SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #677 (44), Wednesday, June 13, 2001
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TITLE: A Big House Away From Home
AUTHOR: By Jim Heintz
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LEPLEI, Central Russia - After the last gate slams shut behind a new arrival at the foreigners' prison colony surrounded by dense birch forest, and the new inmate looks around worriedly, the first sight likely to catch his eye is a sign reading: "We're waiting for you."
This is supposed to be comforting; the sign also shows a smiling woman and a baby waving. But the initial baleful interpretation is the one that rings true.
The colony, where American John Tobin, a U.S. Fulbright scholar recently convicted on drug charges, is to serve a year, puts inmates through a grueling stretch of dull days in shabby buildings, poor food, malodorous toilets, bone-wracking winters and mosquito-clouded summers in a heavily forested region 700 kilometers east of Moscow.
At the Leplei prison colony - formally if cryptically named ZhKh-385/22 - the approximately 400 inmates are housed in dormitories set among a few trees and small vegetable plots, lined with narrow beds. They arise at 7 a.m. and make their beds according to strict guidelines posted on the walls.
They dress in coarse prison garb, some topping off the clothes with military-style jackets, and head across to a rundown refectory. Painted decorations on its walls show foods the inmates are unlikely to see during their stay.
What they're almost sure to see, at any meal, is kasha - buckwheat-cooked mush. Sometimes it's the only dish, sometimes it comes with bread and soup and occasionally with something else.
"There are very few vegetables," said 43-year-old Hagop Yapudzhian, an Armenian-born U.S. citizen serving a sentence for breaking and entering. "I feel very much weaker since coming here.
"But it's better than when I came - the kasha is thicker, the soup is thicker," he said.
After eating, some inmates begin a day of work at sewing machines putting together army uniforms or insulated coats. An eight-hour day earns them 7 rubles (about $0.25).
Those who don't work have some freedom to wander the grounds - about 300 paces long in one direction, 200 in the other - which are surrounded by chain-link fence, barbed wire and a tall white wooden fence with slats sharpened to a point.
The freedom of movement is a point that corrections officials repeatedly emphasize.
"It's a colony, not a jail," said colony system spokesperson Colonel Gennady Votrin proudly, reflecting the viewpoint of the prison administration that life there is a sort of miniature version of life in the village on the other side of the wall.
There are some similarities between the two - lassitude and tedium pervade the colony and the village, and residents of both flick themselves endlessly with whisks that look like small pompoms to drive swirling clouds of mosquitoes away from their faces.
"We sit and think, we kill time," said inmate Imad Khalifa, a Jordanian serving an eight-year sentence for heroin dealing.
"You have to stop paying attention," said Yapudzhian.
Unlike prisons with their iron clangor and menacing shouts, the Leplei colony is almost eerily quiet and docile - at least when reporters are around. The inmates touch their hats when officials walk by and stand with hands behind their backs when talking to them. The guards who patrol the grounds in camouflage fatigues carry truncheons but not guns.
For many inmates, the day's high point comes around 5:30 p.m. when they can play soccer. The field is as rutted as a country road and the practice ball so old that its leather patches are hanging off, but the players show verve and finesse and the spectators' shoulders straighten out of the usual inmate slump.
Inmates with relatives who can afford travel to this remote patch of Russia are allowed up to four three-hour visits a year, and married ones are allowed three-day visits in a motel-like room with a kitchen down the hall. Sexual contact is allowed, if not exactly encouraged by the fact that the room contains only two narrow beds.
The colony - one of two in Russia for foreigners - is part of a system of 16 with a population of about 14,000 in the region. System commandant Major General Vladimir Krasnokutsky said the Leplei colony was set aside for foreigners because "we are such humane people."
"It is easier for them [to be separated]. They help each other. It's easier for them to survive," he said.
But there is no separate facility for foreign female convicts, and increasing arrests of foreign men mean there aren't enough spaces in the special facilities for males.
Felix Lukendo of Cameroon, convicted of heroin dealing, ended up in a regular prison colony down the road from Leplei, and he confirms Krasnokutsky's assessment.
With poor language skills and nervous about Russian prisoners' frequent distaste for blacks, he said he tries to limit his contacts to the two dozen other Africans amid the colony's 1,200 prisoners.
"It is like being somebody who is deaf and dumb, but has to get used to the people around him," he said, adding with a sigh: "As they say, to become a man is not a one-day job."
TITLE: HolidayLeaves
Locals
Puzzled
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Most city residents waking up this dreary Tuesday morning knew somewhere in the back of their minds that it was a holiday. But they weren't quite sure which one.
Many thought that it was Independence Day, a widely accepted misnomer for June 12 - officially called the Day of the Passage of the Declaration of State Sovereignty and which was made perhaps Russia's least understood state holiday May 25, 1991.
But local media Tuesday were not full of the solemnity the holiday's name suggests. Instead, there were gag surveys and call-in cranks who, along with the DJs and television hosts, tried- as people have for the past 11 years - to figure out what this holiday is for and what it is really called.
Ekho Moskvy, St. Petersburg, ran a zany multiple-choice survey asking listeners to call in and say whether "Independence Day" was set aside in order to have an extra romp with one's lover or just to get trashed, among irreverent other options.
The alcoholics won by a landslide.
However, the origin of the holiday lies in a 2 1/2-page declaration by the first Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic that spells out the democratic goals of Russia within the framework of the Soviet Union. Called the Declaration of State Sovereignty, it was adopted on June 12, 1990, by a vote of 907-13 - and it has very little to do with independence.
President Vladimir Putin was shown on the ORT evening news striking a solemn note during a Kremlin ceremony honoring former president Boris Yeltsin, who received the Order of Merit of the Fatherland, First Grade.
"The [declaration of State Sovereignty] started the countdown of our new history," Putin said. "The history of a democratic state based on civil freedom and rule of law. Its main meaning is success, prosperity and the well-being of its citizens."
"Eleven years ago the road to a new country opened up, one leading to new relations between society and citizens," the president said. "A monumental turning point occurred and now we live in another country."
Putin asserted that now "power has a new, democratic face" and that over the last decade of free-market economic reform, "we have learned how to build our lives for ourselves, without outside advice."
However, the president took something of a swipe at Yeltsin-era reforms. "Everything we endured over the past decade, all our experiences, successes and failures, shows one thing: Any reform only makes sense when it serves the people. If reforms do not benefit citizens, then they will fail," Putin said, adding that improving the well-being of citizens should be the state's main goal.
But 11 years after the declaration was adopted and after a decade of painful reforms and demoralizing scandals, the June 12 holiday is still a mystery. Just 20 percent of respondents agreed that the holiday has great historical significance, while Russians are evenly split - 32 percent for each response - in saying that the day means nothing to them or that they merely consider it an extra day off from work, according to a national survey by the Public Opinion Foundation.
"I didn't even know that there was such a day," said 60-year-old pensioner Lyudmila, who would not give her last name. "You see, life is so difficult that all these celebrations - Independence Day or November 7 - look the same. There are too many of them."
Even Putin referred to the holiday as "Russia Day" at the Krem lin awards ceremony - which, technically speaking, is incorrect. Many Russians seemed to think that the holiday celebrates the state and its independence.
Roman, a 22-year-old local police officer, was certain. "This is a celebration for the state first of all, and this is especially significant because it celebrates the day when Russia separated from other states," he said.
Another recent survey by the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Research, or VITsOM, documented wide spread uncertainty about the holiday's name and significance.
That survey found that only 9 percent of Russians know that June 12 is officially called the Day of the Passage of the Declaration of State Sovereignty, while 57 percent called it Independence Day. As many as every fifth Russian could not name any reason for the holiday, the survey stated, and nearly 50 percent think that independence - which was never actually declared - had a negative effect on Russia and the other former Soviet republics.
In fact, the 1990 document laid some crucial cornerstones for the country's post-Soviet life, although most of its goals have yet to be achieved. The declaration sets as the country's highest goal the inalienable right of every individual to a worthy life. It also declares the intention of creating a democratic, law-based government. Among the other points covered, the document recognizes the norms of international law in human rights and provides guarantees of political, economic, ethnic and cultural rights for all nationalities in the Russian Federation.
It affirms the public's ownership and right to exploit and dispose of the country's natural wealth. The declaration affirms political pluralism and guarantees the equal rights of individuals, political parties, social organizations, mass movements and religious bodies to participate in political and social life.
The declaration also affirms the separation of political power among the legislative, executive and judicial branches as the basic principle of the Russian government.
The declaration was a response to efforts by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to put pressure on Boris Yeltsin. "We simply had no other choice under those conditions," Sergei Filatov, former deputy chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet, told the Strana.ru Web site.
Despite widespread indifference to the document and the cynicism generated by Russia's failure to measure up to its ideals, there were still some believers on St. Petersburg streets on Tuesday.
"I think some issues have changed [in the country] and some things have gotten better," said 68-year-old pensioner Gennady, who refrained from giving his last name.
"On the one hand, everything is more expensive, but on the other, I don't spend all my day in line to buy things."
Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst for the Sociology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that in the future the current Independence Day would be replaced by some less vague holiday.
"Such a celebration should have a mythology of some kind, but [the Day of the Passage of the Declaration of State Sovereignty] does not," Kesselman said.
"Maybe in 20 years we will celebrate a day of victory in the Chechen war, who knows."
TITLE: Authorities Mystified By Crash at Air Show
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: LEVASHOVO - Two military training jets collided in midair during a routine acrobatic maneuver on the first day of the annual Levashovo air show on Sunday, killing one of the pilots and leaving officials mystified as to the cause of the tragedy.
According to eyewitnesses, the two Czech-manufactured L-39 training jets were flying in close formation, their wing tips some three meters apart. Then, for reasons unknown, the wings of the planes - which contain fuel - clipped and exploded.
The planes then plunged 200 meters to the forest below, about two kilometers from where the spectators were assembled.
Both pilots were identified only by their last names by Emergency Situations Ministry, or MChS, officials. The pilot who died was a 42-year-old named Maksimov.
The pilot of the second jet, identified only as Marunko, survived, said Yury Demyanov, head of a St. Petersburg MChS group that was on site for the three-day air show at the Levashovo military airport, about 10 kilometers north of St. Petersburg.
The two planes were part of the Rus aviation group that had come to perform in the show from the town of Vyaz ma, near Smolensk in central Russia.
Vladimir Dervenyov, a parachutist who performed in the show, witnessed the catastrophe.
"The two planes bumped each other with their wings, which caused the explosion, because planes have their fuel tanks inside their wings," he said in an interview.
"Then both planes just dropped down to the forest and some time later smoke appeared above the trees," Dervenyov said.
Another eyewitness, who did not want to be identified, said the crash "was a small explosion at first glance, and most of the audience initially thought it was one of those pyrotechnical effects."
Spectators were stunned as news of the fatality spread slowly through the crowd. Eventually, an announcement over the public address system informed them of the accident and said that the rest of the day's demonstrations were canceled.
According to MChS's Demyanov, both pilots managed to eject before impact. Theoretically, said Demyanov, this should have saved Maksimov's life. But he added that both pilots ejected at a low altitude and evidence suggests that Maksimov's plane may have been inverted when he ejected, meaning that his ejection seat would have propelled him directly into the ground.
But why the planes collided during such a routine stunt remains a mystery.
Parachutist Dervenyov - who has more than 500 jumps under his belt - said that the Levashovo airfield suffers from unpredictable wind patterns because of it location on a combination of bog and forest lands. During the afternoon - when the ill-fated flight occurred - the bog, warmed by the sun, emits currents of warm air that produce turbulence, which can jostle aircraft overhead.
Should such turbulence have been present during Maksimov's and Marunko's demonstration, it could easily have caused one plane to clip the other's wing, Dervenyov said.
The accident cast a pall over the remaining two days of the air show. On the second day, almost no performances took place, leaving hopeful spectators simply to wander among the exhibits, while somber music was played in Maksimov's memory.
Finally, at 4:00 p.m. the other pilots from Maksimov's group took to the skies in a performance dedicated to their lost comrade.
