SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #649 (16), Friday, March 2, 2001
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TITLE: Racism Controversy Hits Cherkesov
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Whoever may be behind a magazine that has run an article blaming Jews for hindering the development of the Russian state, Viktor Cherkesov, the governor general of the Northwest region, apparently wants nothing to do with it.
 So the appearance of an introductory article authored by Cherkesov in the latest issue of the magazine - entitled Admiralteistvo: Northwest Russia - has prompted some furious backpedaling on the part of the governor general's office to distance him from the publication.
 The article in question was written by Oleg Karatayev, dean of the St. Petersburg Water Transport University, who describes himself at the end as a doctor of law.
 Among other things, Karatayev's article mentions races and nations that, he says, impeded the development of Russia as a state, and names Poles, Germans, Tartars, Chechens and Jews specifically.
 The article also suggests that special enclaves should be set up in Russia for national minorities; says that Jewish Bolsheviks were responsible for genocide against the Russian people; and that Moscow should be "at least 80 percent Russian."
 This is not the first such article penned by Karatayev, who ran for a State Duma seat in December 1999 as a candidate for the ultra right-wing Movement of Patriotic Forces - Russkoye Delo. In August 2000, for example, he wrote a piece for the nationalist and anti-semitic periodical Novy Peterburg in which he talks of Jewish aggression and genocide against Russians.
 "I can say definitely that [Cher ke sov] has absolutely nothing to do with these opinions or publications of this kind," said Alexander Chizhonok, spokesperson for the governor general, in an interview Wednesday. 
 So how did Cherkesov end up writing a greeting to the magazine's readers, supporting the "striving of the mass media to follow the political process" and hailing objectivity as a way of "helping readers to feel part of real events" - and, by doing so, wishing the editorship of Admiralteistvo success?
 Chizhonok said that representatives of the magazine approached him last year hoping to get such an introduction from Cherkesov, but handed over a more innocuous copy of the publication from 1999 - which he showed to The St. Petersburg Times - that contained none of the sentiments expressed by Karatayev, and was mostly about St. Petersburg's history. 
 But Yury Riverov, Admiralteistvo's director of ideology and communication, said the magazine had approached Cherkesov personally. 
 "We have a personal relationship with Cherkesov, and we've got his signature [on the introductory letter] here," he said.
 "[In any case], this is not about Cherkesov, but about Putin, who supports our opinions. You and those who work with you are getting in his way when he is doing something for the Russian nation."
 Chizhonok said that the governor general's office had no intention of taking any other measures regarding the magazine's content. "We have a lot of other things to do here," he said.
 Officials from City Hall - which is listed in the magazine as having given it cooperation and support - were more active in their attempts to keep Admiralteistvo at arm's length. "First, we will find out how seriously the article's main thesis violates [provisions for racial equality] in the Constitution," said Vladimir Vasiliev, deputy head of the City Media Committee in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "Then we will take any necessary measures according to legislation." 
 Admiralteistvo also lists itself as an official publication of the Northwest federal region, which Karatayev pointed out in a telephone interview on Thursday.
 "If I were Russia's president, I would be running the country, but [Vladimir] Putin was elected, not me," he said. "[But] as a representative of the intelligentsia, I have the right to suggest what he should be doing."
 While the magazine does not publicize its circulation, it lists its distribution points on its masthead as: "St. Petersburg, Northwestern Russian Regions, abroad, airplanes, railways [and] ports." 
 While Cherkesov and City Hall deny involvement, it is difficult to establish who exactly is behind Admiralteistvo. Karatayev is listed as a member of the magazine's editorial advisory committee, but he denied editorial involvement, saying only that a woman, whom he could not identify, had commissioned the article from him. "I didn't even know [my article] had been printed already," he said.
 Admiralteistvo lists an organization called the Yelagin Island Foundation as its founder. However, Yelena Nikiforenko, a foundation representative, said by telephone on Thursday that Yelagin Island had, in fact, been set up by the magazine's backers.
 "I don't remember who the editor is," Nikiforenko said.
 In another version, ideology and communications director Riverov said that he and others, whom he did not name, set up Admiralteistvo with their own finances. 
 The presidential press service responded curtly to faxed questions on whether readers might get the impression that Cherkesov - whose full title is presidential representative for the Northwest region - supported Karatayev's racist views, and apparently has nothing against Cherkesov's accompanying greeting. 
 "The press service doesn't comment on impressions," Vera Kakurina, secretary to Putin's press spokesperson, said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
 Some observers were skeptical of statements by Cherkesov's office that the governor general knew nothing of the magazine's contents.
 "Of course [the authorities] aren't commenting on impressions, because they are deliberately creating them ," said Boris Pustyntsev, head of the St. Petersburg human rights organization Citizens' Watch, in a telephone interview on Thursday.
 "Unfortunately, this is more proof that the current government and president are [on the path] toward the creation of an authoritarian state, and are willing to be supported by any political movement, including extremists."
 "As a reader, I would get the impression [Cherkesov] agreed with [Karatayev's] views," said Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
 "As far as I know, Cherkesov is not someone who would support this kind of opinion. [But] he should definitely do something about it, because he's not so stupid as to discredit himself in such an obvious way." 
 Nikolai Bondarik, the head of the St. Petersburg-based ultra-nationalist Russian Party, said that while Cherkesov might not want to associate himself with Admiralteistvo directly, the state was embracing patriotism. "The authorities have declared they intend to build a more powerful state, and [refine] Russia's ethnic purity," he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

TITLE: Disputed Submarine Movie Going Ahead
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova and Molly Graves
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An American film company has been shooting scenes in Moscow for a movie about a Russian submarine disaster, despite the vehement opposition of the sub's former crew.
 According to surviving crew members of the K-19 - later nicknamed the Hiroshima - the version of their story, as proposed by Kathryn Bigelow of the Intermedia film company, depicts them as drunken and irresponsible sailors.
 On June 4, 1961, the K-19 and its crew of 139 men were taking part in training exercises in the North Atlantic when a pipe carrying coolant to a nuclear reactor burst. In the reactor room, temperatures and radiation levels soared.
 During the fight to cool the reactor of the submarine, which was carrying nuclear warheads, radiation poisoning killed 22 of the crew - eight in a matter of days and the rest over two years.
 Upon seeing the Intermedia script shortly after a December meeting with Bigelow and actors Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, who are starring in the film, K-19 crew members expressed their shock and demanded a rewrite. They say that Bigelow agreed, but that requests to see a copy of the revised script in Russian have been ignored.
 Whether or not such a revision actually exists, "K-19: The Widowmaker" began filming in Moscow last week, said Intermedia press spokesperson Tatyana Mikhailova by telephone from Moscow on Wednesday. Intermedia finished work in Moscow on Thursday.
 Mikhailova said that she had neither read the script nor heard of any changes. But she said that, judging by what she had witnessed being filmed: "The movie is about the heroism of Russian sailors and has many moving scenes."
 "I can see that the [Intermedia] team is showing respect for the memory of our sailors," she said. 
 She added that filming locations in the city included the Kiev Railway Station, the Vvedenskoye Cemetery and other venues. But a scene at the cemetery, intended to end the film, did not include actual crew members, as Intermedia had hoped.
 More shooting will take place in Iceland, Norway and Canada.
 Mikhailova also confirmed that Harrison Ford, playing the part of K-19 Capt. Nikolai Zatayev, has been filming in Moscow, but that co-star Liam Neeson was not in the city.
 On Wednesday, K-19 survivor Yury Mukhin said from the St. Petersburg Submariners Club that he had been unaware Intermedia had started filming.
 "[But] if the script is all the same, it's a betrayal," Mukhin said. "It would be better if they shot some other film about another submarine, and not mention our names, the number of our submarine and even what year the accident took place."
 Igor Kurdin, head of the St. Petersburg Submariners Club, said that the K-19 crew had petitioned Admiral Vla di mir Kuroyedov, commander in chief of the Russian Navy, asking him not to collaborate in any way with Intermedia, and to prevent the company from filming in naval locations such as St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.
 Both he and Mukhin said that Ku ro ye dov had agreed to do so. Kuroyedov could not be reached for comment. 
 Igor Dygalo, head of the Russian Navy's press service, said that no requests to film in other locations had been received. He added that the navy had refused an Intermedia request to provide consultants for the film.
 "We are able to provide such help - but only to those who want to paint a real picture of the Russian Navy, which is not the case with Intermedia," Dygalo said.
 The K-19 crew members say they prefer - but are not entirely happy with - a rival version written by Australian writer Michael Brindley and proposed by the Drawbridge film company, headed by Russian-born American producer Inna Gotman. Gotman claims she signed a deal with the sub's captain Zatayev in 1994 for the exclusive rights to his story. Initially, Gotman says, she hoped to collaborate on the film with Intermedia, but when Intermedia went on alone, Drawbridge filed a suit to stop its rival in a Los Angeles court. Intermedia has filed a countersuit, alleging Drawbridge has intimidated the K-19 crew to stop them working with Intermedia.
 Lev Slavin, Drawbridge's representative in St. Petersburg, said that the two sides will have a mediation meeting on March 9 to discuss the possibility of a settlement.
 Slavin said: "We will require [Intermedia] to concede our rights to the life stories of the crew and therefore our participation in the movie process; decide questions of [how to finance a collaborative effort]; and to [represent the views] of the veterans."
 However, Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny Myers, the law firm representing Intermedia, said Wednesday from Los Angeles that Drawbridge's case "has no merit at all ... Intermedia has every legal right to proceed with their own picture." He added that he hoped that an out-of-court settlement would be reached, but that filming for "The Widowmaker" would go ahead. 
 "There will be no changes in the present schedule at all," Petrocelli said.

TITLE: Sexologist Crusading Against Ignorance
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russians love to have sex, but hate to talk about it. 
 So says the country's leading sexologist Igor Kon, who despite a spate of recent attacks is on a quest to get Russians to be more open about sex. Otherwise, he says, they will face the consequence of silence leading to outbreaks of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
 "The rest of the world will survive, but I really can't say anything positive about Russia," Kon, 72, said in an interview.
 The country's chances of surviving the battle against AIDS and venereal diseases is low because the government is doing very little to promote sex education in schools and tolerance of homosexuality and other alternative lifestyles, said Kon.
 A sociologist by training, Kon rose to prominence over the past three decades with the publication of numerous books and articles. His works have brought him acclaim at home - but also enemies, who have tried to intimidate him into keeping sex an unspoken word.
 He was heckled during an open forum on sexuality at Moscow State University by a couple dozen youths with placards reading "Kick Kon Out of MGU" and anti-gay slogans. Kon, who had been invited to address the group, had innocuously titled his presentation "Man in the Changing World."
 Kon said the outburst on Jan. 31 made it impossible to continue the lecture. University officials used smudge pots to try to smoke out the youth. When that failed, they called the police. The young men fled before the police arrived.
 A week later, a package suspected of containing explosives was deposited at the door of his apartment in southern Moscow. Kon was away at the time and a worried neighbor alerted the police. No bomb was found in the package, but when Kon got home he discovered that his door and the surrounding walls had been covered with Satanic symbols including a giant 666.
 More recently, Kon received an anonymous death threat by telephone.
 But he said he is not going to let opposition force him into silence.
 Kon said increased openness about sexuality - not only diseases but about sexual relations, homosexuality and age of consent - is a common trend in all Western countries that seems to be passing Russia by. 
 Those countries grappled with the issues 20 to 30 years ago but nevertheless chose to resolve them. But Russia fails to even acknowledge the issues, and the government and media write off sex as an evil influence from the West, Kon said. 
 "Today's discussions of sex education in Russia are conducted at the same level as in the 1950s or even at the end of the 19th century," Kon wrote in a recent article posted on his Web site (sexology.narod.ru). "Many issues that are openly discussed by youth are not brought up at all and remain taboo in order not to tempt the younger generation."
 The government's hands-off approach has promoted intolerance to sexual minorities and made mentioning the topic akin to a sin, Kon said.
 This is worrying because sexuality is a significant ingredient of the nation's social health, he said. The level of tolerance and acceptance of social issues like sex can be used by sociologists as a barometer for measuring more general issues like the future of democracy in Russia - a measurement that does not put the country in a very favorable light. 
 "The level of tolerance and acceptance is very low," Kon said.
 Public reluctance to accept the responsibility for enlightening the young also shows through a series of public opinion polls conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center, or VTSIOM. In 1992 as many as 18 percent of Russians wanted children to have sex education in school. By 1997, the number had dropped to 8 percent, and by 2000 had only increased by 1 percent to 9 percent.
 Tolerance toward homosexuality is very low. About 36 percent of Russians consider homosexuality immoral or a bad habit, while 31 percent perceive it as a disease or mental illness.
 Part of the misconceptions came from a complete lack of tolerance during Soviet times, Kon said. Only in 1993 - two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union - was the criminal punishment of homosexuality banned. And it wasn't until 1999 that homosexuality was no longer classified as a mental illness.
 "But many psychiatrists still insist that homosexuality is a disease," Kon said.
 But by all accounts Kon would be forgiven if he had long ago thrown in the towel in his efforts to raise the public's awareness about sexuality.
 Kon joined forces with the Education Ministry in the mid-1990s to help develop sex education courses for the country's schools. The project was plagued by underfunding and lack of expertise, but the final blow came in 1996 when the rest of the government and the public got a whiff of what was brewing. The ministry that year released raw pilot sex-ed programs that set off a wave of protests in the streets, the media and in government circles.
 "It started with the mass hysteria. Instead of trying carefully to understand the nature of the problem and the proposed programs, some journalists and politicians launched a crusade against it on the grounds that children's morality was under threat," Kon said.
 By 1997, the sex-ed program was dead in the water - but Kon was still pushing on.
 "The Education Ministry quickly cut its efforts, and some other people and organizations moved into the shadows. I, however, never quit stressing the importance of the problem," Kon said.

TITLE: City Hit With Fire Outbreak
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A spate of unrelated fires earlier this week killed 18 people in St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Oblast, including two children aged three and four, the St. Petersburg Fire Department press service said. 
 Two of the fires - one of which consumed the fifth floor of an apartment building in southeast St. Petersburg, and the other which damaged the reception area of Vecherny Peterburg newspaper housed at Lenizdat newspaper complex on the Fontanka - were both likely caused by smoldering cigarettes early Tuesday morning, said fire department spokesperson Tatyana Skriganyuk in a telephone interview Wednesday. 
 Another fire, whose cause is yet unknown, killed two children on Tuesday, aged three and four, in their home in Baltiiskoye Village in the Vyborg Region of Leningrad Oblast. 
 Other isolated fires throughout the city and oblast claimed another 11 lives on Monday and Tuesday, she said, leading to an alarming death toll that is nearly three times above the local daily average for fire deaths, said Skriganyuk.
 The most devastating blaze - a seven-alarm fire that began at 6 a.m. Tuesday on Shelgunova Ulitsa in the city's southeast Nevksy district - killed five building residents. Three of the victims died of burns and smoke inhalation in the blaze, which started on the building's fifth floor. The remaining two victims were killed while trying to leap to safety before firemen arrived. 
 The seven units and 41 firemen called to the blaze arrived seven minutes after smoke was reportedly seen billowing from one of the windows. But work was hindered by Tuesday's plunging temperatures, which froze water in the fire hydrant nearest the blaze, forcing rescuers to scramble for other working hydrants nearby, Skriganyuk said.

TITLE: Mironov Slams Human Rights Record
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Human rights ombudsman Oleg Mironov accused the government Tuesday of serious human rights violations, echoing similar criticism from the U.S. State Department made a day earlier in an annual human rights report. 
 The United States took one of President Vladimir Putin's favorite phrases - "dictatorship of law" - and used it against him to slam Russia's human rights record in 2000. 
 Despite some signs the law was becoming an important tool to protect rights, serious problems remained, the report said. 
 "While the president made statements about the need for a 'dictatorship of law,' the government has not institutionalized the rule of law required to protect human rights," it said. 
 "Most abuses occur at lower levels, but government officials do not investigate the majority of cases of abuse and rarely dismiss or discipline the perpetrators." 
 It said the government had made no progress in implementing constitutional provisions for due process, fair and timely trial and humane punishment. 
 "In addition, the judiciary often was subject to manipulation by central and local political authorities and was plagued by large case backlogs and trial delays," it said. 
 Though the report drew no conclusions about Putin's own commitment to human rights, it pulled no punches when it came to his campaign against rebels in Chechnya. 
 "Numerous credible reports of human rights abuses by Russian forces in Chechnya, which included extra-judicial killings, torture and rape, provoked widespread condemnation and calls for accountability," it said. 
 Mironov focused largely on Chechnya at Tuesday's meeting with European diplomats, saying: "Civilians in Chechnya have gone through terrible hardships and their rights have been violated."
 Mironov criticized Moscow for limiting the number of mainstream religions and failing to halt arbitrary arrests, corrupt elections and capital punishment.
 He also alleged that security services had won increasing clout in Russia and said that laws giving them broad powers must be amended. 
 "Representatives of these structures have felt that they again can rise to the surface and influence society." 
 
