SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #699 (66), Tuesday, August 28, 2001
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TITLE: City Set To Issue Visas at Airport
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Officials at the St. Petersburg branch of the Foreign Ministry and City Hall announced last week that they are ready to begin issuing tourist visas directly at Pulkovo International Airport for foreigners planning to spend less than 72 hours in the city. However, representatives of the Foreign Ministry in Moscow cautioned that the new system could still take some time to get started.
 Local officials, though, think that the system could begin operating on Sept. 1.
 "This [system] will begin working as soon as we have [federal] approval," said Oleg Davtyan, a representative of the Foreign Ministry in St. Petersburg on Monday. "We are waiting for an official letter from Moscow that will state exactly how the system should operate."
 Officials at City Hall were also waiting to hear from Moscow.
 "I can't wait to find out about that letter myself. I expect to hear something tomorrow or the day after," said Valery Golubev, head of the City Hall Tourism Committee on Monday.
 Border-control officials at Pulkovo also emphasized that they are ready to implement the new system immediately.
 "We have enough room here at the airport to process 40 such tourists at a time, so there should be no problem serving them," said an official who asked not to be named.
 Authorities at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow were less clear about the new system and even seemed uncertain about the letter of instructions they were supposed to send.
 "Do you know if they have started doing anything yet in St. Petersburg?" said Vladimir Sharkov, a representative of the Foreign Ministry's Information Department in Moscow, when asked about the new system.
 "The decision that was made in May said that the consular departments at the airport should be opened as soon as local authorities were ready," Sharkov said.
 Vladimir Kotenyev, head of the Foreign Ministry's Consular Department in Mos cow, expressed doubt the new system would get underway in September.
 "This is a very long and a very difficult process," Kotenyev said by telephone from Moscow on Monday. "A lot of people are involved, and I wouldn't want to say anything in advance, because it could misinform people who are coming to Russia."
 The three-day-visa system that was approved by the cabinet on June 28 stipulates that in order to receive a visa at the border tourists must apply to an authorized tour operator in their home country not less than 48 hours before traveling, fill out an application and pay a $25 fee.
 The tour operator will then forward the information to its Russian partner organization, which in turn will pass the information on to the border-control office at the Pulkovo airport. According to officials at the airport, the new visas will be pasted into tourists' passports rather than issued as separate pieces of paper. No additional fee will be charged.
 For most tourists, this system will mean markedly less expensive visas. According to the Tourism Committee, tourist visas to Russia for U.S. citizens currently cost about $50 if applied for a week in advance. That price rises to $450 for one-day service. 
 However, neither local nor Moscow officials could name any "authorized" foreign tour operators. 
 Major tour operators in Moscow also know little about the new visa regime. Intourist, Russia's largest travel company, has not even begun preparing for the changes.
 "There have been no official papers, so we don't have any arrangements of this kind at the moment," said Vladislav Prokofiev, head of Intourist's visa department in Moscow, on Monday. 
 When the plan was announced this spring, Golubev predicted that tourism to St. Petersburg would increase by around 30 percent as a result of the new regime. He anticipated that the increase would include up to 500,000 additional tourists from Finland during the winter season.
 Excluding visitors from Russia and other CIS countries, 2.2 million tourists came to the city in 2000, up 15 percent over 1999. The Tourism Committee announced this spring that it expected the figure to top 3 million this year.
 Tourist-industry experts complained that 72 hours is too short a period.
 "If it was not just three days but a week, that would be interesting for our clients," said Sergei Samorukov, a company representative for Lenexpo, which regularly invites foreigners to St. Petersburg for the exhibitions that it holds.
 "[The new system] is very good and a big step forward to make selling Russia easier, because the system [currently] is so difficult," said Ivan Rikkan, manager of Adventure World, a tourism company based in the Netherlands
 "However, three days is not enough at all. But this is definitely an improvement," he added.

TITLE: Poll Highlights Media's Weakness
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Twelve percent of St. Petersburg journalists "regularly" produce stories involving hidden advertising, according to a survey conducted by the locally based Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Scientists earlier this year. A further 18 percent said that they produce such stories "occasionally," and 37 percent said that they had done so "more than once."
 Between March and May, the institute surveyed 100 local journalists and 300 of their colleagues across Russia, asking a wide range of questions concerning journalistic ethics, practices and business.
 "These figures indicate how easy it is to manipulate journalists in Russia," said Tatyana Protasenko, senior researcher at the institute who conducted the survey. "It is difficult for them to resist financial temptations because, just like most people, they have rather modest incomes."
 However, not everyone blamed the poor state of the Russian economy for the collapse of Russian journalism. Forty-seven percent of St. Petersburg journalists and 32 percent of regional journalists considered "material problems" to be a major obstacle for Russian journalism. Almost exactly the same percentage in both categories named "the lack of professionalism among journalists" as a principle problem.
 "Journalists themselves are also often to blame. They themselves have destroyed their image as defenders of liberties. One does not have to be a very clever reader to tell that an article has been paid for," said Diana Kachalova, political editor of the local daily Nev skoye Vremya.
 According to Nail Bashirov, editor of the newspaper MIG in the southern city of Astrakhan, regional authorities are often successful in their efforts to entice journalists to provide favorable coverage with financial inducements.
 The survey also revealed that journalists suffer from the profession's lack of prestige. Only 5 percent of local journalists and 8 percent of their regional colleagues believe that the mass media are powerful enough to force the authorities to respond. Twenty percent of local journalists said that the profession's influence had declined in recent months, while a further 15 percent said that the idea that the media has influence is just a myth created by the media itself.
 Vladimir Osinsky, head of the Television and Radio Department of the Journalism Department at St. Petersburg State University, said one of the major complaints he hears from his former students is the lack of response from those involved in decision-making. 
 "Stories on social issues intended to help people provoke no reaction from the authorities, thus making reporters feel worthless," Osinsky said. "The result is that journalists are trying to avoid writing about things they know should be changed but cannot help in changing."
 However, journalists - especially provincial journalists - are lucky if the authorities merely ignore them. Forty-nine percent of regional journalists said that they had been personally involved in court cases because of their articles, with local authorities or their surrogates often filing the complaint. Only 20 percent of St. Petersburg journalists said that they had been involved in court cases.
 In many cases, a lawsuit is particularly arduous for journalists because they tend to go through numerous phases and hearings. 
 "The reason behind [the difference] is that [in the regions] there are fewer players on the field, usually just a couple of newspapers and a television station," Protasenko said. "Naturally, local authorities feel very uncomfortable if they don't have all their potential critics under their control."
 St. Petersburg and Moscow journalists who run up against the authorities face other problems, notably restricted access to information. 
 Natalya Bubnova, a reporter for the St. Petersburg bureau of Russian State Television, RTR, said that authorities punish newspapers and broadcast outlets by limiting their access to key events.
 "Our channel used to be having trouble getting accreditation to some important city events," Bubnova said. "We were seen as an 'anti-Yakovlev' channel, too critical of [Governor Vla di mir] Yakovlev."
 The survey asked journalists what the primary role of the regional super-governors that President Vladimir Pu tin appointed last March should be. More than 50 percent of respondents in both categories said "assisting journalists to obtain access to information at all levels."
 In St. Petersburg, local journalists criticized Northwest Region Governor General Viktor Cherkesov, with less than 5 percent saying that he "regularly conducts meetings with the press." Nearly 14 percent of journalists nationally said this about their super-governors.
 Asked about their evaluation of Putin over the first year of his presidency, 45 percent of local journalists and 61 percent of regional journalists judged him either "favorably" or "somewhat favorably." One-quarter of St. Petersburg journalists rated him "negatively," while just 3 percent of regional journalists did.
 Journalists also pointed to the disintegration of the country's journalistic community as an obstacle. 
 "Journalists are divided into those serving the state - and this group, unfortunately, is the majority - and those trying to be independent," Bashirov said. 
 Osinsky said that it is getting harder to train students to have a healthy corporate spirit.

