SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1671 (33), Wednesday, August 24, 2011
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TITLE: Poltavchenko Named Acting City Governor  
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova 
and Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Georgy Poltavchenko, a former KGB officer and staunch ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, emerged Monday as the prime pick for the St. Petersburg governor’s seat, which was vacated by Federation Council-bound Valentina Matviyenko.
Poltavchenko said he considered his appointment to the position of acting governor of St. Petersburg as “a great responsibility and good opportunity to do something for his native city.”
“It is a great honor and responsibility for me to seek the position of governor,” Poltavchenko told reporters in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
Matviyenko, 62, resigned Monday after sweeping the vote in two local district by-elections a day earlier. The victory made her eligible for the upper chamber, where the ruling United Russia party has promised to make her speaker. (See story, this page.)
The Kremlin kept silent on her successor until Monday, when Poltavchenko, 58, the  presidential envoy to the Central Federal District, was appointed acting governor.
Poltavchenko moved to Leningrad as a first-grade school pupil and lived in the city for 40 years, he said.
The first priority of the acting governor will be “to prepare the city for the upcoming winter and fulfill all necessary social obligations,” Poltavchenko said.
Poltavchenko said he had always followed news from St. Petersburg when he worked in a federal position.
“I’ve noticed that during recent years, the city has changed for the better. What I’ve seen here makes me feel optimistic,” he said, adding that he is still only beginning to learn about the sphere in which he is to work.
Matviyenko said she welcomed the appointment of Poltavchenko to the position of the city’s acting governor.
“The fact that Poltavchenko is a politician of a federal level is an advantage,” Matviyenko said. “He will easily find essential contacts, and get support for city projects.” 
It remained unclear when Matviyenko might enter the Federation Council, where the speaker’s seat has been vacant since May, when Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov was ousted by the St. Petersburg legislature, controlled by the rival United Russia party.
Matviyenko, who had served as St. Petersburg governor since 2003, steadily lost popularity with local residents in recent years, and her reshuffle is seen by observers as a Kremlin attempt to strengthen its position in the city ahead of State Duma elections in December.
Speculation had swirled about her likely successor, although most observers agreed that the job would go to another of Putin’s cadre of old St. Petersburg associates whom he worked with in the city government in the 1990s. Among the favorites were Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin and First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak — but never Poltavchenko.
Poltavchenko, born in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, grew up in Leningrad, where he met Putin through the KGB. Poltavchenko headed the city’s tax police from 1993 to 1999, when he was appointed the Kremlin’s envoy to the Leningrad region; in 2000, he was promoted to envoy of the Central Federal District.
Poltavchenko has yet to be named full-time governor, but Nikolai Petrov, a regions analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the appointment is all but guaranteed.
“He was the longest-serving Kremlin envoy, and his promotion had been expected for a long time,” Petrov said by telephone.
Expectations about Poltavchenko, whose involvement in public politics remains limited, were still hesitant Tuesday, but the leader of the city branch of the liberal Yabloko party, Maxim Reznik, welcomed him simply for not being a member of Matviyenko’s team.
“It’s a positive move,” Reznik said, Interfax reported. But he criticized the fact that residents of St. Petersburg, the country’s second-biggest city with a population of 4.8 million, will be given no say in who will govern them.

TITLE: Opposition Slams Election Landslide 
AUTHOR: By Alexandra Odynova 

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The opposition has denounced as a farce the municipal by-elections won by former-Governor Valentina Matviyenko at the weekend.
United Russia was triumphant over the results, calling them “record-breaking” and “overwhelming,” but the opposition, which had criticized the elections for not being announced in advance as required by the law, refused to recognize them.
Matviyenko, who ran in two St. Petersburg municipal districts, was announced to have won 97.92 percent of votes in the Krasnenkaya Rechka district and 95.61 in the Petrovsky district. She accepted the seat in Krasnenkaya Rechka. Sergei Mironov, leader of the Just Russia party, who occupied the speaker’s seat in the Federation Council that Matviyenko is expected to take but was ousted by United Russia in May, described the elections as “a farce and a shame.”
“They got those kinds of percentages only in the Soviet Union,” he said.
Matviyenko was confronted by a journalist at a press conference Tuesday who described her results as “Turkmen or North Caucasian.” The former governor retorted: “Sympathy one receives for nothing, envy must be earned,” quoting the aphorism by German television presenter Robert Lembke.
The two St. Petersburg districts rolled out bread and circuses to lure voters to polling stations Sunday. Any other time, municipal by-elections would go unnoticed, but votes in the tiny districts of Petrovsky and Krasnenkaya Rechka were too crucial a step for Matviyenko, who needed to become a legislator to be eligible for the speaker’s seat in the Federation Council.
Estimates by election officials showed that turnout was 36 percent in the Petrovsky district and more than 28 percent in the Krasnenkaya Rechka district — astonishingly high levels for a by-election.
The elections followed a campaign filled with scandal and tarnished by the abundant use of “administrative resources,” which were required to help the Kremlin replace the unpopular governor ahead of State Duma elections while filling a Federation Council speaker’s seat with a loyal politician.
Clowns offered free ice cream on Sunday, and acrobats performed tricks outside the polling stations, while inside, stalls were stocked to the ceiling with cheap buns, Interfax reported.
Health-conscious voters could get medical examinations right on the premises, including from the chief pediatrician of the city government’s health care committee, Lev Erman, the report said.
Pets were not forgotten either, with owners given the chance for free checkups for dogs and cats at some polling stations.
Also on offer were free tickets to the circus, an oldies pop concert and a football workshop with Yury Zheludkov, a Zenit St. Petersburg star of the 1980s, Fontanka.ru news site reported. 
The campaign kicked off in June, when President Dmitry Medvedev proposed to make Matviyenko, 62 and St. Petersburg’s governor since 2003, the new speaker of the Federation Council.
The federal government was also interested in replacing Matviyenko, who never quite gelled with Petersburgers, before the Duma elections, analysts said.
An elected legislator of any level can be made senator, but Matiyenko’s road to the seat turned out more thorny than the Kremlin probably expected, not least because of A Just Russia, which promised to battle her on the ballot.
To prevent oppositional candidates from challenging her in the elections, Matviyenko kept silent on which constituency she would run in. The news became public only after registration for the vote was closed. 
The opposition cried foul, saying district officials had refused to disclose information on upcoming elections, despite being obliged to do so by law, while the districts’ newspapers announcing the elections were printed after registration was closed, but their lawsuits were thrown out.
In the end, Matviyenko faced no competition to speak of. Most rivals were complete unknowns. Among her competitors were three United Russia members, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, a Peterburgteploenergo official, a cloakroom attendant, a railroad maintenance worker and two ex-members of A Just Russia whom the party denounced as renegades.
Some 8,000 voters are registered in Petrovsky, and another 13,000 in Krasnenkaya Rechka. Three mandates were up for grabs in each district.
The opposition tried to convince locals to vote against all candidates by marking all of their names, thus making their ballots invalid, or to vote for any candidate except Matviyenko and those from United Russia.
But authorities did their best to prevent this, briefly arresting liberal politician Boris Nemtsov and former Kamchatka Governor Mikhail Mashkovtsev over the calls and seizing 145,000 copies of A Just Russia’s newspaper that contained materials urging voters to vote against Matviyenko.
Later, the police spokesman said that Mashkovtsev was “giving away money in exchange for voting against all the candidates.” Mashkovtsev denied the accusation.
The elections have no minimum turnout requirement, but local authorities wanted a high enough turnout to secure the legitimacy of Matviyenko’s legislature bid, Fontanka.ru reported earlier this month. The report was soon deleted, allegedly over legal concerns, and its author, Alexandra Garmazhapova, resigned from the news site.
The report also provided a detailed list of entertainment events planned by local officials and entrepreneurs to keep voters in the city on Sunday — a description that was uncannily similar to what actually happened. No information was available on how much it cost to stage the events.
Reports on violations were, meanwhile, easy to come by. Gazeta.ru reported, for example, that in violation of the law its reporter was denied access to the vote records at a polling station in Petrovsky.
Observers with the unregistered Party of People’s Freedom (Parnas) spotted one voter — out of a large group who looked like plainclothes military cadets — cast three ballots wrapped in one, while at another station, opposition monitors were barred when trying to count the turnout, said Ilya Yashin, an activist with Parnas and the Solidarity movement.
He called the elections “a special operation” implemented with “unprecedented administrative resources.”
“I haven’t witnessed anything like this even during presidential elections,” Yashin told The St. Petersburg Times after visiting several polling stations.
“A few voters complained that the authorities only do something good for voters when they want something in return,” Yashin said.
The local elections committee said there were no “significant” violations, Interfax reported.

Additional reporting by Sergey Chernov.

TITLE: Matviyenko: Her Legacy to the City  
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Former St. Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko, who officially left her position on Tuesday, said she was “leaving the city with a feeling that she had performed her duty.”
“We’ve done everything we could during the time we had,” Matviyenko said at her final press conference on Tuesday.
Joking with journalists, Matviyenko said that during the past eight years she had signed more than 82,000 documents that weighed a total of 1,200 kilograms and were a total of 74 kilometers in length.
“That means I read 102 pages of documents a day, then made a decision about all those projects and signed them,” she said.
“The work of a governor is a very heavy burden. It implies endless responsibility for the life of the city. However, I’ve been happy for all the eight years of my work… I cannot remember a day when I didn’t want to go to work,” Matviyenko said.
Matviyenko named the construction of new roads such as the Ring Road and Western High-Speed Diameter as the major achievements of the city during the years of her tenure, along with the repair of old roads, completion of the city’s dam, reconstruction of old housing, opening of new metro stations and the arrival of numerous foreign investors on the city’s market.
“The budget of St. Petersburg has increased by five times during the past eight years, and currently the money allocated for education in the city is equal to the whole budget of St. Petersburg in 2003,” the ex-governor said when answering questions about the results of her work.
In addition, the city has become the home of the federal Constitutional Court and host of the high-profile St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and International Film Festival, she said.
“The rhythm of the city has clearly changed. The city stopped being sleepy,” Matviyenko said.
The ex-governor recalled that when she came to St. Petersburg eight years ago, she had the feeling that the city had a slow rhythm of life.
“At that time, some people said St. Petersburg was not ready to develop big projects. However, we have passed that point of no return,” Matviyenko said. “Today the city is much more dynamic, there are far more business and cultural activities going on,” she said.
However, Matviyenko said there are still many things that need to be done for the city and that there are things she regrets.
“St. Petersburg still needs to sort out its old housing, develop roads more intensively and open more metro stations,” she said.
“As for developing the city’s metro system, of course this requires more federal investment, because the city budget is not big enough for that,” the ex-governor said.
When asked about her regrets, Matviyenko said she was sorry that she had not entered into a dialogue with city preservationists earlier.
“But it’s good that we did it nevertheless,” she said, adding that the decision to move the construction of the planned Okhta Center skyscraper from the center of the city to the outskirts was the right one.
Matviyenko said she always understood how important the project was for the city.
“Any European city would struggle to develop such a project,” she said.
Matviyenko also expressed regret over problems arising with clearing snow from the city’s roads and sidewalks last winter, but said it was a freak winter.
When asked what was the most irritating question she had heard from journalists during her career in St. Petersburg, Matviyenko said it was one about “the role of women in politics” that she was regularly asked on the eve of International Women’s Day.
“I have always thought that it doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman in politics. I think what matters is if that person is a professional,” she said.
Matviyenko said that among the most memorable gifts she had been given during her time as governor were rubber boots and a pan for making jam given to her by her colleagues. The governor said she used the pan to make red bilberry and apple jam, before giving jars of it to her colleagues.
Boris Vishnevsky, a political analyst, said the list of the ex-governor’s achievements was shorter than the list of her mistakes.
Vishnevsky said Matviyenko’s major accomplishments were the registration in the city of major tax payers such as Gazprom Neft that had brought substantial funds to the city budget, more active housing construction in the city, and the opportunity to watch city government meetings online.
“In the end it was good that she recognized the mistake of building the Okhta Center in the center of the city, though it took her five years to give up that idea,” Vishnevsky said.
Among the other mistakes of the governor, Vishnevsky named the demolition of buildings in the historic center, where many new buildings have been constructed instead, along with infill construction that led to the destruction of a number of parks and alleys, and discrimination against small businesses when small kiosks were closed near metro stations.
“Of course, another sore point was the suppression of political freedom and ban on opposition activities in the city,” Vishnevsky said. 
Nina Oding, an economic analyst at the Leontief Social and Economic Research Center, said that Matviyenko’s major accomplishment was “smoothing out the federal center’s economic policy.”
“The governor really made all possible efforts to attract investors and to lobby the interests of the region. She also rewarded all of her team for good work,” Oding said.
However, Oding said that in her opinion, business was still able to exercise too much influence on the city’s economic decisions. She criticized the Western High-Speed Diameter and reclaimed land projects, saying they were not worth the costs involved.
“We already have the Ring Road, so perhaps the Western High-Speed Diameter was not really necessary. Instead, the city could have built more metro stations using that money,” Oding said.
Oding said that Matviyenko’s style of working was “extremely individual” and “full of active spirit and emotions.”
“She was a leader in whom people could see an active person,” Oding said.

