SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #720 (87), Friday, November 9, 2001
**************************************************************************
TITLE: Kremlin Probes Move Forward
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Audit Chamber chief Ser gei Stepashin turned up the heat on embattled Railways Minister Nikolai Ak syonenko this week, fueling speculation that the Yeltsin-era insider's career is over and a wider war on corruption is under way.
Stepashin said an audit by the chamber, the State Duma's budget watchdog, uncovered some $370 million worth of "misappropriations" and "inefficient use of funds" - diplomatic speak for embezzlement - by Aksyonenko's ministry last year alone.
"These funds are, strictly speaking, allocated [from the federal budget] to solve ... problems" like upgrading infrastructure, Stepashin told NTV on Saturday. "But instead [the ministry] finances hotels, holiday residences, soccer clubs, stadiums and so forth."
Stepashin, a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, said the chamber is still probing the Railways Ministry, but that the opening phase of the investigation was completed in July and the findings forwarded to Putin and the government.
The Prosecutor General's Office has already filed criminal charges against Ak syonenko for other illegalities revealed by the chamber last month. These include abuse of office that resulted in the loss of 70 million rubles ($2.3 million) in government funds. It also is looking into the nonpayment of $370 million in taxes and the use of Railways Ministry money to build homes for individuals with no connection to the ministry.
Aksyonenko has denied the allegations and has accused prosecutors of playing political games. He also vowed to take his case straight to the Kremlin - but after the deputy head of Putin's administration, Dmitry Kozak, said such a move would be "absolutely wrong," Ak syo nenko agreed to a request from prosecutors that he not leave Moscow. He also pledged not to hinder the investigation and officially went on vacation until Dec. 7.
Stepashin and Aksyonenko are longtime rivals. Both were considered potential prime ministers when former Pre sident Boris Yeltsin tapped Ste pa shin for the job in May 1999, while promoting Aksyonenko to deputy prime minister. And news reports at the time suggested Aksyonenko was behind the firing that August of Stepashin, who was replaced by Putin.
The probe may or may not have a personal element to it, but Stepashin has made it clear that no one in the government is above the law. Stepashin accused the State Fisheries Committee of robbing the budget of $4 billion to $5 billion in revenues every year. "I believe this is a crime," he told NTV.
And he said the current investigations of the Emergency Situations Ministry, the State Customs Committee and the Press Ministry are based on Audit Chamber reports.
Stepashin also said that the Audit Chamber is "very seriously" checking the Natural Resources Ministry and the presidential property department.
Political observers said that the sudden burst of activity by Stepashin has political overtones and is being carried out with the blessing of Putin, who convinced Stepashin to take the Audit Chamber job instead of running for St. Petersburg governor last year.
Stepashin confirmed that the investigations had been started at Putin's request: "Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows about all this," he told NTV.
Andrei Ryabov, political analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center for International Peace, said the anti-corruption operation began as a hunt for internal financial resources. "However, during the operation it was discovered that the resources are managed by Yeltsin's people," Ryabov said. He said the main targets are Aksyo nenko, former Kremlin property chief Pavel Borodin, Natural Resources Minister Vitaly Artyukhov and Press Minister Mikhail Lesin, who last week unexpectedly went on vacation after the Audit Chamber began looking into his ministry's activities.
"This shifted the whole anti-corruption process into a political campaign," Ryabov said.
"This chain of events is the first real attempt by Putin to part with the old Yeltsin team," said Alexei Zudin, a political analyst at Center for Political Technologies. He said the fact that it hadn't happened early is just Putin's "political style."
"This is the revenge of the chekisty," said Tom Adshead, chief political analyst for investment bank Troika Dialog. "Chekisty is a nickname used for the KGB and has connotations of a pure servant of the law, somewhat humorlessly serving the nation. They are not against reform, but they despise the way in which it has been abused for personal enrichment, especially by those in government," Adshead wrote Monday.
"The chekisty have sent countless messages that the corruption of the Yeltsin years will no longer be tolerated. However, many individuals in government have been unwilling or unable to change their ways. It may be that they are greedy, or they have already made commitments to others that they cannot walk away from," Adshead wrote.
Adshead, Zudin, Ryabov and Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Politika foundation, all predicted that Aksyonenko would not retain his post when his vacation ends.
Media reports and analysts say the favorite to replace Aksyonenko is Alexander Kuznetsov, a former first deputy presidential envoy in the Northwest Federal District who was recently appointed head of the Transport Ministry department in charge of coordinating all kinds of transportation systems with the Railways Ministry.
Both Prime-Tass and Interfax quoted sources within the government as saying that Kuznetsov's appointment could be "a springboard for being appointed Railways Minister."
Kuznetsov was the head of the Oktyabrskaya Railroad, a unit of the Railways Ministry that oversees, among other things, the St. Petersburg-Mos cow corridor. But Kuznetsov, who was a close ally of Putin's when Putin was in the St. Petersburg administration, was fired by Aksyonenko early last year.
Transport Ministry spokesperson Alexander Filimonov said Kuz net sov's predecessor quit last week to take up a "good offer" in the private sector.
"Kuznetsov's connection to the St. Petersburg team dramatically increases his chances of replacing Aksyonenko," said Zudin.
Analysts also said that the surprise support given to Aksyonenko over the weekend by Anatoly Chubais, head of another natural monopoly, Unified Energy Systems, suggested that Chubais might be Stepashin's next target.
"Chubais knows he will be next," said Ryabov. "Chubais, being a smart man, understands the logic of this process."
TITLE: Oblast Elections Are Heating Up
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Some Leningrad Oblast officials have charged that Governor Vladimir Ya kov lev is interfering in regional politics by backing a slate of candidates for the Leningrad Oblast Legislative Assembly elections, which will be held on Dec. 16.
The officials believe that City Hall is trying to advance the idea of uniting the oblast and the city into a single subject of the Russian Federation.
Alexander Veretin, a spokesperson for the oblast administration, said Tuesday that he has examples of numerous lists of signatures gathered "in support of certain candidates by City Hall structures." He believes that this is evidence of Yakovlev's involvement, but he declined to say which municipal bodies might be involved and which candidates were being supported by the city. He also declined to show any of the documents to The St. Petersburg Times.
"We have seen this happening over the last three months, ever since the process of gathering signatures began. We have been receiving lists of signatures that had been passed around by certain City Hall bodies," Veretin said.
The head of the Leningrad Oblast Elections Commission, Vladimir Pylin, stated that he had seen no such documentation.
"I have nothing to say. There are no such materials at our commission," he said on Thursday.
In order to participate in the elections, candidates must submit a number of signatures equal to 0.5 percent of the voters in their district by Nov. 9. Two hundred forty-three people have declared their intention to run for the legislature's 50 seats.
Olga Pokrovskaya, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko political faction, alleged that City Hall is backing at least 20 candidates in the elections and is concentrating on the oblast's major cities, including Vyborg and Sosnovy Bor.
"I can't name any names at the moment, but it is clear [to us] that such candidates would come from oblast business circles with close links to the city, including [representatives of] certain construction companies, employees of the Leningrad Atomic Energy Station and so on," Pokrovskaya said.
"Yakovlev's goal is to form a political base in the Leningrad Oblast Legislative Assembly, which could then influence the decision on whether to hold a referendum [on unification]," she added.
City Hall denied that it was interfering in the oblast elections, but continued to maintain its active support for the idea of unification. Ya kov lev's spokesperson, Alexander Afa na siev, said on Tuesday that unification "will happen sooner or later," adding that he thought it would occur within the next 10 years.
As for the elections, Afanasiev was adamant that City Hall was playing no role in the campaign. "I can tell you that we are not doing it," he said.
The Leningrad Oblast administration and oblast Governor Valery Serdyukov, which are supported by a majority in the current oblast legislature, have repeatedly come out against unification.
"The governor [of the oblast] has said repeatedly that it is a bad thing to use the unification issue during this campaign. It is still too unclear how unification would work," Veretin said.
According to the Russian constitution, the first step in initiating unification would be holding referendums in both the city and the oblast. If those referendums endorsed the idea, the results would then have to be confirmed by the city and oblast legislative assemblies.
A survey conducted in Sep tember by St. Petersburg Gallup revealed that 53 percent of St. Petersburg residents support the unification proposal. Roman Mogilevsky, head of St. Petersburg Gallup, noted that this figure corresponds to Yakovlev's level of support, which is currently running at about 60 percent.
Another survey of 831 oblast residents carried out in August by the St. Petersburg Sociological Research Center found that 57 percent of respondents support unification and another 14 percent were inclined to support it. Just 8 percent said that unification was "absolutely wrong."
Pokrovskaya also speculated that Yakovlev's alleged interest in the oblast may stem from the fact that his current term as governor expires in 2004 and he is not eligible to run again.
"The reason why the governor is lobbying the [unification] idea is to give him an additional two terms in power," she said.
The city and the oblast have been separate regions since 1931. However, before 1991, both were de facto united under the management of the regional Communist Party office, or Oblispolkom, which was located in Leningrad.
Before the 1930s, in fact, the local Party also administered the Murmansk, Pskov and Novgorod regions.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Hungry Mirilashvili
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A local businessperson charged with murder declared a hunger strike Thurs day, Interfax reported.
Mikhail Mirilashvili, head of the board of directors of the Conti group of casinos and the Petromir holding, "fully intends to fast until two conditions are fulfilled," said his lawyer, Yury Novolodsky, on Thursday. Mirilashvili is demanding that criminal charges be filed against "the people who have been blackmailing him" and that his defense team be allowed immediate access to coroner's reports on the bodies of the men he is accused of murdering, according to Interfax.
According to Novolodsky, the reports should have been made available months ago. Novolodsky said that "employees of the prosecutor's office demanded a large sum of money [from Mirilashvili] in exchange for dropping the charges against him," Interfax reported.
Mirilashvili was arrested on Jan. 23 in connection with the disappearance of two local businesspeople. When their bodies were found in October, Mirilashvili was charged with murder.
