SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #835 (3), Friday, January 17, 2003
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TITLE: City Duma Elects Tyulpanov Speaker
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Amid accusations of vote buying and Kremlin tampering, the Legislative Assembly, in only its second week of sitting, managed to do on Wednesday what the previous assembly took almost two and a half years to do - elect a speaker. And the assembly's choice is unlikely to please Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
 
Vadim Tyulpanov, the head of the pro-Kremlin United Russia faction in the chamber received the support of 28 lawmakers, easily defeating the incumbent, Sergei Tarasov, a member of the Our City faction and traditionally a Yakovlev ally in the assembly, who garnered 19 votes. None of the 14 remaining candidates for the post, most of whom were put forward by pro-City Hall factions, managed to gain even a single vote.
 While a number of deputies decried what they saw as unfair Kremlin influence in the vote, Tyulpanov did nothing to duck the accusations.
 "I was involved in consultations with all of the branches [of power], including the Moscow [office of the] Unity party," Tyulpanov said Wednesday, "Of course the support of certain [political] circles is necessary in order to be elected speaker."
 Based on the numbers alone, Tyulpanov's victory seemed unlikely, as United Russia candidates were elected to only four of the legislature's 50 seats.
 "The party pretty much lost the [Legislative Assembly] elections ... . But there was always the idea within United Russia that Tyulpanov's candidacy, although the idea seemed quite new," Arkady Kramarev, another United Russia faction lawmaker, said Wednesday. "As far as I know, the [candidacy] was approved by both the central [United Russia] office and by local leaders."
 Tyulpanov, 38, the former head of Mercury Transport, a shipping company, was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1998 and had occupied one of the two vice speaker's chairs post since June, 2001. He is best known in the assembly for launching the competition to choose words for a city anthem last fall.
 More importantly for what many see as the biggest question of the present session - whether Yakovlev should be allowed to run for governor again - Tyulpanov has been a consistent opponent to amending the City Charter to allow a governor to serve a third term.
 "The City Charter Court has already ruled that this is illegal, so I don't see why shouldn't we follow this decision," Tyulpanov said Wednesday. "The charter could be amended but, even if it was, it wouldn't make any difference for the current governor."
 He later added that, if the City Charter were to be amended, it might be to move the gubernatorial elections ahead to take place on the same day as the elections for the State Duma, scheduled for December. The gubernatorial elections are currently scheduled for May, 2004.
 After Wednesday's vote, Tarasov refused to comment on the results in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
 One Smolny representative said that, for its part, City Hall was not particularly distressed by the result.
 "Whatever the case, we have to set up relations [with the assembly] in a constructive way. Life goes on," said Vice Governor Anna Markova at a short press conference Wednesday, "We just don't have the right to get all emotional about this."
 But other City Hall supporters were less sanguine, leveling accusations that Tyulpanov's victory was the result of a dirty-tricks campaign.
 "There have been non-parliamentary methods used here" said Vladimir Yeryomenko, a Communist-faction lawmaker. "I am in favor of honest competition between personalities - between politicians - but what we have seen here was [interference from] outside management. [As Speaker], Tarasov could have stopped this dangerous process from developing further."
 "We will end up being nostalgic the previous parliament," he added. "Maybe in a week or so these people [who voted for Tyulpanov] will have some new color to their faces and will be wearing some new suits, but they won't be able to [legislate] creatively. Everything is going to be decided for them by the external management."
 While Yeryomenko would not specify what he meant by "external management," Yury Rydnik, the head of the United St. Petersburg faction, was specific in his comments in the assembly before the vote.
 "The truth is that this is not being decided here, but in the office of the presidential representative [Victor Cherkesov], on one side, and by City Hall on the other," Rydnik said Wednesday, calling on his colleages "not to rush into" electing a speaker. "We are each responsible to thousands of people, so we should first would get know each other better, and then decide who would be the best person to head the assembly."
 Rydnik, the head of Baltoneximbank had already had a rough week himself. In Tuesday, he was expelled from the national Unity party for having breached party discipline by setting up the United St. Petersburg faction, which is generally considered to be loyal to City Hall.
 While supporters of the governor in the assembly were calling foul, the office of the presidential representative denied that Cherkesov had had any involvement in the vote for speaker or its outcome.
 "We don't have the right to support any of the candidates," Alexei Gutsailo, Cherkesov's spokesperson, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "There were rumors that people were paid off, with people naming ridiculous amounts of money being involved, but I don't want to comment on all any of this. There is no basis to these allegations."
 But Sergei Nikeshin, a member of the City Districts faction said in the assembly before the vote that different offers had been made.
 "Some people were walking around here making offers," Nikeshin said. "But I could have just as easily given them two or three times what they were offering me."
 Nikeshin seemed to imply that the pro-Kremlin side tried to buy deputies' votes, as his faction had planned to support Tarasov from the beginning.
 "I can't believe this," said Olga Pokrovskaya, a Yabloko faction member. "This is a case for the prosecutor, but where is he?"
 According to a source close to the presidential administration, who was present at the session and spoke on condition of anonymity, the amount of the offers from both sides ranged from $10,000 to $80,000, "depending on the importance of the lawmaker."
 But Nikeshin countered the allegations.
 "What are you talking about?" Nikeshin said when approached later. "Maybe I was offered a box of candies but, as I read in the Criminal Code just recently, something is not a bribe if I can eat or smoke it."
 Yabloko lawmakers, who joined the coalition with the United Russia to oppose changes to the City Charter and build a credible opposition to City Hall, were happy with the result.
 "Everything happened the way it was predicted, although I didn't expect such a big gap between Tyulpanov and Tarasov," Mikhail Amosov, the head of the Yabloko faction, said Wednesday, "I am very glad we solved this problem over the first and second sessions. We structured the assembly, set up factions and, in a week, we'll form the committees."
 At the same session on Wednesday, the lawmakers re-elected Sergei Mironov to represent the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly at the Federation Council, by a vote of 43 to 5.