The air show accident represents the second tragedy that Levashovo airfield has experienced in less than a year. On July 21, 2000, an MI-8 helicopter with 19 paratroopers aboard crashed during an exercise, killing everyone on board. The victims, 13 men and six women, were members of the national Federal Air-Space Department's Air Force rescue team.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Policeman Killed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Yev geny Malikov, a 34-year-old policeman, was gunned down near the hotel Karelia late on Thursday, RBC agency reported. Malikov was a chief inspector in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast police's Special Service - a unit dealing with foreigners.
The City Prosecutor's press service said Malikov was fatally shot around 10:20 p.m. Thursday on Marshal Tukhachevsky Prospect in the city's eastern Krasnogvardeisky district. He was off duty at the time the shooting occurred.
Malikov was approaching his car when an unidentified young man allegedly shot Malikov in the head at a close range, said RBC. Malikov was shot once again. The suspect fled the scene on foot, leaving behind his jacket and pistol. Police are searching for the suspect, RBC reported.
Suspect Sketch
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Police have devised a sketch of a suspect in an armed robbery, which took place at the Russian State Meteorology University a week ago, and resulted in the death of two security guards and the loss of $41,000 meant as salaries for the university's employees. The police say, however, that the sketch is for internal use only, and not to be released to the media.
According to descriptions given by police in the eastern Krasnogvardeisky district - where the crime took place - the robber is a man of slight build, about 25 to 30 years old, 165 to 170 centimeters high, with a round face and European features, and light-brown wavy hair.
According to Gennady Ryabov, spokesperson for the City Prosecutor's office, the suspect was wearing a ski mask as the moment of the robbery. However, according to local press reports, eyewitnesses at the university said that the suspect was seen without the mask on the university's premises a some time before the assault. Police would not disclose any leads.
TITLE: Apraksin Dvor Warehouse Destroyed by Fire
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: More than 50 firefighters and 20 firetrucks battled a three-hour blaze when a 19th-century warehouse caught fire Saturday morning at central St. Petersburg's bustling and infamous marketplace, Apraksin Dvor. There were no injuries, although about 1,400 square meters of storage space were destroyed.
The fire broke at about 9:00 a.m., fire officials said, just as traders were arriving to take their goods out of storage. The flames caused general panic among many traders - concerned not for their lives but for the goods stored inside. Several had to be physically retrained by police as they attempted to enter the building, said Anatoly Zhu kov, deputy head of the fourth St. Petersburg fire brigade.
Tatyana Striganyuk, spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Fire Department, said in a telephone interview Saturday that many of the warehouses at Ap rak sin Dvor are in bad condition, and each year the fire department is called out to extinguish a handful of small fires. The building that burned on Saturday, said Striganyuk, had suffered damages from a small fire last year.
Striganyuk said the authorities had no official version yet of what started the fire, but she added that the generally dilapidated condition of many of the buildings was likely a contributing factor.
"I think it happens because most of the storerooms [at Apraksin Dvor] are leased and nobody really cares about the condition of the place," Striganyuk said.
The original Apraksin Dvor burned to the ground in 1862 and was replaced by the current set of warehouses.
It has been notorious in the past as a center of black-market trade in everything from bath-tub gin to counterfeit foreign cigarettes to guns, and police attempts to brings the unruly trade zone to heel are usually short-lived.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, firefighters were still watering down smoldering ash to prevent the fire from re-igniting.
"It was a tough spot to work in," said a firefighter who asked not to be identified. "The building is old and the ceilings are wooden," he said.
"Most of our merchandise was in there," said trader Tatyana Ivanova as she sat near heaps of toilet paper, toys, laundry detergent, insecticides and other items that some of the traders had managed to rescue from the blaze.
Striganyuk said no financial assessment of the damage had yet been produced. Apraksin Dvor management could not be reached for comment.
TITLE: Berezovsky Tabs Nezavisimaya Team
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - A duo of Boris Berezovsky's trusted journalists, whose articles in Nezavisimaya Gazeta were perceived as conveying the tycoon's viewpoint, were appointed Friday to replace Vi taly Tretyakov at the helm of the paper.
Tretyakov announced Wednesday that Berezovsky's decision to sack him was "political," saying the tycoon was not satisfied with editorial policy. Berezovsky, who is in self-imposed exile and plans to create an opposition party, said he wants the newspaper to help foster Russia's fledgling middle class.
After a general shareholders meeting of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta Company on Friday, Rustam Narzikulov was announced as general director and Tatyana Koshkaryova as editor.
During the heated election campaign of 1999, the duo moved from Nezavisimaya to oversee news at ORT television, then controlled by Berezovsky. The channel went to extremes to boost the ratings of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while launching a smear campaign against presidential hopefuls Yevgeny Primakov and Yury Luzhkov. Last year, as control of the station slipped from Berezovsky, Narzikulov and Koshkaryova lost their jobs at ORT.
A high-level source in the government said this week that the reshuffle indicates Berezovsky's intention to create a higher-circulation, more "aggressive" newspaper, meant - along with Berezovsky's TV6 - to "rock the boat."
Maxim Shevchenko, a Nezavisimaya reporter and editor of its religion supplement, said Friday he has "high respect and gratitude" for Tretyakov, whom he described as an "outstanding journalist."
TITLE: Nina Krushcheva Feels at Home in New York
TEXT: After spending the last 10 years studying and working in the United States, Nina Khrushcheva, granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, recently took a break from her research to teach a semester at Moscow State University. Before her return to New York, Khru shche va spoke with The St. Petersburg Times about becoming a citizen of the world, her grandfather's legacy and the country she currently calls home. Interview by Kester Klomegah.
Q: Some might interpret your departure as a betrayal of your grandfather's ideals.
A: On the contrary, I respect him very much. He was a man of his time and, in many ways, a man who went beyond the times to open borders - international, political, intellectual, etc. - that made the Soviet lifestyle more human and less rigid.
But by no means am I a symbol of his political ideals. I have my own life and it largely has nothing to do with my grandfather.
In fact, I live in the United States because I can be anonymous there. More often than not people don't even remember who Khru shchev was. But here in Russia I am always a Khrushchev.
Q: Did you have any political reasons for going to study in the United States?
A: No. Before leaving Moscow in 1991 I had worked with foreign diplomats and I had a lot of foreign friends. I was curious to see what it would be like to live as a foreigner myself, and so I applied to graduate school at Princeton University.
After a few years of adjustment there I realized that I really liked being a foreigner and so, after getting my Ph.D., I stayed.
Now I am a Russian living in America, but I no longer really belong to any country - I have become an essential foreigner. Not belonging is a hard thing, but once you master it, it gives you a wonderful feeling of freedom. Besides, it doesn't really matter any more what kind of citizenship you have.
In order to be international you no longer need to be an American or a Russian. Not that I have plans to give up my [Russian] citizenship. I live in the United States because for now it happens to suit my personal and professional interests.
As soon as I stop finding it convenient I will move somewhere else -Moscow, Paris, Warsaw.
Q: How do Americans react to your connection to Nikita Khrushchev?
A: For younger people - if they know who he was - it doesn't matter. It is all past history for them. It matters only to the older generation - the ones who remember Khrushchev ideologically, politically and sometimes personally.
But my family connection is only a matter of curiosity in a country where people value one's own achievements - not those of their relatives. Besides, the attention span in America is no longer than 15 minutes; by the end of a conversation most people simply forget about Khrushchev, even if they did care initially.
Q: What can you say about the American democratic system after having lived there for a decade?
A: Like all countries, America can be a great country and it can be a horrible one. It is rather democratic in the usual sense of the word - [including] working freedoms, a well-organized legal system and civilized capitalism. But America's ideological correctness can sometimes be worse than any Soviet censorship; it can be awfully rigid and missionary.
Americans often think their country is the only place in the world worth paying attention to. (This explains why you can kill yourself sometimes trying to find international news in the American media.)
Its dealings with Kosovo, Cuba and some other areas are simply beyond criticism. But worse than these specific policies is its self-righteous attitude. "You are like us," is the best Ame rican compliment. I personally find this somewhat limiting.
On the other hand, the United States is the most generous, charitable country I have ever known. Allowing the whole world to come in and live there requires a lot of courage. What I find most important is its system of meritocracy.
Of course, connections and whom you know are important, just as they are everywhere. But what matters there is not who you are, but what you are.
For a Russian whose life is based on the who of his family and inner world, this can be a hard transition. But once you learn to be fully responsible for yourself it is actually quite interesting to see how far you can go.
Q: How has living in America changed your lifestyle?
A: I have become a New Yorker. My fashion style is New York (I always wear black), my lifestyle is New York (I am busy 24 hours a day), my style of relationships is New York (I have become very efficient: Tell me what you want and I will tell you what I can do). This acquired practicality has made my life both easier and happier. My life is entirely my responsibility. With all this efficiency and pragmatism I have lost a part of my all-encompassing dreamy Russian soul, but at least I have learned how to deal with the rest of [my life] better.
Q: Based on your experiences in the West, what changes would you like to introduce to Russia?
A: Healthy individualism. We have to concentrate on detail, on the concrete, on the individual. People must solve their own problems before moving on to issues of common good.
Comfortable people are more charitable. Poor people, in truth, may be kinder, but this kindness is of an unearthly, unstable, tortured quality. It is hard to build a sustainable life based on that.
Q: Do you think Russians will be able to overcome their deep-rooted Soviet attitudes to focus more on their own problems?
A: It won't be easy, as the last 10 years have shown. But what I found during this visit is that those so-called deep-rooted cultural attitudes are no longer that deep.
Take, for example, the generation of students I taught at MGU [Moscow State University]. They are completely different: They are free; they are brave; they are practical and pragmatic; but they are also warm and innocent. These are the best qualities a young person can have - not for some hypothetical soulful existence, but for the practicalities of life.
Q: Why did you opt to teach a course on [Vladimir] Nabokov at MGU?
A: I think it is useful to utilize Russia's passion for reading, its belief in the writer as prophet, to benefit everyone. This has always been a country where Solzhenitsyn and dissident writers were more important than Brezhnev and politicians.
We were post-modern in our contempt for politics even before we had real politics. So I decided to take a semester off from my research at the New School for Social Research on Russia's economic transition and come to teach at MGU.
In many ways I saw myself as walking in Nabokov's footsteps: The 10 years I've spent in the United States have turned a dreamy Russian intellectual into a practical Westerner. And please, don't take this as a delusion of grandeur.
I am only saying that my own experiences in America have been akin to those of Nabokov. I felt that I had something to reveal to my fellow Russians: In order to become liberal and free, Russia must put its best traditions of reading to practical use.
Maybe we should switch to reading Nabokov rather than IMF briefs (official documents have never been a Russian forte), for Nabokov provides a better road map forward than some uncertain successes of far-away Indonesia and Brazil. He was able to remain Russian - dreamily, greedily, unambiguously - yet be American at the same time.
- Interview by Kester Klomegah
TITLE: Lenenergo Heads West To Talk Up ADR Plans
AUTHOR: Simon Ostrovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Regional power utility Lenenergo is taking its show on the road this week after receiving the go-ahead from Russia's Federal Securities Commission to proceed with the launch of a level one American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program.
The company announced the FSC's decision in a press release issued last Wednesday, although company officials said that the official documentation for the decision was not received until Friday. While there still remain some details to be ironed out with the financial institution selected to handle the placement of the ADRs, Lenenergo hopes to drum up interest in the program during its trip to the United States.
"Stops in the United States will include New York and Boston, as well as cities in Ohio and Texas," Larissa Semyonova, public relations representative for Lenenergo General Director Andrei Likhachyov, said. "We're going to start with the United States because that's where we expect our main investors will be."
ADRs are stock instruments used by foreign companies wishing to raise capital in the U.S. securities market in cases where stocks in the firm cannot be purchased. There are three levels of ADRs, with level one being the lowest and carrying with it fewer restrictions than level three.
While one Lenenergo ADR will represent 80 common shares in the utility and its shares presently trade in the $0.25 range, James Gerson, head of investor relations at the firm, said that there is more to determining the cost of the instruments - referred to as the "premium" - than this simple multiplication.
Depending on investor demand, company officials said that up to 10 percent of the utility's shares will be available for conversion to ADRs.
"We're in the final stages of discussion with our depositary bank, JP Morgan," Gerson said. "We expect there to be a premium of 10 percent above the underlying market price once the ADRs are launched."