TITLE: One Expat That Even Stalin Couldn't Scare
AUTHOR: By Daria Merkusheva

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: PODOLSK, Moscow region - Gulag prisoner No. 3566 once opened a letter from his wife that was smuggled into the camp and found a small black-and-white photograph of a little girl. He knew it had to be his daughter, who was born three months after his arrest in June 1949.
 One of his fellow prisoners was an artist and drew him a picture of the girl in colored pencil. Prisoner 3566 paid for the picture with bread, his food for the next three days.
 Almost 50 years later, this picture still hangs on the wall of his apartment in Podolsk, a town south of Moscow.
 Joseph Leon Glazer, prisoner No. 3566, is not Russian. He is British and a native of South Africa, the son of a communist who in the 1930s sought a better life in the Soviet Union.
 Glazer lost his father in Stalin's purges, he never saw his mother again after leaving her behind in South Africa and his brother now lives in London. But Glazer, now nearly 85, has made Russia his home.
 His father, Henry Glazer, was a communist leader in South Africa. After he helped organize a big miners' strike in 1922, he was arrested, he lost his job running a fish-and-chips shop, and his home was searched more than once by police.
 Convinced that communism was the wave of the future, Henry Gla zer accepted Sta lin's invitation to communists living in capitalist countries to move to the Soviet Union and help build a strong communist society.
 Joseph Glazer, then 16, thought it would be a wonderful adventure to travel to Moscow and see the country of snow, bears and wolves. Despite warnings from his teacher, he followed his father, planning to return in a year or so.
 In 1931, the father and son arrived in Poland and began waiting for a Russian visa. They waited for a year, as if fate was warning them of something. Yet Henry Glazer was set on entering Russia. They traveled to Berlin for the visa, waited there, and finally entered the Soviet Union by train.
 During their ride across the Soviet Union to Moscow, Henry Glazer often asked fellow passengers about life in Russia and about Stalin. "No one answered our questions," Joseph Glazer recalled last week. "The silence was eerie." It was the winter of 1932.
 A couple years later, Joseph Glazer's older brother, Michael, joined them in Moscow. "He didn't like it here at all, especially the poverty and lines for food," Glazer said. "So he left for London.
 "When the train left the Belorussky Station, Michael stretched out of the window and screamed: 'Whoopee!'"
 Even if he had wanted to, Joseph Glazer would have had a hard time leaving the country. Too young to receive a British passport, he had left South Africa with no passport. When he arrived in the Soviet Union, he was told to get a Soviet passport or he would be sent to jail. So Glazer became a Soviet citizen.
 He entered the Anglo-American School, where he started to learn Russian, but before long the government shut down the school. Glazer remembers why: "They called it a spy center."
 Then he found a job at an automotive factory named after Stalin. Many other foreigners worked there, and he made many new friends. Those happy days were cut short in 1935 when his father was arrested.
 Years later, Glazer found out that his father was arrested after someone told the NKVD, the Soviet secret police at the time, that he had looked strangely at Stalin during a speech. Glazer also discovered in the KGB archives that his father died in 1937, but he doesn't know how or where. Thousands of foreign communists came to the Soviet Union at Stalin's invitation, and many were killed or died in the camps.
 "My father's biggest mistake was to come to this country," Glazer said. "But he always believed in communism and in Stalin, and didn't want to leave."
 The life of a son of "an enemy of the people" was hard for anyone and it was particularly hard for a young Englishman. The automotive factory fired him and he could not find another steady job. "I would work for 10 days, and my superiors would be happy with me," Glazer said. "But sooner or later they would find out who I was and fire me."
 One day he got a break. With little hope, he went to a trolleybus park and told the woman working there outright that he was the son of an enemy of the people. "She said nothing and hired me as a trainee trolleybus driver."
 He worked there happily for 10 years. During that time he met his wife, Eleonora Gustavovna, and they weresoon expecting a child. Now he had a reason to remain in the Soviet Union.
 Eleonora Gustavovna, herself Estonian, came under pressure for marrying a foreigner. On several occasions, the secret police summoned her to speak about her choice of husband, advising her to leave him. Each time, she refused.
 On June 12, 1949, Glazer received his pay and came home happy. His wife had bought two tickets to the Bolshoi Theater for the next evening to see a Verdi opera, and they were looking forward to the night out. But at 2 a.m. their happiness vanished with a knock on the door.
 The NKVD arrested Glazer and sentenced him to the gulag for 10 years. He was found guilty of anti-Soviet rhetoric.
 Glazer spent several months in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow before being transferred to the Karaganda camp in what is now Kazakhstan. He did hard labor and remembers being hungry all of the time. "I was thinking only about one thing: bread, bread, bread," he said. "I don't know how I survived."
 His wife was left to care for their new daughter by herself. She lost her job and had to move from Moscow to Podolsk, where her mother and sister lived. People were afraid to associate with her.
 After Stalin's death, many political prisoners were freed. In 1957, Glazer came home to his family.
 Glazer and his wife say their life together has been happy. They have traveled around the country. They have raised a daughter and now have two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "I haven't left Russia because of my family," Glazer said. "My family is my happiness."
 He said he bears no grudges for his years in the camps, but he gets upset when older people still praise Stalin. "It's sad to live in a country that went through some horrible things and yet some people deny the wrongdoing," he said.
 Glazer and his wife have a small two-room apartment in a typical Soviet building. He does the cleaning and it is spotless. The walls are covered with paintings by Eleonora Gustavovna and family photos. There is nothing in their home to suggest Glazer's birthplace. Only his foreign manners and accented Russian give him away.
 Glazer visited his brother, who is now 95, in London a few years ago. He hopes one day to visit Johannesburg, where he grew up. "I would like to see how it is now," he said. "I still remember everything as it was when I left."

TITLE: Putin Celebrates With Ukraine
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: KIEV - Rows of tanks rolled and columns of soldiers marched to a central Kiev square on Friday as the leaders of Russia and Macedonia attended the display celebrating 10 years of independence made possible by the demise of the Soviet Union.
 About 6,000 troops marched in a four-hour parade up the chestnut-tree-lined Khreshchatyk Street to Independence Square, along with about 300 pieces of military equipment, including new Ukrainian-made T-84 tanks and three types of rocket launchers.
 President Vladimir Putin and Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski showed particular interest as Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters and Su-25 fighters - the same as those Macedonia has used against Albanian guerrillas - roared just 300 meters above their heads.
 Putin, who stayed silent during events in Russia marking the 10th anniversary of the failed August 1991 coup attempt that led to the Soviet collapse four months later, waved at onlookers and earlier congratulated Ukrainians on their independence.
 He also pointed to the need for close economic and political cooperation between the two large Slav neighbors. Before the parade began, Ukraine's and Russia's defense ministers said the two countries need to develop military cooperation, especially in building modern military equipment.
 It was the most elaborate celebration of Ukraine's independence over the 10 years. Smaller parades also took place in the cities of Lviv, Vinnytsia, Odessa, Chernihiv and Sevastopol. Last year, a modest military parade without hard equipment was the only festivity in Kiev.
 Like most of the 15 former Soviet republics, Ukraine declared its sovereignty immediately following the hardline-Communist coup attempt against reformist Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, but it did not gain official independence until after Gorbachev resigned in December and signed the Soviet Union out of existence.
 President Leonid Kuchma has praised his country's peaceful transition to independence and promised political stability and peace for the future.
 Ukraine has also found itself torn between the West and Russia, its strong neighbor and biggest trade partner, but has managed to maintain relatively good relations with both.
 On the sidelines of the celebrations, Trajkovski held bilateral meetings with Putin and Kuchma to discuss the military conflict between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian government forces.
 Putin and Kuchma met separately and discussed a longstanding dispute on Ukraine's debts for Russian natural gas.
 Meanwhile, for most of the tens of thousands of people lining Kiev's elegant main street in bright sunshine, the display of the country's tanks, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers and warplanes was simply a good day out.
 "I came to show my little daughter," said Yulia, a 25-year-old real estate agent, as the world's largest freight plane, the An-225, rumbled overhead. "I'm not sure about all the money they spent on this, but today I feel proud to be Ukrainian."
 "Did you see how Putin stared at those planes?" said Russian-born Alexander Usov, a 64-year-old resident of Kiev. "He was impressed. And so was I. It shows we can do something."
 <i>- AP, Reuters </i>

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Weather Warning
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The State Hydrometeroloical Center issued a storm warning for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast for the period from Aug. 28 through Sept. 6, Interfax reported Friday.
 According to the center, unstable weather conditions are likely due to a sudden drop in temperatures as a cold front moves in from the northeast. On Aug. 27 and 28, temperatures are expected to fall from 5 to 7 degrees Celsius and strong winds are expected. On the night of Aug. 30 to 31, there is a liklihood of frost throughout the region, according to Interfax.
 The unseasonably cold weather should last for 10 days.
 
 
Royal Visit
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Jordan's King Abdullah II, currently in Moscow on a state visit to Russia, will visit St. Petersburg with his wife on Aug. 29, according to the press office of Governor Vla di mir Yakovlev.
 The one-day visit will feature a wreath-laying ceremony at Ploshchad Pobedy and a visit to the State Hermitage Museum.
 
 
Fire Investigation
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - An investigation into the fire on the cruise ship Konstantin Tsiolkovsky that occured in St. Petersburg on July 13 was caused by an explosion in the ship's auxiliary boiler, Interfax reported on Saturday.
 According to experts, the fire spread rapidly because of a fuel spill caused by the explosion. The vessel began to sink, however, because of mstakes made by fire fighters combating the blaze.
 The Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is currently undergoing repairs in its home port of Kazan. Two crew members were injured in the explosion, which occured when all the passengers were away on an excursion.
 