Movie Hero
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The governor of the Novgorod Region, Mikhail Prusak, was honored Tuesday "for [his] support of the domestic film industry," according to Interfax.
The award was presented to Prusak on behalf of the Union of Filmmakers by director Nikita Mikhalkov at a ceremony in Novgorod on Tuesday. The city hosted the Second Annual Festival of Comedies this week, Interfax reported.
Legacy of War
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - More than 13,000 hectares of the Pskov Region have not yet been cleared of mines and ordinance left over from World War II, Interfax reported Wednesday.
According to the Pskov Civil-Defense Department, the Pskov Region has been included in a federal program designed to eliminate leftover explosives from the war. Sappers from the 76th Paratroop Division are currently working in the region.
In the last month, the sappers responded to 35 calls for assistance and discovered and destroyed 121 World War II-era explosives, Interfax reported.
Wanna Sell a Gun?
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The second phase of a police program to buy back weapons from the public has managed to remove 42 firearms from city streets in just five days, Interfax reported Thursday.
According to information provided by the police, the program also netted 5,307 rounds of ammunition, 807 grams of explosive substances, three grenades and two electronic detonators, Interfax reported.
Under the program, which started Nov. 1, citizens receive cash payments for weapons they turn in.
Let's Bury Lenin
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Democratic Russia party of St. Petersburg intends to pursue the matter of burying the body of Soviet leader Vladimir Le nin, Interfax reported Wednesday.
Ruslan Linkov, the head of Democratic Russia, said that his movement intends to appeal to President Vladimir Putin to create a commission to arrange the burial of Lenin. Linkov even said that his party would be willing to pay the cost of the burial, according to Interfax.
Linkov also stated that he believed Lenin should be interred in his hometown of Ulyanovsk, Interfax reported.
Fake Riches
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Twenty counterfeit $100 bills have been discovered in Syktyvkar in the Republic of Komi, Interfax reported Thursday.
According to the police, two unemployed men were arrested while attempting to exchange the bills. Police reported that this was the second time fake U.S. currency had been found in Syktyvkar this month.
On Nov. 4, a man was arrested and found to be carrying $1,900 in counterfeit $100 bills. More than 100 of the bills have turned up in the city so far this year, Interfax reported.
Money for Mortgages
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The city will spend 1.92 billion rubles ($64 million) over the next decade to develop a mortgage-lending program, Interfax reported Wednesday.
According to Governor Vladimir Ya kov lev's press office, this amount has been included in the law On Developing Long-Term Housing Lending in St. Petersburg, which Yakovlev recently signed.
The program will provide financial assistance to those who are currently waiting to receive city housing by providing them 10-year mortgages if they are able to make a down payment of not more than 50 percent of the cost of the apartment, Interfax reported.
Some program funding would also be used to subsidize interest rates for loans provided by other organizations. The program is designed to provide such assistance to 18,000 local families in the period from 2002 to 2012, according to Interfax.
Vishnevskaya Honored
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Opera legend and St. Petersburg resident Galina Vishnevskaya has been awarded the Order of Art and Literature by the French Ministry of Culture, Interfax reported Thursday.
According to information provided by the French Embassy in Moscow, the award will be presented Friday at a ceremony to be held at the French ambassador's residence.
The Order of Art and Literature is presented to French and non-French citizens "for extraordinary accomplishments in the fields of art and culture."
TITLE: Migrants Neglected In Ministry Shuffle
AUTHOR: By Ana Uzelac
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Two weeks after President Vladimir Putin abolished the Nationalities and Migration Ministry and passed some of its functions to the Interior Ministry, hundreds of thousands of refugees and millions of migrants are in limbo, as officials admit little preparation had been made for the reshuffle.
Within a broader cabinet reshuffle, Putin signed a decree Oct. 16 to disband the ministry and dismiss its minister, Alexander Blokhin. The ministry's functions were to be transferred to the interior, foreign, and economic development and trade ministries, with the Interior Ministry taking over migration issues - a move that seems to have taken everybody by surprise and has led to disruptions in dealing with the migrant population.
The Interior Ministry is expected to take over not only migration control and issues of granting legal status to migrants, but also the social issues involved - including the management of refugee camps and centers for asylum seekers throughout the country. These functions, the decree states, were to be transferred within a month.
But half way through this period, Interior Ministry representatives admit they are overwhelmed by the workload, while their colleagues from the abolished ministry say all they can do for the migrants is feel sorry for them.
"We have a huge workload ahead of us, and it will take a long time to sort out who will take over which of the functions that we have inherited from the nationalities ministry," the Interior Ministry's press-service head Andzhela Yesayan said in a telephone interview last week.
She said there were as yet no clear structures formed within the ministry to take on the new responsibilities.
"It's all that much harder because nobody knew anything in advance and nobody made any preparations," she said, adding that she hoped her ministry would be able to take on at least some of the functions by the end of the one-month period. "It's a decree, an order, and we simply have to finish the work in the next two weeks," she said.
In the meantime, the bank accounts of the abolished Nationalities and Migration Ministry are frozen, and its officials have been waiting for the Interior Ministry to create structures to which they could transfer their workload, said Sergei Podgorbunsky, the abolished ministry's official in charge of the Northern Caucasus. "But so far there are no signs of any such structures being created," he said.
According to the abolished ministry's data, there are between 3 million and 4 million legal migrants and up to 1.5 million illegal migrants in Russia. Among them are economic migrants and political refugees from all over the world, as well as ethnic Russians from the former Soviet Union and refugees from Chechnya.
Human-rights activists describe the decree as a "natural disaster" that has broken down the fledgling managerial structures that dealt with migration issues at a time of growing animosity toward migrants.
Racially motivated attacks on people of African and Asian origin are common. Three people died and over 20 were wounded after attacks by skinheads last week at a market in southern Moscow and at a Moscow hotel housing Afghan refugees.
The State Duma passed a Kremlin-backed draft citizenship bill last month that will make it more difficult for migrants to gain Russian citizenship.
"There is nothing wrong with giving the Interior Ministry control over migration, and that has been debated for months already," said Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the non-governmental Civic Assistance organization, which aids migrants in Russia.
"But the ministry is incapable of dealing with the human side of migration," she added. "Working with migrants requires a high-level human-rights culture, which the Interior Ministry does not have."
Many asylum-seekers have suffered at the hands of the very ministry that is now supposed to start taking care of them. They have repeatedly accused the police force - which also falls within the Interior Ministry's responsibilities - of harassment, bribe extortion and refusal to distinguish between them and illegal immigrants.
TITLE: Visas to the U.S. Now Harder To Get
AUTHOR: By Megan Twohey
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Those who have struggled through the arduous visa application process in the past may find it hard to believe, but the U.S. Embassy is now being even "more vigilant" in its review of Russian applicants for non-immigrant visas, especially students, reported Consul General James Warlick.
With the help of its worldwide computer database, the consular section is examining more closely the 200-plus applications for non-immigrant visas it receives daily. It is also lengthening interviews and altering the questioning of applicants it suspects pose a security threat.
"We're taking a great deal of time to talk to applicants about the activity they have planned in the U.S.," Warlick said. "We're not simply taking their answers. We're pressing them on what they'll be doing and who they'll be meeting with. ... Given the abuse of student visas around the world, we're no longer considering applications for student visas as routine. We're making sure that those who apply intend to study."
Most of the suspected hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks entered the United States legally, including one who had entered with a student visa. Statements coming out of Washington suggest visa procedures will become increasingly strict.
The U.S. State Department has instructed consular offices worldwide to review and strengthen their procedures. Consular offices can now access the FBI's criminal database as a tool for adjudicating visa applications through a provision of the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law that was signed by U.S. President George W. Bush last month, said Christopher Lamora, a spokesperson for the department's bureau of consular affairs. And the U.S. Congress is considering dozens of bills that would tighten visa-application processes.
At the Consular Office at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, closer scrutiny of applicants for non-immigrant visas has resulted in lengthened and more intense interviews. In one case, the office "called an applicant back several times for interviews lasting 30 minutes," said Warlick.
As usual, applicants must submit a letter of acceptance from the academic institution they will attend and proof that they can afford the education, Warlick said. But applicants who have received student visas in the past must provide evidence of their previous studies, such as a transcript from the institution.
"We have run into cases of people who had student visas and were in the U.S. but weren't studying," Warlick said. "We see that repeatedly."
In the 1999-2000 academic year, 514,723 visas were issued for international students studying in the United States, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Warlick said 1,400 study visas went to Russians.
TITLE: Putin Gives Ground on Missile Shield
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin indicated a new flexibility in Russia's approach to U.S. plans to develop a national missile defense shield, saying in an interview that the plans might not violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
In a wideranging interview with the U.S. television network ABC, which was broadcast in the United States on Wednesday and replayed in part in Russia on Thursday, Putin also praised U.S. President George W. Bush as a leader with whom he can do business and said he had a feeling of guilt for not being able to warn the United States about the Sept. 11 attacks.
Putin struck a conciliatory stand on almost all fronts, indicating that he might be able to strike a deal to clear the way for a U.S. anti-missile-shield program.
"You know, first of all, that the 1972 treaty already has certain possibilities for creating defensive systems," Putin said. "It also has other provisions according to which we can find common approaches.
"In any case, experts are certain that, guided by these approaches, we can fully formulate the conditions [for the systems] in the framework of the current treaty, without violating its essence," Putin said, according to a transcript issued by the Kremlin press service.
In Washington, Bush said he had decided how many nuclear weapons he could safely cut - a big step toward an agreement with Putin.
"And I am going to do it," Bush said Wednesday at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Russia has proposed new limits on U.S. and Russian stockpiles of no more than 2,000 long-range warheads for each country, down from a current total of about 6,000 each. The Bush administration was said to be considering 1,750 to 2,250 warheads apiece.
Putin will meet with Bush on Tuesday at the White House and on Wed nesday and Thursday in Texas.