 - Reuters, AP

TITLE: Lesin Proposes Brushing Up Russia's Image
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Press Minister Mikhail Lesin on Tuesday responded with indignation to U.S. criticism of Russia's record on press freedom, saying his ministry is investigating media violations by the United States itself and may launch an advertising campaign to polish up Russia's tarnished image in the West.
 Lesin's remarks came in response to the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights, which criticized the Russian government - and Lesin personally - for exerting "considerable pressure" on large media conglomerates and endangering freedom of the press.
 Lesin, who is routinely criticized by free-press advocates, said his ministry is drafting a "report on the state of freedom of speech and the freedom of media activities in the United States." Referring to the criticism in the U.S. report, he likened the United States to an "obnoxious policeman."
 Lesin also told reporters that the Russian government plans to commission an advertising campaign aimed at projecting a "positive image of Russia" in the United States and Europe.
 "I am not embarrassed by the word propaganda," Lesin said. "Otherwise we seem like bears wandering the streets, growling and constantly trying to shut someone down."
 Lesin refused to say how much money could be spent on the advertising campaign, but he said it is likely to be funded from the federal budget, the ministry's proceeds from license fees and donations by Russian companies whose business has suffered from Russia's negative image in the West.
 "How long can Americans be tricked about processes under way in Russia?" he said. "It's time to speak the truth."
 The report on free speech in the United States has been in the works since January and will be released in two weeks, Lesin said.
 Lesin, who has previously complained about Washington's refusal to allow Russia's Radio Mayak to broadcast in the United States while the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty manages to broadcast in Russia, said the report would cover restrictions faced by foreign news organizations and the concentration of U.S. media in too few hands. 
 Although Russia and the United States have a comparable number of media outlets, Lesin said, Russia's are controlled by thousands of companies, while U.S. media are run by about 50 conglomerates.
 "De facto, U.S. media [outlets] express the viewpoint of 50 people or 50 boards of directors," he said, adding that the ministry is considering giving grants to U.S. groups fighting for freedom of speech in America.
 When reporters started to laugh at Lesin's suggestions, the press minister warned: "This is not funny at all. This is very serious."

TITLE: U.S. 'Trainee Spy' Won't Face Espionage Charges
AUTHOR: By Andrew Kramer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A day after publicizing the drug arrest of what it called an agent-in-training for American intelligence, the Federal Security Service said Wednesday that no espionage charges would be filed. 
 The FSB had suggested that John Edward Tobin, a 24-year-old native of Ridgefield, Connecticut, had U.S. intelligence training. It said his arrest showed that potential spies could be found even under the cover of exchange students. 
 But a spokesperson for the FSB stressed on Wednesday that Tobin faced only drug charges. "He didn't ever carry out any spying activity on Russian territory. We don't have any claims on him," said Pavel Bolshunov, an FSB spokes person in Voronezh, the central Russian city where Tobin is in jail. 
 Tobin was detained at a nightclub on Jan. 26, and was formally arrested on Feb. 1 for possession of 4.5 grams of marijuana. 
 Bolshunov said Wednesday that Tobin will also be charged with distributing marijuana. Under Russian law, this could mean either selling the drug or offering it free to friends and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. 
 "The bags of narcotics were small, but by our laws it was enough to open a criminal case. This is not Holland, we have strict laws," Bolshunov said. 
 He said the FSB "allowed itself to comment on the case," which he described as "small," because it found Tobin's alleged background as a U.S. Army soldier trained in Russian language and interrogation suspicious. He said Tuesday that the FSB believed Tobin was an interrogation specialist who had been sent to Russia for additional training. 
 A U.S. Army statement said Tobin is a member of the Army Reserve and that he had received training in Russian at the army's Defense Language Institute. But "his presence abroad is in no way linked to his status as a junior member of the Army Reserve," the statement said. 
 Bolshunov said it was an embarrassment that the alleged U.S. agent-in-training was caught apparently smoking marijuana while on a study assignment in a foreign country. 
 "He discredited very serious institutions that might stand behind him," Bolshunov said. 
 Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent security and defense analyst in Moscow, said the suggestion of espionage links was a warning for foreign organizations working in Russia, such as the Fulbright exchange program. "Those who sent him can be accused of being accomplices in spying activity, even if they have no access to secret information," he said. 
 He said the arrest reflected anti-American sentiment among mid-level officials in Russia's security establishment.

TITLE: Colonel's Murder Trial Begins
AUTHOR: By Ron Popeski
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - The first trial of a top Russian officer accused of serious abuses in Russia's offensive against Chechen separatists got under way in earnest on Thursday, as dozens of nationalists outside demanded his release.
 Russia's RTR state television said judges in the southern Russian town of Rostov-on-Don began reading out the charges against Col. Yury Budanov, accused of murdering a young Chechen woman he said he believed was a sniper.
 In Chechnya itself - some 500 kilometers to the east - a European human rights envoy pressed on with a fact-finding mission to the region scarred by Russia's 17-month-old campaign.
 Alvaro Gil-Robles, human rights commissioner for the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, told Russian media on Wednesday he believed more was being done to investigate allegations of abuses.
 Military officials said Russian aircraft launched new strikes against what they said were rebel bases in mountainous regions in the south of Chechnya.
 Russia denies its military systematically abused rights in Chechnya but the United States renewed pressure this week on Moscow, citing "credible accounts" of killings, torture and rape in a human rights report.
 In the Rostov courtroom, lawyers for Budanov and the dead woman's family made what Russian media described as emotional exchanges in the trial - postponed after a brief opening hearing on Wednesday.
 Television showed protesters from the extreme nationalist Russian National Unity group, some in traditional Cossack outfits, shouting "Freedom for Budanov!" A reporter said other protesters had appeared with placards calling on the army to "clean up Chechnya."
 Lawyers for the murder victim, Elza Kungayeva, asked for the trial to be moved to Chechnya or to Strasbourg, citing pressure from the protesters outside. The court rejected the request.
 A television commentator said Budanov told the court he did not want the trial "to be transformed into a show" and called for proceedings to be objective.
 Trial documents cited by Russian media say Budanov, commander of the 160th tank regiment, seized Kungayeva from her home in the village of Tangi a year ago and killed her as he interrogated her at a Russian base.
 He then ordered soldiers to bury her. Initial accusations of rape were dropped for lack of evidence.
 Kugayeva's father disputed that.
 "My daughter was raped. I am certain of it," Vissa Kungayev told independent NTV television.
 Budanov told investigators he did not intend to kill the woman and his lawyers claim extenuating circumstances linked to the pressures of the war. He could face life imprisonment if convicted.
 Human rights advocate Sergei Kovalyov, one of the few to denounce Russia's two wars in Chechnya, dismissed the proceedings as a "show trial" and said many other cases had failed to be brought to court. Russia's military prosecutor, Mikhail Kislitsyn, was quoted by Moscow media as saying cases against other servicemen were being prepared.
 Gil-Robles urged authorities to carry out an evenhanded investigation into who was responsible for the deaths of people whose bodies were discovered over the weekend in Dachny, an abandoned village near a federal military base outside Grozny, Interfax reported. 
 Citing unnamed military sources, Interfax reported that 10 more bodies had been found in the area over the past day. But the Chechen government official said that in fact 20 bodies had been uncovered Tuesday, bringing the number of bodies found in Dachny to 36. 
 Military authorities have identified three of the bodies. Originally, officials suggested that the Dachny corpses had belonged to rebels who had been killed in battle. However, the human rights group Memorial said the three bodies that have been identified are those of civilians who had been arrested by Russian servicemen and never seen since. 
 Gil-Robles called for careful investigation of all civilian complaints of human rights violations, Interfax said. But as he ended his mission to Chechnya, he said Wednesday he had seen for the first time "that a real wish has emerged in Chechnya to end lawlessness." 
 
 q
 MOSCOW - Rebel Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he is leading a united front against the Russian military and that there are no divisions between him and warlords Khattab and Shamil Basayev. 
 Moscow has refused to recognize Maskhadov, who was elected president in 1997, but still draws a distinction between him and Khattab and Basayev, who are considered more extreme and more powerful than Maskhadov. 
 However, Maskhadov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that they and other rebel commanders all take orders from him. 
 "You shouldn't separate Basayev, [field commander Ruslan] Gelayev and Khattab from the resistance movement," he was quoted as saying. "Like everybody else, they are fighting the Russian occupiers under a single command."
 - AP

TITLE: WWII Veterans Honored for Braving Russia's Cold Winter
AUTHOR: By Graham Heathcote
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON (AP) - A handful of World War II veterans who braved ice, fierce cold and enemy fire on Arctic convoy duty received medals from Russia on Tuesday. 
 "We are very happy to have them and there's no resentment about it taking so long," said Gerry Raffe, 80, an airman who helped protect Allied convoys to Russia on the Arctic route. 
 The medals presented by the Russian Embassy were for veterans of the convoys which carried arms, equipment and food to help the Soviet Union defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. 
 "It is a great privilege on behalf of our president to give you this commemorative medal for your heroic deeds," said Russian Ambassador Grigory Karasin. 
 The envoy, who was born after those dark days, shook hands with the 16 graying men and handed each a red box containing a gilt medal inscribed: "The 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." Each man was also the recipient of a certificate and three red roses tied with a big red ribbon. 
 Britain and the United States lost 87 merchant ships with 829 crewmen and 18 warships with 1,944 men on the Arctic convoys. There were more than 800 ships involved in 40 outward convoys which assembled off Iceland bound for Archangel and Murmansk in Russia. They were attacked by German surface warships, submarines and planes from bases in Norway. 
 Raffe was a wireless-operator/air gunner in a Lockheed Hudson bomber based at Reykjavik, Iceland, to hunt German submarines. 
 "What do I remember most? The cold, the cold, the snow and our ground crews tying down the Hudsons to prevent them being blown away. Our magnetic compasses were all over the place because we were so near to the North Pole," he said.

TITLE: President Stakes Out Asian Role
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin, on the second leg of a tour aimed at reasserting Russian influence in Asia, declared a new strategic partnership with old Cold War ally Vietnam on Thursday.
 In the declaration, Vietnam supported Putin's stance on U.S. missile defense while the Russian president said Hanoi wanted to buy new Russian armaments.
 This followed remarks made by Putin in Seoul on Wednesday in which he described the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as the "root and trunk" of world security, and said that U.S. proposals for a missile defense system would violate the treaty.
 In Washington, however, President Bush indicated he would push ahead with the missile defense plan, designed to thwart any attacks by perceived "rogue nations" such as communist North Korea. 
 A senior Russian general also threatened retaliatory measures if the nation withdraws from the ABM treaty. 
 "If we run into facts of unilateral violations of the ABM treaty, Russia may review other international treaties concerning strategic weapons," Lt. Gen. Vyacheslav Romanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. In particular, Romanov said Russia may review provisions of the START-1 and START-2 treaties. He did not elaborate.
 Washington's European allies are also concerned by the U.S. plan, and Russia last week presented NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson with an outline for a non-strategic missile defense proposal for Europe to counter the American initiative. 
 During his trip to Seoul, Putin also pledged to support the reconciliation process between the two Koreas and appealed for more trade with the South.
 But South Korea - a close ally of Washington and host to 37,000 U.S. soldiers - has not taken a public position on the U.S. project. Some Seoul officials privately worry that it could disrupt its fragile rapprochement with the North.
 Despite Moscow's massive military and economic support for Vietnam during the Cold War, Putin is the first Kremlin chief to visit the country, one of the world's few remaining communist states and once a key extension of Soviet power in Asia.
 Putin and Vietnamese counterpart Tran Duc Luong signed the declaration on strategic partnership after a welcoming ceremony at the presidential palace.
 Asked at a joint news conference with Luong about prospects for further military cooperation between the two countries, Putin replied: "Vietnam needs not just to maintain its existing weapons bought from the Soviet Union and Russia but also needs modern weapons. Vietnam wants and can afford to buy new weapons."
 Putin did not elaborate on the types of weapons sought by Vietnam, where the armed forces remain reliant on Russian arms.
 Serious talks are expected on the strategic naval base at Cam Ranh Bay, for which Moscow's lease expires in 2004. Analysts do not expect final agreement on Cam Ranh Bay during Putin's visit, but say the issue will set the tone of future ties as well as Russia's strategic aims in Asia.
 Analysts say the base in south-central Vietnam, used by Japan in World War II and then by the Americans in the Vietnam War, is vital to Russian strategic interests in the region. Vietnam does not object to Russia's presence but wants it to boost lease payments. Both Washington and Beijing eye the facility enviously for its strategic and commercial potential.
 What leverage Moscow has, in addition to arms supplies, is in Soviet-era debt still owed by Vietnam, estimated at $1.7 billion. Vietnam and Russia signed an agreement in September cutting the Soviet-era debt, previously estimated at $11 billion, by 85 percent and allowing for repayment of the rest over 23 years.
 Analysts do not expect repayment in hard currency but believe Russia will be seeking business and other concessions in return.
 Despite praise heaped on Moscow in recent days in the state press, especially for its staunch backing in the 1975 communist victory in the war against U.S.-backed South Vietnam and in building socialism, popular reaction to Putin has been muted.
 As his motorcade drove from the airport down town on Wednesday evening small groups, totalling only perhaps a hundred residents, stood by the roadside waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.
 The numbers were far smaller than those who turned out last November to greet Bill Clinton, who was the first U.S. president to visit the country since the Vietnam War.
 
 - Reuters, AP

TITLE: Court Keeps Mirilashvili in Detention
AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Oktyabrsky Federal Court on Tuesday ruled against releasing the Russian-Israeli businessman Mikhail Mirilashvili, who has since Jan. 22 been in Kresty remand prison on charges of kidnapping.
 Mirilashvili's lawyer, Yury Novolodsky, had appealed to the court to release his client on a guarantee that he would not leave the city, putting forward a letter that had been signed by several leading St. Petersburg cultural and public figures.
 "I am deeply upset by the day's events," said Novolodsky at a press conference an hour after the hearing. 
 Gennady Ryabov, spokesperson for the City Prosecutor's Office, said: "The court did not consider the defendant's arguments convincing enough."
 Novolodsky plans to appeal the court's decision at the City Criminal Court, which is a higher court, within a week. But he said he was not optimistic. The Criminal Court would be expected to make a decision within 20 days after the appeal is filed.
 Novolodsky said he was encouraged by the fact that Mirilashvili, who is also vice president of the Russian Jewish Congress, had been given a chance to present testimony in full to investigators for the first time since his arrest.
 Several days before the hearing, representatives for Mirilashvili circulated a statement in which he thanked his supporters, and repeated his innocence.
 "I believe in justice, and I believe that the day of my release will come soon," said Mirilashvili in the statement.

TITLE: Gusinsky Resigns as Jewish Congress Head
AUTHOR: By Anna Dolgov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Embattled media tycoon Vla dimir Gusinsky has resigned as president of the Russian Jewish Congress, saying his legal and political troubles prevented him from leading the group, congress officials said Thursday.
 Gusinsky, who heads Russia's main independent media holding Media-MOST, is under house arrest in Spain pending a Spanish decision on whether to extradite him to Moscow. Russian prosecutors accuse Gusinsky of fraud, but supporters say the charges are punishment for his media's critical reporting of President Vladimir Putin and his circle.
 Gusinsky said his legal problems had made him "unable at the present time to efficiently lead the Russian Jewish Congress," the group said in a statement. The group has supported Gusinsky in his troubles with the government.
 Congress leaders met Thursday to approve the resignation, and to appoint Leonid Nevzlin, a deputy chief of the Yukos oil company, as acting president.
 Gusinsky "made this decision ... without any kind of pressure from anybody in the Russian Jewish Congress in particular and from anybody in the Russian Jewish community as a whole," said a deputy chief of the organization, Alexander Osovtsev.
 Media-MOST has been embroiled in a long dispute with the government. Tax authorities are seeking to liquidate for insolvency Media-MOST's flagship NTV television - Russia's only nationwide network that is not controlled by the state. Media-MOST leaders have also been charged with fraud, and a state-controlled natural gas company has been trying to take over a chunk of Media-MOST stakes for bad debts.

TITLE: Education Plans Meet National Protests
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Some 4,000 St. Petersburg teachers, professors and students joined a Russia-wide protest Tuesday to picket education reforms suggested by the federal government that could put much of Russian higher education on a paying basis. 
 They also protested for higher teacher salaries and better student stipends, which, according to protesters, barely keep the educational community afloat. 
 The protesters, organized by the Union of Education and Science Workers, gathered in front of Kazan Cathedral bearing banners that read: "Down with paid education," "Down with reforms," and "President, who are you with?" 
 The banners were mainly aimed at suggestions by Economic and Trade development Minister German Gref and Education Minister Valentina Mat vi yenko, who recently floated the idea of standardized testing for students wanting to enter institutes of higher education, similar to the American Scholastic Aptitude Test. 
 Test results would then reflect how much students would pay for their education, with higher scorers being subject to lower tuition brackets - or even a free ride - as well as having a shot at attending more prestigious schools. 
 Under the current system, hopeful students must travel to and sit entrance exams administered at the university or technical institute they wish to attend. 
 Teachers protesting Tuesday spoke out vociferously against the reform plan, saying it would lead to the commercialization of higher education. 
 But Matviyenko told ORT television Tuesday that the standardized testing system would give more educational opportunities to students who live in far-flung regions, but who don't have the means to travel to specific universities to sit entrance exams.
 The reform would also add another year to Russia's primary and secondary education: Children would go to school at age six instead of seven, and the last two years of high school would include preparation for the standardized state exam. 
 Education Ministry press secretary Yury Semyonov added that more specific subject exams - similar to Britain's A level exams, for instance - could be added later. 
 A first run of the standardized exam will be given this spring in six remote regions across Russia, such as Yakutia in eastern Siberia and Samara in the western Urals. Should the experiment prove successful, Semyonov said, it will be passed to the Duma as a bill. 
 Semyonov added in a telephone interview Thursday that standardized testing would also foil rampant bribery among students and examiners. This happens, he said, "when parents hire tutors to prepare their kids for entrance exams and then those tutors sit at admission boards as examiners." 
 But Vladimir Kuznetsov, deputy chief of St. Petersburg Education Trade Union, said in a Thursday telephone interview that standardized tests would put children in the provinces - where education is often poor - at a disadvantage to their more worldly counterparts in cities. 
 "Kids from villages will be thrown out automatically," he said.
 As for the salary and stipend angle of the protest, Kuznetsov said most teachers live on 30 rubles a day. Their salaries range from 200 to 800 rubles a month, and even though Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev has already earmarked funds to double each teacher's salary, times are still tight. 
 "How can we survive on one-thousand rubles a month? We eat soup for lunch and have a main course only at dinner," said Ludmila Ivanova, a teacher at kindergarten No. 136.