 
Kursk Work Delayed
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A violent storm forced deep-sea divers preparing to lift the wreck of the Kursk nuclear submarine to halt work Sunday, putting further strain on the already tight schedule of the salvage operation. 
 In another blow to Moscow's plans to raise the wreck before the end of September, the bad weather held up the departure from a Norwegian port of a support ship carrying cutting gear needed to saw off the vessel's mangled torpedo bay.
 
 
Chechnya Bombing
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Three people were killed and 11 injured in a marketplace explosion Saturday afternoon in Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city and headquarters for the pro-Moscow civilian administration.
 Two of those killed were carrying a bomb that exploded before they had time to plant it, a local Interior Ministry official said Sunday.
 The third fatality was a 10-year-old boy, whose mother was among the 11 people injured in the blast. Interfax quoted the Chechnya prosecutor's office as saying four of those injured were in serious condition.
 "The terrorist and his accomplice were killed when the bomb went off as they were carrying it in a plastic bag toward a police unit," VladimMatyushkin, head of the Interior Ministry's temporary press center in the North Caucasus, told RTR state television.
 "Another four people who are suspected of participating in the bombing have been detained," he said.
 An official at the office of Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's chief spokesperson on Chechnya, said no police officers were injured in the blast.
 
 
Debt-for-Nature Swap
 

MOSCOW (AP) - The government is considering asking its sovereign creditors to write off some of its debt in return for Russia's support of global "environmental services," a deputy minister said Friday.
 "Today we are a provider of free environmental services for the whole world," Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Mohammed Tsikanov said, according to Interfax. "We supply Europe with oxygen, we have the largest freshwater reservoir, Lake Baikal."
 Tsikanov's remarks were the first official comment on a debt-for-nature swap since the World Wide Fund for Nature floated the idea of creditors writing off some debt in return for spending smaller sums on protecting the environment.
 "We are preparing our proposals on this matter for the upcoming environmental summit in 2002 in Johannesburg," Tsikanov said.
 
 
Kuchma in Donetsk
 

KIEV (AP) - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on Saturday visited Donetsk, the area of a coal-mine disaster following a gas explosion on Aug. 20, as two more miners injured in the accident died in a hospital, bringing the overall death toll to 52. 
 Kuchma attended a church service for the miners killed in Donetsk, visited some of their graves and also presided over what was planned to be a festive meeting - a gathering to mark Miners' Day. Miners presented Kuchma with an old coal-worker's lamp and made him an honorary member of their union, Interfax reported. 
 
 
Tough Talk
 

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States will withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty "at a time convenient to America.'' 
 But he insisted that he has "no specific timetable in mind'' about when he would scrap the agreement so that his administration can begin testing a missile-defense system, which the treaty forbids.
 His comments Thursday while visiting an elementary school in Crawford marked his most definitive statement yet that he planned to walk away from the treaty. 
 The strong wording he used Thursday may have been a tactic to pressure President Vladimir Putin to begin serious negotiations or risk getting nothing in return for agreeing to the treaty's demise.
 
 
Sklyarov Reprieve
 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian software programmer arrested on charges of violating a controversial U.S. copyright law, has had his arraignment postponed until Aug. 30 to allow the defense and prosecution more time to negotiate a possible deal, lawyers on both sides said Thursday. 
 "The discussions are narrow enough that it can be done in a week," defense attorney Joe Burton said. 
 Sklyarov, who was released Aug. 6 on $50,000 bail, appeared in court Thursday. Sklyarov faces up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted. 



TITLE: Ministry Rules UES Scuttled Power Deal
AUTHOR: By Kirill Koriukin

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Antimonopoly Ministry said on Friday that it had found Unified Energy Systems (UES) guilty of engaging in noncompetitive business practices by refusing to grant grid access to Rosenergoatom, the owner and operator of nine of Russia's 10 nuclear power plants.
 Rosenergoatom appealed to the ministry, protesting over what it characterized as UES violations of anti-monopoly regulations, which it said ultimately prevented it from following through on its end of a contract with German energy giant RWE to export energy to Georgia.
 According to the terms of the five-year contract, which became valid as of July 1, Rosenergoatom is required to deliver 900 million kilowatt hours of electricity to Georgia before the end of the year. 
 RWE would then distribute the electricity within the former Soviet republic or be permitted to re-export to other countries in the region, including Turkey.
 Targeted annual supplies according to the contract are estimated to be between $8 million and $25 million worth of power.
 UES defended its refusal to grant grid access to the company by citing Rosenergoatom's failure to coordinate the RWE contract with UES, as it is obliged to do.
 Rosenergoatom said that the contract had in fact been submitted for UES to examine back in June. However, UES said that it did not receive the contract and that as a result it was unaware of its details, including questions such as the amounts of energy that are supposed to be transported, UES spokesperson Yury Melikhov said Friday.
 &quot;We were just faced with the fact,&quot; said Melikhov. &quot;We cannot work on such terms.&quot;
 It is not yet clear whether the ministry's ruling would pave the way for Rosenergoatom to fulfill the conditions of the contract with RWE. The ministry refused to comment on the decision.
 Rosenergoatom has yet to say whether or not it can go ahead with the contract, saying only that the ministry's ruling that UES had not been abiding by antimonopoly law would have the effect of &quot;breaking the gridlock&quot; that is preventing Russia from exporting more electricity.
 Neither Rosenergoatom nor UES would say exactly which rules had been broken.
 &quot;It is strange that the Antimonopoly Ministry, whose decisions are normally well thought-out and weighted, appears to be acting rashly this time and did not hear us out,&quot; Melikhov said.
 Meanwhile, Rosenergoatom has also filed a suit against UES, but the date of the court hearing has not yet been set.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: $1 Bln Jeep Plan
 

MOSCOW (Vedomosti) - Steel giant Severstal plans to build a new $1 billion jeep facility at its subsidiary Ulya novsk Automotive Plant (UAZ) by 2008. 
 The plant aims to reach full capacity - 250,000 off-road vehicles a year - by 2010, Severstal Deputy Director and UAZ chairman Vadim Shvetsov said Monday.
 The prototype, designed by AvtoVAZ engineers and designers, should be ready by 2003. The jeep will have a 2.2 to 3 liter diesel engine produced by a sister company, the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant, or ZMZ. The planned price tag is $20,000, placing it out of competition with AvtoVAZ and U.S. General Motors' planned Chevrolet Niva.
 In July, AvtoVAZ and ZMZ signed a letter of intent to produce up to 220,000 diesel engines per year, based on a model made by Austria's AVL.
 
 
Non-CIS Imports Up
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Imports from non-CIS countries in the first three weeks of August rose 50.5 percent on the year, but fell 3.8 percent on the month to $1.661 billion, the State Customs Committee said Monday, Prime-Tass reported.
 According to the committee's preliminary data, non-CIS imports this year totaled $17.405 billion as of Aug. 20. 
 Food imports rose 83.3 percent on the year, but fell 13.2 percent on the month to $383.5 million, and chemical-products imports rose 34.8 percent on the year, but fell 3 percent on the month to $307.1 million. 
 Machinery imports rose 45.2 percent on the year, unchanged on the month, totaling $621.3 million, while textiles imports rose 67.7 percent on the year and 16.6 percent on month to $82.0 million. 
 
 
Oil Tariff Adjustment
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - The government will adjust the rates of export tariffs on crude oil for 2002 in accordance with a new law on the customs tariff that is to become effective from Jan. 1, a senior government official said Monday. 
 "[The government] will need to have a mechanism handy in order to set oil tariffs in accordance with the new law," said Andrei Kushnirenko, secretary of the government commission for protective measures in foreign trade. 
 The bill on the customs tariff has been passed by both parliament chambers and has now to be signed into law by the president. It proposes setting maximum tariff rates for crude oil based on the Russian Urals blend price in the Mediterranean and in Rotterdam every two months. 
 No tariff will be set if the price of a barrel of Urals is below $15 a barrel. A tariff of 35 percent of the customs value will be set at the Urals price of $15 to $25 and a 40 percent tariff will be set when the Urals price exceeds $25 per barrel. 
 
RusAl Expansion
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Ruspromavto, a subsidiary of Russian Aluminum (RusAl), is likely to buy at least 51 percent in truck producer UralAZ by October, Pavel Yakovlev, executive director of the plant, said Monday, Prime-Tass reported.
 Yakovlev also said a 25-percent-plus-one share in UralAZ would be transferred to the Russian government due to the request of the Defense Ministry. 
 UralAZ is a major producer of trucks for the Russian military. 
 Yakovlev said UralAZ plans to increase its output to 12,500 trucks in 2002 from 10,000 expected this year. Yakovlev said sales revenues were expected to reach $350 million in 2002 from $250 million to $260 million expected this year. 
 Yakovlev also said the plant planned to export 4,600 trucks this year, including 3,000 to Iraq, the news agency reported. He also said the plant mulled constructing an assembly plant in Latin America but did not elaborate. 
 
