SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times DATE: Issue #645 (12), Friday, February 16, 2001 ************************************************************************** TITLE: Smolny Advisers Float Media Register AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: An advisory body to Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev has drafted a law that would regulate subsidies to local media companies by drawing up a register of "eligible" organizations. Such a system of "approved" media outlets receiving city funds could potentially replace the existing - and much criticized - arrangement whereby the major St. Petersburg newspapers have reportedly been given loans by banks connected to City Hall. The Council of Public Advisers, a group of 40 prominent cultural, business and media representatives set up by Yakovlev last summer, has teamed up with the St. Petersburg faction on the Legislative Assembly to present the draft, which will go before lawmakers in March, according to Igor Sidorov, head of the St. Petersburg Union of Journalists. As yet, the draft law looks to have been floated to gauge public opinion on the issue, which has long been a touchy one among the city's media. Leonid Romankov, head of the assembly's culture and education committee, said the law has been already handed over to the city parliament, but added that it needed work before it could be put to the vote. "It has appeared before the assembly without the approval of our legal department, and needs to be put in order first," Romankov said in a telephone interview on Monday. Gov. Yakovlev's office professed ignorance of the draft law when contacted this week. But a spokesman for Yakovlev did say that such a law was long overdue. But just what would guarantee a newspaper of television station a place on the register is not clear - a fact which has some observers concerned. Yury Vdovin, co-director of Citizen's Watch, a St. Petersburg human-rights organization, said that the law looked like an attempt by the city administration to keep local media in check, by holding out the carrot of subsidies in return for soft coverage. "City Hall tries to control everything that moves," he said, " and I think they will try and make those newspapers who are not on the register look like outcasts." "Financial privileges [for media outlets] should be introduced by the state, not from regional authorities," said Maxim Polyakov, the editor of the St. Petersburg section of Kommersant newspaper. "Otherwise [such a law] will support a select number [of papers]." According to Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst with the Russian Academy of Sciences, City Hall at the moment "directly doesn't finance any paper or television channel." "If it wants to do that, it finds some kind of sponsor and requests that it support a particular newspaper. For instance, it will approach a bank, which will place an advertisement in a paper in exchange for financial assistance," he said on Thursday. In August 1999, for instance, Balt-Uneximbank, which services part of the city budget, was involved in a series of loans totalling around $172,000 for four of the most prominent local papers - Chas Pik, Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti, Vecherny Peterburg and Nevs koye Vremya. On occasions, City Hall has been more direct than brokering such deals. Last year's city budget - the year in which Yakovlev won re-election - included 101 million rubles (about $3 million) for Petersburg Television, 20 times more than it spent on the station in 1999. According to Media Committee officials, the city does not directly give funds to the major local papers, and only gives money to media outlets who ask for it. Officials named the newspapers Sport XXI, Five Corners and Vesti, as well as Petersburg Television and one of its political programs, as recipients of financial assistance last year. Each company got 500,000 rubles, or about $17,800. By contrast, the new draft law would provide for certain tax breaks for media companies on the register, such as exemption from profits tax, which goes to the city's budget, local property tax and tax on transportation purchases. It would also allot subsidies from the city administration to those organizations on the register, although how much is not specified. And the law says that only those organizations which were established and registered in St. Petersburg, and which gain the approval of the Union of Journalists, the League of Journalists and the Baltic Press Association, a grouping of distribution and publishing companies, will make it onto the register. Different proponents of the law had different ideas on why it was necessary. "We need a register just to see who is out there," said Yury Tretyakov, deputy head of the City Media Committee, in a telephone interview on Thursday. "There are 4,000 media companies [in St. Petersburg], including 2,000 newspapers, and we don't know anything about two-thirds of them. When a register has been set up, those on it will get financial and tax support. If a media company breaks the law, [by] falsifying its circulation, for instance, then it could be struck off the register." But Igor Rimmer, a St. Petersburg faction member, was more categorical. "I propose creating a special council to appraise the objectivity of newspapers and television channels, and taking measures against those who are not," he said in an interview on Wednesday. Asked how objectivity would be measured, Rimmer just smiled. Alexander Afanasyev, Yakovlev's spokesman, said that he had not even heard of the law's existence. "But it is definitely time the legal situation was changed," he said last week. "Journalists [now] have the right to write anything they want. There is no protection for the authorities from the threat of journalists [prying into] their private lives, for instance." Vladimir Sobolyev, deputy editor of Nevskoye Vremya - a member of the League of Journalists - said that to get onto the register, a media outlet would merely have to meet certain criteria. "I would call these categories, rather than requirements," he said in a telephone interview on Monday. And Sidorov of the Union of Journalists said that the main idea of the law was to make media companies equal, not different, when it came of financial assistnce from City Hall. "I remember when [the Union of Journalists] asked [former mayor Anatoly] Sobchak for rent privileges for local newspapers, and City Hall asked us for a list of those who needed it," he said last week. "It shouldn't be like that. If there are privileges, they should be for everyone in the [media] market." It is - at least in part - memories of the Sobchak administration's manipulation of the press, however, that are making the subject such a controversial one. The 1996 St. Petersburg gubernatorial elections were scarred by reports that editors of some city newspapers had accepted apartments in return for positive coverage of the Sobchak campaign. One of the editors was Chas Pik's Natalia Chaplina, wife of the governor general of the Northwest region, Viktor Cherkesov. Furthermore, the League of Journalists - now headed by Nevskoye Vremya editor Alla Manilova - has been criticized in the past for its political and economic ties. And a year ago members of the League claimed that Chechen terrorists were bribing Russian journalists to distort coverage of the war. Manilova later distanced the League from the remarks. At the moment, Cherkesov is staying neutral over the draft law, saying at a press conference earlier this month that he would only interfere if it contradicted federal legislation. "If, as those who have initiated the law say, it increases opportunities for the [local] press and would improve its financial position, one can only support it," he said. "If the register [will add] to [bureacratic hurdles such as] the license committee or the registration chamber, it is just another obstacle to the development of the media," said Anna Sharogradskaya, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the Press Development Institute, in a telephone interview this week. TITLE: Far East Balzam Offers Berries With a Bang AUTHOR: By Michael Wines PUBLISHER: New York Times Service TEXT: USSURIYSK, Far East - Galina Savostyanova cupped her hands as if holding a delicate crystal snifter, half-lowered her eyelids and proffered her personal advice on imbibing the finest beverage in all Russia. "You should drink balzam like you would drink a fine cognac," she said. "You should warm it in your hands. ... You should keep it in your mouth. You should feel all the flavors." You should also not forget that you are drinking 90 proof alcohol, lest you forget everything else. If Russia is admired worldwide for its sophistication in some circles - epic literature, classical music, advanced rocketry - its drinking habits, critics say, have never been hailed for their subtlety. But these critics have never heard of balzam. And they surely have never heard of Savostyanova's Ussuriyskiy Balzam, the one with the contented Siberian tiger gazing languidly from the label. But Ussuriyskiy Balzam is not just alcohol. It is a tonic for life's ills: a booster of low blood pressure, a lift for sufferers of chronic fatigue, a recommended medicine (the brochure says) for rescue workers, emergency physicians and anyone else "in extreme situations." All that, and it tastes, well, subtle. Somewhere between a finely aged bourbon and a naive domestic burgundy with no breeding, but amusing pretensions. For those who know nothing about balzam - which includes most everyone outside Russia and the Baltics - the premise can be summed up in an old Russian saying: "I'm not drinking; I'm healing myself." In Ussuriysk, a placid city with a population of 160,000 about 100 kilometers north of Vladivostok, they churn out 360,000 bottles of balzam every year. And the profits have helped equip the balzam factory with the latest Italian bottling equipment and a new laboratory. A little bit of history: Balzams seem to have been invented in Latvia before the 1700s, when Norwegian traders first began hauling casks back home. Each is an inky blend of local herbs, berries, spices, roots and a heavy dose of pure alcohol. The healing qualities of balzams, proven and otherwise, are among their major attractions. Riga Balzam, the most famous, is still served in Latvian cafes with herring; its makers boast 99 different ingredients mixed in pure alcohol. By contrast, Ussuriyskiy Balzam claims but 17 ingredients and a tradition that stretches back not to the 1700s, but to the 1970s, when the distillery - then a state bottler of Stolichnaya vodka - began making balzam on the side. "In very, very small amounts," Sa vo stya no va said. "You had to have connections to buy it," mostly from distillery workers who got bottles on state holidays. The current Ussuriyskiy Balzam is derived from that Soviet product, but it has two advantages a Brezhnev balzam could never have offered, and its rivals have not matched. One is a formula devised with the help of biotechnologists, who helped choose exotic ingredients with some basis in medicine. The other is a marketing campaign that might be the target of some envy on Madison Avenue. Besides well-known components like raspberry, mint and camomile, the balzam includes ginseng, which grows wild in the area; schizandra, eleutherococus and red linden berries from Altai province, near Mongolia, which are said to improve one's mood and restore energy. The mixes of berries and herbs are aged in huge stainless-steel vats at the two-story distillery, then mixed with pure alcohol before bottling. The result, the company claims, is "a biologically active supplement" good for everything from depression to the common cold - though not, the company warns, for bad nerves, insomnia, hypertension or artherosclerosis. Used after a drinking bout, it is said to ease hangovers as well. Since its privatization in the early 1990s, Ussuriyskiy Balzam's owners have hammered the message home in billboards and paintings covering the sides of entire buildings throughout the Primorye region: a placid tiger, lounging in the woods or beside a waterfall, over the slogan "Ussuriyskiy Balzam: a century of experience, world-class quality; great choice, low price." The company is doing something right: Sales have tripled in three years, and recently the balzam began appearing in better Moscow stores. With such snob appeal, Ussuriyskiy Balzam would seem to have a future outside Russia. But so far efforts to sell the drink in South Korea and the United States have fallen flat. "Once we sent a container to America," Savostyanova said. "They said, 'We don't know what these balzams are; balsam is a cream.' So we called it a liqueur." Americans didn't buy it. "America is a very complicated market," Savostyanova said. TITLE: Moscow Angry at Missile Claims AUTHOR: By Daniel Mclaughlin PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: KALININGRAD - Top European Union officials working out a development plan for Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad said on Thursday they had received top-level assurances that no nuclear arms were deployed here. Russia angrily denied a report in The Washington Times that U.S. intelligence had pinpointed missiles in the impoverished region wedged between EU aspirants Poland and Lithuania. "I raised the issue with [Foreign Minister] Igor Ivanov and he denied it," Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh told reporters in Kaliningrad, where the EU delegation spent half a day after meeting Russian officials in Moscow. The report, the second in two months to suggest missile deployment in Kaliningrad, was dismissed by Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev as "absolute and complete nonsense". Kaliningrad Gov. Vladimir Yegorov said it was an attempt to scuttle cooperation between the EU and Russia and keep Kaliningrad in limbo as the EU moves towards eastward expansion. "When active talks between the EU and Russia started [the Americans] invented this devil with horns," he said at Kaliningrad airport, where he met Lindh and EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten. The talks focused on how Kaliningrad's one million residents will cope with changes once Poland and Lithuania join the EU. The area's problems include widespread poverty, high crime and drug use rates and Soviet-era industry dumping pollution into the Baltic. Residents fear losing their visa-free travel rights to neighbouring states. The Washington Times cited anonymous U.S. intelligence sources as saying satellite photographs refuted Russian denials about the transfer of nuclear arms to the enclave. The paper originally reported in January that the missiles had been deployed and Kaliningrad's profile was raised further by reports that Germany planned to take economic control of the region in return for some of Russia's Soviet-era debt to Berlin. Both Moscow and Berlin have rejected any suggestion of a transfer of powers over the region and on Thursday Patten was at pains to stress Russia's leading role in Kaliningrad's future. "We recognise without any reservations that decisions on the main problems facing Kaliningrad have to be made in Russia and Kaliningrad, but we also recognise that we should help," Patten said in talks with Yegorov attended by reporters. Yegorov is seeking Western investment and special status for the region known as Königsburg when it was part of East Prussia and captured by Soviet troops at the end of World War II. Local officials talk about turning the region, half the size of Belgium, into a Hong Kong of the Baltic, but Lindh and Patten laid out no such deal on Thursday. "I don't think there willl be special status, but it is important to get together with Russia and work to solve all the existing problems as well of those of EU accession," Lindt said while touring a water treatment plant built by the Germans 120 years ago and now being rebuilt with Russian and Western funds. Yegorov offered talks on securing visa-free travel to Poland and Lithuania to dispel EU fears that Kaliningrad will leak illegal immigrants and contraband into member states. TITLE: Cabinet Seeks Solution to Grim Demography News AUTHOR: By Sarah Karush PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: MOSCOW - The Russian Cabinet on Thursday rallied behind a program aimed at countering the country's sharp decline in its population by working to improve health, encourage women to bear more children and foster immigration. Yet some demographers were skeptical that a government program could solve the population problem, blamed largely on the social and economic disorder following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Heavy drinking, poor nutrition and medical care, and environmental pollution plague Russia. Low birth rates have combined with a short average life span to accelerate the problem. In a major speech last year, President Vla di mir Putin warned that the nation's very survival was in jeopardy. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told the Cabinet on Thursday that 1999 was the worst year, with a population drop of 768,000 or 0.5 percent. A government study prepared for the Cabinet meeting said the population, which was 145.6 million in 2000, could fall by 2.8 million by 2005, the Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. "The decrease of the able-bodied population of the Russian Federation is not just a social problem, it is a problem of whether our state will develop successfully of unfavorably," Kasyanov said. "If this is not resolved, the economy will soon begin experiencing a labor shortage," Interfax quoted Kasyanov as saying. The Cabinet tentatively approved a program aimed at stemming the decline, which was drawn up by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. The ministry was given until June 1 to elaborate a more detailed program on improving the nation's health, increasing the birth rate and boosting immigration. Average life expectancy for Russian men was 59.8 years in 1999, the last year for which figures are available, said Maria Shabalina, a spokeswoman for the State Statistics Committee. Life expectancy for women was 72.2 years. Vladimir Sorokin, head of the State Statistics Committee, said population decline for the next 20 to 30 years is inevitable. Russia today is missing "the unborn people of those millions of our fellow citizens who died as a result of World War I, the civil war, all the revolutionary events, the famine of the 1930s and so on," he said on Ekho Mosk vy radio. Murray Feshbach, an expert on Russian demography at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, forecast the population will keep dropping, partly because of an "incredible increase" in deaths from AIDS and tuberculosis he said was expected. Feshbach said it would be difficult for Russia to double its birth rate, which is what demographers estimated would be necessary to maintain the current population. Some people have suggested increasing government aid to families with children, but Feshbach and Sorokin said that was unlikely to stimulate enough births. "What they have to do is change attitudes and expectations and health services and conditions," Feshbach said. Nor would immigration provide an easy solution, said Anatoly Vishnevsky, director of the Center for Demography and Human Ecology. "I don't think the country is ready for that, either economically or even psychologically," Vishnevsky told ORT television. TITLE: Troop Withdrawal 'Underway' PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia said on Thursday it had set in motion plans for long-awaited cutbacks of its troops in rebel Chechnya, but gave few details. Valery Manilov, first deputy chief of Russia's general staff, told the Itar-Tass news agency "a plan and schedule for withdrawing extra military units from Chechnya has been worked out and sent ... to those who will implement it." Russian troops poured into Chechnya in late 1999 and have occupied virtually all of the rebel province's territory for nearly a year. But they have failed to put an end to guerrilla attacks, and efforts to rebuild Chechnya have stalled. Russia first announced that the military phase of the conflict was over last March and promised deep cutbacks of troops. But 80,000 Russian troops have remained, from a force of about 100,000 at the peak of the fighting. International human rights groups and the Moscow-installed Chechen authorities say Russian soldiers' discipline has deteriorated and the troops have committed abuses that further alienated the local population. Last month President Vladimir Putin transferred overall responsibility for Chechnya from the army to the FSB