SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #765 (31), Friday, April 26, 2002
**************************************************************************


TITLE: Lawmaker Held on Kickback Charge
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly was the scene of charges of political prosecution on Wednesday, following the Tuesday arrest of Union of Right Forces (SPS) lawmaker Alexei Kovalyov. The City Prosecutor's Office has charged Kovalyov with misappropriation of government funds, maintaining that he organized a kickback scheme to bilk the city budget of 2 billion rubles ($390,000) in 1996.
 
But a number of lawmakers said that the Prosecutor's initiative has nothing to do with the law, but instead is related to the upcoming Legislative Assembly elections. The date for the elections is presently being negotiated by the assembly.
 "It was discovered that Alexei Kovalyov was involved in criminal collusion with assistants ... at his office in Spring 1996 to misappropriate budgeted money that was earmarked for renovation of historical and cultural monuments in St. Petersburg," Ivan Sydoruk, the City Prosecutor, said at Wednesday's Legislative Assembly session.
 Sydoruk said that Kovalyov and his assistants organized the kickback scheme with management at Podzemproyect and Glavzapspetsstroi, two local construction companies. He also said that the order for Kovalyov's arrest was not issued until after the lawmaker had repeatedly ignored summons to appear at the prosecutor's office to answer questions about the investigation.
 "There are still more questions than answers in this case," Sydoruk said.
 In 1996 each of the 50 deputies in the Legislative Assembly was allocated about $1 million to use to fund projects of their choosing.
 Kovalyov, who represents District No. 1 on Vasilievsky Island, has been a member of the local parliament in its various guises since 1990. He said that, over the last few years, he has used these funds to finance the repair and maintenance of various cultural landmarks around St. Petersburg.
 But investigators say that Kovalyov and his assistants forced the construction companies they contracted to perform the work to hand over 10 to 15 percent of the money they received from the St. Petersburg budget.
 The charges against Kovalyov have been met with disbelief by other lawmakers. "The arguments produced by the Prosecutor's Office looked absolutely insupportable and generated mostly laughter among those listening to [Sydoruk]," said Leonid Romankov, an SPS faction lawmaker, in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
 Romankov said that this is not the first time these charges have been made. He said that, in 1996, City Hall tried to use the threat of the charges to pressure Kovalyov to vote for the removal of Yury Kravtsov from the position of speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Kravtsov had fallen into disfavor with the governor by opposing a number of Smolny initiatives.
 "[Acting vice-governor Alexander] Potekhin came up to him one day with a draft version of criminal charges and told him that, if he didn't vote how they asked, a case would be initiated against him. He didn't go along, though," Romankov said.
 Alexander Potekhin could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
 "I don't know anything about the nature of this case," said Ciy Hall Spokesperson Alexander Afanasyev in a telephone interview Wednesday.
 "It is widely known that Kovalyov was always running away [from the Prosecutor's Office]. Everybody knows it," Afanasyev said.
 Twelve lawmakers from the SPS and Zakonnost factions in the assembly have filed a joint letter of protest to Ivan Sydoruk, charging that the City Prosecutor's office acted in contravention of federal laws guaranteeing legislators immunity from prosecution. The Legislative Assembly must vote to lift a lawmaker's immunity before he or she can be arrested.
 "A request in this form was sent [to the assembly] by the City Prosecutor's Office on March 24, 2000. It was considered by the Legislative Assembly, which decided on April 12, 2000 to deny the request," the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
 "We demand the immediate release of Alexei Kovalyov."
 The Northwest Region Prosecutor's Office, which is one level above that of the City Prosecutor, said Thursday that it would investigate the legality of Kovalyov's arrest, Interfax reported.
 "[We are] going to look into the question of whether taking such a serious measure against the lawmaker was reasonable, especially considering the fact that he lives with his four-year-old son and his late wife's mother, who herself suffered a stroke recently," an anonymous source at the Northwest Region Prosecutor's office was quoted as saying by Interfax
 The Prosecutor's Office has named a former assistant to Kovalyov, Alexei Kozev, as one of the main witnesses in the case, even though observers question his reliability on the basis of the state of his mental health.
 Kozev, who is currently in jail waiting trial on the same charges as Kovalyov, declared in 1983 that his apartment was part of the United States, and introduced a visa system for family members wishing to enter or leave.
 According to Kozev's own account, he levied fines on his family for visa "violations" and other actions he considered illegal.
 "[Kozev] is a very educated person and he ... stood up for historical monuments in St. Petersburg," Kovalyov said in an April 2000 interview, while his case was being discussed by the Legislative Assembly. "I knew he had problems, but I didn't think that it would go too far,"
 Kozev, meanwhile, wrote to his mother from jail, saying that inmates were torturing him to get him to sign confessions implicating Kovalyov. The letter was passed on to Kovalyov by Kozev's mother.
 Lawmakers in the assembly say that the members of the city administration would also have to have been involved to some degree in such a crime, and say that it is strange that he is the only one presently being charged.
 "Nothing that Kovalyov is being charged with could have been initiated without the participation of the City Hall authorities," Mikhail Amosov, the head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly, said Wednesday. "But the Prosecutor's Office said that charges were not filed against these officials because of the staleness of the events. What does that mean?"
 Ruslan Linkov, the head of the St. Petersburg branch of the Democratic Russia party, arrived at Kovalyov's apartment as investigators were carrying out a search before arresting him on Tuesday night.
 "It was all done in such a violent way," Linkov said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "They took 82 pages of documents from Kovalyov's archives, mainly correspondence between him and the prosecutor related to the case. It seems that Sydoruk didn't have copies of his own letters to Kovalyov," he said.
 Linkov also said that the investigators confiscated $600, the only money that Kovalyov had on his person.
 "One of the investigators came up to his four-year old son and told him that his father is a thief," Linkov said. "Then, after his grandmother asked investigators what money she was going to use to buy bread tomorrow, one of them counted out 100 Finnish marks and a $1 bill and threw it on the table."
 "They also tried to make me leave the flat, despite the fact that, according articles No. 169 and 170 of the Criminal Code, a person present during a search isn't allowed to leave," Linkov added.
 Linkov said that he believes the Prosecutor's Office has initiated the charges in an attempt to discredit Kovalyov in his district in order "to clean the field for his likely opponent in the upcoming elections, who is a city law-enforcement official."
 Linkov refused to name the official.
 Kovalyov first became well known in 1989, when he organized the opposition to plans to demolish the Hotel d'Angleterre on St. Isaac's Square.
 He is the third Legislative Assembly lawmaker to be jailed in recent years. Yury Shutov was arrested February 1999 and charged in connection with a number of assassinations. His trial is still under way. Sergei Shevchenko was charged in April 2000 with extortion. He was convicted to and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, although the sentence was suspended.

TITLE: Deputies Want To Outlaw Homosexuality
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A group of lawmakers - including Russia's main representative to the Council of Europe - say they have begun a campaign to shore up the morals of the country by recriminalizing homosexuality.
 
Four State Duma deputies - Dmitry Rogozin, who heads the Russian delegation to the Council of Europe, Gennady Raikov, Vadim Bulainov and Gadzhi Makhachev - have introduced an amendment to the Criminal Code that punishes sodomy with up to five years in jail.
 If passed, the legislation would mark a return to the repression of the Soviet era, when thousands of men accused of being homosexuals were sent to jail, opponents said Wednesday.
 However, few deputies expected that the amendment would become law, and some called the initiative a blatant publicity stunt.
 Raikov, head of the pro-Kremlin People's Deputy faction, said it was high time that homosexuality be punished.
 "You need to punish homosexuality for three reasons: the spread of AIDS, the destruction of spiritual morals and the existence in Russia of four religious confessions that ban it," he said in televised remarks Tuesday night.
 "It's all blue," said a supporter of the amendment, Communist Deputy Vasily Shandybin, using the slang expression for homosexuals.
 "All around there are blues, in the presidential administration and in the government and in the Duma ... . Who is running us?" he asked.
 The bill, which was filed in the Duma last Thursday, but only made public this week, provoked sharp criticism from the political mainstream.
 "If there are people with a different sexual orientation, as acknowledged by psychologists and doctors, we must take care of their rights," said Russia's human-rights ombudsman Oleg Mironov, Interfax reported.
 "It will cause laughter in Europe," said Oleg Morozov, a deputy with Russia's Regions. "If you want to fight against such a phenomenon, you cannot do it with the help of prison. That would be an uncivilized measure."
 "It's naked populism," said Alexander Barannikov, a Unity deputy on the Duma's law committee, which has to decide whether to send the amendment to the Duma floor for a vote.
 He said Rogozin, as a representative to the Council of Europe, the human-rights body which actively supports gay rights, should lose his post.
 "I think that a person with such homophobic views cannot represent Russia in the Council of Europe," he said by telephone.
 Rogozin's office denied that he co-authored the bill.
 "He simply supports it. He didn't prepare it," said Rogozin's spokesperson, Sergei Butin.
 However, the amendment, a copy of which was obtained by The St. Petersburg Times, identifies Rogozin as a co-author. All four authors are members of People's Deputy.
 Officials at the Council of Europe refused to comment.
 Vladislav Reznik, deputy head of Unity, predicted the bill would cause outrage in the Council of Europe.
 "It's difficult to look at the amendment as rational," he said in remarks that were broadcast on RTR and NTV television.
 Gay rights activists said Russia's desire to join the Council of Europe led it to scrap clause 121.1 of the Soviet-era Criminal Code that criminalized homosexuality.
 "This violates Russia's commitments to the Council of Europe," said Nikita Ivanov, legal adviser to gay.ru, Russia's biggest gay Web site.
 Male homosexuality was criminalized in 1933, while there was never a law penalizing lesbians. Among the thousands of men who were sent to prison were singer Vadim Kozin, director Sergei Paradzhanov and writer Gennady Trifonov.
 Although politicians and the authors of the amendment itself are talking about the legislation as the recriminalization of homosexuality, it only outlaws sodomy. The amendment stresses that other sexual acts between men and all acts between women would not be criminalized.
 Although the stated aim is to prevent the rise of AIDS, most of those infected in Russia contracted the virus through drug use rather than homosexual sex.
 Reznik said the amendment has little chance of being approved, and Barannikov said it may be voted down by his committee and never make it onto the Duma floor.
 The head of the Duma's law committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov of the Union of Right Forces, said he did not support the amendment.
 Reznik criticized the move as a clear attempt for publicity and "the support of certain sections of the population in the run-up to the upcoming parliamentary elections" in 2003.
 "It looks like Duma deputies have no other problems to worry about other than homosexuality," said Viktor Ozerov, head of the Federation Council's security committee. "It's another piece of PR."