 
Zambia Debt Write-Off
 

MOSCOW (SPT) - Russia agreed to write off $560 million, or 80 percent, of Zambia's sovereign and commercial debt to the Soviet Union, Zambian Finance Minister Katele Kalumba said in a statement Saturday, Itar-Tass reported. 
 According to the agreement signed Friday in Moscow, Zambia is due to pay the remaining $138.3 million over 33 years, the agency said. No other details were available. 
 After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia inherited the rights to all the Soviet Union's foreign debt, as well as to the country's own foreign debt accrued before 1992. 



TITLE: Baltic Oil Scene Not So Simple
AUTHOR: By Steven Allen

TEXT: IN a recent Washington Post comment the confrontation over Russian crude-oil supplies to Lithuania was presented as an important political choice for President Vladimir Putin. I believe that this choice is a false one. 
 While the overall conclusion that Russia should choose economic engagement over bullying its neighbors is sound, the situation in Lithuania should not be used as a litmus test of Russia's progress toward civilized behavior. Rather, it appears that a legitimate commercial dispute is being mistaken for 19th-century imperialism.
 The article's &quot;cutoff card&quot; examples of energy embargoes conflate two very different commodities: natural gas and oil.
 While natural gas must travel through a pipeline from the well directly to the end-user, oil is much more flexible. It can be put into pipelines, ships, railroad tank cars, barges or even trucks. This fact is more than a mere technicality when it comes to making accusations that one country (or in this case, the company LUKoil) is trying to &quot;starve&quot; another country of needed energy supplies. With crude oil, there are almost always multiple supply options available.
 Lithuania has not been cut off from crude-oil supplies. The alternate supply option for Lithuania's refinery at Mazheikiu is not theoretical, nor is it an uneconomic network of barges, trains and trucks. In fact, the refinery owns a state-of-the-art import/export terminal on the sea. Why doesn't the refinery buy oil on world markets and simply ignore Russian crude?
 It may be that this is a commercial dispute, and those in control of the refinery are trying to use political leverage in order to take advantage of the Russians commercially.
 In Russia, crude oil is cheap. There is a glut of supply due to a lack of export routes, and the result is that a barrel in Russia sells for much less than is currently paid for a barrel on world markets.
 The price being offered by Mazheikiu is not publicly available, but it has been LUKoil's contention during this dispute that the prices being offered in Lithuania are too low. Based on the prices paid for Russian crude in central Europe, where crude is also trapped due to a lack of pipelines, this is believable.
 The discount to world prices that Mazheikiu seeks is probably in the neighborhood of $2.50 per barrel. Given the refinery's throughput capacity of 88 million barrels per year, this represents a potential annual cost reduction of $220 million.
 It appears that the Lithuanian refinery, which is controlled by Williams International of the United States, wants the best of both worlds: access to cheap Russian crude without the disadvantage of Russian management control. 
 In essence, the refinery is asking LUKoil (and Russia) to forego the full value of its oil, and instead to transfer that value to Lithuania (and to Williams International). LUKoil is proposing to share the value of its oil in exchange for a controlling stake in the refinery.
 The Russian government is involved because it owns the pipeline being used in this dispute.
 LUKoil enjoys a Baltic supply &quot;monopoly&quot; resulting from its partial control of shipments through this section of the Russian pipeline system. While this appears to give LUKoil an unfair advantage, each of the Russian oil majors also acts as an &quot;export coordinator&quot; for a particular geographic region.
 An underlying explanation for this system is that the Russian government is also an economic actor and that by allowing a single firm to control the crude exports in any given region, the government and that firm maximize the economic value of both the pipeline system and the oil produced in Russia.
 Both governments are economic actors.
 The Lithuanian government still owns a large equity stake in Mazheikiu. Selling that stake on the back of cheap crude inputs, with no Russian management involved, would be ideal.
 On the other side, the Russian government plans to sell half of its 14 percent stake in LUKoil this year. After the criticism of Boris Yeltsin-era privatizations, it is after the highest price possible.
 One way to understand &quot;Putin's choice&quot; is that he must defend Russia's economic interests, especially in former Soviet republics such as Lithuania and Ukraine.
 An important source of the investment into Soviet energy infrastructure was money borrowed from Western banks and governments in the 1970s and 1980s. This money must still be repaid, and the Russian government has taken responsibility for all Soviet debts, regardless of whether the assets bought with those funds, such as Mazheikiu, are actually located within Russia.
 Many people in the former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries do not like the idea of Russian economic influence. This is natural and is based on a brutal, forced association that should never be allowed to happen again.
 However, if Russia is to integrate into the global economy, it must be allowed to play by the rules of global capitalism. These rules demand that you use economic leverage when you have it.
 If the West wants Russia to stay engaged and committed to a market economy, Russian energy firms must be allowed to own subsidiaries in places where today Russian control is viewed with suspicion. If we define a market economy for Russia as one in which that country serves as a market for Western products while supplying cut-rate commodities to the global economy, it will be no surprise if the Russians decide to walk away from the model.
 In that case, Putin's choice would not be between imperialism and globalism but between mercantilism and self-sufficiency.
 
 <i>Steven Allen is an independent oil-and-gas-sector analyst based in Moscow. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Dirty Laundry a Blessing For Severstal Chief's Foes
TEXT: THIS month, Russian housewives who had so far only read in glossy magazines about divorce scandals in the West had the opportunity to watch a homegrown version of &quot;Santa Barbara.&quot; The Niku li no District Court froze 32 percent of the Severstal steel giant. The court was acting on behalf of Ilya Mordashov, a minor and the son of the plant's 30-year-old general director, and of Yelena, the general director's ex-wife.
 Before becoming general director, Severstal's Alexei Mordashov had owned Severstal-Invest Corp., which was busy buying the plant's shares on instructions from its management. When the controlling share was in the hands of Severstal-Invest, Mordashov elected himself general director - much to the astonishment of his predecessor, Yury Lipukhin, who had instructed his young favorite to buy out the shares.
 Last year, Severstal showed a profit of $600 million. It seems that having plunged into a war with SibAl and the Urals Mining and Metals Co., or UGMK, Mordashov intended to sell some of the shares to foreigners as an insurance policy of sorts. High profits were necessary for a good credit history. Nice-looking charts comparing Severstal with foreign metallurgical giants popped up on the factory's walls.
 While Severstal was beating production records, Mordashov's former wife lived in a small, three-room apartment, drove a Daewoo Nexia and received $300 to $1,500 in alimony. Mordashov paid his wife and son less than an average oligarch pays an estranged mistress without kids. It turned out to be a business mistake because his ex-wife is not the only person unhappy with Mordashov.
 Through the efforts of Mordashov, Severstal became involved in the fight for the Magnitogorsk metallurgical plant. Iskander Makhmudov's UGMK claims 30 percent of that plant. (Incidentally, the suit to protect the interests of underage Ilya Mordashov was filed by the same prosecutor, Vladimir Po nevezhsky, who once hounded Dzhalol Khai da rov - Makh mu dov's former partner and now sworn enemy.)
 Together with the head of St. Petersburg's Promstroibank, Vladimir Kogan, who is believed to be close to President Vladimir Putin, Mordashov had intended to play the dual roles of a St. Petersburg team member and a white knight salvaging the plant from an insidious aggressor. In other words, he wanted to shoot the prey that UGMK had hunted down. Now, instead of fighting for the Magnitogorsk plant, Mordashov will have to defend Severstal.
 Just like SibAl's Oleg Deripaska, Mor dashov decided to build a vertically integrated company by purchasing automobile factories. Deripaska bought Nizhny Novgorod's GAZ and Morda shov took Ulyanovsk's UAZ and the Zavolzhsky Motor Factory.
 Rumor has it that when Deripaska found out that Zavolzhsky had been bought under his nose, he said, &quot;We are SibAl, and SibAl never loses.&quot; After this remark, the Tax Police, the Antimonopoly Ministry and even the agency in charge of state reserves took a keen interest in Zavolzhsky.
 Well, Mordashov has enough enemies in his own town of Cherepovets. Take, for example, his former deputy Valery Sikorsky, in whose bank Yelena Mordashova had worked until recently. Sikorsky had once been considered a sort of second general director of the plant, but he was thrown out. Clearly, he is interested in creating a situation that many would like to exploit (and get paid for).
 This &quot;Santa Barbara&quot; has many episodes to come. So far, two things are clear. First, Yelena Mordashova, who had been kept by her husband on the edge of starvation, could hardly find the money to move to Moscow and pay for an expensive advertising campaign. Second, it is hardly advisable to claim the role of a white knight in national industrial wars when there is dirty laundry in your family closet.
 
