SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #688 (55), Friday, July 20, 2001
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TITLE: Mirilashvili Could Face Murder Rap
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Local businessman Mikhail Mirilashvili, arrested in January and charged with kidnapping, may be charged with murder soon, the City Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday.
 Gennady Ryabov, spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, said the bodies of two missing persons, identified only as Dvali and Kukushadze, were found by the police with the assistance of two men who were extradited from Ukraine earlier this month and who stand accused of committing a triple murder in front of the Astoria Hotel last September. 
 The bodies were found near the Southern Heating and Power-Supply Complex on Sofiiskaya Ulitsa in the southern part of the city. Ryabov said that prosecutors have reason to believe that Mirilashvili may be connected to the murder of those men. 
 "It looks like those two people were related to the kidnapping of Mirilashvili's father. The way problems were solved [between those who kidnapped the father and Mikhail Mirilashvili] was very cruel, as we see now. First those people disappeared, and then we found their mutilated bodies," Ryabov said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
 But Yury Novolodsky, Mirilashvili's lawyer, said the prosecutor's office has no proof that his client is connected to the murder. Even more, he said, Mirilashvili had no motive.
 "All the murders, the ones near the Astoria Hotel and those of the two men the police found recently, were organized by a group of people trying to save the business they had run for the last 10 years," Novolodsky said in an interview on Thursday.
 "I mean the kidnapping business, which was set up in Moscow by a group of Georgians, but the prosecutor's office is not doing anything about it. They've even dropped the case about the father's kidnapping and now they are even showing the mutilated bodies on television," he said.
 But Ryabov said the case of Mirilashvili's father's kidnapping had been dropped according to the law, and the prosecutor's office is not obliged to look for the kidnappers.
 "The crime was not completed since [the father] was released without any consequences, and that is why the case was dropped," Ryabov said. 
 The chain of events began with the kidnapping of Mirilashvili's father, also named Mikhail, on Aug. 7 as he was being driven along Vyborgskaya Naberezhnaya. According to the police, his black Toyota was stopped by unknown people wearing police uniforms who checked the documents of the car's occupants, showed them a gun and then asked the driver to leave the car. Mirilashvili Sr. was then driven away in his car by the kidnappers.
 He was released the next day, although the circumstances surrounding the entire incident remain unclear, and police and family members have not even said whether a ransom was paid or even demanded.
 Almost exactly a month later, on Sept. 8, two men and a woman of Caucasian origin were shot in broad daylight in front of the Astoria Hotel, where an international forum on investment and business in St. Petersburg was being chaired by Mirilashvili and was attended by luminaries such as President Vladimir Putin's chief economic adviser Andrei Illarionov.
 The City Prosecutor's Office identified the victims as 35-year-old Gocha Tsagarenshvili, his driver, Rostislav Anguladze, and Anguladze's wife, Liana. The authorities also said that Tsagarenshvili was a known criminal with extortion, robbery and kidnapping convictions.
 The term for the investigation of the kidnapping charges is due to expire on July 23, after which Mirilashvili could walk free. However, new charges could keep him in jail longer. Mirilashvili's arrest provoked protests as local political and cultural figures proclaimed his innocence and suggested that the case could be politically motivated.
 "We are happy that the prosecutor's office has finally found something," Novolodsky said, "Because that means that now the charges will be clear for everyone, and we will prove [Mirilashvili] is innocent."

TITLE: Hotel's Elite Dacha Plan Almost Set in Stone
AUTHOR: By Sam Charap

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: After months of rumor, half-steps, committee meetings and planning, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev is expected to give his stamp of approval within the next 10 days to the Europe-Hotel's plan to build several exclusive mini-hotels on Kamenny Island, said Alexander Shabasov, deputy head of the City Construction Committee. 
 "This is the result that we wanted. First, we are talking about the rebuilding of the estates that were already there [and] that's a plus. Second, we are ensuring that these places are built for recreational purposes. Third, it's the fulfillment of the city's plans. ... The city should be a center of international tourism, and the current quantity of hotels is inadequate. It's a fact that this [project] is extremely important for the development of the city," Shabasov said in an interview on Wednesday.
 The architects of the Europe-Hotel, the parent company of the Grand Hotel Europe on Nevsky Prospect, have designed six aristocratic dachas for the historic island, which is home to some of the most sought-after real estate in the city. The buildings are a close approximation of the original tsarist-era cottages that once stood on the plots - located on Sanatornaya Ulitsa and Zapadnaya Alleya - before they fell into disrepair during the Soviet period. 
 According to the director of Europe-Hotel's architecture department, Alexei Krauze, total construction costs will be approximately $6 million, excluding interior design.
 Yet despite ringing endorsements from City Hall, the project has angered some who charge that the process of granting permission to build on the plots and to lease them for 49 years to Europe-Hotel - which is majority-owned by the city - has been tainted by selective application of the law and a total lack of transparency.
 "Kamenny Island is a specially protected historical zone. ... Construction [there] can only exist in the framework of its status as a historical monument, to save it as a monument. It is absolutely against the law to build residences there. This is a violation of the law. ... If you want to change the law and build elite dachas, make such a law. ... When everything here is built without laws, that is a violation of citizens' rights," said Alexander Babechuk, a member of the Association for the Protection of Krestovsky Island, a civic group that studies development on Kamenny Island.
 Architecture experts recognize the project itself -- the construction of cottages based on the original historical plans - as extremely significant.
 "The closer that Kamenny Island moves toward its pre-Revolutionary status, the better. ... This is an exact fulfillment of the recommendations of specialists [and] is the only proposal really to develop Kamenny Island that has been offered so far," said Gleb Lebedev, an archeology professor who has been working on development plans for the island for over 10 years. 
 During an interview at his office, Europe-Hotel's Krauze proudly compared the plans for one of the new dachas, which were designed by Nina Bashinskaya, to renderings of the original structure.
 "They are practically identical. The character of the house has been saved. ... If there are changes, then they are minimal, and they are all being controlled by KGIOP [the Committee on State Property and Preservation of Monuments]."
 Krauze described the painstaking measures that have been taken to ensure compliance with KGIOP, which include a special plan temporarily to relocate the centuries-old trees from the site during construction. 
 "These buildings at one point stood there and then they were destroyed. ... We think that this construction, which is very close to the historical original, is the correct path for the development of Kamenny Island," he said.
 Krauze expects that construction will take approximately 18 months, and he hopes to receive permission to develop three additional plots. He said Europe-Hotel had not yet determined who would manage the mini-hotels. 
 While impressed by Krauze's attention to historical detail, Babechuk insisted that Kamenny Island is a federally protected historical landmark and that the city has no right to authorize development there. 
 "The problem is that we are completely lost between federal and local power. That causes a sort of competition: who is more powerful, who can make the final decision," he said.
 The federal government has already developed parts of Kamenny Island. There is an official presidential residence there and plans were announced in April for a residence for visiting foreign dignitaries.
 Recently, the city has been behaving as the master of the island, authorizing the construction of another hotel complex, managed by Baltic Commerce, last October.
 The ownership of the land is one of those murky areas of the Russian legal structure that will remain an object of dispute until the new Land Code, passed by the State Duma last week, is signed into law, commented Andrei Ryabov, an analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow.
 He sees this sale as a move by Yakovlev to assert practical control over this area before the new law comes into effect.
 "A fight is now beginning for such land. I think that Governor Yakovlev understands perfectly the meaning of Kamenny Island and he is beginning a fight for this land. ... What is important now is to take de facto control over the land and I think that the governor has that in mind," Ryabov said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
 Yakovlev's task is made easier by what Legislative Assembly Deputy Alexei Belausov considers the extremely nebulous legal structure in place to deal with such situations. 
 Belausov is the only elected official on the Investment-Tender Commission (ITK), which is charged with overseeing such projects. The other 12 commissioners are all members of the St. Petersburg administration, chosen by the governor. 
 The sale of the Kamenny Island plots didn't involve a competitive bidding process, according to Belausov. 
 "There is a legislative vacuum here. There isn't one normative legal rule in St. Petersburg ... that completely delineates the process of choosing an investor when there are multiple applications. In the majority of cases, each [sale] attracts [multiple] applications," Belausev said in an interview on Wednesday. He referred to framework of such sales as a "hole in the law."
 "An investor approaches a bureaucrat and says, 'Sign this,' and then the [bureaucrat] goes to the vice governor and says, 'We think that it would be good to build a hotel here and this company is perfect for this project.' Not always, but sometimes, the ITK makes decisions on this basis.
 "This is what happened on Kamenny Island. There was a recommendation of the Vice Governor Gennady Tkachyov that 'it wouldn't be bad' or 'we recommend' to build six hotels on Kamenny Island. As far as I understand, there were many who wanted to build on this site and not just apartment hotels."
 Belausov added, though, that there is no evidence of corruption in the Kamenny Island deal. 
 Yet he did identify what he termed the result of the lack of competitive bidding. "From [the sale of] such golden territories, the city will receive very, very little funds." 
 According to documents that were obtained by The St. Petersburg Times, Europe-Hotel will pay $1.3 million for permission to build and the for 49-year lease. The city has already earmarked this revenue for a construction project on Bolshoi Prospect on the Petrograd Side. 
 But Belausov said that the city will have to spend at least half of that money on utilities for the plots. 
 The Carnegie Center's Ryabov said that sees this as a result of a "conflict of interest" - that the city is selling land to what essentially is a city-owned company.

TITLE: Idea Floated To Turn Dom Knigi Into Mall
AUTHOR: By Simon Ostrovsky

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Dom Knigi, St. Petersburg's premiere bookstore, may soon be undergoing changes that will make its main store on Nevsky Prospect unrecognizable to its faithful, longtime patrons.
 Because of plans by its landlord - backed by the city government - the book emporium could be turned into a multilevel mall, leaving only a relatively small space for the city's best-known bookstore. 
 But the plans are vague. The landlord, the Peterburgskoye Agenstvo Nedvizhemosti, or PAN - which was given a 49-year lease on the property by the City Property Committee, or KUGI, in 1999 - has paid little attention to the property since then and now is reluctant to discuss its future plans in detail.
 Before PAN took over the building, Dom Knigi paid an unspecified "subsidized rent" to the city. The city's agreement with PAN specified that this rent would remain the same until 2005.
 Now, according to Yury Buranov, head of the Dom Knigi's reconstruction department, the store may be facing a substantial increase in its rent. "Once the rent is raised, there goes Dom Knigi," Buranov said. 
 Dom Knigi general director Galina Samokhvalova opposed giving control of the building to PAN. "We've had this building since 1919, and we weren't even consulted when the lease was taken away from us." 
 KUGI, though, says it granted PAN the 49-year lease because "Dom Knigi could never afford the necessary renovations on its own," according to Tatyana Prosvernina, KUGI's press secretary. 
 "And the city also can't afford to do the renovations," she added. 
 But the city is being scrupulous with the property. The first set of renovation blueprints submitted by PAN were rejected by the Committee for the Protection of Historical Landmarks, or KGIOP, which thought the suggested design strayed too far from the building's historical roots. 
 PAN submitted another set of plans that were drawn up by the local renovation specialist Spetsproyektrestavratsiya and which, at least as far as KGIOP is concerned, maintain the building's architectural integrity. These plans were approved by KGIOP on June 8 following an expert evaluation.
 But what these plans, which were shown to The St. Petersburg Times, mean for the building's future is far from clear. Neither PAN nor KUGI, for example, can say for how long the bookstore will be closed during the renovations, or even if it will be closed. PAN also refused to discuss what other stores might be allowed to rent space in the building. 
 According to KGIOP's Irina Malyavkina, the building's public space will be increased from its present 8,313 square meters to 13,776 square meters. Of that, 9,029 square meters will be retail sales space, including a mall and Dom Knigi. The leasing agreement stipulates that Dom Knigi be offered not less than two-thirds of the available retail space. 
 KUGI has also ordered that the restoration preserve much of the original detail from the pre-Revolutionary period, when the building served as the Russian headquarters for the Singer Sewing Co.
 In addition, a glass roof that covered the atrium above the second floor of the seven-story building will be raised to the top level. This will increase the available space of each floor.
 The most complicated part of the reconstruction promises to be the famous dome atop the building. 
 But even Dom Knigi officials are quick to say that a renovation of the building does not necessarily mean the end of Dom Knigi, as some darker headlines have suggested. Managers say the mall-type setting envisioned by PAN's plan could bring the store more business.
 Some shoppers at Dom Knigi on Thursday were less sanguine. "From what I've seen, it sounds like they're going to close this place down," said Nikolai, who shops for math literature almost every week at the store. "It would be a travesty if Dom Knigi shut down."
 Workers at the store seem oblivious. Alla, a cashier, said she had "no idea of what's happening."
 "And I don't think anybody in the administration does either," she added. 
 In addition to its main store on Nevsky Prospect, Dom Knigi has three small branches on Vasilievsky Island and two on Liteiny Prospect. The chain's main competitor is Snark Book Club, which has 16 outlets around town.

TITLE: City Tourism Experiences 20% Increase
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Cramming tourists into local hotels these days - especially top-of-the-line hotels - is a bit like seeing how may clowns you can fit in a Volkswagen Beetle. 
 According to City Hall Tourism Committee officials, the number of foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg this year will be about 3 million, or 500,000 people more than last year. That is a full 20 percent increase. 
 "The city was sold out [for the summer] by February, which is much earlier than last year," said the deputy head of the City Tourist Committee in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
 "And there has been a boom in third-class hotel occupancy too."
 But he said that, for the near future, 4 million tourists are about all the city will be able to handle. "The doors at the Hermitage are not made of rubber," he said, drawing attention to the difficulty of keeping up monuments and museums when they have so many visitors. 
 But the official also looked on the bright side of the increase. Each of these tourists, he said, pumps about $300 a day into the local economy. 
 Maria Kolosova, an administrator at Sinbad Travel Agency, said that the average tourist spends four to five days in the city. The Sheraton Nevskij Palace Hotel on Nevsky Prospect reported that its guests - mostly business travelers - stay an average of two to three days. 
 Currently, the city has 25,536 rooms in hotels and hostels, including 2,518 rooms in five-star hotels, Interfax reported.
 Most of the largest and most expensive hotels have had almost 100 percent occupancy through June and July, despite skyrocketing prices. 
 A single room at the Grand Hotel Europe on Nevsky Prospect went for $285 per night this summer. The Nevskij Palace topped that at $295, while the Astoria on St. Isaac's Square led the pack at $310, according to an Interfax survey. 
 Other respected hotels, such as the Pulkovskaya and the Moskva in the city's south and the Pribaltiiskaya out on Vasilievksy Island, are much less expensive, averaging about $130 per night.
 The cheapest hotels, according to the Interfax report, are the Kievskaya and Okyatyabrskaya - both located across from the Moscow Station - with prices of 635 and 1,100 rubles per night for a single room, respectively.
 "We've already got a very high occupancy this year," said Nevskij Palace representative Anna Izmailova in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
 "There is a noticeable dynamic that the influx of tourists is bigger than it was last year." 
 The Grand Hotel Europe has been in the same crowded boat. Snezhana Zamaliyeva, spokesperson for the hotel, said the growing number of local summer festivals is part of the draw and gives tourists a reason to return. 
 "The Musical Olympus, the White Nights Festival and Placido Domingo's visit to the city - events like that mean more people will know about the city and will return," Zamaliyeva said.
 Both Izmailova and Zamaliyeva agreed that President Vladimir Putin's aggressive approach to promoting St. Petersburg as his city of choice for visiting with foreign dignitaries as one of the prime reasons tourists have poured in this year. 
 "[But] the main reason [that we are seeing so many tourists] is because the situation in the country has stabilized," added Izmailova.

