SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #619 (0), Friday, November 10, 2000
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TITLE: Absentee Votes May Decide Florida
AUTHOR: By Sarah Karush and Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In one of the most bizarre turns in U.S. electoral history, a vote counted in St. Petersburg, Russia could now seem to be more significant than a vote cast in St. Petersburg, Florida. 


That's because a now-underway recount in Florida - now the decisive state for the election - has George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore by a mere 941 votes. A recount was mandatory under state law because the margin was less than one-half of 1 percentage point of the total number of votes cast in Florida, the Associated Press said.

This therefore means that the decisive votes will be coming in from overseas - cast as absentee ballots - and Florida reckons it will be counting 2,000 of those over the next ten days, officials there said.

In the 1996 presidential election, Florida counted 2,300 overseas ballots.

Many U.S. expatriates forego voting because obtaining an absentee ballot can be a hassle and because they feel it is a futile exercise. After all, their votes often don't arrive until well after the polls have closed and the votes have been tallied.

But Tuesday's soon-to-be photo finish race proved that every vote counts. In some cases, the vote could threaten lives. "I'm from Florida," said one Florida resident in St. Petersburg who didn't vote. "I received a call from my ex-wife who lives there who said 'If Gore wins I'll kill you!'"

That notwithstanding, many expats in St. Petersburg did their patriotic duty. Braving the process of red tape and postmarks, many St. Petersburg expats of Floridian persuasion, however, blew it.

One Floridian, who declined to be identified said he didn't vote because he didn't like the choices on offer. He added, however, that he now felt bad about it because 'I'm from Florida and I should have voted.'"

But Moscow resident Mark Gould, of Clearwater, Florida, said he was happy he went to the trouble of getting an absentee ballot and casting it for Bush.

"I like Bush, I like Gore. But I can't stand Tipper ever since Tipper came out against rock music," Gould said of Gore's wife. His absentee vote was counted in the first tally Tuesday night because he cast it while he was in the United States last month.

At one point in Tuesday night's count, when the difference between Bush and Gore was a mere 200 votes, Gould said he calculated the worth of his vote for the Republican candidate at one-two hundredth of the U.S. population, or 1.25 million people.

"Those are some heavy numbers. The extrapolation you can do really makes you think about the importance of exercising your franchise," said Gould, who has lived in Russia since 1989.

Theoretically expat votes cast from abroad - and not from the United States the way Gould's was - could turn the tide and hand victory to Gore - as many awaiting the count are hoping.

The only ballots not counted the first time around were those cast overseas, Reuters said, citing Clay Roberts, director of the Florida Division of Elections. They must be postmarked by election day in order to be valid but have 10 days to arrive.

The number of overseas ballots is undetermined. Florida election officials sent out 585,000 absentee ballots, of which 416,000 had been returned by Monday evening.

Roberts said that it was "technically" possible that these ballots could change the result of the election, although it's extremely unlikely.

Moreover, conventional wisdom holds that U.S. citizens abroad - who include military personnel and many business executives - are predominately Republican.

Of course, there are other factors beside the expat vote that could conceivably change the results.

In Palm Beach County, hundreds of angry voters complained to the elections office that they feared they had mistakenly cast their vote for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Gore. Some said they were confused by the punch ballot that placed the names of Gore and Buchanan across from each other, The Associated Press reported.

Some U.S. citizens in Moscow said they would have liked to have voted but never received an absentee ballot.

In order to vote abroad, you must send a request for an absentee ballot to the board of elections where you are registered. Your request must be received at least 30 days before the election.

Marisa Fushille, of Texas, said she went to the trouble of faxing her request to election officials six weeks ago so that they would get it on time.

"My ballot never got here, so I never voted," she said.

Despite that mishap, some states are even allowing absentee votes to be faxed in, officials at the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg said. 



Sarah Karush reported from Moscow and Irina Titova reported from St. Petersburg.

TITLE: Gulag Memories Live On in a Siberian Museum
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DOLINA KANYONA, Eastern Si be ria - Josef Stalin sent millions of Soviet citizens down Siberia's so-called "Road of Bones" to the misery and death of the gulag labor camps.


Now tourists are being invited to the remote Kolyma track to Dolina Kanyona, a labor camp crumbling into the tundra nearly 50 years after its last inmate was released.

Forty-six-year-old Alexei Alabushev, born the year the labor camp closed, swapped a teaching career for an unlikely tourist dream amid the taiga and tumbling rivers of Russia's far northeast. 

"I wanted to come up with a project that would embrace all sides of tourism - nature, history, ethnic themes, extreme tourism, sport," Alabushev said. 

"Dolina Kanyona fits ideally into this idea. This place is unique; it has mountains, lakes, cascading waterfalls, glaciers, rare animals. Here you can satisfy the most demanding tourist."

Snow-capped mountains overlook Dolina Kanyona and the expanse of Siberian taiga, whose autumnal reds, yellows and greens fan out around the crystal clear Verina river.

But some 2,000 Dolina Kanyona inmates saw a different picture half a century ago.

Vladimir Svertelov, prisoner number M-1247, recalls climbing the camp's wooden stairs every morning to work, whipped by a piercing wind and gnawed by temperatures plummeting to minus 50 degrees Celsius. 

"Nature itself served as a guard here," said Svertelov. 

Since the camp closed in 1954, rivers have washed away the wooden bridges built by prisoners on the road that led to it. But Dolina Kanyona's isolation and forbidding elements have helped it remain one of the best preserved of Kolyma's 500 or so camps.

Barbed wire still twists around the camp and metal bars criss-cross the tiny square windows of the prison barracks. Quilted jackets, numbered caps, tarpaulin boots and tins litter the floor of the barracks and workshops. 

At the top of a steep slope looms a huge refinery surrounded by heaps of cobalt ore, which the Cold War-era Soviet military needed to make armor. 

Svertelov was banished to Dolina Kanyona for the "crime" of having been captured by Nazis while a soldier during World War II.

German prison was bad, but being treated as a traitor upon returning was worse.

The only survivor of Dolina Kanyona left in the regional center, Magadan, Svertelov is wholeheartedly in favor of Alabushev's tourism idea.

"People must go there and see how we lived," Svertelov said. "It doesn't matter if someone also wants to make money on this."

The Magadan region suffers from the economic woes which grip much of Siberia. 

The infrastructure built by prisoners from the 1930s to the 1950s was developed by workers from across the Soviet Union, drawn by special wages and powerful propaganda. 

But much of region's transport and industry became too inefficient to maintain after the economic reforms of the 1990s. 

Ivan Panikarov, a former plumber from the southern Russian town of Rostov, has set up a gulag museum in Yagodnoye - a town of 8,000 that once housed the regional gulag administration headquarters - and put it on-line. 

Panikarov came to Kolyma in the 1970s, where he learned the grim history of the camps and began visiting their remains, collecting prisoners' clothes, tools and tableware. 

In 1994, after many failed attempts to get support from the local administration, he bought a two-room apartment in Yagodnoye and put the exhibits on display. 

Today Panikarov's museum is Yagodnoye's key attraction and the local administration has offered to exhibit his artifacts at a former cinema.

The Kolyma track is littered with abandoned villages standing next to the ruins of labor camps, but Yagodnoye, "the town of berries" in Russian, is prosperous by local standards. 

The local administration is trying to lure entrepreneurs and gold prospectors. There's even a town Internet server. 

"The wives of the gold prospectors look at the Web sites of Moscow shops so they know where to go when they get there. The prospectors themselves look up the world prices for gold," said Vladimir Alexeyev, director of the town's communications center. 

One computer is available for public use at Yagodnoye's post office, but Alexeyev dreams of installing a Web camera to let residents stay in touch over the Internet with children studying in Magadan, which would save money on telephones and travel. 

The server also hosts Ivan Pa ni ka rov's gulag history Web site (http:/ya. msi.ru/museums/main.htm). But Pani ka rov's ambition is to take tourists to see the real thing.

TITLE: U.S. Caught in Electoral Quagmire
AUTHOR: By David Royse
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TALLAHASSEE, Florida - George W. Bush's lead over Al Gore in crucial Florida shrank to fewer than 400 votes on Thursday, with allegations of irregularities swirling and several thousand ballots from overseas residents still to be counted.


Recount results from 64 of the state's 67 counties gave Republican Bush a lead of 362 votes out of nearly 6 million cast, according to an unofficial tally by The Associated Press. The original "final" margin had been reported at 1,784.

The recount, required under state law because of the close result, was still in progress late Thursday, some 48 hours after polls closed.

Election officials said results wouldn't be certified until Nov. 17 or later - after at least 2,900 overseas ballots can be counted. Those ballots had to be postmarked by Election Day to count.

In response to the Gore campaign's request for a manual recount, Palm Beach County agreed to hand-count ballots in three precincts Saturday.

With the outcome of the presidential race in the balance, allegations on both sides became increasingly heated.

Gore campaign manager William Daley said courts may find the Florida result "an injustice unparalleled in our history." Bush chairman Don Evans countered, "The Democrats who are politicizing and distorting these events risk doing so at the expense of our democracy."

More than a thousand Gore supporters demonstrated outside a government building in downtown West Palm Beach, demanding another election in the county. They said the confusing configuration of their ballot had cost the vice president votes.

"Gore got more," they chanted.

The Gore campaign contended the ballots in Palm Beach County were illegal. Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan said "ineptitude" in ballot design may have caused many Democrats to vote for him inadvertently.

James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state brought in by Bush to represent his interests in Florida, said, "That ballot was posted, as required by Florida law, in newspapers and public places all over the state of Florida. And we haven't heard one gripe about that ballot until after the voting took place."

All across the state, other allegations of voting improprieties ranged from missing ballots to problems with tabulations and intimidation of black voters. In Tallahassee, several hundred student protesters from Florida A&M University marched to the Capitol and held a silent sit-in in the rotunda.

Republican activist Don Weidner said that he didn't expect a judge to order a new election based on the complaints.

"Absent a clear demonstration of fraud, I think it's highly unlikely the court will throw it out," he said.

Republicans were unhappy that Gore gained 478 votes in the recount in GOP-heavy Pinellas County, partly because of an additional 1,100 absentee ballots overlooked on election night.

"Obviously it's a very strange event," said John Dowd, a Washington attorney working for Bush. "How do you miss 1,100 or so ballots?"

The Gore campaign requested that 1.78 million ballots be hand-counted in Palm Beach, Volusia, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. But Democrats said the election may be decided in court.

Eight lawsuits challenging the results were filed in state or federal court, including six in Palm Beach County and two in Tallahassee, where race discrimination was alleged.

The first case to reach a judge was voluntarily dropped by the plaintiff in federal court in West Palm Beach. Lawrence Navarro, attorney for the plaintiff, said that he had received calls from people he refused to identify who asked his client to withdraw the suit.

"Al Gore is going to step up and fight this battle," Navarro said without elaboration.

In one of the other cases, Palm Beach voter Kenneth Horowitz, owner of the Miami Fusion soccer team and a registered independent, filed a lawsuit along with two other people. The suit contended poll workers told voters they had only five minutes to cast their ballots and anyone who took longer would have his ballot tossed out.

Officials in the heavily Democratic county rejected 19,120 ballots on election night because more than one prgsidential candidate was selected. Gore supporters blamed the design of the ballot.

Confusion arose from how the county's punch-card ballot was laid out. Candidates were listed in two columns, separated by holes for punching.

The controversy prompted an emotional midday demonstration Thursday in West Palm Beach. Democrats noted that the 3,407 votes for Buchanan were by far the most of any Florida county, and almost 20 percent of his total vote in the state.

"Our vote was stolen," Gore supporter Don Liftman said. "Three thousand Buchanan supporters in a county full of Jewish condo residents? I don't think so."

A few Republicans also attended the rally, among them was George Ford, who waved a large Bush-Cheney sign.