 <i>Yulia Latynina is a journalist with ORT. </i>

TITLE: The Creation of a New Information Oligarch
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Albats

TEXT: AUGUST has become an ominous season for Russian politics. This year, even though the month has thankfully so far been free of crises and catastrophes, is no exception. Two major events occured, both of them closely connected to one another.
 The first was President Vladimir Putin's denunciation of the country over which he presides. By not saying a single word on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the August 1991 coup that spelled the dissolution of the Soviet empire and the creation of the sovereign Russian Federation, Putin has made it perfectly clear that he does not acknowledge those key events in Russian and global history. By extension, then, he also does not recognize the country that emerged from these events and has aligned himself with those who dream of restoring the Soviet Union.
 Instead of participating in these commemorations, Putin met with Russian Orthodox clerics, sending another telling message: He has found an ideology to replace communism. Russian Orthodoxy - traditionally a state church and a pillar of support for the tsars since the mid-17th century - has long been fighting to secure the spot vacated by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party. Now, it seems to have it.
 A second event happened a week earlier, but sends a no less important signal. The president signed a decree establishing a powerful new monopoly, a state-owned Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network. Previously, the system had been split between two ministries. This new state monopoly, by virtue of its control over the delivery of national television signals, has the power to manage the perception of reality for the entire country. De facto, the Soviet Gosteleradio, which once controlled all national networks and broadcasting facilities, has been reborn.
 The Kremlin's motivations are clear enough, in view of the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. Putin wants to make sure that there is no way for an unauthorized alternative party or presidential candidate to emerge. The Kremlin remembers perfectly well that the virtual reality of the media made Putin president and created his Unity party, which is the second-largest faction in the State Duma.
 However, Putin's decree, which has long been lobbied by Press Minister Mikhail Lesin - co-founder of the company Video International, which holds a monopoly on the sale of advertising on the major channels, including state television - conceals several other layers of significance as well. It signals primarily that Putin's promises - such as the commitments to distance himself from the oligarchs, to divorce the state from business, to establish equal rights and opportunities for all players on the market and to root out the corruptive aspects of the previous regime - were nothing but populist rhetoric.
 Lesin, as the new CEO of this strange Russian version of a &quot;free press,&quot; is a pure symbol of these false promises. I first crossed paths with Lesin back in 1996 when I learned that he - the former advertising manager of Boris Yeltsin's 1996 presidential campaign who, immediately after Yeltsin's victory, was appointed deputy chief of the presidential administration - had opened a thriving private business right out of the administration's offices. He was selling videotapes containing an exclusive interview with Yeltsin in which the president first publicly announced that he would have to undergo heart bypass surgery and asked the country to prepare itself.
 Soon after I wrote this story, Lesin was fired. But he didn't sink away into oblivion. Several months later, he was appointed one of the top managers at the state television and radio company, which runs the RTR channel. Lesin's company, Video International, held - and still holds - the exclusive rights to sell RTR's advertising time. Lesin denies that he still holds a stake in Video International and generally prefers to refer to himself as its &quot;co-founder.&quot; Since that time, Lesin has become a powerful and indispensable member of what has come to be referred to in the press as &quot;The Family.&quot;
 Earlier this year, the Audit Chamber uncovered numerous indications of the misappropriation of state funds related to RTR, including tax evasion, under-the-table payments and the like. As a former employee of RTR, I can add a couple of other charges, including falsified contracts, cheating, violation of contractual obligation, funneling money via affiliated companies and that sort of thing.
 However, this investigation was quickly swept under the rug. Lesin, who by then was already press minister, came through it untainted. On the contrary, he has emerged as the leader of an ongoing project that is called &quot;Improving Russia's Image.&quot; Clearly, Putin has his own views of Lesin.
 The next time that Lesin emerged into the spotlight was when he signed his name to the infamous &quot;freedom for shares&quot; deal, in which Media-MOST owner Vladimir Gusinsky agreed to relinquish his control of NTV in exchange for his personal freedom. By orchestrating the successful campaign against NTV and by eliminating two powerful competitors in Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky, Lesin became Russia's exclusive information oligarch.
 Lesin's next target was German Gref, economic development and trade minister and the main proponent of reforming and streamlining the bureaucracy. In violation of the concept of the Law on Licensing that was aimed to prevent bureaucrats from regulating businesses, Lesin has managed to preserve for his Press Ministry the rights to constrain competitors and to prevent newcomers from entering the fields where his interests lie. In August, Putin signed an abridged version of the licensing law, which is a far cry from what had originally been planned.
 Combining the roles of aggressive businessperson and high-ranking state official, Lesin is the embodiment of what went wrong with Russia's post-Soviet reforms. It is evident that Putin has no will or desire to put these things right. To paraphrase George Orwell, the state motto continues to be that, &quot;All oligarchs are equal, but some are more equal than others.&quot;
 That is why Russia has lost its chance to become a civilized, democratic country - at least, anytime soon. You don't have to be Nostradamus to foresee what will happen over the next year in Russian politics. It will be laden with imperialistic rhetoric. A new state ideology will be institutionalized. Nationalism will flourish. A more skillful version of Soviet propaganda will dominate the airwaves and the major national newspapers. Transactional costs for small and medium-sized businesses will creep up.
 I should confess. I do not fit into this picture. My self-exile to the English-speaking press has finally reached its limits as well. I have been writing a column for The St. Petersburg Times for nearly two years, and I love it. But I need to take a break now in order to distance myself from the everyday of Russian politics, to think about what happened and why. I need to think about what happened to people like me, people who 10 years ago were willing to lay down their lives for democracy. I need to think about what happened to Russian journalism, to which I no longer belong.
 Everyone is entitled, at least once in his or her life, to retreat into monastic seclusion. I will be there until I find some other place. Or a way out.
 
 <i>Yevgenia Albats is an independent, Moscow-based journalist. This is her last column for The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Officials Are Barking up the Wrong Tree
TEXT: IT is late August and so, naturally, that means it is time for the national lumberjack championship held in Karelia. More than 100 professional lumberjacks from all over the country will compete to see who is the fastest and best at climbing, and chopping down, trees. I imagine that the competition will be pretty exciting, since Russia's lumberjacks no doubt have a lot of experience under their belts.
 But it would seem only appropriate to me if they allowed Russian government officials to compete as well. After all, our lumberjacks should be grateful to them that they have so much work to do. Most of the millions of trees that they chop down end up as raw materials for foreign factories. Russian officials claim that they want their own successful wood-processing industry, but they don't seem to be trying very hard.
 The out-flow of wood from the Leningrad Oblast and Karelia to Finland is a neverending flood. While there are just three paper mills in the oblast, there are many more located in the region of Finland closest to the border with Russia. Pulp-and-paper mills - large even by European standards - that belong to UPM-Lymmene and Stora-Enso line the southern shore of Lake Saimaa. Many of them operate primarily using Russian raw materials, according to experts at local environmental organizations.
 It is a lot easier and, in the short term, more profitable to send wood abroad than to buy expensive processing equipment, hire workers and set up a domestic plant.
 State excise-tax policies are doing nothing to help. Russia's tax is much lower than those of neighboring countries. In Finland, companies must pay the government $40 for each cubic meter of wood exported, while the Russian tax is about $1. That's why I have no doubt that Russia's hard-working lumberjacks can probably whip their Finnish colleagues at a lumberjacking competition.
 Officials have been talking for a long time now about how to limit the export of Russian wood and create conditions that would foster the development of domestic wood processing. 
 I remember listening to President Vladimir Putin last year when he was responding to requests by Northwest Region governors to make wood exporting even more attractive. &quot;We should create favorable conditions for exporting our output,&quot; Putin said. &quot;Until now, we have been exporting primarily unprocessed wood, rather than goods made from wood. It is easier for exporters [to earn money]. As for those who would seek to make the export tax even lower, this is not a progressive approach.&quot;
 Well put. I wouldn't argue with any of that and, to be honest, certain steps have been taken during the last year to improve this situation. I would not, however, call those measures &quot;significant improvement.&quot;
 In April 2000, the government tripled the export tax despite the loud complaints of domestic exporters. They argued that this policy would kill off Russia's forestry industry. But it didn't. Instead, an interesting thing happened.
 According to the State Customs Committee, the export of wood from the Leningrad Oblast dropped by 15 percent. And the production of paper has increased. The same is true in Komi. The export of wood there is now just one-third what it was in 1999, and the production of paper is up 81 percent.
 So why doesn't the government do more? &quot;The current tax is quite far from the possible limit,&quot; said Alexei Yaroshenko, a Greenpeace Russia representative in Moscow. &quot;We made some calculations and determined that the duty could be from $10 to $15 per cubic meter for coniferous wood.&quot;

TITLE: Police Encounters Spark Reader Commentary
TEXT: In response to &quot;Diplomats Allege Police Brutality,&quot; Aug. 17.
 