TITLE: Gazprom To Sell Ekho Moskvy Stake to Former Minister
AUTHOR: By Anna Dolgov 

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gazprom has agreed to sell some of its shares in the Ekho Moskvy radio station to a former economics minister who hosts a program on the station, in a deal that is expected to limit state influence over the broadcaster.
 The sale of Gazprom's 9.5 percent stake would leave both the station's journalists and the gas company with stakes of around 42.5 percent each, Ekho's editor Alexei Venediktov said on Monday. The journalists' package would be even larger than Gazprom's by four shares, he said at a joint news conference with the chief of Gazprom's media arm, Alfred Kokh. However, the 9.5 percent stake will not be sold to Ekho staff, as journalists originally wanted, but to Yevgeny Yasin.
 The sides described the deal as a reasonable compromise. However, Yasin is not obliged to back other Ekho journalists in voting with his shares and could side with Gazprom, Venediktov said.
 "There have been no demands on Yasin as a shareholder," Venediktov told a news conference. "In our view, this is fair. He is our journalist."
 Ekho Moskvy is the last major outpost of Vladimir Gusinsky's media empire, whose other outlets have fallen under Gazprom's control.
 Earlier this month, Gazprom won a court decision to gain a 52 percent controlling interest in Ekho Moskvy. Eager to remain independent, the station has been trying to buy back some of the shares.
 Under the latest agreement, Gazprom is to sell the 9.5 percent stake to Yasin on the same day that it formally receives the shares awarded by the court. The transactions are expected to be completed by the beginning of August.
 Yasin is a leader of the Union of Right Forces. He will suspend his duties in the party when he comes to own the shares, according to party chief Boris Nemtsov.
 The value of the deal was not disclosed, but the sides said it involved a large amount of money.
 Gusinsky had earlier agreed to transfer his 14.5 percent share in Ekho Moskvy to the station's journalists.

TITLE: President Faces Reporters at Question Time
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr. 

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - There was only one moment when President Vladimir Putin pointedly refused to answer a question from one of about 500 journalists present in a Kremlin theater where the Supreme Soviet used to meet.
 It was when Philadelphia Inquirer commentator Trudy Rubin repeated the question she first asked 18 months ago - "Who Is Mr. Putin?" - voicing what the whole world wanted to know about the man who had just inherited the Kremlin.
 "I would ask you to spare me from having to answer this part of your question," Putin said, engaging her in a dialogue as he tends to do with journalists rather than simply answering their questions. "One should judge a person not by what he says about himself, but by what he does."
 He continued with the list of what he considers to be the achievements of his 18 months at the top of the Russian state: "returning federal functions to the federation," that is, reining in the governors; then "starting a real modernization of the economic and political spheres," namely introducing Europe's lowest income and profit taxes; launching a "debureaucratization" program; and pushing through a new law to limit the number of political parties.
 Putin described the current several hundred political parties as "bacchanalia," and said that "it leads to a situation in which the population is unable to orient itself and elects not from among ideologies and platforms, but from among personalities."
 "If we don't carry out a reform of the political system, people in Russia will continue to elect personalities," Putin said. One of the reasons the question of Putin's political identity arose in the first place was that even while campaigning for president he pointedly refused to spell out his economic or political platform and preferred to project the image of an active leader who promised a strong state.
 On Wednesday, he singled out the Communist Party as the only strong political party in the country and said that during a recent meeting with Communist leaders he suggested that they return to the party's pre-World War I name: Social Democratic Workers' Party of Russia. That could be a "good first step" toward modernizing the party, he said.
 Answering a question about proposals to bury Vladimir Lenin, Putin said he was against removing the body from the mausoleum. In a mild hit at his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, who is said to have favored burying Lenin, Putin said that such an act, considered by some to symbolize the country's ultimate burial of its Communist past, would in fact be "destructive" to the social fabric, "something we have already lived through."
 "Many people [after 70 years of Communist rule] have their own lives tied up with Lenin's name," Putin said. "For them, Lenin's burial would mean that they had worshipped false values, put forward false tasks and their lives had been lived in vain. We have many such people."
 Putin said the main achievement of his time in office is "stability and a certain consensus in society," which are necessary for economic and political "modernization."
 "I treasure it very much and will do nothing that could upset the balance," he said.
 Only when his reform program succeeds and people's thinking changes as a result, will he be able to carry out "the will of the majority," Putin said.
 One of Putin's replies on the role of Berezovsky drew applause from the audience of journalists. When asked about Berezovsky's efforts to launch an opposition party and his predictions that Putin will be out of office by the end of the year, Putin paused and said, "Boris Berezovsky, who is that?"
 After the applause subsided, he continued. "He has been referred to as former [deputy] secretary of the Security Council, then former someone else, now he is former who?" Adopting a more serious tone, Putin said that he had long known Berezovsky, who was instrumental in Putin's rise to power before turning into his most vocal opponent.
 "He is an irrepressible, indefatigable man," Putin said. "All the time he keeps appointing someone or overthrowing someone. Let him labor on." As for Berezovsky's opposition activities, Putin said that it could only benefit the Russian state. "If he finds something that we do wrong and presents it to the public, we should be only grateful to him because it should correct our behavior," Putin said. "He is a clever man, maybe he will uncover something."
 Putin answered a wide range of questions, ultimately extending the news conference by 40 minutes beyond the scheduled one hour.
 Putin said Russia had no plans to act in concert with China should the United States abandon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to deploy a missile defense shield, Reuters reported.
 "In practice, we do not plan joint activities in this sphere, including with China," Putin said.
 Putin said Russia does not view the NATO alliance as an enemy but sees no justification for its existence, The Associated Press reported.
 "We do not see it as an enemy," he said. "We do not see a tragedy in its existence, but we also see no need for it." Putin argued that NATO was created as a Cold War alliance aimed against the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact satellites and has outlived its time. "There is no more Warsaw Pact, no more Soviet Union, but NATO continues to exist and develop," he said.
 Putin dismissed claims that today's NATO was a political alliance, saying NATO's bombing raids on Yugoslavia were the work of a "military organization, and we're not happy about it." NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe creates "different levels of security on the continent, which does not correspond to today's realities and is not caused by any political or military necessity."
 Putin called for the creation of a "single security and defense space in Europe," which he said could be achieved either by disbanding NATO, or by Russia joining it, or by the creation of a new body in which Russia could become an equal partner.
 Putin said that state broadcaster VGTRK will begin Russian-language broadcasts of Euronews, the European news channel, later this year, Reuters reported.
 "In September, the Russian version of Euronews will run in real time in our country," Putin said.
 "Our viewers and listeners will be able to receive full-scale information from this program, and its viewers will be able to see coverage of Russia." 
 "I think this is an important step toward integrating Russia with the European and international information space," he added.
 Putin mentioned Euronews to show that no barriers are being created to block the free flow of information between Russia and the West. Fears about such barriers were raised by the Kremlin-approved Information Security Doctrine, about which Putin said "some definitions could have been better."
 Putin defended the response to the sinking of the Kursk nearly a year ago, saying nothing could have saved the submarine's 118 crew members, the Associated Press reported.
 "Even if the very first second we had appealed to our foreign colleagues, help would still have come too late. A simple chronology of events would show that," he said.
 Putin was widely criticized for what many considered a delayed response to the tragedy. Russia waited four days to accept international offers to help rescue any surviving crew members, and Putin did not immediately interrupt his vacation to deal with the tragedy.
 "Would it have been possible to save the crew? It would have been, but only if the designers building this type of vessel in the 1980s had foreseen this kind of an accident and had created the necessary rescue means," Putin said.
 "From this, we should draw conclusions, both technical and organizational ones. That is obvious."

TITLE: Chechnya Provokes Heated Exchange
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr. 

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The most dramatic moment during President Vladimir Putin's news conference on Wednesday was an emotional exchange between the president and two reporters over the war in Chechnya.
 First - after Putin had called on the U.S. government to allow Russian state radio stations similar rights to broadcast from U.S. territory as U.S.-funded Radio Liberty has in Russia - Putin's press secretary Alexei Gromov solicited a question from Radio Liberty.
 The reporter asked whether allegations of abuses by Russian troops against civilians might prompt Putin to change his strategy in the war.
 In his reply, Putin repeated, as vigorously as ever, his statement that the military campaign in Chechnya was started to prevent the republic from being used as a launching pad for aggression against the rest of Russia or for attempts to build a fundamentalist Islamic state in the south of Russia. Russia has to respect the opinion of the Chechen people but they should not be equated with the Islamic fundamentalists, he said.
 "They say that in fighting them we are fighting against Chechnya and its people. Someone is seizing upon this deliberately or misses the point of the situation. This is my approach and I have no intention of changing it," Putin said.
 Then another journalist, Alice Lagnado of The Times, started to yell from her seat that the president had not answered the question. Putin asked the aides to give her the microphone and when they did, Lagnado said: "Will you be able to explain to me, please, why there are mopping-up operations such as in Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk? Can you answer me? How does it help you?"
 "Yes, I can," Putin answered, struggling not to lose his temper. He said one of the main tactics of the "radical fundamentalists" was provoking federal troops to strike back at the peaceful population.
 "I am not convinced that federal troops always succeed in not falling for these provocations," Putin said. "I have said many times and can repeat once again: All that is done against the law, against the peaceful population, has to be found out and the culprits have to be punished."
 As his tone was rising and he looked straight at the reporter, Putin went on: "In the Chechen Republic before 1999, total lawlessness reigned with shooting in the street and beheadings. You must be aware of this," he said.
 "Thank God or thanks to Allah we stopped it. You might at least say 'thank you' for this."
 Today, he continued, a legal system complete with courts, a prosecutor's office and public notaries is "almost completely restored."
 As proof that some Chechens support the efforts of the Russian government, Putin reminded the journalists that this year rebels have killed more than 40 officials and religious leaders who sided with the pro-Moscow Chechen administration.
 "Why don't you ask me about that? Why don't you ask how we deal with these criminals? If they are being killed, there are people supporting us among Chechens," he said. "Did this logic not enter your head? I would ask you to think about this."

TITLE: Death-Squad Evidence Mounts
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The United States said two former Belarussian investigators given asylum have revealed credible evidence of a death squad run by President Alexander Lukashenko or members of his entourage.
 "Investigators Dmitry Petrushkevich and Oleg Sluchek have made detailed and credible revelations about a Lukashenko regime death squad reportedly responsible for up to 30 murders," U.S. State Department spokesperson Charles Hunter said on Tuesday.
 "This provides additional support for allegations of regime involvement in these disappearances, which we take very seriously."
 The two men, former investigators at the Prosecutor General's Office, fled to the United States in June and are at an undisclosed location.
 On Wednesday, Lukashenko slammed the investigators' allegations and told the United States to keep out of Belarus' affairs. "I would advise [the State Department] to mind its own business and not meddle in things it doesn't understand," Lukashenko told reporters during a visit to a business center in the outskirts of Minsk. He called the allegations a "provocation" prepared by opposition factions ahead of a presidential election on Sept. 9.
 Cathy Fitzpatrick, executive director of the New York-based International League for Human Rights, told reporters the former investigators' story.
 Petrushkevich, 26, had been helping investigate the disappearance a year ago of Dmitry Zavadsky, a cameraman with ORT television. Zavadsky was once Lukashenko's personal cameraman but fell from grace after being detained over a report on smuggling to Lithuania.
 During the investigation, Petrushkevich and Sluchek, 25, came to fear for their lives after a witness was killed and another investigator died suddenly. Their version, based partly on reports from other investigators, is that Belarus' leadership is using an elite unit called Almaz to deal with opposition figures, critics and members of the underworld.
 The two former investigators say then-Security Council head Viktor Sheiman ordered the formation of the squad in 1996 and that it has since killed 30 Lukashenko critics. Sheiman is now prosecutor general. Sluchek said earlier that the squad was headed by special-unit officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenko and consisted of at least a dozen men including Valery Ignatovich, who is being held in custody by Belarussian prosecutors on charges of kidnapping Zavadsky.
 The former investigators met July 3 with U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky and Lorne Craner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. Four days later, the United States issued a statement on the first anniversary of Zavadsky's disappearance, saying it remained deeply concerned about his case.
 It also noted that former interior minister Yury Zakharenko vanished while walking home on May 7, 1999, and that former Central Elections Commission chairman Viktor Gonchar and his associate, Yury Krasovsky, vanished on Sept. 16 that year. "To date, Belarussian authorities have not provided any accounting of the whereabouts of these individuals," the July 7 statement by State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said.
 Boucher noted Lukashenko's reaction in November to then-Prosecutor General Oleg Bozhelko's request for Russian help in searching an area near a cemetery in Minsk, which Hunter said was credibly believed to be Zavadsky's burial site. "Shortly after Bozhelko made this request, Alexander Lukashenko fired him and canceled the request," Hunter said.
 "Belarussian authorities need to account for these people in order to remove the current climate of fear and create an atmosphere conducive to free and fair presidential elections."
 The Bush administration has tried to use the presidential election to get Lukashenko to improve his record by offering carrots if he holds a fair poll, but it got nowhere, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
 Meanwhile in Minsk, pressure on Lukashenko to address the allegations was growing after a candidate for the upcoming election released a stack of Interior Ministry letters that link top Lukashenko aides to the disappearance of opposition figures. The candidate, Vladimir Goncharik, received the letters last week from an anonymous party, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
 Copies were reviewed by The St. Petersburg Times. Among them is a letter from General Nikolai Lopatik of the Interior Ministry's police to Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov. He writes that Pavlyuchenko, the alleged head of the death squad, had shot Zakharenko, Gonchar and Krasovsky on Sheiman's orders. Interior Minister Naumov called the letter "nonsense," Interfax reported.
 Goncharik urged Lukashenko to order an investigation into the Interior Ministry letters in an open letter published Monday in several independent newspapers.
 The Belarussian leader has remained silent about the documents.
 Meanwhile, the office of the Minsk-based Den independent newspaper was raided Monday night and the hard drives of three computers were stolen, NTV reported. The paper had planned a special issue later this week dedicated to Belarussian politicians who have gone missing. Den's deputy editor said all materials for the special issue had disappeared.
 