TITLE: World's Second Space Tourist Blasts Off
AUTHOR: By Mara Bellaby
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - The world's second space tourist soared into orbit Thursday on a Russian rocket, overcoming last-minute jitters as he embarked on a $20 million ride to the international space station. 
 
Mark Shuttleworth's native South Africa watched the blastoff live and cheered the first African citizen to reach the cosmos. His family collapsed in an embrace of exuberant tears on the Central Asian launchpad where the Soviet Union inaugurated the space race.
 In a blast of heat and orange fire, the Soyuz TM-34 rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur launchpad at 10:26 a.m. St. Petersburg time, carrying Shuttleworth, a 28-year-old Internet magnate, cosmonaut Yury Gidzenko and Italian Air Force pilot Roberto Vittori on a 10-day mission.
 In South Africa, where Shuttleworth's mission has been receiving blanket media coverage, the launch was carried live by both of the country's public television stations, while a pay station has devoted an entire channel to coverage. A number of schools let students watch the launch.
 Former South African President Nelson Mandela expressed pride in Shuttleworth's achievements and wished him luck, and President Thabo Mbeki called him a pioneer for the continent. 
 As they were shown putting on spacesuits and climbing up to the rocket Thursday, Shuttleworth and Vittori were visibly nervous. They seemed to freeze at the bottom of the stairs, before crew commander Gidzenko - the only one of the trio with space experience - shouted down to them "Let's go, let's go!" 
 The team's mission, named "Marco Polo," is to drop off a fresh Soyuz rocket to the space station. A Soyuz is kept docked as a lifecraft and replaced every six months to keep it fresh.
 Shuttleworth is following in the footsteps of American businessperson Dennis Tito, who became the first space tourist last year when he went to the international station on a Russian rocket.
 Shuttleworth has spent eight months in grueling training with the other cosmonauts, learned Russian so he can communicate with mission control and attended one week's worth of lessons at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
 Shuttleworth also received lessons from a South African scientist who needs his help to conduct experiments on how sheep and mice stem cells react in zero-gravity. Stem cells are the body's master repair cells, and they can develop into different cell and tissue types that researchers are working to develop as treatments for various diseases.
 "You shouldn't assume that a tourist is not prepared for space flight," said Vladimir So lovyov, the mission's boss.

TITLE: Interior Ministry Announces Checks on Foreigners
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said Wednesday that authorities would begin keeping tabs on all foreigners who enter the country in an effort to crack down on illegal immigration.
 
Gryzlov said police would soon conduct a thorough check of all foreigners "to determine whether they are living in our country legally," Interfax quoted him as saying. Speaking at a conference on migration policy, Gryzlov also called for the creation of a national database to track foreigners from the moment they cross the border. The measure appears to be aimed mainly at halting the flow of illegal immigrants from Central Asia and the Transcaucasus.
 "There is no way to say exactly how many foreigners are living on Russian territory," Gryzlov said, according to Itar-Tass. "At border checkpoints, people entering the country are checked only in a database of people whose entry is undesirable. After that, the information about those entering disappears."
 Gryzlov estimated the number of illegal immigrants in Russia at 1.5 million.
 Gryzlov said his ministry would ask the government for additional funds to create the new database. He said the country also needed three times as many border checkpoints than it has.
 Gryzlov also suggested raising the duty paid by Russian companies who hire foreigners, Itar-Tass said. Currently, companies pay 140 rubles ($4.70), while two years ago they paid 3,900 rubles ($130 at the current rate), he said.
 During his time in office, President Vladimir Putin first liquidated the country's Migration Service and later the Nationalities Ministry, which he had put in charge of migration. Now the issue is wholly in the realm of the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police.
 An Interior Ministry spokesperson, who refused to be identified, played down the importance of the campaign, saying that it was just the Interior Ministry making its presence felt. "The Interior Ministry must do something since it has received responsibility [for the Federal Migration Service]," she said.
 
 <i>(AP, SPT) </i>

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Krotov Faces Charges
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Northwest Region Prosecutor's Office has initiated a criminal case against Vice Governor Victor Krotov, who is the head of the City Hall financial committee, on charges of abuse of office, Interfax reported on Thursday.
 The case is connected to the results of a recent examination by the St. Petersburg Audit Chamber of Financial Committee records. The chamber found that Krotov had overseen the transfer of 1 billion rubles (about $40 million) earmarked for the Road Fund in 2000 to finance projects associated with preparations for the 2000 World Hockey Championships, which were held here.
 Krotov denied the charges, saying that he had acted in accordance with the federal budget code.
 "[The code] determines the way budgets - including regional budgets - are created. Article No. 35 says that shortfalls in funds to cover one spending area can be made up with other money already committed to the budget," Krotov said in an Interfax interview Thursday.
 Krotov is the fourth vice governor to run afoul of the Northwest Region Prosecutor's Office in the last two years. An investigation was launched in November against Alexander Potekhin, the acting chief of the Media Committee, for engaing in illegal business activity in November, Anatoly Kogan, the head of the Health Committee was charged with criminal negligence last month and Valery Malyshev, the head of the Sports and Communications committee, was charged with abuse of office in July.
 
 
Arms Talks Interrupted
 

MOSCOW (AP) - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Thursday played down the abrupt departure of a top U.S. arms-control negotiator from talks in Moscow, and said complex talks were still under way.
 U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton left Russia on Wednesday morning after one day of talks instead of the scheduled two. The U.S. Embassy said it had no information about why he left when he did, though Russian news reports said he would return this weekend for more discussions.
 Bolton's Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov, said after the departure that doubts remained about whether the sides can reach an agreement on nuclear arms cuts before a presidential summit next month. 
 Ivanov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying Thursday that there was "nothing unexpected" in Bolton's departure.
 He dismissed news reports that Bolton had left because of new initiatives proposed by the Russian side that required him to consult with superiors in Washington. 
 "It's too early to talk of any initiatives, a complicated process of negotiations is under way," Ivanov was quoted as saying. 
 
 
Catholic Wrangle
 

MOSCOW (AP) - The Catholic Church must admit that it has been seeking converts in Russia before any dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church can take place, an Orthodox official said Thursday.
 "The Catholic Church must understand that it is wrong, instead of making artificial excuses," said Metropolitan Kirill, head of the patriarch's external relations department, Interfax reported.
 "Only after such a confession can we start a dialogue on the basis of realities, instead of myths created by the Catholics," he said. 
 Orthodox leaders have accused the Catholic Church of proselytizing on Orthodox territory. The Catholic Church insists it is not seeking converts. 



TITLE: Bankers Cite Sector's Problems
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - If the 12th annual meeting of the National Banking Association accomplished anything Wednesday, it was to send the clear message that the banking sector is in no less of a precarious position than at the time of the 1998 financial crisis.
 
