SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #714 (81), Friday, October 19, 2001
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TITLE: Jokers Play on City's Anthrax Jitters
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The global anthrax scare reached the city this week, when a local construction company received a package containing a white powder on Tuesday.
In all, the St. Petersburg Central Post Office has registered more than 50 suspicious mail incidents since Monday, all of them involving white powdery substances. According to officials, all of the envelopes contained flour, salt, starch or other harmless powders.
"It looks like St. Petersburg residents have a good sense of humor and don't want to miss this chance to make fun of their friends. They think that if they do such things in America, why can't we do them here too?" said Nikolai Bogdanovich, head of the Central Post Office's security department on Thursday.
After employees at Petroteknip, a construction company located at 20 Ga ler naya Ulitsa, handled the suspicious package on Tuesday, they were quarintined for several hours and checked over by doctors from the St. Petersburg Sanitary Control Department.
"When we opened the envelope, something started pouring out of it. We were all in shock here because we never thought that a company like ours could be affected by events of this kind," said Ma ria Sabanina, a secretary at Petro tek nip, on Wednesday.
Sabanina said the package bore the return address of a Moscow-based partner of the company and was delivered by the St. Petersburg Express Mail Service.
"Although, the guy looked rather strange. Usually those postmen from the express service wear a uniform, but this one was in shorts, which does not really correspond with the current weather," she said.
The package was turned over to the St. Petersburg Sanitary Control Department, which then said that an initial examination found no anthrax.
"The official result of the examination is negative. Nothing dangerous was found there. There was no plague, no cholera, nothing," said Galina Orlova, the Sanitary Control Department spokesperson on Wednesday.
"I don't know what was in this envelope, a detergent maybe," she said.
Another suspicious envelope was received the same day by a resident of 26 Nastavnikov Prospect in the Krasnogvardeisky District. The package contained a bill for communal services and a white powder, Interfax reported on Wednesday.
Bogdanovich said that it costs 3,000 rubles ($100) to test each suspicious envelope and for this reason, postal employees try to discover and throw away such letters before they are delivered.
Anatoly Kagan, head of the City Hall Health Committee, asked local residents not to panic, since there is currently no threat of biological terrorism in the city.
"This is absolutely clear that those schizophrenics who used to call in bomb threats are now choosing different tactics to scare people," he said on Wednesday.
"We have the necessary amount of the vaccine and antibiotics in the city, but we have no plans to vaccinate people," Kagan said.
Kagan recommended that people who receive such envelopes call the police "and just wait until they come."
According to St. Petersburg Emergency Department representatives, the police and the Federal Security Service, or FSB, have opened an investigation into the letters.
One local joker, Nikolai Stolbov, a researcher at the St. Petersburg Oceanology Institute, was detained Wednesday, accused of sending a letter to a colleague with a ground-up aspirin pill in the envelope. The envelope allegedly also contained a note with the single word "Jihad." The colleague recognized Stolbov's handwriting and called the police.
Stolbov was released the same day and will be charged with minor hooliganism, which carries a fine of about 50 rubles (about $1.80).
Lithuania and Estonia were also affected this week. According to local law enforcement officials, some suspicious letters appeared in Estonia. In Lithuania, the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius, the office of the Lithuanian president and the editorial office of the Respublica newspaper all received suspicious letters.
"The letter sent to the U.S. Embassy was not opened and was immediately handed over to security organs," said Vaidatas Mazeika, the spokesperson for Lithuanian State Security Department in an interview from Vilnius on Wednesday.
"The preliminary examination has shown that there are no toxins in those letters. But, I underline, this is a preliminary report," he said.
"The official version at the moment is that it could have been done by people or a person in an unstable psychological condition," Mazeika said.
TITLE: Local Afghans Condemn Attacks
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Thirty-six-year-old Aref used to work at the Afghan Ministry of Rehabilitation and Rural Development as the chief engineer in the construction department. Now he spends his days selling purses and wallets at the Zvyozdny market.
"I've been standing like this for nine years now," he said, pointing at his goods with indifference bordering on disgust. "I'm not an engineer anymore."
According to Sergei Tarasevich, head of the St. Petersburg Migration Service, there may be as many as 20,000 Afghan nationals living in and around St. Petersburg. Naib Safi, head of the Afghan Citizens' Union of St. Petersburg puts the figure at "at least 3,000."
According to Tarasevich, however, only about 600 hold official documents confirming their refugee status. For the rest, this lack of status means an inability to get local registration and, with it, access to health care, public schools and official employment.
Aref, who asked that his last name not be published in order to protect relatives still in Afghanistan, rents a one-room apartment on the outskirts of the city with his wife and his baby daughter. Life is particularly hard for his wife, who doesn't speak Russian.
"She is afraid to step away from our building," Aref said. "She and our daughter go for walks not more than 10 meters away from our house."
Safi, who is a lawyer by profession, also sells clothing at the market.
"What else can I do when my 8-month-old daughter is rejected at the local clinic? I have to pay for it, for my wife's doctor, for transportation, rent and so on," he said, holding a copy of his law-school dissertation from the St. Petersburg Police Academy.
According to Safi, most of the Afghans currently living in St. Petersburg came here to study during the 1980s, when the Afghan government maintained close relations with the Soviet Union. After that government was defeated by the mujahedin in 1992, it became impossible for anyone tied to the former government to return.
At the same time, a torrent of refugees who had supported or thrived under the Soviet-aligned regime abandoned the country, fearing for their lives. This group included the bulk of Afghanistan's doctors, teachers, engineers and trained military officers.
When the current conflict erupted, local Afghans were unanimous in condemning the attacks on their homeland.
"We all have relatives and friends back home. Now we know nothing about them since there is no connection with the country," Safi said.
On Oct. 8, the local Afghan Council of Elders issued a statement on the U.S.-led air strikes against Afghanistan, saying, "the Afghan diaspora in St. Petersburg condemns the bombing of Afghanistan."
"This war will ruin both the Afghan nation and an ancient civilization along with its culture," Safi said.
Safi said that local Afghans do condemn the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and welcome the international campaign against terrorism, but they do not agree that bombing Afghanistan is an acceptable or appropriate response.
"The world must understand the militant Taliban militia consists of just 30,000 people, whereas the rest [of the country's estimated 26 million people] are civilians," Safi said. "Bombings and other military actions seriously hit the civilian population, which will die not just from bombs but from hunger and disease."
Now, however, as the campaign against their country continues, a new sense of helplessness has gripped the community. Local Afghans spend all their time listening to the news, trying to find out what is happening in the country they still call home.
Sher Gulakhmet, a representative of the Afghan Culture Center, worries about his parents who live in Kabul.
"They called me on the eve of the war and said that they hadn't left the capital. Now I can't reach them anymore," he said.
TITLE: Russia Prepared To Treat Anthrax Outbreak
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The anthrax scare that has swept the globe reached Moscow this week when a newspaper and a company called authorities after receiving suspicious packages.
But the panic that has grounded aircraft and cleared out office buildings elsewhere has yet to arrive in Russia. Unlike other Western countries, which had all but eradicated anthrax, Russia is ready to deal with the disease since every year it successfully treats dozens of cases, mainly agricultural workers.
"Anthrax is commonplace in the Russian Federation as livestock and people are diagnosed with it every year, fortunately not at a very drastic level," Ben ya min Cherkassky, Russia's top anthrax expert, said in a telephone interview.
Still, customs officials said Tuesday that they were taking precautions to make sure anthrax spores do not enter the country. Also, the veterinary service banned imports of meat and livestock from Florida, where the first anthrax cases surfaced last week.
A Moscow-based company with an office on Sheremetyevskaya Ulitsa alerted police Tuesday after receiving a package containing a white powder, RTR television reported. Accompanying the powder was a note written in Russian, "Present to the letter victims."
A test of the powder failed to find any anthrax.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper also said that it received a suspicious package from an unknown sender in Austria, The Associated Press reported. The package contained a bottle with a liquid substance that was tested and then taken away by the police for further analysis.
State Customs Committee officials said they have tightened control over goods sent into Russia and were examining all capsules, powders and containers that could potentially carry anthrax.
Alexander Ivanov of the Committee for Sanitary and Epidemic Control said sanitary inspectors on the borders "are always on high alert" and have extensive experience with anthrax.
"Russian experts are prepared to help other nations regarding this matter even at this very moment," Ivanov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.
Post offices are not taking any extra precautions, Deputy Communications Minister Eduard Ostrovsky said Monday. However, he urged people "to be on alert and careful about any suspicious items received by mail."
Anthrax experts remain calm over the prospect of an outbreak in Russia, saying the country has the resources to deal with the deadly disease no matter whether it is a result of a terrorist attack or occurs naturally. Unlike in the United States where next to no anthrax cases have been reported for 25 years, Russian health officials register 15 to 30 cases a year.
Anthrax, formed by the Bacillus anthracis bacteria, most often spreads through domesticated livestock grazing in areas where soil has been contaminated by decomposing carcasses. Anthrax can then spread to people who work with the infected animals or eat infected meat.
There are three different forms of anthrax, said Cherkassky, who works at the Epidemiology Research Institute. The most common kind, which accounts for 95 percent of all cases, is cutaneous, which causes a rash and is easily treatable with antibiotics. The other two forms, inhalation and intestinal, rarely occur but are usually fatal. Their symptoms are similar to those of a common flu and the diagnosis is usually only known after an autopsy.
Cherkassky has compiled a list of 35,000 spots across Russia where anthrax occurred over the past century and could become sources of new outbreaks. The bacteria can remain infectious in soil for more than 100 years, Cherkassky said.
TITLE: Russians Wary of This War
AUTHOR: By Sarah Karush
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - While President Vladimir Putin has expressed firm support for U.S.-led air strikes against Afghanistan, many Russians are wary of a new war so close to home.
Expressing sympathy for Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many Russians say they understand the need to react and hunt down those responsible. But when it comes to using military force, they are ambivalent.
In condemning the attacks on the United States, Putin compared the organizers to Nazis, an emotionally loaded analogy in a country that lost millions of lives in World War II.
But for some, the memory of that struggle was a warning against getting involved rather than an inspiration to join in. "I remember the war, and war is always scary," said Yulia Isa chen ko va, 66. "There is always blood, there are always victims."
According to a poll conducted last week by the All-Russia Public Opinion Center, 57 percent of Moscow residents wholly or partially disapprove of the U.S.-British air strikes. The telephone poll of 400 people, which had a 5- percent margin of error, found that 41 percent wholly or partially approved of the strikes.
The poll showed opposition to deep Russian involvement in the conflict: Forty-seven percent said Moscow should remain neutral, while 30 percent said it should demonstrate limited support. Only 13 percent were in favor of decisive Russian backing.
Such caution may stem from fears that a long-term war in Afghanistan could spill over into former Soviet republics in central Asia. "It's very dangerous, because you know how many years we were in Afghanistan," said Andrei Gurov, a 40-year-old real -estate appraiser, who sat reading on a bench by the Kremlin wall. "Besides, this is on Russia's border, not America's."
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Hermitage 'Terrorist'
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A man who made a crank call to the police claiming that he had planted a bomb in the State Hermitage Museum was arrested Thursday, Interfax reported.
According to authorities, the man telephoned the police late Wednesday night claiming that there was a bomb in the Hermitage.
A search of the premises turned up nothing, according to Interfax.
However, the police were able to trace the call and on Thursday morning the man - "in a drunken state," according to the police - was arrested. He said that he was only "joking," Interfax reported.
Taxi Explosion
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Four people were injured when a marshrutka taxi exploded after a collision with a car in the suburban town of Petrodvorets on Thursday, Interfax reported.
The incident occurred at 11:42 a.m. when the marshrutka collided with a Moskvich and exploded. Initial reports that a bomb had been involved were denied by the authorities, according to Interfax.
The authorities did not release any information on the condition of the injured, according to Interfax.
Candidates Registered
SYKTYVKAR, Northwest Russia (SPT) - Thirteen candidates have registered to participate in the Dec. 16 election for the president of the Republic of Komi, Interfax reported Wednesday.
The list of candidates includes Yury Spi ri donov, the current president; Vla dimir Shakhtin, who was recently removed as director of the company Shakh ta Zapadnaya by a decision of the Komi Appeals Court; the writer Alexander Nekrasov, put forward by the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia; Rita Chis tokhodova, a former State Duma deputy from Komi; Lyudmila Kasinets, a 46-year-old unemployed resident of Vorkuta, as well as eight other candidates.
Candidates for the election can be registered until Nov. 1, Interfax reported.
More for Science
MOSCOW (SPT) - St. Petersburg State Duma Deputy and Nobel Prize laureate Zhores Alfyorov has called upon the Duma to increase budgetary financing of the sciences, Interfax reported Thursday.
In a written appeal to the Duma, which is expected to vote on the second reading of the 2002 budget on Friday, Alfyorov wrote, "State funding for science has fallen by more than 80 percent over the last six years ... and the average age of people working in the sciences has increased catastrophically," Interfax reported.
Alfyorov noted that the government's 2002 draft budget continues the policy of reducing funding to the sciences.
Nonetheless, Alfyorov denies that Russia has "hopelessly fallen behind" in science, citing the fact that many young Russian specialists are sought by Western companies and his own Nobel Prize for physics last year. He urged Duma deputies to ratify a budget that "is aimed at preserving and developing Russia's scientific and technical potential," according to Interfax.