Lenenergo initially announced its plans to launch the level one ADR program last September but at that time said that Bank of New York had been chosen to act as the depositary bank. The utility then announced in December that J.P. Morgan would handle the program instead. While officials at the firm would not comment on the rationale behind the switch, analysts say that it is connected with a drop in the quality of the Bank of New York's services.
"As a monopoly in the depositary bank sector in Russia, the Bank of New York got a bit lazy as far as client relations go," said Hartmut Jacob, a utilities analyst at Renaissance Capital. "Now there are other banks offering depositary services as well, such as Deutsche bank and JP Morgan."
TITLE: Volkswagen and Peugeot Close to Court Over Advertising
AUTHOR: By Igor Popov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Foreign automakers Peugeot and Volkswagen are feuding over a promotional campaign that is drawing attention to the dangers of comparative advertising in Russia.
Peugeot's Moscow dealer Armand launched a campaign in April that uses the VW trademark and compares the Volks wagen Passat, Mitsubishi Cha ris ma and Mitsubishi Galant with the Peugeot 406.
Volkswagen says Peugeot didn't get permission for the comparison or for using the VW trademark in Armand's advertisements.
The case has drawn attention to the ethics and legality of comparative advertising in Russia where, unlike many countries, the practice has not been banned.
Volkswagen spokesperson Tatyana Khalyavskaya said her company had sent a letter to one of the Peugeot dealers - she wouldn't say which - demanding an apology for the "improper" ad it published in the magazines Avtoreview and Klakson. She said the apology should run in both publications.
Khalyavskaya said that Volkswagen's ultimatum expires early next week, and if it isn't met the company would take the case to court.
In April, Armand published an ad in the two motor magazines under the slogan "Peugeot isn't afraid of comparison."
The ad invites those who are pondering the purchase of a mid-range sedan to come to the Armand showroom and assess three variants at the same time.
An Armand spokesperson said the rival vehicles were provided by the official Volkswagen and Mitsubishi dealers - Avto Leon Art and Rolf Holding. He said an official agreement had been signed with the Volkswagen dealer and a "highly competent professional" carried out a technical comparison of the three cars.
Khalyavskaya denied that VW signed any document confirming its participation in the scheme, and called the technical comparison published by Armand "incorrect."
Experts polled last week said that if the case goes to court, Volkswagen would have the upper hand.
Dmitry Badalov, general director of the Russian Advertising Council, said Russian laws do not forbid the comparison of goods in advertising, but the comparison must be authentic.
In the event of a dispute, authenticity is determined first by the Antimonopoly Ministry and later by court if the parties do not resolve the dispute by negotiations, Badalov said.
Badalov said the "authenticity of the comparison" is hard to prove because under the terms of the law the tiniest construction features of the car must be compared.
"Manufacturers, for example, believe that the interior of their car is more comfortable than that of their competitor, however independent research based on a consumer poll could give entirely opposite results," said Badalov.
If authenticity is not proven then the advertisement is considered false and the offending party can face a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
The use of the VW trademark could cause more serious problems for Armand:
"If a trademark is used illegally, its owner has the right to claim for damages," said Badalov. "How much moral and material harm the biggest European supplier of cars to Russia could claim could only be a guess."
TITLE: Profits Tax Target of Draft Law
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing."
- Jean Baptiste Colbert
MOSCOW - There is a lot of hissing going on in corporate circles over the country's current profit tax.
The reason is simple. Suppose Russian Pancakes earns $100 selling hotcakes and spends $90 on flour, butter, advertising and labor. The profit is $10 and taxable $3.50 under the current 35 percent profit tax.
But suppose that the government decides that only $80 of those expenses can be deducted, making Russian Pancakes' official profit $20. The profit tax rate then effectively jumps to 70 percent and leaves the company with a measly $3.
Such a scenario is exactly what companies here find themselves up against. It is one of the reasons that businesses have been forced to hide their true profitability and are looking hopefully to the government to stop punishing them for being successful. And the government, in turn, is looking to businesses to be more open about their profitability.
In a bid to kill both of these birds with one stone, the government has sent long-awaited legislation to the State Duma to ease the burden of profit tax. The amendments are part of a package of tax reform bills that the government starting pushing through parliament last year. The bill on profit tax is scheduled to be considered in second reading June 20 and is expected to go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2002.
"The Duma is acting as a defender of business," said Duma Deputy Alexander Shokhin.
The current profit tax rate of 35 percent is in line with rates throughout Europe and is expected to remain unchanged.
The draft legislation allows for more deductibility, including costs for insurance, advertising and training, Shokhin said. This should help narrow the gap between the statutory tax rate and the effective rate.
Tax experts say the amendments, if passed in their current form, would be a step forward in making Russia a more desirable place to do business.
The bill shows a shift from a production to a profit mentality, said Scott Antel, tax partner at Arthur Andersen. "It is a shift from taxation of just being in business to taxation of economic profit," Antel said.
Currently, tax laws spell out what can and cannot be deducted, which is "the reverse of world norms," said Steve Hendersen, partner at Deloitte & Touche.
Although the new code is not perfect - it still lists examples of deductible expenses - it at least states that "necessary, reasonable, and documented" expenses may be deducted.
The new bill, like nearly all laws, contains numerous rough spots, poor wording and ambiguities. There are numerous loopholes - enough to keep tax advisors very busy - but overall the law is seen as a positive step.
"It's moving away from the prescriptive Soviet approach, moving expense deductibility from an exclusive list to an inclusive list," said Peter Arnett, tax partner at Ernst & Young.
Another significant aspect that the amendments should change is how businesses calculate the depreciation of fixed assets. The amendments more closely align the period over which the cost of fixed assets can be expensed with their real economic life. For example, computers must now be depreciated slowly over seven to nine years, Antel said. Realistically, computers become obsolete in two to four years.
The proposed draft also allows accelerated depreciation, which is particularly helpful for companies incurring the high costs of starting up or embarking on an expansion project.
Incentives for investing in fixed assets and construction may also lower the amount of taxable profit by up to 50 percent. The Duma has vowed to keep incentives in the face of attempts by the Finance Ministry to abolish them.
The Duma estimates that reforms will decrease the overall profit tax burden by about 100 billion rubles ($3.4 million), 1 percent of gross domestic product. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Thursday put the estimate higher, at 1.8 percent of the GDP, Interfax reported. He said the decrease would bite into regional budgets, in particular for health, education, culture and communal services.
Focusing on short-term losses, however understandable when racing to balance the budget, is "very myopic," said Antel.
"They won't lose money from this" because the overall gains to the economy should outweigh any short-term losses, he said.
Image is one benefit. The tax bill may help boost the country's image with investors who see the current tax regime as unnecessarily evil. The new chapter is likely to be accepted this year for that reason if no other. "The key incentive for getting this through is the image of Russia, which will improve in the eyes of investors," said Arnett.
Another benefit is increasing the number of taxpayers. Deputy Trade and Economic Development Minister Arkady Dvorkovich recently put the gray economy at 30 percent.
"Half of these companies might come out from the shadows purely thanks to tax reform," Dvorkovich was quoted by Kommersant as saying.
Investment and economic growth is also a potential reward. An astounding 54 percent of capital investment is funded by plowing profits back into operations, meaning that higher investment depends in part on higher profits, said Natalya Orlova, economist at Alfa Bank. Bank financing accounts for only 3 percent of capital investment, although proposed deductions for interest on loans may increase this share, she said.
Passing the bill into law will cheer the corporate world, but businesses are bound to continue to protect their feathers from government plucking until they see that it is implemented as advertised.
"It's not necessarily the idea behind the law, but what happens during implementation that counts," said Steven Snaith, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
TITLE: Sibir Lobbying U.K. for London Landing Rights
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Novosibirsk, Siberia - No. 3 airline Sibir is angling to become just the third Russian carrier to gain direct access to London.
Sibir general director Vladislav Filyov met with British Ambassador to Russia Sir Roderic Lyne at Sibir's Novosibirsk headquarters on Thursday and urged him to help make traveling internationally easier for Siberians.
"Today [our passengers] get to London via Frankfurt, but we could have a direct connection to England," Filyov said. "Novosibirsk is known enough in the world as a scientific center and we would be glad if you could help our citizens travel quicker around the world."
Lyne said that for this to happen Sibir would have to demonstrate sufficient passenger traffic.
Sibir, one of the nation's fastest growing airlines, is currently No. 3 by passenger volume, but is hoping to soon move up to No. 2, after Aeroflot.
Sibir flies to over 40 destinations in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and abroad on its own fleet of 28 domestically produced aircraft. It carried 832,000 passengers last year and is reporting faster growth this year. In the first five months of the year, it carried 389,000 passengers, 60 percent more than the same period last year.
Sibir is predicting passenger volumes to more than double to 2.1 million passengers in 2001, second after Aeroflot, which is on target to carry 5.8 million passengers. Sibir's target volumes include the passengers on Moscow's Vnukovo airlines, which will be swallowed up by Sibir later this year in the first full-scale merger in the domestic airline industry. Sibir already manages Vnukovo's fleet, routes and cash flows.
"The process of merging is going full steam ahead and is not reversible," Filyov said.
Sibir's ambitions for international operations are growing along with its business.
It has had an interline agreement with Germany's Lufthansa since last year, and in April it signed a similar agreement with Air China that will come into effect next month. It is also looking for a similar deal with British Airways.
Sibir said it currently negotiating with the International Air Transport Association on a deal that would give it access to interline agreements with more companies all over the world. It is also finalizing a deal that would give it a controlling stake in Turkish tour company Pegasus, which handles 70 percent of the Moscow-Turkey market, and is aggressively thinking of gaining new international horizons by means of direct connections.
"We want to fly to London, Paris, other cities," Filyov said.
Starting direct operations to London would require a new intergovernmental agreement between the United Kingdom and Russia. Under the current agreement there are only three designated carriers: British Airways, Aeroflot and Transaero.
Securing an intergovernmental agreement is a lengthy and difficult process, but Sibir is eager to try.
"We are ready to fight for it," Filyov said.
Sibir's steady growth and operational acumen has gained the attention of foreign aircraft and engine makers.
Joining the British ambassador on the trip was Rolls Royce's chief Mos cow representative Michael Blore, who is interested in seeing his company's engines power Sibir's Tu-204 craft that are currently powered by domestically produced PS-90A engines.
Blore has been Rolls Royce's pointman on its program to outfit Tu-204s since 1990, but so far just four Tu204s are powered by Rolls Royce engines - all in Egypt.
Blore said it was premature to talk about concrete deals with Sibir, and that his visit was an exploratory one to "establish a business relationship."
Moscow-based aviation analyst Paul Duffy said that Rolls Royce was likely trying to get its engines in the Tu-204 ahead of the plane's international certification, which would be a good marketing tool to use to convince Western financiers to fund the purchase of Tu-204s for Russian airlines.
Filyov also got a clear signal from the British ambassador that buying Rolls Royce engines might help open the gates for him to London," Duffy said.
TITLE: Gazprom Planning To Reduce Share of Gas Market
AUTHOR: By Igor Semenenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gazprom plans to reduce its share of the domestic gas market from 90 percent to 75 percent over the next decade, allowing other producers to fill in the gap.
To get access to Gazprom's pipeline monopoly, howver, those producers will have to help pay for building new lines. "What they want is to get access to export pipelines, but this is a separate story," said Alexander Nemudrov, head of sales with Gazprom. "The domestic market is open to everybody."
Free access to the pipeline run by Gazprom has long been advocated by the World Bank, which insists on ending the gas giant's monopoly status. Gazprom managers, however, blame oil companies for wanting access to its system without sharing the cost of maintaining and expanding that same system.
Oil companies burn most of the gas they produce as a by-product of oil extraction because they say it is too expensive to sell.
Gazprom officials are confident that neither their Western counterparts nor the government are eager to undermine its privileged position.
"Our foreign counterparts, including Ruhrgas, Wintershall, Eni and Gas de France, are unwilling to enter in spot transactions," said Alexander Mikheev, deputy head of marketing with Gazprom. "Even an inflow of an additional five to 10 billion cubic meters of gas will send the market in a spin."
Liberalization of the gas market has become a byword in the European Union, which has been trying to create competition in the marketplace, currently dominated by several large players.