"To think this is going to be decided by a bunch of lawyers," he said, "is just a tragedy."



q

PORTLAND - In the "other" undecided state of Oregon, Democrat Al Gore on Thursday edged ahead of Republican George W. Bush in balloting for U.S. president as election workers counted the last handfuls of ballots cast.


While the nation focused on the dramatic recount of votes in Florida, where the 25 electoral votes will determine the next president, Oregon was still unable to award its seven electoral votes even with 96 percent of ballots counted.

Vice President Gore with 666,997 votes, or 47.43 percent, led Texas Gov. Bush, with 664,805, or 47.27 percent. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader tallied 68,812 votes, or 4.89 percent.

"It is intense," said Lynn Rosik, Oregon director of elections. "We've had many races this close before, but not in a presidential race with everybody looking at us like this."

Oregon switched to all-mail balloting for the first time this year, but Rosik said the extreme closeness of Tuesday'svote, not the speed of the counting, had delayed the verdict.


- Reuters

TITLE: Outcomes of Regional Elections Questioned
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - A Communist has won the Kursk governorship and a Kremlin ally in Kaliningrad has been put in a solid position in regional elections punctuated by charges that Moscow is trying to manipulate local politics. 


Results from the weekend elections showed Communist Alexander Mik hai lov had won in the Kursk region. He takes over from incumbent Alexander Rutskoi - who was disqualified hours before a first round two weeks ago. 

In the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vladimir Yegorov, took 38.45 percent to 18.29 percent for current Governor Leonid Gorbenko in Sunday's voting. Since no candidate got more than 50 percent, a runoff will be held Nov. 19. 

A third poll in the Far East region of Magadan gave an easy victory to the incumbent, Valentin Tsvetkov. 

Since his election in March, President Vladimir Putin has set about cutting the governors down to size, hammering through legislation to remove them from the Federation Council. He carved the country into seven super-regions and dispatched envoys to ensure that local officials adhered strictly to federal law. 

With a series of local elections due in coming weeks, speculation mounted that Putin wanted to tighten the screws even further with the publication in Novaya Gazeta last month of a list of governors he wanted out of the way. 

One of the governors on the list was Rutskoi, thrown out of the Kursk race by election officials who said he submitted incorrect information about his property. 

Rutskoi said his disqualification was a Kremlin move to get rid of a temperamental but popular governor, but the Supreme Court upheld the findings of electoral officials. 

Rutskoi opposed Yeltsin and led a 1993 parliament uprising crushed by tanks sent by the Kremlin.

Mikhailov ran against former Federal Security Service official Viktor Surzhikov, whom he defeated 55.5 percent to 37.9 percent, and Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov praised Mikhailov's victory. 

But Mikhailov made no effort to distance himself from Putin. 

"We feel that he has the desire to resolve many things constructively, including the social and economic spheres," he told NTV television. "Today, in general, we are allies." 

Others on Novaya Gazeta's list were governors of Bryansk, Vladimir, and Ryazan, plus a top candidate in nearby Kaluga. 


- Reuters, AP

TITLE: Key Witness Retracts Pope Testimony
AUTHOR: By Anna Badkhen
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Anatoly Babkin, the key witness in the espionage case against U.S. businessman Edmond Pope, retracted an earlier statement against Pope in a letter to the court Wednesday, saying he had been forced to give the testimony. 


But the Moscow City Court refused to accept Babkin's letter. The court has the right to do so under the criminal procedural code.

"I, Babkin Anatoly Ivanovich, retract my testimony regarding Edmond Pope, which I gave under pressure in a pre-heart attack condition and signed the transcript of my own interrogation without even reading it," the letter said, according to Interfax.

"It was in the same state, also under pressure, that I read this testimony while being recorded on video. In fact, I never met with Pope in person, never gave him any classified information, Pope himself never asked me to pass him any classified information. Please consider my testimony against Pope a lie," the letter continued.

Holding a copy of Babkin's letter for reporters to see between sessions Wednesday, Pope's lawyer Pavel Astakhov said that it invalidates the charges against Pope.

Astakhov said that in its refusal to accept the letter as evidence the court is probably hoping that Babkin, who didn't testify last week as scheduled for health reasons, will take the witness stand at a later date.

Astakhov said he asked the judge Wednesday to conduct a court session in Babkin's apartment, but the motion was struck down.

Babkin's letter comes just days after NTV television's "Itogi" program played a tape that it claimed was an audio recording of Babkin being threatened by two unknown men. In the recording, two men warn a third man of imprisonment should he change his testimony in court.

NTV said the tape may have been recorded shortly before the professor's scheduled appearance in court last week.

The FSB said Wednesday that it is confident that the evidence collected against Pope will be enough to convict him.

The evidence "is based not only on Babkin's testimony," the FSB said in a statement. "There are testimonies given by other witnesses and experts as well as documentary video materials."

In past high-profile spy cases brought by the FSB, the agency has had mixed results obtaining convictions. The FSB recently lost two espionage cases against environmental whistle-blowers Grigory Pasko and Alexander Nikitin. Pasko was acquitted of espionage in July 1999 after spending 20 months in jail. Nikitin was acquitted last December after more than four years of investigation.

Both men were charged with releasing secret information about the environment. Nikitin was also charged with violating secret government decrees.

TITLE: Divers Recover Log From Sunken Kursk
AUTHOR: By Andrew Kramer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - In addition to notes found on sailors' bodies, Russian divers retrieved a ship's log and more written material from the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk, a top official said Thursday. 


"We recovered what we could - certain notes and the log book from the fourth compartment of the Kursk," the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov as saying. 

The log and written material were being studied, he said. He did not say when they were written, but it is thought that everybody in the fourth compartment died within minutes of the explosions. 

Klebanov's spokes woman Oksana Onishchenko said the divers found only "unreadable'' fragments of the log. ``There was nothing related to the accident,'' Onishchenko said. 

The log marks the latest grim find that divers pulled through holes cut in the hull of nuclear shipwreck during a precarious 18-day operation on the bottom of the Barents Sea. 

They retrieved 12 bodies and two notes written by sailors as they suffocated to death in a rear compartment of the submarine. The notes told of poison gas from fires and pressure mounting in the compartment. All 118 men aboard the Kursk died after it suffered explosions and plunged to the sea floor Aug. 12. 

The log book was found in a forward area more severely damaged by the blasts. It was unclear whether the log was for the whole ship or just the fourth compartment. Ship's logs usually contain notes on routine activity on board. 

Klebanov did not say when it was found. Divers worked in the fourth compartment Sunday and Monday, before the operation was called off Tuesday because of rough weather and danger to the divers in going any further inside the ship. 

Divers had entered the fourth compartment through a hole cut in the top of the sub and were unable to move in their bulky pressure suits more than six feet down one passage on the upper deck, officials have said. 

The passage was cluttered with debris and rubble from two explosions that tore through the forward compartments of the Kursk, and threatened to tear the suits. 

The fourth compartment held sleeping quarters, a kitchen and meeting rooms. 

Russian officials have said the divers' main objective was to retrieve corpses from the wreck, to return to their families for burial. But Klebanov said divers also used their time to find clues about the accident. 

Klebanov said Wednesday that dents divers observed on the Kursk's hull may be evidence of a collision with a foreign vessel, a theory Russian officials have focused on. Independent experts have said an explosion in the torpedo compartment was a likely cause of the accident.

TITLE: Marchers Recall Communism
AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Ever since a presidential decree signed by Boris Yeltsin came into effect four years ago, the public holiday on Nov. 7 has officially been named the Day of Harmony and Reconciliation. But most of those who gathered in Palace Square on Tuesday, the day was still really what it was for seven decades: the anniversary of the Great October Socialist revolution.


Approximately 8,000 people took part in a march that was organized by the city's communist parties, starting at 10:30 a.m. at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall.

While several recent polls say that about 50 percent of Russians view Nov. 7 as an ordinary day off, Tuesday's marchers were more in a mood of protest than reconciliation.

"I wasn't a member of the Communist Party, but I used to live a good life during the Soviet period," said scientific researcher Nina Ivanovna, 60, who refused to give her last name.

"I didn't need changes that would destroy me, impoverish my country and exterminate people. I am for socialists, for Russian socialists, not a bunch of Jews who are robbing the country," she said.

Palace square swarmed with red flags, as speeches by local communist leaders calling for riots and a takeover of power looked on at posters saying "Down with capitalism!" and "ORT, NTV and Liberty are Zionist accomplices!"

The demonstrators were apparently not bearing any slogans vilifying President Vladimir Putin.

St. Petersburg police reported no major incidents during the march. According to police senior sergeant Pyotr Ivanov, who along with 2,000 police officers was on duty in the square, much of the day was calm, even subdued.

However, earlier in the day witnesses reported that a group of Orthodox priests marched into Palace Square shouting Christian slogans - apparently on collision course with a group of young communist supporters.

The priests were swiftly intercepted by police and taken away.

Young protesters made up a vocal minority of the marchers.

"I came here because I support the Great October Revolution that took place here [so many] years ago. For me, it's a great holiday," said law student Anastasia Tanicheva, 20. 

"I support Stalin's reforms and the way he conducted them. We need radical changes and I will never be reconciled with the way things are now."

TITLE: Kholodov Murder Trial Starts
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW (AP) - Five former and current military intelligence officers went on trial in a military court Thursday, accused in the 1994 killing of a Russian journalist investigating corruption. 


The death of Dmitry Kholodov, a 27-year-old reporter for the outspoken daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, attracted nationwide attention. 

At preliminary hearings last month, Judge Alexander Serdyukov rejected pleas from the defense for additional investigation and for the defendants to be released on bail, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Thursday. 

Kholodov was investigating corruption in the military's intelligence service when a briefcase supposedly provided by an informant exploded in his hands and killed him on Oct. 17, 1994. His newspaper said the explosion was a contract hit connected to Kholodov's work.

TITLE: City Media Chief Files a Suit Against Local Paper
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: City Hall Media Committee Chief Alexander Potekhin filed suit against local daily Nevskoye Vremya late last month over an article that cast aspersions on his committee's expenditures on local sociological surveys.


Potekhin was apparently miffed by a sentence in the article - printed in September - that purported to say Potekhin would like to monopolize the local market in the sale of print media, he told The St. Petersburg Times in an interview. He also called into question Nevskoye Vremya's position on his committee's budget for public surveys, which the paper said was suspicious. 

At issue is the arrest of Dmitry So lon nikov, Potekhin's former aide, in October for allegedly embezzling money from precisely that budget line item - all the way back in 1998. Furthermore, lawmakers like Andrei Korchagin have called the Media Committee onto the carpet over what they see as continual abuses of the survey budget line - especially for the year 2000 - and they say the surveys are largely bogus. 

What Solonnikov's involvement in the alleged embezzlement is remains unclear. Prosecutor's office spokesman Gennady Ryabov did say in a telephone interview that: "The Prosecutor's Office starts an investigation only after an investigation shows money has been misspent."

Nevskoye Vremya, nonetheless, stands by its story. 

"We do not care about Potekhin's lawsuit. We print only those articles which are based on facts, and if Po tek hin wants to take us to court, this is his own decision," said Vladimir Sobolev, Nevskoye Vremya's first deputy editor, in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

Solonnikov was due to appear in the Dzerzhinsky District Court, but failed to appear because he suffered a heart attack. The hearings where postponed until Friday. 

At present, the Media Committee - which is vaguely charged with overseeing city media - has a 7 million ruble ($250,000) budget.

Potekhin pointed out that big expenditures on surveys were a necessary part of government. 

"These are huge surveys and they are conducted for several months. Sometimes it is impossible to find out what we need by asking just 1,500 people," Potekhin said.

"$2,000 is the cost of so-called small surveys, for big ones the cost is much higher," he said.