Officers Suspended
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's Defense Ministry said Wednesday it had suspended two senior army officers in charge of missile-firing exercises when a Sibir airliner was brought down over the Black Sea.
Volodymyr Tkachyov, commander of Ukraine's antiaircraft forces, and his deputy, Volodymyr Dyakov, were relieved of duties pending investigation into the disaster, which investigators believe was caused by a rogue Ukrai nian missile.
News of the suspensions followed a statement by the pPosecutor General's Office that it was preparing the ground for a criminal probe into the disaster.
New Ministry Created
MOSCOW (SPT) - President Vla di mir Putin has abolished a ministry, created a new one and appointed De puty Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov as industry, science and technology minister in a cabinet reshuffle that political analysts said Wednesday merely confirms the actual state of affairs within the government.
Putin signed the order late Tuesday night to disband the Nationalities and Migration Ministry and dismiss its minister, Alexander Blokhin.
Industry, Science and Technology Minister Alexander Dondukov was replaced with Klebanov, who is to retain his title as deputy prime minister.
The reshuffle at the industry ministry comes as the government takes its first steps to restructure the military-industrial complex and the aviation and space industries. Klebanov has overseen space technologies and the military-industrial complex since the beginning of Putin's presidency.
Klebanov was close to the circle of bureaucrats who followed Putin from St. Petersburg, while Dondukov belonged to the ever diminishing group connected to former President Boris Yeltsin.
Analysts pointed out that the widening of Klebanov's powers comes just days after he successfully finished coordinating the operation to lift the Kursk nuclear submarine from the bottom of the Barents Sea.
The functions of the disbanded Nationalities and Migration Ministry are to be divided between the interior, foreign and economic development and trade ministries, Interfax said.
Zyuganov Slams U.S.
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov slammed the U.S. bombing campaign against Afghanistan on Wednesday and warned Europe not to be drawn into a war on Islam.
"If Europe gets pulled into a battle against the Islamic world, it would be the biggest calamity since World War II," Zyuganov told a news conference in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
Zyuganov, who commands the support of a quarter of the electorate, said he had told Putin that Russians would not support a policy of joining NATO in the fight against terrorism.
"We think the world has exhausted all possible means of solving conflicts with weapons. No one can fight against terrorism by bombing with Tomahawk [cruise missiles]," Zyuganov said through an interpreter.
Anthrax Aid Offered
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian health authorities have offered to help the United States combat anthrax by sharing a vaccine developed to fend off American biological weapons during the Cold War.
"We are ready to supply the United States with vaccines against anthrax if the necessity arises," said Lyubov Voropayeva, a Health Ministry spokesperson.
In the United States, the only vaccine is in limited supply and currently available to the military.
Russia's vaccine is completely different from the U.S. one, said Veniamin Cherkassky, a leading anthrax expert here. While the U.S. vaccine is chemical-based and has to be repeated frequently, the Russian vaccine contains live anthrax strains and lasts for a year, he said.
Both vaccines were developed in part out of fear that the other side was prepared to use anthrax and other diseases as weapons against Cold War foes, Cherkassky said.
"We were afraid of each other and developed our own defenses," he said.
Kokh To Bid for NTV
MOSCOW (SPT) - NTV television's board chairperson Alfred Kokh, who led last spring's charge by Gazprom to take over NTV and its sister companies, said he has plans to bid for NTV if it is put up for sale.
Kokh said he hopes to make the bid together with NTV General Director Boris Jordan and an unspecified foreign investor.
In an interview published in Kommersant's Wednesday edition, Kokh accused Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller of "obscuring" Gazprom's plans about the future of the once-mighty media empire it took from Vladimir Gusinsky. Kokh said his decision to resign as general director of Gazprom-Media is irreversible.
He also said the potential foreign investor was "not German," implicitly denying earlier reports suggesting the investor might be Germany's Kirch Media.
Drug Trade Soars
MOSCOW (AP) - Drug trafficking in Russia has become a $1-billion-a-year business, and the country's southern borders are virtually open to it, Interior Minister Bo ris Gryzlov told the State Duma on Wednesday.
Gryzlov said the problem of illegal drugs constitutes a threat to national security. He said only about 5 percent of narcotics are confiscated by authorities, and that drug abuse is also a major problem, with 3 million abusers nationwide.
He acknowledged that funding to combat drug trafficking is insufficient, and he urged lawmakers to consider better international cooperation to help keep drugs from reaching Russia.
Radicals Detained
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - Azerbaijani security agents have arrested a radical Muslim and 12 of his followers who fought as guerrillas in Chechnya, officials said Wednesday.
The National Security Ministry identified the main suspect as Baku resident Kianan Shakhbazov, who allegedly underwent training at unspecified guerrilla centers abroad.
Shakhbazov, who preached radical Islam, attracted some young followers whom he took to Chechnya. Two of his group were killed there in June and another was killed Monday in clashes in Abkhazia, the ministry said in a statement.
The Azerbaijani statements followed disclosures by National Security Minister Namik Abbasov, who said Tuesday that a citizen of Iraq had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to kill President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Azerbaijan in January.
TITLE: Competition Opens For 2003 Monument
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: No major anniversary in Russia passes without a park being laid out, a symphony being written or a monument being erected. And the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg in 2003 will be no exception, if the Public Council of St. Petersburg has its way.
This nongovernmental organization, which was created just a year ago and which brings together many of the city's industrial, financial and cultural leaders, has announced a design competition for a monument to commemorate the anniversary and is promising to raise funds to construct the winning design.
"St. Petersburg is like a man waiting for a birthday," said Andrei Ananov, a prominent local jeweler who is a member of the council and who came up with the idea of the competition and will serve on the jury. "What is he going to get? The essentials, most likely, a pair of pants. But he is dreaming of a necktie. St. Petersburg will get its Ring Road and other major repairs, but our present will be a work of art."
The competition among local architects, sculptors and visual artists - the only restriction is a diploma in these disiplines- starts on Nov. 1. The contest's winner next May. Among the competition judges will be Oleg Kharchenko, chief architect of St. Petersburg, and Ivan Uralov, chief artist of St. Petersburg.
The council estimates that about 5 million rubles ($167,000) will be needed to produce and install the monument, which is to be placed on the Mytninskaya Naberezhnaya near the Birzhevoi Bridge.
The council is offering only vague suggestions on what the monument should be like. It should "reflect the greatest events in the history of St. Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad-St. Petersburg, including the heroism and self-sacrifice of its citizens." It should also "look into the future."
Jurors were also not very specific about what they would be looking for.
"It should be more of an architectural monument than a sculpture, and it should be sooner horizontal than vertical," said Uralov.
Uralov noted that there were already such vertical landmarks in the area as the Rostrel Columns and the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, so he thinks the new monument should not be higher than a two-story building.
Kharchenko encouraged artists to experiment with contemporary forms.
"Modern art in itself is not a recipe for success, and the main criterion is that the monument should be a work of art, but our city already has a lot of classical sculpture and is really short of modern art," Kharchenko said.
"Our generation should leave its own mark on the city landscape," he added.
The winner of the competition will get a prize of 50,000 rubles. Second prize is 30,000 rubles, and third prize is 20,000 rubles.
For more information on the competition, call 276-6826 or 110-4425.
TITLE: Rest of Kursk To Be Raised Next Year
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: The mangled first compartment of the nuclear submarine Kursk will probably be raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea next summer, leading submarine designer Igor Spassky said Wednesday.
Spassky, the head of the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering in St. Petersburg, said Russia was hoping to raise the sunken section on its own between June and August, without foreign help. He said it would be brought up in parts.
Investigators say clues to the tragedy that blew up and sank the Kursk during military exercises in August 2000 could lie in the first compartment, which contained the torpedoes. They say that fragments from the compartment, which was badly damaged, would be vital in any investigation.
Many Russian and foreign experts have said the initial explosion was set off by an internal malfunction, while government officials suggest the Kursk had collided with another vessel or a World War II mine. The navy has also said it was studying the possibility that a leak of hydrogen peroxide, which is used to propel torpedoes, may have been responsible for the explosion and sinking that killed all 118 crew members.
The Kursk's bow was sawed off and left on the seabed during last week's raising of the rest of the submarine for fear it could break off and destabilize the delicate operation.
Spassky said the mystery of the Kursk tragedy should be solved sooner or later.
"It may happen now after the investigation of the Kursk [in dry dock], but if that's not enough, we'll solve it after looking at the first compartment," he said.
Spassky said that the riskiest moment of the lifting operation last week was removing the submarine from the sea floor, because engineers had feared that the first compartment had not been cut off completely.
He said the vessel would be put in dry dock this weekend after some defects in the pontoons to be used for lifting the submarine are corrected.
Officials said Tuesday that tests on the pontoons had shown that they must be expanded to hoist the giant submarine to the surface safely. The pontoons are to be firmly locked to the barge, then filled with water and afterward drained to create enough force to raise the barge and the submarine by about 8 meters.
TITLE: Report: City Misspent 904M Rubles
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The city Audit Chamber issued a report this week stating that City Hall misspent 904 million rubles (about $30.6 million) out of the city's 2000 budget.
According to Audit Chamber Deputy Chairperson German Shalya pin, the report is the result of the chamber's study of City Hall's final accounting of the 2000 budget. That document reported that 2.06 billion rubles ($70 million) had been collected by the Territorial Road Fund and that 1.15 billion rubles ($39 million) had been spent to repair city roads.
City Hall used the remaining fund to repay part of the city's debt, according to Shalyapin. That would be a violation of Article 17 of the City Budget Code, which stipulates that any money collected by a special-purpose fund can only be spent on those tasks mentioned in the fund's founding documents.
"It would, of course, have been a noble deed if City Hall had spent the money to purchase medicine, for instance. But they can't do this according to the law," Shalyapin said.
City Hall disagreed with the Audit Chamber's view of the situation and denied any wrongdoing.
"The Road Fund is a budget item, so there is nothing wrong if it chooses to spend budget money for any purpose the committee chooses," said Alexander Prokhorenko, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's representative in the Legislative Assembly, on Wednesday.
TITLE: Cuba, Vietnam Bases To Close
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - In an effort to raise more money for the struggling military at home, Russia will close two bases that came to be symbolic of the Cold War - a radar station in Cuba and a naval support base in Vietnam, a top army official said Wednesday.
The surprise departure from the Cu ba station - Moscow's "listening post" on America - signals President Vla di mir Putin's readiness to ignore military hawks and forge closer ties with Washington, according to analysts.
Officials described Wednesday's meeting of military brass at the Defense Ministry, chaired by Putin, as "stormy." After the meeting, they said Russia will spend nearly $1 billion more this year to purchase new weapons.
"The president called on us to look for ways that could save resources, including those within [the military]," said General Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the armed forces' General Staff.
Kvashnin said Russia will dismantle its radar station in Lourdes, Cuba, and a navy technical-support base in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. The pullout from Vietnam will start Jan. 1, military officials said, but no definite date was announced for the Cuba station.
The spying facility in Cuba was built in 1964, shortly after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, to "decide defense issues during that period of the Cold War," Kvashnin said. "Now, the military-political situation has changed, and there has been a qualitative leap in military equipment."
"The station's potential is compensated by the potential of other means and forces on the territory of Russia, including space-based ones," Kvashnin said.
He said the closure of the Cuba station would allow Russia to save at least $200 million a year in rent and an undisclosed amount in personnel salaries and maintenance. "With that money we can buy and launch 20 communication, intelligence and information satellites, and purchase up to 100 sophisticated radars," Kvashnin said.
Putin visited the electronic facility in Lourdes in December, telling the station's personnel that their mission was very important for his government's decision making.
Putin said Wednesday that the decision to close the electronic intelligence center outside Havana had been reached after "deep analysis and long talks with our Cuban partners." His wording suggested that the decision to shut the huge intelligence post 150 kilometers off the Florida coast had met resistance from Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
But he added that the decision to dismantle bases in the former Soviet Union's traditional satellite countries did not mean that Moscow was turning its back. "We advocate the full lifting of the economic blockade against Cuba. We have large economic-cooperation plans with Vietnam," Putin told the gathering.
Putin called for more money to be provided to the military to pay its personnel and purchase modern weapons. He also noted some troubles with the military-reform efforts, saying in particular that he wanted to see more "quality" than quantity and lashing out at the military for having its pilots fly only 10 percent of the necessary training time.
"We have to look at our priorities as the situation in the world is changing rapidly and we need to confront international terrorism," Putin said. "We have to respond adequately to the international situation."
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who also took part in the meeting, said the government would spend an additional 27 billion rubles ($918 million) this year on new weapons purchases, "and this amount will be growing every year." He also voiced hope that the legislature on Friday would give its final approval to release an additional 4 billion rubles to beef up the salaries of military personnel, a step initiated by Putin.
Kept by Russia on land leased from Cuba in exchange for crude oil and other supplies, Lourdes has long been the source of controversy between Moscow and some political quarters in Washington.
The House of Representatives passed a bill last year to try to prevent the United States from rescheduling hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian debt unless Moscow shut it down.
The decision to leave the base "is the first real step towards a real partnership with the U.S.," said independent military expert Alexander Golts. "If you wanted a symbol of the Cold War, it was Lourdes.
