SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #706 (73), Friday, September 21, 2001
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TITLE: Duma Facing a Daunting Workload
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - When deputies filed into the State Duma on Wednesday for the opening of the autumn session, they returned to a newly renovated chamber and a daunting amount of work.
Of about 2,000 bills awaiting discussion in the Duma portfolio, around 700 are scheduled to be reviewed by the end of this year, and 125 fall into the high-priority category.
Among the priority legislation listed for discussion in the autumn session are the 2002 budget, land and labor codes and packages of bills on pensions, banking, tax and judicial reforms. Some are expected to have thousands of amendments because many controversial regulations were hurriedly passed in the final weeks of the spring session.
"When so many significant bills are concentrated into such a short time, the possibility of mistakes and erroneous decisions is high," Oleg Morozov, head of the Russia's Regions faction, said Monday on Radio Rossii.
"Thank God we deferred the second and third reading of several significant documents over the summer, cooled down, and had a better look at them. Maybe now the government and the president will see some of the issues differently."
The package of reforms that President Vladimir Putin's government started to implement in 2001 is seen as having great importance to the economic development of the country.
"It is only marginally an exaggeration to say that 2001 could prove to be as significant a period in the process of reform as 1986, when Mikhail Gorbachev began perestroika," said a September report by the Renaissance Capital brokerage.
On Wednesday, after the Duma approved the agenda for its autumn session, deputies passed several regulations on fighting terrorism and then heard the first reading of amendments to the Criminal Code's articles that concern crime in the securities market.
LAND CODE
The third and final reading of the most controversial draft law ever to go through the Duma, the Land Code, could come as early as this week. Although it concerns sales of only 2 percent of the country's land - in cities, suburbs and villages - Communist deputies chanted "shame, shame" when Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref presented it to the Duma for its first reading.
Communists left the hall in protest over what they saw as "the selling of the fatherland," but the pro-Kremlin majority supported the draft. The second reading on July 14 was calmer, but the Communist faction said the reading was illegal because legislative assemblies of 35 regions had rejected the draft. Most of the assemblies' resolutions said they opposed the code because it does not ban the sale of agricultural land and allows land sales to foreigners.
A separate draft law dealing with agricultural land is expected to be presented to the Duma by the end of this year.
THE 2002 BUDGET
Debate is expected when deputies discuss budget targets for 2002. The first reading is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 28. The Duma's budget committee has already recommended that the government raise several targets: budget revenues by 119.1 billion rubles ($40.5 million) to 1.86 trillion rubles and gross domestic product by 435 billion rubles to 11.035 trillion rubles.
Lyubov Sliska, a Duma deputy speaker, said Tuesday that after the terrorist attacks in the United States, deputies will now have to deal with the need to increase the budgets for the military and the police. In addition, the country has to pay off a large chunk of its foreign debt in 2003.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Va lentina Matviyenko, who oversees social issues, quickly replied that she will not allow military expenditures to grow at the expense of social funding, which has traditionally suffered first.
LABOR CODE
The second reading of the Labor Code, passed in its first reading July 5, is also expected this fall. One of its authors, Labor Minister Alexander Pochinok, said that "up to 15,000 amendments" will be received from deputies for the second reading.
The draft says that minimum monthly wages must not be lower than the subsistence level, now about 1,507 rubles ($51) a month; that the employer must pay workers two-thirds of their wages if they remain idle through some fault of the employer; and the employer must pay penalties for delays in payment of wages.
However, the cost of raising the minimum monthly wages is too high, according to Pochinok. He said it would add costs of 2.7 trillion rubles to the state budget and 7 trillion rubles to private employers. A new bill on the gradual increase of minimum monthly wages will be prepared, he said.
PENSION REFORM
Also to be heard shortly is a package of regulations on pension reforms affecting the country's 38.5 million pensioners. The package consists of six bills, including a law on labor pensions that establishes three levels of pensions - basis, insurance-based and accumulated - and also legislation on state pensions, individual pension accounts, mandatory pension insurance and the country's pension system.
"We will not establish limits on which funds people may choose - the state fund or a private fund or a mutual fund - or some Ivanov may refuse to do it and get bigger wages," Pochinok said at a summer meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce. "We will also think about the possibility to invest in foreign pension funds, and we intend to create a system in which money invested into pension funds will not be taxed."
JUDICIAL REFORM
The deputies are also to continue debating a package of bills aimed at reforming the country's judicial system, which still functions much as it did in Soviet times.
The disputed Criminal Code, which establishes significantly more democratic criminal investigation procedures and improves the protection of suspects, is scheduled to pass its third and final reading this session. The others, including a bill on legal defense and another on the status of judges, should come up for their second readings.
The Kremlin is hoping all bills relating to judicial reform will get final approval this session.
TAX LAWS
Changes to tax laws expected to be debated this session include Unity's proposals to cut value-added tax from 20 percent to 15 percent, with the simultaneous lifting of all tax breaks on VAT, and sales-tax cuts from 5 percent to 3 percent.
Tax-reduction proposals will meet with opposition from the government. Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov was quoted by Vedomosti this month as saying that sales-tax cuts alone next year would deprive regional administrations of 25 billion rubles out of the 55 billion rubles that they would have received.
BANKING REFORM
Changes in the law on bankruptcy are expected that would improve creditors' rights, while a draft on bank-deposit guarantees is expected to be submitted by the government in December. Changes to the law on the Central Bank are also expected to be submitted to the Duma soon, but experts expect a difficult debate.
"Quite a lot of changes have been made to the law on the Central Bank that crucially change its contents," said Pavel Medvedev, deputy head of the Duma's banking committee. "The most important amendment adds a second management level to the Central Bank - the National Banking Council - that would share management functions with the existing management."
But while Medvedev said that creating an extra management level is a waste of resources, the head of the Duma's banking committee, Alexander Shokhin, said the council would fulfill different functions "like regulating all issues about the Central Bank's participation in the capital of other credit organizations."
TITLE: Northern Village Preserves Lost Traditions
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: VERKHNIYE MANDROGI, Leningrad Oblast - Five years ago, there was practically nothing and nobody on this site. Only a few locals even remembered the name Verkhniye Mandrogi.
This village on the banks of the Svir River, some 300 kilometers northeast of St. Petersburg, had died at least 40 years ago, a victim of collectivization and urbanization like so many other typical Russian villages.
Now there is a bustling village here. Enormous cruise ships stop daily during the summer, and thousands of excited tourists eagerly disembark in order to experience "the real Russia."
But this real Russia is a fantasy. There are no ramshackle houses here. No collapsing fences, muddy streets or wandering animals. Instead, the tidy roads are lined with the brightly colored houses that Russia's wealthiest peasant farmers had a century ago.
There is an elk farm, a quail yard, bears and a traditional Russian troika. The smell of fresh-baked bread hangs in the air.
"It's a wonderful, exclusive place," said one middle-aged German woman who asked not to be identified. "Where else can we see so many Russian realities accumulated in one place? It's a pity we have got only two hours to spend here. It's too short."
Verkhniye Mandrogi is the brainchild of St. Petersburg businessperson Sergei Gutzeit, owner of the restaurant Podvoriye in Pavlovsk. In 1996, Gutzeit decided to change the fate of this forgotten village and to bring it back to life. His idea was to create an authentic Russian rural experience as an exotic stopover for cruise ships passing along the Svir River on the route between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Opened just last year, the attraction was visited by 23,000 tourists in 2000 and 42,000 so far this year. The village got a big shot in the arm in August when President Vladimir Putin visited, and the national media showed him happily painting a matryoshka and throwing a clay pot. In gratitude, the village presented him with his own house.
Olga Yeryomina is a professional sculptor from St. Petersburg who came to the village this summer to teach tourists how to paint matyroshki.
"Matryoshka and wood painting has always been my field of interest," she said while painting 10 different matryoshka dolls at once.
"You know, it's interesting that often when drawing a matryoshka's face, people unconsciously reflect their own inner world and character on it," Yeryomina said. Her two daughters, 15-year-old Agalya and 13-year-old Asya, sit nearby, practicing their mother's craft.
Yeryomina is one of at least 80 craftspeople who work in Verkhniye Mandrogi, many of them St. Petersburg artists looking for a way to turn their skills into money.
In the winter, when the river freezes and the village closes, the artisans return to the city, many of them teaching art classes at various schools and universities.
Irina Vasina, also a St. Petersburg artist, heads the village pottery and ceramics workshop with her son, Alexander Gladky. Natasha Solntseva plaits lace, a craft she took up at the age of 12.
"In order to learn as many styles as possible, I went through the whole country looking for babushki in forgotten villages who still practice the old ways," Solntseva said.
German tourists gape as Solntseva's deft fingers run over numerous bobbins.
Nearby there is a weaving studio with three weavers making traditional peasant cloth.
"These two looms are made from five genuine antique looms that we found in local villages," said Anna Smolyanskaya, 23, as she worked. "Since nobody really used them anymore, they were stored in attics or sheds and were in no condition to work. It took some time to restore them."
Outside, there is a small elk farm, consisting of about 5 hectares of fenced-in land and a herd of five elk. "We plan to have at least 30 elk and to open a kind of sanatorium where people can come and improve their health [by drinking elk milk]," said farmer Alexei Abramov.
The village also has a quail farm with 550 birds laying small, but nourishing eggs.
"We also plan to let some of the birds free to increase their numbers in the local forests," said Alexander Kovalchuk who takes care of the village quail, geese and pheasants.
Although some tourists may skip the workshops and the animals, hardly anybody misses the vodka museum, which currently exhibits 1,406 kinds of Russian vodka.
"There are about 5,000 types of vodka in Russia, and we add to our collection almost every day," said Alexander Shumikhin, director of the museum. The museum is full of the odor of Shumikhin's own samogon boiling quietly in the corner.
Tourists are invited to try 20 grams of any vodka for 10 rubles, with a free snack of traditional Russian pickled vegetables. They are then encouraged to buy a bottle or two for the road.
According to Anna Grigorieva, the village's public-relations manager, proceeds from the village are used to finance another of Gutzeit's projects, a private school for boys in Pavlovsk. Grigorieva said that this school seeks out promising boys from throughout the Leningrad Oblast and provides them with a high-quality education free of charge.
In addition to its crowds of tourists, picturesque surroundings and storybook attractions, Verkhniye Mandrogi has a unique atmosphere. Everyone is smiling, seemingly genuinely happy to be doing work they love and watching people appreciate it.
"We are open to any ideas," said Alexei Gulimov, the village's executive director. "If there are people out there who have interesting ideas and the energy to fulfill their dreams, we are glad to take them onto our team."
TITLE: Yakovlev Unveils Sponsorship Plans for 2003
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Governor Vladimir Yakovlev met with leaders of the local international business community Wednesday to lay out the city's plans for attracting sponsors for its 300th-anniversary celebration in 2003.
"St. Petersburg's jubilee must become an event of international significance," Yakovlev said. "And we would like to attract maximum attention to the preparation of this event."
At a meeting at the Hotel Astoria arranged by the St. Petersburg International Business Association, Yakovlev also presented the business community with a list of small restoration projects and encouraged them to support the financing of these efforts.
More than 140 participants attended the meeting with the governor, according to SPIBA Executive Director Natalia Kudryavtseva. "That is more than we have ever had," she said.
Yakovlev was also impressed by the enthusiasm of the attendees. "It is encouraging to see the jubilee getting so much attention. The city's current economic breakthrough has been achieved to a great extent because of the input of SPIBA members, many of whom are significant taxpayers," the governor said.
The governor outlined the city's plans to sell sponsorship packages for the tercentennial celebrations for a range of prices from $100,000 to $1 million. The city is also seeking one general sponsor for the event at a price tag of $3 million.