The budget line raises Korchagin's hackles and, in June, he sent an official deputy's inquiry to City Hall to ask about the figures. In October, Solonnikov was arrested and Potekhin was called in for questioning. He was never formally charged with any wrongdoing. 

Korchagin also got back a list of surveys the Media Committee conducted. They were called: "Dynamics for the Psychological Condition of the St. Petersburg Population," "Specifics of Media Perception" and "What St. Petersburg Citizens Think about Local and Federal Branches of Power."

"Neither I nor my voters have seen results of surveys conducted in the city," said Korchagin in a telephone interview Thursday. 

But the Nevskoye Vremya article -which tries to show circumstantially that the survey money was misspent -is based entirely on Korchagin's point of view. 



Masha Kaminskaya contributed to this article.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Russian 'Pooh' Dies


MOSCOW (SPT) - Boris Zakhoder - the poet in whose voice Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins speak in Russian to millions of kids - died Tuesday in Mos cow. He was 82.

Zakhoder also wrote elegant and humorous original poetry for children and adults, but became widely popular with his translations of foreign children's literature. 

Zakhoder, who enjoyed the friendship of poets Samuil Marshak and Kornei Chukovsky, is part of the Russian literary tradition of retelling rather than translating books for children, in which characters, language and some aspects of the plot can be adapted to a greater degree. In Soviet times, children's literature, where much greater creative freedom was tolerated, often served as a refuge for literary experiments.


Rebel Attack Kills One


MOSCOW (AP) - Rebels in Chechnya killed one soldier, blew up an administrative building and opened fire at the office of a military commandant, reports said Wednesday.

One soldier was killed and another injured in an attack in the Staropromyslovsky district outside Grozny, Interfax reported. That district is the headquarters for federal forces. Ten other servicemen were injured when a railway-inspection trolley hit a mine, the agency said. There were no reports of injuries in the explosion of the building in Suvorov-Yurt or the attack on the commandant's office in Tolstoy-Yurt.

President Vladimir Putin on Wed nesday visited a military hospital in Rostov-on-Don - one of the main facilities for soldiers wounded in the Chechen war. He presented patients with commemorative watches and discussed ways of improving treatment, Itar-Tass reported.



Estonia Snubs KGB


TALLINN, Estonia (Reuters) - Russia's embassy in Estonia said Tuesday it had complained to Estonia over its refusal to automatically grant residence permits to former members of the Soviet KGB.

Some 300 retired KGB officials and their families were left in Estonia after the country regained independence in 1991. Moscow sought to protect their status through a secret deal signed in December 1991 with then-Prime Minister Edgar Savisaar.

That agreement was never ratified by Estonia's parliament and was kept secret until a defendant invoked it in a court case in October.

Moscow says Estonia agreed to guarantee social, political and other rights of the KGB pensioners in the deal - including protection from legal action as a result of their former activities with the security service.



Churches Get Closer


MOSCOW (SPT) - The New York-based Russian Orthodox Church Abroad has issued a statement showing that it has softened its position in the standoff with the Moscow Patriarchate.

The bishops of the emigre church adopted a message late last month praising their Russian counterparts' decision to canonize Tsar Nicholas II, his family and a score of clergymen who died at the hands of the Bolsheviks, as well as the Moscow Patriarchate's adoption of a social doctrine.

The New York-based church canonized the imperial family in 1981 and has long demanded that the Moscow Patriarchate formally repent its submissiveness to the Soviet state.


Wolves Flee Chechnya


MOSCOW (SPT) - After six years of sporadic warfare in Chechnya, reports of refugees and guerrillas pouring over the restive region's mountainous borders have become commonplace.

But now frontier-dwellers fear another Chechen insurgency, as hundreds of wolves - Chechnya's national symbol - flee the fighting in search of a peaceful home on the Russian side of the border, RIA news agency said Wednesday.

In the adjoining Stavropol region there are now 450 to 500 gray wolves where only about 80 roamed six years ago, reaching what hunters have called "a threatening scale," RIA reported.



Customs Seize Aircraft


ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - St. Petersburg customs officials at Pulkovo seized an Algerian Military Aircraft four days ago because it was carrying cargo deemed to be military in nature, Interfax reported. 

The aircraft, a Russian-made Ilyushin 76 belonging to the Algerian Military, was not carrying the necessary documents for the cargo, which is mainly spare airplane parts, customs officials told interfax.



Organized Crime Bust


MOSCOW- Police arrested more than 100 suspected members of an organized crime group in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Itar-Tass reported Monday.

Some of the suspects were carrying pistols, narcotics and stolen property, a police spokesman said. Police arrested 125 people in the three-day operation, the report said. Of these, 108 were members of one underworld group.

TITLE: Shy Ivanov Steps Into the Limelight
AUTHOR: By Martin Nesirky
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - For a man who hates the limelight, ex-spy Sergei Ivanov is becoming almost uncomfortably visible.


In the past week alone there have been three full- or double-page interviews in Russian newspapers about his life, his ties to President Vladimir Putin and his work as secretary of the Kremlin's Security Council.

"I really don't like pomp, unnecessary attributes and accentuated attention," he told Thursday's edition of the daily newspaper Izvestia. "Perhaps it's my profession."

Ivanov worked in foreign intelligence for two decades - some of the time on assignment in Western Europe and Africa - until August 1998 when he became deputy head of the FSB domestic security service. A year ago, he became Security Council chief.

What intrigues security analysts is whether the unusual publicity means Ivanov is about to move further up or is engaged in damage limitation after the council was criticised by some for its role in military reform and foreign policy.

Interest was further fuelled on Thursday when Putin signed a decree, at Ivanov's request, dismissing him from his rank of lieutenant-general in the SVR foreign intelligence service.

Ivanov said the move would make his job easier but defence experts said it mattered little whether he was a general or ex-general, and the move could be linked to future personnel changes, including a possible civilian defence minister.

A council source told Reuters the timing of the interviews - as the council met to agree long-delayed and controversial military reforms and troop cuts - was a coincidence.

Asked whether Ivanov was destined for higher places, the source said: "Where to? He's pretty high already."

Ivanov himself made a similar point in his interview in another newspaper, the popular Komsomolskaya Pravda, saying media reports had named him as a would-be prime minister and head of the Kremlin administration.

"I take it in my stride," the 47-year-old Ivanov said. "My job is to work, and to work where I have been put."

Under his control for the past year, the council has become increasingly influential and even regarded by some as a kind of shadow cabinet. Ivanov denied this, noting several ministers and the prime minister were members of the council.

But it has not escaped controversy. Putin had to send military reform proposals back after commanders complained.

Predictably coy about his previous work as a spy, Ivanov said in his latest interviews he had thoroughly enjoyed intelligence work but had been spared thriller-style dramas.

He met Putin when they both worked for the KGB security police in Leningrad in the 1970s. Ivanov said in their present roles they had a working relationship but no time for true friendship. "My whole life long, including now, I have had to work with very big secrets," he told Izvestia.

"I can't tell you everything they taught us at spy school but they really drummed into us, firstly, not to stand out in a crowd and, secondly, to be able to speak professionally and at length about nothing at all."

TITLE: Russian Niva Finds Niche in Brazilian Market
AUTHOR: By Andrei Khalip
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SAO PAULO, Brazil-It might be slow, heavy and noisy, but the Russian Niva four-wheel-drive vehicle could once again be a feature on Brazil's hilly coffee plantations or bumpy rural roads if local entrepreneur Carlos de Moraes has his way.


De Moraes, an executive director of Brazil's Abeiva Car Imports Association, said he has a deal with Niva parent maker AvtoVAZ to make the car in Brazil. All he needs is a land license and he will start building a plant, he said.

"Everything is primed," he said, adding that he expected the license to be issued any time, as the Espirito Santo state had itself offered to set up the plant on its territory. He says he has a preliminary contract with AvtoVAZ, Russia's biggest carmaker. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

In 1990, when Brazil opened its market to imported cars, AvtoVAZ managed to flood the market with thousands of cut-price Niva and Lada vehicles despite sky-high 85 percent import duties.

But the Russian firm left Brazil in 1995 when it was excluded from a list of carmakers that could pay lower import duties. The price of a Niva and parts in Brazil rose so quickly that sales have all but petered out to several units a year.

"We are going to change this. It is a niche in the market that no one is exploiting," de Moraes said.

De Moraes said in an interview this week that his Brazilian-made Nivas would sell for no more than 16,000 reais to 17,000 reais ($8,400 to $8,900) and he hoped that local farmers would fall over themselves to buy them thanks to Niva's cheap price and good off-road qualities.

"Their options now are to cough up 40,000 reais ($21,000) for something similar or buy a used car."

The Niva is compact, spartan, cheap and reliable - that is reliable in the Russian way, which means easy to fix, as Russians themselves joke. De Moraes said local farmers, used to beat-up pickup trucks, will not find it a problem.

He said setting up the plant in Brazil was his own initiative, as in his view that the local farmer has been deprived of a simple, cheap all-terrain vehicle.

"It's a workhorse - that's why we will build it here."

The Niva has been criticized as being too slow, heavy and noisy on the road by car magazines, but they admit it does move well off the road. Respected What Car magazine of Britain called it "agricultural in nature," a feature de Moraes is banking on.

"Brazil is an agricultural land, but its farmers don't have an affordable multi-purpose car for any terrain or city."

De Moraes said the plant would produce 4,000 Nivas in its first year of operation and 17,000 after two years.

As a locally assembled car, Niva would be exempt from most import duties, while a big proportion of local parts used to make Nivas would help lower prices further, he said.

His interest in Russian carmaking does not end there.

While waiting for the green light to break ground at the Niva site in the eastern coastal state of Espirito Santo, Carlos de Moraes said he would buy the Lada Brasil distribution network, which also belonged to AvtoVAZ and is now owned by a Panamanian businessman.

By restructuring the network and contract terms, he plans to bring down the price of imported Nivas by 12 percent from the current 24,000 reais and increase their sales to pave the way for the cheaper Brazilian-made version.

"For farmers it is going to be great, too. They will have a car they can drive in the mud all week long, then wash it on Saturday and not be ashamed to drive it to church on Sunday."

TITLE: Russian Oil Giant May Lose Out on Valuable Iraqi Crude
AUTHOR: By Leon Barkho
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD - Iraq has stopped selling crude oil to LUKoil as punishment for the failure of Russia's No.1 oil firm to develop a giant southern oil field in the south, a company executive has said.


LUKoil leads a consortium whose members signed a contract with Iraq in 1997 to develop the Qurna oil field, believed to be one of the largest in the world.

Under the deal, the Russians would spend up to $200 million on developing the field, regardless of the United Nations trade sanctions that have barred investment in Iraq since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Iraqi Oil Ministry officials said last week that LUKoil has not implemented its part of the contract. Then, Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid was quoted as saying Iraq has found alternatives to LUKoil. He did not elaborate.

Iraq has not sold the company any crude oil this year under its UN-approved oil-for-food program, which LUKoil had sold on the international market for a profit, Viktor Demidov, LUKoil's deputy general manager, said.

Previously, Demidov said, Iraq sold LUKoil 25 million tons of crude every six months, about 40 percent of its exports.

Iraqi officials also have denied LUKoil any contracts for spare parts or equipment to revamp the battered Iraqi oil industry.

"They are putting pressure on us. We understand their position. But we cannot bring drilling rigs and seismic stations here. It is impossible under the current circumstances," Demidov said.

The UN program that today allows Iraq to sell unlimited amounts of oil initially was designed to soften the impact of UN sanctions on people struggling without food, medicine and other necessities.

Now, with oil revenues expected to reach $18 billion this year, Iraq uses the program to win over countries to its fight against sanctions, offering lucrative contracts to those who pressure their governments to work for removal of the restrictions.

Demidov denied Iraqi accusations that LUKoil had failed to honor its commitments. He said his company already has carried out obligations allowed under the regime of UN rules restricting international trade with the country.

