SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #657 (24), Friday, March 30, 2001
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TITLE: Cabinet Reshuffle Targets Defense
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin ordered a dramatic reshuffle of his cabinet on Wednesday, installing his close allies as defense and interior ministers and ousting the controversial nuclear power minister.
 Putin chose personally to announce the appointment of his closest adviser, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov, to the Defense Ministry post, reassigning Marshal Igor Sergeyev to become a presidential aide on "global stability."
 Putin removed Colonel General Vla dimir Rushailo from the Interior Ministry post and installed another civilian, Unity faction leader Boris Gryzlov, as Russia's top policeman. He also named a new head of the tax police.
 In remarks televised Wednesday afternoon, Putin said the appointment of Ivanov and the others should become a "step toward demilitarization of public life in Russia."
 Ivanov, who recently retired from active service in foreign intelligence with the rank of lieutenant general, is the second civilian in post-Soviet Russia to head the Defense Ministry.
 Both 48, Putin and Ivanov are old friends and confidantes, dating back to the days when they served in the foreign intelligence service of the KGB.
 In more recent years, as Putin's power rose, he promoted Ivanov along with him.
 On Thursday, Ivanov received the most important paraphernalia of a defense minister - the nuclear suitcase - from his predecessor Sergeyev.
 Two other nuclear suitcases are held by the president and the chief of General Staff.
 Ivanov also got as one of his three deputies Lyubov Kudelina, a deputy finance minister and the first woman in the history of Russia to occupy such a high military post. She has spent the past few years in the Finance Ministry commanding the allocation of funds for the so-called power agencies. Her appointment, described as "sensational" by newspapers and analysts Thursday, was covered almost as extensively in the Russian press as Iva nov's appointment. 
 Kudelina, who will head the Defense Ministry's finance directorate, was given the task of ensuring tight control over expenditures and preventing corruption.
 Gryzlov will have a police veteran and former chief of staff of the Interior Ministry, Vladimir Vasiliev, serving as his first deputy, Putin said. Experts predict the appointment of Gryzlov, who on the Kremlin's orders has readily reversed his stance on issues, will lead to a weakening of the Interior Ministry in its rivalry with the Federal Security Service, which Putin used to head.
 As in the case of Sergeyev, Putin immediately gave the outgoing interior minister a new job. Rushailo will fill Ivanov's seat as secretary of the Security Council in what the president said he hopes will boost efforts to tackle the hotbeds of tensions in the North Caucasus.
 The appointment of Rushailo signals an inevitable weakening of the Security Council, which Ivanov had managed to turn into the second most powerful body after Putin's own administration, experts said. 
 "The Security Council will shrink to the advisory structure that it was before Ivanov," said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
 Two deputy secretaries on the council, both Ivanov allies, also were given new jobs by Putin. Alexander Mos kovsky was appointed deputy defense minister in charge of armaments and procurement, and Mikhail Fradkov was chosen to become the new tax police chief. 
 Yevgeny Adamov was the only one of the ministers to be sent into oblivion (See story, Page 3). Putin installed the head of the Kurchatov Institute, Alexander Ru myantsev, as Russia's new nuclear power minister, but gave no post to Adamov, who has been accused of corruption.
 Putin, however, didn't mention these allegations, instead praising Ada mov's work and giving him a medal.
 Putin chose Iva nov as defense minister to overwhelm opposition from the top brass to his plans to radically restructure Russia's depressed war machine into a slim fighting force.
 Unlike his predecessor Ser ge yev, Ivanov is not linked to any of the existing military clans. Thus he will enforce those reforms for improving Russia's defense capabilities as a whole according to independent military expert Vitaly Shlykov.
 One of these Sergeyev-led clans, who fought against another group led by chief of General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin over whether to develop conventional forces at the expense of the strategic nuclear triad, whose land-based component Kvashin and Ser ge yev put above all.
 The president met Thursday with Ivanov and Kvashnin behind closed doors to "discuss the priorities and a timetable for carrying out military reforms," the Kremlin press service said. 
 This independence from clan infighting is more important for the future of the national armed forces than the fact that Ivanov is a civilian like his counterparts in Western governments, said both Shlykov and Ruslan Pukhov of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
 As secretary of the Security Council, Ivanov has spent the past year and a half analyzing how the armed forces should be restructured and cut from 1.2 million servicemen to 850,000 servicemen and thus is qualified to run the Defense Ministry, Shlykov and Puk hov said. 
 There was great speculation earlier this year that Putin would replace Ser geyev with Ivanov, but most of the other appointments Putin made Wed nesday came as a surprise. 
 Hours after his appointment, Iva nov said on RTR television that he will focus on cutting back logistical units while keeping most of the combat units intact.
 The new defense minister said the Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashn in will remain subordinate to him. This shows that Ivanov has dropped an earlier Security Council plan for a division of powers between the Defense Ministry and General Staff, according to Shlykov.
 Ivanov said among other things he will focus on development of the Military Space Force, which branched out from the Strategic Missile Force earlier this year. 
 This space force, he said, should provide reliable satellite communications on a tactical level, which the military has badly lacked during operations in Chechnya. Putin appointed Colonel General Anatoly Perminov from the missile force to run the space force, which experts said could play a vital role in future warfare.

TITLE: Healers Swallow License Medicine
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Feeling sick? Doctors unable to help? You could always do what hundreds of others do: seek alternative forms of treatment at the hands of one of the city's &quot;traditional healers,&quot; or <i>skhodit k babke </i>- the little old lady with the magic jar of ointment, who can do what the best of medical technology cannot.
 But according to an announcement made last week by the St. Petersburg Licensing Chamber, alternative healers of all descriptions will no longer be legally allowed to continue their practices unless they qualify for a license.
 &quot;We need licensing legalization to put a stop to people who are discrediting our work,&quot; said Oleg Shapiro, vice president of the St. Petersburg Professional Medical Association for Traditional Healers.
 The association is the closest thing the city has to a governing body for practitioners of alternative medicine. It is headed by Natalia Shereiko, a neurophysiologist by profession, who first attended courses of alternative medicine out of curiosity.
 &quot;As a doctor, it was a real shock when I learned how to see a human being as if he were transparent,&quot; said Shereiko, &quot;and to see that the functions of the body do not always work the way that professional medicine describes them.&quot;
 Speaking at the association's offices on the Petrograd Side this week, She reiko demonstrated her art on a client, Va lentina. During a 10-minute session of Shereiko placing her hands on her body, Valentina said she felt a warmth, a feeling &quot;difficult to put into words.&quot; For the most part, however, the Traditional Healers Association is unwilling to reveal much information about its patients.
 And it does not by any means encompass the full range of spiritual healers, parapsychologists, hypnotists, witch doctors and others who have long been popular among Russians.
 Today, says the association's spokes person, Angelica Zaitseva, there are around 3,000 healers of various types in the city, whose services can run from 50 to 1,000 rubles. Only 100 of them, however, are members of the association.
 Zaitseva said she was unsure how many people in St. Petersburg availed themselves of the services of traditional healers, but made an estimate in the &quot;hundreds of thousands.&quot;
 Almost anyone who was not a doctor but who offered cures was working illegally in the Soviet Union, although self-proclaimed magicians and herbologists continued operating quietly.
 It was at the beginning of the 1990s, however, when the rules were relaxed, that figures such as Uk rainian parapsychologist Anatoly Kashpirovsky became nationally famous. Kashpirovsky claimed to send impulses of energy through the television screen that aided a person's health or state of mind.
 Similarly, Alan Chumak had shows during which the faithful would place bowls of water before the television or radio, waiting to receive his positive energy. Drinking or washing in this water, Chumak said, would cure ailments.
 The fuss died down after a 1993 law prohibited some of these activities, and theoretically required traditional healers to obtain licenses. But the law was largely ignored, say both the association and local health authorities, and even today, healing gatherings are still advertised.
 Now, it seems, the Licensing Chamber, the Traditional Healers Association and even City Hall have decided enough is enough.
 The Licensing Chamber wants to enforce the law more rigorously, to require traditional healers to get licenses, and to impose fines on media outlets who run advertisements from unlicensed healers.
 In order to obtain a license, a traditional healer must first be a member of the association. Healers must present the council with their patients' addresses, case histories, and details of how they were analyzed and treated. In certain cases, Sha piro said, healers may be asked to demonstrate their methods.
 A council of experts set up by the City Health Committee then considers the qualifications of a candidate. The council consists of nine leading city specialists in such fields as neurology, psychotherapy and traumatology, as well as Shapiro of the Traditional Healers Association.
 But the Traditional Healers Association is opposed to the most stringent requirement: medical education.
 &quot;Probably no more than 30 percent of traditional healers have a medical education,&quot; said Zaitseva. &quot;In fact, such knowledge could even be detrimental to their work, because traditional healing methods have nothing to do with regular medicine. They are different schools.&quot;
 The level of education does not have to be very high: It is sufficient to have qualified as a nurse, rather than as a fully fledged doctor. But healers with no medical experience at all will be forced to work under the supervision of a doctor who is qualified in the relevant field.
 Vladimir Zholobov, deputy head of the Health Committee and chairman of the expert council, said that the importance of a medical education could not be ignored.
 &quot;Ultimately, we shoulder the responsibility when we approve [a license for a] traditional healer,&quot; Zho lo bov said. 
 The expert council has already examined four applicants, all members of the Traditional Healers Association. Three of them had a medical education and received a certificate from the council, the ticket to getting a license. A fourth was told he could only work with a doctor.
 Zholobov admitted that the little old lady with the magic potion would probably not bother applying for a license.
 But Vadim Pozharov, head of the medical department of the Licensing Chamber, said she would have to. &quot;Otherwise, such activities are illegal,&quot; he said.
 Perhaps a little extra-sensory perception might help sort out the real alternative healers from the fakes. Zaitseva said she learned how to see through walls and read people's minds on a traditional healing course a few years ago.
 &quot;I know it sounds absurd, but that's what I experienced,&quot; she said. &quot;And believe it or not, many people can learn these abilities. But it's not always a pleasant thing to be able to do. Sometimes, people's thoughts are best left unread.&quot;

TITLE: Papers Say Change Aids Putin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has used a shake-up of his security apparatus to boost his authority and assert independence from the shadowy group that catapulted him to power, newspapers said on Thursday.
 On Wednesday, Putin appointed his close confidant Sergei Ivanov defense minister from his post as top security adviser and drafted in a loyalist parliamentary leader to lead the interior ministry.
 Analysts said the reshuffle had weakened the influence of the group known as the &quot;The Family,&quot; a tight-knit group of aides to former president Boris Yeltsin instrumental in Putin's rise to prime minister and then Kremlin chief.
 &quot;The changes considerably weaken The Family,&quot; Segodnya said.
 It appears the aim of Putin was to distance the Family from strategically important areas - the 'power' ministries and atomic energy. But shutting out The Family completely from the decision-making process is not yet likely,&quot; the daily said.
 Kommersant said while the whiff of financial scandal had never been far from ousted atomic energy minister Yev geny Adamov, he had been removed for being &quot;excessively active in reaching nuclear deals with Iran.&quot;
 Adamov had been negotiating with Tehran to build three nuclear reactors, in addition to one under construction at Bushehr on the Gulf. &quot;With tensions rising in relations with the United States, Adamov's Iranian projects were inappropriate,&quot; it said.
 Citing Kremlin sources, Segodnya said Putin had promised Yeltsin he would not change key ministers for a year after his election victory. Two days after the anniversary, he made his move.
 &quot;He Did It!&quot; screamed the banner headline of Vremya Novostei. &quot;For a long time the president did not want to replace anyone, even when it was clear there was a need to do so.&quot;
 Kommersant dismissed Putin's claims that he had made the changes as part of a bold plan to demilitarise public life.
 &quot;The president has clearly decided to strengthen personal control over the activities of the power ministries,&quot; it said.
 The appointment of Boris Gryzlov, parliamentary leader of the pro-Kremlin Unity Party, was greeted with skepticism by interior ministry officials, the paper said. But it said they welcomed the appointment of a top police chief as one of his deputies.
 Izvestia said naming Lyubov Ku de li na as Russia's first female deputy defense minister was a &quot;real sensation.&quot;
 Putin was placing &quot;like-minded people&quot; in key positions, the paper said. It said the changes &quot;were only preparation for more serious steps in different political and economic spheres.&quot;
 Troika Dialog investment house said in a daily briefing that it expected no shake-up of economic portfolios until early May.
 It predicted that Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov would keep his job.

TITLE: Justice Head Charged in Chicken Scam
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Northwest Prosecutor's Office said that the head of the St. Petersburg department of the Justice Ministry will be charged with misappropriating 3.5 tons of confiscated chicken legs, authorities confirmed Wednesday. 
 According to Vladimir Goltsimin of the Northwest Prosecutor's Office, Alexander Travin is allegedly involved in the misappropriation of state money received by the Northwest Transport Prosecutor's Office after 3.5 tons of confiscated chicken legs - worth 9 million rubles (about $321,000) - were seized and sold illegally in 1999.
 Travin meanwhile, according to his secretary, is ill and thus unavailable for comment. He has also has been fired from his job with the regional arm of the Justice Ministry. According to the secretary, who wished to remain anonymous, walking papers were signed on March 26 by Justice Minister Yury Chaika. Chaika, likewise, could not been reached for comment, but Gol tsimin confirmed that the order had been signed. 
 Travin has not been arrested and has signed a promise to prosecutors that he will not leave the city during investigations. 
 According to prosecutors, Travin will be charged with misappropriation of state funding within days, Goltsimin said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. 
 The surprising announcement Wednesday by prosecutors - who usually keep such investigations secret - came after a Saturday speech given by Governor General Viktor Cherkesov in Kaliningrad about cracking down on corruption, Kommersant reported. 
 According to the Prosecutor's Office, the chicken Travin is accused of stealing and selling arrived in St. Petersburg aboard a vessel that prosecutors refused to name in 1999. The boat was impounded by customs authorities for reasons Goltsimin would not disclose on Wednesday. 
 The chicken legs were then transported to an intermediary storage facility run by a company called Europlast. Europlast subsequently disappeared - along with the chicken legs. 
 According to allegations made by the Prosecutor's Office, Alexander Travin supposedly pocketed the proceeds for the chicken shipment while working as the Northwest Transport Prosecutor's Office deputy chairman before he was appointed to head the local Department of Federal Justice in 2000.
 Goltsimin added that another official from Travin's office, Miroslav Ir nev is going to be charged on the same case.
 The announcement of the pending charges against Travin followed the release from jail of Anatoly Baranov, a former Northwest Transport Prosecutor's Office investigator. He had been arrested and jailed on the same charges facing Travin, but he was released for health reasons. 
 &quot;We discovered that Travin was involved during the investigation of Baranov's case,&quot; Goltsimin said.
 During the interview, Goltsimin also complained about the relative ease with which confiscated materials can be spirited away for resale on the black market.
 &quot;This is a constant headache for each investigator dealing with confiscated products,&quot; he said. 
 What happens frequently, a source close to the police said, is that front companies spring up and offer good rates for storing the confiscated product. As soon as the company has the goods, it vanishes and moves on. 
 &quot;The whole system of selling confiscated products is criminal on these grounds, because the trade goes without any tenders,&quot; the source. 
 &quot;They are completely closed deals and that is why everyone who is involved in this kind of deal is usually [involved] in crime.&quot;

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Russia Spies on Berlin
 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Russia has increased the number of spies operating out of its diplomatic missions in Germany, according to a report released by the German internal security agency on Thursday.
 "The number of intelligence operatives has increased as the amount of embassy personnel has grown," the Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution said in its annual report.
 A Russian embassy spokesman in Berlin had no immediate comment on the report, but the news comes on the heels of the biggest spy row between the United States and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
 Earlier this month the United States said it would expel 50 Russian diplomats suspected of espionage.
 
