SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #1699 (10), Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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TITLE: Kozlov Loses Latest Court Challenge
AUTHOR: by Natalya Krainova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The judge presiding over the retrial of former businessman Alexei Kozlov issued a ruling Thursday upholding Kozlov's 2008 conviction on fraud and money-laundering charges and handing him a five-year prison sentence.

Presnensky District Court judge Tatyana Vasyuchenko hastily read out the verdict for more than an hour in front of Kozlov and his wife, Olga Romanova, a prominent journalist.

Because Romanova is a key figure in the opposition movement against President-elect Vladimir Putin, the outcome of the high-profile case is widely seen as the first hint of how Putin plans to deal with challenges to his rule.

Surrounded by a phalanx of reporters covering the proceedings, Romanova listened calmly as the verdict was read. But after the reading, she had some choice words for Vasyuchenko, shouting "Damn you, b----."

The verdict was relayed to dozens of Kozlov supporters outside the courtroom who were out of earshot. Once they knew how Vasyuchenko had ruled, they started chanting "Shame!"

As Kozlov and his wife exited the courtroom, supporters chanted "Vasyuchenko, get behind bars" and "Alexei."

Kozlov will be given credit for time served after his first conviction. With that subtraction from his sentence, he will be back behind bars for nearly two more years.

Romanova and Kozlov hugged briefly on their way out of the courtroom. Kozlov was shielded from reporters by court marshals and police officers, who told the reporters to leave and did not let them talk with him.

As Kozlov was led out of the courtroom, spectator Lyudmila Milovidova began weeping. She was wearing a white ribbon, and she told The St. Petersburg Times that she is a close friend of Romanova and her husband and is very worried about them.

"What happened today confirms once again that there is no fair trial in our country," said Milovidova, a freelance journalist. "As long as the person who we have just elected [president] remains in power, lawlessness will continue."

Kozlov's lawyer, Yury Kostanov, said the verdict will be appealed. He refused to express his opinion about the verdict when asked by several reporters, saying "all this will be typed in my constitutional complaint."

Prosecutor Dmitry Dyadura told reporters that he and his colleagues were "satisfied with the fact that the court accepted the indisputable evidence that the prosecution provided. "As one famous personage said, 'Thieves must go to jail.'"

Reporters and spectators started gathering in front of the courtroom more than an hour before the hearing Thursday.

Dozens of reporters and Kozlov supporters waited for more than an hour and a half after the hearing for Kozlov to be led out. Some of them climbed nearby trees or stood on the windowsills of buildings outside the court.

One supporter brought paper cups filled with tea to keep the bystanders warm.

They chanted several slogans, including "Freedom to Alexei Kozlov," "Hang in there, Alexei" and "We will not forget, and we will not forgive."

Romanova was holding carnations and received a hug from a supporter.

Many people see Kozlov's trial as a symbol of government-sanctioned corruption. The former businessman contends that the case against him was fabricated by onetime business partner and former Federation Council Senator Vladimir Slutsker.

Kozlov also writes a blog on Slon.ru about his experiences in prison. That has given greater visibility to his case, making him one of the most well-known prisoners in the country.

Kozlov was originally sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of illegally obtaining shares in Iskozh, a company headed by him but controlled by Slutsker's Finvest holding. In July 2011, the Moscow City Court reduced Kozlov's term to five years.

In September 2011, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict and ordered a retrial. Kozlov was released after signing a pledge not to leave the city.

TITLE: Police Nab 3rd Suspect in Pussy Riot Show
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Police have detained a third suspected member of all-female punk band Pussy Riot, whose members have been targeted by law enforcement officials for their participation in an unsanctioned performance at Christ the Savior Cathedral last month.  

Police called in Irina Lokteva for questioning late last week as a witness in the case, then during her interrogation told her that her status was being changed to that of a suspect, her lawyer Nikolai Polozov told Interfax.

Lokteva has been charged with hooliganism, the same offense that suspected group members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who have been held in detainment since early this month, are accused of. The charge carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

Lokteva has been jailed until a hearing Friday at which a judge will decide whether she too will be kept in pre-trial detention, Polozov said.

Members of Pussy Riot dressed in brightly colored masks, dresses and stockings appeared unannounced at Christ the Savior Cathedral on Feb. 21 for a five-minute performance. The detainment of Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina has caused uproar with their supporters, who argue that the women should not be jailed before their trial since they have young children at home. Polozov said Lokteva does not have children.


TITLE: World Champion Soviet Gymnast Says Russia Denied Her Citizenship
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Former Soviet Olympic gymnastics champion Maria Filatova has said Russia has denied her application for citizenship, leaving her without a passport from any country.
Filatova, who won gold medals at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic games as part of the Soviet Union team, emigrated to the United States in 1996. She has received U.S. residency but is not an American citizen, International Gymnast magazine reported in an article published Wednesday.

Filatova said the Russian government denied her request for citizenship in 2006, citing a "lack of merit" in her application.

Last month, Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky said there are no grounds for Filatova to receive a Russian passport, RIA-Novosti reported. A migration service spokeswoman told the news agency that people living permanently in Russia can apply to the service for citizenship, but that foreign residents must request a passport at a Russian consulate.

Filatova, who runs a gymnastics club in Rochester, New York, told International Gymnast that she does not want to move back to Russia but wishes simply to visit. Her mother and brother have died in recent years and she was not able to attend their funerals.

The State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport and Youth is currently examining the case, the International Gymnast article said.

"It's so much easier to become an Olympic champion than to get a Russian passport," Filatova told the magazine.


TITLE: Kobzon Ready to Take One Last Crack at U.S.
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A crooner adored by millions around the former Soviet Union, seasoned politician Iosif Kobzon was once called "Russia's Frank Sinatra."

But the analogy wasn't born simply out of admiration. It is also a reference to Sinatra's legendary mob ties, a connection Kobzon shares — albeit with the Russian mafia — and which has been used as grounds to deny him a U.S. visa for more than a decade.

But the charismatic singer — who still occasionally sings with his trademark baritone — says he will try one last time to get a visa for a possible farewell concert tour for America's Russian population in May.

"It is the main intrigue of the day whether they will let me in or not," Kobzon told The Moscow Times on Wednesday, a day before his scheduled appointment at the U.S. Embassy. "It will be the last time, and I won't ask again."

The tour's promoter, the Russian-American Consulting Corp., which is headed by Andrei Shuranov, a former Russian diplomat to the United Nations, says it is optimistic, as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has given a green light for the singer's arrival.

In trying to facilitate Kobzon's visa, the company even organized a petition signed by 4,000 Russian-Americans addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But Doron Bard, the U.S. consular section chief in Moscow, told the organizers that Kobzon's request will still be carefully reviewed.

Kobzon's visa saga started in June 1995 when his multiple-entry visa was revoked by the U.S. Embassy on suspicion that he was connected to Russian mafia dons operating in the United States.

A letter signed by the then-head of the U.S. consular section, Andre Goodfriend, said a visa could be denied to anyone who might enter the country to participate in "unlawful activity" and cited the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.

The letter also cited another provision stating that it is prohibited to issue a U.S. visa to anyone believed to traffic in "illicit" material or aid someone else in doing so.

The denial came soon after U.S. media reports labeled Kobzon a "tsar of the Russian Mafia" because of his friendship with the late mobster Vyachaslav Ivankov, also known as Yaponchik, who died after being gunned down in 2009.

Kobzon — recently elected for the fifth time to the State Duma — has never denied that he and Ivankov were friends but insisted that he was never involved in illegal activity.

"I have many gay friends. But does that mean that I am gay? I know many artists who know the same group of people," Kobzon said.

Kobzon said he frequently travels to Europe, including England, and he has grown used to the scrutiny at airport security checkpoints.

"I have gotten used to the fact that they study my passport and then run to their superiors. That's why I prefer to stand at the end of the line," he said.

The singer said he believes the mob accusations against him were part of a conspiracy by Boris Yeltsin's top bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, who went after the singer for supporting arch-rival Yury Luzhkov, who was then Moscow's mayor.

Ironically, Korzhakov later published a tell-all book about Yeltsin and became a United Russia party official, serving in the State Duma alongside Kobzon.

Korzhakov was not available for comment.

Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Dyachenko wrote on her LiveJournal blog in 2010 that Korzhakov told her father that both Luzhkov and Kobzon had ties to criminal groups.

"Kobzon became an involuntary victim of Korzhakov's attack," said Dyachenko, while insisting that the allegations against the singer were "fake."

Kobzon has tried to clear his name in international courts but without success.

He also said Russian officials, starting with former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, and foreign ministers Sergei Ivanov and Sergei Lavrov have all tried to lobby their U.S. counterparts without luck.

"Sergei Ivanov has even played some of my songs to Colin Powell, who said such a singer couldn't be a mafia guy," Kobzon said, referring to the former U.S. secretary of state.

"Since then, seven of my grandchildren were born, so the Kobzon family is getting larger," he said, noting that all of his relatives have been barred from the United States as well.

In 2000, Kobzon did receive a short-term visa as a member of a Duma delegation visiting Harvard University. But he said his American hosts followed his every move, so he decided to return to Moscow after a couple of days.

"I don't like being dressed down. Here I am not afraid of anyone — the government, criminals or the president," he said.

Kobzon, who recently announced that he is battling with cancer, said he is anxious to get to the United States one more time.

"I don't have much time left," he said at a recent news conference.

In September 2010, Kobzon was the only senior United Russia official to defend his friend Luzhkov when he was fired by President Dmitry Medvedev for a "lack of trust."

With United Russia's survival in question, Kobzon is eager to leap to the party's defense, saying it is the only existing political force that "has the resources" to carry out reforms in the country.

"Maybe it has lost popularity, but there is no other party which can be competitive with United Russia. It is the only party that has material resources, control over media and television. Maybe this is wrong. But what is right?" he said.

But while Kobzon might be positive about his visa chances, he has no illusions about his daily work as a party lawmaker.

"I am ready to say everything, but I know that if my proposal does not agree with the party line, it will not be voted for." he said. "That's why I try not to waste my time on the plenary sessions. It is useless. It is like being an artist who applauds himself."


TITLE: Banana Thrown at Second Anzhi Player
AUTHOR: by Max de Haldevang
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Anzhi football club player Chris Samba reportedly had a banana thrown at him by a Lokomotiv Moscow fan during a match Sunday, marking the second time an Anzhi player has been the target of hurled fruit in the past year.

The incident came to light shortly after Dagestan-based Anzhi's match in the Lokomotiv stadium, when a supporter called radio station Sport to report what had happened.

"Young people were running around the family sector of the stand, wearing tank tops...and a banana comes flying out of this crowd and hits Samba hard," said the supporter, who identified himself simply as Viktor, Sovetsky Sport reported. "Samba kept his cool — imagine, this two-meter-tall black guy does not want a banana and throws it back into the crowd at full strength."

The episode, which seemed to have racist overtones, follows a similar one from June 2011, when Samara-based team Krylya Sovetov was fined after one of their supporters threw a banana at Brazil legend and fellow Anzhi player Roberto Carlos. The team was penalized 100,000 rubles for a "racist prank" and 200,000 rubles for failing to keep order.

Samba initially refused to comment on Sunday's incident, but later Anzhi spokesman Alexander Udaltsov said the Congolese player hoped it could help teach children proper behavior.

"Let this incident serve as a bad example for the children who were present in the stadium," Udaltsov quoted Samba as saying.

Udaltsov also said Samba had the full support of the club for his reaction.

"In our opinion his response to whoever did it was correct," he said.

But Lokomotiv club president Olga Smorodskaya denied that the incident had taken place.

"What you are reporting does not reflect reality. This did not and could not have happened," she said. "I observed our supporters' behavior in the stadium and they showed exemplary support for their team."

Samba, 27, is a recent signing, having joined Anzhi from English team Blackburn Rovers for an undisclosed fee, estimated to be around $20 million.



TITLE: Poll: 44% Consider the Presidential Vote Results Credible
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Fewer than half of Russians believe that the results of the March 4 presidential election are genuine, according to a new survey put out Thursday by state-run polling organization VTsIOM.

The poll asked respondents to what degree the election results could be trusted, and only 44 percent of respondents said the results were credible and "consistent with the will of voters."

Supporters of President-elect Vladimir Putin made up 66 percent of this group, the poll found.

VTsIOM head Valery Fyodorov told Kommersant that the "poll shows a decrease in trust of one concrete institution — elections."

"But as we see, it is not a radical decrease," he said, adding that "it could have been even worse if not for the countermeasures taken by Putin and his team over the course of three months," referring to web cameras and transparent ballot boxes installed at polling places.

Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed thought that the cameras were effective in preventing fraud, and 61 percent said they placed high trust in the effectiveness of citizen observers and organizations like the League of Voters.

Communist Party official Sergei Obukhov told Kommersant that falling confidence confirms that they election was "unfair, unfree and illegitimate."

When asked whether they were aware of violations and where they had learned of them, 34 percent said they had heard of fraud from television, radio or printed media, while 55 percent had not heard of any.

Only 9 percent said they had heard about violations from the Internet, although social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were among the most actively used platforms for sharing information about violations.

The results of the poll contrast with responses from the 2004 and 2008 elections, after each of which 53 percent of poll respondents said they trusted the election results.


TITLE: Top-Notch University? Not in 2011
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russian universities have again failed to make the grade compared with their counterparts in other countries.

The annual ranking of the world's 100 most reputable universities was released Thursday, and the list does not include a single Russian university.

The exclusion was a huge setback for Moscow State University, which placed 33rd in last year's ranking. This year, though, Russian universities didn't even make it into the top 200.

The 2012 World Reputation Rankings, prepared by the Times Higher Education magazine, highlights an elite group of American and British schools that retained their supremacy.

That group is headed by Harvard University, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The University of Cambridge is third.

Russian leaders have pledged that their country's institutions of higher learning would be renovated and developed to compete with the world's best. But despite their efforts, Russian schools still fail to get international recognition.

"Russia clearly has some great universities with proud histories, but it is well documented that there have been problems in Russia with a 'brain drain' of the best academic talent, as well as funding and infrastructural issues," Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education magazine, said in e-mailed comments.

He added, though, that it is "an extremely competitive list" and that only 19 countries and 0.5 percent of the world's schools are represented.