"They are not so happy. [But] we have fulfilled all kinds of work which [is] not prohibited by the United Nations," he said in English.

He said that the Iraqis have threatened to nullify the contract, but so far LUKoil has still not received any official notification from Iraq that the deal is void.

Despite Iraqi criticism, Demidov said that LUKoil has carried out some work on the field. It has prepared an initial development plan, including proposed output levels, a survey on where the wells should be placed and a consultancy study.

He said that LUKoil is eager not to lose the oil field following seismic surveys that determined the amount of recoverable reserves is 18 billion barrels, up from estimates of about 10 billion barrels.

"These are equivalent to the proven reserves available to LUKoil to date," he said.

TITLE: FSC Given Rights To Banking Regulation
AUTHOR: By Maxim Filimonov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government has put an end to a bitter conflict between the Central Bank and the Federal Securities Commission over who will control the country's commercial banking sector.


Apparently ending a three-year feud between the two powerful organizations over who has the right to issue banking licenses, the government last week gave the FSC the exclusive right to regulate all market participants - including banks managed by the Central Bank itself. The move was seen as a convincing victory for FSC head Igor Kostikov over testy Central Bank Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko.

The feud between the Central Bank and the FSC over who should be responsible for granting licenses to work on the securities market began toward the end of 1996.

Then, by law, the FSC was responsible for licensing professional participants. However, the Central Bank, which is responsible for monitoring banks, insisted that it also had the right to issue licenses. The dispute was thought settled in the summer of 1997 when then-Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais succeeded in getting two fierce opponents - FSC head Dmitry Vasilyev and Central Bank Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov - to the negotiating table. As a result, the FSC issued the Central Bank a general license that allowed it to give other banks the right to operate.

In December 1998, however, the two organizations were battling again - this time because of the Central Bank's participation on the MICEX stock exchange board. The result was that Vasilyev revoked the Central Bank's general license, a move the bank has been fighting ever since, despite the fact that the recalled license would have expired in June of this year.

A source close to the government said that Prime Minister Mikhail Kasya nov decided late last week to grant the FSC the authority to issue licenses to all securities market participants, which includes banks. Additionally, the source said, the Central Bank must soon transfer to the FSC its database on all banks that it has granted licenses to. And the FSC will be required to report to the government on how accommodating the Central Bank is in doing so.

An FSC representative said the government hasn't sent the commission an official confirmation on the rule change, but that it was expected to do so soon.

Central Bank representatives declined to comment. But a source close to the bank said the department charged with monitoring credit organizations and financial markets - and issuing security market licenses - was disbanded last year.

Banks that three years ago had no desire to fall under the control of the FSC are supportive of the government's new decision.

Alfa Bank, for example, said it was an accepted international practice that all securities market participants are controlled by a single organ. "Whether this is the FSC or the Central Bank is of secondary importance," said Dominic Gual tieri, managing director of Alfa Bank.

"The main thing is that unified rules are created for best protecting the rights of investors. We have no doubt that the FSC will work to this end," he said.

"The market must have one master," said Igor Yeshkov, head of securities for Moscow Credit Bank.

More than 50 licenses have been issued by the FSC since the start of the year.

TITLE: IMF Supportive of Central Bank's Ruble Policy
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Despite critics who say it slows industrial growth, the government's strong ruble policy is generally a good one, the International Monetary Fund says in a new report.


In recommendations printed in the fund's annual overview of member countries' economic policies, which was released in Washington on Thursday, the fund said:

"Most [IMF] directors believe that real appreciation [of the ruble] would be both desirable and unavoidable, and that it would be preferable for this to take place through a nominal appreciation rather than through inflation."

At the same time, some directors - which the fund calls its top economists - "noted that an excessive real appreciation could threaten the recovery."

Meanwhile, the nation's economy continues to exhibit signs of weakness.

One respected measure of the country's economic health, the Moscow Narodny Bank Purchasing Managers' Index, fell to 55.1 in October from 56.5 in September, its lowest level since January.

The government's main dilemma is in making the right choice between inflation, which results from printing too much money, and the appreciation of the ruble, which stifles economic recovery.

Some of the IMF directors suggested that the government introduce "an inflation-targeting monetary regime."

The Central Bank expects the ruble to settle at 29 rubles per dollar, down 5.1 percent since the start of the year, while the IMF anticipates inflation of 18.6 percent by the year's end - implying an appreciation of the ruble in real terms of about 13 percent for the whole year.

The only major difference between the government's position and that of the IMF is over the issue of inflation. The government believes in boosting the ruble by keeping the currency's nominal depreciation below the rate of inflation, while the IMF recommends concentrating on curbing inflation in order to push the ruble higher in nominal terms.

The IMF report is very supportive of the Central Bank, calling on the government to "regularize its relationship with the Central Bank, including by paying a market-related interest rate" on its loans, which the government set at 1 percent in next year's budget.

At the same time, however, the IMF urged the Central Bank to become more transparent and called for it to terminate its market activities in commercial banking and precious metals.

Russia was one of the nations recently listed by the Switzerland-based Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering as not being very cooperative.

TITLE: Dairies Fight for 33 Cows Brand
AUTHOR: By Sergei Rybak
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - It's shaping up to be a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious battle.


Two dairies are caught in a fierce fight for the rights to the popular brand name 33 Cows (33 Korovi), inspired by Russia's version of the film "Mary Poppins."

The Ostankino dairy, with backing from the courts in hand, is preparing to launch milk products next week packaged with the 33 Cows logo of - no surprise - 33 spotted cows.

The Ochakovo dairy, which helped create the brand name in 1997, is crying foul, heatedly accusing Ostankino of trademark infringement and threatening to sue.

"We will block outside companies' attempts to release our brand," said Viktor Yurin, general director of Ochakovo. "Personally, I think that if a company lacks a strong brand of its own it tries to create one by taking those of its competitors."

But Ochakovo has so far been unable to prevent 33 Cows from being adopted by its rival, showing once again how volatile intellectual property issues remain in Russia. 

The 33 Cows brand was designed by advertising agency Young & Rubicam. The idea for the brand came from the song of the same name in the film "Mary Poppins, Good-Bye!" (Mary Poppins, Do Svidaniya!).

The song's authors, composer Maxim Dunayevsky and poet Naum Olev, signed an agreement in November 1996 permitting the "reproduction, distribution and advertising ... on any audiovisual carriers" of their creation for five years. 

There was no clause in the accord providing for the registration of a 33 Cows trademark.

Ochakovo partner Tetra Pak bought the rights to the agreement in 1997 and registered the 33 Cows brand.

The dairy began churning out 33 Cows products, and its popularity has steadily grown. Some 14 percent of Muscovites now buy 33 Cows goods, and the brand is recognized by 34.4 percent of consumers, according to the Comcon market research agency.

But last February, rival Ostankino drew up its own agreement with poet Olev for the rights to the 33 Cows brand for the next 25 years. It asked the Russian Patents Chamber to annul Tetra Pak's registration of the brand, and the chamber approved the appeal last summer.

"The old agreement only provided for rights to use the poem for advertising purposes, there was nothing about the registration of the trademark," said Igor Evgrafev, head of Ostankino's legal department.

Ochakovo is appealing to the patents chamber. 

Tetra Pak officials said they planned to keep out of the fight.

Meanwhile, Ostankino is pressing ahead with the launch of its 33 Cows products. The packaging will be virtually identical to Ochakovo's: The 33 spotted cows will be drawn against a dark-green background and the blue lettering will have the same font. 

"We will position this product in the higher price band for the more demanding consumer," said Ostankino general director Alexander Shevchenko. 

Products with the 33 Cows brand will account for about 10 percent of the 200 tons produced daily at the dairy, he said.

TITLE: Smirnov Plant Stormed In OngoingVodka Battle
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko and Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A long-simmering feud over the biggest name in Russian vodka escalated into violence over last weekend when masked police, in an apparent attempt to enforce a court decision on company control, forcibly entered the Moscow office of the Smirnov distillery, fending off attacks from workers .


The Saturday clash, captured by NTV television cameras and aired that night, showed a squad of police officers smashing through the doors of the company's tsarist-era mansion on Pyatnitskaya Ulitsa as workers inside pelleted them with a case of vodka.

Once inside, the police stormed through the rooms as office workers lay face down in the floor and Boris Smirnov, the CEO of the Trading House of Descendants of Pyotr Smirnov, found himself trapped on the third floor. He says he has been there ever since.

"If I walk out, I will not be let in afterwards. Ever," Smirnov said in a telephone interview Tuesday, as a group of men and some police officers kept watch outside.

Smirnov added that he has filed a criminal case against the intruders for improper use of force resulting in serious physical injury, saying that his wife had been taken to the hospital with injuries after having received three blows to the head with a wrench during the Saturday attack. Several other people were likewise hurt during the clash, he said.

The battle is the latest development in the ongoing fight for control of the Trading House. Founded in 1993 by cousins Boris and Andrei Smirnov to capitalize on the name of their famous vodka-distilling forebearer, the traditionally family-run business got a shake-up this summer when Andrei presented his half-stake in the company to Alfa-Eko, a trading branch of the powerful Alfa Group financial and oil holding.

Since then, the company has lived a double life, with two general directors, two official stamps and two separate distilleries both putting the Smirnov name on their product. The Saturday break-in was apparently meant to enforce a recent court decision to name a single general director, a decision contested by Boris Smirnov, who has said that he has yet to be shown any legitimate paperwork confirming the deal with Alfa-Eko.

"All Smirnov trademarks are registered on the basis of heredity," said Boris Smirnov, the great-grandson of Pyotr Smirnov, who founded his distillery in 1860 and eventually became official purveyor to the imperial Russian court.

"When I withdraw the Smirnov trade marks from [Russian patent agency] Rospatent, they will not be available to anyone, because the documents would have to be registered with my name on them," he said in an interview given before the weekend blowout.

Moreover, he added, his co-founder Andrei Smirnov was in no position to be bartering his company shares.

"I found out that he was not a member of our family," Boris Smirnov said, explaining the debate that ended with Andrei being ousted from his position as CEO in 1997. "He is an adopted son of one of the Smirnovs, who was deprived of his rights as heir in 1908."

Andrei Smirnov could not be reached for comment. Sources at Alfa-Eko have said that he is traveling abroad but have refused to give further details. According to a neighbor in Bykovo, a dacha settlement some 20 kilometers southeast of Moscow, Andrei Smirnov has not been seen for several months.

It is unclear under what terms Andrei Smirnov handed the 50 percent stake in the company to Alfa-Eko, which has maintained a low profile since Saturday's clash.

According to Alfa-Eko press secretary Valery Bikmukhambetov, his company "recognizes that [Boris] Smirnov owns a 50 percent stake in the company."

He added that Alfa-Eko "cooperates with Sergei Yuzefov," the new director named in October whose appointment was backed by the recent court order. The Saturday assault took place after Boris Smirnov denied Yuzefov access to the workplace.

Yuzefov was not available for comment Tuesday.

Alfa-Eko has maintained that the deal is legitimate and that Boris Smirnov should welcome the investment potential that a financial heavyweight like Alfa Group can provide.

"Smirnov is one of the country's best brands and Alfa-Eko wants to make it a national leader," Bik muk ham betov said.

Alfa Group, the business empire of Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, includes Alfa Bank, Tyumen Oil Co., sugar, tea, cement, real estate and supermarket businesses and the CTS television station. In September, Alfa-Eko snapped up a blocking share in Tagmet, the Taganrog Pipe Plant on the Azov Sea.

Alfa-Eko has announced plans to boost production of the brand-name vodka by up to 3 million bottles a month by the end of next year. This would be a substantial lift for Smirnov, which according to data from the Rosbusinessconsulting market research firm now sells roughly 500,000 bottles a month.

The trading house has yet to bounce back to pre-crisis production levels - a problem Boris Smirnov chalks up to a dispute with a former distributor - and is still operating at only 20 percent to 25 percent of its former capacity.