TITLE: Patriarch Hopes for Unification
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Patriarch Alexy II this week expressed a mixture of disappointment and understanding toward the New York-based emigre branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, which in recent days elected a new, moderate leader, but responded sternly to the Moscow Patriarchate's call for unity.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, or ROCIOR, broke away from the Moscow Patriarchate in the 1920s over its cooperation with the Soviet state. Both view themselves as successors to the pre-revolutionary church, and their unification is anticipated by many here and abroad as an end to the tragic Soviet period in church history.
Last year, ROCOR signaled a change of course and set up a commission to look at unity with Moscow. But the decision caused a rift within ROCOR itself.
In the run up to ROCOR's Council of Bishops from Oct. 23 to 31 - where the replacement of the anti-Moscow, 91-year-old head, Metropolitan Vitaly, was expected - the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a "fraternal message" to ROCOR bishops calling on them to put aside past differences.
"The historical reasons that conditioned our division are now removed," the message said. It stressed that the church in Russia was now free, that it had canonized the imperial family and hundreds of other 20th-century martyrs, and called for mutual repentance.
Yet the events in New York were even more dramatic than expected. Metropolitan Vitaly confirmed his retirement and Metropolitan Laurus, 73, who is seen as a moderate, was elected on Oct. 24. But the next day opponents of rapprochement with Moscow "abducted" Metropolitan Vitaly, and in the following days he retracted his retirement statement, condemned the council and began setting up an alternative ROCOR hierarchy.
Responding to Patriarch Alexy's appeal, the foreign bishops said they had always desired a united Russian church, but reiterated two old demands: that the Moscow Patriarchate condemn its past cooperation with the Soviet government, including with the KGB, and end its participation in the ecumenical movement, particularly its membership in the World Council of Churches. Contacts with non-Orthodox Christians are seen as heresy by arch-conservative Orthodox.
The "Sovietization" of Russia was a moral and religious, not simply a political, phenomenon, ROCOR bishops wrote in a message printed Monday in the Kommersant newspaper. "We understand that we have no right to judge these [Soviet-era] bishops, especially since we did not have to live in the vise grip of a horrible totalitarian regime," they said. "We only pray that God grants them courage to expose and condemn the sin of such cooperation."
The message said contacts with Moscow were "expedient." But in other statements, ROCOR bishops assured their disturbed flock that they are not talking about unification with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Patriarch Alexy said Monday that he had expected a "milder response" than the one that was published, Interfax reported. But he attributed it in part to ROCOR's need to address its internal schism.
The patriarch called ROCOR's demands a "pretext" to prevent unification, and defended the 1927 decision to recognize and cooperate with the Soviet state, saying it was a "courageous step."
"One had to live here to understand that situation," he said. He also rejected the call to sever ecumenical contacts. "Today, when we face the threat of global terrorism, not a single church, including ROCOR, can go into isolation," the patriarch said.
But he said he hoped that "common sense" would prevail and the unification process would go forward.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Raduyev in Court
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The most prominent Chechen rebel commander captured by Russia in the latest war in Chechnya goes on trial in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan next week, a court spokesperson said Thursday.
Salman Ra du yev earned notoriety by leading several bloody hostage-taking raids from Chech nya. Russian security forces captured Raduyev in March last year during Moscow's second war aimed at quashing Chechen independence efforts.
In a 1996 raid, Raduyev, head of the "Lone Wolf" band, took more than 2,000 hostages in the Dagestan village of Kizlyar. The incident resulted in at least 43 deaths.
The trial, scheduled to open on November 15 and expected to last two months, will be open to the public, but testimony involving state secrets could be closed.
Raduyev, famous for his anti-Russian rhetoric, trademark beard and sunglasses, was the first top commander from Chechnya to fall into Moscow's hands.
Several others remain at large despite a massive Russian military presence in the small region half the size of Belgium.
A court spokesperson said many hundreds of witnesses would be invited to the trial.
An Islamic court in Chechnya sentenced Raduyev to four years in prison for an armed uprising against the region's former president Aslan Mask ha dov in 1998 but made no attempt to arrest him.
Explosives on Kursk
MOSCOW (AP) - Investigators rummaging through the gutted carcass of the Kursk nuclear submarine were forced to retreat after they saw undetonated explosives scattered around its forward part, a top prosecutor said this week.
More than 150 kilograms of explosives from torpedo warheads were blown into the second and third compartments by powerful explosions that sank the Kursk, chief prosecutor of the Northern Fleet Vladimir Mulov said, Interfax reported.
The explosives were found Sunday night and safely removed by Monday morning, and prosecutors resumed their work, said Mulov.
Investigators have pulled 56 bodies from the Kursk since it was raised, and 50 of them have been identified, said Mulov. Another 12 bodies were removed by divers last year.
Alcohol Deaths
MOSCOW (SPT) - A top health official said that 27,000 people in Russia had died so far this year as a result of alcohol poisoning.
"It does not mean that those who died were alcoholics. They were just victims of alcohol poisoning," Gennady Onishchenko, the head of the State Health Inspectorate, was quoted by Interfax as saying Friday.
Muslim Anger
MOSCOW (AP) - A leader of Russia's large Muslim community lashed out Monday at the U.S. campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan and at Russian officials who have backed it, calling the operation a criminal and futile war.
In an emotional speech, Nafigulla Ashir, a co-chairperson of the Russian Mufti Council, said it would be justified for any of Russia's 20 million Muslims to take up arms and help the Taliban militia that is sheltering terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden. And he warned some could have joined up already.
No NATO Veto
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - NATO Secretary General George Ro bertson said Mon day neither Russia nor any other country would be able to veto expansion of the North Atlantic alliance.
Speaking to reporters at the start of his tour of all nine candidate countries for NATO membership, Robertson said only sovereign countries decide whether they want to be members, and then the alliance makes the final decision.
"We are involved in very detailed cooperation with Russia, which is going to improve and deepen over the next months and years," he said.
NATO is expected to invite at least one country to join next year.
Deputy Charged
MOSCOW (SPT) - A deputy of the State Duma was formally charged Friday - a day after the Duma lifted his legislative immunity - with pocketing a fortune in a privatization fraud and was banned from leaving the country, prosecutors said.
Vladimir Golovlyov, deputy chairperson of the Duma's budget committee, is accused of funneling away receipts from the privatization of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine in the early 1990s, said Leonid Troshev, a spokesperson for the Prosecutor General's Office, The Associated Press reported. Golovlyov's case is part of a wider crackdown on corruption that came to light last week, the spokesperson added.
Security guards barred Golovlyov from entering the Duma on Monday, saying they were under orders not to admit him, Interfax reported.
Briton Murdered
MOSCOW (SPT) - A British teacher was found dead, with a stab wound to the neck, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Monday, Interfax reported.
The body of Paul Beckman was discovered by neighbors at the entrance to the apartment block where he lived. He had been teaching English in the Tajik capital since 1999.
Police were unsure of the motive, but said that there were no signs of a robbery, the report said.
TITLE: Golden Signs On for Sovintel
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Essentially sealing a long-awaited transaction, Golden Telecom announced Tuesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding to obtain full ownership of leading alternative operator Sovintel from national long-distance provider Rostelecom.
Under the memorandum, Golden Telecom, Russia's leading Internet provider, will pay $52 million in cash and 15 percent of its own stock for Rostelecom's 50-percent Sovintel stake. The deal was valued at around $105 million.
The acquisition will bring loss-making Golden closer to the black, while allowing the company to more aggressively build Sovintel's business, analysts said. Golden Telecom officials said its revenues would nearly double as a result of full ownership, although they added that they expected to break even in 2002 even without it.
"A 50/50 ownership was not advantageous to either shareholder and was a deterring factor in Sovintel's development," Rostelecom General Director Sergei Kuznetsov said in a statement. In addition to the 15-percent stake, Rostelecom will get a seat on Golden's board.
On Thursday, Golden Telecom reported third-quarter financial results, narrowing losses to $1.9 million, compared to $3.5 million the previous quarter and $2.9 million in third quarter 2000. Revenues reached $37.1 million, up 26 percent from $29.4 million a year ago.
Also this week, Golden CEO Stewart Reich resigned and was replaced by Sovintel General Director Alexander Vinogradov.
Vinogradov said in a conference call that the company would focus on Moscow and St. Petersburg, especially CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier), and reiterated the company's ambitions to expand into the regions.
Golden has made several acquisitions of Internet providers, Web sites and regional CLECs since its IPO in September 1999 and has been criticized for overpaying for some assets. However, Reich, who participated in the conference call, said it was unlikely the company would make any significant purchases over the next six months.
Kuznetsov said the "fair price" offered for the shares will help the long-distance provider - which is 51-percent owned by state telecoms holding Svyaz invest - repay its external debts. The deal is expected to close early next year.
Golden CEO Stan Abbeloos said Golden's cost structure would be improved by combining Sovintel's last-mile network to Moscow end-users with Golden's Russia-wide voice and data backbone.
"For Golden Telecom, this transaction is a major value-creating exercise," said United Financial Group analyst Alexei Yakovitsky
Golden had not concealed its interest in assuming full control over Sovintel - a successful business that posted a net profit of $14.9 million and revenues of $84 million in the first nine months of 2001 - confirming the negotiations several months ago.
Kuznetsov said that his company was initially out to purchase a controlling stake in Sovintel but switched gears when Golden Telecom made a better offer.
The negotiations seemed to revive earlier this year when each side underwent a management makeover. In February, Kuznetsov arrived with a team from St. Petersburg to assume command of the flailing operator, bringing it closer to the Communications Ministry and Svyazinvest, which are also headed by Petersburgers. In April, the powerful Alfa Group inked a deal to acquire 44 percent of Golden Telecom.
TITLE: McDonald's Chief Touts Growth of Burger Chain
AUTHOR: By Elizabeth Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The state used to put limits on Khamzat Khasbulatov's meat. As a restaurant manager in the planned economy of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, it wasn't up to him how many kilograms of beef he could cook up each week.