TITLE: Kronshtadt Dump Cleanup Promised
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: After more than 10 years of sitting on a powder keg of weapons and dangerous chemicals, Kotlin Island and its naval port city of Kronshtadt received official assurances that the potential time-bomb sitting under it will be defused. 
 After a meeting with Kronshtadt officials earlier this week, Governor General Viktor Cherkesov issued a promise that the overloaded munitions storage facilities, fuel dumps and old chemical reservoirs at the island's naval base will be removed and destroyed at the Shikhany military chemical institute in the Satarov region, 1,200 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg. 
 Kotlin Island and its 45,000 residents is located 60 kilometers due west of St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland. 
 Cherkesov offered no timetable on when the waste would be removed or by what means. Olga Sinyova, a spokesperson for the Saratov Oblast government, said their local authorities weren't even aware of the plan. But according to Cher kesov's spokesperson, Alexander Chizhenok, the federal status of the Shikhany facility stipulates that permission from Saratov's government is unnecessary. 
 Viktor Surikov, head of the Kronshtadt administration - who asserted that the problem should have been solved 10 years ago - was buoyant about the promise from Cherkesov, even though time issues and transportation questions remain unresolved. 
 "Governor General Cherkesov promised to solve the problem on a federal level in the near future," said Su ri kov in a telephone interview Wednesday. 
 "We have been complaining about it, but the ammunition stores are militarily not under the jurisdiction of civilian authorities. All we could do is to try to draw the government's attention to the plague," he added. 
 With the fall of the Soviet Union and its military withdrawal from the Baltics and East Germany, Kronshtadt - the outpost of the Baltic Fleet - unwittingly became a storage facility for tons of surplus ammunition. According to Yury Morozov, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Navy Military base in Kronshtadt, the discarded ammunition, if an accident should occur, could release an explosion equivalent to that of 1,200 tons of TNT. 
 Also present near these overflowing munitions magazines are thousands of liters of ship fuel and other dangerous chemicals that could cause an ecological disaster in the event of a spill. 
 A leak of the 10 tons of chloropicrin - a dangerous soil fumigant that causes vomiting and eye-irritation on contact - could pollute up to 6,920 square meters of beach space surrounding Kotlin Island, according to an environmental assessment report by Arkady Rudenko, head of Kronshtadt district Emergency Situations Board.
 In such an eventuality, prevailing winds and ocean currents could spell ecological problems for the Ku rort ny, Primorsky, Lo mo no sovsky, Pet ro dvort sovy and Kras noselsky districts of the city, the report said. 
 Meanwhile ammunition explosions could destroy the island's entire infrastructure and leave thousands homeless. 
 According to Surikov, the Defense Ministry should have removed the surplus ammunition and liquidated it years ago. But with the Baltic Fleet's coffers dry, removing ammunition and chemicals got bumped down the list of priorities. 
 But Surikov has a second headache regarding the ammunition surrounding his city: It brings down the property value and slows real-estate development. 
 By 2020, the city plans to take over 142 hectares of land now occupied by various military installments. In the meantime, however, the administration wants to develop tourism - something that's hard to do with live ammunition practically under your beach-blanket. 
 Still, Vladimir Tyra, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Emergency Situations board, was optimistic. "I wouldn't exaggerate the problem," he said Wednesday. "The Kronshtadt stores contain excessive numbers of reserve ammunition - as a result of recent military reforms - which need to be taken out and liquidated. The solution is on its way."

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Pavlova's Ashes

LONDON (Reuters) - The ashes of Anna Pavlova, arguably Russia and the world's greatest ballerina, are finally on their way back to her homeland from a cemetery in London where they have been on display since her death 70 years ago.
Harvey Thomas, a director at the London Cremation Company which owns the Golders Green Crematorium where Pavlova's remains are held, said Tuesday that he would be flying to Moscow on March 13 with the ashes.
His party will also be carrying the remains of her husband, Victor Dandre. The two urns are to be presented to Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.
"Russia wants these things desperately," Thomas said. "And yet we are battling with the Russian Embassy in London for visas."
Thomas added that the crematorium accepted an application for Pavlova's ashes from the Committee of Russian and Slavonic Art, which had the backing of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
 
877,000 Amnestied 

MOSCOW (AP) - About 877,000 people benefited from an amnesty Russia granted last year to convicts and people facing criminal charges, the Prosecutor General's Office said Tuesday. 
 Parliament regularly passes amnesties for people convicted of or charged with minor crimes in an effort to relieve overcrowding in prisons and pretrial detention centers. 
 Russia has more than 900,000 people behind bars, one of the world's highest incarceration rates. 
 Last year's amnesty, which was in force from the end of June to the end of November, freed 206,200 convicts, the Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. 
 Another 466,906 people who were convicted of crimes but were not imprisoned - those given a suspended sentence or put on probation - benefited from the amnesty. Ongoing investigations against 143,497 people were dropped, the statement said.
 A spokesperson for the Justice Ministry department in charge of prisons said 42,585 people had been freed from pretrial detention. The Prosecutor's Office said that of the 877,000 people amnestied, 12,237 had committed crimes again. 
 
Nuclear Pensions

MOSCOW (AP) - In Russia's latest effort to boost its ailing defense industry, Prime Minister Mik hail Kasya nov on Tuesday raised pensions for retired workers of nuclear weapons plants. 
 In addition to a regular government pension, the retirees will receive a supplement that will make their monthly pension equivalent to at least 55 percent of their monthly wage before retirement, the government press service said. Those who have government medals or spent more than 15 years on the job will receive higher pensions. 
 President Vladimir Putin promised to increase social benefits for nuclear weapons workers last year when he toured Russia's major nuclear arms manufacturer in the Ural Mountains city of Snezhinsk, known as Che lya binsk-70 during Soviet times. 
 
Baikal Funding

MOSCOW (SPT) - The government has boosted funding for the protection of Lake Baikal, the earth's oldest and deepest lake, Itar-Tass reported on Tuesday. 
 More than 90 million rubles ($3.2 million), or one-third more than last year, will be spent on conservation efforts for the lake in 2001, the agency said, citing Valery Molotov, head of the Lake Baikal water resource management committee. 
 Molotov said his committee was planning to draft legislation that would regulate water levels and fishing, Itar-Tass said. 
 
Diplomatic Drugs?

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) - A senior customs officer said on Thursday that North Koreans were smuggling opium into the Russian Far East by rail and that they were probably hiding the drug in diplomatic pouches. 
 Vladimir Davydov, chief of the drug-smuggling department of the State Customs Committee's Far East office, told a news conference in Vladivostok that police regularly confiscate industrially processed opium from North Korean citizens. 
 Customs officers did not record a single attempt to smuggle opium into the Russian Far East last year using the single railway connection between North Korea and Russia. But Davydov said smuggling exists. 
 "There is a theory that this type of drug is smuggled through diplomatic channels, in their diplomatic shipments, which are impossible to inspect," Davydov said. "Ninety-nine percent of it could come this way." 
 North Korea has a consulate in the port of Nakhodka, located about 6,500 kilometers east of Moscow, as well as an embassy in Moscow. It is illegal to inspect diplomatic bags, and a customs officer can lose his job for doing so.
 
Minsk Attacks CIA

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - In the latest attack against the West, Belarus accused the CIA of turning the former Soviet republic into a "playground for their spies and agents."
 Alexander Zimovsky, deputy chairman of the state TV and radio company, devoted a special broadcast of the "Echo" program late Wednesday night to alleged subversive activities by the CIA in Belarus. 
 Zimovsky accused the Central Intelligence Agency of inciting separatism and religious strife in Belarus, undermining the economy and financing political opposition groups. 
 U.S. Ambassador Michael Kozak declined comment on Thursday. 
 Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko routinely accuses Western democracies of plotting against his government and of financing opposition activities. 
 
Webcast With Putin

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians have started throwing questions at President Vladimir Putin ahead of an Internet interview and Webcast, Web sites showed Wednesday.
 The questions sent so far for Tuesday's interview - gathered on Strana.ru, Gazeta.ru and the British Broadcasting Corporation's online service - were mostly serious and covered many pressing topics.
 They included worries over freedom of speech in Russia, the country's status as a superpower, its economic woes and relations with NATO and the United States.
 Some questions were light-hearted: One person wanted to know what was the first car Putin had bought while another, obviously a fan of the sport, asked if he bowled.
 "Which soccer team do you support?" was another question.
 Others had more weighty matters on their minds: "Do you soon plan to restore the role of the secret services? Will the KGB be reinstituted?" asked one person, referring to Putin's background as a former KGB agent and previous head of the Federal Security Service.

TITLE: Soros Letters Slam Svyazinvest
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Still smarting from what he calls the worst investment he ever made, billionaire financier George Soros is moving to salvage what he can from his disastrous $1.875 billion purchase of a blocking stake in national telecoms holding Svyazinvest in 1997.
 The New York-based Soros Fund Management this week sent a letter to fellow shareholders in Mustcom, the Soros-led consortium that purchased the stake in Svyazinvest, saying that it wants to issue global depository receipts on Mustcom notes and delay by five years the date at which those notes will convert to Svyazinvest shares.
 The Soros Fund on Thursday declined to comment on the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The St. Petersburg Times. 
 But the letter, taken together with one Soros sent in December to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman, lays out Soros' concerns that Mustcom will lose value and influence as a result of the massive consolidation of the telecoms industry, when 80-plus operators, most of them majority owned by Svyazinvest, will be merged into seven.
 "[Mustcom's blocking stake] can veto important corporate actions by Svyazinvest that require 75 percent shareholder approval under Russian company law," and splitting up would dissolve the investor group's leverage, the letter to Mustcom noteholders said.
 "The value of [Mustcom's] investment has precipitously fallen since August 1997 and continues to erode," Soros wrote in his letter to Kasyanov and Reiman.
 Soros is asking Mustcom investors, which includes former Cabinet minister and owner of the giant Interros group Vladimir Potanin, to prolong the consortium until Aug. 11, 2006. 
 Formed in 1997 to purchase a 25 plus one share in Svyazinvest, Cyprus-based Mustcom will be liquidated under its current shareholders agreement Aug. 11 and its notes converted into underlying shares of Svyazinvest.
 The original deadline was actually August 2000, a date chosen before sector consolidation was planned, and when the government was still mulling over privatizing an additional 25 percent minus two shares of Svyazinvest.
 But converting Mustcom notes into Svyazinvest shares has since lost its appeal for Soros, analysts polled said. Mustcom would lose its bargaining power in the course of restructuring the industry if it is absorbed into Svyazinvest. 
 "For Soros, he's obviously trying to find his exit out of Svyazinvest," said Deutsche Bank telecoms analyst Yuly Matevossov. 
 "I think they get some protection by having that 25 plus 1 share stake blocking stake. And yes, it would be in their interest to prolong the Mustcom agreement, rather than individual members just picking up and going off on their own," said Ari Krel, telecoms analyst at United Financial Group.
 Some analysts questioned the need for such a long extension, saying that getting through restructuring would be enough for noteholders. 
 Since the initial investment, there has been sparse trading and it is difficult to put a value on the notes. Having depository receipts would let Mustcom notes trade in smaller blocks, below the current minimum of $1 million, the letter said.
 "Investors in Mustcom have no liquidity for their investments so if they want to buy - or, more likely, if they want to sell - there's really no mechanism to do that. They are kind of locked in," Krel said.
 The Soros Fund, which proposes issuing depository receipts of up to 20 to 25 percent of Mustcom's capital, also proposes issuing the GDRs free of voting rights in order to retain its blocking stake in Svyazinvest.
 In Soros' first letter, to Kasyanov and Reiman, he stated that he didn't agree that the government should have controlling stakes in the planned seven new operators, and that Mustcom should be allowed to convert its Svazyinvest stake into stakes in these operators.
 But the government is opposed to such a share swap arrangement, said Svyazinvest spokesperson Oleg Mikhailov. He reiterated that the government intends to keep the controlling stakes in the seven pan-regional companies, but said it was still too early to comment on exchanging shares in Svyazinvest for stakes in the new operators. 
 However, Soros said "the government and Mustcom may eventually exchange their Svyazinvest holdings for direct equity in the supra-regional operators."
 All parties involved expect an influx of investment into the sector once consolidation is completed, predicted for 2003. Market capitalization of Svyazinvest stood at $1.2 billion at the beginning of this year, with the expectation of rising three or four-fold after consolidation, Mikhailov said. 
 "The industry restructuring will re-invigorate investor interest in Svyazinvest," the Soros Fund wrote.
 It also called for an informal meeting of Mustcom noteholders to be held in London on March 9, and a formal vote on the proposal in either April or May.

TITLE: Court Supports Baltika In Trademark Decision
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Temkin and Sergei Rybak
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: After five months of legal wrangling, a Moscow court Tuesday finally bottled up a local tobacco company's bid to sell cigarettes under the name and logo of top brewery Baltika.
 Last October the first load of Bal tika No. 3 and Baltika No. 9 cigarettes that were manufactured by Moscow region-based Meta-Tabak went on sale in St. Petersburg, where the beer giant is based. The design of the packs was virtually identical to that of the beer label: similar script, three waves and a crown.
 The brewery, which had already registered its trademark for several types of goods, including tobacco products, wasted no time taking Meta-Tabak to court. As soon as the claim was filed with the Moscow region arbitration court the tobacco plant stopped making the cigarettes. Only 10,000 cartons went into circulation.
 The case dragged on while an expert examination of the trademarks was carried out at the court's request by the Federal Institute of Industrial Property.
 Baltika lawyer Vadim Uskov, said that "the court ruled that the logos were similar to the point of confusion."
 On Tuesday, the court not only banned Meta-Tabak from producing the cigarettes, it also ordered it to purchase ads in local media outlets saying so.
 The court ordered Meta-Tabak to pay for ads in three newspapers - the official government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Izvestia. It also ordered it to do the same on state-owned television channels RTR and ORT.
 Baltika also won the second part of its claim concerning unprincipled competition.
 "Imitating the Baltika label is already a violation of the laws on advertising and competition. Even if the trademark had not been registered, Meta-Tabak's actions have all the elements of unscrupulous competition," Uskov said.
 Meta-Tabak said it would appeal the ruling.
 Grigory Israelyan, general director of Soyuzkontrakt Tabak, Meta-Tabak's parent company, said the only claim made by Baltika that the court took into consideration was the crown shown on the pack.
 "We are prepared to remove or change this element in the design of the cigarettes," he said.
 Israelyan claimed that his company's lawyers showed that the key elements of the design - the word Baltika and the three waves - were not registered. He refused to elaborate, saying that neither side had the full text of the court decision.

TITLE: Kremlin and S. Korea To Cooperate on Oil, Gas
AUTHOR: By Christopher Park
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea and Russia on Tuesday agreed to boost cooperation on development of a major natural gas field in Siberia and other oil and gas projects, but no firm details were announced.
 "The two parties agreed to closely cooperate on the gas development project in Irkutsk," the two countries said in a joint declaration issued after talks between President Vladimir Putin and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
 They also pledged "to continue to discuss issues of mutual concern such as Korea's participation in oil and gas development projects in Sakhalin and other areas of Russia as well as mineral resources trade," the declaration said.
 An official at South Korea's Commerce, Industry and Energy Ministry said Russia Petroleum company chief executive Vladimir Kazakov and Sakhalin Governor Igor Farkhutdinov were among Russians who met South Korean officials on the sidelines of Putin's visit.
 "Mr. Kazakov conveyed to our officials that President Putin would like very much for South Korea to participate in the Irkutsk project after the feasibility study is completed next year," said the ministry official who asked not to be named.
 The Kovykta gas field near Irkutsk could yield an enormous 1.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, but would require some $11 billion in investment, including a 4,115-kilometer pipeline to South Korea via China and possibly North Korea.
 Kazakov's firm, Rusia Petroleum, which owns the concession to exploit the gas field, is a consortium of Britain's BP Amoco and several Russian oil companies. South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp. last November agreed to participate in a joint feasibility study on developing the field with Russia and China National Petroleum Corp.
 Farkhutdinov asked South Korean officials to consider participating in oil and gas projects on Sakhalin, a Russian island north of Korea.
 "Governor Farkutdinov urged South Korea to participate in Sakhalin's oil and gas projects. But no formal agreements or promises have beenmade. We only said that our side would consider the proposal," said the South Korean ministry official. The official added that Farkutdinov's attention focused on possible South Korean investment in the Sakhalin-1 or 2 offshore projects.
 Rosneft and its subsidiary Sakhalinmorneftegaz hold a consolidated stake of 20 percent in Sakhalin-1 where oil production is expected to begin in 2005.
 Foreign participants in Sakhalin-1 include operator ExxonMobil, which owns a 30 percent stake, Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development Co. Ltd. also holding 30 percent, and India's ONGC Videsh Ltd., which holds 20 percent.
 An official at KOGAS said that the Sakhalin-2 project alone would require about $10 billion in investment, of which more than $1.3 billion has already been spent. Sakhalin-2, which produces 80,000 barrels per day of crude, began producing oil on a commercial basis in July 1999. Production of liquefied natural gas from the field is slated to begin in 2006, with 9 million tons slated for export to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and other markets.
 Shareholders in Sakhalin-2 include Royal Dutch/Shell with 55 percent equity, Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. with 20 percent and Japan's Mitsui & Co. Ltd. with 25 percent.