According to Tatyana Kuznetsova of the Biznes-Analitika research firm, the two Smirnov vodkas now being distilled by Boris Smirnov and Alfa-Eko are being made according to the same recipe, but are distilled in different factories - Alfa-Eko's at the Diamand plant in the Moscow region, and Boris Smirnov's at the OST-Alko plant in the village of Chernogolovka.

It is not clear what consequences Alfa-Eko's role in the Smirnov drama will have for the international brand Smirnoff, now in the hands of multinational distillery UDV, which so far has failed to secure recognition of its intellectual property rights on Russian soil.

"The new shareholders and I are not indifferent to the fate of the trademark outside Russia," Yuzefov said Saturday. "The real Russian vodka should be produced only in Russia and only Russian companies have the right to use Smirnov's name."

Saturday marked the second time in a matter of months that a battle for property control at a vodka distillery erupted into violence.

In August, a dispute over control of Moscow's Kristall distillery resulted in a two-month standoff in which two competing management teams each occupied the company's executive offices and manufacturing facilities with their own teams of private security guards.

TITLE: Iraq Halts Oil Sales to LUKoil
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government has ordered state-owned Rosneft to set up a majority-owned subsidiary to extract and export Chechen oil, but the Chechen administration insists it should have control of the new company.


According to a government decree signed Saturday, 51 percent of the new company, Grozneftegaz, will belong to Rosneft and the rest to the Chechen administration, Interfax reported Wednesday.

Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who has always insisted his administration should control the sale of Chechen oil, on Wednesday flew to Rostov-on-Don hoping to discuss the decree with President Vladimir Putin, who is visiting the city, a spokesman for Kadyrov's Moscow office said.

The outcome of Kadyrov's trip was unclear Wednesday.

The government wants to use the proceeds from Grozneftegaz's sales to pay for reconstruction of the war-scarred republic.

The decree says that Grozneftegaz will obtain all of Chechnya's oil and gas infrastructure. It will also be provided with licenses to extract and export oil.

Rosneft had no license to sell oil when it was working on the restoration of the Chechen oil complex from January to May. It invested $139 million, including $39 million of its own money, during that project.

Proceeds from oil sales will accumulate in a special fund created by the Energy Ministry and will be used to fund the restoration of the republic, the decree said.

Ramzan Ibragimov, spokesman for the Chechen administration's Moscow office, said by telephone that Kadyrov has not approved the decree.

"The issue concerning those 2 percent - who owns 51 percent and who owns 49 percent - has been at stake for so long," Ibragimov said. "That means that it is significant for us.

"Today, they decide that all 100 percent of the proceeds are going to be spent to restore Chechnya, but tomorrow a board of directors, on which we don't have the majority, will say that the cash will go somewhere else, and we will not be able to prevent it," he said.

Shamil Beno, head of the Moscow office, said in an interview last summer that one of the biggest worries of the Chechen administration is that the fate of the Chechen oil complex could be put up in the air if it is controlled by Rosneft because the oil company itself could be privatized.

Vedomosti reported that the privatization of a 25 percent stake in Rosneft is on one of the latest of several sell-off plans being prepared by the State Property Ministry.

TITLE: IMF Staff Comes To Talk Reforms
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - An International Monetary Fund mission on Wednesday started talks with Finance Ministry officials - talks that the government hopes will lead to the approval of economic reforms and renewed access to IMF loans.


A ministry spokeswoman said the mission was scheduled to discuss the state debt and tax system with Deputy Finance Ministers Bella Zlatkis and Mikhail Motorin.

"These are working meetings," she said. Gerard Belanger, deputy head of the IMF's Second European Department, was due to join the mission next Monday, she added.

Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said last week that the government would discuss implementation of its reform plans with the IMF mission and prospects for new loans.

"In principle, we need a credit that could be allocated in the event of Russia facing an unfavorable economic situation," he said. "So far we are getting by without foreign credits."

TITLE: Housing Costs Skyrocket in Yekaterinburg
AUTHOR: By Sergei Zharkov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Housing prices in Yekaterinburg have been rising by 2 percent per week since the start of August, while supply levels have fallen.


While market players give a variety of reasons for why prices are rising - from undervalued real estate to rumors that free privatization are to be canceled - all agree that prices will go on rising until the end of the year.

Free privatization refers to citizens' rights to privatize state-owned apartments that they live in at no cost.

"The real estate market is on the up to varying degrees throughout Russia, but in Yekaterinburg the tendency is more marked," said Gennady Sternik, head specialist for analyzing the real estate market with the Russian Guild of Realtors.

According to the State Statistics Committee, about 1.3 million people live in Yekaterinburg with the total housing area comprising about 25 million square meters. If the method employed by Mos cow estate agents is used to estimate property construction, then over the first nine months of this year about 2,000 apartments were built in Yekaterinburg - 1.54 apartments per 1,000 residents. By comparison, 3.71 apartments were built for every 1,000 residents over the same period in Moscow.

Mikhail Khorkov, head of analysis with the Urals real estate chamber, said the first signs of increased demand in Yekaterinburg appeared at the end of last year, when the market began to right itself after the crisis.

However, Vladimir Grechin, head of the NEK real estate agency, said that from January to June the level of supply was at average levels and fully coped with demand.

"In August the situation changed fundamentally; demand exceeded supply by several times," he said.

According to the Urals real estate chamber, as of August real estate prices increased astronomically. Apartments increased in value by about 2 percent per week. Over nine months the volume of supply on the secondary market fell by 38 percent; in September this indicator was 6.7 percent.

"In October the tendency for prices to rise increased. The prices rose against a backdrop of falling supply; many potential buyers are unable to find the housing they require," Khorkov said.

Between Sept. 25 and Oct. 23 the average price per square meter of floor space rose by 8.3 percent for a final price of $294.10, Khorkov said.

Grechin points to even higher growth rate. In his words a one-room low-quality khrushchyovka in the center of town cost $8,000 in January, $9,000 in August and $11,300 as of Oct. 24.

"In such [boom] conditions only those who need to sell urgently are employing realtors or even putting their properties onto the market independently. The others bide their time," Grechin said.

Cheaper properties are snapped up by professional market players, while what is left over sells at a higher price range. A seller who finds a buyer for his or her apartment recognizes that during the negotiation period the price of the apartment he wants to buy will have risen. Sellers, therefore, finding the price they sought for their own apartment is no longer enough to buy a new apartment, are forced to dissolve the contract and put their properties on sale again, but at a higher price.

"You get a real estate 'arms race' on the market," Grechin said.

Some reasons for the boom date back to the 1998 financial crisis, after which the prices of many properties fell and there was a lack of new building work.

Tatyana Golisheva, head of the Yekaterinburg state statistics department, said that 119,700 square meters of housing were commissioned in Yekaterinburg over the first nine months of this year.

"This is 7.9 percent more than last year," she said.

However, Andrei Ozornin, head of the real estate sales department with the construction company Nash Dom, said a sharp increase in construction work is not in the cards.

He said that although there is demand for new housing, the main interest from buyers is for finished apartments. In Yekaterinburg there are not many people ready to invest in construction - normally a person sells one apartment and buys another simultaneously.

New housing is also becoming more expensive, though prices are controlled by the local administration.

Ozornin said the city government's interdepartmental committee constantly adjusts the cost index for construction materials on the basis of which prices are formed. On average, this index increases by 3 percent to 5 percent per month. The cost of panel apartments is about $280 per square meter and $400 for brick buildings. In reality, prices often range from $200 to $950 per square meter.

Ozornin also said that the start of the boom coincided with rumors that free privatizations would gradually be phased out.

"It's rubbish, of course, but people think that the apartments they've bought on the market won't be taken back from them," he said.

TITLE: Mailbox
TEXT: Dear Editor,

As an American Navy veteran, I followed the story of the Kursk with much attention and concern. I am deeply sympathetic to the families of the lost crew members and lament such a terrible tragedy.

From what I've read in American newspapers, a collision with a Western submarine is an unlikely cause. Blame should not be inferred by mere speculation. Rather, our two great nations should work to employ an international plan of mutual cooperation that might be able to react to underwater accidents in the swiftest manner possible. My hope is that our military branches continue to strive for cooperative relations so that we both might be able to facilitate freedom and security to the remainder of the world.

Matt Haws,

Chicago, Illinois

Dear Editor,

I am not the least bit surprised that the Clinton administration would be interested in dishonest elections in Belarus. They were looking for ideas.

If the Duma's inspection team would like to monitor an interesting election in the United States, then they should visit Chicago. My grandfather has been voting the straight Democratic Party ticket since 1954. He has been dead since 1940, but that does not stand in the way of his performing his civic duty.

Bob Strong

Chicago, Illinois

TITLE: MARKET MATTERS
AUTHOR: By Anna Shcherbakova
TEXT: IN economic terms, Russia's regions are hopelessly undervalued. The statistics say that Moscow has about about a quarter of the entire national economic volume, with the remaining 75 percent divided among the other 88 regions. This distortion will not be easy to correct, and it won't be done soon. But the first signs of a shift in balance are already there to be seen.


One such sign was the recently disclosed intentions of two big financial players, Norilsk Nickel's CEO Alexander Khloponin, and the legendary oil baron Roman Abramovich.

Khloponin is running for the governorship of Taimyr, while Abramovich is giving up his seat in the State Duma for the sake of the same position in Chukotka. And one shouldn't forget Russia's first millionaire Artyom Tarasov, who made a return to St. Petersburg from London for an untimately futile shot at unseating Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev this May.

Branching out into the regions after having built up a business empire is a logical move for the kind of person whose managerial skills have already been proven by the successful operation of a major enterprise or two. And their ability to make sound predictions is also unquestioned.

Some regions are ripe for the picking, with massive natural resources, plenty of unregistered and unused property, as well as undervalued human resources.

Another reason for moving tycoons into regional power seats is that the business community is terribly tired of the arbitrary rule of some governors.

I don't know what is hardest to put up with - the neccessity of financing election campaigns every four years, the inevitable rackets run by small-fry bureaucrats in the time left to them before a new governor appears, or the differences in regional legislation that makes relationships between one region and another so difficult. "When we are looking at exporting to a foreign country, we naturally investigate what kind of legislation they have there," said the head of one company that operates both in Russia and abroad. "But why should we have to investigate the legislation of a particular region in this country before we sell anything there? It's simply disgraceful!"

It's true that the regions are unequal in territory, natural and mineral resources, and industries. They also have very different people at the top, which makes for a varied investment climate depending on where you go. All 89 regions introduce their own taxes, fees and restrictions in order to fill their budgets and to feed local officials.

Regions have turned into small states striving for independence from Moscow. Are businessmen ready to change the rules after winning a governorship? Or they will demand more independence from the capital?

The hour for the regions has not yet come. But those who get their hand in now stand to win a great deal..

TITLE: Reconciliation Comes When We Face The Past
AUTHOR: By Maxim Trudolyubov
TEXT: BY presidential decree, Nov. 7, formerly the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, has been magically transformed into the Day of Reconciliation and Accord. It seems like a good idea, an inspired example of "rebranding" that allows the people to keep their familiar day off, while dedicating it to a cause that is worthy of commemoration.


However, the idea of a national day of reconciliation is off to a bad start. For one thing, very few Russians are even aware of the change, and the state has done little to impress the idea on the nation's consciousness. 

This clear lack of commitment, however, may be a symptom of a far more daunting problem. Unfortunately, the fact is that the kind of reconciliation that the holiday's new name implies has never taken place in Russia. The Soviet past has never been properly remembered or evaluated and, therefore, it continues to haunt Russia in numerous unpredictable ways. Even the tragedy of the Kursk submarine was considerably complicated by many manifestations of Russia's clearly unreconciled past.