Meeting under the cloud of the biggest bank failure since the crisis, the nation's top bankers gathered to compare notes and discuss the path Kremlin-mandated reforms should take.
 But, for the first time since 1998, the high-profile event was not sent a welcoming address from the Russian president. Hopes were low that a government representative would even turn up, but Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, who was not on the agenda, did arrive to make a speech.
 And new Central Bank head Sergei Ignatyev, who was supposed to be the key figure at the conference, saw the spotlight stolen by his predecessor, Viktor Gerashchenko, who sat with him at the presidium table.
 Ignatyev's first remarks made it clear that stability had not been brought to the banking sector in the four years since a number of banking heavyweights collapsed in August 1998.
 He said the Central Bank on Wednesday installed external management at International Banking Corporation, the country's No. 52 bank with more than 6 billion rubles ($200 million) in assets. This is the first step toward putting a bank into bankruptcy.
 &quot;The last time we looked at IBC's financial statements, we saw no problems there,&quot; Ignatyev told the conference, Prime-Tass reported. &quot;But after we received the first information last week that the bank was experiencing problems, we initiated an audit. And the results were worrying.&quot;
 The bank suffered a severe lack of liquidity over the past month, which was not reflected in its books as of Jan. 1, analysts said. As such, the bank has not been able to make good on its short-term obligations since last week.
 IBC officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
 IBC is a relatively large bank &quot;even by Moscow standards,&quot; Ignatyev said.
 The bank was an active member of the U.S.-backed Delta Credit mortgage program and had a former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia on its board. 
 Ignatyev conceded that the Central Bank's failure to detect its troubles meant banking supervision is still insufficient.
 &quot;The first thing we need to do is to strengthen banking control,&quot; he said.
 Gerashchenko said this step would not be enough. &quot;No banking supervision can prevent dirty dealing in the banking sector,&quot; Geraschenko was quoted by Interfax as saying. 
 &quot;If there is fraud, there is no way to figure it out until the bank faces liquidity problems,&quot; he said.
 Standard &amp; Poor's downgraded IBC's long and short-term ratings Tuesday to &quot;Default,&quot; following IBC's failure to meet its maturing interbank obligations. The bank's CEO, Anton Melnikov, resigned Monday because of the financial problems, and Delta Credit said it had transferred all $5 million in outstanding mortgage loans from IBC to its own books a month ago.
 Kudrin called Russia's banking reforms the most ambitious of those tackled in the world's emerging markets. He said that bankers have to pay more attention to capital-adequacy ratios and their capital bases.
 However, analysts said IBC problems show, once again, that the ratio system does not work and that banks can report whatever figures they want. &quot;As of Jan. 1, IBC's reported liquidity ratio was 99.8 percent, while in reality it was 56 percent, if we exclude reciprocal claims with another major bank that helped IBC fit the 70-percent minimum required by the Central Bank,&quot; said Mikhail Matovnikov, deputy head of the Interfax Rating Agency.
 National Banking Association chairman Sergei Yegorov presented figures showing that the number of banks in Russia has dropped by 20 percent over the past three years, while the number of bank branches has fallen by 23 percent.
 He said the sector is undergoing a consolidation and is increasing its capital base. As of March 1, more than 250 banks had capital exceeding 150 million rubles ($5 million).
 Turning to Kudrin, Yegorov urged for measures to protect banks during the process of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.
 &quot;We are not going to introduce any additional barriers for foreign capital because of Russia's entry into the WTO,&quot; Kudrin replied.
 Ignatyev said that, without structural reform, sufficient supervision and government protection, the overall number of banks will inevitably decline in the coming years. Russia had 1,327 banks as of April 1. 
 Ignatyev said he doubted that the number would eventually drop to 200 to 300, as the government has predicted.
 He also said that one of his priorities will be the further liberalization of the currency market. &quot;The current law is outdated and does not meet the needs of a new reality,&quot; he said.
 Ignatyev said that he expects the average ruble rate to be 31.5 rubles to the U.S. dollar this year, and annual inflation to fall between 12 percent and 14 percent. 
 He largely avoided taking questions from journalists, leaving Geraschenko to enjoy the limelight.
 The National Banking Association presented Gerashchenko with a full-length portrait of himself painted by an anonymous artist.
 Now a pensioner, the controversial yet respected former central banker said he is getting a first-hand chance to experience the problems of Russian legislation. 
 &quot;I still don't know who will pay me as a former state employee,&quot; Gerashchenko said. &quot;If I fail to find out, I will probably start to work again and realize my childhood dream of becoming a street cleaner and keeping the roads clean.&quot;

TITLE: Government To Launch Regional Loans Scheme
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In an effort to boost the efficiency of its borrowings, the government will award a World Bank loan to regions on a competitive basis. 
 
The new method will be tested through a $120 million regional fiscal-reform loan that Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and World Bank acting country director Richard Clifford signed into force this week.
 &quot;This is the first time that regions will have to work hard to get money from the federal budget, and everyone is watching the process with great interest,&quot; Stepan Titov, the World Bank's coordinator for the project, said Thursday.
 The loan, originally approved by the World Bank on Jan. 29, will be used to promote financial transparency, budget accountability and strengthen fiscal-management policies and practices in the regions.
 President Vladimir Putin named the budget reforms among the government's top priorities in his state of the nation address last week.
 The World Bank will provide financing to the federal budget, and the government will establish a regional fiscal-reform fund, a transfer mechanism aimed at rewarding regions that have already undertaken significant fiscal reforms on a competitive basis, Titov said.
 The Finance Ministry will select the winning region based on creditworthiness, the soundness of its proposed reform program and other criteria. 
 &quot;This time, the regions will decide for themselves which is the best way to reform their budgetary policies, and the Finance Ministry will decide whether they are successful enough,&quot; Titov said.
 Three annual tranches of $40 million will be disbursed to the reform fund from 2002 to 2004, and three groups of 10 regions will compete for awards.
 Up to five regions in each group will get grants of about $8 million from the federal budget. 
 Each region is expected to receive two transfers from the fund, at different times, to allow for implementation of the reforms. 
 St. Petersburg, the Vologda, Chelyabinsk and Samara regions, and the Chuvashia Republic have implemented the first stage of their regional fiscal-reform programs successfully and will get grants from the federal budget in the framework of the first tranche of the loan, the World Bank said in a press release. 
 The Astrakhan, Kaluga, Saratov and Khabarovsk regions; Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk territories; and Karelia Republic are competing for the next awards from the regional fund.
 &quot;Due to poor financial policies and inefficient loans, many regions have experienced problems with paying back World Bank money in the past,&quot; said Felix Ajgel, head of municipal financial service at a joint venture between Standard &amp; Poor's and EA Ratings, which helped the Finance Ministry work out a method for assessing the regions.
 &quot;This time, the main goal is to increase the effectiveness of the spending of federal money on the regional level and to develop more efficient ways of managing regional finances,&quot; Ajgel said.
 The new loan program will encourage the regions to make their budgets more transparent and take more responsibility for their borrowing programs, said Alexander Rzhanov, head of the regional ratings service with Interfax Rating Agency.
 &quot;It is true that there are still some regions that have not paid back previous World Bank loans,&quot; Rzhanov said.
 &quot;But the fact that the Bank decided to support the government program shows that it understands the importance of this process for the country,&quot; he added.

TITLE: Caspian Talks Finish Without Agreement
AUTHOR: By Deborah Seward
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - The vast oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea will remain underwater as the presidents of the five littoral states failed to agree Wednesday on how to divide its wealth.
 
A declaration that had been expected to be signed on the exploitation of the Caspian, believed to hold the world's third-largest oil and gas reserves, eluded the presidents of Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
 Instead, infighting dominated the two-day summit in the Turkmen capital, and the leaders went home only with an agreement to continue talks at some unspecified later date.
 &quot;We agreed to continue these discussions on all aspects of cooperation,&quot; President Vladimir Putin said after the summit. Putin called the talks &quot;open and constructive,&quot; but nothing more.
 Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, who hosted the long-delayed summit, said the proposed declaration was &quot;empty&quot; and wasn't even worth signing.
 Privately, members of the Russian delegation dismissed the Turkmen leader as an insignificant player and spent much time courting Iran and Kazakhstan.
 Disputes occur frequently as each country asserts its claims. Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are quarreling over who has sovereignty over several exploratory wells in the middle of the Caspian, and Iran has denounced an agreement between Kazakhstan and Azer baijan on sharing Caspian resources. However, at the end of Wednesday's four-hour meeting, Niyazov said that all five countries had &quot;agreed to prevent conflicts and behind-the-scenes games.&quot;
 The legal status of the Caspian has been in limbo since the Soviet collapse more than 10 years ago, hindering exploration and pumping of the undersea wealth. The U.S.S.R. and Iran had shared control of the Caspian equally. At the talks, Iran said it wanted to maintain its 50-percent share, while Putin did not spell out Russia's position publicly.
 Agreement was not achieved on any major issues, including division of the seabed, fishing and ecological degradation. &quot;The problem was larger than we expected,&quot; Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

TITLE: Antimonopoly Ministry To Investigate GAZ
AUTHOR: By Simon Ostrovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Antimonopoly Ministry will investigate Gorky Auto Plant, or GAZ, next month, and claims that the No. 2 carmaker is illegally holding back production of its Volga model to boost its price, a ministry official said Thursday.
 
The company is &quot;cutting sales while hiking prices of goods whose quality is getting worse - that's a violation of Antimonopoly legislation,&quot; said Gennady Gudkov, the head of the ministry's representative office in Nizhny Novgorod. The ministry has been trying force GAZ to boost production, he said.
 The Antimonopoly Ministry says that GAZ has a monopoly on the large-sedan market with its Volga, giving the ministry the legal right to regulate the carmaker's production.
 A number of Volga dealers have been complaining since November that the plant is not delivering enough of the cars, Gudkov said by telephone from Nizhny Novgorod, and the ministry has information showing that the factory is not running at full capacity. He declined to elaborate on the information. Dealers are demanding that their orders for Volgas be fulfilled, Gudkov added.
 GAZ has countered the accusations, saying its warehouses are filled with Volgas, but nobody is buying them. 
 &quot;GAZ operates in accordance with the laws of economics and produces cars depending on the number of orders it has for them,&quot; the company said in a press release.
 The conflict between the Antimonopoly Ministry and GAZ began last summer, when the ministry included the carmaker on its list of registered monopolists.
 The Antimonopoly Ministry puts GAZ's share of the large-sedan market at 65 percent, well above the 35-percent limit for the company to be considered a monopoly. GAZ counters that its main competition comes from used foreign cars, which the ministry does not factor in when calculating market share. 
 &quot;The Antimonopoly Ministry considers us to be working only on the market of new cars because that is what we produce,&quot; said Valentina Berestova, a GAZ spokesperson. &quot;We compete with used imports, and if these sales are factored in, we hold less than 35 percent of the market,&quot; she said.
 GAZ has taken the Antimonopoly Ministry to court twice to be taken off the list of monopolies. In February, however, the Moscow arbitration court ruled in favor of the Antimonopoly Ministry. &quot;We thought the issue had been resolved and GAZ would comply [with production demands],&quot; said ministry official Gudkov.
 GAZ temporarily raised production in mid-April, but then stopped completely on April 23, saying its warehouses were overstocked.
 When the Antimonopoly Ministry decided it would investigate GAZ, the car company brought its case to the Moscow appeals court and the ministry was forced to delay its investigation. The court case is ongoing. &quot;We hope that we can prove that we are not monopolists, otherwise we'll have to do what the ministry says,&quot; GAZ's Berestova said.