TITLE: MinFinTo Pay Back Investors In Failed High-Speed Railway
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - After 30 months of heckling by foreign and domestic investors in St. Petersburg's failed $5 billion state-backed high-speed railway project, Prime Minster Mikhail Kasyanov on Thursday officially ordered the Finance Ministry to pay them back.
 The Finance Ministry said that this month it would begin to pay back a total of about 1 billion rubles ($35 million) worth of bonds bought by some 2,500 investors.
 The bonds were issued by state-controlled RAO Vysokoskorostnye Magistrali (VSM-High-Speed Railways), which was created in 1991 to manage the construction of a 654-kilometer rail link that would halve the travel time between Moscow and St. Petersburg to just 2 1/2 hours.
 With the grandiose project put on hold indefinitely, Kasyanov also ordered that VSM's property be transferred to the federal register.
 But it is not clear how much the state will benefit from this property - a huge abandoned pit in downtown St. Petersburg that was dug up to build a $340 million complex that combines a railway station and a large trade center.
 To finance the project, VSM issued $120 million worth of state-guaranteed bonds, borrowed $200 million from British banks Indosuez and SBC Warburg, won a battle with ecologists and relocated hundreds of people from several apartment blocks, which are now a giant hole that is supposed to be the basement of the complex.
 But the project collapsed along with the economy in August 1998.
 VSM defaulted on its debts in 1998 and 1999, forcing creditors to pressure the Finance Ministry to fulfil its obligations.
 Andrei Vorontsov, deputy head of the Finance Ministry's securities department, said Thursday that beginning this week the ministry will "definitely" honor its guarantees.
 Vorontsov said the reason the debts had not been honored until now was twofold - the absence of special funds in the state budget, and an "imperfectly" written guarantee agreement that would allow such payments.
 "There were three conditions where we would honor VSM's debts: if it has no property [that can be sold], if it is officially bankrupt, or force majeure," Vo ront sov said. "None of these are in place - it has property, but it is not liquid. It is not recognized by a court as bankrupt. And there is no force majeur." 
 He said the Finance Ministry had just changed this agreement to include insolvency as a condition under which it would pay VSM's debts.
 The Property Ministry, which will take control of VSM's property, refused to comment on the transfer.
 VSM deputy director Igor Kiselyov said that he does not yet know what will happen to the stalled project after the property is transferred to the state register.
 "Of course the [trade center] must be built. You don't think that a big hole in the center of the city would remain there forever, do you?" he said rhetorically.

TITLE: Pensions To Be Paid Via Bank Machines
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Starting this month more than 1,000 pensioners across Russia will not have to stand in line to collect their monthly stipend - they will just have to remember their personal identification number.
 As part of an ambitious program to cut down on paperwork and increase fiscal oversight, state-owned savings bank Sberbank has launched the Pension Card, which allows pensioners to access their payments through automated teller machines throughout the country.
 The first cards, which run on the Cirrus/Maestro network, were made available Feb. 1 and the first credits on the accounts of card keepers will be posted next week.
 Sberbank hopes to attract more of Russia's 38 million pensioners to the program once the system is up and running and an information campaign is intensified. Perhaps the biggest selling point of the Pension Card is that it allows the holder to avoid the enormous lines that form at every Sberbank on payday.
 Oleg Kurishev, one of the organizers of the project, said Sberbank is currently putting together an informational campaign that will help explain the new card system and, hopefully, attract more clients.
 "All pensions will be transferred from the Russian Pension Fund on the same day in order to make control easier," fund spokesperson Roman Dya kov said Wednesday.
 Now pensioners that opt for the card can withdraw their money from one of Sberbank's 340 ATM machines 24 hours a day. Or they can use the card with a human teller at one of the bank's 1,980 branches. In Moscow alone, there are 130 Sberbank ATMs and 770 branches.
 There are some drawbacks, however: The new card does not work outside of Russia or at other Russian banks.
 And card owners are charged between 50 rubles and 120 rubles a year for the service, depending on the region.
 A 0.5 percent commission is charged on every transaction only if the client takes money from a different region than his or her own.
 Dyakov lauded the new technology, but said the Pension Fund has received some complaints as well - the biggest one being that elderly people often forget their code, and after three incorrect entries the computer blocks access to the card.
 Another problem, which is also connected to old age, Dyakov said, is that many people simply do not understand such things as ATMs and get confused.
 The new card is aimed mainly at pensioners with relatively high income levels who are still of active age - people who can easily pay 120 rubles a year for the service and who do not have time to stand in lines, said Andrei Sobolev, the director of Sberbank's card department.
 Sobolev said in a telephone interview Wednesday that pensioners are one of his bank's main clients.
 Sobolev added that "pension" is a rather conventional title for the program because soon the cards will be offered to other people who receive state benefits, including students.
 The Pension Fund said that more than 30 billion rubles ($1.07 billion) in pension payments flow through Sberbank each month.
 Nationwide, the average pension in December was 822 rubles ($29), or just 76.3 percent of the state-defined subsistence level, Interfax quoted an official from the Economic Development and Trade Ministry as saying Wednesday.

TITLE: PM Stresses Need for Economic Stimulation
AUTHOR: By Darya Korsunskaya
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov urged the government on Thursday to take steps to stimulate economic growth this year as record expansion in 2000 slowed in the first two months of this year.
 Kasayanov, speaking at the opening of a cabinet meeting, called for efforts to make industry more competitive, including by removing bureaucratic obstacles.
 Russian news agencies also quoted him as saying the 2001 budget, amended last week to allow more money to go towards foreign debt servicing, had to be strictly adhered to.
 "We must now work out measures to ensure the unconditional implementation of the budget," he said.
 Prime-Tass agency quoted Kasya nov as saying one of the government's main tasks was to reform the tariff policies of natural monopolies - Russia's gas, electricity and railway networks.
 "For the economic stability established last year to lead to economic growth this year, it is necessary to create the fundamental conditions for this growth," Kasyanov said.
 Russian industrial output grew 9.5 percent last year, but the pace of growth has slowed. In month-on-month terms, industrial growth in January fell 5.4 percent, although it was still up 5.3 percent compared with January 2000.
 The latest Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data, issued on Thursday by Moscow Narodny Bank, showed Russia's manufacturing economy expanded for the 27th successive month in February, but the pace of growth was the slowest since December 1998.
 The seasonally adjusted PMI, intended to give a snapshot of business conditions, registered 50.9 after 51.4 in January, suggesting only marginal growth, the bank said.
 PMI readings above 50 signal an increase in the manufacturing economy on the previous month, while readings below 50 signal a contraction.
 Moscow Narodny said the more modest expansion of Russian manufacturing output at the start of 2001 largely reflected subdued growth of new orders.
 In documents prepared for Thursday's cabinet meeting, preliminary figures showed Russia had a budget surplus in 2000 of 173.5 billion rubles ($6.06 billion), or 2.5 percent of gross domestic product. This is in comparison to a deficit of 1.1 percent of GDP in 1999.

TITLE: Iran's Concerns Over Caspian Cause Delay in Oil Meetings
AUTHOR: By Christopher Pala
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: ALMATY, Kazakstan - Iran has forced the postponement of a crucial Caspian Sea summit and President Mohammad Khatami intends to fly to Moscow as early as next week to negotiate with President Vla di mir Putin on how to share the sea's oil and gas riches, Russian and Iranian sources said Wednesday.
 "The date will be set as soon as Pu tin returns from Korea," said a Russian official who asked not to be named.
 Putin is currently on a state visit to South Korea and Vietnam and is expected back in Moscow this weekend.
 Last month Viktor Kaluzhny, Krem lin special envoy for the Cas pi an, said that the Iranian president wouldn't visit Moscow until March 19.
 But the postponement of the summit highlights the urgency felt by, and the deep divisions among, the five littoral states - Russia, Iran, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan - on hammering out a legal framework for the management of the world's largest closed body of water.
 These divisions, analysts say, could delay the exploitation of the oil and gas lying below the surface of the Caspian, which is emerging as the world's third-largest oil-bearing region after the Persian Gulf and Siberia, which sandwich it.
 Iran, which has the least undersea oil and gas in its southern-rim coastline, is insisting on what it considers to be an equitable sharing of the oil wealth.
 "Equal division and collective utilization of the Caspian is the best legal basis for determining the new legal regime," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told Tehran radio last week.
 Russia, Kazakstan and, increasingly, Azerbaijan, all favor splitting up the seabed using median lines starting at the coastline borders, as is done in lakes. But this would give Iran only about 13 percent of the seabed, with very little oil in it.
 Iran argues forcefully that the Caspian's resources should be shared equally, which would mean giving each state the rights to 20 percent of the seabed. Turkmenistan has largely sided with Iran and vigorously contested Azeri drilling in what it considers to be its sector, near the Caspian's central waist, and obtained the cancellation of a production sharing agreement between top Russian oil major LUKoil and Azerbaijan.
 Settling the status of the Caspian Sea is important in two respects, said Denton Wilde Sapte lawyer Zaur Bagirov, who specializes in Caspian issues.
 "First, there are a number of disputed oil fields in which investors won't invest until the ownership issue is resolved," Bagirov said in a telephone interview from Brussels.
 "Second," he said, "Russia and Iran insist that there can be no pipeline under the sea until there is an agreement on the status of the Caspian Sea."
 Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Ka zak stan have made no such commitments - for good reason.
 Kazakstan is gradually moving toward greater participation in a pipeline proposed by the United States that would run from Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. For the oil from its huge Kashagan field in the northern Caspian to flow that route, it would have to be piped south to the Turkmen city of Turkmenbashi and then by undersea pipeline to Baku.
 The plan is supported by Azerbaijan, which is looking to fill its pipeline to make it profitable. But it is opposed by Iran and Russia, who want Kashagan's oil to flow through their territories, which would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees and increased political leverage. Turkmenistan had also envisioned exporting its gas reserves through an undersea gas pipeline to Turkey via Baku, but decided instead last November to sell it to Russia through existing pipelines.
 In addition to energy sharing, the five countries must agree on issues ranging from military to fishing and pollution. Iran is calling for a demilitarization of the sea, over-fishing is pushing the sturgeon toward extinction, and no system has been set up to establish responsibility for pollution.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Reserves Fall $200M

Moscow (SPT) - The Central Bank's hard currency and gold reserves fell $200 million to $28.7 billion in the week ending Feb. 16, Interfax reported the bank's press service as saying Thursday.
The bank, which rarely comments on the weekly figure, gave no reason for the drop in the reserves.
 
Phone Rates Rise

(SPT) - Russia's Antimonopolies Ministry announced Tuesday that it had granted a hike in monthly fees charged by a number of regional telephone companies for local service.
 Customers in St. Petersburg, the Nov gorod, Nizshniy Novgorod, Belgorod, Ryazan, Tomsk, Kostroma, Vla di mir, Volgograd, and Perm regions and in the Komi and Chuvashia districts began paying about 10 percent more for service at the beginning of March.
 Fees for private lines in St. Petersburg will rise to 73.5 rubles from 60 rubles and to 145 rubles from 110 rubles for public-sector organizations. The monthly fee for private-sector organizations will remain at 145 rubles.
 
Ruble Revised to 29.5

MOSCOW (SPT) - The government has readjusted its annual ruble-dollar forecast, but left unchanged its target inflation figure.
 The annual budget was drafted on the assumption that the exchange rate would average 30 rubles per dollar in 2001, but later the forecast was revised upwards to 29.5 rubles per dollar, according to deputy finance minister Tatiana Golikova, Interfax reported Thursday.
 However, the government left unchanged its inflation target, which is set at 12-14 percent.
 
$228M Gazprom Loan

MOSCOW (AP) - Natural gas giant Gazprom said Wednesday it received approval for a 250 million euro ($228 million) loan from a consortium of European banks.
 It was the first major corporate loan issued to a local company since the country's 1998 financial crisis, when the government defaulted on most of its debt and devalued the ruble.
 Gazprom is the nation's largest company and the world's biggest natural gas producer. A company statement said it would use the loan to help finance construction of a pipeline under the Black Sea to bring Russian gas to Turkey.
 The loan, managed by the German bank Bayerische Hypo und Vereinsbank, brushed off concerns that the current financial crisis in Turkey might delay or cancel the massive project, known as Blue Stream.

TITLE: Tatneft Moves To Up Charter Capital
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - No. 4 oil major Tatneft plans to increase the face value of its shares at an annual shareholder meeting this summer in order to make jumbo ruble bond placements, company officials said Wednesday.
 "The idea is to sell more ruble-denominated bonds in the future," said Sergei Savinykh, head of international reporting and investor relations with Tatneft.
 Securities laws do not allow corporations to place bonds in excess of the amount of their charter capital, so Tatneft - which has a book equity of 232 million rubles ($8.07 million) - currently has to limit its appetite when it tries to tap capital markets.
 Next week, Tatneft will kick off a bond placement worth 200 million rubles, a tiny drop of liquidity for a company that posted revenues of 109 billion rubles last year.
 The company said it is seeking to raise the face value of its shares 10 to 25 times, boosting its charter capital to between $80 million and $200 million.
 "Real interest rates are at their lows," said Denis Rodionov, fixed-income analyst with Brunswick Warburg. "This explains the recent rush on the bond market."
 Companies, banks and investors are flush with rubles and will remain so as long as Russia runs a huge trade surplus, analysts said, so while the price of oil stays high and imports remain low, the bond bonanza is likely to continue.
 The federal government has recently been borrowing at a negative interest rate, promising to pay returns below the forecasted rate of inflation.
 On Wednesday, it placed four-month bonds worth 2.25 billion rubles at face value to yield 13.35 percent, which is in line with the inflation target of 12 percent to 14 percent for 2001.
 But prices are already up some 5 percent since the start of the year, so the forecast appears meaningless.
 Brunswick estimates that the consumer price index will end the year at 17 percent or even higher, so ruble bonds are a positive sum game for almost any borrower at this juncture.
 Tatneft hopes to place the three-year bonds yielding 18 percent to 18.5 percent next week, so if inflation stays at 17 percent throughout 2000, it will pay an interest of a meager 1 percent to 1.5 percent in real terms this year.
 Analysts differ in assessing the impact of the bond placements for Tatneft.
 "If they use proceeds to bid for licenses in western Siberia or Timan-Pechora [and lower their dependence on Tatarstan], I will agree to a placement of any amount," said Steve Allen, oil and gas analyst with Renaissance Capital.

TITLE: Deputies Have Debate Deserving of the Name
AUTHOR: By Barnaby Thompson
TEXT: LAWMAKERS Igor Artemyev and Viktor Yevtukhov have a draft law before the Legislative Assembly that would require St. Petersburg residents eligible for reductions in transport fares to acquire a pass, thus enabling the city to track how many students, military personnel, pensioners and others use public transport, and how often they do so.
 Lawmaker Alexei Kovalyov says this idea is impractical and illogical, and particularly unfair to the city's 1.5 million pensioners who will have to join what are already enormous queues and stand in all weathers to no purpose.
 Thus we were able to witness that rare phenomenon in the assembly: a real debate.
 Kovalyov's performance in the Ma riinsky Palace on Wednesday was impressive. His tactic to cripple the law was to ram it so full of amendments - I counted 14, though as usual the revoting and voting for the revoting confused matters - it would collapse under its own weight.
 At first, it looked like the kind of law deputies regard as on the far side of insignificant, and the first amendment garnered only 11 votes, well short of the 26 needed to be accepted.
 But Kovalyov was on a mission, and spoke eloquently from one of the floor microphones to exhort deputies not to burden pensioners with extra paperwork. (He has a bunch of other objections as well, noting, for example, that giving someone the kind of document that can be traced can also be passed to a grandson or niece, and just try catching them at rush hour in Nevsky Prospect metro station. But it was the thought of pensioners queuing in the snow that melted the deputies' hearts.)
 With each amendment, and each explanation from Kovalyov as to why he had introduced it, lawmakers grew more and more solemn. Up crept Kovalyov's support - 16 votes, 18, 21, 23. ... Not one was accepted, but by now there was enough concern in the chamber for the earlier amendments to be considered again.
 The cocksure faces of Artemyev and Yevtukhov, who had been standing around coolly in the center of the chamber, took on a worried sheen. Rather than smile smugly as another amendment was consigned to the trash, they began to push their own case as the number of votes "for" steadily rose. It's budget money we're talking here, they said, wading among the chairs and tables of their increasingly heated colleagues. Deputy Speaker Konstantin Serov was nowhere, Communist deputy Stanislav Zhitkov was doing his comic turn up in the tribune - in short, it was gripping stuff.
 In the end, only one of Kovalyov's amendments was adopted, though it might have been more if more deputies had been present. But I couldn't have cared less if the law had been to do with outlawing margarine. It was real debate, and I loved it.