 <i>- Reuters, SPT </i>

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Nizhny Runoff
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - The Nizhny Novgorod gubernatorial race has gone into a runoff between Gennady Khodyrev, a State Duma deputy, and incumbent Governor Ivan Sklyarov after no candidate won more than half of the vote in last Sunday's poll.
 Khodyrev took 24 percent of the vote, while Sklyarov got 21 percent, Interfax reported Tuesday. Two other favorites going into the vote, Vadim Bulavinov and Dmitry Savelev, who are both Duma deputies, tied in third place with 19 percent.
 The runoff vote is scheduled for July 29.
 
 
Death Rate Climbs
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Russia's death rate reached 15.3 per 1,000 people, the highest in Europe and the highest in Russia since the end of World War II, Interfax reported. The rate was 14.7 per 1,000 in 1999. 
 For adults aged 20 to 29, the death rate has jumped 60 percent over the past decade, Interfax said, citing the State Statistics Committee. 
 In addition, the causes of death other than old age are 2 1/2 times higher in Russia than in advanced countries and 1 1/2 times higher than in developing countries, the State Statistics Committee said. 
 Last year, 73,000 people died from unnatural causes, said Olga Kolesnikova, spokesperson for the State Statistics Committee.
 
 
Jet Fighter Crashes
 

MOSCOW (AP) - A Su-33 naval fighter jet crashed during an airshow in northwestern Russia on Wednesday, killing its pilot, officials said. 
 The twin-engine fighter crashed near Ostrov, 550 kilometers northwest of Moscow, after it had performed figures and headed for landing, the navy said in an official statement. 
 The pilot of the aircraft, General Timur Apakidze, was badly injured in the crash and died on the way to hospital, emergency officials reported from the area. 
 
 
Il-76 Probe
 

MOSCOW (AP) - Officials investigating Saturday's crash of an Il-76 transport plane near Moscow said Tuesday that it occurred because the plane was overloaded, Interfax reported. 
 The aircraft, which belonged to the Rus airline, slammed into a forest shortly after taking off from an airbase near Moscow, killing all its crew of 10.
 A preliminary report into the crash due to be released Tuesday was delayed by investigators. Interfax said that they were having difficulty analyzing the plane's damaged flight recorders.
 
 
Jiang to Minsk
 

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - President Alexander Lukashenko and Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin emphasized their common stand on global issues during a meeting Thursday and criticized a proposed U.S. missile-defense plan.
 Lukashenko thanked Jiang, who arrived in Belarus on Wednesday night after a four-day trip to Russia, for China's support for his country.
 The Belarussian leader, who has taken a tough line on dissent and been accused of authoritarian ways, told Jiang he appreciates "your unbiased support of Belarus on all issues," according to the Interfax news agency.
 "China and Belarus adhere to the same belief that all countries have the right to choose their path of development," Jiang said. "Together we call for supporting an international balance of political forces."
 Jiang and Lukashenko attacked U.S. plans for a missile-defense system, saying in a joint statement that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty - which prohibits national missile shields - was "a cornerstone of global strategic stability and of international security."
 
 
Soldiers Arrested
 

MOSCOW (AP) - After weeks of criticism over alleged abuses, officials said Thursday that six Russian servicemen had been arrested for crimes against civilians during house-to-house searches for rebels in the war-torn republic of Chechnya. 
 The arrests stem from a military operation this month, when Chechen human rights groups and civilians charge that Russian soldiers descended on three villages and went on the rampage while searching for rebels. 
 All males between 15 and 50 in the villages of Assinovskaya, Sernovodsk and Kurchaloi were rounded up and forced to kneel for hours, witnesses said. Some accused the troops of torturing and humiliating them. 
 The servicemen will be investigated for kidnapping, robbery and abuse of authority, among other crimes, said an official in the office of Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the chief government spokesperson on Chechnya. Accusations against troops have been plentiful, but prosecutions and punishment rare.
 
 
Danilov Still in Custody
 

MOSCOW (AP) - Valentin Danilov, a Siberian physicist accused of committing espionage for China, will be kept in custody at least until Aug. 14, Itar-Tass reported on Tuesday. 
 Danilov, 53, a researcher at Krasnoyarsk Technical University, was arrested Feb. 16 and charged with selling secrets to a Chinese import-export company. He has suffered heart trouble since the arrest and was hospitalized, but the court has rejected his lawyer's appeals to ease the conditions of his confinement. 
 After Aug. 14, Danilov can be held in pretrial detention only with the sanction of the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow, Itar-Tass said. 
 Danilov contends that he did not violate any laws because the information he provided was already published in scientific journals.
 Seventeen members of the Russian Academy of Sciences have already sent a letter to the Prosecutor General's Office, asking for an independent review of the accusations and an open trial. No reply from prosecutors has been reported. 
 
 
Deaths at Georgia Peak 
 

TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) - An American photojournalist and his local guide have been found dead on a Georgian mountainside after an attempt to climb one of the highest peaks in the Caucasus, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said. 
 The bodies of Joe Bensen, 52, and his guide, Vano Guledani, were found not far from the summit of the Ushba peak Sunday, the spokesperson said. 
 "According to preliminary information it was a climbing accident," she said, without giving details. 
 The spokesperson said that a search operation for the pair began more than a week ago when they failed to come down from the 4,700-meter mountain in the Svanetia region of northwestern Georgia. 
 Helicopters circling the mountain could not locate the climbers due to bad weather, and had to set down rescuers to continue the search. 
 "Their bodies were brought to Tbilisi today. An autopsy will be done here," the spokesperson said. 
 Bensen,who was from Washington state, was a travel writer and photographer who came to Georgia last year to take up a teaching fellowship at the Tbilisi State University. 



TITLE: Raw-Material Exports Jump Almost 50%
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The value of Russia's exports topped $100 billion for the first time last year, with the top 10 exporters accounting for 40 percent of the total, according to a new ranking released Wednesday.
 Unusually high prices for raw materials, especially oil, fueled the nearly 50 percent jump over the $73 billion in exports Russia produced in 1999, according to the ranking compiled by ratings agency Expert RA with the help of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Moscow International Business Association.
 While the volume of exports rose just 5 percent in 2000, revenues jumped 71 percent, according to Expert magazine.
 Over 70 percent of export revenues for the top 100 companies came from the oil and gas sector, with the metals industry bringing in 19 percent, the chemicals industry 4.5 percent and heavy-machinery producers 3.3 percent.
 The indisputable leader once again was Gazprom, which exported $15.9 billion worth of gas in 2000, 15 percent of the national total and nearly three times more than runner-up LUKoil. Rounding out the top five were oil majors Yukos, TNK and Tatneft.
 Metals giants Norilsk Nickel and Russian Aluminum, at sixth and seventh respectively, broke up the chain of fuel companies: Surgutneftegaz, Sibneft and Rosneft rounded out the top 10.
 Top steel producer Severstal was No. 11, while the TVEL corporation, which builds equipment for nuclear power plants, was No. 20 with exports worth $571 million. The largest chemical and petrochemical exporter, according to the rating, was Bashneftekhim, ranked 24th overall.
 Domestic auto king AutoVAZ was 29th, while national power grid Unified Energy Systems was 33rd, sending $212 million worth of electricity abroad in 2000.
 Expert RA general director Dmitry Grishankov said many companies are still reluctant to disclose information, so one of the major objectives of the list was to codify available data on the current conditions and prospects for increasing exports, which have been the engine for economic growth.
 Grishanov said another goal was to help Russia's corporate image. &quot;Russian companies have a very bad reputation in the world,&quot; he said. &quot;There is an information barrier, reliable information doesn't reach Western countries,&quot; he added.
 Apart from the top 100 rankings, Expert RA presented corporate awards for exporters in a variety of categories based on the decisions of a panel that included Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Mikhail Medvedkov and AmCham president Andrew Sommers.
 Siberian-Urals Petrochemical Co., or Sibur, for example, won for &quot;most dynamic development,&quot; an obvious choice considering the company posted a ridiculous-sounding 74,608.33 percent growth in exports last year.
 With clients in 91 countries, Severstal won awards for having the &quot;biggest client base&quot; and the &quot;widest geographical&quot; operations.
 Novolipetsk steel won for largest number of individual shipments abroad (18,074), while AvtoVAZ, Kazan Helicopter Plant and Sibur shared the award for most active marketing policy.
 Expert RA panelist Yevgeny Gavrilenko, who heads the Bureau of Economic Analysis, praised the ratings and awards as a &quot;first step&quot; toward improving the export potential of Russian companies. &quot;In the coming years, however, the ratings must include estimations of how companies use their export potential and revenues,&quot; he added.
 MICEX general director Alexander Zakharov recommended that the ratings include the market capitalization of companies as a tool for portfolio investors. <strong>TOP EXPORTERS </strong>
<strong>Russia's leading exporters of raw materials in 2000 </strong>

<strong>Company Field 2000 Export Year-on-Year 
 Revenues Growth
 </strong>1. Gazprom Oil and Gas $15.933 billion 53.1%
 2. LUKoil Oil and Gas $5.7138 billion 94.9%
 3. Yukos Oil and Gas $5.2475 billion 105.9%
 4. TyumenOil Co. Oil and Gas $3.4775 billion 181.3%
 5. Tatneft Oil and Gas $2.629 billion 175.8%
 6. Norilsk Nickel Non-ferrous metals $2.2469 billion 22.4%
 7. Russian Alumin. Non-ferrous metals $2.1616 billion -11.8%
 8. Surgutneftegaz Oil and Gas $1.7005 billion 126.6%
 9. Sibneft Oil and Gas $1.6999 billion 78.9%
 10. Rosneft Oil and Gas $1.2945 billion 72%
 11. Severstal Ferrous metals $1.0671 billion 21.9%
 12. Slavneft Oil and Gas $1.0181 billion 112.1%
 13. Alrosa Non-ferrous metals $877.4 million 20.1% 
 14. Novolipetsk Ferrous metals $866 million 39.9%
 15. Bashneft Oil and Gas $858.7 million 34.2%
 16. Magnitogorsk Ferrous metals $849.2 million 25.1%
 17. Onako Oil and Gas $681.6 million 64.8%
 18. Sidanko Oil and Gas $662.3 million 99.7%
 19. Itera Oil and Gas $657.1 million -47.5%
 20. TVEL Automobile builder $571 million 57.7%

TITLE: RTR: EuroNews To Bring Western Journalism to Russia
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A Russian version of EuroNews television will be on the air by September, state-controlled RTR said on Thursday. But it was unclear how RTR plans to squeeze the European news service onto the already tight television scene and whether one of the existing stations will be bumped to make room
 &quot;Residents of Moscow and some of Russia's regions will be able to watch about 12 hours of EuroNews broadcasts every day on one of Russia's main channels,&quot; RTR said in a statement. It did not specify which of the six main VHF channels will broadcast EuroNews. All are occupied.
 The arrival of EuroNews to Russia was first announced by President Vladimir Putin at a press conference on Wednesday. 
 The man heading RTR's side in the project, Andrei Bystritsky, said that the idea is to introduce the Russian audience to Western-style journalism.
 &quot;It is not an issue of whether such a news channel is needed or not. The point is to give Russian citizens the opportunity to see it. Above all, it has to be said that Russia is slowly returning to Europe. Looking at it from this angle, it is obviously the right decision to bring [EuroNews] to Russia,&quot; Bystritsky said. 
 &quot;It will certainly be a secondary source of information, just as in any other country. And the audience is mostly to consist of those individuals who are interested in studying and understanding politics and economics,&quot; he added.
 Potential viewers are also likely to be relatively well-off, thus making EuroNews attractive for advertisers, Bystritsky said. RTR and EuroNews are to split the advertising revenues.
 Bystritsky refused to comment on where EuroNews would be given space among Russia's VHF channels, adding only that a compromise was always possible.
 The six major channels are ORT, RTR, NTV, TV Center, TV6 and the so-called Kultura channel, which is held equally by state-run Kultura and private Tele-Expo.
 Tele-Expo, which broadcasts in the mornings and late at night, mostly shows entertainment programs by MTV-Russia, the Russian arm of Rupert Murdoch's international musical television phenomenon.
 And Tele-Expo's airtime is likely to be what Russia's television officials are considering for EuroNews broadcasts in Moscow, an official from the All-Russian State Television and Radio Company, or VGTRK, said on condition of anonymity. VGTRK is RTR's parent company.
 The Kultura channel is seen in Moscow and some of the regions but does not have national reach. 
 Another option, or to expand into parts of the country were Kultura is not seen, would be to use a UHF channel.
 &quot;Euronews is interested in expanding, but what market will they find in Russia? If it appears in VHF, then one of the six existing channels will be axed. If Euronews gets shown in the UHF range, they would have a poor signal,&quot; Anna Kachkayeva, a media analyst with Radio Liberty, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
 It was also unclear Thursday how VGTRK would manage to secure a license for EuroNews while sticking to legal procedures. Press Minister Mikhail Lesin has said that he considers the institution of a legal and transparent process for awarding television and radio licenses on a competitive basis to be the main achievement of his time in office.
 If EuroNews were indeed to replace Tele-Expo, there would be the problem of withdrawing Tele-Expo's license. Withdrawal of a license also requires a long legal process during which the broadcaster is to be issued at least two warnings from the Press Ministry for improper performance and given a chance to defend itself.
 Tele-Expo General Director Kirill Lysko said that his company has received no documents from the Press Ministry suggesting that its license is under threat. Tele-Expo's license expires in 2004.
 &quot;I would be really curious to see, due to the licensing problems, if two major international broadcasters such MTV and EuroNews find themselves in a conflict,&quot; Lysko said in a telephone interview Thursday.
 A EuroNews spokesperson said the frequency issues were the responsibility of the Russian side.
 The private British television company ITN will be responsible for the editorial content, to be fed from EuroNews headquarters in Lyon, France. ITN holds a 49 percent stake in EuroNews and operates the channel.
 The remaining 51 percent is held by SECEMIE, a European consortium of 20 public television companies. Its members are active participants of the European Broadcasting Union. RTR is expected to pay yearly contributions in order to help run EuroNews' operations. 
 EuroNews broadcasts in six languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portugese. It is known for the absence of news anchors; its reports most often are just footage with a voice telling the story. 
 In order to generate Russian scripts, 16 Russian journalists will work in Lyon. In the initial stages, all of the coverage will come from EuroNews, although in the future reports may be created specifically for the Russian audience. 
 &quot;I consider the project to be a political trial balloon,&quot; Kachkayeva said. &quot;But, in any case, this is a chance for Russia to enter the European media market. We might promote our own news reports. It will be good training for Russian journalists.&quot;
 Kachkayeva said that the alliance was in part linked to VGTRK chairman Oleg Dobrodeyev, who has always been a fan of news-oriented broadcasting. Dobrodeyev co-founded NTV along with media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky and was instrumental in setting a high standard of news coverage on the channel.
 According to Kachkayeva, in the mid-1990s Dobrodeyev tried, but failed, to introduce Russian-language broadcasts of CNN.
 The coming arrival of EuroNews on the Russian television market was also welcomed by the Yabloko party.
 &quot;Our reaction to the launch of Euronews in Russia can only be a positive one, regardless of the reasons behind the project,&quot; Yabloko Duma Deputy Sergei Mitrokhin said in a telephone interview on Thursday. &quot;It will improve the objectivity of our national broadcasters, especially of the state-owned ones, which currently don't meet European standards.&quot;
 Another Yabloko deputy, Yury Shein, said that party leader Grigory Yavlinsky had discussed the need for a channel like Euronews with Putin on several occasions.
 &quot;Television news programs like EuroNews and political news [programs] exist in all languages. Why are there still no European television channels in Russian? I believe that would be a good investment for the European Commission,&quot; Yavlinsky said at a meeting with editors of regional Russian newspapers at the commision's Moscow office last December, a Yabloko statement said.
 
