SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #617 (0), Friday, November 3, 2000
**************************************************************************


TITLE: City Mourns at 1st Kursk Burial
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: More than 3,000 friends, colleagues and well-wishers joined the family of Lt. Capt. Dmitry Kolesnikov, whose note gave a chilling insight into the final hours of the Kursk submarine, to attend his burial on Thursday at St. Petersburg's Serafimovskoye Cemetery.


His was the first funeral for any of the 118 victims of the Kursk submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea during exercises in August after two explosions in its forward torpedo compartment.

Government officials - after denying the gravity of the accident, and then waiting several days before requesting foreign aid - initially suggested that the Kursk crew had perished immediately following the as-yet-unexplained explosions. 

But the 27-year-old Kolesnikov's note - which was recovered with his body by divers last Friday - tells a different story, as well as reopening old wounds about the government version of events. 

"It's too dark here so I am writing blindly. It seems we don't have any chances. There is about a 10 to 20 percent chance that someone will ever read what I'm writing. Here's the list of the sailors from the other compartments that are now in the ninth and who are trying to exit. Best regards to everybody. Don't despair. Kolesnikov," he wrote. 

Kolesnikov had been the commander of the Kursk's turbine room in the rear section of the submarine. 

The note, which was displayed at the memorial service held at the Admiralty Hall of the Dzherzhinsky Naval College - Kolesnikov's alma mater - went on to say that 23 people had survived the explosions and sought refuge in the Kursk's ninth, or rear, compartment. 

"The time is 13:50. All the crew from the sixth, seventh and eighth compartments went over to the ninth. We made this decision as the result of an accident. None of us can get to the surface," the note read.

As the mourning began, divers at the wreck, 108 meters below the surface, recovered 12 more bodies, and three more were identified, Reuters reported. 

At the ceremony, a large wooden coffin, covered with the Russian navy flag, stood in the center of the big Admiralty Hall. A picture of Kolesnikov stood in front of the huge wooden and zinc coffin above another extract from his note: "Don't despair."

According to Orthodox tradition, the family sat beside the coffin and received condolences from those who filed by.

The ceremony was characterized by its silence - none of the city, federal or military dignitaries in attendance made speeches. Vyacheslav Popov, Chief Commander of the Northern Fleet only approached the Kolesnikov family to shake hands.

The only voice to be heard was that of the priest, who offered a prayer for Dmitry's "warrior soul." 

"Please, have forgiveness that God didn't save you and your friends from the submarine," he said. 

Kolesnikov's father, a former submarine officer was pale and preoccupied. His mother, a teacher, wept silently. His brother Alexander, 22, also a submariner, shared the same serious countenance as Kolesnikov's widow, Olga, 29. All were seated behind the casket. Somber music played as the thousands of mourners filed by the coffin. 

"The note which he wrote is just striking," said Olga Yakovleva, a former University classmate of Irina Kolesnikova, Dmitry's mother.

"He didn't let himself despair, and supported the others instead," she said.

On the day of the funeral, journalists left the family alone. 

But in an interview two days before the ceremony, Kolesnikov's mother said that she was one of a group of relatives who opposed the idea of bringing up the Kursk's crew members one by one.

Many thought it important to keep the comrades-at-arms together until the entire vessel could be raised in the spring.

Upon the location and the painful identification of her son's body, Ko les ni kov's mother said: "It would be blasphemous to say that we are happy to receive the body of our son when other relatives still don't know if they have a chance to bury their sons," she said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. 

"But I want to say that it was God who sent his body back to us. He took our son but at least gave us his body so that we can bury Dmitry in the Orthodox tradition."

TITLE: Museum Director Takes Walk in Putin's Footsteps
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: IZBORSK, Pskov Oblast - If it were possible for a small town to have its 15 minutes of fame, then Leonid Panov's modest dream, called "In Putin's Footsteps," wants to make his town's day in the sun last at least a couple of months.


This is because Panov's Izborsk - a largely unemployed town of fewer than 700 in the Pskov region - is where President Vladimir Putin made an unlikely stop on Aug. 2 to make a wish on a tree, buy a cucumber and shed his suit to have a splash of water from a local spring.

Ever since then, Panov, who is the director of the local Museum of Regional Studies in Izborsk, has been running a special walking tour in the town, located 300 kilometers from St. Petersburg.

Called "In Putin's Footsteps," the tour has skyrocketed in popularity, Panov said. Everyone from ordinary visitors to government officials has come to follow the president's route, he said - athough no one was seen taking the 300 meter hike on Wednesday. 

Eventually, Panov said, he will put up signs so people can follow Putin's path themselves.

Among the federal dignitaries that Panov has accompanied on his walking trip - which includes such sites as "Where Putin leaned down to a tree and made a wish," "Where Putin took off his suit and tried water from a spring," and "Where Putin bought a cucumber" - are Interior Minister Vla di mir Rushailo, State Duma Human Rights Ombudsman Oleg Mironov, and the Latvian ambassador to Russia, Imant Daudish.

"They all came up to the wish tree and made their secret wish just as Putin did," Panov said.

Oddly, Putin had not scheduled his now-famous stop in Izborsk at all. Traveling through the Pskov region to celebrate Paratroopers Day, he was actually en route to the small Estonian border town of Pechora.

"I remember the day very well," said a beaming Panov in an interview on Wednesday.

"That day, I was on my way to Pskov to visit a cultural commission. But then, on the way, an inner voice told me unexpectedly: 'He is coming!'" said Panov.

"So I turned my car around and went back to Izborsk and there he really was, our president!" 

So why did he come? According to Pa nov, it was the panoramic view of the Iz borsk fortress from the road on which Putin was traveling. Immediately, according to Panov, Putin ordered his motorcade into the town. 

According to legend, the fortress was built by a Swedish knight named Truvor in 862. Truvor, with his brothers Sineus and Rurik, went on to rule Russia. 

But that legend now pales in comparison to the one Panov wants to write. "I want to write another one and call it 'On Putin's Path,'" Panov said.

The most significant part of this legend would doubtless be the spot where Putin bought the now-famous cucumber. It is a bucolic place on the way from the fortress to a natural spring. Along the way, Putin happened across 11-year-old Yulia Skobeleva, who was selling salted cucumbers and apples. The president paid 52 rubles for just one of her wares.

"He leaned down to me, I gave him a spoon, he took one cucumber and tried it," said Skobeleva in an interview Wednesday.

He gave me two rubles for it and then 50 more. We will not spend this note. We decided to keep it as a souvenir. It is hidden now somewhere in our flat." 

The cucumber incident became a subject of wild interest for the local media, especially for local television and the main regional newspaper Pskov skaya Pravda, which reprinted the recipe for Skobeleva's salted cucumbers under the title "The President's Salty Foods" - although the recipe was Skobeleva's grandmother's.

"The cucumbers should be picked early in the morning and washed three times, preferably in holy water," the paper quoted the recipe as saying.

After buying the cucumber, the president took off his presidential garb and had a wash in the spring. 

Maria Brysina, a saleswoman in the fortress' gift shop, is ecstatic that she got to be the one to give a picture of the Izborsk landscape to the president.

"The fact that the president visited our town is a historical moment for us and the tour looks good to me," she said. 

Tours of [Vladimir] Lenin's travels was also a sign of history, which shouldn't be forgotten, because this is, too."

TITLE: 14 Killed in Rebel Attacks
AUTHOR: By Yuri Bagrov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NAZRAN - In one of the bloodiest battles in recent days in the year-old Chechnya war, rebels killed 14 Russian servicemen in a 24-hour period around the breakaway region, an official with Chechnya's pro-Russian administration said Wednesday. 


In one attack, rebels ambushed a police convoy on a wooded road in eastern Chechnya, prompting a 30-minute shoot-out. Six servicemen died. Eight others were killed in rebel attacks on checkpoints and administrative buildings around Chechnya, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

In the convoy ambush near Kurchaloi, the Russians called for backup and helicopters swooped in and rained missiles on suspected rebel escape routes. But the rebels got away, and it was unclear whether they suffered any losses. 

Paratrooper units were sent to the region on Wednesday. 

While the Russians claim to control most of Chechnya, the rebels are staging daily attacks that have inflicted mounting casualties. 

In a dramatic mishap that demonstrated how volatile the region remains, Russian troops accidentally shot at the convoy carrying the head of Chechnya's pro-Moscow government, Akhmad Kadyrov, on Tuesday night. 

No one was hurt in the incident near Bachi-Yurt, 18 miles north of the government seat in Gudermes, the official said. Kadyrov, in a sedan accompanied by an armored personnel carrier, apparently drove into a shoot-out between Russian troops and rebels in the nearby woods, the official said. 

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber blew himself up in central Gudermes in front of the government headquarters and a school, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. The bomber was the only one hurt in Tuesday's incident. 

Russian troops rolled into Chechnya last fall after rebels based there invaded the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan and apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities killed about 300 people. Russian officials blamed those blasts on the rebels. 

A top Russian commander said Wednesday there were no plans to withdraw troops soon, despite Russian claims for months that the war is nearly over.

TITLE: Ex-Spy Takes Cover in Britain
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A former Federal Security Service officer who once accused his superiors of plotting to kill Boris Berezovsky has flown to London and requested asylum, saying he fears for his life and the life of his family.


Alexander Litvinenko flew to Heathrow Airport on Wednesday with his wife, Marina, and 6-year-old son, Anatoly. He immediately approached a British policeman and asked for political asylum, said Alexander Goldfarb, Moscow representative of the Public Health Research Institute of New York, who accompanied the family from Turkey and served as interpreter. 

Litvinenko told the policeman that he fears people in the FSB may try to kill him to prevent him from revealing information, including information about the apartment bombings in Moscow last year, Goldfarb said Thursday night in a telephone interview. 

The FSB and Kremlin blamed Chechen-trained terrorists and used the bombings as part of the justification for the military campaign in Chechnya. Chechen rebels denied responsibility and accused the security service of being behind the blasts. Reports in several Russian and Western newspapers also cast suspicion on the FSB.

Reached by telephone Thursday, an FSB official said his service has not "harassed" Litvinenko and noted that he could not possibly have known much about the September 1999 bombings because he had been suspended by them.

Litvinenko, a lieutenant colonel who dealt with organized crime at the domestic security service, was fired from the FSB in 1999 and went on to work as an aide to Berezovsky.

He created a sensation in the spring of 1998 when he held a news conference to accuse his FSB superiors of plotting to kill Berezovsky. Litvinenko and several of his colleagues alleged that FSB Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Khok hol kov ordered them to kill Berezovsky.

Shortly thereafter, prosecutors brought the first of three criminal cases against Litvinenko. One is still pending. In the first case, he was accused of using force against a suspect but was acquitted by a Moscow court in November 1999 after spending a year in jail. The second case, in which he was accused of beating a suspect, was dropped for lack of evidence. 

In the third case, he is charged with extorting testimony from a resident of Kostroma and had pledged not to leave Russia before the case comes to trial later this year, a military prosecutor said Thursday. 

"It's clearly a politically motivated attempt to prosecute Litvinenko," Goldfarb said Thursday.

Goldfarb, a U.S. citizen, described how he became involved in the case, beginning when Litvinenko called him Oct. 27 and asked for help. 

Litvinenko told him he was stuck in Turkey's Antalya resort area without money or a valid passport. Despite being barely acquainted with the former FSB officer, Goldfarb volunteered to help and flew to Turkey hours after getting the call. 

After meeting Litvinenko, Goldfarb used his U.S. passport to check the family into a local hotel. They then found an American lawyer and traveled to the Turkish capital, Ankara, to try to seek political asylum for the Litvinenkos at the U.S. Embassy there.

However, U.S. consular officials told the Russian family they would have to wait at least a week before they could be issued U.S. entry visas. But Goldfarb and Litvinenko chose not wait, fearing that the former FSB officer could be exposed by Russian intelligence agents and kidnapped since the FSB was already hunting for him.

Accompanied by Goldfarb, the Litvinenkos then moved from Ankara to Istanbul, where they bought tickets to a Caribbean island via London. The four boarded a plane after a long check of Litvinenko's invalid foreign travel documents by Turkish border guards and arrived at Heathrow on the same day. Litvinenko, who speaks no English, then approached a British policeman and stated that he and his family wanted to be granted asylum.

After some nine hours of identity checks and interrogations, the Litvinenkos were allowed to proceed to London on the condition that they formally apply for political asylum within 10 days.

Goldfarb said British authorities promised Litvinenko and his family that they will not be deported to Russia. They were told that it can take two months to have their asylum application processed. 

The family remained at a London hotel Thursday evening, leaving it to the local Clear public relations agency to deal with the press, Goldfarb said.

Dubby Leven of the Clear agency confirmed that his company is representing the Litvinenkos' interests, but declined to comment. The family may issue a statement soon and hold a news conference later, Leven and Goldfarb said.

Berezovsky called Litvinenko's allegations of persecution by the FSB "logical." In remarks reported by Interfax, Be rezovsky recalled a letter he wrote in November 1998 to President Vladimir Putin, then the director of the FSB. 

"I warned Putin that ... top officials at the FSB were harshly punishing certain employees, who were 'being terrorized for not wanting to participate in terrorizing [others].'"

Berezovsky said he mentioned Litvinenko as a victim of such punishment, Interfax reported.

"What is happening to Litvinenko is quite logical. The man is fighting for his life and for the life of his family."

Berezovsky also has been feeling the heat. Deputy Prosecutor General Vasily Kol mogorov announced Wednesday that he intends to file charges against Be rezovsky accusing him of embezzling funds from Aeroflot. 

In an interview on Ekho Moskvy radio, Berezovsky called the prosecutor's action "political blackmail." 

Berezovsky said he and his lawyers are discussing the prospect of obeying the prosecutor's summons and coming to Moscow on Nov. 13.

A spokesman from the Prosecutor General's Office called Berezovsky's reaction "predictable" and reiterated that there are no political motives behind the charges, according to Interfax.

"References to political motives behind the prosecutor general's actions are the usual defensive reaction among this category of people," press secretary Leonid Troshin was quoted as saying.

