SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #826 (91), Friday, December 6, 2002
**************************************************************************


TITLE: Talk of Apathy Surrounds Elections
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: While the run up to Sunday's vote for St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly has turned out politically to be just as loud as previous elections, a number of politicians are expressing concern that the response of the electorate has been largely apathetic.
 
With new federal election laws being tested for the first time, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's desire to be allowed to run for a third term never far away, and the usual charges of dirty or illegal politicking and challenges to candidates, the elections should be generating lots of interest. But the campaign for seats in the third vote for the assembly to be held since it was founded in 1994 seems to be attracting a low level of public attention.
 According to Andrei Vekher, the head of the Legislative Assembly's Analytical Department, 40.6 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the first round of voting in 1998, while 31.8 percent voted in the second round. This time, the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots is likely to be closer to the latter figure.
 Politicians and electoral officials appear to be concerned.
 In a television program broadcast on the TRK Peterburg television station on Wednesday evening, the governor called on citizens to take part in the vote.
 "We sincerely hope that citizens who have a passport, a voice of their own, as well as some conscience and memory, will come to the polling stations," he said. "Otherwise, they will only have themselves to blame for the lack of activity and level of corruption in the assembly."
 Sergei Stepashin, a St. Petersburg native and the head of the Federal Audit Chamber, added his own appeal on Wednesday. "I am concerned by the apathy of St. Petersburgers. I even had trouble convincing my parents to go out and vote," Interfax reported him as saying. "This is my native city, and I hope that the Legislative Assembly elections can bring clean politics to St. Petersburg."
 The lack of interest demonstrated by voters could have serious consequences in some districts, analysts say. According to a new federal law titled "Fundamental Guarantees of the Electoral Rights and Rights to Take Part in Referenda of Russian Citizens," which came into force on June 15, voter turnout must be at least 20 percent for a candidate's election to be considered valid. The 20-percent hurdle is lower than the 25-percent line in earlier elections, but still could cause problems.
 Stepashin, like many candidates, stressed that the outcome of the vote will be vital to Yakovlev's chances of running for a third term. In order to do so, Yakovlev will need the agreement of 34 of the assembly's 50 lawmakers to amend the City Charter, which currently limits governors to two terms. Yakovlev was unable to garner the necessary votes in the previous Legislative Assembly.
 "I agree completely with Stepashin," said Mikhail Amosov, the leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly, who is running for re-election in the 10th electoral district. "We are fighting against a so-called third-term party that clearly exists, even though it is not registered anywhere."
 In a move that suggested how serious Yakovlev's opponents are about denying his allies places in the city parliament, the SPS+Yabloko bloc withdrew its candidates in eight electoral districts to avoid splitting the anti-Yakovlev vote. "We think that the candidates from United Russia stand a better chance than our candidates in these districts," Amosov said.
 SPS+Yabloko recently signed partnership agreements with Volya Peterburga (St. Petersburg Will) and Yedinaya Rossia (United Russia).
 Lev Savulkin, a senior analyst at the Leontieff Center for Economic and Social Research in St. Petersburg, says the move may have been spurred by SPS+Yabloko's difficulties arising from the fact that St. Petersburg's electorate is more influenced by strong personalities than by electoral blocs.
 "SPS+Yabloko are facing a difficult campaign. Political slogans and the creation of blocs and alliances do not have much effect on the electorate," he said on Wednesday. "Secret arrangements, backstage partnerships and vote buying, all techniques employed by Yakovlev allies like [Legislative Assembly Speaker Sergei] Tarasov or [Legislative Assembly Vice Speaker Vadim] Tyulpanov in their districts, are more effective than political declarations and slogans."
 Concerns about the legality of election campaigning have led Alexander Veshnyakov, the head of the Central Electoral Commission, the federal body for monitoring elections, to plan to join a group of officials from the CEC and of commissions from other cities that are currently acting as observers in the St. Petersburg campaign, he said Tuesday, according to an Interfax report.
 "In the final stages of this election campaign, we will send a large group of representatives, who will help local organizers to run the elections in full accordance with federal legislation," he was quoted as saying.
 The observers will be present in the polling stations on Sunday and afterward during ballot counts. Veshnyakov will fly into St. Petersburg on Friday to observe the final stages of the elections.
 Yelena Mamontova, who heads the monitoring group at the Control and Revision Commission of the City Electoral Commission (CEC), said at a press conference on Wednesday that foreign officials will also be brought in as observers.
 She said that election campaigns always generated some violations, but she was appalled at some of the CEC's findings. "Every fourth leaflet gathered by the CEC during the campaign in November was not in line with legislation - a very high figure," she said. "As a result, we're warning voters to be careful and to be aware that not all of the materials being distributed are legal."
 "The CEC passes along all illegal campaign materials to law-enforcement agencies, which then try to establish who has commissioned and paid for them," Mamontova said. "This wasn't the case in previous votes, when the laws were different and people still had little experience taking part in election campaigns."
 The number of complaints filed with the commission mushroomed to 112 in November, after only 50 had been filed in September and October combined. Most complaints were filed by individual candidates, while voters filed nine and the representatives of electoral blocs filed 10. According to the CEC, 70 percent of the complaints concerned violations by candidates, 12 percent charged that there had been violations committed by mass media, and less than 2 percent were aimed at district electoral commissions.
 "Actual violations were identified in 64 of the 112 cases," Mamontova said, adding that, while the fact that violations were being reported was a positive step, the nature of many of the complaints was absurd. "Many of the complaints are based on emotion. People have to learn how to prove their claims. Thank God we are not in 1937 anymore and action is only taken if there is sufficient evidence to back up a complaint."
 The last days of the campaign have already brought complaints of further dirty campaigning.
 On Monday, Sergei Andreyev, who is running as an incumbent in the 16th electoral district and leads of the Unity-National Party faction in the assembly, told Interfax that envelopes, each containing a five-ruble coin and a leaflet reading "I can only help you with this. I will give you more if you vote for me!" and bearing the official stamp of the Legislative Assembly, were delivered to most of the mailboxes in the district.
 The leaflets also featured a portrait of the deputy and gave his cellular-phone number.
 On Monday, Andreyev told Interfax that "half the district had already called," adding that the leaflets had led to many private mailboxes being forced open by people looking for the coins. His assistant said Thursday that Andreyev was making no further comments about the nature of the campaign until after the vote.
 SPS+Yabloko representatives say that their main office, as well as those of some individual candidates, were being deluged with telephone calls from people with unusual inquiries. Kirill Strakhov, at SPS's regional office, said that, over the past week, the office has been receiving calls from people looking to buy cellular phones and personal-security services.
 The office telephone number of SPS candidate Mikhail Tolstoi was also published in an ad in the newspaper Iz Ruk v Ruki ("From Hand to Hand"), along with the offer that a person named Mikhail can help with personal protection, Strakhov said.
 At the same time, Yabloko's central office was hit with a wave of calls from people looking to buy washing machines.
 Strakhov said that SPS and Yabloko have little doubt as to who was behind duping people into calling.
 "Considering that there are only two major political forces in the elections," he said. "SPS+Yabloko, Volya Peterburga and United Russia on the one side, and the so-called 'third-term party' on the other. It is clear who is responsible." 
 According to Strakhov, the calls could be a simple prank, but could also be a way for political opponents to disrupt the work of the parties. 
 "Some people who call have read the announcement and are actually calling to buy a cellular phone, but we have also started to recognize voices of individuals who call on a regular basis. Their aim could be to disrupt our work, or to find out if there are people in the office," Strakhov said.
 While Sunday may bring an end to some of the underhand campaign strategies being used, it will just be the first step for the CEC, which is required under the new election legislation to carry out a full review of campaign spending by candidates. Candidates have 30 days after the election to file complete spending accounts, after which the CEC has five days to perform a review.
 Each candidate is limited to spending 300,000 rubles ($9,400) on their campaign. Mamontova said that this review could have vital repercussions.
 "If a candidate has spent more than the limit by more than 5 percent, the result of the vote can be thrown out."

TITLE: New-Look Sennaya Ploshchad Draws on Past
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: While stone-layers were still hurrying to complete the paving work, Sennaya Ploshchad was officially reopened on Wednesday after four months of renovation work.
 
At a ceremony presided over by Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, those who turned out for the event got a look at the results of the first stage, including new gas-lantern-style lights, shop areas fashioned in the style of railway platforms, 58 newly planted trees and benches suspended between cannon-carriage wheels.
 "The square is a New Year's present to the residents of St. Petersburg," Yakovlev said, before cutting a red ribbon and declaring the new site open.
 "This, however, is only the completion of the first stage of the work," he added, saying that a fountain would be installed in the southwest corner of the square, and a "Peace Tower" - an 18-meter-high, transparent column with the word "Peace" written on it in a number of different languages - would also be included once the work was finished.
 The tower is a 300th-anniversary gift to the city from four major French firms.
 The buildings surrounding the square are also scheduled for major repairs and the work is slated to be completed in time for the city's 300th-anniversary celebrations in May.
 Even without the planned works, the new-look Sennaya Ploshchad is a marked improvement on the square'es earlier appearance.
 Sennaya Ploshchad, made famous by Fyodor Dostoevsky as the site of much of the action in his novel "Crime and Punishment," has long been an eyesore.
 First opened in 1737, it became a popular spot for peasants to come to the city to sell firewood and hay. The adjectival form of the Russian word for hay - <i>seno </i>- gives the square its name.
 Wednesday's ceremony started off with an echo of those beginnings, with an old-fashioned carriage loaded with hay pulling into the square to signal the opening of the events.
 During the 19th century, the square became the site of one of the city's largest and least expensive markets, as well as the location of a number of kitchens that provided free meals to the underprivileged. A large market building was erected nearby as well, adding to the congestion in the area.
 Prior to the current renovation project, it seemed that little had changed since the 1800s. The square was jammed with a hodgepodge of kiosks and stalls offering some of the least-expensive food, alcohol, videos and myriad other low-ticket items. The square was usually strewn with garbage and was a fertile breeding ground for rats.
 The kiosks have been replaced with four large steel-and-glass constructions to hold vending stalls - echoing four such buildings that stood there from 1883 until they were torn down in the 1930s. Not everyone was thrilled with the new shopping spaces.
 &quot;I don't like those massive metal-and-glass stores,&quot; said Larisa Garvrilyuk, a tailor. &quot;They sort of block the view of the square and give it a gloomy and massive appearance.&quot;
 &quot;I like the lanterns though and am glad that there will also be a fountain,&quot; she added.
 Of the same style as the retail buildings are four new coverings built above the four entrances to the Sadovaya metro station, located under the center of the square.
 As a further transport plus, the large, fenced off area containing an elevator for lowering repair equipment and materials down to the metro line is also gone, allowing the city to reopen the portion of Sadovaya Ulitsa that runs through the square.
 The current stage of renovation at Sennaya Ploshchad cost 100 million rubles ($3.2 million), while all work on the site during this year will cost $22 million.
 There were some caompaints at the ceremony that some of the paving work had yet to be completed, but the general reaction among those present was that the renovations, which are being carried out by the Vozrozhdeniye<i> </i>(&quot;Rebirth&quot;) construction firm, had been successful, while construction workers pitched in that the project had not been easy.
 &quot;Most of us are now suffering from aching joints after standing and kneeling on the cold ground and pavement for so many hours,&quot; said Maxim Kozlov, one of the workers at the site.

TITLE: Kursk Family Lawyers Prepare Petition
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Lawyers representing the families of more than 40 of the 118 sailors who died when the nuclear submarine Kursk sank on Aug. 12, 2000, say they are preparing a complaint for submission to the Russian Prosecutor General's office, protesting the decision to close the investigation into the tragedy.
 
The complaint questions the official version of the events surrounding the submarine's sinking, particularly over questions of how long some crew members survived after the initial explosions on board and the training readiness of the ship when it left port, and argues that the criminal investigation into the catastrophe should not have been closed in July without charges being filed. 
 &quot;We have evidence that sailors on the submarine were still sending out SOS signals on the evening of Aug. 14, by banging on the hull with some sort of metal object,&quot; Boris Kuznetsov, the head of the Moscow law firm that has been hired by the families of the sailors to look into the government's handling of the investigation, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. &quot;This raises the question of whether the rescue operation was well-timed and carried out effectively.&quot;
 The lawyers say they have evidence that 23 of the sailors on the Kursk survived for more than two days after taking shelter in the sunken vessel's ninth compartment. The official government report is that the sailors in the compartment died within eight hours of the explosion.
 Kuznetsov said the emergency situation on the sub was not announced by the navy - either internally or to outside bodies - until nine hours after the Kursk had sank.
 &quot;Further, while examining the materials from the investigation, we came to the conclusion that the crew hadn't been properly prepared for the voyage. For instance, the crew was not equipped with essential rescue equipment,&quot; Kuznetsov said.
 He said that, at present, the lawyers plan to discuss their conclusions first with representatives from the chief military prosecutor's office, before filing an official appeal.
 &quot;We want to hear what they have to say about our conclusions, in order to decide how expedient an appeal to reopen the criminal case would be,&quot; he said, adding that, in general, the investigation had been carried out in an effective and professional manner.
 Kuznetsov said that their appeal would not focus on the cause of the torpedo explosion that caused the disaster. 
 &quot;There are about 12 different versions of why it happened,&quot; he said. &quot;It's practically impossible to check out what really happened.&quot;
 Kuznetsov said that he is also planning to examine information released by Igor Arkhipchenko, a former officer with one of the Northern Fleet's radio-communication sub-units, who says that officials with Russia's Northern Fleet destroyed some documents related to the Kursk sinking.
 Arkhipchenko was sent into retirement by the navy after making the comments last year.
 &quot;We are looking for Arkhipchenko in order to ask him about this,&quot; Kuznetsov said.
 Kuznetsov said the work on the complaint should be ready by the end of December.

TITLE: Putin, Vajpayee Talk Terrorism
AUTHOR: By Beth Duff-Brown
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW DELHI, India - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Vladimir Putin pledged Wednesday to fight terrorism and said the export of Islamic militants from Pakistan must end before peace talks can resume between India and Pakistan.
 