 
New Mass Grave
 

GROZNY (AP) - Investigators have discovered a new mass grave in the Leninsky district of Groz ny, but did not say how many bodies it contained, an official in the Kremlin-appointed Chechen government said Wednesday.
 The announcement follows an investigation opened last month into scores of corpses found sprawled around a summer home community near the main military headquarters in Chechnya on the city's outskirts.
 Relatives and human rights activists say that most were civilians detained and executed by the military. The military rejects the charge.
 Meanwhile, 15 soldiers were killed and more than 28 wounded in fighting over the past 24 hours, the official said.
 The attacks included five ambushes on military columns in various parts of Chechnya. Rebels blew up four armored personnel carriers with remote controlled mines during the attacks, and sprayed troop transport trucks with machine-gun fire. 
 
 
Balkan Talks
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin met Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato on Thursday and the two men discussed the fresh Balkans conflict which Mos cow called "worrying."
 Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said afterwards that the two leaders had shared concern for the Balkans, where Macedonian security forces are fighting ethnic Albanian guerrillas and fears of a new regional war have flared.
 "It is worrying, it prompts concern," Russian news agency Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying.
 "The crisis in Macedonia is a manifestation of the threat facing Europe - the threat of terrorism spreading across the continent from its epicenter in Ko sovo," he added.
 
 
Clemency for Briton?
 

CALCUTTA, India, (Reuters) - Five Russians freed from jail after being convicted for their role in an arms drop in India, have asked India to free Peter Bleach, a British co-accused who is still imprisoned.
 The Russian flyers left jail in July after India accepted Moscow's appeals for clemency. But there was no word on Bleach, a former British army officer, who has appealed against his life sentence.
 "The Russians have written to President K.R. Narayanan asking for the release of Bleach by granting him equal treatment as was granted to them," Bleach's lawyer, R.K. Khanna, told Reuters on Thursday.
 Bleach, 49, was convicted along with the Russians in February 2000 of dropping a cache of arms and ammunition from an aircraft over Purulia in the eastern state of West Bengal five years earlier. 



TITLE: CIA Unmoved by Russian Response to Diplomatic Expulsions
AUTHOR: By Tabassum Zakaria
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: WASHINGTON - When the United States decided to expel 50 Russian diplomats believed to be spies, knowing Mos cow was certain to retaliate in kind, the Central Intelligence Agency did not flinch.
 Instead, the U.S. spy agency supported the move, deciding the benefits of cutting the number of Russian intelligence officers in the United States outweighed any disadvantage in the largest tit-for-tat expulsions since the Cold War.
 The reason, intelligence experts say, is because the United States does not have anywhere near 50 intelligence officers under diplomatic cover in Moscow and that most U.S. intelligence gathering on Russia would not be disrupted.
 Typically the FBI, which keeps track of foreign intelligence officers in the United States, favors expelling them. The CIA urges restraint because it feels the brunt of retaliation, and the State Department offers to mediate.
 But this time the CIA approved when the United States decided to expel four Russian diplomats linked to the case of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, accused of selling secrets to Moscow over 15 years, and another 46 to reduce Russian espionage.
 U.S. espionage efforts on Russia are not fully dependent on intelligence officers based in Moscow so the expulsions were not expected to cripple intelligence gathering, experts said.
 &quot;There are lots of ways to spy on Russia, there are lots of ways to spy on the United States. Having a presence in those countries is just one of them, perhaps not even the most important,&quot; a former U.S. intelligence official said.
 For example, a Russian spying for the United States would be more likely to make contact outside Moscow, such as in Warsaw, where there would be less chance of getting caught. A large amount of information is gathered through technological means that would not be hampered by a diplomatic expulsion.
 The CIA's support of the expulsions also showed there was not a major U.S. spy operation under way in Russia at the time, experts said.
 A handful of Russians in the Washington embassy are declared intelligence officers, but others are under diplomatic cover.
 The United States was probably able to pinpoint the intelligence officers with help from recent Russian defectors, said Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB officer.
 &quot;So when they expel people they precisely fingered the right people, they did not make any guesswork. This is why I think this will be a major blow to the Russian intelligence service,&quot; he said.
 The Russian intelligence station chief in Washington was not expelled, probably because of his semi-diplomatic role as liaison with the FBI and CIA, a former U.S. official said. Russia's list of four U.S. diplomats it was expelling did not include the CIA's station chief in Moscow.
 Former CIA Director James Wool sey said the lack of CIA opposition to the expulsions was a sign that Russia is less of a priority than the Soviet Union once was. Russia's main espionage goal in the United States was technology secrets, he said.

TITLE: New Minister: Adamov Mark II?
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin sacked Nuclear Power Minister Yev geny Adamov at a time when the minister was coming under mounting pressure for alleged corruption, abuse of office and a controversial plan to import spent nuclear fuel for storage.
 As his replacement, Putin plucked career nuclear official Alexander Rumyantsev from his post as head of the Moscow-based Kurchatov Institute, Russia's oldest nuclear research center.
 Lawmakers and environmental activists hailed the ousting of Adamov as a positive step but questioned whether the appointment of Rumyantsev would bring any changes to the policies of the Nuclear Power Ministry.
 Rumyantsev himself was vague about his plans Wednesday. He said that developing the nuclear industry would be a priority.
 &quot;My first steps will be to study the situation,&quot; Rumyantsev was quoted by Interfax as saying. &quot;I have been working in the industry for 32 years. It is like a home to me, but all the same I must find out everything about what is going on.&quot;
 Adamov's import plan - which envisions Russia raising $20 billion over 12 years by accepting 20,000 tons of spent fuel - would also have to be examined, he said.
 &quot;[The project] is expedient, but we must thoroughly discuss the exact way in which it could be implemented,&quot; Rumyantsev told ORT television Wednesday night.
 Adamov made no comment about his ousting Wednesday.
 Putin praised Adamov at the same Cabinet meeting at which he announced his dismissal. &quot;[Adamov] did a lot to strengthen the industry,&quot; and that is &quot;a fact,&quot; Putin said.
 But Adamov remains at the center of an investigation into whether he used his post as nuclear power minister to boost the business of the consulting and trading company Omeka, a U.S.-based firm in which he also owns a stake. The State Duma's anti-corruption commission issued a 20-page report at the beginning of this month questioning Adamov's ties to Omeka after his appointment as minister and his purchase of houses in Switzerland and the United States.
 Adamov last week denied any inappropriate conduct in his dealings with Omeka.
 The Duma report also accused Ada mov of firing a number of experts from the Nuclear Power Ministry and replacing them with business partners incompetent in the field. 
 The Prosecutor General's Office is investigating the allegations in the report and its &quot;work is still going on,&quot; Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Natalya Vishnyakova said Wednesday.
 But Adamov's lobbying for the Duma to pass bills allowing the import of spent nuclear fuel sparked the loudest outcries. Environmentalists and nuclear experts accused the minister of having no intention of safely storing the radioactive material but of looking for an easy way to earn much-needed cash for the nuclear industry.
 Sergei Mitrokhin, a Duma deputy with the Yabloko faction and a fierce opponent of Adamov's spent-fuel project, said the resignation was &quot;very positive.&quot;
 He said, however, that he was waiting to see what would happen to Adamov's project.
 &quot;Whether the project will go ahead very much depends on his [Rumyantsev's] position,&quot; Mitrokhin said in a telephone interview. &quot;But I don't know his stance. What I know about him is that his reputation is very good, and this is the most important thing that distinguishes him from Adamov.&quot;
 But Vladimir Slivyak, a co-founder of the Ecodefense environmental organization, said Rumyantsev has already flirted with the idea of importing nuclear waste. Last year, he said, the Kurchatov Institute teamed up with the Nuclear Power Ministry to draw up a plan to import nuclear waste from Thailand for storage near Sakhalin island in the Far East.
 &quot;We found out about these plans and spoiled the deal,&quot; Slivyak said.
 Vladimir Kuznetsov, a former high-ranking official at the nuclear safety watchdog Gosatomnadzor and current director of the Russian Green Cross program for nuclear safety, said he doubted that Rumyantsev would take any major steps to change Adamov's policies.
 &quot;They are both from the same team,&quot; he said. &quot;They [the ministry and Kurchatov Institute] are only separated formally - it is easier to earn money that way.&quot;
 Kuznetsov added that he believed Rumyantsev is lacking in strong management skills.
 &quot;He has failed to raise money to dispose of radioactive waste on his territory,&quot; he said. &quot;Look, he has 2,000 tons of radioactive waste and 900 rods with spent liquid nuclear fuel that are kept in mostly unsafe conditions on the two hectares of area that the institute controls. Some of the storage facilities are just large pits in the ground!&quot;
 A Social-Ecological Union spokesperson added &quot;If Rumyantsev openly supports the import of nuclear waste into Russia, then that would be a clear signal that the Cabinet and the president also support it.&quot;

TITLE: EU To Aid Cleanup Of Northwest Russia
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Responding to high levels of pollution in the Baltic Sea, all 15 members of the European Union agreed in a meeting March 23 in Stockholm - during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin - to help finance environmental investments in Northwest Russia.
 The EU said it will provide up to 100 million euros ($88 million), to be released to a consortium of overseeing banks from its own European Investment Bank, or EIB, said Monica Loefgren, EIB information officer, in a telephone interview this week. 
 According to recent environmental reports by Greenpeace, as well as other independent national studies, waste water from St. Petersburg is currently the largest pollutant of the Baltic Sea. 
 &quot;The EU Commission has already started preparations for appropriate guarantee arrangements for the above-mentioned EIB activities in Russia,&quot; Loefgren said.
 Loefgren said that the 100-million-euro ceiling has been fixed for this financing within the framework of the so-called Northern Dimension EU Initiative encompassing Poland, the three Baltic States and, above all, Northwest Russia. She said, however, that no release date for the funding has yet been set. She did say, though, that part of the money for the project would go to Kaliningrad - an enclave of Russia wedged on the other side of the Baltic states from mainland Russia - and St. Petersburg, but that she was unsure how the money would be divided.
 When the cash does start flowing, EIB lending will be channeled, in close cooperation with other international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Nordic Investment Bank - after authorization by the EIB's governors (EU finance ministers) - to sewage projects in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
 According to Polina Malysheva, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace-Russia, the pollution level in the Baltic Sea is alarming, though in recent years efforts by Finland, Germany, Sweden and other countries abutting the Baltic Sea have curbed their dumping of waste. 
 When released, EIB money will go to fund the completion of sewage facilities at the <i>Krasny Bor</i> storage site for toxic waste located in Leningrad Oblast, 20 kilometers south of St. Petersburg. Krasny Bor is the primary dumping ground for industrial waste in the area.
 The site has long been in danger of overflowing, an eventuality that would pour toxic sewage into the Neva river, with possible risks to Lake Ladoga.
 The EIB cash will also help to fund a similar sewage facility to be constructed in Kaliningrad.
 At a press conference in Stockholm on March 23 together with Putin, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson described the decision to invite the EIB to participate in the financing the Russian projects as a breakthrough in EU-Russian economic relations, as well as an important step in realizing the EU's Northern Dimension Initiative project. 
 In the meantime, Greenpeace-Russia is completing research on the condition of the Baltic Sea region. Multiple probes have been taken by the Greenpeace ecologists to estimate pollution levels. 
 &quot;Our experts have also examined the industrial influence on the environment,&quot; Malysheva said. She said the report will be complete in mid-April.

TITLE: State Television Airs Tapes of 'Spies' Caught in the Act
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Indulging in its own version of spy mania, the Federal Security Services provided tapes to RTR state television purporting to show a U.S. intelligence officer at work in Moscow.
 The tapes, broadcast Tuesday night, included one meeting at a Moscow restaurant and a couple of phone calls to the U.S. naval attach&eacute;. One call, the FSB said, was from Igor Sutyagin, a researcher now in jail facing charges of revealing state secrets. 
 But the naval attach&eacute;, Captain Robert Brannon, scoffed at the report. And Sutyagin's lawyer said Wednesday that the researcher has already been cleared of allegations that he had spied for Brannon.
 RTR aired an audio tape of what it said was a conversation between Brannon and Sutyagin in which they discussed what kind of armaments were aboard the Russian intelligence ship Liman sent to the Balkans during the 1999 NATO military campaign.
 Brannon was interested in whether the Liman's crew was equipped with shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. Sutyagin said it was not. On the tape, Sutyagin wanted to know if Brannon had received his fax and the American replied that he had, adding that he had been much more pleased with the &quot;envelope&quot; Sutyagin had sent.
 The contents of the envelope were not disclosed, but a Russian commentator said that when Brannon's name had been mentioned in Sutyagin's trial, the U.S. official left the country abruptly. He later returned.
 An FSB official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday the footage proves the security service has collected solid evidence to prosecute Sutyagin.
 Sutyagin, a researcher at the U.S.A. and Canada Institute, was charged in 1999 with revealing state secrets. Sutyagin's defense has insisted he never had access to classified materials.
 One of Sutyagin's lawyers, Anna Sa vit skaya, said during the pre-trial investigation that Sutyagin was charged with disclosing state secrets to Brennon, but the charges were dropped as &quot;unfounded.&quot; 
 &quot;The investigation established that the information Sutyagin was providing to Brennon was not a state secret,&quot; she said by telephone, adding she was shocked by RTR's reporting. Savitskaya accused the FSB of &quot;exerting pressure on public opinion.&quot;
 The RTR report opened with a man standing at a telephone booth near the U.S. Embassy placing a call to Brannon. The caller was identified as convicted hijacker Anatoly Popov.
 The video documented how a meeting was arranged at the Zoo restaurant near the embassy. While Brannon paced the sidewalks near the restaurant, two unidentified U.S. military attaches are shown meeting with Popov and paying him $400 for a maritime chart of the Yenisei River delta area in Northern Siberia. Popov also promised to provide a map of &quot;minefields.&quot;
 In the broadcast, Popov said he later turned himself in, fearing arrest.
 In an interview, Brannon said he remembered receiving an unsolicited phone call like the one shown on television but refused to meet with the man. He insisted that neither he nor any other embassy official paid anyone $400 for secret information.
 &quot;He has some of his facts right,&quot; Brannon said of the RTR journalist. &quot;But the rest of this stuff is very strange and pulled from the clouds somehow.&quot;
 Brannon, stationed in Moscow since 1998, said he was not among the four diplomats designated for expulsion by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. The only name to surface publicly was of Paul Hollingsworth, a first secretary at the embassy. 
 <i>- NYT, WP, SPT </i>

TITLE: New Cult of Putin Just a Few Portraits Away
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Just when Russia might have been safe from shrines to the president - from busts and nature walks bearing Vladimir Putin's name - a local company is mass producing portraits for people who feel the absence of the leader's gaze from their wall.
 The source of the portraits is unlikely: a company called Arsenal Tradition whose usual focus is producing equipment for the oil industry. It is also partially owned by and housed at Arsenal Defense Factory, one of the most secretive producers of satellite equipment in Russia.
 The timing is also unlikely, following an appeal by Putin in December to his acolytes not to honor him with busts and portraiture. 
 &quot;I recall the president's words about sculptures, portraits and so on,&quot; said Alexei Gromov, Putin's spokesperson, in a telephone interview Thursday.
 &quot;Putin said very simply 'I ask you not to do this.' That is his attitude.&quot;
 Gromov even suggested that people buy their photos of the president from Itar-Tass or RIA news, who get their media shots of Putin from the Kremlin for free.
 But for Arsenal Tradition - and countless others - this isn't enough. Just last month, a much talked-about exhibit of heroic paintings of Putin ran in Moscow, for example.
 Besides, Alexander Belik, Arsenal Tradition's sales manager, wanted the president on his wall.
 &quot;We weren't able to find his image anywhere,&quot; said Belik in an interview Thursday. &quot;We started thinking about the possibility of producing the portraits.&quot;
 The company plans to print 2000 copies that come in three sizes - A2 at 42 centimeters by 59 centimeters; A3 at 30 centimeters by 42 centimeters and A4 at 21 centimeters by 30 centimeters. Their prices, in descending order, are 925 rubles, 655, rubles and 345 rubles. They have already produced 300 and Belik said orders are raining in. 
 &quot;I can't tell you how many requests we have in total or who they came from because this is our commercial secret. But the only thing I can say is that the number is close to 2,000,&quot; Belik said.
 But Belik and Arsenal Tradition are hardly interested in keeping their new product a secret, judging by their advertising.
 &quot;The portrait of the president of the country, together with the national anthem and coat of arms, is one of the symbols of statehood and can become a natural feature of any official or family interior,&quot; read an ad that ran in Delovoy Peterburg March 19.
 &quot;The company Arsenal Tradition is hoping to revive these long-lost traditions, which have yet to become a part of contemporary Russia,&quot; the ad continued. 
 Officially speaking, Arsenal Tradition needs a license from the Press Ministry to mass produce portrait of the president, which Belik said the company has. 
 Lyudmila Vishnevskaya, head of the Press Ministry's Licensing Department for Printing was slightly nonplussed when contacted about Arsenal Tradition's credentials, saying she didn't know who had granted them permission. She conceded however, that Arsenal Tradition may have obtained permission simply to run a printing press without specifying what would be printed.
 Nonetheless, many politicians in St. Petersburg seem to have a Putin portrait lurking about, whether they bought it from Arsenal Tradition or somewhere else.
 Alexander Afanasyev, the governor's spokesman, said Governor Vladimir Yakovlev and himself have portraits of Pu tin they received long ago. Afa na s yev has one hanging in his flat. Yakov lev has one on one of his City Hall desks.
 Vishnevskaya said during Soviet times only one organization had the right to publish portraits of Soviet rulers. That was the Plakat publishing house in Moscow, which no longer exists.
 But that was politics - something Belik said Arsenal Tradition is not interested in. His company is only trying &quot;to fill an empty space on the market.&quot;

