SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #774 (40), Tuesday, June 4, 2002
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TITLE: 1 Dead, 15 Missing in Collapse
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A nine-story apartment building collapsed Monday in the city's Admiralteiisky Region, killing a 50-year-old man and leaving more than 400 people homeless.
Hundreds of emergency workers, aided by two cranes and bulldozers, sifted through the pile of bricks and smoking furniture Monday evening looking for survivors. A thick cloud of dust hung over the site of the tragedy on Dvinskaya Ulitsa.
Andrei Bagotsky, the head of the Search and Rescue Service, told the Agency for Journallistic Investigation late Monday evening that more than 15 people might have been trapped under the rubble.
Alexander Yefrimov, the head of the city's emergency service, said the 50-year-old victim apparently died of suffocation. It was not clear if the man, who lived on the eighth floor, died in the collapse or in the fire that also roared through part of the building.
Twenty fire-brigade units were on hand to fight the flames.
Officials said three people, including a young boy, were taken to the hospital. The boy suffered breathing problems, while one had heart trouble and the other had cuts from broken glass.
The Web site Fontanka.ru quoted fire department spokesperson Valery Ardashev as saying a woman working at a Petrovsky Bank office on the ground floor called relatives on her mobile phone for help at about 6 p.m. Rescue officials tried to return the call but got no reply. Rescue workers later gave her name as Olga Novikova.
Firefighters said that a male employee of the bank may also have been trapped in the ruins.
Residents of the building on Ulitsa Dvinskaya said they heard a loud bang at about noon and the floors and walls shook. A fire then broke out, and the building collapsed 30 minutes later.
"I was taking a shower in the bathroom when I heard something like an explosion. The bathtub shook under me, and the ceiling cracked," said Yury Pchelintsev, 18, who lived on the seventh floor. "I rushed to open the bathroom door, but it was jammed shut, so I broke the little window in the bathroom and climbed out through the hole."
Pchelintsev, with 40 or 50 of his neighbors, left the building immediately by the outdoor fire escape.
"We've lost all our belongings there: gold, the computer, diamonds and documents," said Irina Pchelintseva, Yury's mother, who was at her dacha with her husband and younger son when the building collapsed.
"The most important thing is that my son is alive," she said.
Nadezhda Tolkachyova, 47, was in her room on the ninth floor when she saw cracks form in her ceiling.
"My 8-year-old daughter, Nastya, screamed in the kitchen and I rushed to her," she said. "The door was stuck and I pushed it out with all my strength."
Residents speculated that maintenance on the building's water pipes that started Monday morning may have been to blame for the collapse. Police and fire officials said a gas leak or explosive device were also possibilities.
Anna Markova, vice governor of St. Petersburg and head of the city's emergency commission, cautioned that an investigation must first be made to determine the cause of the disaster.
"It is difficult to say at this point what caused the tragedy," Markova said. "The building wasn't on the list of buildings in emergency condition. The investigation will show the cause."
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu flew to St. Petersburg on Monday night to oversee the investigation.
St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev said on Inform TV from Strasbourg, France, that all of the families would be given new apartments. Yakovlev was in Strasbourg to address the European Parliament in relation to the plans for next year's 300th-anniversary celebrations, but announced Monday evening that he would cut his visit short and return home on Tuesday.
In the meantime, the building's residents will be put up in a nearby kindergarten and school.
Four apartment buildings have collapsed in St. Petersburg in the past four years, but none resulted in casualties before Monday.
TITLE: NTV License Given Another Five Years
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Press Ministry decided Monday to extend NTV's license for another five years, ending speculation that NTV television might be forced to fight for its frequency in a tender.
The decision was made after a meeting of the federal licensing commission, which voted unanimously to recommend that the ministry extend the license despite what Press Minister Mikhail Lesin said were "violations of the current law in NTV's activities," Interfax reported.
In the run-up to Monday's meeting, several newspapers reported that the ministry may be pushing for a tender in an attempt to strip NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky of his 30 percent stake in the channel or to spook NTV general director Boris Jordan, who has a rocky relationship with Lesin.
Commission members denied the reports. Manana Aslamazyan, a nongovernment member on the commission, said the question of renewing NTV's license arose because of a conflict between two laws regulating television licensing. The commission recommended that the law on mass media and a 1994 Cabinet regulation be amended, she said.
"We recommended that the ministry extend the license without a tender so as not to create a tense situation and stir up the public," Aslamazyan said. "The ministry agreed."
She also said that the commission, which is made up of five government officials and four nongovernment members, concluded that the ministry was at fault for not resolving the matter in advance and for waiting until NTV's license expired Saturday night.
NTV, which welcomed the ministry's decision, also announced a sweeping restructuring, designed to bring in an extra $5 million in the first year. The company, which is part of the Gazprom-Media holding, will be itself transformed into a holding by the end of 2003, the Vedomosti newspaper reported Monday. NTV-Broadcasting will buy content at market prices from its own two subsidiaries, NTV-Production and NTV-News. Design solutions will be provided by NTV-Design, which will be the first company split off into a separate business before the end of the year. NTV-Assets will manage the holding's studios, equipment and offices.
Subsidiaries will be allowed to sell their productions to competitors if NTV-Broadcasting rejects them.
"The company is no longer making a loss," Jordan was quoted by Vedomosti as saying. "Now we need to have a situation where each profit center is making money. My job is to make sure that the subsidiaries have no stimuli other than market stimuli."
Meanwhile, NTV broadcasting in Azerbaijan was cut off Monday because of a local company's debt to transmitters, Interfax reported.
TITLE: Russian Officers on Board For English-Course Finale
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: Thirty-nine retired Russian military officers boarded a British frigate Friday to celebrate the culmination of a grueling training program they couldn't have imagined a decade ago: intensive English classes paid for by the British Defense Ministry.
"We forgot about our home duties, hobbies, even the taste of beer during the last four months. We even spoke English when asleep," said one participant, Sergei Yevdokimov.
Russia's cash-strapped military offers little to its retired officers but a miserly pension. The British government pitched in for the retraining program - which includes classes in English, economics and information technology - after then-Defense Minister Pavel Grachev visited similar courses for the British military in 1993 and asked for help in setting up something similar in Russia.
About 15,000 Russian officers have finished the program over the past seven years. Program officials say 80 percent of its graduates have found new jobs within four months.
"We hope you will use this knowledge for building your further careers in civil life, and for your country's good," British Ambassador to Russia Roderic Lyne said at the graduation ceremony Friday, on board the royal frigate HMS Chatham in a St. Petersburg harbor.
Dmitry Timoshuk, 36, said he left the navy last year and wants to work as a company manager. "Now I can speak English, and I think my chances of successful job-hunting are higher," he said.
The four-month course costs the British Defense Ministry $2,500 per person, adding up to $3.3 million a year, said Maxwell Jardim, coordinator of the program in Russia.
Also on Friday, President Vladimir Putin rebuked top security officials for failing to fulfill promised reforms to streamline the bloated, underfunded military.
Speaking at a meeting of his Security Council, Putin reiterated his demand for an end to the unpopular draft and the creation of an all-professional force. He promised another pay raise for service personel, but insisted that military spending should be more efficient.
The Security Council is finalizing documents foreseeing cuts in the military to between 850,000 and 1 million by 2010, said council Deputy Secretary Vladimir Potapov, Interfax reported. Defense Ministry Sergei Ivanov said the military, which has been cut back over the past decade, numbered 1,274,000 as of Jan. 1.
TITLE: Musharraf Looking to Vajpayee for Answers
AUTHOR: By Judith Ingram
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ALMATY, Kazakhstan - Russia ratcheted up pressure on Pakistan on Monday, criticizing Islamabad's alleged aid to terrorists, while Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf reiterated his willingness to meet with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for direct talks to defuse their conflict over the Himalayan province of Kashmir.
Asked by reporters about what would be his preconditions for such talks, Musharraf said, "You need to ask this question of Prime Minister Vajpayee. What are his conditions? I don't have any conditions."
Hours before President Vladimir Putin arrived in Almaty to try to mediate between Musharraf and Vajpayee, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov accused Islamabad of allowing "terrorists" from Afghanistan to cross into India. He assailed Pakistan for conducting missile tests that further exacerbated the crisis.
"Armed terrorists and extremists from Pakistan keep infiltrating into Indian territory," Ivanov said, according to the Interfax Military News Agency. "This is a fact you can't turn a blind eye to. Moreover, terrorists who are entering India previously have been ousted from Afghanistan."
Ivanov also said the recent test-firing of nuclear capable missiles by Pakistan had further escalated tension over Kashmir.
"Against the background of the conflict, the nuclear missile tests conducted by Pakistan were a provocative gesture," Ivanov said.
"Any nuclear weapons tests conducted in an atmosphere of extreme tension and suspicion ... is wrong and provocative," he said. "This will definitely push New Delhi to take proportionate retaliatory measures."
India conducted a similar test in January.
The Indian Defense Ministry tried to calm international concern about the danger that the conflict could erupt into nuclear war.
"The government makes it clear that India does not believe in the use of nuclear weapons. Neither does it visualize that it will be used by any other country," the ministry said in a statement released in New Delhi. "India categorically rules out the use of nuclear weapons."
En route to Kazakhstan, where he arrived Monday, Musharraf insisted that Pakistan would not start a war with India. He has in the past said Pakistan would not use its nuclear weapons.
"Pakistan's president has clearly said ... that no country will be thinking of this kind of thing to settle the dispute," Pakistani Information Minister Nisar Memon told reporters in Almaty.
However, he refused to say why Pakistan would not rule out the first use of nuclear weapons as India has.
Vajpayee has refused to talk with Musharraf until infiltration of Pakistan-based Islamic militants, and attacks in Indian territory, are halted.
Vajpayee said on Monday that he had won support from the Central Asian leader who is hosting the 16-country security summit that opens on Tuesday.
The India-Pakistan crisis revolves around Kashmir, which is claimed by both countries. The dispute has led to two of the three wars between the nations since they won independence from Britain in 1947.
Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, both of whose countries belong to the 16-country Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, were scheduled to meet separately with Musharraf and Vajpayee on Tuesday to encourage them to talk face to face. So far, Vajpayee has refused.
"We don't need to come all the way here to have a meeting. We could meet in our country or his [Musharraf's], if the circumstances were right," Omar Abdullah, the deputy Indian foreign minister, said Monday. "There will be no secret parleys, no dialog, no discussion."
But Memon, the Pakistani information minister, expressed hope that the mediation efforts would make progress. He said Pakistan's first choice would be dialogue, the second mediation, and the third proximity talks or shuttle diplomacy. He would not describe the meetings scheduled Tuesday with Putin and Jiang as proximity talks.
India says Islamic militants crossing the border from Pakistan have carried out terror attacks, including a deadly assault on the Indian Parliament in December and on an Indian army base in Kashmir last month, which left more than 30 dead, including wives and children of army officers.
Memon, however, insisted Monday: "We deny any such camps to be there and that there is any action against India, cross-border terrorism. We have increased our own vigilance on the Line of Control, so if anybody who wants to harm Pakistan's interests by harming India is there."
Musharraf and other Pakistani officials have insisted they are cracking down, and they dispute India's contention that Pakistan actively helps the militants. They say that Pakistan provides only moral and diplomatic support for Kashmiris, most of them Muslims, who want either independence or a merger with Islamic Pakistan.
"There is no infiltration taking place. We've invited independent foreign observers to come and assess the situation for themselves but India does not accede to this request," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said Monday in Islamabad. "It is patently unfair to call the 'freedom struggle' in Kashmir 'terrorism' just as it is unfair to suggest that Pakistan is behind this 'infiltration.'"
Sources in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, said that steady shelling by both sides had been reported Monday across the Line of Control dividing the disputed region.
Firing also spread to the Lipa Valley, southeast of Muzaffarabad, making it the first time that this valley has been targeted since December, following the attack on the Indian parliament.
TITLE: Putin Crashes on Way to Work
AUTHOR: By Gregory Feifer
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A police car traveling at high speed in front of President Vladimir Putin's motorcade struck another car in downtown Moscow on Friday morning, instantly killing its civilian driver.
The victim, 44, got in the path of the approaching police car when he attempted to make an illegal U-turn on Novy Arbat, news reports said.
The two officers in the Ford police cruiser suffered only minor cuts and bruises, thanks to their car's airbags, Interfax reported.
The busy thoroughfare where the crash took place had been cleared of traffic for Putin's armored black Mercedes and its escorts, which sped by the crash site minutes later on their way to deliver the president to work in the Kremlin.
The victim, Lavrenty Gabrielyan, a resident of Mytishchi in the Moscow Oblast, was talking on a mobile telephone while attempting to make the turn, Interfax reported.
"As the escort was moving past, the red Volkswagen was blocking the street and was hit by the first car in the escort and pushed onto the sidewalk," an eyewitness told Reuters. "The red Volkswagen's driver was apparently dead on the spot. He was covered with blood."
Russian television showed the victim's car, a Volkswagen Passat, with the driver's side crushed and its door sheared off. The front of the police car was also smashed.
Quoting an unidentified high-ranking traffic police official, Interfax said the police officers in the motorcade did not deliberately strike the victim's car, as had been earlier reported.
The Kremlin immediately distanced itself from the crash, saying in a statement aired on television that the police car did not belong to the official presidential escort of Mercedes cars.
The president's motorcade is a constant source of irritation to Moscow drivers. Police close off streets to traffic on the many days in which Putin travels to work in the Kremlin from his suburban residence. Police cars then speed by ahead of the motorcade.