"I think it is a clear signal to the U.S. that Russia is changing its position, that we are true allies. It is a very important signal that continues this shift of Mr. Putin towards a clear partnership with the West."
- AP, Reuters
TITLE: Powell Discusses Chechnya With Ivanov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SHANGHAI, China - Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday he plans to encourage Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov "to move aggressively toward a political solution" to the conflict in Chechnya.
Powell and Ivanov, attending a meeting of Asia-Pacific foreign ministers, were to confer over dinner Thursday night. The ministers' meeting precedes a summit of the 21-country Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. President George W. Bush arrived shortly before Powell's meeting with Ivanov.
Powell, who spoke to reporters while flying from India after a two-day visit to south Asia, said the United States recognizes Russia has the right to defend its interests in Chechnya. But, he said, Mos cow must do so in a way that "reflects a solid consideration of human rights and accountability for past atrocities."
He also said Russia should recognize that "not every Chechen who is in a resistance mode is necessarily a terrorist."
Chechnya won de facto independence after a 1994-96 war with Moscow, which ended in a humiliating retreat for Russian troops.
Federal forces returned to the small southern republic three years later, after militants raided a neighboring Russian region. More than 300 people died in apartment-building bombings in Russian cities that were blamed on Chechen rebels.
Powell made no reference to the administration's previous acknowledgment that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization has been involved in the Chechen conflict in support of Islamic rebels.
On another subject, Powell said he looked forward to a meeting Bush plans with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung at the summit to learn of Kim's insights on North Korea. In June, Bush invited North Korea to reopen security talks, but has yet to receive an answer.
Powell said he believes North Korea will respond positively to the invitation "because I don't think they have any other choice."
TITLE: Russia High on List Of Most Corrupt
AUTHOR: By Megan Twohey
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: "Corruption is not just a collection of criminal activities in Russia, it is a perverse system of governance," according to a new report on global corruption released this week by Transparency International.
Take, for example, Pavel Borodin's safe return to Russia after being arrested in New York on charges of embezzlement. Or the bribery of doctors at free state hospitals and the reported incidents of fraud in the March 2000 presidential elections.
The Global Corruption Report 2001's harsh assessment of Russia, which experts say may affect foreign investment here, is backed up by a compilation of surveys that rank levels of corruption in countries worldwide. Russia's rankings vary from poor to abysmal.
Russia comes in at 81 in Transparency's International's Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 91 countries from the least to most corrupt places to do business. The index, released last summer, draws on 14 sources of data from several economic institutions and is based on the perceptions of business people and risk analysts.
Finland topped the list as the least corrupt country, while Russia is sandwiched between Pakistan at No. 80 and Tanzania at No. 82.
In Moscow alone, more than 15 percent of the 9-million-strong population had to deal with bribery in 1999, according to the International Crime Victims Survey, which looks at households' experience of crime, the police, crime prevention and feelings of insecurity.
The survey and index are among a number of rankings found in the appendix of the report.
"The appendix is the most important part of this report," said Yelena Panfilova, director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Initiatives, the Russian branch of Transparency International. "One survey can be accused of being biased, but this report includes all possible research and studies, so you can make comparisons."
The analysis of corruption in Russia is contained in a 13-page section on the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Among other things, the chapter highlights some of the major corruption stories in the news, explains how certain individuals, groups or firms have become so powerful that they influence the formation of laws, rules and decrees and outlines reported incidents of election fraud, including manipulation of the media.
"In Russia and Ukraine, [electoral corruption] guarantees that the state remains captured by the ruling elite and its kleptocratic oligarchy," the report said.
The decision by the government to post bail for former Kremlin property manager Borodin, who was charged by a Swiss court, "confirms that the Kremlin was worried about what Borodin could tell investigators," the report said, citing analysts.
The report also points out signs of countercorruption in Russia, like reshuffles in the Cabinet. The report suggests that President Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to root our corruption in the security forces, filled the security posts in the cabinet with friends and allies.
The study could play a key role in how foreign investors regard Russia.
"In Russia, you can't rely on official documentation or paperwork, so I read those indexes with interest," said Tanya Malcolm, a research assistant at the London-based Control Risks Group, which advises foreign businesses interested in setting up shop in Russia on the risks of doing business here.
"Potential foreign investors pay attention to these reports and rankings," said Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. "They often serve as a red flag, show whether Russia is moving in the right direction and indicate to investors the areas they need to steer around."
Still, Somers said, the findings must be taken with a grain of salt.
"Often these reports overgeneralize, contain outdated information ... and do not reflect the dynamics that could be under the surface that are driving corruption in one way or another," he said.
TITLE: Kremlin Shifts Gears on WTO Issue
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Kremlin appeared Tuesday to take a deeper look at its strategy for joining the World Trade Organization in response to domestic pressure and a new-found coziness with the United States that could help it win more favorable terms.
"As tragic as the events have been, they could have a positive effect on international political relations with Russia," said Tanya Monehan, general secretary of the Russian branch of the International Chamber of Commerce, or ICC. "It could even speed up Russia's accession to the WTO on terms acceptable to Russia."
Russia has been trying to join the 142-country trade body for nearly a decade, but its bid picked up steam over the past two years as President Vla di mir Putin has made it a top priority.
Remarks made by Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov this week seem to indicate the government wants evidence to back up its demands for more concessions.
Putin told a group of small and medium-sized businesses Tuesday he has confidence WTO membership would help the economy, but said the consequences for the business community should be examined thoroughly, news agencies reported. "We feel confident that joining the WTO will have a positive impact on the entire Russian economy, but details matter here, and we would like to hear your opinion on that," Putin was quoted as saying. "Many of our goods are not competitive and we must carefully analyze the consequences."
At a cabinet meeting Monday, Kasya nov ordered the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, which is in charge of WTO negotiations, to organize a comprehensive analysis of the pluses and minuses of Russia's entry.
Kasyanov spokesperson Alexei Volin said Tuesday the analysis should be prepared by independent academics, either Russian or foreign or both. Kasyanov called for an independent analysis because existing departmental analyses "might reflect the interests of different groups," he said.
The WTO office in Russia, set up under the aegis of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, gave a cautious nod of approval to Kasyanov's order, but said any such report should be used only as a rough guide. "There needs to be a document prepared at the government level, an official document," said Alexei Portansky, director of the office. "Our delegation, headed by Deputy Minister [Maxim] Medvedkov, feels that such an analysis can only be approximate. If someone tries to give an exact estimate ... it could even be misleading," he added.
Kasyanov's order to take a deeper look at WTO membership issues comes at a time when Russia, vital to the American-led anti-terrorism campaign, is riding a wave of Western political support, raising the question, why now?
"On the face of it, it looks like a delaying tactic, but it goes counter to everything else being said [about joining the WTO]. So I'd be surprised if that's what it was," said Tom Adshead, a Troika Dialog economist. "The big picture list [of Russia's demands] is fairly clear, but they must want some details," he said.
ICC Russia praised the call for deeper analysis. "Such an analysis must be carried out. The Russian saying 'measure seven times and cut once' is applicable here. There is no road back from joining the WTO," Monehan said.
The World Bank also lauded the decision.
"Currently the government wants a clear picture, a closer look at the costs and benefits of joining the WTO. If people look at it carefully, the benefits will outweigh the costs. But the problem is that there are very few numbers," said Christof Rühl, chief economist at the World Bank's Moscow office, which has been involved in developing plans to join the WTO.
TITLE: Troubled Boeing Puts Hopes For New Orders in Aeroflot
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Shaken by the global aviation slump that has forced it to cut 30,000 jobs, U.S. aerospace giant Boeing is courting Aeroflot with renewed vigor in the hope of securing badly needed orders.
Boeing Vice President Thomas Pickering, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, met with top Aeroflot executives at the company's corporate headquarters in Moscow this week as part of U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans' trade mission, but no deals were struck, Aeroflot spokesperson Irina Dannenberg said Wednesday.
"In the current crisis for air travel, many airlines have refused earlier optional contracts for Boeing and Airbus aircraft, and therefore, they [the aircraft makers] are actively pushing their craft and obviously see Aeroflot as a possible customer," Dannenberg said.
Boeing's hometown newspaper, the Seattle Times, reported Tuesday that Aeroflot was considering buying as many as 50 Boeing aircraft, but Viktor Ano sh kin, Boeing's spokesperson in Moscow, declined to comment on the report, saying only that it came as a surprise.
Dannenberg said that while negotiations with Pickering were held, no contracts were signed. She wouldn't say how many craft the airline is shopping for, but she did say that the company was interested in medium-range airplanes, like Boeing 737s.
"With Aeroflot focusing on European destinations, it will need medium-range aircraft," said Yelena Sakhnova, analyst with Aton brokerage. "They already have Boeing-737s, trained staff and a technical-maintenance center and [if Aeroflot makes a decision] it will more likely acquire this craft," she said.
However, Sakhnova estimated that Aeroflot would not buy more than five foreign jets in the next five years.
Boeing has invested $1.3 billion in Russia over the last decade on projects such as the International Space Station and the Sea Launch satellite-launching venture. The company employs 350 Russian aerospace engineers at its Moscow Design Center and another 300 throughout Russia.
TITLE: World Bank Deadlock Broken
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and World Bank director for Russia Julian Schweitzer have hammered out a strategy to unblock $600 million worth of loans and guarantees already approved by the bank but frozen by the government, Schweitzer said in an interview on Wednesday.
"We expressed concerns at the lengthy delays in approving the six projects worth $600 million currently in the pipeline and are happy to note that the government has now explicitly confirmed its wish to proceed with these programs," said Schweitzer, who met with Khristenko on Tuesday.
He said he expects the government to sign off on an $85-million city-heating project and a $122.5-million water project early next month. He also said several other projects, including an $80 million relocation project for Far North residents and $50 million for education reform, should get the go-ahead by the end of the year.
The loans have been held up by the government in large part due to an order signed by President Vladimir Putin this spring that called on the government to cut or scrap its policy of borrowing from "inefficient" international lenders.
One major sticking point of the World Bank loans has been the obligatory technical-assistance component, which includes consulting services - a vague budgetary line item that has been abused often in the course of implementing the billions of dollars worth of reform loans taken out by the government over the last decade.
"We don't dramatize the problems and we came to an understanding with the World Bank on all the questions discussed at [Tuesday's] meeting," Khristenko spokesperson, Stanislav Naumov said.
"The World Bank shares the view of the government that technical assistance needs to be cost-effective," said Schweitzer.
Both sides agreed to work together to examine more carefully current World Bank projects that have a technical-assistance component. If they find a project over-funded, funding earmarked for that project will either be reallocated or cancelled.
Schweitzer defended the technical- assistance component of loans as a highly effective tool used by countries around the world. "Countries such as Japan and China realized early on that it's not worthwhile to try to reinvent the wheel and that it is often cheaper to adapt models invented elsewhere than to start from scratch," Schweitzer said.
Naumov said "the government is ready to take an active part in the preparation of the World Bank's new country-assistance strategy for Russia in order to increase the effectiveness and reduce the terms of the implementation of the loans."
The new two-year World Bank strategy for Russia is currently being prepared and is scheduled to be discussed by bank's board of directors in April, Schweitzer said. "The level of assistance envisaged will depend partly on the needs of the government," he added.
"It will also take into consideration the implementation of the reform program and any adverse impact [that may occur] from external economic shocks."
He said that the bank expected to lend Russia a total of $600 million next year.
Some $400 million of that will be earmarked to help revamp the country's treasury system and $120 million will go to regional finance reform.
TITLE: Yukos Seeks Bigger Stake in Kvaerner
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Oil major Yukos late Tuesday announced that it was seeking to increase its stake in the financially strained British-Norwegian engineering firm, Kvaerner, in which it already holds 12 percent.
Yukos - Russia's second-largest oil company - issued a message to the Oslo Stock Exchange, saying it was seeking to increase its share in Kvaerner to at least 25 percent. Yukos offered Kvaerner shareholders 15 Norwegian kroner ($1.70) per share, a 3-percent premium on Tuesday's closing price.
The announcement followed another last Thursday, when Yukos said it had acquired 10 percent of Kvaerner. It has since obtained another 2 percent.
Focus has centered on Kvaerner Hydrocarbons, a London-based subsidiary of the engineering firm. Yukos accounts for 38 percent of all orders handled by this subsidiary, which is participating in the development of Yukos' part of the Priobskoye oil field in Western Siberia.
The announcement reinforces "Yukos' commitment to a key business partner and ensures the continued smooth operation of Kvaerner's hydrocarbon engineering business," Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in the statement Tuesday.
Yukos has already called for an extraordinary shareholders meeting Nov. 2 to put a representative on Kvaerner's board of directors. Now it might be going after even more.
"We expect that restructuring of Kvaerner may be required," Khodorkovsky said.
"If a decision should be made to sell certain divisions of Kvaerner, Yukos would then actively consider purchasing Kvaerner's Hydrocarbons subsidiary."
Yukos may also try to acquire part of the engineering and construction division, he added.
But Yukos also has its limits. According to the purchase offer, Yukos shall not hold more than 40 percent of Kvaerner.
Before the Yukos-inspired rally in Kvaerner shares late last week, the price had more than halved in the past month since the group announced an additional share issue and the impending departure of current CEO Kjell Almskog.