TITLE: Exhibit Highlights Child Sex Industy
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Dispelling myths and breaking down vicious stereotypes surrounding the taboo subject of the commercial sexual exploitation of children is the goal of a new exhibition titled “Lightning. Children, Beware” that opens at the St. Petersburg History of Photography Museum on Wednesday.
The exhibition deliberately avoids any sexual content. The first part of the display is comprised of six photographs by a local photographer presenting a series of associations with the topic: A messy room, a child in tears, a helping hand lent to a child. Each of the photographs carries a statement representing a human story behind it.
“There is always a chance to start again and try something new,” “After the first time I had a huge inferiority complex, I had breakdowns, cut my wrists... It was a huge blow for me,” “When she was 12 nobody cared. Twenty years on, nobody cares either”  — the stories behind these sobering statements are hard to take in.
Every visitor to the exhibition will receive an audio guide to tell them these stories.
The second part of the display centers on those who help children escape from commercial sexual exploitation and recover from their plight in a variety of ways, for example, a lawyer, a children’s ombudsman, a gynecologist, a psychotherapist, a volunteer from an NGO, a businessman and a diplomat. 
Here, again, each photograph is accompanied by a story, including success stories of those who managed to get to a safe environment.
“Lightning. Children, Beware” was prepared by the regional non-governmental organization Stellit, which has been focusing on the issue for a number of years, although until now its projects primarily targeted specialists.
With the display, the NGO has decided to appeal to the broader public, because its experts felt it is high time to get rid of misconceptions and myths surrounding the issue of child prostitution.
“A rape victim is typically seen in society as someone worthy of compassion; a child involved in a commercial sexual exploitation scheme is seen differently — most people do not even think about how the children ended up in that situation, how traumatizing it is for them and how difficult and dangerous it is in many cases to break free from it,” said Anna-Maria Khramchenkova, the project’s coordinator.
“Too many people believe in nonsense such as that children get involved in sex schemes voluntarily, that it only happens to children from poor and socially vulnerable groups, that in most cases it’s the child’s own fault; that it mainly happens to girls, and so forth,” she said.
A lack of knowledge about the issue in the media is also frustrating for those working in the field. A common journalistic lapse is to refer to anyone caught having sexual intercourse with a juvenile as a pedophile.
“Pedophile is a specific medical term defining a certain mental condition: That of an adult who is constantly sexually attracted to children and who is not, or rarely, attracted to other adults. Some of these people may never fulfill their fantasies; by contrast, those who end up doing so — by raping children, paying them for sex or engaging in trafficking — may not actually have that particular condition,” Khramchenkova said.
Another stereotype is that only children in developing countries become involved in the sex industry. Indeed, according to UNICEF statistics, in Thailand, about 200,000 children work as prostitutes, and in India the figure is twice as high. However, according to the same source, out of 2 million prostitutes in the U.S., between 300,000 and 600,000 are juveniles under 18 years of age. In Europe, the most alarming reports come from Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The scale of the problem is hard to fully estimate, however, as any official statistics that exist show only the tip of the iceberg.
In Russia, the problem is by any standards acute, judging by both statistics and the recent avalanche of media reports discussing specific cases (see story, page 4). 
In 2009, Stellit conducted a poll among prostitutes in several Russian cities. More than 70 percent of the survey’s participants said they started selling their bodies at the ages of 14 to 15.
In 2010, a telephone hotline set up by the Friendly Runet foundation received 22,161 complaints from organizations and individuals alike who reported online content involving child pornography. Subsequent investigations discovered 11,016 web sites containing criminal content.
Owing to the high sensitivity of the exhibition’s subject, the prosecutor’s office has asked the organizers to ban children of under 14 years of age from visiting the exhibition. The project’s organizers have complied with the request.
The exhibition can be seen through Aug. 30. in St. Petersburg. It will then travel to Murmansk (Sept. 7 to 13) and Moscow (Sept. 21 to 27).                  
                                                                         
                                                                         
“Lightning. Children, Beware” runs through Aug. 30 at the St. Petersburg History of Photography Museum, 
23 Ulitsa Professora Popova. 
Tel. 346 1850. Entrance is free, but closed to children under 14 years old.

TITLE: City Unveils New Transport Payment Card
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Petersburgers can now pay for public transport with a new kind of transport card that combines a regular international bankcard and a transport pass.
The new transport payment system was introduced on Aug. 1 to supplement the existing options of paying by cash for each journey or buying a monthly transport pass, the press service of the city’s Transport Committee said.
Passengers with the new card can pay for their journey by simply holding it up to a censor on overland transport or to the ticket barrier in the metro.
The new card can reduce the cost of trips, depending on the number of them made during one month. The more trips a passenger makes, the less the cost. For instance, if a passenger takes 40 metro trips in one month, each trip will cost 18 rubles ($0.62) instead of 25 rubles ($0.87).
Anyone can obtain the new transport card free of charge at the metro’s booking offices. A passport is required as proof of ID.
Cardholders can recharge the card at any time without standing in line, the committee said.
The card program was introduced by Russian Standard Bank and is based on the MasterCard payment system. 
Cardholders will also gain access to a range of bank services such as commission-free money transfers and payments of household bills, including Internet and telephone. 

TITLE: Prof. Pays Price of Work Error
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The vice principal of St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU) is to pay for the studies of a university student from his own pocket to make up for a mistake he made at work.
Sergei Bogdanov, who is a vice principal in charge of the university’s Oriental Studies, Journalism and Art and Philology faculties, volunteered to do so to compensate for a mistake he made that prevented the female student from being admitted onto the free-of-charge study program for which she initially qualified, the press service of SPbGU said last week.
The student was removed from the list of students entitled to study for free due to mistakes made by Bogdanov.
The problem arose when the right of another student to study for free was not registered in the university’s admissions information system.
As a result, that student’s name was not included on the list of students to be admitted to a free study course, reportedly at the university’s Oriental Studies faculty. The number of free places at the university are limited.
When the admissions committee discovered the mistake, they added that student’s name to the list. This meant that the first student, whose name was last on the list, was removed from the list of students entitled to free study.
But by that time, the first student had already rejected her place to study for free at another university. The admissions committee recommended that the student transfer to the paid department of the faculty, prompting Bogdanov to offer to pay for her studies with his own money. The student agreed.
Studying at the university’s Oriental Studies faculty costs about 200,000 rubles ($7,000) per year, Fontanka.ru reported. It is one of the most prestigious faculties at one of the country’s leading universities.
Russia’s higher education system, which was free in Soviet times and open only to applicants who scored top marks in the university’s entrance exam, is now rapidly moving toward the increase of paid programs and reduction in free study. 
The incident at the university is the first time at a Russian educational institution that a teacher will pay for a student’s studies.

TITLE: Foreigner to Build Racetrack in LenOblast
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A private investor from New Zealand is to build a racetrack in the Leningrad Oblast after the original project was frozen during the financial crisis. 
David Phillips, who specializes in equestrian sport projects, plans to build a hippodrome for 25,000 visitors, a straight rack track of about two kilometers, stables and a hotel complex, the press service of the Leningrad Oblast administration said last week.
For the construction of the racetrack and main buildings, the investor will need a land plot of about 100 hectares. Initially a site in the Vsevolozhsk district close to the Mega Parnas retail complex just outside St. Petersburg was proposed and is still being considered.
Grigory Dvas, deputy governor of the Leningrad Oblast, said the legal status and borders of the site had to be clarified, since a lot of construction has taken place there during the last three years. The administration will then prepare a memorandum outlining further steps up to be taken before the investment contract can be signed.
The investment total has not yet been disclosed.
“For the betting, the organizers plan to use the most modern computer programming software from New Zealand and Australia,” the administration’s press service said. “The equipment will allow people all around the world to place bets on the horses, and news and information about the horse races will be translated into five languages.” 

TITLE: City Sees Wave of Arrests Over Child Sex Assaults
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg police detained at least three men last week suspected of sexually abusing children, while a fourth managed to escape.
One of the detained men was 46-year-old singing teacher Igor Lysenkov, who is also head of the city’s Primorsky Culture Center club. Lysenkov is suspected of sexual abusing underage boys who were students of his music group, the St. Petersburg Investigative Committee said.
Most of his victims were reportedly disadvantaged children who were spending their vacations at summer camps.
Lysenkov worked at a children’s summer camp called Lesnye Zori in the village of Losevo in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad Oblast. There he headed a music studio called Vzroslye Deti (Mature Children). The age of the students ranged from 10 to 21 years old.
Between 2002 and 2009, Lysenkov sexually abused underage boys on the territory of the Zvyozdny youth club, the investigation alleges. Currently investigators have information that Lysenkov was involved in at least nine episodes, but they have reason to suspect that there were more victims.
Police have asked anyone who has been affected by Lysenkov’s actions to contact the investigation department of the Moskovsky district on 373 9909.
Meanwhile, Internet portal Fontanka.ru discovered that Lysenkov had also run a number of creative studios and show groups called TeeNX, New Stars, Zvyozdyi Patrul (Star Patrol) and Ne Poteryai (Don’t Lose).
Teenagers from the Vzroslye Deti music studio reportedly told police that during Lysenkov’s classes, underage children were permitted to smoke and drink alcohol. 
The fact that 12-14-year-old boys often stayed overnight in the studio was explained by the teacher as being due to the absence of sound isolation in the studio: He said it was impossible to record a song properly during the day. Teenagers who stayed overnight were shown porn movies and then persuaded to take part in sexual acts, Fontanka reported.
Rumors of Lysenkov’s crimes had reportedly circulated around summer camps for many years, according to Fontanka.ru. No complaints were received from the children, however.
The investigation has also discovered evidence that in 2008, officials from one of the summer camps learned of Lysenkov’s crimes, but did not inform police about it, investigators said, adding that in light of this, the investigation would also look into the legality of their hiring Lysenkov. 
Lysenkov also reportedly worked at the Vostok-2, Plamya and Tschaika summer camps in the Vyborg district of the Leningrad Oblast, Fontanka reported.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 15, a member of staff at the city’s Children’s Home No. 46 also called the police to report that one of the children living there had become a victim of sexual abuse on a visit outside of the home, the City Investigation Committee report.
Police detained 38-year-old Andrei Ivanov, a security administrator at Avtostroi 95 construction company, in connection with the incident.
Ivanov was a family friend of the 11-year-old boy, investigators say. After the boy was put in a children’s home following the death of his parents, Ivanov visited the child, gave him gifts and took him to his home for visits. During those visits the man repeatedly committed acts of sexual abuse against the boy, the investigation alleges.
In 2008, Ivanov stood trial for other crimes related to sexual abuse and the involvement of an underage person into antisocial activities.
In yet more detentions over child abuse last week, a 46-year-old man was detained for abusing a four-year-old boy. 
On Aug. 16, a 35-year-old woman, her friend and four-year-old son went to visit 46-year-old Vladimir Kostin, where the adults drank alcohol.
Later, after putting her son to bed in Kostin’s apartment, the woman and her friend went to a store. In their absence, Kostin sexually assaulted the child, investigators say.
Kostin has been detained.
In addition, police are now searching for an unknown man who entered a women’s toilet at the Mayak summer camp on Aug. 13 and repeatedly sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl, Interfax reported.
The apparent outbreak of child abuse cases last week gave rise to fears that such cases are becoming more frequent. However, experts say it is also due to the availability of more information about the issue, which always existed but was not widely discussed. 
In June 2011, a court sentenced teacher Andrei Smirnov, who also headed the Tsarskoye Selo children’s society in the city’s Primorsky district, to 12 years of imprisonment for a sexual assault against a teenager. Out of four sexual abuse charges, one had allegedly taken place at a school.
In Aug. 2009 in the Kalininsky district of the city, another teacher, Alexei Andriyanov, was detained on suspicion sexually abusing a 12-year-old. Andriyanov was a chemistry teacher at an elite school.
In February 2008, a 50-year-old was detained for sexual abusing a 15-year-old. The man turned out to be a former teacher who had been conferred the title of Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation, Fontanka.ru reported.
Currently the city’s Investigative Committee is dealing with several cases involving the sexual abuse of children. The victims include 31 children and teenagers, new agency Regnum reported.
No growth in sex crimes against under-16s has been registered in St. Petersburg, investigators say.
Svetlana Agapitova, the children’s ombudsman for St. Petersburg, said 70 percent of children who are subjected to sexual abuse come from disadvantaged families. Sexual abuse of children within their families, however, usually takes place in families of sufficient means, she said.
Agapitova said that in order to fight the sexual abuse of children, Russia needs to toughen its legislation and recognize that type of crime as particularly severe, and to increase the punishment. In addition, sex offenders should not be released before the end of their sentence, and to prevent relapse, they should be monitored upon their release from prison, she added.
Russia is currently considering the use of chemical castration against convicted pedophiles.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Kenyan Man Attacked</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — A Kenyan man was hospitalized in a critical condition after he was attacked in St. Petersburg last week.
The man suffered wounds to his head and body, Interfax reported.
A day later, police detained a 39-year-old suspect, who allegedly attacked the Kenyan citizen in order to help the owner of a store reclaim debts owed to him by the Kenyan man.
The man attacked the Kenyan with a baseball bat and then disappeared.
The motive for the crime was the Kenyan’s failure to pay back a debt owed to the store owner, according to the city’s investigative committee.

<b>Taxi Color Poll Taken</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The people of St. Petersburg had the chance to express their opinion last week on what color the city’s taxis should be. 
The survey was carried out in response to the new taxi law that is due to come into effect on Sept. 1. According to the new law, taxis will not only have to be equipped with meters and a top-light; they must also have a brand color.
The survey was carried out at the Moscow and Ladozhsky railway stations and on Nevsky and Ligovsky prospects. The results of the voting have not yet been announced.
The new law will bring St. Petersburg into line with other cities that have brand colors for their taxis, such as New York’s yellow taxis and London’s black cabs.

<b>Shipbuilder’s Order</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The city’s Baltiisky Zavod shipbuilding plant will build three vessels for the transportation of nuclear waste for the British company James Fisher and Sons (JFS), the plant’s press service said.
JFS earlier signed a contract the U.S. firm ACU for the transportation of nuclear waste from nuclear reactors in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries. Under the terms of the project, JFS will be the exclusive supplier of maritime transportation services, and Baltiisky Zavod will build three transport vessels for the company.
JFS was founded in 1847, and provides services in all sectors of the maritime industry, including engineering services for the nuclear industry.
Baltiisky Zavod is one of the biggest multi-industry shipbuilding plants in Russia.

