest from the investors to put money into that film, because they’ll have more revenue sources,” he told The St. Petersburg Times on the sidelines of the Film Finance Forum. 
The film industry is traditionally a risky business, said Trynkin of Bazelevs. Among the biggest risks that the film industry faces are fickle audiences and high competition, especially with Hollywood movies, he said.


TITLE: New Report Links Quality of Life, Money to Democracy
AUTHOR: By Olga Kuvshinova 

PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW — When per capita contribution to gross domestic product reaches $10,000, democracy becomes “eternal,” according to a Renaissance Capital report.
Improvement in quality of life leads to the establishment of democracy, says the report, based on the histories of 150 countries over the past 60 years. Parallels can be drawn between the development of political regimes and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Higher needs — including the pinnacle, self-actualization — can be met only by a democracy, according to the report, entitled “The revolutionary nature of growth entrenches democracy.” It states, “Once we have fed ourselves, housed ourselves and are thinking about buying a car, we begin to demand political rights.”
Researchers also constructed a hierarchy of requirements for a democracy — according to the per capita contribution to GDP by purchasing power parity. “Political risk can be measured. Revolutions can be predicted,” the report says.
In countries where per capita contribution to GDP is below $6,000, democracy is fragile — and if it is established, it’s not for long. Overcoming this threshold strengthens democracy, and vice versa — in undemocratic nations with an income above $6,000 the probability of political unrest rises, such as in Tunisia ($8,300 in 2009, according to Penn World Table, based on the exchange rate in 2005).
In rich countries, democracy is eternal. There has not been a case of a country above the $10,000 level switching from democracy to a different regime. Thus 45 nations, including Mexico, Lebanon and many in Eastern Europe, are safe from shifting to undemocratic regimes, the report states. Brazil ($9,352) and Turkey ($9,910) are approaching “eternal democracy.”
China is due for a complicated period. Its per capita contribution to GDP has entered the range of $6,000 to $10,000 ($6,200 in 2009) and will remain there for at least the next four years, the report says. High inflation could trigger political unrest, and the government’s intention to double incomes by 2015 will not help. In such a position, countries that are not energy exporters always become democracies — excluding the city-state of Singapore, whose leader is exceptional.
The immortality of autocracy costs almost twice as much — $19,000 — and is possible only for energy exporters. 
Life insurance for autocracy is low taxes. Citizens will not be very interested in where their government spends money nor worry much about free elections then.
Elections in Russia are not entirely democratic on the Polity IV scale of institutional characteristics of political regimes and are classed as anocracy — weak democracy with autocratic tendencies, said Renaissance chief strategist Charles Robertson. The level of prosperity in Russia has topped $14,000. It is the richest country with a weak democracy. “We would not be at all surprised by a fully competitive presidential election race in 2018,” the authors said.
Looking at the volume of oil produced per capita, Russia cannot be grouped with the energy exporters with unconquerable autocracies. That indicator for Russia is one-seventh of what it is in the United Arab Emirates, Brunei or Qatar and one-third that of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Only force can prevent democracy from gaining a foothold if Russia reaches $19,000, according to the authors. 
It is impossible to say who or what will give impetus to the process, Robertson wrote. Tunisia was ready for change for many years before a vegetable seller who set himself on fire began the change, he pointed out. 
At a forum in Yaroslavl last year, President Dmitry Medvedev quoted American sociologist Seymour Lipset as saying that the chances of creating a democracy increase with the wealth of a nation as he named modernization among his top political priorities. 
But prosperity does not strengthen democracy by itself. Institutions, free elections, high-quality governance and innovative business do not arise from nothing, noted MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and Harvard professor James Robinson. In countries where the elite is occupied with the collection of rent and there is no access to the elite, economic growth will not lead to democracy. 
There is no direct correlation between GDP growth and political regime, according to Sergei Guriev, rector of the New Economic School. There are rich dictatorial regimes and poor democracies (such as India). But the regime influences prosperity: Democracies grow faster economically than others.


TITLE: Designer Eyes Plant Site In Ingushetia
AUTHOR: By Alex Chachkevitch
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Prominent fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin is looking at Ingushetia, in the North Caucasus region, with hopes of starting a large-scale sewing factory, which would bring potential growth opportunities to the region’s economy. 
Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov met last week with Yudashkin, who was invited by the local government, last week to discuss building his planned factory in Ali-Yurt, a small village about 1,400 kilometers south of Moscow.
The factory would produce Yudashkin’s new casual clothing line as well as other designers’ clothing lines, Bella Aldiyeva, spokeswoman for the press center of Ingushetia, said by phone Wednesday. No starting date has been set for construction.
The industrial site at Ali-Yurt was chosen because of its overall convenient location, she said.
The proposed 50-hectare site for the factory has water, gas, electric and sewer hookups financed by federal and regional government programs and is construction-ready, said a spokesman for Ingushetia’s Economic Development Ministry.
Ali-Yurt is the birthplace of Magomed Yevloyev, the suspected suicide bomber responsible for killing 37 people in Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport in January. Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev was killed by federal troops in July 2006 about 10 kilometers from the village.
Yevkurov showed Yudashkin three buildings as other options for the factory, but Yudashkin has expressed his desire so far to build a factory from the ground up instead of using existing buildings, said Fatima Sagova, another spokeswoman for Ingushetia’s press center.
Yudashkin could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. 
There are no textile factories in Ali-Yurt, which has a population of about 5,000. Ingushetia itself has no large-scale sewing enterprises, but there are small, private textile shops, Aldiyeva said. 
“Of course, if this business venture goes through, it would mean a lot for Ingushetia’s economy,” said Sagova, adding that she does not know exactly how many jobs the factory would create because there is no finalized plan yet. 
Yudashkin, who has gained international fame with his collections, has worked on redesigning uniforms for the Russian military and has designed clothes for first lady Svetlana Medvedeva.
“In my mind, despite the lack of aesthetic quality in Yudashkin’s designs, he still manages to make them popular and successful,” said Eduard Dorozhkin, Vedomosti fashion critic and deputy editor of Tatler magazine.