TITLE: Kasparov Student Usurps Master
AUTHOR: By Simon Gardner
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - Garry Kasparov's 15-year reign as king of world chess ended on Thursday when he was trounced by former pupil Vladimir Kramnik in the World Chess Championship.


Kramnik, 25, won by two games to nil, with the pair drawing 13 games.

Conceding a draw in the 15th game of the 16-match tournament, Kasparov - who failed to win a single game - looked bewildered and exhausted, his trademark arrogant glower missing.

Kramnik's new world title, like the crown previously held by Kasparov, is an informal one - but their contest was widely regarded as the ultimate showdown.

In his 15 years as world champion, Kasparov has cultivated a fearsome reputation as the chess-playing equivalent of a trash-talking basketball player. He glared, he swaggered, he made exaggerated sighs of disdain in the faces of his opponents. And he always won.

That is why his behavior at the world championship this month seemed so perverse and so baffling.

Azerbaijan-born Kasparov, 37, entered Thursday's match needing a miracle against his Russian opponent. He had to win both of the final two games of the tournament to hold Kramnik to a draw and win by default.

But how the man whose style of attack was once described as "bombardment by thought waves" got into that position has puzzled everyone.

"The big question is, why has Kasparov seemingly collapsed psychologically?" said Ray Keene, a British grandmaster, who is director of the championship match.

If that is indeed what Kasparov has been doing, he has done it very publicly. On Sunday, he asked for a draw after just 14 lackluster moves and less than an hour of play, saying afterward that he felt "tired and depressed." In Tuesday's match, which ended with another draw, Kasparov huffed and puffed and jiggled his feet nervously. He buried his head in his hands and looked unhappily at the ceiling.

While Kramnik, 25, strode casually on and off the stage between moves, Kasparov occasionally took more than 30 minutes to make moves that would ordinarily have taken no time at all.

"This position is hardly the most unusual in the world," scolded Dan King, a British grandmaster and a member of the commentary team at the match, watching in exasperation at one point as Kasparov gazed on and on at the board in search of his next move.

"Just look at his body language. Look at his posture. He looks like a crumpled sock."

"The Beast of Baku" himself has alluded several times to "many personal reasons" behind his poor performance, and promised that after the match was over he would reveal what they were.

Accepting defeat on Thursday evening, Kasparov said: "I was not outplayed at the board but was completely outprepared." He said he wanted a return match with Kramnik when the new champion was ready.

The two players are obliged to go ahead with the 16th and final game of the tournament on Saturday when they will split the $2 million prize depending on the score.

Whatever the outcome of that game however, Kasparov must abdicate.

And he will be rueing the prediction he made at the outset of the tournament, confidently forecasting he would see "surprises" from his "toughest challenge" since snatching the world title from Russia's Anatoly Karpov in 1985.

Facing a challenger in his 20s, just as he was when he first beat Karpov, history has mirrored itself for Kasparov - losing as decisively to Kramnik as Karpov did to him.

The hulking, soft-spoken Kramnik attended the Botvinnik-Kasparov chess school in Moscow and was chosen as Kas parov's second in his title defence against India's Viswanathan Anand in 1995.

In addition, he came to the match with a strong record against Kasparov: In 23 games, each had won three times, with 17 games ending in draws.

Kramnik quit smoking and lost 10 kilograms in preparation for the match and brought along a group of European grandmasters to help him prepare between games. He visibly outwitted his former mentor throughout the competition with little-known game strategies and solid defensive play.

While Kasparov's title of world chess champion is informal after an acrimonious split with official world chess body FIDE, few in the chess world would dispute Kramnik's accession to the crown.

TITLE: Witness Barred as Pope Trial Resumes
AUTHOR: By Alexander Merkushev
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The judge hearing the trial of accused U.S. spy Edmond Pope refused Thursday to allow the defendant to be examined by independent doctors or to let U.S. Embassy officials attend the court proceedings, Pope's lawyer said. 


Lawyer Pavel Astakhov had lodged the motions Thursday, two days after the trial was adjourned, because Pope had suffered a fit of acute joint and back pain. 

Pope, a retired U.S. Navy officer from State College, Pennsylvania, is being tried on charges of trying to illegally purchase classified plans for a high-speed torpedo used by the Russian Navy. He has pleaded innocent, and his supporters say the plans were for 10-year-old technology that has already been sold abroad. 

Shortly before the trial resumed Thursday, Astakhov said that the court still refused to call Anatoly Babkin, the professor who allegedly provided Pope with the classified plans, as a witness. He said that the defense would demand that Babkin's wife Ga li na be called. 

In an interview late Tuesday on independent NTV television, a woman identified as Galina Babkin said that her husband had given testimony to security service investigators under duress.

She said that he had been forced to spend several hours being interrogated by the Federal Security Service despite a recent heart attack, and that the interrogators then sent him to a hospital to get a document confirming that he could not appear at the trial for health reasons. 

However, the prosecution alleged that the woman identified as Babkin's wife was an impostor, and Judge Nina Barkina turned down the request.

Astakhov said that a doctor at the Lefortovo prison had said that the defendant's health had "improved somewhat" since Tuesday. However, the doctor recommended that Pope be allowed to sit during the trial proceedings, even while answering questions. 

As the court session opened on Thursday, Pope could be seen standing in the defendant's cage, straining to gesticulate as he spoke. He appeared frail. 

The head of a research institute that worked with Pope testified on Thursday. Yevgeny Shakhidzhanov, director of the "Region" Industrial amalgamation enterprise, said he had been asked to describe his ties with the defendant. 

"I described my relations with Mr. Pope, who was interested in high-speed movements," Shakhidzhanov said. "Our institution did not hand over any classified information to Pope but this sphere has classified elements." 

Astakhov said that prosecutors had accused the defense of deliberately dragging out the trial and that they had called on the judge to ignore further defense motions. 

The judge was still considering a State Department request to allow U.S. officials to visit Pope in jail, he said.

TITLE: U.S.-Russia Relations Wait on Next President
AUTHOR: By Martin Nesirky
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Back in 1992, a provincial southern governor was battling a longtime White House insider for the U.S. presidency. In Russia, there was a new Kremlin chief barely a year into the job.


Eight years after Bill Clinton was elected president and Boris Yeltsin started ill-starred economic reforms, a mood of cautious optimism has been replaced by one of disillusionment and disconcerting indifference in bilateral ties.

Whether Democrat Al Gore, vice president for eight years, or Republican George W. Bush, the governor of Texas, wins next Tuesday, Russia will face a tough job focusing U.S. attention on the Russian economy, regional problems and arms control.

"The 'forget Russia' school is in the ascendancy in Washington. The question now is whether there is much substance left in the relationship," said a former U.S. policy-maker on Russia.

"The relationship is going to be much more difficult than some expect. The gaping and growing asymmetry in power, fortune and attitude is changing the international order and structures to Russia's disfavor."

It is a sign of these changed times that Russia - a former superpower with a troubled economy and an inexperienced leader figures as scarcely more than a transient blip on either candidate's campaign radar screen.

In Moscow, there is inevitable shoulder-shrugging about which candidate better matches Russia's interests.

"It would be naive on the part of the Kremlin or the powers that be to place bets entirely on one or the other," said Yury Kobaladze, a managing director at Renaissance Capital who was previously in Russian foreign intelligence.

Political analysts and Kremlin sources give cogent arguments why Russian leaders would rather see Gore in charge, above all because he knows the ropes and the folks. They provide equally rational explanations why Bush would be better, not least for Kremlin hawks and Russian arms exports.

Deputies of different hues in the State Duma give predictably varied views but agreed there was little to choose between Gore and Bush, seen from Moscow.

"I don't think there is a unified approach to this here. This is because there is no concept of national interests," said political analyst Yevgenia Albats. "There are just the interests of various factions."

President Vladimir Putin is not even a year into his four-year term, and he has not built a solid personal relationship with Clinton and his own administration is still finding its feet - variously advised by an increasingly assertive Security Council and a more cautious Foreign Ministry, Kremlin sources say.

"Europe, not the United States, is the top priority of Russian foreign policy after securing cooperation of 'close neighbors,'" said a senior Foreign Ministry official, referring to the ex-Soviet republics. "Relations with the United States are less important to Putin than they were to Yeltsin," the official said.

Of course Putin, like other world leaders, will have to work with Washington whoever is in the White House.

But he is in a weaker position than Yeltsin in 1992, despite Russia's recent oil revenue bonanza and his own high popularity ratings.

"It seems no matter who wins, Russia will have to deal with the United States trying to resolve three main groups of issues, while we have today growing tension between Russia and the West," said Sergei Rogov, head of Russia's U.S.A. and Canada Institute.

TITLE: Soyuz Crew Arrives at Space Station
AUTHOR: By Marcia Dunn
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KOROLYOV, Moscow Region - The first residents of the international space station arrived at their new home Thursday, swinging open the doors and settling in for a four-month stay.


American astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yury Gid zen ko and Sergei Krikalev floated into the space station about one and a half hours after their Russian Soyuz capsule docked at 12:21 p.m. 

Their top priorities inside: flipping on all the lights and alarm systems, turning on all the life-support systems and getting the toilet working. Space shuttle astronauts set up the toilet in September, but left the first flush for Shepherd and his crew.

However, they had other immediate business, as well. In a phone call with Daniel Goldin, administrator of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Shepherd said the crew was doing well but had one request.

"The first expedition on the space station requests permission to take the radio call sign Alpha," Shepherd said, punching the air with his right fist. All three men, dressed in identical white jerseys and blue jumpsuits, beamed and clasped their hands in a show of unity.

Alpha has long been the crew's choice for a name for the space station, but the U.S. space agency has resisted, instead preferring simply the international space station, otherwise known as ISS.

Earlier Thursday, Yury Semyonov, the head of the Energiya company, which built the Mir space station and worked on the new station's Russian modules, said he disapproved of Alpha because it signifies the first. For Russians, 15-year-old Mir is No. 1. Semyonov suggested Beta or even Mir 2.

But the dispute didn't seem to cloud the euphoric mood back at Russian Mission Control, where about 500 people had gathered to monitor the docking.

The crowd erupted in applause as the capsule linked up smoothly with the space station 384 kilometers above Kazakstan, where the crew had blasted off Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The men will spend the next four months living on the space station. Flight controllers hope to keep the crew's work schedule light the first few weeks, although Krikalev already has battery repairs on tap for Friday.

TITLE: Prosecutors Planning To Go After Tycoons
AUTHOR: By Anna Badkhen
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they plan to bring criminal charges against media tycoons Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky later this month and threatened to arrest them. The two cases are not related.


In an official statement, Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolmogorov said Berezovsky will be charged in relation to a long-running corruption probe into the alleged diversion of funds from Aeroflot. Kolmogorov was not more specific.

Gusinsky will be charged with embezzlement and fraud, Kolmo go rov said in a different statement. He said prosecutors have proof that Gu sinsky transferred abroad the assets of his Media-MOST holding -the parent company of NTV television, which is often critical of the Kremlin - to shield the holding from creditors.

Gusinsky and Berezovsky were summoned to appear at the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow on Nov. 13.

Both men are currently abroad, their aides said.

Kommersant, a daily paper owned by Berezovsky, reported seeing Berezovsky last week in Paris and said he was staying at the Bristol hotel, the same luxury hotel chosen by Kremlin aides preparing for Putin's visit this week. Berezovsky's aide could not give his exact whereabouts Wednesday, saying only "he may be on the move."

Gusinsky fled Russia in June after spending three days in prison on charges of embezzlement. 

Genri Reznik, a prominent Moscow lawyer who once defended Berezovsky and who is now Gusinsky's defense lawyer, said in a telephone interview that he feels "satisfied, knowing that it was me who advised him [Gusinsky] against coming to Russia" for questioning earlier this fall.

Berezovsky's lawyer, Semyon Aria, told Interfax he was surprised that the prosecution announced its plan to charge Be re zovsky. "As a rule, such things are not announced [in advance]. It looks like a threat," Aria was quoted as saying.

Reznik also defended Berezovsky last year when he and two top Aeroflot officials, Nikolai Glushkov and Alexander Krasnenker, were charged with funneling hundreds of millions of dollars of profits from Aeroflot to Swiss firms. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Berezovsky in April 1999, but the case against him was later dropped. 

This year, the more than two-year-old case was revived. In a statement released Wednesday through Itar-Tass, Kolmo go rov said that documents he received from Switzerland prove the guilt of Berezovsky, Krasnenker and Glush kov. He said that Krasnenker and Glus h kov will also be summoned to the prosecutor's office and charged with theft.

He said the prosecutors will consider preventative measures against Berezovsky, "including, if necessary, an arrest," Itar-Tass reported. 

Gusinsky was arrested June 13 after he appeared at the prosecutor's office for questioning. He was released three days later and the case against him was suddenly dropped "for the lack of a crime" after he agreed to sell Media-MOST shares to state-dominated natural gas monopoly Gazprom in a secret deal.

Gazprom said it was trying to collect $211 million of a $473 million debt owed by Media-MOST. Saying he signed it "at gun point," Gusinsky has since repudiated the deal, which offered him protection from prosecution and was signed by Press Minister Mikhail Le sin. Gaz prom's media arm urged federal prosecutors to launch two criminal cases against Gusinsky, one for breaking the deal, the other on allegations he hid Media-MOST's assets abroad. Gaz prom and Gusinsky later settled the conflict relating to the deal, but prosecutors went ahead and launched the criminal embezzlement case in late September.

When asked to appear for questioning in September, Gusinsky invited the prosecutors to come to Israel, where he was at the time. If he fails to show up Nov. 13, Kolmogorov said in the official statement, "the investigator will take adequate measures. We may search for him through Interpol." Media-MOST said in a statement that the prosecutors' allegations against Gusinsky are no different from those brought in June.

TITLE: Nuclear Officials Gather To Talk Transport Safety
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The thought of having radioactive materials passing through your city at night may not put the mind at ease, but state nuclear power officials have no doubts: Don't worry, it's safe.


But put that reassurance in context, say environmentalists, and it is merely a prelude to shipping in nuclear waste from other countries for reprocessing and long-term storage. The accidents, they say, start there.

Nuclear power officials and other experts who gathered in St. Petersburg this week to discuss importing spent nuclear fuel from abroad were upbeat about the idea's chances, apparently undaunted by the recent success of environmentalists in collecting over 2.5 million signatures on a petition calling for a referendum on the issue.