<b>More Pay, PE at Schools</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The average salary of the city’s teachers will increase by 4,000 rubles to 27,300 rubles ($943) this school year, the city’s Education Committee said. Recently qualified teachers will only get 12,000 rubles ($414) a month, however.
Schoolchildren in St. Petersburg will have three physical exercise classes a week beginning this school year. Previously, most school timetables included two PE lessons a week.

<b>2nd Plane Crash Kills 4</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — Four people were killed when a private plane crashed in the Leningrad Oblast on Saturday, Interfax reported.
Investigators are looking into the reasons for the crash. There is information to suggest that the YAK-18 plane was undertaking complex flight maneuvers, but there is no proof as of yet, Rosbalt news agency reported. 
Three people were killed last week when a private Piper PA-28 Cherokee plane crashed in the Leningrad Oblast. 

TITLE: Military Visit to North Korea as Kim Tours Far East
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Military officers flew to North Korea for talks about renewing military ties on Monday as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s armored train rolled through the resource-rich Far East on his secretive journey to a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev.
Kim is to meet Medvedev later this week near Lake Baikal during his first visit to his country’s Cold War ally in nine years. North Korea is increasingly showing signs it is prepared to restart six-nation disarmament talks in exchange for aid.
Russian military officials arrived in the North Korean capital on Monday for a five-day visit, Itar-Tass reported from Pyongyang. The Russian Defense Ministry said the talks would focus on the renewal of military cooperation between the countries, possible joint exercises “of a humanitarian nature” and an exchange of friendly visits by Russian and North Korean ships.
Russia and North Korea also will discuss “possibilities of joint exercises and training of search and rescue operations for sinking vessels as well as providing assistance to people during natural disasters.”
Defense analyst Alexander Golts said North Korea’s goal in inviting the Russian military could be to assuage fears of instability, because Russia is considering building a natural gas pipeline through North Korea. The pipeline is expected to be one of the main topics of Kim and Medvedev’s talks.
Golts said it was highly unlikely Russia would renew arms sales to North Korea, which would not be in its interests as a participant in the sixparty talks. He also noted the low level of the Russian delegation, which is led by the commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District.
Kim’s train crossed into Russia on Saturday morning and passed through Khabarovsk before heading west along a railway running roughly parallel with Russia’s borders with China and Mongolia. The itinerary for his visit, expected to last about a week, has been largely kept secret because of what appear to be North Koreans’ high security concerns.
The first and so far only time Kim is known to have left the train was during a stop Sunday at the small Bureya station in the Amur region. Flags of the two countries fluttered at the railway station, while a military band played welcoming music and Russian women in national dress offered Kim traditional gifts of bread and salt.
Kim was then taken in his armored Mercedes for a tour of a hydroelectric power plant and its 139-meter dam on the Bureya River. He was briefed on the plant’s history and electricity production capacity and praised the enormous building, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang.
“Inexhaustible is the strength of the Russian people,” Kim wrote in the visitor’s book, KCNA said. 
Russia has proposed transmitting surplus electricity produced by the Amur plant to both North and South Korea, South Korean media have reported.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, while on a visit to Mongolia, said Monday that “if [Kim] frequently visits and looks at an open society, that will eventually positively affect North Korea’s economic development,” spokesman Park Jeong-ha said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The Amur.info news web site reported Monday that people living near the Bureya station were told to stay away from windows and prohibited from taking pictures. The local residents, however, were grateful for the makeover of the station’s square, which was newly paved for Kim’s visit, the web site said.
Kim’s next stop was unclear. Yonhap, however, citing an unidentified Russian intelligence source, reported Monday that the North Korean leader’s train could be heading toward the Amur region city of Skovorodino.
Skovorodino is the starting point for a 1,000-kilometer oil pipeline linking oil fields of eastern Siberia and China that was inaugurated last year. Yonhap said Kim’s expected stop at Skovorodino could be related to Russia’s proposal to provide energy to the Korean Peninsula.
Kim’s train is traveling along the Trans-Baikal Railway and believed to be headed for Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, for the summit with Medvedev.
There were signs that preparations were being made for Kim to visit the village of Turka, located on the shores of Lake Baikal. The Baikal Daily web site quoted residents as saying that a local police officer has been making the rounds to take down the names and addresses of all the people in the village.
One key topic for Medvedev and Kim’s talks is expected to be the construction of a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas through the North’s territory to the South. South Korean media said the North could earn up to $100 million every year, but negotiations haven’t reported much progress because of the nuclear dispute.
Gazprom officials visited North Korea in early July for talks on the gas pipeline.

TITLE: Mayor Slain in ‘90s-Style Killing
AUTHOR: By Natalya Krainova

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — A gunman killed the mayor of Sergiyev Posad, a popular tourist destination just north of Moscow, outside his private house Monday in a gangland-style killing reminiscent of the 1990s.
Mayor Yevgeny Dushko, 35, had made many enemies, including among construction companies and communal services, local residents told The St. Petersburg Times. Investigators said Dushko’s killing was probably related to his work.
Dushko, a United Russia member who had received death threats at least as far back as 2009, was elected mayor by the city legislature in April through a controversial scheme that was later ruled illegal by the Justice Ministry.
An unidentified assailant pumped seven bullets into Dushko as he left his home on Sovietskaya Ulitsa in Sergiyev Posad around 7:30 a.m. Monday, Moscow region investigators said in a statement.
Media reports said Dushko actually got into his car before the shots were fired, and Dushko’s father, hearing the gunfire, ran out of the building and tried to drive his son to the hospital, but the mayor died en route.
Investigators said Dushko died at the hospital.
No suspects were named. 
Dushko’s killing “might be linked to his professional activities or his previous business activities,” Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, RIA-Novosti reported.
An unidentified law enforcement official told RIA-Novosti that professional activities are the prime lead in the investigation because Dushko “took up the city’s economy not long ago [and] … started actively working in a number of directions that somebody might not have liked.”
Sergiyev Posad, a historic city of about 105,000 people located 60 kilometers north of Moscow, is most famous for being home to the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the largest monastery in Russia and the official residence of the Russian Orthodox patriarch since 1983.
Dushko, a Sergiyev Posad native, was elected mayor in April by the 25-member legislature that he chaired at the time and continued to chair while being mayor, thus serving as head of both the executive and legislative branches of the city.
Residents contacted by telephone said it would be hard to guess who was behind the killing because Dushko had many foes.
“Dushko had plenty of evil-wishers,” said Olga Kanatnikova, a reporter with the local weekly newspaper Novoye Zerkalo.
Many local businesspeople had failed to reach an understanding with Dushko and gathered at least twice to discuss “how to resist what they believed to be Dushko’s corrupt politics,” she said.
Kanatnikova said speculation had run rampant that Dushko was seizing plum land plots and privatizing them in the name of a relative.
Kanatnikova also said Dushko had “stood in open opposition” to Posad Energo, a local management company involved in communal services. 
“Dushko suspected Posad Energo of defrauding the people, while it accused him of power abuse,” Kanatnikova said, refusing to elaborate because of lack of documentary evidence.
Posad Energo officials were not immediately available for comment.
Alexander Golub, a member of the Moscow region branch of the Communist Party, said the local business community was grieved because Dushko “tried to meddle in the established system of communal services” by promoting the interests of new management companies at the expense of those already operating in the city.
Dushko also promoted a new management company for the uncompleted construction of an apartment complex called Zolotiye Vorota in Sergiyev Posad, which displeased both investors and the current developer, Golub said.
Golub refused to mention any company names.
Dushko had previously served as chief editor at the local television station and host of political talk shows on local television and radio.
He was elected to the legislature in July 2009 after working for three years as deputy head of the Sergiyev Posad municipal district, which unites the town of Sergiyev Posad and its outskirts, according to his current official biography posted on the legislature’s web site. 
At least 40 mayors and deputy mayors have been attacked in Russia since 2000, RIA-Novosti said. Many of them died or were seriously injured.

TITLE: Federal Revenue ‘Not Bad’  
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Finance Ministry on Tuesday expressed satisfaction about federal budget revenue so far this year, saying that it collected more funds than it expected.
Revenues in excess of the plan for the first half of this year came mostly from customs duties as imports soared, the Finance Ministry said in a statement posted on the Cabinet’s web site.
The revenue situation is “not bad,” said a reserved Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, speaking after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that was dedicated to the budget situation.
Oil export revenues increased by just a tiny fraction above what was planned, as the price for the main blend of Russian oil averaged $108 a barrel. The government had forecast a price of $106.4, Siluanov said.
In total, the federal budget collected 5.3 trillion rubles ($180 billion) for the period. Spending lagged behind the plan, reaching 4.6 trillion rubles, or about 42 percent of the full-year plan.
Siluanov declined to speculate if Russia would collect enough taxes to avoid running a deficit this year. The Economic Development Ministry will complete calculations on this question next month, he said.
Regional budgets also raked in more money than ministry officials planned, mostly from the profit tax, Siluanov said. The economy grew 3.9 percent in the half-year, reaching 24 trillion rubles. Consumer prices climbed 5 percent.

TITLE: Plane Crashes Double in 2011  
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The number of plane accidents has doubled compared with last year, and the number of deaths has quadrupled, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday in a report criticizing small airlines.
Thirteen crashes killing 81 people took place from January to mid-August, Ivanov told a government transportation commission in Moscow.
Another 26 accidents without deaths occurred over the same period, he said.
The statistics did not include the Monday crash-landing of an An-2 biplane that killed one in the Tuva republic and the Saturday crash of a Yak-18T plane near St. Petersburg that left four people dead.
Ivanov did not provide precise comparative figures.
The majority of this year’s crashes with fatalities involved obsolete planes, Ivanov said, adding that most of them were owned by small airlines that operate “five or six airplanes, if not fewer,” Interfax reported.
Ivanov reiterated his earlier criticism of the small carriers, saying they were unable to maintain and update their fleets.
Earlier this month, the Transportation Ministry banned long-haul airlines with less than 10 similar aircraft from operation starting January, with the bar to be raised to 20 planes from 2013.
The number of certified airlines has been halved over the past year, Interfax said. The 15 biggest airlines — each with fleets of more than 20 planes — handle 90 percent of all air traffic in the country, it said. But small airlines serve many remote localities.

TITLE: LUKoil Obtains Permit For Norwegian Shelf 
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — LUKoil said Monday that its request to extract oil off Norway’s coast stemmed partly from the pact the two countries signed to settle their maritime border in the Barents Sea, where rich reserves could come to light.
In the company’s first comments on the proposal, which Norway approved last week, LUKoil said last year’s border agreement between Moscow and Oslo is what helped spark its interest in the project. 
“It made everyone excited,” said Grigory Volchek, a spokesman for LUKoil’s foreign business arm,  LUKoil Overseas. “If there is a definite borderline, some work can be planned for that area.”
By doing away with the long-simmering border problem, Norway is set to invigorate development of a previously disputed acreage — a welcome sign for its flagging oil production now concentrated in the North Sea.
LUKoil will not seek only Barents Sea fields in Norway, Volchek said. “We will target whatever they put up for tenders,” he said by phone.
Norway’s Petroleum and Energy Ministry posted a notice on its web site last week that it had pre-qualified LUKoil as an “operator on the Norwegian continental shelf” — ending at least eight months of scrutinizing the company’s technical competence, health, safety and environmental standards, and financial capacity. 
Norway appears to have received assurances from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who took a call from his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg on July 20 to discuss what the Russian Cabinet’s press service tersely described as economic issues “with an emphasis on energy cooperation.” 

TITLE: Poll: Russians Are Unhappy  
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Twenty years after the Soviet collapse, Russians are among the most unhappy people in Europe because of a high level of economic uncertainty, according to a new study.
Russia was ranked worst among 13 countries, with only 37 percent of Russians interviewed by the Hamburg-based Foundation for Future Studies saying they are happy despite the debt crisis in the euro zone.
This compares with Denmark — ranked No. 1 — where 96 percent of interviewees are happy with their lives.
Heavily indebted Greece was ranked second, with 80 percent of the interviewees saying they are happy, while Germany, whose economy is widely believed to be the most stable in the region, was ranked 11th, with 61 percent expressing happiness.
The figure in Poland stands at 50 percent, a notch above Russia.
The survey polled 15,000 Europeans aged over 14. It did not give a margin of error. Among other participating countries were Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
Some characteristics appeared to be the same in all countries. “Women are happier than men, country folk are happier than city dwellers, and couples are much more satisfied with their life than singles, as are those with a good wage compared with those with a low income,” the foundation said on its web site.

TITLE: Anniversary of Coup Attracts Mixed Reactions 20 Years On
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia quietly marked the 20th anniversary of the start of the attempted coup that led to the Soviet collapse, with only about 100 people gathering Friday evening at the spot where tens of thousands of protesters rallied in 1991.
Neither President Dmitry Medvedev nor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin mentioned the coup anniversary in their public appearances Friday, reflecting the deep ambivalence of many Russians about the events that plunged them into both anxiety and exhilaration.
The coup attempt was initiated by a coterie of Communist hard-liners who placed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest at his vacation home, fearing that his pending agreement to allow wide sovereignty for Soviet republics would lead to the U.S.S.R.’s disintegration.
But wide public opposition quickly weakened the putsch, notably the tens of thousands who gathered around the Russian government headquarters where President Boris Yeltsin famously defied the coup while standing atop a tank.
The coup collapsed three days later and Gorbachev returned to Moscow, but his power and credibility were fatally dissipated. Estonia and Latvia declared independence during the coup and, along with Lithuania, were allowed to split off from the Soviet Union weeks later. The entire Soviet Union was signed out of existence in December.
Many Russians who defended Yeltsin in 1991 now say they would not have done so if they had known what would happen to the country under his leadership.
But those who turned out for Friday evening’s rally are among the people who still remember those days as a proud moment in Russia’s history.
“We did the right thing,” said Lyudmila Skryabina, who was traveling through Moscow on her way back to her home in St. Petersburg on Aug. 19, 1991, and decided to stay. “After glasnost, after all we had learned about our past, I simply didn’t want to go back to what we had.”
Some politicians took note of the anniversary Friday.
Just Russia founder Sergei Mironov visited the cemetery where three men who died defending the Russian government building are buried, praising “all those who believed in the necessity of freedom for Russia.”
State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said the coup plotters were doomed from the start because “they tried to change the course of history.”