But as president of McDonald's Russia, Khasbulatov can make all the burgers and fries he needs and franchise as much as possible - and the numbers show he's succeeding.
More than 66 million Big Macs and 300 million customers have been served since the first restaurant opened in the Soviet Union just over a decade ago.
McDonald's now has 72 outlets in 22 Russian cities, with 25 more golden arches set to go up in the coming year. Investment in the country has passed $215 million, with another $40 million pledged for next year.
The statistics were impressive from the very first day - Jan. 31, 1990 - when the ast-food chain opened in Moscow. Some 30,000 people passed through before closing, and the restaurant on Pushkin Square remains the most visited McDonald's in the world.
"It was totally new. We called it the first bird coming from the West," says Khasbulatov, then manager at the Pushkin Square restaurant.
"There was a nonstop line outside for a few years. The worst thing in my life was having to close the doors when there were customers outside."
Not even the coup attempt in August 1991 could slow the booming restaurant. Instead, lines stretched around tanks parked near Pushkin Square.
The chain, however, was not quick in expanding. It took three more years for the second and third McDonald's to open in Moscow and not until 1996 did the arches grace St. Petersburg.
"The problem was that we couldn't carefully monitor what was going to happen in this country," Khasbulatov says.
McDonald's began its crusade to the Soviet Union in 1976, when a Soviet delegation to the Montreal Olympics was treated to burgers and fries by the chain's Canadian head, George Cohon.
The company failed in its attempt to serve its goods at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, however.
Svetlana Polyakova, the company's deputy communications director, compliments her boss's leadership skills.
"He has a great ability to keep a balance between making sure business is moving and growing, but, at the same time, making sure that people are happy," said Polyakova, who rose to her present position after being one of 630 chosen from 27,000 applicants to work at the Pushkin Square restaurant's opening.
Not everyone at McDonald's is happy, however.
A high-profile labor dispute grew out of the August 1998 crisis, when workers at the McComplex near Moscow attempted to unionize. Soon afterward, they allegedly faced stiff discrimination from a discouraging management. The fight drew attention from international labor groups, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzh kov and the State Duma, which issued a resolution urging the two groups to negotiate.
McDonald's eventually went to the negotiating table, and an agreement was hammered out in June. It still has not been signed though, and the union's membership has dwindled from 18 to the current two, according to union leader Natalia Grachyova.
"I think people will again probably want some way to protect themselves," says Grachyova. "So far, the administration is just giving promises."
Khasbulatov said that union leaders are required to say whom they are representing, which they haven't done yet.
"We always say that we take every step based on law, based on regulations, not based on emotions," he says.
TITLE: Long-Running Hotel Saga Takes Latest Turn
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast announced on Thursday that a suit to initiate bankruptcy procedings against the Inter-Hotel Petrograd joint venture, the company that is the legal owner of the yet-to-be-completed Northern Crown Hotel, had been withdrawn.
The suit had been brought by a company called Vektor, which is associated with St. Petersburg Bank, which in turn owns 92-percent of the shares in Inter-Hotel Petrograd. The remaining eight percent are in the hands of the St. Petersburg Property Committee (KUGI).
The announcement came as the latest twist in the troubled history of the hotel-building project, which has been yet-to-be-completed for over 13 years.
If it is ever completed, the Northern Crown Hotel, located on Karpovsky Nab. on the Petrograd Side, is to be a high-end hotel, the first of its class in the city to be built from the ground up, rather than as a renovation project of an existing building. The plans for the hotel call for 247 rooms located on a 50,000 square-meter lot, and include five restaurants, six bars, a conference hall, sports complex, swimming pool and underground parking.
The project was initiated by the Soviet government in 1988, with the initial construction contract going to Montexgroexport, a Yugoslavian company.
In 1992, the entire project was privatized, leading to the creation of Inter-Hotel Petrograd. The company signed a $60-million construction contract with Turkish company Ata Insaat Sanai Ve Tigaret Ltd (ATA). But at the end of 1995, the initially announced date for the hotel's opening, the bank ran into financial difficulties and work on the project was frozen. The project has remained about 90-percent completed since.
The bankruptcy suit brought by Vektor was launched in August, with the company openly admitting that its connections with St. Petersburg Bank had something to do with the situation.
"Vektor and the bank enjoy friendly relations," the bank said in an official statement in August.
In the same statement, the bank said that the purpose of the suit was to shed some of the hotel's debt load so that the project could be sold.
According to Alexei Shaskolsky, property analyst at Colliers International, the hotel company's debts total about $8 million, with $5 million owed to ATA. He further estimated that the funds needed to complete the construction could range from $8 million to $30 million. Above this, the St. Petersburg Bank spends from $500,000 to $600,000 per year on the building's maintenance.
"The move by the parent company to have Inter-Hotel Petrograd declared bankrupt seemed an adept and sufficiently legal solution to the problem," Shaskolsky said Thursday. "Now, if the plaintiff really withdrew the suit and the case is closed, it's difficult to say what's happening there."
"It's likely that, for some reason, the sides are no longer in agreement that this was the best solution."
Under Russian bankruptcy law, had the court sided with the suit, it would have appointed an outside manager, who would have been responsible for drawing up a list of creditors and determining the best way to use assets to pay off debts.
The withdrawal of the suit suggests that the bank may have other plans for disposing of the property, with the bank saying in a statement early this year that the Presidential Management Office is one of the potential buyers.
Viktor Khrekov, press secretary for the Presidential Management Office, confirms the bank's statement.
"Negotiations for the purchase of the hotel are taking place," he said Thursday. "But no results have been announced yet."
Shaskolsky says that, with President Vladimir Putin's penchant for meeting with foreign dignitaries in Russia's northern capital, having a federally-owned hotel for the purpose is an appealing idea to the Kremlin.
But even though the government has expressed interest, he says that the situation around the hotel and its future remains unclear.
"The Presidential Management Office has been quiet about the idea for a while," he said. "If they lose interest in buying the hotel and the St. Petersburg governor isn't interested either, then the fate of the hotel remains very cloudy."
TITLE: Gazprom Regaining Control of Sibur
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gazprom moved to rein in Sibur this week, saying it would retain its majority stake in the insolent petrochemical subsidiary and take control of its board.
The gas giant said it would buy into a controversial Sibur issue of more than 6 trillion ordinary shares, which the company plans in order to increase its charter capital to 52 billion rubles ($1.75 billion) from 4.3 billion rubles, Reuters reported. But details of the deal were fuzzy and Sibur, Russia's biggest petrochemical holding, said the issue had been postponed, most likely until Feb. 15.
Initially scheduled for Wednesday, the share issue would have required Gazprom to pay some $800 million to $900 million to retain its controlling stake of 51 percent.
Gazprom also said in a statement that it would increase the number of seats it has on Sibur's 16-member board from the current five to a majority.
Strengthening Gazprom's control of Sibur is seen a key test for CEO Alexei Miller, who was appointed earlier this year and tasked with retrieving some of the "vast sums" - as President Vla di mir Putin called it - of money and assets that left the company under former CEO Rem Vyakhirev's tenure.
But Miller was absent from the last meeting, fueling speculation in local media of his defeat by Vyakhirev's "old guard," who were said to be making a comeback. On Monday, however, Miller "looked unworried by the developments," a source close to the board said.
Miller is said to have recently met with Putin, who reaffirmed his support for any decisions made by the Gazprom chief.
"At the last meeting, it seemed that the other board members were acting up like schoolchildren while the school teacher was away," said Stephen O'Sullivan, head of research at the United Financial Group brokerage, while commenting on the emotional nature of the Oct. 25 meeting. "Now, the schoolchildren understand that the schoolteacher has the headmaster standing behind him."
TITLE: Canadian Builders Eyeing Housing Market
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Canadian construction companies and their local partners are hoping to lure 10,000 middle-class families out of city apartments and into new suburban town-house developments over the next few years, according to a Canadian Embassy official.
The draw will be Canadian-style, wood-frame town houses, 10,000 of which are on track to go up on the outskirts of regional centers across Russia by 2005, said Valery Makarov, commercial officer at the Canadian Embassy.
Model homes in the Moscow Region, Tver, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Nak hod ka are already generating orders, Ma karov said.
The developments will typically be made up of two-story, 150-square-meter, semi-detached houses, which, unfinished, would cost about $60,000, excluding land and infrastructure costs. Costs can be kept low because Russia, like Canada, is rich in timber, and local labor and materials are used, he added.
The average price of such a house will be $300 to $450 per square meter, which is close to the price of local high-rise brick apartments, but the houses are much more comfortable, Makarov said.
COLD WEATHER FRIEND
Makarov said Canadians already know how to build in Russia because they share a similar northern climate, unlike Canada's southern neighbor. "Americans live more to the south, and they don't need insulation, heating and the structures to withstand the pressure of snow. That's why Canadians and Russians speak the same language in housing," he said.
"I expect that Canadian houses will be more and more popular in Russia. In 10 years, they might not even call them Canadian houses anymore. They will say that they are Russian houses," he added.
Canadian contractors have supplied luxury homes for LUKoil executives in Mos cow, and shiploads of materials have been delivered to Anadyr, capital of Chu kotka, in a $12-million order for three prefabricated schools, a skating rink, a fish factory and 20 houses, Makarov said.
CANADIAN PIONEERS
Makarov said the first Canadian construction company in Russia was Ferguson Simek Clark, which in the early 1990s built more than 1,000 homes in Yakutsk in Eastern Siberia as part of an $80-million deal.
In the mid-1990s, Canadian companies came to the city of Tver, 170 kilometers northwest of Moscow, to help re-train Russian officers returning from Eastern Europe or former Soviet states in a new profession and, at the same time, try to house them.
In 1995, the construction working group of the Canada-Russia Intergovernmental Economic Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Construction Committee, or Gosstroi, that promoted Canadian housing technology and the transition to a market-based housing system in Russia, as well as training local managers and laborers.