According to Anatoly Bazuluksky, deputy head of a nongovernmental 300th-anniversary foundation that is overseeing the fund-raising for the event, the city is about to sign a general sponsorship deal with Xerox-CIS.
"The company has reached an agreement with the city administration, and at the moment all [the] documentation is being prepared," Bazuluksky said.
Xerox-CIS representatives in Moscow refused to comment on Bazuluksky's remarks, but a source in the company's St. Petersburg office confirmed that talks were being held, although no final decisions had been made. On Wednesday, the newspaper Kommersant printed an interview in which Natalia Batozhok, head of the municipal Committee for the 300th Anniversary, said that "negotiations are currently underway with Xerox."
Bazuluksky also stated that a number of other local, Moscow and foreign companies are also discussing sponsorship packages of various types with his office, but he declined to name any of them. Earlier this summer, representatives of the German company Siemens confirmed to The St. Petersburg Times that they were negotiating with the city.
In addition to the sponsorship packages, Yakovlev also presented an album of 130 smaller restoration projects compiled by the Committee for the Control and Protection of Monuments. These projects, mostly the restoration of architectural details such as streetlamps and stained-glass windows, have been presented on a CD-ROM with photographs, descriptions and estimated costs. The disk was available to those who attended the governor's presentation.
"You don't need to part with millions of dollars," the governor said. "There are many restoration projects needing just 100,000 to 200,000 rubles [$3,400 to $6,800]. Let's restore [the city's] ironwork, balconies and antique clocks."
For most projects, the city has also included a list of foreign countries that - because of historical or cultural ties to each project - might be particularly interested in funding its restoration.
"This is a very farsighted idea," Kudryavtseva said. "People will feel much closer to these places."
Immediately after the governor spoke, Sergey Lomov, marketing director for Neva Media, the parent company of The St. Petersburg Times, announced that his company had translated the city's list of small restoration projects into English. The complete list of projects and the estimated costs will be placed on the Web site of The St. Petersburg Times (www.sptimesrussia.com) by the end of the month.
Alexander Ramsh, travel and tourism program coordinator at Concept, an international company specializing in training, development and consultancy services, attended the meeting Wednesday and said Yakovlev's presentation was well received.
"His speech was compelling and very well-prepared," Ramsh said. "Powerful companies possessing the financial resources to take part in charitable programs have received a comprehensive picture of where their help is needed."
"It is a good sign that there were so many attendees. It means that businesspeople are enthusiastic about helping St. Petersburg," he added.
Kudryavtseva said she is convinced that a number of sponsorship deals will follow. "Quite a lot of guests told me that they will give the proposals a lot of thought in order to make their choices," she said. "Even before [Ya kov lev's presentation] many companies wanted to help, but were simply lacking information."
TITLE: Central Asia Braces for Consequences of War
AUTHOR: By Ana Uzelac
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In a flurry of diplomatic activity by Russian leaders trying to find their place in the emerging U.S.-led coalition against terrorism, Moscow has focused largely on the volatile states of central Asia, whose neighbor Afghanistan is the most likely target of a U.S. military strike.
Despite Russia's stated support for a joint anti-terrorist operation, Moscow is apprehensive about hints from the region's former Soviet republics that they are willing to let Washington use their bases and airspace without seeking Russian approval. Moscow fears that the region's direct involvement in a U.S. military operation could both undermine its already waning influence there and destabilize the region, leading to conflagrations on Russia's southern border.
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan - impoverished countries ruled by heavy-handed secular regimes - have all faced the threat of militant Islamic groups suspected of links with the Taliban, which controls much of Af gha ni stan and has been playing host to suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. And while the downfall of the Taliban could defuse tensions by depriving local radicals of their nearby support base, experts warn that a hasty and shortsighted operation could plunge the region into crisis and further radicalization.
The only country in the region where Russia still maintains a military presence is Tajikistan, a pauperized country of fewer than 6.5 million people emerging from a devastating five-year civil war between a pro-Moscow secular government and an Islamic opposition. The country is so weak that its 1,200-kilometer border with Afghanistan is guarded by 10,000 Russian troops, with 15,000 more scattered throughout the country.
According to Reuters, Tajikistan is the transit route for 65 percent to 85 percent of the heroin smuggled out of Afghanistan, the world's largest producer.
The border also serves as a bulwark against thousands of Afghan refugees, some of them armed, whom the Tajik government has refused to accept. The refugees live in a no-man's-land on the islands of the Pyandzh River, which separates Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Dushanbe, where the government includes former Islamic opposition leaders, fears some of the refugees might be affiliated with radical Islamic groups and could bolster the warlords who still control parts of the country.
Tajik President Emomali Rakh mo nov reiterated Thursday that his country would not take in refugees should the United States launch strikes against Afghanistan.
"We cannot allow the penetration of a single refugee from Afghanistan into Tajikistan because there could be emissaries of different international terrorist organizations among them," Rakh mo nov said during an inspection of the Tajik-Afghan border together with Russia's Security Council chief, Vla dimir Rushailo.
Tajikistan's other problem is neighboring Uzbekistan, which does not conceal its animosity toward its smaller eastern neighbor. Uzbekistan, a country of 23 million, accuses Tajikistan of housing training camps and allowing the free passage of members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU, the region's largest armed extremist group.
The IMU is suspected of having strong links with the Taliban, which allows it to operate through bases in Afghanistan. The movement attacked Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 1999 and conducted a major raid in Uzbekistan's Ferghana Valley in 2000.
The Uzbek government has responded to the threat with repressions against all practicing Muslims. In the last four years, hundreds of mosques have been closed and thousands of devout Muslims have been imprisoned. Many among them, according to human rights groups, have been tortured.
But Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan is the shortest and best-guarded of all. Its 137 kilometers are reportedly fortified by 20,000 troops, some of which are U.S.-trained.
Neighboring Turkmenistan is in a far less enviable position: Its 744-kilometer border with Afghanistan is virtually unguarded. Aware of his weakness, the country's megalomaniac ruler, Saparmurat Niyazov - whose 40-meter gold-covered rotating statue adorns the capital, Ashgabat - has opted for neutrality in dealing with the Taliban.
Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry reiterated its stance Wednesday, saying it had no plans to allow the United States and its allies to use its territory or airspace for strikes against Afghanistan.
The caution with which the central Asian countries have reacted to the possibility of joining the U.S.-led military operation is justified, and the risks of destabilization are real, according to Martha Brill Olcott, a senior associate and central Asia expert with the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment.
"The war in Afghanistan has the capacity to destabilize the region," Brill Olcott said in a telephone interview from Washington on Wednesday.
Experts agreed that central Asia could face two dangers in the event of a U.S. attack: a wave of refugees and the fueling of radical sentiment.
"For any of these states, a new refugee burden is not welcome," Brill Olcott said. "They simply do not have the resources to deal with it unassisted."
Perhaps a greater danger is potential retaliation by the Taliban. Days after Washington threatened the Taliban with strikes, Kabul warned that it would fight back. The only means at its disposal other than terrorist attacks, observers say, are measures to destabilize neighboring countries, first and foremost, Pakistan, followed by central Asia.
According to Rustam Shukurov, an associate professor of history at Mos cow State University, the Taliban has had "very serious plans for central Asia."
"Ever since they came to power, they've been supporting the Islamic movements in those countries, financing them and helping them build networks throughout central Asia," he said in a telephone interview Thursday. "It was obvious they were planning serious operations there in the coming years."
However, an attack on Afghanistan could deplete the Taliban's resources to such an extent that the movement might find itself unable to help anybody anymore, according to Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert with the Jane's Intelligence group in London.
"They might try to pour some more arms to their affiliates in the region, but not more than that," Galeotti said.
The Indian government announced Thursday that some of the Taliban forces that fought alongside rebels in the province of Jammu and Kashmir have started withdrawing to Afghanistan.
"The danger of the Taliban destabilizing the region exists, but I find it a bit exaggerated," Alexei Malashenko, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"The Taliban is going to fall eventually," Galeotti said. "It is fragmented and lacks a real power base. And if it's going to collapse, it's better for its neighbors to have it collapse under American pressure. That would make the U.S. feel responsible for the consequences and invest in the region's recovery."
Carnegie's Brill Olcott agreed.
"An invasion that has broad international support and is accompanied by some sense of responsibility for rebuilding Afghanistan ... might not be destabilizing at all," she said.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: 77 Russians Missing
MOSCOW (SPT) - Seventy-seven Russian citizens remained among those missing and feared dead a week after the terrorist attacks in the United States, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.
Although none has been confirmed dead, at least one, Alexander Ivantsov, 23, is thought to have certainly been among those killed in the collapse of the twin World Trade Center towers, officials said.
Ivantsov was a programmer with ESpeed, the electronic trading service for bond-brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which had offices on the 101st to 105th floors of the north tower, the first of the two to be hit.
He worked on the 104th floor and is missing along with almost 700 of the 1,000 or so employees of Cantor Fitzgerald and ESpeed.
A total of almost 5,000 people are listed as missing at the former World Trade Center. Valery Ivantsov, Alexander's father, said Tuesday by telephone from the Siberian town of Abakan that he and his family had not heard from Alexander since the day of the attacks.
Tsereteli Gift to NYC
MOSCOW (SPT) - Sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has offered New York City a 50-meter-high monument to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
The monument, which Tse re teli plans to send to New York as a gift, is intended to stand in place of the ruined twin towers, he told Interfax. He said he had already produced a draft of the monument symbolizing the "victory over terrorism," and had forwarded his proposal to U.S. President George W. Bush and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
The sculptor's works, which include the 94-meter-high Peter the Great statue on the Moscow River, have been the subject of controversy in Moscow, sparking protests from the public.
Narusova a Minister?
MOSCOW (SPT) - Lyudmila Narusova, a former State Duma deputy and widow of the late mayor of St. Pe tersburg, Anato ly Sobchak, could replace Mikhail Shvydkoi as culture minister, the daily Izvestia reported Wednesday.
Narusova neither confirmed nor denied that she had received an offer to become a minister, but told the newspaper the report about Shvydkoi's possible dismissal comes from "people who are trying to provoke an argument between me and Shvydkoi with whom I have long had friendly relations."
Kursk To Surface Soon
MOSCOW (AP) - Taking advantage of calm seas, divers on Monday continued preparations for lifting the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine to the surface around Sept. 25.
The divers were clearing 26 holes pierced in the submarine's hull and installing guides to help attach cables to hoist the Kursk, the navy said.
The cables are to be connected to hydraulic jacks anchored to a huge barge, which is being loaded with supplies and is expected to sail toward the Kursk later this week. The operation is run by the Dutch Mammoet-Smit International consortium, which is working to raise the Kursk on a $65 million contract with the Russian government
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov reaffirmed Monday that the Kursk is expected to be raised to the surface on Sept. 25 and towed to a dry dock near the port of Murmansk five days later, Interfax reported.
Explosives Found
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Northwest Region Department for Organized Crime found 67 kilograms of explosives in the basement of a residential apartment building, Interfax reported Thursday.
According to Interfax, the explosives were found at 5 Shkolnaya Ulitsa in the Primorsky District. The residents were immediately evacuated, and the gas supply to the building was cut off.
Experts have so far determined that the explosives, which were contained in two large household bags, are made of the substance ammonite, Interfax reported.
Apraksin on Fire
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A fire that began at 2 p.m. on Thursday at the Apraksin Dvor market had been fully extinguished by 3 p.m., Interfax reported.
The St. Petersburg Fire Department reported that no one had been killed or injured by the fire. The fire began at a transformer station when some oil that had leaked from the transformer caught fire.
According to the fire fighters, damage to the market was insignificant. Seven fire engines arrived to put the fire out shortly after it began.