TITLE: The Military’s Role in Defeating the Coup
AUTHOR: By Alexander Golts

TEXT: There is an old saying about the Soviet army: After every victory, the slackers are rewarded and the heroes are punished. This expression came to mind in connection with the 20th anniversary of the 1991 coup attempt. Analysts on television and the radio talk about the standard heroes: the Muscovites who set up blockades and threw themselves at the tanks and Boris Yeltsin, then-president of the Soviet Russian Republic, who led the movement against the coup plotters. For hard-line Communists, even the conspirators are heroes to this day because they selflessly tried to save the Soviet empire from collapse, we are told.
But there has been little praise for the Soviet officers who defied the coup plotters’ orders to shoot into crowds of civilians. Of course, their refusal was not necessarily based on moral principles. After all, there are plenty of instances when Soviet officers compliantly fulfilled their superiors’ orders to fire on civilians. Take, for example, the shooting of peaceful demonstrators in Novocherkassk in 1962, or when the Kremlin used the army to suppress nationalist movements in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Baltic states from 1988 to 1990.
But the killing of civilians in the Caucasus and the Baltic states in the final years of the Soviet Union fundamentally changed the relationship between the armed forces and the Communist leadership. For the first time, the Communist Party general secretary and the defense minister were afraid to admit that the army was acting on their orders. What’s more, the Communist leadership lost its most important ally when it tried to shift the blame for the civilian deaths onto the military.
The violence in Tbilisi in 1989 is a case in point. Transcaucasus Military District commander Igor Radionov carried out a Kremlin order to break up a peaceful demonstration and then ended up as the scapegoat during the subsequent backlash. Alexander Lebed, a paratrooper commander during this unrest, recalled the cowardice of the Soviet leaders in a 2001 interview with Noviye Izvestia. “Starting from 1988, I never received a single written order [to deploy troops against civilians] — only phone calls. … And then Gorbachev acted as if he had no idea how those troops and airplanes had been deployed,” he said.
During the August 1991 putsch, relations between Soviet politicians and the military reached an all-time low. To be sure, generals had no respect for Gorbachev, whom they blamed for the collapse of what had once been the most powerful army in the world. But when the order came from the putschists to use force against unarmed protesters, they drew the line. Military leaders refused to obey orders because they had no faith in the bumbling coup leaders and suspected that the army would once again be held responsible for any bloodshed — particularly since the coup plotters refused to put their orders in writing for fear of leaving a paper trail of their crimes.
It is not surprising, then, that on Aug. 19, Airborne Troops commander Pavel Grachyov, who had received direct orders from KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov to develop a military plan to transfer authority from Gorbachev to another leader, acted as if he supported both sides in the conflict. Grachyov sent a battalion to the Supreme Soviet under the command of his deputy, Alexander Lebed, and the coup plotters were informed that the paratroopers had “established control” over the parliament building. At the same time, Grachyov told Yeltsin that he had sent paratroopers to protect Russia’s leaders.
The moment of truth came on the evening of Aug. 19 when Deputy Defense Minister Vladislav Achalov ordered Grachyov to arrest Yeltsin and his inner circle. According to Grachyov, he and all his deputies refused to carry out the order, although they knew that if the putschists came out victorious the military leaders would face criminal charges of insubordination in front of a military tribunal. Grachyov then called Viktor Karpukhin, commander of the elite Alpha KGB special forces, and he also agreed not to carry out the order to arrest Yeltsin and his top advisers.
To be sure, Grachyov’s decision not to obey the putschists’ orders was not driven by any democratic convictions. He was motivated first and foremost by a desire to end up on the winning side. Once it became clear that the plotters would lose, Grachyov shifted his allegiance to Yeltsin, for whom he would serve as defense minister after the Soviet collapse.
In the end, the military’s refusal to carry out the orders of a dictatorial Communist regime was the last confirmation that the Soviet Union had indeed collapsed for good.

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

TITLE: BETWEEN THE LINES: Why Georgia Has Friends and Russia Doesn’t
AUTHOR: By Alexei Pankin

TEXT: It is difficult to imagine a greater joy than visiting Georgia.
Amazingly, the blood spilled in the Russia-Georgia war three years ago has not cooled the warm feelings that Georgians feel toward Russians, and that is the result of several centuries of living together in one nation. And because few Russians now visit the country — made worse by the fact that there are only three overpriced flights per week between Moscow and Tbilisi — those who do come are treated to an outpouring of the great love that Georgians feel for all Russians.
In Senaki, a town in western Georgia that saw fighting in August 2008, total strangers invited me to their home for dinner. They offered many toasts, sang songs in honor of the eternal friendship between our two countries and vowed not to let politics spoil that relationship.
A clerk at a small store off the beaten tourist path remarked: “You are the second Russian customer I’ve had today. That’s a good sign.” And it was the same way everywhere I traveled across Georgia.
It is not easy for a Russian to be a patriot in Georgia. Everyone in Georgia likes to blame Russia for the loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is useless to offer the counterargument that the situation became irreversible in 1989-91 because nationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia made serious efforts to deprive the Abkhaz and South Ossetians of autonomy.
The second problem is Russia’s visa policy, which is a huge irritation for Georgians. Many Georgians, especially the older ones, studied, worked or have friends or relatives in Russia. And almost every one of them with whom I spoke had a horror story about being refused a Russian visa or the mountains of paperwork they had to complete to ultimately get an invitation and visa. In contrast, Russians visiting Georgia can obtain a visa in two or three minutes at Tbilisi airport.
The main factor unifying Georgia and Russia today is their common past. This is a strong and deep relationship, but it can only be stretched so far.
Moreover, Georgia has essentially taken an official anti-Soviet stance. A Georgian presidential adviser on relations with the former Soviet republics told our group of Russian journalists that “life was hell for Georgians during the Soviet era.” This is utter nonsense for anyone who remembers the period from the 1960s to the early 1980s. But the target audience for that type of hyperbole is today’s Georgian youth, who have no recollection of the warm relations between Georgians and Russians during the Soviet period.
But Tbilisi’s anti-Russian propaganda aimed at the youth seems to be working. Some of the young Georgians I met held a contemptuous attitude toward Russia. Their position was: “We Georgians have created an honest police force and an effective government. We have largely eradicated crime and corruption. But you still can’t get your house in order.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t object.
Tbilisi’s pro-Western policy as well as Georgians’ traditional hospitality and creativity will no doubt win new friends to their cause. But it seems to me that Russia is not trying very hard to even maintain old friendships, much less build new ones.

Alexei Pankin is editor of WAN-IFRA-GIPP Magazine for publishing business professionals.

TITLE: Desert island
AUTHOR: By Elmira Delorme
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A little more than a month ago, New Holland Island was opened to the public for the first time in the history of St. Petersburg. Since then, it has become the hippest summer hangout for both locals and tourists. 
“The first thing I did after arriving in St. Petersburg was to rush to New Holland Island,” writes one Muscovite on an Internet forum devoted to the island. “I’ve read a lot about the potential of this island, so I wanted to see it for myself,” she wrote.
“It’s a great idea to breathe new life into an old historic and cultural object,” writes another visitor from the capital. “Moscow has already witnessed similar projects… Now St. Petersburg will have its own art space that will fascinate creative people and encourage the development of modern art in Russia,” he added.
New Holland was created in the 18th century by Peter the Great when the Kryukov and Admiralty canals were dug to connect the Moika River with the Neva. The triangular island received its name from the plethora of canals and shipbuilding facilities that rendered its appearance similar to Amsterdam. 
Leading architects and engineers of different epochs were enlisted for the island’s construction, and the architecture of the island, with its distinctive red-brick warehouses and majestic entranceway arch, is considered to be an example of early Russian classicism.
For centuries, the island was under the control of the military, and used for the maintenance of the navy. It also housed a naval prison. After the 1917 Revolution, the island fell into neglect. Until recent times, the buildings of the island were used as military barracks, warehouses and offices for various commercial enterprises. Following the abandonment of plans to redevelop the island into a multifunctional center designed by the U.K.’s Norman Foster, the island passed under the control of Roman Abramovich at the end of last year, when New Holland Development company won the tender for the restoration and redevelopment of New Holland. The contractor of the company is the Iris foundation, a non-profit organization established by Daria Zhukova dedicated to promoting contemporary culture.
On Aug. 2, the winner of the architectural project for the redevelopment was announced. The winning company, New York’s WORKac, plans to create a public park on the island whose landscape will transform the island into an open amphitheater and concert hall. The park itself will continue inside the historic warehouses, connecting all the existing constructions on the island, which will be turned into artistic, educational and commercial sectors.
Representatives of Iris New Holland set about liberating the island of construction waste, making it a safe place to visit, and creating the atmosphere of a recreational park. The result is the “Summer at New Holland” project, which comprises a series of summer events along with semi-permanent recreational facilities housed on the island.
Visitors can take advantage of 5,000 square meters of grass, several multicoloured industrial containers hosting artworks and projects by young Russian and foreign artists, and a stall selling gourmet food products.
Soon after the island opened to the public, the team behind the popular bar Dom Byta opened  a summer cafe — called simply Holland — in the courtyard of the former naval prison. The management of the cafe conceived it not only as an eatery, but also as a cultural and recreational place, offering film screenings, concerts and table-tennis contests on a regular basis.
One of the most contentious additions to the island is a so-called allotment patch being marketed as the first public vegetable garden in the city. The idea of the allotment has been criticized by many residents, since a square meter of soil for growing one’s own tomatoes in the “public” vegetable garden costs 2,500 rubles ($85) per season. In reality, the allotments have all been rented by fashionable local restaurants — dominated, as ever, by Ginza Project — and other establishments such as Loft Project Etazhi.
City residents have shown mixed attitudes to the New Holland project.
“I’ve visited the island,” says St. Petersburg native Tatyana Ivanova, 28. “It’s nice to sunbathe on the grass and contemplate the old buildings of New Holland. But the multicolored containers on the lawn, the vegetable garden and stall selling ‘ecological’ food at very undemocratic prices create quite a strange impression.”
“I would say it’s great that the island is open now, but the ‘Summer in New Holland’ project is mostly for tourists — so far anyway,” she added.
Despite the mixed response, the island continues to attract people. According to New Holland’s press service, since July 16 — when it first opened to the public — the island has been visited by 79,696 persons. They come to play football, volleyball and petanque, to form their own opinion on contemporary artworks, to attend open-air movie screenings and inspect the vegetable garden and food stall, as well as to visit one-off events taking place on the island.
Upcoming events at New Holland Island include a concert by the Rostov-na-Donu band Motorama at 9 p.m. on Saturday, and a bazaar of vintage clothing, a flea market and food stalls selling international cuisine to be held this weekend from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

New Holland’s program of events is regularly updated at 
http://blog.newhollandsp.ru

TITLE: On tour
AUTHOR: By Kevin Ng
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Mariinsky dancers haven’t had much of a summer holiday after their well received three-week London tour ended on Aug. 13. The company kicked off a two-week tour to Brazil last week, starting in Sao Paolo. The Brazil tour will also include Rio de Janeiro, and will be followed by an Asian tour to Singapore and Bangkok from Sept.16. 
“Swan Lake,” the only ballet that is being performed on the Brazil tour, was also the production that opened the Mariinsky season at Covent Garden. The troupe, which has been touring Covent Garden regularly since 2000, has always been popular with the London public. Konstantin Sergeyev’s Soviet version of “Swan Lake,” distinguished by its non-traditional happy ending and first performed in 1950, didn’t please all the London public, most of whom prefer the Royal Ballet’s more authentic version. Nevertheless, all the performances were sold out well in advance, undoubtedly helped by the movie “Black Swan.” Prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina danced on the opening night as expected, and among the other casts of the Swan Queen was Viktoria Tereshkina. Tereshkina danced with a tragic intensity as Odette, and was most dazzling with her virtuosic fireworks as Odile.
Tereshkina’s prince was David Hallberg, a star from the American Ballet Theater. Hallberg was a noble Prince Siegfried, and his solo variation in Act 1 was particularly expressive. Hallberg’s guest appearances were a welcome bonus, since the Mariinsky was short of male stars in London, with Leonid Sarafanov having left to join the Mikhailovsky Theater in January. 
Denis Matvienko, cast as the prince in a matinee performance, was also impressive. The evil von Rothabart was danced by the talented soloist Andrei Yermakov. The corps de ballet of swans was still impressive in their uniformity. However, current performances of the national dances in Act 3 weren’t as polished as before. In the Act 1 pas de trois, Maxim Zyuzin was bright and crisp in his solo, while Yana Selina was stylish and radiant as usual, proving once again that she should not have been stuck in small roles for such a long time.  
Nevertheless, the Mariinsky’s greatness is now more evident in another classic — “La Bayadere” — which closed the London tour triumphantly. The troupe was superlative in the final Kingdom of the Shades act. The uniformity and perfection of the Mariinsky’s corps de ballet of 32 shades is one of the wonders of the world, unrivalled by any other ballet company in the world. 
The first cast of “Bayadere” was led by Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov. Tereshkina had a spiritual purity as Nikiya, and danced with a diamantine brilliance in the last act. Shklyarov had an effortless virtuosity, but his acting was slightly unconvincing at times. Also impressive were two of the three shades soloists: Valeria Martynyuk who was fleet and precise in the first solo, and Yana Selina in the second.
The Covent Garden run also saw “Anna Karenina” be performed in the final week. Premiered at the 2010 Mariinsky Ballet Festival, it isn’t one of Alexei Ratmansky’s greatest ballets. But the show was redeemed by Mariinsky star Diana Vishneva’s sublime performance in the leading role. Yuri Smekalov danced handsomely as her lover Vronsky, while Islom Baimuradov was most human as her betrayed husband Karenin. 
The highlight of the London tour was the second week’s triple bill program devoted to two of the greatest 20th-century American choreographers, Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Balanchine’s 1952 “Scotch Symphony,” his homage to the 19th century Romantic classic “La Sylphide,” is full of poetry and drama. It was first danced by the Mariinsky (then known as the Kirov) Ballet in 1989, and was revived again in 2009. The second cast was actually better. Maria Shirinkina was most beguiling as the sylph, her dancing vivid and ravishing, and David Hallberg was superbly intense as her lover, demonstrating that it’s absolutely worthwhile and rewarding to revive this ballet, which isn’t performed as much worldwide as more famous Balanchine masterpieces.

