SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #723 (90), Tuesday, November 20, 2001
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TITLE: Kursk Crew Members Laid To Rest
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Eleven coffins, draped according to navy tradition with the blue-and-white cross of the Andreyev flag, stood in a row at the St. Petersburg Naval Institute Saturday as a line of mourners passed slowly by. Relatives of the Kursk crew members who were being laid to rest stood by the coffins throughout the ceremony. Few of them wept; they have cried enough already over the last year since the nuclear submarine sank on Aug. 12, 2000, killing all 118 aboard.
The eleven crew members were laid to rest with full Russian Navy honors Saturday at St. Petersburg's Serafimov Cemetery.
Galina Isayenko, widow of Captain-Second Class Vasily Isayenko, embraced her two children, Lyubov, 16 and Sergei, 15. They stood together in front of their father's coffin. Sergei, a first-year student at the Nakhimov Navy College, wore a uniform hauntingly like his father's.
Marina Mityayeva, mother of Senior Lieutenant Aleksei Mityayev, leaned her forehead close against her son's coffin and whispered a last farewell.
After the line of mourners had filed past, the coffins were given full navy honors and laid to rest in the previously prepared graves as a heavy snow fell. The cemetery was closed for the day, and an honor guard of navy cadets stood at the entrance.
The 11 new graves were dug next to those of two Kursk crew members - Senior Lieutenant Alexander Brazhkin and Lieutenant Captain Dmitry Ko les ni kov - whose bodies were recovered shortly after the disaster occurred.
Space for 19 more graves has been set aside in the same plot for the bodies of other crew members whose relatives have requested they be buried in St. Petersburg, but whose bodies have not yet been recovered and identified. Among those to be buried here is the commanding officer of the Kursk, Captain Gennady Lyachin.
There are 34 Kursk families - 21 widows and 13 families whose sons died aboard the submarine - currently living in or planning to move to St. Petersburg.
The 10 officers and one sailor buried Saturday were: Captain-Second Class Vik tor Belogun; Captain-Second Class Va sily Isayenko; Captain-Third Class Ilya Schavinsky; Captain-Third Class Ni kolai Belozorov; Captain Alexei Stan kevich; Lieutenant Captain Andrei Va siliev; Senior Lieutenant Arnold Bo risov; Senior Lieutenant Andrei Pana rin; Warrant Officer Oleg Troyan; and Crewman Sergei Vitchenko.
Vladimir Mityayev, himself a former submarine officer, spoke about the heart-rending process of traveling to Severomorsk to identify his son's body. Initially, he didn't want to take his wife on the trip and put her through the difficult procedure.
"However, when she told me that she needed to see our son one last time, I understood that she was right," Mi tya yev said.
He said that his son had been found in the fifth compartment with a gas mask on. The body was easily recognizable.
"Maybe, it is hard to say, but maybe both my wife and I felt that a stone that had been weighing on our souls for a year had fallen away the moment we arrived home after identifying our son's body," he said. Mityayev also expressed his gratitude to President Vladimir Putin for keeping his promise to raise the Kursk.
Like the other relatives, Mityayev received the personal effects, including a plastic watch, that were recovered with the body.
"For us every little thing is invaluable," Mityayev said.
Naval authorities summoned relatives to Severomorsk only after they were virtually certain they had properly identified a body. After relatives confirmed the identification, the coffins were sealed and shipped out according to the families' wishes.
According to Yelena Kuznetsova, a representative of the St. Petersburg Submariners' Club, in only one case did a Kursk widow arrive at Severomorsk and find that the body she'd been asked to identify was not that of her husband. Her husband's body still has not been identified, Kuznetsova said.
A second round of Kursk funerals will be held at the cemetery after the remaining bodies have been identified.
"We can't say for sure when it will take place," said Fyodor Smuglin, deputy head of the Leningrad Military District. "Anyway, it will take more than a month," he said.
Those crew members will be afforded the same honors as those who were buried Saturday, authorities confirmed.
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Admiral Mikhail Motsak, head of the Northern Fleet, told the newspaper Izvestia on Saturday that evidence had been found that the Kursk sank as a result of a collision with a foreign submarine.
Motsak asserted that the Russian Navy missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, which also participated in the training exercises during which the Kursk sank, recorded the hydroacoustic trail of another underwater vessel close to the Kursk.
He also stated that members of the ship's crew also saw an emergency buoy near the Kursk's position, which they tried, but failed to lift from the water. The Kursk's emergency buoy was recovered inside the vessel, Motsak said, according to Izvestia.
Further, he claimed that on Aug. 13, 2000, one day after the tragedy, Russian pilots identified leaking fuel on the surface of the sea about 25 kilometers from the site of the accident. Later, Motsak said, Russian anti-submarine aircraft observed an unidentified submarine leaving the area.
He said, however, that he could "not make an official statement since he was a member of the government commission investigating the catastrophe."
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who heads the commission and who has advocated the collision theory repeatedly in the past, told a press conference on Saturday that it is too early to draw any conclusions.
"We don't have any direct evidence that the Kursk collided with a foreign submarine, although we do have some indirect evidence," Klebanov said, according to the Interfax news agency. Klebanov confirmed Motsak's claims about the emergency buoy and the leaking fuel.
"At present, I cannot officially say that it was a collision. Only time will tell whether this version is true," Klebanov said.
TITLE: Kasyanov Hits Back at Stepashin
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has rebuked Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin for harshly criticizing him to senators last week, saying Stepashin was speaking out of turn.
In a sensational report to the Federation Council, Stepashin, a former prime minister and interior minister, complained Wednesday that Kasyanov and his government were stubbornly ignoring the chamber's findings of massive budget fraud.
He threatened to go over Kasya nov's head to President Vladimir Putin, who, he said, supported his efforts.
The verbal assault came while both Putin and Kasyanov were out of the country - Putin was at a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush in the United States and Kasyanov was on an official visit to Spain.
Political analysts said that the timing was no doubt more than a coincidence and that Stepashin may be trying to boost his political star.
Kasyanov lashed back from Madrid on Thursday, telling TV6 television that the Audit Chamber was tasked with "balancing debits and credits, while drawing political conclusions is a matter for the president and the government."
Kasyanov continued his rebuke Friday, saying that the government is not obligated to act on Audit Chamber recommendations if they go beyond the scope of the chamber's duties, Interfax reported.
The Audit Chamber is the budgetary watchdog of the State Duma and only has the power to issue findings and offer recommendations.
Kasyanov said the government does not have to act on any demands to change cabinet proposals or even reply to reprimands "that, say, [Finance Minister Alexei] Kudrin or [Economic Development and Trade Minister German] Gref do not present documents on time," Interfax reported.
Kasyanov said the government will try to act expediently to reprimands from the Audit Chamber that are made within its scope of responsibility.
"We will try to eliminate such delays," he said.
Stepashin said Wednesday that he had uncovered $776 million worth of budget fraud in the first 10 months of this year alone and that Kasyanov was "dodging" his duty of acting on those findings.
"I have formulated specific suggestions in a letter to Mikhail Kasyanov and will be waiting for a reply," Stepashin told the Federation Council. "If there isn't one, then I will have to discuss it with the head of the state."
He also said the government had waited until last month to act on a chamber report issued three years ago concerning large-scale embezzlement at the Railways Ministry. The Prosecutor General's Office in October announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into the Railways Ministry and summoned top ministry officials for questioning.
Andrei Ryabov, a political analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that spat is a sign that a struggle is heating up between Putin's team of mostly St. Petersburg natives and the group that former President Boris Yeltsin left behind. Stepashin is an old colleague of Putin's from his St. Petersburg days.
"The destiny of this conflict is in Putin's hands," Ryabov said.
TITLE: Officials Say Korean 'Slaves' Are Missing
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Hundreds of North Koreans who were brought to Russia over the last decade to work as indentured servants in a controversial debt-repayment scheme are apparently at large after escaping the strict supervision of their country's security forces, officials of the Russian government have reported.
The workers, who labored at a Far East lumber camp, failed to return home after their labor agreements and documents expired and remain in Russia illegally, said a top Amur Region migration-service official.
Tatyana Yaropolova, head of the Amur Region migration service, said some 500 to 600 North Korean workers had gone missing since the mid-1990s and were thought to have run away, seeking employment with private companies, mainly in construction and on farms. Such companies are often willing to offer low-paying jobs to such workers.
Yaropolova said the runaway Koreans are a very attractive work force for Russian employers because of their illegal status and lack of any rights.
"Russian citizens use this cheap work force very successfully, ignoring all existing laws," Yaropolova said in a telephone interview from Blagoveshchensk.
In August, government officials said that some 10,000 North Koreans were working in Russia under the supervision of their country's security agents, continuing a Soviet-era practice under which North Korea services its debt to Russia by sending indentured servants to work in lumber camps across Siberia.
The workers, who are also housed and fed by North Korean officials, are managed by a North Korean state-owned agency, which finds contracts in Russia and supplies the labor to carry them out.
Yelena Kondratyeva, an aide to the Amur regional prosecutor, said the prosecutor's office was working out a plan to track down the illegal workers in order to send them home, Interfax reported.
One of the North Koreans' employers in the labor-for-debt scheme is the private joint-stock company Tynda-Les, based in the Far East town of Tynda.
Tynda-Les representative Ivan Gayev called the migration service's claims groundless, saying that there have been only a few incidents of Koreans running away over decades.
North Korean workers had been working in Tynda-Les for some 26 years, and the company inherited the practice during the course of privatization.
Tynda-Les gets 66 percent of all the trees the North Koreans cut, while the North Korean government gets the rest. Gayev would not say whether the workers are paid or treated well, saying it is a question for the North Korean supervisors to answer.
The Korean managers at Tynda Les could not be reached for comment.
Gayev suggested that officials at the migration service had a "documents mix-up" and could have confused those who have run away with those who have had problems with documents such as the expiration of their passports, visas or registrations.
He added that there were some 20 workers currently employed whose documents need to be updated.
"They have not run anywhere. They are all here," Gayev maintained.
Yaropolova said that as an employer responsible for workers brought into the country, Tynda-Les should track down its former employees to send them home. She warned that Tynda-Les might lose its license to use a foreign work force if it does not launch the search.
"As the party who issues the invitation, they must carry out their responsibilities," she said.
Gayev argued that a search for illegal immigrants is a job for the police.
However, Kondratyeva said law enforcement bodies do not have the resources to deal with deportation costs, and those illegal immigrants that the police do find usually say they cannot afford a return ticket home.
A Tynda police official, who declined to give his name, said in a telephone interview that there were some Koreans in town, but police normally do not bother to check their documents as they "behave well and commit no crime."
A spokesperson for the North Korean Consulate in Nakhodka said the claims of the Russian officials couldn't be taken seriously, as none of the agencies had contacted his office with demands to look into the issue.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Fire in the Fortress
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The director of the Peter and Paul Fortress stated that arson may have caused the blaze that damaged the Naryshkin battlement Sunday evening, Interfax reported Monday.
Museum Director Boris Arakcheyev said that the fire broke out within a tower on the wall of the 18th-century fortress, in a location where no work was being carried out. He said, however, that it was also possible that the fire had been started by workers repairing the outside of the tower's wooden roof earlier in the day, Interfax reported.
The fire broke out late Sunday evening and caused considerable damage to the cupola on the top of the tower. No one was injured in the blaze, which was put out by about 20 fire trucks, according to Interfax. An investigation is currently under way.
Capital Stays Put
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The capital of the Russian Federation will not be moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, according to the head of President Vladimir Putin's administration, Vladimir Kozhin, Interfax reported.
Kozhin, speaking to journalists at the St. Petersburg bureau of Radio Liberty Sunday said that the capital would not be moved "not now, not ever," according to Interfax. "No one is talking about moving the capital and no one - particularly the president - has asked anyone to do so," Kozhin said.
Asked about the possibility of building the headquarters of the Russia-Belarus union in St. Petersburg, Kozhin said that "it is not planned in the immediate future," according to Interfax.
Central Bank To Move?
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Members of a working group drafting amendments to a new law on the Central Bank are proposing moving the bank's head office from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Interfax reported on Sunday.
Aleksei Mitrofanov, a member of the State Duma working group that is revising the draft law that will soon face its second reading in parliament, told journalists that the group lacked just one vote on Friday to approve the idea and that members had agreed to discuss the matter further, Interfax reported.
Mitrofanov noted that the idea of moving the bank to St. Petersburg was first proposed by former Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and that doing so would promote "the development of the northwest region of Russia" and facilitate the separation of Russia's political and economic capitals, according to Interfax.
Mitrofanov said that the present Central Bank building in Moscow could be sold to help defray the costs of the relocation. He added that St. Petersburg has the necessary human resources to support the bank's work, Interfax reported.
CIS Coming to Town
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The next meeting of the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly will be held in St. Petersburg on Nov. 23 and 24, Interfax reported Monday.
The regular meeting of the assembly, as well as a meeting of the inter-parliamentary committee of Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, will be held at the Tavrichesky Palace, according to the assembly's general secretary, Mikhail Krotov.
Krotov said that the session, which will be chaired by Federation Council head Yegor Stroyev, will also be attended by representatives of the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Northern Council, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other organizations, according to Interfax.
New Georgia Cabinet
TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, bidding to end a political crisis that began two weeks ago when he sacked his entire cabinet, revealed his candidates for a new government Thursday.