Moscow State University couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

In one of his pre-election articles, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia's population will expand by 300,000 annually with the help of expats and foreign students motivated to stay in Russia after graduation.

But experts noted that so far, Russian schools seem much less prestigious to students abroad than their Western competitors.

Russia would do well to follow the example of East Asian institutions. Many of them have seen "a significant rise in their reputational standing" thanks to heavy investment undertaken as a matter of national pride and as an economic necessity, Baty said.


TITLE: Police Employee Killed by Falling Ice
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Investigators in Samara have begun an inquiry into the death of a police employee who was killed by falling ice.

Ice from the hood of a service garage on the territory of the Volga region Interior Ministry building fell on a female police employee, dealing a fatal blow, a police news release said.

Authorities are still trying to determine whether or not criminal charges should be filed.

Each year dozens of Russians are killed during the spring thaw as rising temperatures cause icicles and large blocks of ice and snow to fall to the street from tall buildings. After a winter of exceptionally heavy snowfall in 2001, falling ice caused the deaths of 74 people in Moscow alone, BBC reported.


TITLE: Nine Homemade Bombs Found in Nalchik 'Lab of Death' 
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Security services in the North Caucasus found nine homemade bombs at a laboratory in Nalchik on Tuesday, thereby preventing a potential series of terrorist attacks, RIA-Novosti reported.
The bombs were found Tuesday night in an underground laboratory, called a "laboratory of death" by the  National Antiterrorist Committee, beneath a garage in the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. The garage was apparently owned by local gang member Tembulat Kazdokhov, the committee said in a statement.

"The self-made explosives contained more than 100 kilograms of explosive force. According to bomb experts, an explosion of that force could destroy an entire city block," the statement said. "The timely destruction of the 'laboratory of death' and disposal of nine homemade bombs has prevented a series of terrorist attacks in Nalchik and avoided a large number of deaths."

The bombs were taken to a secure area and destroyed.


TITLE: Theaters May Be Forced to Show Russian Films
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The government is discussing a possible move to institute a quota for screen time given to Russian films in movie theaters, Kommersant reported Wednesday.

The policy being discussed in correspondence between the Economic Development Ministry and the Culture Ministry would mandate that a minimum of as much as 24 percent of screen time be given to the films, which are often less popular than foreign productions.

In a letter to the Culture Ministry, Deputy Economic Development Minister Stanislav Voskresensky advocated for supporting Russian films and said they remain popular for longer because they are of higher quality.

Voskresensky cited similar quotas in Western countries, including France, where he said 43 percent of screen time is required to be devoted to foreign films.

Producers have said the support would have little effect, and that these films would be shown "in closets."

Voskresensky also suggested import quotas restricting foreign films, noting China's policy limiting such films to 30 per year.

An unnamed source in the film industry told Kommersant that quotas have been discussed for quite some time, with Russian producers forming the main block of support.

The source said that while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had effectively blocked import quotas, the idea of a screen-time minimum has general support and now falls under the authority of Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov, who is a member of the cinematography council in charge of such projects.

Theater attendance in Russia and the CIS rose last year by 16 percent, with revenues reaching a total of $1.2 billion. Income from Russian films accounted for only 16 percent of that figure.



TITLE: Police Focus on Foreign Crime Victims
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The number of recorded crimes committed against foreign tourists in the city has hardly risen, while more such cases are now being solved, according to the St. Petersburg police.
Andrei Stanchenko, head of the city’s Police Investigative Department No. 6, said last year could be seen as comparatively stable in terms of crimes committed against foreign travelers.
In 2011, foreign tourists fell victim to 140 crimes, nine more compared with 2010, Stanchenko said at a meeting with representatives of St. Petersburg’s largest travel agencies, hotels and museums.
“That is 1 percent of all the violations of the law that took place in St. Petersburg last year,” Stanchenko said. 
The majority of crimes (73 cases) against foreign tourists were incidences of pickpocketing and appropriation of unattended belongings, while the least common crime was carjacking vehicles owned by foreigners.
The largest group of foreign citizens to fall victim to crime in St. Petersburg were Germans, of whom at least 20 found themselves involved in varying kinds of danger, compared to 27 the year before. The Chinese were the second largest group, with 17 people reporting unlawful actions. The Finns have seemingly become luckier, with 11 having been on the receiving end of criminal acts, five fewer than the year before.
Sergei Korneyev, director of the northwestern branch of the Russian Tourism Union, said the statistics correspond to the numbers of visitors to St. Petersburg from different countries, showing that the city is most popular among the German, Finnish and Chinese.
Stanchenko said the police’s priority was to prevent crimes being committed against foreign citizens.
“Every crime quickly reaches news reports and negatively affects our city’s capacity to attract tourism. Therefore we do everything in our power to prevent it,” Stanchenko said. 
With this in mind, an increasing number of video cameras are being installed in busy areas. In early February, there were 3,455 surveillance cameras on the streets of the city. Another 1,712 cameras monitor people on the metro system.
Korneyev said the tourism industry has had a long and valuable relationship with the city police in terms of making the city safer for tourists.
“The main aim of the collaboration should be increasing safety in so-called ‘narrow spots’ where tourists and their belongings are at risk. For instance, when tourists get on and off buses,” Korneyev said.
He added that tourism firms and guides should continue to actively inform tourists about essential safety measures to be taken in the city, and give them safety reminder cards.
Stanchenko said that the City Tourism Information Bureau and affiliated Angel Service — volunteers who patrol tourist areas in the holiday season, offering safety advice in a range of languages for tourists’ benefit — also help greatly.
“We have achieved good results together, however, we need to continue our duties so that in the near future we can bring to an end the exploits of criminals intent on taking advantage of foreigners,” Stanchenko said.

TITLE: Gay Law’s Author Rejects Criticism
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko signed into law a controversial bill against “promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism to minors” Sunday, drawing a new wave of criticism from around the globe.  
On Monday, the Human Rights Watch described Poltavchenko’s failure to use his right of veto to stop this “deplorable” legislative initiative as “profoundly disappointing” and urged the prosecutor’s office of St. Petersburg to “use its authority to insist that the city Legislative Assembly annul the law.”
Criticism of the new law also came from the diplomatic quarters of St. Petersburg. 
“I am concerned that this legislation does not match Council of Europe guidelines on preventing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT),” Gareth Ward, the U.K. Consul General, wrote in emailed comments this week.
“I hope that St. Petersburg remains an open and welcoming city for all, and that the important activities of Russian LGBT organizations to support gay people will be able to continue.”
The law will take effect on March 21, 10 days after its official publication.
The Legislative Assembly lawmaking committee chair, Vitaly Milonov, who authored the bill in November, dismissed the criticism.
Speaking by phone Tuesday, Milonov, a deputy for the United Russia party, said the bill was inspired by society’s demands, though he did not mention any specific incidents. 
“If society believes that some model of behavior doesn’t correspond to society’s interests, then society reacts to it,” Milonov said.
“We will be very happy if this bill isn’t applied even once, because it’s not directed against somebody specifically or in regard of a specific case, but it does outline certain additional rules of behavior toward minors.”
Answering criticism from the LGBT rights organization Coming Out’s chair Igor Kochetkov, Milonov argued that the law would not be used against the media, which, he said, is regulated by federal law.
“It has nothing to do with Kochetkov, either — if, of course, he doesn’t go to a school and start talking about how wonderful it is to be a homosexual,” he said. 
“[The law] will only affect children’s environments.”
Milonov said his law would not apply to LBGT pride events. 
“As a person, I am profoundly against gay parades, because I am an Orthodox Christian and demonstration of the sin of Sodom is repelling to me, and if, God forbid, I happened to see a crowd of those citizens — like they do in Berlin, I’ve seen photographs where men with all sorts of dildos are running semi-naked — it’s natural that I’d try to take my children aside, so that they would not see this perversion,” he said.
“But I am a lawmaker, and I don’t try to impose my personal and religious beliefs onto anybody. That’s why I have no right to restrict the freedom of assembly, marches and demonstrations, because this freedom is guaranteed by Article 31 of the Constitution and I have no right to violate it, and am not going to.”
Milonov is, however, planning to complain about the German industrial metal band Rammstein’s stadium concert that took place in St. Petersburg last month. Rammstein’s set includes a spoof simulated anal sex dildo routine.
“I’ll ask prosecutors to give an evaluation of this and probably take prosecutor’s measures against the promoter,” he said.
“There was an imitation of a homosexual act on stage and a non-imitation of sexual exposure — with demonstration of male sexual parts. 
“Rammstein is a matter of taste, but the problem is that children older than 14 were let in to the concert. The promoter should have warned people that the concert contained scenes of an erotic nature and restricted admission to children under 16 or maybe even 18, but it wasn’t done.”
“When singers show their sexual parts to children, I believe it’s an insult to the children of St. Petersburg.”
Milonov, who is a member of a parish council of a local Orthodox church, said he saw the video footage of the routine on a newspaper’s website. 
“I couldn’t even watch it to the end,” he said.
“I am not allowed to see such things, I am a church man, but it was shown to 14-year-old teenagers!”
The St. Petersburg law has been criticized as violating Russia’s international human rights obligations. Milonov sees an international gay lobby as being behind this criticism.
“One should not try to expand Russia’s obligations concerning guarantees of human rights and freedoms to the excessive defense, or rather lobbying, of the gay community’s interests,” Milonov said.
“We know that the gay community is a most powerful lobbying structure. They have their office in Brussels, they are welcome at the United Nations, the European Council and so on, but this is a problem of Europe; why should we copy European laws? Not everything that they have in Europe is acceptable for Russia.”
The new law introduces fines for offenders, set at 5,000 rubles ($167) for individuals, 50,000 rubles ($1,665) for officials and 250,000 to 500,000 rubles ($8,325-$16,650) for businesses.

TITLE: SKA Advances After 4-0 Win
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: SKA St. Petersburg opened its KHL Western Conference semi-final series with a 4-0 win over Atlant Moscow Oblast at the city’s Ice Palace on Tuesday night. 
Vladimir Tarasenko, Fyodor Federov, Viktor Tikhanov and Mattias Weinhandl all scored for SKA, while netminder Jakub Stepanek faced a mere 15 shots on goal. 
This series is a rematch of last year’s conference semi-finals when Atlant knocked SKA out of the playoffs by overcoming a 1-3 series deficit. They went on to win the Western Conference title, but ultimately lost to Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the Gagarin Cup finals. 
In the other Western Conference semi-final, Dinamo Moscow downed Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1-0 to take a 1-0 series lead. 
The Eastern Conference semi-finals are scheduled to start on Wednesday and feature this year’s regular season champion Traktor Chelyabinsk against Ak Bars Kazan, while perennial powerhouses Avangard Omsk and Metallurg Magnitogorsk will duke it out.

TITLE: French Language Sweeps City
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: St. Petersburg is celebrating the French language for the next two weeks with the Francophonia Days festival, which runs from March 13 to March 30.
An extensive program of cultural events dedicated to the language will include the final of the French Language Song Festival for schoolchildren and students in the northwest of Russia on March 16, and a conference of the International French Language Countries Organization on March 21, at which Swiss writer Pascale Kramer will be a guest.
The highlight of the festival looks set to be a French-language movie festival on March 16-17. The festival will open with the Swiss movie “La Petite Chambre” (“The Small Room”) on March 16 at Rodina movie theater. On the following day, audiences can view a range of movies in French starting with “Mauvaise Foi” (“Wrong Faith,” France), “Fish n’ Chips” (Cyprus), Cavafy (Greece), “Une Chaine Pour Deux” (“One Line for Two,” Belgium) and “La Grande Seduction” (“My Wonderful Back of Beyond,” Canada).
Music also features prominently on the festival’s program, including a concert by Les Hurlements de Leo on March 21, a jazz concert by Hindi Zahra on March 22 and concerts by Canadian singers Paule Andree Cassidy on March 24 and Ben l’Oncle Soul on March 30. 
Francophonia Days will also give students of French a chance to show off their accomplishments. High school teams consisting of eighth and ninth grade students will take part in a contest entitled “Ten Words of Francophonia” on March 22. The contest, titled Plume d’Or, is open to those who speak a minimum of intermediate level French.
The question of “Why Europeans should speak French again” will be discussed on March 22 as part of a seminar titled “Francophonia: Use French for Your Career.” 
Participants will also be able to take part in a debate dedicated to the theme of tolerance and migrant integration on March 23.
The festival is supported by the consulates of Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, France, Greece and Switzerland, as well as the Canadian Embassy, the Institut Francais in St. Petersburg and Helvetia Hotel.
International Francophonia Day is celebrated annually on March 20. The date was chosen in honor of the date of March 20, 1970, when an agreement on the creation of the first international French-speaking countries organization was signed. Today the International Francophonia Organization unites 56 states and territories, as well as 14 observers. It includes 803 million people, 200 million of whom speak French. Speaking French is not an essential condition for the country’s membership, but rather a sign of good cultural connections with France.