TITLE: Curtain Up on Mariinsky Design Contest
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The architectural make-up of St. Petersburg's historic center has barely changed over the last 150 years. But its ensemble of imperial palaces and baroque mansions, many in a desperate state of repair, will soon be joined by a grandiose arts complex that would radically alter the status quo.
 
Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi on Wednesday announced the official opening of an international competition to find the architect to design the Mariinsky Theater's new building. According to Shvydkoi, the federal government intends to spend at least $100 million on constructing the new opera house.
 Taking part in the competition are some of the world's most acclaimed architects, including Switzerland's Mario Botta, France's Dominique Perrault, Japan's Arata Isozaki and Erick van Egeraat from the Netherlands. The participants were all personally invited to compete by the Russian government.
 The Mariinsky's artistic director, Valery Gergiev, called on the architects to take a "fresh approach," and not to shy away from experimentation.
 "The Mariinsky Theater is one of the symbols of Russia, and should be presented accordingly," he said.
 "It is nothing to brag about that we have constructed nothing but dull-looking apartment buildings in our city for decades," Gergiev said. "We don't need a barn, a shed or a box; what we are after is a building with a striking appearance."
 Each of the eleven architects will receive a $30,000 fee for their pains, regardless of the result of the competition. The finished designs, along with scale models of the proposals, are to be presented to a 12-member jury by May 12. As well as Gergiev, the jury includes Joseph Clark, technical director of New York's Metropolitan Opera House, Bill Lacy, executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and Colin Amery, director of Britain's World Monuments Fund.
 The decision to hold an international contest resulted from the submission last year to the federal government of a design by Eric Own Moss, a Los Angeles-based deconstructivist architect. His design, which was rejected, aroused fierce controversy, and was labelled "a bunch of garbage bags" and "a shapeless monster" by critics.
 Moss' design envisaged a new theater built of glass and granite, and enraged St. Petersburg officials, including the city's chief architect, Oleg Kharchenko.
 "A city like St. Petersburg deserves more respect," Kharchenko said. "That design is a disgrace."
 Despite the passsions aroused by his previous design, Moss is one of the architects taking part in the competition.
 According to Kharchenko, to avoid a repeat of last year's fiasco, the designs will be put on public display at the Russian Academy of Fine Arts for several days in early June before the jury announces its verdict, on June 28. In addition, a series of meetings will be held between officials and the public to discuss the designs.
 "It is quite a departure from international practice, but the Russian side insisted that the projects go on display before the decision is announced," Kharchenko said. "The jurors are professional enough to take an independent, unbiased decision, but putting the models on display is a sign of respect for the citizens of St. Petersburg."
 Shvydkoi said the new building, which will take up 39,000 square meters and be connected to the existing theater by a passage over Kryukov Canal, will be built by 2007. Repair work on the Mariinsky's current premises, which began last fall, will be completed in 2008.
 Gergiev, for his part, reassured worried opera and ballet lovers that he will make sure the theater won't be closed for more than five months at any one time during the construction.
 "Even if one of the wings is closed, the theater can still maintain a full schedule of performances," he said. "We can't afford to close down for two or three years and leave our audiences without shows. I understand that my requests put additional pressure on [French company Setec, which is carrying out the repair work], but I made it clear from the start that this is the only way to do the restoration."
 The problems of repairing the Mariinsky's current building and the need for a new building have been a high priority for Gergiev for at least five years. According to Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, Gergiev first approached him about the issue in 1997.