 Editor,
 </i>It is unfortunate that our police do not seem to have been given the order from above. President Vladimir Putin is popularizing our city by inviting global politicians here and helping to prepare a tourist boom for our tercentennical - and then something like this.
 Such incidents cause considerable harm to the prestige and the budget of the city. I just received a message from Sweden about this incident and I was ashamed for the police of my hometown and for all its residents.
 We are doing everything we can to create a positive image for our city and such incidents undermine all our efforts. 
 <i>Georgy Sukharev
 www.ticketsofrussia.ru
 St. Petersburg
 </i>
 <i>Editor,</i>
 I travel to a different country in Europe every summer and five years ago I lived with a family in St. Petersburg. We walked around the city a lot at night and had no problems, although I was with my host family.
 I love this city and plan to return. But things like this make me scared to return. I want to return, but must have confidence that this will not happen to me.
 <i>Albert Arnold
 Owensboro, Kentucky
 </i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>I visited St. Petersburg in the fall of 1999 and the winter of 2001. I have always found the police in this beautiful city very helpful. I have always respected the laws of every country I have visited. It always seems that when a person breaks the law of a country they are visiting, they want to hold someone else responsible for their actions. It seems to me that these people should educate themselves about the simple laws they must obey before hitting the streets, especially in the early morning hours. 
 <i>Jackie Schmalz
 Charleston, Arizona
 </i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>It would seem to me to be incumbent upon foreign diplomats to be aware of the laws of countries they are visiting. The fact that other countries recognize a driver's license as identification has no significance when you are in a country where terrorism is a reality, and thorough identification checks are necessary. 
 Beyond that, I think if a Russian diplomat were visiting Stockholm and resisted police there, the same treatment would be rendered. The incident could very well have been avoided had the visitors been cooperative. I can think of no circumstances where an apology would be tendered from a police officer who was performing his duty. 
 <i>Oliver Yelton 
 Elk Grove, California
 </i>
 <i>Editor,</i>
 I was not really surprised very much by this news because during my stay in Gothenburg, Sweden, in October 2001, I heard a lot of stories like this. Swedes have heard a lot about this way of treating foreigners in Russia, and this is just one more sad example. 
 Unfortunately, we are a police state. I am tired of being ashamed of my country, and it is still sad to understand that there is very little progress in our mentalities. And seemingly none in the mentalities of police officers.
 <i>Irina Makarenkova 
 Murmansk
 </i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>I lived in Russia from August 1999 through February 2001. I find this story about the two Swedish diplomats being beaten and arrested believable, yet maybe it's just an isolated incident. I understand both parties' point of view. 
 In most Western countries, we do not need to carry documents. A driver's license is usually sufficent. I'm a Canadian, married to a Russian citizen. When my wife travelled to Canada with me, she was surprised that she didn't need to carry her passport everywhere. 
 I lived and worked in St. Petersburg and Pushkin for 18 months and never had a problem with the police. I was advised to carry a photocopy of my passport and visa because of the danger of pickpockets on the metro and buses and the difficulty in replacing a visa if it is lost or stolen. In addition, the Russian visa is made of paper that can be easily damaged or destroyed. 
 I was a teacher and most of my co-workers did the same thing. One American, who looked like an Arab, was stopped on occasion and never had a problem with his photocopied documents. On the other hand, a friend in Moscow was stopped and checked by the police one day after his visa had expired. He was asked to pay a bribe of $100, which he did. Other foreigners in St. Petersburg said the worst time was at night when the police checked all the drunks and asked for bribes, even if your documents were in order. 
 It seems to me that the time of day, the validity of your documents and the mood of the police are the key factors in such situations. I can't believe that Swedish diplomats would be taken for Chechen terrorists. It seems they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 
 However, I must agree that the police have the right to check everyone, especially in these troubled times. Perhaps if the police were paid a decent salary and treated with more respect these problems would disappear. 
 <i>Stephen Poirier
 Seoul, South Korea
 </i>
 <strong>Thanks, Flipper
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;The Healing Power of Dolphins,&quot; Aug. 21.
 </i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>I am a freshman at Illinois State University, but in two years I plan to go to the University of Florida to study marine biology. 
 This article really caught my attention. I think it is wonderful that dolphins are being used for therapeutic and rehabilitation treatments. I have been swimming with dolphins before, and it was the most fun I have ever had.
 I think that Dasha should get to keep doing this work instead of returning to her performances. 
 Anyway, this article was great, and I would love to see more.
 <i>Anna Schiess
 Bloomington-Normal, Illinois
 </i>
 <strong>First Things First
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;City Seeks Sponsors for Restorations,&quot; Aug. 14.
 
 Editor,
 </i>The restoration of the architectual monuments on a $16.4 million wish list is a wonderful thing. These projects will preserve treasures for future generations, as well as attract more tourist spending. But is this the right priority? What if there is no living while waiting for these future dividends?
 Why build cathedrals while children go without basic necessities in the 21st century? Is there safe drinking water for all the children? Is all sewage treated to safe standards, or are children playing in diseased slums? Do all families have access to wholesome, nutritious foods in good supply, or is foraging a necessary weekend activity?
 It is past the time that governments and investors stopped treating the people as serfs to be manipulated for selfish gains. The Russian people are a good, talented and industrious people when allowed opportunity. I know because I have five grandchildren from St. Petersburg and Pushkin. There are none finer.
 Put first things first: water, food medicine, the opportunity to learn and to work. These are the priorities. Then you will see how beautiful St. Petersburg truly can become!
 <i>David Wyatt
 Watertown, Tennessee</i>
 <strong>Jazzy City
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;Bringing Some Style to St. Pete,&quot; Aug. 21.
 
 Editor,
 </i>After reading this profile, I am hoping to visit St Petersburg next April. I thought this piece was very informative and gave such a colourful, jazzy image of this beautiful city, rather than the dull and frightful images that the media usually convey today.
 <i>Aimee Kenny Boyce
 Co. Meath, Ireland
 </i>
 <strong>Stalingrad?
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;Stop Trying to Honor Josef Stalin,&quot; an editorial, Aug. 24.
 
 Editor,
 </i>I just returned from St. Petersburg. I think that Russians have a lot to do, but defending the truth is foremost. Your editorial is right on, to use an American expression. 
 I wish that many Americans, particularly American intellectuals, understood this.
 <i>Jerry Greenhoot
 Charlotte, North Carolina
 </i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>The problem is not Stalin, but the Communist Party and its ideology as a whole. Stalinism is the result of society structures built by the Communist Party and millions of Soviet citizens (communists and non-communists) participated in the crimes of his reign in one way or another. 
 The real aim of Gennady Zyuganov is the rehabilitation of the Communist Party by means of the rehabilitation of Stalin, who was without doubt the most &quot;successful&quot; Communist ruler in history.
 <i>Miguel Grossmann 
 Moscow</i>
 <i>Editor,
 </i>In your Aug. 24 issue, you ran two articles - &quot;Muted Celebrations Mark 'Flag Day'&quot; and &quot;Stop Trying To Honor Josef Stalin&quot; - that are interesting when read individually, but provide a chilling view of Russia's future when taken together. Like no other country, Russia seems to look the same whether looking back in time or toward the future. These two articles seem to prove this point.
 In the Stalingrad article, you correctly reminded us of Stalin's brutality against his own people. But it might also be correct to remind us that the battle of Stalingrad might not have been as bad - or even have occurred at all - had Stalin not attempted to create earlier intrigues and treaties with Hitler, nor would he have decimated his officer corps (and country) before the battle. The glorious victors, in whose honor the Communists want to rename Volgograd, might still be alive had Stalin been a sane leader, worthy of having cities named after him.
 Thus, looking backward, the Communists want to ignore the worst in Russia's history, and pretend that it was instead a glorious time.
 In the Flag Day article, we learn that it was Putin himself who urged in December 2000 that the tricolor be officially made the national flag, confirming the Supreme Soviet's decree that replaced the Soviet flag with the tricolor on Aug. 22, 1991. And a further confirmation of Yeltsin's decree is that Aug. 22 be celebrated as Flag Day.
 Just as in Stalingrad, brave Moscow citizen-soldiers stood firm in the face of an enemy, an enemy that wouldn't even have existed had sane leadership prevailed in the years of the Soviet Union. These brave citizens are now being remembered on Flag Day, by celebrating the end of the coup, the adoption of a new flag and the creation of a new future.
 Putin chose <i>not </i>to celebrate Flag Day because he &quot;does not want to alienate the segment of the population still mourning the collapse of the Soviet Union.&quot; In other words, those same people who want to resurrect the tainted name of Stalin in Stalingrad.
 Thus, going forward, Putin wants to ignore the best in Russia's present, implying that the past was indeed, a glorious time. Is it any wonder, then, that many people fear that Russia's past will also be its future.
 <i>Richard Klein 
 Seattle, Washington
 </i>
 <strong>A Short Story
 </strong><i>Editor,
 </i>Here is a little note about the spiritual life of St. Petersburg. Maybe if you print it, people will either laugh or cry about it.
 In a bookstore on Liteiny Prospect a book called &quot;The Secret Notebooks of Alexander Pushkin: 1836-1837&quot; was put on sale. 
 When it appeared in front of the director of the best-seller section, she grabbed it, took it home and read it in one night. In the morning, she called Pushkin House and hysterically shouted, &quot;Tell me that this isn't Pushkin!&quot;
 And they told her.
 So she called the bookstore and ordered that the book be removed from sale. &quot;Think for a second,&quot; they told her. &quot;You couldn't possibly do anything better to advertise this book.&quot;
 That made her think. After her brain twirled around for a few miniutes, she came to the usual Soviet conclusion:
 &quot;O.K. I won't remove it from sale, but we are only going to sell it out from under the counter.&quot; 
 To paraphrase a saying, the more Russia changes, the more it stays the same.
 <i>David Bayevsky
 St. Petersburg
 </i>
 <strong>Back to the Past
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;Communist Party Breaks Silence,&quot; Aug. 21.
 