Apraksin Dvor was last hit by fire on June 9, when some wiring short-circuited.
TITLE: Lenenergo Clashing With Smolny
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The establishment of a Smolny-run electricity network has touched off a legal feud between city hall and local energy producer Lenenergo and, so far, the courts have been siding with the utility.
The dispute began when the city administration created the St. Petersburg Electricity Network (SPb Electroseti), which was set up at the end of July to operate the 500-million-ruble (about $17 million) network presently used by Lenenergo. This was in accordance with a plan calling for the handover of delivery networks constructed since 1992 with city budget money, business daily Vedomosti newspaper reported.
The roots of the battle over who should control the network lie in a plan put forth by national energy holding Unified Energy Systems (UES), which owns 49 percent of Lenenergo, to have its utilities subsidiaries split themselves into smaller entities based on different aspects of their business. Under the plan, Lenenergo's activities in producing electric energy, heat energy and the delivery of power would all be taken over by smaller, independent companies.
The city says this is why SPb Electroseti was set up. But the fact that the power-transmission network is listed among the fixed assets of the city is rankling Lenenergo General Director Andrei Likhachyov, who says the power lines and stations have never belonged to the city, and that this represents a process of nationalizing private property.
"Publicly suggesting the idea of a reassessment of the results of the privatization process represents the beginning of the nationalization of private property," Likhachyov wrote in an open letter, dated Sept. 9, to St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev. "Our company was never the property of the St. Petersburg administration, but of the Russian Federation."
"This action not only comes as a warning to the financial world about the lack of protection for individual businesses in Russia, but also comments negatively on the investment climate in St. Petersburg," he added.
Sergei Milokhin, general director of SPb Electroseti, replied in an open letter of his own addressed to Likhachyov that the use of the term "nationalization" was an overreaction.
"What purpose can be served by such an unsubstantiated claim being made about the nationalization of private property," Milokhin wrote. "I'm sure that the laws of economics will ultimately determine the place of both SPb Electroseti and Lenenergo in our city."
According to Mikhail Seleznyov, an analyst at United Financial Group (UFG), Lenenergo sells 16 percent of the power it supplies to Smolny- and Leningrad Oblast-owned retailers.
"This means that a significant part of the network belongs to publicly owned retailers," Seleznyov said. "The present system represents a network in which ownership is divided, as the other part belongs to the energy company."
Seleznyov says that the restructuring plans for what the government refers to as "companies of strategic importance," like UES, must fall in line with federal laws. But the electric-energy laws and natural-monopolies laws necessary for regulation are still being created.
"The St. Petersburg administration is just capitalizing on an opportunity opened by the lack of a clear legal basis," he said. "As long as it's impossible to determine who owns the network, the city government has done nothing illegal."
Artyom Menumerov, the deputy head of public relations at Electroseti, said the UES restructuring plan calls for state companies to operate the electricity-transmission networks.
"But the plan says nothing about how many of these companies there should be, how they should be set up and which government - federal or regional - should found them," he said.
So far, federal legal response has come in favor of Lenenergo's position. Vladimir Zubrin, deputy federal prosecutor, sent a letter to Yakovlev informing him that the creation of SPb Electroseti contravened federal law.
According to Interfax, the notification followed an investigation by the prosecutor's office in responseto a complaint made by Mikhail Brodsky, the chairperson of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Control Group.
Brodsky's complaint was on the grounds that the creation of SPb Electroseti contavened Russia's joint-stock- companies law. According to the law, government bodies are not allowed to create commercial entities except where explicitly allowed by federal law.
All of this followed a standoff when, on Sept. 6, SPb Electroseti officials attempted to take control of two electricity stations on Pulkovskoye Shosse that supply electricity to the production facilities of Wrigley and Gillette International.
According to SPb Electroseti, Lenenergo had been informed of the planned action and after a few hours of waiting for Lenenergo's representatives SPb Electroseti officials simply changed the locks on the doors of the stations.
Lenenergo replied by calling in the police, and the two stations have been returned to its control.
Then, on Sept. 13, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast refused a suit filed by SPb Electroseti to have the agreements between Lenenergo and the Wrigley and Gillette International facilities annulled, claiming that the 50-percent discount the utility was providing them contradicted the tariff policies of the Regional Energy Committee. The court struck down the 50-percent discounts.
"Our next step will be to sign an agreement with Lenenergo for electricity supply," SPb Electroseti's Menumerov said. "We have filed a suit with the arbitration court that will be heard on Sept. 27, seeking such an agreement. As a monopoly provider, Lenenergo has to sign it in accordance with the Civil Code and the antimonopoly law."
Menumerov said that the events at the Pulkovskoye Shosse stations was the result of confusion over the process for handing over property.
"These objects are registered on the city property list," he said. "But in this case the interests of Lenenergo are in conflict with the city's, and they will fight this any way they can."
TITLE: Forum AimsTo Bolster Regional Cooperation
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Third Annual Baltic Development Forum Summit, billed by its organizers as a "conference on partnership and growth in the Baltic Sea region," will take place at the Tavrichesky Palace from Sept. 23 to Sept. 25.
According to information released by the forum's press center, discussions will focus on questions of developing business relations and deepening economic cooperation among Russia and the Baltic and Scandinavian states. The forum will look at options for integrated economic development across the region, with a strong focus on energy and environmental issues.
President Vladimir Putin is expected to open the conference on Sunday, followed by an address by Governor Vla di mir Yakovlev. Other Russian participants in the conference include Le nin grad Ob last Governor Valery Ser dyu kov, Kaliningrad Governor Vladimir Ye gorov, Gaz prom CEO Alexei Miller, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, and President Putin's special economics advisor Andrei Illarionov.
Foreign guests will include the prime ministers of Finland, Latvia, Li thua nia, Estonia and Denmark, as well as the foreign ministers of Lithuania and Estonia.In addition, special attention will be given to direct relations between cities in the Baltic region. On Monday, a plenary session will be held entitled, "Visions for Economic Association Among the Cities of the Baltic Sea Region: A New Hanseatic League?" This session will be attended by St. Petersburg Vice Governor Gennady Tkachev, as well as Yegorov, the mayors of Stockholm, Tal linn and Copenhagen and representatives from Riga and Helsinki.
The forum will discuss and refine the Northern Dimension Action Plan, an economic-development roadmap that was created by the European Union for the region. According to forum chairperson Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, this plan made considerable progress during Sweden's EU presidency, opening up new opportunities for further development.
The plan lays out steps for the integration of the regional energy market, the improvement of the overall regional investment climate and the improvement of the energy infrastructure, especially oil and gas pipeline networks.
The forum will also devote attention to Russia's integration into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"I cannot know for sure what the forum will cover or whether any concrete decisions will be made on Russian admission to the WTO," Anne Dorte Riggelsen, managing director of the forum said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "But as WTO plays a prominent role in the Russian economy today, we'll focus on that question."
TITLE: Code on Corporate Goverance Released
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Federal Securities Commission on Tuesday presented the draft of a long-awaited corporate-governance code, aiming to bring local business up to global standards.
"Our target is ... to make this document the unified standard for the securities market," commission head Igor Kostikov said at a news briefing after an official presentation of the code.
The draft code presented Tuesday differed from what some stock-market analysts had expected.
They feared it would be merely a collection of hundreds of instructions, that it would be binding for market participants and thus detrimental for the market.
Instead, the commission presented a 70-page code that describes the principles of corporate conduct, sets rules for general shareholders meetings and defines the functions of a company board and executive bodies and procedures for their election or appointment. It also covers corporate-information disclosure, paying dividends and settling corporate conflicts.
- SPT, Reuters
TITLE: Reform Plan Spurs War of Words
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A round table on banking reform Wednesday showed that the government has got its work cut out.
What was supposed to be a friendly discussion between leading bankers erupted into a heated free-for-all, with participants struggling to get a word in edgewise.
On the agenda were two rival banking-reform proposals: one from the Central Bank and the other the Mamut plan from the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
From first appearances, the talks Wednesday got off on the right foot.
"Many people are here, despite the fact that the meeting was organized on very short notice," said organizer Alexander Nekipelov, director of the Institute of International Economic and Political Studies, as he opened the forum.
"Since the Central Bank published its strategy for developing the banking system on Monday, there is a need to discuss it together with other market players," he said, adding that he regretted no Central Bank officials could attend.
The microphone was first turned over to MDM-Bank head Alexander Mamut, who together with Alfa Bank CEO Pyotr Aven leads the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP.
Mamut immediately slammed the Central Bank plan.
Reforms "must have a direct effect, with specific measures and terms, and with someone who is responsible for them," he said.
"The Central Bank's plan lacks all of this."
The Central Bank's program calls for little change to the dominant role played by state-owned banks in the country's banking system. It envisions the state retaining its stakes in banks that are considered strategically important. State stakes are controlled by the Central Bank.
The plan also sees a reduction in corporate income tax for banks - from 43 percent to 24 percent - and new regulations to protect creditors from defaulters.
While the Central Bank rules out any restructuring of state-owned Sberbank in the reform, the Mamut plan insists on a reduction in the profit-making banking activities of state-owned banks.
Aven asserted that the more than 1,000 financial institutions that call themselves banks are "doing nothing more than cash transactions that are often money laundering."
Former Central Bank deputy chairman Alexander Khandruyev, clearly unable to keep silent any longer, declared, "Small banks for small transactions, large banks for large."
"I am getting angry," retorted Mamut.
"It is not an axiom that an increase in a bank's capital also increases its stability and security," said Khandruyev.
Bigger is not necessarily better, chimed in Garegin Tosunyan, vice president of the Association of Russian Banks.
"An excessive concentration of capital will create a bigger problem - a monopolization of the sector that will lead to a structural crisis," Tosunyan said.
Deputy Sberbank Chairperson Gennady Melikyan, after trying repeatedly to interrupt the discussion, finally got his 2 cents' worth.
"The RSPP has incorrect proposals that reflect an obvious lack of knowledge about the operations of state-owned banks," he said.
"Sberbank cannot be reformed. They've missed the boat," rebutted Melikyan, prompting a storm of laughter and indignation.
Participants argued for another hour or so before the meeting was adjourned.
The two reform plans are to be tabled at a government meeting Sept. 27.
TITLE: Russia's Largest Brewery Puts Brakes on Trading
AUTHOR: By Kirill Koriukin
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Trading of Baltika shares has been suspended as the country's No. 1 brewer undergoes a one-to-80 share split in an attempt to boost liquidity.
Baltika halted trade Tuesday and expects to return to the market in a few weeks, possibly in early October, with each share revalued at about $5.20 at current rates.
The brewery's shares only started trading on the RTS in early September, and they shot up by about $50 to some $415 per share within days.
After the split, the number of common shares will increase from 1.34 million to 107 million and the number of preferred shares will grow from 170,000 to 13.4 million.
NIKoil analyst Sofia Ragulina said the split will help Baltika shares, which she believes are considerably undervalued, to grow.
"I would put the upside at about 30 percent," she said. "After the split, the price is likely to grow faster."
The local food-and-beverage industry has boomed in recent years, with multinationals striving to launch local production in a market drained of imports by the 1998 devaluation.
However, only a handful of domestic food producers have floated shares, including Baltika rival Sun Interbrew, the Krasny Oktyabr candy maker and the Petmol milk producer. All of those shares have been illiquid.
Baltika is 75-percent-owned by the Scandinavian joint venture Baltic Beverages Holding AB, which means that some of the remaining 25 percent are up for grabs. Some of that stock is believed to be owned by management, and the rest by minority investors.
Vladimir Savov of Brunswick UBS Warburg said the minority investors may be willing to sell some of their stakes after the share split to diversify their holdings.