The two leaders also signed new economic agreements to revive the robust trade their countries once shared during the Cold War.
 In a joint statement, Putin and Vajpayee said a new wave of terrorism extended worldwide.
 &quot;Recent terrorist acts in various parts of India, in Moscow, Bali, Mombasa and elsewhere have shown that terrorism is seeking ever newer targets,&quot; Vajpayee told a news conference after signing the declaration.
 The two leaders called on India's rival Pakistan to &quot;eliminate the terrorist infrastructure&quot; in that country and block the movement of terrorists across its border. They said that was a &quot;prerequisite&quot; for renewed dialogue between India and Pakistan, which have gone to war three times since their independence from Briatain in 1947.
 India has long complained that training camps of Islamic militant groups, some with al-Qaida ties, exist in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled portions of Kashmir, the divided Himalayan province claimed by both South Asian neighbors. India claims Islamabad funds, trains and arms those militants and helps them cross the border.
 Pakistan denies any connection with terrorists, saying it only supports the cause of the &quot;freedom fighters&quot; demanding independence for Indian-controlled Kashmir. In Islamabad, an Information Ministry spokesperson responded to the declaration, saying: &quot;There is no terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan had made it clear in the past that it will not allow any terrorist activities on its soil.&quot;
 Putin and Indian leaders also talked about what they see as Washington's double standard with Pakistan.
 They say the United States turns a blind eye to Pakistan's failure to rein in terrorists who cross into Indian-controlled Kashmir because Islamabad is a key supporter of the U.S.-led war against terror in Afghanistan.
 &quot;There should be no double standards in the fight against terrorism,&quot; the joint statement said.
 Both nations pledged to take &quot;deterrent measures&quot; to meet threats from the &quot;roots of terrorism which lay in their common neighborhood.&quot;
 The longtime allies also stressed the dispute over Iraq and its alleged weapons of mass destruction should be settled though political and diplomatic efforts.
 Putin may have privately encouraged India to join Moscow and Beijing in a strategic triad to balance power with the United States.
 Putin arrived in the Indian capital Tuesday night after a state visit to China, where the two countries signed a declaration calling for a &quot;multipolar world&quot; - a phrase expressing discontent with U.S. global dominance. 
 However, many analysts believe the concept of an Asian axis would be hampered by the historic rivalry between India and China and the deep desire of all three countries to expand relations with the United States.
 &quot;The U.S. today has more comprehensive relationships with every one of these three than any two between themselves,&quot; said defense analyst C. Raja Mohan. &quot;I don't think the Americans are losing sleep over it.&quot;
 Moscow and New Delhi signed eight agreements on economic, scientific, military and technological cooperation and discussed possible Russian involvement in construction of more nuclear reactors in India.

TITLE: Russia, Kyrgizia Sign Pact On Future Cooperation
AUTHOR: By Burt Herman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - Newly arrived Russian warplanes tested the tarmac Thursday at an air base just kilometers from forces of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, as President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement with his Kyrgyz counterpart to bolster security cooperation with this Central Asian nation.
 
This poor, mountainous country on China's border has become the front line in the new Great Game for influence in Central Asia between Washington and Moscow and the scene of Russia's most significant military action in the region since U.S. forces came here after the Sept. 11 attacks.
 Putin and Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev pledged cooperation on security and military technology, underlining the strong relations between their nations and signing a declaration to fight 21st-century threats: international terrorism, the spread of illegal weapons and drugs, illegal immigration and organized crime.
 &quot;The joining of our efforts and close coordination of our steps in foreign policy will strengthen the security of both Russia and Kyrgyzstan, strengthening the stability of all of Central Asia,&quot; Putin said.
 The agreement &quot;reassures the commitment of both countries to act together against international terrorism and other global threats to the peace and stability of Central Asia,&quot; Akayev said.
 One effort to help counter those threats is the planned rapid-reaction force of a group of former Soviet republics in a collective security treaty that includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
 Putin said about 1,000 troops would be part of the new force, with soldiers from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, and that they would remain based in their home countries.
 Earlier Thursday, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov watched a private air show of three Su-27 fighters screaming across the cold skies above the Kant air base, about 30 kilometers east of the capital Bishkek, the planned future home of the aircraft assigned to the rapid-reaction force.
 Ivanov said a final decision on the aircraft to be based at Kant will be made at a May summit of presidents of the treaty member countries. He said the facilities were sufficient for Russian Su-25 and Su-27 jets.
 The Russian planes there now - including two Il-76 transport aircraft and two Su-25 ground-attack fighters that arrived from Tajikistan during Ivanov's visit - will depart within the next few days after the tests are complete, but others are expected to continue looking at the facilities here in the coming months. 
 &quot;Security in Central Asia directly affects security in Russia,&quot; Ivanov said, noting that Afghanistan is nearby and that the situation there is still unstable.
 Ivanov strongly denied Russian media reports that Moscow needed to pay as much as $300 million to base the planes here. Although declining to name an exact figure, he said it would be an &quot;insignificant amount of money for Russia.&quot;
 Stepping down from his Su-27 after the aerobatic show, Colonel Vasily Pinchuk said he was confident the Kant air field was up to its new role.
 &quot;As a pilot, I can say that it's ready. Maybe there's some technical details to be done, but it seems ready,&quot; he said.
 The facilities at Kant have a long way to go to come close to what the U.S.-led anti-terrorist coalition has built at Manas airport, about 35 kilometers to the west.
 There, about 20 F-16 fighters from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway sit on a special moveable tarmac brought by coalition forces. The majority of the about 25 aircraft based there are for operations in Afghanistan. Temporary barracks house some 2,000 troops based there and the facilities include entertainment centers with pool tables and video games for soldiers, and a base shop that accepts credit cards.
 The U.S. reaction to the new Russian arrivals was calm. &quot;For certain things, our goals and the goals of the Russians are pretty much the same - that relates to stability and security,&quot; a senior U.S. diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
 Akayev said Thursday that the U.S.-led forces would remain in Kyrgyzstan as long as there continued to be a UN mandate for operations in Afghanistan.

TITLE: Lack of Evidence Spurs Zakayev's Release
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - In a slap in the face of Russia's justice system, Denmark refused Tuesday to extradite Akhmed Zakayev, saying the evidence provided against him was insufficient, vague and gathered mostly after his arrest.
 
Although Russia's foreign and justice ministers accused the Danish Justice Ministry of basing its decision on political factors, many politicians in Moscow focused their criticism on the Prosecutor General's Office for its handling of the case. The official reaction was much milder than could have been expected, especially in light of the uproar over Denmark's refusal to ban a Chechen conference in Copenhagen in October.
 Zakayev, a top representative of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, was released Tuesday afternoon, four days after Russian prosecutors submitted what they said was their last piece of evidence against him ahead of Saturday's deadline. The actor turned military leader, who only last year was accepted by the Kremlin as a suitable negotiating partner, was arrested in Copenhagen on Oct. 30 following the Chechen conference, attended by separatists and their supporters.
 &quot;After having been through the Russian extradition request, the Justice Ministry has taken its decision today,&quot; said Jakob Scharf, the head of the Danish Justice Ministry's international department.
 &quot;An extradition cannot be made on the basis of the present material,&quot; he said, adding that it &quot;was considered insufficient.&quot;
 At a press conference in Copenhagen on Wednesday, Zakayev said that the request for his arrest and Extradition was a direct result of the seizure of the Theater Center na Dobrovke by terrorists in October.
 &quot;Denmark had no other option but arrest me because I supposedly was involved in the action in Moscow,&quot; Zakayev said, speaking in the same hotel where he was arrested Oct. 30. &quot;When that point was removed, I realized that there were no solid accusations against me. I knew then that I would likely be released.&quot;
 At about 4.30 p.m. Moscow time on Tuesday - the same time Zakayev was released from prison - Russia's ambassador in Copenhagen, Nikolai Bordyuzha, was invited to the Danish Foreign Ministry to be informed of the decision.
 &quot;I can say clearly that I don't understand this position,&quot; Bordyuzha said on Channel One television. He said he had read most of the documents supplied by the prosecutor's office and found that they clearly pointed to crimes committed by Zakayev. &quot;They explained to me that Denmark continues to remain committed to anti-terrorist principles. But it seems to me that Denmark will be fighting 'bad' terrorists while fighting 'good' terrorists will be left to someone else.&quot;
 In Moscow, Danish Ambassador Lars Vissing also visited the Russian Foreign Ministry to explain the decision, Interfax reported.
 Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who was in India with President Vladimir Putin, said the Danish government's decision was &quot;not deprived of political connotation,&quot; Interfax reported.
 &quot;The forces that flirt with terrorists raised hysteria in Denmark,&quot; he was quoted as saying.
 Justice Minister Yury Chaika said he had expected Denmark to deny the extradition request, because of the political nature of the case.
 &quot;It appears that political aspects prevailed over legal ones in that case,&quot; Interfax quoted Chaika as saying. &quot;Judging by Danish officials' moves to drag out the process, it was clear from the start that the Danish side didn't intend to extradite Zakayev.&quot;
 In a letter to the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen, posted on the Web site of the Danish Embassy in Moscow, Danish justice officials said the decision was made solely on legal grounds. They explained that most of the evidence was testimony given outside of court and after Zakayev's Oct. 30 arrest.
 &quot;According to the materials received, Zakayev was not represented by an appointed lawyer while witnesses' testimony was taken outside of a court,&quot; said the letter, which was written in Russian.
 To back up their request, Russian prosecutors questioned Sergei Zhigulin, an Orthodox priest who said Zakayev could have taken part in his kidnapping, and jailed Chechen warlord Salman Raduyev, whose testimony has not been made public. Zakayev was charged with armed rebellion, organization of an illegal armed formation and attempts on the life of a law-enforcement official.
 In the letter, Danish justice officials pointed to a special clause in a 1957 convention on extradition, which says that, &quot;in special circumstances,&quot; Danish authorities should request the state asking for extradition &quot;to provide evidence sufficient to establish the probablity of the person's guilt&quot; and would have the right to decline the extradition request if evidence &quot;is considered insufficient.&quot;
 The Prosecutor General's Office said that since Zakayev remains on the international wanted list, Russia will continue to pursue his extradition from other countries. &quot;A request for his extradition will be sent to whichever country he is in,&quot; said Robert Adelkhanyan, head of the foreign relations department of the prosecutor's office. He also said that Russia plans to appeal Denmark's decision to the European Court of Human Rights.
 With several exceptions, Russian politicians were more likely to criticize their own law-enforcement bodies for what appears to be a blow to Russia's efforts to win support for its portrayal of the war in Chechnya as part of the international fight against terrorism. 
 In a sign that the Russian government was likely to downplay Denmark's decision, it was the eighth news item on state-owned Rossia television's main evening news program Tuesday.
 Apart from pro-Moscow Chechen officials, who were the most furious, only Federation Council member Valery Fyodorov, who previously has served as a deputy interior minister, called for a boycott of Danish goods.
 Others tended to look inward.
 Even Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who accused the West of &quot;not even double but triple standards&quot; in relation to Russia, said that Russian prosecutors should have filed their materials more timely and properly. 
 On the other side of the political spectrum, Union of Right Forces leaders also said Russian prosecutors should do their jobs better, particularly given Europe's stance on the Chechnya war.
 &quot;The refusal to extradite him means that similar requests by our authorities in regard to internationally recognized terrorists would be treated likewise, thus humiliating Russia and casting doubt on the fact that it suffers from terrorism no less than the U.S.,&quot; Boris Nemtsov said.
 Dmitry Rogozin, chairperson of the State Duma's foreign-affairs committee, who has made a career out of criticizing the West, said his committee would ask prosecutors and officials from the Foreign and Interior Ministries to provide explanations at a hearing Dec. 19. 
 &quot;We need to get a clear answer, whether the Zakayev case will become a bad precedent in resolving the issue of other Chechen gunmen's extradition,&quot; Interfax quoted him as saying.
 Zakayev's supporters in Denmark celebrated Tuesday. &quot;We were so happy, we didn't dare believe it,&quot; AP quoted Thomas Bindesboell-Larsen of the Danish Chechen Committee as saying. &quot;He is now together with his lawyers and his closest friends to discuss the future.&quot;
 British actor Vanessa Redgrave, in whose London home Zakayev has lived since January, told Denmark's public radio that &quot;Miracles still happen in this awful world.&quot;
 
 <i>(SPT, AP) </i>

TITLE: Pressure Increases on Camps for Refugees
AUTHOR: By Timur Aliev
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: AKI-YURT, Ingushetia - Having engineered the closure of one camp for Chechen refugees in Ingushetia, authorities have turned their attention to another one in their determination to drive thousands of people back to Chechnya.
 