While shutting off streets for official motorcades is common in many countries, Russian drivers say it happens too frequently and for too long in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where numerous other VIPs get similar treatment.
The situation is made worse by the reckless driving of many Russian drivers and the fact the already traffic-clogged streets of large cities are becoming increasingly congested as more people buy cars.
Last summer, drivers complained about having to wait in traffic for hours under a scorching sun, after which the State Duma appealed to the Kremlin to cut down on its number of motorcades.
Police escorts have crashed into cars in the past, but this was the first incident in which anyone was reported to have been killed, news reports said.
Friday's crash is now under investigation, Interfax reported.
TITLE: Jewish Leaders Demand Ouster of Police Official
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Days after a booby-trapped road sign reading "Death to Yids!" exploded near Moscow and injured a woman, Jewish community leaders are demanding the ouster of a police official who said the slogan was not explicitly anti-Semitic.
"It is debatable whether the placement of the sign is wrongdoing in and of itself," Nikolai Vagin, police chief for the Moscow Oblast's Lenin district, told the Izvestia newspaper Thursday. "I think that, formally speaking, the slogan 'Death to Yids!' is not a call to incite ethnic hatred. In our country, the word 'yid' gets applied to all kinds of people."
Avram Shayevich, a top rabbi, the Russian Jewish Congress and the Moscow Jewish Community angrily replied, in a statement, that Vagin's remarks should be regarded as "an attempt to justify or at least to downplay the potential dangers of the activities of neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic organizations."
"Coming from an official, a police colonel, the statement maintaining that the slogan bears no call to incite ethnic hatred is no less outrageous than the actions of those who staged the terrorist act," the statement said. "For fascist organizations, such statements are latent approval, a sign of the fact that their actions will continue to go unpunished."
In the Izvestia interview, Vagin also denied that his subordinates had been informed about the sign, stuck in the ground near Kievskoye Shosse some 32 kilometers outside Moscow. On May 26, a woman who tried to remove the sign, Tatyana Sapunova, 28, sustained severe injuries to both eyes when the sign exploded.
Vagin and other Moscow region police officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
The colonel's remarks in Izvestia clearly contradict the stance of law-enforcement and government officials at the highest level, who have lamented the rise of anti-Semitic and racially motivated violence in the capital and other big cities.
Immediately after the incident with the sign, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov promised to take the investigation under his personal control. Vladimir Zorin, the cabinet minister in charge of nationalities issues, condemned the booby trap as "an insidious provocation."
Sapunova remains in an intensive care ward, although her condition has improved slightly, Interfax reported quoting her doctor at the First City Hospital.
Dr. Yelena Litvina said that Sapunova's right eye has improved, while her left eye needs more tests and treatment, but did not say how serious the damage would be for the patient's vision. She denied earlier media reports that Sapunova had lost an eye in the blast.
Meanwhile, in the latest anti-Semitic attack, the director of the Sakharov Museum said Friday that a mural of the late dissident and Nobel peace laureate was vandalized overnight.
Yury Samodurov said the 5-meter-wide and 3-meter-high mural in a square outside the museum had been spray-painted with anti-Semitic and obscene slogans.
The mural's artist, Dmitry Vrubel, was to study the damage to determine whether it can be restored.
"It is very dangerous that many such things can come back in Russia," Andrey Sakharov's widow, Yelena Bonner, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
TITLE: Putin Hoping for Closer Ties With Bulgaria in the Future
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin told the visiting Bulgarian prime minister Monday that he hoped for closer ties between their countries.
Putin said the visit by Simeon Saxcoburggotski - Bulgaria's former king, who lived in exile while his country was a Soviet satellite - would be a "turning point" in relations between the countries, Interfax reported.
Putin lamented that Russian-Bulgarian economic cooperation had dropped in the last two years.
Russia is discussing the possibility of helping to build a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria, the construction of which was was stalled in 1990, Itar-Tass reported.
The Bulgarian government recently announced it would resume construction of the plant at the Danube port of Belene, 250 kilometers northeast of Sofia.
Bulgaria has already invested $1.2 billion in the project, which was frozen after it came under pressure from environmental activists.
"It is time to open a more favorable era in Russian-Bulgarian relations," Saxcoburggotski said, according to Interfax.
The Bulgarian language is relatively close to Russian and both countries use the Cyrillic alphabet.
But Russia has in the past bristled at former Iron Curtain countries like Bulgaria turning their backs on Russia for the West, such as seeking entry into NATO.
However, Moscow has recently sought a course of reconciliation with the West itself and just last week itself became a limited NATO partner.
TITLE: Civic Groups Learn Rules of the Game
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Half a year after the Kremlin-sponsored Civic Forum laid down guidelines for dialog between state and civic organizations, civic activists say they understand their limited role in the law-making process all too well. But they are learning how to play the game.
The rules, they say, are simple: If the Kremlin is indifferent about a bill, activists can influence its contents. If the Kremlin backs a bill, they can influence it if their suggestions toe the Kremlin line. If the Kremlin draws up a bill it considers vital, they cannot influence it. And if State Duma deputies don't know where the Kremlin stands, they can stir up a public storm and then influence it.
Civic organizations look to the Kremlin to decide which legislation to concentrate on, said Lev Levinson, an expert from the nongovernmental Institute of Human Rights and a consultant on the Duma's legislation committee.
"We watch which way the wind is blowing from the Kremlin, and, if it coincides with our plans, we use it," he said at a news conference late last week. "We develop and expand the executive branch's liberal initiatives and send them to the lawmakers."
Levinson said this policy sometimes makes for strange bedfellows. For example, liberal deputies recently found themselves siding with the pro-Kremlin People's Deputy faction on a bill reducing penalties for drug possession. At the same time, those liberal deputies were blasting People's Deputy for backing bills in support of the death penalty and the recriminalization of homosexuality.
"The Duma votes under direct orders from Kremlin or tries to guess the Kremlin's stance over the issue," said Yury Dzhibladze, head of the nongovernmental Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights. "We try to publicize this guessing process, and only then can we influence the deputies."
A recent example took place with controversial legislation on alternative military service, he said. The Kremlin's stance was unclear, but the army wanted a bill that made military service more attractive than alternative service.
Activists went to the media, which provided wide coverage of the army's stance. As a result, a conciliatory commission was set up to take into account the suggestions of the military, the Labor Ministry and civic groups, Dzhibladze said. The bill is expected to go to the Duma for a second reading next week.
"The generals failed in the commission to ruin the portion of the bill that secures rights for those who opt for alternative service," Dzhibladze said. "If there had been no public dialogue before the meeting, the generals would have beaten us easily."
A good way to figure out whether the Kremlin is open to compromise is to see which Duma committee it sends a bill to, Levinson said. "If the government had not wanted a liberal law, they wouldn't have sent the bill on alternative service to the legislation committee headed by [liberal lawmaker] Pavel Krasheninnikov," he said. "They would send it to the defense committee, which wouldn't have let us near it."
But it is impossible to make any substantial changes to bills that reflect the Kremlin's main political and economic agenda, said Valentin Gefter, head of the Institute of Human Rights. "A couple of insubstantial amendments is the maximum that we can do," he said.
According to Levinson, examples of such legislation include the bill on extremism, which is to be considered in first reading in June, the bill on citizenship, which was approved in final reading in April, and budget and tax bills.
Another sensitive area in which the Kremlin doesn't let anybody weigh in is electoral law, Levinson said. "It is understandable why - the country is ruled through elections," he said.
Officials from the presidential administration scurry between lawmakers sitting in the Duma hall on the days parliament votes on such bills, said Lev Moskovkin, who covers the Duma for the Moskovskaya Pravda newspaper. "We all understand what they are doing, and repeated attempts by Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov to shoo them away have no effect at all," he said.
TITLE: U.S. Cuts Price of Russian Student Visas
AUTHOR: By Gregory Feifer
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In a further step toward warming U.S.-Russia ties, the U.S. Embassy said Monday that it has slashed prices for Russian student visas from $495 to $65.
U.S. Consul General James Warlick said the move - which cuts the cost of visas for students and participants of exchange programs to a fee covering processing costs - was agreed upon during last month's summit meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush.
"Presidents Bush and Putin underscored the importance of personal contacts between people," Warlick said at a news conference. "This will help foster mutual agreement between our two countries."
The new price took effect Saturday. The U.S. embassy issued about 12,000 student visas last year.
Warlick said the price cut is part of an ongoing process of streamlining the visa process for other travelers as well. He said it was too early to give details.
Meanwhile, the processing fee for a Russian tourist visa has risen from $45 to $65 - although the price change only reflects the inclusion of a $20 visa fee that was formerly charged separately from the main fee.
Warlick said about 120,000 Russians applied for nonimmigrant visas last year and that three of every four applicants, or about 90,000, were granted the visas. A further 12,000 Russians received immigrant visas.
Warlick said he expected the number of Russians admitted to the United States to grow this year.
Russians have long complained about the application process for U.S. visas, a trial that has included braving long lines and what was perceived as a cold bureaucratic attitude at the embassy in Moscow.
Students, academics and exchange-program administrators have especially lashed out at the student visa application procedure as unnecessarily complex and harmful to academic and cultural exchanges.
After Sept. 11, the U.S. Embassy earlier this year began requiring applicants to send in their materials by courier rather than show up in person. But the process was eased somewhat after some travel agencies were recently allowed to help procure visas.
The latest news follows a period in which visa requirements on both sides grew stricter.
Last month, Russia introduced tougher requirements for American men applying for Russian visas, obliging them to fill out a form detailing which countries they have visited in the past 10 years, whether they have ever served in armed conflicts and the names and addresses of their previous two employers.
The tougher measure appeared to be a tit-for-tat response to a post-Sept. 11 U.S. decision requiring men to fill out similar visa forms, an obligation the U.S. Embassy says is the same for applicants from other countries.
The Foreign Ministry said Monday it had no immediate plans to ease any visa rules in response to the U.S. price cuts for student visas, The Associated Press reported.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: FSB Man Moves to TV
MOSCOW (SPT) - Alexander Zdanovich, a long-time spokesperson for the Federal Security Service, has been appointed deputy head of VGTRK, the state-run radio and television broadcasting company that runs RTR television station, Interfax reported Monday.
Zdanovich, a general in the FSB, was sent to Chechnya many times during the second campaign into the breakaway region.
He will be in charge of security issues at VGTRK, Interfax reported citing the company's press service.
Six Die in Chechnya
VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia (AP) - Federal forces in Chechnya have lost at least six service personel killed in a recent spate of attacks, officials said Monday.
At least three federal troops have been killed in rebel shellings of Russian outposts throughout Chechnya since Sunday, said an official with the Kremlin-appointed civilian administration for Chechnya, who asked his name be withheld.
Also Sunday, two soldiers died in explosions of landmines planted by rebels, and another soldier was killed in a skirmish in the southern village of Mesker-Yurt on Sunday, the official said.
Japan Nukes Reported
MOSCOW (AP) - The Foreign Ministry expressed concern Sunday about a Japanese official's reported suggestion that Japan should be able to have nuclear weapons.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said last week that Japan's war-renouncing constitution should not prevent it from having nuclear arms for self-defense, Kyodo News reported. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later said he stands by Japan's longstanding policy of not building or possessing nuclear weapons.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said Sunday that Fukuda's statement "prompts an understandable concern."
Concessions Denial
MOSCOW (AP) - Countering hard-line critics, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday that Moscow hasn't compromised its security interests in a nuclear deal with Washington and new alliance with NATO.
"I regard as unfounded the claims that we have made concessions," Ivanov told reporters, Interfax-Military News Agency reported. "We did not give up anything," he said, referring to the nuclear arms accord signed by U.S. President George W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Russia last month.
"We do not need the nuclear parity of the Cold War times with the United States," Ivanov said when asked whether the Russian military's plan to make even deeper cuts - down to 1,500 warheads - would put Russia at a disadvantage.
Citizenship Law Signed
MOSCOW (AP) -President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a government-proposed bill making it more difficult to obtain Russian citizenship.
The law requires applicants to spend at least five years in Russia, pass a Russian-language exam and have a job to receive citizenship. It also demands that applicants reject the citizenship of other nations to become Russian citizens.
The old law required only a three-year residence and no language testing.
TITLE: Inspection Bureaucracy To Be Simplified
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bekker
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin last week ordered the State Commission on Debureaucratization, which he heads, to draw up plans to unite the country's business inspection services under one roof.
The Anti-Monopoly Ministry originally proposed creating the inspectorate, which would boost efficiency and cut down on inspections of consumer-goods businesses, Deputy Antimonopoly Minister Andrei Golomolzin said.
Inspectors from various agencies routinely inspect businesses with the same questions, and the police, fire department and security agencies often fine businesses for the same offenses. Furthermore, there is no agency to hear complaints.
A meat producer needs four certificates hanging on the wall to do business, which looks like a scene from a satire, Antimonopoly Minister Ilya Yuzhanov said.
"This is some kind of madness, papers upon papers," he said.
Thirty five federal agencies watch over the consumer-goods market, along with a huge, varying number of regional inspectorates. Businesses pay these agencies $11.6 billion in bribes per year, according to a recent report from the INDEM analytical center.
Kudrin, last week, ordered government bodies including Gosstandart, the Agriculture Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Anti-Monopoly Ministry and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry to write up proposals for creating the inspectorate by the commission's next session, which is scheduled for June.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry has begun analyzing information collected from agencies that are to comprise the Federal Inspectorate, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Alexander Maslov said.
"But because the consumer-goods market is large, it will take us another month and a half [to draw up a proposal]," Maslov said.