TITLE: Sberbank Facing Shareholder Bid
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Foreign shareholders in No. 1 bank Sberbank have approached United Financial Group about issuing level 1 American depositary receipts, with or without Sberbank's cooperation, the investment house said Thursday. The issue would broaden the range of investors who can buy Sberbank shares.
 
&quot;A sponsored issue would be the ideal variant for the company and its shareholders, and we hope that Sberbank management will support us, but if Sberbank refuses we plan to launch an unsponsored ADR program,&quot; UFG managing director Ilya Shcherbovich said Wednesday. 
 UFG analyst Alexei Zabotkin said a sponsored ADR program - in which Sberbank would cooperate and accept disclosure requirements - could take up to six months to launch, while an unsponsored program would take three months. Sberbank could not be contacted for comment.
 UFG was the first Russian investment bank to apply to the Central Bank for permission to sell 1 percent of Sberbank shares to foreign clients in the summer of 2000. Foreign investors' portfolios have swelled since then, Shcherbovich said. 
 &quot;Today foreign portfolio investors that have received the appropriate Central Bank permission own 12 percent to 15 percent of Sberbank shares,&quot; he said. 
 <i>
 (Vedomosti, Reuters) </i>

TITLE: Russophobia Still Rampant
AUTHOR: By Sergei Yastrzhembsky
TEXT: EVERY country has two histories: one written by the country itself, the other by its neighbors. The amount that has been written about Russia by Western authors is quite astounding. Such literary luminaries as Diderot, Stendhal, Balzac, Merimee, Casanova, Alexandre Dumas <i>pere</i>, H.G. Wells, James Joyce and Leon Feuchtwangler have helped to shape the Western image of Russia.
 
However, both in the recent past and today, it seems that the Western elite has too often been indoctrinated by the literary legacy of George Orwell's &quot;Animal Farm&quot; and Arthur Koestler's &quot;Darkness at Noon&quot; - works which most graphically portray the totalitarian chapter in Russia's history. And all this despite the enormous changes in the lives and mentality of Russian people over the past 10 to 15 years.
 There exists a dangerous tendency to attribute to Russians such allegedly hereditary characteristics as cruelty, laziness, anti-democratism, irresponsibility etc. Pronounced negative stereotypes - such as official corruption, mafia dominance, pervasive poverty and alcoholism - continue to prevail in many Western mass media that cover Russia. Until recently, one got the impression that reports on Russia of a disrespectful and derogatory tone were more frequent than even during the Cold War. Although, in all fairness, we should recognize that many stereotypes about the West are still very much alive in Russia.
 It is important to understand what is behind all the stories about vodka, the mafia and uncivilized Russians. Professor Johan Janssen of Basel University provides an instructive answer, arguing that a feeling of indignation at Russia's &quot;ingratitude&quot; as well as at the fact that &quot;the defeated enemy has begun to stir again,&quot; underlies this information policy toward Russia.
 Unfortunately, Janssen does not specify what Russians and the new Russia should be grateful to the West for. Could it be for the write-off of at least part of the huge Soviet debt to the West, as Poland got, for example? Or maybe for admission to the WTO, as was the case with China recently? Perhaps for easing the visa regime, as has been done with the Baltic countries? Or possibly even for the major direct investment in the Russian economy, comparable to investment in China or Brazil?
 Russia itself broke the vice-like grip of the totalitarian system; opted for democratic and market institutions of its own volition; overcame colossal difficulties to achieve stability and, over the past three years, sustainable economic growth largely by itself; and was the first to support the United States after Sept. 11.
 The new trend is a result of the very important changes in our country that have led to positive transformations in the way that Russia is perceived. First and foremost, I am referring to improved political stability. Also, the past few years have witnessed stable growth, strengthening of the financial system and growing currency reserves. The country is repaying its foreign debts in full and on schedule and the rules of the game for foreign businesses are rapidly being set to rights. The international business community has been highly appreciative of the clarity and consistency of President Vladimir Putin's economic and financial strategy. All these factors, cumulatively, have made it possible to overcome the trend of negative coverage in the foreign mass media.
 However, it would be wrong to place all the blame on the West, as the problem is more broadly one of the mass media in general. The media business is one that feeds on &quot;hot&quot; information and scandalous or unverified facts. It is entirely logical that reporters focus on negative information and scandals, as it is much harder to make a name for oneself with positive reports. Another problem is that many official structures in Russia have proved ill-equipped and are only just learning how to work professionally in the post-Soviet information environment. There is no need to embellish the country's image - indeed, any gloss or varnish can only be counterproductive. However, developments in Russia should be covered objectively.
 The Russian political and business elite is consolidating. Inter alia, this consolidation has produced a clear-cut line on integration with the world economy and international financial and economic structures. Russia needs to improve its reputation to further accelerate such integration. Russia is also now shaping a clear development strategy. I am referring primarily to the irrevocable decision in favor of a civilized market-based state, together with the consistent implementation of democratic reforms and adherence to universal cultural and moral values - while advancing its national interests.
 It's high time the West stopped treating Russia as a mischievous student in the school of democracy. Unfortunately, it not only employs double standards widely, but also advocates one set of rules of the game for Russia, while adhering to another set at home.
 For instance, it blocks information channels to Russian radio stations, while Western broadcasting companies, including Radio Liberty and the Voice of America, broadcast live through Russian radio stations.
 The Press Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, failed to reach an agreement with the U.S. authorities on permitting the radio station Mayak to broadcast in one U.S. city. The U.S. side cited a law of 1934 banning foreign radio stations from broadcasting in the United States.
 The time of ignoring the problem of creating a realistic image of Russia is over. We must undertake systematic, consistent and focused work on this front. However, at the same time incongruity between image and reality can only be counter-productive. Russia's image at home and abroad depends above all on the actual state of affairs, on the success or failure of market reforms and on the scope of further democratization.
 
 <i>Sergei Yastrzhembsky is special adviser to President Vladimir Putin. This comment is excerpted from a speech he gave last Friday at the fifth annual Russian Economic Forum in London. </i>

TITLE: These Aren't The Good Old Days
TEXT: NOSTALGIA can be a powerful sentiment, especially in a country where a large number of people can't help but feel that, at least from an economic standpoint, their lives were better before.
 
Wednesday's State Duma session provided two fine examples of the absurdity to which people can be driven when under the influence of nostalgic longings.
 One of the suggestions was clearly meant as a joke, and was just the kind of attention-grabbing ideas we've come to expect to hear from Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Zhirinovesky suggested that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) be renamed the Union of Free Sovereign Republics, which would make its new acronym - coincidentally, of course - the Cyrillic equivalent of U.S.S.R.
 The second suggestion, in the form of an amendment to the criminal code, was effectively an attempt to recriminalize homosexuality through the prohibition of sodomy.
 Fortunately, the ammendment has very little chance of passing - or even reaching the floor of the Duma - so the possibility of a return to the Soviet practice of sending homosexual men to the gulag is slim.
 But the fact that four lawmakers, including Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's chief representative at the Council of Europe - an organization that sets the observance of basic human rights as the main condition of membership - consider this to be a valid and acceptable way to score points with a certain segment of voters is both cynical and irresponsible.
 While Rogozin denied having authored the legislation, the fact that he publicly admits that he supports it should, as has been suggested by some deputies, provide enough reason to remove him from his Council of Europe post.
 That such an amendment could be put up for Duma consideration at the same time that President Vladimir Putin and members of his government are heading toward introducing legislation to target racial violence and hate crimes demonstrates just how uncertain political opinion and judgment within the country remain on human-rights issues. The ghosts of many old attitudes still remain, and a certain sense of nostalgia seems to help wear off some of the rougher edges and characteristics of the past.
 It is said that the good old days are those that everyone remembers with fondness, but nobody would go back to if they really had the choice.
 Asking Rogozin to either disassociate himself from the amendment or to step down from his Council of Europe position would be a reassuring sign that the government understands that we can't go back to the old U.S.S.R.

TITLE: A Closer Look At Reactions To Skinheads
AUTHOR: By Alexei Pankin
TEXT: THE big story in the Russian press last week was the &quot;skinhead threat.&quot; Top law-enforcement officials spoke of little else. The president even mentioned the dangers of extremism in his state of the nation address.
 