Gazprom is exporting some 120 bcm of gas a year outside the Commonwealth of Independent States and is earning most of its cash on exports to Europe, for which prices are some six times higher than those in Russia.
"The task of the [European] suppliers is to not to rock the boat," said Mikheev.
"And if the government is willing to share its profits with commercial companies, it may do so," said Nemudrov, adding that Gazprom pays about half of its total sales in taxes to the government.
However, at least one company - Rosneft - may shortly sign an agreement with Gazprom to build a pipeline linking its oil and gas fields to Southern Urals, namely the Chelyabinsk region, which will consume up to 15 bcm of gas extracted by Rosneft.
"We are now outlining the details of the agreement," said Vladimir Re zu nen ko, head of strategic development for Gazprom.
Another consortium is now being formed by several oil firms in northwestern Siberia to transport gas.
Gazprom officials say they are willing to share access to export routes with the oil majors, but only on the condition that they help pay the cost of extending the system.
Government statistics show that out of a total of 580 bcm of gas extracted last year some 523 bcm were supplied by Gazprom. About a third of this was exported by Gazprom, which has become the major creditor to three CIS nations - Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus - who together owe $3.5 billion for gas supplies.
Ukraine alone owes $2.5 billion and only once in the past three years did it make an attempt to pay - it delivered bombers to the Russian Army and Gazprom got a tax writeoff.
On top of that, Pridnestorvie - the part of Moldova that declared its independence from Chisinau - owes some $500 million.
Gazprom this week accused Moldova, which owes it another $267 million, of missing payments.
Ukraine's gas market is estimated at 58 bcm a year and Belarus' at 15 bcm, while Moldova and the three Transcaucasian republics area import about 3 bcm of gas each.
TITLE: EU Taking Close Look at $41Bln GE-Honeywell Merger
AUTHOR: By Paul Geitner
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BRUSSELS - A planned face-to-face meeting between General Electric Co. chief executive Jack Welch and the European Union's antitrust chief was postponed Friday in a sign of possible trouble for GE's $41 billion purchase of Honeywell International.
"A Friday meeting that had been planned between Mr. Welch and Commissioner [Mario] Monti has been deferred," GE spokesperson Louise Binns said, declining to elaborate.
She said the GE-Honeywell team, led by GE vice chairman Dennis Dammerman, "is in continuous meetings with the merger task force as they exchange views and work to narrow the issues."
Welch flew in to Brussels early Friday to try to persuade EU regulators to drop their objections to the deal. Binns declined to comment on whether he would stay for a possible later meeting or return to the United States.
EU Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres declined to comment.
Sources close to GE, however, said on condition of anonymity that the meeting has been rescheduled to Wednesday.
The postponement adds to the pressure on GE and Honeywell, who face a Thursday deadline for making their final offer of concessions. The EU's decision is due one month later, on July 12.
To do business in Europe, U.S. companies must comply with EU law, just as European companies must abide by U.S. law to do business in America. An EU decision to block the deal could also spark a trans-Atlantic trade war, as nearly happened in 1997 when the EU raised objections to Boeing's impending merger with McDonnell Douglas.
The EU Commission earlier launched an in-depth probe, citing concerns about the deal's potential to reduce competition in areas such as regional-jet engines, where GE and Honeywell dominate the market.
Sources said this week that GE was prepared to offer to sell Honeywell's regional jet-engine business to satisfy those "direct overlap" concerns.
But analysts also say GE also will have to satisfy EU worries about the impact on competition of "bundling" GE jet engines with Honeywell electronics and financing from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS).
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: German Prices Up
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - The German inflation rate rose in May to its highest level in nearly eight years, putting added pressure on the European Central Bank to postpone a widely anticipated interest rate cut.
Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent in May from May of last year, the government said Tuesday. It was the biggest year-on-year increase since December 1993, when prices climbed 4.2 percent. In April, inflation rose 2.9 percent.
The German figures point to a trend of rising inflation throughout Europe, and are especially weighty because the country accounts for nearly a third of the economic output of the 12 countries that share the euro single currency.
Nokia Tumbles Market
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks added to losses on Tuesday after a surprise profit warning from mobile phone giant Nokia Corp. sent the market down for the third straight session.
"The Nokia warning sent the market into a tailspin," said Bill Meehan, chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.
The technology-laced NASDAQ Composite Index lost 55.85 points, or 2.57 percent, at 2,114.93 amid a sell-off led by heavyweights like Web gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. and chip giant Intel Corp.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average was down 102.15 points, or 0.94 percent, at 10,819.94.
Finland-based Nokia warned that weaker market conditions would cut quarterly profits and sales. Nokia's U.S.-listed shares fell a whopping $6.21 to $22.50, or 21.6 percent, and were the most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
Rival Ericsson, the most actively traded issue on NASDAQ, fell 43 cents to $5.07, or 8 percent, and European bourses were also dragged lower by the news.
McDonald's Being Sued
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) - A second lawsuit has been filed by vegetarian Hindus accusing McDonald's Corp. of using beef flavoring in french fries despite promises that it would use vegetable oil.
The plaintiffs asked that the lawsuit be a class action on behalf of any vegetarian who ate McDonald's fries after 1990, believing they contained no meat.
Another lawsuit was filed last month in Seattle on behalf of two Hindus who don't eat meat and one non-Hindu vegetarian. It seeks unspecified damages.
The Texas lawsuit contends the plaintiffs were fraudulently induced to eat the fries under the belief that they were cooked only in vegetable oil. Under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, plaintiffs may be entitled to damages up to three times the amount of economic harm and mental anguish.
Asian Telecom Deal
TOKYO (AP) - Japan Telecom Co. said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with China Telecommunications Corp. to talk about various ways the two companies can work together.
The specifics of the possible tie-ups with China's top telecom were still undecided, a Japan Telecom spokesperson said. The agreement was signed last Thursday.
Various foreign companies are trying to deepen ties with Chinese carriers.
Last week, KDDI Corp., Japan's second-largest telecommunications company, said it has agreed with China Unicom to share technology and co-operate in the mobile phone business.
TITLE: Now, the Son of Shock Therapy
AUTHOR: By Peter Ekman
TEXT: WITH the replacement of Gazprom CEO Rem Vyakhirev, investors are starting to notice many fundamental economic reforms in the works. Many of the state's plans are really just plans to begin planning - for example, a plan to introduce a corporate governance code was announced last fall, with the actual code to be announced and discussed this spring. The government is still working on the code, and with luck it should be introduced to the State Duma this fall.
Nevertheless, the scope and the nature of the planned reforms are impressive. The first part of a three-part tax reform is already being implemented. Plans to reform the so-called natural monopolies - Gazprom, electricity provider UES, and the railways - are in various stages. Plans to make actual plans are under way for a more convertible currency, the judicial system, the pension system, and land ownership. From time to time, I even hear of plans to build a real banking system, although these are best described as plans to start planning for a real plan.
Yes, a great deal of planning for reforms is going on, but solid implementation of these plans is conspicuously absent except in the area of taxes. We shouldn't be impatient however: Good plans take time to formulate and implement. All the people who will be affected must have a chance to make their contributions and to understand the logic of the proposed plans. Without this discussion, the reforms will not get popular support and will not be implemented.
So much planning with so little implementation reminds me of the shock therapy plans of the early 1990's. At that time, the state planned to stabilize the macroeconomy by reducing inflation and supporting the ruble, privatizing the economy by selling state enterprises and liberalizing the economy by removing price controls and other bureaucratic interference. All this was to be accomplished simultaneously - a plan without priorities. It's almost as if economists decided to take the whole menu of economic reform and throw it all at once at the wall of a communist economy, just to see what would stick.
What stuck was an incomplete and unfair privatization. The privatization wasn't supported by the population, but nobody wanted to review it and witness the feeding frenzy again, as the oligarch-sharks ripped apart the nation's economy. Free prices also stuck - at least for some raw material exports and imports. Other prices are still controlled through export levies or state controlled pipelines, import tariffs, or administrative measures.
Macroeconomic stabilization came only after the government discovered that there were no more savings left to steal by means of inflating the ruble. Shock therapy was stopped as people objected to everything in their lives being changed at once.
At first glance, President Vladimir Putin's planned reforms have many similarities to shock therapy. The number of proposed reforms suggests that Putin has not prioritized them and will not be able to implement them all. There is little talk of liberalization and economic freedom.
The difference between this round of reforms and shock therapy is that people have had time to learn about and adjust to a capitalist economy. Questions of fairness are being debated, both in the newspapers and in the Duma. It would be better, of course, if these questions were debated in the most popular medium, television, which unfortunately is now a near monopoly of the state.
Reforms are also being considered in separate packages. It may be difficult to reform UES without at the same time reforming the system of communal services. Yet these plans are being made separately since it's even more difficult to reform everything at once.
Another important difference is that the plans are Russian-made, even if most of them delight Western economists. Though then Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar advocated shock therapy, most people considered it a Western innovation or even a Western plot to weaken Russia. It's significant that the reformers are now being led by disciples of Gaidar - Presidential Economic Advisor Andrei Illarionov and Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref. It's more significant that a widely popular president is supporting them.
As these economic reforms go through the planning process and start being implemented, it's important to remember the lessons that can be learned from Shock Therapy's failure. Planning is important, but prioritizing and implementing these plans are more important. Reforms must be taken in steps. Fairness and public discussion matter. Economic freedom and liberalization matter. And reform takes time and popular support.
Peter Ekman is professor of finance at the American Institute of Business and Economics, a Moscow-based MBA program. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Laundering Legislation Is Test of the Kremlin's Will
AUTHOR: By Trifin Roule
TEXT: IN April, to quell criticism from Western regulatory agencies, the State Duma ratified the Convention on Money Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime (the Strasbourg Convention), which facilitates the recovery of laundered funds from foreign financial institutions.
On May 24, the Duma took another important step toward creating an anti-money-laundering regime by passing the first reading of a law On Countering the Legalization of Illegal Earnings.
This law mandates reporting requirements for financial institutions and the filing of suspicious-activity reports with the tax police. Most importantly, it would create an authorized agency that will investigate suspicious transactions reported by financial organizations.
This agency will also act as a liaison for the government and co-operate with foreign governments who are investigating possible acts of money laundering.
These two legislative acts are of considerable importance to financial regulators and law enforcement agencies that combat money-laundering offenses in Russia. The international community, however, is concerned about the Duma's decision to delay passage of the long-proposed comprehensive money-laundering legislation until the spring of 2002.
International law enforcement agencies, which routinely uncover significant amounts of laundered funds from Russia in financial institutions throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and numerous offshore zones, are increasingly criticizing Russia for failing to impede the enormous amount of funds laundered aboard.
The amount of legal and illegal proceeds laundered through poorly regulated Russian banks, insurance companies, and casinos is immense. General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov estimated that $20-25 billion is laundered annually through Russian financial institutions.
The transfer of illicit funds is largely facilitated by criminal interests that control more than one-third of Russia's banks and the massive shadow economy, which constitutes more than 40 percent of the country's GDP.
The laundering of illicit profits combined with the proceeds of capital flight have resulted in $250-500 billion leaving the country over the last decade and has permitted billions of dollars in potential tax revenues to be sent to bank accounts outside Russia. The loss of tax revenue has limited the amount of money available for domestic spending, reducing funding for much-needed health-care, education, and pension programs.
The most significant barriers to improving anti-money-laundering efforts are the chronic deficiencies in the legal, financial, and law enforcement sectors.
The legal deficiencies could be largely resolved by the passage of the money-laundering legislation, which establishes a wide range of offenses related to money laundering and imposes penalties - including fines, asset forfeiture and imprisonment - for convictions. The law would also restrict banking confidentiality practices, prohibit the disclosure of information regarding measures taken to combat money laundering and mandate strict customer identification provisions.
The Central Bank could remedy a number of regulatory deficiencies by instituting rigorous licensing procedures for financial institutions, including non-credit organizations, and the thousands of unregulated casinos that exist throughout Russia. The Central Bank can assure compliance with existing legislation by increasing the frequency of on-site inspections, levying sanctions against financial institutions that fail to implement money-laundering regulations and mandating the training of personnel responsible for detecting suspicious transactions. Finally, the Central Bank should require the use of computer software to assist in the increasingly difficult task of identifying potential acts of money laundering.