The conference - which was almost entirely free of environmentalists - was mostly dedicated to the transportation of radioactive materials, and the general consensus was that moving nuclear waste around Russia had a proven track record.

The State Duma is set to discuss amendments to the law before the end of this year.

According to statistics cited by Alexander Agapov, head of the safety department of the Nuclear Power Ministry, there have been only four accidents involving the transportation of irradiated nuclear fuel in the country since 1992, none of which resulted in leaks.

"Our [nuclear fuel] containers meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]," Agapov said at the conference, "and modifications are being developed."

"The transportation aspect should definitely be taken off the list of problems when it comes to the issue of importing foreign radioactive materials," said Vladimir Yershov, deputy head of the Moscow-based research center Nuclide. "It is absolutely safe."

At present, Russia is allowed to take in spent fuel from abroad for reprocessing - which yields plutonium, uranium, and huge quantities of radioactive waste water - provided it ships that waste back to the country of origin.

The Nuclear Power Ministry wants to keep the waste for storage, saying that the business could earn Russia around $20 billion. Russia is looking at importing 20,000 tons of spent fuel over a period of 10 to 15 years - about a tenth of the world's current total awaiting reprocessing, according to Valentin Ivanov, first deputy in the ministry. 

The money would be plowed back into improving storage facilities and nuclear safety, says the government, which says it cannot provide the necessary sum to do this on its own.

Moscow has earmarked 6 billion rubles over the next six years for these purposes within the Federal Program for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Russia, well short of the $50 billion to $70 billion the Nuclear Ministry is looking for, Agapov said.

But environmentalists are appalled at Russia's nuclear safety record, and believe taking on other people's waste is a disastrous idea.

"Changes to the law will result in a dramatic increase in the amount of radioactive waste [on Russian territory]," said Igor Forofontov, coordinator of the nuclear program of Greenpeace in Russia.

"[Although there would be] financial profit for [people trading in nuclear materials], the consequences would be ordinary Russians getting sick [from radiation leaks]."

Ivanov, however, said that it was safer for nuclear waste to be stored in one country, than have it dotted around other countries in Eastern Europe who would want to profit from the business. "The fewer the places, the better," Ivanov said.

Ivanov also said that Russia has developed new technology for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel which would not require isolation of plutonium and uranium as the current practice does. The idea is to regenerate the fuel, minimizing the amount of radioactive by-products. 

If the Duma does change the law, the first shipment of foreign spent fuel would go to a storage facility in Zheleznogorsk in the Krasnoyarsk Region. The Nuclear Power Ministry is also looking at constructing a new dry-storage facility in the same area.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: French Beef Ban 


MOSCOW (AP) - Russia has banned imports of beef and cows from seven regions of France in order to prevent any outbreak of mad cow disease, an agricultural official said Wednesday. The ban went into immediate effect, said Vasily Selivyorstov, the deputy head of the Agricultural Ministry's veterinary department. Russia is heavily dependent on imports to compensate for a chronic meat shortage.



Policeman Shot 


ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Police officer Yury Anisimov, 37, was gunned down in what was, authorities assume, a shoot-out at 37 Ul. Kantemirovskaya in the city's northern Vyborgsky district at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Anisimov, who was a beat officer in the district's 20th police precinct, was found shot in the heart in a building on his beat. The circumstances of the shoot-out are being investigated, as well as the assault weapon.

"Police found two cartridge cases from Anisimov's gun at the crime scene. There's a version that he was shooting back at the [alleged] criminals," said Gennady Ryabov, spokesman for the City Prosecutor's Office, in a telephone interview on Thursday. 

Police have detained two people in connection with the case. Their identities have not been disclosed for investigation purposes.



Subway Suicide


ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - An as-yet-unidentified man committed suicide early Thursday by jumping in front of a train at Prospect Bolshevikov metro station in the city's eastern Nevsky district, Interfax reported.

According to preliminary information from the Emergency Situations Ministry, the man threw himself under a moving train and died immediately due to numerous traumatic wounds. 



Anglers Disappear


ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Three local fishermen - Sergey Semyonov, 34, Yury Krepkov, 49, and Alexander Manshev, 40 - are still thought to be missing after they went on a Saturday fishing trip to Lake Ladoga near the village of Kokaryevo, Interfax reported. 

Rescuers on Monday found the car in which the fishermen are thought to have traveled to the area. Part of their motorboat was also found, though the report was not specific as to which.

In an unrelated incident, fishermen Pavel Senkevich and Alexander Radchenko had an accident while fishing on Lake Podgornoye northwest of St. Petersburg on Saturday. According to Radchenko, their boat capsized, but both friends managed to swim to shore. However, when Radchenko regained consciousness, Senkevich was nowhere to be found.




Rutskoi Makes His Case


MOSCOW (SPT) - The Supreme Court on Thursday is expected to hear an appeal by Kursk Gov. Alexander Rutskoi, who says the Kursk regional court wrongly barred him from running for re-election by invalidating his registration as a candidate.

But Central Elections Commission head Alexander Veshnyakov said that whatever the outcome of Thursday's hearing, it will not prevent the second round of Kursk's gubernatorial elections, scheduled for Sunday, from taking place without Rutskoi's participation.

TITLE: Gazprom Opposes Pipe Import Duties
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth LeBras
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Natural gas monopoly Gazprom on Wednesday opposed a plan to levy a 40 percent duty on pipes imported from Ukraine.


The Economic Development and Trade Ministry has proposed protectionist measures against Ukrainian pipemakers in reaction to the lobbying efforts of local pipe plants. The ministry is considering either imposing a duty or quota (of 500,000 tons a year) on imports of Ukrainian pipes.

Yelena Sorokina, managing director of metal production at Gazkomplektimneks, a Gazprom subsidiary, said at a news conference that pipes accounted for 60 percent of the cost of building a pipeline. Consequently, the proposed duty would substantially raise Gaz prom's costs for building pipelines, she said. 

Ukraine is Gazprom's primary supplier of large-diameter pipes, used primarily for gas and oil pipelines, and such pipes are not yet produced in Russia, she said. 

Ukrainian pipe production has been steadily falling and producers control only 13 percent of this nation's market. Other major pipe suppliers to Russia are Germany and Japan. 

The Russian Association of Industrialists, which organized the news conference, also spoke against the duty. 

"Ukrainian producers offer pipes of superior quality and for better terms," the association said in a statement. 

Local pipemakers require from one to six months to fill an order, whereas their Ukrainian counterparts can do so within one to two months, the association said.

One cause of the controversy is that the Ukrainian pipemakers are working in more favorable conditions than local counterparts. 

Specifically, in late 1999, Kiev lowered profit taxes by 70 percent for 64 Ukrainian metallurgy factories and canceled the value-added tax on exports to a number of countries, including Russia. These measures have made Ukrainian pipes considerably cheaper than Russian pipes. 

Sorokina reported that in 2000, Gaz prom purchased 500,000 to 600,000 tons of pipes, of which 50,000 to 60,000 tons were Ukrainian. In 2000, Gazprom plans to purchase around 180,000 tons of Ukrainian pipes. 

Vedomosti has reported the value of the imports as $1,000 per ton, not including customs costs. 

In addition to Gazprom, Tyumen Oil Co. and Bashkortostan-based oil firm Bashneft are major customers of Ukrainian large-diameter pipes. 

"Pipes produced by Russian manufacturers do not meet all of Gazprom's needs," Sorokina said.

It will be two years before Russian pipemakers, such as steel giant Severstal, located in the Vologda region north of Moscow, begin producing large-diameter pipes. 

The government wants Gazprom to buy its large-diameter pipes locally. 

In September, Prime Minister Mik hail Kasyanov ordered Gazprom to place orders for large-diameter pipes at the Urals-based Nizhny Tagil Metal Combine. Gazprom grudgingly submitted to government pressure and agreed to buy pipes from the combine.

The combine is in the process of building a factory for the production of large-diameter pipes. 

However, Mikhail Armyakov, metals analyst with Nikoil brokerage, said in a telephone interview that the Nizh ny Tagil combine will need three to five years to build a plant to make large-diameter pipes.

Gazprom is unlikely to contribute significant investment to the plant's construction and announced that it would pay the Nizhny Tagil plant for its product not in cash, but in deliveries of gas.

Armyakov said that the refusal to make cash payments is a "sign that Gaz prom is not eager to participate in production with Nizhny Tagil." 

Interfax quoted Dmitry Kulikov, head of the Interpipe association of Ukrainian pipemakers, as saying that Ukrainian pipemakers will lose their already small profits if the 40 percent duty is imposed.

Ukrainian pipemakers are dependent on the export market, as they lack large domestic consumers of pipes. 

Mikhail Seleznyov, metals and utilities analyst for brokerage United Financial Group, said Wednesday in a telephone interview that protectionist measures are not necessary. 

According to the State Statistics Committee, the nation's pipe production has risen by 78 percent in the past year. During the first six months of 2000, Russian pipe producers manufactured 2,220 tons of pipes.

TITLE: Tax Changes Aim for Increased Collection
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The cabinet on Thursday approved five amendments to the Tax Code, most of them aimed to improve tax administration.


However, insiders say the government is only halfhearted about the measures - some of which are long overdue while others could have a boomerang effect - so it is unlikely to put a lot of pressure on the State Duma to pass them.

"This is why the amendments have been split into five separate laws and do not come in a package," said Sergei Don, adviser to the State Duma's budget committee and a former Duma member from the economically liberal Yabloko party.

One bill addresses the cancellation of tax liabilities if a taxpayer can show an order to a bank to pay the tax, even if the bank is insolvent.

"[The amendment allows] the tax liability to be canceled only after money is written off the corporate account," First Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said.

Another bill aims to combat the practice of transfer pricing, which is widely used to dodge taxes. Transfer pricing refers to transactions made at below market price.

The government is working on a proposal that allows it to calculate taxes on the basis of a "reasonable profit margin." 

Other bills on the list deal with definition of the taxpayers' status, changes to the mechanism used in determining payments of penalties and fines and minor improvements in tax administration.

"These proposals were initiated long ago," Don said. "The reason why they have surfaced only now is due to the huge force of inertia in the state bureaucratic machine."

Tax payments stuck in the banking sector stood at 55 billion rubles ($1.95 billion) at the start of this year.

They swelled to some 70 billion rubles ($2.51 billion) by the start of November, according to independent estimates. The Tax Ministry failed to provide statistics Thursday citing a confidentiality clause in the law on commercial banks.

However, even though these figures are comparable to monthly revenues of the federal budget, which were just under 100 billion rubles ($3.59 billion) in October, the crackdown on tax evaders is long overdue.

The rate of growth of tax arrears slowed down from some 3 billion to 4 billion rubles a month at the start of 1999 to about 1 billion to 1.2 billion rubles closer to the end this year.

"The only way out is if the Central Bank, the Tax Ministry and the Finance Ministry sign a trilateral agreement and join efforts to tackle the problem," Dmitry Ignatyev, head of the Tax Ministry's banking department, said in an interview earlier this year.

Ignatyev's efforts to put the house in order cost him his job in the Tax Ministry in March.

"At the end of the day, the whole issue is whether the state has the political will to tackle the problem or live with it as it did before," a government official, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday. "Changes in tax administration will not bear fruit unless they are enforced."

The government's proposal, aimed at ending tax evasion through the transfer-pricing system, could have even worse consequences than evident in its attempts to deal with problems in the banking sector.

"The ultimate outcome could be that the government will be forced to pay more than it will end up receiving in taxes," said Eduard Grushevenko, head of the fuel department of the Energy Ministry.

Estimates made by Grushevenko demonstrate that the government is one of the largest beneficiaries of transfer prices because it underpays oil companies for their supplies to state companies, agricultural enterprises and the army.

Fuel makes up some 60 percent of costs in agriculture and 80 percent in opencast coal mining, so any increase in prices for gasoline or fuel oil will have an immediate effect on profitability in these subsidized industries and on inflation.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Production Jump Slows

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The growth of the nation's manufacturing sector slowed considerably in October, taking the Moscow Narodny Bank Purchasing Managers' Index to its lowest level since January, the bank said Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted PMI, intended to give a snapshot of business conditions, fell to 55.1 in October from 56.5 in September, said the London-based bank, which commissions the survey. The PMI stood at 54.6 in January.

"The slower pace of growth reflected by the PMI was largely caused by a weakening in the rate of growth of new orders during the month," the bank's survey said.

Readings above 50 signal an increase on the previous month, while readings below 50 signal a contraction. The PMI has been above 50 since January 1999.



Pipeline to the West


MOSCOW (AP) - Natural gas giant Gazprom and Gaz de France have signed an up-to-2-$billion pipeline agreement to boost Russian gas exports to Western European markets, company officials said Wednesday.

The deal was signed Tuesday while President Vladimir Putin was in Paris on an official visit, a Gaz de France spokesman said.

The 600-kilometer pipeline would run from Russia's Yamal gas fields through Belarus, Poland and Slovakia to Western Europe, the spokesman said. A Gazprom spokeswoman confirmed the deal.

Importantly, it would bypass Ukraine, through which about 65 percent of Russia's gas exports now travel. Ukraine is Gazprom's worst customer, owing the gas monopoly $1.4 billion to $3 billion in unpaid bills.

The figure is imprecise because Gazprom includes gas it accuses Ukraine of stealing, while the cash-starved Ukrainian government insists the figure is lower. 



Yukos Reports Earnings


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The nation's No.2 oil producer Yukos on Thursday posted a 37.2 billion ruble ($1.33 billion) net profit in the first half of 2000, according to GAAP accounting standards.

Yukos did not provide comparative figures, but its full-year 1999 GAAP net profit was $1.15 billion.

It said in a statement that first-half earnings per share were 16.9 rubles, while gross income was 113.9 billion rubles.

Yukos has repaid 7.6 billion rubles of long- and short-term credits, cutting its total debt to banks to 14.9 billion rubles as of June 30.



Alliance To Standardize


MOSCOW (SPT) - Star Alliance members Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and SAS on Thursday announced that passenger fares on their flights serving Russia and Belarus will be standardized.