Russians who grew up in the Soviet era find it extremely hard to react to all this in a rational manner. On the one hand, normal people are incensed when they hear that Adolf Hitler's birthday is being &quot;celebrated&quot; in Moscow. On the other hand, we all still believe in conspiracy theories, and we hunt for hidden meanings in every word our leaders utter.
 I recall how many friends of my family who had lived through Stalinism would panic every time one of our decrepit Soviet leaders would mouth the obligatory old line about the need to crack down on corruption. They always read these pronouncements as the signal for a fresh outbreak of mass arrests and repression.
 Anyone who takes the time to sort through the reams of articles on extremism will have a much better understanding of the origins and the current state of the extremist movement in Russia and abroad. That person also discovers quite a broad spectrum of opinions on the topic. Law-enforcement officials try to depoliticize the problem. Professional &quot;democrats&quot; sound the alarm, calling extremism one of the gravest internal threats to Russian society. Liberals blame the government for being soft on extremism. And the communists believe the problem has been blown out of proportion, suggesting that the ground is being prepared for a crackdown on the opposition.
 This leads to a very serious question: What influence does this information overkill exert on the public consciousness?
 In February 1999, my magazine, Sreda, investigated what was, to the best of my recollection, the first outbreak of the war on extremism, which came as a reaction to public anti-Semitic statements made by Communist State Duma Deputy Albert Makashov and marches in Moscow held by Alexander Barkashov's ultra-nationalist Russian National Unity movement, or RNE.
 The networks devoted a significant portion of their newscasts to the crackdown on extremism. NTV devoted 34.2 percent of its total news coverage to the issue, TV Center - 26.6 percent, ORT - 20.3 percent, and RTR - 18.8 percent. The RNE received twice as much airtime as the Yabloko party.
 At the end of February one opinion poll ranked Barkashov - previously a total unknown - as one of Russia's 10 most recognizable politicians. According to another poll conducted at that time, NTV attracted the largest number of viewers sympathetic to Barkashov and his party - 8.7 percent of its total audience. By contrast, only 2.5 percent of RTR's viewers supported the RNE. Moskovsky Komsomolets, the newspaper that devoted more space to the crackdown on extremism than any other, similarly had the largest percentage - 7.7 percent - of Barkashov sympathizers among its readership. Countrywide, 5 percent of those polled expressed support for the program of the RNE.
 Unfortunately for Barkashov, NATO soon began bombing Yugoslavia, diverting the attention of the press from extremists at home. The RNE was forgotten and sank into oblivion.
 The latest round in the war on skinheads, while making a bit of a splash in the press, has been almost totally ignored by television news. Tough luck for the extremists again.
 
 <i>Alexei Pankin is the editor of Sreda, a magazine for media professionals (www.internews.ru/sreda) </i>

TITLE: providing music for the head
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: English band Songdog is not your typical pop act - its Web site says that it is &quot;Schopenhauer's favorite band.&quot;
 
Further, the band was formed when its members were in their late 30s, its frontman used to be an award-winning playwright and he also readily affirms that he believes that pop music is an art form. 
 Quite a happy choice for the sixth Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival, or SKIF6, which happens this week and specializes in all kinds of off-the-wall music and concepts.
 &quot;Some of the way I look at the world is the same that Schopenhauer did,&quot; said Songdog's vocalist/ songwriter Lyndon Morgans by telephone from London last week.
 &quot;I've got a rather sort of pessimistic outlook on human life. So I imagine if Schopenhauer was alive in this day and age if he listened to music, he might approve of the kind of stuff we're playing. It's just a joke, really,&quot; he added.
 The band members are now in their early 40s, but Morgans sees no problem with that.
 &quot;[For] the kind of music we play, I don't see that it's any kind of problem. It's not music that is liked by 18-year-old kids. ... The kind of music we make [is] for the head more than for the feet. We are not music to dance to - to me the lyrics are very important,&quot; he said.
 &quot;It's music to really listen to, so the kind of person that is madly into clubbing or dancing is not going to get much from us. You really have to concentrate and listen to the songs,&quot; he explained.
 Although Morgans was always into popular bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he says that his heart really lies with artists who focus on lyrics.
 &quot;To me the kind of music I like has never really been commercial music,&quot; he said, adding that &quot;they're all very successful people, but they don't sell lots of records in comparison with ... Madonna, or something. To me, music is ... a form of art, not just a way of making money.&quot;
 Songdog's music is frequently described as &quot;alt country&quot; or &quot;alt folk,&quot; but Morgans argues that the band does not fit these categories.
 &quot;I think it's a wrong description. I mean, in England at the moment, alt country and alt folk are very popular, and it's possibly because we have something in common with that kind of music [that] people are finally taking some notice of us in England at last,&quot; he said.
 However, he added, &quot;I don't really think that we're country or folk - just because we use acoustic guitar, it's convenient to call us alt country or alt folk, but I don't think it really does the band justice.
 &quot;But, at the moment, it suits people to call us that and we've been making some headway because of it.&quot;
 Morgans himself prefers the self-invented definition &quot;pop noir.&quot; 
 &quot;Pop noir is more like what we're about, because there are elements of pop [in Songdog's music]. I admire the kind of pop music The Beatles wrote, so, although the words are very important, I still like to think that we care about melody.
 &quot;And 'noir' because subject matter of the songs is quiet dark,&quot; he adds. &quot;So I think pop noir is really ... the phrase we made up; it suits the music much better than alt country or alt folk, I think.&quot;
 In the early 1990s, Morgans played in a band called Sad Among Strangers, the name culled from James Joyce's novel &quot;Ulysses.&quot; 
 &quot;We kept on for two years, but it didn't just get anywhere, so I gave up music. I was very disillusioned for a while. I gave up music and started writing plays,&quot; he said.
 &quot;We have always liked people like Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan ... There was a period in England in the late 1980s [and] early 1990s, when they were very, very unfashionable. They [were] sort of written off as music for the older generation.&quot; 
 In the late 1990s, however, the British music scene started to change.
 &quot;A lot of young new bands were coming up and saying how much they loved these people. All of a sudden these artists seemed to be important again. So the whole climate of music in England suddenly was all about good songwriting again, not just about crap music or [a] dance beat,&quot; he said. &quot;We've always cared more about songs more than anything, so we thought, 'now is the time to form another band and have a go' ... Sort like songs mattered again.&quot;
 As well as Morgans, Songdog consists of guitarist Karl Woodward - who also played in Sad Among Strangers - and multi-instrumentalist Dave Patterson. Their debut album, &quot;The Way of the World,&quot; came out in 2001.
 <i>
Songdog at SKIF6, Friday, 10 p.m. (see Gigs for details) and at Red Club, Saturday, 12 a.m. Links: www.songdog.co.uk </i>

TITLE: finland's full of festivals
AUTHOR: by Gyulyara Sadykh-zade
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As everybody knows, St. Petersburg historically has been very closely connected to Finland. It is entirely logical, then, that the Finnish Consulate should seek to promote its summer progam of festivals to the city's residents.
 
Representatives from the largest and most important summer festivals in Finland came to St. Petersburg last week on the eve of the summer tourist season, to pitch their goods to the city's cultural market: They noted achievements in the past, advertised this summer's upcoming treats, and invited visitors to attend.
 At the beginning of the last century, many Finnish musicians studied at St. Petersburg's Rimsky-Korsakov conservatory. Now the process is happenning in reverse: Today, many Russian musicians tour in Finland - conducting operas, appearing at many different festivals and even staging opera and ballet performaces.
 The shining example of this Russian-Finnish cultural collaboration is the festival in Mikkele, which was founded by Valery Gergiev in conjunction with the town's authorities some 10 years ago.
 Essentially, the Mikkele festival is a followup to Gergiev's pet Petersburg project &quot;Stars of the White Nights.&quot; As soon as the festival finishes, the musicians pack their bags and head off on the &quot;great trek&quot; to their summer residency.
 The Mikkele festival lasts for two weeks, at the end of June and the beginning of July. It hosts concert performances of operas, and allows musicians to polish their new symphonic programs. The pianist Alexander Toradze and viola player Yury Bashment, both long-standing friends of Gergiev, are both performing at this year's festival.
 The oldest - it is now in its 33rd year - and most successful Finnish festival is the opera festival at Savonlinna, which lasts for over a month. This festival mixes home-grown talent and guest performances. Traditionally, the last week of the festival is dedicated to performances by visiting theater troups. The festival also collaborates closely with tourist agencies to offer budget-price packages for visitors. This has made the festival financially suceesful and provided funds to invite some top directors to stage performances and even premieres of new Finnish operas. 
 The chamber-music festival at Kuhmo, a small town close to the Russian border, is also of interest and, like the Savonlinna festival, is 33 years old. For two weeks in July, the town dedicates itself to non-stop chamber music, such as Beethoven string quartets, Schubert trios and Russian music. Kuhmo is also the place where Russian musicians - such as cellist Natalya Gutman - perform most often.
 Recently, the Avanti Orchestra's festival concerts, which take place in Porvoo, near Helsinki, have become very popular. The orchestra was founded in 1983 by two friends, the respected Finnish conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The first festival took place in Porvoo in 1986, and stood out due to its original programming - usually consisting of rarely performed pieces or works by contemporary composers. Composers-in-residence at the festival have included Franco Donatoni, Hans-Werne Henze and Maurizio Kagel, and this year it will be Helmut Lachenmann, the idol of today's youthful composers.
 Among the 70-odd festivals that take place over the course of the year, the outstanding ones tend to be musical festivals with an academic bent. However, there is also the theater festival at Tampere, for example, at which theater troupes from Estonia, Latvia and kindred Baltic countries perform. There is also the popular and renowned jazz festival at Pori, the folk festival at Kaustinene, the dance festival at Kuopio and a plethora of others.
 Statistically, 2 million of Finland's 5 million inhabitants visit one or other of the musical festivals every year - not a bad result for a small country!
 This mass movement to Finland's festivals is not mere coincidence. Academic music, and everything linked to it, recieves permanent state funding. Usually, one third of the budget is underwritten by the government or municipal authorities, another third comes from sponsorship, and the rest the festival earns from ticket sales.
 Additionally, Finland operates a system of grants and subsidies that are set up to stimulate composers' work. In the last 10 years the country has experienced an operatic boom, to the tune of 120 new operas.