Gas supplies to the Bart camp, near the town of Karabulak, have been steadily decreasing, leaving the 4,000 some residents struggling to heat their tents. &quot;I have to spend half the day looking for wood,&quot; complained Malkan Dalayeva, who lives in the camp.
 On Tuesday, authorities closed the Iman camp, which was located near the village of Aki-Yurt and accommodated 1,500 refugees. Residents of Iman had been subjected to two weeks of intimidation from local authorities, who, among other things, had threatened to cut gas and electricity supplies, according to former resident Malika Eskirkhanova.
 The campaign culminated Sunday when Ingush police officers began to dismantle the tents of those refugees who had refused to leave. Refugees who tried to interfere were arrested at Iman, Eskirkhanova said.
 Rather than return to Chechnya, some Iman residents have rented rooms or apartments in Aki-Yurt, according to the Memorial human rights group. Most of the refugees were shipped to Chechnya in buses, with at least one family disembarking at a house that had no windows, according to Eliza Musayeva, who heads Memorial's office in Nazran.
 Ingush police denied there have been any abuses, while federal authorities insisted that all the refugees left Iman voluntarily. &quot;The process of return is under way in accordance with the will of the people to return to the places of their former residence,&quot; Alexander Rostovtsev, the chief of the Southern Federal District branch of the Interior Ministry's Migration Service, told reporters in Ingushetia.
 Officials from Ingushetia and Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration met in the Ingush city of Magas in October and set a deadline of Dec. 20 for closing all tent camps in Ingushetia. According to the October national census, 18,000 refugees live in these camps, which, in addition to Bart and Iman, include the Alina, Bela, Satsita and Sputnik camps in the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia.
 In an apparent attempt to put pressure on the refugees, units of federal Interior Troops were deployed around the four camps in the Sunzhensky district, according to Memorial. Sixty to 80 service personnel were deployed at each camp.
 A few weeks after the deployment, the authorities offered refugees a cash incentive to return to Chechnya. An average of 3,000 rubles ($95) would be paid to each returning family, the deputy director of the Migration Service, Igor Yunash, told members of the federal taskforce set up to return refugees to Chechnya on Saturday.
 The authorities have also promised to set up so-called Temporary Accommodation Facilities, known by their Russian acronym, PVR. But, according to refugees who have returned to Chechnya, the facilities are in short supply.
 Grozny has no PVRs available at the moment, with plans to open only one to house 1,000 people some time in mid-December, said Aindi Saigatov, a 68-year old refugee who had returned to Grozny only to come back to Ingushetia.
 Ingush authorities estimate there are 68,000 Chechen refugees in the republic. According to the Danish Refugee Council, however, there are about 110,000 refugees in Ingushetia.

TITLE: Moscow Court Set To Hear First Hostage-Crisis Lawsuit
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A Moscow court held a preliminary hearing Tuesday on complaints from former hostages and victims' families seeking compensation from the city government in connection with the October hostage crisis.
 
Lawyer Igor Trunov said he represents eight clients - five former hostages and three relatives - and that more have approached him about taking part in the case. Seven of the clients are seeking $1 million each, and one is seeking $500,000.
 The trial in Moscow's Tverskoi district court is scheduled to begin Dec. 24.
 Trunov said he has no doubts about winning.
 &quot;There is only one question, how much money they will get,&quot; Trunov said outside the courtroom after Tuesday's hearing.
 The siege of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels from Oct. 23 to 26 ended with about 130 hostages dead, after special forces stormed the building.
 Anna Lyubimova, who appeared at the court, said her father, 71-year-old Nikolai Lyubimov, survived the hostage ordeal, but his left arm and parts of his face were paralyzed. He can no longer feed himself properly, and his meager pension is not enough to pay for medical treatment, she said.
 The Moscow government has criticized the lawsuit, saying federal - not city - authorities are responsible for the Chechen conflict and its consequences. Government officials have said they will pay the equivalent of about $3,150 to the victims' families and half that amount to former hostages who survived.
 Meanwhile, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said it has raised 30 million rubles ($950,000) for former hostages and victims' families. Union president Arkady Volsky said the group will give 50,000 rubles ($1,600) to each of the victims' families and 25,000 ($800) to each surviving hostage, Interfax reported.
 Volsky said 10 million rubles would be donated to help revive &quot;Nord-Ost,&quot; the popular musical that was playing in the theater the night of the raid.

TITLE: Ultranationalist Gets His Say in Court
AUTHOR: By Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: SARATOV, Volga Region - Writer Eduard Limonov has never been one to keep his thoughts to himself, especially when it comes to &quot;the evil force called The System.&quot;
 
Under Communism, Limonov's anti-Soviet views got him expelled from the country. When he returned to Russia in the mid-1990s after 20 years abroad, he headed up a fringe ultranationalist movement and railed against the new regime in the Kremlin, preaching extremism and social justice &quot;by any means necessary.&quot;
 This week, Limonov came crashing down on the Federal Security Service - now from a defendant's cage in the Saratov regional court where he is on trial on charges of terrorism, illegal arms possession and creating an illegal armed formation together with five other members of his National Bolshevik Party, or NBP. Limonov is also charged with calling for a violent overthrow of the government, as is one other defendant, Sergei Aksyonov, owner of the party-affiliated newspaper, Limonka. 
 In a 10-hour statement to the court delivered Wednesday and Thursday, Limonov denied all four charges, saying the case against him had been fabricated in an attempt to get rid of radical dissident voices.
 &quot;This case is aimed at immersing our society in fear ... and returning the country to a one-party system where only the party of power has a right to exist,&quot; he read out from a sheaf of typed pages.
 Prosecutors say the NBP intended to overthrow the government through a partisan war waged from neighboring Kazakhstan, where there is a large population of discontented Russians and a weak army. Limonov, they say, articulated the methods for doing so.
 Limonov has been in prison since April 2001, when a squad of security officers detained him, Aksyonov and four more party members outside the remote village of Bannoye in the Altai region, near the border with Kazakhstan. All were detained on weapons charges, but only Limonov and Aksyonov have been kept in custody.
 The other four defendants on trial at the Saratov court - Dmitry Karyagin, Vladimir Pentelyuk, Nina Silina and Oleg Laletin - were detained separately, in Saratov and on an Ufa-bound train, respectively. They are charged with illegally buying and possessing arms, a crime that can carry a prison term of up to seven years, according to Limonov's lawyer, Sergei Belyak.
 However, as the investigation progressed, the charges against the group snowballed.
 &quot;This case is political and was ordered at the top, but who ordered it isn't clear,&quot; Belyak said in an interview Wednesday. 
 Limonov has been an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin. Less than a month before his arrest, Limonov published an article accusing Putin of having overly cozy, behind-the-scenes ties with aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, Belyak said.
 Limonov's dislike for the president went well beyond the bounds of political debate. He once went as far as calling Putin a latent homosexual.
 Federal prosecutor Sergei Verbin said there has been no pressure on prosecutors, either from Moscow or Kazakhstan.
 Asked whether he thought the charges held water, Verbin said he felt they were justified. He said Limonov was a charismatic radical capable of unleashing a violent force that he himself might end up being unable to bridle.
 &quot;Members of this party are young guys who get enthralled by these ideas, which is perfectly understandable,&quot; Verbin said.
 Limonov is certainly a magnetic figure, with seemingly boundless energy.
 At 59, he is lean and spry, with a neat goatee, long, gray hair and dark eyes glinting behind glasses. During his 20 months behind bars, he has written seven books, four of which have been published, with the rest due out next year.
 Belyak was optimistic that the case against Limonov will fall apart.
 Of 27 witnesses called by the prosecution, only four stood by their original testimony, Belyak said, adding that the gravest charge of calling for a violent rebellion has not been proved thus far.
 Verbin declined to comment on the strong and weak points of the prosecution's case, saying it could affect the court proceedings. But he said he believed there was &quot;serious&quot; proof of Limonov's guilt. 
 An FSB spokesperson said Thursday that his agency would not comment now that the trial was under way.
 But a high-ranking source in the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow acknowledged that investigators have done a patchy job, possibly because they were rushing to put together the more serious charges.
 &quot;The whole case against him is raw,&quot; said the source, who is familiar with the evidence in the case.
 As Limonov stood in his cage recounting the history of his party and his relations with the FSB, he methodically pointed out flaws in the prosecution's case, citing witness testimony and specific pages from his voluminous case file.
 Limonov himself characterized his party as a loose, unstructured group &quot;more like a veterans' club or an amateur choir,&quot; and its members as &quot;naive young patriots&quot; whom he had no real means of controlling.
 But, whether under Limonov's orders or on their own, the Bolsheviks have been known to stir up trouble, both in Russia and in former Soviet republics, where Limonov says millions of Russians &quot;have been left at the mercy of authoritarian regimes.&quot;
 NBP members have lobbed eggs, tomatoes and ink bottles at everything from the U.S. Embassy, during NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, to Oscar-winning filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov. They have raided the offices of other political parties, including the Union of Right Forces, and occupied a sailor's club in the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol, home to the once-disputed Black Sea Fleet.
 A particular focus of the party's ire has been Latvia, which has raised concerns among human-rights activists over treatment of its Russian-speaking minority. Three NBP members are now serving prison sentences for seizing part of Riga's St. Peter's Cathedral in November 2000.
 But Limonov's politics have made not only his opponents wary. The Russian PEN Center has, along with other intellectuals, called on prosecutors to free Limonov for the duration of the trial. On Thursday, the PEN awarded him its prestigious Andrei Bely literary prize. But it has been careful to distance itself from his ideas.
 And it is no wonder they make people nervous. In a hand-written note published in this month's issue of Limonka congratulating the NBP on its eighth anniversary, Limonov writes: &quot;We are opposed by an evil force. It's called 'The System.' You all know its names and faces, there's no need to repeat them. Bureaucrats, generals, special services - these are the overfed bastards choking our Motherland, killing her on the fields and in the mountains of Chechnya, poisoning defenseless hostages, fellow citizens, with gas in Moscow. We know who they are. They dared to go against the people, and the people, whom the NBP knows, will trample them to bits.&quot;
 The trial began in July, but was then suspended until September. It is now in the so-called third phase, in which defendants testify. Witnesses for the prosecution and defense were questioned earlier.
 Verbin said he expected a verdict by late February or early March.

TITLE: Russian Firm Facing U.S. Copyright Trial
AUTHOR: By Bob Porterfield
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAN JOSE, California - U.S. federal prosecutors told a jury that a Russian company and one of its young programmers willfully violated a 1998 American copyright law by marketing a program that helps users disable copy protection in electronic book software.
 
&quot;They were selling a burglar tool for software to make a profit,&quot; prosecutor Scott Frewing told jurors in his opening remarks Tuesday. &quot;They did it for money.&quot;
 But defense attorney Joseph Burton said his client, Elcomsoft Co. Ltd., never intended its product to be used for illegal purposes.
 The case against the Moscow-based software company marks the government's first criminal prosecution under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
 Digital civil libertarians contend the act stifles legitimate computer research and gives book publishers, record companies and movie studios too tight a grip on online content - at the expense of the &quot;fair use&quot; and &quot;first-sale&quot; premises traditionally found in U.S. copyright law. 
 Elcomsoft, its chief executive, Alex Katalov, and programmer Dmitry Sklyarov were charged with selling software that allows users to disable security features in the eBook reader software.
 Burton suggested to jurors Tuesday that San Jose, California-based Adobe Systems Inc., whose eBook reader software was compromised by the Russian company's product, had urged the government to file criminal charges in an attempt to protect revenues.
 &quot;Elcomsoft believed its product to be legal because it was intended to allow some flexibility in use of eBooks by their legitimate owners,&quot; he said.
 Burton said Elcomsoft's program would only work for people who had legitimately purchased an eBook. Only five copies were sold in the United States during the 10 days the software was offered for sale, he said.
 Adobe's software allows publishers to sell books online in formats that, depending upon &quot;permissions&quot; established by the publisher, prohibit the content from being copied, printed or transferred. The Elcomsoft product is based upon code developed by Sklyarov that allows the removal of publisher-imposed usage restrictions.
 Elcomsoft says its program simply lets users make backup copies or transfer content to other devices, something permitted under the &quot;fair use&quot; concept of copyright law. Although such programs are legal in Russia, they were outlawed by the U.S. act.
 When Elcomsoft began selling its product on the Internet, Adobe complained to the FBI.
 Sklyarov was arrested after speaking at a Las Vegas hacker convention in July 2001. He spent several weeks in jail before being freed on $50,000 bail. Charges against Sklyarov, who will be a government witness, will be dropped when the case is completed, prosecutors say.
 Adobe apparently withdrew its support of the prosecution after Internet-policy groups threatened to organize a boycott of the company's products.

TITLE: Neighbor Brings Hotel Project to a Halt
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: While the question of where all of the throngs of visitors who are expected to come to St. Petersburg next year remains on many minds, an injunction sought by one city resident has led the City Court last Tuesday to order a halt in the construction of a three-star hotel in the center of the city.
 
Peterburgskoye Agenstvo Nedvizhimosti was ordered to halt work on the project at 22 Naberezhnaya Reki Moiki, next door to the Capella, after Yelena Andreyeva, who lives in the building next door, filed a case against the construction. Her suit claimed that the company did not have proper documentation in the form of a building permit or proper authorization on the architectural details of the building.
 In the documents filed with the court, Andreyeva says that &quot;The actions of Peterburgskoye Agenstvo Nedvizhimosti are a threat both to myself and my property.&quot;
 Peterburgskoye Agenstvo Nedvizhimosti, with the French firm Peters Construct as a co-investor, leased the property from the city in 1994. Peters Construct has since dropped out of the $20-million project to build the nine-story hotel.
 The nine stories are Andreyeva's main complaint about the planned hotel. The height of the future hotel, she says, is 29 meters, while all of the surrounding buildings are no higher than 13 1/2 meters tall - a fact that she says will ruin the architectural ensemble of Palace Square, which is a mere three-minute walk away.
 But Lidiya Ukhova, the chief architect for the project, says that Andreyeva's complaints are unfounded. For one thing, she says, the facade and the part of the hotel on Nab. Reki Moiki will be only four floors tall plus a penthouse, while the nine-story portion will be located back in the complex's courtyard - 39 meters away from the street front. She adds that, because the plans call for the ceilings in the building to be only 2.6 meters high, the height of the nine-story section will be less than 24 1/2 meters.
 Officials at Peterburgskoe Agenstvo Nedvizhimosti say that questions of architectural integrity have nothing to do with the launching of the suit, and that the real question is financial.
 &quot;We have all the necessary documents to begin construction,&quot; Linar Latypov, the head of the law department at the Real Estate Agency said Thursday in a telephone interview. &quot;We believe that the case was initiated by a group of people or a company that is interested in the property from a commercial standpoint and would like to get their hands on it.&quot;
 &quot;If they stop the construction process now, then by the 300th anniversary there will be neither a hotel nor a renovated building - there will just be construction cranes standing right next to Palace Square,&quot; Latypov said.
 Alexander Vakhmistrov, the head of the St. Petersburg Construction Committee, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that his committee had already given the project the go ahead, but that the construction had been started without receiving final approval from the St. Petersburg Administrative Committee.
 &quot;The final documents are still with the Administrative Committee, which is just making sure that all of the legal loose ends have been tied up,&quot; he says, adding that there had been no difficulties with or complaints against the project before now.
 Andreyeva's lawyer, Alexander Avdeyev, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that, while he and his client agree that there's a need for three-star hotels near Palace Square, the building should not be more than six stories tall.
 According to city officials, Andreyeva's suit is not an isolated incident, as legal actions of this sort have been on the rise.
 &quot;There is an increasing number of protests being filed by neighbors of sites for new construction,&quot; said Natalia Sheludko, the spokesperson for the Construction Committee, adding that many people in the city's center are worried that increased construction will mean fewer parks and gardens in courtyards. She also says that tenants worry that construction or renovations in neighboring buildings can lead to damage to the walls and basements of their own.
 According to information from the Construction Committee, at least one project is either cancelled or postponed at the Tuesday meetings of its Investment-Tender Commission on the basis of a complaint filed by a neighbor of the project.