"We believe that this is a positive move for Baltika, since low liquidity has kept the prices down," Savov said. "Now some people would be able to sell some of their holdings."
Savov forecast increased demand for the more liquid shares.
"Up to now, investors have looked not only at the company's fundamentals, but at its stocks' liquidity," he said.
Troika Dialog put the potential free float at less than 10 percent, predicting low interest from portfolio investors and placing a hold recommendation on the stock.
"Although the stock split is likely to have some effect on liquidity, we do not expect this to be sufficient to cause a rise in the price of the stock," Troika said in a research note Wednesday.
Baltika produced more than 1 billion liters of beer last year. In addition to its St. Petersburg-based brewery, its output comes from the Baltika-Don brewery, in which it has an 82 percent stake, and the Tulskoye Pivo brewery, in which it owns 50 percent.
TITLE: Carriers Slash Work Forces by 70,000
AUTHOR: By Brad Foss
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - The avalanche of U.S. airline job cuts has more than doubled to 70,000 as carriers, hit by airport shutdowns and dwindling demand, slash payrolls in anticipation of multibillion-dollar losses.
The latest round of cuts came Wednesday, when the parent companies of American and United each announced layoffs of 20,000. A day earlier, Boeing said it planned to trim thousands of jobs in its commercial-airlines division.
"We simply have no choice but to step up to the realities of this extraordinarily critical time," said James E. Goodwin, United's chairperson and chief executive officer.
The layoffs amount to about 14 percent of AMR Corp.'s 138,350 workers at American, TWA and American Eagle, and about 20 percent of United's work force.
American Airlines Chairperson Donald Carty said the company was in a state of emergency.
"This declaration is an official recognition that, hard as it may be to accept, our company's very survival depends on dramatic change to our operations, our schedule, and worst of all, our staffing levels," he told employees.
Airline executives warn the layoffs could rise to 100,000, and are asking for $17.5 billion in federal aid to keep them from ruin.
It's not just the airlines that are in trouble: Boeing, the No. 1 maker of passenger jets, said Tuesday it will scale back deliveries and lay off up to 30,000 of its 93,000 commercial-airline workers by the end of next year.
For the year, according to analysts, the U.S. airline industry's losses will exceed $5 billion due to last week's two-day shutdown of the country's airspace, fewer business travelers and new security measures mandated by the federal government.
But even before the hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon last week, analysts said U.S. carriers were on pace to lose about $2 billion in 2001.
Corporate spending, which accounts for between 50 percent and 70 percent of airline-industry revenues, plunged in 2001 as companies cut back on travel in response to the country's economic malaise. Airlines also blamed the high costs of labor and fuel.
Last week's terrorist attacks dashed hope for a comeback anytime soon and airline executives have warned bankruptcies are imminent for some carriers without emergency financing from the government.
"The financial damage is and continues to be devastating," Delta Air Lines Chairperson Leo Mullin told the House Transportation Committee on Wednesday.
United has been harder hit by the disaster than other carriers. Not only were two of its flights involved, but it relies more than others on revenue from business travel.
United had been on pace to lose about $1 billion this year due to the economic downturn and steep labor costs; analysts now say it could lose that much in the second half of the year alone.
Lawmakers, citing the aviation industry's importance to the country's economy, appeared ready to move as early as this week on relief legislation. However, several lawmakers said any package should include help for the laid-off workers.
Continental and US Airways laid off a combined 23,000 employees earlier in the week, and Midway Airlines shut down. America West, American Trans Air, National Airlines and Britain's Virgin Atlantic also announced cuts.
On Thursday, British Airways joined that list, saying it will cut 7,000 jobs in anticipation of an expected loss of business. The airline, which employs 58,000 people, had previously been bruised by no-frills airlines offering cut-rate European flights and tougher competition on trans-Atlantic routes.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Microtalk Goes On
WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department told the new judge in their antitrust case Thursday they are discussing a settlement, but neither side wants the court to appoint a mediator to oversee the talks.
The two sides filed a joint status report - their first substantive discussion with the new judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
The two sides "will continue to seek settlement of this matter through private discussions, which are ongoing and should continue simultaneously with proceedings addressed to remedy," the joint report said.
The prior judge in the case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, forced the government and Microsoft into four-month settlement talks and eventually named an appeals judge to act as a mediator. Those talks collapsed, and both sides made clear they would prefer to avoid a mediator now.
HSBC Bank Buy
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - London-based HSBC Holding PLC bought one of Turkey's largest banks Thursday for $350 million in cash, Turkey's banking supervisory board said.
The Turkish bank, Demirbank, went into government receivership for insolvency last year.
HSBC acquired all of Demirbank's shares in an agreement signed by Chief Executive Keith Whitson and Turkey's Banking Regulatory and Auditing Board chief, Engin Akcakoca, at Demirbank's headquarters in Istanbul.
HSBC also acquired Demir Yatirim, Demirbank's stockbroking and fund- management divisions.
The deal is expected to be completed by Oct. 31.
$5 Bln Bailout
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House proposed an emergency bailout plan for the airline industry Wednesday, including $5 billion in direct cash assistance but fell far short of what the industry said it needed to survive.
The plan was presented to congressional leaders a few hours after airline executives formally sought $17.5 billion in cash and loan assistance and said that major carriers required sweeping federal intervention to stay in business.
An administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the $5 billion would cover the airlines' direct losses from last Tuesday's catastrophic hijackings.
The prospect of loan guarantees, the official said, would be taken up with Congress at a later date.
House and Senate leaders have said they hoped to push through a bailout plan by early next week.
Vodafone Ups Stake
TOKYO (AP) - British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group PLC will spend as much as $2.7 billion to increase its stake in Japan Telecom Co. in a bid to become the majority shareholder in Japan's third-largest telecommunications company, the companies said Thursday.
Vodafone hopes to increase its 45- percent stake in Japan Telecom to 66.7 percent by acquiring up to 693,368 shares. Vodafone, Japan Telecom and East Japan Railway, a 15.2-percent shareholder in Japan Telecom, said they agreed to Vodafone's offer.
"We view a strong presence in the Japanese market as an essential part of our global strategy," Vodafone Chief Executive Christopher Gent said in Tokyo.
TITLE: Creating a Regional Plan
AUTHOR: By Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
TEXT: IN times like these we all share the responsibility of strengthening international cooperation in defense of the values we share: freedom and democracy. That is why the organizers of the Baltic Development Forum feel it is essential to go forward with our conference on partnership and growth in the Baltic Sea region, which will be held in St. Petersburg from Sept. 23 to 25.
Now is the time to strengthen old partnerships and to build new ones. In that spirit, I would like to pay tribute to President Vladimir Putin's timely and eloquent response to the recent tragic events in the United States.
In the Baltic Sea region, we have reason to be optimistic. Political and economic reforms have been carried out, and new stable democracies have been formed at a breathtaking pace. Today we have the opportunity to create a coherent region with no country lagging behind. Freedom and democracy have already prevailed in our region.
As a result of this development, it is now possible for the best-prepared candidate countries to complete their negotiations to enter the European Union before the end of 2002, allowing them to participate as full members in the European Parliamentary elections in 2004. I believe that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will be able to take part in these elections, giving the Baltic Sea region a strong voice in European development in general.
Furthermore, Russia has entered a new period of development that is characterized by steady economic growth and structural reform amid political stability. Moreover, Russia's trade policy is now aimed at integrating Russia into the global economy and the framework of international trade.
These facts are of crucial importance for the integrated development in the Baltic Sea region.
Today foreign investors do not only look at individual countries when they make their decisions. As a rule, they take a regional approach, looking at overall market volume and market potential in the wider regional economy. This is only natural because regional economies in general are gaining importance these days all around the world. To boost economic activity and development, we simply must build a coherent region. And that is why Russia's integration into Europe and the Baltic Sea region is of crucial importance.
Against this background, the Baltic Development Forum has selected St. Petersburg as the venue for the Third Annual Baltic Development Forum Summit. The theme for this summit is "Closing the Gap: Creating a Win-Win Situation in the Baltic Sea Region."
At the Second Annual Baltic Development Forum in Malmö , Sweden, last September, we presented a vision of the Baltic Sea region as the most promising region in the world. That was ambitious, but not detached from reality when we look back at the chain of events that followed last year's meeting, with the Swedish EU presidency as the latest peak.
Although the potential of the region is promising, we must not relent in efforts to improve the regional business environment in order to realize the Malmö vision. The Northern Dimension Action Plan is a response to these challenges.
The Northern Dimension Action Plan is part of the EU's external and cross-border strategy with the specific aim of raising the EU's profile in northern Europe. One of its main objectives is to create favorable conditions for EU enlargement without creating new dividing lines on the European continent. Consequently, the Northern Dimension Action Plan creates the tools for cooperation with fair competition, equal treatment and a favorable business climate.
The Swedish EU presidency has carried the Northern Dimension Action Plan far, but there is no room for complacency. We need to go still further. The region's business community is now looking for the same dynamism that characterized the establishing of the EU single market. My vision is that we combine the Northern Dimension Action Plan with the methodology of Jacques Delors' "White Paper on the Single Market." Only then will we be able to create more than a mere plan: We will create history.
If these necessary steps are taken, I believe that it will be possible to create a Baltic Sea Free-Trade Area - including Russia - within the next decade. The creation of a Baltic Sea Free-Trade Area would stimulate a very special relationship with Russia and consequently - as also suggested by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov - enable Russia to become an integral part of the European economic space.
This is our vision for the Baltic Sea region. And looking back at the development that the Baltic Sea region has experienced in the past decade, I believe we will be able to make it come true. Cooperation between the countries in the region is one of the focal points for all of us who care about Europe's future. And we are on our way to achieving our goal: a coherent region with no country lagging behind.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, who served as the Danish minister for foreign affairs from 1982 to 1993, is chairman of Baltic Development Forum. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Major Issues Still Divide Baltic Region
TEXT: ON Sunday, the three-day Baltic Development Forum opens in St. Petersburg, bringing together the major political and economic players in the Baltic region to continue the process of articulating and implementing an integrated regional development plan. We can only hope that Russia, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast take this event and the wealth of opportunities that it could open up as seriously at they should.
It is clear enough that the Baltic region has enough geographic, economic and historical unity to form a coherent region. It is also clear enough that if Russia does not energetically and constructively follow up on the initiatives of its regional neighbors, it - more than any other country in the region - is in danger of being left behind. In other words, a regional development strategy including Russia makes the most sense of all, but one without Russia is perfectly possible.
But the entire burden for finding a common language does not fall only upon Russia. If the other countries of the region are serious about developing a regional economy in which no country is left behind, a lot more than talk is necessary.
The first serious obstacle, of course, is NATO expansion - with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia determined to join, and Russia firmly opposed to such a development. It is easy to understand the reasoning of both sides on this issue, but we can't help but think that Russia's arguments are more forward-looking.
One possible compromise that could be effected if it were backed by all the countries participating in the forum would be for NATO to extend its security guarantees to these countries without actually making them members. In this way, these countries would get the security that they claim to be seeking and, at the same time, would be able to devote resources that are now being used to become "NATO-ready" to further economic development.
The more important question - which has hardly been discussed because of the burning NATO controversy - is membership in the European Union. As long as some countries are on a "fast track" into the EU while Russia remains in the starting block, regional development will be tragically uneven.
The fact is that some Baltic-region countries are already EU members. Some are fairly well on their way to becoming members. If these countries used their influence to insist that a thorough and realistic timetable be developed for Russia immediately and that guarantees be given that Russia will be admitted when the plan is completed, then even and rapid regional development will be considerably easier.
TITLE: A Complicated Question of Ownership
TEXT: I'm matching the big boys one for one, and I must admit I am having myself some fun.