TITLE: Russia, Lithuania Discuss EU Expansion
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus began a visit to Russia on Thursday and said he would discuss Kaliningrad as well as European Union and NATO expansion, key worries for Moscow.
 Lithuanian presidents have been the only Baltic leaders invited to Moscow in recent years as Russia still views with anger what it calls discrimination against large ethnic Russian communities in the other Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia.
 Adamkus, a Lithuanian-American who speaks good Russian, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying he wanted to obtain a deeper understanding of Russia's stance on the &quot;expanding Euro-Atlantic community,&quot; meaning the growth of the European Union and NATO.
 The Lithuanian president, whose predecessor visited Moscow in 1997, has backed his country's efforts to get into the EU and NATO. He was due to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday.
 Adamkus said that the desire to join NATO was not aimed against Russia - Lithuania's ruler for most of the 200 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 - as many Russians suspect. Russia is still regarded with suspicion by people throughout all three Baltic states.
 He said that he expected good cooperation with Moscow concerning Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which will be surrounded by European Union states once Lithuania and Poland enter the bloc.
 &quot;Cooperation between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad region will be an integral part of cooperation between the EU and Russia in various areas, including transport, energy and the environment,&quot; he was quoted as saying.
 Russia and the EU have already expressed worries about Kaliningrad's status once the bloc expands.
 Moscow wants to make sure the region will not be cut off from the rest of Russia while the EU is worried Kaliningrad's high crime, pollution problems and economic woes will make it a blight on the bloc's eastern fringe.
 Sergei Prikhodko, Kremlin deputy chief of staff, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying that Moscow wanted to hear from Adamkus that Lithuania would not end visa-free travel for people coming across the border from Kaliningrad.

TITLE: U.S. Plans Review of Aid Programs to Russia
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: NEW YORK - The White House is starting a comprehensive review of all American aid programs to Russia designed to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, The New York Times reported in its online edition on Thursday.
 The report cited a senior administration official speaking on Wednesday.
 The broad review - initiated by National Security Council officials - is likely to change significantly how Washington spends more than $760 million a year trying to dismantle former Soviet nuclear, biological and chemical complexes and prevent unconventional weapons and hazardous materials from being either sold to rogue states and terrorist groups or stolen by them, the paper said.
 &quot;This is not a challenge to Russia or an effort to dismantle nonproliferation programs,&quot; the senior official was quoted as saying. &quot;This is about enabling the progress we've made to continue and making nonproliferation programs even more effective. We want to strengthen nonproliferation.&quot;
 The official was reported as saying that several of the programs, such as the Department of Energy's $173 million program to strengthen the security and accounting for fissile material at nuclear weapons storage sites, appeared to be &quot;very effective.&quot;
 Others, several administration officials were reported as saying, may not be money well spent, like the more than $6 billion long-term effort to help Russia and the United States dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium each.
 Programs deemed ineffective could be sharply reduced, or even scuttled, officials were reported as saying.
 The administration's adoption of what it calls a &quot;realistic&quot; or &quot;unsentimental&quot; approach to Russia has prompted Russian officials to accuse Washington of being out of step with the times, intent on reviving Cold War policies, and abandoning the previous administration's effort to treat Russia as a partner, the paper noted.
 The review is examining dozens of programs run mainly by the State Department, Pentagon and Department of Energy that have poured millions of dollars into Russia and the former Soviet republics since the Cold War, the paper said.
 The nonproliferation review will be conducted by senior officials at the National Security Council and is expected to last six to eight weeks, officials were reported as saying.
 In the meantime, the programs will continue, he said.

TITLE: Police Draw Blanks in Art Heist Investigation
AUTHOR: By Masha Kaminskaya
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: An attempt by the St. Petersburg police's special art-theft department to track down a suspect in the theft of a painting from the State Hermitage Museum ended in embarrassment this week when a man depicted in a police sketch came forward to deny any involvement in the heist.
 &quot;Pool in a Harem,&quot; painted in 1876 by Jean-Leon Gerome, was cut from its frame and stolen last Thursday afternoon while the hall where the painting was hanging was closed to visitors. The painting was not connected to the museum's alarm system at the timd and was being supervised by only a single custodian.
 A sketch of a man whom a museum visitor said she had seen running out of the Hermitage with a parcel in his hands was circulated in local newspapers. On Monday, a man who said he recognized himself in the sketch went to police and said he had nothing to do with the theft.
 &quot;The man is an artist, and often comes to the Hermitage to make sketches and copies, study paintings and so on,&quot; said Alexander Rostovtsev, chief spokesperson for the city's police department. &quot;He was questioned and released, and this lead is now closed.&quot; Rostovtsev refused to release any details about the man.
 Other leads have also proved fruitless. A search of museum visitors and personnel on the day of the heist found nothing. Two museum employees were found with what police described as valuable art works, but these turned out to be simply the employees' personal property.
 Viktor Panteleyev, the head of the police department for art theft - also known as Department 12 - said that a group of students that was allowed into the room where the painting was hanging on the day of the theft had been questioned, but had yielded no results.
 Panteleyev said that investigators have intensified their search of local art galleries, dealers and collectors, and early Tuesday morning detained two more people, an Estonian citizen and a St. Petersburg native.
 The Estonian reportedly commissioned a third man, a local street artist, to make a copy of &quot;Pool in a Harem,&quot; giving him a book with a reproduction of the painting to work with. Panteleyev added that the painter - who did not apply to the State Hermitage Museum for access to the original - was paid several hundred dollars, and the copy was then taken to Estonia.
 The Estonian Consulate could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
 When the two were arrested, police discovered a large amount - around 10 liters, police estimate - of a solution of natrium oxybutirate, a drug that is mainly used as an anesthetic.
 &quot;Drugs of this kind are kept under special control and are not sold in pharmacies,&quot; said Tatyana Bogdanova, chief phar macologist with the City Health Committee.
 The two now face charges of possession of illegal drugs, although Bogda no va said it was an unusual choice of narcotic. &quot;Natrium oxybutirate will simply put you to sleep,&quot; she said.
 However, Arkady Granovsky, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Anti-Drug Squad - to which the men will be handed over after being questioned about the painting theft - said that the drug was, in fact, a mind-altering drug that is most often used by drug addicts. He said it could also be used in the same way a chloroform, &quot;with criminal intent.&quot;
 Granovsky said the drug was illegal in Russia, but obtainable over the counter in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, from where it could have been smuggled across the border.

TITLE: Rostelecom Looking to the Future
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Arthur Andersen will present recommendations on a five-year strategy for long-distance operator Rostelecom by April 12, said Vadim Balashov, head of telecoms at the international consulting giant.
 &quot;So far the strategizing process has not been completed, but it's pretty clear that it will be completed by April 12,&quot; Balashov said.
 Without going into details, Balashov said more than one business plan was being studied. Industry observers say options for the nation's long-distance monopoly include merging with one of the seven pan-regional companies to result from consolidation or transferring some regional assets to these companies. 
 The industry should welcome any clarity from Rostelecom, of which national operator Svyazinvest has 51 percent voting rights, and whose future status is still unknown in light of the government's huge consolidation of the telecommunications sector. 
 &quot;There will be many more opportunities, and threats, once Svyazinvest completes restructuring ... so Rostelecom has to start preparing for that now, hence this strategy project,&quot; Balashov said.
 The emergence of small alternative operators and telecoms created by national monopolies - including the Railways Ministry's Transtelecom, Gaz prom's Gaztelecom and UES' recently announced telecoms foray, each of which is trying to snap up data, voice and Europe-Asia traffic - means that Ros telecom's plan could not come too soon.
 &quot;The competition is real, already today. It will be much more real tomorrow,&quot; Balashov said.
 Under-performing the market, Rostelecom's stock is currently traded at $0.79 from a high of $4.70 last year.

TITLE: Survey Shows Foreign Companies Bullish on Russia
AUTHOR: By Natasha Shanetskaya
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - &quot;Nothing [in Russia] has been as bad as it has been portrayed in the Western media,&quot; Daniel Thorniley told a group of executives from more than 100 Western companies at a seminar Tuesday.
 As senior vice president of and top consultant on Russia for the influential Economist Intelligence Unit, Thorniley, who holds a doctorate in Soviet political economy from Oxford, is in a position to know.
 Armed with an arsenal of statistics from a recent EIU survey of 75 major multinationals operating on the local market, Thorniley went on the warpath to debunk the myths about Russia that Western companies who have never done business here believe.
 Take China, the benchmark of emerging markets, for example, he said. While Russia's economy is clipping along at a respectable pace and promising generous returns, most Western companies still perceive China as a much more attractive investment. 
 But Western investors in China have an average annual return of 3 percent, while the average return in Russia before the crisis was 5 percent to 45 percent.
 According to the EIU survey:
 . No company in the survey believes that political risk is worsening. Some 82 percent feel it is improving and the remainder see no change;
 . Two-thirds feel the tax environment is getting better;
 . Half judge Russia as a favorable opportunity;
 . The majority rate the issue of crime and corruption as manageable or better;
 . More than 60 percent are currently operating at pre-crisis levels;
 . More than 80 percent reported making a profit last year;
 . More than half expect sales in 2001 to grow between 10 percent and 25 percent;
 . A quarter expect sales in 2001 to grow between 25 percent and 50 percent;
 . More than 70 percent hired new personnel last year and plan to continue hiring in 2001.
 
 &quot;Yet most investors still see China as more interesting,&quot; he said, adding that the main challenge for regional managers is &quot;selling&quot; Russia to senior executives who don't understand investment opportunities in the country.
 China may be foreign investors' flavor of the year because of its recent acceptance into the World Trade Organization, said Thorniley.
 Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister and the head of the Institute for the Economy in Transition, said accession to WTO is a feasible task that will require a major overhaul of the legal system.
 &quot;If we want to have a solid legal system, we need to at least double the real salaries of our judges,&quot; he said during a workshop on legal issues that continue to dog foreign businesses.
 &quot;Why does Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov never lose a case in Moscow court?&quot; asked Sergei Marinich, a partner at international law firm Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn.
 Marinich said the rhetorical question was meant to illustrate the high level of corruption in Russia's courts.
 Foreign executives who attended the EIU seminar reiterated the usual laundry list of complaints, including capital flight, the lack of corporate transparency, the slow adoption of international accounting standards, and the high level of crime and corruption.
 The languishing banking sector climbed to the top of the list.
 While foreign industrial investors view a movement from barter to cash dealing as positive, businesses are still suffering from not having a viable banking sector, said Shiv Vikram Khemka, director of the Sun Group, which owns one of the country's largest breweries, Sun Interbrew.
 Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Arkady Dvorkin repeated the official line that banking sector reform is one of the government's highest priorities.
 Many of the world's economies are expected to slow this year, led by the U.S., whose growth is forecast to plunge to 1.4 percent from 5 percent in 2001, according to the EIU.
 But, Thorniley said, Russia's economy should sustain robust growth if oil prices remain above $20 a barrel. This would allow foreign investors to capitalize on healthy consumer spending and smile all the way to the bank, as long as they can manage several country-specific risks.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Software Plan
 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drug maker Pfizer Inc. said on Thursday it plans to form an independent company with software giant Microsoft Corp. and computer maker International Business Machines Corp. to develop software and services to help doctors manage their practices and medical information.
 "The new company will focus on the needs of office-based physicians, particularly those in smaller groups, which represent 70 percent of the office-based doctors in the United States today," Pfizer said in a press release.
 Pfizer said the three firms plan to sign definitive agreements and that their new company would make its first products available this year, and would pursue acquisitions and other investments to build the company.
 
 
Coke Takes Big Hit
 

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the largest bottler of Coca-Cola Co. soft drinks, on Thursday said it will miss first-quarter financial forecasts due to soft North American volume and price competition.
 Coca-Cola Enterprises, whose stock dropped as much as 15 percent after the announcement, said it expects a first-quarter loss of between 19 and 21 cents per share, more than double the average loss of 8 cents in an analysts survey by Thomson Financial/First Call.
 The company said it expects total volume growth of about 1.5 percent for the first quarter. European volume will be up 6 percent, but North American volume with be flat from a year ago.
 Shares of Coca-Cola Enterprises fell $3.26 to $17.86 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading, posting the biggest percentage loss on the exchange. 
 
 
747X To Be Shelved
 

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) - Boeing Co. reportedly plans to shelve designs for its giant 747X and will instead focus on developing smaller jetliners that will travel at nearly the speed of sound.
 By doing so, Boeing would leapfrog its European archrival Airbus Industrie in commercial aircraft technology. Airbus has been concentrating on its new super-jumbo A380, which competes with Boeing's 747 jumbo jets.
 Boeing spokespersons Tom Ryan and Cris McHugh refused to comment on Thursday's report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. However, Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, has scheduled a news conference to make what the company says is a major announcement.
 The 747X was designed to compete head-on with Airbus' 555-passenger A380 and was to carry more than 525 passengers. Boeing has been pitching the 747X for two years, but has yet to announce an order, while Airbus has announced 66 orders for its new plane.
 
 
Markets Slumping
 

LONDON (AP) - European shares traded mostly lower Thursday but avoided the steeper declines seen earlier in the day in Asia.
 Meanwhile, U.S. markets rebounded from initial declines and were higher in early trading.
 The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares on the London Stock Exchange fell 1.1 percent to 5,551.8 points in afternoon trading, while the CAC-40 index of leading French shares was off 0.6 percent to 5,118.29 and Germany's DAX index fell 0.4 percent to 5,795.62.
 Tokyo's 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average plunged 5 percent to close at 13,072.36 points, dragged lower by technology and telecommunications shares. 