TITLE: LUKoil Pulls Out Of Tender For Slavneft
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: LUKoil has bowed out of the biggest privatization auction in Russian history, the Dec. 18 tender for 75 percent of Slavneft, Vagit Alekperov, the CEO of the nation's largest oil company, said Thursday.
 
The company will instead concentrate its resources on developing fields in Timan Pechora and the northern Caspian, he said in an interview with the BBC.
 &quot;We examined the situation and we decided it was not in our interests to bid,&quot; said LUKoil spokesperson Mikhail Mikhailov.
 LUKoil dropped its bid just as rival Sibneft looked like it might surge ahead of the field in the race for the stake, for which the government has set a minimum price of $1.7 billion. Analysts said Sibneft looked likely to seal a deal with the Belarussian government over its sale of a 10.85-percent stake in the company after the Property Ministry in Minsk said Thursday it was making progress in talks. That would add to the 12.8-percent stake Sibneft already holds together with the Tyumen Oil Company.
 &quot;It seems they are going to reach a compromise on the price,&quot; oil-and-gas analyst at Troika Dialog Valery Nesterov said. &quot;This is another factor that might frighten off other buyers.&quot;
 Sibneft has been haggling with the Belarussian government for weeks now over the price of the stake. As the sole bidder, it offered $210 million for the shares in an auction, but the Minsk regime repeatedly delayed the tender, saying it wanted to gain at least $250 million.
 Together with the Tyumen Oil Company, Sibneft already owns blocking stakes in two of Slavneft's most important subsidiaries: oil producer Megionneftegaz and the Yaroslavl refinery. Megionneftegaz produces 87 percent of Slavneft's total output. A former Sibneft executive now runs Slavneft after a controversial boardroom showdown this summer.
 With big pieces of the puzzle already in Sibneft and TNK's hands, any outside buyer of the 75-percent stake would face tricky negotiations for full control of the subsidiaries, making it unlikely that industry predictions the stake could fetch as much as $3 billion would prove true.
 Vladislav Metnyov of the Trust and Investment Bank said that if LUKoil had won the auction, it would have had to pay an additional $500 to $700 million to buy minority stakes from Sibneft, Reuters reported.
 &quot;The predictions were getting silly,&quot; said Adam Landes, oil-and-gas analyst at Renaissance Capital. He noted that a sale price of $2.75 billion would mean Slavneft was being sold for multiples per barrel of reserves, on a par with the Russian-industry average, despite the fact the company was not integrated and was not traded. &quot;That's ludicrous,&quot; he said. &quot;If you're going to buy Slavneft for that amount, you may as well buy out an already privatized oil company.&quot;
 Rumors that British Petroleum might take part in the auction were also quashed Thursday.
 &quot;We are not interested in making a bid,&quot; said Peter Henshaw, BP's external affairs director in Moscow. His statement followed Wednesday's Prime-Tass report that quoted an unnamed source close to the State Property Fund as saying BP had applied to take part in the auction.
 The Anti-Monopoly Ministry said there had been no request from BP so far. &quot;We have not received an application from BP,&quot; said the head of the ministry's press service, Larisa Bulgak.
 Landes said it would be difficult for a foreigner to navigate the problems of integrating the subsidiaries into Slavneft after the sale. &quot;This is a complex transaction for a foreigner,&quot; he said. &quot;The subsidiaries of Slavneft are yet to be fully integrated. There are at times still problems with the rule of law.&quot;
 It also seemed unlikely BP would partner up with TNK for the stake after TNK CEO Simon Kukes said Wednesday the company would bid alone.
 China's biggest oil company, cash-rich CNPC, however, is a definite contender, but could still team up with other bidders, analysts said.
 State-owned Rosneft and No. 3 producer Surgutneftegaz are also rumored to be interested in the stake. Yukos, whose production is quickly approaching LUKoil's, has said it will not take part in the tenders, leaving Sibneft, TNK, and CNPC the only declared bidders so far.

TITLE: LUKoil Stake Sells for $775M
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - After 2 1/2 years, the government finally nailed the biggest Russian public-equity offering ever, raising $775 million for its 5.9 percent of LUKoil on the London Stock Exchange, the government said Wednesday.
 
&quot;This is a landmark deal that shows the ability of the government to make the most effective decisions,&quot; Interfax quoted Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref as saying. 
 Demand for the shares was double the supply, signalling growing investor interest and trust in Russian oil companies as corporate governance improves and production surges, analysts said.
 By timing the issue perfectly and keeping news of the placement under wraps, the offering fetched a price of $15.50 per share. That netted the government $100 million more than it would have gained in a sale that was aborted in August because poor market conditions and advance warning about the placement had sent the price spinning down to $13.50 per share.
 Prior to the LUKoil sale, the largest offering of a Russian company abroad was the 1996 sale of a small stake in Gazprom for $429 million, which was also on the London Stock Exchage.
 A source at lead manager Morgan Stanley was jubilant that the deal had finally gone through after 2 1/2 years of intensive work. 
 The placement had been postponed many times due to delays in publishing the company's financial accounts and accusations in early 2001 by a U.S. senator that the company was involved in financial scams.

TITLE: Kasyanov Puts Focus Back on Tax Cuts
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov put further tax cuts back on top of the government's agenda Thursday during a cabinet discussion on amending the unified social tax and value-added tax.
 
&quot;Further reduction of the tax burden is our top priority,&quot; Interfax quoted Kasyanov as saying.
 The government is mulling a major revamp of the tax system in order to cut down the tax burden on gross domestic product and boost the efficiency of state expenditures. For companies, the reform may result in the reduction of the unified social tax, which now stands at 35.6 percent, and value-added tax.
 Kasyanov said the tax burden on GDP is likely to shrink to under 31 percent, a level similar to many economically developed countries, compared to 34 percent in 2000. He said that, by 2004 or 2005, tax reform should be tied to measures to increase the effectiveness of government expenditures, currently a major obstacle to further lowering the tax burden, according to analysts.
 Alexei Moiseyev, a senior economist with Renaissance Capital investment bank, said reforming government expenditures remains the main task if the cabinet wants to further optimize the system.
 &quot;The whole system is extremely murky,&quot; he said. &quot;Whether it is funds allocated for defense, agriculture or, for example, support of so-called 'highly economically effective projects.'&quot;
 &quot;If anything, those being highly effective' should work without any state support,&quot; Moiseyev said.
 It was unclear Thursday whether the government will opt for a speedy reduction of the unified social tax or, as suggested at the cabinet meeting by Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov, cutting VAT to 17.5 percent.
 Moiseyev said that both of these taxes are key factors, and any changes should be considered well and treated with extreme accuracy. The unified social tax provides funds for the ongoing pension reform, while VAT secures about half of all tax revenues. &quot;If the government does indeed find the expenditures that can be cut, then there can be a talk about cutting tax rates,&quot; he said.
 However, as Russia moves from pay-as-you-go to fully funded pensions, the unified social tax covers all the funds needed. Moiseyev also doubted that a reduction of the unified social tax would prompt firms to legalize salaries, as is often suggested by tax-cut advocates.
 Shatalov also said Thursday that the government is likely to abolish the requirement that large purchases by individuals be reported to tax authorities. According to Shatalov, tax authorities are swamped with reports on large purchases but, as a result, receive on average only 22 rubles of taxes per report - a sum below the cost of reports and tax-declaration processing.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>$20Bln in Contraband
 </b>

MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) - Russia's contraband-trade turnover currently totals $20 billion, an official with the Interior Ministry told journalists Thursday. 
 He said the ministry was worried about the high turnover in fake goods, especially counterfeit foodstuffs, which could cause serious mass food poisoning.
 The majority of the counterfeit goods come from Southeast Asia, and Russian customs bodies are unable to suppress the influx of contraband goods, the official said.
 
 
<b>Foreign Bank Quota
 </b>

MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) - Russia is ready to discuss with the World Trade Organization the possibility of imposing a 25-percent quota of foreign banks on the Russian market, the first deputy chairperson of the Central Bank, Andrei Kozlov, said Thursday. 
 "While the process of banking reform is ongoing, the state has a means of controlling the list of participants in the market. The quota would mean that only foreign banks with a good reputation would be admitted [to the Russian market]," he said.
 Kozlov also noted that Russian investors have already put significant funds into the domestic banking system, and they risk losing their money if foreigners enter the market too rapidly.
 Next week, a Russian delegation is expected to hold talks with representatives of WTO members in Switzerland. 
 
 
<b>Inflation at 13.3%
 </b>

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian consumer price index rose 1.6 percent month on month in November after a 1.1-percent increase in October, the State Statistics Committee said in a statement Thursday.
 It also said that consumer prices rose 13.3 percent in the January to November period, versus a 16.7-percent increase in the first 11 months of 2001.
 
 
<b>Reserves Jump $500M
 </b>

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves rose to a new all-time high of $48.2 billion as of Nov. 29, from $47.7 billion on Nov. 22, the Central Bank said Thursday.
 In July, the Central Bank switched to publishing reserves data without short-term liabilities. 



TITLE: Russia and Europe: The Limits of Integration
AUTHOR: By Rene Nyberg
TEXT: IN the continuum of history, Europe stands for modernization, and for the new Russia there are few alternatives to that. Territorially the largest country on earth, Russia must either modernize or face marginalization.
 
Power in Russia is very firmly in the hands of a reformist president and a reformist-led government, but one consequence of the bloodless revolution in 1991 is that the mighty Soviet bureaucracy is still in place, underpaid, overstaffed and wallowing in corruption. Economic power is in the hands of the export industries, and these are demanding reforms. The exhausted reformers and impatient industrialists are calling more vociferously than ever for administrative change. Meanwhile, the privatized economy, in which ownership rights are gradually stabilizing, needs the rule of law to protect those ownership rights.
 The integration of Russia into European and global structures is one part of the determined process of reform. Russia's relationship with the World Trade Organization is a very good example of this: President Vladimir Putin and his government have been able to make use of WTO negotiations as a tool in their own legislative reforms.
 In Russia, by far the most dynamic factor is privatized industry, which has succeeded in breaking away from Soviet traditions more quickly than any other sector. It has also been the most effective factor in integrating Russia with the West. By promoting administrative and judicial reform and supporting the development of a civil society, industry is in fact creating an operating environment for itself. A listing on the New York or London stock exchanges is a step toward ensuring rights of ownership within Russia itself. A similar effect could be achieved by attracting foreign investment.
 However, the scarcity of foreign investment in democratic Russia, compared with Communist China or the Central and Eastern European countries applying for EU membership, highlights the inflexibility afflicting the whole process of reform. An example of this rigidity is that Finland has spent more than three years trying to negotiate an agreement with Russia on the protection of investments, twice initialing a draft - to no avail, unfortunately. We are still no nearer to an actual agreement.
 Although the issue of an agreement on protection of investments is not directly connected with Russian membership of the WTO, it is an illustrative example of the difficulties experienced by the Russian administrative machinery in adapting to the world economy. Another topical example is the constant interference with traffic on Russia's only border with the EU. If Finnish exporters and importers suffer from the erratic practices of Russian customs or the overt extortion schemes of the Russian road authorities, one can only guess the problems this must create for the country's own industries. I would venture to suggest that one of Russia's main barriers to international trade is the corrupt administrative machinery, which forces companies to evade the payment of VAT and customs duties.
 The improvement of border procedures will require a radical re-thinking of the relationship between the authorities and the needs of commercial interaction. Smoothly functioning border procedures would be in the interests of Russia, Finland and Europe as a whole. So, it can only be hoped that Russian industry will put pressure on its own authorities to mend their ways.
 The burden of an unreformed administration can be felt everywhere. Recently, Izvestia newspaper reported on the current &quot;transportation war&quot; between Finland and Russia. According to the paper, this confrontation, instead of reflecting the possibilities presented by Russia's integration with Europe, underlines its strict limitations. This can be seen every day on Russia's border with Finland. And this border, despite the problems, actually functions better than any other stretch of Russia's frontiers.
 Limits to Russian integration with Europe of a more emotional nature came to the surface in the course of the dispute over Kaliningrad. This was the first time that the EU and Russia were engaged in negotiations over a concrete question that went to the heart of EU doctrine, the Schengen agreement and the EU's external boundaries. It also encroached on the sovereignty of a future EU member state, Lithuania. The dispute brought Russia face to face with reality. It had been ignoring Kaliningrad for years and had simply been putting off negotiations over a re-admission agreement with the EU. Similarly, the Russian passport system is outdated and unreliable. Discussion of the dispute in the State Duma stirred up a great deal of submerged mud and even unleashed extreme elements prepared to invoke the terms of the secret protocols to the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement.
 With all its exaggerations, the dispute gives us some cause for reflection. The Kaliningrad issue dominated disussions between the EU and Russia to such an extent that it prevented any dialogue from taking place at a practical level on many other issues. Nearly all the meetings of subcommittees that were to have been convened this autumn under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement were postponed. The EU as an institution remains averse to the Russian way of thinking, but Moscow knows very well how to exploit the EU's weaknesses.
 Moving on to the situation in Chechnya and Moscow's relations with its southern neighbors: The hostage drama in the center of Moscow threw Russia off balance for a moment. However, the successful use of force, even though it entailed casualties, testified to the government's resolve. But this alone will not remove the problem, for the threat from the south is more concrete than ever. The big issues here are how the whole Caucasus region and Central Asia will evolve, and how Russia's relations with its southern neighbors will develop.
 To quote Alexei Malashenko and Dmitry Trenin in their recent book &quot;Vremya Yuga: Rossia v Chechnye, Chechnye v Rossii&quot; (&quot;Southern Times: Russia in Chechnya, Chechnya in Russia&quot;), Russia is a European country located in Asia. Eurasia as a concept no longer exists. That was the Soviet Union.
 Russia's long border to the south means that it remains close to Afghanistan, the flow of drugs from that quarter, the threats posed by the new nuclear powers and the general instability that afflicts the Middle East.
 The war in Chechnya has led to a radicalization of Islam throughout the North Caucasus, and as the dispute between Russia and Georgia indicates, the repercussions are also being felt south of the main mountain range. Abkhazia is part of the same conundrum, as is the conflict in South Ossetia.
 The escalation of the situation in Chechnya into a clash of civilizations would pose a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation as a whole. While still Prime Minister of Russia, Putin admitted at the EU-Russian summit in Helsinki in October 1999 that Russia has neglected the task of supporting moderate Islamic elements in Russia.
 The real challenge for Russia will be to re-integrate the North Caucasus and normalize relations with Georgia or, to sum up the challenge, re-modernize the &quot;southern&quot; societies that border on or lie within Russia. Looked at in this way, the task is not unlike that facing Russia's ally in the war on terrorism, the United States, of extending democracy and human rights to the Middle East.
 To conclude, Russia is once more going through a historic period of reform, and more crucial than changes taking place in its external operating environment is the country's own capacity for social renewal.
 This is the factor that will set the limits of Russian integration.
 The EU is Russia's most important partner in cooperation, and its border with the EU is brimming with opportunities. This western border is the most secure one that Russia has. At the same time, Russia's greatest challenges are situated in the east, and the gravest threats to its security are located in the south.
 