TITLE: Snapshots of modern history
AUTHOR: By Elmira Delorme
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Two hundred winning shots from the annual World Press Photo photojournalism award are on display at Loft Project Etazhi this weekend, depicting the most important events of the previous year — ranging from the humorous to the haunting and downright harrowing.
“The contest creates a bridge linking professionals with the general public,” say the organizers of the contest, which began in 1955 in the Netherlands. “As the announcement of the winners makes headlines around the world, so the inspirational role of photojournalism is highlighted to an audience of hundreds of millions.”
Every year, all the prize-winning photographs are assembled into an exhibition that goes on tour around the world, and are published in an album. 
“In 2011, a record number of photographs —108,059 images — was submitted,” said Femke van der Valk, World Press Photo project coordinator. “The number of participants is 5,691, representing photographers of 125 different nationalities.”
“In the exhibition the winning images from the nine different categories are presented, showing a large variety of photos from spot news to portraits and sports photography,” he added. 
“Many major news stories of the year 2010 are represented, like the earthquake in Haiti, the floods in Pakistan, Julian Assange and the World Cup Soccer, but there are also very moving or funny smaller stories like ‘the Flying Cholitas’ — women who perform wrestling in Bolivia,” he said.
The winning picture of the 54th annual World Press Photo Contest is a photograph by Jodi Bieber from South Africa taken for Time magazine. It is a portrait of Bibi Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghan woman who was disfigured as punishment for fleeing her husband’s house following violent treatment at the hands of her in-laws. In local culture, a man who has been shamed by his wife is said to have lost his nose. The young woman was recaptured by her brother-in-law and husband, who then sliced off her ears and nose. She was later rescued by the aid organization Women for Afghan Women, and was eventually taken to the U.S. where she received counseling and reconstructive surgery.  
“‘This could become one of those pictures — and we have maybe just ten in our lifetime — where if somebody says ‘you know, that picture of a girl...’ you know exactly which one they’re talking about,” David Burnett, chairman of the jury, said of the winning photo.
The 2011 jury was composed of 19 professional photographers and editors in the field of press photography worldwide. 
The jury appraised works presented by photojournalists, agencies, newspapers and magazines from all around the world in nine different categories, including general news, people in the news, nature, sport and others.
The jury gave prizes to 54 photographers of 23 nationalities ranging from Bangladesh, China, Haiti and Hungary to Indonesia, Israel, Poland and Somalia.
This year, 176 Russian photographers participated in the contest, but there were no Russian winners.
“This year there has been a small change in the set-up of the categories, combining the two different sports categories — sports action and sports features — in one sports category,” said van der Valk. 
“Also there was awarded a Special Mention which does not happen every year,” he said. “The jury considers a visual document for a Special Mention when it has played an essential role in the news reporting of the year worldwide and could not have been made by a professional photographer. This year the Special Mention was given to a series of images taken by one of the miners caught in the mine in Chile — showing the extraordinary circumstances they lived in for 69 days,” he said.
The organizers say that the primary objective of the contest is to support professional press photography on a wide international scale, encourage the transfer of knowledge and promote a free and unrestricted exchange of information. The World Press Photo Foundation organizes a number of educational projects throughout the world, such as seminars, workshops and the annual Joop Swart masterclass.
“Our archive of winning images is not only a record of more than half a century of human history, but a showcase of successive styles in photojournalism,” said van der Valk. 
“It is our long history and the large number of photojournalists participating from many different countries from all over the world that make the World Press Photo Contest quite unique,” he said.

World Press Photo runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 15 at Loft Project Etazhi, 
74 Ligovsky Prospekt. Tel. 339 9836. www.loftprojectetagi.ru.

TITLE: the word’s worth: A Whole Lot of Nothing
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: One of the problems of being a translator is that your workload is pretty much feast or famine. Half the time you get a job offer every time you pick up the phone, and the other half you’re playing computer solitaire and wondering if everyone has abandoned cross-cultural communication. In Russian, this parade of feast and famine is described with the phrase: òî ãóñòî, òî ïóñòî (literally, “now thick, now empty”).
I used this phrase a gazillion times before realizing that I had no idea how ãóñòî (thick, dense) came to mean “abundant.” It turns out that I had it backward. Abundance (wealth, property) was probably the original meaning of ãóñòî when it broke off from Lithuanian a millennium or so ago. The mystery is how the adverb ãóñòî and adjective ãóñòîé came to have their most common contemporary meanings of thick or dense.
However the meaning morphed, today you can use ãóñòîé to describe anything made up of closely placed shaft-like things, like ãóñòîé ëåñ (a dense forest) or ãóñòûå âîëîñû (thick hair). It’s also used to describe anything thick and goopy, like ãóñòîé ñèðîï (thick syrup), or anything thickly impenetrable or intense, like ãóñòîé òóìàí (a thick fog), ãóñòîé àðòèëëåðèéñêèé îãîíü (heavy artillery fire) or ãóñòîé öâåò (deeply saturated color). It can even refer to a deep, resonant, usually low sound, like ãóñòîé áàñ (a deep bass voice).
The ïóñòî part of the expression is even more productive. Sometimes ïóñòîé is just plain old empty: Îíà ñîáðàëàñü â Ìîñêâó íå ñ ïóñòûìè ðóêàìè (She didn’t plan on going to Moscow empty-handed). In Russian, various parts of your body can be empty: Ó ìåíÿ ïóñòî íà äóøå (I felt empty inside). Ñåãîäíÿ ó ìåíÿ ãîëîâà ñîâñåì ïóñòàÿ (I’m a total dingbat today.)
Emptiness can be figurative: Áóäåì íàäåÿòüñÿ, ÷òî ýòî íå ïóñòûå ñëîâà (Let’s hope that those aren’t empty words). Or it can convey that something is devoid of meaning: Ýòî íå ïóñòûå ñëîâà — îíè íàïîëíåíû ñàìûìè äîáðûìè ïîæåëàíèÿìè (These weren’t trite words, but rather were filled with good wishes). If said about a work of art, ïóñòîé means something without serious content. ß ïðî÷¸ë êíèãó — îíà ïóñòàÿ (I read the book — it’s a waste of ink).
With regard to people, ïóñòîé means spiritually or intellectually bankrupt.
“Êàê íîâàÿ ïîäðóãà âàøåãî ñûíà?” (“How’s your son’s new girlfriend?”)
“Äà íó. Ïóñòàÿ äåâóøêà.” (Bleah. She’s an airhead.)
Ïóñòÿê is a little nothing or trifle. Êîãäà îíè ïîíÿëè, ÷òî íå íàäî ññîðèòüñÿ ïî ïóñòÿêàì, äåëî ó íèõ ïîøëî íà ëàä (As soon as they realized that there was no point to arguing over nothing, their relationship went smoothly).
Ïóñòûøêà is a whole lot of nothing. It can be found in every home with a small child. Íàøà Ñîíå÷êà çàñí¸ò òîëüêî ñ ïóñòûøêîé (Our little Sonya can only fall asleep with her pacifier). It can be used to describe anything that is empty inside: Êóïèëà êèëîãðàìì îðåõîâ è ïîëîâèíà èç íèõ — ïóñòûøêè! (I bought a kilo of nuts and half of them are empty). Or it can describe an empty-headed person: Îíà ãëàìóðíàÿ ïóñòûøêà (She’s an empty-headed glamour girl). Or it can be a disappointment of sorts: Êàê âñåãäà, ÿ âûòÿíóë ïóñòûøêó (As usual, I bought a losing lottery ticket).
It’s hard to stay married to translation through thick and thin.

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

TITLE: The culture of couch surfing
AUTHOR: By Emma Rawcliffe
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Couch Surfing, the global network that connects travelers looking to save on accommodation expenses and get a first hand experience of local culture, has seen its popularity across the world soar during the last few years — and St. Petersburg is no exception.
The Couch Surfing web site describes its aim as “to create inspiring experiences: Cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging and illuminating.” 
The original idea was to provide people with a means of finding hosts to stay with on their global travels. While “surfing,” these travelers would gain a unique insight into the local culture and, if they so wish, the language of the country in which they are staying. The non-profit organization was set up by Casey Fenton in 2003 and now boasts over 3 million members in more than 230 countries around the world. 
“It’s a great way to meet lots of interesting people from all over the world and for language and cultural exchange,” says couch surfer Sergei Smirnov, a 26-year-old St. Petersburg native. 
The site now also provides links to events in all major cities of the world, and members have no obligation to participate in any way they do not wish, whether it be surfing, hosting or attending events. They are also free to put as much or as little personal information on their profiles as they wish, though more information is clearly likely to give other members a better idea of whether or not they want to correspond with this person — or sleep on their couch — thus increasing a member’s chances of meeting more people from around the world. Site users can also check the profiles of other members in their area and send messages in order to arrange meeting up for a coffee or drink, going for a walk or setting up a language exchange. 
In keeping with the philosophy of the site, all services, including hosting, surfing, events, and joining and using the web site, are free of charge. 
The idea of staying in a stranger’s house or hosting a complete stranger may ring alarm bells for some, but Couch Surfing has established a strict safety policy for its members. When choosing whom to host or surf with, members can analyze each other’s profiles, including references from their friends and any previous hosts or surfers, and correspond with potential hosts or surfers. Although these references can be positive or negative, and members cannot delete or change a reference about them, 99.7 percent of experiences so far have been recorded as positive. Moreover, members can have their identity and location verified in order to increase their chances of finding someone trustworthy with whom to surf or to host. There are also options to report abuse and spam, and members can check a list of previous such cases on the web site.
While the safety issue might seem more pressing for women than men, there is no shortage of female couch surfers. Maria Krupskaya, a 21-year-old St. Petersburg native, is an experienced couch surfer. 
“When I am traveling alone, I always choose to stay with a female,” she said. “I know most people have references, but I just feel safer that way. But when I go traveling with a friend it’s less of an issue.”
Couch Surfing has become increasingly popular in Russia during recent years, with groups forming in all of the country’s major cities. In St. Petersburg alone, the Couch Surfing community numbers more than 4,000 members and hosts a wide range of events every week. Any member can create an event. As well as parties, picnics and excursions, there are also regular meetings every Thursday evening and a games evening on Fridays.
The games evening takes place at the British Book Library on Izmailovsky Prospekt. While to some, the idea of playing board games in a library might seem strange and almost inappropriate, this is exactly the attitude that Natalya Golosnaya, the library’s organizer and owner, wanted to dispel. 
“I know libraries are meant to be peaceful and silent places, but I wanted this one to be more welcoming and relaxed,” she said. 
“I set up the games evening so that people could meet new, interesting people and have a language exchange...in a fun way.” 
Although the principle idea is for people to practice their English, there is in addition the opportunity to do a language exchange in Russian, and, depending on who attends, in other languages. Besides the games evening, the library hosts other events for those looking to improve their English or simply to enjoy themselves and meet new people, including film nights, book clubs and special events to celebrate the birthdays of authors. These all involve critical discussion, grammar and vocabulary exercises in a highly relaxed environment. 
Couch Surfing is popular with people who have just arrived in St. Petersburg (or indeed any city) to live, work or study and want to meet people, as well as with travelers who want to meet local people in order to learn more about Russian culture and the city of St. Petersburg, to practice or learn Russian, or simply to have fun. As commented on many event pages: “Everyone is welcome, as long as you have the friendly, open-minded CS [Couch Surfing] spirit.” 

For more information on the Couch Surfing community in St. Petersburg, see www.couchsurfing.org. For more information on the events organized by the British Book Library, visit www.lplib.ru/cbk.