TITLE: EBRD Upbeat Over LUKoil GAAP Audit
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - After numerous delays, harsh criticism from investors and a beating on the stock market, Russia's No. 1 oil company LUKoil on Tuesday finally released its 1998-1999 financials audited to Western accounting standards.
 But some market watchers said they were disappointed by the lack of details in the report, which was sent out as a news release instead of the typical sheaf of documents that include pages of substantive notes.
 LUKoil said it made a 1999 profit of $1.06 billion on $7.3 billion in revenues under U.S. generally accepted accounting standards, or GAAP. The profit was a 46 percent increase from 1998, when the company earned $729 million on $6.6 billion in revenues.
 &quot;An increase in operating activities resulted largely from the improved situation on world energy markets and the rising demand and prices for oil and oil products,&quot; LUKoil said in a statement. &quot;The significant improvement of the economic situation in Russia and the stable microeconomic growth in 1999 have also significantly influenced the increase in income from the main lines of business.&quot;
 LUKoil's board of directors adopted and then released the company's consolidated financial statements for its more than 380 subsidiaries and affiliates at a meeting in Baku on Tuesday.
 Big Five accounting firm KPMG signed off on the financials without any qualifications.
 The stock market reacted unenthusiastically to LUKoil's announcement, with LUKoil ordinary shares gaining 1.5 percent to close at $9.90. The stock is down substantially from October, when it was trading at around $15.
 Leonid Mirzoyan, an oil analyst with Deutsche Bank, said LUKoil displayed a lack of professionalism in the manner it released the report.
 &quot;They should have accompanied the release with some kind of conference call.&quot; Mirzoyan said. &quot;Where are the profit-and-loss and cash-flow statements? Where is the balance sheet? It is this kind of information that lets us on to the company's nuances.&quot;
 But the release of the report does bode well for LUKoil's bid to get a $150 million loan released by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a three-year loan promised in May but frozen until LUKoil released its 1998-1999 reports audited to GAAP.
 &quot;This will remove the last obstacle to the disbursement of the loan to LUKoil,&quot; said an EBRD spokesperson. &quot;But no formal announcement will be made for several weeks, until EBRD bankers gather to examine the full accounts.&quot;
 &quot;We regard this as a major landmark in the bank's efforts to achieve greater corporate transparency in Russia,&quot; the spokesperson added.
 LUKoil spokesperson Dmitry Dolgov declined to say when the financials would be released in full.
 &quot;It's a big document,&quot; Dolgov said. &quot;It would be difficult to publish all at once.&quot;
 Steven Dashevsky, an oil analyst with the brokerage Aton, said he expected the full accounts to be published in the next several days.
 &quot;What is important is that the results show that there are no skeletons in the closet,&quot; Dashevsky said. &quot;Of course, the detailed notes are key, but overall, the numbers are good.&quot;
 Aton kept its rating of LUKoil stock at &quot;Hold&quot; on Tuesday due to an oversupply of the stock on the market.
 &quot;However, we will thoroughly review our recommendation for a possible upgrade upon more detailed analysis of the full 1998-1999 disclosure,&quot; the brokerage said in a research note.
 Stephen O'Sullivan, an oil analyst with United Financial Group, said that LUKoil's net profit under GAAP - $1.06 billion - is in line with its earlier reported profit of $1.11 billion made under Russian Accounting Standards, or RAS.
 Despite the jump in profit, LUKoil still made less than No. 2 Yukos or No. 3 Surgutneftegaz on a real and per barrel basis in 1999, Renaissance Capital said in a research note. Yukos' financials are also audited to GAAP, while Surgutneftegaz's statements are only compiled to RAS.

TITLE: Finance Ministry Declines IMF Loan
AUTHOR: By Andrew Kramer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia has rejected a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund because the country doesn't need the money or the fund's binding policy advice, the finance minister said Wednesday.
 The one-year standby loan offer had prompted complaints from Russian officials that the terms were too strict for a meager offer.
 &quot;Having considered our possibilities, we made the decision not to conclude a full cooperation program with the IMF for a year,&quot; Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was quoted as saying by Interfax.
 Kudrin said Russia had no need for the funds and did not want to be &quot;under the constant control of the IMF.&quot;
 The fund's Moscow office declined to comment on the report.
 The rejection was a role reversal in Russia's decade-long relations with the IMF, which has for years dangled loan programs before Russia, and used the threat of withholding funds to encourage economic reform.
 Russia has repeatedly failed to meet reform promises. Meanwhile, the country has made windfall profits from high world prices for oil, Russia's major export, over the past year and has been less desperate for foreign loans.
 Finance Ministry spokesperson Gen nady Yezhov said Wednesday that Russia had agreed to adhere to the IMF agreement's principles, but would not sign a formal accord.
 &quot;The program will be followed through, but it won't be made formal,&quot; he told Dow Jones Newswires. He did not elaborate.
 The IMF offered Russia a one-year standby arrangement, under which no money would have been provided unless the country's economy took a sharp turn for the worse. But the accord would still have required the Russian government to implement policies it has resisted for years, such as charging market rates on central bank loans to the government and tightening banking supervision.
 Russian media have in recent days cited officials as saying the IMF is offering too little and demanding too much.
 Russia initially pursued a deal with the IMF last year because an IMF-approved economic policy was necessary as a precondition to opening talks on a separate loan-rescheduling plan with the Paris Club of sovereign creditors. When talks with the Paris Club stalled in February, the IMF deal lost urgency. Russia had requested a three-year loan program that would have helped in its bid to reschedule other foreign debts. But the IMF turned down that request, saying a longer loan program could be approved after the one-year program was successfully completed.

TITLE: Analysts: Reshuffle Unlikely To Affect Markets
AUTHOR: By Melissa Akin
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MOSCOW - The markets once trembled when Boris Yeltsin sneezed, but President Vladimir Putin's first major political shakeup is only likely to rock them if he reshuffles his economic team, analysts polled said Wednesday.
 They said markets might even welcome Putin's ousting earlier in the day of a handful of military men from the Interior and Defense ministries and the replacement of the Nuclear Power Minister and Tax Police chief.
 &quot;The best news is that there doesn't seem to be any,&quot; said Eric Kraus, chief strategist at NIKoil brokerage. &quot;As far as I can see none of this has a major impact on the economy. You'll notice that none of the economy ministries were touched.&quot;
 Wednesday's limp, nearly volumeless stock market continued trailing weak European markets when Putin announced he would install civilians in the so-called &quot;power ministries&quot; in what he called an effort to demilitarize Russian public life.
 United Financial Group's Christopher Granville said a &quot;traceable&quot; market response to the move was unlikely.
 He said Putin's removal of some leftovers of the era of Putin's predecessor, Yeltsin, in the cabinet signaled a tight grip on the government and might actually help lift the country's risk factor that leaves Russian assets undervalued.
 &quot;The political signal is continuing normalization, continued shedding of the Soviet legacy,&quot; Granville said. &quot;Today's news will lower country risk, which in time means tighter spreads and generally stronger asset prices.&quot;
 Analysts said a changeover at the Tax Ministry was likely to make little difference in tax collection, which they said has improved because of the government's dire financial need rather than personality politics.
 But Putin said there were more attention-grabbing staff changes to come.
 Analysts said that if he had in mind Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other key economic officials, such as Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin and Trade Minister German Gref, Russia's markets and economy would pay for the shake-up.
 Kraus said Putin's remark was especially threatening in the light of rumblings that Kasyanov, also originally a Yeltsin-era cabinet appointee, might be punished for his government's failure to secure a tidy Paris Club debt deal.
 Ben Slay, an economist at PlanEcon emerging markets consultancy in Washington, said Kremlin adviser Andrei Illarionov's harsh public accusations of stalling by the economic team were &quot;like a shark smelling blood in the water.&quot;
 Slay said sackings in the economic team could be only days away, while Granville expected that Putin would allow them to work through the end of the year, then call them to account.

TITLE: Paris Club To Assess Debt Relief Call
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: PARIS - Russia's calls for relief on $48 billion in foreign debts will stay on ice pending an assessment of Moscow's ability to pay in the coming years, the head of the Paris Club of creditor nations said in an interview.
 &quot;For the moment we do not have an analysis of the situation and we do not have any information to suggest we change the deal struck in 1999,&quot; Paris Club President Jean-Pierre Jouyet said.
 Russia recently changed tack and said it will honor short-term interest payments following pressure from the United States the European countries in the Paris Club forum and, above all, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, he said.
 &quot;The Russian authorities have made major progress as far as honoring their obligations is concerned. We will take a final look at this aspect at next week's Paris Club meeting,&quot; said Jouyet.

TITLE: EU Probes Gazprom's Contracts With Italy
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The European Commission is wrapping up a year-long investigation into whether gas contracts between Gaz prom and three Italian suppliers break EU antitrust regulations on fair competition, the European Commission said Tuesday.
 The commission, which acts as the European Union's antimonopoly watchdog, could decide within weeks whether to object to clauses in the contracts that limit the sale of Russian gas in Italy to the three companies - Enel, Snam and Edison - while forbidding them from reselling the gas to third countries.
 Gazprom provides 20 billion cubic meters of the 60 bcm of gas that Italy consumes each year. About 750 gas suppliers operate in Italy.
 EC spokeswoman Amelia Torres said the commission would decide shortly if the clauses in the contracts are illegal and would then debate what action to take, Reuters reported.
 The commission could fine each of the Italian companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover.
 EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said late last week that he believed some of the clauses in the contracts breach European antitrust rules.
 &quot;We are finishing a study of certain clauses in contracts to import natural gas from third-country companies that forbid selling the imported gas to another country,&quot; Monti told the La Repubblica newspaper Thursday, Reuters reported.
 Gazprom officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday.
 A spokeswoman for Snam, Italy's biggest gas importer, would only say that &quot;no official statement for the press has been released so far.&quot;
 Officials at the other two companies could not be reached for comment.
 The investigation comes as the EU steps up its bid to deregulate the gas market, a process started when EU officials signed a directive to that effect in 1998. Ministers at the EU summit in Stockholm last weekend renewed the call for a level playing field in the gas market.
 The Gazprom contracts were signed after the directive took effect in August 1998.
 Stephen O'Sullivan, head of oil and gas research at United Financial Group, said the clauses are &quot;fairly standard.&quot; 
 &quot;Gazprom and the Italian gas importers may just be the first in a series of actions that the commission will take,&quot; he said.
 Sergei Isayenko, head of the Mos cow office for the Wood MacKenzie energy consultancy, said any action taken by the EU over the contracts would hurt the Italians much more than the Russians.
 &quot;[Gazprom] cannot be fined because Russia is not a member of the EU,&quot; Isayenko said. &quot;And I think that Italian firms would be more likely to include the fines in their expenses. So I think that ultimately Italian consumers would have to pay.&quot;
 Isayenko added Gazprom might even be pleased with a decision finding the Italian contracts illegal.
 &quot;They would be glad to use the opportunity to reduce the contract volumes they export because gas resources are declining in Russia,&quot; he said. 
 But O'Sullivan argued that exporting gas is the only &quot;real money&quot; that the gas giant is earning due to low domestic prices. Gazprom simply cannot afford to slash its exports, he said.
 And those prices are set to go even lower.
 Gazprom head Rem Vyakhirev said last week that Gazprom is planning to reduce its prices to domestic consumers even more as part of a company restructuring plan.
 &quot;[We must] sell gas cheaper to Russian consumers and more expensively to foreign ones,&quot; Vyakhirev was quoted by Interfax as saying.
 Speaking last June at a World Gas Conference in Nice, Vyakhirev dismissed as &quot;a mess&quot; the EU plan to liberalize its gas market, saying the proposal would be &quot;out of fashion in a few years.&quot;
 &quot;We look on with an open mind as the EU keeps on bringing out directives. French and Germans know where their interests lie, and we shall not run after buyers,&quot; he was quoted by the online Oil and Gas Journal as saying.
 Gazprom supplies about 30 percent of the EU gas market.
 Vyakhirev said that Gazprom is prepared to lose money if the European market is liberalized.
 &quot;Saving a dollar here and there is not important. We have 30-year contracts, and if we lose money in the process, this is not important.&quot;
 Gazprom is a major state-controlled integrated global energy company. Headquartered in Moscow, it accounts for about 25 percent of world gas production and has 23.5 percent of the world's proven reserves, according to its own figures. It controls 70 percent of Russia's gas reserves, 94 percent of gas production and 100 percent of the domestic gas pipeline network.

TITLE: Putin's Move Fans Hope For Reform
TEXT: THE dust is still settling after President Vladimir Putin's unexpected government reshuffling Wednesday, but much of the speculation it engendered has centered on the appointment of former Security Council secretary Sergei Ivanov as the new defense minister.
 Putin and his supporters have played up Ivanov's appointment as a breakthrough because he is, technically at least, a civilian and, by all appearances, favors streamlining Russia's ineffective military. When the Security Council adopted its military reform plan last November, Ivanov expressed support for &quot;broad&quot; reform and described the current military as &quot;an excessive burden for our economy.&quot;
 Ivanov clearly has Putin's ear and he was able to transform the Security Council into a major Kremlin policy-setter by building on that personal confidence. Under Ivanov, the council was the forum for deciding questions ranging from Chechnya to the media to educational policy.
 Obviously, the new defense minister will need all the political clout he can muster to get military reform off the dime and keep it on track. Moreover, Ivanov's conservative-patriotic credentials will come in handy to stifle the inevitable cries that every change to the military is an assault upon mother Russia. No doubt, these qualities enabled Ivanov - with close support from Putin - to engineer the Security Council's unanimous endorsement for the reforms.
 The other big change in the defense ministry - the startling appointment of former deputy finance minister Lyubov Kudelina as deputy defense minister - also bodes well for reform. It is a political axiom that the only genuine control is control of the purse strings, so Kudelina's expertise (she oversaw the budgets of the power agencies while at the finance ministry) would seem to be the perfect compliment to Ivanov's political muscle.
 Ivanov's devotion to Putin is the quality that most recommended him for this appointment. He is as thoroughgoing a loyalist as there is. However, with fundamental reforms at stake, is that really a bad thing?
 Putin's personal popularity - although there are some indications that it may be slipping - remains enormously high. If anything, he has been criticized - in this space not least - for lacking vision and definite strategy. The nation seems to be expecting leadership from him rather than conciliation.
 Ministerial loyalty to the president should not necessarily frighten us, and it wouldn't if only we had a less ambiguous and more easily endorsable understanding of what exactly Putin himself stands for. In the case of the defense ministry, if Putin really stands for the November reform plan, then we can only hope that Ivanov is loyal to it as well.

TITLE: Civic Duty Not Just a Matter Of Tradition
TEXT: THIS year, City Hall is again following an old communist tradition: encouraging local residents to get out on the streets and help clean away the winter grime.
 In March, the City Maintenance Committee issued a decree specifying the &quot;cleaning season&quot; as running from April 1 to May 19, and designating April 21 as the day when right-minded citizens can join in - the good old <i>subbotnik.</i>
 It is probably no great surprise that the current authorities, most of whom worked under the communist system, have yet to find a way of keeping St. Petersburg clean all year round. <i>Sovyetskoye - znachit otlichnoye, </i>and the city administration clearly prefers the example set by workers at the Sortirovochnaya railway station in Moscow in 1919.
 One misty spring evening, these workers decided to stay very late in order to repair several broken steam locomotives all in one go. It was an example of dedication to one's job that surprised not only the station's management, but even Vladimir Lenin himself, who was inspired to write an article - &quot;The Great Iniative&quot; - in support of the action. A year later, in April 1920, Lenin led the way by carrying a log around Red Square, in an effort to convince people that spring cleaning in general, and log removal in particular, was work to which everyone should aspire.
 The idea stuck, but in a rather unorthodox way. These days, we clean the country in April, and if a log is blocking the road in May, it can damn well sit there until next April. Part of the reason for this is that the person who should be responsible for moving the log is never himself inconvenienced by it.
 Some lawmakers at the Legislative Assembly, who should have been thinking about ways to improve the situation, are still convinced that one general cleanup per year is better than nothing. Viktor Yevtukhov, on the other hand, pins the problem on the Russian mentality. He believes Russians don't care about anything except the state of their own apartments, and ignore the broken lamps, dirty streets and cluttered courtyards. &quot;In the West, they start cleaning with the first rays of the sun, and stop late in the evening,&quot; he said to me last week. &quot;They're just born like that.&quot;
 It's possible he's right, but I still find it unlikely that Europe flashed into existence with an effective system of local self-administration already installed. In any case, the reason the system works is that everyone employed in communal services knows what his responsibilities are. If they don't do their jobs, or do them badly, they suffer financially.
 City Hall - and the majority of local lawmakers in the current Legislative Assembly - has done nothing to empower the 111 local self-administrations in the city, whose task it is to monitor the condition of the streets, and prefer to run the city from their offices. To some deputies, the subbotnik is mildly ridiculous. Mikhail Brodsky said last week that since we pay people to clean buildings and the territory around them, other people are unlikely to do the job for free.
 Every year, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev does something a little different from Lenin - he plants a tree somewhere in the city, instead of carrying one around. A sign of progress, perhaps?