 "I asked local architects to come up with possible designs," Yakovlev said. "Eventually, we turned to architects across Russia for help and ideas, but it eventually became obvious that a jewel like the Mariinsky needs a top-level international competition."
 "Patriotism aside, I think it would be nice to see a Western architect winning the contest," Alexei Shaskolsky, of the St. Petersburg Entrepreneurship Problems Institute, told Vedomosti. "It would confirm St. Petersburg's European status, and even become a symbol of its European status."
 According to Gergiev, the Mariinsky badly needs an overhaul, as the opera and ballet companies' artistic potential far surpasses the current theater's technical capacities.
 "The technical parameters of our stage can't compete with the possibilities offered by modern theaters in Europe and the United States," he said. "We have to close the theater for up to seven or, in some cases, 10 days in order to mount the sets for some shows. It's a shame."

TITLE: Hostage Siege Trial Sparks High Drama
AUTHOR: By Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In an emotionally charged legal battle that promises to last for months, a Moscow court on Thursday began hearing evidence in an unprecedented, multimillion-dollar complaint filed against the city government by victims of October's hostage crisis.
 
So far, 61 former hostages and relatives of those who died have filed suits, claiming nearly $60 million in damages, and many more have expressed interest, lead lawyer Igor Trunov told reporters outside the Tverskoi District Court. 
 "We can't lose this case," an optimistic Trunov said.
 The court began considering 24 of the lawsuits on Thursday.
 Most of the 129 deaths among some 800 theater-goers held hostage by Chechen gunmen last fall have been attributed to the powerful gas used during the rescue operation and to the poor organization of medical care afterward.
 However, the current claims are not aimed against particular officials. Instead, the plaintiffs' case hinges on the federal law on fighting terrorism, which allows victims of a terrorist attack to claim damages from the government of the region where the attack took place. The same law bans damage claims against security personnel in charge of anti-terrorism operations.
 The city has said that it is not responsible for the Chechen war that led to the hostage-taking.
 After the hostage ordeal, victims' families received government aid packages of 50,000 rubles ($1,570) to 100,000 rubles ($3,140). But some of the bereaved believe the funds were not enough to compensate their loss and inadequate as a substitute for official accountability.
 Asked why he decided to take legal action, Dmitry Milovidov, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Nina, said: "Because I have two more children and I don't want to see this happen again."
 More than a dozen plaintiffs packed into the squat brick courthouse shortly after 9 a.m. But the first of three women to give testimony. Milovidov's soft-spoken, pregnant wife, Olga, addressed the court much later, only after six hours of procedural wrangling.
 Trunov's team filed a barrage of motions, most of which were rejected. The lawyers argued that the court was biased, since the defendant - City Hall - provides part of its funding, including perks for judges. Trunov also said that a district court would not be able to hear sensitive evidence that might be involved in the case.
 But Judge Marina Gorbacheva refused to dismiss herself or to hand the case over to a different court. She also rejected motions to allow tape recorders and TV cameras at the trial; to appoint a psychologist to assess the victims' suffering; to admit several pieces of evidence, including a videotape from inside the theater, press materials and the results of an investigation into the rescue operation commissioned by the Union of Right Forces party; and to summon a number of high-profile witnesses, including Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev and politicians, doctors and journalists who tried to negotiate the release. 
 Gorbacheva said these motions would be reconsidered after plaintiffs and witnesses had been questioned.
 Defense lawyer Marat Gafarov called Trunov's requests a stalling tactic and a "clever ploy."
 "These lawyers aren't thinking about people's grief and suffering; they are thinking only about themselves and about promoting their firm, and they want to stretch out the case as long as possible," Gafarov said.