TITLE: Putin Could Learn From Korea
AUTHOR: By Russell Working
TEXT: IT was always unlikely that, on his visit to South Korea this week, President Vladimir Putin would plunge into the crowded streets of Seoul, poking his nose into antique shops while munching on street vendors' roasted silkworms.
 There was nothing on his itinerary about shopping trips to the chaos of the Namdaemun Market, stopping to check his e-mail at one of the Internet cafes located on every block or a bullet train ride down to Pusan, one of Asia's great seaports.
 But one can't help wishing Putin's South Korean hosts had hustled him out of the government buildings and onto the streets, where he might glimpse the everyday signs of affluence that are mostly absent in the Russian Far East. Putin - who scurried to shore up ties with North Korea during his first six months in office - still shows little grasp of the sea changes that are happening in Asia. Russia's Eastern policy amounts to courting the Chinese in a geopolitical chess game against the United States. Meanwhile, most of Asia (China included) has figured out that power in the coming century will accrue to the wealthy.
 Thirty years ago, South Korea's per capita gross domestic product was comparable to those of the poorer countries of Africa, according to the CIA World Factbook. Yet over the past three decades, the nation has undergone a transformation of the sort that Russian desperately needs. Not only has it shed its authoritarian government and elected a former political prisoner as president, its economic growth has been amazing.
 As of 1999, South Korea's per capita income of $13,300 soared above Russia's $4,200 figure. Russia has more than three times the population and 173 times the land space as South Korea. By contrast, South Korea has few natural resources, is essentially an island cut off from the Asian mainland by a hostile North, and must cope with an enormous drain on resources as it defends itself against the threat of the world's fifth-largest army.
 Yet by creating a safe climate for business, South Korea's annual GDP swelled by 1999 to $625.7 billion - $5.4 billion larger than Russia's. Despite the 1997-99 Asian financial crisis, South Korea's economy grew at a rate of 10 percent in 1999, compared with 3.2 percent in Russia.
 These numbers are reflected on the streets. Koreans chatter into mobile phones, eat at T.G.I. Friday's and buy Gap clothes in the boutiques lining streets that turn into glowing canyons of neon at night.
 Meanwhile, Vladivostok, the largest city in the Russian Pacific, is a poor cousin. In January, during the coldest winter since 1949, most of the city had little or no heating, and blackouts lasted up to 21 hours a day. Taxes, red tape and extortion attempts by the regional authorities have driven away most foreign investors. Fast-food chains that are common even in communist China (such as Kentucky Fried Chicken) have shied away from the Russian Far East.
 Strikingly, South Koreans have been prominent among those willing to invest in the Russian Far East despite former governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko's alleged looting of the Primorye region, where Vladivostok is located. These investors hope trains from Seoul will soon rattle through North Korea to the Trans-Siberian Railroad, linking Seoul and Helsinki through what President Kim Dae-jung calls the "iron silk road." Koreans are eager to build pipelines bringing Russian natural gas through China to Seoul, and they hunger for a taste of the fisheries of the Sea of Okhotsk.
 Yet it is hard to be hopeful. Putin recently forced out the single greatest hindrance to the development of the Russian Far East - Nazdratenko, a man feared by foreign investors and hated by his own people - but rather than try the former governor on corruption charges, Putin appointed him to head the State Fisheries Committee. There is no sign that Vladivostok will suddenly welcome foreign investment. Konstantin Pulikovsky, Putin's representative to the Far East, last year questioned why Russia should integrate itself into the economies of Asia. "They should integrate into us," he said.
 Maybe a stroll through Seoul would give Putin a glimpse of why South Koreans feel they have little to learn from a country that can't even keep the lights burning at night. And one that promotes a governor accused of destroying his region's economy.

TITLE: Any Substance To the Rumors This Time?
TEXT: WITH Gov. Vladimir Yakov lev away from his desk this week on a 10-day holiday at a Swiss ski resort, the city's political circles have been buzzing - again - with rumors that when he comes back, it will not be to his current job.
 It's not that they doubt the governor's prowess on the slopes and fear that some injury may incapacitate him. In fact, commentators have merely noted that Yakovlev currently enjoys President Vladimir Putin's sport of choice, just as he was known for his tennis-playing ability when Boris Yeltsin was in charge.
 The rumor going around is that Yakovlev had an unpleasant conversation with Putin the other day, in which the president made an offer Yakovlev couldn't refuse: taking Pavel Borodin's place as supervisor of the Russia-Belarus Union.
 Although Yakovlev ran for re-election last May unopposed by any Kremlin-backed candidate - an intriguing story in itself - and won convincingly, his position has never looked entirely secure. While he and Putin have publicly been on nodding terms, no one can quite forget Putin's reaction to Yakovlev's first election victory in 1996, when he unexpectedly defeated Anatoly Sobchak for the city's top job. Both Putin and Yakovlev had worked under Sobchak, but when Yakovlev broke ranks and won, Putin branded him a "Judas" - not particularly worrying at the time, perhaps, but cause for concern when Putin became president.
 Politicians at both local and federal levels maintain that Putin has not forgotten the past and would be more than happy to give Yakovlev the boot - all the more so with St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary coming up in 2003.
 Fanning the flames has been the amount of state money St. Petersburg is supposed to get for the anniversary celebrations. According to some observers, the sum gets bigger the further away Yakovlev is from Smolny.
 If a deal is struck, Yakovlev "moves sideways" to the Russia-Belarus outfit, Borodin's chances of getting out of jail grow slimmer, St. Petersburg gets $1 billion or more, and the only thing to be decided is the next governor.
 Of the various names being mentioned, the strongest rumor backs Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of the presidential administration, and one of many members of the supposedly liberal-leaning St. Petersburg team in the government. Another name is Vice Gov. Valery Malyshev, recalled from the State Duma by Yakovlev and seen by many as his preferred successor, which in this case would probably rule him out. A third is Lyudmila Narusova, Sobchak's widow, but this is the contest's long shot.
 Going on holiday, like suddenly being admitted to hospital, is often regarded as code for an imminent and enforced change of career. Nonetheless, Yakovlev's spokesperson Alexander Afanasyev is quick to dismiss all these rumors out of hand and say that the governor is tired and just wants time to relax. "Journalists have given Yakovlev a million different jobs already, and he is still governor," Afanasyev said this week. "One of these days I'm going to write them all down, and the dates on which the governor was due to take them up."
 At various times, indeed, the local political rumor mill has had Yakovlev about to be appointed Russian Ambassador to Tanzania, about to move to the State Construction Committee, or having hanged himself at his dacha in Repino.
 As usual, the Legislative Assembly is divided. Independent lawmaker Alexander Shchelkanov said that the governor wasn't stupid enough to leave a position that offered him some safety. Other deputies, however, thought that they saw a bit more substance to the latest rumors. One bad sign for Yakovlev, for example, was the government's decision to take construction of the Ring Road out of St. Petersburg's hands and put it into those of the Transport Ministry.
 But most of all, if you were Putin, where would you want your Judas: standing on Palace Square on May 27, 2003, leading the 300th anniversary celebrations and basking in glory - or in the company of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk?

TITLE: Cherkesov'sRecord Must Be Straight
TEXT: Propaganda or agitation that incites social, racial, national or religious hatred or hostility is prohibited. Propaganda espousing ideas of racial, national, religious or linguistic supremacy is also prohibited.
 Article 29, Section 2.
 Constitution of the Russian Federation.
 
 THE appearance of an article entitled "A National Sense of Justice and Russian Statehood" in the winter issue of the Journal "Admiralteistvo: Northwest Russia" should provoke, if not surprise, then alarm for Russians.
 The article, written by Oleg Karatayev, demonizes Poles, Germans, Tatars, Che chens and Jews as having impeded the development of the Russian state. Sadly, there are plenty of people ready to make such statements. Sadder still is the fact that - while the majority would disagree with Karatayev's philippic - its sentiments are far too often the stuff of public discourse.
 What is alarming is that Viktor Cher kesov, governor general of the Northwest region, wrote the introductory article to the edition, in which he stressed objectivity and involvement in the political process as the vital work of the media.
 True, Cherkesov's spokesperson did say that the governor general does not agree with these ideas. But the existence of his introduction - complete with his photo, signature and good wishes - would appear to refute the statement that Cherkesov "has nothing to do with publications of this kind."
 The problem in this instance is that, even if we accept the responses of the governor general's spokesperson, it's still just not good enough. If, as his spokesperson claims, Cherkesov was tricked into giving the appearance of supporting the positions the magazine espouses, then what we have is a matter of false appearances.
 But it is far too easy in politics to confuse appearance with reality and, as a politician and a leader, it has to be Cherkesov's responsibility to make it clear that what the journal seems to say about him is false.
 He should make a strong and public statement, both distancing himself from the association of his name - and the president he represents - with these ideas, and countering them as well.
 He should make it clear that the sentiments in the article have caused too much turmoil and violence in history, and that they have no place in Russia's future.
 He should acknowledge the fact that Russia is a multinational state, and that the divisive nature of such ideas cannot in anyway help with the development of a peaceful society based on principles of law.
 And if he gets stuck on the wording, he could always refer to Russia's Constitution.

TITLE: Mailbox
TEXT: Dear Editor,
 Masha Gessen's criticism of my opinion piece on legal reform ["Aid That Works," Feb. 20; Letters, Feb.23] is an example of why Western professionals only infrequently say anything positive about reform in Russia. If one says anything positive, one is immediately branded an apologist, or worse supporter, of the pace and details of reform efforts. Of course, this silence contributes to the fatigue of Western donors. With virtually no one saying that reform is bringing about any progress, they see little reason to continue to support it.
 
With that understanding, I would probably not have responded to a charge that the wool has been pulled over my eyes. I cannot, however, let pass a charge that I am guilty of "blatant misstatements of fact." Here are the facts.
 Judicial Salaries: Judicial salaries increased substantially in 1997, again in 1999 and were raised again by 20 percent on Dec. 1, 2000. Many judges have special benefits like apartments. Judicial salaries are not yet adequate, but they are increasing and are paid regularly. 
 Judicial Branch Funding: The budget of the courts of general jurisdiction has risen steadily in the past few years: from 3.4 billion rubles in 1998 to 4.2 billion rubles in 1999 to 7.2 billion rubles in 2000 to 11 billion rubles in 2001 - a healthy 220 percent increase over the last three years. Historically, courts have been underfunded and have failed to receive even the amount appropriated to them in a timely fashion. However, that situation changed under the 1999 law on financing of the courts. That law has a very strong mechanism to insure that the judiciary receives all the funds appropriated and on time. 
 Judicial Training: My original point dealt with training opportunities for judges once they reached that position. National training programs for both general jurisdiction and appellate judges have increased over the years and will increase further in the new Russian Academy of Justice. There are now regular programs in most regions.
 The vast majority of new judges are not former court clerks, as Gessen asserts. Indeed, the largest source of district judges now is prosecutors (20 percent), followed by private lawyers (13.6 percent), interesting facts in light of Gessen's assertions that prosecutors have reassumed a dominant role over judges.
 Gessen makes a different point - that few judges have advanced legal degrees. That same point can be made in the United States where an advanced legal degree is not seen as an important qualification for a judge. I would argue that the same priorities exist in Russia where changing laws and practices make relevant life-long learning more important than an advanced consideration of often out-dated theory.
 Control of the Judiciary: The separation of the judiciary from direct executive-branch control started in 1996 (not seven years ago) with the law authorizing the Judicial Department under the Russian Supreme Court. In 1998, parliament passed implementing legislation, and the Judicial Department began to administer the courts of general jurisdiction, taking that power from the Justice Ministry. Regional court administrators were hired starting in 1998, and the hiring of local court administrators continued through 2000 up to the present. Whether or not one finds these laws to be optimum, the process of self-governance of the independent judiciary is being expanded and developed, not sliding back.
 While it is an aside, I do not agree that executive-branch control of the bailiff's service is as sinister as Gessen alleges. The service is based, in part, on the model of the United States Marshal's Service, which is in the executive branch in this country, and replaced court executors, who were also working under the Justice Ministry. It would have been difficult for the judiciary to assume control over bailiffs at the same time as it was building the judicial department. 
 The World Bank Loan: Gessen's strongest point is the inadequate performance of the Russian Foundation for Legal Reform in administering the World Bank loan to the Russian government for legal reform efforts. Even here, there has been some progress brought about by the restructuring of the governance of the organization and pressure from the World Bank.
 In the Feb. 6 issue of Itogi, part of the Gusinsky media family, Gessen described some of the actions in the various cases involving Gusinsky and concluded: "Gradually, the independent behavior of judges has come to surprise us less because the number of judges nobody has heard of who make decisions according to the law rather than according to 'understandings' has become greater." I can think of no better sign that progress has been made on judicial reform despite the inevitable incidents that slow the pace of reform. A court system that is making more and more difficult decisions according to law, not politics, needs to be supported, not abandoned.
 Justice John Dooley,
 Vermont Supreme Court
 
 
Dear Editor,
 Paul Saunders ["Time To Develop a New U.S. Policy on Russia," Feb. 23] proposes to stop trying to influence Russia's domestic situation, relying instead on the National Missile Defense. I view these recommendations as extremely dangerous. I believe that in several years Russia could become the world capital of heroin, AIDS, tuberculosis, computer crime, advance weaponry research, and prostitution. 
 
In these circumstances, Russian leadership may become extremely confrontational or could simply lose control over the situation.
 In my books "Understanding Russia" and "How to Make Russia a Normal Country" (http://maly.newmail.ru), I distinguish two types of people: producers and claimants. Producers create and all they need is a fence, made of rights and laws, that protects their creativity from the envy of others. Claimants cannot produce and are afraid of becoming successful. All they want is to make it impossible for others to succeed, and that is why they stand for a legal system that makes everyone defenseless and lets the envious rule. Societies also can be either creative or claim-based, and a transformation from one type to the other, though entirely possible, is difficult. 
 Now the Communist dream is gone, but this did not turn people into creators. The basis of their relationship still was lose/lose. Transformation from a claim-based lose/lose society to a creative society securely based on win/win has indeed been happening in Russia, but is far from over.
 Effective protection of creative rights of every individual, necessary to establish win/win in every interaction is called "law." A community of creators, coexisting on the basis of win/win is called "democracy."
 Instead, we picked out a few Russian "economists" and asked them to implement "reforms." America's founding fathers were not economists: They sought freedom, justice, honor and individual opportunity. The "economists" we picked out did not know what fairness is and saw people solely in terms of their usefulness. 
 A program of morality-based economic reform can help Russia recover. If everyone were creating, Russian GNP would at least triple. But for that we must help the Russians grasp the concept of win/win. Saunders talks of pressuring the Russians on a "laundry list of issues," but without win/win as an option Russian state will remain boorish, incapable of sharing our concerns.
 We should create an American university in every major Russian city. We should establish law schools and business schools that would start by teaching their students the magic of win/win and true respect for other people. We should establish schools of social work to reveal what no one here knows: instead of hiding from the state, Russians should act as true citizens and get their state modified. We should also establish in Russia several equivalents of American national laboratories. The West should support civil society in Russia by helping to develop free enterprise and the legal framework necessary for it. Independent democratic media or citizens organizations should also be supported. Communism posed a great moral challenge to the world. We cannot get away from this challenge, and it cannot be reduced to a technical task.
 Matthew Maly,
 Moscow

TITLE: A Difficult Anniversary
AUTHOR: By Paul Goble
TEXT: THURSDAY March 1 marked the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the revolt of Kronshtadt sailors against Soviet power, an anniversary that Russian officials and Russian scholars have found difficult to acknowledge.
 On that date in 1921, 15,000 sailors of the Kronshtadt naval garrison near what is now again St. Petersburg, a group thought to be among the most fanatical supporters of Lenin and the Bolshevik regime, staged a demonstration in front of the cathedral there to protest Soviet repression of worker and civil rights. They demanded new elections in order to have soviets that genuinely reflected the will of workers and peasants.
 Fearing that the appeals of the Kronshtadt sailors would spread to other groups in society, Lenin and the Bolshevik leadership ordered their forcible suppression. Under the leadership of Leon Trotsky, the Red Army attacked Kronshtadt, and by March 18 had killed 15,000 of the sailors and forced another 8,000 to flee across the ice to Finland.
 Like the working class revolts in the Siberian cities of Izhevsk and Votkinsk and the peasant revolts in Tambov and elsewhere during the Civil War, the Kronshtadt protest by hitherto loyal Soviet sailors and the drowning of their efforts in blood presented the Soviet regime ever after with a serious ideological problem.
 On the one hand, it called into question Soviet claims to represent the workers, peasants and soldiers in whose name Lenin had made the revolution and in whose name his government claimed to exercise its power. And on the other hand, it showed that the Soviet regime was prepared to be especially merciless to those who were members of these social categories but who questioned the behavior of the Soviet regime.
 Not surprisingly, the Soviet government and Soviet historians did what they often did when confronted with a fact that did not fit in with their ideological world view: They ignored the event to the point of acting as if it had never happened.
 Access to Kronshtadt was restricted until 1996, and the cornerstone of a monument to the sailors who died was laid only in 1990. In 1994, former president Boris Yeltsin ordered that the Kronshtadt sailors be officially and mostly posthumously rehabilitated, and he called for the erection of a memorial to their heroism.
 But until last year, little was done to implement Yeltsin's order. The government provided no money for constructing a monument, and things appeared to have reverted to the pattern of the Soviet period when no one said anything and nothing appeared to be remembered about the sailors of Kronshtadt.
 Then last winter, Kronshtadt administration head Leonid Surikov organized a competition to design a monument to the sailors. The winning entry consists of a broken mast as a symbol both of the aspirations of the sailors for freedom and their suppression by Lenin and his government. Local historian Marat Kuznetsov is slated to publish a volume on the rising next month.
 Throughout the Soviet period, most Russians were told that the Kronshtadt struggle was an "armed rebellion" or a "counter-revolutionary mutiny." Many people in Russia still believe that, including many in the government. According to Venyamin Iofe who heads the St. Petersburg branch of the Memorial human rights organization, there is a good reason for this.
 As he puts it, "the heirs of the communists are still in power and still determine how we treat history." But he adds that such an interpretation must change because the Kronshtadt sailors did "what was right." His words are echoed by historian Kuznetsov, who said in advance of this difficult anniversary that the events in Kronshtadt in 1921 were not "an armed rebellion." Instead, the rising "was a natural expression of discontent by sailors over the policy of the Bolsheviks directed at their own people."
 