In late September, Kvaerner said it was in a severe cash crunch and needed to raise capital to save itself from bankruptcy.
Kvaerner said that at the time it intended to make an extraordinary share issue, but on Wednesday, the group said that it expects to complete negotiations soon with its main lenders on loans in order to cover its anticipated short-term liquidity needs this fall.
It is unclear whether the share issue will go ahead as planned, and Yukos has yet to say whether it will participate.
When Yukos announced last week that it had acquired 10 percent of Kvaerner on the secondary market, officials in Lysaker, Norway, said they were "very positive" about having a big shareholder that was also an important client. Yukos declined to say how much that stake cost, but analysts put the price tag at $13 million to $16 million.
However, Kvaerner's optimism turned to suspicion when rumors about a possible split within it began to swirl, the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported on Friday. Aker Maritime, Kvaerner's biggest shareholder with 18 percent, has been holding secret meetings with Yukos management, the newspaper reported.
Kvaerner shareholders have until 4 p.m. Monday Oslo time to take up Yukos on its offer.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: $750M Eurobond Issue
MOSCOW (SPT) - Gazprom's board of directors is considering a $500-million-to- $750-million Eurobond issue on Oct. 23, Prime-Tass reported the company as saying Wed nesday.
CEO Alexei Miller said Gaz prom was interested in attracting credits and loans to carry out large projects like the Blue Stream project.
Earlier this month, a Gazprom source said the company's board of directors was expected to meet Oct. 16 to discuss a $300-million-to-$500-million Eurobond issue.
The company has not officially announced details of the issue, but sources said the its terms might be finalized at the board meeting.
Fuel-Oil Export Up
MOSCOW (SPT) - The Energy Ministry has increased the fuel-oil export quota to 30 percent of output from 20 percent starting Monday, Prime-Tass reported a ministry official as saying.
The ministry lowered the quota from 62 percent in September to ensure stable supplies to the domestic market, primarily to power grid Unified Energy Systems.
Deputy Energy Minister Yevgeny Morozov said Tuesday the governmental commission on access to pipelines would consider fuel-oil export quotas for November and December in a meeting next week. He also said the commission might consider raising fuel oil export duties if it decides to lift export quotas.
Dim GDP Forecast
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Due to a drop in world oil prices since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Russia's gross-domestic product growth is expected to slow to 4.7 percent this year, the U.S. Energy Department's analytical arm forecast Tuesday.
"Because energy accounts for 40 percent of Russia's exports and 13 percent of GDP, Russia's economy is extremely sensitive to global energy-price fluctuations," the department's Energy Information Administration said in its annual update on the Russian energy sector.
The EIA's GDP estimate for Russia is much lower than the 5.5-percent-to-6- percent growth rate predicted last week by the deputy head of Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Arkady Dvorkovich.
Despite this, Russia's economy is still in the best shape it has been since the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly 10 years ago, EIA said.
Itera Threatens Georgia
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Itera has threatened to halve gas supplies to Georgia starting Oct. 20 due to debts of about $25 million, the company said Wednesday.
Itera's gas-supply plan for 2001 provides for the delivery of 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia, of which 682.4 million cubic meters had been delivered by Sept. 30.
"However, the supplies will only be carried out on condition of its [Georgia's] timely and full payment, and strict adherence to the schedule of previous years' gas-payment arrears repayment," Itera said in a statement.
Itera supplies the gas to the Gruzgaz distributor, whose debt consists of $5.8 million owed for 2001, and more than $20 million for 2000. Itera owns 50 percent of Gruzgaz and has recently reached an agreement on the purchase of the remaining 50 percent.
Georgia's total debt since the start of supplies in 1996 amounts to $82 million.
Defense Overhaul
MOSCOW (SPT) - The government signed off on a program that will overhaul Russia's mammoth defense industry, a source from the Industry, Science and Technology Ministry said Wednesday.
Earlier, the government had said that only half of the country's 1,700 military enterprises will remain. Those companies will be combined into 36 holdings by 2006, according to the agreement, which was signed by the government last week, Interfax quoted the source as saying.
Twenty percent of the reform will be financed by the budget, with the rest coming from participating enterprises, the head of Russian Aviation and Space Agency Yury Koptev was quoted by Interfax as saying Tuesday.
Free-Trade Talks
MOSCOW (SPT) - Ukraine and Rus sia are reviewing an existing free-trade agreement and have considered a new one with no limitations on any goods, Interfax-Ukraine reported Wednesday.
Vladimir Stetsenko, deputy secretary of Ukraine's Economics and European Integration Ministry, said both sides had "reviewed the concept of coming to a new agreement, taking into consideration the strategic cooperation of the two countries." Both sides exchanged proposals on the new plan and agreed to continue talks, he said.
Experts have proposed an agreement that would cover all goods, Statsenko said.
A protocol signed by the Russian and Ukrainian presidents earlier in the month put quotas on less than 0.3 percent of the trade volume of each country from free trade, while at the beginning of the present talks 16 percent of Ukraine's export to Russia was planned to be excluded.
Nuclear Cooperation
MOSCOW (AP) - After drawing fire from the United States over its nuclear cooperation with Iran, Russia has provided Tehran with a feasibility study for the construction of yet another reactor, a top nuclear official said Wednesday.
The Iranian side proposes to create a joint working group on the project and to submit it to the Iranian government in December, said Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Yevgeny Reshetnikov.
If the plan is accepted, Iran would independently decide on the location of the new water-cooled VVER-1000 reactor, he said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Reshetnikov said one Russian ship carrying equipment for the Bushehr plant has already been sent to Iran. Another will deliver the reactor and other parts worth $50 million in December, he said.
$15M Mining Deal
MOSCOW (SPT) - Metals and Mining Co. Norilsk Nickel on Wednesday signed a $15-million agreement with Canadian-Australian mining company Argosy Minerals Inc. and Societe Miniere de la Tontouta of New Caledonia to develop the Nakety/Bogata nickel project in New Caledonia.
The agreement covers the preparation of a bank feasibility study and a plan to finish exploration work, as well as obtain all necessary licenses.
The project is expected to yield 50,000 tons of nickel and 3.5 tons of cobalt per year. The entire project cost has been estimated at $800 million.
TITLE: Media Squabble Takes Its Toll on NTV Plus
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Swept up in the squabbling between Gazprom-Media and Media-MOST for control of the latter's subsidiaries, NTV Plus, already struggling financially, is in danger of losing contracts with programmers, while growth has stagnated and some employees haven't been paid for months.
Satellite television station NTV Plus has multi-year contracts with more than 40 broadcasters and has not lost any of their business yet. But most of the companies that broadcast through the station have not received payments for months, some for more than a year, said Alexander Silin, CIS sales director for British company Zone Vision, which represents six programmers with 14 channels airing on NTV Plus.
"The programmers are very unhappy," he said.
Silin estimated that NTV Plus owed all its programmers combined around $10 million. These include Eurosport, Hallmark, MTV Networks Europe and CNN.
"It's possible the station could die quietly," with stations quitting the channel one by one, said Media-MOST spokesperson Dmitry Ostalsky.
"NTV Plus was one of the key reasons why many channels came to the Russian market, so it's a very tough decision for them to switch off," Silin said. "But I cannot guarantee such switching off won't happen in the future. Nobody can afford to lose money forever."
Also unhappy are employees whose salaries have been delayed. Moscow rival Kosmos TV said that scores of people from NTV Plus have come to them looking for jobs.
At the same time, NTV Plus has seen its subscriber growth drop sharply, signing up 40 percent to 50 percent fewer subscribers month on month in September, said a senior sales manager in the company who asked not to be named.
The situation was different a year ago when Ostankino caught fire and NTV Plus raked in thousands of new customers as Kosmos subscribers saw their screens go blank.
Ostalsky said there are difficulties with NTV Plus making payments to some companies, but he declined to give details. He said he could only hope that none of the broadcasters terminate their contracts as they come up for renewal over the next several months.
He blamed both the drop in subscribers and the nonpayment to programmers and employees on the unfinished takeover by Gazprom of Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-MOST assets.
"I'm afraid that in connection with the unclear position of the company fewer people have decided to subscribe," he said.
While NTV was taken over in April and has since revamped itself with new journalists and programs, the fate of other former Media-MOST assets, including NTV Plus, radio station Ekho-Moskvy and an unfinished movie theater on Novy Arbat, hang in limbo.
Media-MOST is required to transfer 25 percent plus one share in almost two dozen subsidiary companies to Gazprom-Media, giving it a total of 50 percent plus one share in each.
In NTV Plus' case, the transfer of those shares is not yet complete, with each side blaming the other for legal foot-dragging.
Gazprom-Media spokesperson Aelita Yefimova said her company is restrained by parent Gazprom from taking action in managing NTV Plus. "We are waiting for a decision from top management," she said.
Somewhat of a decision came down from the top last Friday when new Gazprom head Alexei Miller announced his company's intention to sell all media assets, with financial details to be decided in January.
Although Miller promised Friday that Gazprom would finance its media outlets, Gazprom-Media has up until now had neither the capacity to manage its new assets, including NTV Plus, nor the funds to keep them going. It was unclear Tuesday when that spending would start or how much it would amount to.
NTV Plus, still a money-loser, is seen as a potential cash cow after it reaches a certain number of subscribers.
During Gazprom's takeover of NTV early this year, Gazprom-Media director Alfred Kokh repeatedly cited NTV Plus as an example of NTV's potential to generate profits.
While that fight continues, programmers don't know from whom to demand payments from, Silin said. "The unclear situation with NTV Plus top management makes negotiations difficult."
Further confusing the circumstances for those owed money, NTV Plus director Yevgeny Yakovich resigned in September in protest over what he said was Gazprom's deliberate inaction.
"We and other channels send official requests [for payments] to the so-called board of directors because we do not even know who the general director is now," Silin said.
Kosmos, half owned by Metromedia International Telcell Inc., insists it is not cheering the deterioration of NTV Plus, and points out the benefits they reap from each other by attracting certain players into the Russian market.
Often a company will be convinced to spend on entry to the Russian market by guarantees it gets from a single cable provider, while it may later broadcast on a different station.
"We are not that big and we do count on other operators to be there, too," said Katya Pereverzeva, program director for Metromedia. "Together with NTV Plus, we give [programmers] enough subscribers so they can feel O.K. being on our territory."
TITLE: Decree Boosts State Telephone Firms
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has signed off on a decree that could have a wide-ranging effect on the telecommunications industry and give dozens of state-run phone companies just what they've been waiting for, the ability to turn a profit.
The decree, signed Oct. 11 and published late Tuesday, gives regulatory bodies three months to determine appropriate tariff levels, which would allow operators not only to cover their costs, but have cash left over for network upgrades and development.
The increases should happen by the end of 2002. Because the decree is more timeline than content, it is not yet clear how much more, if anything, people will be paying for telephone services.
Currently, many of the 70-plus operators majority owned by state telecoms holding Svyazinvest charge artificially low rates, set by the Antimonopoly Ministry, for local services. With residential telephones still viewed as a social service the state is responsible to provide its citizens at a low cost, customers in many regions pay a $2-$3 monthly fee.
"The monthly fees that are valid as of today are far, far lower than the real costs," said Anatoly Subbotin, financial analyst at Artelecom in Arkhangelsk.
At these levels, operators are not willing for example, to replace lines when they break. The Communications Ministry has said it would take decades for an operator to pay back the cost of installing a single new line. The list of households waiting for phone connections stands at some 6 million.
The communications, economic cevelopment and trade, and antimonopoly ministries will jointly carry out the order to determine reasonable levels of profitability for regional operators. The Antimonopoly Ministry, in its usual role, will set the tariffs.
Confidence in the government's efforts remains mixed, with several in the industry still suspicious towards the prospect of actual changes, pointing out that this is not the first time tariff reform has been promised. Changes in the way local operators charge for services was even a selling point when Svyazinvest went on the auction block in 1997.
United Financial Group wrote Wednesday that "the decree highlights the fact that the government is committed to reform."
Troika Dialog said "investors should take this news as an opportunity to revisit Russian regional telecom companies." Renaissance Capital said that the move "should result in the appearance of a transparent and efficient regulatory policy."
Yet still others brushed off the announcement with full skepticism.
"We have no guarantee that the tariff increase will be adequate," said Ivan Rodionov, managing director of AIG-Brunswick Capital Management in Moscow, which has stakes in Artelecom and another northwestern operator. He recalled at least two other times in the past decade when the government failed to follow through with pledged tariff changes.
Most likely, any raises would happen incrementally so as not to affect low-income families adversely.
"The aim here would be not to create a ruckus prior to elections in 2004," said UFG telecoms analyst Ari Krel. "It would be desirable to balance the social concerns with the economic rationale of reforms."
Those eager for changes are also anticipating the passing of the law "On Communications," which also calls for normalizing the amount operators charge their customers. That law has not yet gone through the first reading in the State Duma. It was unclear how that law, if approved, would work together with the decree passed last week.
Many say that without tariff reform, the ongoing telecoms consolidation, in which Svyazinvest's subsidiaries are merged into seven large operators, will fall short of its goals of attracting more investment into the sector.
"The reform process is really about giving these tariffs more of a commercial focus," Krel said.
TITLE: After His Visit, Evans Sees Russia as 'Strategic Partner'
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans on Wednesday praised Russia as a reliable U.S. partner and said both countries would reap economic rewards from fast-developing ties.