Ani DiFranco
SLAP! The guy grabbed the Righteous Babe by her wrist. Bang! The Righteous Babe jabbed her fist into the diaphragm of the offender. "Phtewff," whispered the offender's diaphragm sadly as winds abandoned it. "That's right," said the Righteous Babe. "Don't touch me. Respect my privacy."
The Righteous Babe went about her business (driving a Mack truck with fresh vegetables to destinations above Russia's Arctic Circle). Men who commented on her body's shape collapsed when she electrocuted them with her Overpowering Stare. Men who called her dirty names lost their ability to speak for weeks when she numbed their tongues with the Deadly Movement of her Brows. Any stranger who dared touch her fell into a coma and, having recovered, never touched another woman against her will again.
This happened some other time.
Today, one weekend in Northwest Russia beats a week in any other place in the amount of times a woman can be called a slut (and the multitude of colorful, if unprintable, descriptions of the concept) if she does not act feminine and patient with strangers who like to comment on or touch her body.
Just to make it clear: Northwest Russia is not the most sexist place on Earth. There are countries where women are required to cover themselves in dark cloaks from head to toe. In the north Caucasus, women are not allowed to shake hands with men. A Chechen friend of mine had to marry his friend when their parents announced that the couple was engaged. Marriage is not something he'd had in mind, he said, and he had never had sex with her. But if he had refused to marry her, she would have been considered someone who had lost her virginity - and, therefore, was a disgrace to society.
If a man grabs a woman's hand in Chechnya, it is likely that the woman's brothers will then show up at his doorstep with the intention of slitting his throat. What happens in a similar situation in Northwest Russia is much more peculiar (and, in theory, much less bloody): When the offender finds out that a woman has a boyfriend (presuming that she has a boyfriend), he will come up to him and apologize.
You know - for touching his property.
Like, "I'm sorry, I didn't know she had an owner. I would have never touched her had I known that she belongs to some other guy. Sorry about that. Wanna go out and have a beer?"
He won't apologize to her. He doesn't care if he touched a part of her body. Once she has an owner, her body is not hers anymore.
Women's-rights organizations say that between 12,000 and 16,000 women die in Russia every year from injuries suffered in domestic violence. They complain that police often fail to respond to complaints of women who are beaten by their partners. But what else do you expect in a place where a man is considered the owner of his female partner?
After having knocked out the seventh man who had called her a slut that day, the Righteous Babe got into her Mack truck and drove off. Then she went to live with the Oneida people, a matriarchal nation in upstate New York that treats its women with respect.
Anna Badkhen is a freelance correspondent based in Moscow.
TITLE: Bin Laden? You Better Be Sure
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: THE terrorist attack on New York has already been compared to Pearl Harbor and the loss of the Kursk submarine. Mikhail Gorbachev likened it to Chernobyl, which is probably a highly accurate analogy in terms of the shock and ignominy experienced by the U.S. administration. In both cases, we saw incompetence and helplessness initially, followed by desperate attempts at official face-saving.
There is, however, one analogy that does not seem to have occurred to anyone: the burning of the Reichstag. The anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria that has followed around the globe in the wake of the catastrophe simply calls out for comparison with the events of the 1930s. The authorities in the United States immediately started the search for the guilty among Arabs. Osama bin Laden cropped up almost immediately as prime suspect and alternative versions have barely been entertained.
In the minutes immediately following the explosions, it seems there was no doubt whatsoever regarding the "Arab" source of the attacks. However, the more evidence and arguments adduced in support of the "Arab version," the more shaky it seems to become. In a television appearance immediately after the explosions, the well-known pundit Vyacheslav Nikonov noted that the guilty would undoubtedly be found, and if not, they would be "nominated," adding cynically: "It would be in Russia's interest if the Taliban and bin Laden were nominated."
To give him his due, Alexander Gordon - who spoke on two TV programs - pointed out that it could be far-right militia groups or individuals associated with them (such as those behind the Oklahoma City bombing) and not Islamic terrorists at all. Analysts have emphasized how easy it would be to carry out each individual element of the terrorist operation: smuggling knives aboard a plane, breaking into the cockpit, etc. However, to coordinate all these actions in different parts of the country without making a single serious blunder is devilishly hard.
The crime committed on Sept. 11 must have required enormous efforts in management, control and logistics. The strength of Islamic terrorism is in the simplicity of organization and its unpredictability. All groups operate autonomously. Even the destruction of command centers doesn't have a major impact, insofar as every one of Allah's warriors is capable of acting on his own. The attacks on New York and Washington were very carefully coordinated, the minutest details were thoroughly thought out, and at no stage were there serious lapses.
It would appear that the operation was organized and carried out by people who were considered to be above suspicion. If they are professionals, they did not acquire their experience in underground terrorist groups. It cannot be excluded that the attacks were organized by forces within the United States, and this would have to be people with considerable military experience.
Why is it that no one seems even to be considering the possibility of a conspiracy by far-right groups? The masterminds could easily have covertly used people of Arab nationality to carry out the attacks.
Whoever is behind the Washington and New York attacks, in Russia and Israel they have already played a role comparable to the burning of the Reichstag. Far-right politicians - "upholders of the values of Western civilization" - have already spoken out calling for revenge. Over and over, one and the same thing is repeated: "Muslims are subhuman barbarians and you cannot conduct negotiations with them. They are not like us, and thus our criteria of democracy and human rights do not apply to them." "No need to fear unpopular measures," some say. "No need to limit ourselves to democratic conventions," others chime in.
At a minimum they are after the following: arrests without warrants, mass deportations and wide-scale searches. Already reports are coming from the United States of racist attacks against Islamic communities. It is clear that mass repressions will lead to mass resistance. That is how you make enemies. Do those who are trying to scare us with the Muslim threat really not understand that? They understand this perfectly well. They simply believe that a final solution is possible - if not globally, then at least on a more limited territory. As a maximum, they are baying for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.
TITLE: Coming Together in the Face of Terrible Tragedy
TEXT: WE Americans living in Moscow are used to being a bit of a punching bag. Whenever Russians don't like what our government is doing, we hear about it. When the United States bombed Kosovo, we avoided speaking English on the street for fear of being attacked, verbally or otherwise, and we often got an earful even from friends, and even if we also thought the bombing was a bad idea. Washington's arrogant we're-the-only-superpower-left attitude has not helped our popularity in recent years either.
So when hijackers used passenger planes last week to reduce New York's World Trade Center and thousands of people inside its twin towers to dust, the response from Russians - friends, acquaintances, strangers - was a pleasant surprise. Many of us have gotten phone calls from people we haven't spoken to in weeks asking if our families are safe and offering their condolences for what has happened to our country. We have been treated warmly by usually surly bureaucrats.
The outpouring of sympathy, from President Vladimir Putin to the people with tears in their eyes who brought flowers to the U.S. Embassy - the same embassy that was splattered with paint bombs during the Kosovo bombing - has touched not only the Americans in Moscow.
The Moscow Times has been flooded with letters from people across the United States wanting to thank the Russian people and their president for caring. We received 48 e-mailed letters on Thursday and Friday alone, and they have kept coming.
An unusual number of those who wrote described themselves as "ordinary Americans." Some were proud to have recently adopted a Russian child. One after another, they called Russia a "great nation."
Many wrote of a new brotherhood between Americans and Russians. "I have suddenly felt a kinship with the Russian people that I have not felt before and for that I am sorry," said Tim Quinlan of San Diego, California. There was much talk of being allies, of working together against terrorism.
"We thank you so much. And are filled with pride that we two peoples now can stand shoulder to shoulder to again vanquish a common foe," wrote Bruce Pitchford of Kansas City, Missouri.
"The missile-defense issue can be worked out, the Balkan issue can be worked out. These issues are very trivial and should not be allowed to spoil the relationship we have now," said David Price of North Carolina.
We Americans who live here know it's not that easy, and the new spirit of cooperation already is showing signs of strain at the state level. But at a more personal level, the bond may prove more durable. We hope so.
This comment originally appeared as an editorial in The Moscow Times on Sept. 19.
TITLE: lesbian exhibition is surprising hit
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The organizers were hoping for no more than a few dozen visitors at best, but hundreds came to the Borey Art Gallery to see the opening of the Lesbian ConneXion/s exhibition on Tuesday.
"We are very surprised [at the turnout]," said Dutch photographer Marian Bakker, who organized the Lesbian ConneXion/s with photographer Traude Bührmann, inviting lesbian photographers to create images that explore lesbian lives and lifestyle.
Lesbian ConneXion/s, which is currently touring Europe, was first shown in Amsterdam during the Gay and Lesbian Games in 1998, and was seen by more than 3,000 visitors there. The first large-scale photo exhibition in Europe to focus on the theme of lesbian visibility, it originally featured 60 photographers from 15 countries. During tours in Europe and the United States, new works were added.
Originally, Russia was represented only by St. Petersburg's Renata Babush ki na, who came to the Games with St. Petersburg's lesbian volleyball team. Ba bush kina works as a designer and considers photography a hobby. She is also an activist at Labris, the local lesbian organization that opened in 1998 and which helped organize the exhibition.
For Babushkina, 34, whose "Romeo and Juliet" was chosen to go on the cover of the exhibition booklet, Lesbian ConneXion/s is the first exhibition in which she has taken part.
"To take photos like these, you have to be close to the subject. I don't know how many lesbian photographers there are [in the city]," she said.
Babushkina, 34, attributed the popularity of the exhibition to the way it differs from other exhibitions of erotic photography in the city.
"[It] is very different from exhibitions such as Playboy or 'Invitation to Happiness,' where they varnish over scenes as if they were made for Cosmopolitan," she said.
"Though they may have some artistic value or some idea behind them, as a rule it's a man's view. Here we show a wo man's view, which is a little different. Also, almost all the photos here are by lesbians. I think having the word 'lesbian' in big letters on the posters played a major role [in the popularity of the exhibition.]"
St. Petersburg's Lesbian ConneXion/s was augmented by works by six more Russian photographers, notably Moscow's Tatyana Sazanskaya.
Lesbian activities in St. Petersburg are not very visible. Though there is a handful of gay clubs, there is no stable lesbian hangout, although Club 69 currently holds a lesbian night on Wednesdays.
"One has to consider the general situation in the country," said Babushkina. "It may be feminist talk, but there's a problem with women being active in every sphere here, from business to art. If we look at percentages, men are more active for some reason. I don't think it has do to with nature."
The exhibition is very diverse, with all types of works, only a few of them dealing openly with sex.
However, as to the artistic value of the works displayed, the reaction from the local art-photography scene was mixed.
"With rare exceptions, it has little relation to photo art," said local photographer Dmitry Konradt. "It's illustrative photography ... it's more of a social exhibition. There are not bad photos there, they are not like photos in an erotic magazine. It's interesting, but you seldom want to find out the name of the photographer. I think Tatyana Sazanskaya is the one exception."
The exhibition will be held in St. Petersburg only. "No one in Moscow could be found to organize it. The exhibition is free, and we don't make a kopek out of it," said Marina Balakina, the president of Labris.
According to Bakker, the entire exhibition at Borey features about 140 works, but 40 are not displayed due to lack of space. Twelve works by Russian photographers were added for the St. Petersburg exhibition and will be included in the main exhibition from now on.
"For St. Petersburg, this exhibition is very radical," said Babushkina. "Unlike what is usually exhibited, this is documentary photography, not of beautiful girls looking at each other in a strange way, but of girls who are openly not beautiful, shown just the way they are. That is the value of these photos, but that is not to say they are not artistic or professional."
Lesbian ConneXion/s at Borey Art Gallery, 58 Liteiny Pr., 275-3837 through Sept. 29. Free entrance.
A party to mark the exhibition will take place at Club 69 at 9 p.m. on Sept. 25. Entry is 100 rubles. No face control.