"The president submitted to parliament the list of candidates for ministerial posts," presidential spokesperson Kakha Imnadze said.
She said the president proposed to leave 14 out of 20 former ministers in their posts, including charismatic Defense Minister David Tev za dze and experienced Foreign Minister Irakly Menagarishvili.
Shevardnadze has put forward new names for interior; economy, industry and trade; state property and tax, as well as for the post of state minister.
The president put forward his parliamentary secretary Valery Khaburzania to succeed Security Minister Vakh tang Kutateladze, who resigned Oct. 31 amid political turmoil sparked by a feud over press freedoms.
He has proposed outgoing Tax Minister Levan Dzneladze as the new state minister; outgoing State Property Minister Georgy Gachechiladze as economy, industry and trade minister; former First Deputy Finance Minister Zurab Soselia as tax minister; and wants to promote First Deputy State Property Minister Georgy Pruidze to full minister.
Parliament, which has to approve the nominations, will consider the list next week.
Jordan King To Visit
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Jordan's King Abdullah II will visit Russia Wednesday for talks on Mideast peacemaking.
Government officials said Thursday the king was scheduled to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin and other officials during the visit, the second since Aug. 28. The talks are expected to focus on international moves toward a Middle East settlement, the war in Afghanistan and boosting trade and military cooperation, said the officials, insisting on anonymity. They declined to elaborate.
Russia has played a far smaller role in the peace process than the United States, and Moscow's ties with the Arab world have weakened over the past decade.
Franco Assassination
LONDON (AP) - An Englishman - possibly famed double agent Kim Philby - was recruited by the Soviet Union in 1937 to assassinate Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco, according to a secret British document released this week.
A plot to kill Franco involving "a young Englishman, a journalist of good family, an idealist and a fanatical anti-Nazi ... was hatched by the head of the Soviet secret police, Nikolai Yezhov, according to a British intelligence memo written by a Soviet defector.
The newly declassified document said the English assassin was ordered on his deadly mission, but the plan stalled and unraveled after the assassin's contact in Spain was recalled to Moscow.
A British intelligence officer scrawled "prob Philby" in the margin of the document. Philby was a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War for The Times of London.
Philby later became one of history's most successful double agents. He passed British and American secrets to Moscow in the 1940s and 1950s while working at the top level of British intelligence. He disappeared in 1963 in Beirut while working as a journalist, and surfaced in the Soviet Union later that year.
The KGB gave Philby a full ceremonial funeral after his death in 1988 at the age of 76.
TITLE: Raduyev Pleads Not Guilty at Trial Opening
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MAKHACHKALA, Dagestan - Salman Raduyev, the most prominent Chechen rebel leader to be arrested and brought to trial, maintained his innocence Friday after the Dagestani Supreme Court finished reading his 700-page indictment.
"Not guilty," said Raduyev when judge Baguzha Unzholov asked how he pled.
Raduyev and three alleged accomplices are on trial for a hostage-taking raid on a Dagestani hospital in 1996 that left 78 people dead. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov is leading the prosecution.
Raduyev, 34, with his trademark tinted glasses and beard covering facial wounds suffered in one of several past attempts on his life, testified for more than two hours Friday.
"I am not afraid of a death sentence after being blown up by mines eight times," said Raduyev, behind the steel bars of the cage that held him and three co-defendants, Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev, Aslambek Alkhuzurov and Khusein Gaisumov, who were waiting for their turn to testify. "But I cannot stand untruth," Raduyev added.
Raduyev said the indictment, prepared by a joint team of investigators from the Federal Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office, misrepresents his activities as a rebel leader. However, Raduyev said he is ready to acknowledge his guilt in particular charges, if it will please the court.
Speaking about the main charge against him, relating to the 1996 hostage-taking raid at the hospital in Kizlyar, Raduyev said: "I am very interested in a deeper investigation of the Kizlyar events, because there are a lot of odious interpretations of them."
Raduyev said the raid was ordered by the first Chechen president, Dzhok har Dudayev, and was conceived not as military operation but as a political and propagandist move to attract the world's attention to the conflict in Chechnya.
Early on the morning of Jan. 9, 1996, 300 of Raduyev's gunmen invaded the Dagestani town Kizlyar and seized the local hospital, taking hundreds of patients and staff hostage. Dozens of civilians were shot during the daylong siege that ensued.
"I don't deny that my people could be responsible, but I cannot carry personal responsibility for these casualties," said Raduyev. "In Russian law, it is called an excess of the executioner [of orders]."
Raduyev said he had pulled out of Kizlyar after receiving a telephone order from Dudayev, who expressed displeasure over the civilian casualties. He said about 50 top Dagestani officials voluntarily agreed to accompany him from Kizlyar to Chechnya, to secure the rebels' passage through Dagestani territory. However, Raduyev said, despite all the accords on safe passage reached with Dagestani authorities, the rebel convoy was blocked by Russian troops near the village of Pervomaiskoye on the Dagestani-Chechen border.
"I immediately let the Dagestani leaders go free when they asked for it at Pervomaiskoye," said Raduyev. "And I could have kept them hostage and saved the lives of my people then."
The siege of Pervomaiskoye, where Raduyev seized local residents and a group of OMON officers from Novosibirsk, lasted for eight days before Raduyev managed to escape with his gunmen and hostages.
"When Russian troops were getting ready to storm Pervomaiskoye, I told the locals and the OMON officers to stay there if they wished, but they decided to go with me," Raduyev said, adding that they feared being killed in an assault by Russian troops.
He said he ordered the hostages' positioning at the rear of his group to protect them from landmines.
"My own people were dying to save the hostages, as I knew that civilian casualties would bring the political effect of the raid to zero," Raduyev said.
He freed the hostages the next day.
Testifying about other major charges against him, which include taking a group of Perm OMON officers hostage in 1996 and ordering a bomb attack at the Pyatigorsk railroad station in 1997, Raduyev denied personal involvement in the crimes. He said they had been ordered by his aide, Vakha Dzhafarov, without his knowledge. Dzhafarov was killed in a clash with Russian troops during the second military campaign in Chechnya, Raduyev said.
Explaining his numerous public statements taking responsibility for the terrorist attacks in southern Russia, Raduyev blamed the media.
"The world media is not interested in information. What it needs is a sensation," Raduyev said.
Raduyev, held in a detention center in downtown Makhachkala, is allowed to receive up to 10 kilograms of food a month from his relatives. In an interview with the local press last week in his one-man cell, Raduyev said he enjoyed "brotherly" treatment from jail staff and received three two-course meals a day.
"One may consider it too hospitable for a man who invaded Dagestan," said the head of the republic's prison directorate, Tagir Dibirov, in an earlier interview with the local press. "But we must follow the order and treat Raduyev the same as other inmates."
Meanwhile, Raduyev's three sisters and aunt appeared in the court Friday.
"Salman isn't guilty, he obeyed the orders," his sister Malika told journalists.
"He is not a criminal but a national hero of Chechnya," his sister Yesita added.
"The trial is being held according to the law," said Raduyev's aunt Aina. "However, his indictment is a pile of false accusations."
Although public protests against Raduyev had died down by Friday, security remained tight. Police kept patrolling the vicinity of the court, and snipers occupied positions on the roofs of nearby buildings.
TITLE: Chechnya Peace Talks Get Under Way
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - An envoy of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov made a lightning visit to Moscow on Sunday for the first face-to-face settlement talks with a Kremlin representative since war started in Chechnya two years ago.
The meeting between Akhmed Zakayev and Viktor Kazantsev, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, took place at Sheremetyevo Airport.
Kazantsev said after the two-hour meeting that the talks "went exclusively along the lines of the recent statement by President Putin concerning Chechnya," Itar-Tass reported. Kazantsev's adviser Mazim Fedorenko said that the two discussed ways for the guerrillas to lay down their weapons and begin a peaceful life.
"The parties aired their intention to seek a lasting peace in Chechnya," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Kazantsev and Zakayev had spoken by telephone several times since Putin in late September offered rebels the chance to start talks on laying down arms, but it was the first time the two met in person. After repeatedly rejecting calls by the rebels and Western countries for negotiations with Chechnya, Putin on Sept. 24 addressed the rebels in a speech outlining Russia's response to the terrorist attacks in the United States, and said the separatists should contact Russian authorities to arrange a first meeting. Putin's peace proposal was the first during the war that started in 1999. He and other officials had previously ruled out any talks with rebels and said they should be eliminated.
Kazantsev flew to Moscow from his Rostov-na-Dony headquarters in southern Russia on Sunday while Zakayev flew in from Turkey, Itar-Tass reported. Zakayev returned home afterward.
"We were very happy with the meetings. We believe the talks will continue and end positively," he said. "The most important goal of these talks was to stop the war in Chechnya."
Russia refused to allow mediators at talks with the rebels, who continue guerrilla resistance after having been driven from much of the northern Caucasus region by Russian forces. But Zakayev was accompanied by a Turkish politician and said in a statement before the talks that the Chechen side was acting with the "active cooperation" of Ankara.
"The meetings were very positive," the politician, Besim Tibuk, head of the small Liberal Democratic Party, told the same news conference. " The Turkish government was informed, but we didn't go there on behalf of the Turkish government. We went independently."
"This morning, Akhmed Zakayev phoned and finally, after long consideration and discussion, asked for a meeting here in Moscow, to discuss the issues raised by President Putin in his statement of Sept. 24," Kazantsev said on NTV television.
Putin has strongly backed Washington in its war against terrorism, and the Kremlin has long maintained that its war in Chechnya is part of the same fight. But Western leaders had difficulty toning down criticism of Russian policy as long as Putin avoided talks with Maskhadov. Maskhadov was Moscow's preferred negotiating partner for peace talks that ended the first Chechen war in 1996 and was elected Chechnya's president with Moscow's blessing in 1997. But he is now wanted in Russia on charges of armed insurrection.
The Kremlin says several Chechen rebel warlords are closely linked with international extremists including Osama bin Laden.
Moscow has lumped Maskhadov in with Chechnya's radicals since 1999, saying he was either unwilling or unable to rein them in.
Putin on Sept. 24 called for talks aimed at finding a means of "disarming illegal formations and groups and a way to include them in civilian life in Chechnya." Putin also demanded "those who call themselves political actors immediately sever contacts with international terrorists and their organizations," suggesting Russia might rehabilitate Maskhadov if he disavowed warlords with extremist ties. Federal forces now control most of Chechnya, but its soldiers are still killed in rebel attacks almost every day, and a few top separatist leaders have been captured or killed.
- AP, Reuters
TITLE: Is Friendship Enough For Good Relations?
AUTHOR: By Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The backslapping has subsided. The barbecue grills have been packed up and put away. The three-day meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush is over.
Last week's U.S.-Russia summit, although short on tangible results, served as another step in reinforcing the two countries' new relationship - one in which common interests and pragmatism, to a large extent, have replaced ideological incompatibility.
"Russia and the U.S.A. have overcome the legacy of the Cold War. Neither country regards the other as an enemy or a threat," said the presidents in one of six joint statements issued in Washington.
"The atmospherics at the summit were terrific," said Michael McFaul, a Russia specialist at Stanford University who helped prepare Bush for a previous meeting with Putin. "Putin has made a fundamental choice that Russia wants to be part of the West. ... But expectations on both sides weren't met in terms of deliverables."
Nonetheless, the presidents' three days of talks, meals and travel did yield some concrete results. First and foremost was Bush's announcement that Washington would slash its strategic arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 nuclear warheads, a lower threshold than the Pentagon had been willing to accept.
But observers ranging from U.S. weapons experts to Putin's communist opponents criticized the lack of any formal document sealing the cuts.
"The agreements reached at the summit must have their logical continuation [in written form] ... to ensure that they are irreversible," Roland Timerbayev, chairperson of the Moscow-based PIR Center for Policy Studies, told reporters and diplomats Friday.
Otherwise, Timerbayev warned, changes in political climate could nullify the plans announced in Washington last week. The cuts, he said, "must be drawn up as agreements that are subject to verification and binding for future administrations."
Some analysts were disappointed that, despite the seeming progress on arms reduction, Bush and Putin failed to reach a compromise on missile defense, specifically on the fate of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Washington wants to abandon in order to proceed with non-land-based tests of a national anti-missile shield.
In an interview Thursday on National Public Radio, during the unofficial leg of his visit, Putin reiterated Russia's position: "We believe that the existing 1972 treaty can be used quite flexibly in joint efforts to increase the security of both Russia and the United States."
Vladimir Dvorkin, a senior fellow at PIR, said that the lack of a compromise deal on the ABM Treaty reflects the pressure being exerted on each president by his respective military establishments.
But one U.S. analyst praised Putin for giving his consent to limited missile-defense testing. "Putin has really been wise to make a concession on this point because I think that the missile-defense system is going to fall of its own weight," Bruce Blair, head of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said Friday on Ekho Moskvy radio.
"Offering the United States more flexibility to test ... in a sense accelerates the day when America realizes that this is a technically unfeasible project," he said.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that have drawn Russia and the United States into an unexpected military alliance, the conflict over the ABM Treaty has become just one small part of a much larger puzzle: redefining Moscow's role on the international security scene and its relationship with NATO.
The Kremlin has been lobbying actively for more decision-making powers on international security issues, and NATO members, while not backpedaling on expansion, have made it clear that they understand Russia's concerns.