The chronic problems associated with law enforcement agencies, including the inter-agency rivalries and poor data-sharing that exists between the Finance Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the prosecutor's office, the State Customs Committee and the Federal Securities Commission will be remedied by the creation of the single investigative agency proposed in the current money-laundering legislation. This agency will monitor compliance of money-laundering legislation, investigate alleged acts of money laundering and maintain a database of incidents related to money laundering.
This agency's work will be impeded, however, if financial regulators do not submit suspicious-activity reports or refuse to provide access to databases containing financial documentation relating to money-laundering investigations.
The adoption of the Strasbourg Convention is an enhancement of Russian money-laundering legislation. Regrettably, Russia still fails to meet international standards for combating money laundering.
The Duma will not be able to pass money-laundering legislation that meets international standards before the next meeting of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), an inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to combat money laundering. Consequently, Russia will remain listed by the FATF as a "non-cooperative" jurisdiction that does not adhere to international standards for combating money laundering.
Nevertheless, the passage of the Strasbourg Convention will appease international regulatory bodies in the short term and dampen efforts to censure Russia for failing to comply with international money-laundering standards. Western governments, however, will continue to demand verification of financial transactions initiated by Russian financial institutions. The verification process routinely takes 3-7 days for large financial transactions and results in a significant loss of revenue for Russian financial institutions. To avoid future sanctions, Russian regulators and law enforcement agencies must devote more attention to combating money-laundering activities.
The government can demonstrate the political will to combat money laundering by suggesting a clear timetable for the passage and implementation of the comprehensive money-laundering legislation, as well as by sanctioning banks that fail to implement existing money-laundering legislation and prosecuting individuals for violating money laundering laws.
Trifin Roule, a Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, is project manager for a three-year study analyzing money-laundering efforts in more than 60 countries. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Bush Meets Putin
AUTHOR: By Jackson Diehl
TEXT: A GROUP of Russian human rights activists, intellectuals and artists opposed to the war in Chechnya held a press conference 12 days ago in Moscow in an effort to call attention to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the republic and to a statement they had obtained from Chechnya's fugitive president, Aslan Maskhadov, agreeing to unconditional negotiations with the Russian government. Not surprisingly, they were almost ignored by Moscow's increasingly docile media.
Then a couple of members of the organization traveled to Washington, seeking to spread the same message. They were in for a depressing surprise. Yelena Bonner, the widow of Soviet human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov, managed one appearance before an obscure congressional committee, the U.S. Helsinki Commission. But overall there was no more interest in the latest horrors of Chechnya here than there was in Moscow. "We have the impression that few people here know that an antiwar movement in Russia exists," said Lev Ponomarev, one of the leaders of the group.
What officialdom in Moscow and Washington alike don't want to hear is that the campaign by the Russian military and police against Chechnya's separatists has degenerated into a full-fledged dirty war, complete with disappearances, mass graves, systematic torture and summary execution of civilians. In its scale and ferocity, it far exceeds the campaign Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic waged against the Albanians of Kosovo before NATO intervention; in the stunning impunity of its state-sponsored brutality, it is like the Latin American dirty wars of the 1970s.
In the past month, any one of three major developments in Chechnya ought to have galvanized Western opinion about the war. First, Human Rights Watch and the Russian group Memorial released meticulously documented reports showing that a body dump found across a highway from Russia's principal military base in Chechnya contained the remains of civilians who had been tortured and shot with their hands bound behind them - and who had been seen last in Russian custody. Faced with this powerful evidence of atrocities that, in the Balkans or Africa, surely would get the attention of a war crimes tribunal, Western governments were silent. Russian spokespeople sneeringly stonewalled, improbably claiming that the Chechens themselves were responsible.
Next, Russian commanders announced that President Vladimir Putin's promise last January to reduce Russian forces from 80,000 to 20,000 had been canceled - that the drawdown had been stopped after 5,000 troops and that these had been mostly replaced. There was no reaction. So several emboldened Russian officials disclosed another startling change, this time in the official timetable: Instead of the months Putin had promised the campaign would last, Chechnya is now defined as a war that will drag on for many years, or even decades - a conflict comparable, the spokespeople said, to Soviet campaigns against partisans in Eastern Europe, which stretched from 1945 well into the 1950s.
Some officials in Washington seem to understand what all this means. John Beyrle, the State Department's special adviser for the states of the former Soviet Union, framed the issue well at the hearing Bonner addressed last week. "What kind of long-term relationship can we pursue," he asked, "with a government that wages a brutal and seemingly endless war against its own people on its own territory?"
Yet two days later, Condoleezza Rice supplied the Bush administration's answer. "This is now becoming a normal relationship with Russia," the national security adviser told reporters. First on the agenda of this week's Bush-Putin summit at Ljubljana, she explained, was "the new security framework" Bush would like to retail to the Russians - also known as missile defense. Next, U.S.-Russian cooperation on regional conflicts. Next, U.S. support for the Russian economy, including Moscow's acceptance into the World Trade Organization. Next, a problem the administration cares about: Russian weapons sales to Iran.
Then - if they get to it - Chechnya. "It's on the agenda," said one senior official. "But I can't absolutely predict what [Bush] will do."
How is it that a Republican administration that started by expelling 50 of Moscow's spies and promising a tough realism about Russia now assigns so little value to its "brutal and seemingly endless war against its own people"? Because in the past four months, the White House has realized that without Putin's acquiescence to "the new security framework" - whatever that turns out to mean - missile defense may never be accepted by NATO governments or a Democratic-led Senate.
The politics of missile defense demand that Putin's government be recognized as worthy of a long-term partnership with the United States - and not a regime that leaves heaps of tortured bodies outside its military bases.
President Bush probably will say again this week, as he did last month, that he wants to break with "the legacy of the Cold War" in relations with Russia. In fact, by making nuclear security and weapons deals, rather than Chechnya, the center of the summit, he will be doing just the opposite. During the past decade the United States judged Russia mostly by its success, or lack of it, in building free markets and democracy. This week Bush will restore the central tenet of Cold War diplomacy: that it is Moscow's strategic cooperation, and not its treatment of its own people, that really matters.
Jackson Diehl is the deputy opinion page editor for The Washington Post, to which he contributed this comment.
TITLE: Think About
What We're
Celebrating
TEXT: IT was a three-day weekend; that much was clear. However, few people seemed to have a very good idea exactly what we were celebrating on Tuesday. Most of those who took a guess called the holiday by its popular name, Independence Day.
Inevitably any county undergoing a transition as profound as Russia's will experience confusion over such matters. Last winter we passed through the tortured debate over state symbols, capped off by the restoration of the Soviet national anthem - albeit patched up with some lame, post-Soviet lyrics. The controversy over burying the body of Vladimir Lenin still smolders, the moment of reckoning yet to come.
But it is truly unfortunate that the June 12 holiday has been caught up in this. This holiday, which some clueless bureaucrat has saddled with the official name "The Day of the Passage of the Declaration of State Sove reignty," actually does signify something worth keeping in mind and focusing on at least once a year.
On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies adopted a brief declaration that in admirable - if perhaps idealistic - terms laid out the purposes and goals of a nation rejecting seven decades of stifling communist ideology. This declaration affirms the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and civil liberty that should be underlying every step in the present transition.
It is a shame that more people - from lawmakers to average citizens - do not cite this document in debates over issues ranging from the import of spent nuclear fuel to the Kremlin's proposed bill on political parties to the on-going war in Chechnya. We can't help but think that Russia would look a lot more like a participatory democracy with an accountable government if the sentiments of the 1990 declaration were a little clearer in our minds.
Over the last year, we have witnessed several government moves that contradict the lofty ideals amid which post-Soviet Russia was born. We watched the Central Elections Commission cynically nullify an attempt to hold a referendum on the question of importing nuclear waste. We have seen much needed judicial reform stymied. We have seen state-controlled Gazprom take over the private NTV, re-establishing a Soviet-style de facto state monopoly of national television.
In such an atmosphere, it isn't surprising that Russians spent Tuesday scratching their heads and wondering what we were celebrating. But it's too bad. June 12 is indeed a day worth commemorating, and the 1990 declaration is a document that should not be forgotten.
TITLE: The Oligarchs Learn To Play
By New Rules
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin's attitude toward the oligarchs remains a subject for speculation. Many oligarchs are uneasy now that Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky have lost their media positions and Rem Vyak hi rev was ousted as Gazprom CEO. Even the loyal Ro man Abramovich was summoned to the prosecutor's office for questioning recently, although no charges have been brought against him. This case is pretty old and has been largely suppressed, but still Abramovich must be at least a little uncomfortable.
However, the oligarchs are not just irritating individuals who have used the country's social reconfiguration in their own interests. Rather, they represent a specific economic system.
The oligarchs were marginalized during Putin's first year, but they did receive several important gifts. First, the progressive tax was repealed, forcing the government to plug its budget gaps by reforming municipal housing. The public will be forced to pay the full cost of maintaining their apartments and restructuring the municipal economy, thereby providing the government an estimated $3 billion annually - about the same sum that tax reform handed to society's wealthiest. Thus, the public is essentially subsidizing the state and the oligarchs.
The explanation is that since the oligarchs were not paying their taxes anyway, the reform eliminated their debts. But the government is less generous with citizens who cannot pay for communal services. Instead of writing off these debts, the state is thinking of repealing Soviet-era laws that hamper eviction of habitual nonpayers. This is in line with the authorities' view that "totalitarian" Soviet procedures were actually too humanitarian, an attitude also reflected in Kremlin policies on the labor and administrative codes.
Liberalization of hard-currency regulations was another, even more valuable gift to the oligarchs. Again the state highlighted its own impotence, asserting that since capital flight continues, it might as well be legalized. They claim that capital will more likely return if it can legally flee.
Only people who know nothing about international markets believe such tales. Money becomes anonymous once it enters a major stock exchange; it may be sent to Russia or any other country through investment funds.
This is how the offshore companies that received Russia's assets managed to buy up production complexes and real estate. Capital moves to seek advantage. If Russia lacks investors, that's not because the money that fled is afraid to return, but because our economy is less attractive to capital than the Finnish or Chinese economies. Hard-currency liberalization gives the oligarchs assurances that in the future no one can accuse them of illegal business activities.
The state's apparently contradictory political and economic decisions are comprehensible in light of the shared logic behind them. Putin came to power in order to safeguard the existing system - although not necessarily individuals within it. That is the difference between Yeltsin's "Family" and Putin's "dictatorship of the law." To ensure a functional system, discipline must be maintained.
Putin must support, strengthen and defend the system created in the oligarchs' interests. But he also needs to discipline the oligarchs for destabilizing the system with irresponsible intrigues and squabbling. He is a teacher who punishes the children for their own good. Will Putin's pupils turn out to be quick studies? Probably. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is already training new recruits from among Putin's former Leningrad colleagues. They know the new rules of the game, and they understand what discipline is.
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.
TITLE: Rolling Out the Barrels Again
TEXT: The sun came out for the fifth annual beer festival, which kicked off at 1 p.m. this Sunday, with an estimated 500,000 revellers, 40 different brands of beer, and, as always, a chronic lack of toilets. The festival, which is fast becoming as much a part of city tradition as the White Nights, had everyone from marching bands to local Britpop sensations Multfilmy entertaining the crowds, and took place in St. Isaac's Square and along Angliiskaya Na berezhnaya. The police reported few disturbances of the peace, while the celebrations ended with a fireworks display at 10 p.m. Photos by Sergey Grachev
TITLE: Japan Cries
For Victims
Of School
Stabbings
AUTHOR: By Kenji Hall
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: IKEDA, Japan - Mourners surrounded Mayuko Isaka with her favorite things - candy, flowers and toys - at a funeral Sunday for the sunny seven-year-old. Later, schoolchildren watched as a hearse carried away her tiny casket.
Mayuko's funeral was one of five Sunday in this quiet suburb of Osaka, where eight children, first- and second-graders, were knifed to death by a mentally disturbed former janitor two days earlier.
"I saw her in the morning. She was chirpy and warm. The next time I saw her, her body was cold," Mayuko's father, Yoshitaka Isaka, said tearfully at her funeral.