 Editor,
 </i>I am appalled by this appeal to the &quot;secret police&quot; by the present members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Unleashing the police against anything or anybody releases a monster known to have killed millions. How could anyone be so stupid and so willfully ignorant of one's own history?
 <i>Daniel Duane Spyker
 Detroit, Michigan
 </i>
 <strong>Zimbabwe Responds
 </strong><i>In response to &quot;Zimbabwe Farmers Face Trial for Assault,&quot; Aug. 10.
 
 Editor,
 </i>The embassy would like to correct the misleading article that portrays Zimbabwe as a racist and lawless society bent on persecuting white commercial farmers and destroying their property.
 First, the violence in and around Chinhoyi started when about 60 white commercial farmers ganged up and brutally assaulted defenseless, legally resettled black commercial farmers in that area. This unacceptable development was further exacerbated by retaliatory attacks and subsequent looting of farm property and equipment by elements, in some cases, embittered farm laborers and, in others, downright criminals. The law is taking its course without fear, favor or discrimination. Twenty-three white commercial farmers have already appeared before the courts and have been charged with public violence while more than 40 people have been arrested for looting and destroying property.
 As much as these regrettable incidents have outraged peace-loving Zimbabweans who would like to see land reform unfold peacefully, it is important to place these developments in a broad perspective. The government of Zimbabwe is concerned that events of the past weeks, while appearing sporadic and confined to a few areas in one province, Chinhoyi and Mhangura, could very easily replicate or reignite in other areas and provinces facing acute land pressures.
 The allegation that the ruling ZANU party through President Robert Mugabe has sanctioned the &quot;invasion&quot; of white-owned commercial farms should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. Our liberation struggle was for the recovery of land forcibly taken away from the black majority during the colonial era. The so-called invasions were peaceful demonstrations by the landless Zimbabweans at the slow pace of land redistribution. It is unfortunate that during these demonstrations there were casualties on both sides. Surprisingly there is no mention of any black casualties leaving one wondering whether the element of race is the crucial factor.
 <i>Brigadier A.M. Mutumbara (Rtd.)
 Ambassador Zimbabwe Embassy
 Moscow </i>

TITLE: Focus Turns to U.S. Weapons
AUTHOR: By Mark Lavie

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israel's use of American-made warplanes in the Mideast conflict has brought new charges from Palestinians that the U.S. government is leaning heavily in Israel's favor. 
 Late Sunday, Israeli helicopters attacked a Palestinian police station in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, and tanks shelled police posts near Ramallah. The military said the attacks were retaliation for the Sunday road ambushes. 
 The Israeli airstrikes followed an infiltration Saturday in Gaza. Two armed Palestinians broke into an Israeli Army position and opened fire, killing three soldiers. The infiltrators were shot dead by other soldiers. 
 In response, Israel sent U.S.-made F-15 and F-16 warplanes into action early Sunday, dropping bombs on Palestinian police headquarters in Gaza City and Dir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip and Salfit in the West Bank. In Gaza City, Palestinians showed a metal fragment with the name of a U.S.-made bomb. 
 Just before the raid, Israeli tanks shelled a police post on the Gaza-Egypt border. A Palestinian police officer was killed and 18 others injured in the raids. 
 In all, 10 people died in the violence over the weekend, seven Israelis and three Palestinians. Two of the deaths came late Sunday. An Israeli was fatally shot as he made a business transaction with a Palestinian at the edge of the West Bank, and another Israeli died of wounds suffered in a Palestinian ambush Saturday, when an Israeli man and his wife were killed and their two small children wounded. 
 Earlier Sunday, a young Palestinian was killed in unclear circumstances at the north end of the Gaza Strip. Palestinians said he was hit by a tank shell. Israeli media said he and two others were trying to pass into Israel. The others escaped. The Israeli military had no comment. 
 Palestinian spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi denounced Israel's use of U.S. weapons at a news conference, saying she wondered whether the American public knew that &quot;Israel is using American weapons against human rights.&quot; 
 Responding, Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said: &quot;I don't have to justify it. It's a clear move that you take in order to respond to acts of terror.&quot; 
 Asked Sunday about the legality of Israel's use of U.S. weapons against the Palestinians, a U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the State Department monitors the use of U.S. weapons to ensure they are used according to the terms of transfer under American law. 
 The law requires U.S. weapons to be used for security and self-defense. Israel's rivals have complained often about its use of U.S. weapons, but the United States has not made a legal issue of the matter, preferring to deal with it on the political level. 
 Ashrawi's criticism reflected a growing rift between the Palestinians and the Bush administration. Though Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has visited the Bush White House twice, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has yet to be invited. 
 On Friday, President George W. Bush demanded that Arafat stop Palestinian attacks against Israel, echoing Sharon's demand for an end to violence before peace negotiations can begin. 
 Arafat's official Wafa news agency ran a comment on its Web site Sunday harshly denouncing Bush's remarks, saying he &quot;looked very ugly and pathetic.&quot; The article said that Bush &quot;can't continue supporting the executioners at the expense of the victims,&quot; and hinting that Bush was trying to find favor with American Jews by favoring Israel. 
 Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak praised Bush for his &quot;top-notch instincts for leadership&quot; in demanding that Arafat stop all violence. Barak has turned against Arafat after the Palestinian leader rebuffed his offer of a state in almost all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and control over parts of Jerusalem. Barak was trounced by Sharon in an election last February. 
 &quot;Arafat has to be held accountable by the rest of the world for his refusal to come back to negotiate [and] for the promotion of terror,&quot; Barak said in an interview. 
 The Palestinians blame Israel for the violence, charging that its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is the cause, exacerbated by roadblocks and travel restrictions there. The Palestinians say their police and security are defending themselves against Israeli aggression. 
 Since fighting that broke out 11 months ago, 588 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 160 on the Israeli side.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Taliban Bans Internet
 

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's hardline Taliban ruler has banned international aid organizations from using the Internet in a country that has no proper postal service and few working telephones. 
 In an edict issued Saturday, Mullah Mohammed Omar also barred government departments and domestic aid organizations from using the Internet, including to send e-mail. 
 The edict said the only Internet connection in Afghanistan would be in the southern city of Kandahar, where most of the senior Taliban leaders are based. 
 
 
Collecting Weapons
 

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - NATO revealed Sunday that it plans to collect 3,300 weapons from ethnic Albanian militants in an operation it described as being Macedonia's only alternative to war. 
 By revealing figures, NATO sets boundaries for its mission in Macedonia. Called Operation Essential Harvest, it envisions NATO troops setting up collection sites to take weapons as rebels turn them in. NATO has said it plans to finish the process in 30 days and leave. 
 But the number of weapons NATO decided on could become an obstacle to carrying out the plan. 
 Macedonian government officials, who say the rebels have thousands more weapons than they have admitted to, said later Sunday that they had not agreed to accept NATO's figures. 
 
 
Islamists Protest UN
 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Several hundred hardline Islamists vowed Sunday to block the deployment of UN monitors along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, saying that it compromised the country's sovereignty. 
 "People of Pakistan won't tolerate the presence of UN monitors on their soil," Sami-ul Haq, who leads Pakistan-Afghan Defense Council, told his supporters at a rally in the capital, Islamabad. 
 The UN monitors would be deployed to stop weapons shipments sent by Pakistan to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, who are fighting a northern-based opposition. The UN Security Council approved deployment last month, but set no date for when they would be dispatched. 
 
 
Asylum Denied
 

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Australia Monday refused entry to a Norwegian cargo ship hijacked by 434 mostly Afghan asylum seekers rescued from a sinking boat, marking the first time the country has turned back a ship carrying asylum seekers.
 The Norwegian-registered Tampa was anchored off Australia's Christmas Island, which is much closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland.
 "It does not have permission to enter Australian territorial waters and it will not be given permission to land in Australia or any Australian territories," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told a news conference in Canberra.
 