TITLE: Why My Party Wasn’t Registered
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Ryzhkov

TEXT: The Justice Ministry on Wednesday refused to register the opposition Party of People’s Freedom, thus denying my party its constitutional right to participate in the December State Duma elections. The ministry also denied the constitutional rights of millions of the party’s supporters across the country to choose their representatives in parliament. Polls taken in late 2010 and in the first six months of 2011 show that 2 percent to 4 percent of the population outside Moscow support the Party of People’s Freedom. In Moscow, 9 percent of adults 18 and older questioned in a May Levada Center poll said they would vote for the Party of People’s Freedom in the Duma elections.
The official reasons for the Justice Ministry’s decision do not hold water. The only violations that authorities at the Justice Ministry and Federal Security Services could drum up among our 46,000 party members were: four juveniles and 13 party members who were deceased, which could only be planted by our opponents or the authorities; 39 members whose internal registration documents did not match their city of residence, a common occurrence when someone moves to a new city in Russia and by no means constitutes a violation for registering a party; statements from 20 people on the party list who, presumably under pressure and threats of the FSB, claimed they were not party members; and 2 members who had a past criminal record.
Even if for the sake of argument these claims were legitimate and these 82 members were removed from the party ranks, the party would still have well over the 45,000 members required by law.
In addition, the Justice Ministry claimed that the party’s charter does not allow for rotation of its leadership. This is total nonsense. The charter clearly stipulates that at regularly scheduled party congresses, a vote will be held to determine the party leadership. In addition, the party’s charter is identical to the charters of other parties that received registration; we did this intentionally to not give the authorities an opportunity to fish out violations.
We have seen these kinds of tricks many times over the past six years. In December 2005, the opposition Republican Party, which I headed, tried to change its address and create several new regional branches. It turned to the Justice Ministry with a request to make the necessary amendments in the ministry’s register of legal entities. The ministry balked, saying the party had not provided proof that its latest congress was legitimate. Then the Justice Ministry asked the Supreme Court to disband the party, which it did in May 2007.
I sued the Russian government over this decision in the European Court of Human Rights. In April, the court ruled that the 2007 dissolution of the Republican Party was unjustified and violates the European Convention on Human Rights, which Russia ratified in 1998.
The European court also ruled in this decision that Russia’s law on political parties is draconian and overly onerous. It was precisely this law that the Justice Ministry used as its legal cover to not register the Party of People’s Freedom. Thus, Russia simply repeated the anti-constitutional practice that the European court ruled was illegal. This is one of the reasons why Federation Council Deputy Speaker Alexander Torshin and Constitutional Court chief justice Valery Zorkin last week called for Russia to not subject itself to decisions of the European Court of Human Rights against Russia.
During the past four years, nine opposition political parties were not registered on trumped-up violations. For example, when Mikhail Kasyanov tried to run against then-President Vladimir Putin in the 2008 presidential election, the Central Elections Commission disqualified Kasyanov on the unfounded charges that 13.36 percent of the signatures he collected were invalid. Opposition politician Eduard Limonov’s party was also not registered. The leftist Rot Front has been turned down five times since last year over technicalities. In the latest instance, in April, the Justice Ministry said the party emblem, a fist held high, could be interpreted as promoting extremism.
On Thursday, President Dmitry Medvedev said disingenuously that the Party of People’s Freedom could be registered in the future. All it has to do is start from scratch and refile its registration documents to the Justice Ministry, thus mocking not only the party and its supporters but the Constitution and rule of law as well.
The motive behind the Justice Ministry decision is obvious — to remove an opposition party that the Kremlin fears months before elections. Putin and his “party of thieves and crooks” — along with its off-shoot, the All-Russia People’s Front, which is signing up entire villages, factories and the country’s postal and railway workers in one fell swoop — is preparing once again for massive election rigging in parliamentary and presidential elections.
The refusal to register the party is politically motivated and illegal. The anti-constitutional exclusion of liberally minded Russians who support the Party of People’s Freedom has already made the Duma and presidential elections illegitimate. We appeal to all citizens to protest against the Kremlin’s corruption, arbitrary rule and gross abuse of power that time after time tramples on their constitutional rights and human dignity.

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a State Duma deputy from 1993 to 2007, hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio and is a co-founder of the opposition Party of People’s Freedom.

TITLE: Who Really Won World War II?
AUTHOR: By Alexei Bayer

TEXT: Russians react nervously to any narrative about World War II that differs from their own. When the United States, Britain or France pay tribute to their countrymen who fought and defeated Adolf Hitler, it is seen in Moscow as an attempt to diminish Russia’s contribution. Russians hold it as self-evident that they bore the brunt of Hitler’s fury and did the lion’s share of fighting with only minimal support from the Allies.
It is a remarkably ungenerous attitude. On the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s entry into the war, Russians should acknowledge the contribution of its allies. Britain in particular can — and rightly does — claim a very special role in standing up to Germany.
Let’s rewind the clock to June 21, 1941, and see how the situation looked from London. By then, Britain had been at war for nearly two years. Its two allies, Poland and France, had been defeated and dismembered. All of Europe was either under German occupation or hostile to Britain. British cities had been severely bombed by the Luftwaffe, and a land invasion was still a strong possibility.
While Britain faced Germany in the west, Hitler and Josef Stalin concluded an unholy alliance in the east that lasted for nearly two years, attacking and occupying several nations. The Soviet Union had put its vast natural resources at Hitler’s disposal, helping Germany wage its war and rendering useless Britain’s sole weapon, its naval superiority.
Many Russian historians still claim that the Molotov-Ribbentrop nonaggression pact, signed Aug. 23, 1939, was an alliance of convenience. Stalin had been given a cold shoulder by Britain and France when he proposed an antifascist alliance. Moreover, since the Soviet Union was not prepared to fight Hitler, he had no choice, we are told, but to delay the war by feigning friendship with Germany.
But compare this with what Britain and France did in 1939. They were also unprepared to fight, but they ended the policy of appeasement that surrendered Czechoslovakia in 1938 and came to the defense of Poland.
Russians inflicted more casualties on Germans than other allies and suffered more casualties than all other countries combined. But that was, in a large measure, the result of Stalin’s disastrous preparations. Britain suffered far fewer losses and less destruction, but you can’t blame it for maintaining a strong navy and mobilizing for the defense of the home islands, thus discouraging Hitler from ordering a land invasion.
When the Soviet Union entered the war 70 years ago, it never had to stand alone. It was supported by Britain — despite Stalin’s previous alliance with Hitler — and the United States promptly established a program to supply Moscow with equipment, food and clothing. In reality, with the United States entering the war in December 1941, even the loss of Moscow would not have meant a Soviet defeat. While German supply lines were dangerously stretched, Soviet troops could have regrouped east of the capital thanks to a U.S. commitment to supply the Red Army through Northeastern Siberia.
Russians have every right to mourn their losses and be proud of the heroism of their people. But Russia should also acknowledge that all the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition made vital contributions and huge sacrifices to achieve victory. The war was fought, and won, by the entire alliance.