The agreement, renewed and extended last year, also facilitated the harmonization of Canadian and Russian building codes, which has led to the passing into law of Construction Norms and Regulations 31, which will come into force on Jan. 1. One of its targets is to build 10,000 homes.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Gosstroi and the Tver Region administration have opened a quality center for Canadian light-frame technology in Tver.
In addition, the CMHC has been working with Gosstroi on the development of a mortgage system in Russia.
"Russia is building 40 million square meters of housing every year, and the demand is predicted to continue at this level for the next 30 years," Makarov said. "The only thing we have to do to expand our client base is to develop mortgage finance."
Makarov suggested that mortgages in Russia could soon be available with a 30-percent deposit and repayment over 10 to 15 years.
"In Canada, it is a 5-percent deposit, and repayment in 10 to 20 years, Russia will be the same," he added.
EYE ON THE MIDDLE CLASS
Real Senecal, general director of Mos cow-based Kanadastroi, a Canadian-Russian joint-venture, said his company has built about 40 large elite houses in Russia since 1996.
"But the market for big houses is going down slightly, and if we want to get a good business going, we'll have to target the new middle class," he said in a telephone interview.
"The demand is there, and it is just a matter of convincing people that a wood-frame house is better than a cement type of building," Senecal said.
Martijn Kramer, head of real-estate consulting with Andersen's Moscow office, said Russians were wary of wooden homes because they could burn down.
But Senecal said Russians must begin to consider wood-frame houses as an energy-efficient option. "Russians used to get electricity for free and gas for almost free. In a few years, this will change. When prices are the same as the world market and their homes are not energy-efficient, they are going to have a few problems," he said.
Senecal said Kanadastroi's turnkey, semi-detached or detached homes of 148 to 169 square meters cost from $91,500 with land and finished interiors.
"It's a highly energy-efficient house, ecologically friendly, and it can be modified. It has all new technology materials," he said.
Kanadastroi has a manufacturing plant in Lobnya in the Moscow Region and is in the process of building a 175-home housing estate in Abakumovo, near Sheremetyevo Airport.
Building materials are Canada's second-largest export to Russia, last year accounting for 40.5 million Canadian dollars ($25.4 million) out of total exports of 190 million Canadian dollars, Makarov said.
Nikolai Demin, executive sales manager with American Construction Materials Ltd., the local partner of U.S.-Canadian Lindal Cedar Homes, said ACM will produce elite homes built of Canadian cedar costing at least three times the prices quoted by the Canadian Embassy's Makarov. The company began working in Russia only this year and is constructing its first model home.
Finnish log-home builder Honka has built about 400 homes across Russia since 1995, but it also occupies the elite sector. However, a spokes person said Honka would be able to compete with the Canadian companies on price when it comes to homes for the middle class.
TITLE: U.S. Business Is Making a Killing in the War
AUTHOR: By Greg Goldin
TEXT: CALL it the 9-11 aftershock. The Bush administration, switching to war footing, is treating the deepening economic crisis as a second casualty of the Sept. 11 attacks. President George W. Bush rushed through a $15-billion bailout to the airlines, promptly proposed ways the government would help shoulder insurers' losses from future terrorist attacks and quickly began promoting a $75-billion pump-priming package.
The administration's unspoken message is that the government has a duty to protect its citizens from the "collateral" fallout of financial hardship and collapse. The trouble is that the bailouts and stimulus are, like Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut, a handout to big business and the super-rich. That "amazing spirit of sacrifice" the president has repeatedly commended? That's for the pink-slipped hotel maids standing in line for free groceries. They, like hundreds of thousands of other workers recently put out of work, will be sacrificing all right, getting by on unemployment benefits that are at historic lows. Ultimately, they may have to rely on a greatly scaled-back safety net. Meantime, at the White House and on Capitol Hill, where Wall Street calls the shots, the reigning ethos remains the same: Those with the best-paid lobbyists win.
Shared sacrifice? Consider the shameful distribution of pain in the airline industry. A bailout of these mismanaged companies was no doubt unavoidable, but even as more than 100,000 aviation workers were being laid off, Congress insisted on exactly nothing in return for a hefty taxpayer subsidy. Overpaid CEOs were simply left free to slash more jobs and run. The legislation, supported by both Republicans and a Democratic Party leadership enraptured by fiscal austerity, contained no funds for laid-off workers stripped of health-care benefits. It allocated no money for job training. Airlines were permitted to disregard the standard severance provisions of their labor contracts. Even expanding unemployment insurance from 26 to 39 weeks - a minimal demand at best - was rejected.
At the same time that the bailout abandons workers, it mollycoddles airline executives. To qualify for the $10 billion in loans available under the bill, airlines must freeze current executive compensation at 2000 levels for two years and limit severance pay to twice that amount. This may sound like some kind of sacrifice. But think of Delta Air Lines Chairperson Leo Mullin, who got $2.1 million last year in salary and bonuses and as much as $34 million when his stock options are counted. Donald Carty of American Airlines had potential earnings of $15.9 million. James Goodwin, until last week CEO of United Airlines, $10 million. To put this in perspective, it would take 1,365 years for the average American worker, making $25,501 annually, to earn Delta chair Mullin's yearly salary, 623 years to earn Carty's and 392 years to earn Goodwin's. And so it goes. If an airline chooses to skip the loan and go straight for the $5 billion in grants awarded by the bill, the sky's the limit on executive salaries and severance.
The airline-bailout legislation was crafted within hours of the first impact at the World Trade Center, as industry lobbyists fanned out through the halls of Congress with a wish list leveraged by the claim that the airlines were victims, too, and should not be left to bear the burden of the attack alone. But the bill they sponsored handed a frayed and tattered parachute to workers, who were also victims, while executives continued to fly on gilded wings.
Contrast this bailout to the $1.5-billion U.S. bailout of Chrysler in 1980. Concessions to the ailing carmaker were spread among union employees, executives, suppliers, lenders and dealers. Lee Iacocca went to work for $1 a year. The United Auto Workers were given a seat on the company's board of directors. And the government took stock warrants in trade for the Treasury's cash loan - which, by the way, was paid back in full. What's more, when Iacocca volunteered to take his buck a year, the average CEO made 42 times the average blue-collar worker's pay. According to Business Week, last year that spread was a staggering 531 to 1. A typical hourly worker got a 3-percent raise last year, a salaried employee 4 percent. The average CEO pulled in $20 million, including nearly 50 percent more in stock options and 22 percent more in salaries and bonuses than in the previous year.
In one respect, the Bush administration is turning the clock back to the 1980s. His "economic stimulus" package is pure Reaganomics. The first $24 billion - spread over 10 years - will go to large companies that pay the low-rate "alternative minimum tax" designed to ensure that profitable corporations pay at least some taxes. Under the plan, such taxes would be retroactively returned. General Electric, the giant defense contractor that stands to benefit from a new military build-up, would receive a rebate of $671 million on past taxes. United Airlines would get back $60 million. IBM a whopping $1.4 billion. The list of megacorporations reaping megabucks includes Enron, General Motors, Chevron, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum and Alaska Air Group. Another $109 billion will go to corporations over the next three years through "accelerated depreciation," faster write-offs of equipment costs. So much for some of the nation's most profitable corporations contributing their fair share to Bush's war on terrorism.
And that's just the beginning. The president wants to race ahead with the cutbacks in top personal income-tax rates he won earlier this year, fully instituting them next year rather than in 2006. If Congress goes along with the administration plan, the richest 1 percent of all taxpayers would average a $27,000 reduction in 2002. A middle-class family earning $50,000 a year would get just $68. The 37 million individuals and couples who did not get this year's tax rebate because their tax liability was too low would get a onetime $350 payment.
This is the same old supply-side agenda, wrapped in the flag. Swaddle the rich and powerful in tax breaks while tossing pennies to the rest of us. As for actually restarting the economy, that burden is reserved for millions shivering at the prospect of a deep recession and, perhaps, already on the brink of personal insolvency. Bush urges these hard-working American households, already saddled with an average of $8,500 in credit-card debt, to spend more, as if it were a patriotic duty to go deeper into debt.
As conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly said shortly after airline layoffs were announced, "It is time for the corporations to step up and serve America and not themselves. Everybody, including the Fortune 500, should make sacrifices. Keep a close eye on who is doing what to whom. Don't let companies get away with treating you unfairly."
Unfortunately, they and their richest stockholders already have treated us unfairly, and with the connivance of the White House, they're aiming to do so again.
Greg Goldin is a Los Angeles-based journalist. He contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times.
TITLE: Now We'll Learn What Lesin's Been Doing
TEXT: LAST week the media reported that the Press Ministry was among those state bodies whose activities had attracted the attention of the Audit Chamber and the Prosecutor General's Office. I hope that these respected institutions will manage to shed some light on an issue that has long concerned the media industry.
"The minister of his own business affairs" is the nickname bestowed upon Mikhail Lesin, minister for press, television, radio broadcasting and mass communications, by those who work in the industry. And no matter how hard Lesin tries to persuade people that his own business activities are a thing of the past and that today he is just a normal minister, for some strange reason no one seems to believe him.
Lesin is one of the founders of Video International. Today, Video International has a virtual monopoly on sales of television advertising (up to 70 percent of the market is concentrated in its hands) and is actively expanding in regional markets. It also produces television programs and is involved in public relations.
Lesin himself left the founders' ranks long ago, not that anyone in his entourage has noticed, however. Occasionally Video International employees let the cat out of the bag, saying that, after all, Lesin pays their wages. When the minister was deputy chairman of state television broadcasting, Video International sold advertising on state television and also received major contracts for producing programs. When Lesin was appointed minister, 2B studio - founded by Video International - miraculously became the recipient of a grant to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars for the production of some sort of television series.
And now with Lesin as the minister, Video International mints the currency of the advertising market by determining which media ratings company's data are used and, thus, how TV advertising budgets are allocated. There's a great deal at stake here, since ratings determine a channel's advertising revenues.