In a joint statement on the new relationship between Russia and the United States, Putin and Bush said the international community would "work on improving, strengthening and perfecting relations between Russia and NATO in order to create new, effective mechanisms for consultations, cooperation, joint decision-making and implementing coordinated joint actions."
The statement goes on to say that "to an ever greater extent, Russia and NATO members act as allies in the fight against terrorism ... and their relations must evolve accordingly."
McFaul warned that NATO enlargement to the Baltics - which many Russians oppose - without parallel concessions to Moscow could heat up opposition to Putin's advances toward the West.
TITLE: Russian Delegation Arrives in Kabul
AUTHOR: By John Iams
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DUSHANBE, Tajikistan - A team of Russian ministerial representatives flew to Kabul on Sunday to meet with American and UN officials and work on creating a transitional post-Taliban government in Afghanistan.
The Russian delegation arrived for a stopover in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Saturday en route to Afghanistan. The delegation flew to Kabul by helicopter Sunday morning, a day later than scheduled, after their flight was turned back by bad weather, a spokesperson at the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe said.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Saturday that an agreement on sending the group of representatives from the Foreign, Defense and Emergency Situations Ministries was reached by President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington.
"In America, an agreement was reached that special representatives and envoys from Russia, the United States and the United Nations will start consultations in Kabul with the goal of creating a transitional government in Afghanistan," Ivanov said.
"The government will include all ethnic groups, first of all, the Pashtuns," he said, according to Interfax.
He said that Russia has assisted and will continue to assist the Northern Alliance with military-technical aid.
The delegation will be accompanied to Kabul by a small military detachment to act as security, Ivanov said. He said the detail was necessary for their physical security, but "Russia does not intend to send any military contingents into Afghanistan."
The Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the delegation was going to Kabul for consultations with the Afghan leadership and representatives of various ethnic groups as well as special envoys of the UN Secretary General, U.S. representatives and other countries of the anti-terrorist coalition in order to work out agreed positions on the future political structure of Afghanistan.
It is planned that they will work out questions on the urgent shipment of humanitarian aid to the Afghan population, the ministry said. Russia has supplied arms to the anti-Taliban fighters, and it voiced strong support for the U.S.-led fight against terrorism in Afghanistan under which warplanes launched heavy bombing on Taliban positions.
TITLE: Blair Urges Close NATO Ties
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is proposing the creation of a close, new partnership between Russia and NATO under the auspices of a Russia-North Atlantic Council, Blair's advisers said.
Blair described his ideas for a new security relationship between Russia and the West in a letter sent to President Vladimir Putin, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and the heads of all NATO member governments, two top officials told reporters in a briefing at Blair's Downing Street office Friday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to say when the letter was sent.
They said the proposed council would help formalize the warming of the Cold War foes' relationship.
Under Blair's plan, a Russia-North Atlantic Council would serve as the centerpiece of a new security relationship and could eventually lead to Russia-NATO military cooperation in areas like peacekeeping, the officials said.
Controlling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would also be high on the council's agenda, they added.
"This could well lead to taking common decisions together and taking common action together," one of the officials said. "I can imagine we might well want to do something together in the Balkans."
Blair's advisers emphasized that his proposal was not a move toward Russian membership in NATO. They said Blair hoped to have the new council up and running within a year.
Russia has regarded NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe as a security threat and a sign that the West continues to view it as a potential enemy. Putin said during his visit to the United States last week that Russia wants to leave Cold War divisions behind and expects a role in the alliance's decision-making.
The Kremlin said Saturday that Putin called Blair and discussed efforts to "further deepen ties between Russia and NATO," as addressed in Blair's letter.
- AP, Reuters
TITLE: Falling World Price Raises Tough Budget Questions
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - As oil prices continued to slide Monday, senior government officials looked increasingly worried that the trend could jeopardize next year's economic forecasts.
The government's press service Monday moved quickly to counter impromptu remarks made Saturday by Science and Technology Minister Ilya Klebanov, who told journalists that, in light of the slump in crude prices, it was "time to think about [cutting] the [2002] budget."
DPI, the government's information department, said in a statement that the remarks were "politically unacceptable" and that Klebanov, who is also deputy prime minister, "was misunderstood by journalists."
"The government is not discussing the possibility of a budget [cut]," DPI said.
The 2002 draft budget, which is the first post-Soviet budget with a surplus, was universally hailed for its fiscal prudence when the government presented it to the State Duma in September. It has already passed two of four required readings and starting all over again with a leaner version because of falling oil prices would be a humiliating blow to the government and its efforts to wean itself off petrodollars.
But with a price war looming as Russia continues to rebuff OPEC demands to cut output, economic forecasts laid out in the budget are looking less likely to be achieved.
The 2002 draft budget is based on a minimum price of $18.50 per barrel of Russian benchmark Urals crude, which closed down 3.86 percent at $15.21 on Monday. It sets budget revenues at 2.13 trillion rubles ($67.6 billion at the predicted average ruble rate for the year of 31.5 to the dollar), and spending at 1.95 trillion rubles, leaving a surplus of 1.63 percent of gross domestic product. It also envisions an annual inflation rate at 10 percent to 13 percent.
The last time Klebanov, who oversees the arms industry and has no formal training in economics, voiced his opinion on a major macroeconomic issue, he was also promptly shot down. But unlike last year, when he called the passage of a 13-percent flat tax on incomes "temporary," which damaged the government's increasingly liberal reputation, analysts said his comments on the budget may be an indication that others are thinking along the same lines.
"The government is certainly more nervous now than it was before [OPEC decided not to cut production unless Russia and other major non-cartel producers did the same]," said Alexei Zabotkine, an economist at investment bank United Financial Group. "The main evidence of this is that the Economic Expert Group within the Finance Ministry was told to work out a budget scenario based on an oil price of $15 per barrel," he said.
While the budget is based on a minimum price of $18.50 per barrel of oil, its optimistic scenario is $23, at which point the government can create a contingency fund to help meet ballooning debt payments in 2003. Every dollar difference in the price of oil translates into roughly $1 billion in budget revenue.
Analysts said that the last thing the government wants to do is sequester the budget. The only two years that was done were 1997 and 1998, when prime ministers rotated every half year until the financial crisis hit in August.
"It is politically unacceptable," said Alexei Moissev, an economist with Renaissance Capital investment house, echoing DPI's statement.
Most analysts said that the current draft budget will survive if oil prices stay above $15 per barrel. "While the oil price has often been seen as a proxy for the health of the Russian budget, the country is currently well positioned to endure a period of low oil prices, given its solid budgetary position, continued economic growth and high level of Central Bank reserves," Renaissance wrote in a research note Monday.
Troika Dialog, another investment bank, said the Russian budget looks healthy as long as oil prices remain in the $16 to $18 per barrel range.
Mikhail Zadornov, a former finance minister and current deputy head of the Duma's budget committee, went further, saying Friday that there wouldn't be any major budget problems as long as oil stays above $12, although at that level the rate of GDP growth would slow and Russia would likely need to resume borrowing from the International Monetary Fund - something it is hesitant to do.
Russia has not borrowed from the fund since the summer of 1998 and has decided to pay some $1 billion of its debt to the IMF this year, ahead of schedule. IMF chief Horst Koehler has said that Russia could rely on IMF emergency financing in the event oil prices drop sharply.
Adding to the downward revisions, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters in Canada over the weekend that next year GDP may underperform the government's most pessimistic forecast.
"If the oil price is lower than $18.50 a barrel, growth could be a little bit lower than 3.8 percent," Reuters quoted Kudrin as saying at the Group of 20 nations summit in Ottawa.
One good thing about low oil prices, analysts said, is that Russia would be more likely to convince the Paris Club of creditor nations to restructure its $39 billion Soviet-era debt, $4 billion of which comes due next year.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Friday that while Russia did not intend to seek debt relief from the Paris Club in the next two years, the "issue remains and should not be forgotten." He added: "We have achieved a new level of trust in our relations with the West, and this should be the basis of political conclusions."
TITLE: Factory Delivers Reactor to Iran
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: On Friday, the Izhorskiye Zavody metallurgical plant shipped the first component for a reactor that is to be built at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Station in Iran.
The 317-ton reactor body, which is being delivered under a $1-billion contract with the power station signed in 1996, is the first that Russia has made for Iran.
"We are happy that the three-year-long construction of the reactor has been completed and wish to thank the plant's workers for the work they have done," Mohammed Reza Zahertar, a representative of the Iran Atomic Energy Organization, said at a ceremony at the plant marking the shipment of the new reactor body.
The reactor body is the first to be completed at the Izhorskiye plant since 1987. In the 40-year period leading to the pause, the plant had built 200 reactor bodies.
The reactor built for Iran will have an energy-production capacity of 1,000 megawatts once it is operational.
The reactor body is 13.7 meters in height, with a thickness of more than 20 centimeters, and is able to withstand internal pressures equal to 160 atmospheres and an average temperature from the thermal carrier located at the exit of the reactor of 322 degrees-celsius.
The reactor body is just one item for the reactor being manufactured under contract for Iran, and Izhorskiye Zavody will provide 34 other items, including fuel-cycle equipment and other support-system items.
The deal with Iran is not the only nuclear project in which the plant is presently involved, as it is also under contract to construct two similar reactor bodies for a nuclear-power station in China. The first is to be shipped in December and the second in the middle of next year.
Yevgeny Sergeyev, the general director of Izhorskiye Zavody, said that the plant also has orders to construct two 1,000 megawatt reactors for the Indian nuclear power plant at Kudankulam. Work on that project is to begin soon.
Officials from both the plant and the Iranian government refused to comment on thefinancial terms of the agreement.
St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, who attended the ceremony, said that local participation in the reconstruction of Slovakia's nuclear- power plants was discussed when he met with Slovakia's president, Rudolf Schuster, last week.
TITLE: Cellular Pioneer Ready For Switch to Next Generation
AUTHOR: By Andrey Musatov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Delta Telecom, a local cellular-phone- service provider operating on the NMT-450i analog standard, has announced that it will build a new, so-called "third-generation" digital network using the newly developed IMT-MC 450 standard.
IMT-MC 450 stands for "International Mobile Telecommuni ca ti ons- Multi-Carrier 450 megahertz."
According to a press release issued by the company last week, Delta plans to finish the construction of a test network operating on the new standard by February of next year. The system will consist of one switching station and seven base stations. The company says that the nature of its plans for setting up the entire system will depend on the results of the test effort.
The company has signed a contract with New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies to provide the equipment for the test sytem. Delta officials refused to specify the value of the deal, saying only that the cost of the equipment was being covered by "a few million dollars of their own funds."
A source at Delta, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the IMT-MC 450 standard operates on the same frequency presently used by the NMT-450i standard, but provides very high sound quality and a greater broadcasting distance than any other existing cellular standard. The standard also provides higher rates of data transfer than the older analog system, making possible such services as cellular Internet access.
"If the test network operates as well as the manufacturer says it will, then a complete network will be built by the end of 2002," the source said.
The source refused to comment either on proposed sources of financing for the entire project or on technical questions related to developing the new network, including the number of base stations required to provide complete coverage in the city.
Earlier this year Dmitry Shkenev, the marketing director at Delta Telecom, was quoted by Interfax as saying that the company plans to spend about $10 million over-all on development this year.
According to Andrei Braginsky, senior telecoms analyst at Renaissance Capital Research, the plan to build a third-generation network isn't a new one and faces some serious obstacles i.
"Analog-standard cellular-service providers have been trying to set up new digital networks for about two years," Braginsky said Monday. "But nothing is really happening, as it's still unclear who is willing to finance the creation of these so-far mythical networks."
Delta is the oldest of Russia's cellular-service providers, having begtin operating the first network here in 1991. The major shareholder in Delta is Petersburg Telephone Network (PTS), with 43.12 percent, while the Russian Telecommunications Development Corp. owns 31.5 percent of shares and the Telecominvest holding has 25 percent.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Mutual Admiration
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Northwest Region Governor General Viktor Cherkesov has thanked Moody's international ratings agency for the positive attention it pays to Russia and the region. his press service announced Monday.
"Viktor Cherkesov underlined that the rating agency treats Russia very seriously and with positive intentions. Out-of-date stereotypes still exist in the West, which need to be overcome," the press service said.
According to the press service, John Rezerford, the president of the ratings agency, said that Moody's "is working on a special rating system, that would fit Russia."
'Russia an Exception'
FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - European Central Bank council member Ernst Welteke said Monday that Russia is one of the only major economies that would post significant growth this year.
He also said that China and the Middle East would post substantial growth and cited an expected global trade growth rate of 2 percent for 2001.
Welteke said the United States was close to a recession, but was confident the world's biggest economy would return to growth in the near future.
"I have no doubt that the U.S. economy will again show rising growth rates within a few months," Welteke said in a text of a speech.
Fighter Tender Near
MOSCOW (SPT) - A tender to build Russia's fifth-generation fighter jet will be completed by the end of the year, said Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov.
"The Defense Ministry firmly intends to complete the tender by the end of this year," Klebanov, who is also the minister for industry, science and technology, said at a news conference Saturday.
The tender has not begun officially, but some companies are already developing the jet, Klebanov said.
Those companies - among them are Russian Aircraft Corp. MiG, Sukhoi and Yakovlev design bureaus - have handed their drafts to the Defense Ministry, he said.