internal security police and promised deeper cuts in the number of troops. But Manilov said the cuts would not be hasty. "We are starting from the premise that the withdrawal will be gradual, that there will not be any abrupt or rushed withdrawal of troops," Tass quoted him as saying. He did not say how many troops would be withdrawn or under what timetable. TITLE: Trial of Terrorists Opens in Armenia PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: YEREVAN, Armenia - Thirteen people went on trial Thursday for involvement in the 1999 assassination of Armenia's prime minister, parliamentary speaker and six other officials in a brazen attack on the parliament building. Hundreds of people gathered outside the Appeals Court building in central Yerevan. Some carried signs saying "Death to the monsters!" The four accused ringleaders of the attack, including brothers Nairi and Karen Unanian, face seven charges, including treason. Five others are charged with membership in a terrorist organization and complicity in a terrorist act. Three policemen are accused of negligence for allowing the attackers to enter the parliament, said Gnuni Balaiana, the spokesman for Armenia's Council of Court Chairmen. Sarkisian, parliamentary speaker Karen Demirchian and six others were killed when five gunmen burst into the parliament on Oct. 27, 1999. Nine people were wounded in the attack, and the group threatened to kill 40 hostages they held through the night. TITLE: Space Agency Rolls Back Mir Splash Date PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's aging Mir space station will come crashing to Earth around a week later than planned, according to more precise calculations on the station's orbit, the Russian space agency said on Thursday. A spokesman for space agency Rosaviakosmos said data from the 15-year-old station showed it was likely to plunge into the Pacific Ocean March 13 to 18, rather than March 5 to 8 as originally calculated. "It is now moving at an altitude of 280 kilometers ... and the decision was to start dumping it when it comes to 230 to 250," spokesman Vyacheslav Mikha li chenko said. "We had thought it would reach that altitude on about March 3 and March 8 was the scheduled date for dumping it," he said. Once the station dropped to an altitude of 250 kilometers, he said, more precise calculations could be made. The 130-ton vessel is due to splash down some 3,000 kilometers east of New Zealand's southern tip and away from major sea and air routes. Up to 40 tons of debris are expected to reach Earth at speeds high enough to smash through two meters of reinforced concrete. Mikhalichenko said the station was functioning normally and was descending without any outside assistance. "We are calculating all the time, we do this continually." Last month, an unmanned Russian cargo craft docked with Mir, starting the countdown to the destruction of the former jewel in the crown of the Soviet space program. The space station has become increasingly accident-prone in recent years, and ground controllers in December feared they had lost control of it for good when a sudden power outage cut communications for 24 hours. Designed with a three-year service life, the space station also grabbed a raft of space endurance records following its launch in 1986, becoming the envy of the better-funded U.S. space effort. Mikhalichenko also said the commission responsible for disposing of Mir had met on Thursday to discuss the state of the station, its location, forecasts for its fall and its readiness for the descent. TITLE: 12 Dead in Chechnya Fighting AUTHOR: By Yuri Bagrov PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: NAZRAN - Twelve Russian soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded in fighting in Chechnya, an official said Wednesday. Continuing a campaign of hit-and-run attacks, rebels opened fire on Russian positions and checkpoints 25 times. The strikes killed five soldiers and wounded 12 others, an official in Che chnya's pro-Moscow administration said on condition of anonymity. There were no reports of rebel casualties, he said. Seven Russian soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded when military vehicles struck mines or were ambushed on the roads, the official said. Two more were wounded in a firefight with rebels south of the capital Grozny. Meanwhile, the chief of the pro-Moscow government in the region, Akhmad Kadyrov, said that he wanted to ban independent humanitarian groups from working in Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported. "From now on, the Chechen authorities do not intend to permit the independent operation of humanitarian organizations," Interfax quoted him as saying. He said some aid was being stolen in neighboring regions, and said the refugee crisis would soon end because the republic was becoming stable. During heavy fighting last winter, Russia forbade foreign human rights and aid groups from traveling to Chechnya, saying the region was too dangerous. But the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights watchdog group, made access by non-governmental aid groups a condition for Russia to remain a member. The Russian government agreed to the demand, and some groups began working in Chechnya last spring. However, most aid groups suspended their operations in January, after the kidnapping of U.S. citizen Kenneth Gluck, the director of North Caucasus operations for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. He was freed Feb. 3, but non-governmental organizations have not returned to Chechnya. Russian forces rolled into Chechnya in 1999 after rebels based there invaded a neighboring region and rebels were blamed for apartment bombings in Moscow and two other cities that killed about 300 people. TITLE: Nazdratenko Meets Putin To Hash Out Future Plans AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina and Nonna Chernyakova PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times TEXT: The former governor of the Primorye region, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, emerged from a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday saying the two had discussed the region's energy woes, Nazdratenko's next job and elections of a new governor, Prime-Tass reported. The presidential press service confirmed the meeting had taken place but did not provide any details. Nazdratenko resigned last week - apparently at Putin's urging - amid increasing accusations that his poor performance as governor had led to the region's deep fuel and energy crisis, which left thousands of homes without heat in bitterly cold weather. When he did so, 11 of his 12 deputies also tendered their resignations. Of those, said acting Gov. Va len tin Dubinin at a Tuesday press conference, only six will leave immediately. Five deputy governors will remain and the resignations of three high-ranking officials are expected to take effect later this week. Dubinin also said the number of deputy governors will eventually be reduced to eight. Some redistribution of labor has already been ordered by Konstantin Pulikovsky, presidential envoy to the far east. Pulikovsky has issued a decree giving his deputies responsibility for the most vital spheres of the region's life, according to his first deputy, Gennady Apanasenko, who also spoke at a Tuesday's press conference. Apanasenko has been appointed to oversee finances and heating issues and another deputy, Yury Averianov, will be responsible for filling the key positions left vacant by Nazdratenko's team. A third deputy, Yury Obryadin, and Primorye's main federal inspector, Pavel Lysov, will oversee the law enforcement agencies, "ensuring the effectiveness of their activity," according to the decree. Apanasenko said investigators are auditing local law enforcement agencies and some officials will soon be replaced, primarily in the prosecutor's office and police. The excesses and consequences of Naz dratenko's tenure were strongly criticized Wednesday by Pulikovsky. "Nazdratenko showed that he is incapable of running the territory and should have informed voters much earlier that he is unable to improve the situation in the region," Pulikovsky said in televised remarks. In an interview published Wed nes day, Nazdra ten ko told the Kom mersant daily that his meeting with the president could be a decisive point in his career. He declined to say whether he would run for re-election as Primorye's governor, but said he hoped the details of his next job would be hashed out during the meeting. Nazdratenko said he would like to work in law enforcement, "maybe in Mos cow, maybe in the Far East, maybe elsewhere." Local media have reported that Naz dratenko may be appointed to head the State Fisheries Committee, but Nazdratenko said talks on this option have been put on hold. Nazdratenko also named a number of potential gubernatorial candidates for the upcoming elections in Primorye. The list, as he saw it, included State Duma deputies Viktor Cherepkov, a former mayor of Primorye's capital, Vla divostok, and Communist Vladimir Gri shukov. Cherepkov is a longtime opponent of Nazdratenko's, who lost his mayor's post in 1998 to Nazdratenko's protégé Yury Kopylov. Kopylov, current mayor of Vladivostok, was also mentioned by Nazdratenko as a gubernatorial hopeful. Nazdratenko named several potential candidates from the ranks of Primorye officialdom, among general director of the Far East Shipping Co., Alexander Kirilichev, the chairman of the regional legislature, Sergei Zhekov, and Nakhodka Mayor Viktor Gnezdelov. Gennady Apanasenko, Puli kov sky's deputy who is now overseeing finances and power issues in Primorye, was also a likely candidate, according to Nazdratenko. The regional legislature must set the election date between May 13 and Aug. 12. A decision is expected by Monday. Valeria Korchagina reported from Mos cow and Nonna Chernyakova from Vladivostock. TITLE: Conference Looks at Copyright AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Imagine an author as in control of his words as the great Russian expat writer Vla dimir Nabokov spouting utter nonsense in print. Then imagine his horrified fans back in Russia, struggling to obtain a copy of "Lolita" and finding his 1955 classic - written originally in English - contorted into impenetrable Russian, with important passages of the novel entirely absent. This was not so long ago the case for Nabokov's tale of Humbert Humbert, a man hopelessly in love with a young teenage girl. Written in the form of Humbert's jail diaries of his romance with Lolita, the novel includes a fictional preface by faux-psychiatrist John Ray, who condemned the authors pedophile inclinations. When the book was finally released under Glasnost in Russian translation - and into the hands of hopelessly inadequate translators - John Ray's preface was often discarded and replaced by the work of so-called scholars. "The translations were horrible and the prefaces absolute nonsense," said Dmitry Nabokov, the author's son, in a recent interview with The St. Petersburg Times while visiting the city for a seminar on Russian copyright law. In other cases, equally stilted translations of other Nabokov works were unleashed on the Russian public, cheating the Nabokov estate out of royalties and, no doubt, causing the author to turn in his grave. "I hope Russia will soon adopt the normal practice of showing respect to intellectual property, but I also realize that Rome wasn't built in a day, and it will take time," said Dmitry Nabokov speaking at the opening of the conference on Feb. 5. The conference was by hosted by the St. Petersburg Nabokov Museum with the support of the Open Society Institute, the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg and CEC International Partners, and its participants hoped the gathering would mark a step forward in restoring faith in Russia as a state that honors copyright law. Back-room manglings of Na bo kov's work ended in 1995, when Russia signed the Berne Convention on Copyright. But nonetheless, artists continue to get burned by copyright violations. According to Natalya Novikova, director of the North-Western Department of Russian Author's Society, the most blatant violations of copyright law occur in the entertainment business. "This sphere has become criminalized to such an extent it is barely possible to for artists to collect royalties," she said. "It is not uncommon that a company emerges just to organize a couple of tours for a singer, only to disappear with all the money raised - never to be found and punished." This is to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of unauthorized tapes, CDs, computer programs and videos that are openly available in most record and video stores. Nonetheless, conference participants were hopeful that the notions of intellectual property and copyright are gaining a foothold in a chaotic market. "The most significant result of the conference is that we have managed to bring together a team of professionals and enthusiasts interested in promoting copyright awareness in St. Petersburg and Russia in general," said Olga Voronina, the program's director, who is also deputy head of Nabokov Museum. "Everyone found something useful there: the lawyers could exchange ideas, while for some arts' managers it was a time to gain their first piece of knowledge." But it isn't as if Russia doesn't have a comprehensive set of copyright laws on the books already. According to copyright law expert Alexander Sergeyev, who chairs the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg State University, Russian copyright law "is very similar "to what they have in many Western countries. "The trouble is that the law only exists on paper and in life is frequently ignored and treated with disregard," he said. The principle reasons behind this disregard, he said, are criminal organizations, economic instability and public ignorance. Nonetheless, many vagaries have to be ironed out, said Peter Skolnik, a copyright law professor at Cardozo Law School. "Many westerners are still convinced that copyright does not exist in Russia," he said. "U.S. copyright law is much more detailed, devoid of ambiguities, while there are parts in [Russian] law that require interpretation." To deal with some of these difficulties, the programs developers intend to tackle it from several different directions. Through the bilingual Web site www.copyright-monitoring.ru, people can swap experience in posting sections like "Museums and Galleries," "Theater and Music," "Electronic Publishing" or "Intellectual Property and the Law", and even get a free legal advice. Organizers would like eventually to expand this into a professional consulting networks as well as hosting other round-table discussions. "We must draw the widest circles to the problem," Voronina said. "Respect for intellectual property can only come when public is aware of its value and perceived it as something natural rather than alien and unimportant." But copyright is hard to keep tabs on in an age where pressing a few computer keys can spread information across the world. "The law is and will always be late," Ser geyev said. "But our lawmakers should accept the idea that copyright should cover every method of transmission. That is yet to be achieved." TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Israel Backs Mirilashvili ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The arrest of the well-known St. Petersburg businessman and vice president of the Russian Jewish Congress Mikhail Mirilashvili has caused outrage in some political circles in Israel, Interfax reported. Representatives of the political party "Our Home is Israel," said Mirilashvili is well known in Israel both through his work in the RJC and in his role as the president of the Russian and Eurasian association of the Maccaby sports clubs in Israel. Representatives of "Our Home is Israel" called on St. Petersburg authorities in a statement to "know and remember how many people received help from [Mirilashvili] in St. Petersburg and Israel," Interfax reported. Kursk Torpedo Eyed MOSCOW (SPT) - The head of a government commission investigating the sinking of the Kursk submarine acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that a torpedo was likely to blame for the disaster that killed all 118 crew on board. "For us, it was clear from the very beginning that a torpedo took part in the catastrophe," said Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov in remarks reported by Interfax. In the past, Klebanov has said that his commission was examining three scenarios: an onboard explosion or a collision with a World War II mine or another vessel. Klebanov said Tuesday that his commission's experts are now trying to determine whether "an outside influence on a torpedo led to the catastrophe or whether some kind of process developed inside a torpedo." Powell Talks in Cairo MOSCOW (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Tuesday he would hold his long-awaited first meeting with new U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Cairo on Feb. 24. The announcement put a firm date on a meeting that the State Department had said would most likely take place during Powell's Feb. 23-27 trip to the Middle East and Belgium. Ivanov said Russia would continue a "constructive approach" on talks with the United States on START arms control agreements and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Foul Mouths MOSCOW (SPT) - More then a half of Russians swear in the offensive manner known as mat, Interfax reported on Wednesday, quoting a media survey carried out by Web site monitoring.ru. The offenders were wide ranging - from military personnel to workers, businessmen and managers, the report said. The report said 52 percent of Russians curse offensively at least sometimes, 13 percent swear often and 35 percent claim not to swear at all. The survey showed rural residents swear more often than city dwellers. Higher income respondents and young people say they are less likely to swear often, while respondents over 60 said they usually didn't swear at all. Putin Signs Bills MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed more than a dozen bills into law, including a bill limiting the immunity from prosecution of former presidents and one granting some regional governors the right to run for a third or fourth term. Putin also ratified an agreement with the United States to protect the secret technology of U.S. commercial satellites launched on Russian rockets. Among the 16 other bills Putin signed into law were a new tax on gambling and a plan to simplify compensation payments to workers who suffered cleaning up the 1986 Cher nobyl catastrophe. TITLE: Air Force Denies Japanese Incursion PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's air force chief denied reports from Tokyo Wednesday that Russian military aircraft had violated Japanese airspace, Interfax reported. A spokesman for Japan's Defense Agency said earlier that four Russian bombers briefly intruded into Japanese airspace but left after Japanese military jets scrambled in response. Two further bombers later entered Japanese airspace again. Interfax quoted General Anatoly Kornukov as saying in response to the initial reports of the intrusion of the four planes: "Russian military aircraft did not violate the airspace of any neighboring state." "All reports to that effect do not reflect reality," the agency quoted Kornukov as saying. The denial was made unusually swiftly by Russian military standards, and came from an uncommonly senior source. The report - and denial - came just a day after the leaders of Japan and Russian agreed to meet Mar. 25 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk to work toward signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities. The Japanese defense spokes man said that the four Russian bombers entered Japanese airspace near Rebun island off Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, about 1,200 kilometers north of Tokyo, and remained inside Japanese airspace for about three minutes from 11:59 a.m. Wednesday. A couple of hours later two more bombers violated Japanese airspace for a similar spell. The number of such cases has dropped drastically since the end of the Cold War. The Defense Agency said it was the first such incident since March 1995. Ties between Japan and Russia have been strained for years over a territorial dispute involving four tiny Russian-held islands just north of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. Japan wants the return of the islands, which were seized by Soviet troops in the waning days of World War II, before it signs any peace treaty or hands out substantial financial aid. TITLE: 1 Killed, 10 Injured as Train HitsTruck