After the August 1998 crisis, Video International's main rival, the Premier SV agency, which sold advertising time on ORT, collapsed. With its demise, pluralism on the media ratings market vanished.
"You can use whatever data you like," Video International told television companies and advertisers, "but we will place ads on the basis of data from Russian Gallup-Media, with whom we have long worked. Period."
However, this nontransparent monopoly foisted upon the television industry has not been a cause of great joy for those channels that feel they have not received their fair share of the advertising pie.
In January, during their meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the heads of TV6 and TV Center expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation. The president ordered the press minister to look into it.
And what did Lesin do? Alexander Kostyuk, deputy general director of TNS/Gallup Media, in an interview in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said: "On the following day, Lesin called us and said that he would create a body for regulating our activities."
And such a body was indeed created. It is called the media committee and includes the leading channels, professional broadcasters' associations, advertising agencies and, of course, the Press Ministry. Its task is to organize a tender to select the company that will provide television ratings. The tender has yet to be announced, but the outcome, it seems, is already known.
Should other media-ratings companies bother participating in the tender? The Audit Chamber and the General Prosecutor's Office should provide an answer to this and many other related questions.
Alexei Pankin is the editor of Sreda, a magazine for media professionals (www.internews.ru/sreda).
TITLE: Enough Practical Jokes Already
AUTHOR: By Boris Kagarlitsky
TEXT: LAST week a meeting of the World Economic Forum took place in Moscow. Representatives of international banking circles descended on the Russian capital to discuss the indisputable achievements of the past three years. In fact, since the 1998 financial crisis, we have started to see economic growth, the standard of living rising somewhat and the middle class - comprising a little more than one-tenth of the population - once again starting to spend money.
Unfortunately, the party was spoiled by rumors - the provenance of which is unclear - that anti-globalists were preparing to riot on the central streets of Moscow. The newspapers published sensational reports about several thousand demonstrators preparing to disrupt the bankers' meeting. Journalists, citing law enforcement sources, said that anti-globalists had already bought up all of the cheap tickets to Moscow from Western Europe and the United States. Television stations ran reports on this for several days in a row, brushing aside the explanations of Russian and Western activists. The latter tried unsuccessfully to prove that there were no events planned on those particular dates and sent out numerous press releases, but all to no avail.
Police officers, soldiers and even special armored vehicles capable of breaking through barricades were stationed on Tverskaya Ulitsa. Some local residents were not even allowed access to their own homes. Shops in proximity to the area of the expected demonstration suffered significant losses. And not one anti-globalist even showed his or her face on Tverskaya.
If it was an April Fool's joke, then what was the point of playing it in the fall? Alas, neither the authorities nor journalists apologized for the practical joke they organized in the city center.
Furthermore, it seems that they are acquiring a taste for such things. No sooner had the police dismantled their barriers on Tverskaya than the press, again citing official sources, announced that Chechen rebel representative Akh med Zakayev had come to an agreement with General Viktor Kazantsev on capitulation and that Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov was leaving Chechnya for Malaysia. It didn't seem to matter that Maskhadov's representatives immediately issued a denial; television and government officials continued to repeat their version, in spite of its patent absurdity.
The source of these political hallucinations is by and large fairly obvious. People, including those in power, are not free from fear and delusions. The enigmatic anti-globalists, about whom all sorts of rubbish is written, will sooner or later appear in Russia, and moreover, not the imported variety but our own home-grown anti-globalists.
The fact that neither the country's leadership nor a large swathe of the press understands this phenomenon does not seem to arouse any interest among them in finding out more about it. Instead, the most fanciful fantasies and conjectures build up over time. And the result is armored vehicles on Tverskaya to defend us from the fruits of our own over-fertile imaginations. Ghostbusters would probably have been more appropriate.
Concerning the Chechen rebels, there is no option but to open a dialogue with them, although it is not possible to admit to this. Thus the necessity to invent all sorts of nonsense, such as Mask hadov booking a ticket to Malaysia.
Of course, the Russian leadership's delusions are far from unique. U.S. President George W. Bush, for the second week already, thinks that there exists a "moderate Taliban." The cream of the intelligence forces and diplomatic corps have been charged with seeking them out.
Incompetence is a characteristic of contemporary politicians. And the desire to make things up is by no means a feature unique to those in power. Much more dangerous is the willingness of the media to reproduce these hallucinations without a hint of irony.
In the United States and Britain, where the press is accustomed to taking politicians seriously, talk of a "moderate Taliban" initially had people nonplussed and then was followed by a wave of ironic commentaries. In Russia, on the other hand, where you would think that ironic detachment is part of the culture, the press and television regurgitated the official version, trying hard to make it look as though they were not aware of the absurdity.
The delusions and hallucinations of the country's leadership are not just gibberish; they are also treated as directives to be acted upon.
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Moscow-based sociologist.
TITLE: The Police Shouldn't Be In Charge of Refugees
TEXT: SINCE President Vladimir Pu tin was inaugurated in May 2000, many of his moves have had observers wondering aloud about the careful strategic planning that must have preceded them.
In contrast, last month's disbanding of the Nationalities and Migration Ministry and the transfer of many of its duties to the Interior Ministry seem to have been uncharacteristically rushed and poorly thought out.
Officials at both ministries have lamented that they were not given any transitional period to transfer documents and set up new procedures for dealing with the millions of migrants, refugees and displaced persons.
Deputy Interior Minister Vla di mir Vasilyev made it clear that arrangements for the hand-over have not been made. "We will be getting advice from the government and the presidential administration" on how to deal with our new functions, he said in Monday's Izvestia.
Few experts, including human-rights advocates, had any doubts that the bureaucratic machine dealing with issues such as citizenship, migration and asylum had to be revamped. For example, Russia is embarrassingly far behind in fulfilling its obligations under the 1951 Geneva convention on refugees. More than 14,000 asylum seekers have appealed for help to the UNHCR's Moscow office, but fewer than 600 people from non-CIS countries have been granted refugee status since Russia signed the convention in 1992. Last year, the UNHCR began referring some of the most vulnerable cases to third countries.
Be that as it may, the Interior Ministry - the federal agency that oversees the police forces - strikes us as a dubious successor to the puttering Nationalities Ministry.
The police are notorious for framing, blackmailing and physically abusing detainees - very often those whose physical appearance is insufficiently Slavic.
An officers' official salary is a pittance, so it is no wonder that bribes - often for resolving or disregarding residency issues - are a major source of supplementary income for regular beat cops. This circumstance naturally raises the concern that some police officers will not be especially gung-ho about implementing their ministry's new programs to "legalize" migrants.
The Interior Ministry's new set of duties necessitates - rather, makes even more urgently necessary - an overhaul of the entire police system: from training to paycheck.
And although Moscow's police chief last week announced efforts to weed out corruption in the city's police force, we believe that starting these two gargantuan reform projects simultaneously is not a recipe for success.
This comment originally appeared as an editorial in The Moscow Times on Nov. 6.
TITLE: painting the portrait of an era
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Producing the portrait of an epoch is a challenging and thankless task, one that not every artist would even think of attempting. Most of the rare attempts are notably unsuccessful, such as Ilya Glazunov's kitschy and chaotic "Eternal Russia: Images of Russian History" or "The Market of Our Democracy."
Although the 20th century is not very far in the past, Russia's largest museums are already trying to systematize the art of that century, and "Portraiture in Russia in the 20th Century," an exhibition that opened this week at the State Russian Museum, is a stage in that process. While the apparent goal of the exhibition is to present 100 years of portraiture, the result is really a portrait of 100 years.
"One might wonder what kind of experiments the [seemingly narrow] genre of the portrait allows," said Yevgenia Petrova, the museum's deputy director, "but this exhibition demonstrates a tremendous range of manners and styles."
Portraiture has always held a special place in the world of Russian visual art. As Vladimir Gusev, the Russian Museum's director, points out, the history of secular painting in Russia begins with the portraits of the early 18th century.
The Russian Museum's collection of portraits numbers over 1,100 exponents, nearly one-third of which are included in the present exhibition. "Portraiture in Russia in the 20th Century" includes works by artists such as Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov, Vasily Surikov, Boris Kustodiev, Kazimir Malevich and Marc Chagall.
Because the works are arranged chronologically, they guide the viewer through the century, introducing one cultural legend after another, from the poets of the Silver Age, to Red Army commanders and Soviet heroes of labor and sports. There are also a number of revealing portraits of the artists themselves.
Many exponents must be considered among the Russian Museum's greatest hits. Valentin Serov's 1910 portrait of ballerina Ida Rubinshtein, star of the first two season's of Sergei Dyaghilev's Ballet Russe in France; Boris Grigoriev's 1916 portrait of theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold; and Nathan Altman's 1914 portrait of poet Anna Akhmatova have become virtually icons of the museum's collection.
These comparisons demonstrate that talented portrait artists meld themselves into their subjects through the choices that they make. Serov's Dyaghilev, for instance, is relaxed and romantic compared to Lev Bakst's tense and reserved rendition.
As the years pass in this exhibition, it becomes evident that toward the end of the century, Russian artists were increasingly drawn to self-portraiture. These paintings are often suffused with self-irony and even torment, rather than admiration or flattery.
An excellent example of this is one of the newest paintings in the exhibitions, Dmitry Shagin's 1988 "Self Portrait." It depicts the artist at his night job in a boiler-house, the kind of work that many Soviet bohemians took in order to leave their days free to pursue the arts.
The exhibition's designers incorporated narrow vertical mirrors among the paintings in the last two halls, which contain the most recent art. This is a reference to the fact that we cannot yet perceive these paintings as part of the past, tending instead to view them as bits of contemporary life.
"The art of the 1990s is too close for us to judge it objectively. More time has to pass to allow us to comprehend it," Petrova said.
The exhibition has been lavishly sponsored by British American Tobacco Russia, one of the Russian Museum's long-term partners, and is summarized in a well-produced exhibition catalogue.