The ministry does not even know how many people work in the inspection services or how they are financed, he said.
Oleg Komarovsky, deputy director of the Social Agreement project, said the Federal Inspectorate would be a positive move toward conducting inspections according to a publicized set of rules with known limitations.
Such an agency would leave no room for "creativity" in inspecting businesses, he said.
Making state inspections more efficient is a good idea, but the government risks turning the Federal Inspectorate into an uncontrollable super-ministry with functions crossing over into other ministries' expertise, said Nadezhda Nazina, deputy head of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry's government organs.
TITLE: Moscow's Furniture Giant Takes on Petersburg Retailers
AUTHOR: By Yelena Zubova and Dina Vishnya
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: The Moscow company La Max, which owns the Grand and Tri Kita furniture-retail centers in Moscow, is going to set up shop in St. Petersburg. The company plans to build a 30,000-square-meter shop in the Primorskoye region, in the north of the city.
La Max received permission to carry out preliminary development of a three-hectare site from the Petersburg Investment-Tender Commission last week.
According to the director of the project, Viktor Serpov, the company intends to invest between $10 million and $11 million of its own resources in the shop, which currently has the working title of Peter-Grand. During the development of the plans for the shop, the area that it will cover may be increased and La Max will eventually manage the furniture store itself, Serpov said.
Serpov said that research into the Petersburg market had shown that "the city has enough good furniture shops," but that they are small and, as a rule, can only present a small selection of goods. La Max believes that the city needs a large furniture store where the comprehensive range of furniture offered will cater to the needs of customers with varied spending abilities.
The Finnish supermarket Super-Siva, the Finnish furniture shop Sotka and the Lenta Cash-and-Carry are all located not far from the site. In the opinion of Nikolai Asaul of the City Center for Work With Bank Loans, this area is fast becoming a central zone for many of the major retail complexes in the city.
Oleg Zherebets, general director of Lenta, believes that the turnover of his cash-and-carry store will rise by 20% to 30% as a result of the increased flow of customers to the zone.
Completion of the project will make Peter-Grand the largest outlet in the city's furniture market. Mebel-City is currently the largest furniture store, covering 6,000 square meters, with plans to increase its area by another 8,000 square meters in the next year. Dmitri Lenkov, general director of the St. Petersburg Guild of Furniture Retailers thinks it unlikely that Peter-Grand will present a great deal of competition for Mebel-City, which deals, for the most part, in domestically-produced furniture.
"I've always been astonished by the fact that none of the Petersburg furniture-retailers are developing a project of this kind," said Alexander Kats, chairperson of Maxidom, which owns two hypermarkets specializing in goods for the home. "La Max has got a very good concept for something that is lacking in St. Petersburg. The store areas at Grand and Tri Kita are so big that there's space for everything: from cheap Belarussian furniture to exclusive items from Spain and Italy." In his opinion, St. Petersburg's furniture stores lack space, forcing them to sell a large number of products from catalogues.
TITLE: EU Market Recognition is Linked to Gas
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: WASHINGTON - A pledge to raise domestic natural-gas prices closer to world levels appears to have been key to the European Union's decision to grant Russia market-economy status, a U.S. official said Thursday.
"My sense is they did receive a commitment from the Russians to work on eliminating the disparity between world-market prices and domestic natural-gas prices as part of their discussion on market economy," U.S. Commerce Undersecretary Grant Aldonas told reporters.
That appears to have been "instrumental in terms of their making a decision," Aldonas said in a telephone conference call from Brussels, after meeting with EU officials. He did not say whether the United States has received a similar pledge from Russia.
European Commission President Romano Prodi told President Vladimir Putin at their summit last week that Russia's market-economy status should be finalized by September or October. "Once the agreement is reached, we can move forward very quickly," he said.
Market status from the EU, Russia's main trading partner, with about 35 percent of total foreign trade, could mean billions of dollars in additional revenues each year for Russian companies.
The two sides also signed a declaration on the formation of a common economic space, with compatible rules and standards. Bringing Russia's laws into line will take four to five years.
Prodi's promise on market-economy status - which Moscow has sought for more than 10 years - came just days after U.S. President George W. Bush sidestepped the issue at last month's U.S.-Russia summit.
Bush had been widely expected to announce that the United States would grant Russia market-economy status, but instead he said a decision would be made by June 14.
The benefits of gaining market status from the United States or Europe are the same - it will give Russia a better standing in numerous trade disputes, in particular, anti-dumping cases.
Such so-called discriminatory-trade cases cost Russia up to $4 billion per year when one includes indirect costs, according to the government specialists on joining the World Trade Organization.
Russia is currently facing about 120 anti-dumping cases worldwide, the most crucial of which were filed by its major trading partners, Europe and the United States. The 16 anti-dumping cases brought in the European Union against Russian goods cost up to $230 million per year, Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Maxim Medvedkov said last week.
U.S. fertilizer producers have urged the Bush administration to delay granting market-economy status until Moscow has developed a more market-oriented pricing policy for natural gas sold to domestic industrial users.
They complain that the government-set price for domestic users is only about 20 percent to 25 percent of the price Russia receives on the world market for its natural gas.
The subsidy allows Russian nitrogen-fertilizer producers to sell their products at a lower price than anyone else in the world, U.S. producers complain.
Aldonas said the United States would make its decision on Russia's market-economy status using the six criteria established under U.S. anti-dumping law.
Those are the degree of a country's currency convertibility, free wage-rate determination, foreign investment, government ownership or control of production, government control over the allocation of resources and prices and "other appropriate factors."
Earlier this year, the United States reclassified Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, as a market economy.
The United States has already done the same for Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Latvia since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s and is also currently considering requests from Ukraine and Moldova.
TITLE: End to Oil Price Curb Pushes Up Gas Prices
AUTHOR: By Anna Raff
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Although Saturday marked the day when Russia officially lifted curbs on oil exports, prices on gasoline and other oil products have already seen significant gains since the beginning of the month.
Russia's oil producers have reason to cheer: They were stuck with a glut on the domestic oil market, when the government agreed last year to help prop up world prices by reining in exports.
Oil-product prices will continue to grow until September, at least, and legions of drivers and transportation companies will be hit hardest, experts say. The manufacturing, railroad and electricity sectors - which ultimately derive their energy from price-controlled natural gas - will be little affected.
Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko on Thursday called the situation "completely normal."
"Wholesale prices experienced a severe drop at the beginning of the year," Khristenko said. "So, now prices are climbing up from a lower point at a time when increased demand forces them up anyway."
Russia is now also breaking records in refining capacity, he added. Crude oil is being refined at a rate of 190 million tons per year. Earlier, this figure rarely exceeded 170 million tons per year.
Gasoline prices around the country rose an average of 3.4 percent in the third week of May alone, according to the State Statistics Committee. The average price of Russia's most popular gasoline, 92-octane, was 8.11 rubles per liter, which is roughly equivalent to $0.98 per gallon. In May 2001, 92-octane gasoline cost 8.04 rubles.
Sergei Borisov, president of the Russian Fuel Union, predicts that prices will rise between 10 percent and 15 percent during the summer. "Once they hit 10 rubles per liter or more, then a majority of the population will begin to be priced out of the market," he told reporters on Thursday. "These are people who count their kopeks."
When oil companies were restraining their exports, more crude went to the country's refineries, and oil-product stocks rose to a level equivalent to 40 days of consumption, he said. The normal level is 10 to 15 days of stocks. Seven to eight days is dangerously low.
"If reserves get down to this level, we will begin to see shortages in the regions dominated by a single monopoly supplier," Borisov said.
A fuel crisis aggravated by high gasoline prices hit Russia's regions in 1999. In response, the government slapped temporary quotas on the domestic market.
High oil prices take a major bite out of the profitability of the U.S. manufacturing sector. The same, however, cannot be said for Russia's recovering industrial segment, which is heavily reliant on natural gas, said Brian Chipman, an analyst at Aton brokerage.
"Mining and metals, for example, won't be much affected because much of their shipping is done by railway," Chipman said.
Most of the railroads are electric powered. Only a small portion of the country's power plants use oil to produce electricity.
Oil prices will have to at least double on the domestic market in order to lessen the flow of exports, Borisov said.
TITLE: Andersen Joins Ernst & Young
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Business advisors Ernst & Young and Andersen announced Friday that the integration of Andersen partners and staff in the Commonwealth of Independent States into the Ernst & Young CIS practice had been completed. The enlarged firm will operate under the Ernst & Young banner.
Stephen Moosbrugger, Chief Executive Partner of the CIS practice of Ernst & Young, said in a press release issued on Monday that he was pleased with the way the integration process had gone.
"We can assure our clients that our number one concern as we move forward into the future will be to focus on providing the best possible service and value," Moosbrugger said. "As a fully integrated firm, we now move forward as a larger and stronger organization."
The joint practice in St. Petersburg will be staffed by 100 employees.
"The combined practice will be notable, not only for being the largest in terms of the number of professionals, but also for the variety of their specialization," said Olga Litvinova, Office Managing Partner of Ernst & Young in St. Petersburg.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Chickens Check In
MOSCOW (SPT) - The first shipments of U.S. poultry have reached Russia after a ban on "Bush legs" was lifted in April, Interfax reported. The Anapa and Indian Reefer refrigerator ships, carrying 10,500 tons of chicken meat, docked in St. Petersburg on Monday.
According to a port official, the ports are equipped with powerful refrigerators, and a quality-control program for the imported foodstuffs is being carried out.
The ban on U.S. chicken was lifted April 15 when the U.S. side fulfilled a number of Russian veterinary requirements for the quality of chicken meat intended for sale in Russia. Both sides are working on protocol to regulate poultry imports from the United States that would replace a 1996 agreement.
Russia, with imports reaching $600 million per year, is the largest importer of U.S. poultry products.
Crude Exports Up
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Data showed Monday that Russia has begun to edge up its crude exports in May, in a move that is set to keep it inline with its aim to gradually ease the supply curbs it had formerly agreed to with OPEC.
A source close to the Energy Ministry said crude exports via the state pipeline monopoly Transneft rose in May by only 30,000 barrels per day from April volumes.
However, the source and traders said real volumes of crude exports were likely much higher as the Transneft system was pumping oil almost at capacity.
At the same time, many oil firms have been successfully making use of alternative routes.
Three Down for PwC
MOSCOW (SPT) - The Moscow Arbitration Court on Monday threw out the third of five lawsuits by minority Gazprom shareholder Hermitage Fund against PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC said.
Hermitage filed the suits in April, alleging PwC's audits of Gazprom were "false and misleading."
The suit dismissed Monday centered on PwC's audit of Gazprom's relationship with Florida-based natural gas trader Itera.
"We have consistently stood behind our work on Gazprom and are not surprised the court has now rejected three separate claims by the plaintiff," said Richard Buski, PWC's senior partner in Russia.
Euro Oil Exchange
PARIS (Prime-Tass) - Russia and Germany plan to set up a joint oil exchange with contracts denominated in euros. This will create a trading floor that will be able to compete successfully with the London and New York oil exchanges, sources in the European Commission said, as reported by the Itar-Tass news agency Monday.
The new exchange is expected to be based in Frankfurt, with a branch in Russia.
Customs Exceed Target
MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) - Russian customs contributed 214.71 billion rubles ($6.9 billion) to the federal budget in January to May, 1.26 percent above target, the State Customs Committee reported Monday.
Customs contributed 42.540 billion rubles to the federal budget in May, 4.99 percent above target, the committee said.
11% Inflation Target
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to reduce inflation to around 11 percent in 2003, with the average annual ruble exchange rate expected to slide to 34 against the dollar, the government said Monday.
A government statement posted on the official Web site www.pravitelstvo. gov.ru said Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin had advised in an outline of the 2003 budget that inflation would be around the 11-percent mark.
"[Kudrin] said the government would pursue this target as it is to contain inflation at 12 percent to 14 percent this year," the statement said.
The statement was released following a weekend call by President Vladimir Putin to the cabinet to draft the 2003 budget with the aim of helping the growth of businesses, engineering structural reforms and ensuring social stability.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Euro Zone Picking Up
LONDON (Reuters) - Manufacturers in the euro zone enjoyed a second month of modest business growth in May, but the firm global demand behind the expansion has also pushed up costs of raw materials, a major survey showed on Monday.
The Reuters Eurozone Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 51.5 in May, the highest it has reached since February 2001, after edging above the 50 level that divides shrinkage from growth, to 50.7 in April.
France Stalls on EU
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France will this week stall the adoption of European Union economic-policy guidelines, calling on it to balance its budget by 2004, to avoid embarrassment before parliamentary elections in June, EU sources said.
Keen to wrest control of parliament from the left, conservative President Jacques Chirac has made tax cuts a top priority and suggested that his previous promise to balance France's budget by 2004 may have to be pushed back to 2007.
PPI Index Up
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro-zone-producer prices for April rose by more than expected from March, but analysts said the data published on Monday did not shake their conviction that the European Central Bank will keep interest rates on hold for now.
The European Union statistics office said producer prices, a key indication of pipeline inflation pressures, rose 0.3 percent in April from the previous month and fell 0.7 percent from a year earlier.
France Telecom Sale
PARIS (Reuters) - France Telecom still inntends to sell its entire 26.6-percent stake in Italy's third-largest telecoms operator, Wind, a spokesperson said on Monday, following a newspaper report that its plans might have changed.
"We are still selling our stake in Wind, the full 26.6 percent," the spokesperson said. He declined to say, however, whether the group was definitively planning a cash sale or was open to another type of operation.