 <i>Staff writer Nabi Abdullaev contributed to this report. </i>

TITLE: Financial Violations Surround Arms Firm
AUTHOR: By Mikhail Kozyrev

PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Prosecutor General's Office has notified arms-export giant Rosoboronexport of large-scale financial violations by its main predecessor, Rosvooruzheniye, involving nearly $40 million worth of OVVZ government bonds.
 Some observers saw the move as an attack against Rosvooruzheniye's former chief Alexander Kotyolkin.
 The prosecutors' letter to Rosoboronexport was based on an Audit Chamber report issued last year that said Rosvooruzheniye's former management illegally entered the bonds into the charter capital of a fully owned Rosvooruzheniye subsidiary called RVS Investment Co. RVS was set up in 1994 under Rosvooruzheniye's department for scientific and technical production, a source from the military-industrial complex said. The department handled deliveries of civilian technology, raw materials and other goods not directly linked to arms exports. RVS, the source said, was used to carry out such contracts.
 Initially, the OVVZs were on the balance sheet of Oboronexport, one of three companies on the basis of which Rosvooruzheniye was formed.
 According to the Audit Chamber, Rosvooruzheniye also violated currency laws by transferring $1.2 million from the accounts of Oboronexport, which was being liquidated to RVS. Furthermore, the auditors discovered an illegal transfer of OVVZs worth $1.13 million to a company called NIKO, an agent in paying Rosvooruzheniye's debts to the military-industrial sector.
 A Rosoboronexport spokesperson confirmed his company had received the prosecutors' notification and was instructed to rectify the situation within a month. The spokesperson, who asked that his name be withheld, declined to specify how his company would &quot;rectify the mistakes&quot; or whether RVS still exists. It is unclear who now holds the OVVZs.
 The Prosecutor General's Office also noted some violations not turned up by the Audit Chamber report, Leonid Zhigalov, a chamber spokesperson, said. Prosecutors accused Rosvooruzheniye of incorrectly drawing up an agreement to transfer OVVZs worth $12 million to MAPO Bank. Under the agreement, Rosvooruzheniye could not retrieve the bonds.
 Karen Martirosov, the external manager at MAPO Bank, which has been declared bankrupt, said he knew nothing of the OVVZs, although he did acknowledge that Rosoboronexport is among the bank's creditors.
 Some observers have said the prosecutors' attention to the case may be linked to an attempt to strip Kotyolkin of the last of his influence in the arms industry.
 A source in the military-industrial complex speculated that the investigation could have been &quot;ordered&quot; by Kotyolkin's foes. At the time of the Audit Chamber probe, Rosvooruzheniye head Alexei Ogaryov and Kotyolkin, who served as his adviser, were locked in battle with Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and head of state weapons agency Promexport, Sergei Chemezov. The latter group enjoyed the backing of President Vladimir Putin, and their plan for reshuffling the industry won out.

TITLE: China, Russia Agree On Pipeline
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia and China signed an agreement Tuesday that clears the way for a feasibility study on an oil pipeline linking the two countries.
 In addition, Gazprom will be allowed to participate in a tender for the construction of a gas pipeline to China.
 The 1,700-kilometer oil link, which has been under discussion for more than two years, is to be built by 2005 and would carry up to 30 million tons a year, or 219 million barrels.
 It is planned to run from Angarsk, in the Irkutsk Region, to Daling, China.
 &quot;These things take a long time because it is two governments agreeing on something, not two oil companies,&quot; said Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky. China is set to become an influential importer of Russian hydrocarbons in the near future and is worth the wait.
 China's next five-year development plan includes imports of Russian crude, said Energy Minister Igor Yusufov.
 Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed the agreement, which will include an appendix outlining the construction period for the pipeline. It was also signed by Yusufov, Khodorkovsky and Semyon Vainshtok, president of pipeline monopoly Transneft.
 The entire length of the pipeline is 2,400 kilometers, the Russian part stretching 1,700 kilometers. Rough estimates put the cost of the entire pipeline at $1.7 billion, and China will finance the part running through its territory.
 Yusufov said that once a gas pipeline is built, gas could be shipped from the Kovykta field to China. With a pipeline in place, it will be easier for Gazprom to build a distribution system in Russia's eastern regions.
 The feasibility study will cost $30 million, and according to the agreement, other Russian companies may join the consortium if they are willing to guarantee financing and crude shipments.

TITLE: Lenenergo Seeks Higher Profile in West's Markets
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Regional power utility Lenenergo announced this week that it plans to raise its profile on Western securities markets by placing level-2 American Depositary Receipts at some point in 2002.
 At a Monday press conference, Vladislav Kuzminov, the deputy general director in charge of development, said that the level-2 ADR float was part of a long-term strategic plan to tap a number of financial sources.
 &quot;The strategic plan is being formulated right now,&quot; Kuzminov said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. &quot;The final variant will only be discussed by the company's board of directors in October, so we are not in a position right now to go over specifics, but the main points of the plan will focus on tariff policies, launching the next-level ADRs, new bond issues and long-term bank credits.&quot;
 According to Kuzminov, the new five- and 10-year plans are aimed at attracting investment to allow Lenenergo to build new networks and upgrade old wiring networks in the city, as well as to build new facilities to replace more obsolete parts of the utility's system. Special attention will be paid to the electrical infrastructure serving the city center.
 &quot;Conditions here have changed and our plans have to change accordingly,&quot; Kuzminov said. &quot;The city administration's tariff policy has become more flexible and rational. Now we have an opportunity to raise tariffs, and that will be one of the central points in the strategic plan.&quot;
 According to officials with Lenenergo, the level-2 ADR plans are still somewhat embryonic. Lenenergo is already in the process of placing level-1 ADRs through JP Morgan, which is acting as its depositary bank in the United States.
 Plans for the level-1 ADR program were first announced by the company at the beginning of last year and the ADRs were to be placed last autumn.
 Level-1 ADRs represent Lenenergo shares that have already been issued and, as a result, do not represent the raising of new capital. Each ADR represents a certain number of shares traded on the company's domestic market - in this case the Russian Stock Exchange (RTS) - and can only be traded on the &quot;over-the-counter&quot; market. They are not listed on any U.S. exchange and can only be traded by institutional investors.
 The ADR program was to involve 10 percent of the company's shares, with a face value of 8.9 million rubles (about $300,000).
 The conversion process started on June 13 of this year. Initially, the Bank of New York (BoNY) was announced as the depositary bank, but Lenenergo eventually chose JP Morgan to carry out the program.
 &quot;JP Morgan was chosen because it offers a broader range of services,&quot; James Gerson, head of investor relations at Lenenergo, said in telephone interview on Wednesday. &quot;We recognized that the range of services offered by BoNY was more narrow. BoNY is professional, but we chose JP Morgan.&quot;
 Gerson said that Lenenergo had yet to receive official figures from JP Morgan about the number of ADRs that had been purchased, but that he was encouraged by Lenenergo shares' recent performance on the RTS.
 &quot;Ordinary shares have to be purchased here on the local market in order to be converted into ADRs,&quot; Gerson said. &quot;The increase in volume of trading and the price of the stock are good signs though.&quot;
 &quot;Judging by the initial information, the reaction to the level-1 program has been even more positive than we expected.&quot;
 Michael Seleznyov, an analyst with United Financial Group, agreed. &quot;While Lenenergo was preparing the launch of the ADRs, and since the actual sales began a month ago, the liquidity of their shares has definitely increased substantially,&quot; he said.
 On May 12, before the ADRs were floated, Lenenergo stood at $0.15, but that has almost doubled in the ensuing period to $0.29.
 The success of the level-1 program is likely spurring the move up a rung to level-2 ADRs, which can be listed on the U.S. securities exchange or NASDAQ, but which still do not allow the raising of new capital and require more stringent reporting procedures.
 &quot;I think that level-2 ADRs are the next logical step, but it means that we will have to meet not only the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but also the U.S. exchanges,&quot; Gerson said. &quot;This means that we'll essentially have to start acting like a U.S. company as the reporting requirements are much more stringent than in Russia.&quot;
 Along with refiling the same documentation that was required for the level-1 placement, Lenenergo will also be required to provide detailed financial statements about the company in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and submit annual reports and interim financial statements on a regular, timely basis.
 &quot;It's very time-intensive and will bring with it a significant financial cost, but it's a very worthwhile project,&quot; Gerson said.
 &quot;At the end of it all, we will have a three-year financial history of the company done by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and based on international accounting standards.&quot;
 At Monday's press conference, Kuzminov said that the level-2 program would be ready for launch next year, but analysts say that it might take a bit longer than the firm expects.
 &quot;It's very likely that preparations for level-2 conversion will take longer than planned,&quot; Kakha Kiknavelidze, an analyst at Troika Dialog, said on Wednesday. &quot;They might be able to do it in a year, but that depends on the level of professionalism of the Lenenergo team.&quot;
 According to Andrei Likachyov, the general director of Lenenergo, there are also plans in the works to issue 12- and 18-month bonds totaling 1 billion rubles (about $34 million) in value. The plan, announced in May, would use Renaissance Capital brokerage as the agent and Moscow-based Zenit bank as the underwriter for the bonds. According to Likhachyov, these funds will go to restructure 3 billion rubles of debt to Gazprom, the main supplier of natural gas to Lenenergo.

TITLE: New Agency Proposed for Natural Monopolies
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Three proposals for a new structure to regulate tariffs on the so-called &quot;natural monopolies&quot; were submitted to the government Tuesday.
 President Vladimir Putin wants a new agency created by September that will set tariffs on the gas and power industries, railroads, oil pipeline systems and other sectors covered by the law on natural monopolies.
 The goal of the agency is to coordinate tariff policy at all levels of the economy better, and to improve control over inflation. Currently, tariffs are regulated by various ministries and commissions at federal, regional and municipal levels.
 When, for example, electricity tariffs rise, the Railways Ministry raises its rates, making it more expensive to ship the coal and oil that utilities use to make electricity. The utilities then lobby to raise their prices, and the vicious circle continues, all the while fueling inflation throughout the economy.
 &quot;The situation is such that gas tariffs are set at the federal level, electricity tariffs are regulated at the regional level and communal housing tariffs are regulated at the municipal level. There are conflicting targets. Each wants to raise its own tariffs but keep its costs stable. A unified tariff commission should coordinate all increases across all sectors,&quot; said Natalya Orlova, an economist at Alfa Bank.
 The Economic Development and Trade Ministry, the Antimonopoly Ministry and the Federal Energy Commission, which have developed the proposals, agree that the tariff-setting process should be concentrated under one roof at the federal level. But they disagree on whose roof it should be and the extent of tariff-setting powers.
 The FEC, which regulates tariffs on oil, transport, gas and electricity, has put itself forward as the foundation for the new agency. But the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and the Antimonopoly Ministry, which regulates rail and telephone rates, both say an entirely new and independent agency is needed.

TITLE: Putin's Positives
AUTHOR: By Duncan DeVille

TEXT: WESTERN advocates for the rule of law in Russia have had much to celebrate lately. In recent weeks, under strong prodding from President Vladimir Putin, the State Duma has moved ahead on two extraordinary pieces of legislation: an entirely new criminal-procedures code and a potentially revolutionary land-reform law. Yet these seemingly positive developments have been met with scorn by many in Russia, as have Putin's efforts supporting these measures.
 Both of these bills had been stalled in the Duma since the mid-1990s despite - or because of - former president Boris Yeltsin's efforts to get them passed. Yet Putin, with little fanfare, has managed to do what Yeltsin with all his bravado could not do: get the notoriously conservative Duma to approve these sweeping bills.
 The new code of criminal procedure, which in recent weeks passed its second reading (a third and final reading in the next few weeks is seen as a formality before the bill is sent to the upper house of Russia's parliament, where approval is expected) has long been advocated by Western experts. It will divest power from Russia's prosecutors and invest it in the country's judiciary. It does this by taking away from the prosecutors the right to issue arrest and search warrants and places this power in the hands of judges. The new code also allows criminal defendants to retract confessions, many of which are still beaten out of suspects by Russian police. Under the new code, once retracted by a defendant, such confessions cannot be used as evidence.
 Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the new code guarantees the right to jury trials in criminal cases. Under the current system, prosecutors often do not even show up at trials, so confident are they that judges will convict since there is no jury there to hinder them. Russia actually began a jury-trial experiment in 1993, but jury trials were only held in nine of the country's 89 regions. In recent years, juries heard only 2 percent of Russia's criminal trials. The results of even this small experiment have been startling. While the acquittal rate in old-style Russian criminal trials today is about 1 percent, in areas with the jury-trial experiment nearly 20 percent of all accused have been freed.
 The new code expands this right to all those accused of serious crimes, allowing them to have their cases heard by 10-member juries of their peers. This will force prosecutors to prove their cases with hard evidence, rather than relying upon the rubber-stamps of judges or so-called lay assessors. Once passed, the new code will force prosecutors throughout the country to bring stronger cases or else face a loss at the hands of suspicious juries. Further, a stamp of public approval comes with a jury verdict, which also serves to make credible the actions of the state. Juries also act as a check on state corruption. 
 The land-reform bill is equally far-reaching in the historical change it represents. The bill (which passed its second reading last week and, like the legal reform bill, is expected to pass through the Federation Coucil with ease) would do something that would have been anathema to Communists: allow the private ownership of some land. So offensive is this to the old guard that some Communists and Agrarian party members actually came to blows with proponents of the measure in the Duma. They then marched out en masse and sang revolutionary songs outside. Not only does this land-reform bill allow private ownership of land by Russian citizens, it even allows land ownership by foreigners.
 Russia's markets have been slow to develop in the atmosphere of uncertainty that currently exists over whether individuals can really own land. In addition to the obvious economic benefits of legalizing private land ownership, this law would go a long way toward reducing the power of organized crime groups in Russia. The absence of legal land ownership has created a bonanza for mafia groups, who currently control property through a violent black-market system.
 Compared to the laws currently in place, these new measures are vast improvements. To be sure, these two new pieces of legislation do not go far enough. For instance, the new criminal code does not provide criteria by which a judge can approve or reject a proposed warrant, nor does it do away with the ability of the procuracy to reject some defense-gathered evidence. Likewise, critics in the liberal Union of Right Forces have correctly noted that the land-reform bill has serious shortcomings. In an effort to get something passed by a recalcitrant Duma, Putin dropped a provision that would have also authorized the sale of agricultural lands. This, he promises, will be taken up in a subsequent bill. 
 Nevertheless, the two new bills, once formally passed, will make for enormous changes in the lives of ordinary citizens, providing a measure of personal and economic freedom not previously enjoyed.
 Westerners tend to label any Russian leader who speaks some English and doesn't pound his shoe on tables as a reformer. Only time will tell whether Putin is serious about reform, but in a country about which there has been little good news to report in recent years, his latest actions are a welcome change, and credit should be given where credit is due. His critics are, as the poet Robert Browning said, &quot;faultless to a fault.&quot; In their demand for perfection, they are too quick to find fault in actions that will go a long way toward establishing the rule of law in Russia.
 