TITLE: maly disappoints with 'seagull'
AUTHOR: by Simon Patterson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Lev Dodin has expressed his wish to include all of Chekhov's plays in the repertoire of the Maly Drama Theater, and "The Seagull," which premiered last Friday, is the third to be staged after "The Cherry Orchard" and "Play Without a Name."
While Moscow audiences saw the production at the Theatrical Olympics back in June, it took some time to come to its own theater, and local theater buffs have been waiting with some anticipation. Unfortunately, this may not have been justified.
After the small-scale production of Brian Friel's "Molly Sweeny" last year, the Maly returns to a large ensemble cast, which is usually its strong point. But here, much seems to have been recycled from old productions, and often to weak effect. Like "Play Without a Name," the action takes place around water, though this time no one swims in it, naked or otherwise, or even gets his or her feet wet. Instead, it simply seems a cumbersome and unnecessary device to grab the audience's attention.
The production is full of such gimmicks, none of which seem at all justified or add anything to Chekhov's play. The casting is a case in point. The budding young writer Treplev is played by Alexander Zavyalov, who seems to be as old as Tatyana Shestakova, who plays his mother. Meanwhile, the role of Dorn is played by Pyotr Semak, who obviously looks far too sprightly for a 55-year-old. There is no reason why a director has to keep to the rigid guidelines set by Chek hov, but there is also no need to break them all simply for the sake of doing so.
Perhaps because of this wilful casting, the actors do not seem to be particularly comfortable with their roles. Whatever the intention was in making this decision, it did not pay off. Usually, Semak and Sergei Kuryshev, who plays jaded writer Trigorin, are excellent in whatever they act in, but here even they seem rather lost. Shestakova simply overacts, and, with the unnecessary feature of the seven bicycles that the characters ride around the stage, the end result is that this subtle play becomes simply tedious to watch.
While some theater critics have seen this production as a sign of the theater's decline, it may be that the play itself is unsuited to what could be called Dodin's brand of total-control director's theater. In Chekhov, it is usually better that the actors are left to their own devices, and desperate attempts to make the production more immediately appealing with bicycles, water and unexpected casting are futile. The success of "Play Without a Name" was partially due to the fact that the play is not often performed, and could still look new in the Maly's interpretation. In the meantime, it is perhaps time to return to the theater-as-extravangza that made productions such as "Gaudeamus" and "Claustrophobia" so appealing.
As a footnote to this review, it seems worthwhile to point out one of the major drawbacks of this and several other productions at this theater. When the Maly tours, and it does so often, it normally stages its productions at far bigger venues than the theater that it calls home.
In this theater, however, some productions are virtually impossible to watch in their entirety - only the front few rows of the audience can see all the action on stage, while the rest of us, banked up to the mezzanine, spend the entire performance straining our necks for a glimpse of what is going on below. This was a major drawback in both "Play Without a Name" and "Molly Sweeny," and should not have been used yet again in "The Seagull." It is time for the theater to rethink its seating arrangement, at the very least.
TITLE: Chernov's choice
TEXT: A new rock club opens on Friday, and it may well change the city's clubbing geography.
Located in a two-story red-brick building right across from the Moscow Station, Red Club is much larger than any other rock club in the city. The main hall on the first floor operates as a concert hall and a dance floor, but there is also a second stage for smaller acts in the bar on the second floor. Evidently, plenty of money has been spent refurbishing and designing the place, which previously served as a warehouse. In a style more appropriate to a pop-oriented nightclub, it has staff in red jackets and guards wearing suits and earphones.
The main question is whether Red Club, which looks like it will have to attract hundreds of visitors daily to survive, will maintain its initial policy or deteriorate like Saigon did.
Like the City Club, Red Club will run two concerts nightly, starting this Friday with Deadushki and Tres Muchachos, a Latin-tinged Markscheider Kunst spin-off.
The club's official Web site at www.redclubonline.com did not contain any information at press time. Call 277-1366 for more information and check the listings.
Red Club, located at 7 Poltavskaya Ulitsa, less than a 10-minute walk from Cynic, will be open 24 hours a day except Mondays.
While Red Club was holding a pre-opening party and concert for journalists on Wednesday, Tequilajazzz was playing a home-style concert nearby at Fish Fabrique, celebrating the anniversaries of both the band and the venue (eight and seven years, respectively). Since this power quartet regularly packs venues in the city, this invitation-only event provided a rare chance to listen to its loud, full-length set in a more relaxed atmosphere.
The club, whose official reopening took place on Thursday (with Dead ushki again), has been slightly renovated and painted in lighter colors, and now seems more spacious. Owner Pa vel Zaporozhtsev, whose club has been facing serious competition from the nearby Cynic recently, said he had decided that after seven years it was time to change the club's underground aesthetics.
But as Tequilajazzz's Yevgeny Fyodorov said at Wednesday's concert, the place will probably "get dirtier and look the way it should in six months."
This tendency toward cleanliness has also affected the Psycho Pub. When visited recently, it had ceased to be a neglected and crazy place for psychobilly fans and punks. There is also a new, bigger stage on the second floor, though you have to use a rather dangerous ladder to get there. According to its new art director, skulls will no longer be used in the design, and drunk punks sleeping in the corner will no longer be tolerated. The band on that particular night was playing an uninspired Russian version of reggae, and only a doll hanging from a small gallows over the bar recalled the place's better days.
However, the city still has plenty of room for good old punk. The accordion-driven folk-punk band Nordfolks will showcase its new concert video, which was shot at the now-defunct SpartaK club, at the Friday Club on Saturday. Every ticket holder will get a copy at the entrance.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: dinner for one at barbazan
AUTHOR: by Curtis Budden
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In 1790, a traveling spice merchant named Barbazan paid to reconstruct the building at 49 Nevsky Prospect, the current location of the recently opened Radisson SAS Royal Hotel. In honor of this early patron, the Radisson has named its restaurant after him.
In an attempt to capture some of this exotic spirit, the restaurant is decorated with paintings of fruit and tropical flowers - there are even a couple of palms in the center of the room. With large windows facing Vladimirsky Prospect, however, it's hard to forget that you're still in St. Petersburg.
Nevertheless, the cozy interior is certainly pleasant, as is the service. Having been seated by the maître d', a bilingual waitress arrived moments later with the menu, which is also written in both Russian and English.
Starters ranged from $7 for several different salads all the way up to $35 for the caviar. Since I had to budget for the main course, I selected the Thai beef salad with vegetables ($7), which as I soon found out was simply delectable.
Having placed my order, the waitress returned with a basket of no less than 10 different kinds of bread. I barely had time to finish buttering the first piece, however, when she returned with the salad: chunks of rare beef on a bed of lettuce, mixed with cucumbers and tomatoes, all covered with a light oil dressing. Simply bursting with flavor, this salad is a splendid way to begin an evening. In addition, the portion is fairly large and would be plenty for two people.
For the main course, I chose the pan-fried chicken breast with tarragon sauce and potato au gratin ($14) with a glass of house red wine ($5). It should be noted that only the house wines can be ordered by the glass. All other wines must be ordered by the bottle.
When my main course arrived, my initial reaction was disappointment, since the meal actually looked quite small in relation to the size of the plate. By the end, however, I was pleasantly surprised, not to mention pleasantly full.
The chicken was tender and cooked to perfection. The sauce was a little bland, but fortunately the chicken didn't need it, since its own natural flavor was good enough. The potatoes, which were layered with cheese baked over the top, were quite tasty and the most filling part of the dish.
A meal this good certainly wouldn't be complete without some dessert. Though it was difficult to make a choice from the rich selection, I eventually settled on the chocolate brownie ($6) with a glass of Hennessey VSOP cognac ($10). To my surprise, the "brownie" actually turned out to be two brownies, both fairly large, with a light sprinkling of icing sugar, as well as a fresh strawberry and mint leaves on top. It also came with a scoop of delicious cinnamon ice cream on the side, all of which complemented the cognac very well.
Just as I was finishing my dessert, the lights were dimmed and the live music started: Spanish guitar. Had I known, I would have showed up a little later. Fortunately, however, I had just enough cognac left to last a couple of songs.
Barbazan is located in the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel at 49 Nevsky Pr. Tel. 325-5000. Dinner for one with alcohol: $43.50 (1,305 rubles). Note that although all prices at Barbazan are in dollars, payments must be made in rubles. Credit cards are accepted.
TITLE: secret of mariinsky's success
AUTHOR: by Patricia Contino
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: At the invitation of Valery Gergiev, the late Dallas Morning News music critic John Ardoin was given the opportunity to spend the 1995-96 season at the Mariinsky Theater. Not only would he observe performances, accompany tours and listen in on recording sessions, he would also write the first English-language history of the theater. The end result is the book Valery Gergiev and the Kirov: A Story of Survival, which also offers a biography of the maestro.
Chapters alternate between the Mariinsky's past and that crucial season when Gergiev was appointed as artistic director. The book's ambitious structure is in no way confusing; the parallel reinforces the chronicle. Ardoin's narrative is extremely well researched. He adeptly describes the political and artistic revolutions that continue to shape the Mariinsky and Russia. The uneasy alliance between "east" and "west' theater operations and repertory decision making are also carefully explained. Myriad name changes and spelling variations are handled effortlessly.
Company archives were in disarray at the time of Ardoin's visit. He is forthright in relating the difficulties he experienced obtaining the materials necessary for his work. No doubt, he would be pleased to know that the collection is currently being preserved and catalogued under the auspices of the Library of Congress. While it is no coffee-table book, Valery Gergiev and the Kirov is worthwhile alone for its photographs, including two of a young Mikhail Baryshnikov.
The Mariinsky's "survival" is not a distant history of upheaval and censorship but an ongoing problem. Financing any theater is difficult, especially one in post-Soviet Russia. Touring and other worldwide fund-raising efforts are thus described in detail. To his great credit, Ardoin's writing is impartial when describing an attempted "theater coup" that resulted in the removal of ballet master Oleg Vinogradov, among others.
Unfortunately, the author loses all objectivity with Gergiev. The biography offered is fragmentary, which is not surprising since the subject is very much alive and active. Quotes from Gergiev are either incomplete or contradictory. A comparison between Gergiev and Peter the Great is embarrassing, with the star-struck Ardoin making the absurd connection because Ger giev is music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and that the proposed site of the Mariinsky's "second stage" is New Holland.
While the author didn't care for the production of Tchaikovksy's "The Queen of Spades" that Gergiev conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995, it was a landmark in that company's history, resulting in the programming of more Russian opera and the appointment of Gergiev as principal guest conductor. Perhaps caught up in the excitement and exhaustion of being "on the road," Ardoin incorrectly states that Gergiev first conducted Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings on the Kirov Orchestra's 1995 tour of Japan. He actually conducted it in 1993 with the New York Philharmonic.
More bothersome than these lapses into hero worship are Ardoin's observations of dance. His musical expertise is remarkable, but does not qualify him as a ballet historian or critic. He repeats the same, tired "New York City Ballet vs. Kirov" stereotyping, making objective comparisons between the two styles impossible. The most that can be said of School of American Ballet and Vaganova Academy training is that they are different, while Ardoin's speculation about Baryshnikov's future is mere idle gossip.
Ardoin's implication that Western ballet companies were unsuccessful in reviving Ballets Russes pieces is rather insensitive, considering that the original cast members, along with Frederick Ashton and the Joffrey Ballet, helped save these works from oblivion while they were banned in the Soviet Union. Most of those ballets premiered in Europe, not at the Mariinsky, with former or freelancing Imperial Theater artists. Ardoin doesn't state that clearly enough, which doesn't make sense since he is the first to publish Sergei Diaghilev's response to his dismissal from the Mariinsky staff following his brief employment there.