TITLE: City Struggles to Elect New Ombudsman
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Three months without an ombudsman may seem like nothing compared with the nine years that it took the city to elect its first human rights safeguard. The hundreds of locals who were detained during the recent public protests on the streets of St. Petersburg would, however, undoubtedly have found a helping hand in an ombudsman, who was conveniently absent.
St. Petersburg elected its first ombudsman, United Russia politician Igor Mikhailov, in June 2007, after debates that lasted for almost a decade. Two years later Mikhailov was dismissed and replaced by Alexei Kozyrev, the head of the St. Petersburg Public Council. Kozyrev resigned in November last year, without offering any suggestions for a replacement, and the lawmakers of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, which elects the city ombudsman, openly admit that they are at a loss as to who a credible and competent candidate could be.
According to the St. Petersburg law on ombudsmen, in the event of the resignation or dismissal of the ombudsman, the city parliament must announce a tender for the job within 30 days. Candidates can be put forward not only by parliamentary factions, but by NGOs and the city governor. The parliament, however, has been in no rush to find a new ombudsman.
“I wouldn’t be revealing any big secret if I said that to announce the competition, the key factions need to already know who the main candidates would be and who they would support,” said Konstantin Smirnov, a lawmaker from the Communist party faction in the city’s Legislative Assembly, speaking at a press conference at RIA Novosti news agency Monday.
The city’s human rights community and labor unions, however, see no shortage of candidates with a wealth of experience in protecting people’s rights.
“What is really disgraceful is that the lawmakers are openly admitting that they have to know everything about the candidacy by the time that they announce the competition, which means that the NGOs are out of the game,” said Igor Karlinsky, a lawyer at the St. Petersburg charitable foundation Nochlezhka and a member of the St. Petersburg human rights council. 
“Indeed, it would be pointless for human rights advocates to apply if they had not secured the support of the parliament’s biggest faction in advance. This is all too much of a puppet theater.”
St. Petersburg’s previous ombudsmen failed to win the respect of many local NGOS, especially of those that deal with human rights. 
The city’s rights community was critical of both ombudsmen, and boycotted them on the grounds that both men were strongly pro-government. In 2007, shortly after Mikhailov’s election, local NGOs formed the St. Petersburg Human Rights Council, an umbrella group for some of the city’s most high-profile human rights groups, including Soldiers’ Mothers and Citizens’ Watch. The council acts as an alternative ombudsman, supporting the cases of locals who did not trust the official ombudsmen, regarding them as biased.
Natalya Yevdokimova, a former lawmaker with the city’s Legislative Assembly and now a member of the St. Petersburg Human Rights Council, argues that the law on ombudsmen must be amended so that the ombudsman is elected in a referendum by city residents. 
“In the current political climate, the ombudsman’s post is subject to open political trade,” said Yevdokimova. “The parliament needs an agreeable figure who would not create problems and would seek to avoid confrontation and any conflict with the authorities. This means effectively, a toothless ombudsman.”
Smirnov, in turn, defended the parliament’s choices of Mikhailov and Kozyrev. 
“I am no fan of either of the former ombudsmen, but I know one simple truth: However much experience a human rights advocate may have in defending people’s rights, if this person is seen as a marginal politician by the authorities, the ombudsman has zero chance of being heard,” the lawmaker said. “The trick with this job is that a good ombudsman must attract the respect of politicians across the spectrum, the authorities and citizens. If people in government do not take you seriously, you won’t be effective in the job.”
Considering the clash of interests, analysts say the issue of finding an ombudsman for the city looks set to take many more months to resolve, with the parliament’s likely choice being a hybrid of “placebo ombudsman” Kozyrev and “United Russia stooge” Mikhailov.
The position of ombudsman in Russia is not protected by the law, and the incumbent can be dismissed by parliamentary vote. 
“If dismissal were possible only by a court verdict, the ombudsman would feel much more independent,” admitted Leonid Romankov, a human rights advocate and a former lawmaker in the city parliament, and one of the authors of the law on ombudsmen. “But in that form the law had almost no chances of being passed. That was the price we paid.” 
Despite numerous highly publicized human rights violations in Russia, most regions in the country do not have ombudsmen. Each of Russia’s 80 plus administrative regions has the right to elect an ombudsman, yet fewer than half of the regions have actually appointed someone to the position.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Photo Ban Reviewed</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The legislative committee of the city’s parliament wants to find a way to restore the right of passengers to film and take photos inside all areas of the metro, the committee’s head said this week.
Vitaly Milonov, head of the legislative committee, said that the ban causes inconvenience to city residents and visitors, Interfax reported.
The committee began to consider the issue after City Governor Georgy Poltavchenko signed a decree on the introduction of changes in the city’s administrative law to ban photography and video recording inside the city’s metro.
According to the new decree, which is due to come into force on Friday, taking photos and recording video footage in the metro and on trains will be possible only after obtaining written permission from the metro’s administration.
Former city governor Valentina Matviyenko revoked a previous ban several years ago.
Breaching the ban will carry fines from 500 to 1,000 rubles ($17 to $34) for regular citizens and from 10,000 to 30,000 rubles ($340 to $1,000) for companies.
<b>Baby Girl Found Dead</b>
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The city’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the murder of a newborn baby girl. The body, which bore signs of multiple knife wounds, was found beneath a manhole leading to a sewer Sunday, Interfax reported.
Russia’s children’s ombudsman, Pavel Astakhov, said the infant’s killer should receive the most severe punishment available. If the baby’s killer turned out to be the girl’s mother, a thorough analysis of the reasons that led the mother to commit the crime would also need to be conducted “for the further development of preventive work in this field,” he added.
“Unfortunately, many women who get into these difficult situations do not realize how serious their actions are,” Interfax quoted Astakhov as saying.

TITLE: Police Arrested After Fatal Rape
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Investigators on Tuesday named five suspects in the beating death of 52-year-old Kazan resident Sergei Nazarov at a Kazan police station last week.
One suspect, 25-year-old Ilshat Garifullin, has been detained, while investigators are seeking the arrest of four others, all aged 23 to 25, from the Dalny police station where Nazarov was allegedly beaten and raped. Federal investigators have taken control over the case, they said in a statement posted on the Investigative Committee website.
The statement said any illegal actions by police officers will be judged harshly.
“The Investigative Committee will give a harsh legal assessment to the actions of security officials who allowed a violation of the law,” the statement said.
On Monday, Tatarstan police had said Nazarov’s injuries were self-inflicted.
Meanwhile, a 20-year-old female resident of Kazan has claimed that police at the Dalny station also beat her earlier this year, in an attempt to force her to confess to a crime she did not commit.
Alia Sadykova told newspaper Vechernyaya Kazan that she was called into the Dalny police station on Jan. 3 for questioning about the theft of 70,000 rubles from the bookmaker operation where she worked as a cashier.
She said two officers named Ramil and Marat interrogated her and then began to beat her, threatening to rape her with a bottle if she did not confess to the crime.
On Sunday, 52-year-old Kazan resident Sergei Nazarov died of rectal injuries after being detained by police from the same police precinct on Friday. He claimed before his death that he was beaten and raped by officers with a champagne bottle. 
Sadykova claimed police held her overnight without food or water, then forced her to confess to charges of hooliganism, for which she received a sentence of five days’ administrative arrest. A court later ruled that the charge was falsified, after a witness reneged on testimony that Sadykova had “cursed” and loitered near the police station while drunk.
Sadykova said she spent more than a month in the hospital and suffered psychological trauma from the beating.
She said her mother had gone to police and demanded that charges be brought against the officers who inflicted her injuries, but was told Sadykova “could have thought everything up.” She said she will pursue compensation for her illegal detainment.
Police reform has been one of the main initiatives of departing President Dmitry Medvedev.
During his five years in office, he has aimed to fight corruption and violence by law enforcement authorities.
But observers say his efforts have achieved only mixed results.
In January, St. Petersburg officers fatally beat 15-year-old Nikita Leontyev while he was being detained on suspicion of robbery.
That incident was followed shortly by the sacking of the city’s police chief, Mikhail Sukhodolsky.

TITLE: Spoof ‘Icon’ Signs For Pussy Riot Spring Up
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Icon-like signs have appeared in the city of Novosibirsk portraying a masked member of the all-female punk band Pussy Riot, which has gained notoriety after two of its members were jailed last week for participating in an unsanctioned performance at Christ the Savior Cathedral.
The images feature a figure in a purple mask and red cloak — reminiscent of the bright clothes that are the band’s trademarks — and were placed on sidewalk billboards. At the top of the signs are the letters “SVBD PSRT,” apparently a shortened version of the message “Free Pussy Riot.”
Photographs of the signs were posted on the website of magazine Kissmybabushka.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were arrested last week after Pussy Riot’s five-minute performance at the cathedral on Feb. 21. A Moscow court ordered the two women to remain in custody until April 24 while they await trial on charges of hooliganism.
At an opposition rally on Saturday, many demonstrators held signs calling for the release of the jailed band members. Representatives of the Orthodox Church have said they believe the two women, both of whom have young children, should be let go.

TITLE: Russia to Continue to Sell Arms to Syria
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia has no intention of curtailing military cooperation with Syria despite calls from the West to stop arming President Bashar Assad’s regime, a senior Russian government official said Tuesday.
Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Russia will abide by existing contracts to deliver weapons to Syria despite Assad’s yearlong crackdown on the opposition, during which the UN says over 7,500 people have been killed.
“Russia enjoys good and strong military technical cooperation with Syria, and we see no reason today to reconsider it,” Antonov told reporters.
Russia has shielded Syria, its last ally in the Arab world, from UN sanctions over the Assad regime’s bloody suppression of an uprising against his government.
Moscow has been a steadfast ally of Syria since Soviet times, when it was led by the current president’s father, Hafez Assad, and has long supplied Damascus with aircraft, missiles, tanks and other heavy weapons.
The Syrian port of Tartus is now the only naval base Russia has outside the former Soviet Union. A Russian navy squadron made a call there in January in what was seen by many as a show of support for Assad.
Also in January, a Russian ship allegedly carrying tons of munitions made a dash for Syria after telling officials in EU member Cyprus, where it had made an unexpected stop, that it was heading for Turkey. Turkish officials said the ship had instead charted course for Tartus.
Antonov said Russia’s supply of weapons to Syria is in line with international law and will continue. “Russian-Syrian military cooperation is perfectly legitimate,” he said.
“The only thing that worries us today is the security of our citizens,” Antonov said in a reference to Russian military personnel in Syria that are training the Syrians in the use of weapons supplied by Russia.
He declined to say how many of them are currently stationed in Syria.
“It’s part of our contractual obligations,” said Antonov, who oversees military technical cooperation with foreign countries. “When we supply weapons, we have to provide training.”
Antonov dismissed allegations that Russia has sent special forces officers to assist government forces.
“There are no (Russian) special forces with rifles and grenade launchers running around,” he said.
Moscow insists it will block any UN resolution that could pave the way for a replay of what happened in Libya, where NATO action helped oust Moammar Gadhafi.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who won presidential elections on March 4, has recently accused the West of fueling the Syrian conflict by refusing to also demand that Assad’s opponents pull out from besieged cities along with government troops.
Russian diplomats have dismissed Western hopes for a shift in Moscow’s stance on Syria after Putin’s election victory as “wishful thinking.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after discussing the Syrian crisis at the U.N. on Monday that a cease-fire in Syria would have to be observed by both government forces and the opposition and requires international monitoring.
“Both parties should realize that they will be monitored by independent observers who will see how they observe the demand for an immediate cease-fire that will be put forward,” Lavrov said Tuesday at a news conference in Moscow.
“There shouldn’t be a situation where there are demands for the government to pull out of cities and villages and no demands put to armed groups” to do the same, he said.
Lavrov said Assad wouldn’t agree to withdraw his forces if the opposition fails to respond in kind.
“A unilateral pullout of government forces would be absolutely unrealistic. The Syrian government will not do that,” he said.

TITLE: Sixty-Eight Political Parties Seek Registration
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The Justice Ministry has received 68 new applications to form political parties, a State Duma deputy said, RIA-Novosti reported. 
The applications come amidst deliberations on a bill that will soften the requirements for creating a political party by dropping the total number of required members from 40,000 to 500. 
The bill passed a first reading in the Duma on Feb. 28, together with two other laws reforming the political system that include one on direct elections of governors and another lowering the number of signatures required for candidates to participate in elections. 
During a meeting of a working group tasked with planning reforms for the political system, a decision was made to conclude discussions on the proposed law on political parties in both houses of parliament by the end of March, said chairman of the Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Vladimir Pligin. 
The working group is composed of representatives of both registered and unregistered parties and headed by First Deputy Chief of Staff Vyacheslav Volodin. 
A second reading is scheduled in the Duma on March 20, with plans for a third reading to be completed in time for the March 28 meeting of the Federation Council, Pligin said. 
Co-chair of unregistered party Parnas and working group member Vladimir Ryzhkov evaluated the group’s work positively and said he is optimistic that subsequent readings of the bill will go smoothly. He said the president could sign the bill into law by April 10 or 11. 
That could mean the law on political parties will go into effect before the presidential inauguration on May 7 and the end of Dmitry Medvedev’s term as president.