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

TITLE: Stereoleto part II
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Stereoleto, arguably St. Petersburg’s finest outdoor summer event which marks its 10th anniversary this year, claims it is not seeing any slump in attendance despite the warm weather and city residents’ tendency to escape the city for their dachas.
Held on the beach of the Malaya Nevka on Krestovsky Island, the two-night event’s first night — featuring Ilya Lagutenko and KETA, Chinawoman, Club des Belugas and Zenzile — drew about 2,000 people — a solid number for St. Petersburg, organizers say. 
Stereoleto will resume this Saturday with a night of performances by acts including Austrian modernist pop group Architecture in Helsinki, Germany’s Apparat Band, Finland’s Uusi Fantasia and Norway’s Casiokids.
Stereoleto is the brainchild of Ilya Bortnyuk, the founder and director of the Light Music promotional agency that has brought acts such as Morrissey, Sonic Youth and David Byrne to St Petersburg.
“The original idea, like any idea, was very basic: To create a good, enjoyable festival with quality music and in a nice place, which would not be a rock festival, but nor a rave or an electronic music event either,” Bortnyuk says.
“We looked toward good Western festivals for inspiration. There’s such a concept as a boutique festival, which means a festival with a declared idea, and an accent on visuals, design and image. It doesn’t necessarily entail a huge number of people; the main thing is good music and good bands.”
Bortnyuk says that Stereoleto has made impressive progress during the past 10 years.
“If I had been told then that Nick Cave, Massive Attack and Royksopp would play at the festival, I would not have believed it,” he says.
However, Bortnyuk says it is not essential for Stereoleto to have major names on its lineup.
“Normally, all festivals are built like this: They get one big headliner and start sticking all the other acts to it,” he says.
“We have different goals. Although the headliner is also important, we don’t set ourselves the goal of getting just any headliner, whatever it is. This year, we don’t have artists as well known as Morcheeba or Royksopp, but that’s because the acts we wanted either could not come for some reason, or were too expensive. Next time we might have a big headliner, but it’s not the main issue.”
According to Bortnyuk, Stereoleto’s specialty is to have many good, contemporary acts. “Of course, it’s not right either when all the artists are unknown; we keep a quota of well known acts,” he says.
“For people who follow what happens in music closely enough, these acts are all interesting.”
The opening night last week was headlined by KETA, a new electronic project by Ilya Lagutenko, the frontman of the Russian pop-rock band Mumii Troll.
“It proved to be quite unusual, but again it was chosen not because it’s Ilya Lagutenko, but because I liked the project itself — the music, style, etc.,” Bortnyuk says, adding he was also pleasantly surprised by other Russian acts such as Yekaterinburg’s Tip Top Tellix and St. Petersburg’s 7he Myriads [sic].
The genre of Stereoleto, which features extremely diverse artists, cannot easily be identified.
“I think it’s impossible to define the genre of the festival: What genre is Primavera Sound or Benicassim, where Leonard Cohen performs after the Chemical Brothers?” Bortnyuk says.
“It’s just good, quality, interesting music. I can say what we don’t have, rather than what we have. We have no traditional rock and its sect branches — it’s clear we don’t have any metal or heavy music. We also don’t have any hard-edge electronic music. 
“We’re looking not at styles, but at how current and fresh the music is. It could be psychedelic folk rock or experimental electronica. What’s important is that it should be interesting and great.”
According to Bortnyuk, Stereoleto would be a bigger festival in Western Europe, but in St. Petersburg its scope is limited by the tastes of the Russian public.
“It’s clear that the audience of this kind of festival in, say, Norway or even in Finland is a dozen times bigger,” he says.
“Roughly speaking, if such a festival were to be held in Helsinki, it would attract not 2,000 or 3,000, but 20,000 to 30,000.
“But all the same, I think that for St. Petersburg, it’s great and we’re growing. The status of the festival has increased now, and people have started coming to the festival from other cities and even other countries.”
Some say the relative lack of interest here can be explained by Russia’s insular music industry, in which a person raised on the repertoire promoted by mainstream Russian media can barely access or become interested in the kind of music that events such as Stereoleto have to offer.
“Why in the rest of the world do tickets to a Nick Cave or Morrissey concert sell out in minutes?” asks Bortnyuk. “And why didn’t the U2 concert in Russia sell out? I think the reason is the same.
“If we organized a festival featuring [Russian pop acts] Stas Mikhailov, Yelena Vaenga and Lyube, it would sell out in an hour or two. We wouldn’t have to think about anything at all.
“We have good artists that are not in demand in Russia. It’s no surprise and is an obvious fact. But we have got used to that and orientate around it. We realize that we won’t have 10,000 or 15,000 coming to the festival.”
The first Stereoleto took place in the gardens of the Molodyozhny Theater on the Fontanka River in 2002. From its first site on the Fontanka, Stereoleto moved to LenExpo congress center on Vasilyevsky Island, and for the past two years it has been held on Yelagin Island. 
“Every year, we look for a location that would be perfect,” Bortnyuk says.
“This one on Krestovsky Island is good; the portion of the beach is closed off, and there’s a bar and restaurant. There’s also a lot of space, and the stage is right against the background of the Gulf of Finland.”

Stereoleto, featuring Architecture in Helsinki, Apparat Band, Uusi Fantasia and Casiokids will take place at 10 p.m. on Saturday at the Vozdukh Project on Krestovsky Island, 6 Yuzhnaya Doroga. Metro: Krestovsky Ostrov. See www.bestfest.ru for the shuttle schedule and other details.