TITLE: in the spotlight: Russians on U.S. Reality TV
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
TEXT: This week was the first episode of reality show “Russian Dolls” on the U.S. Lifetime channel, which could not have been more hotly anticipated, at least by me. A show looking at the lives of the Soviet emigres who settled in New York’s Brighton Beach and turned it into a strange replica of home is a brilliant idea. Although the brash trailer with the blondes and cliches about the Russians coming announced that this might not be the most nuanced account.
The first episode introduced some of the characters, who are almost all blond and favor low-cut clothing. There is blond Diana, 23, who is already feeling the pinch of parental pressure to get married but has an unsuitable boyfriend, who is, shock, Spanish. Then there is blond Marina, whose family runs “the most famous Russian nightclub in the world” called Rasputin, and whose mother-in-law, blond Eva, is, like, so embarrassing because she wants to take part in a competition for the most glamorous babushka.
So far, the characters have not cracked open a volume of Dostoevsky or brooded over a decanter of vodka. And none of the women seem to have anything you would class as a job. Instead, they had fun at a banya, oddly enough dressed in swimsuits, as if naked steam rooms might be too much of a culture shock for viewers.
Marina browsed huge and sparkly jewelry: “Gorgeous! Big and blingy — definitely Russian style,” she enthused. And Diana worried about her love life, sitting in a plastic-tabled cafe that was the most authentically Russian looking location.
The first episode had just one other scene that I recognized from a brief trip to Brighton Beach — surely a rather melancholy place — showing fur-coated and hatted pensioners taking the sun on the boardwalk.
The show has sparked some controversy in the United States because it does not mention that most — or all — the characters are Jewish. Although a Star of David dangles from Diana’s neck and the area has a clearly Jewish identity from its history as the first port of call for Soviet emigres allowed to leave because of Jewish roots. But delving into the various kinds of Russian/Jewish/American identity might be a bit too complex for this show, which just mentions in passing that several characters actually come from Ukraine, not Russia.
My favorite part so far was a trio of women, Marina and two of her “friends” who were all of unnamed age and had seriously groomed hair. They sat around a table, speaking English somewhat stiltedly, talking about Marina. “You are what you think you are. If you think you are young and adorable, that is the deal,” Renata said charmingly, while the other friend explained how Marina feels that she is the “centerpiece” of Brighton Beach.
Diana, who left 20 years ago when she was 3, was a more bland proposition.
“I believe in plastic surgery,” she said earnestly, and talked of her desire of becoming a “hot mom” by the age of 25. You certainly can’t get more Russian — the only place I’ve seen where women push carriages in hot pants — than that.
The older generation is represented not by the huddled characters on the boardwalk, but by Eva, whose son Michael is married to Marina. She explains in English short on definite articles that she used to be an engineer and wants to take part in a talent contest for grannies because “all my life I loved to sing and dance, but I never had the chance to do this in Russia.” Certainly the Soviet authorities would have looked askance at her choice of outfits for the show: leopard skin, pink satin or her favorite, a belly dancing outfit. “It’s way too revealing,” Marina sighs, admonishing her for showing flesh. “All my costumes are sexy, what to do?” Eva muses. Eventually, she went for the leopard skin.

TITLE: THE DISH: Volkonsky
AUTHOR: By Emma Rawcliffe
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: <b>Gallic Gourmandize</b><br />The romantic Parisian style of the Volkonsky chain of cafe-confectioners is evident before you even enter the cute and cozy cafe, as a selection of the 40 homemade breads available is on display in the window to tempt you in. Inside, the cream walls are decorated with kitschy photo frames, candlesticks and jars of macaroons, among other things, and the window seats offer a lovely view onto the fountain opposite.
Volkonsky certainly makes the most of its one compact room. To the left is a bakery with a huge range of breads and 70 types of cakes, biscuits, truffles and jams. The service was very attentive and friendly and our waitress was happy to describe all the various cakes to us in great detail. Every item on the menu is homemade, and there is a 20-percent discount on all items after 9 p.m. Straight ahead is a takeaway counter, where coffee and ice cream can be ordered to go. The Volkonsky takeaway coffee, priced at a hefty 240 rubles ($8.20) and described as a “mild, creamy coffee with vanilla syrup,” in fact had no unique taste. 
The fact that we had to wait half an hour for our drinks mattered less than it might have done, as on every table there is a jug of free mineral water, served with fresh mint. A generous basket of bread and butter was also complimentary. The freshly-made drinks, presented in cocktail glasses, were worth the wait. The apple lemonade with ginger syrup (200 rubles, $6.80) was very fresh and the mix of apple and ginger was perfect. Cucumber lemonade is also available. The iced fruit tea (180 rubles, $6.15) containing a selection of forest fruits was also delectable.
The soups at Volkonsky are a meal in themselves. The Gazpacho soup (240 rubles, $8.20) boasted seven kinds of vegetables and was topped with plenty of mozzarella cheese and sour cream, and served with crisp Palin toasts. It was very fresh and had an excellent flavor, but, after a few mouthfuls, was also incredibly rich. The mushroom soup (290 rubles, $10) was very impressive, with three types of mushroom clearly distinguishable, and tasting 100-percent natural.
The menu does feature main meals, such as burgers and pasta for around 450 rubles ($15.50), but there are also plenty of lighter options such as quiche with bacon (220 rubles, $7.60) and a triple sandwich (190 rubles, $6.50). The quiche was exquisite, with plenty of bacon and crust, and was not too rich. It was served with a generously sized side salad, though the Russian take on salad cream (mayonnaise with plenty of dill) was not so appetizing. Moreover, it later transpired that the side salad cost an extra 45 rubles ($1.55) — something somewhat cheekily not mentioned on the menu. The triple sandwich was a winning combination of bacon, brie, tuna and salad presented as three cute mini seeded buns. 
Desserts, like any other dish, can be taken away, and plastic spoons are available for those who wish to eat al fresco. Indeed, Volkonsky is the ideal place to collect some cakes and pastries for a picnic or party. The chocolate mousse made of bittersweet chocolate (120 rubles, $4.10) was delightful and surprisingly light. The Koketka cake (250 rubles, $8.60) — white chocolate blancmange with a raspberry filling, topped with raspberries and cherries — was a real treat, with the fruit cutting the rich taste of chocolate perfectly.
For posh picnics or enjoying the cafe’s cozy interior, Volkonsky’s light meals and delectable confectionary make for ideal summer dining. If only the sidewalk outside was wider, then outdoor tables would provide the icing on the cake.

TITLE: Where Yeltsin Ruled and a Tsar Died
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Many foreign travelers to Yekaterinburg expect to learn more about the last days of Russia’s last monarch, Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra and their children, executed here by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
What they often don’t expect — after reading some Western books on the subject — is to see a bustling modern city with a skyline punctured by high-rise towers of hotels, business centers and apartment buildings.
Lyuba Suslyakova, a self-employed tour guide, specifically mentions Helen Rappoport’s book, titled “Ekaterinburg,” as a source of information for the travelers who choose to interrupt their Trans-Siberian Railroad journey for a few days in the city.
Indeed, the book about the last days of the Romanov dynasty, first published in 2008, introduces the country’s fourth-largest urban settlement in a way that makes it sound like it’s lost in the middle of an Asian wilderness.
“The city has an oddly Western-sounding name, but Asia is all around,” Rappoport writes. “Nestling on the eastern slopes of the Urals, the low horizon lies open to expanses of swampy taiga, the forests of pine, birch and larch extending far to the north and east, where wild bears, elk, wolves and mountain cats roam.”
The city does have a lot of greenery — covering about one-fourth of its area — but it’s far from being a backwater, Suslyakova said. Just one piece of evidence of civilization’s embrace is the 21-floor, five-star Hyatt, constructed by France’s Bouygues and designed to evoke an ice cube with its glistening glass walls and curved shape.
Yekaterinburg bills itself as home to the world’s northernmost skyscraper, the 188.3-meter-tall business center Vysotsky, which will open its doors in late November. It’s about one degree higher in latitude than the 190-meter-tall HSB Turning Torso in Malmo, Sweden.
Vysotsky is also Russia’s tallest building outside Moscow. In fact, it’s one of just two buildings outside Moscow that are more than 40 stories high, according to SkyscraperPage.com, a Canadian web site dedicated to high-rises. Yekaterinburg is also home to the other out-of-Moscow skyscraper.
Moscow has 15 buildings with more than 40 stories.
Andrei Gavrilovsky, whose company constructed the Vysotsky tower, said Yekaterinburg’s high profile in the construction world stemmed from the convergence of ambitions of two powerful groups: businesspeople and the local government. Both want Yekaterinburg to stand out among other cities, he said.
“Mayors of other cities with more than 1 million people — whenever they come to visit — walk around open-mouthed,” Gavrilovsky said, proudly.
Yekaterinburg’s incumbent and previous mayors have encouraged high-rise construction by streamlining paperwork, he said.
Local businesspeople have helped fund construction by pre-purchasing space in his high-rises, as opposed to many similar projects in Moscow that relied on banks for financing, said Gavrilovsky, whose company Antei is named after Antaeus, a mythical Greek half-giant who depended on contact with Mother Earth for his indefatigable strength.
Alexander Ziminsky, upmarket sales director at Penny Lane Realty, said “very” expensive land in downtown Yekaterinburg was another reason for developers to seek a larger number of floors for their projects. Crafting an attractive business image for the city, he said, is another key goal.
A number of international events have also helped raise the city’s profile. The name Yekaterinburg rings a bell for heads of state and finance officials in China, Brazil and India. It is the city that in 2009 hosted the first summit of BRIC, which comprises these three countries and Russia, and designates the world’s fastest-expanding emerging economies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the city as well for a meeting of the Petersburg Dialogue, a German-Russian annual discussion forum, in 2010. There, she met with President Dmitry Medvedev.
The government often picks far-off cities for high-profile international conferences — northern Khanty-Mansiisk and far eastern Khabarovsk have hosted Russia-European Union summits — to let the world discover the country beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg. But Suslyakova said her German customers had not heard of the Merkel footprint on Yekaterinburg.
The city may again bathe in the international spotlight if the government stands by its initial bid to use it as one of the host cities — the easternmost of them — for the football World Cup in 2018.
The government has also chosen Yekaterinburg for a bid to hold the World Expo in 2020, Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich said this month. Rival candidates Izmir, Turkey, and Ayutthaya, Thailand, forecast that 39 million and 30 million visitors, respectively, will show up for the exhibition. The application deadline is Nov. 2.
With an influx of international football fans and exhibition attendees still up in the air, Suslyakova said the city draws enough tourists to keep her busy five days a week in the summer. She describes Yekaterinburg as convenient because it is the most compact of the 10 Russian cities with a population of more than 1 million.
Moscow and St. Petersburg probably aren’t comparable because they are larger by a wide margin. But the others are in about the same league as Yekaterinburg with its 1.35 million people.
“It’s 15 minutes by foot from the railway station to the city center,” Suslyakova said. “A walking tour around downtown takes just two hours.”
For those willing to stray off the beaten tourist track, Suslyakova mentioned Uralmash, the city’s northern neighborhood of the eponymous heavy-industry giant. It gave its name to a notorious but long-gone underworld gang that thrived in the 1990s, and offers a peek at the legacy of German prisoners from World War II, who constructed roads and five-story apartment buildings in the neighborhood as the plant grew.
A more artistic outcome of German forced labor can be found in the city center. The government used the prisoners of war to spruce up the City Hall building, turning it from a bare constructivist structure into an edifice that glorified communism — with columns and statues of workers, collective farmers and officers of the NKVD secret police. As if foretelling the city’s latest architectural ambitions, this building also incorporates a tower — and a spire to make it look more imposing.
<b>What to see if you have two hours</b>
Follow in the footsteps of pilgrims, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Britain’s Prince Michael of Kent by entering the Church on Blood in Honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land, or the Church on Blood for short (34a Ulitsa Tolmacheva. Metro Dinamo). This place of public worship rests on the foundations of engineer Nikolai Ipatiev’s house where a Bolshevik firing squad executed Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, their five children and all their servants, bringing the more than 300-year-old Romanov dynasty to a gruesome end in July 1918 as an army of White Guards was about to retake the city. Workers tore down the house in 1977 on orders from future President Boris Yeltsin, who was the city’s Communist boss at the time, leaving the basement intact. Built in commemoration of the execution, the church opened in 2003 and doubles as a museum, featuring exhibits that tell about the 78 days the royal family spent in captivity in the Ipatiev house. During Easter week, the church allows visitors to ring its bells, providing earplugs and a professional bell-ringer for advice.
If you are on the lookout for some souvenirs, take a walk down the pedestrianized Ulitsa Vainera, dubbed the local Arbat after the better-known tourist street in Moscow. It’s within walking distance of the Church on Blood.
<b>What to do if you have two days</b>
Treat yourself to a little time travel by going for a stroll in Literaturny Kvartal (Literary Quarter), the city’s old district with wooden mansions decked out with cast-iron railings and lanterns. Afterward, walk onto the nearby dam embankment, known by its diminutive Russian name of Plotinka, the most beloved leisure spot in the city on the banks of the Iset River. One of the old buildings there is the residence of the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, whose capital is Yekaterinburg. Spend 45 minutes on a boat tour along the river, and a guide will tell you all about the historical landmarks as you cruise by (call +7 343 222-2445 to book a trip with the city’s tourist service or fill out a form at its.ekburg.ru).
For a bird’s eye view of the city, climb atop the 76-meter-tall, 22-story shopping mall-cum-business center Antei (10 Krasnoarmeiskaya Ulitsa). The entrance fee is 50 rubles, and working hours are noon to 11:30 p.m.
The fairly compact Yekaterinburg Zoo (189 Ulitsa Mamina-Sibiryaka; 
+7 343-215-9800; ekazoo.ru) stands apart from other zoos in Russia by offering a look at the fossa, a carnivore endemic to Madagascar that largely preys on the lemur. Also, unlike other zoos, this one owns an arapaima, a fish that weighs 225 kilograms and whose length in its natural habitat in the Amazon River can reach 5 meters. An adult ticket costs 200 rubles and includes permission to take photos and videos.
If you feel curious about what former President Boris Yeltsin was up to before he outlawed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and authorized sweeping capitalist reforms, come see his alma mater, the Ural State Technical University (28 Ulitsa Mira), which is also a remarkable piece of architecture.
Take a short trip of 17 kilometers away from the city to the seven chapels and monastery at Ganina Yama, an abandoned copper mine where the Bolsheviks secretly buried the last tsar and his family in 1918. It wasn’t until 1979 that geologists rediscovered the burial site. Drive four kilometers on Serovsky Trakt to a sign bearing the monastery’s name in Russian (Monastyr vo Imya Svyatykh Tsarstvennykh Strastoterptsev, or Monastery of the Holy Imperial Passion-Bearers), and then follow the signs.