TITLE: Daily Commute Helps to Boost Sales of E-Books
AUTHOR: By Alexander Winning
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — The country’s burgeoning e-book market is seeing dramatic growth rates, with an ever-increasing number of titles available in electronic format and e-readers continuing to fall sharply in price.
And while fantasy, detective novels and other fictional works make up the traditional cohort of best-selling genres, they have occasionally been overtaken on the list of most-read e-books in recent months by business and political prose.
Last year’s sales were dominated by titles dedicated to Steve Jobs and Apple, according to LitRes, the market leader in Russian e-book sales, whereas Konstantin Voronkov’s “Alexei Navalny: the Threat of the Crooks and Thieves” topped the charts in the buildup to the March presidential election.
But despite Russians’ increasing affinity for reading on screens, market players caution that it will be a long time before e-books replace printed titles.
The size of the Russian e-book market is currently $2.2 million, with e-books accounting for less than 1 percent of total book sales, according to a December 2011 report by RBK Research, although these figures are expected to rise as the considerable growth potential of the domestic online retail industry is realized.
Prices for e-books on LitRes’ site range from 10 rubles (30 cents) for Lev Tolstoy’s novel “Childhood” to 250 rubles for the Russian translation of Walter Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs.”
In the market research company’s best-case scenario, e-books’ share of the Russian book market could hit 30 percent by 2015.
For comparison, e-books now account for approximately 8 percent of the U.S. book market and 2 percent of the British market, the report said.
RBK’s bold predictions are bolstered by Russia’s ever-increasing number of Internet users — in November last year the country became the No. 1 Internet market in Europe, with more than 50 million users.
And after the international financial crisis led to shrinking print runs — which dipped roughly 15 percent between 2008 and 2010, according to Federal Press and Mass Media Agency data — online companies selling electronic content have started to prosper.
One success story has been Ozon.ru, the online retailer dubbed Russia’s Amazon that now sells e-books alongside its range of printed books, films, music and domestic appliances.
The company has more than 5.6 million registered users and posted total first-half revenue of 2.4 billion rubles ($82 million) in 2011, a 36 percent increase over the same period last year, Ozon.ru said in a statement.
E-books and e-readers are seen as a key growth market for Ozon.ru, said Mikhail Osin, director of the retailer’s digital sales department, who anticipates steady growth in sales in the coming years.
“Sales of e-books are rising at a fast rate, and this trend will continue in the future,” he said.
The company saw a 40 percent increase in e-book sales over 2011, while e-reader purchases rose 250 percent over the same period.
Although e-books don’t present a real threat to printed book sales yet, “new technologies are occupying a segment of the market, which of course is a concern to publishers, making them adapt their business model and even switch to the production of electronic books,” Osin added.
Ozon.ru’s optimism is shared by dedicated e-book and e-reader sellers, including LitRes, which owns the rights to almost 70 percent of Russian electronic titles.
After three years of “stormy” growth following its creation in 2007, the company sold about 750,000 e-books in 2011. Based on sales in January 2012, LitRes hopes e-book purchases from its website will top 1.2 million this year and believes that Russia’s e-book market will double in size in the next 12 months.
LitRes general director Sergei Anuryev sees price as a key factor for growing consumption.
“While the average price of paper titles has roughly doubled over the last three years, e-books on average cost a third of the price. At times, they are even five times cheaper,” he said.
Another factor is the long daily commute many Russians face to reach their workplaces, he said. His comments are borne out by any trip on the Moscow metro, where passengers of all ages can be seen clutching e-readers and flicking through electronic titles.
Russians’ love of reading and tumbling prices for e-readers, which have dropped about 30 percent a year over the last two years, provide a further impetus for growth, said Yevgeny Militsa, director of PocketBook Russia, an e-reader retailer that puts its market share in the country at 40 percent.
PocketBook sold roughly 400,000 devices in 2011 and, after almost doubling 2010 sales last year, estimates that the market will grow another 50 percent in 2012.
“Just one year ago, 80 percent of e-readers were sold on the Internet. It was a small market and a niche product,” but now e-readers are readily available in stores across the country and are within reach of most Russian consumers, Militsa said.
PocketBook’s cheapest reader costs about 3,400 rubles ($120), with its most expensive multimedia device priced at 15,000 rubles.
But despite some market players’ optimistic growth predictions, many also acknowledge that endemic piracy clouds accurate market forecasts and siphons off huge revenue.
“Right now, the availability of free content drives the market,” PocketBook’s Militsa said, adding that his company has rolled out software to block illegally downloaded e-books and protect intellectual property rights.
In addition, LitRes’ Anuryev said, the lack of a broad enough selection of books legally available for download forces readers to turn to pirate sites.
Since regulating piracy is nearly impossible — as the servers hosting illegal content are often spread over a diverse area, beyond the jurisdiction of the target country — LitRes has adopted an alternative approach to tackling the problem.
The company opens a dialogue with pirate sites in the hope of convincing them to place links on their web pages to LitRes content, Anuryev said.
In one successful case, LitRes developed an understanding with Epubbooks.ru, a pirate site claiming to host free e-books for “familiarization purposes only.” Now, when a visitor to the Epubbooks site clicks on a title for which LitRes owns the rights, they are redirected to Litres.ru.
Yet there is still a battle to be waged to convert those who prefer to read paper copies.
Alexander Bobrowski, LitRes’ business development director, said the company’s biggest challenge will be to persuade Russian consumers to make the switch to reading in an electronic format.
“For many Russians, the value of a book still lies in its tangibility. For this reason paper still prevails,” he said.

TITLE: Politicians To Meet
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin plans to meet with billionaire politician Mikhail Prokhorov within the next few weeks to discuss possible cooperation.
“Prokhorov and I agreed to meet in the coming weeks to discuss future prospects,” Kudrin wrote on Twitter in response to a question asking whether he would join forces with the former presidential candidate.
Kudrin had said earlier that he would contribute to the emergence of a new liberal party, and Prokhorov has also stated that he would like to create a political party.
A day earlier, Kudrin reaffirmed that he would not work in the current government.
He also reiterated that he had no intention of joining the incoming government of President-elect Vladimir Putin. Speculation has long swirled that Putin would ask Kudrin to be prime minister.

TITLE: Russian Railways To Reconstruct Stations
AUTHOR: By Olga Solovyova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russian Railways will invest more than 7 billion rubles ($34 million) in reconstructing railway stations this year, including 4.3 billion rubles for the reconstruction of stations in Moscow, the state-owned company said Sunday.
“We plan to finish four railway stations this year: Leningradsky, Paveletsky, Rizhsky and Savyolovsky,” said Dmitry Pisarenko, head of communications for the stations department at Russian Railways. “And we plan to finish another four next year: Belorussky, Kievsky, Kazansky and Yaroslavsky,” he added.
The company plans to spend more than 1 billion rubles on each Moscow station, Pisarenko said. Then it will spend 1.7 billion rubles on 56 railway stations in the regions.
Kursky Station, renovated in 2008, is serving as a model for this investment project.
“It is a model of what a modern station should be,” he said.
The railway station reconstruction program is expected to be completed in 2015.
Russian Railways and the Moscow government signed a contract in April 2011 under which the railway rents the squares surrounding the stations for 1 ruble per year.
“Before, the railway station ended at the doorstep, and there was nothing we could do about all those bizarre kiosks near the station,” Pisarenko said.
Kiosks near Komsomolskaya Ploshchad — home to Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky and Kazansky stations — have been removed.
“It is important to show that we are acting legally. All kiosk owners knew that their agreements could be canceled unilaterally,” he said.
The reconstruction program also addresses both the stations themselves and the areas surrounding them.
The company plans to create parking for 1,050 cars. A two-level parking facility for 400 cars will be built at Kazansky Station.
“We plan to allow 20 minutes’ free parking, then charge 250 rubles an hour,” Pisarenko said.
As for Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports, prices start from 100 rubles an hour.
Russian Railways will choose management companies to operate the parking facilities.
“We are going to make our stations comply with all contemporary requirements — no worse than in Europe, maybe better,” Pisarenko said.

Russian Railways expects its freight load in March 2012 to grow to 3.45 million tons per day, 2.8 percent higher than in March 2011, Interfax said Monday, citing vice president for commercial activities Salman Babayev.
Babayev also said the Transportation Ministry informed the company that the ministry would ask it to reduce the number of passenger trains to Sochi to accommodate the greater flow of freight to the city in connection with the upcoming Olympic Games there. Babayev said the railway agreed to raise its scheduled freight shipments to Sochi from 12 million tons to 15 million tons.

TITLE: WTO Entry Set To Lure Investors
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization will lead to a substantial increase in foreign investments in two to three years’ time, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said during a meeting with President-elect Vladimir Putin on Monday, Interfax reported.
“We expect that joining the WTO, firstly, will make it possible to grow exports and to lower barriers to exports. Secondly, it will make the conditions for raising foreign investment more attractive. It could be that won’t happen immediately, but we expect a trend like this in the next two or three years. Here the world financial situation will also have an influence — resources, investors evaluate risks depending on this situation,” the minister said.
Nabiullina also told Putin that her ministry will complete a series of consultations with the business community by the end of next month on possible protective measures in the context of the country’s joining the World Trade Organization.
“The situation in different sectors varies, even within sectors by product type, so we’ve decided to conduct detailed, narrow-sector meetings and will be continuing them. There are 38 seminars with businesses in the regions scheduled for before the end of April,” Nabiullina said.
Against a backdrop of overall capital outflow in 2011, the inflow of foreign direct investment in Russia was $52 billion — an increase over 2010, when the foreign investment volume ran to $43 billion, Nabiullina said.
“In 2011 we returned to the 2007 level. In 2008 we had a rather big, record volume [$75 billion]. Oil prices were very high then, and there was a great deal of investment based on borrowing,” she said.

TITLE: Vekselberg Quits As RusAl Chair
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg has stepped down as chairman of aluminum giant RusAl, warning of a “deep crisis” at the company.
The resignation prompted RusAl to suspend trading of its shares Tuesday after they shed 1.3 percent of their value on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Vekselberg said in a statement issued Monday that RusAl was being badly managed and had been weighed down by debt.
The company replied Tuesday by saying it had planned to replace Vekselberg for failing to fulfill his duties as board chairman over the past year.

TITLE: Bank Wants to Get Rid of 1, 5 Kopek Coins
AUTHOR: By Howard Amos
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — That inevitable accumulation of almost worthless change could become a thing of the past this year as the Central Bank pushes to remove all 1- and 5-kopek coins from circulation.
There are about 7.3 billion 1-kopek and 5.8 billion 5-kopek coins currently in use across the country. One kopek is worth 0.03 cents.
“The majority of this money is not being used and shops are gradually stopping to accept it,” said First Deputy Central Bank Chairman Georgy Luntovsky, Interfax reported. “Moreover the production of these coins is loss-making.”
He declined to name the exact amount that the Central Bank loses in the manufacture of the small-denomination coinage but said it was “significant.”
The debate about the fate of the 1- and 5-kopek pieces is not new — inflation over the past decade has made the coins increasingly worthless. Many shoppers do not even bother to pick up their change when it only amounts to a few kopeks.
The Central Bank is currently in negotiations with the State Duma on the issue. Luntovsky said Friday that the legislative body was favorably inclined toward the process of abolishing the coins. “I hope that a decision of some sort will be made this year,” he said.
New 1- and 5-kopek coins are not currently being released by the Central Bank in a bid to reduce the quantity in circulation, but a new law would be required to eliminate them completely. The 10- and 50-kopek pieces, however, are still being minted.
In September 2011, the Duma’s financial markets committee expressed agreement with the Central Bank’s proposal to do away with 1-kopek coins. It will examine the proposed abolition of the 5-kopek piece later this year.
“This will have no impact on the economy of the country as a whole,” the Higher School of Economics’ Dmitry Miroshnichenko told Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Sunday. Experts have also said removing the low-denomination coins is unlikely to boost inflation.

TITLE: Jews in Russia
AUTHOR: By Alexei Bayer
TEXT: After last December’s elections to the State Duma, a number of Russian citizens went to the studios of the web TV channel Dozhd to tape a short message explaining why they and their country need free and fair elections. While speaking, each held a handwritten sign with his or her name and occupation.
Recently, someone gathered still photographs of participants with Jewish last names and made a YouTube video, set to a Jewish tune and accompanied by the statement: “We, Russians, don’t deceive one another.”
The obvious intention of this anti-Semitic prank was to show that the opposition to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s regime consists mostly of Jews (and a handful of members of other ethnic groups) and that a true Russian patriot should not rock the boat but support the status quo. This, of course, used to be a typical trick of Soviet propaganda, when dissidents’ Jewish names were, whenever possible, prominently mentioned. When dissidents were not Jews, as in the case of leaders of the dissident movement such as writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and physicist Andrei Sakharov, the KGB spread rumors that they were. Or they said Sakharov, a naive and innocent academician, was under the spell of his devious Jewish wife Yelena Bonner. Then, as now, the implication was that only Jews would want Russia to be free, democratic and join the community of nations on an equal footing, and not as a pariah state.
(A curious variation on this splendid theme is the belief among extreme Russian nationalists that Russia is ruled by the Jews. There used to be murky circles in the Soviet Union of my childhood in which it was held that Leonid Brezhnev and his Politburo were Jews. Today’s nationalists, monarchists and other “real Russians” like to point out that Putin’s entourage includes people with names like Abramovich, Fridman and Rotenberg and that his first political patron was St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Ironically, Sobchak’s daughter Ksenia, a television journalist, is also featured prominently in the anti-Semitic video that attacks the pro-democracy movement.)
Officially, Russia has 200,000 Jews, but if children of mixed marriages and those who for one reason or another downplay their Jewish origins are included, the number rises to about 650,000. That’s impressive, considering that in recent decades so many have left. Russia’s Jewish community is still large and vibrant.
When I was in Moscow in January, I was fortunate enough to be given a private tour of the Museum of the History of Jews in Russia by Hillel Kazovsky, a leading expert in Jewish artistic avant-garde. It is one of Moscow’s newest museums, and it houses the amazing private collection of businessman Sergei Ustinov. Each of its several rooms is devoted to a different aspect of Jewish life, including religion, family, politics, literature and theater. Even funerals are covered, with one of the most stunning artifacts being a horse-drawn hearse set against a panoramic color photograph of a Jewish cemetery in Ukraine.
The collection traces the Jews’ 200-year transition from an insular community on the fringes of the empire into its mainstream. Russia and the early Soviet Union saw a flowering of Jewish life and culture. Much of it was in Yiddish and some in Hebrew, but the most important story was the crossing over and melding of Jews into the Russian world. In the late 19th century, musician Anton Rubenshtein and landscape painter Isaac Levitan were purely Russian, not Jewish artists, as were hundreds of Jews who came to prominence in the Silver Age after 1900. They became assimilated, but on their own terms, retaining a separate identity. It was the Russian culture instead that, like all of the world’s great cultures, expanded to incorporate other influences.
Numerous Jews who became active in politics (mainly on the left) were Russian politicians, just as businessmen, engineers, scientists and professionals were part of Russia.
The Jewish world shown at the museum gave rise to a remarkable burst of energy across Central and Eastern Europe. This world has now disappeared. In 1939, when the number of Jews worldwide peaked at 16.7 million, fully one half lived in the broad swath running north-south between Berlin and Moscow. Now, hardly any Jews remain in Poland or Romania, while Hungary and Ukraine have about 100,000 between them.
Russia is the only country in this cradle of contemporary Jewish culture where any significant number of Jews remain. The nice thing about the ugly episode with the anti-Semitic video is that it proves that the Jewish community is thriving in the mainstream of Russian society and that it will endure, regardless of what anti-Semites have to say about it.