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: <strong>Sergei Shnurov </strong>had only one thing to say - and that was in English - during his eagerly anticipated guest appearance at the Fuzz Awards ceremony-cum-concert last week.
 
&quot;F**k you very much,&quot; was the only comment from the frontman of Leningrad, the band that Shnurov put on hold in February.
 Shnurov's comment might have been interpreted as a general comment on the teen-oriented extravaganza, which was headlined by Zemfira and featured a clutch of other radio-friendly, Moscow-based acts.
 It was indicative of the focus of the event that St. Petersburg's independent-minded, all-female, folk-punk band Babslei was only given a 20-minute slot at the beginning of the evening.
 Since Leningrad went on sabbatical, Shnurov seems to be more interested in poetry readings like the one he gave last week at Faculty.
 Shnurov is also planning to publish a volume of his writings in the not-too-distant future.
 Incidentally, Leningrad's official Web site, www.leningrad.spb.ru - inactive since late last year - has recently been resuscitated and now has some new features.
 <strong>SKIF6, </strong>or the Sixth Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival, continues through Saturday at LDM, although the schedule (see page ix) is subject to change, as anyone who went to last year's event knows.
 Whatever happens, the philosophy of SKIF6 is not about acts appearing as scheduled. Rather, it's a chance to hang out with friends, have a drink, and keep an ear out for some exciting sounds.
 That said, try not to miss Germany's <strong>Peter Brotzmann </strong>(described as a &quot;free-jazz saxophone terrorist&quot;); traditional Indian band <strong>Maharajah; </strong>British &quot;pop-noir&quot; band <strong>Songdog </strong>(see page ii); Hungarian band <strong>Kampec Dolores </strong>(an unclassifiable opposition-rock-type band); and American guitarist <strong>Eugene Chadbourne, </strong>a self-defined &quot;avant-garde country protest troubador.&quot; SKIF6 wraps up on Sunday.
 <strong>The St. Petersburg Ska-Jazz Review </strong>- which was formed for a gig at last year's SKIF - premieres its eponymous debut album at Red Club on Wednesday at midnight.
 The band, which features members of local ska-punk act Spitfire and reggae act Markscheider Kunst, began as a joke, according to the band's drummer and spokesperson Denis Kuptsov, who also plays drums in Spitfire.
 &quot;We [Spitfire] had already played at SKIF in 2000, and we wanted some variety,&quot; he says. &quot;So we decided to do a jam session as a ska-jazz review. It was a success, and fun. We haven't played many concerts since them, but all of them have been great.&quot;
 Even the band's name was intended as a joke, referring as it does to The New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, made up of veteran Western ska-reggae bands The Toasters, The Scofflaws and The Skatelites.
 &quot;It was sort of our pompous answer to them,&quot; says Kuptsov. &quot;We were saying that we weren't born yesterday either.&quot;
 The concert will also feature vocalist Jennifer Davis, who does not, however, appear on the album. A St. Petersburg-based native of Indianapolis, Davis occasionally sings with the veteran Leningrad Dixieland band at the Jazz Philharmonic Hall.
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: delivery culture reaches piter
AUTHOR: by Robert Coalson
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A place has reached a certain level of culture when good food is readily available in elegant surroundings for reasonable prices, and St. Petersburg long ago achieved this status.
 
However, culture moves ahead by a quantum leap when it is possible to get good food for reasonable prices delivered straight to your home, so that you can enjoy the fruits of civilization without even having to take off your <i>tapochki.</i>
 It has taken the city a while to reach this level, one that is already taken entirely for granted in Moscow, but takeout and home delivery do finally seem to have arrived. Earlier this month, long-time Mexican stalwart La Cucaracha and newcomer Call a Pizza opened much-needed home-delivery services. 
 La Cucaracha is offering a fairly complete menu of Tex-Mex basics, from chili con carne (120 rubles, $3.87) to nachos grande (170 rubles, $5.48) to salads, enchiladas, burritos and fajitas. The deilvery service can also include soft drinks, alcohol, beer or cigarettes, but the prices for such luxuries are sure to make your local store seem pretty attractive.
 We decided to give the place a workout by ordering the chili, a taco salad (150 rubles, $4.84), a chicken enchilada (200 rubles, $6.45), a beef burrito (230 rubles, $7.41), buffalo wings (200 rubles, $6.45) and chicken fajitas (250 rubles, $8.06). 
 The person who took our order was polite and encouraging, answering all of our questions and taking careful notes as we explained how to find our apartment. They even called back to make sure they had things clear. 
 The food arrived promptly after 40 minutes, kept fairly warm in styrofoam containers. The delivery person was exceptionally cheerful and actually had change, which was impressive.
 As for the food, it was perfectly acceptable for delivery, although some dishes definitely benefited from the attentions of our microwave. The chili was judged way too hot for the Russian in the crowd and even this Westerner found it hard to handle. The guacamole was also surprisingly spicy. The chicken wings - eight complete, baked wings - were definitely a hit, but the fajitas, not surprisingly, were a failure: There is no way to reproduce the sizzle and the aroma of proper fajitas within the confines of a styrofoam box. However, our order left us plenty of pickings for a midnight snack and even a bit for breakfast the next day, and everyone agreed that La Cucaracha's service definitely filled a void in their lives.
 Inspired by this experience, we decided to try Call a Pizza the following night, literally minutes after the Mexican leftovers had vanished. Once again, the phone was answered by a tremendously friendly person, who guided us through our order capably. 
 Call a Pizza has 12 different pizzas, ranging from 160 to 330 rubles ($5.16 to $10.65). Extra toppings are 30 and 50 rubles ($0.97 and $1.61). We were a bit surprised to be told that we could not &quot;hold&quot; a topping on any of the pizzas, so ended up picking the tuna off our &quot;Quatro Stagioni&quot; (310 rubles, $10) ourselves. 
 The pizza delivery took a bit longer than the Mexican, with the pies arriving after about one hour. Again, they were warm, but not hot, although our sodas (50 rubles, $1.61) were nicely chilled.
 Call a Pizza's 26-centimeter pies are the thin-crust variety and are satisfying, but not exceptional. We found that they all seemed surprisingly alike after a while. The &quot;Papa&quot; pizza (330 rubles, $10.66), with sauce, cheese, mushrooms, artichoke, shrimp, garlic, salami, ham, pepperoni, olives and egg was a big hit.
 In addition, Call a Pizza offers five different side salads from 110 to 310 rubles ($3.55 to $10). We went for the top-of-the-line &quot;Papa&quot; salad, which featured many of the same ingredients as the eponymous pizza. It was a generous serving that made nice side dishes for our trio and the mustard-based dressing got plaudits all around. Call a Pizza's menu is easier for non-Russian speakers to order from, since all the dishes are numbered.
 In all, we were eminently satisfied with both experiences and were thrilled that our beloved city seemed to have finally crossed one of the few remaining hurdles separating it from the &quot;real world.&quot; Now we are just waiting for Indian home delivery ...
 
 <i>
La Cucaracha delivery. Tel.: 222-1212. Daily, 11 a.m. to midnight. Menu in Russian and English. Dinner for three without drinks, 1,350 rubles ($43.55). Minimum order 400 rubles. Discounts available for orders over 2,000 rubles. No credit cards.
 