 <i>Duncan DeVille is a former federal prosecutor who has lived and worked in Russia on behalf of both NGOs and the U.S. Department of Justice. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Number's Up For the Ruler of The Mariinsky
TEXT: IT is a fact of life that leaders are often allowed to get away with a blatantly authoritarian style so long as they keep winning. When you start losing, the knives come out and your methods are criticized as flawed from the very beginning.
 This has applied for a number of years to Valery Gergiev, leader of the Mariinsky Theater. While the Mariinsky was &quot;winning,&quot; Gergiev's style of management was applauded. Western orchestras that grumbled about the maestro turning up late to rehearsals and then pushing them to the limit were roundly mocked for running at the first sign of hard work. 
 Besides, who on the conducting circuit works as hard as Gergiev? Wakes up in St. Petersburg, rehearses in the afternoon in Berlin and does the evening concert in Rotterdam.
 So it has been interesting to see the reaction to the Mariinsky's current tour of London, where they have been performing six Verdi operas to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. I was flabbergasted to learn that the Mariinsky was going to do this: The company has had rave reviews in the West for its Russian operas - its performances of Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky last year had London in raptures - but Verdi? Nothing of the Verdi I had seen at the Mariinsky was world-class, so I wondered how they would be received.
 They have been pasted, and I derive a certain satisfaction from this for two reasons.
 The first is that Gergiev told The Guardian earlier this month that St. Petersburg's reaction to &quot;Macbeth&quot; had been cool because we were all &quot;totally spoiled&quot; by the quality of previous productions. I hated &quot;Aida,&quot; as did most of those who reviewed it. &quot;Don Carlos&quot; and &quot;The Force of Destiny&quot; were frowned on, but got off lighter because they were the first stages in what looked like Gergiev's attempt to teach himself and his company the Verdi art. The new production of &quot;The Queen of Spades&quot; was not a patch on the old staging, but London only got a concert performance. Spoiled? Don't make me laugh.
 The second reason stems from a &quot;surprise&quot; concert a couple of years back that was a last-minute addition to the White Nights Festival. It started 45 minutes late. The Stravinsky item was canceled, and the Mozart was excruciating. It was the most contemptuous treatment of an audience I have ever witnessed.
 However, Gergiev is responsible for restoring the Mariinsky's vaunted international reputation. His decision to stage works like &quot;Semyon Kotko&quot; was brilliant, the production (and his conducting) even more so. He has created an in-house youth orchestra and an academy for young singers, comprising some of the brightest talent in the world. 
 But how are the mighty fallen. For the despised and forgotten critics and public of St. Petersburg, two things have been clear for some time.
 One: Gergiev does not know his limitations. Neither does he know his strengths. Where are Britten, Bartok, Janacek, Stravinsky and other 20th-century opera giants in the Mariinsky repertoire at which Gergiev would excel? Where is the contemporary opera? Why does Sergei Slonimsky have to go to Samara to hear his work conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich and directed by Robert Sturua?
 Two: Gergiev has done all he can for the company as its leader. At most, the Mariinsky needs someone who will pick better directors than Schaaf, Konchalovsky and Gabinin, and who will understand that great art begins at home before you can take it abroad. At least, it needs someone who will recognize the suicidal futility of taking your weakest repertoire to the music capital of Europe. 
 Gergiev should stand aside so that he will go down as one of the greatest ever conductors. He will not, at this rate, be remembered as a great leader. He can still provide the Mariinsky with the drive and artistic vision it needs. But it is time to surrender some of his absolute power for the good of the company.
 
 <i>Barnaby Thompson is a former editor of The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Let's Keep The Tourists Flooding In
TEXT: THE latest word from the City Tourism Committee is both encouraging and frustrating. The number of foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg this year is up 20 percent, expected to top 3 million this year. While that is a far cry from Paris (26 million tourists) and New York (36 million), it is a rate of increase that we can be proud of. 
 And, if the average tourist spends about $900 while they are in town, as experts estimate, than the additional 500,000 this year means a tidy $450 million pumped into the local economy. Good news indeed.
 Also good news is that the increase is happening for all the right reasons. Our numerous, excellent arts festivals - notably the White Nights Festival, but many, many others as well - are gaining impressive international reputations and generating repeat tourist business, despite the difficulties of getting visas to Russia and traveling here.
 Further, President Vladimir Putin's efforts to increase the city's international profile through his frequent summit meetings here are also bearing fruit. With each such meeting, photos of the Neva embankment, Palace Square and other beauty spots fly around the world, introducing millions to a city that they may never have thought about before.
 The bad news, though, is that we are in no position to maintain this rate of growth, and therefore in no position to take full advantage of the potential revenue opportunities awaiting us during the tricentennial celebrations in 2003.
 The city's 25,536 hotel rooms can't cope with figures like 3 million or more. This year, high-end hotels were more or less booked for the summer by February. That situation will no doubt get worse in coming years, even as a few new hotels open, meaning that badly needed tourist dollars will be being turned away.
 Hotels, of course, aren't the only problem. Attitudes in general can be an obstacle, as many locals seem almost to resent the annual influx of tourists and even many tourist attractions seem determined to keep them away or, at the least, to keep them from coming back. Plus there is the general problem of wear and tear on the city's often poorly maintained monuments.
 While it is almost certainly too late to take full advantage of the opportunities opening up in 2003, it is not too late to improve the situation and to make reaping those tourist revenues a real priority for the city. 
 The potential for tourism is by far St. Petersburg's greatest asset. If we can build a clean, safe and friendly city with enough hotel beds, there may be no limit to our possibilities.

TITLE: Global eye
TEXT: <strong>Clarifications</strong>
 While a column dedicated in some measure to political satire will perforce use vivid language not often heard inside well-appointed law offices and consultancies, it is important that such vividness is based on solid fact, not &quot;exaggerations.&quot; Therefore, as a public service, we herewith revisit the background of some recent Eye items called into question by anxious readers.
 First, the &quot;exaggerated&quot; claim that you can be arrested for not wearing a seat belt if an American cop doesn't like the cut of your jib. From The Associated Press, April 24, 2001: &quot;Clarifying the extent of police power in roadside stops, the U.S. Supreme Court held that officers can arrest and handcuff people even for minor offenses punishable by a fine. In the 5-4 ruling, the justices said such an arrest does not violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable seizures.&quot;
 Dissenting from the decision, conservative Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that the majority's ruling &quot;cloaked pointless indignity with the mantle of reasonableness,&quot; giving police an &quot;unbounded discretion&quot; which &quot;carries with it grave potential for abuse.&quot;
 Boy, that's just the kind of &quot;fashionable America-bashing&quot; you'd expect from a Reagan-appointed, pro-Bush Supreme Court Justice, isn't it? She obviously doesn't realize that police powers are never, <i>ever </i>abused by any law enforcement agency anywhere in God's country - unless, of course, you are &quot;rude&quot; to one of the sensitive lambkins arresting you.
 On a side note, it's true the Supremes recently ruled that police can't use infrared ray guns to spy on private homes - unless they have a search warrant, that is. Thus the Court has placed a very minor restriction on those few police forces that can afford such hi-tech gizmos while allowing every podunk department from hell to West Texas to slap cuffs on any jaywalker who tries to get above their raising. Yep, that's a triumph of &quot;civil liberties&quot; for you!
 Finally, concerning &quot;three-strike&quot; laws condemning people to life in prison for repeat offenses. We are assured that the American judicial system is &quot;unbelievably lenient&quot; and that only a few hardened criminals suffer this entirely just punishment. Yet isn't it strange that in a single state, California, there are more than 3,300 people serving third-strike terms for non-violent, non-serious third offenses?
 And what are some of the &quot;serious felonies&quot; that sealed their fates? Let's see. Rene Landa: stealing a spare tire. Gilbert Musgrave: possession of a stolen VCR. Thomas Williams: stealing a bicycle. Ruben Arriaga: shoplifting a $70 drill. Daniel Larsen: possession of a knife. George Anderson: filling out a false driver's license application. (Thank God <i>he's </i>locked up for life!) Darren Jones: shoplifting a sweater and shirt. Richard Morgan: shoplifting a baseball glove. Robert Di Blasi: stealing a $2.69 pack of batteries. Raphael Rayford: stealing aspirin.
 Shall we go on? There are only 3,340 more of these cases just in California - one of the most &quot;liberal&quot; states in the union.
 Admittedly, none of this is &quot;serious&quot; - just a bunch of dusky losers and poor white trash thrown down the rathole. Who cares? What <i>really </i>matters are the &quot;pretty broad personal freedoms&quot; enjoyed by all those Americans whose social status, educational background, personal appearance - and financial access to adequate legal counsel - can protect them from the &quot;unbounded discretion&quot; of state power.
 See ya at Starbucks!
 
 <strong>Head Case</strong>
 Speaking of &quot;pretty broad personal freedoms,&quot; an undercover Maryland cop is enjoying his civil liberties this week after the Bush administration exonerated him for killing an unarmed African-American college student in a case of &quot;mistaken identity.&quot;
 It seems that Carlton Jones, deep-cover narc for a county police department, spotted Howard University student Prince Jones (no relation, obviously) engaged in highly suspicious activity, i.e., driving his car through an affluent white neighborhood. Guided by the widespread police practice of &quot;racial profiling,&quot; Carlton realized that Prince - the son of a prosperous doctor - obviously had to be one of them badass Superfly dope dealers, and immediately gave chase in his unmarked Starsky-and-Hutch cruiser.
 The student, alarmed at the sight of a hyped-up, bug-eyed white boy riding his bumper, tried to get away. But the unmarked car gave hot pursuit all the way from Maryland through Washington, D.C. and into Virginia, AP reports. Prince stopped his car in suburban Fairfax, a block away from the house where his fianc&eacute;e and infant daughter were waiting for him. There, in a final attempt to shake off his unidentified attacker, Prince reversed his car and slammed the front end of Starsky's hot rod.
 Carlton Jones then did what any police officer confronted with such &quot;rude&quot; behavior would do: He stepped out of his car and pumped 16 rounds of hot lead into Prince Jones' vehicle. The 25-year-old student died instantly from five bullets - in the back.
 The case went to the Justice Department now run by John Ashcroft - you know, the guy who once poured Crisco oil over his own head when he was elected to the Senate, in emulation of King David's divine anointing as ruler of ancient Israel. King Crisco ruled that Carlton had used &quot;reasonable force&quot; when he emptied his clip at the innocent, unarmed student. Thus, there were &quot;insufficient grounds&quot; to charge the officer with violating the dead man's civil rights.
 Too bad for young Prince. He met <i>most </i>of the requirements for the exercise of America's &quot;pretty broad personal freedoms&quot;: He had the social status and educational background, and could have even paid for legal counsel (if he'd been given the chance); he just came up short on that &quot;personal appearance&quot; bit.
 Oh, well, let's not &quot;exaggerate&quot; the case into some kind of O'Connor-like &quot;America bashing.&quot; After all, it's just one case, right? It's not like there's a <i>pattern </i>of &quot;unbounded&quot; cops killing unarmed black men and getting away with it, is there? A few bad apples don't spoil the whole gosh-darn barrel, do they? And anyway, how do we know this Prince Jones character wouldn't have ended up stealing a $2.69 pack of batteries some day, hmmm?
 We'll have the latte, please. Two sugars.