TITLE: CHERNOV’S CHOICE
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The fact that the KGB conducted surveillance on rock musicians, their families and fans during the Soviet era received material confirmation late last week, when Fontanka.ru published several photographs belonging — they say — to the vast archives of photographs related to the 1980s Russian underground rock scene, which were passed to the local news web site by former KGB officers.
The officers, the site claimed, served in the 5th department of the KGB in charge of “counterintelligence work to fight ideological sabotage.” The department was responsible for the persecution of dissidents, many of whom were imprisoned for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.”
Fontanka.ru published four black-and-white photographs, two of which feature Viktor Tsoi, the late legendary frontman of Kino, whose songs are adored by several generations of rock fans. The site claimed that the former officers did so because they were “moved by manifestations of nationwide love” for the musician.
Some of the photographs, which apparently date to the early 1980s, have handwritten numbers next to the faces of the people pictured. According to Fontanka.ru, the reverse sides of the photographs contain comments made by KGB officers.
A brief comment on a photo of Sergei Firsov, who collected and distributed taped recordings of Russian underground rock, reads: “Smokes, distributes recordings, trafficking in goods bought from foreigners.” 
According to the KGB commentators, underground artist Sergei Bugayev was “in a marriage of convenience,” while of Svyatoslav Zadery, the late leader of post-punk band Nate, was written: “Smokes marijuana, cohabits with Marina the Little.”
From the nature of the materials, it might be assumed that undercover agents were also used to infiltrate the rock scene to obtain compromising information and take photographs.
Perhaps their names will also become known to the public sooner or later.
As seen from the published materials, the “misdeeds” committed by the people under surveillance were innocent enough not to warrant state security officers wasting their time on rock musicians. The Soviet ideology soon died anyway, despite — or thanks to — those officers’ efforts.
Fontanka.ru has promised to publish the archives in their entirety in the near future.
There is little doubt that the security services have resumed their interest in the rock scene over the past few years. Concerts with any political or social content tend to be banned, while musicians find themselves investigated for alleged “extremism” due to a song lyric.
Further confirmation is the two criminal cases launched against music critic Artyom Troitsky as a result of his independent critical judgments earlier this year.
It’s very likely that in a few years’ time, retired officers from the FSB (the Federal Security Service), the successor of the KGB, will bring a similarly vast archive of photographs of today’s musicians to be published by some web site.
— By Sergey Chernov

TITLE: Desert island jazz
AUTHOR: By Yelena Minenko

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Jazz musicians and lovers will congregate this weekend for the Usadba Jazz international music festival that is taking place in St. Petersburg for the first time in the festival’s history.
Usadba translates as a large country estate. In the 19th century, noble families would invite guests over to their spacious but cozy summer houses outside Moscow and St. Petersburg, where they would be entertained by musical performances in the garden. The festival’s organizers aim to recreate the atmosphere of that undemocratic but romantic time on the city’s Yelagin Island this weekend.
“Atmosphere is what it is all about,” said Maria Syomushkina, president of the Usadba Jazz festival and director of the Art Mania promotion agency. “Not only is the music important, but also the festival’s location, various additional entertainment and, of course, the weather.”
Since 2004, the festival has taken place at the beginning of the summer at the celebrated Arkhangelskoye Estate near Moscow. According to the organizers, the social mission of the annual festival is to bring cultural life back to old Russian estates. After this year’s event in Arkhangelskoye, it was decided to gather again a month later for another series of concerts — this time, in St. Petersburg.
“There is some history of organizing similar festivals at the Peter and Paul Fortress, but our event is considered to be on a grander scale,” said Syomushkina. “The venue — the meadow in front of the Yelagin Palace — was the main condition for us: Either we get it, or there will be no festival at all.” 
Music was always an integral part of Russian estates, and now, in the 21st century, it seems that jazz really does belong to Yelagin Island.
Unlike many musical events on this scale, the festival will be conducted in a family format. Concerts begin at 4 p.m., so visitors can enjoy the sunshine and relax on the grass while listening to music. A variety of games and entertainment facilities for children will be provided.
Billy Novik, leader of the city’s homegrown group Billy’s Band, one of the headliners of the festival, compared Usadba Jazz to rock concerts. “Rock festivals are like dissenters’ marches, while Usadba Jazz is like the march of the conformists,” he said.
Formed 10 years ago, Billy’s Band is living proof that it is possible to go it alone without a record label. The musicians act as their own producer and designer, as well as fulfilling the functions of a PR manager. Their style is often defined as blues and swing, but members of the group describe it as “romantic alcojazz,” which can be interpreted as soft-jazz and swing. Their sound is a sometimes folkish mix of piano, guitar, button accordion, double bass, saxophone and percussion.
Zhenya Lubich, an up-and-coming young singer from St. Petersburg, is making her debut at the festival this weekend. A singer with the French band Nouvelle Vague, she has now launched a solo career and this weekend’s performance will be her second in front of a large audience. Lubich’s band comprises experienced men who are or have been involved in a variety of different projects. Keyboard player Denis Kirillov used to play with the alternative rock band Stigmata, guitarist Stas Berezovsky is a former member of the rock group Splean, and drummer Andrei Ivanov collaborates with Billy’s Band.
Although the festival is dedicated to jazz music, the lineup features few traditional jazz performers. The genre comprises a multitude of different styles that together create an eclectic branch of music that is diverse in content. Jazz itself is the glue that holds it together. One of the most unusual bands participating in the festival is Belgium’s Zap Mama, founded and led by Marie Daulne, who was born in Democratic Republic of the Congo and raised in Belgium. Three singers with the band will perform jazz, R&B, hip-hop and African music simultaneously.
Other participants include the French jazz and blues musician Jean-Jacques Milteau, a virtuoso harmonica player, and Mass Ave Project, an eclectic group consisting of Russian and American graduates of Berkeley College of Music.
One of the most eagerly anticipated parts of the program will come from festival favorite Georgian singer Nino Katamadze and her band Insight. Other foreigners include Israel’s Avishai Cohen Trio, discovered by the Art Mania agency five years ago. Today, Avishai Cohen and his band have become a headliner at many international festivals.
In total, more than 20 bands from Russia and abroad will perform on two stages near the Yelagin Palace this weekend. Part of the money received from ticket sales will be donated to charity. “We help gifted children, orphans and the poor; we buy them musical instruments and help them to develop,” said Syomushkina.

The Usadba Jazz festival takes place from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on July 2 and 3 on Yelagin Island. M: Krestovsky Island. Tickets cost from 700 rubles for one day to 2,000 rubles for both stages on both days. For a full program, visit www.usadba-jazz.ru

TITLE: The word’s worth: Plugging Your Product
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy

TEXT: Lately it seems that every time I turn on the radio or television, I’m hearing the word ïðîäóêò (product). And it’s not just that I’m hearing the word, but I’m hearing it in unexpected contexts. Like a show about tourism where the guest talked about her company’s íîâûé òóðèñòè÷åñêèé ïðîäóêò ïî Àìåðèêå (literally, “new tourism product for America”). After listening awhile, I realized that this ïðîäóêò is nothing more than a new tour route.
And then there was a theatrical impresario on a talk show, yammering about how the public would love his new ïðîäóêò, which turns out to be nothing more mysterious than a new production of an old play.
What’s up with ïðîäóêò?
Ïðîäóêò is a loan word that means pretty much what product means — the result of some form of human endeavor, a creation of some sort or a substance resulting from a chemical or other process.
In economic terms, it can sometimes be a synonym of òîâàð (commodity, good). It’s this sense that has turned ïðîäóêò into a ìîäíîå ñëîâå÷êî (fashionable little word). We’re all so jaded and world-weary, you know. The grand result of human creativity — be it a play, concert, a work of art or even an innovative tour route — is nothing more than ïðîäóêò to be sold on the marketplace of life.
Thank heaven, not everyone in Russia is crazy about this usage. One actor asserted: ß áîëüøå íå õî÷ó ÷óâñòâîâàòü ñåáÿ ïðîäóêòîì íà ðûíêå (I no longer want to feel like a product on the market).
You also come across ïðîäóêò in banks, where you might be offered such unfathomable options as âûñîêîòåõíîëîãè÷íûå áàíêîâñêèå ïðîäóêòû (high-tech banking products). This is nothing more than loans applied for online or access to your account via your cell phone. I have to say that whenever I see the word ïðîäóêò with banks, I shudder as I recall all those innovative “mortgage products” that were so popular in the United States pre-2008. We all know how well those ïðîäóêòû worked out.
In “normal” Russian, ïðîäóêò can be used like good old product — the result of something. Ýòî ëèøü áîëåçíåííûé ïðîäóêò åãî âîñïàë¸ííîãî âîîáðàæåíèÿ (This is merely the sick product of his fevered imagination). Or: Ðóññêàÿ èíòåëëèãåíöèÿ ñ å¸ ñâîåîáðàçíûì ìîðàëüíûì îáëèêîì åñòü íàèáîëåå õàðàêòåðíûé ïðîäóêò ïîñëåïåòðîâñêîé èñòîðèè ñòðàíû (The Russian intelligentsia, with its unique moral character, is the most characteristic product of the post-Petrine history of the country).
People can be products, too — not goods to be sold, but the product of their time and place. For example: Îí òèïè÷íûé ïðîäóêò Ïåòåðáóðãà (He is a typical product of St. Petersburg). Sometimes it seems that Russian speakers are uncomfortable with the new “commodity” sense of ïðîäóêò and put the word in quotes even when using it in the standard literary sense. For example, on a blog for new mothers, one wrote: Êàê ÿ ìîãó ðàçî÷àðîâàòüñÿ â “ïðîäóêòå” ñâîåãî âîñïèòàíèÿ? (How can I be disappointed in the “product” of the way I raised him?)
There is one meaning of the Russian word that differs from English — the plural form ïðîäóêòû, which means groceries or foodstuffs, sometimes redundantly rendered as ïðîäîâîëüñòâåííûå ïðîäóêòû (food groceries) or ïðîäóêòû ïèòàíèÿ (foodstuffs for eating).
What with all these tours, food, actors, plays and people, Russia’s âàëîâîé âíóòðåííèé ïðîäóêò (gross domestic product) should be huge. Where is all that ïðîäóêò going?

Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns.

TITLE: Revelations in dance
AUTHOR: By Raymond Stults

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: One of the world’s most celebrated modern dance troupes, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, comes to St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater next week, bringing with it two programs centered around and dedicated to “Revelations,” a work choreographed by company founder Alvin Ailey half a century ago that has gone on to become, according to Dance Magazine, “the most popular modern dance piece of all time.”
St. Petersburg is the third stop on a two-month-long tour by the company that opened last week in Oslo before going to Moscow. After its local performances, the troupe will continue on to Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg.
The Alvin Ailey troupe’s Russian appearances take place under the auspices of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, created the year before last by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to expand cooperation between the two countries over a broad range of activities, including the arts. The appearances also serve to launch a new program titled “American Seasons in Russia,” which, with both private sponsorship and support from the U.S. Department of State and the Russian Culture Ministry, is scheduled to acquaint the Russian public with various forms of contemporary American art.
Alvin Ailey, born in Texas in 1931, emerged from a childhood of dire poverty to become one of the most influential figures in the development of dance during the second half of the 20th century. Dance training in Hollywood led Ailey to appearances on the Broadway stage and, in 1958, to the formation of his own dance company. At first made up entirely of African-American dancers, it began in 1963 to reach out to those of other origins, Ailey noting at the time that he had “met some incredible dancers of other colors who could cut the work.” It has remained integrated ever since.
Integrated or not, the Alvin Ailey company has from the very beginning remained focused on expressing the African-American experience in dance, transferring that experience to the stage in a manner characterized by enormous energy and a unique style that seems always to remain faithful to the sources from which it is drawn.
“Revelations,” on which the current tour is focused, first appeared in 1960 and amounted to a then radical combination of modern dance and traditional African-American gospel music. In it, Ailey sought to depict his experiences growing up in the segregated South of the 1930s. Judith Jamison, director of the company since Ailey’s death in 1989, sees “Revelations” as a work of “groundbreaking vision” and “a profound manifestation of how dance can celebrate the human spirit and impact our hearts and minds.”
At each performance, “Revelations” will be preceded by a short documentary film describing its inspiration and significance, as well as presenting historic performance clips and rare interviews with Ailey himself.
In addition to “Revelations,” Monday’s program, due to be repeated on Wednesday, includes another of Ailey’s most famous creations, “Cry,” a three-part solo work created in 1971 as a birthday present for the choreographer’s mother, that explores the trials, tribulations and eventual triumphs of “black women everywhere.” Also on the program are “The Hunt,” a work by long-time Alvin Ailey dancer — and soon to become company director — Robert Battle for six men intended to “reveal the predatory side of human nature and the primitive thrill of the hunt” and set to a thundering percussion soundtrack by New York’s Les Tambours du Bronx; and “Anointed,” a brand-new creation by former company member Christopher L. Huggins to the music of Moby and Sean Clements.
Tuesday’s program also culminates in “Revelations,” but is preceded by “Festa Barocca” and “In/Side,” a recent solo work by Battle, set to the music of Nina Simone and described as a “visceral cry of pure physicality.” 

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater plays 7 p.m. Monday to Wednesday at the Mariinsky Theater, Teatralnaya Ploshchad. Metro Sadovaya/Sennaya Ploshchad. Tel. 326 4141. www.mariinsky.ru.