The fighter is expected to be tested in 2006 and begin mass production in 2009.
Gazprom All Set
MOSCOW (SPT) - All documents necessary to begin the first stage of Gazprom share liberalization will be ready by the end of the year, Interfax reported a source in the presidential administration as saying Monday.
In the initial stage, the government plans to drop the restrictions on the markets on which Gazprom shares can be bought and sold.
Currently, Gazprom stock circulates on the Moscow and St. Petersburg stock exchanges. Once the restrictions are relaxed, the stock could be traded on any exchange with a Federal Securities Commission license.
EBRD Loan to Surgut
MOSCOW (SPT) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development plans to loan 45 million euros ($40 million) to the Siberian city of Surgut, Interfax reported Monday.
The money will be used to modernize and expand the city's heating and water systems, Interfax reported.
The project has passed its final review and is scheduled for a board review in December.
Total investment in this project will be about 79 million euros ($69.4 million), the bank said.
TITLE: Dispelling the Myths Of New Pension Plan
AUTHOR: By Richard Minns
TEXT: SO, pension "reforms" are coming to Russia. I refer in particular to the piece by Kirill Koriukin in the Nov. 13 edition of the St. Petersburg Times: "Will Pension-Reform Package Change How Russians Retire?" This is part of a world-wide movement to privatize pension provision in one way or another. Further privatization along Anglo-American, World Bank lines, whereby savings would be invested in corporate securities under private as opposed to public control, is based on a number of myths.
Myth No. 1.
Privatisation will increase aggregate net national savings, which will add to investment in the corporate sector and facilitate greater productivity of capital.
There is no convincing evidence concerning the increase in savings. Even if there were, there is no evidence that these kinds of savings increase corporate investment. This is a supply-side theory that just has no back-up. What happens instead is a possible growth in the stock market and the ability of outside investors, insurance companies and so on, to deal in the market of takeovers and corporate control - a decidedly different matter.
Myth No. 2.
The accumulation of funds (or '"unding"in western terminology) will enable people to receive better pensions.
This is debatable. There have been enormous losses incurred by private pension schemes in the west. I refer to the U.K. in particular, with the second-largest funded pension system in the world in terms of accumulated assets (behind the United States). A recent report in the U.K. for the Association of British Insurers suggests average contributor to private personal pension plans run by insurance companies would have to pay $6,000 per year more than they pay now to receive the benefits they expect at present.
Myth No. 3.
The declining ratio of workers to pensioners means that we have to do something to support the increasing old-age dependency ratio.
This makes no assumptions about economic growth and the positive economic effect of paying out state pensions. State Duma Deputy Martin Shakkum is quoted in the article as saying that pension money at the moment is being reinvested immediately in the economy because pensioners spend it. Accumulated funds, conversely, contain no guarantee of retaining their value (as per Myth No. 2). Also, you cannot pick on pensions as an isolated, hermetically sealed item in the economy, and ignore everything else. Shakkum, by implication, hit the nail on the head.
Myth No. 4.
The world is changing, and the pressures of globalization mean that we must reform in order to meet international standards for pension provision and stock-market development.
Not so. The debates about pension provision are centered around the ideological question of the relative roles of the state and the private sector. There is nothing inevitable, or in many cases desirable, about private systems of pension provision. In fact, the whole theory is based on a fundamental contradiction that seeks protection from the vagaries of the market by using the market. Because the market is indeed the market, the state will always have to intervene. Better to admit this and arrange pensions, and other welfare, accordingly, as the Russian government appears to be doing at the moment.
There is, in conclusion, a fundamental conflict over the role of the state and the private sector in welfare and corporate control. I remain singularly unconvinced of the advantages private pension sytems provide. As the article said: "There are many rich people waiting for the law to be passed so they can have another party".
I think that just about says it all.
Richard Minns is the author of the book "The Cold War in Welfare: Stock Markets Versus Pensions." He contributed this comment to the St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: New Law Sets the Stage for Cleaner Cash
AUTHOR: By James Hitch
TEXT: A GRAPHIC, but somewhat misleading term met in the modern criminal-law codes of market-economy countries, namely "money laundering," has recently been redefined by the new Russian federal Law On Combating Money Laundering, adopted on Aug. 7, 2001. The previous definition of "money laundering" was stipulated in the Russian Criminal Code and referred quite broadly to as an "illegal" source of money.
This definition could have conceivably been applied to legally earned funds wrongfully retained through tax evasion or obtained in the contravention of the currency control legislation, which did not correspond to the internationally recognized conception of money laundering. The adoption of the new law made it necessary to amend a number of other federal laws, including the criminal code, which now more narrowly refer to "criminal" sources of money.
Under the new law, which will come into force on Feb. 1, 2002, the proceeds must have been derived exclusively by criminal means. The new law exempts such crimes as the non-return of funds in foreign currency from abroad, the evasion of customs payments and the evasion of taxes. In practice, this means that a person who has failed to remit taxes owed may be held liable only for tax evasion and not for money laundering, because tax evasion cannot itself convert lawfully earned funds into funds derived by criminal means.
One of the most significant changes is the requirement that a wide range of financial institutions must report to a central executive agency "large" cash and deposit transactions, i.e., those involving 600,000 rubles (approximately $20,000) or more, as well as any kind of transaction that is suspicious in the sense of relating to criminal activity.
As in a number of other countries, a specialized government agency, commonly referred to as a "financial intelligence unit" or FIU, will be created in Russia under the new law. The Russian FIU will be a central federal agency responsible for receiving, analyzing and disseminating to the competent authorities disclosures of financial information concerning suspected proceeds of crime.
Although the new law is still untested in Russia, it has already improved several important aspects of the fight against money laundering, such as the procedure for the supervision and reporting of suspicious transactions, as well as internal record-keeping and customer-identification procedures for financial institutions.
The Russian system for fighting money laundering has been clearly improved by the new law, which has created the necessary pre-conditions for detecting and responding to new money-laundering schemes. Time will tell how hard the Russian authorities will work at enforcing the new law.
James Hitch is the managing partner at Baker & McKenzie law firm's St. Petersburg office.
TITLE: Rolling Out the Cyprus-Bank Welcome Mat
AUTHOR: By Russell Working
TEXT: CYPRUS is famous as an offshore haven, a place where Germans register shipping firms and Russian tycoons stash their dollars to avoid the tax collector at home.
But my recent attempt to place $10,000 in a Cypriot bank left me with a frozen account and a newfound relationship with my Visa credit card's fraud department. My card is blocked, and for a while I was borrowing cash from friends to survive.
This story starts, as so many seedy transactions do, in the Russian Far East where I lived and worked as a freelance reporter in Vladivostok for five years.
I never opened a bank account there. Deposits are uninsured, and banks often fold, taking the cash with them. And bankers, accustomed to clients depositing bricks of banknotes wrapped in rubber bands, wouldn't know what to do if I brought in a slip of paper marked with curious ciphers and the phrase "pay to the order of Russell Working."
So I sent the checks to my father, who deposited them in my bank account in California. When I needed cash, I withdrew it with my Visa card. If this was awkward, I never noticed. I didn't pay Russian taxes, life was cheap and the cash piled up.
Perhaps I lost touch with how Westerners do business as I exchanged money on the black market or traveled to Mongolia or Kyrgyzstan with hundred dollar bills in my wallet.
However, when I moved to Cyprus recently, I was relishing the prospect of fiscal normality: writing checks for prepackaged cuts of meat in supermarkets, not handing rubles to a guy who hacks sides of beef with an ax in a bazaar.
Like all shady operators, I needed the money fast. I had to prove to the Cypriot authorities that I was a financially stable journalist and not a drifter who planned to sleep in vineyards and steal eggs from hen houses.
So I logged onto the Web site of my bank - let's call it Billy the Kid Bank - and transferred $10,000 to my Masked Man Plus Visa Card. For good measure, I phoned "Amber" at the bank and warned her that I planned to withdraw the cash here. "No problem," she said. "I'll mark it here, and you won't have any trouble."
Ah, Amber. We were young and naive then, weren't we? Or did you spot me as a sucker, like one of those guys who wander into a stockbroker's office with a price tag dangling from his baseball cap and a paper bag stuffed with grocery receipts and $143,000 in twenties?
I transferred the cash into my new Cypriot account. Then Billy Bank blocked my credit card and dropped my credit line to zero. Meanwhile, my Cypriot account was frozen while I waited for a letter from Billy asserting that I was a longtime client who wouldn't ever do something stupid enough to, say, get his credit card blocked.
Now when I call Billy Bank, I don't get to talk to Amber anymore. Instead, someone named Steve or Karen or Anna asks for my card number, and then says, "Oh, my gosh," and transfers me to the fraud department. There I argue my case with a short-tempered smoker named Norma or a former cop called Rick. I know he's a cop because he frequently says, "Yes, sir," or, "You'll have to take that up with my superior, sir."
As for my Cypriot bank, even though the letter from Billy Bank finally arrived last week, I still haven't managed to obtain a credit or debit card, forcing me to scrape together pocket change in order to buy a bag of pita bread after hours.
Do crooks really launder money offshore? If so, please tell me how, Amber, and we'll do things right the next time.
Russell Working is a freelance journalist based in Limassol, Cyprus.
TITLE: Next WTO Round Holds Something for All
TEXT: THE agreement among the World Trade Organization's 142 member states on a new round of talks represents an important victory over isolationism. The bargaining at last week's meeting of trade ministers in Doha, Qatar, was tough; implementing agreements during the planned three years of talks will be even tougher, but the result surely will be worth it.
Lowering or abolishing tariffs makes goods more affordable. Freer trade will be a boost for poor nations like newfound U.S. ally Pakistan, which depends heavily on exports. There is ample evidence that countries that increase trade create new jobs and reduce poverty. When there is more money to build schools and provide medical care, offering the hope that life will get better, the temptations to violence and terror lessen.
It is true, as India argued forcefully at the ministers meeting, that past trade agreements too often have been ignored. There's no doubt that individual countries look to protect their own interests, especially when these involve politically important constituencies like farmers. But retreating behind tariffs and quotas, shutting out the rest of the world, hurts countries rather than helping.
The United States and Switzerland compromised on drug patents, agreeing to the right of poor countries to determine whether they have an emergency requiring them to copy patented drugs they could not otherwise afford. The problem became obvious when AIDS struck impoverished nations, and health officials said they could not afford the expensive pharmaceuticals available in the United States and European countries. Developing nations gained ammunition when the Bush administration forced the maker of the anthrax drug Cipro to reduce the price.
The WTO members also agreed to reduce and eliminate tariffs on nonagricultural goods, particularly products important to developing countries. That matters greatly to Pakistan, where more than half the exports are cloth or clothing. After Sept. 11, textile exports dropped, and the already poor country could wind up with $2 billion less in revenues this year than it had expected. Lower tariffs would help restore lost sales. However, getting domestic producers to agree to smaller tariffs and quotas or none at all will be difficult in many countries, including the United States.
The trade talks in Seattle broke down without agreement two years ago as huge anti-trade street protests rocked the meeting. The stakes were higher this time because of a deteriorating economy worldwide. To their credit, the trade ministers understood the need and reached consensus on thorny issues. The WTO's agreement on a new round of talks opens the way to tariff cuts that could be a boon to poor nations.
This editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 15.
TITLE: Small Business Looming Large in Fueling Economy's Growth
TEXT: In less than a month, the State Council will convene in the Kremlin to hammer out a national plan to develop the country's neglected small-business sector. As staff writer Simon Ostrovsky reports, thousands of people, from union leaders to ordinary proprietors, are eagerly awaiting the results and hoping that, after seven years of mere rhetorical support, the government will finally put its money where its mouth is.
THE State Council, an assembly of regional leaders that convenes four times a year to discuss pressing issues, is a forum in which politicians from across the country can make their voices heard. On Dec. 5, the council is scheduled to debate topics ranging from integrating the work of small and large businesses to perfecting the small-business tax system. And their conclusions will be incorporated into a 2003-05 federal plan for the development of small business, according to Sergei Baskakov, head of the Antimonopoly Ministry department for developing small and medium enterprises, or SMEs.
The reason for the need to act is obvious - a strong small-business sector is considered vital to the creation of a healthy economy. But Russia's SME sector, which one observer says is now a "fashionable topic" in government circles, is woefully weak, accounting for just 10 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Small and Medium Enterprise Resource Center, a nonprofit organization in Moscow that provides information to small businesses. In Poland, for example, the figure is 50 percent, on a par with the United States, while in the European Union, SMEs account for 63 percent to 67 percent of GDP.
"[SMEs] are the root of dynamism in the economy," said Bryan Nielsen, program coordinator for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's Russia Small-Business Fund. "If they are given the potential to grow, they can provide greater stability in the country through diversification of national income and also increase employment."
The sector's importance is especially apparent now, when the government is scratching its head for ways to balance the federal budget in a time of foundering oil prices. A strong small-business sector could help stabilize the economy and reduce its dependency on natural resources.
"The small-business sector is very mobile and is where new technologies are created. Within it lies a great potential for higher employment in the country," Nielsen said.
Small businesses employ only 10.2 percent of the country's workforce. In the United States, 51 percent of private-sector jobs are in small businesses, which make up 99 percent of all employers, according to U.S.-government figures.