<b>Nightlife</b>
Havana Club (36 Ulitsa Mamina Sibiryaka; +7 343-355-9414; clubhavana.ru) is a premier destination not only for fans of hot Latin American rhythms, but also any fun-loving person. Waiters sometimes dance to the beat between serving meals. Two-hour salsa classes start at 8 p.m. every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Hills 18/36 Club (193 Ulitsa Bazhova; +7 343 222-1836; hills1836.com) offers the city’s nightclubbers a 10-meter-long bar served by six bartenders at any given time. Open only on weekend nights, the club has also received accolades as one of the most elegant hangouts here. Guests can dance to house and deep house music, and will occasionally see presentations of luxury goods like yachts and jewelry.

<b>Where to Eat </b>
Troyekurov (137 Ulitsa Malysheva; 
+7 343-378-8118; troekurov.ru) made headlines in July 2010 when President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel chose the restaurant for a dinner as part of their meeting here. At other times, Troyekurov diners largely comprise local government figures and businesspeople who can afford the steep prices and enjoy eating with silver cutlery while admiring the opulent interior of crystal chandeliers, embossments on the ceiling and gilding. The menu, also available in English, offers meals of Russian and European cuisine — but doesn’t include the items served to the heads of state because a Kremlin chef cooked that dinner with his equipment brought from Moscow. Try the pelmeni stuffed with deer meat; quail fried with foie gras and pear; and a pie filled with brisket meat, beef stroganoff, fried cabbage, stewed mushroom and mashed potatoes and served with sour cream. Dinner for two with wine costs 6,000 rubles ($210).
The Italian restaurant Paparazzi 
(25 Prospekt Lenina, 3rd floor of the Yevropa shopping mall; +7 343-253-7080; paparazzi-pizza.ru) owes its name to those pesky photographers who tend to chase down celebrities like its owner, the actor and film director Fyodor Bondarchuk. It has become a place of choice for visiting theater and television personalities such as Yulia Menshova, who was spotted there in May. The outlet’s menu includes duck leg with a dressing of buckwheat and mushrooms in a wine sauce, and Osso Bucco, veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth and served with mashed potatoes and mushrooms. The average bill for a two-person dinner with wine is 3,500 rubles ($125).
The bar Churchill (48 Ulitsa Khokhryakova; +7 343-216-2800; restoraciya.ru/place/cher) offers Russia’s best selection of whiskey in the opinion of Erkin Tuzmukhamedov, a leading sommelier who runs a Moscow whiskey academy. Churchill offers a variety of brands under one roof, unlike Moscow bars that tend to charge brand owners an access fee, in exchange for agreeing to ignore rival drinks.

<b>Where to Stay</b>
The Hyatt Regency (8 Ulitsa Borisa Yeltsina; +7 343-253-1234; hyatt-ekaterinburg.ru) describes itself as the Urals’ first five-star hotel. It offers downtown accommodation within walking distance of places such as the governor’s office, the Church on Blood, the zoo and the Opera and Ballet Theater. Rooms start at 6,950 rubles ($235) per night and top out at 48,530 rubles ($1,650) for the executive suite.
Park Inn Yekaterinburg (98 Ulitsa Mamina-Sibiryaka; reservations at 
+7 343-216-3606; parkinn.com/hotel-ekaterinburg) offers non-smoking and handicapped-accessible rooms, multilingual staff, and free visa support with a downloadable visa form on its web site. Rooms range from 6,800 rubles ($230) to 8,150 rubles ($275) per night.

<b>Conversation starters</b>
Having to cope with the frigid northern climate, the brief summer and winter air temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius, Yekaterinburg residents warm up when they talk about spending some quality time on a sun-drenched beach somewhere in the Seychelles. Alternatively, make them feel proud by reminding them that the city is a possible host of the football World Cup in 2018.

<b>How to get there</b>
Yekaterinburg has an international airport called Koltsovo (koltsovo.ru) that receives flights from Pulkovo I airport. Hop on any of the several flights that take off every day and last about 3 hours. One-way economy-class tickets start at 8,000 rubles ($276) on Aeroflot.
There are three or four trains to the city that leave from St. Petersburg’s Ladozhsky Vokzal. Check the schedule at rasp.yandex.ru or tutu.ru, where you can also see ticket prices, upward of 3,300 rubles ($114), and the travel time (on average 39 hours). 
<hr>
<b>Yekaterinburg</b>

Population: 1,350,100

Main Industries: machinery, defense and aerospace, and personal care products

Mayor: Alexander Yakob

Founded as a metallurgical factory in 1723 by Vasily Tatishchev, a statesman, and Georg Wilhelm de Gennin, a German-born military officer and mining engineer. Named after St. Catherine, the namesake of a wife of Peter the Great and subsequently Empress Catherine I.

Interesting Fact: A CIA spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers was shot down by a Soviet missile over Yekaterinburg in May 1960. As his U-2 spiraled down, Powers parachuted and was apprehended by locals near the village of Kosulino about 10 kilometers from the city.

Helpful contact: City Hall spokesman Denis Sukhorukov 
(+7 343-354-5509)

Sister cities: Guangzhou, China; Incheon, South Korea.

<b>Major Businesses</b>
• Uralmash, or Urals Machine-Building Corporation (Ploshchad Pervoi Pyatiletki; 
+7 343-336-6979; uralmash.ru), is co-owned by OMZ and Metalloinvest and makes drilling rigs, mining and steelmaking equipment and cranes for Russian and international customers.

• Nikolai Semikhatov NPO Avtomatiki (145 Ulitsa Mamina-Sibiryaka; 
+7 343-371-5728; npoa.ru), 
a state-owned enterprise, produces flight-control systems for launch sites in Russia and the Kourou launch site in French Guiana. It also manufactures control systems for transportation and the energy, mining and communications industries as well as various gauges for utilities services.

• Kalina (80 Komsomolskaya Ulitsa; toll free +7 800-500-3798 or +7 343-365-8338; kalina.org) is one of the country’s largest manufacturers of perfumes and personal care products, such as toothpaste and soaps, for the market of the former Soviet Union and Germany. Its brands include Chyorny Zhemchug (Black Pearl) and Chistaya Linia (Clean Line).

• Sladko (19 Ulitsa Sibirsky Trakt; +7 343-254-4303; sladco.ru) is a confectionery factory owned by Norwegian conglomerate Orkla. The factory specializes in sponge cakes.
<hr>
<i>Alexander Yakob, 
Yekaterinburg mayor</i>

Yakob, 53, assumed office in December 2010 after serving as deputy mayor since 2006. A United Russia member, he took his first job as a radio equipment adjuster in 1975 and climbed his way up the industrial career ladder to director of a medical equipment plant before leaving for public office in one of the city’s districts in 1995. 
Q: What sets Yekaterinburg apart from the other major cities of the Urals Federal District? 
A: The location in the middle of the Eurasian continent and on the border between Europe and Asia defines the city’s key role in Eurasian trade and transportation. Regarding the economy of the Urals Federal District, the city has a considerable role in a number of areas: It accounts for 24.7 percent of the district’s retail trade.
Q: What city project would you like Russians or foreigners to invest in most of all? 
A: In order to handle the city’s growing foreign trade and role in the national economy, it needs a modern transportation and logistics center that could be integrated with the global system of the movement of goods. We also need better conditions to serve increasing passenger traffic on international and domestic transportation lines.
Q: What recent positive changes in the life of the city are the most noticeable? 
A: The unemployment rate declined to 1.1 percent last year, while the Russian average was 2.5 percent. 


TITLE: The Smoke Clears As Laws and Marketing Change
AUTHOR: By Khristina Narizhnaya

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Smoke breaks in stairwells, between cars on commuter trains and just about everywhere else are a common sight all over Russia, which has more smokers per capita than any other country on the planet.
But this sight is becoming rarer, as laws get tougher and cigarette advertisements and places to smoke become scarcer.
The Health and Social Development Ministry unveiled the first draft earlier this month of the most stringent anti-tobacco legislation the country has ever seen. The proposed law will raise excise taxes on cigarettes, ban smoking on all public transportation by 2014 and eliminate smoking in cafes, bars and restaurants by 2015. Displaying cigarettes at stores and other points of sale could also be outlawed.
Since Russia ratified the World Health Organization Convention on Tobacco Control in 2008, the number of smokers has been on the decline.
The cigarette market shrank 5 percent in 2009, 4 percent last year and 2.8 percent in the first half of 2011, Interfax reported, citing British American Tobacco Russia managing director John Vanermeulen. By year-end, the market will decrease 2 percent to 3 percent.
“Over the past five years the pace of growth in the Russian tobacco market has significantly slowed down,” said British American Tobacco corporate affairs director Alexander Lyuty. “We believe that in the near future the market will continue to decline.”
The annual retail volume of cigarettes sold in Russia increased more than 30 percent from 1999 to 2009. But after a record high of 393.3 billion sticks sold in 2008, the number decreased nearly 3 percent, according to a report posted on the Tobacco Free Center web site, citing Euromonitor International.
At least 100 nonsmoking cafes and restaurants have opened in Moscow and other cities since 2006. Last fall, the first and only nonsmoking bar, called Belka (Squirrel) opened in Moscow.
“Nonsmoking maps” — which highlight nonsmoking restaurants, bars and cafes in several cities, including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Tula and Cheboksary — can be found online at Takzdorovo.ru. A nonsmoking map is being developed for the northern city of Arkhangelsk.
Cigarette companies voice support for the newly proposed anti-smoking legislation but warn that excessive regulation could have adverse consequences, like smuggling and other illicit activities.
In one scenario, cigarettes would not be displayed for purchase, but buyers would have to select from a price list.
Philip Morris does not believe that cigarette displays should be outlawed.
“Display bans unnecessarily restrict competition and encourage illicit trade in tobacco products,” said Philip Morris director of corporate affairs, Alexei Kim.
The smoking statistics are staggering. Nearly 40 percent of Russians, or 43.9 million people, smoke, according to research by the World Health Organization and Euromonitor International.
Smoking-related deaths numbered 500 out of every 100,000 fatalities in 2010, Euromonitor reports. Smoking contributes to the low life expectancy in the country, averaging 69 years — 61 for men and 74 for women.
More than 60 percent of all men smoke, as well as more than 20 percent of women. A quarter of all youth aged 13 to 15 smoke — 27 percent of boys and 24 percent of girls.
The number of female smokers has doubled in the last 20 years, with the fastest growth rate among teenage girls.
Sales of slim cigarettes —thinner, longer and typically preferred by women and girls — went up 91 percent from 2006 to 2009 for Philip Morris, one of the biggest players on Russia’s tobacco market.
British American Tobacco launched two new slim cigarette brands this year: Yava Super Slims and Alliance Super Slims.
“The superslims segment is very popular among Russian consumers. Its … share is constantly growing,” said British American Tobacco corporate affairs director Alexander Lyuty.
Dmitry Yanin, an anti-tobacco activist and the head of the International Confederation of Consumer Societies Association, blames advertising. The organization has been actively trying to curb tobacco advertising for years. Last month the group saw a major victory with the ban of tobacco advertising in the metro.
Earlier this year Donskoi Tabak, the largest homegrown cigarette manufacturer of classic Soviet brands including Prima and Kosmos, had to pull ads for Kiss, its brand of slim cigarettes that come in different flavors.
The predominantly pink ads featured young smiling girls. One of their more controversial advertisements showed a girl with a lollipop in her smiling mouth. “I like everything new, tasty and round,” was written in white letters under the girl’s face.
The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service decided that the advertisements were inappropriate and obviously targeted minors. Earlier this month a court denied the company’s request to overturn the decision.
The pink and glittery Kiss web site at one time allowed visitors as young as 11 to sign in. In addition to cigarette product information the site featured advice on how to deal with homework, parents and menstruation, Yanin said. The web site has now been upgraded to block access for those under 18.
Yanin considers the legal victory against the Kiss ads a huge step — considering that the majority share of Donskoi Tabak is owned by Kiriyaki Savvidi, wife of United Russia deputy and former Donskoi owner Ivan Savvidi.
He is optimistic that the situation can improve. “Our life expectancy could be 70, like in other underdeveloped countries of the European Union,” Yanin said. “It’s realistic.”