TITLE: Ivanov Says U.S. Putting Pressure On Inspectors
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's foreign minister on Thursday accused the United States of putting undue pressure on international weapons inspectors in Iraq and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said inspectors need more time to complete their work.
 
The statements by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei came amid signs of growing impatience by the United States, which is deploying tens of thousands of troops to the Gulf for a possible invasion of Iraq.
 "We are concerned about the growing pressure on the inspectors and leaders of the inspection teams from certain circles in Washington. Some publications and official statements question the activities of international inspectors," Ivanov said at a news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.
 "We believe that such a course contradicts the letter and spirit of [Security Council] Resolution 1441," under which inspectors resumed work in late November after a four-year hiatus, Ivanov said. "We unilaterally approved the resolution and took on the obligation to provide every assistance to international inspectors, not to put pressure on them."
 "The international community expects objective and highly professional international inspectors, who represent dozens of countries," said Ivanov, who also has called repeatedly for Iraq to fully cooperate with the inspectors.
 ElBaradei told a separate news conference that the IAEA was receiving helpful intelligence from a host of countries, giving clues to specific locations that need to be searched.
 "We have started now to have the full complement of the inspection process in place. I think we are inching forward but we still have quite a bit of work to do and therefore we are going to ask for at least a few months to be able to complete our job," ElBaradei said.
 He also said the inspectors would intensify their work in the coming days and weeks.
 Russian news agencies initially reported that ElBaradei would ask the Security Council to extend the weapons inspectors' mandate. Speaking in Vienna, IAEA spokesperson Melissa Fleming said the inspection process had no limit, but that ElBaradei would tell the UN Security Council later this month that the agency needed extra time to come to a conclusion on Iraq's military activities.
 Iraq has been providing good cooperation with regard to allowing the inspectors to visit sites of their choice, but needs to do more to allow the inspectors to dig deeper and get answers to many questions that would allow them to finish their work, ElBaradei said.
 "We would like to see more pro-active cooperation on the part of Iraq," ElBaradei said. "There have been lots of open questions in particular in the area of chemical, biological and missile weapons and also some in the nuclear field."
 He said the inspections team needed more specifics, including interviews with scientists in private and material evidence including documents that would make it possible to ensure that any weapons programs that had existed in the past had been discontinued.
 ElBaradei said that various countries were now providing detailed intelligence, including information on past contracts, that would help the inspectors pinpoint sites they would like to visit. He declined to provide any details, saying such intelligence should remain confidential.

TITLE: Crime Wave Driving Finns Out of Vyborg
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: VYBORG, Northwest Russia - Finnish tourists are thinking twice about visiting the border town of Vyborg after a surge in brazen muggings over the past two months that the police don't seem to be able to stop.
 