<i>Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist.</i>

TITLE: russian unorthodox: Criminalizing Difference
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: A prominent Russian satirist told me recently that one of the key differences between Russian humor and that of Western Europe or the United States is that Russian people do not “get” gay jokes.
“Unlike Russians, people in America find gay jokes funny,” he told me. “In homophobic Russia, because the subject is taboo, such jokes are considered extremely vulgar. Russians are brought up to believe that being gay is worse than being a murderer. Here if you were to call a killer a killer, he would laugh. But homophobia is so strong that if you called him gay, he would kill you for saying it.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. Until 1991, homosexuality was a crime punishable by a prison sentence or a spell in a psychiatric clinic. And, although sexual orientation is no longer referred to in the criminal code, regional and city assemblies across the country have been introducing local laws that effectively declare homosexuality an abnormality and introduce fines for so-called “gay propaganda.”
What these lawmakers consider to be “gay propaganda” seems to include any kind of advocacy of homosexual rights or suggestion that gay people should have the same human rights enjoyed by others.
Laws against “gay propaganda” have been passed in Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, and Ryazan.
In St. Petersburg, the bill was signed into law by City Governor Georgy Poltavchenko at the weekend, and legislators in Novosibirsk say they will consider a bill.
Valentina Matviyenko, the former St. Petersburg governor who is now speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, has suggested that a nationwide “anti-gay propaganda” law be passed.  
The driving force behind the bill in St. Petersburg is Vitaly Milonov, a United Russia lawmaker in the city assembly. He says the measure is designed to “protect children and young people from getting mixed up in gay communities,” which, in his words, “defile innocent youths.”
One of Milonov’s key arguments is that homosexuality is denounced by the Russian Orthodox Church. The lawmaker thus apparently suggests that rules laid down by the church — in this case, refraining from homosexual relations — should be applied with the force of law to all citizens. And this is in a civil state, where church and state are officially independent of each other.
According to the bill, an act of gay propaganda can be any “public activity aimed at publicizing and advertising homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender activities; dissemination of any information that can damage the health and moral formation of juveniles or that can cause the distorted view that there is a moral equivalence between unorthodox relationships and traditional marriages.”
Under rules like those, any media report showing a happy-looking gay couple could be deemed “gay propaganda.”
Although no polls have been taken to assess public support for the various bills, they clearly have supporters among ordinary Russians.
“Call me anything you like, but I don’t want my grandson to have a gay teacher,” an elderly female colleague, an editor at a local newspaper, told me. “You know, [a gay teacher] could give my boy wrong ideas. … Just to be on the safe side, I would prefer that gays weren’t allowed in schools.”
She tried to choose her words carefully, obviously unable to distinguish between a gay man and a pedophile. It seems almost the entire membership of certain regional legislative assemblies also find it impossible to make this distinction.
Earlier this year police in Arkhangelsk fined a young man who stood on a downtown street holding a poster that said “I am gay, and that’s normal.”
The authorities saw this one-man protest as a dangerous example of “gay propaganda.”
St. Petersburg’s leading sexologists and psychologists have lobbied the assembly in an effort to explain the absurdity of the bill. But their message has largely fallen on deaf ears.
“Homosexuality, in 90 percent of cases, is something that one is born with,” says Lev Shcheglov, a physician, researcher, and the city’s leading sexologist.
“You have it from birth, just like your eye color or blood type. However hard I try, I can’t persuade you to change your blood type, can I? The human body just doesn’t work like that,” Shcheglov says.
But the discriminatory laws going through Russian legislatures today have little to do with medicine, psychology, or justice and everything to do with politics.
Politicians are offering up the gay community as a sacrificial victim to disgruntled Russians, perhaps in a desperate effort to divert some of the anger that drove the recent mass protests against Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. What the lawmakers may not realize is that their divisive legislation is more likely to stoke social tensions than to ease them.  
And once the state launches a witch hunt against one minority, it’s likely to go after others as well. While gays, lesbians, and transgender people may be the target today, it could well be vegetarians, Catholics, or yoga practitioners next. After all, most of us are part of some minority or other.
There could be a ban on abortions, or divorce or civil marriages. If we go much further down that road we’ll have the United Russia party holding mass wedding ceremonies, with partners chosen for suitability by the party, along similar lines to the antics of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the Unification Church.
The crackdown on gays surely increases the growing resemblance between Russia’s political elite and a kind of crazed and deluded cult. 

<i>A full version of this commentary is available at Transitions Online, an award-winning analytical online magazine covering Eastern Europe and CIS countries, at www.tol.org.</i>

TITLE: Riding the wave
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In the world of pop, you have to run to stay in the same place — or change constantly to keep your work interesting. That’s exactly what Marc Collin, the French producer and mastermind behind Nouvelle Vague does.
The band, or as Collin prefers to call it, the “project,” began by adding bossa nova arrangements and beguiling female voices to 1980s punk and post-punk gems, from The Clash to Joy Division to The Undertones.
Nouvelle Vague went on to record with the songs’ original singers such as Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch and The Specials’ Terry Hall, before resurrecting semi-obscure French post-punk material and is now looking forward to recording some original songs.
Collin spoke to The St. Petersburg Times ahead of Nouvelle Vague’s concert this weekend.
<i><b>Tell us about your upcoming concert in St. Petersburg.</b></i>
The concert in St. Petersburg will not be the same as what we’re going to perform in Moscow. It will be with Melanie Pain and Liset Alea. Melanie Pain was one of the first singers in the project, she’s the voice singing on the albums “This Is Not a Love Song,” “Dance With Me,” all those tracks that people love. And we have an electric guitar player who will come as well. So it will be a great show.
In Moscow we’re going to perform a new show mise en scene by [designer] Jean Charles Castelbajac [called “Dawn of Innocence”], with lots more musicians, a lot of costumes, a different singer, Mareva Galanter, and with visuals, and we need a bigger venue to do it. We can’t perform it everywhere, unfortunately.
<i><b>So will it be downsized in St. Petersburg?</b></i>
Well, not really downsized. I think it will be more fun and more easy, I would say. 
<i><b>What songs will be performed?</b></i>
It will be a mixture of a lot of different songs we used to do live and on the albums — French songs and songs from the first three albums. But we’re going to perform songs that we’ve never performed in St. Petersburg, that’s for sure. 
<i><b>Will Jenia Lubich take part?</b></i>
No, she will just open for us. But maybe she will sing a song with us in the encore, I hope.
<i><b>How did you meet her?</b></i>
The second time we played in St. Petersburg, Jenia came and gave me a CD to listen to, saying she was a big fan of Nouvelle Vague’s sound. I listened to the songs a little later and I really liked her voice. It was lucky, because I was working on a project at that time in Paris, and they were looking for “exotic” singers. There was a Japanese girl, a Brazilian girl, and they asked me if I knew anyone, and I said, “Well, I’ve just met a singer in Russia,” and they said, “Great! A Russian singer! We don’t have one of those.” We invited Jenia to come to Paris to record this project that I was doing, and we got to know each other, and afterwards decided to do an album together — I mean that I produced her music. And she also became a singer in the Nouvelle Vague project with these French songs that we were doing live. She’s a great girl, and I’m happy that her album seems to be doing quite well in Russia. I’ll probably release it for Europe next September. 
<i><b>We last spoke four years ago, after Nouvelle Vague’s second album came out. Now there are four. Could you update us on the project’s more recent history?</b></i>
When we started, we were doing covers of post-punk songs into bossa nova. Surprisingly, it very quickly became a huge success all over the world. So we started to tour a lot, and did the second album really quickly. I think the second album is better though. We sold about the same numbers of “Bande a Part” and the first album. We were like the thing of the moment with those two albums. 
Afterwards, we took some time and wanted to change the concept a bit … and do something more pop. We asked the original singers of the songs to do duets, so we worked with people like Martin Gore from Depeche Mode, Terry Hall and Ian McCulloch. Unfortunately that album didn’t sell much compared to the others. But the concerts were still very strong everywhere. 
<i><b>Do you think your audience has changed with time?</b></i>
We realized that we were getting a whole new audience coming to the shows, an audience that was in touch with Nouvelle Vague through the Internet. [We had] synchronization in a movie, a TV series, a commercial and everything, a whole other audience that didn’t really see us live; they just listened to the songs. We discovered that our first audience — the people who were fans of the original songs — disappeared a bit, but was replaced by a new one, so we did this album in French just to do something a bit different with people we like, and to prove that French post-punk was interesting. 
Now I think the time for doing covers is over; we’re working on a new album, based on our songs with some guests as well. That’s the future for the next year. And we wanted to do this special show too, with a lot of fashion. 
<i><b>So the fourth album, “Couleurs sur Paris,” was French music?</b></i>
Yeah. It was a bit different, because it was French music from the 1980s, and we chose one famous singer per song. All those singers are very famous in France. But people liked it, and they didn’t know the songs at all. I mean, abroad, nobody knows the songs that we covered. They think they were our songs.
<i><b>How did it come about that the original performers of the songs such as Ian McCulloch, Terry Hall and Martin Gore worked with you on the covers?</b></i>
I met Terry Hall (I can’t remember where) and I heard that Martin Gore was a fan of what we’d done on “Just Can’t Get Enough.” I got some management contact and we just wrote them: “I heard that you liked what we did, we’re going to do another cover of your music, so how about singing something with a girl?” and most of them said, “Yeah, why not?” so they came to the studio in Paris and we recorded the songs.
It was amazing for us, because I was a big fan. I saw all these bands live when I was young. Just to have the guys in my studio in Paris working with me was like a dream — it was a great experience!
<i><b>How do you work on the songs with the singers? Do you discuss the songs’ meanings?</b></i>
That has changed. We’ve been doing it for almost ten years now. Sometimes we didn’t even play the songs to the girls. We just played the melody, showed them the lyrics and said “Do it.” They would say, “We don’t know the song,” and we would say, “It’s OK, just do it like that.” That’s what was really fresh about the songs. 
But we gave that up, because it was sometimes difficult to find someone who didn’t know the songs. When we were covering, for example, “Heart of Glass” by Blondie — everybody knows that song.
It’s quite simple now. We just propose songs, and they say, “Why not? Send me the playback,” and try to sing over it. That is how it happened with the four albums. But as I said, we’re not doing those covers anymore.
From the start I’ve tried to change, to have the concept evolve. I try not to get stuck with the same recipe, like doing bossa nova post-punk with the same singer. I try to do something new every time. I think that’s why we’re still here and are still touring. 
<i><b>What is your work outside Nouvelle Vague?</b></i>
I am working on a lot of things. I have a label in Paris (Kwaidan Records) and I produce and release the albums of great people. I released an album by Phoebe Killdeer, one of the singers of Nouvelle Vague. I am just finishing an album by Melanie Pain. I produced an album for Jenia Lubich. I work on soundtracks as well, and produce some other people. I’ll release an album by Yasmine Hamdan, a beautiful and great Lebanese singer, in April. Working on different projects is what I like to do.
And I do my own music too. I’ll release an album, more electronic new wave, in September. 
<i><b>You’ve been to St. Petersburg quite a few times now. What do you think to the city?</b></i>
I like St. Petersburg. I was really impressed when I first visited the city. 
People are always talking about Paris, but to me, St. Petersburg is an amazing city. I like the people and the energy. Moscow is a tough city, a big city with huge traffic jams, it’s a bit different. I have some friends in St. Petersburg, and there are some good clubs. I haven’t been to the city for a year now, but I am happy to be coming back.

<i>Nouvelle Vague will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 16 at Glavclub, 2 Kremenchugskaya Ulitsa. Tel. 905 7555. M. Ploshchad Vosstaniya / Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo.</i>

TITLE: CHERNOV’S CHOICE
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: <b>Pussy Riot</b>, the Moscow-based feminist all-woman punk group notorious for its unsanctioned performance, found itself under unprecedented pressure from the Kremlin when two alleged members were arrested on the eve of the March 4 presidential election.
The two women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, have been charged with criminal mischief committed by a group and face up to seven years in prison. 
Despite the fact that the two women have small children and there is no evidence to suggest they present any danger, the court ruled that they should be kept in custody for two months while they wait for the trial.
The band is said to have insulted the feelings of religious people by entering the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and performing a song called “Madonna, Drive Putin Away” there on Feb. 21, before they were ejected by the church’s security guards.
During their performances, the members of Pussy Riot wear colored balaclavas and cannot be identified from the video, which is the only evidence.
According to Pussy Riot’s press release, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina, who have gone on hunger strike to protest their imprisonment, deny belonging to Pussy Riot and taking part in the performance. Meanwhile, the group continues to receive threats via the Internet of rape and murder.
More than 2,000 believers including 23 priests were among almost 6,000 who signed a petition to Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox Church, asking him to show mercy on the imprisoned women. It was delivered on Monday. On March 8, which was declared the International Day of Solidarity with Pussy Riot, a number of protests were held. 
Opposition leaders Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov took part in a picket near the Interior Ministry Department on that day. Yury Shevchuk, frontman of Russia’s leading rock band DDT, was among artists who spoke in support of the arrested women.
Thirty officers took part in the arrests of the two women, who were treated as if they were terrorists, while five senior investigators are working on the case, according to Pussy Riot.
Some of the investigators have admitted that the orders came “from the very top,” the group says.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, admitted that his boss did not like the song.
It appears that it was no coincidence that the arrests took place on March 3 — the day before the voting, which was marked by large-scale violations in favor of Putin — with the aim of scaring protesters and dissenting artists.
The feelings of believers are merely being used as a pretext for political repression.
Novaya Gazeta reported this week that the alleged band members had been offered immediate release by Channel One television in exchange for an on-air apology on a popular talk show, which is chillingly reminiscent of Stalin’s 1930s show trials and dissidents’ television repentances of the 1970s and 1980s.
Free Pussy Riot!