"This is a very important time in the development of the relationship between the United States and Russia - indeed a very important time as all civilized nations unite in this world," he told a briefing.
Evans, winding up his second visit to Moscow in three months, said Russia's rapid response to the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and its siding with a coalition against terrorism showed it was a reliable U.S. partner.
The atmosphere in U.S.-Russian relations has warmed significantly in recent months after a cool period following U.S. President George W. Bush's inauguration in January.
Evans said that Bush - who will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend in China and again next month in the United States - had found a common language after their June summit in Ljubljiana, Slovenia.
"I am sure that you can see the commitment of both countries to continuing a strong strategic partnership broadening our relationship," Evans said.
He added, "We are certainly committed to it."
Evans, heading a delegation of U.S. corporate leaders on the first high-level trade mission of the Bush administration, was upbeat on progress toward reforming the Russian economy.
He said the United States was "aggressively" supporting Russia's access to the World Trade Organization and could be expected to make a decision on recognizing the country as a market economy within the next year.
"From the steps that Russia has taken over the last 12 to 18 months, as well as the steps that they plan to take in ensuing months, it is my belief that Russia is moving toward being one of the leading nations in the international economic community in years to come," Evans said.
He noted that ties between the United States and Russia were bearing fruit, pointing to key announcements made during his visit.
Among them were plans by Pepsi Co.'s Frito-Lay snack-foods subsidiary for a $40-million plant and a deal between Russian aerospace officials and United Technologies on joint development of a rocket thruster.
Evans' trip also coincided with the announcement of the shipping of the first oil from the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) $2.5- billion Kazakhstan-Russia pipeline in which Chevron is lead investor.
Evans also said he expected to visit Russia again in the future, possibly next year.
- Reuters, SPT
TITLE: Fear Itself Is More Frightening Than Anthrax
TEXT: Los Angeles Times
ANTHRAX spores found near the heart of United States government - the offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle - have cranked up bioterrorism anxieties. The worry is still out of proportion to the immediate danger. Only one person has died of anthrax to date. While 31 congressional employees have tested positive for anthrax exposure, none show symptoms. And the pathogen cannot be contracted through exposure to an infected person. Still, the attacks reveal significant flaws in federal public-health coordination that Congress and the Bush administration should address.
First, the short term. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needs to distribute guidelines to curtail the prescribing of antibiotics when they aren't needed. A perceived national shortage of Cipro, the U.S. trade name for the antibiotic recommended to treat anthrax, was eased by the manufacturer's decision to triple production and more significantly by the Food and Drug Administration's announcement Wednesday that it will tell doctors how to use two other widely available antibiotics - doxycycline and penicillin - against anthrax.
Many doctors have too quickly acquiesced to patients' demands for antibiotics, and not just for anthrax fears. The overuse of antibiotics in medicine and in agriculture, where farmers use them as livestock growth promoters, has helped create super-resistant strains of bacteria. A broader problem than antibiotic overuse is that the U.S. public-health infrastructure, from emergency rooms to disease surveillance, has been crumbling. Although largely ignored by Washington, the problems, including last year's delays in distributing flu vaccine to public-health departments, are familiar to most Americans.
President George W. Bush can begin a more vigorous defense of the public health by appointing a respected, politically seasoned biologist like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to a cabinet-level post overseeing the U.S. Public Health Service. This is an unconsolidated, uncoordinated mess of 7,000 public-health departments scattered throughout the government.
The new agency's first priority should be to give underfunded local public-health departments guidance on who would dispense medications, how people would get them and how diagnoses would be made. It is to local departments, already dangerously strained, that people would turn first. Federal anti-terrorism guidelines for states and counties, crafted after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, only address nuclear, chemical and conventional explosive attacks.
The agency should also look at other biological hazards. For instance, should the federal government once again require vaccinations against smallpox, a highly infectious disease that has disappeared from nature but not from weapons development?
Those steps would sharpen the bureaucracy. To sharpen the science, Bush should bring together health, military, business, federal and local bioterrorism experts to advance biology research much as the Manhattan Project revolutionized physics in the early 1940s. A new kind of war needs new forms of civil defense. Given the rapid advances in biotechnology for both good and evil in the late 20th century, nowhere is the need for innovation greater than in biology.
This comment first appeared as an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.
The New York Times
ONE of the most important weapons against public hysteria in a time of crisis is clarity on the part of the government. This week, as word spread that the anthrax sent to Senator Tom Daschle's office had been made by terrorists with a high degree of sophistication, the failure of the Bush administration to explain fully what was happening seemed inexcusable.
Senators who heard a closed-door briefing, and government officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said the anthrax sent to Daschle's office was pure and highly refined, composed of particles so tiny they could spread easily through the air and could potentially burrow deep into the lungs. If that characterization is accurate, it raises the anthrax scare to a new level of concern.
As bits and pieces of information emerged yesterday, it was by no means clear just how sophisticated the anthrax sent to Daschle really was. The fact that more than 30 people on Capitol Hill have tested positive for having anthrax spores in their nasal passages seems to confirm that the anthrax spread easily - but not so easily that it invaded the ventilation system, which has so far tested clean. Loose talk that it was weapons-grade has been disavowed by leading senators.
There would be less of this confusion if government officials provided a clear, high-level briefing about what was going on. So far, the public is relying on statements by politicians who attended briefings rather than the experts themselves. This emergency, so unexpected and fast-moving, would be hard for any administration to get its hands around. But the Bush administration still must be faulted for falling short on essential matters of communication and coordination between different agencies. Turf wars and overlapping jurisdictions are hampering progress in the investigation of the anthrax outbreaks. The new Office of Homeland Security is not yet up and running, and it is up to the rest of the Bush cabinet to keep the investigation under control.
As to the current situation in Washington, the good news is that the anthrax strain found in the Senate office building can be treated by all the standard antibiotics, making it unlikely that any of those exposed in the Senate will come down with any symptoms of disease. It must not be forgotten, amid the rising concern over anthrax, that even the most dangerous form of the disease, inhalational anthrax, can be prevented if antibiotics are taken promptly after exposure.
The bad news is that purer, more finely milled anthrax is more likely to rise in the air and float toward more distant victims when it spills out of an envelope. If the anthrax sent to Daschle is really high-grade, it may suggest that some terrorist or homegrown renegade is closer than expected to having the ability to release anthrax as an aerosol that could cause mass casualties.
But that sort of weaponizing may not be so easy in practice. It depends on such issues as whether the anthrax is electrostatically neutral, whether air circulation is conducive to wide distribution and whether the terrorist has a big enough supply of anthrax to use in a larger-scale attack.
Still, the most useful antidote for public fears would be a much fuller explanation from the government about the kind of anthrax being deployed. The country has been raised to a new level of anxiety on the basis of statements made by senators who are not experts on bioterrorism, and unnamed officials whose expertise is not clear. It is long past time for the administration to appoint an authoritative spokesperson - where are you, Tom Ridge? - to conduct a daily briefing on homeland defense analogous to those conducted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the war in Afghanistan.
This comment first appeared as an editorial in The New York Times.
TITLE: Dealing With Those Pesky Reporters
TEXT: PART I, SCENE I
MARCH 2001. Office of Press Minister Mikhail LESIN. Two American REPORTERS appear to be interviewing the minister.
ONE OF THE REPORTERS: Still, I don't understand why you banned Russian newspapers from printing interviews with Chechen leaders.
LESIN: Because it is illegal and undermines constitutional order! Chechen rebel leaders use such interviews to incite racial hatred. I'm absolutely sure that if you got an interview with Osama bin Laden, your editors wouldn't be allowed to print it, either.
BOTH REPORTERS (simultaneously): Of course they would!
LESIN: I'm sure they wouldn't. Ask them. CURTAIN.
PART II, SCENE I:
OCTOBER 2001. Bare stage. President Vladimir PUTIN and U.S. President George W. BUSH sit on the edge of the stage. Both wear white tutus, and their hairy legs droop over the side of the stage.
BUSH: At your recommendation, I have advised all U.S. television companies to cease broadcasting any speeches made by Osama bin Laden -
PUTIN (interrupts): - whose terrorist network trains and arms Chechen bandits -
BUSH: - but it doesn't look like they have considered my advice. Last time I checked, CNN had a rerun of that speech bin Laden made last Sunday.
PUTIN: You shouldn't be so soft on them, George. You should tell them never to give him any floor or else (as PUTIN speaks, his face, arms and even his legs begin to blush with anger) you'll waste their cameras in the outhouse! Chechen bandits -
BUSH (interrupts): Whoa, Vladimir, wait. I understand the importance of your campaign in Chechnya. I don't believe anymore any reports of any atrocities allegedly committed by your troops. But I'm not sure I can agree with you concerning the human right to express one's thoughts.
PUTIN (excitedly): But they aren't humans! They give the floor to barbarian murderers! You have to understand that in order to mute all dissent - oops, I mean, in order to provide your citizens with information you rightfully believe to be correct.
BUSH: But my advisers read in newspapers that that's - how should I put it - illegal.
PUTIN: Oh, and of course, you should tell your advisers to stop reading newspapers.
ENTER a group of unwashed REPORTERS in khaki vests, their multiple pockets overflowing with Kodak film wrappings, gum, pens, accreditations, passports, notebooks and tissues. The reporters engage in an animated discussion, sotto voce; the audience can only hear "bin Laden," "atrocities" and "jihad" repeated several times. The two presidents come up to the reporters and wrap each of them in blue electric tape, head to toe. ENTER men in blue overalls with airport carts, load reporters onto the carts and wheel them away. CURTAIN.
PART II, SCENE II
SAME time. Lesin's office. LESIN is behind his desk, talking on the phone and poking at the anchor tattoo on his hand with a sharpened pencil.
LESIN (on the phone, in broken English): I will be happy to advise you on dealing with your own media, but you should stop criticizing our ways of the dealing with our own media, O.K.? We have the deal, yes? (Waits, listens.) O.K. then. You should start by the - LIGHTS OUT, CURTAIN.
PART III, SCENE I
SAME time, bare stage. PUTIN and BUSH, still in tutus, stand on tiptoes behind a microphone. A brass band starts playing, and the two presidents begin to sing:
BUSH and PUTIN, in unison: You say bin Laden, I say Basayev, let's call the whole thing off. CURTAIN.
Anna Badkhen is a freelance correspondent based in Moscow.
TITLE: Facing a Life Sentence in WTO
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: THE attacks in New York and Washington have provided the impetus for a new rapprochement between the United States and Russia. After several years of cool relations and confrontational rhetoric, the Russian government is demonstrating a willingness to be a military and political ally. It's another matter that the Kremlin, strictly adhering to free-market principles, is trying to sell its friendship for the highest price.
In a strange way, the Kremlin is trying to get from the West what the West has always dreamed of extracting from Russia. Moscow is talking about joining the World Trade Organization and about strengthening ties with NATO, even discussing the possibility of joining the alliance. In other words, Russia is seeking complete integration with Western institutions in which it will not have a great deal of influence. Effectively, Russia is placing itself on a level with Estonia and Poland, whose only strategic foreign-policy goal for the past 10 years has been integration with the West.
The Kremlin and the West, of course, somewhat differ in their understanding of what is meant by integration. In this case, however, the devil is not at all in the details. The Russian elite's goals largely coincide with those of the Western elite. The degree to which these goals coincide with the needs of society at large is another matter.
The NATO issue is pretty simple. Full membership is rather unlikely for the simple reason that it requires huge expenditures. Either all military technical standards would have to be revised, the army rearmed and reorganized, or NATO would have to be reorganize, which is unlikely. Thus, in the best-case scenario, there could be some kind of associate membership. This would mean that Russia would be drawn into the policies of the alliance without having full-fledged decision-making powers. In exchange, Russian arms manufacturers hope to gain access to certain markets, such as rearming our former Warsaw Pact allies in NATO.
Membership in the WTO, on the other hand, has of late been one of the top priorities of Russia's oligarchs. In the early 1990s, Russia's newly formed business class feared the presence of major Western investors in Russia. Western companies had much greater resources and experience and could have bought up all of the country's choice assets in two ticks. Now that the divvying-up of property has basically been completed, the oligarchs are in a strong position. After three years of economic growth and high oil prices, they have accumulated sufficient funds for expansion beyond Russia's borders. To achieve this, they are willing to remove many restrictions protecting the domestic market.
Russia's WTO membership will undoubtedly work in favor of Russia's transnational corporations, with negative implications for small and medium-sized businesses. This has been the experience of countries from Africa and Latin America, as well as of South Korea.
Russia's accession to international organizations fits well with the new wave of neo-liberal reforms proposed in German Gref's economic program. The government, which announced that it was pursuing this course a year ago, has still not bitten the bullet of program implementation, possibly fearing it would destabilize the social situation. But it's another matter if sacrifices are made not for nothing, but in the name of "integration with Western economic organizations," with the promise that at the end of it our standard of living will be no worse than that of Germany or France.
The problem with WTO accession is not just that some will emerge as winners, while others - probably the majority - will emerge as losers. Any decision carries costs with it. What's worse is that a large section of society and even a considerable portion of the business community has not only been excluded from the decision-making process, but also from so much as a debate of the issues. The majority of Russian citizens did not really have a clue what the International Monetary Fund was until it started to dictate the rules by which we live. Similarly, today they don't really understand what the WTO is and what the implications of membership are.