There can be no denying that contemporary Russia is in its very essence a product of the Soviet legacy. Our whole life is still shaped by Soviet rules and Soviet-style expectations. We are still governed by Soviet-reared rulers. We live in towns designed by Soviet architects. Mos cow's skyline is dominated by Stalinist skyscrapers, not - as in the past - church belfries. Even our tiny kitchens and inconvenient bathrooms are products of this era and the people it created. There is no way for us to escape this past, and there is no excuse for us to ignore it. 

Some superficial attempts at passing through the process of reconciliation have been based on an unrealistic idealization of our tsarist past. In many ways, these misguided efforts are even more counterproductive than ignoring the problem. For instance, Moscow spent tremendous resources and effort to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was leveled by the Bolsheviks in 1931. Although many intellectuals criticized this expensive fake, politicians more interested in symbolism than substance proceeded. To my mind, the coincidence of the cathedral's pompous consecration and the solemnity of the Kursk tragedy proved the critics right. The cathedral suddenly seemed not only unnecessary, but somehow even offensive.

I think that, to a lesser but still significant extent, some recent phenomena in popular culture also reflect the problem of Russia's unreconciled past. Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov, whose "Burnt by the Sun" seemed to mark real progress toward confronting the past, followed up with "The Barber of Siberia," a thin, superficial effort that has been widely criticized for seeming like a Potemkin village. Russia's best-seller list has been dominated for months by a series of readable but simple-minded detective novels by Boris Akunin, all set in tsarist times and seeming to reflect a longing for a lost past. 

But looking back through the past 80 years to prerevolutionary Russia ignores the country's dreadful 20th-century experiences that form the core of what the nation is today. Those who criticize the oligarchs, generals and president who rule the country should look in the mirror. Boris Berezovsky may be no beauty, but he is the authentic face of Russia, a country that has produced almost nothing new - either materially or spiritually - in over a decade. Russia today, caught on a treadmill of redistributing old property and old ideas, seems to have nothing in common with the achievements of its past - with its traditional architecture, great literature, culture of philanthropic merchants, etc. 

Although there was much talk in the early 1990s about the subject of reconciliation with the past, nothing has been done. And although the process of reconciliation will no doubt entail considerable cost, we are now paying instead the cost of a new kind of stagnation that is the result of trying to ignore our past. 

Many other nations have faced the same problem that Russia is yet to confront, and the only lesson to be derived from their experiences is that there are no easy, ready-made solutions. Germany went through a fairly intense process of de-Nazification, but nonetheless continues to experience repercussions of its past. Although German society is periodically shaken by neo-Nazi demonstrations, these are clearly only a fading echo. Recently, the German government and its business community took another important step toward reconciliation by setting up a 10 billion deutsche mark ($4.4 billion) compensation fund for persons who served as forced laborers under the Nazi regime. 

When one considers the experiences of central European countries, one is struck by the notion that coping with past is easier if a country is a victim of foreign aggression rather than the source of historical evil. Some of Russia's neighbors to the west have used a controversial procedure of background checks for candidates for public office. Those found with strong ties to state security organs may be disqualified from running for office.

In East Germany, which had the largest and most sophisticated police state in the former Soviet bloc, the process has been led by the Gauck Commission named after the Rev. Joachim Gauck, a former dissident. This panel manages the files of the former Stasi secret police and screens people in public service, including even teachers and police officers. About 1.7 million people have been screened so far, and an astounding 95,000 former collaborators have been exposed. 

A similar body was established recently in Poland. The National Remembrance Institute, headed by a law professor, Leon Kieres, will begin opening secret police files to the public next year. Just like the Gauck Commission, the Remembrance Institute will have the right to initiate prosecutions and the obligation to educate the public on communist and Nazi-era crimes.

South Africa represents a controversial example of finding a middle path in confronting a difficult past. In 1994, after the election of Nelson Mandela, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed under the guidance of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This commission heard testimonies from more than 20,000 victims of apartheid and confessions from thousands of perpetrators. But since the process was dominated by the ideas of repentance and forgiveness and included only token material compensation for victims, it has been severely criticized. Many who suffered under apartheid feel cheated by the very process intended to promote reconciliation and accord.

In Russia, however, no such commission or process exists at all. There is no clear arbiter of such a process here, analogous to Tutu or Gauck. The Orthodox Church, unfortunately, lacks the moral authority to play this role in the eyes of many because of it own controversial Soviet past.

Another problem is presented by an inborn Russian tendency toward extremes. The idea of finding a compromise or middle road is alien to Russian nature. It will be difficult, perhaps impossible for Russia to carry out a reconciliation process without it devolving into either a farce or a witch-hunt. But until the nation faces up to this potentially unsolvable problem, it will continue to be mired in its present stagnation.


Maxim Trudolyubov is a journalist for Vedomosti. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.

TITLE: What Other Papers Are Saying
AUTHOR: by Ali Nassor
TEXT: Crime was on the agenda big time this week, with the city's killers, burglars and sharks of various persuasions and in various uniforms all in action in the moments running up to the Day of Harmony and Reconciliation on Tuesday. However, St. Petersburg's law enforcement authorities are maintaining that crime figures are lower than this time last year, with a 40 percent decline in armed robbery alone.




Mixed Bag


Smena kicks off with a report on a young man by the name of Sergei Dotsenko, who presented judges and investigators with a full and frank description of how he managed to do away with four people in three weeks, even managing to convince one victim that it was all a harmless prank before killing him.


Dotsenko's modus operandi was to whack the security guard of whichever shop he had targeted, and proceed to clean out the till, collect some candy and a few bottles of vodka, and then murder the girl behind the till. He killed two others in a separate but copycat incident, says the paper. Dotsenko is now reportedly looking at things from behind bars, for the rest of his life.



Family Matters


Unusual and unpleasant behavior between strangers this may be - but it became more personal on Vasilievsky Island when a mother and her sister hatched on a scheme to get rid of their 5-year-old Anastasia, who was apparently being a nuisance to them during their endless drinking binges, reports Kommersant.


Going out for what young Anastasia thought was a nighttime breath of fresh air, the unmotherly duo beat the girl up so badly she died of a ruptured kidney on the street, reports the paper. The attackers then went back home to resume their libations.

Smena competes in the gruesome stakes by telling the tale of a man who paid a friend $1,000 to dismember his wife and dump her in the garbage dumpster. But Nevskoye Vremya also weighs in by recounting the story of a drunken shoot-out between a police captain and three companions, which left only one of the latter alive. The cop's corpse was discovered in a factory building some time later, the paper says.


Business Cops


Around the same time, more junior members of the police force were behaving in a no-more-exemplary manner - giving the crime statistics a push upwards, in fact. An OMON paramilitary was caught red-handed by his own colleagues brazenly trying to sell a large amount of dynamite right in the city center, says Nevskoye Vremya. He was not acting alone, however, and a partner of his was later discovered with more than a kilogram of TNT and a pistol tucked away at home. What the duo's target was - if any - is not yet clear, according to the paper.


The explosives business is small-fry compared to the pickings in the economic crime department, as Peterburgsky Chas Pik reveals. 

A least three of St. Petersburg's top anti-organized crime fighters are currently standing trial for demanding 50 percent discounts in shops throughout the Admiralteisky district in return for reportedly "solving" certain inconveniences, such as taxes, or unwanted visits from the fire, police and health inspectors.

The trio has pleaded not guilty - perhaps mindful of another story in the same newspaper, which tells of the man in the Leningrad Oblast who was empowered with sanctioning the import of automobiles, and who got five years in Sing Sing for using his signature in less-than-scrupulous but more-than-lucrative ways.



Magic Money


The story that really had the city's judges' jaws dropping, however, was that of three Cameroonians in St. Petersburg who had apparently been using magic spells to bamboozle gullible clients.


The scam as reported by Moskovsky Komsomolets (so it must be true) involved an Indian gentleman who was fooled into believing that a special potion would turn the $6,000 he had borrowed from friends into twice that amount, if both the potion and the cash were wrapped up in a plastic bag and left in the freezer for 24 hours.

For some reason, the potion - which had earlier worked perfectly well when the sum was only $200 - failed miserably on this occasion, and when the Indian went to his freezer a day and a night later, he found ... nothing but worthless pieces of paper. 

Detectives believe that the Indian is not, alas, the only man to have succumbed to the magic of the Cameroonian tricksters.



Getting Better


Rounding the week off in a hail of bullets, Argumenty i Fakty reports the death of a security firm boss who was shot 40 times and died on the spot along with his bodyguard. The paper recalls a similar incident in which another security firm head honcho, "Kolyak the Immortal," survived an assassination attempt late last month. Both the survivor and the deceased had served short jail terms for burglary and extortion at least three times in the past three years.


But never mind, says Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti: It's all a vast improvement on last year, according to the keepers of law and order, who cite a 9.7 percent decline in crime in 2000 over 1999. So that's all right, then.

TITLE: cannes loser still makes compelling viewing
AUTHOR: by Kirill Galetski
TEXT: Director Pavel Lungin's film "The Marriage" (Svadba,) his fourth feature and latest effort, is at last on screen in St. Petersburg. "The Marriage" was first showcased at Cannes in May, but received a comparatively lukewarm reception, garnering a Golden Palm nomination, but no prize. The absence of accolades does not detract from the film's merits, however.


Lungin first achieved international renown twelve years ago with "Taxi Blues," a film about the rapport between polar opposites in Russian society: a hard-working Moscow cabbie and the lazy, unemployed saxophone player that stiffs him for a fare. 

Lungin secured French financing for the film and shot it using on-location sync sound, which was (and still is) a rarity in Russian cinema. The dramatically dazzling and technically accomplished film went on to win the Golden Palm at Cannes, and enjoyed a wide international release. Lungin's subsequent work, despite being equally well-crafted, was largely ignored.

"The Marriage" is set in the coal-mining town of Lipki, some 200 kilometers from Moscow. Here, people are eking out a meager existence, and every time the payroll van arrives there is a boisterous rally. Tanya (Maria Mironova), a model tired of life in the capital with her married lover, returns to this town to seek out and marry her childhood sweetheart, a somewhat vulnerable young man named Misha (Marat Basharov). She finds him at a dance night, and although the couple have a slightly uneasy relationship throughout the film which nevertheless lightens up toward the end, the film is not really about their love as much as what goes on around it. 

"Russians are pretty extreme, but Russian weddings are at the far end of extreme," Lungin told Reuters. "Everything happens - the best and the worst."

Indeed, Lungin's film is chock full of subplots with colorful characters' motives catalyzed by the impending marriage. Misha's father haggles with the local cafeteria over his son's wedding banquet. Maria's boyfriend from Moscow arrives to try to win her back. Garkusha (Andrei Panin), the town drunk with whom Misha occasionally hangs out, makes things run afoul by a theft, and tries to set them right with - another theft! Misha is suspected of the thefts, and the local cop Borzov (Alexander Semchev, the tardy Ded Moroz from the Tolstyak beer commercial on TV), dissatisfied with life in the provinces, sees an opportunity to make it to Moscow at the expense of Misha's future.

Lungin's strength lies in his knack for realistic drama in a truthful social context. The scene of the unruly mob at the film's opening when the payroll van arrives with wages that are months old is particularly poignant and powerful. Money, or lack thereof, is a motivating force and a strong psychological subtext that permeates the characters' actions throughout the film.

The touching elements in the film have to do with the couple's rapport. Misha and Tanya escape the raucous festivities by going for a motorcycle ride, only to get stuck in a muddy puddle. This scene becomes, perhaps inadvertently, a rural Russian parody of the "nastroyenye Chesterfield" cigarette ads in which a pair of scrubbed newlyweds careen gleefully down the highway. In another moving scene, Tanya searches with Misha for the son she had abandoned in a roomful of tots crying, "Mama!"