 Call a Pizza delivery service. Tel.: 227-3571. Daily, 11 a.m. to midnight. Menu in Russian and English. Dinner for three without drinks, 1,460 rubles ($47.10). Minimum order 400 rubles. Discounts available for orders over 2,00 rubles. No credit cards. </i>

TITLE: repin causes a dutch sensation
AUTHOR: by Charles Hoedt
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russia's greatest oil painter, Ilya Repin, has been causing quite a stir in the Netherlands. Fifty of his paintings and thirty-five sketches were on display until earlier this month in Groningen, which shares with St. Petersburg the epithet &quot;The Northern Capital.&quot;
 
The five-month exhibition, titled &quot;Russia's Secret,&quot; was the first time that so many pictures by the &quot;Russian Rembrandt&quot; have been shown abroad - in fact, it was the first time anywhere that so many Repin paintings had been assembled in one place. Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands called the event &quot;unprecedented in Western Europe in the last 50 years.&quot;
 Interest in the exhibition was overwhelming. Over the course of the five months, over 250,000 people visited the Groningen Museum, which usually attracts about 200,000 visitors per year. &quot;It was amazing. People came from all over Europe to take advantage of the opportunity to see these masterpieces outside Russia,&quot; said Josee Selbach, a spokesperson for the museum.
 The paintings evoked a lot of emotion. Dozens of people fainted on seeing the works. &quot;Never before have so many ambulances been called to the museum,&quot; according to Selbach.
 The swooning was reminiscent of the first time Repin showed his gory masterpiece &quot;Ivan the Terrible,&quot; in public in 1855. The picture shows Tsar Ivan having just murdered his son in a fit of rage, holding him in his arms. When the painting first went on display, many people were left gasping for breath. Unfortunately the picture was not on display in Groningen, due to the bad condition in which Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, where it now hangs, claims it to be.
 Despite many requests from other countries, &quot;The Secret of Russia&quot; was only shown in the Netherlands. It took over a year to organize, and personal interventions from President Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Shvedkoi and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands were needed to persuade the three Russian museums involved - the State Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and Saratov's Radishchev Museum - of the importance of such an exhibition.
 Without financial backing from Dutch sponsor Gasunie - to the tune of 1.7 million Euros ($1.52 million) - the exhibition would never have happened. Gasunie has a close working relationship with Russian giant Gazprom and last year signed a multi-million dollar contract to import millions of cubic meters of Russian gas.
 Now the paintings are back in Russia, although not yet back on display. &quot;Although [Repin's masterpiece 'Bargemen on the Volga'] is currently still boxed up, our visitors will soon be able to admire [it] for real again,&quot; said the Russian Museum's deputy director, Yevgenia Petrova, in a telephone interview. While the painting was abroad, visitors could only get a feel for the painting through a DVD projection.
 The Groningen Museum is planning future co-operation with the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery. &quot;We are considering donating a DVD player to the Russian Museum, for a start,&quot; smiled Selbach.

TITLE: capturing a &quot;russia phase&quot;
AUTHOR: by Christian Parker
TEXT: Though the details of &quot;Leaving Katya&quot; are unique, my first thought on closing Paul Greenberg's tightly woven novel was &quot;This is my experience of Russia. This is exactly how I feel.&quot; With a deceivingly simple style and a light touch, Greenberg evokes a potent sense of ambivalence about a culture that is at once mysterious and seductive, and which exasperates in its ability to consistently confound Western rules of logic.
 
Oh, how going through a &quot;Russia Phase&quot; can complicate an otherwise typical American coming of age story. Indeed, phase is quite an insufficient term for the phenomenon it describes as far as Daniel, the protagonist of Greenberg's novel, is concerned. &quot;Oh, please, Russia wasn't a phase ... Russia was all knots: Once you escaped from one all you did was get yourself tied up in another. I just had to accept it. I could escape Russia about as easily as I could escape my own character.&quot;
 In Daniel's case, as is true with so many who began studying Russian and traveled there for the first time as enthusiastic, fecund youths, Russia sank her teeth in and refused to let go. 
 The list of maddening things about Russian culture is ever-present to Westerners, who find themselves longing to shake the place from their systems: bureaucracy, lines, arbitrary closings, arbitrary everything. We simultaneously rail at the trials that Russia presents us, and triumph in the simple glory of begging, crying or bribing our way through them. We see these little victories as emblematic of bridging a cultural divide, and the next challenge pulls deeper into Russia.
 In &quot;Leaving Katya&quot;, Greenberg focuses his lens on Daniel's hasty marriage to the beguiling Katya in the wake of the 1991 coup. They meet at a vodka-soaked party where the guitar is passed around and one is expected to sing and play. Katya hooks Daniel almost immediately with an irresistible combination of Russian bluntness and steely emotional distance. As they make love for the first time in Katya's makeshift living room/bedroom, with her parents inches away in the next room, Katya's inability to climax becomes Daniel's totem for the cultural divide. If only he could make Katya come to orgasm, he might actually know her, and prove that language and culture are not insurmountable obstacles to love.
 Daniel is adrift. His family at home is fractured and cannot even begin to understand the pull towards Russia. He is out of college, but jobless in a lousy economy. He finds himself walking through the early morning fog of Leningrad like a Raskolnikov plagued by too many rather than too few options. On the heels of the coup, convinced that if he doesn't leave immediately he may not be allowed to, he journeys home to New York with Katya somehow in his heart and in his craw, not quite prepared to let her go. Trapped in a rather squalid apartment with two equally frustrated college friends, Daniel soon embarks on bringing her to America, ostensibly for a visit. Once there, Katya's hold on Daniel becomes more and more tenacious, and he finds himself proposing a marriage of semi-convenience when her tourist visa runs out.
 Greenberg's novel beautifully balances a portrait of a young man's deepening exposure to Russian culture, and a coming-of-age narrative in which Daniel finds himself feeling more vividly American, and more acutely aware of his own beliefs and flaws than ever before. Katya struggles to meld her contradictory 19th and 20th century ideas about marriage and gender into the lonely fabric of New York. Rather than assimilating, however, she finds herself pulled toward Russian communities in the &quot;Outer Boroughs&quot; and unconventional religious devotion in Mormonism and the Queens-based cult of Sri Brahmaputra. As Katya retreats into a safe, familiar Russian world in New York that Daniel finds undesirable and inaccessible, Daniel starts judging his wife as willfully backwards and classically passive. Katya's urgent desire to have a baby and her fervent superstitions about pregnancy bring the tension between the two to a peak. Indeed, Daniel's place and influence in her life becomes increasingly contentious, until he finds himself ironically retreating to the formerly &quot;closed&quot; cities of eastern Russia on his own, just as Katya makes a cross-country journey to the American West.
 &quot;Leaving Katya&quot; is at its heart a story of deep love and impossible marriage. As much about the clash of personalities as the clash of cultures, it achieves its power in exploring the enduring desperation for men and women to know another's deepest self. Against the backdrop of a politically tumultuous time and the grandiose landscapes of Russia and New York City, Daniel and Katya's story is a poignant and often humorous example of how romance and loneliness can trade places in an instant.
 
 <i>
&quot;Leaving Katya.&quot; By Paul Greenberg. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 247 pages. $24.95
 
 Christian Parker is Director of New Play Development at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, New York. His own &quot;Russia Phase&quot; began in earnest on a 52-hour train ride from Moscow to Novosibirsk in September, 1988. </i>

TITLE: Siege Continues Despite Trial
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RAMALLAH, West Bank - A makeshift court inside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's compound convicted four Palestinians on Thursday for the murder of Israel's tourism minister, but the move was unlikely to end Israel's siege of the Palestinian leader.
 
The men's trial was held Monday, with security officers acting as judges and a police officer assigned as defense attorney. Arafat approved the sentences, Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said from inside the shell-shattered headquarters.
 Hamdi Quran was sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting Rechavam Zeevi in a Jerusalem hotel on Oct. 17. Quran's lookout, Basel al-Asmar, received 12 years; getaway driver Majdi Rimawi - eight years; and Ahmad Gholmy was jailed for one year for knowing of the plot but failing to inform authorities.
 Israel says it won't lift its encirclement of Arafat's offices until the men are handed over. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismissed the convictions announced Thursday.
 At the other standoff in the West Bank, nine Palestinian youths emerged from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, along with two monks carrying two bodies - fulfilling a deal struck the day before between negotiators.
 Two monks carried the bodies - which had been decomposing inside the church for days - on stretchers, and set them in the middle of Manger Square, where they were collected by Palestinian ambulances.
 Negotiators agreed on Wednesday to the departure of the youths and the removal of the bodies, and talks were to resume Thursday on ending the standoff around the church, one of Christianity's holiest shrines, built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth.
 Israel has said that its operation to crush Palestinian militias behind deadly attacks on Israelis is over, but that its troops would remain in Bethlehem and around Arafat's office until the men it wants are surrendered.
 Israeli forces also frequently move in and out of other West Bank areas, making arrests.
 Witnesses said about 10 tanks and 10 armored vehicles entered Hebron early Thursday. Soldiers exchanged fire with armed Palestinians and made arrests before pulling out, they said. The army said its special forces arrested a Fatah activist.
 Ahmed Bashir, a member of Arafat's elite security unit, Force 17, was killed and at least four Palestinians wounded, Palestinians said.
 In Gaza, Israeli soldiers shot and killed four Palestinians who tried to infiltrate the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom early Thursday, the military said. Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces later entered 270 meters into Palestinian territory nearby, and doctors said a Palestinian police officer was killed in the ensuing exchange of fire.
 On Wednesday, the militant Hamas group issued an unusual appeal, calling on children not to try to infiltrate Jewish settlements. The call came after Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians trying to break into the settlement of Netzarim in central Gaza on Tuesday. Palestinians said two of the intruders were 14 years old and the third was 13.

TITLE: Cardinals Aiming To Target Pedophile Repeat Offenders
AUTHOR: By Victor Simpson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VATICAN CITY - American cardinals backed down from a zero-tolerance policy of removing pedophile priests and indicated they would only go after repeat offenders.
 