Turkish GNP Drops
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Treasury Undersecretary Faik Oztrak said on Monday the crisis-hit country's gross national product (GNP) was expected to have contracted three percent in the first quarter of the year.
However, Oztrak told CNN-Turkish television, in a live interview, that a three-percent GNP-growth target for the entire year might be exceeded.
Air Traffic Rising
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Airlines have succeeded in getting people to fly again after the September 11 attacks, but the industry will still lose $6 billion this year after a disastrous 2001, the global airline association said on Monday.
Pierre Jeanniot, director-general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said improving passenger confidence and a pickup in the global economy would fail to make up for soaring insurance premiums and low ticket prices.
Bank of Japan Unhappy
TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami said on Monday he disapproved of a two-notch downgrade of Japanese government debt by U.S. ratings agency Moody's Investors Service last week.
Hayami, on his way out from a regular meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's top economic advisers, was quoted as saying he thought the ratings action taken by Moody's was inappropriate.
Dollar Firming Up
LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar kept a firmer footing on Monday as recent upbeat U.S. economic data and the risk of further moves by Japan made dealers reluctant to test last week's lows.
The Bank of Japan traded yen for dollars on Friday, it being the third day in just over a week that the bank has sought to put an end to the yen's export-damaging strength. One senior Japanese official warned that currency levels were still being closely watched.
TITLE: Putin Tries Weaning Russia Off the Oil Barrel
TEXT: For years, the Russian economy has been precariously dependent on high oil prices. But, as Ben Aris reports, President Vladimir Putin has managed to break the nation's crude habit.
"PUTIN came to the job of president convinced that the 1998-financial crisis was caused by Russia's over-dependence on oil. His first priority since then has been to break this addiction by boosting production, so that Russia Inc. is profitable at any price. And he has already succeeded."
Chris Weafer, head of research at Troika Dialog, believes Russia has kicked its habit of coasting along and relying on oil exports to bail out the economy while reforms are ignored. Rising oil production means Russia has already passed the crucial breakeven point. From now on, oil money is only going to make reform easier.
The key to understanding Russia's attitude to oil, Weafer says, is to realize that the budget needs to generate about $20 billion per year from oil-related taxes to balance. President Vladimir Putin's strategy has been to encourage oil companies to up production as fast as possible: the more they export, the lower the price of oil can be to earn the money the government needs.
For the most part, Russian oil majors, with the notable exception of LUKoil, have gleefully stepped into the breach. Sibneft announced output was up by nearly a third in March, while exports rose a whopping 44 percent year-on-year in the middle of April. No. 2 oil company Yukos has boosted production by about 20 percent per year.
All this frenetic activity has come as a nasty shock to the rest of the world, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in particular. Russia regained its Soviet-era title as the world's biggest oil producer in March, outstripping Saudi Arabia, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, with 7.28 million barrels per day.
This was quickly followed by another record when, a week later, the International Energy Agency announced Russia had broken new ground with an all-time oil-export high over the first quarter of this year, exporting more than 3.3 million bpd.
The oil-production high is temporary, as Russian companies are working at full capacity, while Saudi Arabia is at two-thirds capacity, but the export record is permanent, and Russia is unlikely to give up territory gained to OPEC, which has been badgering Russia to cut production to boost soggy prices.
"At the end of last year, OPEC believed that Russia was still a basket-case economy that needs prices over $20 a barrel to get by," says Weafer, who was recently in Geneva to advise OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez on what is happening in Russia. "But they have had a rude awakening. Now it realizes that it will have to deal with Russia as the second most important oil country in the world after the Saudis."
Russia is almost the only place in the world - apart from Kazakhstan and the Caspian region - with significant unexploited or unexplored reserves of oil and, as the international companies are running out of new reserves, they will be increasingly forced to deal with Russia.
At the same time, the conditions for working with Russian oil companies have changed radically in the past two to three years as the focus of Russian companies changed - almost overnight - from asset stripping to investment and boosting production and profitability. With their new emphasis on corporate governance, they are now viable partners for multinationals. This has been fuelled in part by the fact that Russia has broken its addiction to oil. It means that the macroeconomic climate is stable and the country will not lurch from boom to crisis anymore as the international price swings up and down.
Already this year, a spate of hook-ups has been announced. BP decided in April to pay $375 million for 10 percent of oil major Sidanco, bringing its total share in the company up to 25 percent plus one share. Two days later, Royal Dutch/Shell followed with the biggest-ever investment pledge into Russia, with chairperson Phillip Watts announcing he is considering projects worth $16 billion, half of which will be financed by the company. A final decision will be made by the end of the year. Royal Dutch/Shell has already invested $2 billion in the Sakhalin-2 oil field off the coast in the Far East.
A week later, TotalFinaElf announced it was getting into bed with state-owned oil company Rosneft in exploration projects in the Black Sea, as well as investing $350 million in the Kharyaga project in the Siberian Nenetsk Region, one of only three projects run under a production-sharing agreement that guarantees foreigners' investment.
In the Comfort Zone
Russia's oil production has reached the point where the country's addiction to high oil prices has been broken for the first time since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Going forward, Putin is now concentrating on building an "economic comfort zone" in the form of a strategic oil-reserve fund.
Given that the government needs to earn $20 billion from oil, this year's budget balances at an oil price of $18.50. When the budget was written, oil was significantly higher and the extra money was going to be siphoned off into a special reserve fund, but prices fell in November to around $18. On the back of recent unrest in the Middle East, they rose again, and talk about the reserve fund was revived.
As prices spiked briefly over $24 a barrel in the last month, the reserve fund grew to 100 billion rubles ($3.2 billion) by the start of May, according to Duma Budget Committee Chairperson Alexander Zhukov. Regardless of what prices do, as production grows, money will continue to pile up in the fund.
The reason why can be seen from a graph plotting the price of oil needed to balance the budget - a price that generates the government's $20 billion of taxes - against projected oil-production volumes. This graph shows that Russia broke its addiction to oil last summer.
Between 1997 and 1998, the budget's breakeven price for oil was between $26 and $28, while actual prices fell to around $10, sparking the financial blowout. Between 1999 and 2001, however, the breakeven price fell from $26 to $23, as production volumes began to rise, while the price of oil on international markets also rose. The two met last summer at a price of about $26.
From now on, the Russian budget can freewheel downhill: as production levels continue to plough ahead at a robust 8 percent per year, the breakeven price will continue to fall. Oil production is already up to about 7.5 million bpd from 6 million bpd, where it languished for most of the last decade, and is expected to regain its Soviet-era production peak of 9 million bpd by 2006.
The budget's breakeven price this year is already down to $18.50 and Troika estimates that, by 2006, it will be an easily obtainable $14.
Making Life Easier
Russia is already in Putin's comfort zone and the Kremlin has been using it to make life easier in the future. Given that this policy forms the cornerstone of his grand economic strategy, Putin will snub any efforts by OPEC to cut production in the future.
TITLE: EBRD Offers $300M To CPC Rival
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: BAKU, Azerbaijan - The planned major oil pipeline from the Azeri oil fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, once dismissed as too costly, got a further boost Friday, when the EBRD said it would fund at least 10 percent of the project.
"We want to finance the Baku-Ceyhan project and are ready to fund $300 million before the end of 2002," said Thomas Moser, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Azerbaijan.
A BP-led consortium plans to start building the $2.9 billion, 1,730-kilometer pipeline in July and complete it by 2005.
The link will carry up to 1 million barrels per day of crude oil, mainly from Azerbaijan's giant offshore fields operated by BP, to Turkey's southern coast.
Between 20 percent and 30 percent of the cost will be financed by the BP consortium in cash, the rest borrowed from international financial institutions.
The U.S.-backed pipeline project was masterminded by Turkey in the early 1990s to bypass Russia and its already busy Bosporus Strait, the only outlet at present for Russian and Caspian oil transported via the Black Sea.
The Baku-Ceyhan pipeline was seen as competing with the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which has already completed its 1,580-kilometer stretch from Kazakhstan's Tengiz field to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.
Earlier this year, the BP-led group decided to build the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline along the same channel as a gas pipeline to Turkey from a huge offshore gas field in Azerbaijan, also operated by BP.
Moser said Western banks were ready to provide both pipeline projects with up to $2 billion, but declined to name other potential lenders.
Turkish officials have said U.S. Eximbank, Japan Eximbank and the International Finance Corporation were among those interested in providing financing for the project.
The EBRD has loaned $350 million to the Azeri economy and has invested another $265 million in Caspian Sea oil projects.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium unites Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman, Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium, LUKARCO, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures, Mobil Caspian Pipeline, Agip International, BG Overseas Holding, Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures and Oryx Caspian Pipeline.
TengizChevroil combines Chevron (50 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Kazakhstan (20 percent) and LUKARCO (5 percent).
(Reuters, SPT)
TITLE: Russian-U.S. Media Talks Just Hot Air
AUTHOR: By William Dunkerley
TEXT: THE Russian-American Media Entrepreneurship Dialogue missed the point. Media-association officials from both countries met in the days preceding the summit and then, on Friday May 24, briefed Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin on their conclusions.
What did they say? RAMED's interim report asserted that "consensus on precise recommendations is still premature," among other things.
Tom Richardson, a staff member of the U.S. National Security Council, where the RAMED idea was cooked up, told me that its purpose is to address the "need for media to have a more independent, entrepreneurial base" in Russia.
How can there be any lack of consensus about this issue? There is a fundamental, core problem with Russia's media sector, and just about all the media's problems flow from this underlying issue.
In Russia, it is generally not possible to operate a media company that abides by the law and also generates any reasonable amount of profit. The obstacle to legitimate profitability is government interference, through policies that forestall the development of a robust media advertising market; laws that forbid media organizations from carrying sufficient advertising to be really profitable; and unfair competition coming from the state-controlled media.
This leaves media companies in a state of "legislated unprofitability."
And this is exactly what has sent struggling, private media companies straight into the clutches of oligarchs, governors and mayors, and state-controlled enterprises.
Where else could media companies turn for money to recoup financial losses? Who else would want to put capital into loss-making media companies other than those seeking to color the news?
That is the problem on which RAMED should focus. The sooner this problem is solved, the sooner Russia's media will be able to attract legitimate capital and begin to operate like normal media companies.
Following the summit, I spoke with Stanley Hubbard, one of the U.S. participants in the media dialogue (his focus is on broadcasting concerns) and asked him what RAMED's recommendations were. He told me, "The government has got to get out of the television business and get out of the business of selling advertising." He added that "Having one agency sell almost all the advertising is bad, and that agency was founded by Mr. Lesin, the media minister."
Why is it so hard to establish a consensus on a clear statement of such an obvious problem?
RAMED's interim report is replete with a litany of secondary issues. It even includes discussion of the need for strong and viable professional associations in Russia.
Of course, there is a need, but why is RAMED talking to Putin about that? He isn't needed to form a new association. He is, however, needed to get laws changed to fix the core problem of legislated unprofitability. Why isn't the Media Dialogue asking the president to do that, right now?
Over the years, Western media assistance efforts have missed the point, too. But they did not have the clout RAMED has for urging fundamental reform.
The Media Dialogue has brought together a lot of smart, concerned people. It has the weight of the U.S. president behind it and the ear of the Russian president. This is an unprecedented opportunity. It should not be wasted through failure to achieve a forthright consensus. Its thrust should not be diffused by introducing secondary issues.
William Dunkerley, a media-business consultant working in Russia and other post-communist countries, is a principal in the Russian Media Fund. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Readers Believe That the Friendship Is Deep
TEXT: In response to "How Deep Does the New Friendship Reach?" May 28
Dear Editor,
I read Vladimir Kovalyev's article with interest, and would like to offer some observations on my recent trips to Russia.
I have visited Russia three times over the past three years, staying for about a month each time.
I have come there because, since the 1950s, I have had a deep interest in your country, its customs, language, history and government. This interest was the direct result of the influence of my teachers, grandfather, and of National Geographic articles I had read. I wanted to come to meet the people, see how they lived, and learn as much as I could in my month's vacation time.
I also wanted to come to Russia because of my work in the drinking-water field and water treatment in general. I had hoped to meet some professionals in that area, and offer my expertise, knowledge etc.
The first time I stayed in hostels and hotels, and had several interesting conversations, with a Moscow police officer, a retired army officer and various others.
My second and third trips were more interesting, because I was subject to a home stay both times. Both times the families made it plain to me that they liked the American people, but not our government. In reply, I explained to them that those feelings were okay, since many Americans at various times also do not like their own government, and/or its policies.
I also must say I felt safer in Russia than in some of the major cities in the United States.
I had many long discussions on a vast array of common problems and affairs. I enjoyed those conversations, and email on a regular basis to some of those friends.
The point I wish to make is that the people I met were the greatest, kindest, most understanding and friendly - simply outstanding people. I am indebted to them, and if they come to visit me here in the United States, I will return the hospitality, for they are my friends.
As a former teacher myself, if I had been the teacher in that St. Petersburg classroom, I would have told the reporter precisely what the child's painting was about, but that we were very hopeful that opinion would change in the near future.
I think we must be honest with each other, we must come to understand each other, and come to learn more about each other. Both peoples have lived with misconceptions about the other for far to long.
I found that those people I met knew me and my country far better after my visits than they had before, and that I had a much better understanding of my Russian friends and their problems, hopes and dreams than before.
What has happened in Russia the past few weeks is good, and must be built upon, for Russia and its people are very important to the United States. Any policy other than one fostering good, strong relations between our two countries is a policy born of ignorance and inane stupidity.