TITLE: priyut reveals the naked truth
AUTHOR: by Barnaby Thompson

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Judging by the poster for the latest production from the Priyut Komedianta theater, one gets the impression that &quot;Dearest, I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running in the Bathroom&quot; is one play written by two playwrights. Well, it is, and it isn't. The new show is, in fact, two plays, but the author of the second has cleverly interwoven the two pieces to provide a witty and absorbing commentary on the theater from an American and Russian perspective.
 &quot;Dearest, I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running in the Bathroom&quot; is the overall title of Robert Anderson's 1967 one-act play, &quot;You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running,&quot; (there are three others in the set), and Leonid Zorin's &quot;Let's Talk Artist to Artist.&quot;
 The action begins in the shiny Manhattan office of Henry Miller, a famous American director, who loves the new script by famous playwright Jack Barnstaple. There's only one problem: Miller objects to the opening scene in which a man has to appear onstage naked, but Barnstaple insists that the scene stays. Miller says people will be shocked and dismayed; Barnstaple maintains that the scene is so asexual, so funny and &quot;touching,&quot; that all the men in the audience will identify with it.
 In order to prove his point, Miller calls in first his secretary and then a completely unknown actor named Richard Pawling, who is desperate for a role in a Barnstaple show - desperate for a role in <i>any </i>show. As the director predicts, neither secretary nor Pawling is able to cope with the idea of a naked man onstage - more shocking in 1967 than it would be today, but that is less relevant to this production than Zorin's development of Anderson's work.
 In Act II - or rather, Play No. 2 - Zorin takes the themes of relationship between actor, director and playwright and puts them in a Russian context. Gone are the smart gray suits in the shiny office with the modern phone and swivel chairs; in their place are faded posters, wooden furniture, files littering the floor and characters in very Russian clothes - top marks to Zorin for a sense of self-irony.
 Gone, too, is the cosy interaction between director and playwright, despite the tempestuous argument over male nudity, and the air of disdain with which both treat the grovelling actor. Instead, the director has turned into a tyrannical figure - complete with the clairvoyant secretary from hell - who has not talked to the playwright for years, but who sees his latest script as the chance to make a star out of the company's unknown actor Kapisitsky. This time, however, the glitch is that Kapisitsky, rather than being willing to take his clothes off if it means getting a job, is happy with his amateur drama groups and ridiculous voice-over work on the radio, and balks at playing the part of Napoleon. In one of the best-thought-out subplots, Kapisitsky is all the more reluctant because rehearsals will take up too much time and he has to support innumerable members of his extended family.
 Throughout this twin exploration of the nature of the theater - the similarities and differences between corporate, big-money America with its Western sensibilities, and the more emotional, disordered Russian theater with its entrenched hierarchy - the actors are given some great lines and thrive on the humor of the various situation they find themselves in.
 Yury Lazarev and Yefim Kamenetsky, who play the two directors and playwrights, respectively, are the most successful. Not only do they make the American/Russian personality switches in fine style, they also tap in to the dry humor of both Anderson's and Zorin's works, and by maintaining an understated approach, they get the biggest and best laughs.
 Alexander Orlov is terrific as Kapisitsky, evolving from what appears to be shy simpleton to an assertive idiot and driving those around him to distraction. As Richard Pawling, Orlov is less successful, hamming up the moronic side of the actor's nature and relying too much on slapstick, which seems out of place in such a tongue-in-cheek play. The pauses before punchlines are too long, although sometimes his timing is nevertheless well judged.
 Natalia Yakupova is also slightly unsure as the American secretary, and totally unbelievable to begin with as her Russian counterpart, but as &quot;Let's Talk Artist to Artist&quot; goes on she becomes more human and therefore more believable - not to mention funnier (witness the running gag with the hidden bottles of cognac).
 This clash between dry humor and slapstick is a little grating: If all of the cast went with the style adopted by Lazarev and Kamenetsky, the ensemble would be improved and the comedy enhanced. That aside, Zorin's take on, and development of, Anderson's piece is well observed and incisive, and the two-play/two-act idea an intriguing one. At 45 minutes each way, &quot;Dearest, I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running in the Bathroom&quot; is a good evening's entertainment with plenty of food for thought.
 
 <i>&quot;Dearest, I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running in the Bathroom&quot; is playing next at the Priyut Komedianta theater on July 30 and 31. 27 Sadovaya Ulitsa, 310-1083. Tickets cost from 50 to 150 rubles. </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: In all probability, there's only one place St. Petersburg's music fans will be headed this weekend, as <strong>Tequilajazzz </strong>will be playing its traditional loud and sweaty concert at the Moloko club - described by the band's frontman as one of his favorites and the heir to the seminal TaMtAm. In breaking news, the club itself is even boasting that it has at long last bought itself a refrigerator to keep the beer cold. <i>7 p.m. Saturday at Moloko, 80 rubles.
 </i>Only one place? Well, there's a trendy alternative on the very same night: <strong>Konishi Yasuharu </strong>of Pizzicato Five, probably the most internationally popular Japanese act, whose music has been described as a &quot;blend of lounge, disco, dance and bachelor-pad ambiance.&quot;
 Pizzicato Five turned out to be a sensation when they performed at Moscow's 16 Tons club last August, at the height of the fashion for music of the easy-listening variety. This is Yasuharu's first performance in St. Petersburg, however, even if it is only as a DJ.
 Yasuharu is taking part in what is actually an all-night event, entitled &quot;Sushi Disco JapaNight,&quot; which will also feature DJs Kostya Lovesky and Yelkashu, as well as the local electronic act Chugunny Skorokhod, which will play a special set called &quot;Japanese Sunrise.&quot; Unfortunately, there's also the inevitable fashion show on the agenda.
 Performances will take place both at the Molodyozhny Theater<i> </i>and in the closed park that surrounds the building, at <i>114 Nab. Fontanki.</i> <i>11 p.m. Tickets costing 200 rubles are available from Titanic, Baza, Interactive and Oxide stores, as well as the Nabokov Museum (47 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa).
 </i>Meanwhile, <strong>Robert Plant, </strong>who was scheduled to perform in St. Petersburg on July 15, failed to make an appearance. Plant's local promoters explained that the aging rocker had fallen sick, and therefore the show was canceled right on the eve of the event.
 <i>Those who bought tickets can return them for a refund before July 24, or keep them until the rescheduled date of Sept. 26.
 </i><strong>David Bowie </strong>hasn't released an album of new material since &quot;hours...&quot; in 1999, but his record label, Rykodisc, has come up with a pretty unusual compilation of the musician's instrumental tracks that were recorded between 1977 and 1999. Officially due out on July 23, &quot;All Saints&quot; has somehow made its way to St. Petersburg already - tribute once again to the piracy skills of the local population that we lauded in last week's column.
 &quot;All Saints&quot; was originally compiled by Bowie and intended as a double-CD Christmas present for friends in 1993, but it has been put onto one disc, which also features some new artwork by the man himself.
 &quot;All Saints&quot; is mostly comprised of tracks from the late 1970s trilogy that Bowie did in collaboration with Brian Eno, but it also has some later stuff from &quot;The Buddha of Suburbia&quot; and &quot;hours...&quot; The tracks &quot;Abdulmajid,&quot; &quot;Crystal Japan&quot; and the title track are relatively rare out-takes or B-sides.

TITLE: local singer on the sport of music
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Anna Stolyarova has been a familiar face on the local club scene over the past 10 years. This leading singer recently left Skafandr, the hard-edged guitar-based outfit, and joined the less-known club pop/rock group Tigry & Pchyoly. She also has plans to create her own electronic project. However, the best-known band she has sung with to date is S.P.O.R.T., which has now signed with to a big Moscow label and is a frequent sight on music television.
 When Stolyarova was in S.P.O.R.T., it was known to few people outside local clubs and festivals. Fronted by two female singers, Stolyarova and Natalya Kozlovskaya, S.P.O.R.T. was a lively and fun group that lost a certain something when it turned into an all-male act in 1997.
 Stolyarova was originally introduced to the local music scene in 1991 by S.P.O.R.T.'s future guitarist Sergei Karpov, with whom she studied at the Institute of Film Engineering. &quot;Somehow he found out that I had studied violin at music school and owned an instrument,&quot; she said. &quot;There was a large group of people who were planning at the time to stage some crazy one-off performance at some strange place. I didn't know what I'd do with my violin, but we became friends.&quot;
 &quot;Looking back [at those days], they had a constant energy: If you had a musical instrument, you had to do something with it,&quot; said Stolyarova. And it was this unexpected violin performance that got her into the young local music scene: She joined S.P.O.R.T. in 1993. 
 The band made its debut at the TaMtAm club in April that year. &quot;It was superb. We were so scared at the beginning that we wanted to blow everybody else away. I think that's what we did.&quot; 
 Stolyarova said that a special period in her life came from her singing lessons with Lyudmila Motulyonok, who taught many untrained vocalists including Dva Samaliota, Kolibri and Pep-See. &quot;She didn't teach operatic singing, but she would give you a set of vocal exercises and let you sing them however you liked. Everybody went to her. It was cheap, interesting and absolutely astonishing.&quot;
 &quot;[My time with S.P.O.R.T.] was great fun, and helped me become what I am,&quot; Stolyarova said. &quot;I had friends, best friends. If you don't have personal relationships in a band, all the work you do can only ever be about making money.&quot;
 Stolyarova refuses to talk about why she quit S.P.O.R.T. in 1997, and is similarly reticent as to why she left Skafandr this year. Although she is not a fan of MTV Russia, she catches S.P.O.R.T. occasionally on the channel.
 &quot;[It doesn't give me] any negative emotions, any nostalgia or anything. I simply like those people,&quot; she said. &quot;I believe they are doing what they do sincerely, without trying to adapt [to what others want]. That's great.&quot;
 Stolyarova will admit to having ambitions in the music business, but is ready to turn away from Russia in the process. &quot;What they do in Moscow [at the heart of the music business] is disgusting. If a band wants to work professionally, it should look toward Europe.&quot;
 But does anybody want Russian bands in the West? &quot;When I watch [German music channel] Viva, I can see many Polish, Czech, East European bands singing in their own language and making quality videos. I think we have a lot of bands [in St. Petersburg] that can compete with them.&quot;
 Perhaps Stolyarova's greatest asset is how open-minded she is. &quot;I don't have any ideology - to sing only pop or to sing only rock, for example,&quot; she said, adding that her favorite singer at the moment is the funk vocalist Erykah Badu. &quot;You have the desire to sing and you get an invitation from a certain band, and you fulfill yourself that way.&quot;

TITLE: nikolai: illusions of grandeur
AUTHOR: by Barnaby Thompson

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There is a pleasant if rather soulless town somewhere in the middle of England called Cheltenham, which is mostly famous for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of the highlights of the horse-racing calendar. I used to have a number of friends in Cheltenham, because it wasn't far away from where I went to school.
 I found myself discussing Cheltenham one day with an acquaintance at university, who commented: &quot;I've been to the point that is marked 'Cheltenham' on the map several times, but I've never really been convinced that Cheltenham is actually <i>there</i>.&quot; I took his point: It's such a laid-back place that as you leave, you get the uneasy impression that Cheltenham is only a figment of your imagination, a mirage that dissolves into the ether as soon as your back is turned, and that you dreamed it all along.
 It feels a bit like this with the restaurant Nikolai, located - so they say - within the House of Architects on Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa. All the guidebooks mention Nikolai: &quot;The wonderful interior will transport you back in time and you will feel you are dining as a tsar,&quot; or some such effusive commentary, followed by, &quot;Tucked away in the House of Architects, this is one of St. Petersburg's great secrets, and as such remarkably free of tourists.&quot;
 Such a well-kept secret, in fact, that I don't know anybody who has been to Nikolai in the past four years. And now that I have myself, I am not convinced, to rephrase the expression, that Nikolai is actually <i>there.</i>
 Certainly I have memories of a very attractive interior - wood-panelled walls and quaint little frescoes, elegant curtains, attractive furniture and table-cloths ... and, when we arrived, a complete, utter absence of people. Not just customers, but waitresses, managers, anybody.
 And an absence of food. When you see little crosses next to items on the menu, you know you're in trouble, and one of our first-choice starters was indeed unavailable. After that unpromising start, however, things got better. I asked for, and got, the game salad (120 rubles), though I hadn't realized that chicken counted as game, and my companion went for the hard-to-screw-up red caviar (80 rubles).
 As a main course, I chose the rack of lamb (or mutton ribs, as the menu's English translation had it), an unspectacular but reasonable dish with a good gravy but metallic potatoes at 320 rubles. My companion chose the sturgeon with walnuts (300 rubles), except that walnuts were unavailable and would chestnuts do instead? The two baked, boneless fish were well cooked, but the soggy cauliflower and other vegetables spoiled the effect.
 In fact, there's little point in writing at length about Nikolai's menu, because it is too limited and too Soviet. The bottle of dry white Georgian Ereti (550 rubles) was easily the highlight of our lunch. The food has already faded into the ether.
 Perhaps it all changes magically in the evening, like Cheltenham on Gold Cup day. Perhaps the minstrels burst into song, the waiters rush around bearing roast swan on silver platters, veiled debutantes flutter their eyelids and smile seductively behind their fans, and mere mortals like myself are blinded by the chic of it all. Nikolai is so &quot;not there&quot; that this seems perfectly possible. But we took it by surprise, and it hadn't had the time to do its reincarnation properly, mixing up imperial grandeur with Soviet dross.
 
 <i>Nikolai, 52 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa, in the House of Architects. Tel: 311-1402. Lunch for two with alcohol, 1,515 rubles ($52). No credit cards accepted. </i>

TITLE: eifman returns with premiere
AUTHOR: by Barnaby Thompson

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: It seems like quite a while since Boris Eifman and his ballet company have been to St. Petersburg. But starting on Saturday, the legendary Eifman Ballet will be once more before the audiences of its home town, with four productions it has already seen and one premiere, &quot;Don Juan and Moli&egrave;re.&quot;
 In their lengthy absences, Eifman and co. have made New York their second home. The new production premiered there in May to rave reviews in a city where the critics can be particularly severe - the same critics who also welcomed the company's &quot;Don Quixote,&quot; &quot;Red Giselle,&quot; &quot;Russian Hamlet&quot; and &quot;Tchaikovsky&quot; with open arms.
 The Boris Eifman Ballet Theater will perform at two venues: the Mariinsky Theater from Saturday to Wednesday, including three performaces of &quot;Don Juan,&quot; and at the Alexandriinksy Theater, which has become Eifman's base in St. Petersburg, where all five ballets will be performed in 11 shows from July 26 to Aug. 27.
 Naturally, of most interest to the city's ballet lovers will be &quot;Don Juan and Moliere,&quot; danced to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Hector Berlioz. 
 At a press conference last week, Eifman stressed the importance of the mythical hero Don Juan in the psychology and creative life of the great French playwright, who wrote his own &quot;Don Juan&quot; in 1665. &quot;The basis of the show is the tragic contrast between the private drama of Moli&egrave;re and the rich, adventurous life of his hero, Don Juan,&quot; Eifman said.
 The other productions will be familiar to St. Petersburg, but have not been seen for quite a while. &quot;Russian Hamlet&quot; concerns itself with the early years of Tsar Paul I, when he was still a prince with idealistic views but nonetheless full of troubles and spiritual dilemmas, problems that scarred his four-year reign before he was eventually killed.
 &quot;Red Giselle&quot; is based on the life story of Olga Spessivtseva, the enigmatic Russian ballerina widely recognized as one of the greatest Giselles in the history of ballet, but whose career was cut short by mental illness while she was dancing with the Paris Opera. Her disappearance for many years led contemporary biographers to conclude their works with phrases like &quot;fate unknown&quot; or &quot;perished in the war,&quot; but in fact she died at the age of 96 in 1991 at the Tolstoy Foundation's Home for Elderly Russians in upstate New York.
 The other two ballets are &quot;Don Quixote&quot; and &quot;Tchaikovsky,&quot; psychodramas based on the lives of the two protagonists and typically Eifman in their quests for spirituality.
 