Statistics concerning SMEs, however, can be misleading. While the most common factor used to define a business' size is its number of employess, with those employing fewer than 100 generally labelled as small, definitions vary from country to country. For example, the State Statistics Committee did not include individual entrepreneurs or so-called micro-businesspeople in last year's report on the sector. The committee estimated that there are 4 million such entrepreneurs in Russia, compared with an estimated 1 million small businesses.
The small-business sector in Russia has deep-rooted problems that are not easily solved with reform legislation. The 1998 financial crisis devastated the sector, which was heavily involved in imports and retail. The fall of the ruble cut people's buying power and dried up demand for the foreign products most small businesses were selling. The EBRD's Nielsen said small businesses had jumped into retail because "it's the easiest to get into."
An increase in the variety and volume of domestic products has since helped stabilize the internal market, but "the small-business sector needs to diversify," said Yevsey Gorvich, research manager at the Economic Expert Group, a think tank sponsored by the Finance Ministry.
Yet Russian SMEs are showing up in other industries as well. Fourteen percent of small firms are involved in construction and manufacturing, accounting for 28 percent of output in the sector. But only 1.5 percent of small businesses are involved in agriculture, largely due to the Soviet-era legacy of communal farming.
The social importance of SMEs can be seen in the number of jobs the sector creates. In the United States, it creates 75 percent of new jobs. In Russia, that figure is unknown, but with only 6 million people in a population of 146 million working for small businesses, it is likely to be very low.
Banking Headache
In the United States, small businesses depend on the availability of credit to operate. About 55 percent of all small firms there obtained some form of credit in 1998, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
But this is not the case in Russia, where 75 percent of capital invested in small businesses in 2000 belonged to private individuals, according to the State Statistics Committee.
Government officials say this simply shows that small businesses are stable.
"When someone is investing his own money, then he acts responsibly with it," said Andrei Tsyganov, deputy antimonopoly minister, at a news conference last month. "It makes no sense to steal from yourself."
But many observers say that the absence of a banking system that is geared toward offering credit to such firms makes it impossible for the small-business sector to flourish and handicaps the economy as a whole.
"The necessary elements for the development of any business in this country are missing," said Tanya Monaghan of the International Chamber of Commerce, who puts the absence of a healthy banking infrastructure at the top of her list of obstacles.
Most of the country's capital is concentrated in central Russia generally and Moscow specifically. So it is hardly surprising that 43 percent of all small businesses are in central Russia - 29 percent in Moscow - and the rest more or less equally distributed throughout the country, with the second-highest concentration, 5 percent, in St. Petersburg.
Experts put the national banking system's failure to address the small-business sector down to inexperience.
"[Russian banks] don't think it is profitable to lend to small businesses," said the EBRD's Nielsen. "They don't know how to deal with small clients."
The system lacks the infrastructure needed to assess an organization's cash flow and its financial standing. Nielsen said banks have neither the ability to analyze demand for a small business' product nor the desire to do so.
"I won't name names, but many banks here were created to service specific institutions or groups of institutions that are related to each other, and they are comfortable with that because they know how to work with those partners," he said.
As more capital flows into Russia however, bankers are starting to look at other options. "What we're seeing on the market is that there is a fixed number of organizations to lend to," Nielsen said. When that segment is saturated, banks might start to tap virgin areas of the credit market, he said.
Currently, the $300-million EBRD small-business fund is one of the only credit resources for small businesses in the country. It gives loans to small firms through a number of banks across Russia, including Sberbank and its own Russian Small Business Bank. The fund has dispersed 65,000 loans since it was founded in 1995.
There are other sources of financing, such as USAID and TACIS, but Nielsen believes it is necessary for small businesses to be funded through banks in order for a normal, sustainable banking culture to develop.
Another source of financing for small businesses that can flow from both the government and big business is federal contracts, which represent a large portion of the business done by small firms in the West.
In the United States, for example, 33.3 percent of the value of federal contracts to private firms goes to small businesses, either directly or through subcontracts.
In Russia, "subcontracting is an unknown term," said Igor Mikhalik, director of the SME Resource Center. "The attitude of big business and the government has to change before those kinds of market relations will appear."
Legal Jungle
At first glance, the government's attitude toward small and medium-sized businesses appears to have been as supportive as that of any other. As early as 1996, then President Boris Yeltsin told a congregation of small and medium-sized-business proprietors that he considered "the support of small business to be a prerequisite for the further development of the economy and the appearance of a middle class."
To achieve these goals, he created the now-defunct State Committee for the Promotion of Small Business, which has been replaced by the state department of small-business support within the Antimonopoly Ministry. It advocates the same goals, yet not much has changed over the years. Bureaucratic barriers are rife. Registration is still a tedious process that involves juggling packs of documents through a long list of government departments.
The process is so unnerving, in fact, that a whole class of small businesses has developed just to cater to those wishing to start their own small business.
"I avoided registering my company like the plague," said Moteius Chepaitis, who is starting a small publishing business in Moscow.
In order to get his business off the ground, Chepaitis bought the rights to a company name with a false general director from an agency that sells registered companies for $500 apiece. "I guess they have contacts in the government, so they can register as many companies as they want at the same address," said Chepaitis.
"I just came in, took a look at a list of names they had already registered and chose one," he added.
Possibly more frustrating though, is closing a company. "Even if an organization has no debt, the liquidation process is so complicated that not everybody has the kind of nerves it takes to go through with it. Almost nobody does," said the SME Resource Center's Mikhalik.
Anton Solovyov, deputy director of Strekh-1, a mid-sized textile firm and a member of the small-business working group of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, agreed. "The liquidation process is too complicated, so firms opt to expire de facto, rather than de jure," he said.
Although it is apparent that the government is not doing enough to sweep away bureaucratic barriers impeding development, Mikhalik said the laws that are characterized by Solovyov as simply declarative, such as the federal law on the support of small business, also have a real purpose.
"Declarations are important for the regional governments. They're used as a yardstick by which they measure their behavior," he said. "The government has only spoken in a very general way about supporting small business. But I think we have to wait for the State Council to convene before we can say in which direction the country is headed."
However, Vladlen Maximov of the Liga Svobody inter-regional union, which includes more than 1,000 small businesses in Moscow and the surrounding region, said the federal government has set a bad example that regional governments are likely to follow in making statements of support for small business but declining to do anything concrete.
Solovyov said the 1995 federal law on the support of small business needs revision: "The criteria used to define what is a small business need to be more specific. The law completely ignores the concepts of medium-sized business and micro business. Such classifications would allow for a differentiated approach to taxation."
Tax laws, a thorny subject for legislators and entrepreneurs alike, are far from complete. The unified tax, for example, which is applied to all small businesses, works on the basis of inferred profit.
In other words, a prediction of how much profit a company will make in a tax period is made based on the area a company occupies or other irrelevant factors, after which the company must pay a set amount of tax, regardless of how high or low revenues for the period actually were.
"This approach is too arbitrary, and the methods by which taxes are levied differ greatly from region to region. Frequently, it does not reflect reality," Solovyov said.
A simpler tax system is necessary, but Mikhalik said reforms should not be drastic. "The worst thing for business is a drastic change in legislation," he said.
As an example, he said the terms of contracts frequently list unforeseeable changes in legislation as conditions under which agreements cannot be fulfilled, alongside earthquakes and other unpredictable situations.
The World Outside
After the September attacks in the United States, Russia found itself in the unprecedented position of cultivating warm relations with the West. With its newfound footing on the world stage, Russia is reviewing its role in the global marketplace.
The government is committed to joining the World Trade Organization, and last month, President Vladimir Putin told a group of representatives from small and medium-sized businesses that he was confident that membership would be good for the economy. However, he cautioned that "many of our goods are not competitive, and we must carefully analyze the consequences."
Opinions on what those consequences could be vary, as experts warn that the population has too little information on the topic for the government to make a balanced judgment.
"If Russia were to join today, the consequences would be disastrous," said the ICC's Monaghan.
She said if Russia were to join the WTO, "Russian small businesses would not be able to sustain the competition from foreign firms." She distributed a 132-page report outlining the dangers of WTO membership to various government agencies this summer.
"Small businesses don't need globalization," she said. "What good is free trade when Russian small business has nothing worthy of export?"
The Russian marketplace is simply not ready yet, according to Monaghan.
"Although competition is the key to success, all the other conditions of a free market, like a healthy infrastructure, the protection of entrepreneurs' rights and mechanisms for the implementation of laws, have to be in place before Russian and foreign firms are on equal ground," Monaghan said. "It's no secret that ordinary citizens' and companies' rights are poorly protected and that the level of corruption is very high," she said.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry has said a working group will discuss informally the possibility of Russia joining the WTO at bilateral trade talks scheduled for December in Geneva.
The ministry maintains that it is continuing its dialogue with business leaders and will take their opinions into account in ongoing WTO membership talks.
Monaghan said the government is talking about joining in 2003, but the country needs another five to seven years before it is fully ready to reap the rewards - and avoid the pitfalls - of membership in the global trade body.
But Gorvich, of the Economic Expert Group, took a more moderate stance on the WTO. "In most countries, small businesses are local, and international companies don't usually occupy their niche. Membership in the WTO won't have a drastic effect on [Russian small businesses] one way or the other," he said.
But the adverse or positive effects that may hold sway on the Russian economy largely depend on Russia's adhesion to the rules the WTO prescribes.
"Even if there are signs of risk to Russian businesses after Russia joins, the government will impose protectionist restrictions, one way or another," Mikhalik said. "There's nothing wrong with that."
TITLE: Phillips-Conoco Join to Form World's Sixth-Largest Oil Firm
AUTHOR: By Danny M. Boyd
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TULSA, Oklahoma - Phillips Petroleum Co. said Sunday it will buy Conoco Inc. for about $15.4 billion in stock, creating the United States' third-largest oil and gas company.
Phillips, which bought the refining company Tosco Corp. earlier this year, will gain extra strength as a producer of petroleum. The combined market value of the new company would be $35 billion based on Friday's closing price of each company's shares.
Phillips would also assume roughly $8 billion in debt.
Under the terms of the deal - described by the two rivals as a merger of equals - the combined company, ConocoPhillips, would have reserves of 8.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent, daily production of 1.7 million barrels and $18.6 billion in debt and preferred securities.
The deal was approved by the boards of both companies on Sunday.
The merger is expected to close during the second half of 2002 pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
The agreement would create the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, in terms of reserves and production, at a time of tremendous industrywide consolidation. The deal, which also includes a $550 million breakup fee, would give ConocoPhillips the No.3 spot in the United States behind Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp.
ConocoPhillips would be based in Houston, home to Conoco but keep a reduced presence in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where Phillips employs 2,400 at its headquarters and research facility.
"This is really a growth story for Conoco and Phillips," said Conoco chairperson Archie W. Dunham, who is delaying a planned retirement to serve as chairperson of the combined company.
Phillips chairperson James Mulva will be chief executive and president of the new company and become chairperson when Dunham retires in 2004.
"What we saw was just an ideal time for us to put our growth plans together," Mulva said.
Conoco and Phillips have a combined global work force of 58,000 employees and expect to save at least $750 million annually by merging.
Analysts said the deal would give the company better strategic balance.
"They really needed to beef up their exploration portfolio around the world," said Gene Gillespie, senior energy analyst with Howard Weil in New Orleans. "Conoco has a presence in some areas that Phillips is interested in, including the Gulf of Mexico and the MacKenzie Delta in Western Canada."
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: A Little Behind
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo said on Sunday he hoped the IMF and world markets would understand the country's "lag" in keeping its vow to balance its budget amid a deepening recession in its fourth year.
Cavallo, in Ottawa for meetings with the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organizations on the sidelines of a world finance conference, said shrinking tax revenues had complicated Argentina's "zero deficit" pledge to balance its budget, a key measure to ease default fears.
"Since tax collection is coming in lower than expected, there's a certain lag with our deficit goals but since we already implemented a reduction of the cost of our debt, that should lessen that lag, and we hope the IMF will consider the disbursement," Cavallo told local Clarin newspaper.
Still Falling
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) lowered its economic assessment for the sixth straight month in its November report published on Monday, citing weaker consumption, the biggest chunk of the world's second largest economy.
The assessment reinforces the view that Japan is in its fourth recession in a decade, with a downturn in exports since the start of the year causing a vicious chain reaction through output, corporate profit, capital spending, employment, personal income and now consumption.
The central bank said that a global economic slowdown which had been exacerbated by the September attacks in the United States meant the outlook for Japan remained uncertain.
On the Bright Side
TOKYO (AP) - Nissan Motor Co., a Japanese automaker whose fortunes have improved since striking an alliance with Renault SA of France, reported Monday a 34 percent rise in profits for its first fiscal half as cost cutting and a weaker yen helped offset lagging sales.
Nissan said the first-half results marked the third consecutive half-year of record profits as well as the company's best financial performance in more than a decade.
Nissan earned 230.3 billion yen ($1.9 billion), for the six months ended in September, up from 172 billion yen a year ago.
The results were in line with a report given last month by chief executive Carlos Ghosn on the progress of his revival plan, which includes shuttering three assembly plants, cutting purchase costs by turning to global suppliers and selling subsidiaries.
Land Grab
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government said on Monday it would limit farms not earmarked for seizure to a maximum of 2,000 hectares each and give left-over acreage to landless blacks.