TITLE: Literary music
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Nationality is key to the art of composer Rodion Shchedrin. His operas and ballets are almost exclusively inspired by classic Russian literature. 
Shchedrin’s works — both new creations and those written years ago — such as the ballets “Anna Karenina,” “The Seagull” and “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” and the operas “The Enchanted Wanderer” and “Dead Souls” are now being enthusiastically staged by Russian companies, with the Mariinsky Theater showing the biggest appetite.
Every month, local audiences can attend a Shchedrin work. Two upcoming options are “The Little Humpbacked Horse” on March 17 and “Anna Karenina” on March 31.
Born in Moscow in 1932 in the family of a composer and a lecturer on the history of music, Shchedrin was brought up in a classical music environment. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as both a pianist and composer, and often performed his piano works himself.
A self-confessed workaholic, Shchedrin likes to repeat an old joke: A man is walking around New York and asks for directions. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” the man wonders. “Practice, practice and practice,” comes the reply.
“However talented one may be, skipping rehearsals is an absolute taboo,” the composer said. “To retain self-respect and the respect of your audiences, it is better to cancel a performance altogether than to perform a raw, under-rehearsed piece. And the older you become, the more rehearsal time you need. This is because the more professional you are, the more nuances you can work on.”
Without the slightest fear of appearing old-fashioned, Shchedrin admits he still composes without using any computer technology. All he needs, he says, is the right state of mind, a pen and a few sheets of paper. 
“Of course, I am not entirely computer-illiterate: I can read and send emails and check out videos on YouTube, but that is about it,” the composer smiles. “I absolutely consciously stop there. Technology does not help my creative process. Rather, it distracts me.”
The composer is never apart from his mobile phone but his wife, the legendary ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, does not use one as she feels it interferes with her privacy. 
“Technology does make me curious, but its involvement, or perhaps invasion in people’s private lives is at times somewhat scary. Also, you just can’t keep up with the tempo of these novelties replacing one another: You have just about learned how to use a gadget, and then it is declared outdated. How are you supposed to feel? Like a pathetic imbecile!”
Shchedrin finds it difficult to accept the term “contemporary music.” He feels a work of music is either good or bad, and modern composers, he argues, can simply be called living artists. 
Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, is a fan of Shchedrin’s music. Since 2008, the company has given premieres of “The Enchanted Wanderer,” as well as of the ballets “Anna Karenina,” “The Little Humpbacked Horse” and “Carmen Suite.” The theater also sells a season ticket to a series titled “Shchedrin” that runs both at the theater itself and at the Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall, and features the composer’s symphonic works, ballets and operas, including the ballets “Anna Karenina” and “Carmen Suite.” And, of course, the company is now well-rehearsed in Shchedrin’s symphonic works, which it regularly performs both at home and on tour. 
Shchedrin’s works will also be presented at the International Stars of the White Nights Festival that will run from the second half of May through mid-July at the Mariinsky Theater.
The question of what makes a good composer or how one becomes a composer is technical for Shchedrin. “I could say, get a degree in composition, and this would be a formal answer. But it is a true answer, because one needs to be born a composer. What you learn is how to use certain instruments that help you to write down your score or learn how to use a certain musical form or structure.” 
“Another issue that is essential for a composer to be able to succeed today is maintaining independence and being able to have their artistic say, while being able to attract commissions and sponsorship,” he added. “This balance often results in compromises that destroy artists, even highly gifted people, which is very sad, heartbreaking actually.”
In 1964, Shchedrin was on vacation in Armenia with Dmitry Shostakovich. Naturally, the two composers spoke extensively about music. At one point, Shostakovich asked Shchedrin: “If you were to spend the rest of your life on an island with no people around, and were allowed to take only one piece of music with you, what would that be?” Shchedrin was given 15 seconds to come up with a response.
“Bach’s ‘The Art of Fugue,’” Shchedrin replied. Shostakovich’s choice was Mahler’s “Song of the Earth.” Eleven years later, when Shostakovich was dying, Shchedrin visited him, and the friends recalled their conversation in Armenia. It turned out that their choices had not changed. 
Shchedrin’s 54-year-long marriage to Plisetskaya, who inspired his ballets “Carmen Suite” and “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” is a legend in itself. The couple, who divide their time between Munich, Moscow and the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, are often spotted holding hands when wandering through the streets or attending glamorous social events.
When talking about his wife, Shchedrin smiles broadly and his eyes light up. “Maya has the soul of an angel,” he says.
The composer brims with admiration for the woman who became the love of his life. With two stars in one family, public attention or competition over who is more successful has never been an issue, unlike in many other celebrity families.
“We have always had the warmest feelings for each other, and never even thought in terms of who is the first violin and who is the second,” Shchedrin said. “You know, some people in the West do not know Maya and they call her ‘Frau Shchedrin.’ Her ego was never bruised by this. Honestly, she does not mind.”
“We have never had to do what some people call ‘saving their relationship’ — we have never really had a crisis,” Shchedrin said. 
“People often say that relationships are hard work, but ours has never been like that. I think we just happened to be a perfect match. One of those marriages made in heaven.”

TITLE: the word’s worth: All the election slang that’s fit to print
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Ïóòèíã: a rally in support of Putin

Why, oh why, do I read readers’ comments on online articles about the presidential election? They make me crazy and depressed. What ignorance, stupidity and bad grammar!
Jeez, don’t Americans know anything?
Russian comments on articles about the election make me crazy, too. But they also scare the pants off me. Man, they are nasty. The name-calling is over the top on both sides. But oddly, it’s the winning team that utters the most threats.
If you want to follow grassroots post-election analysis, you may need a short guide to the vocabulary — or at least the vocabulary that’s fit to print.
Oppositional terminology. The opposition calls their rallies ìèòèíãè. They call the rallies organized in support of Putin ïóòèíãè. Âñå îáñóæäàþò ïðîøåäøèå â ñóááîòó ïî âñåé ñòðàíå ìèòèíãè è ïóòèíãè (Everyone is talking about the rallies for and against Putin that were held all around the country on Saturday). Sometimes they call their own rallies àíòèïóòèíãè (anti-Putin rallies).
Opposition-minded activists call ardent Putin supporters ïóòèíîèäû (Putinoids): Îêîëî 10 óòðà ïðèøëà â ó÷àñòîê íàáëþäàòåëüíèöà-ïóòèíîèäêà (About 10 a.m. a Putinoid lady observer came to the polling station). Most commonly, the opposition calls the Putin activists either áûäëî (cattle, sheep), or a coined word like áûäëîìàññà, a combination of biomass and livestock, or áûäëèöî, a combination of cattle (áûäëî) and scoundrel (ïîäëåö) with a bit of ëèöî (person) thrown in.
More insulting is the term ãîïîòà (singular: ãîïíèê, ãîï, ãîïàðü), which means a crowd of lowlifes, street thugs or scumbags. The word is fairly old, although etymologists squabble over its origins. It is either derived from the word ãîï (a jump or blow) or from the abbreviation of Ãîðîäñêîå Îáùåæèòèå Ïðîëåòàðèàòà (Municipal Proletarian Dormitory), a place where uneducated, criminally minded plebes lived after the 1917 Revolution. Today it often used to describe the demonstrators bused in to attend Putin rallies.
In these circles, Putin is called Ïó (Pu) or sometimes the very rude Ïóé, which sounds like a very nasty three-letter word.
Putin-supporter terminology. A good deal of this vocabulary falls into the not-fit-to-print category, but their most common nonobscene name-calling is wordplay with ëèáåðàë (liberal) — already a swear word in this crowd — and a variety of insulting suffixes. For example, they use ëèáåðàñò, a combination of ëèáåðàë and ïåäåðàñò, a nasty term for a homosexual.
You might also come across ëèáåðîñðà÷, which combines ëèáåðàë with ñðà÷ (mess, filth) in its slang meaning of verbal diarrhea. Ëóçåðàì íè÷åãî íå îñòà¸òñÿ äðóãîãî êàê çàòåÿòü ëèáåðîñðà÷. (Those losers can’t do anything about it. All they can do is spew their liberal crap.)
You might also find the curious phrase Òàãèë ðóëèò! (Tagil rules!) in Putin-supporter posts. The phrase comes from a series of sketches on the television show “Íàøà Russia” (Our Russia) about Gena and Vovan, two tourists in Turkey from Nizhny Tagil. Drunk, boorish and spouting obscenities, they are the personification of the ugly Russian tourist.
Ðóëèòü means to drive in standard Russian, but has come to mean “rule” in slang, probably from the sound similarity with the English word. Òàãèë ðóëèò! is the proud assertion of Vovan and Gena on the show. But one poster comments darkly: Íó ÷¸, áàíäåðëîãè. Òàãèë ðóëèò. Òàãèë ðåàëüíî ðóëèò. (How do you like that, you monkeys? Tagil rules. Tagil truly rules.)
Fasten your seat belts. We’re in for a bumpy ride.

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

TITLE: Back into the fray
AUTHOR: By Dmitry Ivanov
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A heavily anticipated fight between heavyweight mixed martial arts (MMA) athletes Jeff “The Snowman” Monson and Alexey “The Boa Constrictor” Oleinik is set to be the highlight of the M-1 Mixed Martial Arts Challenge 31 at St. Petersburg’s Ice Palace on Friday. The tournament will also feature a welterweight title fight between Switzerland’s Yasubey Enomoto and Russia’s Rashid Magomedov, and a fight between heavyweights Alexander Emelianenko and Tadas “Lithuanian Bear” Rimkevicius, among other events.
Monson, a member of American Top Team, is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion contender, two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) winner, and No-Gi (submission wrestling) World Champion. Speaking to The St. Petersburg Times by phone from his home in the U.S., he said that his Russian-Ukrainian adversary Oleinik, who represents Red Devil Sport Club, is “very experienced, he has a lot of wins, and a lot of submission wins, more than me.” However, both Monson and Oleinik are master grapplers. “That’s the thing about a fight, you never know how it’s gonna go,” Monson said.
Monson’s previous appearance in Russia on Nov. 20 last year made headline news in Russia, but not so much for his fight against Alexander Emelianenko’s older brother and fellow heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, which Monson lost. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the fight in Moscow’s Olympic Arena, in what was seen by analysts as an attempt to drum up support for his United Russia party in the run-up to the State Duma elections in December. YouTube videos of Putin apparently being booed by MMA fans went viral, although the prime minister’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media that the booing was directed at Monson, not Putin.
“There was booing going on, [but] I wasn’t really paying attention to it because my leg was broken,” said Monson. He added that he received “literally 5,000 emails from people in Russia who either watched the fight or watched the video of the fight, and said ‘We were booing Putin, not you.’” 
Finding himself an unlikely hero for Russia’s opposition, Monson said that he “got a really good positive response, but I think the people are just tired of the corruption and the government, and the way it’s going; they were just voicing their displeasure.”
A self-confessed anarchist, Monson is no stranger to speaking out against governments. He canceled his appearance at the Fightforce — Day of Anger tournament in St. Petersburg in February 2009, in which he was to fight Russia’s Ibragim Magomedov. Monson was on probation for defacing Washington State Capitol with anarchist and pacifist graffiti during an anti-war demonstration. 
“The judge wouldn’t allow me to go,” Monson said. As a result, he was replaced by a relative unknown, Finland’s Jarno Nurminen, at the eleventh hour. During his trial, Monson argued that “the United States was breaking international law [by] involving itself in the Iraq conflict,” and that it was his duty to stand up to that. He was found guilty of malicious mischief, sentenced to 90 days of work release, and received a fine of $21,894.
An altercation with Moscow police in November last year proved a lot less troublesome in legal terms — and less traumatic than the fight with Emelianenko — for the heavyweight fighter. Monson had to take to Twitter to dispel rumors and announce that he “didn’t beat up two Russian cops.” On his way to a seminar organized by members of Russia’s anti-fascist movement, Monson traveled by metro because of busy traffic. “When we were taking the metro, there was a gentleman — it looked like he was probably drunk — and there were two police officers who were attempting to get him up. He kind of kicked at one of them, and they started kicking and beating him, and I went over and got in-between him and the officers, helped the gentleman up, and we walked away,” Monson said. “I didn’t say anything, I didn’t touch them and they didn’t touch me, it’s got a little bit blown out of proportion,” he added.

<i>M-1 Challenge 31 mixed martial arts tournament starts at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 16 at the Ice Palace, 1 Prospekt Pyatiletok. Tel. 718 6620, 718 6622. 
M. Prospekt Bolshevikov. A live broadcast will be shown on Rossiya-2 TV channel starting at 8.15 p.m.</i>

TITLE: in the spotlight: The Buranovskiye Babushki
AUTHOR: By Anna Malpas
TEXT: Last week, Russia finally got it with Eurovision, sending the Buranovskiye Babushki, who dance in shoes made of birchbark, but to a disco beat.
The ladies from the Udmurtia republic, known mainly as the birthplace of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, are going to sing “Party for Everybody” in Baku. It promises to be a vintage contest, what with sizzling political tensions and sideburned crooner Englebert Humperdinck representing Britain in another spot-on decision.
Even the election protesters hushed for a moment to watch the Russian round on Wednesday. “The Buranovskiye Babushki … We are watching,” wrote the For Honest Elections Twitter feed.
And former Eurovision winner Dima Bilan and lavishly tattooed rapper Timati, both of whom lost against the babushkas in the heat, were quick to offer them a slap on the back.
“The grans are really cool. They’re just incredible,” Bilan wrote on Twitter, while Timati said, “Objectively, this is 100 percent the babushkas’ victory. Thanks to all the fan clubs who voted. Peace.”
Bilan’s producer Yana Rudkovskaya was less diplomatic, however. “In my opinion, it wasn’t professional singing,” she told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “I just really doubt they’ll get a high place.”
Moskovsky Komsomolets’ showbiz expert Artur Gasparyan agreed, telling an Azeri news site, 1news.az, that “cold logic” would have backed Bilan in a duet with Yulia Volkova of fake lesbian duo Tatu. But he admitted that the babushkas “made everyone fall in love with them.”
But other critics were more enthusiastic. Artemy Troitsky praised their “feel-good kitsch” to NTV, saying they were the best thing on the Russian pop scene, while pop producer Iosif Prigozhin, who has previously contested the result of a heat starring his wife and client Valeria, told KP that they deserved to win. “My inner voice told me that it should be the Buranovskiye Babushki,” he said.
“This is really Russia, not some pathetic imitation of the West,” critic Svyatoslav Belza told KP.
The video of their song on YouTube has already been watched more than a million times. And Russian television must be laughing with the extreme unlikelihood of any damaging cocaine or gay orgy stories ever coming out about these contestants.
A website based in the Udmurtia capital of Izhevsk, Izhlife.ru, explained what the words of their song, mainly in the Udmurt language mean.
“The grannies are singing about laying the table with food, inviting guests and children, everyone comes and then they are singing and dancing for them with all their soul. They ask everyone to dance with them.”
The ages of the babushkas remain somewhat in doubt, with KP saying the eldest is 74, while Rossia-24 television said their average age is 75. It’s a crucial point for Humperdinck, who will be 76 by the time the contest is held and may be grinding his sparkly white teeth at the unexpected challenge to his “oldest ever contestant” title.
Humperdinck is not exactly a household name in Russia any more, but he does have the approval of its pop king Filipp Kirkorov, who has called him his favorite singer and borrows some of his barnstorming, big-haired style.
Critic Gasparyan praised “the subtle, sophisticated English humor” of this year’s choice.
Sadly this week, Armenia said it was pulling out of Eurovision, after hopes that “disco diplomacy” could allow neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia to forget their grievances for a few hours. But no. Azerbaijan had already put backs up by refusing to issue visas to the contest for anyone who had visited disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, the worst bone of contention between the countries.
In 2009, Azerbaijan scandalously traced and questioned all the handful of people who voted for the Armenian contestant.