Police said Mamoru Takuma, 37, walked into the Ikeda elementary school unimpeded Friday and went classroom to classroom slashing his victims until two teachers managed to restrain him 15 minutes later.
"I thought I would be sentenced to death if I kill many children of the elite and intelligent," Takuma later said, according to police.
At the funeral of another victim, seven-year-old Ayano Moriwaki, a framed picture of the girl was flanked by flower bouquets and letters from her classmates. After the service, a hearse carrying her tiny casket drove off to a crematorium. Kyodo News Agency said the funerals of seven victims in total were held in the Osaka area Sunday.
Seven girls and one boy ages six to eight were killed, and 13 other students and two teachers wounded. Eight victims initially reported in serious condition are making a steady recovery, Kyodo said.
It was Japan's worst mass killing since a deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways six years ago and the latest in a series of fatal slashings in a country that has strict gun laws and has prided itself on a low crime rate.
On Monday, mental health experts paired with teachers were to begin visiting the homes of each of the school's approximately 700 students, said school official Kenichi Yoshida. Ikeda officials have set up a team of 55 experts to help the children. The school will be closed until Wednesday.
News reports said Takuma - a man with a history of mental illness - launched his killing spree just hours before he was to be interrogated about a fight last year in a hotel in Osaka, Japan's second-largest city.
He reportedly had taken 10 times his daily dose of antidepressants before the alleged attack. Investigators have seized a hatchet, a cutter knife and an ice pick as well as 300 unspecified tablets from Takuma's house, police said.
Police said he also was arrested two years ago on suspicion of slipping tranquilizers into the tea of teachers at the elementary school where he worked.
Media reports said he was not charged because he was deemed mentally unstable, then was sent to a hospital where he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and eventually released after treatment.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has promised a review of Japan's penal system. School boards nationwide convened to look into strengthening security measures.
Japanese schools pride themselves on their openness to the community, with students taking part in many extracurricular activities. Few schools have guards during the day.
TITLE: Muslim Rebels in Philippines Claim U.S. Hostage Beheaded
AUTHOR: By Jim Gomez
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ZAMBOANGA, Philippines - Muslim rebels claimed Tuesday that they killed an American hostage, one of more than two dozen captives they are holding in the southern Philippine jungles. The military was skeptical of the report.
Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebels, said over Radio Mindanao Network that his group had beheaded Guillermo Sobero of Corona, California.
Sabaya had threatened to execute one of the three Americans he held at noon Monday, but delayed it when the Philippine government agreed to a demand that a Malaysian negotiator be allowed to help settle the crisis.
But Sabaya said the threat was carried out because he felt the government was insincere. We "can see that the government wants to outsmart us with these negotiators. What are we, stupid?" he said. "So we've cut off negotiations. We will call again when we've beheaded another to let them know."
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan stressed the claim hadn't been confirmed.
"We have to verify this information and confirm, because, you know, in the past Sabaya has said things like this and didn't mean it," Adan said.
Adan said hundreds of troops were combing an 800-square-kilometer area on the eastern side of Basilan island. "We are getting closer and closer," he said.
The Malaysian government has so far not commented officially on the Philippine government's concession Monday. Late Monday, foreign affairs officials said they had not received an official request from the Philippines for former Sen. Sairin Karno to help negotiate. A spokesman for the ministry was not available early Tuesday.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman said officials were seeking information. "We are looking into the reports."
The U.S. Embassy in Manila condemned the reported beheading and said, "We hold the Abu Sayyaf group responsible for the safety and welfare of the people it is holding."
Sobero's younger brother, Alberto, said U.S. officials also told him that the report was unverified.
"I'm still hoping this is not true," he said. "I ask the Philippine government to exhaust all efforts and continue a dialogue to get my brother back, and all the hostages."
He added that only the oldest of Guillermo Sobero's four children, a 13-year-old daughter, knows that their father has been kidnapped.
Last year, the rebels seized several hostages and executed some Filipinos, but this was the first time they claimed to have killed a foreigner.
In his radio comments, Sabaya also threatened to kill other hostages. His group holds at least 25 Filipinos and two other Americans, missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kansas.
"We chopped off the head of Guillermo Sobero," Sabaya told RMN. "They better hurry the rescue, otherwise there will be no hostages left."
He said the killing occurred near the town of Tuburan and told the military: "Find his body."
Sabaya demanded that Karno join the negotiating team. Karno helped mediate last year's kidnapping crisis, where millions of dollars in ransoms were reportedly paid to bring it to an end.
The military has said no ransom will be paid this time. The rebels used the money last year to buy arms and speedboats used in the May 27 abduction of tourists, including the Americans, from a beach resort across the Sulu Sea.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered all-out war against the Abu Sayyaf.
"The reported murder of Mr. Sobero strengthens our resolve to decimate once and for all this cold-blooded bandit group," she said on national television Tuesday.
Meanwhile, three Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed and three soldiers wounded in fighting Tuesday, said Col. Danilo Servando, spokesman for the military's southern forces. He said the clash was near Lantawan town, the area where the hostages are reportedly held.
A day earlier, the rebels stormed a coconut and coffee plantation on southern Basilan island, burning down five houses and a chapel, then fled with 15 more hostages to go with the 13 people were already holding, the army said. Among the new hostages are two 12-year-olds.
The government has estimated the Abu Sayyaf has about 1,100 fighters in the southern islands. The military said about 20 Abu Sayyaf reinforcements had landed on Basilan.
The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting to carve out an independent Islamic state from the southern Philippines, but the government calls its members mere bandits. Muslims are a minority in the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines but are a majority in the islands where the Abu Sayyaf operates.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: EU Expansion on Track
LUXEMBOURG (AP) - The European Union said Monday that its plans to admit new members from formerly communist Eastern Europe remain on track even though Irish citizens voted down the treaty designed to pave the way for EU expansion.
Romano Prodi, the EU's chief executive, said the uncertainty triggered by last week's Irish vote would not weaken the Europeans' position when they meet U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday in the Swedish city of Goteborg.
However, fallout from the Irish vote and the future of the expansion plans seem sure to dominate the EU leaders' own summit Friday and Saturday.
The EU seeks to end the Cold War division of Europe by bringing in the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Cyprus.
Children at War
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - More than 300,000 children - some as young as seven - are fighting as soldiers in 41 countries, an international group said in a report released Tuesday.
Besides being pressed into service as front-line fighters, children are being used in conflicts as minesweepers, spies, porters and sex slaves, according to the report by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
Governments recruit children to fight because of "their very qualities as children - they can be cheap, expendable and easier to condition into fearless killing and unthinking obedience," said the report, the first global survey of its kind.
The availability of modern light weight weapons has aggravated the problem by "enabling even the smallest child to become an efficient killer in combat," Rory Mungoven, the coalition's international coordinator, said in a release.
Africa's wars involve more than 120,000 children, the report said, while Myanmar, the southeast Asian country also known as Burma, has the world's highest number of child soldiers - 50,000.
Germany Rejects Nukes
BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leading energy companies formally signed an agreement Monday to shut down Germany's 19 nuclear power plants, making it the world's largest industrialized nation to willingly forgo the technology.
Though it could take decades to complete, the plan underscores the divide between Europe and the United States on environmental policy. President Bush last month unveiled measures to promote the building of more nuclear plants, and many now operating are expected to apply to extend their operating license.
After the signing ceremony in Berlin, Schroeder said that while it was up to every country to design its own energy policy, "naturally we would hope that many follow our example."
The pact limits nuclear plants, which provide nearly a third of Germany's electricity, to an average 32 years of operation. That would likely see the most modern plants close around 2021 and see Germany join nations such as Italy and Austria in abandoning nuclear power.
Still, some environmentalists say that timetable is far too long while German conservatives argue that abandoning atomic power is a mistake. Power company executives say they haven't given up hope that a future government would scrap the plan.
The nuclear shutdown still must be approved by the Cabinet and parliament, where Schroeder's Social Democrats hold the majority along with the environmentalist Greens.
Eliminating nuclear power is a pet cause of the Greens, who for years backed protests focused on halting nuclear waste transports, which the pact will end by mid-2005.
What Killed Flamingos?
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A mysterious wave of flamingo deaths has again struck Kenya, reviving fears that pollution is menacing the future of the majestic pink birds.
Scores of dead flamingos were found strewn on the shores of two lakes in western Kenya this week after large numbers of the birds began perishing two months ago, but researchers said the exact cause of the malaise remains an enigma.
"The sad thing is that we have not yet quite put our finger on what is the cause of death," the World Wildlife Fund's Rift Valley Lakes specialist Ramesh Thampy told Reuters.
"We have identified several toxins in the bodies of these birds in the past," he said. "We don't quite know what this combination of chemicals can do to a bird."
Fewer birds have perished in the latest deaths, which follows the death of an estimated 40,000 flamingos in three months in 1993 and 20,000 in 1995, but researchers say there is a large number of ailing birds in the population.
U.S. Flood Kills 20
HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) - Flood victims returned to their waterlogged homes on Monday as Houston cleaned up after the devastation from Tropical Storm Allison, a prodigious rainmaker that killed at least 20 people.
The death toll, which included 19 in Houston and one in neighboring Louisiana, grew as receding floodwaters revealed more bodies, officials said.
The remains of Allison, which came ashore in Texas on June 5, slipped back into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, moved east and struck Mississippi, Alabama and Florida on Monday with up to 25 centimeters of rain.
In Houston, officials said Allison caused $1 billion in damage, most of it to 20,000 flooded homes, after inundating America's fourth most populous city with up to 89 centimeters of rain.
Parts of Louisiana got up to 60 centimeters of rain, which damaged 3,500 homes. As he did earlier for southeast Texas, President Bush on Monday declared 10 parishes in the state a disaster area, opening the door to federal recovery aid.
Khatami Landslide
CAIRO (NYT) - Election returns in Iran gave President Mohammad Khatami the thumping victory that supporters say he needs to revive his drive for greater democracy and social freedom in the Islamic Republic.
Preliminary results released by the Interior Ministry today, with 23 million votes counted, or more than half the electorate, showed Khatami winning nearly 18 million votes, or more than 76 percent.
The closest of his nine rivals, Ahmad Tavakoli, a former labor minister, had slightly more than 3.5 million votes, some 15 percent. The remaining candidates scored far smaller percentages.
The huge turnout on Friday belied predictions that Iranian voters would stay home, disillusioned because Kha ta mi's promised reforms were bogged down in conservative hostility.
TITLE: White Nights' Star Speaks Out
TEXT: With the White Nights' Festival in full swing, Mariinsky Theater artistic director Valery Gergiev took time out to talk to the press, discussing a few last-minute changes that have been made to the program, some of the problems the theater faces in staging opera, and lesser-known highlights that will be coming up in the days ahead. Galina Stolyarova reports.
Q: On Saturday, June 16, Placido Domingo and Olga Borodina will give on open-air concert on Dvortsovaya Ploshchad alongside the Mariinsky symphony orchestra. Has the concert's program been determined? How are the audiences going to be handled?
A: The concert starts at 10 p.m. with the performance of the whole of Act II from Saint-Saens' "Samson and Dalila." Then Olga Borodina will sing the part of Desdemona with Placido Domingo in Verdi's "Otello." Placido Domingo - who has already sung Hermann at the Metropolitan Opera and Saltzburg festival to high acclaim - will perform fragments from Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades."
We organize this concert first and foremost for the people who won't be able to see Domingo as Siegmund in Wagner's "Die Walkure," which premieres on June 19. I realize that the Mariinsky's seating capacity is not nearly as great as the number of music lovers wishing to see Domingo.
We are doing what we can to make the open-air concert really accessible. Only about 500 seats - closest to the stage - will be sold. The rest of Palace Square will be open free for the public.
Q: Soprano Olga Trifonova, whose performance in the lead role in Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Snow Maiden" made a sensation during the Mariinsky's tour to Covent Garden last year, has suddenly disappeared from the festival's listings. A concert performance of The Snow Maiden on June 12, where Trifonova was supposed to be singing - was replaced by "La Traviata" at the very last minute. What was the reason for that?
A: Several days ago I learned that Olga Trifonova's health wouldn't allow her to perform. I realize that the replacement is a big loss, especially for the viewers who booked their tickets months ago and came from far away. There are opera lovers who come here just to discover the music they can only find in this theater, and nowhere else.