The decision came during an extraordinary meeting in Rome in which Pope John Paul II told the church leaders that he had lived under communist rule in Poland and that he feared that bishops might use their administrative power unfairly against innocent priests.
 He also reminded them about the need for forgiveness and God's power to transform repentant priests.
 The cardinals said on Wednesday they would recommend a process to defrock any priest who has become &quot;notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors.&quot; In cases that are &quot;not notorious&quot; they would leave it up to the local bishop to decide.
 The church leaders will take their recommendations to a meeting of U.S. bishops in June to draw up a policy on dealing with abusive priests.
 Their final statement did not make specific proposals for the reporting of sex abuse crimes to authorities. Several cardinals had suggested they had wanted stronger language, indicating that major battles lie ahead when all U.S. bishops gather in Dallas in June.
 The reference to &quot;serial&quot; attacks appeared to contradict a statement earlier Wednesday by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who indicated that the American cardinals reached consensus on a policy that would dismiss any priest involved in a future sex abuse case.
 Scott Appleby, director of the Cush wa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, said he feared many in the United States would not be satisfied by the outcome of the summit.
 He called it &quot;confounding&quot; that a priest would only be removed from a ministry after being deemed a serial offender.
 &quot;That leaves an uncomfortable uncertainty about offenders who are not yet serial, but who clearly have the potential to become notorious,&quot; Appleby said.

TITLE: Senators Grab 3-1 Series Lead
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OTTAWA - Patrick Lalime grabbed a share of NHL history and was quick to share the credit. 
 
Lalime posted his third consecutive 3-0 shutout to equal an NHL record, as the Ottawa Senators beat the reeling Philadelphia Flyers before a jubilant, towel-waving sellout crowd of 18,500 at the Corel Centre. 
 &quot;I'd like to thank my teammates,&quot; said Lalime. &quot;You can't do it yourself, it's a team effort. The important thing is the win.&quot;
 The Senators took a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven quarterfinal. 
 Wade Redden, Sami Salo and Marian Hossa scored for Ottawa and Shawn McEachern had two assists. 
 &quot;I don't have any answers,&quot; said Flyers center Keith Primeau. &quot;If I had answers, we wouldn't be in the predicament we're in. We better find answers pretty soon, though.&quot; 
 Although the strategy of the experienced, hard-hitting Flyers has been to wear down their speedy opponents, the Senators have matched the Flyers' physical play.
 The Senators opened the scoring with 20 seconds left in the first period when captain Daniel Alfredsson headed for the Flyers' net, then sent a pass back up the slot to Redden, who beat Cechmanek. 
 Salo made it 2-0 when he swept around an outstretched Cechmanek and scored on a back-hander in the second period. 
 The Flyers could not solve Lalime, even with a two-man advantage for 1:17 midway through the third.
 
 <strong>
New York 4, Toronto 3. </strong>Shawn Bates was facing his first NHL penalty shot and most of his teammates stayed far away. 
 
But captain Michael Peca put himself eye-to-eye with Bates and told him that Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph is not fooled by dekes. 
 &quot;I had experience,&quot; Peca said. &quot;I told him I didn't want to tell him what to do, I just wanted to tell him what to look for.&quot;
 It worked, as Bates scored the deciding goal with 2:30 left in regulation Wednesday night, giving New York a victory over the Maple Leafs and sending the series back to Toronto on Friday night tied 2-2. 
 Bryan McCabe, a former Islander, dragged down Bates from behind to give New York the penalty shot. 
 Not surprisingly, the Maple Leafs were furious Bates was awarded the penalty shot. 
 &quot;It should not have been a penalty, I know,&quot; Joseph said. &quot;I've never seen that call before ... Usually you have to commit murder to get a penalty.&quot; 
 The Maple Leafs played without Mats Sundin, their captain and leading scorer. The team would not divulge Sundin's injury. 
 Bates' goal capped a wild final seven minutes that saw New York tie the game, take the lead, lose the lead and win it. 
 
 <strong>
Sharks 2, Coyotes 1. </strong>With one blast from the blue line Wednesday night, Mike Rathje revived the Sharks' wilting power play and pushed San Jose to a 3-1 series lead over Phoenix. The Coyotes are on the brink of their 10th consecutive first-round playoff exit since 1987. 
 
The Sharks had other heroes: Mike Ricci scored for the second straight game, and Evgeni Nabokov made 29 saves for his third win. 
 &quot;We battled hard,&quot; said Ricci, whose game-winner sent the Sharks into a 2-0 lead.
 &quot;They came at us for three periods, and Nabby stood on his head and won us that hockey game, so we dodged a bullet. We realize we've got to be better in two nights.&quot; 
 Radoslav Suchy got Phoenix within 2-1 midway into the second period.
 But that was the best the Coyotes could do as the Sharks turned defensive, allowing only four shots in the final nine minutes.
 
 <strong>
Carolina 3, New Jersey 2 (OT). </strong>A goaltending controversy is usually never good - especially when it happens in the playoffs.
 
But in less than two months, Kevin Weekes has gone from being Tampa Bay backup to postseason savior for the Carolina Hurricanes. 
 Weekes, playing for the slumping Arturs Irbe, stopped 40 shots in his first playoff start, and Josef Vasicek scored the winner 8:16 into overtime as the Hurricanes beat the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night. 
 The win gave the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals with a chance to win a Stanley Cup playoff series for the first time in 16 years, at New Jersey on Saturday. 
 It appeared the Devils would win 2-1 in regulation after Elias scored a power-play goal with 8:14 left, but Bobby Holik was called for boarding with 1:50 left.
 Jeff O'Neill broke out of his scoring slump by pounding one past Martin Brodeur 21 seconds into the power play. &quot;I would rather be in a situation where I'm under the gun or under pressure,&quot; O'Neill said. &quot;When the chips are down you want to be the guy out there counted on.&quot; 
 Vasicek then scored his third career playoff goal from the slot midway into the OT period, sending the Hurricanes off the bench and into a mad celebration. 
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard) </i>

TITLE: Stackhouse Gets Pistons Firing
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AUBURN HILLS - Jerry Stackhouse showed he can still carry the Detroit Pistons with his shot. 
 
Stackhouse scored a playoff career-high 31 points as the Pistons became the first team to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA playoffs with a 96-91 victory over Toronto on Wednesday night.
 Stackhouse scored 13 points in the third quarter to help the Pistons take the lead for the first time since 1-0, and made three three-pointers in the final 5:17. 
 The seventh-year pro said it wasn't difficult to be aggressive on offense, after evolving into an all-around player this season.
 &quot;That's been my mentality all my life, so it was not hard to revert back to that,&quot; Stackhouse said. 
 Chris Childs had 22 points and 14 assists for Toronto, and Antonio Davis added 21 points.
 The first of Stackhouse's final three 3-pointers tied the game at 83. Jon Barry's three-pointer with 4:34 left put Detroit ahead 86-85. Then Stackhouse made two more three-pointers - falling away from the right wing - with the second putting the Pistons ahead 94-87 with 2:09 left. 
 Detroit's Cliff Robinson and Corliss Williamson scored 10 each, and Ben Wallace added 15 rebounds and seven points. Jerome Williams added 13 points for Toronto, and Keon Clark had 12.
 &quot;I thought we finally woke up,&quot; Childs said. &quot;The first game, we were playing like it was a regular-season game. You have to go out and let the other team know, 'I'm going to break your will to win' and we started off like that. &quot;But their will outdid ours.&quot;
 
 <strong>
Dallas 122, Minnesota 110. </strong>When Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash are all clicking, not even career nights by All-Stars Kevin Garnett and Wally Szczerbiak can slow the Dallas Mavericks. 
 
Nowitzki, Finley and Nash were dominant inside and out, forcing the all-out tempo they love to carry the Mavericks past the Minnesota on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 series lead. 
 &quot;We're a confident team right now,&quot; said Finley, who had several highlight-reel dunks and a big three-pointer among his 28 points and eight rebounds. &quot;We feel we can go on the court and beat any team in the league.&quot;
 Dallas put on a show in the third quarter, going on a 19-7 run that kept the crowd on its feet and left the Timberwolves shaking their heads. 
 &quot;When you're going 100 mph [160 kilometers per hour] out there, it's like an Indy car race, there's no time to assess. You've just got to go with it,&quot; said Garnett, whose 31 points and 18 rebounds might have answered some critics but weren't enough to keep the game close. &quot;We need to make them work harder.&quot;
 Nowitzki had 31 points and 15 rebounds, and Nash contributed 17 points and 10 assists. The league's highest-scoring team also got a boost from its two late-season additions as Nick Van Exel scored 17 points and Raef LaFrentz had 14 points and 12 rebounds.
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard) </i>

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Zenit Makes Final
 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Andrei Arshavin saw Zenit into the Russian Cup final on an extra-time golden goal against Saturn Ramenskoye on Wednesday.
 Arshavin settled the game nine minutes into extra time with a drilled shot from 15 meters that flew past Saturn goalkeeper Valery Chizhov.
 Zenit, which beat Dinamo Moscow in the 1999 Cup final, will play CSKA Moscow in the May 12 final at Moscow's Luzhniki Olympic stadium.
 The "golden goal" rule, introduced in the middle of the season, ignited controversy three weeks ago when Zenit edged past Krylya Sovietov Samara by the same score with a 95th minute clincher from Alexander Kerzhakov.
 
Tennis Announced
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The organizers of this year's St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament revealed some of their plans for this and next year at a press conference on Tuesday.
 Mikhail Rybkin, the tournament director, announced that Marat Safin will return to defend his title, and that former winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov will also compete. He added that negotiations were continuing to attract other stars to the tournament, which will take place at SKK between Oct. 21 and Oct. 27. 
 For next year, the tournament organizers plan to increase the total prize money from $800,000 to $1 million, making it only the seventh $1-million tournament in its class on the ATP tour.