TITLE: Estonia Marks 20 Years of Independence From U.S.S.R.
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: TALLINN — Seventy thousand people flocked to the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the restoration of Estonian independence Saturday, while on Sunday the people of Estonia paid homage to Iceland, the first country to recognize the Baltic republic in 1991, with an Iceland Day festival.
Sinead O’Connor and Kerli, Estonia’s best-known international pop singer, were among 16 acts from both Estonia and abroad who participated in the six-hour Song of Freedom concert on the site where many events of the Singing Revolution, as Estonia’s struggle for liberation in the late 1980s and early 1990s is called, took place.
The Congress of Estonia and Estonian Supreme Council officially restored the Republic of Estonia by a joint vote on Aug. 20, 1991, a day after Soviet party hard-liners had staged a coup in Moscow while Soviet armored troop carriers were on their way to storm Tallinn’s strategic objects.
“We wanted to share this day with our friends from abroad,” said Helen Sildna, chief organizer of both events. 
“So far, the tradition of celebrating August 20 had been Estonian national singing; there were a lot of national songs, and it was also a sing-along event that people could join in with. But this time it was a bit of a new concept that we wanted to focus on our friends. 
“The way the program came together was by combining artists and musicians who already have a special relationship with Estonia, such as [Finnish accordion player] Kimmo Pohjonen, [Latvian indie-pop band] Brainstorm and [Norwegian folk singer] Mari Boine.”
To have O’Connor headlining the event had a special meaning, as the Irish singer — along with English rock band The Cure — was denied an entrance visa in 1990 when the Soviet authorities were putting pressure on the rebellious republic, preventing her from performing at the Rock Summer festival held at the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn as scheduled.
“This year, it was symbolic for us to bring her to the same location 20 years later, to a free democratic state,” Sildna said.
The Singing Revolution got its moniker from a series of unique singing protests, rooted in Estonian folk traditions, that lasted for several years and are seen as having united the Estonian nation in finally overcoming Soviet rule.
It began with nighttime song protests in June 1988, when 100,000 Estonians gathered at the Song Festival Grounds every night for a week to sing all night. At one point, nearly 300,000 gathered for the Song of Estonia singing protest there on Sept. 11, 1988.
Since Estonia won independence in 1991, no music event has drawn so many people.
“While a day in freedom seems like a second, a day in prison feels like a lifetime,” said Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, addressing the audience of the Song of Freedom on Saturday.
“In prison, each moment of happiness and each glimpse of freedom becomes so important and is remembered.
“The people of Estonia remember that. They remember the sweet exuberance of the Night Song Festival, the dawn of freedom here, on these very grounds, in the home of the heart of our people. […]And people remember the joy when freedom finally took the shape of our free state.”
Sildna, who was 12 years old in August 1991, also remembers the feeling.
“I don’t remember that specific date so much, but I remember the period of these days and weeks around it,” she said.
“And one thing I remember very, very vividly was that all Estonian families were just sitting around their radios, listening to the news, waiting for the news. Everybody was really excited and worried at the same time. But it was a very special feeling.
“Even as a 12-year-old, I remember having the feeling that something very important was happening right now and that every next hour could change the future of the whole nation. There was no saying which way it would go; it could go well, it could go really badly, so there was a big feeling of risk in the air for everyone, but that’s what I remember — just being attached to the radio and waiting for the next bit of news.”
Boris Yeltsin, the then-Russian president seeking more sovereignty from the Soviet Union, was supportive of the Baltics’ struggle and signed a document expressing official recognition of Estonia on Aug. 24, 1991. 
The organizers of last weekend’s events tried to bring a Russian band over for the occasion and approached a few, including Mumiy Troll and DDT, but none were available, Sildna said. 
“We really wanted to have somebody from Russia, but unfortunately they all already had plans, and then we ran out of time,” she said.
Performing before O’Connor was Kerli, a 24-year-old pop singer who has become Estonia’s best known artist outside the country.  Signed to Universal, the singer came for the concert from Los Angeles, where she is currently based. Kerli was named one of the 100 Most Influential Estonian Women by the Eesti Ekspress weekly newspaper earlier this year.
Like many events in Tallinn this year, the concert was part of the European Cultural Capital program.
“Technically, the program was very tough to realize; there was an orchestra, full bands, soloists, and as it was a televised event, it had to proceed with no breaks. It was quite challenging to make it happen, but it went ahead — with just one little sound blackout for a minute, but it all worked,” Sildna said.
At midnight, Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson took to the stage to open Iceland Day, celebrated the following day in the form of open-air concerts, exhibitions and poetry readings of Icelandic artists across Tallinn.
Featuring bands such as For a Minor Reflection, Hjaltalin, Retro Stefson, Olafur Arnalds and Lay Low, who gave free concerts focused in Tallinn’s medieval courtyards or by the picturesque city walls during the day and early evening and then again at Von Krahli bar and theater at night, Iceland Day was reportedly the biggest celebration of the country’s culture abroad ever.
Iceland was the first country to officially recognize Estonia, doing so on Aug. 22, 1991, the day after the hardliners’ coup collapsed in Moscow. The open area in front of the Foreign Ministry of Tallinn was named Islandi valjak (Iceland Square) in August 1998 in recognition of Iceland’s support.

TITLE: Judge Dismisses DSK Sex Assault Charges
AUTHOR: By Jennifer Peltz and Tom Hays
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK — Early in the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, prosecutors held his accuser as their strongest weapon. Her account was “compelling and unwavering,” complete with “very powerful details” and corroborated by a medical exam, they said.
When the prosecutors moved Monday to drop the biggest case on their docket, the woman was portrayed as its fatal weakness. She “has not been truthful on matters great and small” and medical and DNA evidence is “simply inconclusive” as proof of a forced sexual encounter, they wrote.
“Our grave concerns about (her) reliability make it impossible to resolve the question of what exactly happened” between the hotel maid and the former International Monetary Fund leader, they wrote.
With that, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office asked a judge to put an end to a case that created a cross-continental sensation. A New York judge dismissed the sexual assault case Tuesday.
Efforts to shed light on what transpired in Strauss-Kahn’s luxury suite on May 14 look set to continue in civil court, where Diallo has sued Strauss-Kahn.
After trumpeting the strength of the case early on, prosecutors told a judge last month it had taken a serious hit because the maid had told them a series of worrisome falsehoods, including a fabricated tale of being gang-raped in her native Guinea and a shifting account of what she had done right after her encounter with Strauss-Kahn. After telling a grand jury she had hovered in a hallway, she later said she had returned to a nearby room and then to Strauss-Kahn’s, they said.
They elaborated on those and other concerns in Monday’s 25-page filing. Diallo had a recorded phone conversation, with a jailed man in her life, in which “the potential for financial recovery” from Strauss-Kahn was mentioned, prosecutors wrote. And she was evasive about nearly $60,000 that other people had deposited in her bank account, initially failing to disclose it to prosecutors and later saying she’d let the jailed man use her account to make deposits.
Diallo has told interviewers the man used the bank account without telling her. As for the phone call, Thompson said, she mentioned Strauss-Kahn’s money only to say that her alleged attacker was influential.
Prosecutors met briefly Monday with Diallo and her attorney, Kenneth Thompson, who emerged announcing their decision.
Strauss-Kahn lawyers William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman, meanwhile, said he and his family were grateful for the prosecutors’ decision.
“We have maintained from the beginning of this case that our client is innocent,” they said in a statement. “We also maintained that there were many reasons to believe that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s accuser was not credible.”
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested after Diallo, 32, said he chased her down, grabbed her crotch and forced her to perform oral sex. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have said anything that happened wasn’t forced.
The case pitted the word of a promising French presidential contender, known in his homeland as “the Great Seducer,” against that of an African immigrant and widowed mother who had come to clean his plush suite at the Sofitel hotel.
Overall, she has acknowledged some lies and said other remarks were misinterpreted. But she says none of that should keep prosecutors from pursuing the case.
Strauss-Kahn’s semen was found on her uniform dress, his DNA was identified on pantyhose and underwear she was wearing, and a gynecological exam found an area of “redness,” according to prosecutors. But they said none of that was incontrovertible proof of a sexual assault.
In asking for a special prosecutor, Diallo’s lawyer said the DA’s office has “sabotaged” the case, accusing prosecutors of leaking damaging and false information about Diallo to reporters, among other claims. 
Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers called her suit a meritless claim that proved she was out for money.

TITLE: Libya Sees Renewed   Fighting 
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TRIPOLI, Libya — Fresh fighting erupted in Tripoli on Tuesday hours after Moammar Gadhafi’s son turned up free to thwart Libyan rebel claims he had been captured, a move that seems to have energized forces still loyal to the embattled regime. 
The rebel leadership seemed stunned that Seif al-Islam was free. A spokesman, Sadeq al-Kabir, had no explanation and could only say, “This could be all lies.”
The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court — which indicted Seif al-Islam and his father — had announced his capture, but spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said Tuesday the court never received official confirmation from Libya’s rebel authorities that he had been arrested.
Seif al-Islam, with a full beard and wearing an olive-green T-shirt and camouflage trousers, turned up early Tuesday morning at the Rixos hotel, where about 30 foreign journalists are staying in Tripoli under the close watch of regime minders.
Riding in a white limousine amid a convoy of armored SUVs, he took reporters on a drive through parts of the city still under the regime’s control, saying, “We are going to hit the hottest spots in Tripoli.” 
The tour mainly covered the area that was known to still be under the regime’s control — the district around the Rixos hotel and nearby Bab al-Aziziya, Gadhafi’s residential compound and military barracks. 
At Bab al-Aziziya, at least a hundred men were waiting in lines for guns being distributed to volunteers to defend the regime. Seif al-Islam shook hands with supporters, beaming and flashing the “V for victory” sign.
“We are here. This is our country. This is our people, and we live here, and we die here,” he told AP Television News. “And we are going to win, because the people are with us. That’s why were are going to win. Look at them — look at them, in the streets, everywhere!”
NATO, meanwhile, has vowed to keep up its air campaign until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or return to their barracks. 
But the situation in Tripoli, a metropolis of 2 million, remains volatile and rebels appear to be on the defensive, ducking for cover during frequent clashes with regime fighters. 
The International Organization for Migration said Tuesday that a rescue mission to pluck 300 foreign nationals from the Libyan capital has been delayed by fighting. 
The rebels have sent reinforcements to Tripoli from the north, south and southeast, and a rebel field commander said Monday that more than 4,000 fighters were part of the final push to bring down the regime. However, rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, said the “danger is still there” as long as the longtime Libyan leader remains on the run
Outside of Tripoli, almost all of eastern and western Libya is now under rebel control. The east of the country from the Egyptian border to Benghazi fell into rebel hands at the beginning of the uprising. In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s lightning advance on Tripoli, the rebels consolidated control of the western Nafusa mountain range near the border with Tunisia. It was from there they staged the run on the capital. 

TITLE: Syrian Troops Gun Down 7 
AUTHOR: By Zeina Karam  

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIRUT — Syrian security forces killed at least seven people following a visit by members of a UN humanitarian team, activists said Tuesday.
The United Nation’s top human rights body, meanwhile, voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to demand that Syria end its bloody crackdown and cooperate with an international probe into possible crimes against humanity.
The UN has said the overall death toll from President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on dissent has reached 2,200.
Seven people died on Monday, four of them when troops opened fire to disperse anti-government protesters in Homs. The protesters had gathered in the city’s main square ahead of the arrival of a UN humanitarian team.
Amateur videos posted by activists online showed crowds of people thronging several cars with the blue UN flag, flashing banners that read: “SOS” and “We will never stop until we get our freedom.”
The protesters chanted for freedom and the downfall of the regime.
Syria granted a UN team permission to visit some of the centers of the protests and crackdown to assess humanitarian needs, but activists and a Western diplomat have accused the regime of trying to scrub away signs of the crackdown.
Residents and activists said it was quiet until the team left, after which troops opened fire to disperse the protest, killing four people. Three more were killed by gunmen elsewhere in Homs, which has become a hotbed of dissent against Assad.
The Local Coordination Committees and the London-based Observatory for Human Rights also reported that security forces stormed several villages in the southern and northern parts of the country, arresting scores on Tuesday.
Assad, who has tried in vain to crush the 5-month-old revolt, appears increasingly out of touch as he refuses to acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of people demanding his ouster, analysts say. Instead, he blames the unrest on Islamic extremists and thugs.
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council voted 33-4 on Tuesday to condemn the violence by Syrian authorities and to dispatch a human rights team to probe alleged atrocities since March.
The remaining countries on the 47-nation council abstained or were absent. China and Russia said they opposed the measure as unnecessary intervention. Syrian Ambassador Fayssal al-Hamwi called the move “100 percent political.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday criticized Assad for failing to halt a military crackdown on dissent despite a pledge he made to him by phone on Wednesday that all military and security operations would end.

TITLE: Space Station Robot Awakes
AUTHOR: By Marcia Dunn  

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA’s humanoid robot has finally awakened in space.
Ground controllers turned Robonaut on Monday for the first time since it was delivered to the International Space Station in February. The test involved sending power to all of Robonaut’s systems. The robot was not commanded to move; that will happen next week.
“Those electrons feel GOOD! One small step for man, one giant leap for tinman kind,” Robonaut posted in a Twitter update. (All right, so a Robonaut team member actually posted Monday’s tweets under AstroRobonaut.)
The four visible light cameras that serve as Robonaut’s eyes turned on in the gold-colored head, as did the infrared camera, located in the robot’s mouth and needed for depth perception. One of Robonaut’s tweets showed the view inside the American lab, Destiny.
“Sure wish I could move my head and look around,” Robonaut said in the tweet.
Robonaut — the first humanoid robot in space — is being tested as a possible astronaut’s helper.
The robot’s handlers at Mission Control in Houston cheered as everything came alive. The main computers — buried inside Robonaut’s stomach — kicked on, as did the more than 30 processors embedded in the arms for controlling the joints.
“Robonaut behaved himself,” said deputy project manager Nicolaus Radford. “It was just very exciting,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming to get this thing turned on.”
The robot was delivered on space shuttle Discovery’s final flight. It took this long for the operating software to get up there, and for the astronauts to have enough time to help with the experiment
On Sept. 1, controllers will command Robonaut to move its fingers, hands and arms.
“It’s been asleep for about a year, so it kind of has to stretch out a little bit,” Radford told The Associated Press. “Just like a crew member has to kind of acclimate themselves to zerogravity, our robot has to do a very similar thing, kind of wiggle itself and learn how it needs to move” in weightlessness.
For now, Robonaut exists from the waist up. It measures 3 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 330 pounds. A pair of legs should be launched in 2013.
Radford said if everything continues well, the robot may be able to take on a few mundane chores — like taking air velocity measurements inside the space station — early next year.