"We are proud to restore the traditions of philanthropy in Russia," said Vladimir Aksyonov, corporate-relations director of BAT Russia, at the exhibition opening on Monday. "The idea of this exhibition and the shape it has taken are fantastic. While wandering through the display, I caught myself talking to the people looking at me from the paintings."
Despite the array of styles and periods presented at the exhibition, thematic threads run through it.
"When preparing this installation, we first and foremost wanted to present an objective picture," said Vladimir Lenyashin, head of the museum department that covers the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. "There are several ideas running through the entire exhibition. We juxtapose eternal values, like family and love, and temporary trends, like political regimes."
In Lenyashin's words, all the items on display can virtually be divided into the "voices of individuals" and the "voices of the time."
"Looking at certain paintings even from very far away, you can easily sense the time in which they were created," Lenyashin observed. "The artistic value of such works aside, they simply had to be present in order to characterize the time and the conditions under which the artists worked."
For details, see listings. Links: www.rusmuseum.ru.
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Be sure to catch the last day of the Deboshir Independent Film Festival - Pure Daydreams 4, on Friday. That night director/actor Alexander Bashirov's festival of independent and low-budget films will close with a performance by ska-punk combo Leningrad.
Dom Kino, 7 p.m., Nov. 9.
Yes duly performed in town on Tuesday despite the fact that the art-rock band's show started 90 minutes late due to customs hang-ups. Meanwhile, the band's former keyboard player announced his own two-date Russian tour. Rick Wakeman will be playing with The English Rock Ensemble - consisting of himself, his son Adam Wakeman (also keyboards), Damian Wilson (vocals), Tony Fernandez (drums), Ant Glynne (guitar) and Lee Pomeroy (bass). Despite Wakeman's large-scale keyboard wizardry on his solo albums, he is most fondly remembered for his work on other artists' albums, especially on David Bowie's "Hunky Dory."
Rick Wakeman and The English Rock Ensemble, Oktyabrsky Concert Hall, 7 p.m., Nov. 25.
Two new clubs will open on Saturday - both located on the Petrograd Side, but catering to very different audiences. While Par.spb will concentrate on house and techno, the Mirage Cinema Nightclub, which will be located at the Mirage Cinema, will be entertaining film audiences in order to keep them at the place after the movie's over.
Par.spb (5b Alexandrovsky Park, M: Gorkovskaya, 233-3374), which opens with a concert/party featuring New York's Julee "Twin Peaks" Cruise and London's Dr. Bob Jones, has announced some of its future events. Look for the Berlin club WMF's house DJs on Nov. 24 and New York veteran DJ Bert Bevans of Studio 54 fame on Nov. 30.
Club management promises that even though the club opening will cost 330 rubles, the entrance fee will be lowered afterwards to between 100 and 150 rubles.
The club's name sounds rather cryptic, but as we were told, it vaguely refers to a laundry, which the old brick building the club now occupies once housed.
Par.spb is a club extension of the International Cultural Center, which opens the same day. A two-week exhibition of handmade Finnish paper that will open on Nov. 24 may hint at the direction of its activities.
Mirage Cinema Nightclub seems to be counting on a more straightforward New-Russian audience and boasts seven bars, a restaurant, a sushi bar, two dance halls and pool and billiards.
The opening night starts at 11 p.m. on Nov. 10. 35 Bolshoi Pr. (Petrograd side), 235-4911. Check the official Web site at www.mirage.spb.ru.
On a sad note, the Jazz Philharmonic Hall will hold a memorial concert for local bandleader Iosif Vainshtein,who died in Toronto in September. Local jazz musicians and bands that played with Vainshtein before he emigrated to Canada in 1983 will be playing. Gennady Golshtein and the St. Petersburg Saxophones, David Goloshchokin, Leningrad Dixieland and Alexei Kanunnikov Jazz Band will perform with jazz writer and promoter Vladimir Feiertag, who also collaborated with the Iosif Vainshtein Band as a presenter.
Jazz Philharmonic Hall, 7 p.m., Nov. 9.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: just the ticket for great food
AUTHOR: by Robert Coalson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Every once in a while, it is fun to choose one of the city's "transition" neighborhoods and just wander around. I mean those pockets of the city where the winds of post-Soviet change are just beginning to blow and where Soviet style produkty stores ("V kassu!") rub elbows incoherently with shimmering boutiques and glistening hypermarkets.
One such area is the neighborhood around the upper reaches of Nevsky Pros pect, after it passes Ploshchad Vos sta niya. Here, one block may be a brand new pedestrian zone while the next looks like a post-atomic rendition of a Dostoevsky novel. You just never know what you might find here, from used-book stores where time seems to stand still to a huge Dom Laverna construction store with more types of wallpaper than should be legal at one location.
After so many surprises and so much aimless wandering, one naturally wants a nice place to rest and have a bit, and I was thrilled on a recent jaunt through the neighborhood to stumble upon the Depot Cafe, one of the most pleasant and amusing eateries in town.
Like so many new places in town these days, the Depot has been lovingly decorated. It playfully recreates the interior of a city tram, down to the slated wooden benches and the ticket-punching machines on the walls. The walls are covered with old photographs and signs saying things likes "The conductor never sleeps!" and "Your conscience is the best conductor." The bathroom is a work of art that simply must be experienced.
And the wonders do not cease with the decor. Depot boasts a great menu of mostly traditional Russian food at great prices. There are two pages of salads, including fish and vegetarian selections, in the 30- to 139-ruble ($1 to $4.60) range; soups from 25 to 45 rubles ($0.83 to $1.50) and hot starters from 35 to 80 rubles ($1.67 to $2.67).
Most of the entrees - and there is the usual selection of beef, chicken, pork and fish dishes - are between 100 and 150 rubles. For vegetarians, there are a few tempting selections, including potato pancakes in mushroom sauce for 45 rubles ($1.50) and something called a "mushroom basket" for 60 ($2). The most expensive item is the salmon steak in white-wine-and-plum sauce at 260 rubles ($8.67), which we didn't try but definitely will soon.
Beer lovers will be pleased to know that Nevskoye, Baltika and Botch ka ryov live here happily side by side, just 30 rubles for half a liter.
We started off with the caesar salad, 49 rubles ($1.50), and a house salad called Iceberg, 80 rubles ($2.67), which was lettuce, tangerines, cauliflower, peppers and cashews in a yogurt dressing. The caesar salad was tasty, but had rather too much mayonnaise. Iceberg was refreshing and healthy tasting. My other dining companion lapped up the 35-ruble borscht so fast that I didn't get to taste it, but I think that probably speaks for itself.
One member of our party then ordered the creole chicken, 195 rubles ($6.50), despite the waitress' alarming declaration that it is "not spicy." And she was right. It was a generous serving of chicken chunks in a peanut-and-sweet-pepper sauce that had nothing to do with anything Creole, but was delicious anyway. And the chef put the same attention into presentation that the management put into decorating the cafe. Everything we ordered looked as good as it tasted.
I opted for an entree intriguingly called "Stop on Demand" (165 rubles, or $5.50), which was a chicken fillet stuffed with bacon and mushrooms, smothered in cheese, sprinkled with walnuts and lovingly presented on a bed of vegetables. It would be a crime for me not to call it "fabulous." I savored every bite.
Although the cafe's menu is in Russian only, the staff was extremely friendly, welcoming and good-humored. Depot is also a great place for coffee and desert, or just to have a few beers and a snack with friends. It is certainly heartening to see more places like this opening up around town.
Depot Cafe, 14 Goncharnaya Ulitsa, 277-4451. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Dinner for three, 818 rubles ($27.27). Menu in Russian only. Credit cards accepted.
TITLE: U.S. Bombing Campaign Enters 5th Week
AUTHOR: By Steven Gutkin
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JABAL SARAJ, Afghanistan - The Afg han opposition claimed its fighters had edged closer to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Wednesday, and U.S. special forces reported that Northern Alliance fighters on horseback charged Taliban tanks and armored personnel carriers. Officials of the ruling Taliban denied losing territory but acknowledged that the fighting was intense.
In Washington, Marine Corps General Peter Pace said the fighting south of Mazar-e-Sharif was "very fluid" and that the opposition appeared to be making progress.
Capturing Mazar-e-Sharif would be a major victory for the Northern Alliance because it would open supply corridors to neighboring countries Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and cut Taliban supply lines to the west of Afghanistan.
U.S. bombers were also in action Wed nesday across northeastern Afgha ni stan, pounding Taliban artillery positions near the border with Tajikistan. The private South Asia Dispatch Agency also reported air attacks around Kandahar in the south and Jalalabad in the east of the country.
After 10 days of heavy air attacks along the front lines south of Mazar-e-Sharif, opposition spokesperson Ashraf Nadeem said the Northern Alliance had captured Shol Ghar district and that some opposition units were within 15 kilometers of the city. In Kabul, Taliban officials denied losing Shol Ghar but said they were rushing 500 fresh troops to front lines south of Mazar-e-Sharif to block the opposition advance.
Pace confirmed that U.S. special forces teams were with opposition forces near Mazar-e-Sharif "to help in directing air strikes." The general said the American soldiers reported cavalry charges, with opposition fighters on horses going against Taliban armor. "These folks are aggressive," he said of the alliance.
The commander of Shiite Muslim fighters in the alliance, Mohammed Mohaqik, said opposition officers would confer over the next two days on plans to capture Mazar-e-Sharif without incurring large civilian casualties.
Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, reportedly said Wednesday that the Taliban will never hand over bin Laden and will fight America, if necessary, for 100 years. Earlier, Pakistan told Zaeef to stop using the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad for propaganda against any third country after a series of news conferences in which he accused the United States of "terrorism" and "genocide."
In villages surrounding Jabal Saraj, leaflets that witnesses said were jettisoned from a B-52 bomber tumbled from the sky. They showed a picture of a radio and antenna,and detailed times and frequencies for radio broadcasts in the Pashtun and Dari languages. The United States has been broadcasting anti-Taliban statements into Afghanistan.
Others showed a Taliban official beating a woman and included the message: "Is this the future you want for your women?"