 <i>Rene Nyberg, the Finnish ambassador to Russia, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. It is based on a lecture he delivered in Helsinki on Nov. 28. </i>

TITLE: Is the World Becoming Multipolar Again?
AUTHOR: By Pavel Felgenhauer
TEXT: AFTER meeting with his &quot;close friend&quot; U.S. President George W. Bush in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin embarked on a trip to China and India - Russia's major &quot;strategic partners&quot; in Asia. For more than a year, official Kremlin foreign policy has leaned to the West. But the preceding &quot;multipolar world&quot; doctrine, based on the idea of a strategic triangle between Moscow, Delhi and Beijing to oppose U.S. influence, seems to have survived.
 
In St. Petersburg, Putin and Bush discussed regime change in Iraq. Despite some remaining differences, Moscow and Washington seem to have reached a tentative understanding. Putin, it would appear, does not care much about the imminent demise of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Of course, Hussein has many influential pals in Moscow, including such political heavyweights as LUKoil, the biggest national oil company, which has been making hundreds of millions of dollars on deals with Iraq.
 On behalf of this pro-Hussein lobby, Putin has been seeking U.S. assurances that military action in Iraq will not endanger Russia's economic interests in the region. Many in Moscow also fret that occupation of Iraq by allied forces would bring world oil prices, currently well over $20 a barrel, down to $10 or less - devastating Russia's still-ailing economy.
 Russian and U.S. officials say Bush suggested that Moscow would play a major role in a post-Hussein Iraq; that it would be offered a seat on a possible future international commission helping to govern an occupied Iraq; that Russian oil companies would have a role in developing Iraqi oil wealth; and that the Kremlin would be able to recover more than $8 billion of Soviet-era Iraqi debt.
 Some in the Moscow elite believe Bush's overtures are no more than empty talk. But a vague promise is better than none at all, and since there is not much Russia can do to save Hussein, Putin decided not to make Iraq a contentious issue in bilateral relations.
 The Kremlin also decided not to protest publicly NATO's announced expansion into the Baltics, although there are many in the military and political elite who still believe the West and, above all, the United States, is Russia's prime enemy. However, there are limits to how far Putin may move west. Up to now, Bush's &quot;close friend&quot; has flatly rejected attempts by Washington to curtail Russian transfers of sophisticated modern weapons and sensitive nuclear technologies to Iran and China.
 &quot;We don't agree 100 percent of the time,&quot; Bush said in St. Petersburg, &quot;but we always agree to discuss things in a frank way.&quot; This agreement to disagree, apparently, had much to do with the issue of arms and nuclear-technology trade with Iran and China.
 This week in Beijing, Putin cited the multipolar world concept - the first time he has done so in a public statement since Sept. 11, 2001, when Russian foreign policy supposedly became pro-Western. It is now clear that the Kremlin could shift back again at any time.
 It's obvious that Putin wants to have it both ways: To have close relations with the West, receive capital and technologies to modernize, while selling Iran and China weapons - supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, long-range anti-aircraft missiles, fighters and radars - that may some day be used against the United States and its allies.
 It was reported that Moscow is close to signing a deal with Delhi to lease the Indian navy a nuclear attack submarine, equipped with long-range cruise missiles, specifically designed to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers. Beijing has for some years been negotiating to get similar weapons, and if India gets one sub, China may soon have several.
 Moscow may earn $1 billion or more from the sale or long-term lease to China of such submarines. But its relations with Washington, already severely strained by continuous transfers of dangerous technologies to &quot;undesirable&quot; states, may be ruined. Putin appears to be a reasonable, pragmatic person. China buys $1 billion to $2 billion worth of arms and technology per year; Iran buys $400 million worth, at best. It's genuinely hard to figure out why, for the sake of a sum that is 10 percent or less of annual capital flight, he would risk his hard-won status as a pro-Western leader.
 Arms and nuclear trade, while relatively small in volume, produce staggering sums of illicit money that bypass the budget and line the pockets of selected bureaucrats and generals. A genuine and consistent pro-Western shift in Kremlin policies would end or severely curtail this racket - which means such a change won't be occurring anytime soon.
 
 <i>Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent defense analyst. </i>

TITLE: let this band float your boat
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: It may be a Moscow band, but Korabl is definitely linked to the spirit of St. Petersburg.
 
The quintet is advertised as having the &quot;early sound of Leningrad,&quot; and legend has it that Leningrad frontman Sergei Shnurov lifted part of a Korabl chorus for his band's hit, &quot;Zvezda Rok-n-Rolla&quot; (&quot;Rock and Roll Star&quot;).
 Previously, Korabl, which means &quot;Boat,&quot; played a few low-profile gigs at Griboyedov, the bunker venue run by local ska band Dva Samaliota, with whom Korabl are friends. Now, however, the group is coming north for a full fledged, four-date club tour, on the strength of its recently released second album.
 &quot;Chyorniye Gitary&quot; (&quot;Black Guitars&quot;), a more professional affair than the band's self-produced debut, 2000's &quot;Tsepi Lyubvi&quot; (&quot;Chains of Love&quot;) was released in September on a new label, Bad Taste. Its 13 tracks include several new songs, as well as a remix (and a video) of Korabl's early club hit, &quot;Sosi Banan&quot; (&quot;Suck the Banana&quot;).
 In keeping with the band's generally unorthodox approach to music - during a show, all five musicians get a turn at the microphone, despite the wide disparity in their respective singing talents - Korabl made a memorably eccentric stage debut at a college party on International Women's Day, March 8, 1995.
 &quot;We had a very strange mix,&quot; says guitarist Alexander Shirin. &quot;We recently found a home video of the show - we sang totally crazy songs, such as [one by Soviet pop singer Muslim] Magomayev, and things like that.&quot;
 The first show also included renditions of several folk tunes, which band members say is due to spending their teenage years hanging around in Moscow apartment-block courtyards singing songs from the 1960s and 1970s, accompanied by a single acoustic guitar.
 &quot;My sister's boyfriend used to sing that sort of song to her,&quot; says Shirin. &quot;Soviet pop songs from the 1970s have been an influence, too.&quot;
 As well as original material, Korabl covers popular and classic rock songs, both Russian and foreign - including some by KISS and Kraftwerk. Korabl, however, performs them with its own, Russian-language lyrics. 
 &quot;Sometimes, you feel it's a pity that [the song] has already been done, so all you can do is to continue in the same spirit and sing something that makes you feel good,&quot; says Shirin. &quot;But, if we borrow from somebody, we take only their music and add our own words - to make it fit our culture. We call these songs 'covers,' and are even thinking of doing a whole album of them.&quot;
 Although the band is mostly a collection of amateur musicians - guitarist Ilya Voznesensky is an architect, Shirin is an artist, bassist Nikolai Prorokov is a designer and drummer Ivan Yazykov is a DJ - Korabl has one member with musical training, trumpeter Nikolai Kamenev - who also plays with three different symphony orchestras. 
 &quot;His career is really that of a classical musician, and even our friends say that he's probably <i>too</i> classical [for Korabl],&quot; says Shirin. &quot;But he probably compensates for the rest of what we do, which is on rather shaky ground. We certainly don't polish our songs until they are perfect.&quot;
 Korabl grew out of a late-1980s band called Samosval (&quot;Dump Truck&quot;), a collection of high-school students (including Voznesensky and Prorokov), all the sons of members of the Soviet Union of Artists, who all lived in Moscow's famed &quot;House of Artists&quot; on Verkhnyaya Maslovka Ulitsa. 
 &quot;Korabl is an artistic project, not a musical one,&quot; says Voznesensky, adding that the band has a manifesto that describes its direction as &quot;romantic realism.&quot;
 &quot;In the beginning, because we were all artists, we used to pretend that we played in a band,&quot; says Voznesensky. &quot;We performed at one-time art shows. As time passed, it turned into a musical project in its own right - but we still get invited to play at galleries.&quot;
 Just like Srednerusskaya Vozvyshennost (&quot;Middle-Russian Plateau&quot;), the jocular underground band formed by Moscow artists in the 1980s to which Korabl is frequently compared, Korabl's members never made an effort to sound good, instead viewing their shows as a way to have fun.
 However, that has changed somewhat with time.
 &quot;Over the past few years, we all more or less learned to play, so [our shows] look more like concerts,&quot; Voznesensky said. &quot;But it all started as student performances - joking, laughing and everybody getting drunk.&quot; 
 Today, however, the band's professional growth and its recent success at clubs in Moscow has begun to mean financial gain - a first in the band's seven-year history. 
 &quot;If the music brings us some income, like now, so what? We didn't start it - all musicians who play clubs get paid,&quot; says Shirin. &quot;So pay us as well - or are we special?&quot;
 Korabl's members, whose ages range from 26 to 31, continue to look to the past for inspiration. Voznesensky cites Rammstein, Morcheeba and 1980s Neue Deutsche Welle - New German Wave - as his favorites, while Shirin says he prefers Soviet-era acts Zvuki Mu and Kino, as well as singer/songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky.
 &quot;However paradoxical it may sound, despite the variety of music on the market, it's very difficult to find something I like,&quot; says Shirin. &quot;In a way, that's why we have to play our own music.&quot;
 

 <i>
Korabl plays Griboyedov (Dec. 12), Red Club (13), Boom (14) and Fish Fabrique (15). See Gigs and Club Guide for details. Links: www.korabl.badtaste.ru </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: A new album by <strong>Leningrad </strong>suddenly hit the stands this week - but no one seemed to expect it.
 
Although the disc looks slightly like a pirate edition, it turns out that &quot;Tochka&quot; (&quot;Period&quot;) is an official release from Gala Records, the Moscow-based label responsible for Leningrad's releases since its second album, 1999's &quot;Mat Bez Elektrichestva.&quot;
 The record's surprise appearance (the official release date was Nov. 29) has been explained by the record company by the unusual secrecy surrounding the album's preparation.
 &quot;The release was prepared under conditions of the utmost secrecy,&quot; says Gala Records' news release, available from the label's Web site, www.galarec.ru. &quot;That's why the company didn't distribute any information about the album until the moment of its release.&quot;
 However, the band's frontman and songwriter, Sergei Shnurov, didn't sound pleased by the new release when contacted by telephone Thursday.
 &quot;It's the company's usual policy - they've thrown together some old things and called it a new album,&quot; said Shnurov. &quot;I don't have much to do with it, except writing the songs.&quot;
 According to Shnurov, the album mainly contains outtakes. &quot;It's leftovers from everything - something from a film, something that was just recorded for no particular reason.&quot;
 The recording does not bring any great discoveries, as it primarily contains new versions of Shnurov's old songs, while a portion of the album's material appeared illegally on Leningrad's notorious &quot;stolen&quot; album in the summer of 2001.
 Shnurov added that the title &quot;Tochka&quot; was the title of a &quot;tangible piece of material - it was conceived around two years ago.&quot;
 &quot;So, it's not very conceptual,&quot; he said. &quot;I would say that the concept of this album is to make money.&quot;
 &quot;I wanted it to be just eight songs and that's all, but Gala has a different idea about albums, taste and everything,&quot; he said about the release, which was eventually expanded to include 10 tracks plus 5 bonuses. 
 The label itself has a different view. 
 &quot;Yes, the eight songs were written some time ago and slated for this album,&quot; said Gala Record's A&amp;R director Sergei Kuznetsov, who signed Leningrad in 1999.
 &quot;But Shnurov is at fault that they were stolen from the studio or elsewhere and published, so we agreed that, to strengthen this album and make amends, he would owe us several bonus tracks.&quot;
 Though Shnurov admitted that it would be Gala Records' fifth and final Leningrad release, Kuznetsov said that the label has the rights for two more Leningrad albums - but only with Shnurov's consent.
 &quot;We have a provision in the contract that we have the rights for the sixth and seventh albums, if the artist agrees,&quot; he added.
 While Shnurov claimed that Leningrad's next album would appear next year, he said his own, solo album would come out on Moscow label Misteriya Zvuka on Dec. 10.
 &quot;[It's] honest ... with previously unpublished songs - it's recorded specially,&quot; said Shnurov.
 &quot;It's called 'Vtoroi Magadansky ...,' all songs by myself, but it's genuine <i>blatnyak </i>[urban folk] - it was recorded into one microphone.&quot;
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: food for playing the spying game
AUTHOR: by Eric Bruns
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: &quot;Do you expect me to talk?&quot; &quot;No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to dine!&quot;
 