TITLE: Suggested Alliance Not Right Message for SPS
AUTHOR: By Barnaby Thompson
TEXT: IRINA Khakamada was in town this week, and it was a really depressing experience.
 Vice speaker of the State Duma, leading member of the Union of Right Forces, and a prominent member of the &quot;where-are-they-now-and-what-were-they-for&quot; club of Russian liberal politicians, Khakamada was up here doing exactly what you might expect: calling press conferences, announcing changes to party structure, and pontificating on the governmental reshuffle. (True, the last event was unexpected, but the platitudes were entirely predictable.)
 That kind of politico-speak can usually be ignored, and apart from one or two articles the following day, the local press was underwhelmed. But she did say one thing that, when I heard it on a short evening television piece, made me think I'd misheard: SPS should team up with the Unity faction and back a joint candidate for St. Petersburg governor.
 I checked, and she definitely said it. SPS and Unity. Unity attracts &quot;rightists,&quot; Unity has the resources to give a candidate some clout, SPS does not, so it's better to team up than live life on the political margins. In short, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
 When's the election? In theory, three years away. Who's going to be the joint candidate? No one is saying, and I suspect that's because no one knows. Apart from these minor details, it was a well-timed, well-considered statement. Not.
 Unity and Yakovlev's office could hardly contain their indifference, and this would indeed be a yawn-yawn story if the idea wasn't so defeatist.
 After the dismal antics of the liberal bloc in their attempts to support a joint candidate last time around - remember the makeshift polling booths outside metro stations? the reluctance of SPS to accept the results? the earlier attempt by SPS and Yab loko to stamp on their principles and support career technocrat Valentina Matviyenko? - Khakamada is not only pretending that this farce never happened, she is suggesting an alliance of her own party with the Bear.
 I have problems with the idea that Unity as a faction actually exists, other than on paper. I have seen strong evidence that Unity in St. Petersburg is a loose alliance of &quot;businessmen&quot; scrambling over one another to ... well, say nice things about the president, but I can't see any of the usual baggage for a political party - policies, principles, personalities, internecine rivalry. All they have going for them is the president's backing, and that damned bear.
 That's life, I suppose, and while I like being rude about Unity, I can see they loom large in Khakamada's view of where power lies. But a bid for power for power's sake is not what I thought the liberals were all about. They may have been consistently divided and naive, but one or two believed in something. Not Khakamada, not anymore.

TITLE: Global eye
TEXT: Home Base</p><p>
&quot;My lords, I would like to know if the Honorable Lord would deign
 to tell this House assembled why, in his inestimable opinion,
 he has felt compelled to, as it were, plough his furrow in a
 far-off field when he has a harvest rich with bloom on his own
 home grounds? And if my right good friend the Honorable Lord
 will not vouchsafe us an answer, I will direct my question to
 his good Lady wife, who is waiting in a soundproof booth just
 behind yon ermine curtain!&quot;</p><p>
&quot;Zounds, you cur! I shall bash you with my stick!&quot;</p><p>
&quot;Summon the guard! Restrain the Honorable Lord! And let us resume
 this learned debate after a brief commercial message.&quot;</p><p>
Britain's House of Lords - a most moribund chamber facing the
 prospect of its final demise if Labor wins an expected second
 term - could go out in a blaze of, well, not <i>glory </i>exactly, but
 at least with a big old hoot, if a certain London-born video
 vulgarian gets his wish.</p><p>
Yes, Jerry Springer, one-time king of trash TV, is pushing himself
 forward for a &quot;people's peerage,&quot; a grant of nobility awarded
 by the prime minister for those who have made lasting contributions
 to society through the medium of television, the Ananova news
 service reports.</p><p>
It is not known which of his innumerable contributions to society
 Springer will choose to represent his noble worth on the peerage
 application: &quot;Men Who Wear Diapers for Kinky Sex,&quot; maybe? &quot;I
 Love My Dog - Carnally?&quot; Or perhaps the classic &quot;My Own Mother
 Got Buck-Nekkid With My Wife While I Was Humping Hookers in Our
 Preacher's Trailer,&quot; which of course helped millions of people
 trapped in the same tragic circumstances.</p><p>
If his application is successful, Springer says he would style
 himself &quot;Lord Springer of Hampstead&quot; when taking his place in
 the exalted chamber alongside the various bagmen, yes-men, party
 hacks, fixers, wheeler-dealers, slumlords, land-grabbers and
 the few remaining clapped-out scions of 14th-century functionaries,
 mercenaries and war criminals now gracing the thousand-year-old
 House.</p><p>
Come to think of it, Jerry should feel right at home!</p><p>
</p><p>
Darkness Visible</p><p>
Spring is here again, and that can only mean one thing: a Republican-controlled
 state legislature banning evolution from the public schools.</p><p>
Yes, the seasonal disorder that strikes the United States every
 year when the frost begins to thaw and the chiggers start to
 bite has broken out again, this time in Arkansas, where lawmakers
 facing the annual approval of fall term textbooks worked their
 usual monkeyshines, Reuters reports.</p><p>
Education committee members in the state House passed a bill
 that would not only ban all mention of evolutionary theory from
 new textbooks, but also go back and slap a big &quot;false evidence&quot;
 sticker on any older books that might mention the heathen doctrine.
 Just for good measure, the bill also forbids all mention of the
 technique of carbon dating, used by infidels to prove that the
 earth is older than the 6,000 years attested in the Bible.</p><p>
&quot;We have been elected to make sure that taxpayer dollars are
 spent wisely and only for truth,&quot; said GOP Representative Jim
 Holt, self-confessed &quot;Christian conservative&quot; and Bronze Age
 science enthusiast.</p><p>
Opponents of the bill - who meekly pointed out that the measure
 will no doubt be declared unconstitutional in a matter of months,
 as was the case last year in Oklahoma and the year before that
 in Kansas - were brushed aside by the righteous pols. &quot;Do you
 believe you were descended from a monkey?&quot; thundered Representative
 Denny Altes. &quot;If we teach kids that they were descended from
 monkeys, don't you think they'll act like monkeys?&quot;</p><p>
You may have a point there, Denny. We hear tell they taught evolution
 in the schools back in the bad old days when you were a boy -
 and look how <i>you </i>turned out.</p><p>
Turkey Shoot</p><p>
<i>&quot;Who now remembers the Armenians?&quot; </i>- Adolf Hitler.</p><p>
You're researching the history of genocide in the 20th century
 and you want some photos to illustrate the slaughter of one and
 a half million Armenians by Turkish nationalists in 1915. You
 turn to one of the world's largest picture agencies, Hulton Getty,
 and ask permission to use the famous massacre photos in their
 archives. So what do you get?</p><p>
Nothing.</p><p>
Hulton Getty recently withdrew pictures of the Armenian genocide
 from its Web site, preventing their use by the media, The Independent
 reports. It seems that someone objected to this stark evidence
 of Turkish atrocity - that someone being, er, the Turks.</p><p>
One of the pictures, taken by the German poet Armin Wegner, showed
 an Armenian woman and two small children lying dead on a garbage
 heap: an eyewitness account. But in London this week, a Turkish
 embassy official - identified only as &quot;Korkmazhaktanir&quot; - formally
 protested the picture's <i>caption.</i></p><p>
It was false, claimed Mr. K, because it said the dead Armenians
 were victims of the Turkish massacres. But it was obvious, he
 said, that the woman and children had <i>starved</i> to death; thus
 they could not have been &quot;massacred&quot; by Turkish troops. Somehow
 impressed by this feat of Byzantine logic - forced starvation
 is not murder, eh? - Hulton pulled the pictures.</p><p>
The protest by the mysterious Mr. K is part of an ongoing Turkish
 effort to slaughter historical truth. Last month, the Turks canceled
 several huge contracts with French firms after President Jacques
 Chirac publicly acknowledged that the Armenian genocide actually
 took place. The Turks have also been endowing chairs of Ottoman
 Studies at American universities willing to toe their revisionist
 line. (Princeton has signed on; Harvard declined.)</p><p>
A few days later, however, the story took a new turn. Having
 pulled the photos, Hulton began to examine their history. They
 discovered the copyrights to the photos are actually owned by
 Wegner's widow, who is still alive and living in - uh-oh - Israel,
 where folks tend to take a dim view of whitewashing genocide.
 She has assigned the rights to an Armenian historical archive
 in Berlin, and officials there say journalists are more than
 welcome to the photos.</p><p>
Looks like <i>someone </i>remembers the Armenians, eh, Adolf?

TITLE: A Sign of More Changes Ahead?
AUTHOR: By Pavel Felgenhauer
TEXT: PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has ousted his defense minister, Igor Sergeyev, and replaced him with Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov. For more than half a year, Sergeyev has been a lame-duck minister, partially isolated from real decision-making and openly scorned by many of his staff. His ouster may indeed lead to serious military reform being implemented here at last.
 For more than two years it has been an open secret that Sergeyev and his number two in the military hierarchy - Chief of Staff Anatoly Kvashnin - have been locked in a bitter personal conflict. Most of the time, the two were barely on speaking terms, but last summer the fray became public when Kvashnin presented a plan to drastically reduce Russia's strategic nuclear rocket forces and shift expenditures from nuclear to conventional forces. Kvashnin also proposed that ultimately the downsized strategic rocket forces should be eliminated as a separate branch and made a division of the air force.
 Sergeyev - a professional strategic rocket force officer - saw this as a personal challenge and lost his temper in public. Sergeyev accused Kvashnin of &quot;criminal stupidity&quot; and of attempting &quot; to harm Russia's national interests.&quot; But in the end the Kremlin supported Kvashnin and adopted a reform plan that will indeed downgrade the strategic forces.
 Last fall Kvashnin, supported by many influential generals, put forward a plan to split the present military hierarchy, creating a civilian defense ministry that would handle procurement and logistics, while a purely military general staff would command the troops. Putin in turn announced that Russia should have a civilian defense minister and, at the same time, Ivanov (a two-star KGB general) was suddenly retired from active military service. It was obvious that Putin was facilitating Ivanov's move to succeed Sergeyev. Sergeyev's days were numbered.
 Alexei Arbatov - deputy chairman of the Duma defense committee - told me last week that &quot;at present there are two totally different defense doctrines being implemented by the Defense Ministry at the same time.&quot; The one championed by Kvashnin emphasizes the conventional forces as a defense against outside threats. The other, pushed by Sergeyev, urges a return to a traditional Soviet, Cold-War nuclear deterrence posture. If Sergeyev and Kvashnin both stayed, they would have continued to pull the military in different directions, creating havoc and internal strife and forfeiting any possibility of reform. 
 Now the situation has changed: Ivanov is a close Putin loyalist. But he is also the most powerful political figure to occupy the post of defense minister since Dmitry Ustinov - a Politburo member and number three in the Communist-Party hierarchy in the 1970s.
 Ivanov can make decisions and can make things happen. He can implement the reforms the military badly needs and actually create a smaller, more capable, more professional army. Ivanov, fully supported by the Kremlin, can bypass Russia's corrupt and ineffective bureaucracy. He can suppress dissent among the generals. But will this opportunity for meaningful reform translate itself into real action or, as so often happens in Russia, will we never move beyond encouraging-sounding words?
 During his first year as president, Putin has often promoted himself as a champion of democracy, free markets and freedom of the press, but his actual record is not as unambiguous as his speeches. Putin has announced that &quot;Russia should be demilitarized.&quot; And, indeed, it should. The near-total militarization of the economy, society and government created during the Cold War has been the main stumbling block to market reforms in Russia.
 But will Putin really dismantle the nuclear and conventional arsenals and the defense industries that still give Russia the semblance of a military superpower, but prevent it from becoming a normal modern state? Putin has said he wants demilitarization. But he has also stated many times that he wants to restore Russia's imperial grandeur and its armed forces. It is simply not possible to pursue both these goals simultaneously. But which is Putin's real aim and which is mere propaganda? We will know soon. 
 In any event, seeing Sergeyev and Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Ada mov ousted is an excellent thing in itself. It would have been even better if Kvashnin and several other incompetent generals also were ousted together with Sergeyev. If the Kremlin is serious about reform, they should be gone soon.
 
 <i>Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent, Moscow-based defense analyst. </i>

TITLE: Expanding NATO
AUTHOR: By Jackson Diehl
TEXT: IF Western European governments are worried by the opening moves of the Bush administration - and they are - then imagine the view across the Atlantic these days from the less stable, less secure, less firmly democratic countries of central and eastern Europe.
 French and German leaders have been worried by Bush's aggressive commitment to deploying a national missile defense, even if it means abandoning the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. But for Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors, for whom the most plausible threat comes not from Pyongyang but from Moscow, America's military priorities can appear positively scary, in the sense that they may raise the level of tension between Russia and the West while simultaneously focusing defensive resources elsewhere.
 European Union planners have been irked by opening statements from Washington that disparaged the proposed European defense force and suggested U.S. troop reductions in the Balkans. But for NATO members Poland and Hungary, the transatlantic discussion over structure and resources invokes the disastrous but not far-fetched scenario of American troops pulling out of nearby Bosnia and Kosovo to make way for a European Union command that excludes them.
 Politicians in Washington and Paris may see the centrifugal forces tugging at the transatlantic relationship as endurable, and maybe inevitable. But for Europe's former Soviet bloc side, they could soon become the elements of a geopolitical crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin is working aggressively to re-establish Moscow's political dominion over countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, and its ability to sway decisions in capitals as far away as Vienna. Meanwhile, the transatlantic tensions that the Bush administration has inherited, and at least initially heightened, suggest an alliance too focused on debates over weapons in space to consider the corners of Europe; or even worse, split into American and European Union camps that exclude the Central and Eastern Europeans.
 Will half of Europe be left to choose between an uncertain partnership with the West and a slide back toward Moscow? That may well depend on how the Bush administration handles the third major issue on its security agenda with Europe, the one that it hasn't been talking much about: NATO expansion. Nine Central and Eastern European countries, including three former Soviet republics, three former Warsaw Pact states and three Balkan countries, are hoping for invitations to join NATO at a summit next year in Prague.
 Letting the NATO candidates in would decisively expand the Western alliance - and the U.S. leadership that comes with it - across Europe, while consolidating the free politics and free markets under construction in countries from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in the north to Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria in the center and south, and Macedonia, Slovenia and Albania in the Balkans. Keeping them out would effectively invite a resurgence of Russian influence in the region, along with the authoritarian politics and anti-American foreign policy currently ascendant in Moscow.
 Putin's Russia will surely resist another NATO expansion more aggressively than Boris Yeltsin opposed the 1997 admission of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. But unlike missile defense, which Putin is also trying to block, NATO expansion has one big advantage: The Bush administration and Europe broadly seem to agree about it. &quot;This is one of the few major constructive things on the Atlantic alliance agenda&quot; that is likely to be unifying and not divisive, says former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, a leading advocate of expansion.
 Though they may be uneasy about U.S. domination of NATO, European governments like NATO expansion because it is a way of growing the continent's democratic zone of stability without expanding the European Union, a far more cumbersome process that requires much greater sacrifices from both existing and new members. The disagreements boil down to the choice and sequencing of new members: Most governments agree about Slovenia and Slovakia, for example, but some have questions about the Baltic states because their status as former Soviet republics may inspire greater ire in Moscow.
 Then there are the Pentagon's problems, articulated by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a recent defense conference in Munich: The generals don't want political considerations to drive the admission of countries whose armies are not actually capable of joining NATO's operations. There are also the neo-isolationists in Congress, who will demand to know why U.S. soldiers may, in theory at least, be committed to the defense of capitals such as Ljubljana and Bratislava.
 Perhaps it is those domestic same considerations that have caused the Bush administration to soft-pedal NATO expansion so far. Still, the administration has repeatedly said that strengthening the Atlantic alliance is one of its top priorities - and the other policies it is pushing, even if successful in the long run, are unlikely to do that soon. &quot;The fact is that President Bush will have to present a positive agenda for NATO sometime in the first half of this year,&quot; says Polish Ambassador Przemyslaw Grudzinski, whose government is pushing hard for new members. &quot;There are not too many tools available for strengthening the alliance.&quot; Expansion is certainly one of them.
 