TITLE: The Human Face of Debt Collection
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas

TEXT: DTV’s new drama series “Bailiffs” aims to bring a touch of humanity to the service, which for one reason or another, has always had a bit of an image problem.
The series is filmed in the real offices of the Federal Court Bailiff Service in the Leningrad Oblast, with some real officers playing bit parts, and the credits promise that it is “based on real events.” The characters wear neatly pressed dark uniforms, blue shirts and epaulets. The service said it wanted the show to “answer the question: Who are the federal court bailiffs and how do they help people solve their problems?”
Admittedly, I am not sure who watches DTV at 1 p.m. on a weekday, although possibly they are targeting the housewife who has fallen behind on her repayments on the widescreen television.
The show is described as a comedy, although the episode I saw was not really funny but did have a happy ending (the company got a 10-day stay of execution to pay back a debt). But I am pretty sure we will not see any beloved pedigree kittens seized or families thrown shivering out into the snow.
Grizzled senior bailiff Dmitry Vasilyevich is known as a “legendary master” in the business, so when he is given a cocky long-haired student, Andrei, as an intern, sparks fly, but an unlikely partnership forms.
None of the actors in the show are famous, unlike the ones who star in police shows, which makes me think that rightly or wrongly, no one really wanted to become the public face of the bailiffs.
The show has a certain cozy appeal but is so intent on explaining what the bailiffs do — arrest property on a court order — and definitely don’t do (take bribes) that it forgets to have believable dialogue.
“When you are doing an internship at the bailiffs you must know you have power given to you by the government of the Russian Federation and you should not for a second forget about the responsibility given to you by that power,” Dmitry Vasilyevich lectures his intern in one indigestible line.
The series reminds me of the FSB’s annual arts prize, where they reward books and television series that show the security service in a good light. A rather intriguing idea but highly unlikely to change public perceptions, even if someone concocts a Mr. Darcy in plainclothes.
In the episode I saw, Andrei and Dmitry Vasilyevich were working with a company in debt and found that a “werewolf in epaulets” of a bailiff had got there before them and demanded — shock horror — a bribe.
Now Dmitry Vasilyevich assures his clients that “we do not practice this.” He wracks his brains over who could be responsible, with suspicion falling on a luscious brunette bailiff, as well as on poor long-suffering Andrei. “Why did it have to happen in my department. Why did I have to get a rat?” he agonizes, head in hands.
Luckily it turns out that it was Andrei’s ex-girlfriend who sneaked a look at his files and extorted the money so her mother could keep up with her mortgage payments.
Twinkly-eyed Dmitry Vasilyevich solves the mystery and knocks the pair’s heads together. “I hope you understand that you dealt a serious blow to the reputation of bailiffs,” he thunders, before dictating to them from his favorite book: the bailiff’s code of conduct. And he gives the company another 10 days to pay off their debt as thanks for their cooperation.
At the end of the 20-episode series, law student Andrei will reach an epiphany and make “the decision to come to work for the bailiffs,” the show’s web site promises.


TITLE: Pit Stop
AUTHOR: By Tobin Auber

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Punkt Pitaniya — literally “Feeding Point” — despite the utilitarian, no-nonsense name, is clearly pitching itself as something of a French bistro or cafe, with its brown ceramic tiled floor, its tiny outdoor tables for people-watching, its small mirrors fitted into the white wooden paneling running around the walls, its artworks, the piano and its Francophone soundtrack. The results, however, are mixed, with some nice touches ruined by slapdash service and food that is heavy on the oil. These may be teething problems as the recently opened cafe gets into the swing of things, but all the same, as yet it would be hard to recommend this eatery. 
There are two smallish rooms linked by an arch, with a bistro-style bar at the end of the second. We seated ourselves next to the window, which just about affords a view out onto Bolshoi Prospekt. Despite the French theme, the menu appears to be a hotchpotch of European and Russian dishes. In what would appear to be a move in the right direction, there is, however, a dedicated pate section. The chicken liver pate (180 rubles, $6.40) was excellent, with a nice tang to it, as was the forshmak — herring, sour cream, eggs, onion and breadcrumb, all mixed up together (also 180 rubles). The vegetarian pate (120 rubles, $4.25), was on the slick side of greasy and appeared to simply be made of standard eggplant paste. The mushroom pate, on the other hand, which came as a compliment from the chef, was a tasty morsel. 
There were drawbacks to all this, though. Firstly, neither of the vegetarian options were actually on the menu — unfortunate as the menu itself is a barren waste ground for those in search of meat-free dishes. Secondly, the pates were all served with four pieces of fried brown bread. My dining partner found this excessively rich and oily, and even for a committed fried breakfast fan such as this reviewer, as I tucked into my eighth slice I could feel my arteries clogging beyond all repair. 
My vegetarian companion went for the gazpacho (200 rubles, $7), although she in fact had little else to choose from. Overloaded with slivers of cucumber and generously sized, it was deemed nothing out of the ordinary. Foxed by the menu, she was then forced to order a chicken Caesar salad without the chicken, and was made to pay the full whack — 330 rubles ($11.80). The lettuce was crisp, but overall the salad was not deemed a great success, tasting suspiciously, and off-puttingly, of fish. 
The grilled salmon in teriyaki sauce (400 rubles, $14) was a fine chunk, succulent on the inside with a nice crunch to the skin, but the 150 rubles ($5.30) for the boiled-beyond-all-repair rice that arrived long after the fish was robbery, as was the thimbleful of soy sauce that we asked to go with it and for which we were promptly charged 50 rubles ($1.75).
Overall, then, something of a disaster, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Firstly, in a move that seems to be sweeping across the city (at long last!), Punkt Pitaniya offers breakfasts. And secondly, buy one Americano coffee, and you can sit drinking refills until 5 in the afternoon.
<div class="divider">&nbsp;</div>
<h1>THE GUIDE</h1>
Dining on Vasilyevsky
Restaurants are scattered all over Vasilyevsky Island, from the Spit of the island to the shore of the Gulf of Finland.

<b>Kinza</b>  

This Georgian restaurant located in LenExpo congress center offers mouthwatering khachapuri, as well as a wide range of shashlik, including lamb and veal.
<i>103 Bolshoi Prospekt, Vasilyevsky Island, (LenExpo Pavilion 7). Tel: 920 0450</i>

<b>Montenegro</b>

Although this restaurant’s exterior is a little unimpressive, the menu offers a vast range of European salads and starters, as well as pasta and risotto dishes for very reasonable prices. The desserts are specially prepared by a separate chef.
<i>30A Ulitsa Korablestroitelei. Tel: 305 5816</i>

<b>Staraya Tamozhnya</b>

This restaurant has long been known for excellent French and European cuisine, elegant style and high prices. Its red brick walls and arches and comfortable furniture create an inviting atmosphere. The restaurant is famed for its seafood, but the entire menu maintains a high standard. 
<i>1 Tamozhenny Pereulok Tel: 327 8980</i>

TITLE: Turku — European Capital of Culture 2011
AUTHOR: By Alexander Belenky

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Summer has arrived, the traditional time of extended vacations in these parts, but to which destinations should travelers be heading? Our nearest neighbor, Finland, perhaps, so popular with Petersburgers looking to indulge themselves in a frenzy of shopping? Some locals might think that they’ve already been there so often that there’s nothing of interest left. That is far from being the case, however, and Turku, Finland’s oldest city, is well worth visiting this summer, especially as it has been named Europe’s official capital of culture. 