 Paul Goble is director of communications for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He contributed this comment to RFE/RL's Newsline.

TITLE: Global eye
TEXT: Lunar Landing</p> Cult leader and top GOP supporter Sun Myung Moon is wasting no time in toddling down to the trough of government pork that his good buddy George W. Bush is laying out for one of his favorite religions. (Sorry, his favorite &quot;faith-based organizations.&quot;)
 Moon - when he is not pairing up his followers by computer for mass marriages, or slipping a few hundred thousand to George Sr. and Babs for services rendered, or (as official Defense Intelligence Agency documents reveal) sending $3 million to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il as a &quot;birthday present&quot; - likes to dabble in teen sex. Preventing it, that is.
 And so his &quot;faith-based organization,&quot; once called a church but, in true Bushian fashion, now going by the corporate moniker, &quot;Family Federation for World Peace and Unification U.S.A.,&quot; is looking to George's new Office for Faith-Based Initiatives to come across with some scratch for &quot;abstinence programs in the schools,&quot; the Washington Post reports.
 &quot;You will see us deeply involved in any area where we can partner in practical projects with the government,&quot; says Phillip Schanker, the FFWPUUSA's vice president for public affairs. He need hardly have added that for all the quid Moon has poured into Bush pockets, it is now time for a bit of the old pro quo.
 Yes, the Lord does help those who help themselves.
 </p>Fair Warning
 Then again, perhaps we are being too partisan in our disagreements with the Bush Administration and its associates. For, as we all know, those who dissent against conservative orthodoxy are sad, bitter partisans, notorious for engaging in spiteful personal attacks and emotive rhetoric, while the advocates of right-wing truth are universally fair, open-minded, even-handed and responsible.
 Take, for example, Bush supporter Brian Buckley, attorney for the powerful right-wing Web site FreeRepublic.com, and nephew of William Buckley, the renowned &quot;father of modern conservatism.&quot; While the vitriolic morons on the left indulge in childish shouting matches against their enemies, Buckley, in a recent posting, offers this tempered, Christian view of the former president and his wife:
 &quot;Even after [the Clintons] are dead, I say we stuff their bodies, fix them in some kind of preservative, and display them at county fairs across the nation, where the citizenry can have fun putting cow dung on them. Or if that's not in good taste, their bodies should be flattened as thin as possible, again fixed in some kind of preservative and then hoisted up a flagpole to flap in the wind. I'm sure others could come up with some additional ideas, but the point is we all need to spend every waking moment for the rest of our lives - even after the Clintons are dead dead dead - reminding people that the Clintons were bad bad bad. And if we can figure out how to do this in our non-waking moments, we need to act on that too.&quot;
 No vitriol or imbalance there, then. Buckley's non-partisan approach finds an echo in his uncle's august journal, National Review, where columnist John Derbyshire dipped his toe into the water of fairness with this recent piece, &quot;I Hate Chelsea Clinton.&quot;
 &quot;Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint, and though not prosecutable in law, in custom and nature the taint cannot be ignored. All the great despotisms of the past recognized that the families of objectionable citizens were a continuing threat. In Stalin's penal code it was a crime to be the wife or child of an 'enemy of the people.' The Nazis used the same principle, which they called Sippenhaft, 'clan liability.' In Imperial China, enemies of the state were punished 'to the ninth degree': that is, everyone in the offender's own generation would be killed, and everyone related via four generations up, to the great-great-grandparents, and four generations down, to the great-great-grandchildren, would also be killed. (This sounds complicated, but in practice what usually happened was that a battalion of soldiers was sent to the offender's hometown, where they killed everybody they could find, on the principle neca eos omnes, deus suos agnoscet - 'let God sort 'em out.')&quot;
 Well, you certainly can't be any more balanced and fair toward your political opponents than that. It's good to know that the world's greatest superpower is now being guided by mindsets like these.
 Correction
 Not to be pedantic or anything, but as a service to readers we should point out that Mr. Derbyshire is perhaps incorrect in his attribution of the principle neca eos omnes, deus suos agnoscet to the ancient Chinese. Far be it from us to accuse Mr. Derbyshire - or indeed, any acolyte of the famously erudite Yale alumnus William Buckley - of being a pig-ignorant poseur or anything of the sort; and certainly, if Mr. Buckley and Mr. Derbyshire believe the ancient Chinese spoke Latin, why then, who are we to say otherwise?
 However, in the interest of balance and fairness, we should note that most historians attribute the saying - which indeed may be apocryphal - to Arnold Amaury, a monk in the service of the Catholic crusaders who destroyed the Cathar heresy in southern France in the 13th century. Amaury was the spiritual guide of the troops besieging the town of Beziers in 1209. As the soldiers prepared for their final attack, they asked Amaury how to distinguish the good Catholics of the town from the despised Cathars. Amaury supposedly replied with the aforementioned expression of militant faith.
 Again, not to be controversial in any way, nor to denigrate Mr. Derbyshire's considerable achievement in researching the many ways that &quot;great despotisms&quot; have dealt with their ungrateful dissidents, we would also gently note that most reputable historians translate the phrase not in Mr. Derbyshire's somewhat jocular manner but more straightforwardly and - dare we say it? - correctly as: &quot;Kill them all; God will know His own.&quot; And that's just what they did, of course; the faith-based Crusaders slaughtered almost 20,000 people in Beziers that day.
 We can only hope and pray, with Mr. Derbyshire and Mr. Buckley, that there were some Clintons among them.

TITLE: chernov's choice
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: While the Leningrad concert last week drew an estimated 2,000
 fans and can be considered quite a success for what is mainly
 a club band, Sunday's Cactus Awards bombed.
Intended as trophies for everything from underground clubs to
 the finest club acts, the Cactuses quietly died in 1996 - and
 the 2001 rehashed version demonstrated that they have not become
 any more alive.</p><p>
The worst thing was that the promoters did not bother to inform
 the headliners before they issued press releases and posters
 full of good-sounding names, such as Tequilajazzz or Pep-See.
 Eventually, almost none of them appeared at the farcical ceremony,
 leaving the stage to a bunch of unknowns.</p><p>
As March starts, bigger things are on the horizon as Western
 acts start to descend on the city. While Danish heavy rockers
 <strong>King Diamond </strong>will play the Yubi leiny Sports Palace's Small Arena
 (March 13), with an official capacity of 3,000, the 12,000-strong
 Ice Palace will host the trio of <strong>Melanie C </strong>(March 18), <strong>A-Ha </strong>(March
 20) and <strong>The</strong> <strong>Scorpions </strong>(March 25).</p><p>
But much more exciting news is that <strong>Placebo </strong>will come to the
 city in late June, though neither date nor venue has yet been
 set.</p><p>
Returning to what's happening on the small club scene, a new
 and promising place has just opened right in between Moloko and
 Fish Fabrique. </p><p>
Called <strong>Tsinik, </strong>or Cynic, the place entertained Leningrad when
 they dropped by after the show last Friday, but started properly
 functioning on Monday. It is not your average St. Petersburg
 club, but a sort of art cafe - they have no stage, and performances
 take place between tables. However, the self-styled &quot;worst band
 in the world&quot; Selyodka did play here, while &quot;poetry readings&quot;
 are planned on this Friday - when the audience will be asked
 to recite some poetry. Other happenings and shows are planned
 - for instance, some babushkas, whom one of the club managers
 came across in the Metro, will perform foul-mouthed chastushki
 some day in the future.</p><p>
Opening at 10 a.m., Cynic closes at around midnight (except Friday
 and Saturday when it's open 24 hours). The prices are very reasonable,
 with 50 g of vodka costing 15 rubles and Baltika beer going for
 20 rubles per half liter </p><p>
Now it's open for everybody, but not for long - in future Cynic
 plans to become a member-only &quot;bohemian&quot; cafe.</p><p>
4 Goncharnaya Ul., M: Pl. Vos sta niya. 277-51-64.</p><p>
More traditionally, a new jazz club has been added to the ever-growing
 jazz scene. A basic bar with inexpensive beer, art-direction
 is provided by jazz pianist <strong>Sergei Khilko, </strong>and it hosts mainstream,
 funk, fusion and Latin. Concerts are followed by jam sessions.
 It is conveniently located close to the metro.</p><p>
See Club Guide for location details and times.
 While the Leningrad concert last week drew an estimated 2,000 fans and can be considered quite a success for what is mainly a club band, Sunday's Cactus Awards bombed.
 Intended as trophies for everything from underground clubs to the finest club acts, the Cactuses quietly died in 1996 - and the 2001 rehashed version demonstrated that they have not become any more alive.
 The worst thing was that the promoters did not bother to inform the headliners before they issued press releases and posters full of good-sounding names, such as Tequilajazzz or Pep-See. Eventually, almost none of them appeared at the farcical ceremony, leaving the stage to a bunch of unknowns.
 As March starts, bigger things are on the horizon as Western acts start to descend on the city. While Danish heavy rockers <strong>King Diamond </strong>will play the Yubi leiny Sports Palace's Small Arena (March 13), with an official capacity of 3,000, the 12,000-strong Ice Palace will host the trio of <strong>Melanie C </strong>(March 18), <strong>A-Ha </strong>(March 20) and <strong>The</strong> <strong>Scorpions </strong>(March 25).
 But much more exciting news is that <strong>Placebo </strong>will come to the city in late June, though neither date nor venue has yet been set.
 Returning to what's happening on the small club scene, a new and promising place has just opened right in between Moloko and Fish Fabrique. 
 Called <strong>Tsinik, </strong>or Cynic, the place entertained Leningrad when they dropped by after the show last Friday, but started properly functioning on Monday. It is not your average St. Petersburg club, but a sort of art cafe - they have no stage, and performances take place between tables. However, the self-styled &quot;worst band in the world&quot; Selyodka did play here, while &quot;poetry readings&quot; are planned on this Friday - when the audience will be asked to recite some poetry. Other happenings and shows are planned - for instance, some babushkas, whom one of the club managers came across in the Metro, will perform foul-mouthed chastushki some day in the future.
 Opening at 10 a.m., Cynic closes at around midnight (except Friday and Saturday when it's open 24 hours). The prices are very reasonable, with 50 g of vodka costing 15 rubles and Baltika beer going for 20 rubles per half liter 
 Now it's open for everybody, but not for long - in future Cynic plans to become a member-only &quot;bohemian&quot; cafe.
 4 Goncharnaya Ul., M: Pl. Vos sta niya. 277-51-64.
 More traditionally, a new jazz club has been added to the ever-growing jazz scene. A basic bar with inexpensive beer, art-direction is provided by jazz pianist <strong>Sergei Khilko, </strong>and it hosts mainstream, funk, fusion and Latin. Concerts are followed by jam sessions. It is conveniently located close to the metro.
 See Club Guide for location details and times.

TITLE: sokurov takes intimate look at lenin's last days
AUTHOR: by Kirill Galetski
TEXT: Employing modest means and an uncompromising artistic sensibility, Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov produces works which address the most profound quandaries of human existence. Possessed of uncommon vision and a enormous sense of craft, Sokurov and his screenwriter Yury Arabov create works which are challenging and substantive, but which require concentration to appreciate, because of their often ponderous pacing and minimalist narrative style. 
 His latest film, &quot;Telets&quot; (Taurus), which premiered at Dom Kino this past Wednesday, is a veiled, imaginatively speculative account of the last days of Vladimir Lenin. It is the second work in a planned tetrology of films focusing on the personal side of men in power in the 20th century.
 The first film in the series was &quot;Moloch,&quot; which looked at the relationship between Hitler and Eva Braun.
 The thread that runs through a number of Sokurov's films is a depiction of one kind or another of deterioration and death. Taurus is no exception, and the latter themes are explored in a somewhat more direct way than his previous film, &quot;Moloch,&quot; as it deals with Lenin's gradual wasting away in illness. Part of the fascination of the two films is Sokurov's choice of intriguing times and settings in the lives of the two leaders.
 Both films are extrapolations on relative lulls in their subjects' biographies, but are made somehow subtly dramatic by the intimate situations depicted. Sokurov sees Lenin as an unfortunate and even incongruous figure. &quot;He slept through the Revolution,&quot; he says. &quot;He really missed out on the significant events.&quot;
 Despite the surface trappings of period detail, like Moloch, the film does not look at the events from a historical, political or even exclusively Russian perspective. Accentuating the common human element, it attempts to evince an ailing man at the twilight of his life whose time at the forefront has passed, who sees that his well-intentioned ideals will never be realized, not while he is living, and not after his death.
 Despite being lionized in a personality cult among the masses, he has himself become just about irrelevant in person. The attending staff that take care of him in his last days treat him either with either perfunctory indifference or like a child. He anxiously awaits news from Moscow, but the staff phone rarely rings. His successor, the shade of Stalin (Sergei Razhuk) looks down upon him, and gives him the symbolic gift of a cane.
 The film stars his regular collaborator Leonid Mozgovoy, a highly talented, chameleon-like actor who played Anton Chekhov in Sokurov's &quot;Stone&quot; (Kamen') and Hitler in Moloch. His Lenin is cantankerous and stubborn, wanting to do everything &quot;himself.&quot;
 Both Sokurov and Mozgovoy have commented on the relative difficulty of working on this film in relation to Moloch, since the history explored in this film is much closer to home, literally and figuratively. Maria Kuznetsova, an actress from the Alexandrinsky Theater, portrays Nadezhda Krupskaya as a disheveled and earthy woman seemingly oblivious to Lenin's final concerns.
 Taurus was the first film where Sokurov acted as his own cameraman. It is photographed through an aqua-colored haze, and although there is something of a pall hanging over the proceedings, the script deftly relieves the woe at times, with a few well-placed moments of comic relief. The final scene, where Lenin cries out in despair only to be answered by the mooing of a cow is particularly poignant and powerful.
 A highly personal statement on the pith of contemporary Russian history, Taurus is quietly engrossing. It will most likely have its first public viewing in the West at Cannes this year, to be followed by various other festival screenings.
 
 Taurus is now playing at Dom Kino. See lisitings for details. For more information on Taurus and Sokurov, consult the official Web site at www.sokurov.spb.ru

TITLE: priyut komedianta brings drunken epic to the stage
AUTHOR: by Natasha Shirokova
TEXT: &quot;Everyone says: the Kremlin, the Kremlin. I've heard about it from everyone, but I've never actually seen it myself. So many times (probably a thousand), drunk or hungover, I've walked from north to south and from west to east - but I have never seen the Kremlin&quot;, confesses Venichka at the beginning of his work &quot;Moskva-Petushki.&quot;
 Georgy Vasiliev has taken on the task of staging Venedikt Yerofeev's &quot;poem&quot; at the Priyut Komedianta Theater, and the production premiered on Feb. 15. The performance is worth seeing, as the director creates a poetic kind of theater, finding a theatrical counterpart to the spirit of Yerofeev's delirious prose.
 To stage prose is always a tough task, especially prose which doesn't have a distinct, clear-cut plot. Venichka travels to meet his death and Petushki is not a place, but a paradise which is to be reached only when he dies.
 Although the book begins with the schedule of trains from Moscow to suburban Petushki, Venichka travels in the space of his soul. He is a kind of Russian Ulysses in a suburban electrichka train.
 Stuck in his everyday inferno, Venichka indulges in excessive drinking. He professes his views on life and death, god, literature and politics, and invents &quot;exotic&quot; drinks such as &quot;Bitch's Guts,&quot; which is made from beer, shampoo, glue, brake fluid and insect repellent.
 Vasiliev, whose performances can be seen at Theater on Liteiny, the Lensoviet and TYuZ, has experience in adopting the phantasmagoric prose of Gogol and Dostoevsky. The new prodction of Moskva-Petushki combines reality with fantasy, and often mysticism, continuing the tradition of Vasiliev's interpretations of Russian classics.
 The stage is empty, so the audience can see all the stage machinery. Set designer Emil Kapelush refuses to disguise the space. He adds only a huge black box, which according to the situation may be transformed into a train compartment or other prop. In this open space all the motives or motions of actors seem to be enclosed, while no one wears any make up.
 The main part in the production is performed by Andrei Krasko, an ctor known for his film roles who also performs in the Priyut Komedianta's production of Leonid Andreev's &quot;The Dog's Waltz.&quot; The part of Venichka, the alter ego of Yerofeev, suits him very well. You can't help admire the wit of his character and the ability of actor to follow all the states of his mind from profound grief, scepticism, and incisive irony to overwhelming happiness.
 Venichka's philosophy is a Soviet variant of Zen Buddhism, when a wise man prefers anonymity and the life of an outcast to following false values.
 Yerofeev's book abounds in different characters, who come across Venichka on his way from Moscow to Petushki. All of them are portrayed by Vera Karpova and Kira Petrova, experienced actresses who were invited by the director from the Alexandrinsky theater and the Akimov Comedy Theater respectively. Different in appearance, they resemble the traditional theatrical couple of contrasting clowns. Their characters transform from angels to bartenders to drinking companions, and then back to angels. If Venichka is a lyrical character, the humorous side to the production is provided by these two actresses.
 &quot;Moskva-Petushki&quot; is done with understanding and love of the original material, and has a touch of true inspiration.
 
 Check future listings for details.