TITLE: THE DISH: Frida
AUTHOR: By Shura Collinson
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: <b>Karmic cuisine</b>
Frida is the kind of place that makes you feel as if you have boosted your karma simply by crossing its threshold. The latest caf&#233; to be opened by the team behind the ever-popular Chainny Dom on Ulitsa Rubinshteina, whose small empire of upscale hippie hangouts also includes the Indian caf&#233; Kashmir on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Ulitsa, the new eatery bears the distinctive hallmarks of its older siblings. With its beaded curtains sectioning off cozy corners, its miniature jungle of house plants and fake bamboo walls, the interior could just as easily be that of a meditation retreat or alternative medicine center as that of its true identity — a vegetarian caf&#233;.
The menu — an attractively designed but difficult to decipher visual homage to Klimt and other Art Nouveau gods — incorporates an impressive variety of international cuisine, with sections devoted to Indian, Georgian, Uzbek and Mexican dishes. There is a focus on “lunch” deals, though these generous set menus are happily available all day. 
The Mexican lunch (680 rubles, $23) was a hearty affair that comprised burritos — packed with fresh shredded vegetables and accompanied by guacamole — as well as a salad and vegetable hotpot. In true Russian style, all three dishes arrived at once, resulting in the salad — a generous mix of arugula, fried sweet potato chips, pine nuts and cheese, decorated with a few precious artichoke hearts — being eaten last, on the basis that it was already cold. The hotpot dish had, from its description and picture in the menu, appeared to be the most tempting part of the set, but was disappointing: The cheese topping was scarce, the vegetable filling seemingly consisted of little other than carrots, and the corn was unmistakably pickled — hardly the authentic Mexican flavor for which one might hope. The deal also included a pot of mate served in a traditional gourd. The bitter concoction was deemed undrinkable by our inexperienced party, but may well have delighted aficionados of the infusion.
Like Chainny Dom, Frida offers a vast array of teas, coffees and desserts, as well as hookah pipes, and already appears to be a hit with those who simply want to chill out, smoke hookah and while away the time watching the Chaplin films being projected onto one wall, or leafing through the art books that line the shelves. With its multitude of candles, reproductions of self portraits by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, after whom the caf&#233; is named, and feminine touches such as inviting diners to pick out a wise saying or poem from a beaded bag upon presentation of the bill, you could be forgiven for expecting to find a predominantly female clientele, but on the Friday evening that we visited, most customers were either couples or groups of macho-looking men smoking hookah and playing board games.
The staff at Frida — who can be summoned using a small Buddhist-style bell placed on each table — are also anxious to look after their karma, and offered profuse apologies, as well as a discount on the bill, after a shower of hot sparks fell from a hookah pipe being carried to the next table onto the woolen sweater of one of our party, adding the smell of sizzling wool to that of the Mahatma Himalayan salad (450 rubles, $15). This layered dish of beansprouts, tomato, cucumber, apple and nuts, selected from the a la carte section of the menu, was not as fresh as the Mexican dishes, and ultimately nondescript.
The number of vegetarian cafes and restaurants in St. Petersburg is gradually growing, though the idea that food is not a meal without meat remains widespread. Even incorrigible carnivores may be fooled into enjoying a visit to Frida, however. Those who are not put off by the sweetness of the sauce that accompanies the soya with baked mango, green beans and fennel (410 rubles, $14) could even be fooled into thinking they are eating the real deal: The soya was disconcertingly similar to meat. It would seem even the most confirmed meat-eaters can satisfy their appetite without compromising their karma.

TITLE: Fresh Focus on Churches of the North
AUTHOR: By Alexander Winning
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: “Wooden Churches: Travelling in the Russian North,” a new book by photographer Richard Davies and artist and writer Matilda Moreton, is a cause for both joy and sadness.
The book celebrates the simplistic beauty of pre-revolutionary churches hidden away in Russia’s northwest but also reflects on the state of disrepair into which many of the buildings have fallen.
Davies and Morton’s work “gives the reader a glimpse of a vanishing world,” said Mikhail Milchik, an architectural historian from St. Petersburg, at the Moscow launch of the book at the Shchusev Architecture Museum last month.
Nine years in the making, Davies’ photographs are the heart of the book, but Moreton’s written accounts of the pair’s journeys along with the gathered insights of travelers, writers and historians are also essential in bringing the churches to life.
The result is a touching tribute to one of Russia’s fading glories and a sensitive portrayal of a sparsely populated corner of the country often overlooked by visitors.
Davies was first drawn to Russia’s northwest in 2002, after seeing artist and writer Ivan Bilibin’s early 20th-century postcard images of the region’s churches. Even in Bilibin’s time, many of the churches were under threat — “they [the churches] are being vandalized to the point of destruction or are ruined with ‘restoration’ to the point of  being unrecognizable,” he wrote.
One hundred years on, Davies and Moreton revisited the region with fresh eyes but came to the same conclusion.
“Many churches have been lost: some have been left to rot; some have been destroyed by lightning; countless others by ignorance, spite and neglect,” they write in the book’s introduction. 
“Last year, one church was hit by a reversing tractor — it tumbled like a pack of cards.”
In their efforts to detail one of the most original aspects of Russia’s architectural heritage, the pair traveled to Karelia and the Leningrad, Vologda, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, often several times a year.
They also read around the subject in depth, collecting tributes to the region and its churches from literary greats such as Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Vladimir Mayakovsky and travelers’ tales to accompany Moreton’s firsthand impressions.
“It was a wonderful adventure going through the literature,” Davies said at the book launch.
Sometimes Davies stands back, placing the mainly 17th- and 18th-century churches in their community, with locals standing by and stunning nature all around. At other times, he moves in on the often bare interiors, on a simple cross or an ornate painted ceiling.
In one photograph shot in Karelia, a young boy poses by a haystack while his mother waits with a stroller by the church in the distance. In another, in the Arkhangelsk region, a local sits on a sledge facing the camera, with telephone wires crisscrossing between the lens and the 18th-century church in the background.
“You can feel Davies’ love for the churches, it flows from the page,” said Clementine Cecil, co-founder of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society, which helped organize the book’s presentation in Moscow.

<i>“Wooden Churches: Travelling in the Russian North” can be bought on Amazon’s British site www.amazon.co.uk, or from the Shchusev Architecture Museum, which is expecting copies to arrive in the coming weeks. www.richarddavies.co.uk</i>

TITLE: The Cradle of Russian Democracy
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bratersky
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: VELIKY NOVGOROD — Veliky Novgorod is a rather small city of just 200,000 inhabitants and is both the cradle and the symbol of Russian democracy, which was established here more than 900 years ago.
For almost 300 years, starting in 1136, the Novgorod Republic was ruled by a local chamber that paid no attention to rulers in Moscow. While some dispute modern Russia’s democratic credentials, ancient Novgorod’s experiment with democracy was outstanding.
The city, initially called Novgorod, or “New City,” was believed to have been founded by Prince Rurik, a Varangian chieftain, and was first mentioned in manuscripts in 859.
In 1014, the city obtained independence from the Kievan Rus kingdom and established its own state that started at the Baltic Sea and included parts of Karelia and southern Finland. A stone castle, the Novgorod Kremlin, or detinets, was built to protect the city from foreign enemies.
The city was ruled by a chamber called a veche, a gathering of local citizens often called a direct form of democracy.
“Democracy has existed here before it took root in Europe,” Novgorod Governor Sergei Mitin said proudly in an interview.
The city was able to defend itself from foreign enemies, including armies from Sweden and Finland. In 1242, the Novgorod army led by Prince Alexander Nevsky destroyed an army of well-equipped German warriors.
But Novgorod’s independence and self-rule lasted only 300 years. In 1569, the city was taken over by the army of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In 1995, the Russian government renamed the city Veliky Novgorod (The Great New City).
Today the city, located 529 kilometers north of Moscow, is among the country’s most popular tourist destinations and last year attracted 140,000 tourists, eager to see its historical monuments and monasteries.

<b>What to see if you have two hours</b>
A walk through the Novgorod Kremlin is a must. The red-brick walls of the castle are reminiscent of Moscow’s Kremlin, and most of its original 12 towers still stand intact. The Kremlin is a small city by itself, and its territory hosts a museum and the stunning ancient St. Sophia Cathedral, built between 1045 and 1050. The monastery is the oldest surviving church in Russia and was built by the Slavs. On display inside are many historical artifacts of that era, including a large cross dedicated to the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo where Russian forces defeated the Mongolian Khan.
Another monument located inside the Kremlin was built under Alexander II in 1862 to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in Russia. The monument, which has a cross on top, is a symbol of the monarchy and surrounded by 129 human figures, symbolizing different episodes of the country’s history from Prince Rurik to the members of Prince Romanov’s dynasty. During the Nazi invasion, the monument was dismantled by Nazi soldiers to ship to Germany, but the Soviet army was able to save it.
Also stop by the Novgorod State Museum of Art Culture (11 Kreml; +7 816-277-37-38; novgorodmuseum.ru) located just minutes by foot from the Kremlin. The well-kept gallery combines a collection of Russian and European art, including works by Ivan Kramskoi and Alexander Ivanov’s masterpiece “Crying for Jesus.”
After that, take a stroll around Veliky Novgorod to enjoy the city, which is remarkably clean after a major facelift for its 1150th anniversary in 2009. The federal government, which spent 1.7 billion rubles ($56.6 million) for the renovations, last year named the city one of the best-kept in Russia.

<b>What to do if you have two days</b>
Veliky Novgorod is a small city, and you can see it all in a few hours. So if you have two days, you should take a trip outside the city to visit the legendary Novgorod region monasteries, many of which are under UNICEF protection. The area around Veliky Novgorod hosts two dozen monasteries, including the Varlaamo-Khutinsky Monastery, located 7 kilometers from the city. The monastery, founded in 1190, was named after the monk Varlaam, who found calm there. The grave of 18th-century poet Gavriil Derzhavin is also located there.
Another interesting place to visit is the Vitoslavlitsy Museum of Wooden Architecture (Yuryevskoye Shosse; +7 816-227-36-91; novgorodmuseum.ru/vitoslavlicy), established in 1964 after dozens of wooden houses, churches and mills were moved to one location from various parts of the region. Vitoslavlitsy serves as a place to restore wooden housing and an ethnographic museum with folk and art festivals.

<b>Nightlife</b>
Night Ocean (4 Chudovskaya Ulitsa; +7 816-233-49-49; club-no.ru) is the largest night club and popular among the young crowd. The club, which has its own pack of DJs, features all kinds of music, but house is among the most popular.
While the city is known for its democratic roots, the Fregat Flagman nightclub (Naberezhnaya Alexandra Nevskogo; +7 816-2 50-07-77; fregat-flagman.ru) might be seen as an example of the class divide. The second floor hosts wealthy clientele, while the first floor has a more, shall we say, democratic crowd. The club also organizes the annual Miss Veliky Novgorod beauty pageant.
Theater lovers should check out Novgorod’s theater, named after Fyodor Dostoevsky (14 Velikaya Ulitsa; +7 816-277-25-33; theatre.natm.ru). The theater building is a masterpiece on its own, built in 1987 and reminiscent of a post-modernist castle meeting a spaceship. The theater was featured in the book “Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed” by photographer Frederic Chaubin along with other bizarre Soviet-era buildings.

<b>Where to eat</b>
Khoroshiye Lyudi (Good People) (1/1 Meretskova-Volosova; cafe.nov.ru/nice-people), located near the kremlin, is one of the city’s most popular cafes with a minimalist design, tasty ice cream and its own bakery. Take a seat inside and watch the tourists talking and reading The Moscow Times, which a reporter found available for diners during a recent visit. A meal for two costs about 2,000 rubles ($70).
The Napoli restaurant (21/43 Studencheskaya Ulitsa; +7 816-263-63-07) is designed like a classical Italian courtyard and is favored by the local business elite. Dinner for two costs 3,000 rubles to 5,000 rubles ($100 to $170).
For down-to-earth food and prices, try the Kolobok pie shop (28 Bolshaya Moskovskaya Ulitsa; +7 816-263-82-04), which some locals affectionately call a “living example of Soviet trash.” Kolobok, which even has its own Wikipedia page, sells cheap but tasty pies and other food. Lunch for two costs 200 rubles to 300 rubles. ($6 to $10).

<b>Where to stay</b>
The Volkhov Hotel (24 Predtechenskaya Ulitsa; +7 816-222-55-05; hotel-volkhov.ru), which was built during Soviet times and recently underwent a major facelift, is among the city’s top hotels and is located 10 minutes from the kremlin. A room for two costs 2,900 rubles ($100) per night. The hotel is also known for its small but amusing Lost and Found Museum. Among the items on display are a 1960s book on the KGB, an East German electric razor, lost in 1963, and the Soviet passport of someone with the last name Surkov. Another option for a quiet night is the centrally located Radisson Park Inn Veliky Novgorod (2 Studencheskaya Ulitsa; +7 816-294-09-10; parkinn.ru/hotel-velikynovgorod), whose architecture combines elements of modern and old-style decor. A standard single costs 4,200 rubles a night.

<b>Conversation starters</b>
Mentioning how the roots of Russian democracy go back to Veliky Novgorod would be a welcome start for a conversation with any local resident, regardless of his political affiliation. But avoid stepping on thin ice by linking the city’s history with modern politics.
Residents like to complain about a lack of native sons in the local government. Novgorod Governor Sergei Mitin, a former deputy agriculture minister, brought a team of people from Moscow and St. Petersburg to his office in the city when he took the reins in 2007.

<b>How to get there</b>
There are regular buses to Novgorod from St. Petersburg, which leave from the city’s bus station. There is a bus almost every hour. The trip lasts about four hours and costs 300 rubles ($10.20).
There are also at least two daily trains to Novgorod — one in the morning and one in the evening — that depart from the city’s Moscow Train Station. The journey takes about three hours and also costs about 300 rubles.
The city had a busy airport in Soviet times, with regular flights to Moscow, Minsk and Krasnodar, but air traffic fell to one daily flight to Moscow in 1996 and was then discontinued. The runway is now used for car racing.
<hr />
<b>Veliky Novgorod</b> 

<i>Population</i>: 218,724
Main industries: Metallurgy, 
chemical industry
Mayor: Yury Bobryshev
Founded in 859.