The Soviet system, at least in theory, allowed for the revision of decisions that had been made. The system of international institutions, created by the democratic West, is founded on irreversibility. It is almost impossible to revise or reverse decisions once they are made. WTO membership is comparable to a life sentence without the right to have the sentence reviewed. The only difference is that we are to sentence ourselves voluntarily.
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.
TITLE: Can Gazprom Find the Right Buyer for NTV?
TEXT: GAZPROM CEO Alexei Miller has finally broken his silence about his plans for Gazprom-Media, the subsidiary that handles media assets like NTV television, Ekho Moskvy and NTV Plus. Miller said last Friday that they will be put up for sale, either separately or together, next year.
The announcement was a long time coming. but the decision is the right one. Gazprom does not need - and has never needed - media companies. The state-controlled gas giant should focus on what it knows best, gas. Miller, who is on a drive to clean up Gazprom's books, has repeatedly said that all noncore units should be spun off.
The question now is: What's next?
Creditor Gazprom seized the media assets this spring after a much-publicized fight with debtor Media-MOST, which protested the NTV takeover as a government clampdown on press freedom. Gaz prom said it was trying to collect $473 million in debt. The Kremlin called the matter a corporate feud.
The spat was not as clearcut as any of the parties would have us believe. What is clear is that six months after NTV's takeover, the station continues to operate at a loss, as it has ever since it was founded. Also, fears NTV would become a Kremlin mouthpiece never materialized. While the anti-Kremlin reports that grew increasingly biting before the takeover have been toned down, NTV remains more critical than other channels.
As the controversy surrounding NTV earlier this year proved, the channel is more than just a private company. It is a public asset. Its sale, just like the sale of its sister companies, should be transparent, with past and future shareholders taking public responsibility for its financial state and the integrity of its journalists.
With its overbureaucratized structure, Gazprom has a history of pushing through secretive deals. If Miller's mission is to clean up Gazprom's act, he should ensure the highest degree of openness when the decision on how to proceed with the sale is reached.
We don't care much whether Alfred Kokh, the Gazprom-Media chief who said he was quitting Friday, is involved in the sell-off. It is now up to Miller - and the Kremlin - to ensure the public is kept in the know.
That said, can NTV be sold to a party willing to pour in much-needed cash while giving its editorial team a degree of independence?
Russia needs an NTV reminiscent of the station Vladimir Gusinsky created in 1993. The professionalism and depth of its coverage introduced Russians to Western norms that they came to count on. The ideal buyer needs to keep those values alive and bring a new level of objectivity to its coverage.
Maybe the better question is: Is there such a buyer?
This comment appeared as an editorial in The Moscow Times on Oct. 16.
TITLE: cartoonist triumvirate gets all serious
AUTHOR: by Robert Coalson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The point of caricature is that the truth can be fun, no matter how awful, disturbing, depressing or ugly it may be. "It's Nothing Serious," the latest exhibition by the local cartoonists' group Nuance, which opened Tuesday and is running for the rest of the month at the Alexander Blok Library on Nevsky Prospect, demonstrates amply that this art form is alive and well in St. Petersburg.
Nuance is the collective name for cartoonists Viktor Bogorad, Leonid Melnik and Vyacheslav Shilov, all of whom are well known to readers of local newspapers. Bogorad, it should be noted, draws the editorial cartoons for The St. Petersburg Times. The group formed in 1997 and has held numerous exhibitions since and has published two small collections of their drawings. True to the aphorism that laughter is the best medicine, the trio also maintains a permanent exhibition at the cardiological department of the Pokrovsky Hospital.
"It's Nothing Serious" is an exhibition of about 60 works, mostly watercolors and pastels, that is evenly divided among the three artists. In general, the works are of the "laughter-through-tears" school, although a certain percentage are just laughter without the tears and a very few pieces - I'm thinking particularly of Bogorad's "Old Age" - evoke tears without the laughter. The exhibition skillfully combines immediately accessible works such as Shilov's "Sex Shop," in which a man buying an inflatable lover for himself thoughtfully picks one up for his dog as well, with others that leave viewers scratching their heads.
Shilov, the youngest of the three by about 20 years, uses bright colors and clear lines to create a mood of spontaneous cheer that strikes the viewer even before the content of the picture comes into focus. Shilov's best works at this exhibition - "Jazz," in which a wistful angel listens as a devil plays the saxophone; "From Dusk to Dawn," in which a sewer worker admires a beautiful sunset; and "The End of the Work Day," in which a zookeeper and monkey share a bottle of vodka after the zoo closes - derive their impact from this effect.
Melnik approaches many of the same themes with a more subdued style, often preferring pastels over watercolors. However, his "Little Boats," in which a tired washerwoman obliviously plays with paper boats in her wash tub, is rightly hung near Shilov's "From Dusk to Dawn." Other impressive works at this exhibition include "Safeguard," in which a tightrope walker performs with his safety rope attached to his neck, and "For My Best Friend," in which a jewel-encrusted gold bullet speeds from the muzzle of a pistol.
Although all three artists refer freely to literature and the visual arts, Bogorad does so most often. One of his feistiest pieces is "Charon and the Clown," in which a load of dead souls crosses the river Styx while one of them, a clown in makeup, sticks his tongue out at the mythological boatman. Bogorad also presents some striking pieces about the creative process itself, such as "Classic," in which a winged muse forges laurels on an anvil placed atop a struggling writer's head. His "Lyric" seems to draw inspiration from Vla dimir Mayakovsky's line that the poet must sift through tons of verbal rock to find each gleaming rhyme.
"It's Nothing Serious" plays powerfully with oppositions such as banal/profound and temporary/timeless, without ever getting bogged down. Despite the name, there is plenty at this exhibition that is, indeed, serious. However, thankfully, none of it is actually taken seriously.
See listings for details. Web site: www.cartoon.spb.ru
TITLE: bombers bring surf to city
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Bombers are powerful, gutsy and rocking. And they are still one of the very few Russian bands to play surf.
At least, they were in August, but a month later the three-piece band split up, and is now in the process of rehearsing with a new lineup, the third in the band's history.
Apart from the band's mainstay Vitaly "Kalya" Andreyev, who plays lead guitar, the new line-up also features two members from the psychobilly band Mos quito, guitarist and singer Yevgeny Pekhterev and drummer Raimonds Zalc manis. Zalcmanis was The Bombers' original drummer.
The band's founder Andreyev, 28, has come a long way from his early involvement with the local punk scene in the late 1980s.
He hung around with such punk bands as Brigadny Podryad, in its original version, and Yugo-Zapad.
Before he started The Bombers in 1995, Andreyev played with the psychobilly band The Attrackars. The Bombers also played psychobilly initially, but then switched to surf.
"There were a lot of psychobilly bands around in the city, but this music is elitist; very few people listen to it, while Vitaly tended to play instrumentals," says Alexander Datsky, The Bombers' manager and ideologist.
"Also now, after Tarantino and Rodriguez, people hear surf and say, 'Oh, it's trendy!'"
There is no information available about the other known surf bands in St. Petersburg apart from The Bombers, but Andreyev insists you can hear surf elements in music by many bands, including Leningrad and especially Sergei Shurov's music for films and television serials.
According to Andreyev, Russian surf bands of note in the past included Vladimir Kozlov's Planktonix, which was active on the local club scene in 1998-99, and the now-defunct Moscow band Surfin' Kedz.
The Bombers' material is mainly written by Andreyev, who is a fan of U.S. surf pioneers Dick Dale and Link Wray, although a portion of the repertoire consists of covers.
Despite the band's six-year history, it has never released an album. However, some Bombers tracks are available on such local compilations as "Polygon's Greatest Hits" and "Psychoburg."
The most recent was "Sympathy for the Devil," the Meteors' two-CD tribute album, released on Raucous Records in Briain. last month. The Bombers submitted two covers of the legendary British psychobilly band, "When A Stranger Calls" (performed with Howard Raucous) and "Electro II."
"Even in the 1960s they had commercial surf and underground surf, which was more hard-edged," says Andreyev, whose band mostly plays at such clubs as Front.
Andreyev, who trained to be a cook but did not finish his studies, admits he cannot make a living with his music, and has to work as a driver.
Apart from The Bombers, Andreyev plays with Sveta Kolibaba and Chervontsy, which includes members of Leningrad, although they have been not active lately.
He says The Bombers play in St. Petersburg mostly to please their friends. "St. Petersburg is for creative work; Moscow is for making money," adds manager Datsky.
The Bombers' last Moscow appearance at the Gorbushka Festival on Sept. 1 was quite a success.
"We played 50 minutes of mostly instrumentals, and the crowd raged," says Andreyev. "The public was very diverse, from very rich people to punks. The music is good and they like it."
The Bombers' new lineup will make its debut at a concert with Finland's The Stringbeans at Poligon on Nov. 3.
TITLE: doll exhibit reveals diversity of india
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The quintessence of the multinational world of India is on display at the Kunstkamera, with an exhibition of Indian dolls.
Located next to the museum's own impressive Indian collection, the exhibition plunges viewers into India's ethnically diverse culture with a selection of 52 dolls representing India's many nationalities and some of its tribes.
The collection comes from the Indian Dolls Museum in Delhi, with support from the local Indian Consulate.
A tribe's character can be seen in its national costume. "The Naga are one of the country's most pugnacious tribes. The best hunters and the bravest warriors historically came from their number," says Sofia Maritina, principal scientific researcher at the museum's Indian Department. "The tribe's hot temperament is reflected in their bright headdresses."
Each stand usually represents a particular Indian state - Rajasthan, Punjab or Assam - and juxtaposes three dolls: a female and male wearing traditional ethnic costumes and a bride in wedding dress.
Most female dolls wear a sari or salwars and kameez (in the regions which have experienced influence of Islam) made of muslin, silk or embroidered brocade.
The brightest ethnic costumes come from Rajasthan, the driest Indian state. Southern states prefer white, which is also the color of mourning and sorrow, as Indian widows typically dress in white.
Bridal dresses are usually red, or ornamented with red, and always sumptuously decorated. Red, the color of marriage and happiness, is particularly important for the wedding ceremony: brides' palms and feet are painted red on wedding day.
"The wedding ceremony has always been particularly important for Indian women, as it is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Indian widows were forbidden from re-marrying, and so bridal dresses are sumptuous and rich," Maritina said. "However poor a couple is, on their wedding day they must look like a Rajah and Rani."
Remarkably enough, these ethnic clothes are still commonly worn in many places. "Unlike many other ancient nations, such as the Egyptians, Indians have preserved their ethnicity," Maritina said. "The Indian ethnicity is virtually the same as it was in third millennium B.C., and the traditions have undergone only minor transformations since ancient times."
Nevertheless, one of the displays shows a couple dressed in European clothes. The pair comes from Goa, the newest Indian state, which unlike the other Indian states wasn't a British but a Portugese colony.
Men in larger cities across India tend to dress in European suits, and the dhoti traditional national costume is generally only worn at home. But women across the country favor national clothes. "Indian women know nearly 100 ways to wear a sari, which is above all a very convenient outfit. They ride bikes and even swim in saris," Maritina says.
Several stands are devoted to Indian folk dance and theatrical costumes. "In India, dance plays a special role, and is believed to have a sacred origin: The god Shiva created and destroyed worlds in the process of cosmic dance," Maritina says.
Meticulously made, the Kathakali dolls give a detailed view of the theatrical world, and depict some of the country's most famous mythological characters.
See listings for details. The exhibition runs until Nov. 12.
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Pyotr Mamonov will bring his new production, called "Chocolate Pushkin," to the city this weekend.
Mamonov, former frontman and songwriter of Zvuki Mu, the Moscow art-rock band popular in the late 1980s, has recently been involved in theater performances that feature his music and writings.
Mamonov, who moved from the city to the countryside a few years ago, turned 50 in April.
His performances veer between drama and rock concerts, which is reminiscent of his old band Zvuki Mu, and still attract a lot of rock fans who blend with the theater public, although Mamonov is deadly serious about his work.
"Chocolate Pushkin," which premiered in Moscow's Stanislavsky Theater last month, is his fourth production. He said goodbye to his previous production "Polkovniku" with a farewell show in Moscow in February.
Though the show bears the same name as his new CD release, the material is not identical. The performance is subtitled "Literaturny Vecher." (Literary Evening).
Lensoviet Palace of Culture, Kamennoostrovsky Pr., M: Petrogradskaya, 346-0438, 7 p.m, Sun., Oct. 21.
Aiming at much younger audiences, Multfilmy will play a major show in the city, the second after its successful big-stage debut at Lensoviet in June. According to singer and guitarist Yegor Timofeyev, the show will concentrate on the band's new songs from its upcoming second album.
The album, which as yet has no title, will include 12 songs and will be out on the Moscow-based Real Records in December.
Like the June concert, the show will be augmented by the screening of Japanese Manga cartoons.
Palace of Youth (LDM), 47 Ul. Professora Popova, M: Petrogradskaya, 234-4494, 7 p.m., Sat., Oct. 19.