TITLE: avant-garde fans get annual fest
AUTHOR: by Giulara Sadykh-zade
TEXT: The &quot;Avant-Garde to the Present Day&quot; arts festival is taking place between March 5 and 15, and its main concerts are to be held in the Philharmonia Small Hall. The festival was founded by the composer Igor Rogalev in the early '90s, and is now an annual event supported by the Mariinsky Theater and the City Cultural Committee. As a rule, the festival's program contains an entire spectrum of twentieth century composition, from large symphonic forms to genres of small chamber music. The festival this year includes a concert by the famous Moscow percussionist Mark Pe kar sky and his company, and Tatyana Gri ndenko's ensemble OPUS POSTH.
 The festival will begin on March 5 in the Small Hall, with singers and musicians from the Mariinsky Theater who will be performing the works of Lyutoslavsky, Shimanovsky, Richard Strauss, Karlovich and Alexander Tchai kov sky. On March 7, Mark Pekarsky's very unusual concert will be held, alongside Andrei Doynikov, Andrei Vinnitsky and Dmitry Shchelkin, entitled &quot;Percussion Classics of the twentieth century&quot; - drum compositions by Cage, Stockhausen and Xenakis.
 On March 8 in the Great Hall, Dmit ry Khokhlov will conduct the Orchestra of Folk Instruments to celebrate International Women's Day.
 On March 9, Irina Mataeva, Irina Vasileva and Yelena Lasovskaya, all graduates of the Academy of Young Singers, will perform Richard Strauss, Penderetsky and Lyutoslavsky miniatures. The concert maister will be Larisa Gergieva. The second half of the concert will be given over to instruments. Works of Ives, Jolivet, Martinu and Sviridov. The young chamber orchestra will take part, under the direction of Alexander Polyanichko.
 On 14 and 15 March the Small Hall will play host to Tatyana Grin den ko's ensemble OPUS POSTH, who play a great deal in Moscow and specialize in exclusively avant-garde music from the twentieth century, and who are, more often than not, minimalist in style. On 14 March, the ensemble will perform the works of world famous minimalists, both Russian and foreign: Vladimir Martinov's &quot;The Elves' Ball,&quot; Arvo P&auml;rt's twentieth century classic &quot;Tabula Rasa&quot; and &quot;The Company&quot; by Philip Glass, the leading American minimalist, as well as Muscovite Pavel Karmanov's &quot;Green DNK.&quot;
 The OPUS POSTH concert on March 15, alongside Dmitry Pok rov sky's folk ensemble, will be given over to playing, singing and dancing to Vladimir Martinov's &quot;Night in Galicia,&quot; set to the poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov, completing the avant-garde festival.

TITLE: lesser-known opera has successful revival
AUTHOR: by Giulara Sadykh-zade
TEXT: As part of the Sheremyetev Evenings, the Mariinsky Theater staged a production of the early Verdi opera, Nabucco, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the composer's death which is curently being celebrated throughout the world.
 This was surprisingly the first staging of the opera at the Mariinsky, bearing in mind the popularity of the famous Judean chorus from Act Four, produced during the Italian risorgimento, and becoming an unofficial but no less loved anthem of Italian independence. The funniest thing about this fact is that the music itself has no pretensions to any particular spiritual profundity. Written to the music of a melancholic and unaggresive waltz featuring a simple guitar accompaniment, which in no way lends itself to the motifs of war, or even to spectacular choral performance, its historical importance is something of an anomaly.
 The performance of Nabucco by the orchestra and soloists of the Mariinsky Theater, backed up by the Mussorgsky's chorus, partially bucked commonly accepted opinions of the opera as an interminable and tedious work which is badly arranged to boot. The performance demonstrated that the opera is in fact full of marvelous melodies, which are in no way dominated by the beauty of the famous chorus, the bright dramatic conflicts, well-rounded characters and dizzying twists in narrative.
 The libretto's historical outline is the Judean uprising against the Babylonian occupation. Against this background the relationships between the characters develop: the classic love triangle, two sides of which are made up by daughters of the Babylonian king, the meek Fenena and the irrepressible Abigail; the third being made up by the Judean leader, Ismail.
 The casting was one definite triumph, with the part of Nabucco being sung by the monumental Viktor Chernomortsev, who received every possible theatrical prize for his work last season. Ismail was also well realized by the tenor Alexei Steblyanko, a singer better known abroad than on Russian opera stages. But perhaps best of all were the fresh young voices of Yekaterina Semenchuk (Fenena) and Mlada Khudolei (Abigail). The striking contrasts in terms of both music and appearance that the two singers created brought credit to them both. Semenchuk's soft mezzo sounded unusually fragile at the performance, both graceful and flexible. Khudolei's voice, by contrast, rang with the rage of betrayed emotions, violent anger and passion. The role of a powerful warrior, recalling the Wagnerian Valkyries, is wonderfully suited to Khudolei's temperament, and her physicality lends itself to an expressive, dramatic and tragic realization of such a dark role. The role of Abigail also turned out to be a success - the music and staging permitting the singer to demonstrate her brilliant virtuoso vocal with unexpected artistry.
 Thus, Khudolei was the star of the production, and this marked her greatest moment on stage yet.
 Leonid Korchmar led the performance with brilliant scope, somewhat unexpectedly for those accustomed to his usual reserve. Painstakingly reworked detail in the production was testament to the fact that the work had been rehearsed minutely. The excellence of the orchestra and the ensemble were additional credits to this first performance of Nabucco, which, it is to be hoped, will soon become a regular on the stages of St. Petersburg's operas.

TITLE: gymnastics meets art at private gallery
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: What professional athletes do after they give up their sporting careers is often anyone's guess. One may end up running a nightclub, while another ends up cutting meat at a supermarket.
 Marina Gisich - a former member of the Soviet Olympic Reserve Team of Rhythmic Gymnastics - has made her own choice. After 15 years of devotion to rhythmic gymnastics, she has switched her focus to the fine arts.
 Her private art gallery opened Wednesday in a roomy apartment on the second floor at 121 Nab. Fontanka. &quot;With the opening of this gallery I declare my transition from the world of sports to the world of arts,&quot; Gisich said, adding she will go for bright young artists with a patriotic attitude, who find inspiration in St. Petersburg, its culture and history.
 &quot;I want to pick up and present positive new trends that are emerging in St. Petersburg,&quot; she said. 
 While some local art critics liken St. Petersburg to a graveyard for contemporary art, Gisich says she doesn't feel like a loner and sees much change. &quot;Recently, the city's great museums have begun to devote more attention to modern art,&quot; she said. &quot;It is just one of the many good signs, and it is encouraging to be able to start my project in this environment.&quot;
 Gisich is no newcomer, but someone who has long felt close to modern art. She has also organized several exhibitions of contemporary Russian art abroad over the past several years.
 She hopes that her sporting background will help her to promote modern Russian art. &quot;Only a very strong- willed manager who is open, motivated and hard-working can successfully run an art gallery, and survive on the modern art market,&quot; she said. &quot;I hope that my character is strong enough.&quot;
 The spirit of sports was predictably present at the opening. A miniature version of the Olympic flame was burning, optimistic Soviet-era sporting songs were played, and a gymnast made a brief live performance. The gymnast, however, brought a rather confusing note to the proceedings: the exercises she performed were displayed on a screen behind her. But if she did well in reality, the screen version screamed and collapsed.
 The trick was aimed to illustrate how unpredictable art is, but didn't quite work as those staring at the screen didn't see the live performance and vice versa.
 Of course, sport was the theme of the works on display. For instance, Gleb Ko sorukov's black-and-white photography with '20s aesthetics rolls back the decades, sending viewers back to images of Soviet sports heroes.
 As Olesya Turkina, curator of the gallery, points out, the niche that Gisich occupies has long been vacant in Russia's northern capital, despite the fact that the city was a pioneer in the field of research and criticism of modern art.
 &quot;Private arts galleries in St. Petersburg are scarce,&quot; Turkina said. &quot;In Moscow commercial galleries flourish, and even tour the rest of Russia, such as the Marat Gelman gallery, which has recently had several exhibitions in the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum.&quot;
 Gisich thus hopes that her own gallery will be a worth rival of Moscow's.
 
 The Marina Gisich Gal lery, 121 Nab. Fon tanka, Second Floor. Phone 314-43-80 for opening times.

TITLE: in praise of life's simpler things
AUTHOR: by Simon Patterson
TEXT: After reviewing a good number of the city's restaurants, it seems to become a truism that the most expensive establishments are not necessarily the best. While many eateries go to great lengths on getting the atmosphere right, their food often leaves something to be desired - not to mention the decor. At the end of the day, there is often nothing more one wants that a good hearty meal in unpretentious surroundings.
 No better example of this can be found than the cafe &quot;Shaurma&quot; on Liteiny Prospect. While eating shaverma (or shaurma) kebabs in this city is not to be recommended to the weak of stomach, the quality of food at Shaurma has as much in common with the offerings from kiosks outside metro stations as a Shostakovich string quartet does with Kristina Orbakaite's latest single.
 Although we had often passed the Shaurma cafe, it was a while before we actually ventured inside, fearing that what was on offer would be a typically dubious shaverma with an aftertaste that would require at least a half liter of beer to neutralise. But we were very pleasantly surprised.
 To begin with, instead of getting your shaverma in an wrapping of bread, paper and plastic, with the bread and paper often being disturbingly indistinguishable, your meal is served to you on a plate - and what a plate it is. A veritable feast of meat, pita bread, salad and fries, with two different types of sauce, one an extremely hot adzhika-type sauce, one a mayonnaisy offering, the size of the portions is enough to satisfy the most ravenous of appetites. What makes this meal even more enjoyable is the fact that it costs so little - a trifling 45 rubles for such a large, delicious meal must surely set the record for city dining.
 For the more traditional consumer of shavermas, the meat can also be consumed wrapped in pita bread, and hot dogs and other such delicacies are also available. The Bochkaryev beer is dirt cheap (20 rubles) and soft drinks and juice are similarly priced.
 While it is hardly the place for a romantic rendezvous, it is also far from being a grubby stolovaya, and has a clean tiled and mirrored decor, with seating at bar stools or at tables.
 If you add the fact that Shaurma is open 24 hours every day of the week, it truly is a journalist's idea of gastronomic paradise. Now if only it were a bit closer to the office....
 
 Shaurma, 43 Liteiny Prospect. Lunch for two with beer, 130 rubles ($4). Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Tel: 272-90-73. And as you may have guessed, they don't accept credit cards.

TITLE: Ethnic Cleansing Worsens in Borneo
AUTHOR: By Daniel Cooney
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAMPIT, Indonesia - Thousands of Madurese refugees huddled under plastic sheeting Wednesday, waiting to flee a deadly rampage by Dayaks whose campaign to drive them from parts of Borneo has been largely successful.
 With most Madurese settlers in Central Kalimantan province either gone or waiting to go, Indonesians began asking whether their government's weak response might spur similar violence elsewhere.
 On Thursday, Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri toured the province in an effort to decide whether the government should declare emergency powers to stop the violence.
 Megawati, who was accompanied by other parliamentary leaders and armed forces chief Adm. Widodo Adisutjipto, was to visit Sampit - site of the largest refugee camp and scene of some of the worst violence, which included numerous beheadings.
 After several days of what critics called a woefully inadequate response to the Dayak rampage that killed at least 469 people, Indonesian security forces patrolled Borneo island Wednesday with orders to shoot rioters on sight.
 &quot;We are now taking tougher action against rioters and other troublemakers,&quot; said regional deputy police chief Col. Muhamad Jatmiko.
 Police said they confiscated hundreds of machetes, spears and other homemade weapons, and arrested about 125 people.
 In Sampit, where many of the killings occurred, constant rain added to the misery of the estimated 25,000 refugees living under plastic sheeting in the partly flooded grounds of a police station. Health workers said at least six refugees had died since the crisis began and diarrhea was spreading, especially among children. The Indonesian Red Cross said it had sent supplies of medicine and blood to Sampit.
 Instead of battling the Dayaks when they began slaughtering their Madurese neighbors, the security forces arranged a mass evacuation of Madurese by boat - handing the Dayak perpetrators a victory in their campaign to drive the Madurese from the region.
 &quot;If you evacuate the Madurese without thinking about how they might one day return then it legitimizes the violence against them,&quot; said Munir, a lawyer who runs the government's Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence. 
 &quot;The authorities are helping in ethnic cleansing,&quot; added Munir, who like many Indonesians uses one name.
 There have been numerous reports of policemen and soldiers standing by as Dayaks beheaded or hacked to death Madurese settlers, then looted and burned their houses and businesses.
 The perception of government inaction has been fueled by President Abdurrahman Wahid's refusal to cut short a 14-day overseas trip. He told reporters in Cairo this week that his presence was not needed and that media reports on the number of dead were exaggerated.
 The United Nations sent two teams to Borneo and Java to assess the refugees' needs, and said the most urgent requirements were food and medicine.
 The Dayaks' victims are settlers or descendants of settlers from Madura island, just off the coast of Indonesia's main island, Java, about 320 kilometers south of Borneo.

TITLE: Foot-and-Mouth Threat to EU
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak spread to Scotland and Northern Ireland on Thursday, prompting other European countries to tighten steps to disinfect travelers and vehicles from the U.K. to ward off the disease.
 As U.K. officials confirmed the highly contagious disease had traveled across the Irish Sea and beyond the border with Scotland, Ireland strengthened its defenses by setting up extra checkpoints on its border with the northern province.
 Britain's agriculture ministry said it had uncovered the disease at three more premises in England, and more casualties of the outbreak were announced, including one of the country's best-loved events - the annual Crufts dog show.
 Officials said that the crisis could deepen, although Britain may avoid a &quot;massive spread.&quot;
 &quot;At the moment we're looking at five or six [new cases] a day and we might continue to see that number over the next week,&quot; Chief Veterinary Officer Jim Scudamore told journalists.
 &quot;What we have been working on this week is to see how we can allow animals to go back into the slaughter system to produce meat and we have been working very closely with the industry,&quot; he earlier told BBC radio.
 Prices for British meat rose at London's key Smithfield market, and there were fears of shortages as officials struggled to find a way to allow farmers to resume their suspended trade.
 Britain has enforced draconian measures to stamp out a disease so infectious it can spread on the wind, on clothing and on vehicle tires. But the curbs on taking animals to slaughterhouses have hit farmers and the meat industry hard.
 Europe has been largely sympathetic to the foot-and-mouth crisis, but newspapers warned that pity could turn to rage if the virus was found to have been exported across the Channel.
 &quot;It was the English who pushed for abolishing Europe's foot-and-mouth vaccination program and look where we are now,&quot; Paul Pilotte, Belgium's veterinary inspector at Ciney's cattle market, told the daily Le Soir.
 European countries have started slaughtering animals that have been imported from Britain - some culling more than Britain itself.
 U.K. officials have killed and burned about 15,000 cattle, sheep and pigs, while France said it planned to destroy more than three times that number.
 In Paris, Channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel said it would disinfect all vehicles traveling from Britain as a precaution.
 A company spokesperson said vehicles using the tunnel, which links England's southern coast with eastern France, would be required to roll through a pool containing disinfectant.
 Portugal, a popular holiday destination for Britons, said travelers arriving by sea or air from Britain should surrender all food and wipe their feet on a chemically impregnated sponge.
 Ireland shuddered when Britain said it had discovered the virus at a farm in Northern Ireland near its frontier, and has strengthened its defenses against the disease by deploying 100 extra police and troops along the border.
 Some 400 security force personnel have been manning checkpoints.
 &quot;The plague is here,&quot; headlined the Irish Independent, a big-selling daily broadsheet.
 A worldwide ban on British livestock and animal products remained in force, costing the country $12 million in lost sales per week.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Bomb Jolts Israel
 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A car bomb blast in which a person died jolted Israel on Thursday as Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon moved closer to forming a coalition he has dedicated to ensuring Israelis' security while achieving peace.
 A prominent Israeli politician blamed Palestinian Islamic militants for the explosion that occurred after a police roadblock stopped a taxi van carrying a suspected Palestinian guerrilla.
 Ambulance workers said one person was killed and at least nine were wounded.
 Thursday's explosion appeared likely to increase tensions during Sharon's haggling with different parties over slots in his coalition cabinet.
 One of the few certainties was the appointment of Shimon Peres, a veteran statesman and Nobel Peace laureate, as foreign minister once again.
 
 
United States of Africa?
 

SIRTE, Libya (AP) - Libya's Moammar Gadhafi will be looking for the realization of his latest vision - the "United States of Africa" - when he plays host Thursday to African leaders in this Mediterranean town.
 While discussion of exactly what that means remained vague, it is expected to top the agenda of a two-day summit of the Organization of African Unity.
 It is not at all clear that the union Gadhafi envisions would be anything more than symbolic. With Africa riven by rivalries and many suspicious of Gadhafi's claims to leadership, members were unlikely to give up any of their own sovereignty. A proposed parliament would not have the power to make laws. The proposal also calls for the creation of an African Central Bank, an African Court of Justice and a single currency.
 
 
Afghan Statues Smashed
 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The radical Taleban movement began smashing all statues from Afghanistan's rich cultural past Thursday, turning its back on urgent international appeals to save the ancient artifacts.
 In Kabul, Mullah Qudratullah Jamal, the ruling Taleban's information and culture minister, said centers where the campaign had been unleashed included Bamiyan Province - site of two soaring statues of the Buddha hewn from a solid cliff that are the most famous relics of Afghanistan's history.
 "All statues will be destroyed," he told reporters.
 Russia, Germany, India and Pakistan condemned the destruction and appealed to the Taleban to reconsider.
 International alarm was first sparked Monday, when Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered the smashing of all statues, including the two famous Buddhas that soar 125 feet and 174 feet above Bamiyan.
 