If you're like me, the extensive James Bond coverage in this week's AAT has surely whetted your appetite for the latest hit in Ian Fleming's series. It has you caught in a state of panic, blurring your vision of what is real and what is fiction, in desperate anticipation of the Russian release of &quot;Die Another Day&quot; next Friday. It is that mental state, that transpersonalization of self and the hero we all see within ourselves, that led this secret agent (well, at any rate, anonymous to the establishment's unsuspecting henchmen) to the Tiki Bar on Nevsky, within a sniper's shot from the cupola of the Kazan cathedral.
 Briefing by &quot;M&quot; of the mission at hand revealed that the premises to be surveyed were once occupied by a British beer pub called &quot;Bristol Bar.&quot; (Devilishly sneaky cover, don't you think?) It has since been transformed into a slice of Polynesia, a perfect intercultural setting for the action to come.
 Promising to keep the people's interests paramount, and not to squander taxpayer-advertising money needlessly, I set off to rendezvous with my regional contact, a beautiful, charming and cunning femme fatale, native to the local land.
 Equipped with what by all appearances was an ordinary ink pen, wishing I returned the Aston Martin to &quot;Q&quot; in fewer pieces, I was further unnerved upon entering the targeted lair, as it laid completely bare. Our arrival at the unsuspecting time of 6 p.m. found the minions less than receptive, who rudely brushed us out of what appeared to be the main dinning room. Apparently, a banquet was to be held in that room later, for SPECTRE no doubt.
 With a constant eye on the door, we settled into a corner table of the entrance room, decorated with all sorts of paraphernalia aimed to convey a tropical island air, including stone reliefs depicting ancient gods, sea shells hanging from tiki lamps and, above all, a large replica of one of the famous headstones on Easter Island, its own perpetual gaze similarly fixed on the door.
 Skipping the vodka martini out of fear of blowing my cover as a foreign journalist, I ordered a half-liter glass of Baltika beer for 50 rubles ($1.55). My companion (colleague or adversary?) ordered a 0.33-liter bottle of Borjomi mineral water for 40 rubles ($1.25). While wondering what missions had taken her to Georgia, I deftly glanced over the menu.
 The chase took me through countless South American and New World island kitchens, passing such dishes as calamari, &quot;asada - the hot sun of Argentina in chilled spiced beef,&quot; &quot;baby lamb ribs with red currant jelly, lime, thyme, pomegranate,&quot; spare ribs, chicken wings, tiger shrimp, guacamole, salsa, and &quot;coconut cream in pineapple.&quot; Along the way, I took special note of the &quot;dish of the Easter Island aborigines&quot; consisting of <i>batat</i> (sweet potato) and fried seafood for 480 rubles ($15.05), which could be useful in future dining skirmishes, and a selection of what appears to be quite substantial business lunches changing day-to-day for 150 or 200 rubles ($4.70 or $6.30).
 Concealing my background and announcing my proclivity to dance with danger, I begin with &quot;puree soup with champignons, chanterelles and Chinese mushrooms&quot; for 260 rubles ($8.15), followed by &quot;marinated shark with ginger, soya and lime&quot; for 200 rubles with &quot;deep fried potatoes in their jackets with garlic and herbs&quot; for 30 rubles ($0.95) and a &quot;tar-tar&quot; sauce for free, which the emissary assigned to take care of us recommended would go well with the shark. After calculating the risk of subterfuge, I accepted her suggestion.
 My cohort ordered &quot;avocado mousse with smoked salmon, shrimps and bacon in yoghurt dressing, garnished with red caviar&quot; for 250 rubles ($7.85) to start, and &quot;spicy sea fish soup with three kinds of shrimps garnishing with lemon zest and coriander&quot; for 260 rubles as her main course. Interesting ... She skilfully avoided the traditional main-course selections and the need to order an accompanying sauce ...
 As is typical in this corner of the world, the arrival of our dishes was not coordinated so that we would eat at the same time, a fact duly noted and reflected from my alter-ego that &quot;there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Don Perignon 53 above a temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That's as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.&quot;
 Service aside, the avocado mousse was wonderfully fresh, coming with a rich mixture of seafood, giving it the perfect body. The puree soup was likewise a marvel to behold, with an ideal consistency and taste. The only complaint is that it came at room temperature, whereas my predilection is for a slightly hotter dish.
 The spicy fish soup passed my companion's lips without complaint, while my struggle with shark paradoxically left me a bit dry. A total of six small potato wedges did little to satisfy my growing hunger, but the tar-tar sauce adeptly massaged the entire affair. I was glad to have heeded the rogue's advice.
 Without time for dessert and expecting the room to explode with a platoon of ninjas at any moment, I settled our obligations with the head waiter and we dashed off to continue our interrogations together elsewhere. In continued anticipation of the movie to be released next week, I recalled an earlier scenario where, upon hearing a radio mutely broadcast, &quot;At the White House this afternoon, the president said he was entirely satisfied,&quot; my double remarked, &quot;That makes two of us.&quot;
 
 <i>
Tiki Bar. 22-24 Nevsky Pr. Tel.: 314-3858. Open daily, noon to 6 a.m. Menu in Russian and English. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, with alcohol: 1,050 rubles ($32.95). </i>

TITLE: a moscow museum survivor
AUTHOR: by Celestine Bohlen
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: Communism fell, the Soviet Union collapsed, but some things in Moscow never change. At the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Irina Antonova is still the director, as she has been for 41 years.
 
Such longevity would be remarkable anywhere - even in the United States Senate - but Russia is a particular case. Antonova's career at the Pushkin, which began one month before the end of World War II, has survived Stalinism, democracy and everything in between, including unresolved disputes over looted and lost art.
 &quot;I had no idea it would be for my whole life,&quot; she said demurely during a recent interview in a Park Avenue, New York apartment put at her disposal by a Pushkin patron. &quot;I think of myself as someone who likes change, so I never thought I would be capable of that kind of loyalty. But as it happened, I have had one husband for my whole life and one museum for my whole life.&quot;
 Later this month, Antonova will be in Houston opening an ambitious exhibition of French art from the Pushkin that will then travel to Atlanta and Los Angeles. The paintings span three centuries, from Poussin to Matisse, including works from the Pushkin's remarkable collection of Impressionist paintings.
 As always, Antonova, who at 79 is still an energetic negotiator, drove a hard bargain. &quot;She is ambitious for her museum,&quot; said Peter Marzio, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which has entered into a long-term partnership with the Pushkin. &quot;She is tough and clear-minded, with a singular focus. I don't think she could have had the career she's had if she weren't those things.&quot;
 Thirty years ago, the Impressionist paintings that will be in Houston were among Moscow's hidden treasures. Those were the days when the Communist Party regarded Impressionism as degenerate art and prohibited both the Pushkin and the State Hermitage Museum from showing anything from the famous Shchukin and Morozov collections, which had been expropriated by the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolutions and divided between the two museums.
 &quot;I don't know why they split it up, but thank God they didn't sell it, and thank God they didn't burn it, since in those days this was considered bourgeois, bad, even harmful,&quot; Antonova said.
 In the 1970s, Antonova, who was appointed in 1961, emerged as a champion of the Pushkin's hidden Impressionists. In 1974, she threatened to resign if she didn't get permission to show works by Matisse. &quot;We knew perfectly well that we should be showing these wonderful works of art,&quot; said Antonova, who was vilified in the Soviet press for trying to destroy the museum.
 In the last decade, she has also become known as the unyielding guardian of the Pushkin's other treasure trove, works of art taken from Nazi Germany and brought to the U.S.S.R. as war reparation. The revelation of the Soviet repositories of war booty first came out in 1991, published by two enterprising Russian researchers and art historians in an art newspaper. Official confirmation dribbled out after that, but only in 1993 did the Russian government confirm the extent of the holdings.
 Most sensationally, the government admitted that the Schliemann gold - a collection of pre-Hellenic artifacts discovered by amateur German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann on the site of ancient Troy and held in a Berlin museum until World War II - was not lost, but was being held in one of the Pushkin's secret repositories. Now, Antonova is able to say that the silence was a mistake. &quot;It was one of the stupidities of that period,&quot; she said. &quot;In 1945, after the war, everyone knew that some things came to the museum, but nobody was really working on them. It was stupid, because we should have from the very first said that it belongs to Russia, because it was compensation for the enormous, unbelievable damage done to our country. Everything should have been put on display right away.&quot;
 In 1955, the Pushkin mounted an exhibition of treasures from the Dresden Gallery, perhaps the greatest prize seized by the Soviet Army, just before they were returned to East Germany. But the other art taken in the war and divided between the State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin was guarded as a state secret. Even Antonova, regarded as a rare museum director capable of standing up to her political bosses, was powerless. Valery Koulichov, the former director of the restitution department in the Russian Ministry of Culture, told a 1995 symposium in New York that Antonova had appealed for permission to open the special repositories on Aug. 16, 1991, three days before the attempted coup in Moscow. Even then, the answer was &quot;no.&quot;
 Art historians and reporters peppered Antonova with questions about the repositories. &quot;She always denied that they had any of these things, until they announced that they had them,&quot; said Greg Guroff, president of the Foundation for International Arts and Education, which has worked on the Pushkin-Houston exchanges. &quot;I remember being at the opening of the Schliemann exhibit and saying to her, 'But you said you didn't have it,' and she just winked.&quot;
 Now she insists she was never asked. &quot;Who could ask me?&quot; she asked herself, smiling brightly. &quot;In those days, nobody asked. Now people tell me that I was silent, and I say we were silent because no one asked. Then times changed.&quot;
 By the mid-1990s, the Pushkin had put some of these treasures on public view. An exhibition of Priam's Treasure opened in 1996, a year after another show at the Pushkin had revealed paintings and other treasures taken from Germany. A similar, but better documented, show opened in 1995 at the Hermitage, which also had received much of the art from Germany. In the years since, the Hermitage has gradually revealed more holdings; it has published catalogs and joined negotiations over the return of a small category of items. (Russian law allows return of art taken from families and religious and charitable institutions that were the victims of Nazism; the rest has been declared to be war reparations.)
 The Pushkin, in contrast, remains almost Soviet in its reticence. An exhibition and catalog of Italian works brought from Germany is now being prepared, Antonova said, but she quickly became defensive about any future plans. &quot;We have not published everything because it takes time,&quot; she said. &quot;But the Germans haven't published what they have, either. France has things from Germany and they have not published. Maybe they just haven't gotten around to it.&quot;
 Antonova insists that there are no claims against the Pushkin for the return of &quot;looted&quot; works. Technically, this is true, since claims are filed directly against the Russian state, but there are a number of works in the Pushkin's possession that are still in dispute.
 &quot;She has never changed her position,&quot; said Konstantin Akinsha, one of the two researchers who broke the story about the Soviet war art holdings in 1991. &quot;She has never betrayed her words; she has not changed her position in 10 years.&quot;
 Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky said during a recent visit to the United States, &quot;We are different museums with different directors who have different approaches.&quot; He added, &quot;We are also from different generations.&quot;
 It was on Antonova's watch that the Pushkin - which began in 1912 with a teaching collection of plaster-cast copies of famous statues - went from secondary museum to world-class player.
 Its collection received a boost in the 1920s and 1930s when old master paintings and other works were redistributed from the Hermitage. But it was during detente that the Pushkin acquired its international reputation. To a large degree, this was because of its location in the capital, which made the Pushkin, and not the Hermitage, the site for a series of newsmaking blockbuster shows: For instance, the Louvre sent the &quot;Mona Lisa&quot; and the Prado sent its Goyas, and when the Metropolitan sent 100 masterpieces as a way of marking the East-West thaw.
 As a museum dedicated to Western rather than Russian art, the Pushkin was also not as vulnerable as other Soviet museums to the ideological pressure that was then applied to Russian culture generally. Antonova's own status grew in those years as she and the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter hosted a series of concerts at the museum every December, concerts that became some of the most sought-after tickets in Moscow.
 &quot;The golden age of Antonova was in the Brezhnev era, when she looked liberal against the background of the regime,&quot; Akinsha said.
 Perhaps her most daring moment came in 1981, when she proposed to create an exhibition called &quot;Moscow-Paris&quot; at the Pushkin, which was to be a homecoming of sorts for Russian avant-garde artists like Malevich and Kandinsky, whose works were then still taboo. At a meeting, the director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow's venerable museum of Russian art, said such an exhibition would open over his dead body.
 &quot;At that same meeting, I said the Pushkin would do it, and there would be no dead bodies,&quot; Antonova recalled gaily. &quot;Everyone laughed and said, 'Go ahead, if you want.'&quot;
 Some 20 years later, Antonova is still a figure with which to contend, and no one is publicly predicting when she will retire. &quot;Antonova will not be in that job forever,&quot; noted Akinsha. &quot;One day, she will leave the museum. But I think no one in Russia really believes that.&quot;

TITLE: documenting the female form
AUTHOR: by Aliona Bocharova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Herve Lewis has a lesson to teach.
 