 <i>Jackson Diehl is deputy editor of The Washington Post editorial page. He contributed this comment to The Washington Post. </i>

TITLE: Mailbox
TEXT: Dear Editor,
 </strong></i>Your editorial is dead-on about the failures of the Western media to properly respect Mir [&quot;May Mir's Legacy Be as Enduring,&quot; Mar. 23]. Let's face it, there was never anything wrong with Mir that was not directly related to funding problems. The cargo ship crash, for example, was a result of not having funds to pay for new computer guidance systems for the Progress spacecraft.
 Mir's technology and its crews did a magnificent job. In the future, I think historians looking back on 20th-century space exploration will rank the successful work aboard Mir as second in importance only to the lunar landing.
 The Russian people should be very, very proud. There would be no International Space Station - or if there were, it would be a disaster - without what we've learned from Mir.
 I only wish there could have been a way to boost the Mir to a higher orbit to make it a museum to be reclaimed in the future.
 <i>Steve Calabrese
 Tempe, Arizona
 </i>
 <i><strong>Dear Editor,</strong></i><i>
 </i>I'd like to offer my congratulations to Energia and all its staff on the successful and safe de-orbiting of the Mir space station, which, after 15 years of service, must be considered the most successful manned space mission in history.
 We are saddened that the Mir station had to be abandoned. The long presence in Earth's sky of this great technical achievement inspired enthusiasm and gave hope to all the peoples of the world. Soaring high above every national border and Earth-bound political and ideological divisions, the Mir was a sign of the boundless possibilities open to human achievement.
 Humankind deserves to reach the stars, and Mir helped keep that dream alive. There should be more space stations, many more; and we should never again allow their number to decrease.
 Mir was a tremendous achievement. May all of Energia's future endeavors be even more successful.
 <i>Rashid Patch
 San Francisco, California
 </i>
 <i><strong>Dear Editor,
 </strong></i>I just wanted to convey my respect to Russia for its incredible research and accomplishments on Mir. The Russian nation should be very proud.
 It is a shame that Mir could not have been brought down piece by piece and re-assembled in a museum, as it represents a very important part of mankind's history.
 We should not forget the pride of the Russian people and the admiration we have for all of you now.
 <i>Gary Trosino
 Orillia, Canada
 </i><i><strong>
 Dear Editor,
 </strong></i>I want to congratulate the Russian Space Center with its successful Mir mission, which has now come to its end. It has been 15 very interesting years. Congratulations to the whole team.
 <i>Pierre De Coster
 Affligem, Belgium
 </i>
 <i><strong>Dear Editor,
 </strong></i>Despite the press reports that we Westerners read about Mir, I am well aware of the contributions the Russian station made to science.
 I also understand the patriotic significance Mir has to the average Russian. I was sad to see Mir brought down. Until the very moment that I heard someone talk live about the re-entry, I had continued to hope that a sponsor would step forward to rescue the space station.
 Mir should not have come down. I will miss the occasional sighting.
 <i>Robert Annandale
 Vancouver, Canada
 </i>
 <i><strong>Dear Editor,
 </strong></i>What's a guy to do? I was pleased when George Bush finally won the U.S. presidential election. A change in administration after eight years is almost always a good thing.
 I was also pleased when, as chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce, I met Condeleeza Rice in Moscow during the Republican presidential primaries. She left me very comfortable that a Bush administration would have the right policy input on Russia. She made clear that she knew Russia and understood that enhanced, long-term &quot;engagement&quot; was the basis for continuing to improve relations between the two countries.
 I was also very pleased when I met Colin Powell and immediately understood how reasonable and rational he is.
 I have not met Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, but have always believed, as they do, that the United States should have a strong defense but should not go shooting up various small nations just because we can.
 So what happened when Robert Philip Hanssen was outted? Since long before the Soviet Union dissolved itself, this guy is said to have been leaking vital U.S. secrets to &quot;diplomats&quot; at the Soviet/Russian Embassy in Washington. And we are very upset.
 We cannot be surprised, since diplomats have been doing this for centuries. No Geneva Convention outlaws spying, and the FBI and the CIA have been looking for this mole for years. So what are we - embarrassed? But what has that to do with throwing 50 diplomats out of the Russian Embassy [&quot;U.S. To Expel 50 Russian Spies,&quot; Mar. 23]
 Were all 50 involved? No one says so. Or are these the 50 who refused to work for us? I make the assumption that the ones who remain include those who are now working for us. Or are these the 50 who already work for us and now we enhance their credibility by sending them back to Moscow? Surely we would not send back the ones we already know are spying against us, since then we would have to start over figuring out what each new Russian diplomat is really doing.
 This entire charade looks less like a new Russia-focused diplomacy than like a spoiled six-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. Perhaps one day soon we shall learn who made this so-called decision?
 The Bush administration is right to conclude that America's Russia policy can be improved. But pretending that this is 1980 is pathetic. 
 Wake up guys! It's a new world - even if it is not the New World Order.
 <i>Bruce Bean
 Former chairman,
 American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, Moscow
 </i>
 <i><strong>Dear Editor,
 </strong></i>As a citizen of the United States I do not agree with the present administration's &quot;treatment&quot; of Russia. It is disconcerting that a president who was &quot;elected&quot; by five Supreme Court justices has now decided to turn the clock back regarding bilateral relations with Moscow. I have many friends in the Russian Federation, and I am increasingly concerned that anti-American fervor there will increase because we have a staff of &quot;cold warriors&quot; running the United States government.
 Please believe that the American people are a diverse lot, and that the vast majority of us want a sincere and warm dialogue between our two great nations. Yes, I said &quot;our&quot; because I believe that the United States and Russia are the defining world powers, even though the Bush administration seems determined to write Russia off as a Third World nation.
 <i>Shannon McCain
 Houston, Texas </i>

TITLE: exhibition outs diplomat as secret trash collector
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
TEXT: A person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip - this is how one might describe a talented diplomat. People dealing with international relations are known for the art of twisting subjects with exquisite skill.
 Renzo Oliva, cultural attach&eacute; of the Italian Consulate in St. Petersburg, is a man of many talents. Breathing life into what seems like mere garbage - and what could well be found in a trash can - is this diplomat's hobby. Or, rather, passion. In fact, art has become such a part of Oliva's life that he has participated in about 15 exhibitions, is currently holding one and has been invited to take part in a dozen more.
 He calls it &quot;scrap art,&quot; and the new incarnations he provides for broken valves, taps, frames and cogwheels are incredible. The transformations are stunning and make for a sight which shouldn't be missed. He can make you see Mazeppa in a handful of cogwheels and metal tubes.
 Oliva made his first scrap art piece in 1994. He first had the idea when he was considering possible ways to decorate his country house. Since then, he has been walking the streets for garbage. But he doesn't just pick up every piece of rubbish in case one day a use is found for it. His admirable taste, imagination, intuition, and approach to life reveal a true artist.
 His works reveal their author's mild humor and philosophical attitude and touch on eternal issues - love, enmity, death. Some of them are on display until April 4 in the two halls of the Valencia Art Gallery.
 
 <i>Valencia Art Gallery, 5 Prospect Bakunina. M. Pl. Vosstaniya, Tel. 324-24-99 </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Inferiori Cocktail, </strong>possibly Italy's leading lounge act, will come to St. Petersburg to play a concert this week end - but not for all. The Cocktail will appear at a trendy, invitation-only party at Na bo kov's House on Saturday.
 The duo consists of the Inferiori twins - Federico singing and playing saxophone and flute, and Francesco equipped with keyboards and a CD player. Check out www.montefioricocktail.com for a little more information and try to get your invitation from some of the city's scenesters.
 If this doesn't work, there's the more democratic <strong>Bomfunk MC's </strong>- the team of MCs and breakdancers which put Helsinki in the charts in Europe and is now attempting to seduce the U.S. - will play the Yubileiny Sports Palace on Friday.
 &quot;Their curious electro-noise is the national anthem for Finland's MC boys,&quot; raves the band's official biography. &quot;Hardcore, softcore, chill-out twangs and futuristic waves of pop kitsch mingle electronics with an Aladdin's cave of dance textures.&quot; Check out www.bomfunk.net.
 For those with thick wallets, Bomfunk MC's will play again the same night at Plaza.
 <strong>Markscheider Kunst </strong>will play their mix of ska, reggae and popular Congo style Soulous at Faculty (Friday) and Mo loko (Saturday). The band fronted by Congo vocalist Se raphim has recorded a new album with new songs in February and is now busy shooting a video to go with it. According to the band, it will most likely be released on &quot;a big label&quot; in mid-May.
 Another city favorite, Sergei Shnu rov's <strong>3D, </strong>will celebrate April Fool's Day with a concert at SpartaK, supported by Bubliki. Meanwhile, 3D's debut album, &quot;Made In Zhopa,&quot; is now scheduled for release on April 16.
 With April come festivals. Headlined with Akvarium, the <strong>Fuzz Awards </strong>festival - taking place at Yubileiny on April 7 - will also feature Leningrad, Korol I Shut, Nochniye Snaipery and Chicherina. It will also be the fifth Fuzz Awards and the tenth anniversary for Fuzz magazine.
 Though editors and promoters spoke about Zemfira appearing as the festival's &quot;special guest&quot; in the beginning, they have since retreated and now insist they hadn't ever mention the Ufa-born rock diva's name.
 While Fuzz's specialty is mainstream rock, the &quot;Svobodny Polyot 3&quot; will gather all kinds of experimental and/or electronic acts at SpartaK on April 14. New Composers, &quot;ethno avant-garde band&quot; Bakhadur, Finland's Anton Nikilla and more will play in an all-night event.
 On a larger scale, SKIF 5 - the three-day &quot;interdisciplinary&quot; festival - will be held at LDM starting April 20. For the list of over 100 acts to take part, check www.kuryokhin.com.
 


TITLE: st. pete strong contenders for golden mask
AUTHOR: by John Freedman
TEXT: &quot;You can't embrace the unembraceable,&quot; said that imaginary, though indisputably wise, 19th-century folk philosopher Kozma Prutkov. 
 Prutkov, I think, had either metaphysics or merriment in mind when he uttered his immortal adage. However, he also could have been thinking of the annual Golden Mask national theater festival which opened its seventh running last Friday and concludes with an awards ceremony on April 9.
 The Golden Mask yearly brings to Moscow the approximately three dozen finest shows created throughout Russia during the previous season. It is a task that always elicits controversy, for someone, somewhere is always sure that somebody, someplace has been rudely snubbed. Still, no other festival comes close to offering such a comprehensive overview of current achievements in Russian drama, opera, operetta/musicals, ballet, modern dance and puppetry. 
 For the third year in a row, an innovation category includes productions of note that do not fit standard classifications. 
 As is to be expected, the festival marquee boasts most of the top names in Russian theater. 
 Valery Gergiev's Mariinsky Theater can again be considered a heavy favorite to dominate in the categories of opera and ballet, while the dramatic shows of such world-class directors as Kama Ginkas (&quot;The Black Monk&quot; after An ton Chekhov), Pyotr Fomenko (&quot;One Absolutely Happy Village&quot; after Bo ris Vakhtin) and Lev Dodin (Brian Friel's &quot;Molly Sweeney&quot;) are certain to be among the highlights in that genre. 
 &quot;Dodin's 'Molly Sweeney' signals an important spiritual change for this director,&quot; says Olga Galakhova, a member of the expert committee that selected the festival's dramatic productions. &quot;On the surface this is a very static show, but there is a great deal going on in it down under the surface.&quot;
 But Galakhova warns against focusing only on the big names. She indicates that productions by Andrei Moguchy (&quot;School for Fools&quot; after Sasha Sokolov), Oleg Rybkin (Chekhov's &quot;Three Sisters&quot;) and Boris Tseitlin (Friedrich Derrenmatt's &quot;An Angel Comes to Babylon&quot;) should also be of particular interest.
 These directors, whose shows originated in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Tomsk, respectively, are an indication of the wealth and diversity of talent that exist alongside the acknowledged masters, as well as of the Golden Mask's efforts to make it clear that there is more to Russian theater than just the capital. The present festival includes productions from 12 cities other than Moscow.
 Furthermore, the festival provides an opportunity to promote Russian theater beyond the nation's borders by bringing it to the attention of foreign producers and festival organizers.
 &quot;We are looking for potential partners, for those foreigners who have an interest in Russian theater,&quot; says Eduard Boyakov, the festival's general director.
 With this in mind, Boyakov last year introduced a festival within the festival called the Russian Case. This non-competitive segment of the festival is something of a theater market offering a selection of the country's most popular shows created over the last decade, some of which have been nominated for Golden Masks in the past or which have gained international reputations through tours abroad.
 The Russian Case program for 2001, running Friday through Tuesday, includes 21 titles and has attracted over 100 visitors from 20 countries as far-flung as the United States, Africa, China and Japan.
 Still, it is the competition schedule that will attract the most attention and, inevitably, controversy.
 One innovation in the structure of the competition - the introduction of two autonomous groups within the category of dramatic theater - was a response to past criticism that shows of vastly different aesthetic principles were being pitted against one another unnaturally. As a result, this year's nominees for best dramatic production have been broken into large and small stage shows, each of which will have its own winner.
 &quot;This is not a discriminatory move,&quot; says Georgy Taratorkin, the actor and president of the Golden Mask association, &quot;it is merely a move accepting the fact that audiences of 1,000 or 120 people create different theatrical laws.&quot;
 The past several seasons have seen St. Petersburg artists walk away with the lion's share of awards. That could well happen again this year.
 Taking part in the Golden Mask for the first time, in the category of innovation, is the renowned <i>Derevo</i>, or Tree, Theater with its show &quot;Suicide in Progress.&quot; This group, led by Anton Adasinsky, was founded in Leningrad and still claims St. Petersburg as one of its bases although it has long worked out of Dresden. It features an eclectic, often challenging, style that is probably closest to mime or physical theater, but cannot easily be categorized.
 Also making his Golden Mask debut is Moguchy and his <i>Formalny, </i>or Formal, Theater.
 &quot;Moguchy is one of the representatives of the current St. Petersburg renaissance,&quot; says Galakhova, who is also a critic and the editor of the theater newspaper <i>Dom Aktyora</i>. &quot;He experiments with space although, for him, space is not just a matter of form. It is a factor that determines meaning and significance. His production of 'School for Fools' takes place in a white room in which every millimeter is used except the ceiling.&quot;
 But the so-called provinces also appear to be putting forward a strong hand this year. Mikhail Bychkov, with a production of Dostoyevsky's &quot;Uncle's Dream&quot; for the Voronezh Chamber Theater has impressed many, while Galakhova calls Tseitlin's production of &quot;An Angel Comes to Babylon&quot; for the Tomsk Drama Theater &quot;an exquisite mix of visual theater and the Russian psychological tradition.&quot;
 In numbers, at least, the contemporary dance field is dominated by the provinces, with two entries from Yekaterinburg and one each from Che lya binsk, Perm and Kazan competing against one St. Petersburg show and two from Moscow.
 In sum, however, the only certainty about the Golden Mask festival is that we can expect it to offer the unexpected. Frankly, I would suggest that's just what good theater should do.
 <i>
 The Golden Mask festival runs to April 8 at various venues in Moscow. www.goldenmask.ru </i>