The Snow Maiden was prepared for Trifonova specifically, and I must admit we don't have a replacement for her for this role. This opera is very rarely performed, and it is important that it is sung beautifully so that people have a proper idea of what a masterpiece it is. Just bringing it on stage doesn't make much sense. That's why we've decided to replace The Snow Maiden with a concert performance of "La Traviata," which we have just performed in Baden-Baden.
Naturally, it was a very difficult decision but the reason behind it is very serious, and, of course, couldn't be predicted.
Q: Trifonova was also scheduled to perform in Francesco Araya's 1755 "Cephalus and Procris" - commissioned by the Russian Imperial Court and never performed outside of Russia - and Domenico Cimarosa's 1789 "Cleopatra" on June 14. Is this evening's program going to be changed, too?
A: We are responsible for the program we have announced, and will keep both operas in the program, but Olga Trifonova will be replaced by another singer. Unfortunately, she won't be able to be back on stage by June 14.
Q: When is the stage version of "La Traviata" going to be premiered in St. Petersburg?
A: In October. The French director Philippe Arlaud offered a striking approach, and I already anticipate contrasting reactions from the audiences. His rendition of the opera definitely cannot be blamed for a lack of ideas and tedium. The performances of Irina Dzioyeva, Victor Chernomortsev and Yegeny Akimov have already had a very warm welcome in Germany. We already have two casts for this very popular opera.
Q: A number of local musical critics agree that several of the most recent operatic premieres at the Mariinsky Theater were much stronger musically and vocally than the director's work. Do you share this opinion?
A: As a person well familiar with the situation on the international musical scene I can say that shortage of talented opera directors is a global, rather than a local, problem. The paradox is that with so much precious advice as to how operas should be staged we still have the same mediocre directors. The wittiest and most sensible critical remark can still not replace a good and professional director.
[When choosing a piece to stage] I can predict the abilities of the Mariinsky orchestra, choir, its singers and dancers, so often enough the success is just a matter of what the director is capable of doing during seven weeks of rehearsals.
In general, I am convinced that directors need to learn to work with the company, especially when it is as professional as the Mariinsky. Back 20 years ago I couldn't work with the orchestra properly, and could well devote two hours to explaining six bars. I had the energy and passion for work, but it was the orchestra who taught me how to deal with musicians.
The director comes to the theater not just to make it happy [with his production] but also to learn from the people he works with.
I think that we should be more confident. The Metropolitan Opera in New York, for instance, can break a contract with any director should he show the slightest negligence.
Q: Russian critics were particularly harsh on Andrei Konchalovsky's "Un ballo in Maschera"...
A: This opera - which premiered in Verdi's hometown of Parma this winter - was initially supposed to be staged by the very gifted Italian director Piero Faggioni. Very sadly, he wanted to use our proposal to make the Parma festival managers sign an exorbitant contract with him, and we had to break our agreement. Konchalovsky rescued us in a very difficult situation and I feel grateful.
Of course, I realize that Verdi needs no help, and requires no characters providing extra entertainment. But showing our rendition - which offered, in particular, very good vocal work and an impressive setting - was incomparably better than canceling the whole thing and spoiling the Verdi festival.
Q: Are there any forthcoming festival concerts that haven't received enough publicity but which you think deserve attention?
A: I would mention the "Tribute to Mozart" on June 15 conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The theater's youngest stars - Anna Netrebko, Irina Dzioyeva, Ildar Abdrazakov - will perform fragments from various Mozart operas.
On June 16, Vladimir Feltsman will play Mozart's concerto for piano and orchestra in A major. A renowned pianist born in Moscow, he moved to the United States and made his name with performances of Bach, Rakhmannov, Prokofiev and more. It is sad to say, but he is currently much better known to the rest of the world than to Russia. His excellent recital in the Glinka Philharmonic hall last year was far from getting a full house. But this brilliant musician deserves attention, and I appreciate that he has come to St. Petersburg.
It is particularly encouraging for me to see Russian-born international stars like violinist Vadim Repin and mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina coming back here. It is impossible to force these people to live here, but I am happy that they feel the need to perform in their home country.
TITLE: Greatness Ran in Family
For Historian Gumilyov
AUTHOR: By Simon Patterson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov, the eminent historian and Turcologist, lived and worked here from 1990 to 1992. From the Republic of Tatarstan.
With such illustrious parents, it was perhaps inevitable that Lev Gumilyov was going to be famous in his own right - with Nikolai Gumilyov for a father and Anna Akhmatova for a mother, two of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century, he was almost genetically disposed to greatness.
It was also unlikely that Gumilyov would go unnoticed by the authorities, with his father executed by the NKVD in 1921, after he was accused of contra-revolutionary activities - charges with were later revealed to be fabricated.
Akhmatova was also hardly a favorite of the regime, though she managed to outlive Stalin, and was widely regarded as one of the greatest of Russian poets when she died in 1966.
Gumilyov is important in Akhmatova's oeuvre as the inspiration for one of her finest works: Her "Requiem," a cycle of poems, is primarily concerned with his imprisonment, where she writes of how she stood in line for over 200 hours outside the prison where he was held, waiting to hear some news of his plight.
While Gumilyov originally enrolled at the Oriental Studies department of Leningrad State University in 1934, he was arrested the following year. He was released, but was arrested again in 1938, this time sentenced to five years imprisonment, a sentence that was initially changed to death by shooting, and then remitted to imprisonment in a labor camp in Noriilsk. Amazingly enough, it was during this time that Gumilyov wrote his university dissertation where he began to develop his ideas, examining the way geography influences historical processes.
In 1948, Gumilyov was arrested yet again, this time, as he said, because of his mother, who had been denounced along with satirist Mikhail Zoshchenko and expelled from the Union of Soviet writers without the right to publish. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for "contra-revolutionary activities."
With the thaw that came after the death of Stalin, Gumilyov was finally released in 1956, and worked as a librarian at the Hermitage Museum. His books were not widely published until the perestroika era began in 1985, but he was still nevertheless able to write a great deal during this period. During the Brezhnev period, he found himself under attack again, but this time without actually being thrown in prison - he was accused of everything from "pan-mongolism" to being a "bourgeois solipsist."
Today, Gumilyov is undoubtedly one of the most widely-read of Russian historians, and makes for stimulating reading, even if his ideas may be somewhat tendentious and populist for some.
The plaque marks the building where Gumilyov lived for the last two years of his life, at 1/15 Kolomenskaya Ulitsa, on the corner of Kuznechny Pereulok.
TITLE: Hermitage Courtyard Opens With a Fanfare
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Already famous for its rich collection of art, the State Hermitage Museum is also abundant with beautiful ideas. The sound of an antique fanfare heralded the launch of the museum's new project, "Tuba Mirum," on Tuesday.
Running through the end of June and centered around the restoration of the Hermitage's Main Gates, Tuba Mirum combines a music-related exhibition and a series of symphonic concerts in the museum's halls as well as in its church and courtyard.
Entitled "The Trumpeter From Säckingen" and open until June 28 in the foyer of the Hermitage theater, the exhibition reveals over 20 trumpets representing various periods in the history of the instrument. Among the particularly interesting items on display, one can find a fragment of the original score of J. S. Bach's second Brandenburg concerto, along with the piccolo trumpet on which the piece was performed by Adolf Scherbaum.
Look for the 1880 "Aida Trumpet" by Paris master Adolphe Sax - this very model, also known as the "Egyptian" trumpet, was used for the 1871 premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" - and the 1900 Engelstrompet by Leipzig master Robert Schopper.
Most of the items come from the Bad Säckingen Trumpet Museum, which, though it was established only 15 years ago, counts among Europe's most representative collections of musical instruments. The museum's director, renowned soloist and trumpet professor Dr. Edward Tarr, paid the Hermitage a visit to open the exhibition, as well as to perform in one of the concerts.
"One may wonder how a young and small museum like ours has managed to cooperate with a centuries-old giant like the Hermitage," Dr. Tarr said. "It took a personal contact to make it happen. The principal guest conductor of the Hermitage orchestra, Andreas Sporri, was once my student, and he told them here about the museum. Remarkably enough, it is now time for me to learn from my former student: I will be performing under his baton at the Hermitage Theater."
The St. Petersburg Museum of Musical and Theater Art has also made a small but precious contribution to the exhibition with a set of four cornets which once belonged to tsar Alexander III. The two soprano cornets, an alto cornet and a tenor cornet were given to Alexander by their maker Vaclav Cerveny in 1876 and have not been used since 1883, when Alexander III was inaugurated and donated the instruments to the museum.
But on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Hermitage's Knight's Hall, musicians from Concert Brass Basel will breathe new life into the instruments which have remained silent for over a century.
"Witnessing events like this, you feel like you are in a magical world," said Sergei Yevtushenko, director of the Hermitage's Musical Academy Foundation and one of the founders of the Tuba Mirum project. "The Hermitage orchestra used to be a dream, as was our academy, and Tuba Mirum for that matter. It is fascinating to see all this coming true."
The complete renovation of the Main Gates and the Hermitage Court will be finished for St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary in 2003, when a new entrance to the museum from Palace Square will be opened.
But Tuba Mirum already offers an opportunity to witness two magnificent performances in the courtyard this month. The culmination of the project comes on June 26 at 10 p.m., when seven musical companies from Russia, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Israel and Lithuania will take to the courtyard to present Krzysztof Penderecki's "The Seven Gates of Jerusalem" written in 1996 on the occasion of the ancient city's 3000 anniversary.
On June 28, Saulius Sondeckis will conduct Beethoven's 9th symphony performed by the State Hermitage Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, Lege Artis Chamber Choir and St. Maria Magdalena Church Choir.
"The trumpet is a symbol of the beginning and the end of time," said Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage Museum. "The Hermitage is entering the new millennium with much more than just another trumpet: Innumerable trumpets have come here from museums and orchestras to give us a joyful and mellifluous festival to celebrate the advent of a new era."
TITLE: Stanford One Win From Title
AUTHOR: By Doug Alden
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OMAHA, Nebraska - Nothing seems to rattle Stanford at the College World Series.
Finals, nine-hour bus rides, eight-run deficits - no problem. The Cardinal have conquered it all and are one win away from the title game for the second straight year.
"We know what it's like to be down and have to battle. Now we're finally in a spot we can take advantage of it," catcher Ryan Garko said Monday.
It's been an unlikely run for Stanford, which has just one starter back from last year's national runner-up. The Cardinal (50-16) lost the second game of the NCAA regionals in Palo Alto, California, and needed to come back with three straight wins to advance.
It took three games to get past South Carolina in the super regionals and clinch a 13th College World Series berth.
And the Cardinal are doing it with underclassmen - there isn't a senior on the roster.
"They haven't played like they're young and inexperienced all year," coach Mark Marquess said.
Stanford won't play again until Wednesday against either Tulane or Cal State Fullerton, which play an elimination game Tuesday. The Cardinal trailed Tulane 8-0 at one point in the series opener, but rallied for a 13-11 win. Stanford took top-seeded Fullerton to extra innings in a pitching gem Sunday night and won 5-2 in 10 innings.
Marquess knows that the two wins don't guarantee anything on Wednesday.
"If they're still playing, they're playing well," Marquess said.
The extra day off is giving the Cardinal players a chance to finish school work. The semester ends Friday and several players have spent the nights in their hotel room, writing papers or completing take-home finals.
They lost a day last week when they had to take a bus from Chicago to Omaha when their flight was canceled
The resilient Cardinal didn't let it phase them and will be fresh for the next game. Only Mike Gosling, who held Fullerton to two hits over 7 2-3 innings Monday night, won't be available. Marquess said Jeremy Guthrie (12-4), who lasted only 1 1-3 innings against Tulane, will start Wednesday.
Stanford hasn't won the CWS since consecutive titles in 1987 and '88.
The Cardinal went unbeaten through the first three games in Omaha a year ago and were in command of the title game, but Louisiana State came back with four runs in the final two innings to win 6-5.
"It was tough last year, but it was a good learning experience for all of us that are back this year," Garko said. "I think if we're fortunate enough to make it to the championship game memories will come back a little bit more. We need to get there first, though."