Meanwhile, Sergei Shnurov of Leningrad canceled what he calls a "solo concert" at the Manhattan Club, which was due next Friday, because his band is leaving for a very different Manhattan on Thursday for its first U.S. tour. It will include two shows in New York (with Cooky Conspiracy and Hasidic New Wave) on Oct. 28 and Nov. 1, and one in Chicago on Nov. 3. For more information, check out www.leningrad.spb.ru. Until then, Shnurov will be busy recording his new album, which is expected to differ from his previous work.
Akvarium, which played a sell-out concert at Lensoviet last week, has cancelled its annual Christmas concert, as it is also planning a U.S. tour in December and January. Boris Grebenshchikov has hired electronic composer Andrei Samsonov as a producer for Akvarium's new album, which Grebenshchikov claims will sound like nothing has ever sounded in Russia (the words "blues," "Buddy Rich" and "trip-hop" have been mentioned). Samsonov, who is currently working with Marc Almond and Zemfira, produced Akvarium's last album "Y," which was released in 1999.
Grebenshchikov will also be appearing on Almond's "Russian album," which will feature two tracks from Akvarium's later work, along with Moscow pop singer Sergei Penkin, who will also sing one track on the album.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: just like being in vietnam
AUTHOR: by Simon Patterson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: For those who like dining out to be a whole experience that occupies an entire evening, the Mot Cot Pagoda restaurant, which opened recently on Ulitsa Chaikovskogo, is probably the place to go. And for once, the publicity is true. Yes, you really are "greeted by the banging of a gong just like when entering a real Bhuddist [sic] temple" - the man at the coat check does it for you. The numerous other promises the restaurant makes are also all delivered on, including the "welcome discount of 10% due to restaurant opening."
Not only were we ushered to an "individual dining cabin" with its own miniature waterfall and an elaborate display of musical instruments adorning the walls, the waitress also gave us a little buzzer to summon her whenever we so desired. We tried this a few times and found she appeared within seconds.
What's more, the room we were in had a television with satellite channels. Thus, Mot Cot Pagoda is the sort of place where you may want to spend a few hours. You could almost live there, in fact.
Unfortunately, we didn't have that sort of time on our hands, so we barely scratched the surface of what the restaurant has to offer. The menu demands to be studied in detail, but unless your knowledge of Vietnamese cuisine is better than ours, you may want to call on the waitress to help you out. For once, the staff actually seems to be well-informed about the food their restaurant serves, and we were soon able to fathom the intricacies of such dishes as "nem," and "can."
Our choices were rather tame, but we weren't in the mood for a banquet, as doing the menu justice would have involved ordering a dozen or so dishes.
We began with chicken soup (80 rubles), vegetable soup (80 rubles) and chicken salad (120 rubles). The portions were small but surprisingly filling, which was to be a feature of our other choices as well. The salad was a highlight, with a delicate blending of bean sprouts and thin slices of fried chicken.
We inquired about the nem, which features prominently on the menu, and were informed that it is one of the staples of Vietnamese cuisine. We ordered the "traditional nem" (110 rubles) and shared it among us. It turned out to be ground pork and mushroom in fried dough, with a hot sauce, and it was delicious. More adventurous gourmands will be pleased to know that there are many other varieties of nem on the menu, including one with banana and sausage.
We all took side orders of rice (30 rubles) with our main courses, a selection of chicken, pork and beef. The beef (170 rubles) was in small pieces in a satay sauce on toothpicks, while the pork (170 rubles) was a more familiar sweet-and-sour variety, though perhaps more subtle than standard Chinese-restaurant fare. The chicken shashlyk (150 rubles) was the hottest item we ordered, with a particularly spicy sauce.
While the portions are not large, we found we had certainly eaten our fill, and had to pass on making further investigations into Vietnamese cuisine. One trip is not enough to get a full impression of the food on offer, but given the excellence of the service, the lovely atmosphere and the relatively low prices, it seems highly likely that we will be paying Mot Cot Pagoda a visit again soon.
Mot Cot Pagoda, 50 Ulitsa Chaikovskogo, 273-0184, 275-1446. Open daily from noon to midnight. Dinner for three, including 10-percent discount, 999 rubles ($34). Menu in Russian, Vietnamese and English. Credit cards accepted. The Web site, www.pagoda.ru, is still under construction.
TITLE: 'a.i.' powerful but flawed future fairy tale
AUTHOR: by Kenneth Turan
PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times
TEXT: "A.I." is a chilly fairy tale, a spooky and disturbing film about the nature of innocence, an investigation of personal love in which the nominally most caring, feeling creatures are not really human. If that sounds disconcerting and contradictory but still absorbing, you've arrived at the heart of the matter.
A not quite seamless, not completely satisfying but invariably attention-grabbing combination of divergent themes, genres and even story lines, "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" comes by its fissures and inconsistencies honestly. Its futuristic story of a new kind of robot, one programmed to love, is a beyond-the-grave partnership of two very different master filmmakers, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg.
Telephone and fax friends for two decades, Kubrick and Spielberg had talked at length about collaborating on Kubrick's planned version of Brian Aldiss' short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long." At one point, the press notes say Kubrick suggested he produce and Spielberg direct because "I think this movie is closer to your sensibility than mine," and after Kubrick's death that idea became a reality.
It's easy to understand why Kubrick accurately surmised that Spielberg would be attracted to the material, so much so that he ended up writing the screenplay. It focuses on such areas as childhood experience, families and the need for acceptance that the director is more than familiar with, but its take on them is extreme. It's in effect the dark, feral side of "E.T.," the story of an alien nobody really loved and nobody really wanted.
Kubrick's frigid aloofness and analytical distance couldn't be more different from Spielberg's hard-to-shake passion for cozy sentiment and audience acceptance, and joining the two sensibilities has proved problematic. Fascinating though it is, "A.I." has not only turned out colder and creepier than even Spielberg may have intended, but it has also made his tendency to be overly earnest when dealing with feelings more apparent. It has in effect underlined how making a true emotional connection is just beyond this film's reach.
On the other hand, it is heartening to see Spielberg willing to look into stranger variations of his familiar themes, and the filmmaking, as expected, is quite wonderful. "A.I." is shot through with gorgeous, remarkable imagery - a masterful tracking shot of a carnival, a seamless look at what turns out to be the robot interior of a human head - and it is one of the few pieces set in the future that manages to look convincingly futuristic.
When that future is, "A.I." doesn't say, but one hopes not any time soon. A voice-over says it's after the ice caps have melted, submerging seaside metropolises like Venice and New York and killing 100 million in the process. That calamity made artificial beings, which are never hungry and don't consume resources, "an essential link in the chain mail of society," of a world now divisible between beings who are orga, for organic, or mecha, for mechanical.
Most robots are little more than sensory toys, but William Hurt's visionary Professor Hobby wants his company (the irresistibly named Cybertronics of New Jersey) to go further, to "build a robot child who will genuinely love" to cater to the expanding market of people without government permission to have children of their own. Which raises the question, asked by an associate, "Can you get a human to love them back?"
Inquiries into the nature of emotional attachment and the power of belief are the focus of "A.I." What does permanent affection imply? Would truly absolute attachment be distinguishable from unnerving, stalker-like obsession? What would endless love mean in practical terms?
Questions like these get raised when the Swinton family is selected to get the first of Professor Hobby's robots. Henry (Sam Robards) works for Cybertronics, and his wife Monica (Frances O'Connor) is still dealing with the aftershocks of having a seriously ill son cryogenically frozen until a cure can be found. Into their lives, dressed all in angelic white, comes David (Haley Joel Osment).
Looking like "someone's ordinary kid," David so smoothly counterfeits reality you'd never guess there were 100 kilometers of fiber optics inside him. No, he doesn't sleep, but he can "lay quiet and never make a peep." And he comes with an imprinting program, which, if followed, is irreversible. David will love you forever, and if you tire of him, he can't be exchanged or resold but must be destroyed.
Monica, desperate for a replacement child, follows the procedure and gets David to love her. The mother is so pleased, she even gives David custody of her son's favorite toy, the high-tech Teddy, a somber, thinking bear whose superior wisdom and calming voice (supplied by the veteran Jack Angel) make him the sanest, most likable character in the entire film.
This happy period has barely begun when the Swintons' son Martin (Jake Thomas) makes a miracle recovery and rejoins the family. All too predictably, he turns out to be a bit of a manipulative bad seed, with a gift for goading David into doing things that are inevitably misconstrued and misinterpreted by the Swintons. At the same time, David hears Monica reading from "Pinocchio," and his resulting passion to become a real boy so his mother will return his unconditional love becomes his driving motivation.
At this pivotal juncture, "A.I." jarringly introduces quite a different robot character and plot line. That would be Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a literal sex machine who has been programmed to tell women they are goddesses and utilize enviable technique to back up his worship.
Joe, as film gigolos have since the dawn of time, gets into trouble, and through him we see the frightful, previously well-hidden underside of this future universe, truly a world, as a character puts it, "more full of weeping than you can understand."
Spielberg has an undeniable zest for this bleak material, as he does for the futuristic pleasure dome called Rouge City and the savage Flesh Fair in which humans act out their hatred of the mecha world. But this darker stuff never fits well with David's plight and the increasingly complex journey he makes.
Though the actors do their best to close this gap, the task would be beyond anyone. The exceptionally gifted Osment is remarkable as David, and Law brings an essential energy to Gigolo Joe. But there is a limit, even in this film, as to how involving a robot can be, and something in the nature of the project makes the humans appear colder, hollower and frankly more robotic than we'd like.
Unlike those futuristic robots, and unlike most films, "A.I." was not created to fill a market need, but in service of a shared personal vision. Yet, though the skill involved holds us in our seats, the project's inability to transcend its built-in limitations keeps it from achieving the kind of overarching impact it is after. "A.I." is a long way from the Tom Sawyer world of the DreamWorks logo that opens the film, but that doesn't mean the film's darker, more complicated vision is an unqualified success.
"A.I." is screening at the Leningrad and Kolizei cinemas.
TITLE: U.S. Steps Up Kabul Air Strikes
AUTHOR: By Kathy Gannon and Amir Shah
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. jets targeted the heart of Afghanistan's capital Thursday, pounding a district that housed a Taliban tank unit and other military installations. Northern opposition forces were reported to be fighting hard for a strategic Taliban-held city.
In Washington, defense sources said U.S. special forces were now in place aboard the USS Kitty Hawk in the Indian Ocean - ready for any search-and-destroy missions ordered against Osama bin Laden and his Taliban allies.
Thursday's air strikes opened before dawn in Kabul with explosions that rocked neighborhoods around the presidential palace and elsewhere. Taliban Information Ministry officials said the strikes were hitting around the city's Shash Tarak district, near the long-abandoned U.S. Embassy and home to a Taliban tank unit. The Defense Ministry and a Taliban garrison are also in the area.
Flames rose from the airport north of the city, though it was impossible to determine their source. On Wednesday, U.S. pilots struck a fuel depot near the airport, sending inky black smoke billowing over Kabul.
In Kandahar, the Taliban's headquarters in southern Afghanistan, U.S. jets struck military targets throughout the city, Taliban officials reported. Residents said by telephone Wednesday that Taliban fighters in the city were handing out weapons to civilians.
President George W. Bush ordered the air strikes, which began Oct. 7, after the Taliban repeatedly refused to hand over bin Laden, chief suspect in last month's terrorist attacks in the United States.
In California, Bush told a flag-waving crowd that American air strikes, now in their 12th day, were "paving the way for friendly troops on the ground."
It was Bush's clearest suggestion yet that U.S. military officials were taking Afghanistan's northern-based opposition alliance into account in their campaign.
Opposition forces have been locked in combat for days in what U.S. defense officials described as a seesaw battle for Mazar-e-Sharif, the major city of the north.
A Taliban Information Ministry official in Kabul, Abdul Hanan Himat, acknowledged the Taliban had lost control of some areas around Mazar-e-Sharif but insisted the Islamic regime's forces had pushed its enemy back during one battle to the south.
Afghanistan's opposition forces are an alliance made up largely of minority ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks. Control of Mazar-e-Sharif would allow them to consolidate supply lines along the borders with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, from which they obtain weapons.
In Washington, defense officials said U.S. special-forces units themselves were now poised to join the battle on the ground, if called for.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said helicopter-borne special-operations forces were put aboard the USS Kitty Hawk several days ago.
The officials stressed that did not necessarily mean the troops were about to enter combat.
In northwestern Pakistan, a militant Muslim leader said Thursday that pro-Taliban groups there were ready to offer tens of thousands of volunteers to help the Taliban if U.S. ground troops joined the fight.
"The day American troops land on the soil of Afghanistan, our youths are fully trained, and their minds and their hearts are filled with the feelings of holy war," said Maulana Samiul Haq, president of the Afghan Defense Council, a coalition of 35 pro-Taliban groups.
TITLE: APEC Meeting To Focus on Anti-Terrorism
AUTHOR: By Regan Morris
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SHANGHAI, China - Pacific Rim countries agreed to combat terrorism in a "fight between justice and evil," China's foreign minister said Thursday, as APEC prepared a statement that carefully avoids any mention of the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.
Predominantly Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia are worried about the growing backlash in the Muslim world against Washington's efforts to root out terror suspect Osama bin Laden and were unable to endorse the bombing raids, said other delegates at the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Still, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan used strong words - some recalling President George W. Bush's attack on terrorism - as he outlined four points the APEC ministers have agreed on.