Near Petersburg AUTHOR: By Irina Titova PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: One man died and another 10 were injured when an electric commuter train collided with a freight truck at a railroad crossing between the towns of Beloostrov and Levashovo, 29 kilometers west of St. Petersburg. According to Oktyabrskaya Railroad spokesperson Olga Chulashova, the accident occurred at 1:02 p.m. Tuesday when a passenger elektrichka ran full-speed into the rear end of a Kamaz refrigerator truck trailer, derailing two of the trains cars. Train passenger, 39-year-old Yury Kulakov - who was the only passenger to die - survived for three hours pinned in a swampy area by the weight of a 60 ton train carriage, Yury Demyanov, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said. "He was conscious and we could even pass him cigarettes and medicine, but we couldn't save him," Demyanov said. Kulakov died on the scene from a combination of injuries and exposure. Three people who survived the crash with serious injuries were taken a local hospital, where two of them had to undergo surgery. The remaining seven suffered only minor injuries. The accident's causes remain unclear. Truck driver Vyacheslav Baranov - who was not injured - said the safety barrier was raised when he approached the tracks, Interfax reported, and he blamed the signal operator for not responding in time. Chulashova, however, said Baranov's truck was 26 meters long and required special warnings for all railroad signal operators along his route. Chulashova said Baranov had issued no such warning. She said an investigation into the matter was underway, adding that the addition of more automatic rail crossings - like six the Oktyabrskaya railway has put up recently - will cut down on elements of human error. "This is a very serious accident for the Oktyabrskaya Railway," said Chulashova. "We haven't had such a damaging accident in a very long time." Service on the Oktyabrskaya railway resumed Wednesday morning. TITLE: Moscow Gallery Paying Homage to 'Our Putin' PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - He climbs manfully out of a limousine at an airbase. Stares intently at the distance before the Kremlin gates. Stands defiantly in his navy pea-coat amid the raging northern seas. Who else could it be but Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in - it had to happen eventually - a gallery display of heroic portraits that picks up unmistakably where the "socialist realism" of the Soviet Union left off. "With his brush Fyodor Dubrovin 'sings' the form of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in all his state greatness and the glow of this personality," declares the catalogue. "Our Putin," an exhibition at the somewhat shabby Creative Collective Gallery in the basement of a downtown Moscow office building, shows nine portraits of the Russian president by Dubrovin and another artist, Valery Podkuiko. Podkuiko's "intimate forms show a completely different side of the personality of our president - the lyrical hero - thoughtful, refined, convincing," the catalogue says. So is it for real? Gallery director Oleg Kalmykov says it is, describing the collection as "a psychological experiment in the question of personality and power". But it is hard not to get the impression that the artists intended a bit of satire. In one painting, Putin leans against a wall in a Kremlin corridor, one hand in his pocket, the lapel of his double-breasted jacket turned up like a Hollywood star. Galina Fyodorovna, a building inspector who works just upstairs from the gallery and dropped by because she saw it on television, said she was impressed by the pictures, especially the big ones. "I like how natural they are," she said. "Sometimes he is serious, sometimes he's thoughtful." But as for the actual concept itself: "It shouldn't be done. It reminds you of old times. That one in front of the Krem lin: Lenin was famous in that pose." "It's supposed to build up [Putin's] authority. But I think, on the contrary, it lessens it." TITLE: Ruling Puts NTV Ball in London's Court AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr. PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - Media-MOST won a small but potentially important victory Wednesday in its battle to retain control of NTV. After several hours of discussions, the Moscow arbitration court postponed hearing a case brought by Gazprom-Media until Oct. 3, effectively shifting the dispute over a decisive 19 percent of NTV shares to Western courts. The Moscow court agreed with Media-MOST's claim that its Gibraltar-based offshore company - which holds the stock - had not been properly informed about the case. Media-MOST lawyers cited a provision in the law requiring that foreign plaintiffs be informed about a Russian case six months in advance and through the justice and foreign ministries. Gazprom-Media had sent notification by e-mail, which it claimed was legal. A lawyer familiar with the dispute said the court's decision to move the case back more than seven months was a "huge failure" for Gazprom-Media, which now has to win the case in London on March 28 "by any means." "If it doesn't, it will have a very hard time proving that the case is not political," said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Gazprom-Media has asked the Moscow court to give it control over the 19 percent stake. The dispute derives from a Nov. 17 agreement settling Media-MOST's $473 million debt to Gazprom for loans it guaranteed. Media-MOST countered by filing suits in London and Gibraltar, and has insisted that the dispute be settled in the West. Gazprom-Media's shares in NTV are held by a Cyprus-based company. In the meantime, the 19 percent remains arrested. But on March 1, the Moscow arbitration court will hear Media-MOST's appeal of court marshals' decision to ban Media-MOST from voting with the disputed shares - a decision that gave Gazprom-Media general director Alfred Kokh reason to claim that he already controls NTV. Also Wednesday, the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Enterpreneurs, which includes representatives of big business usually referred to as oligarchs, issued a statement that straddled the fence. They distanced themselves from two fellow oligarchs now on the Kremlin's blacklist - Media-MOST's Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, who had appealed to the group to set up a fund to support NTV. "We consider the attempt of big business to monopolize the rule of the country and dictate their will to the political leadership, in part with the use of mass media, to be one of the main mistakes of the past decade," the businessmen said. The statement, however, was strongly critical of the Prosecutor General's Office, which has been aggressively investigating Media-MOST. "We consider it inadmissible when state bodies descend to banal revenge," the statement said. "Unfortunately, it often looks exactly this way today." The statement backed Gazprom's attempts to regain its loans but said NTV broadcasts must continue without intervention in its editorial freedom. TITLE: Russia Promises Decision on Diplomat AUTHOR: By Ron Popeski PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW -The office of Russia's general prosecutor said on Wednesday it would decide by Thursday whether to charge a Russian diplomat who struck and killed a woman in Canada in a drunk-driving incident. The case of Andrei Knyazev, sent home from his assignment in Ottawa when Russia refused to waive his diplomatic immunity, has created a political furor in Canada, with opposition parties accusing the Canadian Foreign Ministry of incompetence. Vasily Glushchenko, a senior official at the prosecutor's office, said a decision had to be made by Thursday, when a 10-day deadline on examining the evidence expires. But a Canadian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman questioned Glushchenko's statement, saying Ottawa believed the deadline was in fact 10 working days and would therefore not expire until the end of next week. Ottawa police charged Knyazev with impaired driving after the fatal crash last month, but he was recalled immediately to Moscow and Russia promised he would face justice there. In the days after the accident Russian officials promised Foreign Minister John Manley that Knyazev would face prosecution at home. Glushchenko said that since the case involved a traffic accident, it could be turned over to an Interior Ministry investigating team if charges were pressed. TITLE: Missile Row Heats Up After U.S. Allegations AUTHOR: By Patrick Lannin PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's forthright rejection on Thursday of U.S. allegations that Moscow was responsible for spreading missile technology has added further heat to a furor over U.S. plans for a "Son of Star Wars" missile defense shield. The row has been the main strain in ties between the world's top two nuclear powers and looms over the first face-to-face talks between new U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, due on Feb. 24. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fired his latest salvo on Wednesday, saying Russia was "part of the problem" in missile technology proliferation, which has made the United States want to build a National Missile Defense (NMD). Russia's armed forces First Deputy Chief of Staff Valery Manilov was quick to respond. "Russia has not violated, does not violate and will not violate its obligations, including in the area of non-proliferation," Manilov told Reuters Television. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexan der Yakovenko, in comments officially issued by his office, sounded more cautious. "As far as worries expressed by Mr. Rumsfeld are concerned, there is an appropriate Russian-U.S. mechanism of consultations which has existed for several years to deal with them," he said. "In our opinion it is hardly worth reducing such serious issues to exchanging 'propaganda shots' using the mass media." Washington says NMD would be a defensive system aimed at missiles from "rogue states" such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Russia and China say it would be directed against them. To build NMD, the United States would also need to modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which bans such national defense systems. Several of Washington's European allies have expressed doubts about the viability of NMD and concerns about its impact on existing arms control agreements. Rumsfeld's comments were perhaps his strongest yet on Russia. CIA chief George Tenet accused Moscow of the same thing last week and further vexed Russia by listing it as one of the global threats faced by the United States. Sergei Ivanov, secretary of the influential Kremlin policy making body, the Security Council, sought to smooth the troubled waters and said talks on the issue would be calm. "All aspects have to be considered, the nature of the threat, military-technical issues and the consequences [of building NMD]," Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. But the Defense Ministry's international relations head, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, said Washington was isolated. "Even America's allies do not believe in the fairy tales about the threats from other states which Rumsfeld talks about," Interfax news agency quoted Ivashov as saying. TITLE: Teenager Kills Policeman, Self in Subway Shooting AUTHOR: By Thomas Rymer PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: Metro police officer Nikolai Koles ni kov, who was shot Wednesday morning by a teenage boy at the Ulitsa Dybenko metro station, remained in critical but stable condition Thursday, Interfax reported. The attack left both the suspect, identified as 17-year-old Pavel Mironov, and another police officer, Igor Gerus, 29, dead. According to City Prosecutor's office spokesperson Gennady Ryabov, Mi ro nov had been detained during a routine document check at the metro station around 11:40 a.m. when he allegedly pulled a hand-made pistol from his pocket and shot officer Gerus at point-blank range inside the station's police office. Gerus died on the scene, Ryabov said. Mironov then took the slain officer's gun and shot and wounded Kolesnikov, 38, who was rushing to his partner's aid. Mironov then turned the police weapon on himself and shot himself in the head, Ryabov said. He died later that afternoon in the Alexandrovskaya City Hospital. ORT television reported the boy - who was an 11th grader at the South Western Nevsky Region's School 23 - was a good student with no previous legal problems. Police regularly detain young men in St. Petersburg and other cities, sometimes checking if they have registered for the country's draft. The metro station is also known to serve a region that is notorious as a center for drug dealing. "We face problems with narcotics throughout the city, but this is one of the more difficult areas," Ryabov said. "This is a question that will be looked at during our investigation." Ryabov added that initial reports that Mironov had shot Kolesnikov in the process of trying to take him hostage were incorrect. Doctors, meanwhile, said that Kolesnikov still had not regained consciousness after an hours-long operation to remove the bullet from his chest. TITLE: Former Allies Fall Out Over Sberbank Share-Issue Plans AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - Stock market heavyweights Boris Fyodorov and Bill Brow der have locked horns over a proposed share issue by state savings bank Sberbank. "With great surprise I have read a copy of Hermitage's presentation," head of United Financial Group Fyodorov said in a statement this week to investors and Sberbank shareholders. "I am forwarding to you some answers to this slanderous sample of spin in the style of [UES head Anatoly] Chubais." This put Fyodorov in a head-to-head clash with Browder, managing director of Hermitage Capital Management. The irony is that Fyodorov and Browder champion the rights of minority shareholders in national power grid Unified Energy Systems. Both men oppose Chubais' restructuring plan, but their antagonism with each other is likely to ease Chubais' task. "It's disappointing," said Slava Rabinovich, head of asset management with Renaissance Capital. "I'd rather that Fyodorov and Browder united their efforts" on a number of issues. However, the whole issue is far more than a personal squabble, since it relates to the fate of the nation's largest bank and affects every stock market investor. Sberbank's board, which includes Fyodorov, voted at the end of December to issue 5 million shares in order to raise $135 million and improve its capital adequacy ratio. "Because it doesn't make sense from the point of view of economics, we suspect that there is an oligarch waiting to buy the entire share issue," Browder said Wednesday. Even if the Central Bank were to buy 1.4 million shares to retain control over Sberbank, that would leave 3.6 million shares open for subscription to outsiders, with a 74 percent discount to their book value, according to Hermitage. The market has been rife with rumors that the bulk of the new issue could end up in Alfa Bank's hands. Alfa Bank officials declined to comment Wednesday. "It's not about Alfa Bank but about any private entity having such influence over the bank and over macroeconomic policies," said Kim Iskyan, banking analyst with the Renaissance Capital brokerage. The feud focuses on how many votes were needed to approve the issue. While Hermitage lawyers argue that a unanimous vote was required, Fyodorov said a simple majority sufficed, rendering his personal choice meaningless. TITLE: UES Battle Goes On After 3-Day Meeting AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - Bitter differences remained Wednesday after a three-day discussion on how national power grid Unified Energy Systems should be restructured, with UES head Anatoly Chubais and President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov openly contradicting each other on what had been achieved. "We have defined those points that are not being questioned, something that everyone agrees with, and this is a big step forward," Chubais said at a news conference after the closed-door meeting of the State Council working group on UES concluded. "[We have reached] a consensus on a few big issues, such as the obvious necessity for large-scale investment in the energy sector," Chubais added. Illarionov interrupted to say that this issue was highly contentious. "Unfortunately, I have to say there is no unanimity," Illarionov said. "This was a big discussion and many who spoke expressed major doubts about the need for large-scale investment. "It's like brushing your teeth in the morning," he said. "There is no question that you should do it; the question is how many times - every 15 minutes? ... Here is where the divergence comes in." "No decisions have been made [at the meeting]," said Alexander Branis, associate director of Prosperity Capital Management, which is a minority shareholder in UES. "Some points of view were voiced again, and again the result is that the sides do not agree." Illarionov said nine concepts will be studied: those presented by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, UES, the Energy Ministry, Nuclear Power Ministry, National Investment Council, Academy of Science, Russian Aluminum, National Reserve Bank head Alexander Lebedev and Prosperity Capital Management. "We will study them and compare where they converge and diverge and then make recommendations to the president and government," Illarionov said. The group is to meet again in 20 days to refine the restructuring proposals in order to meet an April 15 deadline. Hartmut Jacob, energy analyst at Renaissance Capital brokerage, said that with the number of opinions presented it is hard to identify what final form the restructuring will take. "I'd say there is still a long way to go with, maybe, a smaller [working] group created after the conclusions are presented to the president. It will take all year to discuss the reform, meaning implementation won't start before spring 2002." Meanwhile, Illarionov gave explaned reports saying that investment bank J.P. Morgan had pledged $40 billion to the nation's energy sector. Illarionov had been reported as saying that local J.P. Morgan vice president Pavel Maly had broken the news on the first day of the meeting. J.P. Morgan, which is advising UES on restructuring, later denied the report. Illarionov said Wednesday that Natalya Tsukanova, another vice president of the bank, had named four companies wishing to invest in UES restructuring, provided they are able to set tariffs. Tsukanova later said that the talk of $40 billion was investors' general interest in the energy sector. TITLE: Germany-Russia Debt Trade Closer PUBLISHER: Combined Reports TEXT: MOSCOW - Germany and Russia announced progress Tuesday on a scheme to swap debts owed by Moscow for stakes in Russian companies. The economics ministers from the two countries said they hoped to finalize three pilot deals in the energy and furniture industries in time for a summit between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Vla dimir Putin in April. "We're gaining momentum," German Economics Minister Wer ner Müller told a news conference after a two-day meeting of a bilateral economic cooperation council in Berlin. The panel, which brought together 200 business delegates, was meeting for the first time in four years after Schröder and Putin decided last summer to revive it. Schröder subsequently proposed the debt-for-equity swap idea to try to kill two birds with one stone; It would ease Russia's debt burden and offer a chance for German businesses to step up their involvement in Russia's resource-rich economy. Negotiations at working-group level had been hampered after Russia fell into arrears on servicing its debts to the Paris Club of creditor nations. But Müller said he was happy with new assurances that Russia would amend its federal budget to ensure repayments can be made on 57 billion Deutsche marks ($27 billion) in debts assumed by Moscow after the Soviet Union collapsed. Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said his government would propose the required budget amendments to the State Duma. But he warned there would be a tough debate. "It will be difficult. This is a far-reaching political decision that will cause extra costs," he said. "I hope we can convince the Duma that, even though this will be difficult, it is necessary." Schröder's debt-for-equity swap proposal met with initial skepticism on the Russian side, which feared Germany wanted to cherry-pick its prize industrial assets, but enthusiasm for the idea appears to be growing. Of 17 business proposals on the table, with an estimated volume of 2.5 billion marks, three should be finalized in time for the April 9-10 St. Petersburg summit, the ministers said. Gref said those projects involved Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, while MAN AG unit Ferrostaal and Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF AG, planned cooperation deals with gas monopoly Gazprom. Germany has ruled out swapping any Paris Club debts for stakes in Russian businesses, insisting that 6.4 billion transferable rubles in trade debts owed by Moscow to communist East Germany instead be mobilized for the scheme. Germany assumed those debts after reunification in 1990. A 1992 moratorium on the trade debts expired in December, but no deal has been reached on finding an exchange rate at which they could be converted into equity stakes. (Reuters, SPT) TITLE: Chuvashia Tractors Find Niche AUTHOR: By Sarah Karush PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: CHEBOKSARY, Chuvashia - How does a region make money off oil, gas, gold and coal when it has no deposits of its own? Chuvashia does it by producing the equipment used to develop such deposits elsewhere. Promtraktor helps the Volga River republic of Chuvashia ride the coattails of more resource-rich regions by producing the bulldozers, pipe layers and other heavy machinery required to make use of such underground riches. After a rough spell in the 1990s, Promtraktor - one of only a handful of companies worldwide, including Caterpillar, that make such equipment - is back on its feet, the company's management says. "The entire economy begins with geology and our machines," said Andrei Barabanov, the company's marketing and sales director. "We are a keystone in Russia's economy." The company's upswing can in part be attributed to a renewed push to sell machines abroad in recent years, Barabanov said last week. Among the company's major new clients are India, Iraq and Iran. In the near future, Promtraktor hopes to dedicate 10 percent of its production to export, he said. The sprawling factory, built in the early 1970s when the Soviet Union began actively exploiting deposits in Kazakstan and Siberia, was buzzing with activity on a recent visit. Inside one shop, a mixed salad of school-bus yellow and metallic gray, an occasional human being could be seen moving among the mechanical dinosaurs. Viktor Novikov, the factory's chief designer, said production peaked in 1990 with 2,150 machines. After that, the company slid into a rough period when much of the factory stood dormant and thousands of workers were laid off. Novikov said that many of its most qualified specialists, fled to other companies. Novikov proudly showed off the giant machines, which can work both in the desert sun and in temperatures as cold as minus 50 degrees Celsius. Unlike Caterpillwar, which also produces agricultural equipment, Promtraktor produces only high-tech industrial machines. Novikov said the factory is not equipped to make cheap, assembly-line products. Promtraktor, which employees 14,500 people, currently produces an average of one machine a day. The company has contracts to produce about 360 machines this year, Novikov said. "About 500 or 600 a year - that, I think, is what's needed in order to completely meet Russia's needs," he said. TITLE: Severstal Engine-Plant Buy Ups the Stakes With GAZ AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - Steel maker Severstal has bought into engine manufacturer Zavolzhsk Engine Plant in a move that will enable it to put pressure on one of the plant's main domestic consumers, automaker GAZ. The automaker recently became a subsidiary of Siberian Aluminum. "The fact that Zavolzhsk Works was an object of furious fighting confirms that it is a sound enterprise," Severstal director general Alexander Mordashov said Thursday. "We never hid our plans to diversify our business." Last week, Severstal's press-service circulated a statement denying that the acquisition had taken place and that it had plans to increase its stake in the plant from the 10 percent it already held. The statement said that acquisition rumors had been circulated by its foes and were intended to ruin the company's relationship with its consumers. But in less than a week, Severstal's interest in the plant - held through affiliated Severstal-Invest - went up to a controlling stake. "Severstal was lucky to buy the plant," said Kakha Kiknavelidze, metals analyst with Troika Dialog brokerage. "They both secured supplies to UAZ and obtained leverage against GAZ." The Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, or UAZ, went to Severstal-Invest last year when the steel maker went on a buying spree snapping assets in companies that used its products. Severstal also obtained a trump card in talks with GAZ, one of the main buyers of its products in the local market. Severstal directors feared that GAZ could slip out of its grip under pressure from Siberian Aluminum, which undertook a major restructuring at GAZ after it bought a controlling stake in the company last year. GAZ even stopped production for three days in December, trying to restrain its suppliers, one of them being Severstal and another the Zavolzhsk plant. Eighty percent of engines manufactured by the plant go to GAZ, so the automaker will now find it difficult to get around Severstal even if it wishes to do so. GAZ had to eat humble pie on hearing about Severstal's purchase. "I can't rule out that the price of engines will be raised sharply," said GAZ chairman Nikolai Pugin. "This happened once when Cherepovetsk steel plant went to Severstal." Severstal bought into Cherepovetsk in 1998, raising sales prices on rolled steel delivered to GAZ. "By doing this, Severstal pushed us into the red," Pugin said. It is probably no coincidence that state savings Sberbank on Thursday opened a credit line worth $170 million to GAZ for production of Steyr car engines. Severstal has plans of its own for the Zavolzhsk plant. Severstal's Mordashov said UAZ will increase production to 250,000 vehicles from 84,875 rolled out last year. Acquisition of the Zavolzhsk plant is part of Severstal's expansion strategy triggered by windfall profits that came on the heels of the post-devaluation industrial boom. Severstal, which posted profits of $300 million on sales of $1.5 billion in 1999, grabbed Kolomna Locomotive Plant and UAZ last year. This year, its sales are expected to be $2.24 billion. TITLE: IN BRIEF TEXT: Investors Welcomed (SPT) - More than 1000 Russian and international firms and governmental and professional organizations are in St. Petersburg to participate in the Investments 2001, running through Saturday at the Tavricheskiy Palace. The conference kicked off on Thursday with opening remarks from a number of well-known political, business, and cultural figures. The program for the second and third days revolves around a number of round tables dealing with issues including federal and regional legislation, the world investment market, banking and investment sectors and priorities. IMF Talks Hit a Bump MOSCOW (AP) - Talks between the government and the International Monetary Fund on a new standby loan program have snagged over disagreements on the time frame, a senior government official said Thursday. An IMF delegation has been negotiating the program in Moscow for the past two weeks, and is scheduled to leave the capital on Friday. The IMF program under negotiation would grant funds to Russia in case of a sharp decline in world prices for oil. Moscow wants the standby loan program to last for three years, to enable it to begin talks on restructuring payments on Soviet-era debt to the so-called Paris Club of sovereign creditors. In 2003, those payments are to peak at $19 billion. But the IMF is offering just a one-year program, the government official said on condition of anonymity. Oil Export Tariff Cut MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will cut crude oil export tariffs to 22 euros per ton from 48 euros, Economy and Trade Minister German Gref was quoted by local news agencies as saying Thursday. A government resolution on the crude-tariff cut will be signed next week, Gref said. It will take effect one month after being approved by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and published in the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. The agencies said the decision was made at an unscheduled meeting on Thursday of the government's commission on protective measures in foreign trade, which was chaired by Gref. They did not report any changes in the tariffs for oil products. Norilsk Shares MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's main securities market watchdog said Wednesday it had registered placement of an additional share issue by Norilsk Mining Company, or NGK, the core unit of the metals giant Norilsk Nickel. The registration clears the way for a key stage of a Norilsk restructuring plan, under which currently traded Norilsk Nickel shares are to be swapped for an equal number of shares in NGK. The Federal Securities Commission registered the placement of an additional 122,301,272 ordinary shares, which Norilsk distributed on Jan. 25 among its shareholders. Airlines Boost Earnings MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian airlines boosted revenues and passenger and cargo turnover last year, but the gains were marginal, the State Civil Aviation Service said Thursday. A spokesman for the body said the country's 293 domestic carriers reported 21.76 million passengers last year, up from 21.47 million in 1999. Some 8.4 million were carried on international routes. Cargo turnover was up 7.3 percent at 530,000 tons, including 230,000 tons on domestic routes. TITLE: Indians Ink Deal To Buy 300 Russian Tanks AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan PUBLISHER: Staff Writer TEXT: MOSCOW - After more than two years of deliberations India has agreed to procure more than 300 main battle tanks from Russia in a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars and which may be the local armor industry's last major deal, experts said. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes on Thursday chose to personally announce the landmark deal that provides for 126 T-90s to be supplied by Nizhny-Tagil-based factory Uralvagonzavod and another 184 T-90s to be assembled at a plant in the Indian city of Avadi. This plant has been assembling Soviet-design T-72 tanks under a license agreement. Fernandes, who attended the contract signing ceremony in New Delhi along with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, would not disclose the value of the deal, but experts speculated that India managed to lower the initial price tag of $800 million. According to an independent expert, the price went down to a mere $650 million, which made the T-90 almost as cheap as its main rival, the Ukrainian-made T-80. Pakistan has bought 320 T-80s for $650 million. While the T-80 still has some chance to win a Turkish tender, the Indian T-90 deal will probably be the last one for the local tank industry as more nations pursue development of their own main battle tanks, said the expert, who asked not to be named. India took advantage of the disbanding of Russia's main arms exporter Rosvooruzheniye late last year to demand a discount from its successor, Rosoboronexport, the expert said. Pressed hard by the government and the Kremlin to avoid the decline in sales that previous overhauls of the nation's arms-export system have invariably brought, the newly-established arms mediator agreed to lower the price by up to $150 million, he said. Last year Rosoboronexport cut its initial asking price by tens of millions to sell India a Su-30 fighter production license for $3.3 billion, the expert said. Reached by phone Wednesday, Rosoboronexport spokesman Ivan Skrylnik refused to comment. However, a Rosoboronexport source said Wednesday that discounts "are inevitable" after the arms-export changes and said reports that India has bargained down the price for the Su-30 and T-90 deals "are close to being true." This year has already seen Rosoboronexport secure $110 million in new contracts with India, including a $100 million contract to deliver 10 more Ka-31 maritime warfare helicopters for the Indian Navy. In addition, the Kolomna Engineering Design Bureau of Kolomna, which exports its products independently, on Wednesday said it had signed a deal to ship $50 million of Igla shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to India. The Indian military has also displayed interest in leasing an atomic powered submarine from the Russian Navy and four Tu-22 long-range bombers from the Russian Air Force. Leasing the hardware will boost the Indian Navy's might and "bring India closer to its goal of turning the Indian Ocean into an Indian Lake," according to deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, Konstantin Makiyenko. TITLE: Will We Ever Root out the Mob? AUTHOR: By Russell Working TEXT: VLADIVOSTOK, Far East - Once Harry Wu - a Chinese dissident who spent 20 years in prison camps - said during a visit to Magadan that the growth of organized crime in Russia had its upside. Mafia can be good, he told me. Mafia decentralizes power, takes it out of the hands of the KGB. I have often thought of Wu while observing former Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko, whom the Federal Security Service has accused of running the Primorye region along the Sea of Japan like a criminal empire. Compared to Stalin's terror, of course, the mob in Primorye is a minor evil. But it is hard to share Wu's optimism that criminality can check state power, for the reason that the mob was interconnected with the Nazdratenko administration, if we are to believe critics and the FSB. It is possible that the Primorye Mafia - which has kidnapped reporters, buried a businessman and his wife alive, and tossed grenades into a rival's hospital room - is just politics by another means. Nazdratenko resigned last week under Kremlin pressure because hundreds of thousands of people had little or no heat and scarce electricity in the coldest winter since 1949. If Vladivostok is not to lose another decade to mob rule, the federal government must open up a criminal investigation while Nazdratenko's forces are still reeling. Likewise, the feds should arrest his cronies where there is evidence of wrongdoing. There are any number of possible targets: Nazdratenko allies still control everything from the courts to the Vladivostok Mayor's Office, and Primorye has had as many as 13 deputy governors simultaneously. A good place to start would be an inquiry into the energy crisis. Journalist Andrei Kalachinsky wrote Friday in the newspaper Okeansky Prospekt that, according to federal auditors, the Nazdratenko administration broke federal law by refusing to bid openly for heating oil. Rather, it signed contracts with three companies controlled by the governor's son, the deputy governor for fuel and energy, and the head of the pro-Nazdratenko faction in the regional Duma. Altogether, the administration paid for 7,000 tons of fuel that was never delivered. The same thing, as I have noted in the past, has happened here before. But any honest accounting will go deeper. It would look into the 1999 assassination of lawyer Taisiya Ponomaryova, blown up in her dacha a few hours before she was scheduled to leave for Moscow with what she said was evidence of criminal wrongdoing in a management coup, backed by Nazdratenko, to seize control of a shipping company. It would consider First Deputy Gov. Konstantin Tolstoshein's alleged use of gangsters to neutralize business rivals, as the FSB stated in a 1997 report to the Kremlin. It would examine FSB claims that former Deputy Governor Nikolai Sadomsky sought to avoid customs duties by smuggling luxury goods through Chechnya. Investigators would either prosecute or seek financial advice from another former deputy governor, Vladimir Kolesnichenko, who in 1997 allegedly stashed 300 million rubles (then about $50,000) in Primorye Bank at a 1,000 percent annual interest rate. And authorities should examine why, in the words of the FSB, Primorye "officials use both law enforcement agencies and the opportunities of working with organized crime leaders for their profit-seeking interests." The report was delivered to President Boris Yeltsin. He ignored it. So has President Vladimir Putin. In all these cases, Nazdratenko's office called the charges political smears. If so, it is high time to give him the opportunity to clear his name in court. Some are optimistic that this process is beginning. "We will get rid of this cancer that has been growing here for the past seven years," said Primorye Duma Deputy Yury Rybalkin. "The president will have to control the situation to the end and will start criminal proceedings against Nazdratenko." I am skeptical. There is no evidence that criminality, which like a pair of concrete shoes has sunk the Primorye economy, has ever troubled Moscow. What perhaps made Nazdratenko hard to stomach, in the end, was the political embarrassment of national media predicting that "the Primorye syndrome" - the endless blackouts and cold apartments - was a glimpse of Russia's future. Am I too pessimistic? I hope so. But consider whom Putin left in the governor's throne: First Deputy Governor Tolstoshein. Russel Working is an independent journalist based in Vladivostok. TITLE: Global eye TEXT: Ingrained Habits Give us this day our daily bread - even if it kills us. That seems to be the operant theology these days in the Archdiocese of Boston, where a five-year-old girl with a debilitating allergy to bread has been denied communion and forced to abandon the embrace of Holy Mother Church, The Associated Press reports. Jenny Richardson is afflicted with celiac disease, which causes her to become seriously ill from eating the protein gluten, found in wheat and other grains. She can eat rice, however. Her parents asked that a rice wafer be substituted for the regular wheat offering, so Jenny could take part in the rite of communion when she comes of age. Tough cookies, the family was told by Cardinal Bernard Law. The Church was bound by its long tradition of using wheat-only wafers, he said; they certainly weren't going to throw out 2,000 years of whole-grain goodness just for the sake of one little kid's soul. Indeed, the Vatican itself has already weighed in on the issue, in a 1994 ruling that "special hosts which do not contain gluten are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist." Who knew that salvation depended on the presence of a single protein? But wait a minute - isn't "gluteny" one of the seven deadly sins? Bully Pulpit And now, a few words from one of President George W. Bush's most fervent and faithful supporters. This renowned leader of an international "faith-based organization" has been a close associate of the Bush Family for many years, often employing both the President's father and mother as speakers at public ceremonies marking the organization's wide-ranging commercial and faith-based activities. The organization and its acolytes have also given considerable financial, logistical and media support to the current President's political campaigns. The religious leader is a shining example of President Bush's "compassionate conservatism" in action, and his organization will certainly be among the chief beneficiaries of the President's plan to enfold faith-based institutions into the operations of government. We believe Mr. Bush and his supporters deserve to have their philosophy placed fairly before the public, without the distorting lens of liberal media bias. Therefore, without further ado, we give you the verbatim comments of the President's good friend and spiritual comrade: the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. "You must realize that America has become the kingdom of Satan. Americans who continue to maintain their privacy and extreme individualism are foolish people. The world will reject Americans who continue to be so foolish. Once you have this great power of love, which is big enough to swallow entire America, there may be some individuals who complain inside your stomach. However, they will be digested. "We must have an autocratic theocracy to rule the world. So we cannot separate the political field from the religious. My dream is to organize a Christian political party including the Protestant denominations, Catholic and all religious sects. We can embrace the religious world in one arm and the political world in the other." Coda: "I want to salute Reverend Moon. He's the man with the vision." - former President George H.W. Bush. Pit Bull Speaking of compassionate