The French photographer, whose exhibition &quot;Moments of Temptation&quot; opened at the Gisich Art Gallery on Wednesday, is a professor of the delicacy of the female body.
 The 40-odd black-and-white photographs on display are stunningly elegant, immediate and erotic, capturing not just the delicacy of the body, but about the essential delicacy of anything seen with it - gossamer stockings, the filigree lace of a tattoo on the back, the refined slatted blind of the window on which it rests, or the drops of water in the shower cabin.
 Lewis has always been an artist. More precisely, he started out as a sculptor, shaping the finest examples of the female body - including stars such as Mylene Farmer, Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Beart - while working as a personal trainer. This intimate acquaintance led to a shift of focus, producing two results: First, a book, &quot;The Herve Lewis Method&quot;; second, a move into erotic photography, and his first series of nudes, entitled &quot;Belles,&quot; which brought him worldwide recognition.
 Lewis has also worked as a fashion photographer for glossy magazines like &quot;Photo&quot; and &quot;Paris Match,&quot; but the photos in the exhibition are entirely different - faces can barely be discerned, and it is hard to tell whether the bodies posing on a sofa, at a dressing table or wrapped in a towel are those of everyday women or top models. Beauty, for Lewis, is not vulgarly personal, but is left anonymous and generic, illustrating the inherent mystery of the female nature.
 &quot;It is this love and admiration for women that makes Lewis so amazingly sensitive and affecting,&quot; notes Marina Gisich, the gallery's owner, a great admirer of the photographer. &quot;He molds the image from light and shadow and composes it almost instinctively, always leaving some room for chance.&quot;
 The exhibition combines two series of photos: &quot;Belles,&quot; a paean to female beauty, and &quot;Lessons of Seduction,&quot; which Lewis created for the elite Aubade lingerie brand. The two series were first shown to French audiences in July this year at the Albert Benamou Contemporary Art Gallery in Paris, and the Parisian gallery is supporting the St. Petersburg exhibition. The gallery's owner, Bob Benamou, in the city for the opening, says that he admires Gisich &quot;for her energy, and her gallery for being a pioneer in promoting contemporary art in Russia.&quot; Benamou also expressed a desire to promote Russian contemporary art in France, &quot;I would exhibit [scandalous Moscow artist] Oleg Kulik, if only he didn't have a contract with another Parisian gallery,&quot; he says.
 Lewis continues to work as a trainer. &quot;His studio is located in the fitness club where he works - a 'rough,' industrial building on the Champs Elysees,&quot; says Gisich. &quot;I met him in Paris; he's not my type - but he's very macho.&quot;
 

 <i>
&quot;Elements of Temptation&quot; runs through Jan. 25 at the Gisich Art Gallery, 121 Nab. Reki Fontanki. Tel.: 965-9231. Open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. </i>

TITLE: 007 growing old disgracefully
AUTHOR: by Manohla Dargis
PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times
TEXT: HOLLYWOOD - Timely - and as demographically savvy as ever - James Bond enters his new adventure off the coast of North Korea with some fast and furious surfing designed to show the &quot;XXX&quot; generation that the 007 dude still has the stuff. The waves and silhouetted figures riding the massive curls inspire a shiver of delight along with a tremor of hope that the world's coolest franchise has finally ditched his blockbuster bloat and, just maybe, the Dry Look, to power-surf into the new millennium. It's about then, as the waves and our hopes crest, that &quot;Die Another Day&quot; cuts to one of surfers pulling off his mask to reveal the untroubled face of Pierce Brosnan, whose glazed implacability suggests a man who rarely gets shaken, much less stirred.
 
With &quot;Dr. No,&quot; the Bond franchise began 40 years ago with Her Majesty's sexiest spy thwarting a plot to destroy the American space program while swanning about Jamaica, a setting that lent an undeniable frisson to the film's premiere during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The latest Bond opens against a similarly providential geopolitical backdrop on the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone. The communist nation is such a freakish, unsexy locale (no purring Pussy Galore here) that once 007 lands, you want him to surf right out again. Instead, he squares off against a colonel (Will Yun Lee), who is trafficking in diamonds mined in horror spots such as Sierre Leone, only to have his cover blown.
 This leads to a Hovercraft chase, followed by 14 months of Bondage, torture and beard growth that, bizarrely, unfolds to the techno thump of Madonna's cheerless title song and the usual opening-credit nudie cuties. Once freed and faced with charges that he gave up other agents while imprisoned, Bond spends the remainder of the story shaking off the film's dank opening as he clears his name and traces blood diamonds to Iceland by way of London and a snarky magnate, Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens). Among the other players the agent encounters as he hop-scotches continents are one of the colonel's sidekicks, Zoa (Rick Yune), an arm-accessory named Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) and Jinx (Halle Berry), an enigma in a bikini who is Bond's newest love interest and Brosnan's highly visible advertising partner.
 Berry brings about as much conviction as you might expect to a role that, essentially, is the bodacious equivalent of a hit of Viagra. First seen rising up from the Caribbean waters as Ursula Andress did in &quot;Dr. No,&quot; a knife strapped to the belt slung over her hips, Berry has been brought in to jump-start Bond's engine and, as a consequence, she never fully transcends the standard Bond Girl limitations. She looks fabulous running after bad guys while brandishing a gun, her sundress lashing her thighs, but she's also about as persuasive an operative as Beyonc Knowles in the last Austin Powers lollapalooza. It isn't only that Berry lacks the ferocious determination that turned Carrie Anne Moss into a cult with the release of &quot;The Matrix&quot;; it's that the Bond movie she's signed onto lacks it as well.
 Perched uneasily between lingering self-parody and the filmmakers' clear desire for a Bond vehicle to be taken seriously as an action movie, &quot;Die Another Day&quot; remains caught somewhere in between. There are times when it feels like two separate, at times warring, movies. The first stars Brosnan, a very fit 49-year-old actor who's nonetheless 49, and whose callow appeal has been best put to use in films that bring out his vaguely louche hauteur. The second Bond film, in turn, features younger actors such Berry and Rick Yune (&quot;The Fast and the Furious&quot;), whose sleek black clothes and martial-arts poses offer continued evidence that &quot;The Matrix&quot; is the type of defining movie that doesn't just cast long shadows, it reconfigures the very genre.
 Bond films have almost always been feats of engineering, and directing them has often seemed better suited to technicians rather than to artists: Their real auteurs have always been the star, the producers, the composers and opening-credit guru Maurice Binder. Yet we expect more of our action movies than we did in the 1960s (we expect John Woo or &quot;The Matrix&quot;), which is why Bond producers in recent years have tried to elevate the filmmaking by bringing in something of a name director. The gambit to class up &quot;The World Is Not Enough&quot; didn't pan out, however, and director Michael Apted's contribution remains an undistinguished blur made conspicuous only by the insanely silly casting of the pneumatically endowed Denise Richards as a &quot;Doctor of Atomic Physics.&quot;
 There's a better payoff this time with Lee Tamahori, who can put a high sheen on pulp. Tamahori honed his chops on &quot;The Edge,&quot; a thriller in which he simultaneously wrangled Alec Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins and a grizzly bear. The New Zealander springs a few surprises in &quot;Die Another Day&quot; - including a nimbly choreographed sword fight between Bond and the magnate - but given the requisite din of artillery, gadgets and plot complications, it's impossible to gauge where the director leaves off and the rest of the production crew kicks in. As is usually the case, the big-action has been left to others, and here it's executive producer Anthony Wade who earns kudos for the surf sequence, while second-unit director Vic Armstrong, who did most of the action last time, gets credit for an ice-bound car chase.
 &quot;Die Another Day&quot; is only intermittently entertaining, but it's hard not to be a sucker for its charms - or perhaps it's just impossible not to feel nostalgia for movies with which you grew up. If nothing else, it's a wittily self-knowing title for a money machine that has consistently managed to sputter to life again and again despite a surfeit of hack writing and interminably logy action.
 

 <i>
&quot;Die Another Day&quot; opens Dec. 13 </i>

TITLE: spying reality mirrors bond fiction
AUTHOR: by Susan King
PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times
TEXT: Over the past four decades, James Bond films have had a weird, almost surreal impact on the real spy world. 
 
During the opening weekend of one of the recent Bond films, the CIA set up a recruiting booth at theaters. &quot;When the Army was putting together an urban assault vehicle called the SmarTruck, they sat down and watched Bond films,&quot; says John Cork, coauthor with Bruce Scivally of the new coffee-table book &quot;James Bond: The Legacy.&quot; 
 &quot;The CIA has this entire thing called the 'James Bond syndrome,'&quot; Cork says. &quot;It is when agents defect and become double agents. What they want is the glamorous Bond lifestyle, as opposed to the real drudge work of intelligence. Even way back in the early 1970s, G. Gordon Liddy was a tremendous Bond fan. If you read his book 'Will' - the sections on the Watergate burglaries, the prose is right out of Ian Fleming.&quot; 
 Cork notes that Bond's world &quot;isn't our world, but it's close enough to our world that you can dabble in it. If you are fortunate enough to have deep enough pockets, you can dress like Bond, you can drive Bond's cars and you can eat the same kind of food.&quot; 
 &quot;James Bond: The Legacy&quot; doesn't only go in depth into Fleming's creation of 007 in the 1950s, the 320-page book also is filled with rare photographs and odd facts about 007. (Among them: More than 70 million of Fleming's 14 Bond books have been published since 1953; &quot;Goldfinger,&quot; the first Bond movie to air on TV, was first televised - on ABC - on Sept. 17, 1972; Bond's gadgets in &quot;On Her Majesty's Secret Service&quot; included a combination safecracker and photocopying machine.) Cork and Scivally are hard-core Bondphiles, having produced, written and directed 30 documentaries for MGM's releases of the Bond films on DVD. 
 &quot;My first memory of seeing any movie in any movie theater was 'From Russia With Love,'&quot; Cork recalls. &quot;As an adolescent, I became a huge fan when I saw 'Live and Let Die.' When you are 11 years old and a boy, and you are right on the cusp of adolescence, and you don't know how to ask a girl to dance at a party, and you suddenly see this character who has a great certainty of self, a great deal of self-confidence, and knows how to handle himself in any situation. That is how I wanted to be.&quot;
 &quot;I don't drink vodka martinis very often. I drive a Volvo station wagon, but those things that are within the character - that sense of purpose and self-confidence - are masculine ideals that you really want to have. Bond embraces a worldliness which I find very refreshing, particularly growing up in Montgomery, Alabama.&quot; 
 The suave secret agent has endured the test of time and five incarnations, Scivally says, &quot;because Bond is like Madonna. He keeps reinventing himself. I think there are certain core things that remain the same in the series, but the approach the films take and the different actors playing the roles, are different as time goes on.&quot;
 &quot;Roger Moore is a different Bond than Sean Connery. Then, when Timothy Dalton came along, I really liked him because he brought some dignity back to the role, but once Pierce Brosnan started playing it, I realized the thing Dalton lacked that Brosnan, Roger Moore and Sean Connery have in spades is charm.&quot;
 
 <i>
James Bond: The Legacy. By John Cork and Bruce Scivally. Harry N. Abrams. 320 pp. $49.95. </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: by Michele A. Berdy <i>
TEXT: Terpila: </i>Police slang for the victim of a crime, from <i>poterpevshy </i>(&quot;victim&quot;).
 
After my column on stealing, not two weeks went by before <i>Menya ograbili </i>(I was robbed). Or, exactly, <i>so mnoi provernuli afyoru </i>(I was scammed).
 Rushing to a meeting, I got into my car, when another car pulled up and the nicely dressed, well-spoken driver asked for directions. Helpful as I am, <i>Ya stala zanudno i podrobno passkazyvat kak ekhat </i>(I launched into a detailed, boring description of how to get there). Only the driver did not seem to be paying attention. My heart stopped, I glanced at the seat next to me, and my 5-kilogram bag (packed with materials for a meeting) was gone. It had been 15 centimeters from my arm. I didn't hear, sense, see or feel a thing as the driver's partner opened the passenger door and took the bag. All of this took about 20 seconds. <i>Mozhno tolko voskhishchatsya ikh professionalizmom </i>(You have to admire their professionalism).
 I am a pro at being robbed. This is the third time my wallet and documents have been lifted in Moscow. I think of myself as a USAID for Russia's criminal needy. Off I went to the local precinct <i>chtoby napisat zayavleniye </i>(literally, &quot;to write a petition&quot;; in the U.S. legal system, we would say, &quot;file a complaint&quot;). I pride myself on being perhaps the only American who knows how to write a good zayavleniye.
 Here is what you write: <i>Proshu vas prinyat mery k neizvestnym litsam, kotoriye (data, vremya, mesto) pokhitili moyu sumku, v kotoroi byli ... </i>(I hereby request that you take measures against the persons unknown who, on (date, time, place) stole my purse, which contained ... ). Then you write a long list of all the precious items now at the bottom of the Moscow River (or on sale at the Mitino market), with their value noted in rubles. At the end of your list, you add: <i>chto dlya menya yavilos znachitelnym ushcherbom </i>(which was for me a significant loss). The idea is that, when the bad guys are caught, they will be charged under the second part of Article 158 of the Criminal Code. (The first part is for petty crimes, the second is for more serious crimes and carries a longer sentence.)
 The <i>oper </i>(investigator) or <i>doznavatel </i>(junior detective) takes down the same thing you have written, at the end of which you write <i>s</i> <i>moikh slov zapicano verno i mnoi provereno </i>(written in my words and verified by me) and sign it. Then you wait for them to print a batch of <i>spravki </i>(documents, certificates) that allow you to get new documents (and which you show the <i>gaishnik -</i> traffic cop - who wants to know where your documents are).
 In legal jargon, I am the <i>poterpevshy </i>- the person who has suffered. Russian cops <i>(menty) </i>call folks like me <i>terpila. </i>If there is cause, <i>prokuratura dayot sanktsiyu na vozbuzhdeniye ugolovnogo dela </i>(the prosecutor's office gives a sanction to start a case). If they pull in someone who matches my description of the driver, they are the <i>podozrevayemy </i>(suspect). If they are charged, they become <i>obvinyayemy </i>(literally, &quot;the accused&quot;). Interestingly, the Russian legal system stresses the case <i>against</i> them, rather than stressing their case, as the defendant.
 Then you start praying that the bad guys empty your purse of valuables and chuck your documents in the nearest garbage bin, where some kind soul will find them. This is what happened to me twice before, and what happened again last week. All my car documents, passport and visa were found and returned to me. Which goes to show: <i>Bog lyubit troitsu </i>(literally, &quot;God loves a trinity&quot;; &quot;good things come in threes&quot;). Or: <i>Bog berezhyot pyanits i durakov </i>(God protects drunks and fools).
 