 <i>According to the Eifman Ballet Theater, tickets to Mariinsky Theater performances cost up to 500 rubles. Tickets to Alexandriinsky Theater performances cost up to 200 rubles. Bear in mind, however, that tickets for foreigners are likely to be significantly higher, especially at the Mariinsky. For more on dates and times, see Listings. </i>

TITLE: a 'spider' short on personality
AUTHOR: By Elvis Mitchell

PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: &quot;I have never seen a man work so hard at being busy,&quot; Vickie (Anna Maria Horsford) says to Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman), the meticulous forensic psychologist slaving away at distracting himself in &quot;Along Came a Spider.&quot; Vickie's remark could serve as an assessment of this overplotted, hollow thriller, which crams in so much exposition that characters speak in fetid hunks for what seems like minutes at a time. And Vickie, a minor figure who has some unexplained relationship with Cross, disappears after delivering that line.
 Usually, part of the fun of a genre picture is seeing actors tear off a piece of script with their teeth and offer a juicy piece of characterization. This movie departs from that enjoyable tradition, for there are no characters in &quot;Spider.&quot; It represents Paramount's single-minded focus on the moneyed exploitation picture, that studio's bread and butter, with tributes to the ridiculous like &quot;The General's Daughter,&quot; &quot;Double Jeopardy&quot; and &quot;Kiss the Girls.&quot; (&quot;Spider&quot; is its follow-up, from another of James Patterson's novels.) Not only has the studio whittled these movies down to haiku, but it's a haiku with only two lines. This diminution makes &quot;Spider&quot; trash adjusted for inflation. &quot;Spider&quot; brings back Freeman as Cross, the thoughtful investigator who is dragged into impossibly involved cases when he's at his worst. This time Cross is trying to recover from a botched undercover operation that took the life of his partner in a paroxysm of second-rate computer graphic effects. &quot;A damaged cop shouldering some heavy baggage,&quot; says the FBI Agent McArthur (Dylan Baker) by way of description.
 Cross is wrested from his knot of self-pity by Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott), a kidnapper who is one of those archvillains with way too much money and free time on their hands. Soneji is the Bruce Wayne of kidnappers; his houseboat has more high-tech gadgets than the Batcave.
 Cross is soon knee deep in a high-profile kidnapping case. Soneji has abducted a senator's daughter from her private school, a crime he is determined to make as big as the Lindbergh case. Jezzie Flanagan (Monica Potter), the Secret Service agent on whose watch the crime took place, pushes herself into Cross's investigation.
 It seems that Secret Service agents, working at a private school in the Washington area where both a senator's daughter and the son of the Russian president are in attendance, never made a very thorough background check on Soneji, a teacher at the school. Nor did they look very closely at his face: He wears a latex mask so obvious you expect a joke to be made about it. (Perhaps the Secret Service was intimidated by his office, a baronial study with a raging fireplace and antique furniture; it could be from the Architectural Digest spread on the Evil Genius's study.) But such goodies are what keep &quot;Spider&quot; in a rarefied group of films - the &quot;if these characters are so smart, how did they get stuck in this picture?&quot; club.
 But &quot;Spider&quot; couldn't be better served than it is by Freeman, whose prickly smarts and silken impatience bring believability to a classless, underdeveloped thriller. Even in the climactic scene, in which the hero typically embroiders the crowning line with mocking bravado, Freeman plays it close to the vest. He shows the kind of politesse and modesty not endemic to genre pictures. At 63, he is in fighting trim; he looks great, with tufts of gray peeking through on his temples and around his full hairline. It's invigorating to see an African-American actor of his age - a man who probably spent his youth waiting around for Sidney Poitier to turn down work - take the screen and hold it through sheer force of talent and underplayed concentration.
 Still, he is wasted in this impersonal thriller. Sadder still, it was directed by Lee Tamahori, whose fresh &quot;Once Were Warriors&quot; was all insolent temperament. Shackled to this by-the-numbers picture, all he can do is keep things in focus. But in addition to Freeman, &quot;Along Came a Spider&quot; is full of talents - Potter, Wincott, with his eloquent croak of a voice - sorely underused.
 The film has one good scene, in which Soneji makes a crack using the old United Negro College Fund motto, and Cross's face is creased by a rueful smile. Tamahori's penchant for using multiple actors to build tension in the same shot is utilized here. (It's also the only acknowledgment of African-Americans in a movie set in the Washington area.) Otherwise, the closest the movie comes to inventiveness is to end in a barn instead of a warehouse.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: On the Offensive
 

ISLAMABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taleban on Thursday launched a major attack in the northeastern province of Takhar, breaking through the opposition line, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service reported.
 AIP, quoting its sources, said though fighting had broken out several times this summer, Thursday's attack was the biggest offensive of the year, with the Taleban using tanks and artillery. Diplomatic sources have reported over the past two months the Taleban are massing thousands of fighters in the north to attack opposition leader Ahmed Shah Masood, their main obstacle to total control of the country.
 
 
Milosevic Wife Visits
 

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic flew out of Belgrade on Thursday to visit the former Yugoslav president in the Dutch jail where he is awaiting trial on war-crimes charges.
 Markovic, herself a prominent politician widely regarded as a key influence on her husband, is expected to stay in The Netherlands until Saturday. She was accompanied by her daughter-in-law Milica and by a lawyer, Dragoslav Ognjanovic, who said he had been retained as part of a legal team to help defend Milosevic in The Hague.
 Milosevic was handed over to the custody of the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague on June 28. Milosevic has refused to recognize the authority of the tribunal, which has entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
 
 
Sri Lankan Riots
 

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Thursday to try to enforce a ban on rallies and force back thousands pouring into the capital for a huge opposition protest against the suspension of parliament.
 Witnesses said tear gas was used at six access points the crowds were using to move toward a planned mass protest in the center of Colombo. Opposition officials said at least two people had been injured, but details were not known. The opposition estimated that at least 10,000 were involved in the marches.
 
 
1 Million Stranded
 

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - More than a million people were marooned by swirling floodwaters in the eastern Indian state of Orissa on Thursday, and officials warned of worse to come as monsoon rains lashed the region.
 Over the past 10 days, flooding has killed an estimated 34 people, washed away 4,000 houses and damaged 14,000 homes in the impoverished state, many parts of which are still recovering from a massive cyclone. Officials said some 7,200 villages and several towns had been cut off by vast tracts of water. Many highways were washed away and railway stations were submerged.
 
 
Etna Erupts
 

ROME (Reuters) - Sicily's Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, erupted on Wednesday, forcing emergency services to build up defenses against a lava flow moving at 150 meters an hour.
 After days of tremors, lava spewed out of a new fissure in the volcano early on Wednesday at a height of 2,100 meters. Ash and smoke have been billowing out of Etna and over eastern Sicily for the past five days.
 Emergency services evacuated two restaurants and built up mud walls to guide the direction of the lava flow, while firefighters sprayed the seething magma with water. The lava has not threatened any homes, as it flowed down an uninhabited slope.
 
 
Inspector Slams U.S.
 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - In a new documentary film, a former UN weapons inspector accuses the United States of manipulating the United Nations to provoke a confrontation with Saddam Hussein as a pretext for U.S. airstrikes on Iraq.
 Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine intelligence officer, says in the 90-minute documentary that he did not provoke the confrontation the Americans wanted in March 1998, but fellow inspector Roger Hill - an Australian - did have a confrontation in December of that year.
 Days later, chief UN inspector Richard Butler declared that Iraq was not cooperating with weapons inspectors and the United States and Britain launched airstrikes against Iraq in punishment. UN inspectors pulled out of the country ahead of the bombing raids, and Iraq has barred them from returning for more than 2 1/2 years.
 
 
Publisher Dies
 

NEW YORK (NYT) - Katharine Graham, who transformed The Washington Post from a mediocre newspaper into an American institution and, in the process, transformed herself from a shy widow into a publishing legend, died on Tuesday after suffering head injuries in a fall on a sidewalk on Saturday in Idaho. She was 84. 
 Graham was one of the most powerful figures in American journalism. It was only after she succeeded her father and her husband as president and later publisher of The Washington Post, a newspaper with a modest circulation and more modest reputation, that it moved into the front rank of American newspapers, reaching new heights when its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal contributed to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. 
 Graham's courage in supporting her reporters and editors through the long investigation was critical to its success. Three years before Watergate, she gave solid backing to The New York Times in a historic confrontation with the government when she permitted her editors to join in publishing the secret revelations about the war in Vietnam known as the Pentagon Papers. 
 
 
Dracula Land
 

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - German investors and the Romanian government are planning to develop Dracula Land, a "terror'' theme park in Transylvania that officials hope will boost the country's ailing tourism industry. Plans call for the park to be built in the medieval city of Sighisoara - the hometown of the 15th-century prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired novelist Bram Stoker's "Dracula.'' 
 Sighisoara, also known as Schaessburg, is about 280 kilometers northwest of Bucharest. The Transylvania region is strongly influenced by German traditions dating back to the 12th century, when ethnic Germans settled there. The park, to be privately funded, will cost about $15.62 million, with another $19 million needed for infrastructure improvements. Hotels and a golf course are also planned. 



TITLE: Expos Win on Guerrero's 9th-Inning Blast
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MONTREAL - Vladimir Guerrero hit his second home run of the game, connecting with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday night to lift the Montreal Expos over the Philadelphia Phillies 7-6.
 The Phillies, who began the game tied for the NL East lead, lost their third in a row. They tied it in the ninth on pinch hitter Johnny Estrada's three-run homer off Ugueth Urbina (1-1).
 Guerrero, who went 4-for-4 with a double and a walk, won it with a home run off Rheal Cormier (5-2).
 It was Guerrero's 26th home run. Earlier in the game, he became the first Montreal player to hit 25 homers in four-straight seasons.
 Guerrero homered for the second-straight game when he drove a solo shot in the fourth off Omar Daal.
 Lee Stevens also homered for the second day in a row for Montreal.
 Expos starter Javier Vazquez allowed a run in each of the first three innings. Bobby Abreu hit an RBI double in the first, Tomas Perez singled home a run in the second and Abreu's 19th homer made it 3-0 in the third.
 Montreal scored three times in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead.
 Jose Vidro hit a tying, two-run double that extended his hitting streak to 12 games. Peter Bergeron's two-out single kept the rally going and stretched his career-best hitting string to 14 games.
 Daal intentionally walked Guerrero before walking Mark Smith to load the bases. Stevens then drew a walk that forced home the go-ahead run.
 Montreal added two in the eighth on Stevens' 16th homer and Mike Mordecai's RBI single.
 
 <strong>San Francisco 10, Colorado 0.</strong> Barry Bonds hit his 41st and 42nd home runs of the season Wednesday night to tie Mickey Mantle for ninth place on the career list with 536.
 The San Francisco star hit a solo shot to right off Colorado's Mike Hampton in the fourth inning, and added a two-run blast to left off the Rockies pitcher in the fifth.
 Soon after rounding the bases on the first homer, Bonds was led, clutching his back, into the clubhouse by Giants trainer Stan Conte. Bonds returned to left field in the top of the fifth.
 After hitting his second homer, Bonds was replaced in left field by Armando Rios.
 The Giants said Bonds had back spasms after the first home run, and was removed from the game as a precaution.
 It was Bonds' 51st career multihomer game, and fifth this season. He has hit his 42 homers in 95 games, matching Mark McGwire's pace in 1998 when he hit a record 70 homers.
 The Giants went on to win, 10-0. 
 <strong>Houston 17, St. Louis 11. </strong>Jeff Bagwell hit for the cycle, homering and doubling in an eight-run fifth inning as the Houston Astros outslugged St. Louis 17-11 Wednesday night in the highest-scoring game at Enron Field.
 Bagwell drove in five runs while hitting for the cycle for the first time. He became the first Astros player to accomplish the feat since Andujar Cedeno on Aug. 25, 1992, against the Cardinals.
 Moises Alou hit a three-run homer, extending his hitting streak to an NL-high 23 games. Brad Ausmus and Craig Biggio also homered for Houston.
 Mark McGwire and Albert Pujols connected for the Cardinals. Bobby Bonilla singled for his 2,000th career hit.
 Houston held a 6-1 lead before a wild fifth inning. The Cardinals scored six times in the top half, then the Astros struck back with eight runs.
 Bagwell went 4-for-5 with a walk. He singled in the first, doubled and homered in the fifth and added a triple in the seventh.
 The Astros won for the ninth time in 11 games and tied a team record with 11 extra-base hits. The Cardinals lost despite outhitting Houston 18-16.
 Winner Ron Villone (4-3) went 2 1/3 innings and allowed three runs on five hits.
 Astros rookie Roy Oswalt had his roughest outing of the season, giving up eight runs and 11 hits in 4 1/3 innings. He had been 6-0 with a 2.42 ERA in seven previous starts since joining the rotation in early June.
 Luther Hackman (0-1) pitched two innings and allowed three runs. Starter Mike Matthews lasted only 2 1/3 innings.
 
 <strong>New York Yankees 8, Detroit 5; Detroit 12, New York Yankees 4. </strong>Roger Cedeno couldn't quite win the opener with his legs, but he homered twice and drove in six runs in the second game to give the Detroit Tigers a split of a day-night doubleheader with a 12-4 win over the New York Yankees on Wednesday night.
 Roger Clemens, pitching on three days' rest, became the American League's first 13-game winner in the opener, pitching New York to an 8-5 win despite Cedeno's season-high three stolen bases in the first game.
 Cedeno, who had his first multihomer game, hit a leadoff home run in the first off Ted Lilly (3-3), a three-run shot in the second inning, a double in the fifth and a two-run triple in eighth. The six RBIs are a career high.
 Cedeno went 6-for-8 with six runs, six RBIs and four stolen bases in the two games.
 Victor Santos (2-2), recalled from Triple-A Toledo before the game, allowed two runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings for the win.
 Clemens (13-1) didn't know he was pitching the opener until about 90 minutes before the game, when scheduled starter Adrian Hernandez got sick. Clemens volunteered to take the start a day early.
 Clemens wasn't overpowering, but was good enough, giving up five runs, nine hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings.
 It was Clemens' first start on just three days' rest in the regular season since 1993, when he lost for Boston against Texas. Clemens also made a start on short rest in last year's playoffs, losing Game 4 in the first round to Oakland.
 Clemens is 22-3 since coming off the disabled list July 2, 2000, and tied Red Ruffing for 27th place with his 272nd career victory. He has won his last nine decisions and hasn't lost since May 20.
 Steve Sparks (7-4), who pitched a three-hitter last month to beat the Yankees, gave up six runs - five earned - and 11 hits in six innings.
 Bobby Higginson went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and a stolen base in the first game.
 Cedeno's homer in the second inning came after an error by Alfonso Soriano, which made all three runs unearned.
 The Yankees scored a run in the fourth on Paul O'Neill's sacrifice fly, but Santos got out of a bases-loaded jam in the inning.
 The Tigers padded their lead to 9-1 in the fifth. Cedeno doubled and scored on a Damion Easley double. Higginson's RBI triple chased Lilly.