A Lufthansa spokeswoman said the unified fare system was part of the alliance's strategy to provide more comfort and choice for passengers.

The effect of the move will be that if, for example, an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna is fully booked, passengers will be able to travel to Vienna on either Lufthansa via Germany or SAS via Scandinavia for the same fare as Austrian Airlines charges. 

The three airlines have scheduled flights to 19 cities in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

TITLE: MOST-Bank Wins Delay in Ministry Suit
AUTHOR: By Yelena Berezanskaya and Tatyana Samoilova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Moscow Arbitration Court this week postponed the hearing of the Finance Ministry's $118.9-million claim against MOST-Bank for failing to perform obligations under a trust management securities agreement.


The ministry in 1996 transferred at face value fourth- and fifth-tranche treasury bills worth $95 million to the bank, which was obliged to return the paper with interest in April 2000, but failed to do so.

When the ministry filed its claim, the bills were not in the bank, giving the ministry the right to demand their monetary equivalent. The claim amount includes the principal debt amount, coupon income and fines.

MOST-Bank representatives appealed to the court for a postponement last month after MOST-Bank was bought by state-owned Vneshtorgbank. The appeal was based on a restructuring plan - proposed by MOST-Bank's new management team - that provided for an amicable agreement with the bank's creditors, including the Finance Ministry. The court approved the appeal and moved the hearing to Dec. 5.

Finance Ministry officials argued against the delay, saying that the money should be returned immediately because it had been written into this year's budget and the financial year is drawing to a close. A ministry representative said that he doubted Vneshtorgbank would be able to cobble together a tight restructuring plan that would be suitable to all parties before the year's end.

The Finance Ministry is the largest of the bank's state creditors. Apart from the $119 million in securities, MOST-Bank owes the ministry an additional $160 million in the form of guarantees under loan agreements with Media-MOST structures. In total, MOST-Bank owes the state about $450 million of the total $700 million claimed against it.

A source close to MOST-Bank management said the Finance Ministry's tough rhetoric reflects the government's general attitude toward the bank's fate.

"The fact that the Finance Ministry has unilaterally announced its claims says one thing only: The government is against the restructuring of MOST-Bank and there can be no talk of amicable agreements," said the source, who asked that his name be withheld.

The government has yet to propose any alternatives to Vneshtorgbank's plan.

Once the core of embattled tycoon Vla dimir Gusinsky's Media-MOST group, which includes the television station NTV, the newspaper Segodnya and radio station Ekho Moskvy, the bank was sold last month for just 5.5 million rubles ($198,000) - or 1 ruble for each outstanding MOST-Bank share.

TITLE: Food Grain Production Up, Fodder Lags
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Experts are predicting a shortage of fodder grain despite this year's grain harvest of about 65 million tons being the best in the last three years.


Average prices of food-quality wheat in the Volga, which had a bad harvest, and the Urals region, which had a good one, dropped by about 100 rubles ($3.59) a ton between August and November. Fodder grains' prices showed a tendency to rise by 50 rubles to 150 rubles per ton in both regions.

"We will have enough third-class food wheat this year and the prices will not be high, but there will be shortages of fodder grains - exactly like last year," Rudolf Bulavin, grain analyst with OGO-Agroprom, said Thursday in a telephone interview.

Out of 36 million tons of wheat that are forecasted to be collected, 65 percent will be fit for human consumption, Igor Chekmezov, the nation's chief grain inspector, said Thursday in remarks reported by Interfax. Last year, 31 million tons of wheat was collected and 62 percent was of food quality.

Russia needs about 75 million tons of grain annually. Grain reserves left over after last year's harvest in state and private granaries hold about 6 million tons, according to OGO-Agroprom. 

"Together with imports, we will get enough grain this year," Bulavin said. "But fodder grain will be short in spring."

"We are out of the pit we were in in 1998 [when the national grain harvest was only 47.8 million tons]," said Yevgenia Serova, president of the Agrarian and Food Economy Center at the Institute of Economic Problems in a Transition Period.

"There are still a lot of problems, but the agriculture sector has started to get back on its feet as a result of increased investment, farms have started to buy more agricultural machinery and use more fertilizers and the ban on grain exports has been lifted - the market is starting to work," she said.

But Alexander Yukish, president of the Grain Union, disagreed that market forces were influencing grain production.

"It is mainly due to the help of God and the weather that this year we had better results."

Yukish said the industry's problems lie ultimately in the population's low buying power - citizens cannot afford to buy enough meat and poultry to make the production of fodder grains profitable.

TITLE: Final Court Ruling Ends Pensioner's Merger Fight
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The case of Sergei Moiseyev, a pensioner who put the merger of three St. Petersburg Telecommunications companies on hold by filing a suit defending his shareholders rights, came to a close when the Kuibishevsky District Federal Court in St. Petersburg ruled against Moiseyev on Thursday. 


Moiseyev, the owner of 1000 shares in St. Petersburg National and International Telephone (SPMMT), filed an appeal with the court in the middle of July to have the merger between SPMMT, Petersburg Telephone Network (PTS) and St. Petersburg Telegraph halted until a study could be done on the share-swapping ratio involved in the deal. 

The $450 million merger of the three Petersburg telecoms was announced in March, and was hailed by observers as an important stage in the restructuring of the country's floundering telecommunications sector. Although 90 percent of the shareholders voted in favor of the merger, the Kubishevsky districtcourt ruled in July in favor of Moiseyev, who said that the share-swapping arrangements in the deal would dilute the value of his stock, and froze the merger.

But on Oct. 12, the court, in answer to a counter-suit filed by the companies, allowed the amalgamation process to continue. 

At Thursday's hearing, Moiseyev again argued that SPMMT minority shareholders were to receive stock in the new company, which will keep the PTS name, worth less than half the value of their stock in SPMMT.

Two firms, Renaissance Capital and Info Park, were hired by the telecoms to determine the relative values of the stock in the three companies in order to create a formula for the conversion of SPMMT and SPT shares into those in PTS. They reported their results on Dec. 20 last year, and the Boards of Directors of the three companies followed by approving the numbers on Dec. 28.

"The valuation of the companies resulted in a price of 8 rubles (about 28 cents) per share in SPMMT," Moiseyev said after the hearing. "But the shareholders meeting at which the merger was approved only took place March 31 - four months after that price was first announced. By that time one SPMMT share was worth, according to information provided in the media, 39.13 rubles ($1.41). The company hid this information from the shareholders."

But SPMMT representative Lena Vasilieva said that the calculation of the value of the shares was accurate.

"Moiseyev has produced no evidence supporting the claim that there was a mistake in the calculations," Vasilieva told the court during the hearing.

Shareholders in SPMMT and SPT who are not in favor of the amalgamation, have the right under the merger agreement to sell their stock to PTS at the stipulated price of 8 rubles. But Moiseyev said on Thursday that he won't exercise this option. 

"I won't lose anything, because I will not sell my shares," he said after the hearing. "The impetus for filing the suit came from my disagreement with the policies of SPMMT's management, which totally ignore the opinions of minority shareholders. There were about 1,000 people at the meeting on March 31, but they own a total of only about 10 percent of the company's stock," Moiseyev added.

Moiseyev has the right to appeal Thursday's decision to the City Civil Court, but said that he has no plans to do so.

"It takes too much time and effort, and it's still impossible to get a fair decision," Moiseyev said. "I think that the court had its mind made up before the hearing even began."

TITLE: Intrigue, Intimidation at Mil Helicopter Plant
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Time is running out for the Mil Moscow Helicopter Factory, and strange things are happening. Key foreign investors are quietly jumping ship, money and assets seem to be evaporating, an external bankruptcy manager has been savagely beaten - and by some accounts, top managers have themselves quietly skipped town.


A new, court-appointed external manager, Vladimir Bogacharov, has six weeks to come up with a plan to restore order at the ailing plant. Since World War II, the Mil plant has exported thousands of helicopters to 70 countries, in deals worth a total of about $7 billion, and has at the same time provided 90 percent of the Russian army's helicopters.

But if it once held a quarter of the world's helicopter market, today the Mil - the plant is named after Mikhail Mil, a Soviet-era helicopter engineer - is struggling to cope with debts of 315 million rubles ($11.3 million).

And as Bogacharov tries to draw up an exit strategy, a major question will be: Who among Mil's creditors, managers and shareholders wants what?



DISAPPEARANCES, VEKSELS

The players in the drama range from the U.S. helicopter giant Sikorsky Aircraft Group - which as of this summer owns about 9 percent of the plant - to the Mezhregionalny Investitsionny Bank, Mil's main creditor with 46 percent of its debts, worth about $5.2 million.


But exactly who is working with whom, and to what end, remains unclear.

Bogacharov is not the first court-appointed manager. The previous one, Leonid Zapolsky, was removed after just over a year in office by an arbitration court on Oct. 12.

In its ruling, the court expressed alarm that restructuring was not happening, Zapolsky was not responding to court orders on Aug. 10 and Sept. 22 demanding accounting reports, and that the Mil plant was selling off assets without permission and investing the returns in veksels, or promissory notes.

"The external manager [Zapolsky] sold off, without the agreement of the committee of creditors, four Mi-26T helicopters and one Mi-17B helicopter, and used this money to acquire some securities of dubious origin - including promissory notes from Gazprom and from [major creditor] MIB," the Oct. 12 ruling said. Such helicopters are worth about $8 million each.

Zapolsky could not be reached for comment. Bogacharov, in a written reply to faxed questions, said that Zapolsky "has never returned from a business trip to Rostov-on-Don" and has not responded to letters given to his wife asking for a meeting.

Bogacharov wrote that his predecessor instead "is refraining from meetings, although there is information that he is alive and well and meeting with various high-level Defense Ministry employees."

As to two other top Mil managers who have been reportedas missing in some media - financial director Vyacheslav Kobizsky and press secretary Sergei Gla dishev - Bogacharov wrote that both "voluntarily left work and left for St. Petersburg." He said Kobizsky later mailed in a resignation, but that Gladishev had never again been in contact.

Bogacharov and the courts both hint strongly that Zapolsky - who was brought in to help the helicopter factory deal with its debts - instead stripped the plant even further.

Bogacharov cited figures from Sept. 14 that showed the plant had $700,000 in the bank and 2.5 million rubles ($89,000) plus unnamed securities with a face value of about 52 million rubles ($1.86 million) - or all told, about $2.65 million in liquid assets.

He then offered figures for comparison from Oct. 13 - the day after the court ruling booting Zapolsky. Instead of $700,000 and $1.86 million in securities, the plant had a mere $1,000 in the bank. Its ruble account had also dropped, from 2.5 million rubles to about 1.5 million rubles ($53,500).

Bogacharov's figures - which could not be independently confirmed - suggest the plant's liquid assets dropped in one month from about $2.65 million to about $54,500.

As of last Thursday, about two weeks after Bogacharov had taken over, he said the plant had somehow gotten about $25,000 and 53 million rubles ($1.89 million) back in the bank.

Bogacharov offered no elaboration on the meaning of these figures.



A SLIP ON THE STAIRS?

On Oct. 16, as Zapolsky still could not be found, it fell to his deputy to hand over all documents and affairs to Bogacharov. But as that deputy, Igor Chmikov, set off to meet Bogacharov, he was alleged to have been attacked in his apartment entrance, beaten and subsequently hospitalized.


Bogacharov in his fax said that he and Chmikov were supposed to meet at 4 p.m. that day. But when Bogacharov called Chmikov on his mobile phone at 4:05 p.m. to ask if he was en route, Chmikov replied that he was "either in an ambulance or in a hospital" and then hung up. Bogacharov added that at that exact time, the Mil Web site published an announcement about the beating.

Bogacharov added that he asked the head of the local police about the matter, and had been told there was no criminal case because Chmikov had not filed a complaint, and also because "Chmikov did not say what had actually happened, whether he had been attacked or whether he had fallen down the stairs."

But Sergei Surov, deputy head of the board of MIB bank - Mil's main creditor - said in a telephone interview that Chmikov had indeed been attacked, and said he was not the only Mil executive to have been targeted. "Zapolsky has also been attacked and threatened," Surov said, adding, "I know that he is alive and well."

As to the other two management officials who left for St. Petersburg, Surov said that they had left because Bogacharov would not let them into the plant. "And of course," he added, "[Chmikov's beating] affected them."

Surov did not elaborate, but said that MIB preferred Zapolsky and would appeal the court decision removing him.

He said MIB and Zapolsky had hoped to strike a settlement before Mil's period of external management expires on Dec. 16, and expressed doubt Bogacharov would be able to come up with a new, acceptable plan in the six weeks remaining.

If Bogacharov fails, Surov said, the Mil plant would probably be bankrupted and sold off - something MIB does not want, he said.



A FOREIGN INTRIGUE?

Zapolsky's plan had been to launch a new share issue that would increase the government's stake in the plant to just over 50 percent, reduce the stakes of foreign shareholders like Sikorsky to just under 25 percent, and use an unspecified amount of the remaining shares to pay debts to MIB bank.


A Sikorsky spokesman volunteered that some have looked at Zapolsky's plan and his subsequent fall from grace and assumed foreign shareholders intrigued against him.

"Some charges and allegations were made that we were behind Mr. Zapolsky's removal," said Sikorsky spokes man William Tuttle in a telephone interview from Stratford, Connecticut. "We can say unequivocally that neither United Technology Corp. [which owns Sikorsky] or Si korsky took any action that would have caused Mr. Zapolsky's removal."

As of this summer, the government owned a 31.5 percent stake in the Mil plant and foreigners controlled 42 percent. The largest foreign investor was the U.S. Oppenheimer Corp., an investment fund that held 12 percent.

But an Oppenheimer spokesman said in a telephone interview that his company "has recently sold its stock and is not related to the Mil plant anymore." He added that Sikorsky was the only foreign investor left.

"There is havoc in the government," he added, "and all that was promised was not fulfilled."

Last month a report by the Audit Chamber, parliament's budgetary watchdog, found there had been major violations during the privatizations of the aircraft manufacturing industry throughout the 1990s.

The report, which has been presented to President Vladimir Putin, found that aircraft manufacturing has collapsed under bad management. It said Russia produced only nine civilian planes and 21 military planes last year, none of them for the military. In 1991, in contrast, the nation produced 150 civilian airplanes, 300 civilian helicopters, more than 620 military planes and 390 military helicopters.