TITLE: Beijing's Bid for 2008 Olympics Criticized
AUTHOR: By Jonathan Fowler
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GENEVA - Human rights violations by Chinese authorities disqualify Beijing from holding the 2008 Olympics, prominent critics of the communist government said Tuesday.
"China is no place for the Olympics," said Lois Wheeler Snow, widow of an American author venerated by Beijing.
Snow, widow of journalist Edgar Snow, joined with exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng and Reporters without Borders in launching a campaign to derail the Beijing bid.
Having lost to Sydney for the 2000 games by two votes, Beijing is favored to win the vote to stage the 2008 Olym pics. Paris; Toronto; Istanbul, Turkey; and Osaka, Japan, will be the other candidates when the IOC votes in Moscow next month.
Wei, who had been in prison since 1979, was released just ahead of the 1993 vote, and was arrested again after the Beijing bid failed. He was freed on medical parole three years ago, and now heads the Washington-based Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition.
Reporters without Borders has produced billboards showing the five-ring Olympic symbol transformed into sets of handcuffs, carrying the slogan "The Olympics in Beijing? China: Gold Medal for Human Rights Violations."
"Awarding the 2008 games to Beijing would be as monstrous as holding the 1936 event to Nazi Germany," said Robert Menard, secretary general of the Paris-based reporters group, which campaigns for freedom of the press worldwide.
Menard said he had urged the IOC to vote against Beijing because of its muzzling of the press, crackdowns against dissidents and brutal policies in Tibet. But he had received no replies, he said.
Snow, who lives in Switzerland, drew the ire of the Chinese government last year when she tried to visit the mother of a victim of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
In March, U.S. Congress members said Beijing should not get the Olympics unless China radically improves its human rights record. A resolution, urging the IOC to reject Beijing's bid, passed the House International Relations Committee. No date has been set for consideration by the full House.
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Jail Time
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former Los Angeles Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich on Monday was ordered to report to jail for a week. He then must check into a stricter drug treatment program than the one in which he currently is entered.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus ordered Marinovich to surrender on June 28 for a week in county jail. Following that, he will enter a treatment program, District Attorney spokesperson Sandi Gibbons said.
Marinovich pleaded no contest March 27 to a heroin possession charge, avoiding a prison sentence by agreeing to enter a yearlong treatment program that included counseling and group sessions.
The former Southern California star was a first-round pick of the Raiders in the 1991 draft, but his NFL career was derailed by drug problems. The Raiders released him before the 1993 season.
He was arrested in December near downtown Los Angeles when police said they found heroin after stopping him for driving a car without a license plate.
Parental Guidance
WINNIPEG, Canada (AP) - Assistant coaches for two baseball teams were suspended after a weekend game at which parents cursed each other on the field while their kids looked on in shock.
Three coaches were suspended a total of 17 games and placed on one year's probation after getting into an obscenity-laced squabble involving parents during a double-header Saturday.
Maples assistant coaches Joe Bento and Eric Cuenco were each suspended for six games. Isaac Brook assistant coach Don Tapp was suspended for five games.
The game's only official, 17-year-old umpire Dale Voss, called the game when he couldn't calm the enraged adults.
As he packed up his equipment, Voss said he felt intimidated by the middle-aged men.
"There were some big guys out there," he said. "What was I supposed to do? Mostly, I was embarrassed. The adults were acting like kids."
Speeding Sprinter
MISSISSAUGA, Canada (AP) - Donovan Bailey, once the world's fastest man on foot, was found guilty Monday of going too fast in his car.
Bailey, 33, was convicted of driving his Mercedes-Benz 193 kilometers per hour on the Queen Elizabeth Way last Nov. 24. Bailey, who was in Italy at a track meet and did not appear in court, was fined $640.
"He runs fast and he drives fast, except now he's going to slow down," his lawyer, Paul Stunt, said as he left the Ontario Court of Justice. Bailey won the gold medal in the men's 100 meters at the 1996 Olympics.
Stunt, who pleaded not guilty for his client, tried unsuccessfully Monday to argue for an adjournment. He said that Bailey's chances of a fair hearing had been compromised by a Jan. 9 newspaper account of the speeding charge.
In 1998, Bailey was fined $130 for failing to report an accident that destroyed his $52,700 Mercedes in 1997. In that single-car crash in Mississauga, Bailey's car struck a concrete utility pole, flipped over and caught fire.
TITLE: Kuerten, Capriati Win French Open Titles
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - By winning the French Open for the third time, Gustavo Kuerten joined a select group of tennis players.
Only five other men have matched Kuerten's feat: Henri Cochet, Rene Lacoste, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander.
But unlike his predecessors, Kuer ten has yet to prove that he can win championships on other surfaces and become one of history's best players.
Outside the French, he has only twice reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event.
His baseline game and sweeping groundstrokes, devastating on clay, are not as suited to faster surfaces.
Kuerten exited last year's U.S. Open in the first round and was eliminated from the Australian Open in January in the second round.
His chances of improving on last year's third-round showing at Wimbledon are nonexistent this year: He has decided not to play at the tournament, preferring to rest instead.
With only the U.S. Open remaining this year, Kuerten is a long way from taking a Grand Slam title aside from the French.
But the runner-up in Sunday's final, Alex Corretja, is convinced of Kuerten's greatness.
"Does he have to show that he can win the Australian Open or the U.S. Open?" Corretja asked. "He doesn't need to show anything.
"I would love to be in his situation."
Kuerten's win in Paris will send him to the top of the ATP champions race, just six points above Australian Open champion Andre Agassi.
With two Grand Slam events and three Masters Series tournaments on fast surfaces to go before the end of the year, Kuerten will have a tough time holding on to the top spot.
But the task, although difficult, is far from impossible.
At the end of last season, Kuerten knocked U.S. champion Marat Safin from the No. 1 spot in the Champions Race by beating Andre Agassi in the final of the Masters Cup, which was played on a hard indoor surface in Lisbon, Portugal.
Kuerten reached the final of the hard-court Ericsson Open in 2000, losing to Pete Sampras, and won another hard-surface tournament in Indianapolis last August.
"He has shown already like he did in Lisbon last year that he's able to play well anywhere," said Corretja, who lost a French Open final for the second time.
However, this year has been less impressive for Kuerten off the red clay. He lost in the third round at the Ericsson Open and the Indian Wells Masters, his only non-clay tournaments so far this season aside from the Australian Open.
********************** Jennifer Capriati jogged to the corner of the stadium where her family stood cheering, climbed onto a ledge and leaned over the railing to give her brother and father an emotional hug.
It's amazing she still had the strength, almost as amazing as her being the new French Open champion.
Weariness gave way to jubilation when Capriati finally closed out the grueling, elusive victory Saturday, beating tenacious Belgian teenager Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-4, 12-10.
"I'm just waiting to wake up from this dream," Capriati told the crowd during the trophy ceremony. "It doesn't seem like reality right now."
Nervous and cranky in the unfamiliar role of heavy favorite, Capriati started poorly and then staged a comeback - something she knows plenty about. At 25, the former teenage prodigy has resurrected a career derailed by drugs and personal problems to become the dominant player in women's tennis.
Capriati won her first major title in January at the Australian Open, almost 11 years after she made history as a 14-year-old semifinalist in Paris. She now is halfway to a Grand Slam sweep only three women have accomplished, most recently Steffi Graf in 1988.
The last woman to win the year's first two Grand Slam tournaments was Monica Seles in 1992. Capriati will now set her sights on Wimbledon, which begins June 25.
Anything seems possible now for Capriati, who dropped to 267th in the world in 1998 but is 14-0 in the majors this year. The streak includes a pair of victories over top-ranked Martina Hingis and one each over Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams and Seles.
But the latest win was the toughest of all. Clijsters, who turned 18 Friday, proved a poised opponent even as the tense final set unfolded. In terms of games, it was the longest third set of any French Open women's final, and the longest third set in any Grand Slam women's final since the 1948 U.S. Open.
Four times, the 12th-seeded Clijsters was within two points of the championship. Each time, the fourth-seeded Capriati rose to the occasion.
Both players battled fatigue in the latter stages of the 2-hour, 21-minute marathon. With Clijsters serving at 10-10, Capriati won a long rally by skipping a backhand off the baseline, then leaned on her racket in exhaustion. But she summoned the energy to win that game by closing out a 20-shot exchange with an overhead slam.
Serving for the title, Capriati needed six more points to finish it off. On the second match point, she smacked a forehand winner, then hopped up and down in glee. She gave Clijsters a warm hug at the net, clasped her hands over her head and trotted over to her family.
The crowd's ovation rose as she embraced Steven, her brother and practice partner, then Stefano, her father and coach.
"When I looked at my family, and how happy they were and crying, it was really amazing," she said.
TITLE: Lakers Are Thriving On Road In Playoffs
AUTHOR: By Hal Bock
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PHILADELPHIA - The sound level in the First Union Center can challenge the senses with a shake, rattle and roll that leaves ears ringing and nerves frayed.
The noise rumbles down section by section, like a tidal wave of sound making its way from balcony to courtside, designed to encourage the home team and unnerve the visitors.
It might take more than that, though, to disturb the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are thriving on the road during the 2001 NBA playoffs, winning a record-tying six straight games. They go for No. 7 and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals on Wednesday night against the gritty Philadelphia 76ers. The playoff record is seven by the 1995 Houston Rockets.
And what about the stadium's acoustics?
"We block it out," Kobe Bryant said. "It's just a whole lot of noise. We just stay on an even keel and don't get wrapped up in what they're saying."
Still, Shaquille O'Neal seemed to bristle a bit when he talked about fouling out of game 3. He was angry at what he called flopping tactics by Dikembe Mutombo of the 76ers that led to several of the whistles.
"Challenge me!" O'Neal said. "Treat me like a game of checkers and play me. That's all I'm asking. Just play. Treat me like Sega and play me."
The comparison between kids' games and O'Neal in the pivot is a bit of a reach. But it did provide some levity for the Lakers, who are here on a business trip, unconcerned with peripheral issues. At stake is a championship, one Los Angeles won a year ago and wants to take home again.
"The title comes through us," Bryant said. "We're the world champs and you have to take what we have."
Certainly, the Sixers are trying. They won the overtime opener and just missed in games 2 and 3. They are limping around on an assortment of broken or bruised bones that has forced coach Larry Brown to go deep into his reserves.
Down the stretch of game 3, the Sixers had seldom-used Kevin Ollie and CBA refugee Raja Bell on the floor. Todd MacCulloch and Matt Geiger have logged important minutes in the first three games, and with George Lynch sidelined by a broken foot, he has been starting Jumaine Jones. Lynch is expected back for game 4.
"George is going to practice [Monday] and [Tuesday] and at the shootaround on Wednesday and we'll kind of evaluate it then, whether he will play and just what his role will be," Brown said. "I don't anticipate him playing a lot. But he wants to play. He wanted to play [Sunday night]. If he does play, I won't start him."
That means Jones and Tyrone Hill remain in the starting lineup for the Sixers. Their contributions were limited in game 3, a combined five points and three rebounds.
Then there is the matter of Aaron McKie, worn out after a month of playing defense against top shooters. "He's struggling physically," Brown said. "He's just physically whipped. He's had to play more minutes with George out."
McKie welcomed two days off between games. He needs the rest.
"I've had my hands full," he said. "But it's fun. I'm loving it You've got to find it from somewhere. Don't get no better than this. This is the best time of the year to be playing basketball. You're playing in the NBA Finals. I'm enjoying it."
Despite all the injuries, the 76ers are not being dismissed by Los Angeles. Philadelphia has demonstrated impressive resiliency in the last two playoff series, trailing 2-1 against Toronto and Milwaukee, winning game 4 in both series and going on to win both series in seven games.
So losing game 3 at home on Sunday wasn't the end of the world for Brown.
"I don't even look at the home court as a big deal anymore," he said. "We've lost a game at home in every series this year, and we've been lucky enough to get one back and win."
And for the most-valuable player Allen Iverson, that's simply the bottom line for game 4.
"We just understand we've got to win the game," he said. "It's simple as that, you know. It ain't much to it. We've got a game. It's on our court. We've got to forget about what happened in the last game and take care of the next game."