"Government has decided that every property that has not been gazetted for compulsory acquisition should immediately be sub-divided to comply with the maximum size regulations," Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told a news conference.
The limits would range between 250 and 2,000 hectares, depending on the type of land, Made said.
Properties affected by the rules would include large-scale commercial farms not targeted for government seizure and properties belonging to foreign nationals, he added.
Last year, the government planned to restrict farm sizes but allow land owners to pay a levy to keep the original sizes. On Monday Made said the government had abandoned the tax idea.
TITLE: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
TEXT: Editor,
On Friday, the day before our city celebrated its militsia on Police Day, I was the victim of a crime. It happened very quickly, in the early afternoon, on the wide-open Marsovoye Polye. I was ambushed by a group of young punks (the police had no qualms about calling them gypsies, but let's call them "a roaming gang" instead).
I was not harmed, just roughed up. I was held on the ground with my mouth covered as they went through my pockets and backpack and stole my wallet and laptop computer. It took no more than two minutes, and then they were gone. And so were my passport, visa, credit cards, cash and endless hours of work on the computer.
The next five hours were even more frustrating though. I had the unfortunate opportunity of dealing with several of St. Petersburg's celebrated police officers. I was interviewed about what happened: when, where, how. Then I waited. I repeated the story several times, for each new officer who came into the office. And I waited again. I watched as these officers filled out form after form, re-copying the same material over and over again (not a computer or even a sheet of carbon paper in sight). More questions, more waiting. Some of the questions were almost amusing. After I had explained that the computer was in my backpack, which I was wearing, uh, on my back, I was asked how I knew for certain that my computer was stolen by these guys. Did the same person who stole my wallet steal my computer? And, one of my favorites: "Did this computer mean anything to you?" After much discussion, and more waiting, I was told there was a "90-percent chance" I would never see my belongings again. And that they did not want to initiate a criminal investigation because they felt it would be a waste of their time. "You have insurance, right?" they said.
I have heard tales of similar crimes against foreigners and locals. The police say the kids do this all the time, and there is no way to control them: if police bring them in to the station, they can only register the kids and hold them temporarily. I was told that even if, imagine, the police found a guy holding my computer and/or wallet, it would still be my word against his, and probably his friends, and they would say they had never seen me before and, therefore, the police could do nothing more.
This idea that there is nothing to be done about this sort of crime is the most passive and reactive of ideas about crime.
The troubling thing is that this happens all the time. To a Fulbright scholar very recently. To someone else and to someone else. The security at the U.S. Consulate offered similar tales. These attacks happen on the metro, on busy streets, in broad daylight. There are witnesses. There were witnesses to my attack, too. I approached the two women who were still standing and watching when I was released. They said they didn't do anything because they were afraid.
That reminds me of an infamous incident in New York City- the 1964 stabbing to death of a young woman named Kitty Genovese. She was chased and attacked three times on the street, over the course of half an hour, as 38 of her neighbors watched from their windows. None of the 38 witnesses called the police. The murder became symbolic of the cold and dehumanizing effects of urban life. From a book about the case: "Indifference to one's neighbor and his troubles is a conditioned reflex of life in New York as it is in other big cities."
The alienation and anonymity of big-city life makes people hard and unfeeling, right? In St. Petersburg, people are afraid to do anything. Perhaps they are afraid to do anything because they know their police won't do anything either. The police know this sort of crime happens regularly but blame it on the personalities or general predisposition of the street punks. A recent book on social epidemics makes a strong argument against this way of thinking. In "The Tipping Point," writer Malcolm Gladwell proposes that the criminal, "far from being someone who acts for fundamental, intrinsic reasons and who lives in his own world ... is actually someone who is alert to all kinds of cues, and who is prompted to commit crimes based on his perception of the world around him."
This crime had little to do with the background of the kids who accosted me and everything to do with the message sent by the police. I am not suggesting old understandings of handling crime: locking these kids up is not the solution. But doing nothing is not the solution either. In fact, doing nothing is ensuring that these crimes will continue to happen. If we understand that context matters though, that specific and relatively small elements in the environment can make a difference, the sort of defeatism the police are expressing is turned upside down. We can change things in our environment. We can clean up the graffiti and the area around the eternal flame at Marsovoye Polye. We can change the signals there that invite crime in the first place. Again, these are not my ideas. Read "The Tipping Point." It's subtitled "How Little Things Can Make a Difference."
We are all living with the whirlwind of construction and renovation and cleaning up going on in the city in preparation for 2003. Let's clean the buses and metro, fix broken windows, and clean up our streets. Let's see the police stop ignoring crime.
Jeff Magness
St. Petersburg
365-Day Party
Editor,
What needs to be done to prepare for the city's 300th anniversary in 2003?
This jubilee is a tremendous opportunity for this wonderful city. It is a great opportunity to gain international recognition for St. Petersburg as one of the best destinations in Europe.
Since 2003 starts in January and ends in December, it is only logical that the anniversary would be a year-long celebration, with events throughout 2003. We must exploit this opportunity as much as possible in order to attract tourists to the city throughout the entire year. That means working hard now to promote the city's image on the international stage. The cultural heritage of the city and its treasures make it the perfect place. This could and should be recognized by naming St. Petersburg the 2003 Cultural Capital of Europe, if not of the entire world. We should all expend whatever efforts necessary to promote this idea immediately.
Moreover, I would like to draw attention to the White Days initiative, which is intended to serve as a balance to our excellent White Nights traditions. This initiative, created by all the leading five-star hotels in the city, is designed to promote St. Petersburg during the November to March season by creating a variety of packages that correspond to major cultural events and festivals in our city during the winter season. We sincerely believe that this initiative will be our valuable input to the overall effort surrounding the 300th anniversary.
Elmar Greif
General Manager
Grand Hotel Europe
St. Petersburg
Bravo, Putin
Editor,
I, like many others here in the United States, listened last night to a nationally broadcast radio program featuring President Putin. He directly answered questions from the radio-show host and from citizens who called the program or sent in questions via e-mail.
President Putin did an outstanding job representing the people of Russia. He was courteous, direct and respectful of the audience. I hope you will have an equal opportunity to hear our President Bush in a similar forum. Putin commented that only through exchange and dialog at the "grass-roots level," citizen to citizen, would there be friendship and trust based on mutual understanding and respect. He could not have said it better.
My personal and heartfelt thanks to all of you for your prayers and support for the victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the United States
Tim Stockton
Gladstone, Oregon
God Bless Bush
In response to "Feel-Good Summit Draws to a Close," Nov. 16.
Editor,
I think your writer called it as most here in the U.S see it. The vast majority of Americans now see the new alliance between our respective presidents as a very positive step forward from the Cold War days.
It is also fortuitous that President Putin has come forward to the American press and people in his interview with Barbara Walters. He came across as a very cautious and straightforward leader with the best interests of his country and the world as foremost on his agenda. Those who saw the interview here and who paid attention to his comments during his visit to the U.S now have a very favorable and positive impression of this man.
The vast majority of Americans are now behind President Bush, especially after an independent project into the last election proved beyond a shadow of doubt that Bush was elected by the popular vote as well as the constitutional electoral vote. Speaking as a semi-retired Lutheran senior pastor of 24 mission churches in North America, I can also say with some authority that the entire Christian community in this country (with the exception of a scant few left wing liberals who support social anarchy and decadent, immoral standards hiding under the veil of Christianity) is firmly behind President Bush and the bond he has fostered with President Putin.
I think we are all beginning to see Russia and its people in a new and favorable light. I have no doubt whatsoever that these two great world leaders will resolve the ABM Treaty disagreement in a manner acceptable to the world if this dedication continues. We will keep these leaders in our thoughts and prayers, that God may continue to guide them toward the best decision.
Roger Eyman
Denver, Colorado
Jeremiah
In response to "Global Eye," a column by Chris Floyd on Nov. 13.
Editor,
Chris Floyd expresses so eloquently what I and several e-mail correspondents have been saying for months and months. It seems as though we are Jeremiahs crying in the wilderness.
However, I submit that there are many, many concerned citizens who are without a voice because the media is owned by corporate America. There is very little journalistic integrity at work in the American press. The most recent example of that lack is the misleading headlines concerning the vote recount slanted to imply that Bush would have won regardless. All thinking people know that that is not so but we have no voice.
We have no media watchdogs anymore, just lapdogs. Without a peep, they have rolled over and let themselves be locked out of reporting all the news from Afghanistan. Thank goodness for the BBC and other sources that are not beholden to a "master." Once America's revered "freedom of the press" and "source confidentiality" are revoked by another of George W. Bush's executive orders, maybe the press will wake up. However, by then it will probably be too late.
I would prefer for the Democratic majority in the Senate to start impeachment proceedings against Bush. That would be justice in action! Contrary to what the media would scream, I think it would be the most patriotic thing our elected officials could do! The Bush junta is destroying my country, but holds the ignorant enthralled because he has wrapped himself in a mantle of Christianity (What a disgrace to those of us Christians who hold to the ideals taught by Jesus Christ rather than those of the Republican right). And then the horror of the World Trade Center bombing could not have come at a more fortuitous time for him; his ratings were sliding into the toilet. Now he struts across the world stage as though he holds a legitimate title to the presidency; as though he was not so lacking in character and integrity that he took the office in spite of the will of the majority (540,000 for sure, and that's not counting the fiasco in Florida) of the American people. He is making a mockery of the constitution and of Congress, and the media is just sucking it up. Congress may as well pack its bags and go home: the Republicans because they are simply a rubber stamp for the Bush junta, and the Democrats because they don't have the courage to stand against them. They don't hold him to the law, as evidenced by their lack of concern for his imperialistic refusal to release the Reagan papers or his disregard of the General Accounts Office's demands for information about the Dick Cheney energy program, to name but two of his many offenses. Just think, if we did away with Congress, Bush could send all that money saved from their salaries and benefits back to his corporate buddies. Can't you just see them salivating?
Dolores Bertrand
Houston, Texas
Disgusted
Editor,
This is in regard to Global Eye by Chris Floyd. I found this column on George W. Bush's latest "executive actions" to be disturbing, yet eerily on the mark, as my friends and I have been having thoughts along this line for a few months.
I personally am happy to hear honest, unbiased reporting for a change, something sadly lacking here in the States. I find myself disgusted at the pabulum doled out by U.S. media whose coverage is slanted toward their own personal views (or toward what they're directed to report), and feel that the major media sources are unreliable at best. In case you're interested, I found Floyd's article from a link at Rotten.Com News, where it was posted by a reader. I find this to be a more reliable news source, as the articles tend to be from outside the country - meaning either an unbiased view or a more accurate representation of the global perspectives.
Thanks for a good article. I hope to check back more often!
Jeremy Audritsh
Portland, Oregon
I Want To Change
Editor,
You asked if readers were angry, pleased, excited or puzzled. I just read Global Eye and I don't feel any of the above.
I am part of the problem. For too many years, I have gone about my daily business not paying attention to what was happening. Then, as I've emerged from my cocoon of ignorant apathy, I have become angry, blaming others, and building and feeding fear. I have only myself to blame for this mess. But I do feel overwhelmed. I want to repent of my previous inaction. I want to change my way of thinking from "America is so great that nothing could bring her down" and "Three cheers for those Republicans (or Demo crats) who have the best interests of Ame rica at heart" and "Sure, your senators or representatives might be evil, but mine certainly aren't!" to "I am America."
If I don't pay attention, why should anyone else? I want to change, to become a participant in keeping freedom, liberty and knowledge (of the past and the present) alive and well in America. But I don't know how to do that. Are we in too deep of a hole to get out? Everywhere I turn, I learn more of the horrors and craziness that I have allowed. And I don't know a way out.
Joyce Cox
Afton, Wyoming
Keeping Freedom
Editor,
Just a tip of the hat from an old soldier who once warred against communism. Seeing outrageous opinions printed in your newspaper reminds me that there is a God and that the one who freed you all from communism may yet intervene and restore my own country.
I hope you all can keep your freedom and that we can get ours back.
Michael Peirce
Atlanta, Georgia
TITLE: All Cloaks and Daggers at the White House
AUTHOR: By Marie Cocco
TEXT: BLACK smoke rises up from terrorism and war, perfect concealment for a Bush administration assault of a different kind. This other attack is on history itself.
The White House has delayed by nearly a year the scheduled release of thousands of presidential documents from the Reagan administration. The stall has now, in a way, ended. The records remain secret. They will, most likely, forevermore.
U.S President George W. Bush signed an executive order that promises to scrub the truth out of presidential history after Jimmy Carter. It is, even in this White House with its penchant for secrecy, an extravagant indulgence of the habit.
Under Bush's order, any incumbent president - that is, Bush himself - can block the release of presidential documents of a predecessor. He can do this even if the past president wants the records disclosed. A former president who wants to keep secrets could do so too, with or without agreement of the incumbent.
The Bush order effectively works like this: A Republican like Bush - say, one whose top advisers did their first tour of duty in a previous Republican administration and could be embarrassed by old White House files - could just keep them locked up. This proves especially convenient if the incumbent president's father served as vice president under a previous Republican administration and has his own papers in the vault.
A Democrat - say Al Gore, who served as vice president under Bill Clinton - could come into office and decide unilaterally to keep boxes of old Democratic papers off-limits.