conservatism, another sample of the President's guiding philosophy was on display last week when a federal judge in West Virginia granted the Bush administration's request to halt processing on new benefit claims for miners suffering from black lung disease, the Charleston Gazette reports. Those venerable benefactors of toiling humanity - coal mine operators - have been buckling under the yoke of unfair regulations promulgated by the dastardly Bill Clinton in his last days in office. The disgraced leader had actually approved rules that would limit the amount of medical evidence coal companies can submit in claims proceedings. "Currently," the Gazette reports, "miners are often confronted by coal operators who submit so many medical opinions that miners are overwhelmed and lose their claims." The new rules would limit both sides to only two pieces of medical evidence, unless a judge found good cause to allow more. And most shocking of all, the rules would also give greater weight to evidence from physicians who were actually treating the miners. But the president - cruelly lampooned in the media as a lazy, shiftless, frat-rat layabout - sprang like a tiger into the case, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the poor mine owners to stop payment of benefits to dying miners while the court mulls the matter for a few more months. Yes sir, that's our George. He may not know much about mining - but he knows everything about the shaft. Room Service It's a bright new morning in America! With a new administration wafting in a breath of fresh, moral air, Americans can now wake up happy and proud again. As long as they don't wake up in the wrong room, that is. Moving boldly from family values to family management, the Virginia State Senate passed a bill this week that would prohibit citizens from sleeping in any room other than a bedroom, The Associated Press reports. "What they do in their actual bedrooms, I don't care," said the bill's sponsor, Senator Leslie Byrne. (Unless of course they have oral sex, which is against the law - even for married couples - in Virginia). No, the main target of the bill is not your good, God-fearing, chad-punching, oral sex-avoiding real Americans, but those goldang dusky furriners. It seems that Byrne has some non-Aryan types living in her county, and a few of her suburban neighbors have complained that the poverty-stricken little heathens sometimes make room for their relatives to stay as rent costs skyrocket in the area. And with all them pi-atas and sombreros and what have you, they're just lowering the tone -and the property values - something fierce, she says. The senators didn't say how they intend to enforce the law, but we suggest the installation of web cams in every home. Not only could you make sure that people were sleeping in the right room - you could watch out for that oral sex stuff too! TITLE: Mailbox TEXT: Dear Editor, I was amazed and delighted to read Peter Ekman's opinion piece concerning the Media-MOST story ["Mismanaging NTV," Feb. 6]. I have been quite distressed at the utterly clueless coverage, not just by the perenually hostile like the Los Angeles Times, but also by those from whom I would have expected better, like The Washington Post. When I ask Bloomberg why they don't give a more balanced view, they always reply that Media-MOST gives them its story, and the govenment remains silent. Spin-management is still not a Russian speciality! Eric Kraus, Moscow Dear Editor, I just read Ekman's comment. Very good! I watch NTV here in Riga and prefer it to the other Russian channels. The debt issue, though, is one that is ignored by the Western media when they write about NTV and Gusinsky. Of course, it is also ignored by NTV in its reports. I think (as Ekman points out) that a good deal of demystification is necessary regarding the NTV-Gazprom-Kremlin battle, as well as regards Gusinsky himself. This article raises some issues and facts that I think many Westerners have not considered. Stephen Kreeger Riga, Latvia Dear Editor, Recently I read about the case of Va len tin Moiseyev, a government civilian officer charged with espionage ["Moiseyev Boycotts Own Trial," Jan. 19]. In learning about his case and the illegal method of evidence acceptance, manipulation of judges and other high irregularities used to prosecute a man who did not pass confidential materials to foreign nationals, I would urge you to contact the Russian Supreme Court and President Putin to ask for a televised trial of Moiseyev. That way people can see the Russian state fairly or unfairly examine the conduct of both the defendant and the prosecution in a treason case. The people need to know that their government is fair in its treatment of a Russian citizen, whether he or she be guilty or innocent. An open trial would enable that trust to grow. If President Putin would know about the machinations skewed to convict rather than to uncover the truth, I'm sure he would step in himself. Pete Schwarz Denver, Colorado Dear Editor, The article "Aeroflot Trying On Flier-Friendly Look" [Feb. 6] really made me smile! Aeroflot has done nothing - and is doing nothing - to change anything, at least not when it concerns regular customers instead of first-class passengers. A friend of mine, a young female Russian national, was recently flying home from Milan to Moscow. She had a nice large suitcase which was weighed at 26 kilos in Milan and a baggage sticker was placed on her ticket. She was not asked to pay any additional fees for having overweight luggage and peacefully left Italy thinking her duties with Aeroflot were done. But Aeroflot apparently had a different opinion. Upon arrival at Sheremetyevo-2 airport, and having retrieved her suitcase, she was approached by two ladies in Aeroflot uniform, who snappily told her her bag was way too large and can she please come to the inspection to check its weight or show the receipt that she had paid overweight fees! Taken by surprise, my friend allowed them to weigh her suitcase, which still weighed the same 26 kilos indicated on her baggage slip. A few calculations later, the Aeroflot representatives presented my friend with a bill for $153, payable immediately. After she declared that she didn't have that much money and even showed her empty wallet, the women agreed to be bargained down to just $30. The most interesting thing was that the ladies claimed that they were fulfilling instructions contained in some circular letter and that their salaries depended on the amount of fees they "raise". To make the long story short my friend left without paying anything. Are Aeroflot's managers aware of such practices? It this part of the global strategy to overhaul Aeroflot's image? Mike Tetersky Seattle, Washington Dear Editor, As an economist who has followed with great interest economic developments in Russia, I find myself troubled by David Kotz's piece ["A Failed Economic Model," Jan. 30]. I regard it as a particularly egregious example of the type of misinformation and polemics which feeds into the dysfunctional fantasy world in which too many Russians live in thinking about domestic and foreign policy issues. Kotz argues that after the 1998 financial debacle, no one could deny the abject failure of the Western-inspired "neoliberal" economic model for Russia. He goes on to argue that it was the very economic model urged on Russia, from 1991 to the present, which has brought Russia to its current economic impasse. And he attributes the fall of real incomes to subsistence levels to the freeing of prices in January 1992 which he asserts was responsible for setting off runaway inflation that expropriated the savings of Russian citizens. The basic problem with Kotz's argument is that it is, unfortunately, a polemical misrepresentation of what really happened in 1992 to the present. No one can deny that the population of Russia has been greatly impoverished since the demise of the Soviet Union. But it is extremely questionable to attribute this to "neoliberal" policies followed at the urging of Western specialists. While prices were liberalized in January 1992, they were by no stretch of the imagination freed. Price controls were kept on a number of important products such as petroleum. In addition, the prices of many products that were nominally freed, in fact continued to be controlled at the local level. Also, even on so called freed prices, limits were set at the retail level on the markup allowed. The resulting price distortions plus the hyperinflation that began in 1992 had a lot to do with the impoverishment of the masses of the people and the enrichment of a few at their expense. Second, an essential ingredient of the "neoliberal" advice offered at the time was the reduction of government deficits and limits on the printing of money and creation of credit. One purpose of such austerity was to protect the value of the ruble and hence the savings of the population. Unfortunately, no such austerity took place and you had the creation of an unstable economic environment that simply tore things apart and impoverished the population even more. Within six months of Gaidar's "reforms," you had budget breaking deficits passed by a communist parliament and excessive money and credit creation by an irresponsible Central Bank. On top of this, following erroneous IMF advice, you had the continuation of the ruble zone which allowed the former Soviet republics to also create money as a means of stripping resources off of each other and especially off the Russian Federation. None of this can be attributed to so-called "neoliberal" policies. An economy in which no major business decisions can be taken by private firms at the local level without the agreement of the political bosses can hardly be labeled "neoliberal." And an economy which continues to operate on all sorts of hidden subsidies, widespread barter and the like can also hardly be so labeled. I would argue that the country simply replaced an administered economy by what I would label as a quasi-administered economy. Legitimate businesses cannont function normally in an economy where taxes are continually being changed, with countless inconsistent and changing regulations and the need to continually pay bribes. Given the fact that most civil servants in Russia are, with some exceptions, generally incompetent, venial and corrupt, it seems to me that it does not make sense to advocate, as Kotz and some others do, greater reliance on government development of the economy. If I were a Russian citizen, my preference would be for a liberal economic order in which the government does attach importance to smoothing the rough edges of such a system for the less advantaged. To get to this two things are needed. First, a much more intelligent discussion in Russia of the economic issues they face there than one finds in articles of people like Kotz, who fail to evidence a real understanding of the situation in the country. And second, a discussion on the American side of what we can really do to make a difference in Russia, since without our help (and I fear that Putin does not understand this), it is unlikely the Russians have the resources to make it on their own, although they are ultimately responsible for the outcome as they are for the current mess there. John Howard Wilhelm, PhD Ann Arbor, Michigan Dear Editor, Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev has asked for the visa process to be made cheaper for attracting Scandinavian tourists. Last I heard, the granting of visas was outside the responsibility if the city authorities. What could the city do to make life easier and more friendly for the tourists? We could start by improving the international terminal at the airport. With more than three flights landing per hour, the place becomes total chaos with baggage falling off the belts and long queues for customs clearance. I know the improvement has been discussed, planned and postponed, but let's stop talking and do something. How about getting into town as a stranger without paying $40 to the taxis outside or relying on a tour bus? Yes, there are cheaper ways, and even a bus service of sorts, but nothing easy for a tourist to understand. Supporting the taxi service perhaps is an admirable goal, but how much of that money ever gets paid back to the city in taxes? What about hotels? We are getting a couple more soon, but it was scandalous that some visitors to the Ice Hockey tournament had to commute all the way from the Finnish border. We need a lot more hotels that are affordable for the average tourist but offer sufficient comfort and security. It is not the city's job to build hotels, but they could make it easier for those that do. There are events taking place in St. Petersburg every year. Trying to find out what events are planned even during the established festivals such as the White Nights fest more than a month or two in advance appears to be like stealing military secrets. Of course, the events are planned, and major international artists are booked years ahead. Why not publicise them more? As a frequent visitor to your city, I can say that it is beautiful and well worth visiting for all kinds of people, young and old. Why is it such a big secret to potential tourists? There is plenty in St. Petersburg even for those who don't want the cultural things such as visiting the Hermitage and the Mariinsky - but are these things promoted? Not outside the pages of a few papers with limited readership outside St. Petersburg. Yes, cheaper visas would be good (also less problems with the OVIR for home-stay registration), but perhaps the governor should concentrate on fixing those things that are in his remit. As for his reward, just think of those tourists spending their money in St. Petersburg instead of the other Baltic-region capitals. Hugh Kennedy, Germany Dear Editor, I realize that printing another letter on pricing for foreigners may be like beating a dead horse, but I feel compelled to present my thoughts on this controversial topic. Tom Masters ("No End in Sight for Dual-Pricing System," Jan. 30) and Stephen Ogden (Letters, Feb. 2) both offer interesting perspectives. Both articles address fairness as a key issue, as do reader responses to their exchange published in The St. Petersburg Times. But for me, the more critical issue is Russia's national plan regarding international tourism. The Russian practice of charging different amounts for the same product or service based on citizenship is an ineffective and damaging policy, because it discriminates based on a non-economic variable, damages international relations, and decreases a critical source of income for Russia. If the policy's true aim is to cripple the tourism industry, maintain a stereotype that Russians are xenophobes, and prevent foreigners from visiting this country, then it is certainly effective. Nationality pricing is used most often at museums and theaters, but represents an entire approach to foreigners that pervades the Russian system. Mr. Ogden contends that nationality pricing is a capitalistic practice employed regularly in the United States. His explanation is flawed; products in America are not sold at different prices based on citizenship. Instead, goods and services are sold for different prices based on economic variables such as quality, appearance, timing, and consumer context. These variables have a direct effect on the economic value of the good or service being purchased. While it is true that airplane tickets and automobiles are sold at different prices to different consumers in the United States, these price differences are almost always based on economic variables such as ability to pay (car dealers, for example, negotiate higher prices from wealthier clients). As other letter-writers have pointed out recently in The St. Petersburg Times, citizenship does not guarantee ability to pay; many visitors to St. Petersburg are unable to afford the high prices charged to foreigners, thus many cultural opportunities are denied them. The most compelling arguments against nationality pricing are economic. Effective industries make money by building goodwill with clients. A successful tourism industry, especially one that brings foreign investment into Russia, can generate a significant amount of revenue for the country. Nationality pricing is not only an annoyance or an injustice; it is an economic albatross that should be abandoned immediately to preserve Russia's future. Glenn Geiser-Getz, St. Petersburg Dear Editor, I make the assumption that every reasonable person believes that discrimination in any form is unacceptable. By having a dual pricing system in place for cultural institutions that is based upon nationality is, in effect, discrimination. Mr Ogden quite enthusiastically supports this type of system which discriminates against the foreign community. Mr Ogden is by all means entitled to his opinion, however the argument that he makes in support of his opinion is seriously flawed. First, he states that price discrimination is supported by sound econonmical theory, which in fact it is. However for price discrimination to be effective one must have market segregation. But true market segregation does not exist in the case of Russian cultural institutions because the market of foreign consumers is homogenous, we are all people in St. Petersburg who wish to see cultural sights, we are not separated by great distance or borders. By charging one price for Russians and one (much higher) price for foreigners, one has created an artificial market segregation based upon nationality, which is morally wrong and unjustifiable. Mr Ogden seems to believe that because this is a common practice in other parts of the world that this justifies its existence in this country. This line of reasoning is flawed as any 16 year old student of philosophy would tell you. Second, Mr Ogden poses the question: does the foreign community wish to begin setting the prices for items such as bread and beer? This line of thought is completely irrelevant to the issue at hand, because everyone pays the same price for these goods. I do not pay more for my loaf of bread because I am from Canada, why would I? So by the same token why should I pay more to enter the Hermitage because I am Canadian? For a country that is starving for foreign investment, Russia should be willing to treat foreigners with respect and not penalize us because we are not Russian. It would be a sign of good will if this dual pricing system were eliminated. Having said this, I am not ignorant to the fact that these cultural institutions are in financial need. I think that some other solution must be sought to alleviate these financial problems. Perhaps these institutions should begin fund raising and/or campaigning for corporate sponsorship, or maybe better management is needed with regards to the funds that they already have. The financial problems of these institutions will be difficult to solve, but I am sure of the fact that the solution should not be based on discrimination. Jim Daikin St. Petersburg TITLE: Security in Space AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kozin TEXT: WE have heard a lot lately from the new U.S. administration about the need to modify or cancel the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and the 1974 protocol to it. These landmark agreements have, for nearly 30 years, effectively prevented an arms race in the sphere of missile-defense systems and space-based weaponry. There can be no doubt that undermining them now would bring a halt to the Moscow-Washington arms control dialogue and could well lead to the increased militarization of space. At present, space is far less militarized than any other realm of human activity. However, the abrogation of the ABM treaty would immediately open the way to two new types of offensive strategic weapons: space-based anti-satellite weapons and space-based anti-missile systems capable of destroying ICBMs either in the atmosphere or in space (or, potentially, on the ground). The appearance of such systems would present a real and immediate threat primarily to manned spacecraft and existing military and non-military satellites, which are virtually defenseless under existing international law. Several countries already possess the technology to deploy a whole arsenal of hostile weapons that could present a threat to manned spacecraft and existing satellites. Eliminating the ABM treaty would merely remove one obstacle to the deployment of these systems. For this reason, I think that now is an appropriate time to propose to the new U.S. administration and to the world community at large the idea of concluding a multilateral agreement on the inviolability of manned spacecraft, non-military satellites and non-offensive military satellites ó including reconnaissance, meteorological, navigation, communications and other vehicles. Essentially such an agreement would cover any spacecraft not involved in anti-satellite or anti-missile warfare. Such a document could be the centerpiece of the Moscow conference on preventing the militarization of space, which was proposed at the New York United Nations millennium summit in September 2000. This proposal could also serve to revive bilateral talks between Moscow and Washington on anti-satellite weapons, talks that were energetically pursued in 1978-79 but have been suspended now for 20 years. Here are a few basic principles that could serve as the foundation for such a document and for the discussion at the Moscow conference. First, such an agreement should contain a list of about 15 concrete hostile actions that would be totally banned as hostile to the protected spacecraft. This list would be somewhat more comprehensive than the one that was discussed during U.S.