While not as searingly powerful scene-for-scene as "Taxi Blues," the film is quietly potent and is ultimately very funny. It comes off very bittersweet, and is laced with irony and Lungin's tough love for his characters shines through. Co-authored with Alexander Galin, the film was originally written as a tragedy, but after interacting with the people of Lipki, Lungin changed the story.

"My exchange with the people of this town made me optimistic. I discovered a way of life that was much more joyful and gave me strength. [The film] doesn't have to be interpreted; I just want people to find some happiness when they see it. There is no coded social or political message. The message is that life goes on."


"The Marriage" is now playing at the Avrora Cinema. For more information call 311-96-04.

TITLE: relive stagnation on 6th corner
AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya
TEXT: I don't know about you, but I, for one, have always been fascinated by the Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov. His stories, written mostly during the Brezhnev period of Stagnation, are a fine example of that heart-gripping mixture of the ordinary and the grotesque, the funny and the sad, the noble and the pathetic. Even though I am quite happy with the present day, I invariably get nostalgic over the ugly, insane, yet hilarious Soviet existence depicted in his books.


This is just the way one is bound to feel at the Shestoi Ugol (Sixth Corner) Retro Eatery, Drinkery & Sleepery, a restaurant-club, which brings you back to the mad world of god-awful Soviet-brand items you might well miss, but will never want to return to.

The insanity began as soon as my friend and I appeared on the threshold. What we saw was a man lying on a table and several of the restaurant's staff trying desperately to remove him. The man clung to the table, yelling in what still sounded to be a rather happy voice: "Bring the prosecutor! You can't beat somebody who's lying down!" Nobody was actually beating him, but the yelling soon gathered a small crowd. It took five men to get the madman's fingers off the edge of the table.

The troublemaker was then held to the ground, while the police were called. Once or twice he made for the door on all fours, the crowd giving way. The table he had been lying on turned out to be a stylized bed. "He just came in and lay there, and wouldn't get off," said the cloakroom attendant.

The whole thing was reminiscent of those drunken brawls at the Union of Writers from some of Dovlatov's wildest stories. I thought I was losing my mind.

We were seated in a corner made to resemble a train compartment. A plank above us said "Leningrad - Kostomuksha," with a portrait of Lenin hanging nearby. The main menu was titled "The Book on Good and Healthy Food," while the wine menu read: "The beverages of the U.S.S.R. and the Countries of Decaying Capitalism," with both menus approved and signed by Leonid Brezhnev.

While rather traditional, the food choice here might still remind you of Soviet times - if only because of the low prices.

"Waldorf" or "Viagra Lights" salad (40 rubles) is made for men by definition. However, I was the one who ate it, enjoying the ground apples, celery and walnut seasoned with mayonnaise. "Maize chips" (40 rubles) served with Salsa (20 rubles) were my boyfriend's choice, maybe because they were delivered, as the menu insisted, by the Communist Party of Mexico.

We both then enjoyed the "Trio of Seafood" or the "Groovy Trio" (120 rubles): crab, shrimps and salmon with rice and black olives.

"Bozbash" soup (40 rubles) was unusually listed as a soup "for beginner ladies of the night." We shared this thick steaming beef solyanka with potatoes, and it was indeed a good beginning.

As the "Taza" shashlyk and "Ikibirsky" shashlyk (both 115 rubles) arrived, we were no longer starving, and less occupied in eating than in looking around. We noticed, however, the difference between the two pork dishes: The latter, made of brisket, had more of a smoked taste.

The place looks more like an attraction park: booths, staircases, weirdly dressed waitresses, lewd inscriptions on the walls. ... While you may still be interested in a good dinner - the food is quite tasty - you should definitely go at least to look.



Shestoi Ugol, 3 Razyezhaya Ul. Dinner for two: 660 rubles ($24). Open from 11 a.m. Phone: 315-88-73.

TITLE: tales of hoffmann: a feminist look at romantic opera
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: The world revolves around women - such is the attitude of one female opera director who is preparing to unveil her version of Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales Of Hoffmann," a story of one poet's doomed love for a mechanical doll, a singer and a Venetian courtesan.


The director in question is Marta Domingo, and the production premieres on Saturday, Nov. 11, at the Mariinsky Theater.

"The Tales Of Hoffmann" - unfinished at the time of Offenbach's death and completed by Ernest Guiraud - first saw the stage at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1881.

Since then, the piece has enjoyed much attention from opera directors, and this time Marta Domingo will be telling us the story of a tormented poet and his muse.

Marta Domingo - wife of one of the world's greatest singers, tenor Placido Domingo, whom she married in 1962 and with whom she once sang at the Israel Opera Company - made her debut as an operatic director back in 1991 with a rendition of Saint-Saens's "Samson et Dalila" in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Having begun as a singer herself, Mexico-born soprano Marta Ornelas, whose performance of Susanna in "Le Nozze di Figaro" earned her the title of the best Mozartian singer in her home country in 1961, gave up her career in the mid-1960s, after the birth of her and Domingo's two sons, Placido and Alvaro.

Marta Domingo says she has been lucky enough not to have to reject any opera she was invited to stage. "I am very fortunate in that all the operas I have been offered [to stage] are romantic, which is what I love," Domingo said. She does not hide her feministic bent, adding she thrives on romantic operas where women play a very important part.

As for "The Tales Of Hoffmann," she considers the opera to be deeply associated with her and her husband's life.

Recalling that Placido Domingo himself has performed in no less than 10 interpretations of "The Tales" around the world, she admitted she faced a challenge in developing her own rendition. "Practically, I have seen everything, with every production a great work of stage direction," she said. "I realized I needed to do something that hasn't been done before."

But thankfully, Hoffmann offers immense opportunities for stage directors to invent and create, and there will always be something left unexplored. "I love it and I am happy to do it," she said. "Hoffmann gives you a whole fountain of inspiration."

Marta Domingo takes a painstaking approach, doing an enormous amount of research and spade-work. Besides analyzing the score, she reads as much as possible of what has been written on and around the topic to plunge herself into the atmosphere of the opera she is staging.

"Even though the process begins with a particular idea, reading enriches you enormously - even if you know the score very well, you never know it well enough - and little by little there comes the whole picture of the show," she said. "You have to learn every note and every word."

Singer Svetlana Trifonova, who is rehearsing for the role of Olympia, welcomes "The Tales" as a missing link in the theater's repertoire, and is thrilled by the juxtaposition of romanticism and mild humor, at times with a subtle touch of tragedy, that the production offers.

"This is a fascinating show, bringing a new style, a new genre, and new direction to the Mariinsky," Trifonova said. "We have a variety of Russian music and Wagner, but more versatility is what we need. It is a light fairy tale full of mystery, and makes for a soul-stirring experience."

Trifonova believes that the fact that the piece wasn't finished works for the opera's advantage artistically, allowing for a countless variety of interpretations.

"Marta Domingo gives singers a precious chance to bring in their understanding of the characters they perform, she gives you an idea, and a possibility to experiment within it," Trifonova said. "She is not suppressive at all, but very helpful and benign. It is very touching to see her applauding after every aria, it tells you much about her warm personality."

Marta Domingo didn't seek anybody's advice on staging, or how to find a common language with the cast. Over years of observing great directors working, and her husband Placido rehearsing countless times, she has learned how to do things her way. "A director has to be patient, indulgent and generous. If you lose your patience, your words will have little effect. Being calm and optimistic - this is what's important."



"The Tales Of Hoffmann" plays this Saturday and Sunday at the Mariinsky Theater. Rehearsing for the roles are Viktor Lutsuk (Hoffmann), Svetlana Trifonova and Olga Trifonova (Olympia), Anna Netrebko, Tatiana Pav lov skaya and Irina Dzhioyeva (Antonia), Zlata Bulycheva and Nadezhda Serduk (Giulietta) and others.

TITLE: standing ovation for final early music concerts
AUTHOR: By Giulara Sadkyh-zade
TEXT: At the St. Petersburg Cappella, the Third International Festival of Early Music had its triumphant conclusion on Sunday. The best was saved till last with the concerts of the great Dutch harpsichordist and organist Gustav Leonhardt and the British countertenor, Michael Chance, whose voice is fantastically even-toned, possessing a brilliantly refined baroque singing technique.


For the whole of October and early November, the festival concerts have brought together sizable crowds at the Cappella and Philharmonic as well as at the Menshikov and Sheremetev Palaces. 

The festival was the focus of diverse musical interests: Some people went to see the Children's Flute Ensemble Gardellino (with artistic director Alexander Kiskachy), while others preferred to listen to the Baroque organ music performed by Yulia Semenova. Still others didn't miss even one of the concerts given by the ensemble Musica Petropolitana, put on by the initiator, and one of the organizers of this authentic music festival, which is unique in Russia.

The idea, born three years ago, turned out to be very successful. Concentrate all the strengths and resources of practically all the cultural institutes in the city into one point: The British Council, The Goethe Institute, The Alliance Francaise, The Dutch Institute and The St. Petersburg Cultural Center. In addition to that, involve the Consulates General of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Council of Ministers of Northern Countries and even the St. Petersburg Cultural Committee.

In a single, powerful, enlightened wave all these forces combined together to produce quite a good festival with a wealth of musical talents.

The Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico (or Garden of Harmony) gave lively and artistic performances of works from the Venetian school at its height (Castello, Uccellini, Merulo, Vivaldi) at the Philharmonic Small Hall. Bernard Baum, the outstanding German flautist and a specialist in Baroque and medieval flute repertoires, gave a solo concert and a couple of master classes. 

The U.S. female vocal ensemble, Anonymous 4, performed intricate compositions from medieval chorales and early polyphonies from the ninth and 10th centuries under the title of "Mass for the End of Time." The Dutch ensemble Oltremontano gave two concerts. 

As well as high-class foreign guests, the relatively recently created St. Petersburg ensembles Ave Rosa and Lanterna Magica were also actively involved, as well as the Insula Magica collective from Novosibirsk. 

Members of the above-mentioned Musica Petro politana ensemble also gave performances, including Andrei Reshetin (violin), Sergei Filchenko (violin), Dmitry Sokolov (cello) and Irina Sneyerova (harpsichord).

Naturally, the concerts varied in quality. Those at the beginning seemed somehow rather messy and disappointing: In the half-empty hall of the Cappella, the French musicians from L'Ensemble Baroque de Limoges tiresomely and monotonously performed Couperin and Forqueray - a situation not saved by famous viola da gamba player Kristof Kuhn, the festival's artistic director.

However, the finale of the festival in the very same hall turned out to be uplifting and successful: The long-awaited Michael Chance appeared on stage accompanied by Musica Petropolitana, reinforced with the violin of the famous Muscovite violinist, Nazara Kozhuk haria. 

Having sung with unbelievable beauty Vivaldi's sensual Stabat Mater and Agnus Dei from Bach's B minor mass, the singer was greeted by bursts of applause. 

The entire hall thundered with cries of "Bravo" and stamping feet. The public found the affair very satisfactory indeed - especially some of the members of the British Council, who simply beamed at seeing the celebration of the British spirit in the musical settings of St. Petersburg.

TITLE: kino honored in tribute album
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Tribute albums have finally made their way onto the Russian music market. Although the independent record label FeeLee released a Depeche Mode tribute in 1998, the current tribute to the seminal Russian group Kino released on the major label Real Records is on a much larger scale and has already provoked a much more serious reaction - along with much bigger sales.


Dedicated to Kino frontman and songwriter Viktor Tsoi, who died in a car crash in August 1990, the album "KINOproby. Viktor Tsoi Tribute" (Screen Tests) is being released in two volumes - the first appeared on Oct. 17, and the second is due on Nov. 15.

Recorded by popular and fledgling rock acts from the former Soviet Union, the releases are supported by stadium shows featuring the bands which took part in the recordings - in the fashion of the Brat 2 soundtrack concerts which were organized by the same label last month.