<b>Getting There</b>
Many Russians living in the northwest of Russia love visiting Finland, but detest the road journey as far as Vyborg, the Russian town that lies just before the Finnish border. And the border itself isn’t much better — for some reason it appears to be perpetually raining there, it’s often foggy, there are great convoys of trucks, queues and forms to fill in, and no end of bureaucratic hassles. On this trip, however, I traveled for the first time on the new high-speed train, the Allegro, and discovered that getting to Helsinki has just become immeasurably easier and more comfortable. Hop on, and three-and-a-half hours later you’re in the Finnish capital. Passport and customs checks and procedures are carried out onboard, the stops are brief, and you can work on your computer with ease. You can travel on from Helsinki to Turku by train or by bus. Alternatively, you could spend a very long, debilitating day and a tank of gas driving from Petersburg to Turku. The choice is yours. 

<b>A Little History</b>
Turku is the oldest city in Finland, and the country’s first capital. Turku locals regard the inhabitants of Helsinki in much the same way as Petersburgers regard Muscovites: “You may be the official capital, but we’ve got the history and the culture.”
The city was founded on the shores of the Aurajoki river in the 13th century, and it quickly became an industrial and trade center. At the time, Finland was part of Sweden, and Turku, or Abo in Swedish, was the largest and most important Finnish city. Turku’s castle and cathedral recall this era, and visitors will find themselves transported into the Middle Ages, as if they’ve passed through a time portal.
The Finns have a great reverence for their history, and carefully preserve all remaining evidence of previous eras, even if the events marked are negative. Turku burned down on several occasions, and a vast fire in 1827 almost entirely destroyed the city. On that occasion, huge numbers of citizens had traveled to a fair in Tampere, so there was no one to put the fire out. The strong wind quickly caused the fire to spread through the neighboring wooden houses and the entire city was burnt down, although hardly anyone was harmed. 
The city was rebuilt anew, however, to a new plan, with straight, broad streets and houses constructed in stone. The cleansing fire cleared the way for the new city, and the fire is not just seen as a page in the history of the city, it’s  also a vogue theme for an exhibition entitled “Fire, Fire” in the Logomo cultural center, and the subject of a rock musical entitled “Infernal Music.” 
This fantastical spectacle of light, sound and special effects to energetic rock tracks, on the night that we attended, inspired waves of stormy applause. 

<b>Turku: Cultural Capital</b>
The Finns consider that the awarding of the status of European Capital of Culture for the year to the city is an enormous achievement for Finnish culture. Tourists traveling to Turku this summer are promised an abundance of both the historic and the ultra-modern every day of their visit.
The year’s program includes about 150 incredibly varied projects: “Poetry portraits,” the weaving of carpets depicting tales, wrestling to accordion accompaniment and, of course, “Finnish sauna as a work of art,” including a transparent sauna right in the middle of the city. 
An old steam engine depot has been turned into the ultra-modern Logomo exhibition and theater center, becoming the main cultural arena in the life of Turku, featuring a series of exhibitions and other projects: A UEFA soccer exhibition, a chance to put out a fire using equipment from bygone eras, a rock musical and an art cafe. 
From June 30 to July 3, the city will play host to a medieval market, and a variety show by Cirque Dracula can be seen through August 14. From August 26 to 28, the Tall Ship’s Regatta will sail into town, mooring up on the shores of the Aurajoki River. 

<b>What to See</b>
Turku Cathedral holds a central position in the Lutheran Church of Finland, being the country’s official national shrine. It not only features a wealth of medieval detailing, but also hosts modern exhibitions.
Turku Castle protected the mouth of the Aura river from 1280, and it has had a dramatic, action-packed history. The excursions, offered in various languages, are well worth taking round the castle, and they give you a chance to meet a “living” king, who will knight men and enroll women as frauleins, all free of charge.
An even more fascinating place in Turku is the Luostarinmaki craft museum. It’s the only district in Turku that survived the destructive fire. Later, the historic buildings were turned into craft workshops and now you can visit the old post office and send a letter or observe bootmakers or clock makers at work.

<b>The Islands and Naantali</b>
The Turku Archipelago comprises about 20,000 islands: Take the old Ukkopekka ferry to one of them, and dine out in the open air to a live music accompaniment and dancing. 
In the summer, the islands are popular fishing destinations, and you can also rent bikes on them. There are nine ferry routes between the islands, as well as 12 bridges, so touring by car is also an option.
From Turku, you can also take a 20-minute ferry to Naantali, the fairytale land of the Moomin Trolls, the creations of the writer Tove Jansson - a perfect day out for the kids. On the pirate pier, they can capture a ship, and there’s also a castle to explore. In the Fisherman’s Village, you can meet the local inhabitants’ pets and try panning for gold.

The Finns are expecting two million tourists in Turku for the cultural capital events. A full schedule and program are available at: www.turku2011.fi (go to www.turkutouring.com for a Russian-language schedule).

TITLE: Sexy Wendy for Russian Opening Surprises Wendy’s
AUTHOR: By Khristina Narizhnaya