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: 'Thorpedo' Mania
 

FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) - The Australian swimming team at the world championship in Fukuoka has been forced to hire bodyguards because of Japan's obsession with Ian Thorpe.
 The Australian team's media spokesperson said Thursday that six security staff had been hired to protect Thorpe from the hordes of teenage girls that follow him around the city.
 "We were fully aware of Thorpe-mania long before we came here, but it's been bigger than we expected and we've had to take precautions to protect Ian and the rest of the Australian team," media manager Ian Hanson said.
 Thorpe is a national hero in Australia after winning three gold medals at last year's Sydney Olympics, but is even more popular in Japan, where he is treated like a pop star.
 
 
Wells Back on Track
 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Left-hander David Wells, who has endured a nightmarish first season with the Chicago White Sox, underwent back surgery Wednesday and will be sidelined at least six weeks.
 Wells, who was supposed to bolster the rotation of the defending American League Central Division champions, opted Saturday to undergo the procedure on his troublesome back.
 On Wednesday morning, senior team physician Dr. James Boscardin repaired two herniated disks in Wells' back and the pitcher was up and walking by the afternoon.
 Wells will begin a four-week rehabilitation program that involves walking distances of up to 3 kilometers.
 After that, the second phase of the program will be outlined. Acquired in a trade that sent injured left-hander Mike Sirotka to the Toronto Blue Jays, Wells is just 5-7 with a 4.47 ERA in 16 starts for Chicago. 
 
 
Hasek Out of Hospital
 

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - Dominik Hasek, the NHL's top goalie, was released from a hospital Thursday, two weeks after being admitted for treatment of an unspecified illness.
 "Mr. Hasek feels well and the results of the latest checks also were favorable," Jan Fertek, director of the hospital in Hasek's hometown of Pardubice, said.
 "I'm glad I can finally go home,'' Hasek said. "I feel great now. I believe that by the beginning of September, I'll be in good shape again."
 Hasek won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goalie for the sixth time last month, two weeks before being traded from the Buffalo Sabres to the Detroit Red Wings.
 
 
Orioles Derailed
 

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) - The Baltimore Orioles were forced to postpone Thursday's first game of a day-night doubleheader against the Texas Rangers because of a train derailment near Camden Yards.
 The game originally was scheduled to be played as part of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday. It was postponed when heavy, black smoke billowed above Oriole Park 90 minutes before the start and was rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader Thursday.
 The ballpark was evacuated after the train carrying hazardous materials derailed in a tunnel that runs about 1.5 kilometers north from the Camden Yards sports complex. The chemicals included hydrochloric acid, fire officials said. Two fire fighters were hospitalized with chest pains. 



TITLE: Montgomerie Takes Lead at British Open
AUTHOR: By Tim Dahlberg

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England - Colin Montgomerie punctuated a triumphant opening round of 65 with a long birdie putt on the final hole Thursday, while Tiger Woods struggled to match par in his first defense at the British Open.
 Trying to put a history of Open failures behind him, Montgomerie shot a 30 on the front nine before capping his round with a 40-foot birdie putt before a cheering, adoring crowd packed into bleachers at the 18th hole.
 It gave him an early three-shot lead on the field, and six on Woods, who found both the deep rough and the sand at Royal Lytham & St. Annes before finishing with a par 71.
 &quot;I kept myself in it,&quot; Woods said. &quot;I didn't hit the ball the way I wanted to ,but I didn't hurt myself either. I feel good about it.&quot;
 Mild conditions that emerged after two days of wind and rain left the links course open to scoring, and the players were quick to take advantage.
 No one was hotter than Montgomerie, the Scotsman who a day earlier had dismissed his chances after missing the cut in five of his past nine opens.
 He never had broken 70 in the first round of 11 opens, and the crowd roared its approval with every birdie.
 &quot;It was good, very good,&quot; Montgomerie said. &quot;The crowd was very supportive.&quot;
 Montgomerie birdied the first two holes and followed his only front-nine bogey with an eagle at the par-5 sixth. He finished the front nine with a birdie at the ninth hole, then followed it with another birdie at 10 to get to 6-under.
 It appeared Montgomerie might blow his round when he three-putted at 14 after watching playing partner Fred Couples take four shots to get out of a bunker. But he came back to one-putt the final four holes, including the long birdie putt at 18.
 &quot;Whenever I putt well I have a chance, and I putted well today,&quot; Montgomerie said.
 Woods, who won last year with a record 19-under-par, had to recover from both the rough and sand on the final hole to salvage his par round.
 Still, he proclaimed himself satisfied before heading off to the driving range to try to fix a swing that has given him fits in recent weeks.
 &quot;I just grinded it around and somehow I ended up even par,&quot; Woods said.
 Several other players in the morning pairings also were under par as the mild conditions kept some of the knee-deep rough and treacherous pot bunkers from coming into play.
 Brad Faxon, who in the past irritated some fellow Americans by criticizing their desire to play in England, set the early pace with a 3-under 68 marred only by a bogey at the last hole after his drive found one of the deep fairway bunkers.
 Faxon could have been in New York defending his back-to-back titles in the B.C. Open, but crossed the ocean instead to play in the major championship he loves most.
 &quot;I think guys owe it to themselves to try and come here,&quot; Faxon said.
 Couples also was 3-under before disaster struck after a second shot on the 14th that just missed the green and ended up buried in the left edge of a bunker.
 Couples tried to play it out left-handed, then hit his second bunker shot backward, leaving it in again. A third swipe at the ball didn't get it out of the sand, but a fourth finally did and Couples made triple bogey and finished at par for the day.
 Woods also found the sand, unlike the Open last year at St. Andrews where he went 72 holes without hitting into a bunker.
 He did at the fourth hole at Royal Lytham, hitting an iron into a fairway bunker and making bogey, spoiling a promising start that began with a birdie at the par-3 first.
 Woods later hacked it out of knee-high rough twice at the sixth hole and missed several putts to make the turn at par 35.
 The blustery winds that raked the course the last two days of practice subsided as play began, but that didn't stop players from finding trouble among the deep bunkers and rough on Royal Lytham.
 The conditions were much different than at St. Andrews, where the wind never picked up and the lack of rough helped Woods to win his first British Open.

TITLE: Armstrong Makes Move on Tour Leaders
AUTHOR: By Michael McDonough

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CHAMROUSSE, France - Lance Armstrong hunched over the handlebars, lowered his head and gritted his teeth as he powered up the steep mountain climb from Grenoble to Chamrousse.
 This time, he wasn't bluffing. But the end result was the same Wednesday.
 The Texan blew away his rivals for a second day running and took another big step toward a third Tour de France title.
 &quot;We're getting closer and closer to the yellow jersey,&quot; Armstrong said after finishing the uphill time-trial a minute faster than his main rival, Germany's Jan Ullrich.
 Taking the start in fourth-from-last position, the U.S. Postal Service rider pedaled at a tempo that made the 1,507-meter climb high into the French Alps look effortless.
 Some 4.025 kilometers from the finish, he had set a time 42 seconds faster than Ullrich's. In the final uphill stretch, he extended the margin by a further 18 seconds, clocking a time of 1 hour, 7 minutes, 27 seconds.
 But it wasn't enough to satisfy the two-time champion.
 &quot;I still believe that there's another level of Lance Armstrong,&quot; he said.
 The performance was all the more impressive given Ullrich's strong showing on the 32-kilometer leg. He placed second after knocking 35 seconds off Spaniard Joseba Beloki's best time.
 The win gave Armstrong his second stage victory. He left his rivals behind in Tuesday's first mountain climb, surging past them at the foot of L'Alpe d'Huez and powering to the summit.
 He later admitted he had used TV coverage to bluff his competitors, who exhausted themselves in the first two climbs believing Armstrong was tired and unable to keep pace.
 There was no room for poker tactics in Wednesday's grueling climb.
 &quot;[In a time-trial] there are no tactics. It's an event that anybody can figure out,&quot; Armstrong said. &quot;The only slight consideration is that it's a hard course, so you have to judge where you use your efforts.&quot;
 To help judge the climb, Armstrong and his teammates did four practice runs at Chamrousse before the start of the Tour.
 &quot;We spent a lot of time being here and figuring out what to do,&quot; Armstrong said.
 Armstrong had earlier warned that it would be &quot;tough&quot; to recover from the effort at L'Alpe d'Huez, but showed no sign of flagging Wednesday.
 &quot;I didn't expect to recover and feel as good as I did,&quot; Armstrong said. &quot;From now on, I will be very careful with my efforts.&quot;
 Ullrich, the 1997 champion, was distraught after being beaten by Armstrong a second day running.
 &quot;Lance Armstrong once said Jan Ullrich is the greatest talent in cycling. This doesn't seem to be the case,&quot; Ullrich said. &quot;But I am not giving up despite everything and I'll try everything. I've never been in such good shape.&quot;
 After Wednesday's stage, Armstrong rose from fourth to third place in the overall standings. The two riders ahead of him - Frenchman Francois Simon in the lead and Kazakhstan's Andrei Kivilev - are expected to lose ground in the next three stages in the Pyrenees Mountains, whereas Armstrong is tipped to shine.

TITLE: Webber Tops List of Free-Agent Signings
AUTHOR: By Chris Sheridan

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: After a delayed start, the NBA free-agent market opened Wednesday with Chris Webber deciding to stay with the Sacramento Kings.
 A few players signed contracts with new teams as an 18-day moratorium on free-agent signings expired. Patrick Ewing went from Seattle to Orlando, Eddie Robinson moved from Charlotte to Chicago, Tyronn Lue left the Lakers to play for Washington, and former San Antonio guard Avery Johnson agreed to terms with Denver.
 Other signings, including Horace Grant's move to Orlando, were held up while the attorneys from the league and the union argued over which revenue streams should be included in salary-cap calculations.
 Some 18 hours after the cap was supposed to be adjusted, it was increased from $35.5 million to $42.5 million after the league and union resolved their standoff.
 The increase of $7 million from last season's cap of $35.5 million represented the second-largest year-to-year jump since the cap was instituted for the 1984-85 season. A year ago, the salary cap went up just $1.5 million.
 A day after the prospects of Webber staying in Sacramento looked somewhat uncertain, he ended the suspense.
 &quot;He's going back to Sacramento. He always wanted to go back with the Kings,&quot; agent Fallasha Erwin said. &quot;They had to do something to drive him away rather than someone else win him over.&quot;
 Webber's decision ends a year of speculation on the talented power forward's future. After examining many options and seriously considering Indiana and Detroit, Webber apparently determined that a return to Sacramento was the best decision.
 &quot;He has a lot of respect for Joe Dumars, he's always idolized Isaiah Thomas, but from the very beginning I think his mind was set on going back to the Kings,&quot; Erwin said. &quot;It wasn't a difficult negotiation at all. The Maloofs wanted to make Chris happy, and we wanted to make sure we got everything we could.&quot;
 The Kings have said since last fall that they would offer Webber the maximum contract allowable. With those guidelines, Webber will make $12.75 million next season in a seven-year contract worth about $123 million.
 The Kings re-signed Doug Christie to a seven-year, $48 million contract. Also staying with their former teams were Aaron McKie (76ers: seven years, $42 million), Jerome Williams (Raptors: seven years, $40.8 million), Nazr Mohammed (Hawks: five years, $25 million) and Milt Palacio (Celtics: two years, $1.43 million).
 Four trades that were agreed to in principle were officially completed. Phoenix sent four-time All-Star Jason Kidd and center Chris Dudley to New Jersey for Stephon Marbury, Johnny Newman and Soumalia Samake.
 Detroit acquired forward Cliff Robinson from the Suns for forwards John Wallace and Jud Buechler. The Pistons also acquired the rights to forward Zeljko Rebraca from Toronto in exchange for a a 2002 second-round draft choice.
 Also, Shareef Abdur-Rahim went from Memphis to Atlanta for Lorenzen Wright, Brevin Knight and Pau Gasol, the third overall pick in the draft. Gasol will sign with the Grizzlies after arranging a contract buyout with F.C. Barcelona, Memphis general manager Billy Knight said.
 The trade sending Charles Oakley from Toronto to Chicago for Brian Skinner was delayed. The Bulls were able to sign Robinson to an offer sheet worth $30 million over five years that the Hornets have 15 days to match, although Charlotte would have to clear substantial salary-cap space to get far enough under the cap to match the dollars offered by Chicago.
 The 2.03-meter-tall forward played two seasons in Charlotte, averaging 17.3 minutes, 7.2 points and 2.9 rebounds.
 Ewing, who made $14 million with Seattle last season, will earn about $2.25 million with the Magic.
 &quot;It wasn't a money issue,&quot; Ewing said. &quot;It's about being somewhere where you're wanted, somewhere where you can make a difference, somewhere where you can be happy.&quot;
 Ewing, 38, and Grant, 36, would bring a combined 30 years of NBA experience to Orlando. Ewing is an 11-time All-Star, and Grant has four championship rings.
 &quot;We have a lot of talent on this team, but we did need some experience,&quot; said Orlando coach Doc Rivers, who played with Ewing for three seasons in New York. &quot;We needed guys who have gone through the wars of the playoffs, who could tell our young guys what it's going to be like.&quot;
 Johnson, 36, who played for the Nuggets in 1990-91, got a three-year contract worth $14.4 million. He started 20 games for the Spurs last season, averaging 5.6 points and 4.3 assists
 Guard Mitch Richmond made a verbal agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers for the minimum of $1 million, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
 The Lakers have targeted Spurs forward Samaki Walker to fill the void left by Grant, the starting power forward on last year's championship team. Los Angeles has already traded backup center Greg Foster, leaving Shaquille O'Neal, Stanislav Medvedenko and Robert Horry as the only big men on the roster.
 Lue, who played on Los Angeles' back-to-back NBA championship teams, signed a two-year deal with Washington.
 &quot;I had a great experience winning championships in L.A.,&quot; said Lue, who averaged 4.1 points in three seasons with the Lakers. &quot;That was fun, but I came here to have a chance to play and grow with young players.&quot;
 Lue is not yet sure if he'll have Michael Jordan as a teammate - and neither is Jordan.
 At a golf tournament in Long Grove, Illinois, Jordan said he will make up his mind about a comeback later this summer.
 &quot;Give me another month and a half,&quot; Jordan said. &quot;Middle of September.&quot;