The report complained that the state received less than $30,000 for the shares sold off in the Mil privatization, at a time when Mil had four Mi-26 helicopters on hand worth $8 million apiece and nine other unsold helicopters of comparable value. It also wondered aloud how foreigners ended up with such large stakes.



OR A DOMESTIC ONE?

If some see a foreign shareholder's intrigue as the engine driving the management infighting, others see more homegrown possibilities.


"The Kazan factory has a very direct interest in Mil's bankruptcy," said Konstantin Makiyenko, a defense analyst at the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategic Technologies.

The Mil Plant is actually best known for its design bureau, which developed blueprints from which helicopters were built by other factories in Kazan, Ulan-Ude and Rostov-on-Don.

These days, those factories are all independent of each other, Makiyenko said, but the Kazan factory - which has now developed its own design bureau - has to pay fees to Mil, and can only produce certain helicopter types without Mil's permission.

"I do not know if the Kazan factory is involved in the situation at the Mil plant, but they are highly interested in its demise," Makiyenko said.

In fact, the Oct. 12 court hearing that brought about Zapolsky's removal came as a result of a meeting where all but two minor creditors - a plant in Kras nogorsk and the Kirov-based factory Avitek - accepted his proposals.

Kommersant said those two minor creditors were controlled by the Kazan helicopter factory.

Oleg Konorov, a spokesman for the Ka zan factory, said his plant had no involvement in the Mil managers' problems, but he did say that the plant's design bureau was among Mil's creditors.

"The situation at Mil saddens us," Ko norov said. "Mil was the initiator of all our projects and if it is bankrupt, the Ka zan factory will only suffer."

Avitek could not be reached, but Vera Chernova, a lawyer for the Krasnogorsky plant, declined to answer when asked about that company's relationship to the Kazan factory.

"All Zapolsky was telling us was that someday, maybe, the debts would be paid, but he never told us when and how," Chernova said, explaining her client's refusal to accept the Zapolsky restructuring plan.

TITLE: Russia Bucks at WTO Pressure
AUTHOR: By Naomi Koppel
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GENEVA - Russia is pressing forward with its attempts to join the World Trade Organization but won't be bullied into making concessions that would be unfavorable to its economy, its chief negotiator said Wednesday.


Maxim Medvedkov, deputy minister of economic development and trade, said Russia wants to join the body, which sets rules on international trade, "as soon as possible, but not at any price." Russia has been trying to join the WTO for nearly seven years, but it is much further from completing those efforts than China, the other giant waiting to join.

Medvedkov said Russia has to complete bilateral deals with around 50 current WTO members. They want Russia to reduce import tariffs on goods and open up its market to foreign service providers.

One major sticking point is likely to be agriculture, where nations are expressing concern about heavy government subsidies. The United States and Canada among others are pushing for Russia to eliminate all export subsidies and significantly reduce domestic subsidy programs, Medvedkov said.

But that would mean that Russia could no longer compete with nations that still subsidize their farmers, such as European Union countries, he said.

"If we stop subsidizing and follow the advice of one set of countries, we will be unable to compete with those that subsidize, and vice versa, so we have to find a compromise with our partners and our farmers as well," he told reporters.

Nations are also waiting to see whether Russia will pass legislation that is needed to meet the country's commitments under accords signed by all 138 WTO members.

Medvedkov said his country felt that the deals struck should be good for Russia as well as the WTO member countries, and said economic problems at home meant that a certain level of protection for domestic producers was still needed.

"Russia is a huge market. It is really interesting for many players. At the same time, our industries are still facing the consequences of the crisis in August 1998," he said.

"Some industries, especially in the services sector, need some protection. We have to find a compromise with our trading partners."

Russia is particularly concerned about laws in some major trading partners, especially the United States and the European Union, that treat Russia as a non-market economy, Medvedkov said.

In some cases, that leads to high import tariffs on Russian goods that are considered to have been produced at below market price. Russia is particularly worried that its steel industry is disadvantaged by such laws.

Some 30 countries are waiting to join the WTO. China hopes to join before the end of the year.

TITLE: Lessons To Be Learned From the Kursk Disaster
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kozin
TEXT: RUSSIAN political and military authorities continue to speculate that the Kursk nuclear submarine was sunk by a collision with a foreign counterpart sent to observe Russian naval exercises in the Barents Sea, despite both the fact that no concrete evidence of this has yet emerged and the strenuous denials on the part of American and NATO officials. Just last week, Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov stated: "I am 80 percent sure that the Kursk collided with another submarine."


Regardless of how the Kursk investigation ends, however, the tragedy once again demonstrates the need for immediate international action designed to reduce the likelihood of submarine collisions at sea. Moreover, measures need to be adopted that would facilitate international cooperation in searching for and rescuing missing submarines and their crews. Measures of this type have long been in effect with regard to surface vessels and aircraft operating from them, and it is inexcusable that the much more dangerous sphere of submarine operations remains virtually entirely unregulated.

According to the Defense Ministry, Soviet and Russian submarines have been involved in 11 documented collisions with foreign submarines since 1967. Two of the most recent documented cases occurred in the Barents Sea not far from where the Kursk now lies. In February 1992, the U.S. Los Angeles-class submarine Baton Rouge collided with a Russian counterpart. Likewise, in March 1993, there was a similar incident involving the American submarine Sturgeon and a Russian Delta-3 class strategic submarine. Fortunately, neither of these incidents resulted in loss of life or in any significant release of radiation into the environment, although either of them easily could have.

Submarine collisions occur for the simple reason that their movement is completely unregulated, and as a result they fairly frequently find themselves operating in extremely close quarters. In such instances, they enter one another's "blind spots," meaning that they are so close together that their normal ranging and detection equipment is unable to function properly. At such ranges, submarines are simply unable to "hear" or "see" one another.

Despite the fact that no substantial agreements regulating submarine maneuvers exist, there have been significant efforts to begin a dialogue on these matters and, to its credit, Russia has played a leading role. In 1993, Moscow initiated talks with Washington concerning measures to ensure the safety of submarines operating under the sea. The Russian delegation developed and presented a draft agreement that would have forbidden submarines of either country to approach vessels of the other, based on existing agreements concerning surface ships and aircraft that have been in force since 1972.

Unfortunately, this Russian initiative was not supported by the U.S. Navy, which felt that it would result in the division of the world's oceans into "open" and "closed" zones.

It would seem high time that the world's naval powers - especially those that possess nuclear submarines - returned to this crucial question. They should set themselves the goal of reaching an agreement that would regulate the ranges patrolled by each nation's submarines. In addition, such an agreement should also include mutual obligations not to send submarines into areas where other fleets are conducting training exercises.

In the interests of maritime safety, the Russian-American talks on these questions should be resumed immediately, and delegations from Britain, France, Japan and other nations should be invited to participate as well. Existing agreements designed to prevent incidents at sea that Russia has already signed with 12 leading naval powers (mostly NATO members), but which are presently limited to regulating surface ships, should serve as the basis for these talks.

Moreover, the tragedy of the Kursk has once again focused global attention on the numerous problems associated with the location of missing submarines and with providing assistance to their crews.

For Russia, this means that efforts must be made immediately to negotiate agreements with all neighboring countries with access to the sea. The goal of such agreements should be the establishment of direct lines of communication between all the naval authorities that might become involved. Further, formal bilateral and multilateral agreements regarding mutual assistance in search and rescue efforts should be concluded as soon as possible. Ideally, these agreements would also include provisions for joint exercises and maneuvers involving a range of search and rescue scenarios.

Most people do not realize that international cooperation in this area remains on the most primitive level. It remains for future agreements even to establish an agreed-upon international system of emergency signals for the use of submarines in distress and of ships trying to assist them. Russia and NATO have yet to even begin the work of standardizing rescue equipment, especially the equipment necessary for deep-sea operations. Anyone following the Kursk incident will vividly recall how Norwegian divers had to construct a special tool on site in order to turn the handle on the Kursk's hatch.

In order to overcome the language barriers that will be encountered during international rescue operations, it will be necessary to develop and publish specialized Russian-English/English-Russian dictionaries of technical terms relating to submarines and marine-rescue procedures.

Such practical measures as these, and many more that no doubt will arise during the negotiating process, can do much to reduce significantly the chances of collisions between submarines during routine patrols and training exercises. Moreover, they can also dramatically increase the effectiveness of international rescue efforts if, God forbid, another submarine disaster occurs.


Vladimir Kozin is a senior counselor for the Russian Foreign Ministry. He contributed this comment, which reflects his personal views, to The St. Petersburg Times.

TITLE: Mailbox
TEXT: Dear Editor,

Boris Kagarlitsky's article comparing Chechnya to the Palestinian Authority and Israel with Russia ["Chechnya and Mideast Are Both Results of a Bad Peace," Oct. 31] literally woke me up to certain views in Russia. I hadn't expected something of this kind from a person as perceptive and analytical as Mr. Kagarlitsky, whose work I enormously respected until now.


Russia and Israel, and Chechnya and the Palestine Authority, are not compatible subjects for comparison. Israel is a flourishing, successful democracy while Russia is a failing remnant of a powerful empire. Chechnya is a separatist region that doesn't have international recognition, while the Arafat "kingdom" is a part of the Arab world and has a wide international recognition and support. It would have been easier to compare Russia to Serbia, and Chechnya to Kosovo.

The Oslo and Khassav-Yurt "bad" agreements also cannot be objectively compared. First of all, both agreements weren't bad, they were just unrealistic in presuming that both sides would execute them judiciously.

The Oslo agreements, with all their shortcomings, were a result of an unofficial effort over many years by many Israelis and Palestinians on all levels, and between Israeli and Jordanian leaders. Kagarlitsky is wrong when he claims that the Palestinians sought autonomy in Oslo; they have rejected the very notion of autonomy promised already in the first Camp David agreement sponsored by Jimmy Carter. 

The Khassav-Yurt agreement was basically prepared within a couple of months in 1996, as a result of the Russian defeat in August of the same year. It seems that Chechnya's status is clear: Chechnya is a part of Russia. Chechnya is now demanding independence based on rebellion. Otherwise, Chechnya is no different from Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, or Kalmykia.

Also, it is not the case that Chechnya and the Palestinian Authority fear reoccupation. Chechnya broke the Khassav-Yurt agreement by twice invading Dagestan, by carrying out numerous kidnappings and terrorist acts on the territory of Russia proper. The Palestinians have a police force of 50,000 well-armed men, but they use mostly children to annoy the Israelis and create a crisis. By contrast, the Chechens are indomitable warriors who have defeated countless armies.

Kagarlitsky is right in describing Chechnya and the Palestinian territories as incapable of ruling themselves. However, it should come as no surprise if guerrilla republics do not have the political and economic skills necessary to create a state. After all, Russia itself is in an indescribable political and economic mess. Former Yugoslav republics such as Croatia and Slovenia, and the ex-Soviet Baltic republics, are in a better condition to run their own affairs than a Chechen republic of partisans.

In the middle of his article, Kagarlitsky unleashes a crude philippic against the former Soviet Jews who resettled in Israel. He characterizes them as a homogenous group who eat pork on Saturdays, couldn't care less about the Jewish holy places, and vote liberal because of promises of peace and jobs. However, when violence flares up they "immediately turn into rabid hawks and call for bombing."

According to Kagarlitsky, the Soviet Jews were manipulated by Ariel Sharon and the Israeli conservatives. These conservatives, in Kagarlitsky's words, would stop at nothing to destabilize the whole Middle East, even if thousands will perish.

Why Sharon waited so long to visit the Temple Mount, probably only Kagarlitsky knows. And he has already forgotten that even totalitarian Soviet regimes failed to manipulate Soviet Jews. Hardly anyone can claim that it is easy to manipulate Natan Sharansky, who fearlessly challenged the Soviet authorities and was jailed for seven years.

Kagarlitsky compares events in the Middle East to the war in Chechnya, which he views as an "amazingly successful" presidential campaign. Both leaderships, Israeli and Russian, are in his opinion equally manipulative and cynical; their "great-power patriotism" undermines moderate forces in Chechnya and the Palestinian territories, and strengthens radicals.

In Kagarlitsky's opinion, the fault lies entirely with Israel and Russia who, he thinks, will ultimately end up as losers. He is oblivious to the reality of the victimization of the Chechen and Palestinian populations - the result of the recklessness of their own leaders.


Dr. Isaac J. Tarasulo,

The Bethesda Institute for Russian Studies, United States



Dear Editor,

In a recent article "Customs To Halt Culture Exports" [Oct. 31], the problems of exporting cultural memorabilia was described.


St. Petersburg's economy is helped by the thousands of tourists who visit each year. Tours of museums and many other historic sites, attending the opera, ballet or theater, dining in fine restaurants, staying in hotels, shopping in the many stores along Nevsky Prospect, bring millions of tourist rubles to the economy. Of course, tourists want to purchase folk art, books, and other objects that will remind them of their trip in years to come.

Russia is impacted by the remarks that tourists make once they return to their respective countries. If they have encountered problems with bureaucrats such as customs officials, they will tell their friends and colleagues not to travel to Russia, and not to spend any money on anything if their friends can't be persuaded not to go.

I am not suggesting items of historic value should be allowed to be taken out of Russia without the authorization of the state. However, newly made items, whether folk art or fine art, books and so on, should not be confiscated or taxed at an exorbitant rate. Most countries I have visited do not tax tourists on goods purchased in the country.

Taxes gained in the near future by confiscating or taxing unknowing current tourists will ultimately be lost as tourism revenues decrease. The many contemporary artisans and artists will be impacted, and Russia will lose many of its creative and talented artists. This would be a shame. We hope that the Customs Committee and the Culture Ministry work to find a fair and prompt resolution to this conflict.


Barbara Van't Hof

President, International Exchange Council, United States



Dear Editor,

Reuben Johnson this week repeated some of the same phony stories about Al Gore that have been invented and promoted by sloppy U.S. reporters and Republican politicians ["Gore Told Too Many Tales," Oct. 24].