 <i>
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. </i>

TITLE: Israel Raises Stakes on Defense
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has approved plans that would seal off northern Israel from the West Bank by extending a security fence to defend against Palestinian attacks, government officials said Thursday.
 
Construction of the fence began in northern Israel earlier this year to try to prevent attacks by Palestinian militants spearheading an uprising for independence, and news that work is to press ahead is likely to further anger the Palestinians.
 The fence is expected to cut into West Bank territory in some areas, shielding Jewish settlements built on land Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.
 A Defense Ministry official said the new 43-kilometer barrier would be built in northern Israel from Megiddo Junction eastward, past the Gilboa mountains, to the town of Beit Shean, where Palestinian gunmen killed six Israelis last week.
 &quot;There was a decision in principle to continue the northern section of the fence. Now they must find the budget resources for it. The track [for the fence] has been agreed on,&quot; said Raanan Gissin, a spokesperson for Sharon. &quot;Because of the increase in the wave of terror, they must increase the track to this area, especially after the recent infiltrations. There is a breach [in security] there.&quot;
 The fence has drawn the ire both of right-wing Israelis, who say it is a de facto border shutting out Jewish settlements in the West Bank from the country proper, and Palestinians, who say it is an excuse for Israel to expropriate more of their lands.
 Netzah Mashiah, head of the construction project at the Defense Ministry, said the new section would cost about 225 million shekels ($48 million).
 The entire $220-million fence project is expected to cover 350 kilometers, roughly along the lines of the West Bank border before Israel captured the territory in 1967. Work on the first 110-kilometer section began in June.
 Making clear the fence could in places take over private Palestinian and Israeli-owned property, Mashiah said: &quot;We are trying to build it on state lands to shorten the process but we can't do so in every place.&quot;
 Israel pressed on with military raids during the night to try to root out militants. The army said it arrested 16 people in the West Bank and five in the Gaza Strip .
 Tanks rolled into the southern outskirts of Gaza City where troops demolished the home of Bader Hassan, a member of the militant Islamic group Hamas who Israel said was involved in shooting attacks.
 The raids followed a missile strike Wednesday in which Israeli forces killed a master bomb-maker in Gaza City.
 Meanwhile, the Saudi police minister has claimed Jews were behind the Sept. 11 attacks because they have benefited from subsequent criticism of Islam and Arabs, according to media reports.
 Interior Minister Prince Nayef made the remarks in the Arabic-language Kuwaiti daily Assyasah last month. The latest edition of Ain al-Yaqeen, a weekly Internet magazine devoted to Saudi issues, posted the Assyasah interview and its own English translation.
 &quot;We know that the Jews have manipulated the Sept. 11 incidents and turned American public opinion against Arabs and Muslims,&quot; Prince Nayef was quoted as saying in the Arabic text, while Ain al Yaqeen's English version referred to &quot;Zionists&quot; instead of &quot;Jews.&quot;
 &quot;We still ask ourselves: Who has benefited from the Sept. 11 attacks? I think [the Jews] were the protagonists of such attacks,&quot; Nayef was quoted as saying. Nayef's spokesperson, Saud al-Musaibeeh, did not respond to repeated requests for confirmation the minister had been quoted accurately.
 In the interview, Nayef said he could not believe that bin Laden and his network, including Saudi participants, worked alone.
 He was quoted as saying he believed terrorist networks have links to &quot;foreign intelligence agencies that work against Arab and Muslim interests, chief among them is the Israeli Mossad.&quot;
 
 <i>(Reuters, AP) </i>

TITLE: Happy Return to Detroit for Stackhouse
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: AUBURN HILLS, Michigan - Jerry Stackhouse enjoyed his homecoming, thanks to a little help from Michael Jordan.
 
In Stackhouse's first regular-season appearance at the Palace since being traded by the Pistons, he and Jordan each scored eight points in the final period and finished with 21 in Washington's 88-83 victory
 &quot;It is great to be able to come here and beat the team that traded me - that's a great message,&quot; Stackhouse said. &quot;There are no hard feelings - I still have a lot of love for the people in this organization, but tonight I came back to bite them a little bit.&quot;
 Stackhouse was traded to the Wizards in September for Richard Hamilton.
 &quot;This is still home, no doubt about it,&quot; he said. &quot;We play some more games here, and hopefully I'll be able to experience this a lot more times.&quot;
 Chucky Atkins led Detroit with 17, and Cliff Robinson and Hamilton had 16 each.
 &quot;I'm disappointed, because I really wanted to win this one,&quot; Hamilton said. &quot;My adrenalin was really pumping out there.&quot;
 The game was tied at 81 with 1:30 to play when Jordan rebounded a miss by Larry Hughes and was fouled by Robinson. He hit both free throws.
 The Pistons were a little surprised when Jordan got the call.
 &quot;He got the offensive rebound and he came around the corner and it looked like he just lost the ball,&quot; Jon Barry said. &quot;They said someone grabbed him.&quot;
 After Ben Wallace missed at the other end, Stackhouse made one of two from the line to make it 84-81 with 54 seconds left.
 Stackhouse fouled Hamilton, who made one of two free throws. Jordan lost the ball out of bounds under pressure from Atkins, and Brendan Haywood fouled Robinson at the other end. Robinson missed the second of two free throws, leaving Detroit down 84-83 with 16.5 seconds left.
 Robinson then fouled Jordan, who made both shots to give the Wizards a three-point edge. Atkins missed a long 3-pointer, and Stackhouse put the game away with two free throws.
 &quot;I know this was heavy on Jerry's mind,&quot; Jordan said. &quot;Every time I go to Chicago, I want to play well in front of those fans. I can imagine he feels the same way. We had to grind this one out, and we did that by making our free throws down the stretch. We had a lot of them.&quot;
 The league's four best teams all had victories Wednesday night to maintain comfortable cushions in their divisions, Dallas downing Portland 103-88, Philadelphia defeating Boston 99-93, Indiana outlasting Seattle 114-111 in overtime and Sacramento edging Denver 92-90.
 Dirk Nowitzki had 26 points and 15 rebounds, Steve Nash added 20 points and Michael Finley 15 points for the Mavericks, who won their third in a row to improve the NBA's best record to 17-1.
 Six teams have started the season 17-1 or better, most recently the 1996-1997 Chicago Bulls, who went on to win the NBA championship.
 Of all the first-place teams, Dallas has the largest lead in its division - 6 1/2 games. Sacramento has a five-game lead in the Pacific, while Indiana and Philadelphia have 2 1/2 -game leads in the East.
 After a sluggish first quarter, Dallas' final six field goals of the half were 3-pointers. Dallas made eight 3s in the quarter and 11 for the half, one off the NBA record.
 The Mavs pulled away to start the fourth quarter with a 12-6 run that took all the life out of the Blazers and the home crowd.
 Dallas was 13-of-28 from 3-point distance while the Blazers were just 3-for-17.
 &quot;In the second half, we were really good,&quot; Dallas coach Don Nelson said.&quot; We did everything that we needed to do to win.&quot;
 
 <strong>
Philadelphia 99, Boston 93. </strong>In Philadelphia, Allen Iverson had 27 points and Derrick Coleman scored a season-high 20 as the 76ers extended their winning streak to eight and stayed perfect at home (10-0).
 
Eric Snow made a spinning 12-foot jumper to break a 92-92 tie, and Coleman made a 3-pointer with 1:10 left to cap a 9-0 run and give Philadelphia a 97-92 lead.
 &quot;(Coleman's) shot was like a dagger,&quot; Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said. &quot;It was like getting stabbed in the heart.&quot;
 Keith Van Horn had 13 points and matched a season high with 13 rebounds, and Snow added 13 points and eight assists.
 
 <strong>
Indiana 114, Seattle 111 (OT).</strong> In Seattle, Jamaal Tinsley hit a 3-pointer with 0:10 remaining in overtime as Indiana overcame a season-high 40 points by Gary Payton.
 
Tinsley, back in the Indiana lineup after a two-game absence because of a thigh bruise, connected for a 114-109 lead with the shot clock down to 3 seconds.
 The Pacers, whose 15-3 record is the league's second best, broke into a celebration and headed for the visitors' dressing room as fans filed out of the arena.
 Jermaine O'Neal scored a season-high 30 points and Al Harrington had a season-high 26 for the Pacers.
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>

TITLE: Stars Outshine Canadiens, Retain Proud Clean Recor d
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DALLAS - The Dallas Stars were dragging after playing seven games in 11 days, capped by a tie and a loss.
 
After three days off, the refreshed Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 on Wednesday night to remain unbeaten at home in regulation this season.
 &quot;I thought we responded well,&quot; Stars coach Dave Tippett said. &quot;The time off really gave us a lift. You could tell there was more zip at practice. We're feeling good about ourselves again.&quot;
 Jason Arnott scored three goals, two on setups by Pierre Turgeon, for his fourth career hat-trick and the first by a Dallas player since Brett Hull scored four goals on March 21, 2001.
 &quot;We're really clicking right now,&quot; Arnott said. &quot;We had chances before, but we were getting some bad bounces. Tonight we were chipping in our opportunities. Getting the hat-trick was an added bonus and a great feeling.&quot;
 Tippett started the season with Turgeon centering a line that included Young, and both players struggled with a variety of left wings. Tippett then moved Turgeon to left wing and put Arnott in the middle with Young on the right side of the second line. Arnott missed nine games early in the season with an ankle injury, then a broken finger when he returned, but the trio continues to thrive.
 In the last five games, Turgeon has 10 assists, Arnott has five goals and an assist, and Young has four goals and an assist.
 &quot;I was rolling the dice and it worked out,&quot; Tippett said. &quot;Give the players credit for making it work. Jason's really starting to come around. He has that look in his eye.&quot;
 Jere Lehtinen and Mike Modano added third-period goals for Dallas, 10-0-0-1 at home this season. Marty Turco made 25 saves, and the Stars killed off all seven Montreal power plays.
 Doug Gilmour scored a second-period goal, and Jose Theodore stopped 29 shots for the Canadiens, 1-5 in their last six.
 The Stars got off to another fast start, grabbing a 1-0 lead at 8:50 of the opening period when Turgeon, once Montreal's captain, directed a goal-mouth pass to Arnott, who fired into an open net before Theodore could get to the right post.
 Dallas has outscored opponents 34-13 in the first period this season. The Stars held a 9-0 shots advantage over the first 10 minutes, 13-5 in the first period.
 &quot;They were a lot better than us the first 10 minutes,&quot; Montreal center Saku Koivu said. &quot;Then we were able to match their work ethic.&quot;
 Montreal tied it at 1 with Gilmour's third goal on a second effort from in front of the net at 3:13 of the second period.
 The Stars went back in front 2-1 at 12:10 of the second period on Arnott's close-in backhander off a feed from Turgeon. Lehtinen scored his 10th goal off his own rebound with 16:02 left to push the lead to 3-1. Arnott notched his third of the night and seventh of the season, and Modano scored his 11th in the third.
 &quot;When opponents get a two-goal lead, we don't play all 60 minutes,&quot; Koivu said. &quot;That's what happened tonight.&quot;
 <strong>
Chicago 1, Ottawa 0. </strong>Jocelyn Thibault didn't put any extra pressure on himself before facing the Ottawa Senators, a team that hadn't lost in 10 games.
 
&quot;I just wanted to have a strong game,&quot; the Chicago goalie said. Thibault had an outstanding game, making 28 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and 31st of his career, and Eric Daze scored as the Blackhawks beat the Senators 1-0 on Wednesday night.
 &quot;I'm not that big a guy, but when I play big, I have success,&quot; Thibault said. &quot;I'm just trying to play hard and put myself in the right position.&quot;
 And that's something he did all game, especially late in the third period when the Blackhawks had to kill a major penalty to Ryan Vanden Bussche.
 &quot;Tonight was really a big game for us and we wanted to make a statement,&quot; Thibault said.
 Marian Hossa saw his 13-game point-scoring streak end for the Senators, who were 8-0-2 in their unbeaten streak.
 &quot;When we had chances, Thibault was good,&quot; Senators coach Jacques Martin said. &quot;He played with a lot of confidence. He was able to see shots and we didn't have good execution.&quot;
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard) </i>

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: <b>Dodgers Trade
 </b>

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Dodgers traded first baseman Eric Karros and second baseman Mark Grudzielanek to the Chicago Cubs Wednesday for catcher Todd Hundley. The Dodgers also paid an undisclosed amount of cash to the Cubs and received backup outfielder Chad Hermansen.
 Already with one of the highest payrolls in the National League, the Dodgers made no secret of their desire to rid themselves of the contracts of Karros and Grudzielanek. The Dodgers are hoping to make a run at free agents Cliff Floyd, an outfielder, or Jeff Kent, a second baseman who can also play first base.
 Hundley, who spent 1999-2000 with Los Angeles, was a major disappointment for Chicago. The 33-year-old backstop battled injuries and prolonged slumps during two seasons in his hometown.
 
 
<b>New Baltimore Staff
 </b>

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Former pitchers Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie have been handed the job of reviving the Baltimore Orioles after five successive losing seasons.
 Flanagan was named vice president of baseball operations Wednesday and will report to Beattie, who was named by owner Peter Angelos as executive vice president of baseball operations.
 Former vice president of baseball operations Syd Thrift, 73, has been the general manager for the last three seasons. But the GM duties will now be shared by Flanagan and Beattie.
 The Orioles were fourth in the American League East last season with a 67-95 record and their farm system is considered among the worst in baseball.
 
 
<b>Swimming Awards
 </b>

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Australia's Ian Thorpe and Natalie Coughlin of the U.S. were on Thursday named the male and female "World Swimmers of the Year" by Swimming World magazine.
 The swimmers were named in the December issue of the magazine, which featured Thorpe on the cover. 
 It is the second time in a row and fourth time in the last five years that the 20-year-old Thorpe has earned the prestigious award, making him the first swimmer to win the award four times.
 It is the first time Coughlin, also 20, has received the award, which is decided by a panel of 12 swimming writers.