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Wendy’s models in trademark pigtails who greeted reporters outside the U.S. hamburger chain’s first standalone Russian restaurant on Thursday didn’t resemble your traditional Wendy girls.
Instead of the wholesome freckle-faced redhead in old-fashioned pantaloons, these long-legged women wore short dresses, bright red-striped stockings and stilettos.
Meet the Russian Wendy.
Photographers clustered around the women to take photos, but a visiting U.S. executive, Andrew Skehan, was decidedly less impressed.
Skehan, the chain’s chief operating officer, said by phone that he had not been aware of franchisee Wenrus Restaurant Group’s decision to sex up the chain’s icon. He said he would probably have to deal with a flood of phone calls from Wendy’s/Arby’s headquarters in Atlanta once his associates saw the photos.
Wendy was, after all, the daughter of the chain’s late founder and chief executive, Dave Thomas. 
But speaking to reporters at the opening, Skehan allowed that the Russians were the most beautiful Wendy’s girls he had ever seen. 
The girls are a far cry from the Soviet stereotypes that Wendy’s lampooned in an award-winning commercial in the 1980s. The commercial poked fun at the lack of choice in the Soviet Union and the stereotypically large Soviet woman, showing a heavyset woman catwalking in a shapeless dress and swinging a flashlight for nightwear and a ball for beachwear.
“Wendy’s produced this parody, but today we have the Russian Wendy,” Skehan said in the phone interview, adding that he still laughs every time he sees the commercial.
The franchisee’s chief executive, Alexander Kovaler, explained that he had changed the outfit to appeal to a younger demographic. “It’s our upgrade,” he said by phone.
The opening of Wendy’s on the Arbat marks the second step in corporate plans to launch at least 180 restaurants, franchises and sub-franchises in Moscow and the Russian regions over the next 10 years. Russia’s first Wendy’s opened June 14 in the food court of the Kapitoly shopping center on Prospekt Vernadskogo in southwestern Moscow.
The quick-service restaurant chain hopes to take on main competitor McDonald’s and others with individually handmade burgers and better-quality meat, which, according to restaurateur Mikhail Zelman of Food Service Capital Group, does not contain tendons and other flaws.
The restaurant will offer an American menu of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, salads and roast beef sandwiches. The average bill will run 250 rubles ($9), or $3 to $4 more than in the United States. Wenrus projects annual revenue of $1.5 million to $1.6 million per store, roughly 40 percent higher than at a store in the United States.
The reason for the higher price is the high price of food and overall high cost of living, Kovaler said. 
The opening is the latest in Russia’s fast-food boom. Burger King opened its first restaurant in January 2010. 
Wendy’s is the world’s third-largest burger chain, after McDonald’s and Burger King.
McDonald’s, which opened on Pushkin Square in Moscow in the twilight of the Soviet Union in 1990, continues to grow rapidly in Russia. Local restaurants, numbering 275 at the end of 2010, serve about 700,000 customers a year each, one of the highest numbers for McDonald’s in the world. It opened 31 restaurants last year and 40 more this year.
Russian chains have also been riding the wave. Teremok, which sells blini with traditional fillings like caviar and herring, now has 190 restaurants and stands in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The chain plans to open three new restaurants in Moscow before the end of the year.
The Russian dining market holds great growth potential because salaries are growing and there are relatively few restaurants per capita, Finam Holding analyst Maxim Klyagin said. 
Fast food holds a share of 30 percent to 40 percent of the dining market. The industry saw growth during and after the recession because people were looking to downgrade to save money, Klyagin said. 
The dining market value rose from $3 billion in 2000 to $26 billion in 2010, according to the State Statistics Service. 
But there is still much room to grow. Americans spend 17 times more than Russians on dining out, Klyagin said. 
Skehan said his American associates might have been misinformed about the Russian market in the 1990s but now are very interested in Russia and eager to visit.
“Russia is a vibrant country with a strong economy,” he said. “Fortunately it’s a country for people who like to eat meat. We are very excited about the future.”

TITLE: U.K. Sees No Decline in Number of Russian Students
AUTHOR: By Sam Marriott

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In the 1970s and 80s, the literacy rate of the Soviet Union reached an impressive 99.7 percent, and the Soviet education system was a source of pride. But widespread corruption in the Russian education system is now dragging down both the system’s reputation and educational standards, for who wants to hit the library when money will buy students a top grade and a place at university? As a result, for more than a decade now, wealthy Russians have been sending their children to prestigious — and expensive — boarding schools abroad.
As the number of well-off Russian students studying at Britain’s celebrated public and boarding schools grows, there are however occasional reports of the corruption endemic to the Russian system coming with them. One student who recently completed his schooling at a prestigious London day school says he was offered $1,600 by a Russian student in exchange for writing a piece of A-level English Literature coursework for him. After considering the offer, he accepted it, wrote the assignment and collected his fee. 
A class at Britain’s Eton College, on the other hand, witnessed their Russian classmate, upon being scolded by a teacher for late work, threaten her with assassination, claiming that his father could have the ‘hit’ exacted within days. 
Peter Reznikov, director of PRINCE Education Consultancy and head of Russian at Eton, will soon publish a book on his experiences of relocated students from the ex-Soviet states. He cites a phone call he received from Moscow during the early nineties: 
“Can you put two of my children into Harrow?”
“What are their names?”
“George and Maria.”
“But Harrow does not take girls!?”
“Make it a precedent, my friend; I buy you a nice present of your choice...”
Reznikov is, however, optimistic about the future of Russia’s education. 
“With the current changes of a unified examination system, tighter control of the quality of higher institutions and better integration into the rest of the world, it will get better and better.  Increased salaries and the importance of schools and teachers will become apparent. The recent announcement of pay rises is just the first step,” he said. 
“When I started PRINCE in 1991, a lot of people who sent their children to U.K. boarding schools from former Soviet republics made their money very quickly and often had more money than sense,” Reznikov says. “It was difficult and stressful to work with them. Their children were often spoilt and poorly motivated. Now the vast majority of my clients earned their money the hard way and they are so much nicer to deal with. Their children are highly motivated and pleasant to deal with — this trend is good news for all of us.”
Nor is a British education available exclusively to the children of oligarchs. The demographic to whom education abroad is now available has been widened by schools like Eton offering bursaries and scholarships to gifted children.
“One of the interesting things about the maturity of the Russian involvement in British education is that at Eton, we now have sons from some very rich Russian families, but also boys whose parents are aspirational professionals and even some who are at Eton on scholarships,” said Anthony Little, headmaster of Eton College. 
The only strict requirement for Russians for entrance to a British public school is a good grasp of the English language. 
What is not reconcilable with British educational establishments, however, is the “New Russian” outlook. An education at a notable institution abroad should not be sported like a Louis Vuitton handbag. In addition to warning parents against sending a child abroad to a school where students of their nationality are already prevalent, since it undermines the “distinctive British style of education,” Little says: “We make a particular point of seeking to identify overseas families who genuinely wish to participate in what Eton has to offer. We are not interested in those who simply wish to buy a brand.” 
While Russia’s education system works on eliminating corruption, educational agencies encourage those in a position to do so to continue taking advantage of what schools in other countries have to offer. 
 “You buy a very fine product and your investment into the education of your child in top schools will always give them the edge in an ever more competitive job market,” says Reznikov. “I cannot think of a better way of spending my money.”