The epilogue of "Valery Gergiev and the Kirov" attempts to summarize events since 1996. Even if Ardoin's death left this final chapter incomplete, his editors should have done better filling in some information. Mikhail Glinka's "Life for the Tsar" is prominently mentioned throughout the book, yet there is no indication that this opera will be presented again. The Mariinsky Ballet has performed George Balanchine's Jewels for two seasons. It is peculiar that philanthropist Alberto Vilar's millions supporting the Mariinsky are not mentioned at all.
There is enough material in this one book to fill several others. Despite being overly complimentary toward his host, Ardoin's book is a fine first offering. The Mariinsky Theater and its music director are far from the finale of their collective story.
Valery Gergiev and the Kirov: A Story of Survival, by John Ardoin. Amadeus Press, 2001, $34.95.
TITLE: a somber opening to season
AUTHOR: by Giulara Sadykh-zade
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Philharmonic season in St. Petersburg opened last Friday with Verdi's Requiem. In the context of the terrorist attacks in the United States last week, conductor Yevgeny Kolobov's choice of work was not only appropriate, but also the only possible option, a work to remind us of the troubled times we live in.
The requiem was performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cappella choir and soloists from the St. Petersburg Opera. Kolobov showed great insight and pathos in his interpretation, bringing Verdi's masterpiece of sacred composition closer to the composer's secular operatic works.
Even when he turned to the genre of funeral mass, Verdi, a true Italian with an earthy common sense, was not given to indulging in learned, metaphysical discussions about the pain and suffering of our mortal existence. Instead, thoughts on the themes of death and eternity are colored in his work by the confusion, fear and occasional happy moments of a timid human soul and are expressed with an almost theatrical drama. The falls in tension, the switches from tenderness to anger, from fortissimo to pianissimo, from the fiery anger of Dies Irae to the crystal-clear ensemble episodes were given full expression, as Kobolov accurately accentuated the dynamic and textural contrasts of the work.
The soloists were also excellent, though perhaps they could have shown more correct phrasing and intonation, while the choir could have listened more to the textural layers, particularly in the polyphonic episodes. But, on the whole, these shortcomings did not spoil the impression of the requiem, which sounded truly uplifting and inspiring.
A different opening concert was originally planned for the season, however: Yevgeny Svetlanov was to conduct a "Russian program" of Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev and Borodin. But at the last moment, Svetlanov changed his mind, claiming poor health. Ko bo lov was called on to replace him, and the spontaneous concert that resulted was quite a success, if overshadowed by a feeling of apocalypse. Furthermore, with Verdi's Requiem, Kobolov ended his "year of Verdi," which he began at the St. Petersburg Opera with the premiere of Rigoletto, and which he continued at the Savolina Festival in Finland.
Over the next few months, the Shostakovich Philharmonic will see many interesting concerts. French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier will perform with pianist Eliso Virsaladze. There will be a performance by pianist Grigory Sokolov, conducted by Moshe Atzmon of Switzerland, and at the end of this month, the 10th Annual Organ Festival opens.
The middle of October will see the Luxurious Kitsch mini-festival, which consists of only two concerts featuring Mark Pekarsky, accordeon player Fridrich Lips and the poet Dmitry Prigov. On Dec. 27, the Arts Square Festival begins, with violinists Gidon Kremer and Julia Fischer among the guests invited. January will see the key event of the season, with world-famous U.S. pianist Murray Perahia coming to town.
TITLE: violent farce of 'the mexican' falls flat
AUTHOR: by Kenneth Turan
PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times
TEXT: "The Mexican" is all about misdirection. It is named not after a person but a pistol. Its best performance is not given by its pair of leads - who just happen to be two of the biggest stars going - but by someone else. And it wants ever so desperately to be successfully hip and offbeat, but it can't manage to make it happen.
A violence-prone screwball farce accurately (albeit a bit surreally) described by its director as "a romantic comedy, but with a little bit of Sam Peckinpah"), "The Mexican" has its eye on being a jaunty, picaresque adventure, kind of a updated version of those off-the-cuff road movies of some years back.
And though it is in theory heartening to see together-for-the-first-time stars like Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt taking a shot at what was conceived of by writer J.H. Wyman as a much smaller picture, neither they nor director Gore Verbinski can bring this off. If "The Mexican" proves anything, it is that eccentric features need a particularly delicate touch to be successful. With a film like this, how close you come doesn't matter: off by a little is as debilitating as off by a lot.
The reasons behind "The Mexican's" underwhelming nature are hard to pinpoint. Is it because the film's body count is higher than Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant ever had to deal with? Because director Verbinski, a commercial veteran whose debut feature was the very commercial "Mouse Hunt," doesn't have the sensibility for this, no matter how much he'd like to? Is it because Wyman's script at times resembles the deflated football that's one of its elements? All that's for sure is that much as we pull for this film to go somewhere, to rise to another level, it stubbornly won't. Or can't.
On the other hand, Roberts and Pitt look happy to be working together, so much so that you really don't want to point out that they're often trying too hard and that they spend much less time sharing the screen than the film's campaign might lead you to expect.
"The Mexican" does begin with Jerry Welbach (Pitt) and Samantha "Sam" Barzel (Roberts) waking up in the same bed. Sam looks happy, but Jerry, who has a more accurate idea of what the coming day will bring, does not.
Jerry, to put it nicely, is a genial flop, someone with the gift of messing up the simplest assignments and then, as Sam puts it, trying to "Forrest Gump your way through things." This, to be sure, is not the best career strategy when you work as a bagman for an imprisoned crime lord and his impatient major-domo Nayman (Bob Balaban).
Sam is insistent that Jerry quit the business, and Jerry has agreed. In principle. But Nayman has one last job for him, one that involves going down to Mexico and picking up the Mexican, a celebrated antique pistol the boss has a hankering for even though it is comes complete with a burdensome curse.
Because Jerry will immediately be killed should he refuse, it's more irritating than fascinating that Sam wildly overreacts, throwing Jerry's clothes off the balcony (now that's a first) and instigating a raging argument structured around buzzwords like "needs," "acknowledgment" and "time-outs." It's too easy to overdo these kinds of hysterics, and that's what happens here.
It is also at this early stage that the film splits, with Jerry going down to Mexico to find the pistol and hear varying versions of its history (all put on screen silent-film-style) and Sam headed off to Las Vegas to read "Men Who Can't Love" and begin, or so she thinks, a life without her beau.
But Jerry's nefarious associations are not so easily shrugged off. Sam is soon flabbergasted to find herself in the power of a goateed, consummately professional hit man named Leroy, who tries to calm down his hysterical charge (good luck) by telling her, "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Leroy is played by James Gandolfini, sometimes known as Tony Soprano, and his is easily the film's most memorable performance. It is work based on more than the inherent interest we have in a violent character whose shrewdness about relationships turns him into a kind of unlicensed psychologist. Gandolfini brings a dignity and depth to Leroy, a substance that keeps him from descending into the kind of shtick that hampers "The Mexican," as it does so many modern screwball attempts.
As Jerry and Sam lurch from crisis to crisis, one of "The Mexican's" lines sums up its profile: "All I got is my wallet and an attitude." The wallet paid for Roberts and Pitt, but the attitude wears thin awfully fast.
TITLE: Bush Readies U.S. for Response
AUTHOR: By Christopher Newton
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush was not expected to seek a declaration of war Thursday in a high-stakes address to Congress, instead imploring Americans to have patience for a long, painful hunt for terrorists.
The words are meant to build resolve as soldiers, ships and aircraft head across the sea for conflict. Bush is also expected to warn that some of those heading out may not return.
In the speech, set for 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (5 a.m. local time), Bush was expected to make the case against No. 1 suspect Osama bin La den and his al-Qaida network, officials said Wednesday.
"I look forward to the opportunity to explain to the American people who would do this to our great country," Bush said. "And why."
Bush officials wouldn't say when the U.S. planned to strike, as the president continued to make overtures to foreign leaders to join the effort against terrorism; nor did they expect Bush to do so Thursday night.
Bush planned to meet Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. Al-Faisal has expressed support for the war on terrorism.
The president also was mindful of the impact on the economy of last week's attacks, promising that the government would respond, pledging to help the hard-hit airline industry in particular. But Federal Reserve Chairperson Alan Green span was expected to tell Congress on Thursday to take a go-slow approach before enacting any massive stimulus package.
The Pentagon has given the coming struggle a name: "Operation Infinite Justice." The military action began in earnest Wednesday as the air force dispatched dozens of warplanes to the Persian Gulf area.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt also was sent toward the Mediterranean to join two aircraft carriers already in the region near Afghanistan. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding there.
The pursuit of bin Laden and his elusive, loose-knit group of terrorists continued on several fronts.
The FBI enlisted banks to follow the money trail in last week's terrorist attacks, where two planes were crashed into the World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon and a fourth into the southwestern Pennsylvania countryside. More than 5,400 people were believed killed.
Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller planned to visit the Pennsylvania crash site of United Flight 93 on Thursday. Just before the crash, several of the passengers on the flight made cell-phone calls saying they planned to attack their captors.
With the number of people detained on immigration charges for questioning rising to 115, the FBI sent a list of the alleged hijackers to banks asking them to search for any transactions involving 21 people wanted in connection with the attacks.
Agents also were investigating the possibility that some of the suspected suicide hijackers used fake identities of people who may still be alive.
Ashcroft said Wednesday that evidence shows that the terrorists suspected "are harbored, supported, sustained and protected by a variety of foreign governments."
The attacks and a two-day, federally ordered shutdown of the air-travel system have set in motion a crisis for airline companies - American and United airlines announced 40,000 layoffs Wednesday.
The parent company of American, the world's largest airline, said it will lay off at least 20,000 of its 138,350 workers.
United matched the bad news, saying it would lay off 20,000 of its 100,000 workers. Just a day earlier, Boeing said it planned to cut as many as 30,000 jobs by the end of next year.
"This is not a ripple effect," said Representative Jennifer Dunn, whose suburban Seattle district includes thousands of Boeing workers. "This is a tsunami."
Bush plans to ask Congress to prop up the airline industry, which already was suffering from this year's economic downturn.
He will ask for $5 billion in immediate cash aid plus significant help with their insurance liability.
The president will also spend $3 billion of the emergency funds that Congress gave him over the weekend to pay for airline and airport security improvements.
But Bush is putting off for now airline-industry calls for loans to avert bankruptcies, an administration official said Wednesday. The official said such action might be taken later.
Just before Bush was to address Congress Thursday, he planned to have dinner with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Hundreds of Britons were believed to have died in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
Blair has pledged that Britain would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with America and, in language taken from Bush, has declared that his country also was "at war with terrorism."
But Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf allies such as Bahrain and Qatar, worry that if the United States casts its anti-terrorism net too wide, it could again cause internal unrest from Islamic dissidents.
TITLE: Little Hope for Truce After More West Bank Fighting
AUTHOR: By Karin Laub
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Threatening a U.S.-backed truce effort, Palestinian gunmen on Thursday killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded her husband in a West Bank road ambush. The couple's three preschool children, who were in the backseat of the family car, witnessed the shooting.
The shooting came two days after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced he was enforcing an informal truce, and Israel responded by halting military strikes.
The United States has been pushing both sides to work out a truce, seen as crucial to Washington's effort to bring Arab and Muslim states into an international anti-terror coalition. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeatedly spoken to leaders on both sides in recent days.
Israeli government officials said Thursday's attack proved that their skepticism about Arafat's intentions were justified. "In the past, his cease-fires have had a shelf life of roughly a week," said Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "This one barely lasted a few hours."