Thieves are spraying tourists with pepper gas on the streets in broad daylight and making off with wallets, passports and cellphones, tour operators said. Groups of five to 10 are forcing their way onto crowded tour buses, robbing passengers and looting luggage compartments. Some boldly hunt up shaken victims and offer to sell back passports and cellphones.
 Now the legendary patience of the Finns seems to have reached its limit. About 30 Finnish travel agencies have sent a letter of protest to Russian authorities and cut back or suspended trips to Vyborg.
 "I have been the witness of muggings and violence on many occasions. I saw with my own eyes how tourists have gas sprayed into their eyes and then be robbed," said Raimo Kaisanlahti, the director of Turku-based Neva Tour.
 He said that two or three tourists out of every busload of 40 to 50 people get robbed.
 His agency, which usually organizes at least one bus trip to Vyborg every week, is sending only to two buses from Jan. 1 to Feb. 14, the period of the Vyborg boycott, and will stay clear of the central Market Square, the scene of most of the muggings. Some five to 15 tourists are robbed every day in Vyborg, according to the Lappeeranta-based Saima Travel Net, which sends about 60,000 tourists from Finland to Vyborg every year.
 Julia Kaisanlahti of Neva Tour blamed Vyborg police for the flourishing crime, saying their indifference has made pickpockets more cocky.
 "Thieves now enter buses by force and rob people. Meanwhile, others open the luggage compartments and take bags, so that the poor bus driver doesn't know whether to pay attention to what is happening in the bus or in the luggage compartment," she said. "The authorities know very well who these people are, but do not want to intervene."
 Tour operators said the muggings appeared to be the work of a small-time organized crime group that has been operating for several years in the area around Marquet Square.
 Neva Tour suggested that the Vyborg police might be in on the racket, an allegation that the police strongly denied.
 Other Finns pointed the finger at Avtoritet, a security agency owned by the head of the city mayor's administration that guards Market Square and other tourist attractions in Vyborg.
 "The babushki who sell socks, birch branches and other goods to tourists on Market Square tell me that they have to pay the security personal of Avtoritet to be able to stay on the square," said Peter Maximov, a Finn who heads the Vyborg Center, an organization that promotes cultural links between Finland and Russia. The center is located on Market Square.
 "It is dangerous to say that the thefts are carried out by an organized group," he said. "I think this is almost impossible to prove. But if you put two and two together, you might come to some interesting conclusions."
 Avtoritet was unavailable for comment.
 Vyborg Prosecutor Vladislav Krasnoperov said that tour operators themselves were not willing to help solve this problem.
 "We have asked Finnish travel agencies to have security guards on buses, and we have received a categorical refusal. We ask Finnish travel agencies to have a police officer on buses and, once again, we receive a categorical refusal. Finnish officials justify this by saying Finnish tourists won't want travel on the buses, but, excuse me, what other measures can be taken if the Finns themselves don't always want to cooperate?" he told reporters Wednesday, Fontanka.ru reported.
 Vyborg police said tourists were allowing the problem to grow by letting attacks go unreported.
 "Part of the problem is that tourists are reluctant to file complaints with the police and take part in the investigation process," said Pyotr Yakimenko, the head of the Vyborg police department dealing with crimes committed by and against foreigners.
 In response to the protest, Vyborg officials have decided to start distributing multilingual flyers at the border explaining what tourists should do if they are attacked. The city will also allocate special parking spaces for buses that will be guarded by police and open a police office on Market Square where tourists can file complaints.
 Maximov said he doubted the measures will bring significant change.
 "I once accompanied some Finnish tourists who had been robbed to the police station. They had lost their money, their glasses and their documents," he said. "The first question the police asked was how much money had been stolen; here it was 40 euros. The police officers then said that they don't file complaints for the theft of any sum under 2,200 rubles [about 60 euros]."

TITLE: Kadyrov Suffering Crisis Of Confidence
AUTHOR: By Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A public conflict between Chechnya's prime minister and his boss, Akhmad Kadyrov, has escalated and raised doubts about just how much support Kadyrov has in Moscow.
 