The Bush order also gives family members of a deceased or disabled former president these privileges. Bush would enable Nancy Reagan one day to claim authority to keep her husband's papers secret; so too might Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton..
Bush's own mother could outdo them both. She could sift through papers of two presidents and decide what is, or is not, to be seen by history. Thanks, Mom.
Private control over public papers is what the Presidential Records Act of 1978 was to end. The post-Watergate law made White House records property of the people, not the presidents. It set a 12-year timetable after a president leaves office for the release of sensitive material. This made the Reagan papers eligible for release in January.
And this is the law that Bush now shreds. The administration, as is its custom, does little to explain. It talks of the need for an "orderly process" for releasing records. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales claims, as well, the desire to protect "records that could impact national security."
This is how they cover up the cover-up.
Classified national-security material isn't covered by the act at all. It isn't even reviewed for release for 25 years, according to the National Archives.
And there was nothing disorderly about the release of Carter's White House documents, nor those of former President Gerald Ford. That is because these presidents disclosed just about everything. Ford, instinctively decent, followed the emerging outlines of the records law, though as he left office it hadn't yet passed.
No one has come forward to declare this Bush restriction welcome or necessary. Historians are apoplectic. Reagan's librarians already were preparing a big release when the White House called it to a halt.
Congress grumbles. Its members - notably Republicans in the House - grouse about their own curtailed right to have a look. Clinton, through his longtime aide Bruce Lindsey, has publicly opposed the strictures as unneeded and contrary to the law's intent.
Just this week, Lindsey said in an interview, he had searched papers relating to presidential gifts that had been requested by Republican Representative Douglas Ose. The memos from White House lawyers were clearly eligible for disclosure before now. They could just as clearly be withheld under Bush's new order.
"We could have unilaterally withheld them, but we didn't," Lindsey said.
None desires this secrecy, save the current occupant of the White House. We are left only to guess at why. And to shiver at all the possibilities, now and in the future.
Marie Cocco is an editorial writer and columnist for Newsday, to which she contributed this comment. ******************
By Jonathan Turley
THERE was a time when soldiers in war would be summarily executed after "drumhead" trials. These were modest affairs, often occurring on a battlefield with a commander using an overturned battle drum as a "bench."
Drumhead trials seemed like quaint historical relics until this week when the government announced the creation of a secret military tribunal for terrorists. Despite prior terrorist trials held in federal courts, the Bush administration has decided to create an ad hoc court with its own rules and obvious conveniences. It is a court that appears designed with the ends and not the means of justice in mind. It is also a decision that may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in our fight against terrorism.
The creation of this secret tribunal appears to have less to do with the prosecution of terrorists than it does the prosecution of the war in Afghanistan. As we all watched the Northern Alliance race across Afghanistan in hot pursuit of crumbling Taliban forces this week, one could imagine the growing apprehension among Justice Department officials. The leisurely pace of the war had been reassuring for some officials who fretted over the possible capture of Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants. Many in government had hoped that bin Laden would be conveniently vaporized during the course of a methodical air campaign. With enough "daisy cutter" bombs and B-52 attacks, it was hoped that the law of averages would balance the books with al-Qaeda. Now there is a real chance that someone is going to trip over bin Laden, who may be both alive and interested in a trial. Such a possibility creates a positively nightmarish scenario for the administration: an acquittal or hung jury in the trial of an al-Qaeda leader. A possibility not as remote as one might think. All national-security trials highlight a conflict between what is considered compelling intelligence and what is considered admissible evidence of guilt.
The most probative information gathered by intelligence agencies is often inadmissible in federal court because of the means of its collection or the sources it came from. In this way, a mountain of intelligence can be quickly reduced to a molehill of largely circumstantial evidence. This may prove to be the case with bin Laden, who supplied terrorist "grants" instead of routinely ordering or orchestrating specific operations. Given this modus operandi, it is unlikely that we will be able to produce a mob-genre tape of bin Laden telling his al-Qaeda thugs to go "do those guys." Instead, we will have evidence that proves as shadowy as the cave-dwelling organization itself.
One problem for the government is the sometimes unpredictable nature of both U.S. justice and jurors. Americans have a nasty habit of insisting on evidence of guilt, even in the most highly charged trials. This was the case before our founding, when a colonial jury refused to convict British soldiers standing trial for the Boston Massacre. Their defense counsel was none other than John Adams, and the verdict is still cited as the measure of American justice. Such a verdict today would be the measure of disaster for the administration. Imagine bin Laden taking that John Gotti victory walk after an acquittal as the new "Teflon Terrorist." Not only would such an outcome inflame the public, it would immediately reinforce the popular view in the Islamic world that the United States simply used the attacks to persecute Muslims.
The decision to create a new tribunal is an overt effort to both guarantee conviction and to prevent al-Qaeda leaders from using a trial as a public forum. The problem is that the administration has chosen the course that will destroy our chances to prevail in this "war."
We cannot hope to win this conflict by simply beating some troglodyte regime with space-age technology. These trials were to be the measure of the legitimacy of our cause throughout the world. Particularly when combined with the expanded activity of our secret surveillance, the secret military tribunal creates an alien process, like a legal system in a burqa.We do not defeat the Taliban by embracing its view of swift and arbitrary justice. The problem is not that people like bin Laden would find this secret tribunal alien, but that he would find it all too familiar.
Jonathon Turley is a professor of law at George Washington University. He contributed this comment to the Los Angeles Times.
TITLE: What Some People Will Do for a Bagel
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: "WHEN'S the last time you had a mouth-watering boiled and baked BAGEL?"
I saw this question the other day on Bagel Wise, a California-based company's Web site and I thought: What would businesspeople from the United States and Canada say? People who have lived and worked in St. Petersburg for a long time.
"I can't remember," I imagine would be the reply from most of them.
For me though, the answer is easier. I do remember. I had my first and only bagel about two months ago, while sitting in a car speeding down a West Virginia highway.
And I liked it. A lot. Especially with cream cheese dripping off it and a big cup of coffee in my other hand. "America's answer to the Russian bublik," I thought. And it was a tasty equivalent.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned this experience to a Canadian friend of mine. "Wouldn't it be a good thing if there was a bagelry in St. Petersburg," we concluded.
Although I missed bagels, I could tell how much more they meant to my friend, who had probably been eating bagels in the morning his whole life. I could imagine how he felt when he landed on Russia's shores and found nothing but bubliki. And not all of them very fresh, I imagine.
Within a few minutes, my friend was typing away at a letter to a company called Great Canadian Bagel, Ltd., a chain of bagelries that happens to have three outlets in Moscow.
"I am writing to you as, at present, it is lunchtime in our office and there is nothing that interests us nearby to eat," he wrote, his letter dripping with the pathos of the bagel-deprived. "We could really go for a great bagel. ... Unfortunately, the closest Great Canadian Bagel outlet is 650 kilometers away in Moscow. I am writing on behalf of our staff to beg you to open a location in our city soon."
"What a great letter," responded Glenn Tucker, director of development for Great Canadian Bagel, the very same day. He explained that opening a franchise in St. Petersburg would cost about $100,000 and require 300 to 1,000 square meters of retail space.
He also said that he had spoken about my friend's letter to Boris Paikin, who holds the company's franchising rights in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Tucker's response got me hoping that maybe, just maybe, there was hope of having a real bagel - with cream cheese and coffee - here in St. Petersburg someday. But, alas, my hopes were dashed.
I called Paikin in Moscow at the number that Tucker had provided, and he told me that, although the St. Petersburg market looks attractive for the bagel business, the company has no plans to open a branch here.
"Moscow is enough for us for now. We have no time for St. Petersburg," he said. But then he added that if a partner from St. Petersburg approached him, he "would be glad to help start a franchise" here.
I don't know if that local partner should be a foreigner or a Russian. After all, foreigners have had some unfortunate experiences in the food business here. The Minutka cafe, formerly Subway, is the best known example, of course. There is also the Irish-style Shamrock Bar on Teatralnaya Ploshchad, which also passed over to Russian ownership at some point.
But, on the other hand, Russian entrepreneurs are focussing more on our national cuisine. Recently, someone announced the creation of Blinburger, a Russian-style fast-food chain that will be the local response to McDonalds. Last week, bakers in Vologda tried to impress the Guinness Book of Records by baking 55 bubliki that weighed a total of 440 kilograms.
I suppose that whoever comes along will have to think carefully in order to avoid being left with nothing. But they should think about Paikin's statement that the market is attractive here for bagels. And they should have seen the hungry look on my Canadian friend's face.
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
AUTHOR: By Chris Floyd
TEXT: The Shadow Knows
The U.S. media's long-delayed recount of the disputed Florida ballots from last year's presidential election is finally in, and the winner is - George!
George Orwell, that is.
Yes, the British author whose Yevgeny Zamyatin-inspired novel 1984 gave us the useful concept of "newspeak" - that manipulative degradation of language now known as "spin" - was the man of the hour this week, as America's media elite put on a dazzling Orwellian display, spinning furiously to squeeze a "victory" for George W. Bush out of the mountain of evidence showing that Al Gore was the clear choice of the Florida electorate.
After weeks of fretful shilly-shallying - "Dare we disturb the Dear Leader whilst he dispenses the Lord's wrath upon the cave-dwelling infidels?" - a gaggle of media mandarins (the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and assorted worthies) finally published their examination of more than 175,000 disputed ballots from Florida's election follies.
The results were interpreted separately by each organization, each using its own statisticians and analysts. Yet each came to the same basic conclusions: that Gore would have won a statewide recount of disputed ballots by any criteria; that the majority of Florida voters tried to vote for Gore, although thousands upon thousands had their ballots "spoiled" in various ways; and that a disproportionate amount of "spoiled" ballots were found in African-American precincts, which voted for Gore by an overwhelming 9-1 margin.
Naturally, these were not the results trumpeted in the mandarins' various headlines. Here, the emphasis was on the fact that if a recount of one set of disputed ballots, the "undervotes" - those notorious hanging chads - from a limited number of counties had not been short-circuited by the U.S. Supreme Court, Bush might have barely held on to the small lead he had when his Florida campaign chairperson Katherine Harris - who just happened to be the state official in charge of the election - certified his "victory."
Of course, this generous analysis overlooks - among many other things - the hundreds of votes that Harris arbitrarily set aside when she made her decision. It also ignores the fact that 18 Florida counties never recounted their votes at all, despite a legal requirement to do so, leaving more than 1.5 million votes unexamined: an interesting tidbit reported by The Washington Post earlier this year - before the Dear Leader's wartime apotheosis.
But as Ronald Reagan once said - at the 1988 Republican convention that nominated the Dear Leader's dear old dad, as it happens - "Facts are stupid things." And our mandarins certainly never let such "stupidities" deter them from their profitable mission to comfort the comfortable - and put everyone else to sleep.
Take, for instance, that good gray goose, the New York Times. Its lullaby begins with soothing assurances about the Supreme Court's role in assisting the creeping coup. (Or is it couping creeps?) Goosey doesn't want you to think that a clique of right-wing zealots could install a ruthless cabal in office against the wishes - and votes - of the people. No, that didn't happen, children, because you see, if one of the restricted recount scenarios had been followed - and all those other nasty facts had gone poof! - Bush might have won anyway. So turn over now, and say night-night.
Far down in the text, however, the goose grudgingly (if obliquely) admits that if the court had not also slapped an unconstitutional time limit on recounts, the Gore campaign or the Florida courts could have then pursued a number of options, including one suggested by the Supremes themselves: a recount of the entire state. That would be the same state-wide recount the mandarins all say that Gore would have won.
Still, even though it's now obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Florida electorate intended to choose Al Gore over George Bush - just as the national electorate did, by a clear margin - we're sure the Dear Leader will be marvelously comforted by the soft, fluffy quilt of obfuscation the mandarins have so obligingly wrapped around him.
So turn over, Georgie, and say night-night.
Then kiss the Republic goodbye.
Past Imperfect
Of course, astute readers of the Global Eye know that the mandarins' recount - indeed, the entire post-election brouhaha of chads and courtrooms - was, in fact, a huge irrelevance. The fix was in before the first vote was cast, arranged by Brother Jeb, Chairperson Katherine and some high-tech jiggery-pokery from a Republican-owned firm devoted to "electoral cleansing."
The scam was first uncovered by intrepid investigative reporter Greg Palast in his reports for the BBC and The Observer. We passed along word of his revelations in the Dec. 15, 2000, edition of the Global Eye. Here's how it worked. Florida hired a private company to "purge" its voter rolls of convicted felons ineligible to vote. (Most prisoners who've served their time regain their right to vote; in Jeb's highly Christian satrapy, they don't.)
Jeb and Kath gave the firm a set of deliberately vague specifications designed to produce "false positives": voters whose names and details were similar but not identical to ineligible felons. The firm later admitted that "at least 15 percent" of its list was incorrect - stripping between 7,000 to 10,000 legitimate voters from the rolls.
Some of the falsely accused managed to restore their voting rights; most didn't even learn of the problem until they showed up at the polls. As "race" was one of Jeb's leading criteria for bagging his "false positives," this consciously created muddle disenfranchised thousands of qualified black voters - the same group that went 9-1 for Gore against Jebbie's big brother.
Or should that be Big Brother? After all, we're now living in a newspeak world: Defeat is Victory. Lies are Truth. Autocracy is Democracy.