He wrote: "U.S. Vice President Al Gore has become notorious for taking credit for events in which he had little or no involvement. His claims of having 'invented the Internet' or of being the inspiration for Ryan O'Neal's character in the movie Love Story have become legendary by now during this presidential campaign."

Robert Parry, the reporter who broke the Iran-Contra story for the Associated Press, did some investigating and discovered the truth.

Regarding the Internet, Gore was attempting to say that he worked in Congress to help develop the Internet, not that he "invented" it. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN March 9, 1999, he said: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Congress was obviously not a technical lab, but a place that provided financial support. In fact, it was Gore more than other members of Congress who promoted the development of information technology, and so indeed helped create the Internet.

In 1997, Gore expressed the belief that he and his wife Tipper had served as models for the lead characters in the novel and movie Love Story. When the author, Erich Segal, was asked, he said that the male lead, Oliver Barrett IV, was modeled after Gore and Gore's Harvard roommate, actor Tommy Lee Jones. But he said the female lead, Jenny, was not based on Tipper Gore (The New York Times, Dec. 14, 1997). The rest of the media ignored Segal's comment and blithely reported that Segal had denied Gore was a model for the male character. American journalists' reporting of these and other phony stories about Gore says sad volumes about the sorry state of our press. Parry's full story is at www.consortiumnews.com.

Lucy Komisar

New York City

TITLE: What Other Papers Are Saying
AUTHOR: by Ali Nassor
TEXT: The anti-Chechen War stance adopted by French President Jacques Chirac and his European Union allies went by the wayside in Paris this week, as President Vladimir Putin returned home after having garnered billions of dollars of investment promises. At the same time, two of Russia's leading businessmen didn't look like they were going to be on the receiving end of any favors from the government - but were perhaps due for some special treatment of a very different nature.




Timely Strike


Smena looks at Putin's visit in Paris and his talks with the European Union, and marvels at the double standards employed.


The Russian president's emergence into high-level politics last year was marked not least by a souring of relations between Russia and the EU over the reopening of hostilities in the Chechen republic. On realizing that Russian economic growth is dependent on European investors' money, the paper says, Putin saw the moment as the opportunity to strike - now that the conflict in the North Caucasus has ceased to be a central issue in the diplomatic arena. 

Putin realized that, in Chirac's capacity as the current EU chief, France would be a good place from which to start a push for the wider riches of European investment - and Chirac's disapproval was conveniently and quickly reversed.



Friends Again


Izvestia says that Russia succeeded in one day of getting the economic boons she had wanted from the EU for several years. And Putin succeeded in getting his views on Chechnya across: "What would you have had us do?" was his reply to a question on the matter. What does one do to "bandits" who trade in humans, blow up buildings and behead people, Putin asked?


Chirac then had to come up with a vague and ambiguous response, opines the paper. He spoke thus: While the EU and Russia recognize the latter's right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in solving the Chechen issue, we still urge Russia to abide by the standards of the European Security Council. Izvestia sees this as a distinct softening of Chirac's views on the war. It's Russia's internal affair, the French president added.



Vanity, Vanity


This was all a tribute to Putin's success in turing around a highly unfriendly Parisian greeting: He was first presented with a petition signed by a group of 500 European intellectuals and politicians - including 80 EU parliamentarians - demanding an immediate cease-fire in Chechnya, says the paper.


In fact, says Argumenty i Fakty, it was an even more impressive achievement given that the French press had previewed the talks with extremely hostile commentaries and ridiculous cartoons. Liberation ran a caricature of Putin, depicting him with bulging eyed gazing at the human bones spread around him. Even the pro-Communist paper, L'Humanite, showed Putin against the background of a soldier fighting in Chechnya.

As if this was not enough, even while Putin was still at the airport, French television station Canal Plus was quoting a source backing up the suspicion that Russia's secret services were behind last year's apartment bomb explosions throughout the country. 

But Putin, immediately realizing he had to play every diplomatic card in his pack as skillfully as he knew how, managed to show the French that he wasn't the monster he'd been made out to be, says Komsomolskaya Pravda. Praising Chirac for all he was worth, and sending his wife Lyudmila to inspect the charity organization founded by Bernadette Chirac - which sponsors Russian students in France - Putin won many admirers.



It's a Gas


Even so, according to Vedomosti, Putin still got round to accusing France of being too slow to invest in Russia, with the old "bad investment climate" tag as a pretext. France then did its best to redress the situation, as Putin brokered over $160 million in long-term bilateral deals of communications projects. 


As a member of the G-7 group of industrial nations, France clearly decided to move out of eighth place in the league table of countries which invest in Russia - with an overall investment of only $172 million, Putin pointed out as quoted by Vedomosti.

In these circumstances and with these statistics, suggests the paper, a mere signing of protocols on natural gas trade, involving around $1.5 billion going Russia's way, is an improvement. 

So, chips in Kommersant, thanks to Putin, Russia's gas monopolist Gaz prom and its French counterpart, Gas de France, managed to sign an agreement to build a gas pipeline through Belarus, Poland and Slovakia. 



Iron Broom


Nevertheless, suggests the paper, while Putin is committed to promoting Russia's investment image abroad, he is doing what he likes at home.


While he was away in Paris, Putin's subordinates in Moscow were busy coming up with crimes that ye olde oligarchs Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky supposedly committed.

But Kommersant smells a rat. The abrupt announcement by Deputy Prosecutor General Vasily Kolmogorov that a closed case against the two tycoons on extortion and fraud had been reopened - declaring that one of them would appear on Interpol's wanted list if he didn't show in court by Nov. 13 - only hid the fact that this has nothing to do with the vaunted crackdown on big-time crime.

It is rather a defensive act, says the paper, on the part of the Prosecutor General's Office, which is flexing muscle to try and forestall the Duma transferring its powers to the judiciary.

Izvestia takes this assertion further, questioning the prosecutor's motives at a time when a peaceful solution to the conflict between Media-MOST and Gazprom had seemed possible. 

Quoting both parties in the dispute, Izvestia confirmed the two sides had reached a compromise this week, thus rendering procural interference completely unnecessary.

At least Berezovsky won't be declared wanted by Interpol. But the news that he is seeking British citizenship to avoid prosecution - perhaps spread deliberately by state-friendly media - won't endear him to patriotic Russians.

TITLE: strange films united with stranger finnish music
AUTHOR: by Kirill Galetski
TEXT: Arguably one of the most dynamic independent film events in St. Petersburg is the Deboshir Film Festival, subtitled "Pure Dreams," which serves as a forum for Russian and international low-budget, non-commercial filmmakers including a large group of young directors from St. Petersburg. Organized by actor-director Alexander Bashirov's film studio Deboshi r Film, this year's festival is the third, and it takes place at the Spartak Cinema from Saturday, Nov. 4 to Wednesday, Nov. 8. In addition to film showings there will be live performances by a plethora of progressive bands from Russia and Finland.


The man behind the festival is an inimitable personality. Bashirov was born in 1955 in the village of Sogom in the Tyumen Oblast. From 1984 to 1991 he studied at the All-State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) under the tutelage of Anatoly Vasiliev. During this period he made two short films, "Outsider" and "Ode to Joy." From 1990 to 1991, he studied at the Berhow Studio in New York in a drama skills workshop run by Lawrence Aransio.

Bashirov has acted in over 20 films, including Sergei Solovyov's "Assa" and Alexei German's "Khrustalyov, Get My Car!" He most often plays assorted oddballs. He has also acted in video clips, hosted concerts of leading rock groups and participated in the shows of the late experimental musician Sergei Kuryok hin's group Pop Mechanics. In 1996, Bashirov founded Deboshir Film Studio, where he is both the creative director and a teacher at the directors' workshop. "The Iron Heel of Oligarchy" was his directorial debut full-length feature film. His second feature is the quirky but mordant documentary "Belgrade, Belgrade" which was shot in the title city during the NATO bombings. The film premiered at last year's film festival, and will be shown again at this year's engagement.

The Finnish segment of the festival will feature a mini retrospective of films with Russian themes by well-known Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurasmaki. These include "The Saimaa Gesture," "Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatyana" and two films featuring the Leningrad Cowboys, the jokey rock band which made Kaurasmaki notorious: "Total Balalaika Show" and "The Leningrad Cow boys Meet Moses." The former is actually a concert film with the band performing with the Red Army Chorus. Their rendition of "Happy Together" is priceless.

The Finnish bands that will play include Aloha Junktion, Kometa, Kukka, the Surftones, Cucumber Farmer, and the illustrious eccentric electronic band Cleaning Women. The latter band has been to St. Petersburg several times - including last year's Deboshir Film Festival - and has been touring mostly around Finland, though they have also been to Baltic countries, Poland and Scandinavia. Three guys in austere black-and-white maid uniforms play unique instruments made of laundry racks, buckets and microphones. They use drying racks as percussive instruments, which gives them a one-of-a-kind sound.

The music is exceptionally well-produced, progressive industrial syncopations which are danceable and highly melodic at the same time. Last year they opened for local electronic wizards Deadushki, and the crowd received them very enthusiastically.

"Mainly there is no difference between audiences," commented Risto Puurunen, 27, the band member who came up with the laundry rack idea. "Usually they stand with their mouths open for about 15 minutes and after the first shock they all start dancing wildly. The only difference is with the Russian audience. They get into the music right after the first few beats and they might also sing along on a few songs. Atmosphere with the Russian audience is usually very warm and welcoming."

Asked about his impressions of St. Petersburg and Russia, Puurunen commented: "In a Finnish tabloid-magazine they said that St. Petersburg is our home city and we would like that to be true because we love Piter. It is quite hard to have any impression of the whole of Russia because it is so big. There are only 4,000 people living in our hometown of Heinavesi so there is a huge contrast between Heinavesi-Piter and Finland-Russia."

The band seems to be quite taken with Russia. They have toured with their like-minded Russian counterparts and more intense collaborations are planned.

"We have been touring with Deadushki, NOM, and Kolibri around Finland and during our last tour with Deadushki we performed two of our songs together with Deadushki in Turku," added Puurunen. "We hope to work together in the future, and we hope that we can get some help from Viktor Sologub from Deadushki on producing songs for our first album, which is due for release in early 2001."



The Deboshir Film Festival is held at the Spartak Cinema, Sat., Nov. 4 to Wed., Nov. 8. The schedule is too copious to print, and in any case, it has a habit of changing. The Web site is http://deboshir.az.ru. For up-to-the-minute information, call 238-84-31 after 5 p.m.

TITLE: tchaikovsky work gets premiere
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: For classical music connoisseurs, Tchaikovsky may seem like a composer whose legacy has been examined scrupulously enough not to hold any surprises - at least in the maestro's home country.


But on Nov. 11, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic will be offering us nothing less than a world premiere of the composer's work "Zigeunerweisen" (Gypsy melodies), performed by pianist Andrei Khoteyev and the Philharmonic symphony orchestra.

In fact, it was Khoteyev's archive research which led him to discover the dramatic history of this fantasy for piano and orchestra, the story of which he compares to a detective novel.

According to Khoteyev, to get into the context of Tchaikovsky's era, one has to realize one thing: It was a time when a composer's friends, critics and publishers intervened in his work with their advice, with the result that the piece often appeared as quite a departure from the work originally created by the composer.

Khoteyev believes that the flood of advice and score alterations was made with the best intentions of making the piece better and even that the changes were welcomed by the composer himself. But being aware of the trend, Khoteyev, without blaming the "invaders," has always been interested in discovering the originals.

In Tchaikovsky's case, the pianist's curiosity led him to the composer's memorial museum in Klin, near Moscow. And it is thanks to the museum's director Polina Vaidman, widely considered to be one of the world's top specialists on Tchaikovsky, that the discovery was made.

In 1906, Schirmer Verlag published a piece called "Bohemian Melodies," signed by the prominent pianist and pupil of Franz Liszt, Sophie Menter. Some years later, however, one of Liszt's letters came to light, showing that the "Bohemian Melodies" were based on his own sketches.

Western musicological research subsequently confirmed the presence of Liszt's style. Though some musical dictionaries still attribute the piece to Menter, it has recently been advertised as Liszt's "third piano concerto." But the Tchaikovsky story only begins here.

Vaidman discovered that in autumn 1892, Tchaikovsky paid Sophie Menter a visit and orchestrated the sketches of Liszt's unfinished concerto. Vaidman also obtained a photocopy of the score from the Pierpont Morgan library in New York. The score was signed by Tchaikovsky on Oct. 2, 1892 at Menter's castle. An examination of the score brought some astounding results.

Vaidman and Khoteyev did extensive research comparing the 1906 Schir mer Verlag edition and Tchai kov sky's score, discovering at least 50 differences of varying importance, from bars missing to the entire philosophy of instrumentation.

Vaidman said she has no doubt as to the authenticity of Tchaikovsky's handwriting on the manuscript.

"Yes, Tchaikovsky used Liszt's ideas as inspiration, as an impulse, but the complete piece presents an original, absolutely independent work," Khoteyev said. "It is, after all, not uncommon for the composer to use others' melodies as an initial impulse to create his own marvelous, fresh and unique works, with the Italian Capriccio being just one example."

"Menter, in turn, altered the piece, adapting it in accordance with her own ideas, and published it without any mention of either Liszt or Tchaikovsky," he added.

"This work has never been performed anywhere in its original, authentic version," said Larisa Volkova, deputy artistic director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. "It is a fascinating discovery worthy of appreciation. This is why we are hosting the concert, with our orchestra performing it."

Both Khoteyev and Vaidman believe that the changes made by Sophie Menter were so significant that the November concert at the Shosta ko vich Philharmonic Great Hall definitely deserves its "world premiere" status. 




See next week's listings for details. For ticket information, call the Shosta ko vich Philharmonic Great Hall ticket office at: 110-42-90

TITLE: leningrad's shnurov tired as band releases difficult 3rd album
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Leningrad, the folk-punk band which has kept clubs in both St. Petersburg and Moscow packed for the past couple of years, is releasing its third album next week.


Called "Dachniki" it contains 13 raunchy and fun tracks - which deal with pop icons and stereotypes, include quotes from a wide musical spectrum, ranging from Deep Purple to the James Bond theme, and contain even more obscene words than the band's previous releases.