"Nothing will change [in Russian rock music] until a new Tsoi appears," says Yevgeny Fyodorov of Tequilajazzz, who covered the monotonous "Tranquilizer" with some backup vocals from Akvarium's Boris Grebenshchikov.

"Viktor Tsoi emerged all by himself, with no promotion. Zemfira would have been trying to break through for a few more years - without huge investments and mass coverage from the media there would have been nothing.

"Kino came from the inside, almost grew out of the earth. It still remains [Russia's] best band, in my opinion ... Viktor had such great charisma."

All in all, as far as the first album in the series goes, the finest performance is "This Is Not Love" by the local Britpop-influenced band MultFilmy, which made its record debut earlier this year.

The Moldovan folk punk band Zdob Si Zdub's cover of "Saw the Night," complete with Mol do van fifes and a Gypsy trio, makes an exciting curiosity, but it gets irritating after a few listenings. Mumii Troll's "Vosmiklassnitsa" adds nothing to the original apart from Ilya Lagutenko's mannered intonations. The rest, especially the outdated art-rock Piknik and yet another "trendy" female-fronted pop/rock band Chicherina - both artists on Real Records - just don't hold water.

The quasi-punk song "Anarchy" went to the Moscow pop/punk band N.A.I.V.E., although Grebenshchikov performs the song much better, as was demonstrated at Akvarium's summer concerts. Instead, Grebenshchikov, who "discovered" Tsoi in the first place and covered at least four Tsoi songs in concert over the years, has recorded "Kamchatka" for the second record.

Taking part in the recording was a crucial test of conformity for some. Sergei Shnurov of Leningrad says it made him reconsider the band's stance and agree to perform at lush nightclubs - something the underground-minded band did not do before last October when it appeared at La Plage, with tickets costing as much as 250 to 360 rubles.

"They were trying to talk me into [taking part in the tribute album] for a long time, and I kept refusing," says Shnurov, whose cover of "Once You Were a Beatnik" will appear on the second album of "KINOproby."

"In the event, I looked at the situation differently and recorded the song with pleasure. Now I think Leningrad shouldn't give a damn about anything. I don't care where - what's important is who."



"KINOproby. Viktor Tsoi Tribute" in concert at the Ice Palace Nov. 19. Zemfira, Vyacheslav Butusov, Korol i Shut, Zdob Si Zdub, MultFilmy, Tequilajazzz, Piknik, Leningrad, Kukryniksy, N.A.I.V.E., Dva Samaliota and Ricochet will perform.

TITLE: freeman's salome gives literal take on symbolism
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: You can't step twice into the same river, as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, and it was indeed a risky move for British director David Freeman to stage his second symbolist opera production in a row at the Mariinsky Theater. 


Freeman's naturalistic approach to Richard Strauss' "Salome" came as quite a surprise, something you perhaps would not expect from the author of such an image-rich production as his 1991 version of Prokofiev's opera "The Fiery Angel."

In this new production, the director strives to make everything visual to such an extent that he nearly eliminates the enigmatic nature of this opera based on Oscar Wilde's take on the New Testament story.

You can see Salome's slave offering her a drug before she starts her striptease - an explanation in advance for her stumbling pace and euphoric movements. Meanwhile, John the Baptist's death appears accidental, coming as the result of a misunderstanding.

What was a particular success in the Fiery Angel was the visualization of the process of imagination. In Salome, the staging is illustrative rather than metaphoric, with the visual part not providing much interpretation.

True, you could feel that the world is "shaky and alarmed," but the feeling was derived from what was heard, rather than from what was seen. As for the stage design, at times you would find yourself wondering if you were looking at sets from "Aida."

Vocally, the new Salome was not sensationational, but demonstrated impressive singing with no obvious failures. Valeria Stenkina (Salome), in particular, was convincing both in terms of acting and singing as a tantalized, desperate and wayward woman, possessed and driven by her passions.

Yevgeny Nikitin, making his debut in the role of John the Baptist, brought the necessary gloomy power to his performance, while Nikolai Gassiyev, who sang in the Mariinsky's previous version of "Salome" was the perfect Herod, entrapped, disturbed and frenzied.

Freeman made "The Dance Of Seven Veils" - the opera's culmination - unsophisticated, with a tribal feel. The director sends Stenkina's heroine careening across the stage or, more importantly, around John the Baptist's cell, leaving no doubts as to who she is really dancing for. The literalness of the production reaches its climax when Salome takes the last item of her clothes off.

The primitiveness of the moves perhaps serves to emphasize the shamanistic nature of the dance, and this idea actually works to the fragment's advantage. But the culminating scene is a success very much thanks to the powerful Mariinsky orchestra, rather than because of the director.

Musically, the production was overwhelming. The Ma ri insky symphony orchestra under Valery Gergiev told a story more tragic than what was going on on stage. From listening to the orchestra you could sense the tense atmosphere when "the moon like a tormented, nearly insane woman looks for lovers to soothe her passion."

It was the orchestra which told us a story unveiling the darker, more obscure parts of the human soul, and it was the orchestra exploring these same parts. Ultimately, it was also the orchestra which brought to Salome that same feeling in The Fiery Angel when one character says "my soul feels as though it is being filled with black smoke."

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: The latest addition to the St. Petersburg rock scene is Art Spirit, the nightclub which will open on Vasilievsky Island on Friday. There is no information about times and costs, but the music choice is good, as Auktsyon's Leonid Fyodorov and Sergei Shnu rov's 3D will play at the opening. Live performances will be followed by DJs Arram, Mantana, Phunkee, Redisco and Myst.


According to the release, the club is located "at the foot of" the notorious university hostel for foreign students. "Enter by the black metal staircase into the former Black Hole," if that tells you anything.

In the noble manner of local rock clubs, the club "does not plan to limit itself to performances by St. Petersburg groups and dance parties with DJs. Plans include exhibitions by artists and photographers, classes in fashionable dances, national cuisine days, folk singing nights, and promised meetings with 'real' and the 'right' people."

The ambitiousness of these plans are extremely dangerous, if we recall the initial press releases of such clubs as PORT and Saigon, which were similarly concerned with the arts. What we have now in both of them are mindless house music and strip shows.

The release also caused a sensation and even sobs among the music journalist community, as it erroneously called Shnurov the "former Leningrad frontman," suggesting he had left Leningrad for his new project, 3D. Some believed it.

The opening starts at around 9 p.m. Try to get an invitation. 

Art Spirit Nightclub, 20 Ul. Korablestroitelei, M: Primorskaya, Nov. 10.

More on the club scene: We were approached by Hard Rock Club last week. Further into the conversation, it became clear that their club is modeled exactly on the Hard Rock Cafe chain and, as its spokesman proudly revealed, even has a "similar" logo, which was registered for use in Russia. That reminded us of a clever guy who had the brilliant idea to produce his own Windows beer - complete with the logo that we usually see on our monitors. He even properly registered the name and the logo in the category "food and drinks" (even Bill Gates himself didn't have enough brains to do so). The small venue which will open near the Chernishevskaya Metro in "ten or so days" seats 35, and is currently under construction. We guess you can get a nice price for your used guitar that once belonged to Eric Clapton.

Almost all the best local club bands will appear at the three-day festival entitled The Grand Tattoo Saloon International Convention. Promised are lots of body art, tattoos and piercings. Skin-crippling activities start at 2 p.m. from Friday to Sunday.

Yubileiny Sports Palace (Small Arena), Nov. 10 to 12.




- by Sergey Chernov

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Israelis Stage Attack


BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank (AP) - An Israeli combat helicopter rocketed a car full of Palestinian commanders on Thursday, killing one and wounding another critically. Another six people were injured.

The attack outside Bethlehem was likely to intensify the violence and draw a tough Palestinian response, just as President Clinton was set to convene new meetings aimed at resuscitating Mideast peace talks.

Medics scraped scorched flesh off the pavement, and passers-by rushed to help the wounded in Beit Sahour, a well-to-do Christian suburb of Bethlehem.

Hospital officials identified the dead man as Hussein Abayat, prominent among the plainclothes Palestinian gunmen who have led the most recent uprising against Israel's presence in parts of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Hussein a-Sheikh, a leader of the Palestinian gunmen, told Israeli radio that the Israelis had raised the stakes.

"Our reaction will be sharp and tough," he said. "They opened fire on that car without any reason." 



Arafat To Meet Clinton


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in Washington early on Thursday seeking to change President Clinton's mind on the idea of a UN peace force to separate Israelis and Palestinians.

But Clinton has already dismissed the idea and wants to concentrate on ending a wave of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by carrying out the agreement he brokered in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last month.

The political uncertainty in Washington, where everyone is awaiting the delayed results of Tuesday's presidential election, increases the chances that little will come of Clinton's talks with Arafat on Thursday and then with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday.



Estrada Denies Bribes


MANILA, Philippines (AP) - President Joseph Estrada shot back on Thursday against allegations that he received illegal gambling payoffs, saying the provincial governor behind the accusations had offered him a $4 million bribe.

Estrada said that he had rejected the bribe from Gov. Luis Singson and that the money, kept unspent in a fund, would be used as evidence of his innocence in his impeachment trial.

Singson, Estrada's former gambling and drinking partner, has testified that the president asked him to collect millions of dollars in payoffs from illegal gambling operators and said he delivered it to the president. 

The allegations have thrown the Philippines' economy and politics into turmoil and triggered widespread calls for Estrada's removal.

Estrada has denied the charges and refused to step down. On Thursday, he went further and said Singson had offered him a bribe from the illegal gambling operators.

"I said I will not accept that," said Estrada, who called three Manila radio stations Thursday to make his statement. "The money accumulated and he deposited it in several places. I learned about it only lately." 



U.S. Renews Relations


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States ended Austria's nine-month spell in diplomatic purgatory on Wednesday in recognition of Vienna's efforts to distance itself from far-right politician Joerg Haider.

The "symbolic burying of the hatchet" was a meeting between Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, as a senior European diplomat put it.

It came nearly two months after the European Union lifted sanctions it imposed on Vienna for including Haider's Freedom Party in a coalition government in February.

"The normalization of our relations with the United States has taken place," the Austrian said afterward over lunch at her ambassador's home, adding it was a "very good occasion."

She said there was a "good chance" Albright would come to Vienna this month to meet Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica for the first time, who having toppled Slobodan Milosevic, is leading Belgrade back into international organizations.

Kostunica is expected in Vienna on a bilateral visit to coincide with a meeting on Nov. 27-28 of foreign ministers of the 54-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Europe's security and human rights watchdog.



Crash Survivor Sues


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles man who survived the crash of a Singapore Airlines' flight in Taiwan last week that killed 82 people has sued the airline, claiming that the accident was "both foreseeable and avoidable."

John Diaz, a 50-year-old vice president with online music distributor MP3.com Inc., sought unspecified damages for negligence and passenger liability in his lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Stephen Forshaw, the airline's public affairs manager in Singapore, said the carrier was not formally aware that any lawsuit had been filed.

"Singapore Airlines has not been served with any papers following media reports of the lodging of a suit against us in the United States," he told Reuters on Thursday.

Flight SQ 006, which was bound for Los Angeles, crashed on take-off from Taipei's airport on Oct. 31, killing 82 of the 179 people on board. Investigators said the plane struck construction equipment while trying to take-off from an out-of-use runway.



Agent Pleads Innocent


LONDON (AP) - Former intelligence agent David Shayler pleaded innocent Thursday to charges he disclosed state secrets in a newspaper article, and his trial was set to begin in April.

Shayler, a 34-year-old former agent with the internal security agency MI5, returned to Britain earlier this year after three years of exile in Paris. He is currently on bail.

He has been charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act by writing a 1997 article alleging MI5 kept files on British politicians, including current Home Secretary Jack Straw and former Conservative prime minister Sir Edward Heath, and on celebrities, including John Lennon.

He is also accused of passing on material obtained by tapping telephones.