TITLE: tot&oacute; warms up city for colombian days festival
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Tot&oacute; La Momposina, Colombia's leading folk singer, will bring her dynamic performance to St. Petersburg next week, as part of the first ever Colombian Days Festival in the city.
 Tot&oacute;, whose last album, &quot;Pacanto,&quot; was nominated for best traditional album at the Latin Grammy awards in 2000, will be singing with a 10-piece orchestra for St. Petersburg audiences, which have fallen in love with Latin music recently, as can be attested by the repertoire at local clubs.
 &quot;The music that we play is people's music - it's created by people and composed with the heart. We try to convey in it what we feel, and that's why people like it,&quot; said Tot&oacute; in an e-mail interview from London this week.
 &quot;This is the music of our land, and we don't need a language to convey what we feel. Music speaks for us. The audience understands it, because it has a heart as well and it beats in time. They feel the power and send it back to us - with their smiles and their applause, and so intercultural communication is established between us.
 &quot;I think it's a mission which was given to me by the Lord: to tell the world about my people, about the traditions and feelings of the Colombian people, and the sounds of Colombia.&quot;
 Tot&oacute;'s band, which accompanies her on traditional drums, gaitas, brass, bass, guitar, percussion and chorus, consists of folk musicians, some of whom have a professional musical background and play in a symphony orchestra.
 &quot;Of course, I always try to make music as traditional as possible, but the thing is that tradition also evolves, and my philosophy, and all my musicians' philosophy, is to try to preserve our musical tradition,&quot; said Tot&oacute;.
 &quot;Now we are trying to teach everybody about that tradition - we try to add new colors to it, make it even more beautiful. It's our task, and that's what we did on 'Pacanto.'&quot;
 &quot;We try to travel musically, from pure tradition into what, in our opinion, this music should evolve. It's an attempt to provide a focus for future generations,&quot; said Tot&oacute;.
 Tot&oacute;'s percussive music is rooted in the Colombian mix of races - African, Spanish and Indian - with one of the better known rhythms and dance being <i>cumbia, </i>which originated as a courting dance between African men and Indian women at the time when the two communities began to intermarry.
 &quot;What happened in Colombia hasn't happen in any other country on the continent; in Columbia different cultures fell in love with each other and as a result they blended - Indian culture with Spanish and African,&quot; said Tot&oacute;. &quot;As a result we have a mixed appearance which can't be found in any other country.&quot;
 Born into a family of musicians spanning five generations, Tot&oacute; learned to sing and dance as a child. As a young person, she traveled around Colombian villages to research local rhythms and dances, until in 1968 she formed her own group and started a professional career.
 Rapidly gaining a reputation for her impressive voice and presence, she began to appear outside Colombia in the 1970s, touring in Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe and the United States. 
 In 1982 she accompanied Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Stockholm to perform at his Nobel Prize ceremony. Tot&oacute; based herself in France for four years, studying choreography and rhythm at the Sorbonne.
 &quot;It was then it occurred to me that given good stage arrangement, Colombian traditional music could become more widely known, and Colombian singers could appear at any venue in the world,&quot; she said.
 Since 1991 she has performed at Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festivals in Japan, Canada, England, Germany, Spain and Finland, and released an album - the Phil Ramone-produced &quot;La Candela Viva&quot; - on his label, Real Records, in 1992.
 &quot;Columbia is a paradise, it's a country which has everything. But we Colombians don't value what we have,&quot; said Tot&oacute;.
 &quot;We forget about the values which were given to us by our Lord. We forget and ruin our home - our beautiful native home. We must understand who are we, where we come from and what we have to do. If we realized ourselves as a nation, then we would love our country more.&quot;
 
 <i>Tot&oacute; La Momposina & Orchestra perform in concert on April 6 at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall. Tickets cost 50-150 rubles. </i>

TITLE: going on a bender with ostap
AUTHOR: by Peter Morley
TEXT: Ostap Bender, the creation of Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov in their novels &quot;The Twelve Chairs&quot; and &quot;The Golden Calf,&quot; is one of the most popular heroes in Soviet literature, and now St. Petersburg has a restaurant named in his honor. They even have a statue of the man outside the door. I suspect that this will become quite a tourist attraction - when we arrived for lunch this week a boy was taking a photo of his mum with Ostap.
 Beyond the statue, though, references to Ostap more or less vanish. Inside, the restaurant is tastefully decorated in an art nouveau style, with two dining areas, one done largely in green and one in blue, to the left and right of the entrance respectively. We went for a window seat and sat back with the menu.
 The first thing to say about Zolotoi Ostap is that it is not cheap. Prices for starters begin at 75 rubles and go up to 850 (for a shrimp dish), while main courses start at around 170 rubles and go up to 790 (this being for a fondue, which, to be fair, does serve two to four people). In terms of choice, the menu includes Russian, French, Italian, and even Hungarian as well as couple of Asian dishes. Drinks are also pricey - we passed on the champagne at 10,700 rubles, and went instead for beer. Unfortunately, The St. Petersburg Times Botchkarov Index failed as they don't stock it, so we had a couple of Baltikas at 60 rubles each.
 We both went for starters and main courses, and my companion fitted soup in as well. For starters, I had Braise &agrave; la Ni&ccedil;oise<i> </i>(110 rubles), which consisted of marinaded eggplant strips wrapped around peppers, and the usual salad garnishes, while my friend had the Baeren<i> </i>salad (90 rubles), including bacon, tomato, olives and an anchovy sauce, which was pronounced without being intrusive. Both entr&eacute;es hit the spot - the vegetables were ultra-fresh and crisp, and having proper Iceberg lettuce was a particular treat.
 I then had a few minutes off to nibble at the complimentary bread rolls and garlic butter, while my companion got through a modest-sized bowl of French onion soup with cheese (95 rubles), which got a big thumbs-up for not letting the cheese swamp the onion flavors, a common failing here (according to my soupophile friend).
 Then the main courses arrived. I had ordered Assol<i> </i>(285 rubles), a salmon steak with a b&eacute;arnaise-type sauce, and my friend went for the Farsi steak (280 rubles), which consisted of a pork fillet stuffed with bacon, mushrooms and a hint of blue cheese. Both of us also ordered dauphinoise potatoes at 70 rubles. The salmon came with a crayfish sitting beside it (at least we think it was a crayfish) and was absolutely superb - firm yet also tender, with some interesting flavors from the smoking process. The Farsi was also highly praised as being very juicy and generally delicious. The one problem we had was with the broccoli which came with these courses, which unfortunately was overcooked and soggy. The carrots, however, were great.
 After which, I had a coffee, and we pondered if there was anything we could criticize Zolotoi Ostap for. The biggest gripe (and it was only a very small one) was the background music which was playing when we came in, and this got better before we left anyway (as we walked out the door we heard the start of &quot;My Way,&quot; a vast improvement on the earlier efforts). That, and the broccoli, aside, Zolotoi Ostap can only be highly recommended. If you have the money, that is.
 
 <i>Zolotoi Ostap, 4 Italianskaya Ulitsa. Open daily, 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Tel: 314-68-13. Credit cards accepted. Meal for two with alcohol: 1,160 rubles ($40). </i>

TITLE: local artists reincarnate legendary 'stray dog'
AUTHOR: by Natasha Shirokova
TEXT: The &quot;<i>Brodyachaya Sobaka</i>&quot; (The Stray Dog) club is the stuff of legend. In just three short years of its existence from 1912 to 1915 it was a regular hang-out for the most outstanding artists of the time, and gained a reputation as an &quot;artistic laboratory.&quot; There were performances, poetry and music soir&eacute;es, discussions and lectures on art. It became the symbol of the Silver Age, as almost everyone involved in culture at the time, including Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova and Alexander Vertinsky, made their mark in The Stray Dog.
 There was no question of reviving The Stray Dog during the Soviet period, although it was used as a bomb shelter during the Leningrad blockade. However, in the more tolerant climate of perestroika, local artists began to talk of re-opening the place, with Andrei Moguchy and his Formal Theater giving several performances on the old premises, and artist Eduard Kochergin holding exhibitions there. Proper reconstruction of the place was finally finished last year, and at last The Stray Dog was officially opened in February, 2001 in the basement of the Mussorgsky Theater, where it was originally located.
 &quot;We don't want to turn it into a museum,&quot; says Vladimir Sklarsky, the director of The Stray Dog. &quot;We realise that it's impossible to step in the same river twice. It's also impossible to revive the former atmosphere. Times have changed. What we want is to breath new life into the place and make a bridge across time.&quot;
 The Stray Dog is comfortable and spacious, with its own exhibition hall, an area for theater performances and concerts and a small restaurant. The reconstruction was supervised by architect Jean Verzhebitsky, while Kochergin, who is well known for his work in the Maly Drama Theater, designed the interior. The perfomance area has an important feature, in that it is can be easily adapted to the needs of a jazz concert, performance or a lecture.
 &quot;The aim of The Stray Dog today,&quot; says Vladimir Sklyarsky, &quot;is to mantain new contacts between artists, as there is much isolation nowadays. It may give rise to interesting new projects.&quot;
 The artistic elite is already getting involved, with popular actors such as Sergei Yursky and Alla Osipenko performing, and exhibitions by Mart Kitaev and Marina Azizyan. There are also plans for promoting young artists, under the program &quot;Debut,&quot; where a committee selects works by newcomers. Regular weekly events include &quot;Music Mondays&quot; and &quot;Poetry Wednesdays.&quot; 
 Thus, The Stray Dog has been reincarnated, with artists finding an audience, and continuing the tradition established in the Silver Age.
 
 <i>The Stray Dog, 5 Pl. Isskustv., M. Nevsky Prospect. Open daily from 11 a.m. till midnight. During the day entrance is free. For evening performances, entrance costs from 100 rubles. 
 Currently, the club is running an exhibition of sculpture by Leonty Usov. This Wednesday, the program will include a presentation of a new book by Nikolai Yakunin which deals with the works of Hemingway and Beckett. The floor will be given to poet Alexander Laskin and film director Andrey Chernykh.
 The schedule changes weekly, so for more information, contact the club directly. Tel. 312-80-47, 303-88-21. </i>

TITLE: Bush Moves To Abandon Kyoto Treaty
AUTHOR: By Robin Pomeroy
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union prepared on Thursday to spearhead efforts to salvage the 1997 Kyoto treaty to tackle global warming after U.S. President Bush sparked a hail of protest by in effect abandoning it.
 A high-level European Union delegation will visit Washington next week to urge Bush not to ditch it. Pacific islands meanwhile warned that rising seas could wipe them off the map.
 &quot;I think it has now been confirmed through statements that the United States is planning to ... pull out from the Kyoto commitments,&quot; EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom told a news conference.
 German Chancellor Gerhard Schroe der was scheduled to meet Bush on Thursday for talks including the issue of global warming.
 Japan urged Washington to reconsider and Australia reminded the world's most voracious resources consumer it had a responsibility to cut the globe's emissions of greenhouse gases.
 An international outcry followed Bush's announcement on Wednesday via a spokesman that he was in effect abandoning the Kyoto agreement to cut &quot;greenhouse gas&quot; emissions blamed for global warming.
 White House officials said Bush would hold talks with other countries to seek an alternative to the pact which was one of the results of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit where world leaders identified climate change as a major global threat.
 Environmentalists say the U.S. has just six percent of the world's population yet produces more than a quarter of the globe's greenhouse gases.
 The UN pact was agreed to in Kyoto by ex-president Bill Clinton and leaders of other industrialized countries, but it has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate.

TITLE: EU Gives UK Vaccine Go-Ahead
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LONDON - Army butchers began slaughtering sheep in northern England on Wednesday, and Britain received the green light to vaccinate thousands of cattle against foot-and-mouth disease - but officials are still debating whether to use the last-resort measure.
 As Britain's top-ranking ground commander stepped into the battle to contain the livestock disease, EU veterinary experts approved the government's request for authorization to vaccinate up to 180,000 dairy cattle.
 &quot;These exceptional circumstances warrant an exceptional response,&quot; an EU statement said.
 British officials have not yet decided whether to go ahead and vaccinate. Britain has sought to use vaccination only as a last resort because it would keep other nations' doors shut to its livestock exports, as inoculated animals are difficult to distinguish from those carrying the virus.
 &quot;We must consider the option,&quot; Prime Minister Tony Blair said in the House of Commons.
 The EU said such a vaccination campaign would be limited to cattle in the hardest-hit counties - 100,000 in Cumbria, in northwest England, and 80,000 in Devon, in the southwest.
 With British agriculture officials struggling to slaughter animals fast enough to contain the disease, the military - which until now provided only logistical support - began helping with the cull.
 Livestock were trucked into the Great Orton airfield and workers nearby prepared a mass grave the size of two football fields.
 Seven army butchers started killing sheep and dumping them into a pit under veterinarians' supervision, said Paul Sykes, a Ministry of Defense spokes person. The soldiers, certified as slaughtermen, killed the animals with a bolt-gun blast to the head.
 Defense Minister Geoff Hoon visited the site in Cumbria with British land forces commander General Michael Jackson, a highly visible military incursion into a problem managed until now by the agriculture minister and chief veterinarian.
 Jackson, who commanded NATO forces during the Kosovo crisis, said foot-and-mouth posed a new challenge for British troops.
 &quot;It is a rather different sort of conflict,&quot; he said. &quot;It is not one involving human beings who cannot get along with each other, it is a very tragic disease in our own country.&quot;
 He described the scene at the former Royal Air Force field as &quot;a very sad sight. ... It is just an awful waste, a dreadful waste.&quot;
 About 600 troops are now involved in fighting the disease, Sykes said. In Cumbria, the outbreak's center, efforts are focused on slaughtering infected animals and culling all animals within 3 kilometers of every outbreak.
 &quot;The logistical problem is tackling the backlog as well as maintaining a line beyond which we do not want the disease to spread,&quot; Hoon said.
 Brigadier Alex Birtwhistle said he was searching for a site for a pyre to burn 9,000 Cumbria cattle awaiting disposal.
 The nationwide case total reached 729 Wednesday. Foot-and-mouth disease is harmless to humans, but the fast-spreading virus is dreaded by the livestock industry because of the potential economic damage.
 In granting the British vaccination request in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, the EU veterinary committee allowed an emergency exemption from the union's decade-long vaccination ban. The EU said British officials were considering using vaccines to create a barrier around the worst-affected areas.
 The British plan foresees only the immunization of dairy cattle, not sheep and pigs, according to the EU.