-Soviet negotiations in 1978-79. During those talks, negotiators failed to reach a satisfactory definition of the term "hostile act." In addition to banning such acts as the physical destruction of a spacecraft or satellite, a meaningful agreement would have to ban tampering with their orbits, dangerous approaches, scanning, docking or other potentially disruptive acts. Second, this agreement must include a prohibition against attacks on space-control and launch centers for manned and unmanned spacecraft. I do not believe that such a prohibition would contradict the inalienable right of nations (as recognized in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations) to self-defense. Third, such an agreement must include accepted measures of verification. A mechanism must be created by which all participating countries can immediately inform all others of any accidental or unforeseen damage or destruction of any covered space vehicle. Such a mechanism would also be activated whenever there was an accidental near-approach between covered spacecraft or any other situation that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted by participating countries. In order to ensure compliance with the agreement, all participating countries would reserve the right to employ any existing national technical verification means at their disposal. Moreover, they would agree not to hinder the normal use of such verification means by other participating countries. A standing consultative commission, similar to that created by the 1972 ABM treaty, would have to be instituted to monitor verification and to serve as a peaceful forum for negotiated dispute resolution. To be as effective as possible, this agreement should be permanently open to signature by any nation wishing to join and it should be in force indefinitely. However, there should also be a withdrawal mechanism for nations that feel its obligations are inconsistent with their national security interests. In conclusion, I believe that Russian-American relations would benefit very much if the Bush administration quickly completed the ratification process for six agreements reached in New York in 1997 that have a direct bearing on the ABM treaty and on the START II agreement. Of particular importance are the special memorandum on the ABM treaty, two related joint statements and an agreement on the status of the Standing Consultative Commission. All of these supplemental documents will strengthen the enforcement of the ABM treaty and expand it by including Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. They will also help define the difference between tactical and strategic missile-defense systems. It should be noted that the State Duma last May already approved these modifications together with its ratification of START II. Against this background, an agreement to prevent the militarization of space by protecting manned spacecraft and satellites would be a further, practical step toward bolstering global security at the dawn of the new millennium. Vladimir Kozin is a senior counsellor at the Foreign Ministry. He contributed this comment, which reflects his personal opinions, to The St. Petersburg Times. TITLE: Visa Proposal Doesn't Go Far Enough TEXT: GOV. Vladimir Yakovlev's proposal to reduce the cost of visas for the citizens of Scandinavian countries is a good one - as far as it goes. But with the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg coming up in 2003, and preparations, if not quite going at full speed, at least cranking into gear, the governor should be asking himself: Why stop there? Yakovlev is perhaps correct in identifying high costs as a reason why people would think twice before jumping on the plane or ferry to St. Petersburg. But many a foreigner will point to the red tape involved - Russia is not known for making it easy for foreigners to get into the country. Trying to get a visa involves obtaining an invitation, a round of tedious form-filling, queuing outside a consulate or embassy, and often waiting for a completely arbitrary price to be set - dependent on the nationality of the applicant, the speed at which the visa is required, and (it seems) the mood of the person behind the perspex window. Sometimes medical insurance and AIDS tests are demanded, sometimes not. Few Western countries can claim to be holier-than-thou on this issue. Many Western embassies have long been accused of insulting and discriminatory behavior toward Russians applying to go to their countries - an approach often born of a highly protective attitude to welfare systems and the handing out of work permits. But the Russian Foreign Ministry's usual tit-for-tat response - you raise visa requirements, so shall we - is missing the point. On being asked for comment on Yakovlev's idea, a Foreign Ministry spokesman came up with a typically blinkered remark: "We could only do this without damaging our own interests ... if such a move was reciprocated." When such a golden tourism opportunity is presenting itself to St. Petersburg, not doing everything possible to entice tourists to the city is damaging your interests. If tourists from Scandinavia are contributing $400 a head per day to Tallinn's economy as Yakovlev says, it is hard to see what argument there could be against Russia competing for that money. Not only should visa prices be reduced, but visas should also be made available at the border - one stamp, no registration for short-term stays or day trips, and that's that. Turkey has been raking in Russian tourist money for several years, precisely because it operates such a system. By taking this kind of step - and many other traveler-friendly moves - the Foreign Ministry would be throwing open the doors to St. Petersburg. And then the city can help those who walk through spend their money. TITLE: City Help Is a Double-Edged Sword for Press TEXT: FIVE or six years ago, a number of St. Petersburg journalists came up with the idea of consolidating the resources of at least three major local newspapers to create just one or two competitive dailies that would be big, thick, colorful and high-quality - "more like Western productions," as one of them said at the time. These journalists thought that an increase in the number of brightly colored pages would automatically guarantee public and commercial success for such a project. The weekly Severnaya Stolitsa (or Northern Capital), set up in 1994, proved that instant success cannot be bought by filling a publication with color. Although the concept was one of great promise, the project was short-lived. Thanks to bad management, and despite the idea of creating a wholly independent publication, the paper collapsed a year after it started. Three other newspapers that carried high hopes earlier in the '90s are still going, but they are hardly popular among the local population. One of them is supposed to be a major daily publication for the younger generation, another claims to be a source of fresh evening news, and the third is supposed to run objective city news. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that not one of them serves the purpose to which it was originally consigned. These three papers continue to operate, although they are frequently forced to ask for support from influential people or banks in order to fund further issues, and rely on donations almost every month in order to survive. Sometimes, if not very often, the necessary funding comes to the editors directly from City Hall budget resources. But City Hall knows, as do the editors, that free cheese is found only in the jaws of a mouse trap. By supporting struggling publications in various ways, the local authorities may give themselves an image boost, but it should not be forgotten that this is at the expense of St. Petersburg taxpayers. Both City Hall and the papers concerned are currently content with this situation. A ship holed below the waterline should theoretically sink, but if City Hall keeps plugging the leaks and bailing them out, the papers can sail on for as long as possible. This month City Hall, the Legislative Assembly and the St. Petersburg Union of Journalists produced a draft law, intended to regulate budget assistance for those who have failed to stand on their own two feet. Igor Sidorov, head of the Union of Journalists, claims that if and when the law is passed, all media companies in St. Petersburg will be in an equal position in regard to obtaining financial assistance from the city budget. But what will be the hidden cost of such a law? To put it bluntly, a combination of Smolny officials, local lawmakers and journalists are about to reach an agreement to turn what is a highly questionable practice into a real live law. At the same time as many of the city's reporters (who won't see any of the city's "support") have to earn a living by taking on a second job, they will also be hindered in doing what they are supposed to do: report the news objectively. This is pretty difficult to do when your paper's purse strings are being dangled by the politicians. Nobody appears to have noticed the fact that the editors of local daily newspapers just do not take advantage of the possibilities of the city's advertising market, despite the obvious benefits of doing so. It is not that they are not aware of how the market works, but merely that they are more prone to acting on the charms of advertising and paying a visit to the nearest shopping center, than in bringing in money for the production they lead. (One such editor shocked his/her poor employees by coming in to work one day wearing a new fur coat - the day after an advertisement for a fur-coat shop had been placed in the paper.) Pretty pictures are all very well - but the original idea, the creation of a quality press, has gone sadly off course. TITLE: Lawmakers Curl Lips at 'Lesser' Local Politicians AUTHOR: By Barnaby Thompson TEXT: THE political leanings of the Legislative Assembly are fairly fluid. It used to be the case that the "house" was opposed to most things that came out of City Hall, from the laws to the sewage. Then, once Gov. Vladimir Yakov lev took care of Speaker Yury Kravt sov and quieted the more outspoken rump, the assembly became more divided, with those deputies who generally supported the governor seated on one side of the chamber, and those generally against on the other. Classic "yah-boo-sucks-to-you" exchanges became the order of the day. The rise of a Unity faction in the assembly made things yet more intricate, given the obvious complications of a relationship between a pro-Putin party and a governor who briefly headed the rival All Russia gang. Yakovlev has gotten around this by telling anyone who will listen how wonderful the president is, calling his election "a historic day for the fate of our city." (Quite a lot of people think it was more of a historic day for the fate of Yakovlev, since what Putin has done for St. Petersburg can be calculated on an abacus, but still.) But as the various realignments have taken place, life in the Mariinsky Palace lacks the fun of the old spats, when Kravtsov played Robespierre to Yakovlev's King Louis, the City Charter was as symbolic as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the assembly was more like the Estates General than the Dead Poets' Society. OK, maybe it wasn't that dramatic. But having their aspirations stamped on by someone more powerful hasn't given lawmakers any do-unto-others philosophy, as representatives of local self-administrations find out when they come to call. Local self-administrations, you may remember, were an initiative to devolve government that Yakovlev squished so hard they were left with no money, no power and no voters. Everyone, it seems, regards these guys as the lowest of the low. Hah, sneers the assembly deputy - I may only be in charge of one-fiftieth of one city, and I can only do something if Yakovlev likes it, but at least I'm more important than you! Almost every week, a self-admin suit rolls up and makes a plausible argument for more money and/or responsibility. And every week, he trudges off, scornful laughter ringing in his ears. It's a bit like going to the OVIR, or being stopped by the cops - you just know the bastards are going to find some fault with your documents. Local self-admins are pretty pathetic. But if the assembly had stuck up for them, they could have worked. They certainly deserve more than arrogance. And the next time lawmakers complain of a high-handed governor - not likely in this Age of Compliance - they should take a look in the mirror first. TITLE: a chinese-style zoology lesson AUTHOR: by Simon Patterson TEXT: For those interested in botany and zoology from a culinary point of view, there can be no better place to visit than the Zolotaya Panda (Golden Panda) Chinese restaurant, with a startling diversity of flora and fauna on the menu. While the endangered panda does not make an appearance, bamboo does, and we found it to be surprisingly delicious. With a much more traditional design than most of the other Chinese restaurants in the city, the Golden Panda has its customers sitting in pagoda-style booths. The place is extremely quiet, with the easiest of easy listening music piping quietly over the stereo, and only the various tunes which cell phones play these days (current favorites: the Soviet National Anthem and "The Ride of the Valkyries") to break the near silence. It is, however, a comfortable silence, and a Godsend after the diabolical restaurant music one usually encounters. We pondered the very interesting menu and finally opted for the eel soup (65 rubles) and the "Golden Panda" soup (60 rubles). The eel soup did contain what it promised, while the golden panda dish was nothing more than a corn 'n' crab concoction. But they were both excellent in their own way. We selected a bottle of French table wine (only 300 rubles), as they were out of beer, but the drinks menu seems to give a more reasonable price on wine than most restaurants in the city, so we weren't all that distressed. We were soon trying out the rather interesting choice of mains we had ordered, with a plate of frogs with young bamboo (205 rubles) and rabbit with lotus fruits (135 rubles) along with a more mundane choice, the "vyrezka po-ansky," (120 rubles) smoked pork with tomatoes and mushrooms which was recommended to us by our waitress. It seems the Chinese restaurant tradition of having someone on hand to constantly pile steamed white rice on your plate hasn't caught on here, and we had to separately order a plate of "Thai Rice" (65 rubles) and "Indian Rice" (60 rubles). They were both served with various vegetables, while the Thai rice had noodles with it, and the Indian rice had prawns. One strange aspect to the meal which served to ruin the Chinese atmosphere was the bread that was brought to us, in Russian restaurant-style. Presumably they are catering to their more conservative customers, though one wonders what brings these people to a Chinese restaurant in the first place. The frog was certainly delicious and the bamboo was delectable, though we had little in our previous culinary experience which we could compare it to. The rabbit, which along with the promised lotus fruits was also served with ginger, made for a rich, unusual and rewarding dish. More reasonably priced than one would expect (if we had gone for less exotic menu choices the bill would have been considerably less), and with one of the most diverse menus you could hope to find, Golden Panda is certainly the best Chinese restaurant we've been to for a long time. They even offer business lunches, with five menus to choose from and all priced in the 100-ruble bracket. We left feeling that it wouldn't be long before we would be paying them another visit. Zolotaya Panda, 34 Kazanskaya Ul. Open 7 days a week, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. (Business lunch from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.) Dinner for two with wine, 1,010 rubles ($35). Tel: 314-42-42. Credit cards accepted. TITLE: chernov' choice AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov TEXT: The stage adaptation of Viktor Pelevin's 1996 novel "Chapayev i Pustota," was premiered in Moscow in November, with much hype, outdoor events and a rock concert. Now it is coming to St. Petersburg, though its local premiere will be more modest. The all-night "Pelevin Grand Party" has been cancelled, though a mysterious "parade" will take place before the each of two performances. When we inquired what kind of parade it would be, the Palace's spokesperson said, "Simply a parade - Chapayev, horses, soldiers," The popular novel, known in the English-speaking world both as "The Clay Machine-Gun" and "Buddha's Little Finger," largely takes place in the demented, cocaine-crazed brains of its characters and doesn't look very promising for stage presentation. It can be seen this weekend. The outdoor parade starts at 6 p.m., with a performance following at 7 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Gorky Palace of Culture, 4 Pr. Stachek, 252-7513. Pyotr Mamonov, once the mainstay of the groundbreaking minimalist rock band Zvuki Mu, returns to the city with his one-man show "Is There Life on Mars?" Loosely based on Anton Chek hov's short story, the performance is usually a sell-out, thanks to Mamonov's powerful stage presence. The man, whose act was once described as a "Russian folk hallucination" (Artyom Troitsky) and "total face theater" (Brian Eno), now quietly lives in a village near Moscow with no telephone and doesn't like to speak about his rock and roll past. The performance lasts 1 hour 50 minutes. The posters claim it's the "Last Tour" - whether or the show or of Mamonov himself, we can only guess. 7 p.m. Sat. Lensoviet Palace of Culture, 42 Kamennoostrovsky Pr., 346-04-38. Spitfire will headline a show called "Ska Punk Explosion" this weekend. Spitfire will present a new vinyl single which also features U.S. band Eastern Standard Time and Germany's Schwarz aus Weiss all performing Christmas carols, with Spitfire delivering their version of "V Lesu Rodilas Yolochka." The band, which returned from its European tour last month, will also demonstrate its new keyboard player, Ilya Rogachevsky, who previously played with Chufella Marzufella and Prepinaki. Support comes from up-and-coming skate punk band Port 812, while DJs D. Ska-Messer, Wize Laba Laba and D-Jah will lead the party into the night with ska and reggae vinyls. Despite its popularity at local clubs, Spitfire will meet strong competion, as the Afro-rock band Markscheider Kunst will play at Faculty, while the hip-hop act Kirpichi will be performing at Poligon. 