I look forward to my next trip to Russia, to visit my friends and to make new ones, for I truly feel that they are some of the best people on this planet, and I am ecstatic to call them my friends.
Bill Powers
Mechanicville, New York
Dear Editor,
I found this story to be very interesting and thought provoking.
As I was reading the article, I could relate to the same situation in the United States. I grew up in the United States watching movies such as "Red Dawn" and "Hunt for Red October." I was made to believe as a child that Russians were evil.
But, as I grew older, I felt that the people where the same everywhere and wondered if they felt the same as I did, that - no matter who is in charge politically - we are all basically good people. I was right.
Later I was lucky enough to travel through Russia and meet the great people whom I admire, and I wish that I could be there now. It is a great country and will always be because of these people.
I feel that most Americans feel that Russia is our friend but, because of our past history, are worried that it is only temporary. During the Cold War era, we were frightened about the thought of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. I, myself, have had several nightmares about this happening. We have all had leaders that have done good and bad things. It is good that, although things are not perfect, we are all trying to get there.
It is hard to imagine that past. Whenever I am visiting or talking to my friends in former Soviet Union, I feel as though we were always friends and partners.
I can see many reasons why foreigners may have hostility towards America, but I only hope that they realize that, like everywhere, it's the rich and powerful that do the negative things - not me!
Tracy Wright
Birmingham, Alabama
Dear Editor,
First, I would like to say that I hope the place you plan to work abroad is in the United States and that, if it is, you will continue to submit your opinions to this newspaper. In particular, your opinions about the United States
Secondly, I am sure that the reporter who saw the painting of a nuclear bomb with a U.S. flag and Truman on it, while Hitler stood besides it, took no offense from it at all.
If there is one thing that we understand, it is pride in your country and the determination to defend it.
The fact that Russians love their country and will defend it, is a good thing - probably the best of things. How could you get respect and respect yourself if you did not?
Bob Hartzog
Phoenix, Arizona
The Wrong Targets
In response to "Deputies Push Registration Fees," May 21.
Dear Editor,
Are the leaders of this city hell bent on self destruction, even before the anniversary celebrations begin?
This dubiously legal tax on businesspeople and other visitors, proposed by members of the city council, is nothing but short-sighted ignorance! Russia is one if not the most expensive and bueracratic countries to visit in the world. Surely their must be some other way that the city council can raise money to solve the problem of illegal imigrants besides creating a tax on honest visitors businesspeople.
Surely, after the high profile visits of U.S. President George W. Bush and other equally high-ranking delegations from around the world, it is time people realized that the time for change is here and that to increase the number of people wishing to visit this wonderful city and country they have to give value for money, and not extra stealth charges!
Tom Ford,
St. Petersburg, Russia
Pride of the Town
In response to "City Girl on Top of the Universe," May 31.
Dear Editor,
Congratulations to Oksana Fyodorova for her achievement in being crowned Miss Universe. Your country has a lot to be proud of, for she epitomizes the beauty of your country and its women.
Most contestants put on a fabrication of what they should be and it shows that they are not genuine. Miss Fyodorova exemplified her inner beauty as she walked and carried herself proudly for who she was representing - your Country and its people - not just herself.
It was sincere and from her heart, which ultimately reflected in her outer appearance, resulting in her being crowned the most beautuful woman in the world.
Leonard Drabik
Goose Creek, South Carolina
Euro Skeptic
In response to "EU Grants Russia New Status," May 21.
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the fascinating insight you offered on your creeping relationship with the European Union.
You realize, of course, that you are wandering into a homogenizing system that drains its members of their sovereign identity and values. If that is a trade-off you choose to make, so be it.
We in America look very, very, cautiously at what is being woven together on the continent of Europe. It appears to be nothing more than a quiet form of dictatorial technocratism which promises much without the capacity to deliver anything of real value for the individuals of each nation, except regulatory excess, central planning and the widespread suffocation of personal initiative.
We wish you good luck.
Better yet, we wish you a solid partnership with us, not those parasitic, paper-plastering, thumb-twiddling knuckleheads who pass themselves off as bureaucrats of the future. It is an old and worn out system they offer you.
As long as you choose to be blandly known as another flock of Euro-sheep, you will get what you wish for.
R. Wagenvoord
Arizona, USA
Light on Terrorism
I just want to say that I am rather disappointed in the very light way that the European nations, as well as former Soviet Republics, take international terrorism.
It seems to me that the al-Qaida group is attempting to start a terrible conflict between Pakistan and India. Of course, that will make it extremely difficult to get a complete grip on the situation of preventing terrorism world wide.
I wonder why people over there, in Europe and Asia, don't make the eradication of terrorism their goal? I wonder how long your nation would sit back and take it if the terrorist were to fly some jumbo jet into Red Square, or some other important Russian landmark?
I know the situation in Chechnya has been a thorn in the side of the Russian community, and I fear that, unless a concerted effort is made by the whole of the civilized world, especially in Europe and Asia, to eradicate such barbarian thought, that the whole of civilization will suffer enourmous setbacks.
It is well and good to spend funds fighting terrorists, and jumping through space. But how much better could we educate, civilize and feed the hungry of the world without the terrorists to use up our resources!
Paul E. Sutton
Marion, Illinois
New Friends
In response to "Putin, Bush Hail Successful Summit," May 28.
Dear Editor,
President Putin and President Bush pragmatically ushered in a new era of cooperation between our two nations. Specifically, they have directed their countries' defense establishments to explore the possibility of a joint anti-ballistic missile shield to protect Russia, America, and Canada from the blackmail of regional powers with expanding technology.
The Russian and American joint venture might be seen as the natural extention of our current war on terror. We currently face terrorist countries that attack us through international surrogate forces. For example, a recently defecting Iraqi general told NBC News that Saddam Hussein's government currently trains small groups of international terrorists at a special training school in Bagdhad. Such terrorists planned an attack on former president George Bush as he traveled in the Middle East.
The intelligence community knows that Iraq continues to clandestinely develop biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. Is there any doubt that a country that kills its own citizens and plots the murder of foreign dignitaries would use these weapons systems to directly menace the United States or Russia?
Our countries must prudently prepare for such a nightmare.
President Putin recently compared the American-Russian partnership against terrorism to our alliance against Nazi Germany during World War II. It appears that our countries need to be ready for the time when countries aiding terrorists field the ballistic missiles of mass destruction.
We are one day closer to victory in the war on terrorism. May God bless America and our valiant Russian allies.
Philip W. Chapman
Highland, Illinois
Dear Editor,
Great article and very informative.
It seems that Geaorge W. Bush and Vladimir Putin at least have a working relationship. The previous administration seemed to view Russia as a sidebar, while the current administation knows that it can be beneficial for both countries to have stronger bonds in cultural, medical, military and financial exchanges.
Pragmatism is healthy for a realistic relationship. Keep up the good work!
Mike Hoechst
Williamsville, New York
Dear Editor,
It's not surprising to hear of Bolshevik and other lowly leftist demonstrators protesting a visit from President Bush to Russia. After all, warm relations between our two countries and a commitment from the leaders of our nations to further reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles can only be a source of terrible heartburn to these pathetic retrogrades who spent decades using warfare and threats of world annihilation to impose Marxian ideology upon others.
What is notable is that, when a passerby, an American teaching English in St. Petersburg, tried to counter the protest, the detestable Communists assaulted the man. It just goes to show all who would see, that the Communists are still willing to use violence against dissenters. At least one knows the behaviour of the reds is a constant.
Nick Maas
Virginia, USA
Not a Fan
In response to "Global Eye, Prior Engagement," May 28.
Dear Editor,
Thanks for the laughs. Maybe next he can tell us who killed John F. Kennedy and how Anastasia Nikolayevna Romanova escaped the firing squad to live a secret life in Europe and the United States.
Chris Floyd is a complete crackpot, whose articles aren't worth one megabyte in bits. They're full of silly innuendoes and conspiracy theories that are utterly ludicrous.
The Bush administration and the Clinton administration definitely missed major warning signs of the impending 9/11 attacks - no question. Hindsight is always perfect and isn't that always the case?
Chris "pink" Floyd actually suggests that Bush knew about the attacks and wanted them to occur!
Winston Churchill begged Stalin to listen to him when he said the Nazis would invade the U.S.S.R. in the summer of 1941, but Stalin ignored him and the Nazis invaded. Was this part of a great plot by Stalin to increase his power and eventually take eastern Europe? No, but Chris "pink" Floyd would probably think so.
Stalin warned the administration of Franklin Roosevelt that the Japanese would attack at Pearl Harbor, but was ignored. Was this due to a grand conspiracy by Roosevelt to get the Japanese to attack? No (but I bet Chris "pink" Floyd thinks so).
John Wurst
San Diego, California
TITLE: HIV Is a Growth Issue
AUTHOR: By Christof Ruhl
TEXT: FOR a long time, Russia was known as a country with a low prevalence of HIV. Indeed, until the mid-1990s, only 100 to 200 new cases were reported each year. Today, however, Russia and Ukraine have the highest growth rates of HIV infection in the world. This increase is linked to a particular feature of Russia's AIDS pandemic: HIV is transmitted predominantly by intravenous drug users sharing needles, rather than through sexual contact.
According to data from the Federal AIDS Center, the number of registered cases of HIV is doubling every 12 months, and reached 193,400 as of May 1. Estimates of the total number of infected individuals depend on the "multiplier" used to translate registered into actual cases, and estimates therefore vary from 800,000 to more than 1 million. Without treatment, the average time span between contracting HIV and dying from AIDS is about 12 years.
However, given that 12 years ago HIV was almost nonexistent in Russia, actual mortality figures are low. Moreover, the disease mostly affects drug users.
These two factors, taken together, form a major obstacle to attempts to stem the spread of HIV. It is difficult to convince politicians to address a problem that will only become visible years from now, and that seems to affect mainly people who enjoy little respect in society. Indeed, there still seems to be the perception that urgent measures are not needed in Russia in spite of the alarming figures.
Such an attitude will be very costly, both socially and economically. Last month, the World Bank unveiled a computer model that, for the first time, makes it possible to simulate the economic costs that HIV could impose on Russia. This model allows any user to specify their assumptions about future economic and demographic trends. The results are disturbing, even when based on very conservative assumptions.
The most obvious economic costs associated with the disease are those of treating people with AIDS and of preventing the development of AIDS in those who are HIV positive. Anti-retroviral treatment can prevent AIDS as long as the drugs are taken regularly, but it is expensive, costing about $9,000 per patient per year. Recently, several countries managed to negotiate costs down, but even the resultant $3,000 per patient per year would overwhelm the healthcare budget in a country such as Russia, where per capita gross domestic product last year was about $2,000.
However, the potential burden of treatment and prevention is only one aspect of the economic consequences of HIV, and not even the most important one. Labor supply declines when people die, but labor productivity starts falling much earlier: Anxiety, the need to maintain support systems and the need for home care all have a negative effect on labor productivity. Evidence from other countries suggests a strong link between the rate of HIV infection and the overall labor productivity of a country, reflecting the disease's impact not only on those infected, but on friends and family as well.
In addition, whether financed by the budget or by private contributions, the cost of anti-retroviral treatment constitutes a massive diversion of funds away from investment to consumption. Moreover, the savings of HIV-infected individuals decline as they shift resources into healthcare and as their time horizons shrink. Studies from South Africa indicate that "HIV-infected households" may cease to save altogether.
Russia's negative population growth compounds the problem, because it impedes investment and economic growth on the one hand and makes maintenance of stable public-service provision more difficult on the other. HIV disproportionately affects young people who, without the disease, would continue to be active members of the labor force for a long time. About 60 percent of HIV-infected individuals in Russia are between 20 and 30 years old.
As for the bottom line, the World Bank model confirms the staggering human costs of HIV if anti-retroviral treatment continues to be unavailable. If no policy changes are made, mortality rates will be in the thousands per month by 2010 and the cumulative number of HIV-infected individuals will rise to at least 2.3 million.
Based on conservative assumptions, the model predicts that, by 2020, GDP will be 10 percent smaller than it would be if HIV were to stop spreading today - accompanied by even larger declines in investment and labor supply. As time goes by, these costs accumulate more rapidly. Most importantly, if HIV continues unabated, it will undercut Russia's long-term economic-growth rate more and more severely. By 2020, growth will be lower by a full percentage point per annum - which is substantial for a country in such urgent need of rapid growth as Russia.
The overall impact on the economy - based on conservative assumptions - is significant over time, although initially not as dramatic as might be expected, because a majority of the HIV-infected today are drug users whose productivity is low already.
The World Bank study suggests that, in addition to targeting needle exchanges, safe sex and improved testing, a campaign to limit drug use would be among the most effective policies for containing the spread and thus the economic costs of HIV.
This may be difficult, but surely waiting is not an option: HIV has started to spread from the drug-using to the non-drug-using part of the population, with tainted blood supplies, "normal" sexual interaction and, most importantly, prostitution as the main channels. Once entrenched, it will be even harder to dislodge and the economic consequences will be even more difficult to deal with.
Russia's predicament thus presents a threat as well as a window of opportunity: A major humanitarian and economic disaster can be averted by stopping the spread of the disease now. Russia cannot afford to let this opportunity pass.
Christof Ruhl, chief economist at the World Bank's Russia office, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. The model discussed above is available at: www.worldbank.org.ru
TITLE: The Disease Is a Danger For Everyone
AUTHOR: By Kofi Annan
TEXT: AIDS may seem like an issue that applies primarily to countries far away from home, in Africa and elsewhere. Or it may seem a disease that affects only certain people, outside the mainstream of life.