The band's multi-talented frontman and songwriter Sergei Shnu rov recently left his job as a promotion director of Radio Modern, though he still plans to do a one-hour weekly show on the station.

"There began to be more concerts by Leningrad, and there were many offers which I had to turn down because I had no time," says Shnurov, who now also leads his surf-punk quartet 3D and composes music for the "ironic crime" television series.

"Honestly I was very tired from making Leningrad's last album - though we recorded it very fast, I spent more than just half an hour thinking about it and planning how to do it. At this stage, the biggest pleasure I get is from lying on the sofa."

Shnurov admits he faced some external pressures, which led to the exclusion of the song "Sound Letter" from the album, a track spoofing Zemfira and based both musically and lyricallyon her recent hits . Zemfira and her company refused to grant copyright because the pop diva did not like the song. 

"I don't know any of the details because it happened at record-company level - I was simply informed about it," says Shnurov, who then put the MP3 file of the song on the band's official site, which has now moved to www.leningrad.spb.ru.

"I also don't like the recent Leningrad poster and the style that the promotion campaign is built on as a whole," says Shnurov, who feels the image of the band that the company promotes is simplified.

Zemfira might be happy - even though another song mentions "some Zemfira," who "bangs my brains from the evening to the morning" - but older rock fans could be angered at Leningrad's ironic attacks on Russian rock idols Alisa and Kino.

The song "Gruppa Krovi," based on the late Viktor Tsoi's eponymous song, rhymes "Kino" and "govno," while "All This Is Rave" is a take on Alisa's perestroika rock anthem "All This Is Rock'n'Roll."

"It's rather a sober look from today, with no pathos. All these giants of St. Petersburg rock have become part of mythology. It's not the band Alisa anymore, but the idea 'the band Alisa.' That's why it can be dealt with in such a way," says Shnurov.


In a different vein, the post-surf track 'Instrumental' hints at what the album of instrumental music that Shnurov dreams of releasing in a few months could sound like.


Given its current popularity, Leningrad, which is a perfect club band, has to play occasional concerts at bigger venues. "We are not quite ready to perform at big places, but even if a brief preview about a Leningrad concert at a club appears in a newspaper, it will be murder."
The album "Dachniki" is due on Gala Records on Nov. 13.
Leningrad will showcase the release at LDM on Nov. 24.
3D, Leningrad's spin-off project, will play at Manhattan on Nov. 3.

TITLE: golden sofit ceremony gives feeling of deja vu
AUTHOR: by Giulara Sadykh-zade
TEXT: This year, St. Petersburg's prestigious theater prize, the Golden Sofit, repeated the nominations for the Golden Masks with striking accuracy. The same names made their appearance on the list of nominees: Lev Dodin, Grigory Dityat kov sky, Yury Alexandrov, Emil Kapelyush, Vladimir Firer, Nikolai Boryachikov.


This year, however, the make-up of the Nomination Committee was not kept a secret for the first time. The committee's chairman is Kirill Lavrov, with members including Stanislav Gaudasinsky, Andrei Petrov, Nikita Dogushin, Alisa Freindlikh and Yury Schwarzkopf, among others. The committee has been recently expanded with the addition of Yevgeny Kolchin, chairman of the culture committee.

The Nomination Committee, known as Petersburg's "inner circle," has from year to year diligently ignored the recommendations of the Council of Experts, made up of critics and art historians. Instead, it has steadily and staunchly toed its own party line, and by strange coincidence, its choices tend to coincide with its members' personal interests, the end result often being amazed and indignant members of the Council of Experts.

This pattern is particularly pronounced in the field of musical theater. The council only bends before unavoidable and obvious choices, such as Valery Gergiev, who has no true rival amongst other opera conductors either in the city or the country. However, for the sake of making a selection, Gaudasinksy's favorite, Andrei Anikhanov from the Maly Opera Theater, is always planted on the list. Such a lightweight contender next to a giant such as Gergiev looks absurd. All the same, the prize regularly goes to Gergiev, even though he is always absent at the awards ceremony.

Moreover, the only representative of the Mariinsky Theater in attendance was conductor Yury Alexandrov. Having won every significant prize for "Semyon Kotko" at the Golden Masks, he also managed a Sophit for best opera director. Following that, Alexandrov declared that he had gotten used to receiving prizes like a patient gets used to drugs. Semyon Pastukh was also awarded a prize for "Kotko." Viktor Chernomortsev was recognized as last season's best opera singer for his portrayal of Alberich in the "Das Rheingold," staged by the German director Johannes Schaaf. Schaaf was himself nominated, but did not receive a prize. Gottfried Piltz, Schaaf's set designer, was not even mentioned in the nominations list, although it was his work that was truly worthy of attention.

In ballet, of the two rivals for the prize - Nikita Dolgushin (for "Swan Lake" at the Conservatory) and Mikhail Boyarchikov (for "Faust" at the Malegot) - the latter was pronounced the best. Balanchine's "Jewels," staged with great thoroughness at the Mariinsky, was not even mentioned (although a separate nomination was thought up for it, something in the vein of "for guarding the traditions of the art of ballet"). "Jewels" appeared only indirectly on the list, Andrei Fadeyev receiving the award for "best ballet role" in the production.

It was notable, incidentally, that the acting nominations for musical theater were ruthlessly cut down and a clear discrimination towards dramatic art was evident. The list did not include either secondary roles or the traditional division between male and female performances. This resulted in a strong bias toward males; the dazzling Mariinsky sopranos Irina Dzhioyeva and Tatyana Pavlovskaya were left behind along with ballerina Altinai Asilmuratova and others.

In drama, Lev Dodin won his first Sofit for "Chevengur" and "Molly Sweeny." Strangely enough, veteran prize-winning artist Emil Kapelyush remained a nominee - the award for "best set-design" going to Alexander Orlov for "The Village Wife" at the Akimov Theater of Comedy. Andrei Moguchy was recognized as the best director working on a small stage (for "The School for Idiots" at the Baltiisky Dom), while Vyacheslav Zakharov won best actor for his role in "Lost in the Stars" at the Theater on Liteiny. Actor of the year was Kirill Lavrov, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday (and moreover is Chairman of the Nominations Committee). Other awards went to theater veterans Ivan Dmitriev, Nikolai Trofimov and David Zolotnitsky. Special awards were presented to Olga Savarenskaya "for outstanding contribution to theatrical costume" and to Yury Petukhov "for unique contribution to ballet performance."

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Friday will offer plenty of choice. The respectable public, which can afford to pay one or two thousand rubles for a ticket, will gather for Ray Charles' one-off show at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall. The singer and pianist will be coming hot from his two Moscow dates.


Those interested in cute young guys and/or so-called "Russian Britpop," should go to SpartaK. MultFilmy, the band, which released its debut album on a big Moscow label earlier this week, will present its new single. Fronted by the charming Yegor Timofeyev, the band is responsible for the song "Boy Writes to Boy" and a cynical attempt to play at gay night spot, Club 69. The club's management sniffed the deception however and turned the hetero band's messengers away.

Though two Czech bands playing a bastard form of punk named "emo" failed to materialize because of passport and money problems, they will be substituted at Moloko on Friday by Unconform, a band described as the "hope of the positive Moscow hardcore scene." The press release says they "formed in late 1997 and progressed to old-school melodic hardcore with rock/emo influences." All are vegetarians.

Igor Butman, a leading Russian saxophone player, will bring his U.S. colleague Joe Locke, who performs on vibraphone. 

Butman, a Petersburger who emigrated to the U.S. and then moved to Moscow, first became famous for his powerful saxophone solos on Akvarium's underground "tape albums." A graduate of the Berkeley College of Music, he later collaborated with the likes of Grover Washington, Dave Bru beck and Eddie Gomez.

The epitome of his official career was a Kremlin concert he played for another great saxophonist, Bill Clinton in May 1995. Boris Yeltsin, known for his abilities as a band conductor, was also present.

Now Butman directs Moscow's jazz venue Le Club and travels with his Quartet. Jazz Philharmonic Hall, Nov. 7.

Accidents will happen on Thursday. Biohazard, the brutal hiphop/hardcore band from Brooklyn, will be rocking the city on that very day. Their last Russian tour was marked by rough behavior and occasional vandalism. Meet Billy Graziadei on vocals and guitar, Evan Seinfeld on vocals and bass and Danny Schuler on drums and percussion.

"A lot of people see Biohazard as a negative thing," says Schuler, "but the funny thing is we've always prided ourselves on being positive."

But a Russian Internet publication advises not to leave cars near the venue and to spend the evening with your family in the safety of your own home. Unless, of course, you're a stage diver. Lensoviet Palace of Culture, Nov. 9.



- by Sergey Chernov

TITLE: Mideast Truce Marred by Sporadic Violence
AUTHOR: By Mark Lavie
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israel pulled back tanks from friction points and Palestinian police restrained rock throwers Thursday, in the first tentative steps to carry out a truce agreement reached by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in an overnight meeting.


The cease-fire was to take hold Thursday afternoon with announcements by Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

However, in the hours leading up to the deadline, a 17-year-old Palestinian was killed in a rock throwing clash with Israeli troops in the West Bank village of Hizme, near Jerusalem, and Palestinian gunmen fired on Israeli positions in the West Bank town of Hebron, drawing return fire.

Clashes also erupted in the Gaza Strip. But in at least two locations, near the Jewish settlements of Kfar Darom and Netzarim in Gaza, Palestinian police pushed back rock throwers for the first time in several weeks. Near Netzarim, police bundled several dozen stone throwers in trucks and drove them away.

Previous cease-fire agreements, including one brokered by President Clinton last month, did not hold, with each side accusing the other of violating commitments.

Peres and Arafat met at the Palestinian leader's Gaza City office for two hours late Wednesday in the first high-level meeting between the two sides since the conflict erupted Sept. 28. At least 162 people have been killed in the fighting, most of them Palestinians.

"We hope we shall have two or three days without funerals," Peres told Associated Press Television News. "We shall return to normalize the situation in the territories and return to peace talks."

Palestinian peace negotiator Nabil Shaath said that according to the understandings reached, Israel will gradually lift its closure of Palestinian areas, permit Palestinian workers to return to jobs in Israel and open Gaza International Airport, as well as border crossings with Egypt and Jordan. Such restrictions have cost the Palestinian economy about $4 million a day, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday.

Arafat convened his Cabinet ministers around noon.

In an apparent call for calm, the Palestinian Information Ministry said in a statement that "the Palestinian leadership asks our Palestinian people and all our national forces to forge a united stand and express ourselves peacefully in all circumstances in our national struggle."

But the leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, said the Palestinian uprising against Israel would continue. Yassin said the protests were an expression of popular anger and could not be reined in by an order from Arafat.

Barak and Arafat spoke by phone before the 2 p.m. deadline to coordinate the wording of their announcements, which were to be broadcast live by Israeli and Palestinian media, respectively, Barak's office said. Barak also expressed sorrow for the killing of the Palestinian teenager Thursday.

Israeli security officials, meanwhile, announced that a Palestinian militant has been caught in the Israeli town of Upper Nazareth. The officials said the man had plotted to carry out a suicide attack in northern Israel.

On Thursday morning, Israel pulled back tanks from several friction points in the Gaza Strip, including the Karni crossing, where eight Palestinians were killed in two days of fierce gun battles. One of the Karni protesters died Thursday of injuries sustained earlier.

Israeli soldiers withdrew from a Palestinian police post at Karni which they had seized earlier this week.

Israel also lifted its siege of several West Bank towns, including Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron. Within a few hours, Palestinians were to be able to move freely in the West Bank, said Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, the Israeli army spokesman.

Israeli and Palestinian troop commanders and lower-level officers held a series of talks in the West Bank and Gaza to work out the details of the truce.

As a result of the agreement, Israel at the last minute froze attacks on Palestinian targets that were to come as retaliation for the killing of three Israeli soldiers in gun battles with Palestinians on Wednesday.

The three soldiers were the first to die in combat since Oct. 1. Seven Palestinians were also killed, as armed clashes intensified in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the conflict appeared to be spiraling out of control.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Barcelona Car Bomb


BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in central Barcelona early on Thursday, injuring a policeman and a security guard, in the second attack in Spain this week linked to the Basque separatist group ETA.

Fifteen minutes before the blast, callers claiming to represent ETA alerted authorities to the bomb, which shattered windows in the area and littered the street with debris, police said.

The explosion in Spain's second-largest city occurred less than three days after a Supreme Court justice, his bodyguard and driver were killed in a Madrid car bombing - the bloodiest attack blamed on ETA since it ended a cease-fire last December.

ETA has been held responsible for 19 killings this year, the highest toll since 1992 when it was blamed for 26 killings.



2 Dead in Holy City


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A car bomb left by suspected Islamic militants in Jerusalem killed two Israelis on Thursday, threatening a fragile deal to halt the bloodiest Israeli-Palestinian violence since the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

Israel said it still expected the cease-fire, forged in the early hours by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Nobel laureate Shimon Peres, to be outlined simultaneously by Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

But Israel's deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh, said: "Something has happened in the meantime. Something grave and tragic ... and it is our right to give [the announcement] further consideration."

Israeli police said both of the dead, a man and a woman, were Israeli Jews. Sources in the opposition National Religious Party identified the woman as the daughter of its leader, Yitzhak Levy.



Estrada Clings to Power


MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippines President Joseph Estrada said on Thursday he was willing to face an impeachment trial on bri bery charg es after a wave of desertions, led by his trade secretary, rocked his 28-month-old government.

The beleaguered Estrada, struggling to cling on to power amid a scandal that has brought the country's economy almost to its knees, also said he was willing to submit himself to a popular vote to see if Filipinos still wanted him to remain in office.

Estrada's ruling coalition holds a seemingly powerful majority in Congress. But a series of shock defections on Thursday and reports that more of his allies would desert him threatened to erode his support.

Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas announced his resignation from the cabinet, the second minister to quit the government after Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo quit her post as social welfare minister last month.

Estrada has insisted he is innocent of accusations that he took bribes from illegal gambling syndicates.



Angolan Plane Crash


LUANDA, Angola (AP) - A charter plane burst into flames minutes after takeoff, crashing into a remote jungle in a key diamond-mining region, authorities said Wednesday. All 48 people aboard were killed, reports said.