"Anti-terrorism is a fight between justice and evil, civilization and savagery," Tang told reporters as APEC ministers were wrapping up their 13th annual meeting that sets the stage for a leaders' summit this weekend.
"It's not a confrontation between different nations, different cultures or different religions," Tang said. "We recommend dialogue between civilizations, coexistence and cooperation."
Tang said that during a morning meeting, the APEC foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, also agreed terrorism is a threat to international peace and "should be severely denounced and attacked;" that its finance network must be broadly combatted; and that countries must stop activities in support of terrorism.
APEC leaders, including Bush, are expected to issue a statement on terrorism when they finish their summit Sunday. A draft obtained by The Associated Press makes no mention of bin Laden or the U.S.-led military strikes against his al-Qaeda terror network and the Islamic Taliban government harboring him in Afghanistan.
APEC members Indonesia and Malaysia were unable to endorse the bombing of Afghanistan, which has stirred outrage throughout much of the Muslim world.
Anti-U.S. protests have broken out in Indonesian cities, with police on Monday using water cannons and tear gas against hundreds demonstrating outside Parliament in Jakarta. Malaysian police broke up a rally of 3,000 people last week outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Many Muslims believe the Palestinian question must be resolved before terrorism can stop, and they blame U.S. support of Israel for aggravating the matter.
Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said Thursday that leaders should work to discover "the root of the problem" and be careful with "whatever retaliation may be taken so that it doesn't harm innocent people."
The Malaysians are proposing an international conference on terrorism. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told the Malaysian news agency Bernama that the idea was gaining support from others, including the Russians.
APEC leaders are expected to call the attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11 "murderous deeds."
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Japan Support
TOKYO (Reuters) - Parliament's Lower House approved on Thursday a bill allowing Japan's military to provide non-combat support for U.S.-led retaliation against the Sept. 11 attacks, clearing the way for enactment of the controversial legislation later this month.
The bill, which clarifies the role Japan's military could play in U.S.-led operations without violating the country's pacifist constitution, was adopted despite objections by the main opposition Democratic Party and other opposition groups.
But Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had wanted to see the powerful lower chamber approve the legislation before he heads to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this weekend in Shanghai, where he is set to meet President George W. Bush and other leaders.
UN Cautious
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Exploring a new UN role in Afghanistan, a key UN official discounted taking over the country's administration and cautioned against any foreign troops, whether UN peacekeepers or Muslim fighters.
"The United Nations would welcome the possibility of helping the Afghan people reconstruct the country. But that is a different thing from actually providing a direct administration for the country," Lakhdar Brahimi, the top UN point man for Afghanistan told a news conference on Wednesday.
But Brahimi questioned if fiercely independent Afghans would welcome outside troops of any kind whether from the United Nations or a Muslim security force that Turkey has offered to lead.
"What we are recommending is that the United Nations should never rush into sending a peacekeeping operation," he said. "I would like to know what countries are rushing forward to offer troops."
$50M for Pakistan
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday directed the release of $50 million more in aid to Pakistan, which has been supportive of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
It raised to $100 million the amount of money for "budget support" allocated to Pakistan in recent weeks for its assistance of U.S. efforts to punish Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden for the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Bush said in a memo to Secretary of State Colin Powell ordering the release of the money that the aid was in the security interests of the United States.
India Accuses Pakistan
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - India said Pakistani troops opened fire on Thursday at several points along a military control line dividing disputed Kashmir between the nuclear rivals, but Pakistan denied that its forces had attacked.
Indian defense officials said small-arms fire had been going on for about six hours in the Akhnoor sector, but stressed it was a fairly routine exchange along the tense control line.
"It is not alarming. Civilians in the area are going about their business," Brigadier P.C. Das said. Akhnoor is about 35 kilometers from Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state.
Sporadic exchange of fire was also reported from two other sectors, but Indian officials gave no details.
But a Pakistani military official denied their troops had opened fire in the Akhnoor sector on Thursday.
"There was no firing from our side," Brigadier Saulat Raza said in Islamabad.
New World Challenge
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition against terrorism faces the world's most daunting challenge since the Cold War, a leading think tank said on Thursday.
"A new strategic era has dawned," the International Institute for Strategic Studies [IISS] said in its annual report on the "Military Balance" around the globe, changed forever by last month's suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
"The political, financial and diplomatic challenges in prosecuting this campaign are enormous. The geopolitical challenges are huge," the Institute said.
For the coalition has to perform a delicate balancing act, introducing a new regime in Afghanistan, supporting a fragile Pakistan and keeping the Middle East peace process alive.
All this has to be done with a new set of coalition partners that "will demand of the U.S. and its allies a form of hyper-engagement in world politics not seen since the height of the Cold War."
Gone are the old certainties for the United States.
"The most militarily capable nation in the world has been attacked on its own soil with devastating effect," it said.
And now the United States has a new invisible enemy that is "neither the old Soviet Union nor a potentially resurgent China."
European-Force Delay
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's chances of forming a 60,000-strong Rapid Reaction Force by the year 2003 are virtually nil, a leading think tank said on Thursday.
"There is a prospect of failure ahead," argued the International Institute for Strategic Studies. It said the proposed force lacked the finance, troops and weaponry needed to tackle the world's hot spots.
In its annual "Military Balance" report, the Institute's most scathing attack was reserved for the European Union's ambitious plan to set up a force capable of deployment within 60 days for a period of up to a year.
The Institute said, "There is little if any ground for optimism," and it suggested that the European Union should aim at 2012 as a more realistic start-up date for the force.
China Arrests 23,000
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese police have arrested more than 23,000 people in a monthlong nationwide crackdown on crime, and have plans to arrest more, a state-run newspaper said Thursday.
Those detained since Sept. 20 include suspects in bombings, murders, kidnappings and robberies, the China Daily said. Nearly 1,300 people, some of them escaped convicts, voluntarily surrendered to police, the newspaper said. One man arrested in the northern port city of Tianjin is suspected of killing his wife and nephew, it said.
"Another round of crackdown is coming soon," the newspaper quoted a Ministry of Public Security official, Huang Zuyue, as saying.
No Right To Die
LONDON (Reuters) - A terminally ill British woman lost a landmark court battle on Thursday to "die with dignity" in a setback for supporters of euthanasia.
Diane Pretty, 42, who has motor-neuron disease, had wanted her husband Brian to be immune from prosecution if he helped her commit suicide.
In a test case that underscores Britain's long-standing legal block on euthanasia, three High Court judges dismissed Pretty's challenge and denied her permission to appeal their ruling except to the House of Lords.
"Having regard to the fact that we have said that the conclusion we have reached is inescapable, we do not think it appropriate to give permission to appeal," Lord Justice Simon Tuckey said.
French MP Jailed
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - A French member of parliament was sentenced late on Wednesday to five years in jail, two of which were suspended, for sexually assaulting his niece while she was a minor.
Marc Dumoulin, 51 is the first sitting member of the National Assembly (lower house) to be condemned before a jury in France's 43-year-old Fifth Republic.
Dumoulin denied the charges. He told the court in Strasbourg that he had merely touched his niece, now aged 29, in an "affectionate" way but acknowledged his attitude toward her was sometimes "ambiguous."
TITLE: Yanks Take 1-0 Lead Over Mariners in ALCS
AUTHOR: By Ben Walker
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEATTLE - Playing with the poise and patience that have become staples of their October success, the New York Yan kees were charged up from the get-go.
And that meant real trouble for these Seattle Mariners.
Andy Pettitte pitched eight sharp innings, Paul O'Neill homered and the three-time defending World Series champions opened the American League Championship Series (ALCS) with a 4-2 victory Wednesday that was not nearly as close as the scoreboard showed.
The Mariners scored a run off Mariano Rivera in the ninth, bringing up Edgar Martinez as the tying run. But Rivera broke his bat on a game-ending groundout.
Now, the Mariners must hope Freddy Garcia can get them even in Game 2 when he pitches against Mike Mussina.
Garcia will be working on three days' rest for only the second time in his career. On June 1, 1999, he gave up six runs in 5 1/3 innings against Baltimore.
The Yankees got on the board in the second when Jorge Posada drew a leadoff walk and Alfonso Soriano blooped a two-out single. As Knoblauch stepped up, Suzuki took off his glove and began warming up his arm, anticipating an opposite-field hit and a play at the plate.
Instead, Knoblauch pulled a hard grounder that Bell backhanded, deflecting the ball into foul territory. Bell struggled to keep his footing as he gave chase and third-base coach Willie Randolph never hesitated, waving home the slow-footed Posada. The run scored easily and Knoblauch, whom Seattle talked about acquired in midseason, finished with three hits.
Posada led off the fourth with a drive into the corner and brazenly challenged Suzuki's rocket arm. The throw beat Posada, but he barely managed to slide around shortstop Carlos Guillen's tag.
Paul O'Neill, only 1-for-11 and benched in the opening round, followed with a line drive into the right-field seats for a 3-0 lead.
That was plenty for Pettitte, who allowed three hits. He permitted just one runner until Edgar Martinez singled to open the fifth. Mike Cameron followed with a double, but Pettitte limited the damage by holding Seattle to John Olerud's RBI groundout and striking out Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson.
Arizona 8, Atlanta 1. With one swing of the bat, Javy Lopez jolted the Atlanta offense to life and made his manager look like a prophet.
In his first start since he was hurt last month, Lopez broke a tie with a two-run homer in the seventh inning and the Braves pulled away to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-1 Wednesday night in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
At the pregame news conference, Bobby Cox said Lopez would start to try to give Tom Glavine some run support.
"He's got a chance to really hit the ball out of the ballpark," Cox said.
After Glavine shut down Arizona for seven innings, the Braves turned the game into a rout with five runs off of a parade of old-timers out of the Diamondbacks bullpen.
Glavine allowed one run and five hits to improve to 2-0 in this year's playoffs. He struck out two and walked two before giving way to Steve Karsay. As usual, Glavine's biggest weapon was his control as he baffled the Diamondbacks into harmless groundouts and fly balls.
Glavine tied teammate John Smoltz's major-league record with his 12th postseason victory. Glavine also has 12 postseason losses, tied with teammate Greg Maddux for the most ever.
The victory was crucial for an Atlanta team that didn't want to go home 0-2 and face Curt Schilling in Game 3.
Arizona starter Miguel Batista allowed only two hits in seven innings, but both were homers and that was all the support Glavine needed in his 29th postseason start. Batista struck out three and walked two.
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Packers Robbed
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) - Two Green Bay Packer players were robbed by a man with a gun outside a restaurant Tuesday night. No one was injured and the assailant was apprehended, police said Wednesday.
The man took money and some other property from receiver Corey Bradford, defensive tackle Cletidus Hunt and a third man as they left a North Side restaurant, according to police reports.
A 21-year-old man was picked up Tuesday night, and officers recovered the stolen items and a gun, police said.
An officer who declined to give his name confirmed the incident but referred all questions about it to police spokesperson Karen Pride Garvin.
No Hooligans Allowed
TOKYO (AP) - Japan will revise a law in a move to bar soccer hooligans from entering the country during the World Cup, a government official said Thursday.
The Justice Ministry is finalizing a bill designed to revise the country's immigration law, said Kifumi Oki, an official in the ministry's immigration bureau.
Under proposed legislation, law enforcement authorities also can expel those foreigners who are engaged in ho oliganism after entering Japan, Oki said.
The bill stipulates that Japan can bar activists who have been given criminal punishment for acts of sabotage against international conferences, Oki said.
Oki said the proposed bill is scheduled to be endorsed at a meeting of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet on Oct. 26.
The government hopes the revised legislation will be enacted during the current parliamentary session and take effect in March, ahead of the May 31-June 30 tournament in Japan and South Korea.
Earlier this year, Japanese police asked their European counterparts to send so-called "spotter" officers to keep hooligans from entering stadiums.
According to a Transport Ministry estimate, about 430,000 fans from abroad will visit Japan during World Cup 2002.
Sport Hawk Nosedives
TORONTO (AP) - Sport Hawk International, the airline that flies most of Canada's professional sports teams across North America in high-flying comfort, has filed for bank ruptcy protection.
The Pearson Airport-based airline that serves the NBA's Toronto Raptors, baseball's Toronto Blue Jays, and the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Edmonton Oilers, is trying to stay airborne during the reorganization, chief executive Neil Jamieson said Wednesday.
"This is a tough, tough, tough business on a good day, and the last month and a half has not been good days," he said.
Sport Hawk, which started in 1997, has more than 100 employees and four Boeing 727s, all highly customized to provide just 60 first-class seats.
About 70 percent of the company's $30 million in revenues last year came from long-term contracts with professional teams. The rest came from corporate charters.
"A significant base of business has evaporated," in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington last month, Jamieson said.
NASCAR Playing Safe
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Prompted by a string of fatal crashes, NASCAR on Wednesday made the use of head-and-neck restraint devices mandatory for all drivers in races it sanctions.
The mandate will be in effect at this weekend's Winston Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway starting with Friday's practice session.
Drivers also will be required to use either the HANS or Hutchens safety device in the NASCAR-sanctioned Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series races.
NASCAR has been encouraging drivers to wear the safety device after three drivers - one in each series - died from head injuries in 2000.
The call for use of head-and-neck restraints gathered steam with the skull-fracture death of legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, who was killed after crashing on the final turn of the 2001 Daytona 500.