But today, the fastest-growing AIDS epidemic in the world is in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia has the fastest-growing problem of all. In those CIS countries where the population is declining, even a relatively small-scale HIV epidemic is enough to cause demographic devastation. If left unchecked, the impact of AIDS on economic growth and the supply of labor and skills will leave no sector of society untouched. The situation is especially severe because, across the whole CIS, it is young adults - the future of society - who are the most affected.
The countries of the CIS, together with the international community, face a task of desperate urgency in preventing this epidemic from spinning out of control. That work begins with facing up to the full scale of the problem. Government leaders have begun taking some steps in the right direction: In Russia, the government has increased the budget for the 2002 to 2006 National AIDS Program; in Ukraine, President Leonid Kuchma has declared 2002 the year for the fight against AIDS.
But let us be clear: To make a real difference against the insidious enemy that AIDS represents, the battle must be joined in every sector and at every level of society. This will require three fundamental components: partnership, resources and action by young people as champions for change.
However, we know from experience that the very environment of transition - changing social structures, movement of people, new patterns of behavior - creates an ideal ground for the spread of the HIV virus. In this environment, it is young people who are more likely to be infected and to pass on the virus to others. Moreover, research has shown that, in many CIS countries, an alarmingly small minority of teenagers know how to avoid becoming infected with HIV.
Also, it should be explained to people that stigmatizing high-risk groups and imagining that everyone else is safe from infection, is both morally and factually wrong. When it comes to the spread of AIDS, the separation between human beings is only skin-deep. No one should imagine that we can protect ourselves by building barriers between "us" and "them."
In the ruthless world of AIDS, there is no us and them.
Kofi Annan is secretary-general of the United Nations. This is excerpted from a comment provided by the UN Information Center in Moscow.
TITLE: The Governor Should Pack An Umbrella
TEXT: IT was raining as I wrote this, and the weather outside got me to musing a bit.
If you listen to some of the people who regularly contribute to the St. Petersburg rumor mill, storm clouds continue to form over the head of Governor Vladimir Yakovlev. If you listen to other contributors to the same mill, these clouds never really went away. Regardless of who is right about the timing of their arrival, both sides agree that the clouds are there now.
The supporters of the "clouds always there" position base their reading on Vladimir Putin's branding of the governor as a "Judas" after Yakovlev took over at Smolny from his former chief, Anatoly Sobchak, in 1996. They say that the clouds just change their color from time to time, shifting from black to lighter tones of gray and back again. From this standpoint, the last few months have definitely generated storm warnings.
The bearer of these storm warnings has been the Northwest Region Prosecutor's Office, which has, depending on who you believe, cost the City Administration four Deputy Governors in the last year. Administration insiders say the pressure from the prosecutor's office played at least an indirect role in the death, from a stroke, of one of the four - the former head of the City Sports and Communications Committee Valey Malyshev.
According to City Hall spokesperson Alexander Afanasyev, Gennady Tkachev - the latest loss for the City Hall team - checked into a hospital last month because the pressure was just getting to him.
Before I go running off too quickly to join the conspiracy theorists here, the fact that a number of members of Yakovlev's administration have been investigated for and charged with offences over the last year either indicates that - as they maintain - somebody has got it in for them or - as the prosecutor's office maintains - there are some serious corruption issues to be dealt with at Smolny.
Whichever side is right, none of this bodes well for Yakovlev, and the word has started to circulate that he might be exiting the governor's office before his term expires in 2004.
The rumors have the by-then-ex-governor ending up far away. The main argument among the rumor mongers is over his destination. Some have him heading for Magadan - a euphemism for prison - while others have hime earmarked for an ambassadorial post in Canada.
Local political analysts are saying that, regardless of the destination, this would take place no later than August. This would mean that his exit would come just in time for the gubernatorial elections to be held in concert with elections for a new Legislative Assembly in December.
This, suggest those who maintain that Putin has it in for the governor, would spare the President from having to spend time with Yakovlev during his hometown's 300th-anniversary celebrations.
My own inclination is to believe the storm warnings. I think that there's an excellent chance that we'll witness Yakovlev scrambling for an umbrella soon.
Because I'm an optimist, I think that May 27, 2003 - the city's 300th bithday - will be a beautiful, sunny day. Because I think that the rumor mill here can't be ignored, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see Dmitry Kozak, the deputy head of Putin's presidential administration, instead of Yakovlev, greeting the president at Pulkovo airport.
No umbrella necessary there.
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: The Foggy DewLet us return briefly to the question of Saddam Hussein's employment of the poison gas he developed with the help of those lovers of humanity, Ronald "Bitburg" Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush. Hussein is alleged to have bombarded Iraqi Kurds with poison gas in 1987 and/or in 1988, in the midst of his long and ferocious war with Iran.
There are conflicting accounts of the incident. Some say thousands were killed; some say hundreds; a few say none. Some say the Kurds were actually caught in a murderous crossfire of noxious fumes between the Iranian and Iraqi armies. Others say the Kurds - long perscuted by Saddam, as they are persecuted by NATO stalwart Turkey - were fighting alongside the Iranians and thus made themselves "lawful combatants." The official story is that Hussein simply gassed the Kurds in a paroxysm of ethnic cleansing, for which he was later rewarded by the aforesaid GHWB with even more American money and materiel.
Whatever the facts, the charge that Hussein "gassed his own people" has been the bloody shirt repeatedly waved by George W. Bush in his frantic bid to build support for an invasion of Iraq. Such an action, we are told, puts a country beyond the pale of civilization and sends it hurtling into the abyss of ultimate evil. Any state that would "gas its own people" is, we're told, a rogue state, a terrorist state.
What, then, to make of the revelations last month that the United States "gassed its own people" during the Vietnam War? The U.S. Defense Department has admitted that the Pentagon sprayed more than 4,000 American sailors with various substances, including the deadly nerve gas sarin and a gruesome biological toxin, in a four-year operation - 1964 to 1968 - called Project SHAD, the New York Times reports.
The Pentagon said its records do not show that the sailors gave their "informed consent" to participate in the secret tests. (And how exactly would that consent process have worked, anyway? "Avast, ye swabs! Can we spray ye salty dogs with poison gas?" "Arrr, Cap'n, that ye may. We herewith absolve ye of all legal responsibility for this immoral act!")
The purpose of these terrorist attacks on patriotic Americans serving their country was to test defenses against biochemical warfare - so said the Pentagon brass at the time. That would be the same Pentagon brass that two years earlier had sent a plan to then-President John Kennedy, calling for a series of terrorist attacks to be launched against the American people - by the United States government - in a frantic bid to build support for an invasion of Cuba.
But we live in more enlightened times now, of course. For example, even though most experts say that the fatal anthrax unleashed upon the American people last fall was almost certainly developed by the U.S. military, we know that things like Project SHAD don't happen anymore. We know that the unelected "shadow government" headed by Dick Cheney in secret caves and undisclosed locations - along with the cadre of Iran-Contra terrorist conspirators back in power in Washington, and the FBI chieftains mysteriously rewriting field reports to downplay the danger of terrorist attacks from Islamic radical groups once cultivated by the CIA - will surely keep the American people safe from all harm.
Even from governments that gas their own people.
Shadow Warriors
On the other hand, Shadow Cheney and other Defenders have spent an inordinate amount of time lately insisting that they cannot keep the American people safe from all harm - or any harm, evidently.
While President Bush was wowing Europe with endearing displays of sleep-deprived crankiness (him not used to staying up so late like Pootie-Poot do. That's why him got so grumpy, the New York Times lovingly reported), Cheney led a series of top officials in declaring that more terror attacks are "inevitable." In fact, Shadowman said they will be "even worse" than Sept. 11. The "great success" of the "war on terror" has apparently left the American people in far greater danger than before.
(But if America is even more threatened now, then what was all that fighting in Afghanistan about? Would Hamid Karzai, a former consultant for Texas oil giant Unocal, have some idea? Just asking.)
In this atmosphere of leader-spawned national panic, imagine what would happen if a heavily-armed, black-clad prowler were found planting a bomb at a civilian power plant. Surely the story would be 24-7 in the national media, right? Tabloids, networks, talking heads would be screaming the news to high heaven: "America Under Attack! Terrorists in Our Midst!"
Unless of course the heavily-armed prowler happened to be - wait for it - a member of the U.S. military. And unless the incident occurred in Jeb Bush's satrapy of Florida. Then all you would see is small story in a provincial paper, the Savannah Morning News, which last week told the curious tale of Specialist. Derek Lawrence Peterson, of the 64th Armored Division, who was nabbed for planting a bomb in a power station in Jacksonville, Florida.
Police spotted Peterson pulling out from the plant in his pick-up truck, which was laden with knives, guns, ammo and explosives gear. They later found the bomb he'd left at the plant.
Peterson said he'd been "practicing reconnaissance techniques." Or maybe he was just "testing defenses," SHAD-like, in the best Pentagon tradition? We'll probably never find out - he's being held incommunicado in one of Jeb's jails, and the Army's not talking either.
Perhaps the Shadow knows?
TITLE: Arafat Offers Posts to Militants
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has offered cabinet posts to Hamas and to other militant groups involved in suicide attacks against Israelis, as part of a government reshuffle that he plans to announce in coming days, Palestinian authorities said Sunday.
While three other radical groups have turned down the Palestinian leader's offer, saying they don't want to belong to a government that's willing to negotiate with Israel, Hamas is seriously considering the proposal, the group said.
It would mark the first time in his eight years as chairperson of the Palestinian Authority that Arafat formally brought Hamas into government - a move likely to be strongly opposed by Israel and the United States, which both regard Hamas as a terrorist group.
In Israel, a Hamas-Arafat alliance would be interpreted as an indication that the Palestinians are determined to continue the violent conflict.
From Arafat's perspective, having radical groups inside the government could make them easier to control. It was not clear whether Arafat was making compliance with his call for an end to suicide attacks a condition of Hamas entering the government.
"We are still consulting with our colleagues inside and outside the homeland and our final response will be declared before the end of this week,'' Hamas spokesperson Ismail Hania said of Arafat's proposal.
Of the more than 60 suicide attacks by Palestinians in the current Mideast conflict, Hamas' military wing has carried out more than any other group, including the deadliest attacks. The group has rejected Arafat's call to halt them.
After 20 months of Mideast fighting that has left Palestinian institutions and their economy in shambles, Arafat has come under strong pressure to restructure the Palestinian government. But his definition of reform is likely to differ sharply from what his critics, including the United States and Israel, hope to see.
"The question is whether the Palestinians are taking this seriously,'' said Danny Seaman, an Israeli government spokesperson. Referring to an alliance with Hamas, Seaman said, "If this is the direction that Arafat takes, he shouldn't be surprised at the attitude that Israel takes in response.''
In negotiations with leading Palestinian factions over the past few weeks, Arafat has been looking at reducing his current 32-member cabinet to 18 or 19 posts, and bringing in a number of new faces, aides say. The cabinet has, to date, had limited power, generally falling in line with decisions by Arafat.
It was not clear how many or which posts Hamas would receive.
"President Arafat is conducting serious and intensive consultations with Palestinian factions and academics in order to establish a new government,'' said Ahmed Qureia, the speaker of parliament. "We hope the Palestinian Authority will declare the new government very soon.''
During more than three decades as the Palestinian leader, Arafat has always preferred to rule by consensus and is again looking to bring other factions into the government, such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Hamas gains influence among Palestinians not only through its attacks on Israelis, but also from its network of schools, clinics and welfare offices. It has become the main welfare provider at a time when more than half of the 3 million Palestinians live in poverty.
The Islamic Jihad and two secular leftist groups - the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine - have declared their refusal to be in the government following offers by Arafat.
Western diplomats have descended on the region in recent days, and all have stressed the importance of Palestinian reforms. But their definition places a heavy emphasis on revamping the security services to prevent attacks against Israel.
Arafat played host to U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns and European Union foreign-policy chief Javier Solana in recent days, and CIA Director George Tenet came to the region on Monday. He met with Israeli Prime MInister Ariel Sharon on Monday evening.
Tenet held talks Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the first stop on a six-country Middle East tour to gauge Arab support for changes in the Palestinian Authority.
Diplomats are also pushing to organize an international conference on the Middle East crisis, possibly in the latter part of July, but the ongoing fighting is making it difficult to set an agenda, officials said.
TITLE: Israel Detains About 400 In Refugee Camp Raid
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops raided a West Bank refugee camp on Monday and rounded up about 400 Palestinians, as CIA chief George Tenet was en route to the West Bank for talks on restructuring the Palestinian security services.
In Israel's cabinet, meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon clashed with the head of the security service, Avi Dichter, over army tactics, media reports said. Dichter told ministers on Sunday that Israeli troops should remain in Palestinian areas until a buffer zone between Israel and the West Bank has been built. Sharon said Israel's policy of quick incursions into Palestinian towns would continue.
On Monday, tanks surrounded the Ain Beit Ilma camp near the city of Nablus, as jeeps and armored personnel carriers drove through the main street. Troops using loudspeakers called on all males between the ages of 15 and 50 to come out of their homes. About 400 men were taken away in four buses and two trucks to be questioned at a nearby army base, witnesses said.
The army has been searching for militants in Nablus and another nearby refugee camp, Balata, for the past three days. On Sunday, troops blew up two houses where bomb laboratories were discovered, the army said.
Armored vehicles also entered the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Monday and imposed a curfew, witnesses said. Troops arrested four suspected militants at a checkpoint outside the city and three others at the West Bank town of El Bireh.