8 p.m. Sat. SpartaK. TITLE: tchaikovsky still proves a tough nut to crack AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova TEXT: Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" has proved a tough nut for yet another choreographer. Ballet legend Marius Petipa simply gave up and left it for Lev Ivanov in 1892, but his more courageous followers, including Vasily Vainonen, Fyodor Lopukhov and Maurice Béjart, all tried staging the ballet. This time, Kirill Simonov of the Mariinsky Theater turns his hand to the task. The long-awaited new version of the ballet premiered Monday at the Mariinsky theater, with émigré artist Mikhail Shemyakin responsible for the direction, libretto, sets and costumes, and once again told a story different from the one unveiled by the music. Act One is virtually a parade, a défilé of Shemyakin's phantasmagoric art, which as his admirers will know is Hoffmanesque in itself. The armies of rats, which also frequent Shemyakin's drawings, wear long-nosed, Venice carnival-type masks, and giant hulks of meat cover the walls. The Hoffmanesque grotesque and exaggeration were certainly present. But Shemyakin's sets for the second act are so innocent, in fluorescent pink and green, that they are more reminiscent of the fairy tales of Charles Perrault than Hoffman. The sight is very impressive, but ballet is no parade of costumes and decor, even when they are designed by the most talented artist. On the whole, Simonov, who is in his mid-twenties, breaks little new ground with his choreography. While almost all Act One was a pantomime, the waltzes in Act Two, especially, seemed trivial and fairly traditional. A striking exception was the spry Pas d'ensemble of Snow-flakes, dressed in black and covered with white flakes of "snow," and manipulated by Drosselmeyer hiding behind the curtains. Simonov, however, offers a poetic take on Masha (Natalya Sologub), making her sensitive, timid and emotional. Sologub takes a lyric and subtle approach to Masha, dancing with ease and flow. She suffers from loneliness just as much as the Nutcracker himself, and this interpretation of the character works very much to the show's advantage. The corps de ballet was lacking a confidence which could be overcome with a stronger, tighter concept from the ballet master. What makes the new production memorable is the design rather than the dancing. The sumptuous sets overwhelm the choreography. However, the dark side of the ballet was present, in the form of the Mariinsky symphony orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev. Shemyakin was not exaggerating when he said that Gergiev has turned The Nutcracker into a revolution. But since The Nutcracker is a ballet, turning the music into a revolution requires a choreographic upheaval, otherwise the inequalities between sight and sound risk destroying the whole performance. Despite the captivating performance of the orchestra, the show - Shemyakin's sets aside - failed to hold the audience's attention. Anton Adasinsky, founder of the "Derevo" experimental dance theater, and former member of the "Litsedei" clown-mime, theater brought in an avant garde and eccentric note in his virtuoso grotesque performance of Herr Drosselmeyer. Adasinsky's vigorous and confident dancing at times made quite a contrast to the corps de ballet, which was short on spark and synchronism. The dancer excelled in his role, turning Drosselmeyer into a central character. Though not without some undoubted successes, like the Pas d'ensembles of snowflakes in Act One or the Oriental Dance in Act Two, in general Simonov's choreographical efforts lack solidity and fail to fit into a substantial and consistent concept, which makes it doubtful that the production will have lasting resonance in the ballet world. Critical opinions aside, the show is yet to pass the test of time. The production will not be shown until March 10, giving the Mariinsky extra time to consider the faults of the production. And those unhappy with the new version can always go for the familiar old one - the two Nutcrackers will co-exist in the repertoire, just like the Mariinsky's two productions of "Sleeping Beauty." TITLE: capriccio a perfect mix of theater and music AUTHOR: by Kirill Galetski TEXT: While theater director Roman Smirnov started his career in the mid 1980s with his work at the Maly Drama Theater, he had a long hiatus from theater, working as a journalist covering major armed conflicts on the territory of the former Soviet Union. His time away from theater ended fairly recently, and his experiences seem to have given him a measure of gravitas and depth. In the 1999-2000 theatrical season, he released three well-received productions almost simultaneously - "Gol" and Gogolsmarriage" at Theater on Liteiny and "Ornithology" at the Alexandrinsky. Smirnov's "Capriccio," his new production at Theater on Liteiny, is a mischievous, puzzling work, with a rare recording by late experimental musician Sergei Kuryokhin as its soundtrack. Recorded in 1986, the tape was put on the shelf when the original production was mothballed, presumably over creative differences with Lev Dodin. "With different actors and the old production as a basis, I started to compose the new one." stated Smirnov, "The structure and the original idea I had was preserved - that of manifestations of the human condition in various forms. War, waiting for women, and all of the other major themes are still there, but they're resolved in a completely different way." The production's scenery was designed by renowned art director Emil Kapelyush, who worked with Smirnov on all three of the previous productions. It is a slanted stage with a downstage perimeter of various suitcases. The characters are clothed in light clothing and mircrophones accentuate their lines with eerie echoes. They mime, dance, sing and play tricks on one another in a ribald and athletic genre-bending mixture of theatrical forms. Kuryokhin's boisterous instrumental score is the connecting element that permeates everything. At times lilting neo-jazz flavored and incisively hard rock tinged in others, it accentuates the peaks and valleys in the emotional life of the characters. The production has a jarring, otherworldly feel to it, something like living scrapbook of seemingly disjointed sequences gradually coming together in a collage, with material that could not readily appear anywhere else. It is challenging and engaging, but also a bit raw and uneven. It has merit in that while it contains a nod to classical theatrical tradition, it is also as thoroughly comtemporary as Russia is likely to see this season. It has potential in that Smirnov's sensibility of a successful production is one that keeps evolving, and is never quite the same twice. It should appeal to an international audience, since it is very human, and not ethnocentric - understanding Russian is not essential to viewing and enjoying it. All the roles in this production were not made up only by Smirnov; they were created in interaction with the actors, coming out of their outlook on life. "The production will develop as time goes on," he says., "And I may change a few things here and there. It isn't static - it's not as if I've staged the production and that's it. At the rehearsals, we've now reached the stage where I'm able to more fully consider the opinions and suggestions, even suggestions for revision - I want to stress that this is a collaborative effort for all invovled." Capriccio next plays this Saturday. Check listings for exact dates. For more information, call 272-61-88. TITLE: face control AUTHOR: by Molly Graves TEXT: Agoraphobics beware - there's a new wide open disco space in town. Maybe you've noticed the posters scattered around Nevsky, advertising the "Neo Fashion Cafe," a new dance club/cafe located in a very unlikely location: the central atrium of a three-story, glass-covered shopping mall - devoid of all its daytime shopping clientele, of course, but reinfused evenings with a night-time crowd of DJ-worshippers. Smack in the middle of Baltiisky shopping center on Vasilievsky Island, glittery opalescent tables and silver chairs sparkle under the swirling glow of black lights and green disco strobes; waitresses in silver shirts flash by to take your order (silver seems to be a key color here), and bartenders (who must dream of one day studying at the Tom Cruise Institute of Bartending) show off their dance moves as they pound out your pizza, even when no music is playing. I assume the fashion idea comes from the fact that the Neo is located in such a fashion mecca: a very un-Soviet, hyper-modern super mall that could put Gostiny Dvor to shame - though the same area once housed, I am told, a Soviet-era workers dining hall for a nearby factory, with very unspectacular cuisine. Thankfully the food has changed, with three small bar/cafes located on the sidelines of this massive courtyard, offering beers for 40 rubles a pop along with surprisingly tasty fresh-baked pizza (ranging from 150-250 rubles), one of which would feed a snacking couple or perhaps one very hungry lone dancer. Following the (neo) fashion theme, a large video screen continually projects images of frighteningly thin Twiggy wannabes, strutting their stuff in bikinis and more daring apparel, on the walls above your heads. The only thing missing is an Internet computer connection which would actually allow you to purchase the items flashed on the screen, to be delivered with your pizza and beer. The mall location itself is a bit freaky - which could be a plus or a minus, depending upon your mall disposition. Though all the doors of the shops are locked up tight, the location still allows for late-night widow shopping, and you can always ride the escalators for kicks. But if you're the type that prefers more intimate, smaller venues and goes crazy after spending five minutes in a monstrous super mall complex, neo fashion is probably not for you. A consumers paradise, with entry fees running about 200 rubles on DJ nights (and why you would want to go there any other night is beyond me), upcoming scheduled shows - labeled as "deep house" parties - include DJ Mike Hollway from Manchester, England, on Feb. 23; Marc McCabe from Glasgow, Scotland, on March 3; and Elliot Eastwick, also of Manchester, March 16. And with their hours listed as "10 p.m. to infinity" on DJ nights, you can be sure that this Titanic-sized fun will most definitely go "on and on..." Neo Art Cafe, 68 Bolshoi Prospect, Vasilievsky Island. Open 10 p.m. to "infinity." Tel: 322-67-07. samir@mail. wplus.net. TITLE: death of a salesman gets superficial staging AUTHOR: by Natasha Shirokova TEXT: Arthur Miller's play " Death of a Salesman" is already an old favorite of 20th century drama, presenting the familiar story of a man disappointed in life, and remains relevant over 50 years after it was first performed. And thus the Komissarzhevskya Theater has decided to give it a timely staging. It must be said, however, that they have failed. The reasons are numerous. With the exception of good work by actors Boris Sokolov and Natalia Danilova in the main roles, the production is unfortunately put together with the carelessness of a soap opera. Director Vladislav Furman is known for his prolific work at the Mironov Theater. He is accustomed to working with serious drama. Among his previous works are Goncharov's "Oblomov" and Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata." Despite his preference for staging classics, his productions seem to avoid most of the problems posed by the writers. The performances seem to show a polished version of reality and are more like television commercials than plays. His take on "Death of a Salesman" is no exception. Miller was interested in the destiny of the "little man," and his salesman is an illustration of this. Willie Loman realizes by the end of his life that none of his dreams have come true, and commits suicide. Miller's main idea is that this man has had false ideals and led a false life, which makes his death tragic. The play finishes with a Requiem, where all the main themes are reiterated. It is pure and unsentimental. And it was exactly this part which was omitted in the production. On the contrary, the Kommissarzhevskaya Theater gives us a "heartbreaking" family story. There are some mystical episodes in Miller's play, when Loman recollects what he considers to be turning points in his life. The director doesn't even try to find a way to divide present from the past. The stage is simply suddenly flooded with actors. One of Furman's "conceptual" ideas was to dress some characters in modern clothes while the other costumes are stylized according to the descriptions given in the play. This decision seems pointless, and serves to illustrate nothing at all. As for the sets by Andrei Mashura, we have a strange metal construction in the middle of the stage resembling railroad tracks. It could be intended to represent a big city, but doesn't actually add anything to the whole concept of the production. The actors seem to feel uncomfortable on this empty stage with scattered pieces of furniture. The actors' duet of Sokolov and Danilova manages to achieve a modicum of success. Boris Sokolov, who plays the salesman, makes the audience sympathize with his sufferings. Sokolov acts in most of the productions at the Kommisar zhev skaya, playing Prospero in " The Tempest" and a clown in the remake of Fellini's " The Road." All these parts find echoes in his new role. Danilova, who plays Willie's wife Linda, creates an image of a faithful wife devoted to the family, whose life becomes worthless with the death of her husband and leaving of her son. This partnership is the only redeeming feature of this production, as the actors are somehow able to struggle on without the support of the director or set designer. TITLE: WORLD WATCH TEXT: Palestinian Killed JERUSALEM (AP) - A Palestinian security official trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement was killed in a firefight with Israeli troops early Thursday, the Israeli army said - a day after a Gaza Strip bus driver plowed into a crowded bus stop in Israel and killed eight young Israelis. In response to the hit-and-run bus attack, the deadliest in Israel in four years, Israel sealed off the Palestinian areas by air, land and sea. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat renewed allegations that Israel was largely responsible for the upsurge of violence. He has repeatedly alleged that Israeli soldiers are using depleted uranium ammunition and poison gas against Palestinians, but he has offered no evidence. Israel has denied the charge. Kidnappers To Go Free QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Freedom appeared near for seven kidnapped foreigners who have endured four months of captivity in Ecuador's jungle. The head of Ecuador's military announced Wednesday that the kidnappers had agreed to an unspecified ransom hours before a deadline to kill another captive. "The criminal group said it would not execute anyone else and I understand they have reached some economic arrangement," he said. Neither the employers nor embassies of the seven hostages - four Americans, a Chilean, an Argentine and a New Zea lander - would confirm or deny the reports of their possible release. Ten foreign oil workers were kidnapped in October in the El Coca jungle region, some 240 kilometers east of Quito. Two Frenchmen later escaped. The body of kidnap victim Ronald Sander was found in the jungle Jan. 31. Bahrain Women Vote A'ALI, Bahrain (Reuters) - Bahraini women lined up in A'ali village on Thursday to cast their ballots on landmark political reforms after gaining the right to vote in the conservative Gulf state. Some women walked to the village south of the capital Manama to vote in a referendum on a charter that calls for a partially elected parliament, a constitutional monarchy and an independent judiciary. Around 217,000 Bahrainis over the age of 20 are eligible to vote in the two-day referendum which ends on Thursday. Turnout was strong across the island state in the referendum, the first since independence from Britain in 1971. Women have been given the right to vote for the first time - a rarity in the Gulf region. Hikers Shot Dead BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The bodies of nine hikers on an excursion near a national park in southwest Colombia were found at the bottom of a ravine, authorities said Wednesday. They had all been shot execution-style. National police chief Gen. Ernesto Gilibert said it was too early to speculate on who killed the hikers near the Purace National Park. All of the victims - three women and six men - were Colombians. It was not immediately clear when they had been killed. A report in El Tiempo newspaper said the group had last been seen on Feb. 4. The bodies were discovered Tuesday, and authorities initially believed they had stumbled upon a massacre of peasants - almost a daily occurrence in a 37-year war that pits leftist guerrillas against the military and right-wing paramilitary groups. Rwanda Out of Summit LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) - Rebels and government leaders from around Africa opened a summit Thursday on how to end the 2 1/2-year war in Congo, but Rwanda refused to participate and diplomats said the pullout could further hinder a limping peace process. There have been signs that the meeting of parties in the Congo war - of which Rwanda is a key one - could bear fruit. But earlier this week, Rwandan President Paul Kagame announced he would not attend, saying Zambian President Frederick Chiluba is not an impartial mediator in the Congo conflict. Diplomats outside the talks expressed concern that the absence of Rwanda, which backs some rebels and has its own troops in Congo, could keep the talks from moving the peace process forward. The Congolese have expressed renewed willingness to discuss peace since Joseph Kabila became president last month following the assassination of his father, Laurent. China Defends Record BEIJING (AP) - Calling for dialogue instead of confrontation, China on Thursday kicked off its annual effort to fight off attempts to criticize its human rights record at an upcoming United Nations meeting. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said Western efforts to censure China at the U.N. Human Rights Commission had disrupted and "seriously poisoned the atmosphere" at previous commission meetings. "This has met with strong opposition from the wide majority of developing countries, China included. It is natural that it ended in failure," Zhu said at a regular press briefing. Chad Official Dies N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) - The architect of a landmark $3.5 billion oil pipeline deal in Chad, backed by the World Bank as a development tool, has died along with three others in a plane crash. Abderahman Dadi, a senior aide to President Idriss Deby, died Wednesday when the small plane in which he was returning from a regional economic meeting crashed as it approached to land at N'Djamena airport, authorities said. Also killed were planning minister Ahmat Lamine, the pilot and another passenger. Dadi, a lawyer in his late 40s, also successfully defended Chad's claim at the International Court in The Hague to sovereignty over the northern Aouzou Strip against a Libyan counterclaim. Elephants Get 'Married' AYUTHAYA, Thailand (AP) - Two pairs of elephants wearing flowing gowns embroidered with red hearts got married in an elaborate ceremony in the ancient Thai capital of Ayuthaya. Carrying their handlers, the brides walked to a makeshift altar in front of a local department store. Sporting a pretty pink bow, Oi Jan (Sweetheart), 24, married Plai Bua Ban (Blossoming Lotus), 24, whose trunk was brightly painted. The other couple were 18-year-olds, Nam Peung (Honey) and Plai Nga Thong (Golden Tusk). TITLE: English Back's Debut Has 6 Nations Abuzz AUTHOR: By Adrian Warner PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: LONDON - Exciting back play could dominate Saturday's second round of the Six Nations if British Lions prospects Brian O'Driscoll and Jason Ro binson are given the chance to run with the ball. Center O'Driscoll, tipped to be a major figure on the Lions tour of Australia at the end of the European season, returns after a shoulder injury to give Ireland an extra attacking option against France in Dublin. Former Britain and Wigan winger Robinson has been named as a replacement for England's clash with Italy at Twickenham. But if, as expected, England have the game under control at halftime, manager Clive Woodward is likely to send on Robinson to make history as the first English player to move from league to union and win caps at both codes. England's six-try destruction of Wales on the tournament's opening day at the start of the month was packed with superb back play. More memorable rugby could be on the cards. Wales, who also scored two excellent tries despite their defeat, will be looking to bounce back against Scotland at Murrayfield. But the clash in Dublin provides the most appetizing contest with O'Driscoll and the talented Irish backs taking on the flamboyant French. Ireland pulled off one of the biggest shocks of the championship last season when they recorded their first victory in Paris since 1972. But the Irish, who opened their campaign with a 41-22 defeat of Italy in Rome, have not beaten France at home since 1983, and the French are eager for revenge. French coach Bernard Laporte has opted for experience, making just one change to the team which beat Scotland 16-6 at the Stade de France on the opening day. Philippe Carbonneau replaces scrumhalf Fabien Galthie who is suspended after being shown a yellow card in a club match over the weekend. Rarely has the selection of a replacement