The cause of the crash Tuesday evening was not immediately known. Flight disasters in Angola are commonly blamed on poor aircraft maintenance or rebel gunfire.

The Antonov 26 had just departed from the northern Angolan town of Saurimo, 800 kilometers east of Luanda, when it exploded into a fireball at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Civil Aviation Director Branco Ferreira said Wednesday.

The region has been the focus of fierce civil warfare between the army and rebels from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA. They have been fighting since the southwest African country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

The Soviet-built plane, owned by the Angolan company Ancargo, was chartered by a travel agency called Guicango, the Portuguese new agency Lusa said.



Iraq Gets Power Station


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A Chinese company has completed a major power station in Iraq, the first such facility built in the Arab country since the Gulf War.

The gas-powered 222-megawatt station, near the northern oil center of Kirkuk, is expected to ease a chronic electricity shortage in a country where blackouts last summer often lasted more than 12 hours in a day.

The plant was inaugurated on Oct. 26 and cost $75 million, Xiang Jun of the Chinese National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export company told The Associated Press.

The company is also supplying spare parts to revamp power stations hit during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, he said, adding that hundreds of Chinese engineers are rehabilitating a major electricity plant near Najaf in southern Iraq.

The company is among more than 1,500 companies taking part in the Baghdad International Fair in which 45 countries are represented. It is one of 12 major Chinese firms exhibiting products.



NPD Ban Proposed


BERLIN (Reuters) - German parliamentarians voiced doubts on Thursday whether evidence collected by the government to support a rare move to ban a far-right party linked to the country's neo-Nazi scene would stand up in court.

The proposed ban on the National Democratic Party (NPD) is the most high-profile measure taken by Chancellor Gerhard Schroe der's government under pressure to react to racial and neo-Nazi violence.

But even firm backers of the move said evidence gathered by security officials to support a request to the constitutional court to ban the NPD was unlikely to be sufficient.

"Major evidence has been offered suggesting that the NPD as a party is a threat to the German constitution," said Christian Stroebele, member of the Greens junior coalition partners.

"But the question is whether you can, legally speaking, link the party's leadership to this evidence. I'm not so sure of that," Stroebele, a trained lawyer, told InfoRadio.



U.K. Floods Rage On 


LONDON (AP) - Rain swept across Britain on Thursday, swelling rivers already at bursting point as the country's most widespread floods in 50 years showed few signs of abating.

Weather forecasters warned that the situation would probably get worse over the next 48 hours.

In Dover, on England's south coast, 10,000 families were told to boil drinking water after flooding was blamed for contaminating supplies with bacteria. Water service authorities said rationing might be introduced in coming days.

Fourteen severe flood warnings were in place on nine rivers, with rivers in Yorkshire, northern England, and the River Severn in the west the chief areas of concern.

TITLE: Typhoon Claims 53 Victims in Taiwan
AUTHOR: By Alice Hung
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan rescue workers searched for 32 people on Thursday after Typhoon Xangsane, the island's most destructive storm in five years, triggered flash floods and landslides that killed at least 53 people.


The typhoon, which poured rain on the island from Monday to Wednesday night, also may have played a role in the crash of a Singapore Airlines jet that killed at least 81 people.

Intense rains brought by the typhoon triggered rock and mud slides in mountainous regions, burying dozens of people, causing widespread power outages and blocking roads.

The Council of Agriculture put initial agricultural losses at around T$2 billion (US $62.5 million), and said it was the most destructive typhoon since Typhoon Herb killed 73 people and caused T$14 billion in losses in July 1996.

Floodwaters fed by Typhoon Xang sane drowned 14 elderly people, who were trapped in their rest home in the northern city of Keelung.

Another 15 people drowned in the basement of an apartment, where they had been attending a religious gathering.

On Wednesday, a Panamanian-registered cargo ship sank during the typhoon off Taiwan's northeast coast, and only one of the 24-member crew had been found.

The National Fire Administration, which handles search and rescue missions, said the Manila Spirit sank in rough seas off northeastern Sanhao Point while Typhoon Xangsane swept north along the island's east coast.

One crew member swam to shore and was hospitalized. Two helicopter searches on Thursday failed to turn up more survivors and a rescue ship was sent to the area.

A family of five, whose house was washed away in a flood, was also listed as missing, while 48 were injured.

Most of those buried in the mud slides had been rescued.

At its peak, Xangsane - which means Elephant God in Chinese - was packed with maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 175 kph. The winds and rains had let up by late Wednesday night as the storm moved north out to sea.

Weather forecasters lifted the typhoon warning on Thursday morning, and residents in Keelung and many parts of Taipei began cleaning up as waters receded. In some areas, water levels had reached as high as one story and submerged cars.

The presidential office said the twin disasters of the typhoon and air crash had kept Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian up all night.

Xangsane also killed at least 26 people in the Philippines, and left 50 missing and 230 hurt before it headed north to Taiwan.

TITLE: Airline's Silence Provokes Fury
AUTHOR: By Tan Ee Lyn
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: TAIPEI, Taiwan - Grieving relatives turned their wrath against Singapore Airlines on Thursday as investigators probed whether a jumbo jet, which crashed during a typhoon, used a runway closed for repairs or struck an object on takeoff.


The airline's officials, dealing with the first crash in the history of one of Asia's most profitable carriers, faced a storm of criticism from family members of the victims.

Two injured passengers died after being hospitalized, pushing the death toll from Tuesday night's crash to 81. Another 82 people were injured and 16 were unhurt.

Investigators combed wreckage at the Taipei international airport for clues into what caused the Boeing 747-400 to crash. Soon they will get more help from U.S. aviation experts, now en route to Taiwan.

But angry relatives of victims demanded immediate answers, interrupting news conferences in Taipei and Singapore to rebuke airline executives for leaving them in the dark for hours about the fate of their loved ones.

Two dozen family members from Singapore arrived in Taipei on Wednesday night to try to identify their relatives, whose bodies lay in a makeshift morgue in an unused flight terminal. Many bodies were burned beyond recognition.

At Singapore's Changi Airport, a distraught man interrupted a news conference by SIA spokesman Rick Clements.

"Tell the press the true story. Don't hide any more," said Tan Yin Leong, whose brother Tan Yip Thong died in the crash.

"Are people's lives more important, or SIA's reputation?"

The Los Angeles-bound SQ 006, which was carrying 159 passengers and 20 crew, slammed onto the tarmac on Tuesday seconds after takeoff, lashed by strong winds and rains from Typhoon Xangsane.

Investigators, who found the black boxes on Wednesday, were looking into whether it took off from a parallel runway that was closed for repairs and hit construction equipment. Much of the wreckage from the plane rests on the closed runway.

Clements has dismissed this, saying the plane used a well-lit runway.

A Taiwan aviation investigator said lights on a taxiway to the closed runway were on.

Lights on the taxiways to both runways were on because they were controlled by the same switch, but it was unclear whether lights on the closed runway were working, investigator Kay Yong said. Those lights were controlled by a different switch.

"We think the lights are an important factor. We are not saying it caused anything. What I am saying today is only factual information. We are not at the analysis stage," said Yong, managing director of the cabinet's Aviation Safety Council.

Authorities have not decided whether the aircraft struck an object on the runway, or crashed because of the weather.

Government aviation investigator Chou Hsien-tsan said the plane struck one or two excavators parked near the runways. Both showed signs of damage, but it was not yet clear whether this occurred before or after the crash.

The plane's captain, C.K. Foong, a Malaysian with more than 11,000 hours of flying time, said his plane struck "an object" on takeoff as it barreled down the runway.

An airline official said on Wednesday investigators found a wheel not belonging to the SIA plane in the wreckage.

This scenario was reminiscent of the July 25 crash of a Concorde outside Paris. A preliminary report said a metal strip found on the runway likely burst a Concorde tire, triggering a chain of events that caused the crash.

Several flights had been canceled due to high winds before the doomed jetliner took off.

Clements said crosswinds at the time of departure were weaker than the maximum of 30 knots set by manufacturer Boeing.

An initial review of the flight data recorder indicated the jet maintained the same heading throughout its take-off.

Yong said the data recorder showed winds at the time of take-off ranged from 27 to 31 knots, but he did not give a specific figure for a crosswind.

TITLE: Penguins Bowled Over by British Pilots
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON - Royal Air Force pilots have long been ridiculed, but remain adamant: fly above a penguin colony, they say, and the curious birds topple over like dominos as they stare up at the aircraft.


Now, British scientists are traveling to the Falkland Islands to settle the debate once and for all.

British Antarctic Survey researchers plan to spend one month aboard the HMS Endurance studying the phenomenon, which Royal Air Force pilots first recorded during the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.

They claim the penguins crane their heads back so far to watch planes and helicopters buzzing overhead that they lose their balance and tip over.

"The penguins always look up at the helicopters flying over and follow them all the way until they fall backward," said Stuart Matthews, operations officer on the HMS Endurance. "Some environmentalists now want to limit flights. We are going out to investigate."

Two Lynx helicopters will fly over the colonies from different angles and at different heights to test the reaction.

At least one scientist isn't convinced.

"I'm afraid it's an urban myth," said Dr. Richard Stone of the British Antarctic Survey. "Aircraft do have an effect on penguins, but not to the extent of birds falling over."

TITLE: Peaceful Resolution Sought To Peru Revolt
AUTHOR: By Jude Webber
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LIMA - Peru's respected rights monitor flew to the southern Andes on Thursday in a new bid to mediate the surrender of military mavericks, whose uprising has deepened a seven-week-old crisis that has dumbfounded the nation.


While Ombudsman Jorge Santistevan started his mission, Congress met in Lima to give final approval to constitutional changes paving the way for April elections promised by President Alberto Fujimori, by cutting his mandate and that of legislators to one year from four.

A peaceful end to the five-day uprising, and approval of the changes needed to hold elections four years early, would help calm tensions amid the worst political crisis of Fujimori's 10-year rule that has wreaked havoc on Peru's economy.

Economy Minister Carlos Bolona was due to hold final talks with a visiting mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday, in order to set new macroeconomic targets.

The crisis has swelled Peru's budget deficit, slashed growth forecasts, and on Wednesday prompted the prestigious ratings agency Standard & Poor's to darken its outlook on Peru's debt once again.

A bribery scandal involving the ex-spy master, Vladimiro Montesinos, sparked the crisis in September, pushing Fujimori to announce that he would quit in July.

The crisis escalated 11 days ago when Montesinos, who had been Fujimori's power broker ally and top aide for years, defied the president and showed up back in this South American nation of 25 million after a failed asylum bid in Panama.

Struggling to stamp his authority on the country, Fujimori personally embarked on an astonishing - and so far fruitless - Montesinos manhunt and sacked the military top brass, long seen as under the spy chief's sway.

Santistevan had to abandon his first mediation effort on Wednesday, when bad weather prevented his helicopter from landing in the rugged mountains. But he said he had secured guarantees that mutiny leader Lt. Col. Ollanta Humala would not be shot by his pursuers.

The uprising had appeared to almost fizzle out after a couple of days when most of the 50 soldiers who backed him at first deserted or were captured. But military search squads had still not caught up with Humala - even though a pro-government television station tracked him down on Wednesday and interviewed him inside a van.

Ollanta, a 38-year-old veteran of Peru's jungle wars against leftist rebels, told ATV television he was just "a grain of sand" and urged others to join him to topple Fujimori and Montesinos, whose influence he said remained unchanged.

"There are honorable officials and troops who have already realized... that I am not mad or a rebel and that if we all unite, Mr. Fujimori will fall in 24 hours. I invite them to join me," said Humala, looking calm and wearing a denim jacket.

He added that he was just seeking to "give a little push" to Peru's democracy.

TITLE: Fijian Authorities Regain Control Following Rebel Mutiny
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SUVA, Fiji - Fijian authorities said on Thursday that they had wrested control of the country's main military barracks from rebel troops, after two soldiers were killed in eight hours of sporadic gunbattles.


"The army is back in control," said Laisenia Qarase, who was appointed interim prime minister by the military after nationalist rebels staged a coup in May.

However, a Reuters journalist heard sustained gunfire from the hilltop barracks in the Fijian capital of Suva minutes after Qarase broadcast his special address to the Pacific island nation. A curfew was imposed in Suva as night fell.

Qarase said the rebel commandos had released five soldiers taken hostage during the mutiny.

"You have my word justice will be done," Qarase said.

The rebels were from the same special forces unit as gunmen who stormed parliament on May 19 in the name of indigenous rights, ousting Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader.

Fiji's ethnic Indians make up about 44 percent of the 800,000 population and dominate the economy, which was just starting to recover from damage inflicted by the coup. Tourists had started trickling back, lured by cheap holiday deals.

Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital said two regular army soldiers had been killed in the gunbattles and it was treating 10 other wounded soldiers, who had been carried in on the shoulders of their comrades and in the backs of trucks and ambulances.

The rebel special forces troops launched their mutiny at around 1 p.m. local time, storming the armory at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks.

Military commander Frank Bainimarama fled the barracks through dense bushland about two hours later, surrounded by 12 bodyguards who were armed with M16 rifles, according to a local reporter.

Later more than 60 soldiers loyal to Bainimarama battled their way into the barracks. Former Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka - who led a coup in 1987 - also went in to try to negotiate an end to the rebellion.

"I have advised the mutineers that, if they know the situation is hopeless, to put the white flag up," Rabuka told Channel Nine television in Australia by telephone.

Gunfire almost drowned out former army colonel Rabuka as he spoke.

Bainimarama, who comes from Fiji's navy and has struggled to win the full support of the army, later visited the wounded soldiers in hospital.

He declined to talk to reporters.

The rest of Fiji was reported to be quiet - including the key town of Labasa on the island of Vanua Levu, where landowners and some military men joined the May revolt.

The New Zealand foreign minister, Phil Goff, said that it appeared the mutiny was connected to Bainimarama's investigation of 150 soldiers for their suspected involvement in the May coup.

"Those people clearly felt that they were under threat," Goff said to reporters.

The leader of the May coup, George Speight, is on a prison island off Suva awaiting a treason trial.

Eight members of the special forces unit, who were also facing treason charges, were released into military custody last week, and local media said they were believed to be among the mutineers.