In recent weeks, Israeli troops have entered West Bank towns and villages, usually for short periods, to arrest suspected militants. But the sweep through Nablus was a larger operation with dozens of armored vehicles involved.
The searches came as Tenet was en route to the region for talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat about reforming Palestinian security organizations. The United States has demanded that Arafat's regime become more democratic and that the number of Palestinian security agencies be sharply reduced. Sharon was expected to meet Tenet on Monday evening, a spokesperson said.
Also on Monday, a Palestinian court ordered the release of a leader of a radical faction that assassinated Israel's tourism minister last year.
The detainee, Ahmad Saadat, is currently being held under U.S. and British supervision at a Palestinian jail, as part of an arrangement that led to Arafat's release in May from 34 days of Israeli confinement.
Despite the court ruling, there was no immediate sign that Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was being freed from his lockup in the West Bank town of Jericho.
Sharon said that Israel "will take all the necessary steps so that he will not be released."
Arafat, who has frequently ignored Palestinian court rulings in the past, has to make the final decision on Saadat's fate. It was not clear what he would do.
"President Arafat finds himself in a big dilemma because, on the one hand, he has to respect the decision of the court, and on the other hand, the Israeli government will exercise blackmail or try to assassinate or abduct Saadat" if he is released, said Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Cabinet minister.
Saadat's group claimed responsibility for the October killing of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, who was shot dead in a hotel in Jerusalem. Israel demanded the extradition of five suspects in the case, including Saadat.
TITLE: Ruling NLF Makes Gains in Algerian Poll
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ALGIERS, Algeria - The party that governed Algeria for nearly 30 years before the introduction of a multiparty system swept legislative elections that were marred by violence, a boycott and the lowest turnout ever.
The National Liberation Front, led by Prime Minister Ali Benflis, more than tripled its number of seats in the 389-seat parliament, moving from 64 to 199 seats, officials announced Friday.
Thursday's election was boycotted by key opposition parties and marred by unrest among the country's sizable Berber minority. Voter turnout - 46 percent - was the lowest since Algeria gained independence from France in 1962.
The participation rate and election-day riots in the Berber heartland of Kabyle, east of Algiers, cast a pall over President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's efforts to bring stability and a further measure of democracy to Algeria, where real power lies with the military.
Despite cautious steps toward increased democracy, the military is still widely viewed as the main power broker in Algeria, which is struggling under a decade-old Islamic insurgency, an insurrection in the Berber region, corruption and a hobbled economy, despite its oil and gas wealth.
The FLN's main coalition partner, the Rally for National Democracy, came in second with 48 seats, down sharply from 155 in the last chamber.
The FLN first came to power after the revolutionary movement with the same name led Algeria's war for independence against France. It remained in power until a new 1989 constitution legalized other political parties.
The FLN fell out of favor as other forces, led by Islamic fundamentalists, gained ground. Benflis, who campaigned actively ahead of the vote, rejuvenated the party. Some newspapers suggested he could become Bouteflika's successor.
Two moderate Islamic parties took 81 seats between them, thus becoming the second-strongest political force in the legislature.
The leader of Islah, a moderate Islamic party that won 43 of the 81 seats, claimed the election had been marked by fraud and said he would hand over evidence to authorities.
"Official results do not reflect the will of the nation,'' Abdallah Djeballah told a news conference. He would not elaborate on the fraud allegation.
Said Sadi, leader of the pro-Berber Rally for Culture and Democracy, which boycotted Thursday's vote, said the results proved the election was a sham, and the government had no intention of releasing its iron grip on power.
"After years and years of struggle for freedom of expression, social justice and human rights, the Algerian people have again been submitted to one-party rule,'' he said in an interview. "Algeria is heading for a period of grave institutional instability.''
Widespread voter apathy rooted in severe economic hardships and continued violence by Islamic militants was evident throughout the election campaign, when meetings were canceled due to lack of interest.
On the streets of the capital, Algiers, many said the results were decided beforehand. "We already knew what was going to happen. We no longer believe in political life,'' said Omar Mostefai, a taxi driver, who says he didn't vote.
One civilian was killed and three injured during election-day riots in the Kabyle region, whose capital, Tizi Ouzou, is 96 kilometers east of Algiers. The interior minister said 108 security forces were injured in the disturbances.
The Berber protest movement, which erupted last year after a teenager was killed while in police custody, has helped galvanize masses of citizens discontent with acute water shortages, spiraling unemployment and cramped housing.
Berbers are estimated to make up a third of Algeria's 30 million people. They claim to be the original inhabitants of Muslim North Africa, and accuse Algerian authorities of oppression.
Western diplomats say Algeria's aging political class has lost touch with a population of which 70 percent are less than 30 years old. However, Bouteflika, the president, has helped lift Algeria out of a decade of international isolation. Last year, he became the first Algerian leader to visit Washington in 16 years and twice met with U.S. President George W. Bush.
Diplomats described Algeria's cooperation in the war on terrorism as very helpful. But, just hours before Thursday's vote, Islamic extremists, some of whom have been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, massacred 23 nomads in a village west of Algiers.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Bishop Confesses
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A Roman Catholic archbishop said on Sunday that he had offered $28,000 to buy a family's silence about the alleged sexual abuse of its children by a local priest.
The Nine television network's "60 Minutes'' program said the offer by Sydney Archbishop George Pell, the church's most senior clergy member in Australia, was made to a family who claimed their two girls were sexually abused for six years by a local priest beginning in 1987. The youngest girl was 5 when the abuse began, the family said.
The girls' parents told the program they met with Pell, who was an auxiliary bishop in their area at the time, and that they later received a letter from Pell's lawyers saying they could either take the money as compensation for the alleged abuse of their oldest daughter or take the matter to court, where it would be "strenuously defended'' by the church.
Pell initially told the program he had not offered the parents any money.
"I offered them nothing,'' he said.
N.Z. To Say Sorry
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand is to say sorry to the tiny South Pacific island state of Samoa for brutality early last century under New Zealand rule that cost thousands of lives, government officials said.
New Zealand, which in February apologized for discriminating against Chinese immigrants, seized the western islands of Samoa from Germany just after the outbreak of World War One in 1914 and ruled them until 1962.
TITLE: Agassi Struggles Into Quarters
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: PARIS - Andre Agassi appeared to be on his way out of the French Open. Then he staged his greatest comeback since winning the tournament three years ago.
Trailing by two sets and down a break in the third, Agassi rallied Monday and beat 20-year-old French wild-card entry Paul-Henri Mathieu 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to make the quarterfinals at Roland Garros.
''I dug a big hole for myself and a lot of it had to do with the way he was playing. Down two sets and a break, the good news is that it can't get any worse,'' Agassi said. "I just tried to make it a better match by getting a little more depth on my shots, making him play well through to the end.''
No. 4-seeded Agassi will meet No. 11 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarterfinals. Ferrero needed five sets to beat No. 31 Gaston Gaudio, 6-7, 6-1, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.
No. 10 Sebastien Grosjean advanced to the quarters by beating Xavier Malisse, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3. He'll meet No. 2 Marat Safin, who downed Arnaud di Pasquale 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
After falling behind 2-0 in the third set, Agassi won 11 of 12 games and tied the match at two sets each.
Agassi had back-to-back double faults while losing his serve as he fell behind 3-1 in the final set, then erased two break points in the fifth game. From there, he won the final five games, marking the fourth time in his career the seven-time Grand Slam champion had lost the first two sets and rallied to win.
On Sunday, three-time champion Gustavo Kuerten and the top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt bowed out in the fourth-round.
Kuerten's 17-match winning streak in the Grand Slam tournament dissolved, in a matter-of-fact, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 loss to Spain's 20th-seeded Albert Costa, whose 11 career titles all have come on clay.
"He didn't let me play the way I wanted to," said Kuerten, who took 2 1/2 months off after right-hip surgery in February. "He really played a precise match."
Instead of a Hewitt-Kuerten showdown for a berth in the final four, Costa will play No. 15 Guillermo Canas of Argentina. Canas heads to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal after winning the final six games to oust U.S. Open champion Hewitt 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The match lasted over four hours, and the second set alone took 1 1/2 hours, with Hewitt wasting five set points and Canas finally ending it on his 10th. In the marathon tiebreaker, Hewitt's double fault made it 14-13, and Canas took advantage by snapping a crosscourt forehand winner.
"There's times where you think he's looking a bit tired, but then he bounces back pretty well," said Hewitt, who beat Canas in five sets played over two days at the same stage of last year's French Open. "Physically, he's very strong."
On the women's stage, Monica Seles and Mary Pierce are back in the quarterfinals, after both missing the tournament last year.
Seles, who won the last of her three French Open titles a decade ago, also showcased her shotmaking in a 6-4, 7-5 fourth-round win over No. 11 Daniel Hantuchova. Pierce, bothered by a sore back last year and unable to defend her title, stopped No. 9 Silvia Farina Elia 6-1, 6-2.
Seles meets No. 2 Venus Williams, who beat Chanda Rubin 6-3, 6-2. Pierce plays Serena Williams, who was in a bit of trouble until qualifier Vera Zvonareva began to wilt in the 35-degree heat, resulting in a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 comeback win.
Seles broke through against Venus Williams for the first time in the Australian Open quarterfinals, beating her for the first time in seven attempts.
"On certain court surfaces, just the way Venus plays, she has a big advantage with her serve and movement over a person, say, like me," said Seles, who hasn't been to a Grand Slam tournament final since the 1998 French Open. "I have to neutralize with other things and not give her that huge advantage in every service game."
(Reuters, AP)
TITLE: Salvoldelli Victorious in Giro Tainted By Drugs
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MILAN - Paolo Savoldelli won the Giro d'Italia on Sunday, keeping a lead of nearly two minutes over American Tyler Hamilton through the final stage.
Italy's Mario Cipollini claimed the final leg for his sixth stage win of the race. He covered the 140-kilometer leg from Cantu to Milan in 3:35:39.
Cipollini, of the Acqua e Sapone team, claimed his 40th stage win in the Giro, one short of the career mark held by Italy's Alfredo Binda.
Sticking to tradition, the cyclists avoided attacks during the closing stage and Savoldelli held on to the opportunity to toast with champagne along with teammates and rivals while pedaling toward Milan.
Savoldelli's victory gave Italian fans something to cheer about after the race lost three of the favorites long before the finish. Stefano Garzelli, winner in 2000, and last year's winner Gilberto Simoni, were excluded after failing dope tests, while Francesco Casagrande was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct following a clash with Colombian Freddy Garcia.
Garzelli, a former race leader, was disqualified from the race after the ninth stage for testing positive for the banned diuretic probenecid.
Simoni was withdrawn from the race by his Saeco team before the 12th stage after an out-of-competition test taken on April 24 found traces of cocaine. Simoni blamed the positive test on a local anaesthetic injection given by his dentist.
Adding to the race's tainted image, Italian Roberto Sgambelluri and Russian Faat Zakirov become the first professional cyclists to be caught using NESP, an improved form of erythropoietin.
With the three leading Italians and a struggling Marco Pantani out of the race, Australian Cadel Evans and Hamilton seemed favourites to win, but Savoldelli turned the race upside down with an audacious attack in Thursday's final mountain stage to the summit of the Passo Coe. Savoldelli finished the stage second but took the race lead from Evans, who dropped to 15th overall.
In Saturday's decisive time trial the Italian sealed victory by beating second-place Hamilton and extending his lead to 1:41.
"I hope its the start of greater things," said Savoldelli, who considered retirement after a winless season last year. "I don't really understand what I've done yet. Perhaps when I start next year's race wearing number one and see how hard it looks, I'll understand it all.
(AP, Reuters)
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Grim Up North
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea televised two World Cup matches over the weekend, in rare nationwide broadcasts of scenes from outside the reclusive Communist state, a South Korean government official said on Monday.
The delayed broadcast of two matches on the North's national Chosun Central Television showed advertising billboards and the stadiums' names but concealed the official World Cup logo, said the official in the South's Unification Ministry.
Baby Blues
SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - An eight-month-old Canadian baby was denied access to the Sapporo World Cup stadium for Germany's 8-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia because he did not have a ticket, a Japanese newspaper reported on Sunday.
"My son was not yet born when we bought tickets to the game. We had been told that the baby could enter the stadium even without a ticket," the mother, not named in the Mainichi Shimbun report, was quoted as saying.
Cronje Body Recovered
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The bodies of former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and two pilots have been airlifted from the site of the plane crash that killed them, a civil aviation official said on Sunday.
"The three bodies have been airlifted off the mountain and taken to a mortuary," Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Trevor Davids said.
An autopsy is expected to be conducted on Monday. No date has been set for Cronje's funeral.
Cronje, 32, and the two pilots of a Hawker Siddeley 748 cargo plane were killed on Saturday when the aircraft slammed into a mountain near the picturesque town of George in the Western Cape province.
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined but civil aviation officials have said that the weather was bad in the area when the plane went down.
Local media reports have said Cronje caught a ride on the ill-fated plane after missing a scheduled flight.
Cronje shocked the world of cricket two years ago when he admitted he had accepted around $130,000 from bookmakers to influence the course of matches. He was banned from professional cricket for life.
Bonds Belts No. 586
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds is inching ever closer to the big three - legends Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays.
Bonds belted his 586th home run in a 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies, drawing him level with Frank Robinson on the all-time home run list.
Aaron tops the list with 755 career homers, followed by Ruth with 714 and Mays, Bonds' godfather who also made his mark with the Giants, with 660.