TITLE: Bush Administration Takes Aim at Terrorism's 'Oxygen'
AUTHOR: By Ron Fournier
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration cracked down on Osama bin Laden's multimillion-dollar financial networks at home and abroad this week, closing businesses in four states, detaining U.S. suspects and urging allies to help choke off money supplies in 40 countries.
"By shutting these networks down, we disrupt the murderers' work," U. S. President George W. Bush said, announcing the first major dragnet of companies, organizations and people suspected of aiding terrorists from U.S. soil.
Across Europe and from coast to coast in America, police conducted raids against two Islamic financial networks accused of laundering and raising money and providing logistical support to bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.
Investigators said they believe tens of millions of dollars a year flowed overseas through the Al-Barakaat network of stores, groceries and money exchanges, much of them from funds that Somalis living in America send home to relatives. Some of that money was skimmed for use by al-Qaida and other terrorist networks, investigators said.
In Mogadishu, Somalia, the chairperson of the Al-Barakaat group, which operates in 40 countries including the United States, vehemently denied the White House allegations.
"This is all lies," Ahmed Nur Ali Jim'ale said in a telephone interview from Dubai. "We have nothing to do with terrorists."
The second network, al Taqua, is a loosely organized band of companies in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas and Italy, the White House said. It is controlled by Youssef Nada, a naturalized Italian citizen, whose assets the United States wants frozen in overseas banks.
Acting on the United States' request, officials from Switzerland, Italy and Liechtenstein moved to block al Taqua assets. In all, the names of 62 entities and people were added to a list of suspected terrorist associates targeted by Bush in an executive order signed last month. The earlier list included 88 groups or people whose assets had been frozen because of their ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
In coordinated raids Wednesday, Customs agents seized evidence and shut down Al-Barakaat companies in four cities: Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio. The Treasury Department froze assets of nine organizations and two people in the United States, most with links to Al-Barakaat.
In addition, FBI agents raided two Virginia businesses seeking evidence of terrorist transactions. The companies cater to the Somali community in northern Virginia, not far from the Treasury Department office where Bush announced the crackdown.
In Boston, Mohamed Hussein and Liban Hussein were charged with running an illegal money-transmitting business, according to a criminal complaint. Officials said Mohamed Hussein was in custody. The business moved over $2 million through a U.S. bank between January and September, the government said.
Also watching federal agents seize evidence from Barakaat Enterprise in Columbus, Hassan Ali, 20, a Somalian who has lived in the United States for a decade, said Somalians often used the business to send money to their relatives in Africa.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday: "Money is the oxygen of terrorism."
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: More ETA Attacks
MADRID (Reuters) - A judge was shot dead on Wednesday in Spain's Basque region less than 24 hours after police said they had seized two members of an ETA cell blamed for a spate of recent attacks in Madrid, including a car bomb on Tuesday.
"A judge from the provincial court of Bilbao has died. Several people shot him when he was getting into his car," a spokesperson for the Basque police force said, without giving the identity of the victim.
The judge was shot several times as he approached the garage at his house in the small town of Getxo, on the outskirts of Bilbao on Spain's northern coast, he added.
The armed separatist group ETA, which was quickly blamed by Spanish authorities for Tuesday's car bomb, has killed some 800 people in a campaign of bombings and shootings spanning 30 years to back its demand for Basque self-determination.
The car-bomb attack on a busy Madrid street slightly injured a government official believed to be its target and wounded at least 94 others, four of them seriously.
Mayor Bloomberg
NEW YORK (AP) - New Yorkers chose media mogul Michael Bloomberg as the mayor to lead the recovery of their terror-weary city, one of several political novices who will take office across the country next year as a result of elections on Tuesday. New Jersey and Virginia each put a Democrat in the governor's mansion for the first time in eight years.
Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican, had promised voters he would keep up the momentum of Rudolph Giuliani, who could not seek re-election because of term limits. Bloomberg, whose financial information company bears his name, spent an estimated $50 million of his own fortune in his first-ever race, blanketing the airwaves with ads to overcome the initial lead by Democrat Mark Green.
Like Bloomberg, Virginia Governor-elect Mark Warner is a wealthy businessperson who's never before held office. Warner, a Democrat, defeated Mark Earley, a former state attorney general.
In New Jersey, Democrat Jim McGreevey, a suburban mayor, defeated Republican Bret Schundler, the conservative former Jersey City mayor.
Mugabe Trails in Poll
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe is trailing his main rival in the public-approval sweepstakes ahead of elections due by next April, according to an opinion poll released on Thursday.
The poll was published just days after the country's former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay accused Mugabe of human rights abuses and disregarding the rule of law.
Gubbay, who was forced to quit earlier this year by Mugabe's government, said during a lecture in London earlier this week that Mugabe's regime had shown a "blatant and contemptuous disrespect" for the judiciary.
On Thursday, Zimbabwe police arrested the editor-in-chief of the southern-African country's only private daily newspaper as part of an inquiry into its shareholding structure.
Daily News editor-in-chief Geoff Nyarota said that his arrest was part of a government drive against the private media ahead of the elections, in which Mugabe is facing the biggest challenge of his career.
"This is all part of the harassment we are being subjected," he said by telephone.
The government alleges that Zimbabwe's privately owned media is funded by his opponents and wants to topple Mugabe over his controversial and often-violent drive to seize white-owned farmland for redistribution to landless blacks.
Good Omen?
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A rare white elephant has been caught in a jungle in western Myanmar, the official press reported Thursday, hailing the find as an auspicious event that bodes well for the military state.
The 8-year-old beast, standing 2 meters high, was among eight elephants caught by forestry officials last month at Chutpyin village in Rakhine State, 550 kilometers northwest of Yangon, the New Light of Myanmar reported.
The white elephant is more calm and steady than the other seven elephants and has distinctive characteristics, including pearl-colored eyes and white hairs on the body.
The New Light, which is a mouthpiece of the ruling military junta, said the find augured well for Myanmar as the regime endeavored to build a peaceful and prosperous nation.
White elephants have been revered for centuries in Southeast Asia and were the symbol of kingship in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, Thailand and Laos. In Thailand, all white elephants traditionally belong to the king. A war between the kings in Myanmar and Thailand was fought in the 16th century over disputed ownership of four white elephants.
The white elephant is not actually white, and most of them look much the same as others except for certain features such as fair eyelashes and toenails, light colored hair or reddish hue of the skin.
India PM Nixes Talks
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has ruled out talks with Pakistan for now, saying conditions were not right, local media reported on Thursday.
Vajpayee told reporters in Mos cow that guerrilla violence in the disputed Muslim-dominated territory of Kashmir had increased in recent weeks, including in areas on the border with Pakistan, and innocent people were being targeted.
"This is not a conducive atmosphere for talks, and until a proper climate can be created, there can be no talks," the Hindustan Times quoted him as saying before he left Moscow for Washington, where he will hold talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.
Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan both back the U.S.-led war on terrorism and they are under pressure from the international community to contain tension over Kashmir while the war against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan is on.
Fresh violence erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Thursday when Muslim militants threw a grenade in a crowded street in Srinigar, the state's summer capital, killing a woman and wounding five people, including a one-year-old baby.
India accuses Pakistan of supporting the Muslim separatist rebels who have been fighting its rule in the Himalayan region since late 1989. India has demanded that Pakistan stop backing the guerrillas but Pakistan says it only offers them moral support.
India has also sought to widen the global war on terrorism to include the rebels in Kashmir.
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Ivanisevic Will Play
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - Goran Ivanisevic, who battled past a shoulder injury to win Wimbledon, will play in the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup despite a freak accident in the shower.
The Croatian, who takes daily painkillers for his damaged left shoulder, stubbed his toe in the shower of his Sydney hotel on Wednesday.
The minor but painful injury forced him to miss practice later that day.
Tournament officials, however, said Ivanisevic trained on Thursday and would not need x-rays of the injury.
Ivanisevic has been drawn in a four-man group with top seed Gustavo Kuerten, clay court specialist Juan Carlos Ferrero and Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov at the season-ending event.
The second group features Australians Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter, the United States' Andre Agassi and Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean.
Cuts Ahead
NEW YORK (AP) - Baseball and union representatives were set to meet as soon as Thursday to discuss which teams will be eliminated, possibly before the new season starts next spring.
A day after owners voted to get rid of two clubs - with Montreal and Minnesota the likeliest - former commissioner Fay Vincent criticized owners for making their decision without consulting the union.
Baseball's collective-bargaining agreement expired at midnight Wednesday. The union maintains owners need the permission of players to eliminate teams; management disagrees, saying it has to bargain only on the mechanics of contraction, such as dispersing players.
"The lawyers in baseball have been so wrong in labor matters," said Vincent, baseball's commissioner from 1989 until 1992. "It probably puts baseball off on the wrong foot, and that's too bad."
Tiger Takes a Check
AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Tiger Woods received another big check from the officials at Augusta National on Wednesday when the club that hosts the U.S. Masters announced it was donating $500,000 to his foundation.
The Tiger Woods Foundation, created by the golfer who won his second Masters title last April, supports community-based golfing programs that benefit children.
"At Augusta National, we continue to support those organizations that are equipped to make informed decisions on the use of the donations for the good of the game," Augusta National Golf Club chairperson Hootie Johnson said in a statement.
Augusta National has already pledged $3 million to charity this year, including $1 million to the First Tee program, designed to promote youth golf.
Heavier Yet
ANTAYLA, Turkey (SPT) - Russia's Valentina Popova lifted 115 kilograms Thursday in the snatch event at the World Weightlifting Championships being held in Antayla, Turkey.
The lift set a new world record in the 69-kilogram category, breaking Popova's own previous mark of 113.5 kilograms.
She set the previous mark at the 2001 Goodwill Games, which were held in Brisbane, Australia, where she also established world marks in the clean and jerk and combined total events.
Popova, took the silver medal at the 2000 Olympic games in the combined event, finishing behind China's Xiaomin Chen.