caused such a stir in English rugby as Woodward's decision to call up Robinson after just a few months in the union game. Many believe British Lions coach Graham Henry should take the winger to Australia, even if he fails to become a regular in the England team. "He is one of the most exciting runners who has ever played rugby league and he'll be the same in union if teams give him the ball," said England assistant coach and former Britain league coach Phil Larder. "People who know anything about rugby league know that Australia have dominated it for the past 20 years, yet every Australian I know would always put Jason Robinson in a world XIII." England are expected to run up a big score against the Italians. Welsh rugby is at a low after the defeat by England and Wales coach Henry has been under fire before the Murrayfield clash because of his conservative selection policy. TITLE: SPORTS WATCH TEXT: UEFA Cup Clash ROME (AP) - A Liverpool fan was stabbed Thursday, while two others were hurt after clashing with AS Roma fans before a UEFA Cup match. Police identified the man as Gerard Collins and said he was stabbed in the left arm and in the thigh. Tarango Takes Off MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - American Jeff Tarango stormed off the court and defaulted during a match with Slovakia's Karol Kucera in the first round of the Marseille Open on Wednesday. Tarango, known for his volatile temper on court, walked off with Kucera on match point. Kucera was leading 7-6 5-3. Pepsi Is Out LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. soft drinks giant Pepsi has pulled out of the bidding to sponsor the English premier league next season. "We are already well covered in that sector by our partnership with Manchester United and our association with global stars like David Beckham," a company spokesperson said on Wednesday. Brazilian Banned RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Former Brazil international defender Junior Baiano was banned for 120 days on Wednesday after testing positive for cocaine. But the Vasco da Gama player, who was ever present for Brazil at the 1998 World Cup in France, proclaimed his innocence after hearing the decision of a Brazilian sports disciplinary tribunal. Baiano has had a turbulent career and has not played for his country since the last World Cup. TITLE: Keepers, Defense Reign in Champs League AUTHOR: By Mike Collett PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: London - Just five goals were scored in four Champions League matches Wednesday night as Groups A and B restarted after the mid-winter break. There was some drama at the San Siro where 10-man AC Milan drew 1-1 with Paris St. Germain and an upset in Austria where Sturm Graz beat Panathinaikos 2-0. But there was little to get excited about in Istanbul where Galatasaray beat Deportivo Coruna 1-0, or in Spain as Valencia and Manchester United drew 0-0 on a rain-soaked Mestalla pitch. Twice as many goals were scored on Tuesday when Groups C and D restarted with Arsenal beating Lyon 1-0 and Bayern beating Spartakow Mos cow by the same score. In Group D on Tuesday Leeds came from behind to beat Anderlecht 2-1 and Real Madrid beat Lazio 3-2 in a thriller in the Spanish capital. GROUP A Potentially the game of Wednesday night was between last season's beaten European Cup finalists Valencia and Man chester United, the 1999 champions. But like their meeting at the same stage last season, the match ended in a 0-0 draw, although there was plenty of end-to-end action. Gaizka Mendieta summed up the match when, instead of shooting past Fabien Barthez in the first half, he tried to take on half the United defense and ended up losing the ball completely. Manchester United survived a second-half mauling as Valencia kept up the pressure after the break. Kily Gonzalez twice forced saves from Barthez early in the second period, and the French keeper had to save at the feet of both Kily and substitute Diego Alonso with his defense nowhere. The only goals in Group A came in Graz where two strikes from Mario Haas and Tomislav Kocijan gave Sturm Graz a surprise 2-0 win over Panathinaikos for their first points of the second phase. Haas opened the scoring in the 60th minute, only four minutes after replacing Russian Sergei Yuran. Although Panathinaikos looked stronger, Kocijan sealed victory for the Austrians with a thundering shot in the 85th minute. GROUP B Once the whipping boys of Europe, it is now no longer any surprise to see Turkish teams doing well, and Galatasaray, who won the UEFA Cup last season, took a giant step towards the last eight with a 1-0 win over Spaniards Deportivo Coruna. Suat Kaya scored the only goal of the match with a powerful shot from just outside the box at 11 minutes. Galatasaray's Emre Belozoglu and Hasan Sas picked up yellow cards in the second half and will miss the side's next match - away at Deportivo next Tuesday. While Galatasaray moved clear at the top of Group B, AC Milan had to be content with a point from a 1-1 draw with Paris St. Germain, although that was a fair achievement after having Roque Junior sent off three minutes before the break for a second yellow card. Although PSG picked up their first point in the group, the French side will be disappointed not to have won the game after having a one-man advantage for 48 minutes. Milan went ahead in the 27th minute when Demetrio Albertini found Leonardo inside the area and the Brazilian produced a brilliant turn to lose his marker before coolly slotting the ball home. But within three minutes PSG were on level terms after Nicolas Anelka broke free of a flat-footed Milan defense to race on to an Ali Benarbia through ball and confidently fire past Milan keeper Christian Abbiati. GROUP C Bayern Munich, runners-up in 1999 and looking to win the European Cup for the first time in 25 years, also underlined their claim for a place in the last eight with a 1-0 win over Spartak Moscow thanks to a 79th minute winner from Brazilian striker Elber. Elber scored the goal with a close-range header 11 minutes from time after hitting the bar in the first half with a shot from the edge of the box. Arsenal kept their hopes alive - also with a single goal victory - as Frenchman Thierry Henry scored the only goal of a thrilling match at Lyon with a well-executed header after 58 minutes. With four Frenchmen in their starting line-up, Arsenal preserved their record of never having lost a competitive match in France. The home side produced some outstanding attacking soccer in the first half but failed to break down the Londoners' defense in which goalkeeper David Seaman and skipper Tony Adams were superb. Lyon were left to rue their missed chances when Henry scored what proved to be the only goal of the game early in the second half. GROUP D On Tuesday night, European champions Real Madrid stayed on course for the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League when they beat Lazio 3-2 on Tuesday thanks to an 88th minute penalty from Luis Figo. It was Real's third successive second phase win - and it condemned Lazio to their third successive defeat. The Italians led after four minutes with a neat finish from Hernan Crespo but Fernando Morientes levelled as he swept in after neat work from Raul and Steve McManaman. In a dramatic finale, Ivan Helguera put Real ahead only for Guerino Gottardi to equalize following a mistake from Spanish international keeper Iker Casillas. With time running out, substitute Pedro Munitis gained a penalty on the left of the area and Figo gratefully slammed home the spot kick to keep the champions in the driving seat. Leeds United, beset by worries off-field with four of their players currently in court on charges arising out of an attack on a youth, came from behind to beat Anderlecht 2-1 at Elland Road. The winner came from Lee Bowyer, one of the four currently on trial. But the Belgian champions started well and took the lead through Alin Stoica after 65 minutes. However, they crumbled after a brilliantly-struck Ian Harte free kick put Leeds level after 74 minutes, before Bowyer swept in the winner four minutes from time. TITLE: Iverson's 40 Leads 76ers Over Lakers PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - Allen Iverson's league-leading Philadelphia 76ers did not need their All-Star center or his backup to beat the defending NBA champions. With Theo Ratliff on the injured list and backup Matt Geiger suspended, Iverson outplayed Kobe Bryant and the 76ers used a platoon of reserve centers to deal with Shaquille O'Neal en route to an impressive 112-97 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. "We knew we were outmatched, we didn't have two of our big men, but we just knew we had to come out and play some ball," Iverson said after scoring 40 points and handing out nine assists in 40 minutes. Iverson hit 14-of-29 shots and 10-of-11 free throws to reach 40 points for the seventh time in his last 11 games and the 11th time this season. Bryant managed just 18 points while committing six turnovers in 41 minutes. Ratliff likely is out until April with a broken wrist, but the Sixers appeared to get some help in the paint when Geiger returned from a 1 1/2-month layoff in Tuesday's 107-104 win at Milwaukee. But Geiger received a two-game suspension for violating the league's steroids policy earlier Wednesday, leaving rookie Nazr Mohammed and second-year centers Todd MacCulloch and Jumaine Jones to deal with O'Neal in the middle. The trio combined for 26 points and 14 rebounds, helping offset O'Neal's 29 points and 11 boards for the Lakers, who had to go to overtime to beat the Nets the previous night. Pistons 105, Nets 86. At Detroit, after helping the Eastern Conference All-Stars to victory and putting up a career-high 50 points against the defending NBA champions, Stephon Marbury ran out of steam against the Pistons. Marbury managed just 12 points in 30 lackluster minutes as fellow All-Star Jerry Stackhouse poured in 30 points to lead the Pistons to their 13th straight home win over the New Jersey Nets, an easy 105-86 triumph. Marbury complained of a stomach ache and cold after Tuesday's 113-110 overtime loss to the Lakers, a game in which he became the first Net to score 50 points since Ray Williams matched a team record with 52 in 1982. Suns 104, Timberwolves 96. In Phoenix, Jason Kidd recorded his sixth triple-double of the season and Shawn Marion scored a career-high 38 points as the Suns rallied for a 104-96 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kidd finished with 19 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Marion, whose previous career high came on Tuesday against Golden State, made 15-of-22 shots and scored 27 points in the second half. Cliff Robinson added 19 points for the Suns, who improved to 2-0 since the All-Star break. For other results, see Scorecard. TITLE: Senators Vault Past Devils With 3-2 Victory PUBLISHER: Reuters TEXT: EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey - Martin Havlat and Marian Hossa scored first-period goals as the Ottawa Senators regained sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference with a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday. The teams were tied atop the East with 70 points and primed for another classic duel after a thrilling 4-4 tie in Ottawa six days earlier, but Havlat took the emotion out of the New Jersey crowd by scoring 38 seconds into the game. Patrick Lalime stopped 27 shots for Ottawa. "I think we played solid for 60 minutes," Lalime said. "They had the best power play in the league and we shut them down." "We went around out there like we had a piano on our backs," Devils coach Larry Robinson said. "We've been practicing less and playing worse. It's time to pick up our practices and get our guys' legs back because they went on the All-Star break and left them wherever they were." Stars 4, Kings 2. In Dallas, Mike Modano snapped a tie with 56 seconds left to become the Stars' all-time leading scorer in a 4-2 victory over the Los Angels Kings. Modano had 866 points with the franchise entering the game, leaving him one shy of Neal Broten's record. Modano tied the mark by assisting on Jere Lehtinen's goal 61 seconds into the third period. In the final minute, Modano got his own rebound and let go a shot that bounced off goaltender Steve Passmore's shoulder before settling in the net for the milestone point. Modano capped his night by picking up his 500th NHL assist on Lehtinen's empty-netter with 26 seconds left. "I had a lot of emotions thinking about everybody that's been a part of it for 12 years," Modano said. "It all came flashing back." Modano was emotional when he returned to the bench, wiping tears from his eyes while the sellout crowd of 17,000 gave him a standing ovation. Penguins 2, Wild 1. In Pittsburgh, Mario Lemieux scored a pair of third-period goals as the Penguins rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild and a split of their home-and-home series. Following Sunday's 2-1 loss at Minnesota, Lemieux traded barbs with Wild coach Jacques Lemaire. For two periods, Lemaire's system of stifling defense held sway as the Wild took a 1-0 lead on Wes Walz's shorthanded goal. But Lemieux tied it with 12 1/2 minutes remaining and completed his fourth multi-goal effort in 20 games with 3:35 left for the last laugh. Red Wings 4, Hurricanes 3. In Detroit, with sweetheart Anna Kournikova looking on from a luxury box, Sergei Fedorov scored a power-play goal 2:51 into overtime as the Red Wings rallied from a three-goal deficit for a 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. It was Fedorov's second goal of the game, 27th of the season and sixth game-winner. As soon as it went in, Kour ni ko va pumped her fist in celebration. Martin Lapointe and Kirk Maltby also scored for Detroit, which extended its unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1-0). Panthers 4, Coyotes 3. At Florida, red-hot Pavel Bure recorded his second straight hat trick as the Panthers rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes. The "Russian Rocket" had seven goals in the last two contests to increase his league-leading total to 38. Capitals 4, Canucks 3. In Vancouver, Adam Oates scored his second goal of the game with 41 seconds left in overtime as the Washington Capitals extended their unbeaten streak to eight games with a 4-3 victory over the Canucks. Oilers 3, Mighty Ducks 3. In Anaheim, Mike Leclerc scored with 61 seconds left in regulation to lift the Mighty Ducks into a 3-3 tie with the Edmonton Oilers. Anaheim has posted consecutive ties but remained winless in a team-record 11 straight home games (0-8-3-0). The Ducks have won just three of their last 25 contests overall (3-16-4-2) and are last in the Western Conference with 44 points. Edmonton extended its lead over Los Angeles and Nashville to five points for the final Western Conference playoff spot. TITLE: El Salvador Hit by 2nd Quake AUTHOR: By Julie Watson PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - With hospitals running out of beds, blood and medicine, officials appealed for international help for thousands of victims from Salvador's second deadly earthquake in a month. Resources and hope were dwindling Wednesday, and landslide-covered highways blocked rescue workers from reaching stricken communities. "Blood reserves have run out, we urgently need donors, and the hospitals have no space,'' Salvadoran Red Cross spokesman Carlos Lopez said. Medical centers throughout the country - already overwhelmed by the thousands injured in last month's deadly quake - could not handle the additional victims from Tuesday's 6.6-magnitude temblor. The National Emergency Committee put the death toll at 274, with 2,432 injured, 13,545 houses destroyed and nearly 123,000 people suffering property damage. In San Vicente, a central city of 40,000 that was one of the hardest hit, the San Gertrudis Hospital was rendered practically useless, its walls cracked by the force of the quake and its administrative offices destroyed. Forced to improvise, doctors created a makeshift hospital outside Wednesday, examining quake victims in the beds of pickups with IV lines strung from bamboo poles. Men and women with bruises and broken limbs lay on bloodstained mattresses or on the ground as repeated aftershocks trembled beneath them. In San Salvador, the maternity hospital was evacuated to make way for quake victims. New mothers and their infants were in the street. The streets were crowded with funeral processions, the coffins sometimes decorated with bougainvillea vines plucked from the trees for want of anything more formal. The quake hit before authorities had finished accounting for hundreds missing from a Jan. 13 quake of magnitude 7.6 that killed at least 844 Salvadorans. "This earthquake has complicated everything," Lopez said. Vice President Carlos Quintanilla put out an urgent plea for help. "We can't do it with just the resources of the state and Salvadorans,'' he said, adding that the international aid received thus far is "insufficient ... a drop in the bucket." Nations around the world provided help in the wake of January's quake, which caused an estimated $1 billion in damage, nearly half the annual budget. On Wednesday, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it would provide an additional $275,000 for emergency relief supplies and $3 million for emergency housing to meet immediate needs in the wake of the latest disaster. TITLE: Afghans Struggle To Survive in Camps PUBLISHER: The Associated Press TEXT: HERAT, Afghanistan - Driven from homes by a devastating drought that has ravaged much of Afghanistan, 80,000 Afghans are trying to survive in six refugee camps established by the United Nations in Herat. The first U.S. shipment of blankets, tents and food to the camps in Herat was delivered Saturday. The refugees sleep on dried mud floors, use empty medicine bottles filled with kerosene for light and eat soy bean paste gruel, passed around in dirty tin pails. "It is very undignified for these people. They are used to living their lives as farmers, standing on their own feet. They feel ashamed to stand in line for food," said Hans-Christian Poulsen, of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. The children run in the dirt and mud, many in bare feet, most with small plastic sandals and no socks. Their tiny hands clench into fists against the cold; when their mothers see a foreigner, they shove their trembling children forward and beg for help. "At night I cry and I try to hide in my mother's dress to keep warm,'' 5-year-old Sadrozi said, her head covered with a dirty mesh scarf decorated with once-sparkling sequins, now dull and broken. "My brother and sister died two weeks ago when it was so cold. I am afraid sometimes that I will die.'' An earlier shipment of U.S. supplies arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, 7th Feb. for about 155,000 Afghan refugees who arrived there in the last five months and are living in makeshift camps. The aid flights are believed to be an attempt to counter criticism of Washington by Afghans and international aid workers, who oppose UN sanctions demanded by both the United States and Russia. Imposed in December, the measures are intended to pressure the ruling Taliban to close camps allegedly used to train terrorists, but aid workers say they are hurting ordinary Afghans. "Sometimes we feel such disappointment and we want to cry that the world has forgotten us," said Ahmed Masoom, who arrived at the camp in Herat after walking 10 days from his home in the neighboring Ghor province. q Opposition troops captured a key city in central Afghanistan, cutting the only road that links the capital of Kabul to northern areas of the country. The capture of Bamiyan is the first major military victory for the opposition, led by ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani, in more than one year, opposition spokesman Gulam Raza Azizada said Wednesday. An official from the ruling Taliban confirmed that opposition troops ambushed Taliban soldiers in the city forcing them to withdraw. It wasn't known how many casualties either side suffered. Bamiyan is home to Afghanistan's minority Shiite Muslims. Most of the fighting was done by Hezb-e-Wahadat fighters, who are Shiite Muslims, Azizada said. Hezb-e-Wahadat is one of several small parties that make up the opposition, which is dominated by Rabbani and his military chief Ahmed Shah Massood. With the capture of Bamiyan, the opposition has gained a firm hold on the province, also named Bamiyan, Azizada said. The Taliban rule roughly 95 percent of Afghanistan. The city fell to opposition fighters late on Tuesday following a two-pronged attack that left several Taliban troops dead, Azizada said.