The 37-year-old Bonds' towering blast in the bottom of the seventh inning stayed in the ballpark, where it was grabbed by an afro wig-wearing fan.
Bonds began the season in seventh spot with 567 homers.
TITLE: Penalties Provide Wins for Brazil, Mexico
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TOKYO - Two penalties provided the talking points at the World Cup on Monday, giving victory to Brazil, over Turkey, and to Mexico, over Croatia. Italy had a routine 2-0 victory over Ecuador.
On Sunday, Spain finally figured out how to start a World Cup with a victory, while England still couldn't work out how to beat Sweden anywhere. Argentina, the pretournament favorite, edged Nigeria 1-0 at Ibaraki, Japan, while Paraguay and South Africa tied 2-2 at Busan, South Korea.
Brazil 1, Turkey 0. Brazil star Rivaldo scored on a penalty kick in the dying moments, lifting the four-time champion to victory over Turkey.
Rivaldo converted in the 87th minute, as the Brazilians came from a goal down in thrilling fashion.
Rivaldo rocketed his penalty kick into the right side after the referee called Alpay Ozalan for pulling down Luizao. Ozalan, Turkey's last defender at the time, was ejected.
Turkey's Hakan Unsal was sent off in injury time for kicking the ball at Rivaldo as the Brazilian prepared for a corner kick.
Ronaldo, Brazil's other top attacker, connected on a 50th-minute deflection. He put Rivaldo's curling cross from the left side past Turkish keeper Rustu Receber from 8 meters.
Turkey, in its first World Cup since 1954, took the lead when Hassan Sas scored at the close of the first half. He ran onto Yildiray Basturk's deft 20-meter pass and sent it home from close range.
"When you start losing, it's always extremely difficult," Rivaldo said. "But I had full confidence in my teammates that we would be able to turn the match around, as we did."
Hundreds of Turkish fans fought with supporters of Brazil in a Berlin street brawl after the game. The fighting erupted around a giant TV screen in a plaza. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Italy 2, Ecuador 0. Christian Vieri scored two first-half goals to give three-time champion Italy a methodical victory over Ecuador on Monday night .
Vieri, picking up where he left off in the last World Cup - where he scored five goals - used his powerful left foot to redirect a cross from Francesco Totti in seventh minute.
Exactly 20 minutes later, Vieri took control of a long pass and again beat Ecuador goalkeeper Jose Cevallos. This time, the striker's initial shot was partially blocked by Cevallos, but the ball kept moving toward the goal. Vieri, unchallenged, gave it another kick from centimeters away for emphasis.
Ecuador, a tournament newcomer, had trouble penetrating Italy's experienced backline throughout the game, despite the presence of powerful forward Agustin Delgado.
Midfielder Edison Mendez had one of the best chances for the surprise qualifiers out of South America. But his blast from outside the penalty area in the 52nd minute missed the mark.
Italy seemed content to let Ecuador control the ball in the second half, but made sure to stop the South Americans from creating any significant scoring chances.
Midfielder Cristiano Doni, making his World Cup debut, had Italy's best second-half chance, hitting the crossbar on a jumping attempt off Totti's corner kick in the 58th.
Mexico 1, Croatia 0. Cuauhtemoc Blanco carried some extra inspiration to the penalty spot Monday. Blanco converted his kick in the 61st minute, lifting Mexico to victory over Croatia.
"I dedicate the goal and the victory to my grandmother," Blanco said. "I had promised that." Blanco's grandmother, Maria del Refugio, died last week in Mexico City.
The penalty also resulted in the first red card of the tournament, for Croatia's Boris Zivkovic, who stuck out his right leg on the advancing Blanco. Zivkovic brought down the attacker while making no contact with the ball. Referee Lu Jun showed no hesitation in ejecting Zivkovic and pointing to the penalty spot.
Blanco returned to take the shot, smashing the ball into the top left-hand corner of the net as goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa dived the wrong way.
"It was one of the worst performances ever displayed by the Croat national team," former coach Miroslav Blazevic said after watching from the stands.
Spain 3, Slovenia 1. The Spaniards broke a 52-year winless spell in World Cup openers, dating back to a 1950 victory over the United States. Goals from Raul, Juan Carlos Valeron and Fernando Hierro lifted the Spaniards over Slovenia 3-1 Sunday night at Gwangju, South Korea.
"It wasn't easy, there are a lot of surprises and all games are very close at this level," Raul said. "There is more to come."
England 1, Sweden 1. England must hope there are no more meetings with Sweden ahead. A second-half goal by Niclas Alexandersson gave the Swedes a 1-1 tie and stretched their unbeaten streak against the English to 10 games - 3-0-7 - since 1968. FIFA does not recognize all of those matches.
"It didn't look good in the first half," Alexandersson said of Sweden's one-goal deficit at Saitama, Japan. "We showed a lot of fighting spirit in the second half, when we came back into the game. We could have won the match."
Argentina 1, Nigeria 0. Gabriel Batistuta, a fixture in the Argentina lineup but questionable to start after a poor, injury-plagued season in Italy, sent an angled header into the net off Juan Sebastian Veron's swinging corner kick in the 63rd minute.
Batistuta moved into a tie for sixth place in career World Cup goals with 10.
"I am not thinking of any records, I don't care about that," he said. "But if I score goals, it means that Argentina gets closer every time to our goal, to win the World Cup."
Paraguay 2, South Africa 2. At Busan, in a half-empty 53,926-seat stadium, South Africa rallied from two goals down against Paraguay.
Quinton Fortune scored on a last-minute penalty kick after a controversial call. Fortune drove his kick into the top right corner after the referee judged that Paraguay goalie Ricardo Tavarelli pulled down Sibusiso Zuma. Replays indicated the goalie barely touched Zuma when the South African already was on the way down.
Referee Lubos Michel of Slovakia handing out eight yellow cards, four to each team.
TITLE: Lakers Squeak by Kings in OT
AUTHOR: By Chris Sheridan
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SACRAMENTO, California - The Los Angeles Lakers had never been tested like this in their three-year run.
Extended to overtime in a Game 7 on the road, the two-time defending champions did what they do best - thrived when the pressure was at its highest.
Shaquille O'Neal and Derek Fisher came through when it mattered most on a night when Kobe Bryant didn't have a field goal in the fourth quarter or overtime, sending the Lakers back to the NBA Finals with a 112-106 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
In a game every bit as good as the Western Conference finals series it concluded, the Lakers were the team with more poise at the end.
O'Neal, Fisher and Bryant were a combined 8-for-8 from the foul line in overtime, while Sacramento couldn't put a point on the board in the final two minutes, despite Mike Bibby's heroic effort.
Bad shots, bad passes, bad decisions - those were about the only things the Kings did well in the final half of an overtime session that went the Lakers' way and gave coach Phil Jackson his 23rd consecutive playoff series victory.
The Lakers will defend their title beginning Wednesday night and were made an early 9-1 favorite against the New Jersey Nets, making their first trip to the NBA Finals.
O'Neal finished with 35 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks, while Bryant had a quiet 30 as he scored only four points in the final 17 minutes - all on free throws.
"We made some mistakes, but we know what it takes to win," O'Neal said. "We took the high percentage shots, stepped up to the line and hit our free throws and played well."
Bryant's final two from the line gave the Lakers a six-point lead with 0:06.4 seconds left, and the game ended with Webber bobbling an inbounds pass.
Bibby had 29 and Webber 20 for the Kings, who worked all season to gain the homecourt advantage with this very moment in mind.
The Kings were hurt by their foul shooting - they missed 14 of 30 attempts - and the inability of anyone other than Bibby to make a big play on offense in the late going.
Webber missed a jumper with 1:38 left and O'Neal hit a pair from the line for a 108-106 lead. After Bibby missed a jumper, O'Neal got the ball in the low post, spun around Webber and - surprise - missed a dunk.
Hedo Turkoglu ruined that chance by firing a pass at Webber's feet, but the Kings got another break when O'Neal missed again inside. This time, though, Doug Christie had his foot on the three-point line as he was long on a jumper.
Fisher made two free throws for a 110-106 lead with 0:14.6 left, and Webber then missed a three-pointer. Bryant wrapped it up from the line, pumping his fist in defiant delight.
"They accomplished what they wanted to do, that's all I'll say about them," said Webber, who appeared devastated by the loss.
Vlade Divac said the Kings locker room was silent for five minutes after the players left the court.
Horry scored 16 points, and Fisher and Rick Fox had 13 each. O'Neal, Bryant, Fox and Horry each grabbed at least 10 rebounds, and Bryant and Fox each had seven assists.
Webber did an adequate job defending O'Neal in the fourth, while Christie guarded Bryant so well that the Lakers had trouble even getting the ball into his hands.
Still, the Lakers found a way.
"We kept our composure. That's why championship experience shows through," Bryant said. "Now we have a chance to defend our title. Now it's just time to go after it."
TITLE: Russian Footballers Find Sabotage, But Not Sushi
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: SHIMIZU, Japan - The banners fluttering from yakitori bars and ryokan inns urge "Vperyod Rossia," or "Forward Russia," in both Russian and Japanese.
A huge sign screams "Dobro Pozhalovat" on the local government building, and the mayor of this southern Japanese port is backing Russia rather than Japan in the clash between the two on Sunday.
Russia is expected to win its first World Cup game against Group H outsider Tunisia on Wednesday and is tipped as having a good chance of beating Japan. It will have a tougher time against Belgium, the other team in the group and favorite to take the top spot.
Ahead of the games, Shimizu appears to be doing its best to make the Russian team feel at home. The city, located about 180 kilometers west of Tokyo, is known for its soccer schools, tuna and green tea.
But despite City Hall's efforts, Russia has seen vandals strike its training center twice.
On Thursday, a lone protester raised a ruckus in a hotel about Russia's claim to the Kuril Islands. The 62-year-old man was quickly arrested in the Yokohama hotel, where the Russians plan to stay during their match against Japan.
"It's outrageous that you are letting the Russians stay while they refuse to return the Northern Territories," the man shouted before being led away by police. Japan, which lost the islands to Russia at the end of World War II, refers to them as the Northern Territories.
Police said the protester was the leader of a local political party and had threatened to surround the hotel with trucks blaring anti-Russia propaganda if the team was allowed to stay "without a reason."
The incident came less than a month after insecticide was poured on pitches at the state-of-the-art training center where the Russians are based just outside Shimizu. Security was tightened after the break in, but two Japanese men still managed to break into the center less than two weeks later. They were arrested.
"It's not that bad," said Russian team press attache Viktor Gusev, speaking of the damage. "The second field was spoiled, but still that pitch is in better shape than some in Russia."
In what could be a good omen, however, Russia on Thursday beat local side Shimizu S-Pulse 3-0 in a warm-up game. Valery Karpin, Yegor Titov and Dmitry Khoklov scored a goal apiece as Russia dominated play.
A group of Japanese schoolchildren sang the Russian national anthem before the game, repeating a performance they gave when the team arrived in Shimizu at the beginning of the week.
Shimizu has a deep fondness for soccer. The city boasts a number of specialized soccer schools that have produced many of the most famous Japanese players. Four on the current Japanese side play with S-Pulse, and another eight have links to the city.
Residents, however, are decidedly low-key about the presence of the Russian team. "The city of Shimizu loves soccer, but they are meeting [the Russian team] calmly," said an official at the city's World Cup press center.
Part of the problem may be that the Russian players have been ensconced at their training center, where they can watch ORT television and eat Russian food prepared by a chef who has been specially flown in. (Sushi is off the menu until the end of the World Cup.)
"So far we've been here constantly," said midfielder Yegor Titov, in an interview with Sport-Express before an open training session outside the center Wednesday. "Work and more work. There is no time for pleasure.
"I slept when we came by bus from the airport, so I didn't get to see any of the sights," he added. "On the other hand, Shimizu isn't Tokyo and there's hardly going to be anything of special interest."
Russia, like Germany and England, is giving special access to its own journalists while keeping out all other media. More than 100 journalists, mainly Japanese, watched the open training session Wednesday, but only two players were allowed to speak to the press afterward - and for five minutes each without translation. One spoke to ORT, the other to RTR.
None of the players or coaches turned up for an official welcome from the mayor to the team Wednesday. Team manager Alexander Polinsky also did his team no favors by answering his mobile phone as he began to present the Russian officials to the city, leaving Gusev to take over.
"We've heard that the mayor will support Russia in the game against Japan," Gusev said, drawing grins. "We propose that rather than splitting loyalties, both teams go through into the second round."
Afterward, Russian officials went to a Japanese kindergarten to hand out gifts. The children said "spasibo" to the team officials, and then some started crying. It was not clear whether it was from joy or the disappointment of meeting the team's general manager instead of the center forward.
To be fair to the Russian side, few of the other teams will be leaving their bases either. They stress that they are in Japan to work and not act as tourists.
"Of course it would have been great if the players could come [to see the mayor], but they were preparing for a training session," said Gusev, who is the main sports commentator for ORT.
Some say Shimizu has not done enough to publicize the Russian team's presence.
"They don't care. They don't even know they are here," said one Tokyo television journalist. "There are no events. It's a pity for the Russian team and the residents."
She pointed out that Daegu, the South Korean town where the Senegal team is based, set up a Senegalese village complete with traditional dancing shows.
Russia has gotten a lot of attention with the aid of at least one Japanese institution - Sony. A local television station held its own version of Group H with the help of a Sony Playstation game console. No human players were allowed - the console was just allowed to get on with it.
Russia came first, beating Japan 3-1, with the hosts also qualifying and Belgium and Tunisia in third place and fourth place, respectively.