 
Just Kidding
 

FORTALEZA, Brazil (Reuters) - The prime suspect in the murder of six Portuguese men buried alive two weeks ago at a beach bar in Brazil's northeast said on Sunday that the crime began as a joke between drinking companions.
 Luis Melitao Guerreiro, also Portuguese and a friend of one of the victims, confessed to robbing the tourists and ordering five accomplices to kill and bury them at his bar where police unearthed the decomposed bodies Friday.
 "It all started out in jest," Guerreiro told reporters at police headquarters in the tourist city of Fortaleza. "I am guilty. I am a monster," he said, weeping. 



TITLE: European Soccer Leagues Kick Into Full Gear Over Weekend
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: David Beckham limped out of Manchester United's fortunate tie as European soccer got into full swing Sunday. 
 The Spanish and Italians leagues kicked off two weeks after the English Premier League, and some of the big names made headlines for the wrong reasons. 
 Manchester United is one of several powerhouses going through early trouble. After its opening-day 3-2 victory over recently promoted Fulham, Alex Ferguson's team has tied two games it should have won, at Blackburn and Aston Villa. A goal down and in injury time, Manchester got lucky when Villa's Turkish defender, Alpay Ozalan, put the ball into his own net for a 1-1 tie. 
 Of major significance for England's national team, which goes to Munich next week for a World Cup qualifying game against Germany, team captain Beckham limped off with a groin injury. 
 Clutching his right leg, Beckham was in obvious pain as he limped off the field in the 69th minute. United manager Ferguson said he did not think it was serious. 
 &quot;I don't think there's any problem,&quot; he said. &quot;I think he'll be all right.&quot; 
 United's failure to beat Villa meant Everton and Leeds moved to the top of the Premier League with seven points from three games. 
 Juventus and Inter Milan made the most impressive start in Italy's Serie A, although newcomer Chievo, an amateur team two decades ago, downed Fio ren ti na 2-0 in its first game in the top flight. 
 Juventus downed Venezia 4-0 with two goals each from David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero. Inter beat Perugia 4-1 with two goals each from Mohamed Kallon and Christian Vieri. 
 Roma tied Verona 1-1. 
 Barcelona downed Sevilla 2-1 with two goals by Patrick Kluivert. Deportivo de La Coruna began its season with a 4-0 victory over Valladolid. 
 Real Madrid's 1-0 loss to Valencia on Saturday came in the league debut for Zinedine Zidane, playing his first match in Spanish soccer. The Frenchman made little impact for Madrid and his midfield partner, Luis Figo, was expelled late in the game for his second yellow card. Valencia's goal came in the eighth minute by Miguel Angel Angulo.

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Maier Improving
 

VIENNA (Reuters) - World Cup and double Olympic ski champion Hermann Maier is no longer in danger of losing his broken lower right leg, the Austrian state broadcaster ORF said Sunday.
 The 28-year-old Maier suffered a severe compound fracture and muscle-tissue damage in a motorcycle accident Friday evening.
 The doctors treating Maier had been worried that paint chips in the injured bone and tissue could cause an infection that might require amputation.
 According to Maier's doctors, however, no infection has developed and there would be no need for amputation, ORF said.
 Doctors operated on his leg for more than seven hours and a plastic surgeon had to graft skin from Maier's left arm on to the right leg because of heavy skin loss.
 None of the medical staff has yet to make any clear statement about Maier's chances of competing again.
 
 
Hockey Legend Dies
 

TORONTO (Reuters) - Former Toronto defenseman Carl Brewer, 62, who helped the Maple Leafs win three Stanley Cups in the 1960s and fought to reclaim pension money for former players in the 1990s, died in his sleep, the Toronto Sun reported on Sunday.
 The cause of death was not released, but the Sun reported that Brewer had told former broadcaster Brian McFarlane that he had been having trouble breathing at night.
 The Toronto native patrolled the Maple Leaf blue line during one of the team's most successful eras. He was a mainstay on the Toronto defense, along with legends Tim Horton, Allan Stanley and Bobby Baun. 



TITLE: Woods Silences Critics With Playoff Victory
AUTHOR: By Doug Ferguson

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AKRON, Ohio - In an epic battle that featured heroic shots and great escapes, Tiger Woods ended his winless summer with a birdie Sunday on the seventh playoff hole to defeat Jim Furyk in the NEC Invitational. 
 After they exchanged pars for six holes, hardly any of them conventional, Woods hit a wedge into 2 feet on No. 18 finally to end the longest playoff on the PGA Tour in 10 years. 
 &quot;It was a war today,&quot; said Woods, who started the final round two strokes behind. &quot;Neither one of us gave an inch. It was fun to be a part of it.&quot; 
 It was a thrilling display of shots and saves over the final 13 holes, seven of them in the sudden-death playoff. 
 Furyk holed a bunker shot to save par on the first extra hole to extend the playoff. Woods escaped from the trees with a fortuitous ruling and a brilliantly played bump-and-run from about 50 yards. Furyk had three chances to win with birdie putts from about 12 feet. 
 With one last shot, a wedge that landed just past the cup and spun back to 2 feet away, Woods won for the first time since the Memorial in early June and ended talk about what's wrong with his game. 
 It was his fifth victory of the year and 29th in his career, tying Jack Nicklaus for the most PGA Tour victories before turning 30. 
 Woods won the NEC Invitational for the thir- straight year, making him the first player to take three-straight tournaments at fabled Firestone Country Club, a course on which Nicklaus used to dominate. 
 He now has won four of the eight World Golf Championship events that count toward official money. The $1 million payoff - his sixth worth at least that much - pushed him over $25 million for a career that began five years ago Monday. 
 Woods improved his playoff record to 7-1 worldwide, although none of those playoffs ever went more than three holes. 
 Furyk played with courage, keeping the pressure on Woods until the end. His tee shot on the final hole wound up in the trees, and the best he could make was a bogey. 
 &quot;I don't feel like I let anyone down today,&quot; said Furyk, who closed with a 71. &quot;The only person I let down was myself. I can live with that. I've done it before, and I'll do it again.&quot; 
 It was a repeat finish for Woods, at least in terms of theatrics. 
 A year ago, he hit a wedge about the same distance in the dark to win the NEC Invitational by 11 strokes. This was far more thrilling, neither player willing to budge during a playoff that lasted two hours. 
 The last time a PGA Tour event went this many holes was the 1991 New England Classic, won by Bruce Fleisher. 
 Woods had his eighth-straight round in the 60s with a 1-under 69. He and Furyk finished at 268. 
 Darren Clarke (69) finished three strokes behind Woods, while Colin Montgomerie (70) finished fourth - his best tournament in America this year. 
 No one ever got closer than four strokes to Furyk or Woods. This was a duel from the start, and it turned out to be one of the most hard-fought battles of the year. 
 Woods appeared to have it won on the first playoff hole, No. 18, when Furyk left his third shot in a bunker above the hole. He blasted out again, and the ball caught the left edge of the cup and spun 360 degrees before falling. 
 He charged onto the green pumping his fist to celebrate one of the best clutch shots he has hit in his career. Woods, who had lagged a 35-foot birdie putt to 4 feet, calmly made his par and they headed over to No. 17. 
 Tiger's turn. 
 After hitting long into the green, his ball nestled between the first cut and thick rough, he chipped 15 feet past the hole - Furyk had 12 feet for birdie. Woods' par putt was true and Furyk's putt for the victory caught the right lip. 
 The 18th provided another unlikely par when Woods hooked his tee shot into the trees. He had little chance to get it back in the fairway, but claimed relief because the scoreboard was between his ball and the flag. Then, he played a beautiful bump-and-run to 4 feet and made par after Furyk missed another 12-foot birdie putt. 
 Firestone Country Club was hardly a pushover in the final round, even with tee times moved up five hours to avoid approaching storms. Only six of 37 players broke par. Greg Norman, the co-leader after the first round, had an 80. 
 It took Woods 13 holes to catch Furyk, and that's where the fireworks began. 
 After Furyk chipped over the ridge to 6 feet on No. 13, Woods holed an 18-foot birdie putt. He pumped his fist, the first emotion he had shown all day, and took the lead with a two-shot swing when Furyk's putt slid by on the right. 
 Furyk refused to buckle, and two holes later he returned the favor. 
 Woods left his 50-foot birdie putt from the fringe about 6 feet short, and Furyk made his 12-footer - clutching his fist, pausing to make sure it was going in. Woods pulled his par putt, and Furyk had the lead again. 
 Both laid up on the 625-yard 16th. Woods, hitting first, spun the ball back to 8 feet as the gallery roared with anticipation. The cheers were even louder for Furyk, perceived as the underdog throughout the day, when his wedge stopped 2 inches away from Woods. 
 But as Furyk's birdie putt slid past on the right, Woods was right in the heart and the stage was set for a thrilling conclusion. 
 There wasn't much at stake for everyone else. Clarke and Montgomerie were the top Europeans, but their position on the Ryder Cup team was already secure. 
 Bernhard Langer, however, wasted an opportunity to lock up his spot. He closed with a 73 and tied for 11th, and now must hope he isn't passed in the final qualifying tournament for Europe next week at the BMW International Open in Munich.