Interesting fact No. 1: 
Veliky Novgorod was awarded the status of Russia’s best-kept city by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in 2011. 
Interesting fact No. 2: 
The city and surrounding region hosted a pilot program of controversial water filters by self-styled inventor Viktor Petrik.

Helpful contact: Vladislav Nazarenko, head of the city’s industrial policy and international relationship department (+7 816-299-42-13).
Sister cities: Watford, Britain; 
Nanter, France; Rochester, 
New York, U.S. 

<b>Major Businesses</b> 
 Acron (+7 816-299-66-63; acron.ru) is a leading local producer of mineral fertilizers and the region’s biggest employer. It also has offices in Moscow and several foreign countries.

 Kraft Foods Russia (7 Dolgorukovskaya Ulitsa, Moscow; 
+7 495-960-24-80; kraftfoods.ru) owns a factory in Veliky Novgorod that makes Dirol and Stimorol chewing gum.

 Alkon (2 Ulitsa Germana; 
+7 8162 77-94-03; alkon.su) 
is a vodka producer that produces the Sadko premium brand.
<hr />
<b>Yevgeny Bogdanov</b>,
Owner of Novbioprom, an animal feed producer, and head of the local chapter of Delovaya Rossia, the business-lobbying group

<i><b>Q: What is the nature of your business?</b></i> 
<i><b>A:</b></i> My main occupation today is the production of animal feed at my company, Novbioprom. We hope that our products will prove popular among farmers because the ingredients we use help animals to overcome sicknesses. We have worked with scientists at Novgorod University to develop them. Our main task is to find customers on foreign markets.
<i><b>Q: What is the investment climate in the region?</b></i>
<i><b>A:</b></i> Things have improved since a new governor took office in 2007 and opened dialogue with business. A council to develop business was established on the gubernatorial level, and we have engaged in very sincere discussions. But it still takes time to process documents, and we are working to shorten this period.
At Delovaya Rossia, we helped draft a program to improve the investment climate. We took the Kaluga region as our inspiration, and the Novgorod region now allows a new business not to pay income tax until it breaks even. There also are tax breaks on profit and property taxes.
<i><b>Q: What is your favorite place in Veliky Novgorod?</b></i>
<i><b>A:</b></i> People who visit see that Veliky Novgorod is a clean, European-style city and very cozy. The Kremlin, of course, is a must-see, and I would also recommend to taking a trip to Shum Gora (Batetsky district, Novgorod region), where Prince Rurik is believed to be buried. The regional government plans to build a replica of an ancient village on the site to attract tourists.
<hr />
<b>Yury Bobryshev,</b> 
Mayor

<i><b>Q: What makes Veliky Novgorod attractive to foreign investors?</b></i> 
<i><b>A:</b></i> The city has good logistics, with Moscow and St. Petersburg nearby. It takes three hours to get to Moscow on the Sapsan high-speed train. It is also convenient that Novgorod is located on the road to the Ust-Luga port, and Chinese developers have already constructed one logistics center and started to build another one. 
<i><b>Q: What challenges does the city face?</b></i> 
<i><b>A:</b></i> As with most of Russia, we are facing problems in the utilities sector. We did manage to solve a transportation problem by changing 60 percent of the public buses, but traffic jams remain a problem because we lack bridges. The city needs a third bridge, which we are planning to build soon. 
Five years ago the city didn’t have any public parks, but last year we were awarded the title of the most developed city.
<i><b>Q: What places would you recommend visiting in the city?</b></i> 
<i><b>A:</b></i> The city is beautiful both in winter and summer, and you can hear church bells tolling no matter where you are standing. I am not a native resident, but living in Novgorod feels like living in a good home surrounded by good people. I recommend visiting the Museum of Wooden Architecture.

TITLE: Russians Buy Up London
AUTHOR: By Irina Filatova
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW — Russian buyers continue to rank first among foreigners spending on high-end housing in London, giving the market a significant boost in the last few years, a consulting company said Monday.
Property shoppers from Russia spend an average of &#163;6.2 million ($9.7 million) on elite property in London, followed by buyers from the Middle East who usually invest about &#163;4 million, according to IntermarkSavills, an international company focusing on high-end property.
The trend has remained unchanged over the last five years, it said in e-mailed comments.
London has traditionally been among the most attractive locations for Russians, who accounted for 8 percent of all sales of existing high-end housing in the city last year, up from 4 percent in 2010, the company said.
Among major customers are business visitors who need a permanent place to stay during frequent trips and those who buy housing for their children studying in London, said Alexander Shatalov, a managing partner at IntermarkSavills.
The demand from Russians helped boost prices for high-end property in London by 11.4 percent last year, according to Penny Lane Realty.
“It’s not a secret that Russians buy the most expensive houses in London, probably more often than Middle East sheiks and American multimillionaires,” said Alexander Ziminsky, head of Penny Lane Realty’s high-end property sales department.

TITLE: 31 Killed as Bangladesh Ferry Capsizes
AUTHOR: By Farid Hossain
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DHAKA, Bangladesh — A ferry packed with about 200 people capsized in a river in southern Bangladesh on Tuesday, killing 31 people and leaving dozens more missing, authorities said.
Local police chief Mohammad Shahabuddin Khan said about 35 people were rescued after the ferry sank on the Meghna River after colliding with a cargo boat early in the morning. Divers have recovered 31 bodies from inside the sunken ferry, he said.
He said the dead included a young woman found cradling her baby’s lifeless body.
“The death toll is likely to rise as more bodies are feared trapped inside,” Khan said. “We will get a better picture of the casualties once the sunken ferry is pulled out of the water.”
Khan could not specify exactly how many people were still missing, but said “many of those listed missing are feared dead.”
One of the divers, Mohammad Alauddin, said there were still bodies inside the sunken ferry, some of them buried under cargo.
Hundreds of anxious people, many of them weeping, gathered near the scene of the accident to look for their loved ones.
The MV Shariatpur-1 was traveling to the capital, Dhaka, from neighboring Shariatpur district to the southwest. The accident site is in Munshiganj district, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Dhaka.
Dulal Dewan, a survivor, described a scene of chaos as the ferry collided with the other ship.
“I was awakened with a big jolt,” said the businessman, who was asleep on the top deck when the collision occurred. “I jumped into the river in darkness as the ferry started going down.”
“In minutes there were screams all around,” he said. “People were shouting for help.”
Dewan said he was rescued by a nearby boat, but eight other family members traveling with him were still unaccounted for.
Estimates varied as to how many people were on board the ferry.
Khan put the number at close to 200, while Dewan told reporters that about 300 people were on board when the double-deck ferry sank.
It is difficult to get a reliable estimate as ferry operators rarely keep a list of passengers. Most passengers buy tickets once on board.
Abdul Gani Akhand, 75, was among the survivors.
“I was sleeping and I really don’t know how I survived,” he said, shivering as a rescue worker ferried him to a hospital.
An investigation has been ordered into the cause of the accident, said Azizul Alam, the area’s government administrator.
Alam said rescuers located the ferry in water about 70 feet (21 meters) deep. He said a rescue vessel was trying to pull the sunken boat close to the shore.
Ferry accidents, often blamed on overcrowding, faulty vessels and lax rules, are common in Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 160 million people.

TITLE: Revenge Sought For U.S. Attack
AUTHOR: By Mirwais Khan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BALANDI, Afghanistan — Taliban militants opened fire Tuesday on an Afghan government delegation visiting one of the two villages in southern Afghanistan where a U.S. soldier is suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians.
The delegation was talking with families of the victims in Balandi village when they heard shooting, said Qayum Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president who was part of the group.
He said he did not believe anyone was killed in the attack, but he had heard reports of one person wounded in the foot.
“We were giving them our condolences, then we heard two very, very light shots,” said Karzai. “Then we assumed that it was the national army that started to fire in the air.”
He said that the members of the delegation were safe and they were headed back to Kandahar city.
An Associated Press reporter accompanying the delegation said the gunfire came from two different directions.
The U.S. is holding an Army staff sergeant in custody who is suspected of carrying out the killings before dawn Sunday in two villages close to his base in Kandahar province’s Panjwai district, considered the birthplace of the Taliban.
Villagers have described him stalking from house to house in the middle of the night, opening fire on sleeping families and then burning some of the bodies of the dead afterward.
Nine of the 16 killed were children, and three were women, according to Karzai.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid vowed to take revenge for the attack in a statement sent to reporters Tuesday. He said the shooter should be tried as a war criminal and executed by the victims’ relatives.
Also Tuesday, hundreds of students in eastern Afghanistan shouted angry slogans against the United States and the American soldier accused of carrying out the killings, the first significant protest in response to the tragedy.
The killings have caused outrage in Afghanistan but have not sparked the kind of violent protests seen last month after American soldiers burned Muslim holy books and other Islamic texts.
The more muted response could be a result of Afghans being used to dealing with civilian casualties in over a decade of war. Some have said the slayings in Panjwai were more in keeping with Afghans’ experience of deadly night raids and airstrikes by U.S.-led forces than the Quran burnings were.
But the students protesting at a university in Jalalabad city, 125 kilometers east of the capital Kabul, were incensed.
“Death to America!” and “Death to the soldier who killed our civilians!” shouted the crowd.
Some carried a banner that called for a public trial of the soldier, who U.S. officials have identified as a married, 38-year-old father of two who was trained as a sniper and recently suffered a head injury in Iraq.
Other protesters burned an effigy of President Barack Obama.
“The reason we are protesting is because of the killing of innocent children and other civilians by this tyrant U.S. soldier,” said Sardar Wali, a university student.

TITLE: Poll Suggests Sarkozy To Win 1st Round of Vote
AUTHOR: Angela Charlton
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy heard his first welcome news in a while Tuesday in his battle for re-election.
For the first time in this campaign, a new poll suggests the long-unpopular president could beat Socialist Francois Hollande in the first round of voting next month — but it, like all previous polls, indicates Hollande would win in the crucial runoff.
Sarkozy publicly shrugged off the new estimates, and the campaign remains full of uncertainties. 
The conservative leader has shifted visibly to the right in his campaign, with calls for a crackdown on immigration and criticizing measures accommodating French Muslims. He’s trying to tap votes from the resurgent far right and its candidate Marine Le Pen. Le Pen won a victory of her own Tuesday, as her party announced that she has obtained the 500 signatures from elected officials necessary to formalize her bid for the presidency. Marine Le Pen had warned that a stigma against her anti-immigrant party might keep her from getting the signatures needed to join the race, and said mainstream politicians were pressuring mayors and other local officials not to support her.
Le Pen announced on Twitter on Tuesday — three days before the deadline to submit the signatures — that “the system that wanted to prevent me has just lost a battle.” 
The deadline to submit the signatures is Friday, and the elections are being held in two rounds April 22 and May 6. Far right candidate Philippe Poutou also announced Tuesday that he has enough signatures.
Sarkozy and Hollande are the main players in a campaign that is shaping up as a referendum on the divisive, blunt incumbent. Many voters say they’ll vote for Hollande mainly to keep Sarkozy out of the Elysee Palace — not because they are passionate about Hollande, a jovial legislator who led the Socialist Party through a troubled decade and has few dramatic campaign pledges.
A poll by the Ifop agency released Tuesday says that 28.5 percent of 1,638 respondents plan to vote for Sarkozy in the first round, with 27 percent for Hollande.
The difference falls within the margin of error for the poll, which is 1.6 to 2.5 percent, according to Ifop pollster Frederic Dabi. That means that the two are statistically really about even.
For the second round, the new poll says Hollande would win by a 9-point spread. Still, the new figures reflect the overall trend in recent weeks of Sarkozy gaining on Hollande.
The first-round difference was reversed in the last Ifop poll two weeks ago, with Hollande at 28.5 percent and Sarkozy at 27 percent. That time, too, the difference fell within the margin of error.
The latest poll was conducted between Sunday and Monday night, right after Sarkozy made a major campaign speech in which he threatened to suspend France’s participation in Europe’s border-free travel zone if immigration isn’t brought under control.

TITLE: Former Leader’s Husband Detained in Philippines
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MANILA, Philippines — A court Tuesday ordered the husband of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be arrested on charges that he received millions of dollars in bribes — part of a wide-ranging prosecution of alleged corruption during her presidency.
Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, who was seen as a backroom operator during his wife’s troubled nine years in office, posted bail later Tuesday to avoid detention. He had been indicted on the bribery charges in December.
He is accused of accepting money to push through a $330 million government contract with Chinese telecommunication company ZTE Corp. to set up a nationwide broadband network in 2007. The contract was originally priced at $130 million.
His wife approved the deal but later backtracked under public pressure and a congressional investigation that found the contract vastly overpriced.
Mike Arroyo has denied wrongdoing and says the graft charges are flawed because the former president canceled the deal.
His wife, who left office in 2010, faces the same charges as her husband, and more. She has pleaded innocent to electoral fraud charges, but is in detention at a military hospital as she awaits trial.
A former elections chief, Benjamin Abalos, and ex-Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza were also charged over the ZTE contract and ordered to be arrested Tuesday. They previously testified in a Senate hearing and denied receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks.
Mendoza posted bail, while Abalos is under arrest on the same electoral fraud charge as the former president.
Former Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri had testified that Abalos offered him a bribe to approve the ZTE contract. Jose de Venecia III, a losing bidder with connections to the Arroyos’ inner circle, testified that the ex-president’s husband was promised a $70 million commission.
Arroyo had prevented top officials, including Neri, from continuing to testify in the congressional probe. Under her successor, President Benigno Aquino III, the Philippines’ ombudsman investigated and filed charges at the anti-graft court, which issued the arrest warrants. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The issue was never properly investigated because Arroyo had barred top officials, including Neri, from disclosing further details that might have implicated her.
Aquino blames his predecessor for corruption and says he wants to clean up the government, starting with the prosecution of the Arroyos and their allies. The former first couple accuse Aquino of pursuing a political vendetta.
When the scandal broke, ZTE denied paying any kickbacks. There were further concerns about the contract’s cancellation.