And Bush is president.
TITLE: U.S.: It's Getting Harder For Bin Laden To Hide
AUTHOR: By Robert Burns
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - With U.S. bombs still falling, the Taliban regime cracking and Afghan opposition forces rising, Bush administration officials say chances of finding Osama bin Laden are improving.
"We're beginning to narrow his possibilities for hiding," said Condoleeza Rice, U.S. President George W. Bush's national security adviser.
In separate television interviews Sunday, Rice and other officials said bin Laden is on the run, with little chance of gaining safe haven in neighboring countries if he were to escape Afghanistan.
"It's getting harder for him to hide as more and more territory is removed from Taliban control," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a television interview. "I don't think there's any country in the region that would be anxious to give him guest privileges if he showed up."
U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said bin Laden was "in very great danger" of being killed or captured.
"This is a man on the run who's doing his best to hide," Wolfowitz said.
All three administration officials said the United States has no reason to believe bin Laden has fled Afghanistan.
The Taliban's envoy to Pakistan said Saturday that bin Laden had left Afghanistan, but that has not been substantiated. Later, the diplomat said he meant only that bin Laden was outside areas under Taliban control.
As U.S. bombing continued Sunday in the Kandahar area in southern Afghanistan and the Kunduz area in the north, the Pentagon said 75 strike aircraft had participated in Saturday's attacks in six target areas near Kabul. It said tunnels and caves used by Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders were among Saturday's targets.
Powell said the CIA has been doing "some rather splendid work with respect to our activities in Afghanistan, working alongside our military forces that are inside in Afghanistan."
The Washington Post reported Sunday that the CIA has paramilitary forces in Afghanistan; Powell would not confirm that.
"I think we've got a very fine link-up between our intelligence assets, our military assets, all within the framework of a good political and military strategy," Powell said. "And it's now starting to show rather significant results."
If bin Laden were to flee Afg ha ni stan, the United States would keep up the hunt, Wolfowitz said.
"We are going to continue pursuing him," he said. "Let's also remember, we're going to continue pursuing the entire al-Qaeda network, which is in 60 countries, not just Afghanistan and, worst of all, here in the United States. ... This is a campaign against all the global terrorist networks and the states that support terrorism."
Powell said no country on the periphery of Afghanistan, including China, would give bin Laden a haven.
"I don't think this fellow is going to be welcome anywhere," the secretary said. "He is an outcast. He is a murderer, he's a terrorist. ... He is on the run, just as the president said he would be. And we will get him."
Rice cautioned against assuming that the military successes in Afghanistan over the past week mean the United States has met its main objective.
"This may take a while," she said.
Rice also left open the possibility that Iraq could become a target in Bush's war on terrorism.
"We do not need the events of Sept. 11 to tell us that [Saddam Hussein] is a very dangerous man who is a threat to his own people, a threat to the region and a threat to us because he is determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction," she said.
Powell spoke encouragingly of the prospects for convening a meeting, under UN sponsorship, between the Northern Alliance and other factions to form a new powersharing government in Afghanistan.
"The purpose of the meeting would be to bring together a number of leaders representing different parts of Afghanistan, different ethnicities, different tribes, and see if we can get an interim government in place and then stand up a broader government over time," Powell said.
TITLE: Rogova Claims Victory in Kosovo Vote
AUTHOR: By Garentina Kraja
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PRISTINA, Yugoslavia - Nearly 2 1/2 years after a NATO air war drove Serbian forces from Kosovo, the province's likely president claimed victory in elections and said his first priority will be winning full independence from Serbia.
Ibrahim Rugova's moderate party won more than 44 percent of the vote in Saturday's election, an exit poll showed Sunday. That was nearly twice as many votes as the nearest challenger.
On Sunday, Rugova gathered reporters at his home in Pristina to declare victory and pledge to wrest the ethnic Albanian territory away from Belgrade's control.
"We insist that Kosovo's independence be recognized as soon as possible," he said.
The vote will likely give Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo the most seats in the 120-seat assembly that will pick a president and administration for the province. The administrators will govern alongside UN officials and NATO-led peacekeepers, who took control of the province in June 1999 after 78 days of NATO air strikes. The alliance launched the air war to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end a crackdown on ethnic Albanian militants that killed at least 10,000 people.
Exit polls, however, suggested that Rugova fell short of the vast lead he hoped would make it possible for him to rule without forming a coalition.
An influential non-governmental organization, Kosovo Action for Civic Initiatives, said its exit poll gave 23.7 percent of the vote to the Democratic Party of Kosovo headed by former ethnic Albanian rebel leader Hashim Thaci. That was far more than Rugova's forces had anticipated.
The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo finished third with 8.3 percent of the vote, Kosovo Action said. A handful of smaller parties got the remainder, including 10.1 percent that went to a coalition of Serb parties.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was set to announce the official results Monday.
The province's top international leaders praised the violence-free election in jubilant statements and expressed relief that voters in Serb enclaves decided to vote.
However, Oliver Ivanovic, a Serb leader, said Sunday that Serbs would demand a repetition of elections in the northern part of the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica because of intimidation and an anti-election campaign in the city prior to the vote. UN officials declined to comment immediately.
Ethnic Albanians saw Saturday's vote as nothing short of a step toward independence - a concept that frightened some minority Serbs into staying home.
Rugova did little to dispel that view, saying that the progress the province had made in the last two years, combined with the peaceful vote, suggested that Kosovo was ready to be forever free from Belgrade.
He also promised to improve the conditions of the province's Serbs.
"I am interested in creating better conditions for the 100,000 Serbs that remain here," he said. "But for the others, we need to see what the conditions are for their return."
Dozens of Serbs have been killed by ethnic Albanians as revenge for Milosevic's crackdown, and tens of thousands of people have fled the province since the NATO victory.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Parvanov in the Lead
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Bulgaria's new Socialist president, triumphant after his apparent victory in a difficult election battle, pledged to continue efforts to win the country membership in the European Union and NATO.
Final results from Sunday's runoff election were expected Tuesday because of delays in counting ballots from overseas. However, provisional results gave Georgi Parvanov, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, 53.3 percent of the vote compared to 46.7 percent for incumbent Petar Stoyanov.
In Bulgaria, the presidency is a largely ceremonial position, with real power resting with the prime minister and parliament, but the office still carries considerable moral authority and legislative veto power.
"Bulgaria hopes to join the EU in 2006 and is also seeking an invitation next year to join NATO.
"I think it is also extremely important to revive Bulgaria's relations with Russia, Ukraine and other strategic partners," Parvanov said.
China Closes Mines
BEIJING, China (Reuters) - China's northern province of Shanxi has ordered all small coal mines to stop work until urgent safety tests are carried out after 58 miners were killed in a spate of gas explosions last week, Xinhua said on Monday.
The number cited by the official news agency was higher than estimates given by local newspapers earlier in the day and involved explosions at three separate coal mines in the province. Some 14 miners were still trapped underground following an explosion at a fourth coal mine named Daquanwan Coal, it said.
The provincial authorities would not allow production to resume until all the small coal mines had undergone safety checks and offenders would be dealt with harshly, it quoted a local official as saying.
Last year, more than 5,300 deaths were reported in mining accidents. The official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday that this year's death toll was down by 7.24 percent.
Beefed-Up Security
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. President George W. Bush is dramatically expanding the U.S. government's role in aviation security, eager to reassure jittery passengers heading into the Thanksgiving week travel crush.
Bush signed a sweeping package of legislative changes Monday at Reagan Washington National Airport, the last major U.S. airport to reopen following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Under the law, the government will assume control of passenger- and baggage-screening operations, now run by private security firms contracted by airlines, and put all 28,000 screeners on the federal payroll.
For three years after the law goes into effect, all airports must be under the federal system, except for five airports of different sizes that can apply for pilot programs trying different screening approaches. After that, airports can opt out of the federal system.
The measure also moves toward 100-percent inspection of checked bags and seeks to ensure that a potential hijacker who gets into a plane will be stopped by air marshals in the cabin and by reinforced cockpit doors.
The government will have a year to take control of passenger- and baggage-screening operations and to put all 28,000 screeners on the federal payroll.
Sept. 11 Charges Filed
MADRID, Spain (AP) - A judge in Spain filed formal charges against eight alleged al-Qaeda members suspected of helping with the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
The suspects "were directly linked to the preparation and carrying out of the attacks perpetrated by 'suicide pilots' on Sept. 11, 2001," Judge Baltasar Garzon said in his order Sunday.
The move followed more than 12 hours of questioning by the judge, who will prepare a case against the men and present it to a court for trial. Garzon formally charged the men with membership in a terrorist organization - al-Qaeda -and with document falsification, robbery and wea pons possession.
He said they were guilty of "as many terrorism crimes as there were victims on Sept. 11." The men denied the charges. Seven of the eight suspects originally came from Muslim countries. Most were Spanish citizens, but police said they were investigating the authenticity of their citizenship papers.
Asian Light Show
BEIJING, China (AP) - Cloudy skies disappointed many Asians hoping to see the biggest meteor shower in decades on Monday. But Chinese who gathered at a 550-year-old observatory in downtown Beijing were overjoyed by their good fortune.
About 150 Chinese, many of them young people, oohed and aahed on the roof of the stone observatory set atop a remnant of Beijing's old city wall, as the smoggy sky suddenly cleared and the meteors easily outshone the city lights.
"There are many more shooting stars than I expected, and they're really clear," said Hou Lei, a 19-year-old construction engineering student.
At the peak, around 2:30 a.m., there was a meteor about every 10 seconds. Clear skies also rewarded more than 1,000 South Koreans watching from lawn chairs outside a youth training center 45 kilometers northeast of Seoul.
"I've been watching the stars for more than 20 years, but I've never seen so many meteors before," said Lee Tae-hyong, head of the Korean Amateur Astronomical Society.
Skies in Tokyo and the nearby port city of Yokohama clouded over just after sunset, although there were spectacular views of the shower over snow-capped Mount Fuji.
In many areas of the world, hopes for a major celestial event were high this year as astronomers forecast an intense flurry of meteors associated with the Leonid shower.
Coup Rumors Denied
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez on Sunday dismissed rumors of a possible military coup in his country, but warned that if there were any such insurrection he would meet it with "my rifle in hand."
As the popularity of former coup leader Chavez has slipped over the last year, the opposition-run media and his political opponents have played on rumors of discontent in the armed forces.
Two weeks ago, military chiefs felt it necessary to issue a written statement expressing their "full support" for the former-paratrooper turned president's three-year-old "revolutionary" government.
The president's "democratic revolution" aims to rid oil-rich Venezuela of the widespread graft and poverty that afflict its 24-million population, but disillusionment with his administration has grown among the poor Venezuelans who swept him to power as he has failed to deliver on campaign promises.
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: And Once Again ...
NEW YORK (AP) - Barry Bonds became the first player to win four Most Valuable Player Awards, capping a record-breaking season in which his 73 home runs set the biggest mark of all.
The 37-year-old outfielder, who hit. 328 with 137 RBI for the San Francisco Giants, received 30 of 32 first-place ballots and 438 points in voting announced Monday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
Bonds, who became a free agent after the World Series, also won the MVP award for Pittsburgh in 1990 and 1992 and for the Giants in 1993. He finished second to Atlanta's Terry Pendleton in 1991 and to San Francisco's Jeff Kent last year.
The only other three-time winners were Roy Campanella, Stan Musial and Mike Schmidt in the National League, and Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle in the American League.
Bonds 73 homers broke the season record of 70 set three years ago by Mark McGwire.
S. Africa Grabs Cup
GOTEMBA, Japan (AP) -Tiger Woods made the shot of the day. Retief Goosen delivered a million-dollar 5-iron.
Goosen, the U.S. Open champion, and South African teammate Ernie Els beat Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and Soren Hansen on the second playoff hole Sunday to win the $1-million first prize at the world cup.
Els tapped in for par, then watched as Hansen missed a 1 1/2-meter putt that would have extended the match, in which four teams - including Americans Woods and David Duval - made the playoff with four-round totals of 24-under 264. Woods chipped in for an eagle on the final hole of regulation.
Els and Goosen got into the playoff with a clutch eagle on the 18th hole of regulation that capped a 6-under-par 66.
Goosen missed the par putt on 17 to fall a stroke back, but quickly atoned with a 5-iron approach from the middle of the 18th fairway that landed 2 meters from the hole. With Bjorn and Hansen in with a birdie, Els made the putt for eagle-3 and the South Africans were headed for the playoff.
New Zealand had a three-stroke lead heading into the final round and had a chance to win it outright on 18, but could only manage par after Michael Campbell's approach sailed over the green and David Smail was forced to chip on from the rough. Campbell missed a 7-foot birdie putt and New Zealand finished with a 70.
No Russian Hosts
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has given up on the idea of bidding for the Euro 2008 soccer championship.
"We decided not to go ahead with the application," executive director of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Tukmanov said Monday.
"There are a number of conditions for those who want to stage such a complex tournament, the main one is government guarantees. And we don't have that at the moment."
Last week, RFU chief Vyacheslav Koloskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had to give his approval for the bid to go ahead.
"We were waiting to meet with the president, but it hasn't come about yet," Tukmanov said.
Denmark/Sweden/Finland and Norway are expected to bid as are Hungary, Switzerland/Austria, Greece/Turkey and Scotland.