TITLE: Arafat Remains Defiant in Face of Israeli Onslaught
AUTHOR: By Greg Myre
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RAMALLAH, West Bank - A defiant Yasser Arafat said Thursday the Palestinian uprising will continue despite Israel's warning - delivered with rocket attacks on the bases of Palestinian security forces - that he must rein in militants who killed three Israeli children this week.
 In fresh clashes Thursday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire. A policeman died in a gun battle near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza, while two boys, ages 13 and 17, were shot dead in a stone-throwing clash near the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. Eight teenagers were wounded in the fighting.
 In Hebron, Israeli tanks shelled a Palestinian neighborhood after gunmen positioned there fired at Jewish enclaves in the divided West Bank town. Thick black smoke rose from two homes after shells hit.
 In Wednesday night's rocket attack, windows were shattered in Arafat's two-story villa in Gaza City. The main aim was the headquarters of Force 17, a Palestinian security service, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Ramallah. One Force 17 member was killed, and dozens of Palestinians were injured in the bombardment.
 Since late September, 446 people have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting, including 365 Palestinians, 62 Israeli Jews and 19 others.
 The bombardment was the first military strike ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Indicating a long campaign, Sharon said, &quot;Restoring security to the lives of Israeli citizens ... cannot be done overnight or in one day.&quot; Sharon was speaking Thursday in Tel Aviv.
 The United States implicitly criticized Israel, saying there was no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That reaction came hours after the United States, standing by Israel, used its first UN veto since 1997 to kill a Security Council resolution backing a UN observer force to help protect Palestinians.
 Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the rocket attacks were intended as a &quot;very serious warning, mainly to Force 17,&quot; which Israel has accused of involvement in attacks on Israeli civilians. The security service is on Arafat's payroll, &quot;and he has to bring them in line,&quot; Peres told Israel army radio.
 Arafat responded that the Palestinian people would not be cowed by the rocket attacks or other Israeli measures, such as blockades of Palestinian towns.
 &quot;Our people will continue the Al Aqsa uprising until we raise the Palestinian flag in every mosque and church and on the walls of Jerusalem,&quot; Arafat said after he stopped briefly near the scorched mobile homes that are part of the Force 17 headquarters. Arafat was on his way back from the two-day Arab League summit in Amman, Jordan.
 Peres, meanwhile, acknowledged that the United States had not been warned of the rocket attack, despite Sharon's promises to President Bush that the Israeli leader would not surprise him.
 &quot;What happened was not in the nature of a surprise,&quot; Peres said. &quot;We've had two terrible days, the entire country,&quot; he added, referring to a shooting attack and two suicide bombings that killed a 10-month-old Israeli girl and two teenagers and left scores wounded.
 Islamic militants claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks, while Israel has blamed the Tanzim militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement for the death of the baby. Israeli security officials have said Force 17 was involved in earlier shooting attacks on Israeli civilians.
 Some Israeli observers said the bombings were ineffective.
 &quot;The real aim was to calm those in Israel who demand revenge, so that they will not take the law into their own hands,&quot; said Ron Ben-Ishai, military commentator of the Yediot Ahronot daily.
 In Hebron, where the baby was killed, Jewish settlers have torched Arab-owned stores and cars and have repeatedly tried to enter Palestinian-controlled neighborhoods.
 Palestinian officials said Israel was trying to impose its political will on the Palestinians with the attacks. Sharon has proposed negotiating a long-term interim deal, an offer the Palestinians have turned down.
 &quot;We will not wave a white flag. We will not stop our uprising,&quot; said Hussein al-Sheikh, a leader of Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: 2nd F-15 Found
 

LONDON (AP) - Rescuers working in blinding snow found wreckage of a second missing American F-15 fighter jet on Wednesday in the Scottish Highlands, the U.S. Air Force said.
 The search for the pilot was suspended as darkness and the weather closed in, and the operation was to resume at dawn.
 The plane's tailpiece was found near Ben Macdhui in the Cairngorm mountains, where the first of the missing single-seat planes and the body of Lt. Col. Kenneth J. Hyvonen Jr., 40, were found Tuesday.
 Searchers on Wednesday found the tailpiece of the second plane about 400 yards from the first wreckage site.
 The U.S. Air Force at Lakenheath identified Hyvonen, of Michigan, as the pilot found dead. The missing man is Capt. Kirk Jones.
 
 
Sect Members Jailed
 

SINGAPORE (AP) - Seven followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement were sentenced Thursday to four weeks in jail for obstructing police during a vigil in a Singapore park.
 Five men and one woman among those jailed are Chinese citizens. Another man is Singaporean.
 Eight other Falun Gong members were fined $550 each for taking part in an unauthorized assembly when they attended the Dec. 31 vigil honoring followers who reportedly died in police custody in China.
 
 
Briton Killed in Kosovo
 

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A British producer for The Associated Press Television News was killed Thursday by shellfire in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo close to the Macedonian border, a spokesman for the U.S. television agency said in London.
 Kerem Lawton was killed near the village of Krivenik. Local people said the fire came from Macedonian forces, who have been trying to flush out an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group operating near the border.
 A witness said the APTN crew had arrived at the village and a cameraman had got out of their vehicle to film while Lawton parked. As he did so, a shell hit the vehicle.
 
McVeigh Admits Role
 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh explicitly admitted for the first time to causing the blast that killed 168 people and said it was a revenge attack for two FBI raids, according to a new book.
 McVeigh told the authors of "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing," that he alone conceived and executed the plan to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah federal government building on April 19, 1995.
 The authors, two reporters for the Buffalo News daily newspaper, said on ABC News' "Primetime Thursday" TV program that McVeigh showed limited remorse and referred to the 19 children killed in the bombing as "collateral damage." But the authors also quoted McVeigh as saying that he had not realized that the building housed a day-care center and might have chosen a different target if he had known. 



TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: NFL Hit With Suit
 

NEW YORK (AP) - Orlando Brown filed a $200 million lawsuit against the NFL on Wednesday, claiming his career was ended by eye injuries sustained from a penalty flag thrown by a referee.
 Brown's complaint charges the league failed "to properly supervise and enforce rules that flags be properly weighted and thrown in a proper fashion," said lawyer Clifford J. Stern, who said he signed the complaint.
 A starting offensive tackle for most of his seven-year NFL career, Brown was with Cleveland when he was injured. In a Dec. 19, 1999 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, referee Jeff Triplette threw his penalty flag and it hit Brown's right eye.
 Brown never played again and was cut by the Browns in September 2000. But he was paid for the first three games of the season.
 Stern said Brown, 30, can never play football again because "any kind of substantial contact to the head would cause an inalterable change in his ability to see. He would go blind."
 
 
Big Deal for Helton
 

TUCSON, Arizona - After flirting with .400 last season, Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton is in exclusive company again: the top-paid players in baseball.
 Helton has agreed to a new contract worth $151 million over 11 years, the fourth-largest deal in sports history.
 The contract replaces a $12 million, four-year deal he agreed to in 1999 that was set to pay him $4.95 million in 2001 and $5 million in 2002.
 With an average annual value of $13,727,273, Helton will rank 14th among major leaguers. The deal includes a team option for 2012.
 He hit .320 with 35 homers and 113 RBIs in 1999, and was voted The Associated Press Major League Player of the Year last season after hitting .372 with 42 home runs and 147 RBIs.
 
 
Mourning Returns
 

MIAMI - Alonzo Mourning, who was diagnosed with a kidney disease in October, was stiff and sore following his season debut Tuesday night against the Toronto Raptors. The All-Star center didn't offer much insight into how he felt, mostly because he wants the attention to shift from his health to the team's well-being as the postseason approaches.
 "I was all the things that can be attributed to a training-camp-type feeling," he said. "This is like my preseason. Most of the other guys have played 69 games and had a training camp. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that."
 Mourning had nine points and six rebounds in a 101-92 loss to the Raptors. He played 19 minutes and was three-of-11 shooting, missing several short jumpers and a few runners in the lane.
 
 
Mavs Sign Chinese Star
 

BEIJING (AP) - Wang Zhizhi, an officer in the Chinese military and the first Asian to join the NBA, accepted his jersey Thursday from his new team, the Dallas Mavericks. He said he hoped to make China less of a mystery for Americans.
 "In America, many people don't understand China. All they know about China is the Great Wall and the giant panda," the 212-centimeter-tall center said at a news conference. "The rest they know nothing about.
 "I can be an emissary to tell them that China has great people, a good environment and many young people working for a good future."
 
 
Moses Sets Record
 

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Ed Moses got the world record he had been chasing on Wednesday, swimming the fastest ever 100-meter breaststroke at the U.S. national championship to establish himself as the favorite in the event at the world championship in July.
 Moses won Wednesday's final in a time of one minute 00.29 seconds to eclipse the world record of 1:00.36 set last year by Russia's Roman Sloudnov. It also broke his own American record of 1:00.44 set at last year's U.S. Olympic trials.
 "I've wanted this record for a long time," said the 20-year-old Moses, a silver medalist at the Sydney Olympics behind Italy's Domenico Fioravanti. 



TITLE: Ecuador Surprises 4-Time World Cup Champs
AUTHOR: By Robert Millward
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: QUITO, Ecuador - Brazil, a four-time champion, lost 1-0 at Ecuador in qualifying for the 2002 World Cup on Wednesday, while Italy and Germany picked up easy victories to close in on European berths, and the United States won its second straight game.
 The U.S. team beat Honduras 2-1 in the North and Central America and the Caribbean region, as Clint Mathis curled a free kick around a defensive wall and just inside the post with four minutes left.
 Earnie Stewart scored on a 35-meter shot in the first half for the Americans, but U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel was beaten by Julio Cesar de Leon's 30-meter shot early in the second half.
 Costa Rica defeated visiting Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 in the day's other CONCACAF game.
 In South America, Paraguay beat Uruguay 1-0, and Argentina beat Venezuela 5-0.
 In Quito, Ecuador, Agustin Delgado scored four minutes into the second half to give the host (6-4-1) its first victory ever against Brazil (6-3-2).
 Brazil came close to tying, but Romario hit the left post when the net was empty, and Ecuador goalkeeper Jose Cevallos made two saves in the final minute.
 Brazil fell to third place in the South American standings, behind Argentina (9-1-1) and Paraguay (7-2-2). The top four teams automatically qualify for next year's tournament in South Korea and Japan; the fifth-place finisher plays the Oceania winner for another berth.
 In Europe, where 21 qualifiers were played, England won again under new coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, while Portugal tied the Netherlands 2-2 on a last-second penalty kick.
 And Spain ended France's 10-game unbeaten streak by beating the World Cup champion 2-1 in Valencia.
 Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero scored two goals each as Italy beat Lithuania 4-0, while Germany overpowered Greece 4-2.
 Italy (4-0-1) has 13 points to lead Group 8 by seven points over Romania, which beat Georgia 2-0.
 Germany (4-0) stayed atop Group 9, four points ahead of England (2-1-1), a 3-1 winner over Albania.
 In Group 2, the Dutch took a 2-0 lead in Oporto, but Pauleta and Luis Figo scored in the last five minutes to tie it for Portugal. Ireland beat Andorra 3-0 to move atop the standings on goal difference, while Cyprus and Estonia tied 2-2.
 Group 1 leader Russia edged the Faroe Islands 1-0, Switzerland beat Luxembourg 5-0, while Slovenia and Yugoslavia tied 1-1.
 In Group 3, the Czech Republic and Denmark tied 0-0 in Prague to remain first and second, with the home team two points in front. Bulgaria beat Northern Ireland 4-3 in Sofia to remain third.
 Slovakia moved to the top of Group 4 by beating Azerbaijan 3-1 with two goals in the first 10 minutes by Szilard Nemeth.
 Turkey beat Macedonia 2-1 in Skopje, and Sweden defeated host Moldova 2-0.
 Group 5 leader Poland topped Armenia 4-0 to improve to 4-0-1, while Belarus moved into second place with a 2-1 victory over last-place Norway. Ukraine tied Wales 1-1.
 Scotland is three points ahead in Group 6 after beating San Marino 4-0 in Glasgow with two goals from veteran Colin Hendry.

TITLE: Richard Williams Makes Racism Claims
AUTHOR: By Steven Wine
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KEY BISCAYNE, Florida - The father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Willi ams said Monday his family was subjected to racial slurs at the Indian Wells tennis tournament after Venus Williams withdrew from a match with her sister.
 Richard Williams made the allegations at the Ericsson Open, where his daughters both won fourth-round matches Monday, advanced to the quarterfinals and were on course for a sibling showdown in Saturday's final.
 &quot;The white people at Indian Wells, what they've been wanting to say all along to us finally came out: 'Nigger, stay away from here, we don't want you here,'&quot; said Williams.
 The crowd booed the family March 17 after Venus pulled out of her semifinal match against Serena, citing knee tendinitis. The withdrawal led to speculation Richard Williams asked Venus to pull out to help Serena, an allegation the family denies.
 Williams said that as he and Venus were walking to their seats for the final, about a dozen fans used the racial slur and one spoke of skinning him alive.
 &quot;It's the worst act of prejudice I've seen since they killed Martin Luther King,&quot; he said.
 Williams said he resisted the temptation to respond. Instead, he said, he watched near tears as fans jeered Serena and cheered when she double faulted en route to a victory over Kim Clijsters.
 Williams characterized the crowd as white and wealthy and said all but about 1,000 fans in the crowd of 16,000 booed his daughter.
 &quot;That's the hardest time in the world I've ever had,&quot; Williams said. &quot;I'll never go to Indian Wells again, because I believe that guy would skin me alive.&quot;
 Serena Williams said she hadn't spoken to her father about his allegations and couldn't confirm them.
 &quot;I'm not really trying to get involved in any type of controversy,&quot; she said. &quot;I stick by my dad and know that he's usually a very true-hearted person.&quot;
 Venus said, &quot;I heard what he heard.&quot; She declined to elaborate.
 Top-ranked Martina Hingis, who didn't attend the Indian Wells final, said she likes the sisters, but discounted Richard Williams' allegations.
 &quot;I think it's total nonsense,&quot; Hingis said. &quot;I don't feel like there is any racism on the tour. It's a very international sport, and I even would say because they may be black, they have a lot of advantages. ... They can always say it's racism.&quot;
 Indian Wells officials didn't return phone calls seeking comment Monday. Charles Pasarell, director of the Indian Wells tournament, told USA Today he was embarrassed by the boos.
 As for racial taunting, Pasarell said, &quot;If Richard says someone yelled something, maybe they did, but I know that's not Indian Wells people.&quot;

TITLE: Athletes Named in Sex Scandal
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATLANTA - Patrick Ewing and Dennis Rodman are among prominent athletes subpoenaed to testify about sexual favors allegedly given to sports stars at a nude dance club involved in a racketeering case, according to published reports.
 Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson, former Atlanta Hawk Dikembe Mutombo and Terrell Davis of the Denver Broncos also have been called to testify by prosecutors investigating the Gold Club, CNN-Sports Illustrated reported Wednesday.
 Davis' agent, Neil Schwartz, confirmed that his client had been subpoenaed, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday.
 The other athletes or their representatives could not be reached to comment, the newspaper said.
 Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan is charged along with 16 others in an alleged racketeering conspiracy including prostitution, money laundering, loan sharking and ties to organized crime.
 Kaplan's attorney Steve Sadow has acknowledged that professional athletes were entertained free of charge at the club, known in the trade as &quot;comping.&quot; However, Kaplan has denied claims of federal prosecutors that he arranged for Gold Club dancers to have sex with celebrities to raise the club's profile and lure more customers.
 Sadow said he does not know who prosecutors have subpoenaed to testify, but he said he is prepared to cross-examine professional athletes and other celebrities about visits to the club.

TITLE: Russian Rises to No. 8 in World
AUTHOR: By Steve Keating
PUBLISHER: Reuters
TEXT: MIAMI - Second seed Lindsay Davenport and fifth seed Serena Williams limped out of the quarterfinals of the Ericsson Open with injuries on Wednesday, allowing Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati and Russian Elena Dementieva easy wins.
 Dementieva advanced to the semifinals for second time in three tournaments when Davenport suddenly retired from their match with a knee injury while trailing 6-3, 1-0.
 The victory will propel the 19-year-old Dementieva to a career-high of eighth in the world rankings.
 Davenport will slip to No. 3 with Venus Williams, who booked her place in the semifinals on Tuesday with a win over Yugoslavia's Jelena Dokic, taking over the second spot.
 Davenport, who lost to world No. 1 Martina Hingis in last year's final, displayed no signs of distress early in the opening set, breaking the Russian to take a 3-2 lead.
 But the seventh-seeded Dementieva immediately broke back and broke again in the eighth game to take the first set.
 When Dementieva broke Davenport to open the second set, the three-time Grand Slam winner stopped the match due to pain in her knee.
 It was a busy day for the trainers at the $6.12 million tournament.
 Earlier in the day, Capriati had swept to a 6-1, 7-6 victory over a struggling Serena Williams.
 Williams had the WTA trainer on court twice for treatment for a left thigh injury, which she said first flared up on the way to her Indian Wells title nearly two weeks ago.
 The fifth seed was clearly seen wincing, particularly when serving at the end of the quarterfinal, but felt she had no choice but to play.
 The decision to play on was influenced by the ugly reaction of fans and adverse publicity following sister Venus's withdrawal minutes before the Indian Wells semifinal against Serena due to knee tendinitis.
 In men's quarterfinal action, seventh-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt, two years older and two years more experienced than Andy Roddick, ended the American teenager's title dreams with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory.
 Roddick, 18, who was troubled by an injury to his right hand, may be out of the competition but he can look back at his efforts with pride, especially his third-round victory over Pete Sampras.
 The youngster's performance here will allow him to crack the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time in his short career.