 
Fiji Braces for Violence
 

SUVA, Fiji (Reuters) - Fiji's military-backed government said on Thursday it would prepare for a return to constitutional rule after the South Pacific nation's highest court declared it illegal, sparking fears of new ethnic violence.
 But it warned the process would take some time.
 In a decision that many believed could reignite the attacks on the large Indian minority which followed a nationalist coup last year, the Court of Appeal said the suspended, democratically elected parliament had to reconvene.
 Upholding a lower court ruling that the government of interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was illegal, the Court of Appeal said the 1997 constitution remained the law of the land despite the military's declaration of martial law last year.
 
 
U.S. Role Criticized
 

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - President George Bush's refusal to participate in upcoming peace talks with leftist rebels is stirring criticism in Colombia and prompting an examination of the U.S. role in the war-torn country.
 Critics fault Washington for providing combat helicopters and army trainers under a $1.3 billion anti-narcotics package, while boycotting negotiations to end the South American country's conflict.
 But defenders of the Bush administration's stance say the United States has no business dealing with guerrillas who make huge profits from the drug trade and have kidnapped and killed American citizens during a 37-year struggle.
 
 
UN: World Will Age
 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A new UN study predicts the next 50 years will bring a world that is larger, older and poorer.
 The world, 6.1 billion people strong today, is anticipated to reach 9.3 billion by 2050, the UN Population Division estimated in a report issued Wednesday.
 The world's poorest nations will triple in size. Nine of every 10 people will live in a developing country, one of six in India alone.
 Meanwhile, Europe and Japan will see their populations plummet, forcing them to rethink immigration policies and adjust social services to accommodate a shrinking work force and a growing elderly population, said Joseph Chamie, director of the UN Population Division.
 
 
Mori Ally Arrested
 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, already under intense pressure to step down, was dealt yet another blow as a former ruling party powerbroker was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of bribery.
 Japanese prosecutors said they arrested Masakuni Murakami, one of a "Gang of Four" in the Liberal Democratic Party who tapped Mori for the top job last April, on suspicion of accepting bribes from small business insurer KSD.
 While the arrest was widely expected, it would add to the unpopular prime minister's woes as it opens the way for opposition parties to present a no-confidence motion against him.
 
 
Rail Crash Kills 13
 

GREAT HECK, England (AP) - Investigators searched Thursday for bodies and clues to what happened in the fateful minutes before two trains and a car collided in a deadly high-speed crash.
 Thirteen people were confirmed dead and more than 70 injured in the Wednesday morning collision in northeast England.
 Workers pried apart mangled rail cars to recover bodies, a difficult and dangerous task they hoped to complete Thursday, so the corpses would not spend a second night in the open.
 Authorities are still trying to determine why a Land Rover towing a car on a trailer went off a highway, down an embankment and onto the train tracks, triggering the two derailments. 



TITLE: Aussie Win Streak Reaches 16
AUTHOR: By Kunal Pradhan
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BOMBAY, India - Australia crushed India by 10 wickets in the first test on Thursday with more than two days to spare, extending its world record of consecutive test victories to 16.
 India, 58 for two in its second innings overnight, was all out for 219 soon after tea on the third day, and Australia hammered the 47 runs needed in just seven overs.
 First-innings centurion Matthew Hayden (28 not out) and Michael Slater (19 not out) completed the job before the Australians set off on a victory lap at the Wankhede stadium.
 Having taken a 173-run first-innings lead, Australia turned the match decisively its way when Sachin Tendulkar was out to Mark Waugh's occasional off-spin for a fine 65 in the second session.
 Once Tendulkar was out, the innings steadily declined as on the first day and only Nayan Mongia's late cameo worth 28 helped his side avoid the embarrassment of an innings defeat.
 On a pitch that showed increasing signs of helping spin, it was Mark Waugh who shone by claiming three for 40 while paceman Jason Gillespie took three for 45.
 India showed signs of a comeback when Tendulkar revived the innings in a 97-run third-wicket stand with Rahul Dravid, who made a dour 196-ball 39.
 But Tendulkar pulled Waugh, the ball bounced off Justin Langer's shoulder at forward short leg and Ricky Ponting completed a diving catch at mid-wicket. He faced 107 balls and struck 11 fours.
 Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly was run out for one at the non-striker's end as he ambled for a single after playing leg-spinner spinner Shane Warne to mid-wicket.
 Warne let rip a leg break to bowl Dravid round his legs as the last eight wickets tumbled for 65.
 Australia piled further misery on India when Ajit Agarkar fell for a duck in his seventh consecutive test innings, comprehensively bowled by Mark Waugh.
 The innings ended when Javagal Srinath, batting one-handed due to a fractured right index finger, was bowled off-stump by paceman Glenn McGrath.
 Dravid and Tendulkar had batted cautiously in the morning session before Tendulkar cut loose after lunch.
 He cut and pulled Gillespie and brought up his 50 with another four driven through extra-cover off him.
 Dravid took 47 minutes for his first run in the morning and was unsure of balls pitched just outside the off-stump.
 There was a moment of controversy when Dravid, with 22, pulled Damien Fleming and Slater dived forward at mid-wicket to claim a catch.
 Umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan referred the decision to the third umpire who ruled him not out and Slater was seen arguing with the umpire and with Dravid.
 Television replays suggested the ball could have touched the ground as Slater was completing the attempted catch.
 Wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist was named man of the match following his hurricane 122 in the first innings.
 Australia has not won a test series in India since Bill Lawry led his team to a 3-1 win in 1969, and captain Steve Waugh has said his team cannot claim to be the best in test history unless it wins the Indian series.
 Australia plays a three-day game against the Indian Board President's XI in New Delhi starting next Tuesday, with the second test in the three-match series beginning in Calcutta on March 11.

TITLE: Safin Storms Into Semis At Dubai Championship
AUTHOR: By Barry Wood
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: DUBAI, United Arab Emerates (Reuters) - Marat Safin raced to a crushing 6-1, 6-2 victory over Andrei Medvedev to move into the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championship on Thursday.
 He will play the unseeded Swede, Thomas Johansson, who overcame Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-4, 6-4.
 Medvedev had looked impressive in beating Patrick Rafter the previous day, but admitted that his form so soon after a long injury lay-off could be unreliable. That proved to be prophetic as he produced a miserable performance against the top-seeded Russian.
 He struck three successive double-faults to lose his first service game, and a sixth double-fault allowed Safin the luxury of a 4-0 lead. Safin even held two set points for 6-0, but he made errors on both chances and Med vedev survived to hold serve for the first time.
 The Ukrainian was given hope in the second set, after Safin had broken for 1-0 with a backhand volley.
 He held a break point for 1-1, but sent a backhand long, and once down 2-1 he earned only one point in the next three games to leave Safin firmly in control.
 Medvedev held for 5-2 and Safin double-faulted twice as he held three match points, before closing out the match in 53 minutes.
 &quot;He didn't play very well today and it wasn't a nice match, but I was playing much better than yesterday and the day before and I'm very satisfied with my game,&quot; said Safin.
 &quot;I said the first day that I need a few matches to get into my best shape, and I'm on my way. I'm playing better and better and I'm ready to win this tournament.&quot;
 Johansson enjoyed a solid victory over Mirnyi, who has been in outstanding form recently with wins over Safin and Magnus Norman, as well as Cedric Pioline in the first round in Dubai.
 The Swede allowed Mirnyi only one break point on his serve, broke to love to lead 5-4 in the first set, and two double-faults in the seventh game assisted Johansson in taking a decisive 4-3 lead in the second.
 Sixth seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia ended the run of German qualifier Lars Burgsmuller, winning 7-5, 6-4 in an untidy match that included 10 breaks of serve.
 He will next face either second seed Magnus Norman of Sweden or Spain's number seven seed and 2000 finalist, Juan Carlos Ferrero.

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Slugger Signs Extension
 

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) - Mark McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to a two-year extension worth about $30 million, The Associated Press learned Wednesday.
 The new deal runs through 2003, the season McGwire could be approaching Hank Aaron's home-run record of 755.
 McGwire, 37, missed most of the second half of last season with a knee injury and had surgery during the offseason, but has been healthy this spring.
 Big Mac is seventh on the career home-run list with 554, just 201 behind Aaron, and would have to average 67 homers in the next three seasons to tie the mark.
 McGwire set the single-season record with 70 homers in 1998, then hit 65 the following year. He hit 32 last season in just 236 at-bats.
 With an average salary of about $15 million, McGwire will rank about eighth in baseball.
 
 
Fleury Checks Out
 

NEW YORK (AP) - Theo Fleury, the New York Rangers' leading scorer, has voluntarily entered an inpatient substance-abuse program and will be sidelined indefinitely.
 Fleury, fourth in the NHL in scoring, did not skate with the team Wednesday morning. The NHL's announcement Wednesday came just hours before the Rangers beat the Florida Panthers 4-2 at home. Rangers officials were notified of Fleury's decision Tuesday night. A team spokesman said there was no event or drug test that led to Fleury's decision.
 Under terms of the substance-abuse and behavioral-health program run by the NHL and the players' association, the 32-year-old Fleury will continue to receive his full salary and benefits. He will not have a penalty imposed as long as he complies with the prescribed treatment and aftercare program.
 The right wing was enjoying one of his finest NHL seasons, following one of his worst.
 Fleury leads the Rangers with 30 goals and 74 points in his second season after coming to New York as a free agent. Earlier this month, Fleury played in his seventh All-Star game, first as a starter, and had two goals and an assist.
 
 
Justice Served
 

LOS ANGELES (AP) - New York Yankees outfielder David Justice was sued for $5 million in a palimony suit filed Wednesday by his son's mother, who said she and the infant were ordered out of the Cincinnati home they shared for two years.
 Attorney Marvin Mitchelson filed the Superior Court suit on behalf of Nicole J. Foster, 26, the mother of David Justice Jr. The suit claims breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress and domestic violence.
 The suit claimed Justice used the ruse of reconciliation last year to gain entry to the home of his estranged girlfriend. Justice showed up with uniformed Cincinnati officers, a locksmith and a friend and threatened Foster with immediate arrest if she didn't leave, according to the suit.
 It also claimed Justice struck Foster with a telephone during a confrontation and choked her shortly before the baby was born. 



TITLE: England Breaks With Tradition, Gains Win
AUTHOR: By Mike Collett
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: LONDON - England's break with 129 years of tradition appeared to be fully justified Wednesday when it beat Spain 3-0 in a friendly international in its first match under a foreign coach.
 Swede Sven Goran Eriksson, England's first foreign coach since it started playing internationals in 1872, saw his new side win with goals from Nick Barmby (38), Emile Heskey (56) and Ugo Ehiogu (70).
 It was England's first match at Villa Park since 1958, its first win in five matches and its first goal in three games.
 It was the perfect warm-up ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Finland and Albania next month - games England must win to improve its last-place position in European qualifying Group 9.
 Finland did not have the best of warm-ups ahead of its match with England, struggling to a 1-0 win over Luxembourg in the Grand Duchy. English-based striker Mikael Forssell scored the only goal 10 minutes from time.
 While Eriksson was enjoying his first match in charge of England, coaches Mirko Jozic of Croatia and Victor Pua of Uruguay were also smiling after debut wins.
 Croatia, which reached the World Cup semifinals just two years ago but is struggling to qualify this time around, beat Austria 1-0 in Rijeka. Davor Vugrinec scored the only goal after 35 minutes, giving young Austrian goalkeeper Alex Manninger no chance.
 Uruguay, battling to qualify in the South American qualifying competition, also gave its new coach something to celebrate.
 Pua was only named coach last week after Argentinian Daniel Passarella quit, and he saw his team beat Slovenia 2-0 in Koper.
 Argentina, playing Italy for the first time since its memorable World Cup semifinal victory on penalties in 1990, came from behind to win 2-1 in Rome, with Lazio's Hernan Crespo scoring what proved to be the winner in the 49th minute.
 Stefano Fiore had put Italy ahead after 26 minutes, before Kily Gonzalaz equalized for the Argentines 10 minutes later.
 There were also notable warm-up wins for Poland, which crushed Switzerland 4-0 in a game played in neutral Cyprus, while Norway crushed Northern Ireland by the same score in icy Belfast.
 Two World Cup qualifiers ended in expected victories for Belgium and Portugal, who played minnows San Marino and Andorra respectively.
 Belgium scored 10 goals for the first time in its international history as it beat San Marino 10-1 in Brussels. Substitute Bob Peeters scored a hat trick in 12 minutes late in the game.
 Yves Vanderhaeghe (2), Bart Goor (2), Emile Mpenza, Walter Basseggio and Marc Wilmots added the others as Belgium went to the top of Group 6. San Marino scored a consolation in the last minute.
 Belgium now has seven points from three matches, the same as Scotland, but with a vastly superior goal difference of 14-1 compared to Scotland's 4-1. Scotland meets Belgium in Glasgow on March 24.
 Portugal also picked up three points with a straightforward 3-0 win over Andorra to stretch its lead at the top of Group 2. Luis Figo, the world's most expensive player, put Portugal ahead after only one minute, but the expected rout never took place.
 Figo added one more, and Pauleta also scored as Portugal moved to 10 points from four matches, ahead of Cyprus (six from three), Estonia (six from four), Ireland (five from three), the Netherlands (four from three) and Andorra (zero from five).
 An injury-time penalty saw Greece snatch a 3-3 draw with Russia after squandering a two-goal lead. 
 Greece made a flying start with a goal after only two minutes when debutant striker Angelos Haristeas of Aris Salonika caught the Russian defense napping. 
 Haristeas, who was only called up after a spate of withdrawals, doubled Greece's lead in the 32nd minute, but Russia looked increasingly fluent going forward and created several chances, finally halving the deficit through Maxim Buznikin in the 34th minute. 
 Oleg Romantsev's men showed superior passing and movement after the restart and equalized seven minutes in through Dmitry Kokhlov after good work from Rolan Gusev. 
 The lively Buznikin then capped the move of the game with a cool finish in the 70th minute. 
 Greece produced a late rally and had a strong penalty claim waived away before Nikos Froussos was felled in the box three minutes into injury-time, leaving Angelos Basinas to snatch a draw from the spot with the last kick of the game.

TITLE: Tar Heels Clinch Share of ACC Title
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina - Matt Doherty has delivered to North Carolina what Bill Guthridge could not - an Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship.
 The fourth-ranked Tar Heels clinched at least a share of their first ACC title since 1995 and earned the top seed for the league tournament by riding a strong second-half performance by Joseph Forte to a 76-63 victory Wednesday over North Carolina State.
 North Carolina (23-4, 13-2 ACC) can claim the ACC crown outright by beating Duke on Sunday, but it is assured of the No. 1 seed for next week's tournament in Atlanta based on a season sweep of Maryland, which knocked off the Blue Devils on Tuesday.
 In Doherty's first season at the helm of his alma mater, the Tar Heels - despite four trips to the Final Four in the last six years - are one win away from their first outright regular-season ACC title since their national championship campaign of 1992-93.
 In three seasons after taking over for the legendary Dean Smith, Guthridge guided the Tar Heels to a pair of appearances in the Final Four and the 1998 ACC tournament championship. But the regular-season crown has eluded North Carolina, which has watched Duke claim the past four titles.
 On Wednesday night, the star again was Forte, who scored 19 of his 27 points over the final 20 minutes as North Carolina overcame a sluggish start to defeat the Wolfpack (13-14, 5-10) for the sixth straight time.
 <strong>
 Florida 72, Vanderbilt 62. </strong>In Nashville, Tennessee, Brett Nelson scored 24 points as sixth-ranked Florida clinched a first-round bye in the Southeastern Conference tournament with a 72-62 victory over Vanderbilt.
 
 <strong>Iowa 80, Texas Tech 63. </strong>In Ames, Iowa, Martin Rancik scored 22 points as eighth-ranked Iowa State clinched at least a share of the Big 12 Conference regular-season title with an 80-63 victory over Texas Tech.
 
 <strong>Virginia 84, Clemson 65. </strong>In Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Nagys' flagrant foul on Adam Hall late in the first half set off a sequence of events that allowed ninth-ranked Virginia to take control en route to an 84-65 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Clemson.
 
 <strong>Boston College 67, St. John's 62. </strong>In Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, Troy Bell scored 20 points to lead 10th-ranked Boston College to another home victory, a 67-62 defeat of St. John's in a Big East Conference matchup.
 
 <strong>Kansas 77, Kansas State 65. </strong>In Manhattan, Kansas, Drew Gooden had 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench and Nick Collison added 13 and six as 11th-ranked Kansas defeated Kansas State, 77-65, in a Big 12 Conference game.
 
 <strong>Louisiana State 78, Mississippi 77. </strong>In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Collis Temple converted a tip-in with four seconds remaining as Louisiana State scored the final seven points of overtime en route to a 78-77 Southeastern Conference victory over the 12th-ranked Mississippi.
 <strong>Kentucky 90, Auburn 78. </strong>In Lexington, Kentucky, freshman Jason Parker scored a season-high 19 points to pace five players in double figures as 15th-ranked Kentucky won for the ninth time in 10 games, 90-78, over Southeastern Conference rival Auburn.
 <strong>Oklahoma 86, Colorado 67. </strong>In Norman, Oklahoma, Nolan Johnson scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as No. 17 Oklahoma used a huge second half to post an 86-67 Big 12 Conference victory over Colorado.
 
 <strong>Arkansas 66, Alabama 63. </strong>In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Joe Johnson scored 17 points and Teddy Gipson added 11 as Arkansas shut down Rod Grizzard and dealt No. 19 Alabama its first home loss of the season, 66-63, in a Southeastern Conference battle.
 
 <strong>Georgetown 74, Rutgers 58. </strong>In Washington, Ruben Boumtje Boumtje scored 15 points, Lee Scruggs had 14 and Anthony Perry added 11 to lead 20th-ranked Georgetown to a 74-58 victory over Rutgers in a Big East Conference game.