The shooting was expected to delay a meeting between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that had been tentatively planned for later in the week. "It is hard to imagine how meetings of this sort can occur as long as Israeli civilians are being butchered on the roads," Gold said.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the shooting must not be allowed to derail the truce. "I think we are going in the right direction," Abde Rabbo said of the cease-fire efforts, adding that it was important to hold high-level talks as quickly as possible.
The shooting occurred Thursday morning, near the Jewish settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank. Palestinian gunmen fired from a truck at a car carrying an Israeli couple and their three children, ages 4, 2 and 3 months, police said. The children escaped unharmed. Seven large-caliber bullets hit the side of the white sedan. The truck sped away, toward the Palestinian town of Bethlehem. The victims were residents of the Nokdim settlement, near Tekoa.
Earlier Thursday, Sharon spoke by phone to Powell and complained that the Palestinians were not observing the truce, Israeli officials said. Sharon told Powell there had been 10 Palestinian truce violations, including a roadside bomb Wednesday near a Jewish settlement in which two Israelis were injured.
Sharon planned to meet with his foreign and defense ministers later Thursday to decide whether to give the truce another chance.
In the wake of Arafat's announcement Tuesday, Israel withdrew several dozen tanks from Palestinian territory, but did not ease its stifling blockade of Palestinian towns that has paralyzed life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians said they have been working hard to make the truce stick. Palestinians have been patrolling trouble spots, including the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank town of Hebron. Despite the Palestinian police presence, a gun battle erupted late Wednesday in Hebron, with each side accusing the other of having started it. Five Palestinians were injured.
President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he had a "a sense of optimism" over the truce efforts. He said last week's terror attacks on the United States might have prompted the change of heart.
However, previous truce deals have collapsed, and it remained unclear whether Arafat could rein in Islamic militants and small bands of gunmen who have carried out shooting attacks on Israelis.
The militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad said Wednesday they would not abide by Arafat's cease-fire order. The two groups have taken responsibility for dozens of attacks that have killed scores of Israelis since the clashes broke out last year.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: NATO Cancels Plan
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - NATO on Thursday abruptly canceled plans to launch the last phase of its mission to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels, signaling possible trouble with Macedonian lawmakers reluctant to implement a Western-backed peace accord.
Alliance officials said they opened a weapons-collection site Thursday, only to announce later that no arms would be collected. There was no immediate explanation for the cancellation. NATO spokesperson Major Barry Johnson had said earlier that the rebels appeared ready to fulfill their part of the deal.
Under the phased plan, the government agreed to have parliament work toward approving constitutional amendments granting the country's ethnic Albanian minority greater rights in exchange for a commitment by the rebels to hand over 3,300 weapons to NATO troops.
Refugees Arrive
BOE, Nauru (AP) - Barefoot and weary, another group of asylum seekers stepped onto the tiny Pacific island republic of Nauru on Thursday after three weeks aboard an Australian Navy ship.
Two navy landing craft carried 119 Afghans and Sri Lankans into Nauru's harbor as hundreds of locals looked on. They followed an initial group of 100 refugees transferred from the HMAS Manoora on Wednesday.
The refugees are part of a group of 433 mostly Afghan asylum seekers rescued from a sinking Indonesian ferry by a Norwegian cargo ship near the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island late last month. Another group of 230 Iraqi and Palestinian refugees was picked up in Australian waters on Sept. 7 and transferred to the Manoora.
Case Dismissed
THE HAGUE, the Netherlands (AP) - The highest court in the Netherlands has dismissed the case against a former Suriname military dictator for his alleged role in a series of political slayings 19 years ago, saying Dutch courts have no jurisdiction over the former colony.
The Hoge Raad, or High Court, ruled Tuesday that Desi Bouterse could not be tried for violations of a UN convention against torture, since it went into force in the Netherlands in 1989, seven years after the alleged atrocities took place.
It also said that Netherlands could only try Bouterse if he was a Dutch citizen or if he resided on Dutch soil.
The case was opened last year after an Amsterdam district court ordered prosecutors to investigate the "possible involvement" of Bouterse in the so-called "December killings" of 1982.
Two years after the two-time coup leader first took power in 1980, soldiers conducted a midnight attack on a group of his opponents in the small South American country that was a Dutch colony until 1975.
10 Civilians Killed
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Soldiers and former Muslim rebels fought Thursday in the southern Philippines, and at least 10 civilians were killed in the cross-fire, police said.
The former separatist rebels took hostages in Marawi, in the southern Philippines, but all were freed, said Colonel Antonio Seville, spokesperson for the army's 401st Infantry Brigade. Three soldiers and a civilian were injured in the fighting.
About 70 gunmen fled the fighting and occupied a market building filled with textile stalls. Several city blocks were evacuated.
Some 150 soldiers, backed by two armored personnel carriers, massed outside, then retook the first two floors and part of the third, where the gunmen hid in rooms and bunkers, officials said.
The intense firefight slowed to sporadic shots and grenade bursts by midday Thursday, and army and police forces waited for noon Muslim prayers to end before launching a final assault, officials said.
Libyan HIV Trial
SOFIA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - A Libyan court is expected to announce on Saturday its verdicts in an unprecedented trial of six Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor charged with deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.
The defendants, detained in Tripoli in early 1999, are accused of intentionally infecting 393 children in a Benghazi hospital with blood products contaminated with the HIV virus.
The trial of the five Bulgarian female nurses and one male doctor began on June 2 after a long delay.
The indictment said the infection was part of a conspiracy by foreign intelligence forces to undermine Libyan security and its role in the Arab world.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty, as did nine Libyans who face similar charges.
Officials and defense lawyers said on Thursday they were already mulling an appeal against possible death sentences sought by the Libyan prosecutor.
TITLE: Major Sports Leagues Make Donations for Terror Victims
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Major League Baseball and its players association contributed $5 million each on Wednesday to establish a relief fund to aid victims of last week's terrorism.
The MLB-MLBPA Disaster Relief Fund will distribute money after consulting with governmental and charitable relief organizations.
Many baseball teams and players are making separate contributions, along with the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and NASCAR.
"All of Major League Baseball is deeply saddened by the loss of life and the terrible damage wrought by the terrorist attacks that struck our nation," commissioner Bud Selig said.
Don Fehr, executive director of the union, said: "The events of Sept. 11 left all of us horrified, and none of us untouched. Baseball and America have always gone together, and now, as the country moves forward to relieve the suffering and heal the wounds, everyone in the baseball community wants to go along."
The New York Mets said manager Bobby Valentine, his coaching staff and the 34 players on the team's active roster would contribute their salaries from Friday's game against the Atlanta Braves to the New York Police & Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund. The donation will be about $500,000.
Cincinnati Reds players and coaches are donating $250,000 - roughly the equivalent of one day's pay - to the Heroes' Fund, established to help families of the New York fire fighters, police officers and Port Authority employees killed in the attacks. Colorado Rockies players donated nearly $60,000, which, with matching funds, is expected to total about $144,000.
The NBA is contributing more than $1 million, along with supplies and office space. The NFL is about to make a "major financial contribution," league spokesperson Greg Aiello said.
NHL teams have raised a total of more than $1.3 million for disaster relief funds and the NHL Players Association donated $500,000 to help families of New York City fire fighters and police officers.
"The members of the NHLPA wanted to make a donation to support the families of the victims of last week's terrorist attacks in New York City," NHLPA President Trevor Linden said. "This donation is in addition to the various contributions we are making with our teammates and our teams."
NASCAR is pledging its help through a variety of paint schemes and donations. A combined 37 Winston Cup and Busch-series drivers said on Wednesday of special patriotic paint schemes they will have on their cars this weekend in Dover, Delaware.
In addition, 12 drivers have joined Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield's call to donate money for every lap they complete this weekend. The pledges range from $20 to $25 per lap.
The United States Tennis Association announced that it will make a $1 million donation to the World Trade Center relief effort.
"New York City is home to the U.S. Open," said Merv Heller, president of the USTA. "We have worked very closely with New York police, fire, EMS and other city agencies and over the years have seen their tireless efforts and dedication firsthand."
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: NFL Refs Ratify Deal
NEW YORK (AP) - The locked-out National Football League officials will be back on the field Sunday when play resumes after postponing last weekend's games following terrorist attacks.
NFL spokesperson Joe Browne said the league was told by Bill Carollo, the union's executive director, that a majority of the 119 officials ratified a contract that had been agreed to Sunday night and voted on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Browne said he wasn't given the vote total, but Tom Condon, the negotiator for the union, said the vote was about 2-to-1 to accept the contract.
Condon said the terrorist attacks that caused a week's hiatus were a major incentive.
"You can't ignore the occurrences around the country and the fact that our concerns were pale in comparison," he said. "So we thought it was important to get back for the restart of the season."
Golf Resumes Play
SAINT NOM LA BRETECHE, France (AP) - There is a lot less laughter in the locker room.
European golf resumed Thursday with the Lancome Trophy, the first event since terrorist attacks in the United States.
"It has taken over everyone's life and everyone has been hit very hard by it," Colin Montgomerie said. "We are all quite flat and it will take a number of weeks, months, years to get back to the way we were."
Since the violence in New York and Washington, the Ryder Cup was postponed for a year.
"Sport is a very minor part of what is going on right now," Montgomerie said. "But we have to keep doing our jobs and we have to keep going."
Coach Apologizes
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP) - Virginia football coach Al Groh apologized Wednesday for a comment that offended many people, including university President John Casteen.
On a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Groh was told that several of his players had voiced concerns about flying to this weekend's game at Clemson (2-0).
The Cavaliers (1-1) travel by chartered jet, and Groh said they need not worry about a hijacking.
"I'm not saying this to make light of it by any means, but I'm not planning on having Arabs in the traveling party," Groh said. "So therefore I think probably that the threat of our being hijacked is pretty remote."
News of his comment spread, and the former coach of the NFL's New York Jets issued a written apology.
"I am sorry if my remarks were insensitive," Groh said. "I certainly did not mean to insinuate that millions of sensitive, God-fearing people of Arabic descent are terrorists."
"Like many American citizens, my emotions are near the surface after last week's tragedy, especially since 70 people in the town I lived in for four years, many of whom I know, are missing."
Casteen said he took Groh's "apology seriously, and I hope that others will also."
In the same release, athletic director Craig Littlepage said: "This is no time to inflame emotions. Unfortunately, Coach Groh's remark earlier today has had that unintended effect."
'No-Fly' Zones
NEW YORK - (AP) Blimps and small planes flying over college football stadiums pulling banner advertisements will be rare sights this weekend.
The Federal Aviation Administration has granted requests for several schools to bar flights within a 1.5-kilometer radius of their stadiums and up to an altitude of 1,000 meters.
School officials nationwide have been tightening security at stadiums after last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
On Wednesday, the FAA approved the requests on a "no-fly zone" for Saturday's Virginia-Clemson and Wisconsin-Penn State games. On Tuesday, Michigan received permission for its Saturday home game with Western Michigan.
Notre Dame, which plays host to Michigan State on Saturday, was awaiting word on its request for a "no-fly zone."
"Even if I hear a plane fly over head right now I get a little nervous," Notre Dame linebacker Courtney Watson said. "Hopefully it won't happen during a play and affect somebody. You'll think about it, but hopefully it will be in the back of your mind during the game."
NFL Patriotism
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Football League has bought 1 million American flags to give fans as part of the league's plans to honor the victims of last week's tragedies in the United States, the NFL said on Wednesday.
Fans will also be given words to the songs "America the Beautiful," "God Bless America" and the national anthem, which are to be played before the games.
Plans also call for red-white-and-blue NFL bunting with the words "United We Stand" to be draped in stadium endzones and along the sidelines.
Players will wear an American flag insignia on their helmets and sideline personnel will wear caps imprinted with a flag.