Trouble started brewing Monday when Kadyrov, who heads the Moscow-appointed Chechen administration, accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Sergei Abramov and replaced him with a deputy, Eli Isayev.
 Chechnya's Prime Minister Mikhail Babich vehemently protested the reshuffle, saying it violated a presidential decree on appointments to the local government and accusing Abramov of trying to avoid responsibility for the republic's finances, which are up for a federal audit set to begin this month.
 "I repeatedly told Abramov that he must personally put together the 2003 budget and personally report to the Audit Chamber for the past two years," Babich said Wednesday in televised remarks.
 He added that last month's suicide bombing at Chechnya's government headquarters destroyed much of the republic's financial documentation and suggested that Abramov could be trying to take advantage of the loss to cover up misspending or other violations.
 President Vladimir Putin's representative to the Southern Federal District, which includes Chechnya, did not to take sides in the conflict, calling it a simple misunderstanding.
 "This is just a lack of coordination. There is no tragedy here," Viktor Kazantsev said Wednesday at a meeting of district officials in the southern city of Kislovodsk. Speaking at the same meeting, Kadyrov said he planned to go to Chechnya late Wednesday to deal with the problem.
 In a possible sign of Kremlin support for Babich, Chechnya's prosecutor has filed a formal protest against Isayev's appointment, citing the May presidential decree allowing Kadyrov to appoint government members only upon the prime minister's recommendation.
 "We see no [malicious] intent in this appointment. The only intention of the head of the administration is to stabilize the situation. However, it is necessary to abide by the letter of the law," prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko told Interfax, adding that Kadyrov has 10 days to clear up the problem.
 Creating an image of peace and stability in the war-ravaged republic has been the Kremlin's main policy on Chechnya in recent months, including promises to hand political control over to local authorities. 
 A referendum on a new constitution has been set for March 23 with presidential elections to follow eventually.
 However, influential groups in Moscow - especially those with ties to the military and security establishments - are nervous about local Chechens getting too powerful and too independent, Alexei Makarkin of the Center for Political Technologies said by telephone Wednesday.
 Even some of those who support stronger local institutions in Chechnya take issue with Kadyrov for failing to consolidate political leadership there and to neutralize or win over powerful separatists, Makarkin said.
 "The Kremlin is deciding whom to bet on in the presidential elections," Makarkin said. "Kadyrov does not have 100 percent of Moscow's support. Babich's public statements and the prosecutor's support for his position testify to that."

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Explosives Found 
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - Security agents found explosives in two cars in a Moscow parking lot Thursday, just days after reports of new threats of terrorist attacks by Chechen rebels in the capital, Russian media reported.
 The Interfax-Military News Agency reported the explosives, which were rendered powerless by sappers, were equivalent to about 20 kilograms of TNT. They were found in the fuel tank of one car and in the trunk of another, the news agency said, citing police sources.
 
 
<b>Dagestan Trial
 </b>

MAKHACHKALA, Dagestan (AP) - A court in Dagestan gave sentences ranging from seven years to life on Thursday to seven members of a criminal band who were convicted of carrying out 13 bombings, including a land mine blast that killed seven Russian soldiers.
 The group, which reportedly took orders from Chechen rebel field commander Rabbani Khalilov, was convicted of blowing up four empty police cars and a stretch of railway track in Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan.
 
<b>Pakistani Nukes
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is worried that nuclear weapons from Pakistan's arsenal could fall into the hands of al-Qaida terrorist networks, Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Ministry Georgy Mamedov as saying Thursday.
 "They are partly infiltrating Pakistani territory and are posing a danger to Pakistan, especially bearing in mind the presence of nuclear weapons in that country," Mamedov was quoting as saying. "This causes our concern."
 
 
<b>Prison on Pasko 
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - The administration of the prison where Russian military journalist and whistleblower Grigory Pasko is serving his sentence sees no obstacles to his early release, Interfax reported Thursday.
 Pasko is serving a four-year prison sentence for attending a meeting of Russian naval commanders and possessing notes he made there.
 Interfax quoted an unnamed Justice Ministry official in Moscow as saying the prison administration had already reviewed the parole request and decided there were "no grounds for a denial." 



TITLE: Russian Life Expectancy on Downward Trend
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Just last month of weeks ago, unemployed engineer Nikolai Medvedyev, 52, buried his cousin Alexander, who died of a heart attack at the age of 59. The funeral was the second Medvedyev attended for a male relative this year as another cousin, only 45 years old, also died from heart disease in August.
 
Medvedyev's terrible year is an all-too-common story in Russia, where a variety of factors combine to create life-expectancy numbers well below Western levels, particularly for men.
 According to the most recent data compiled by the State Statistics Committee, the average life expectancy for Russian men is less than 59 years - 58 years and 11 months - while that for Russian women is 72 years. The combined figure is 65 years and three months.
 By comparison, the average life span for men in the United States is 73 years and for women 79 years. Male life expectancy in France and Germany is 74 years, while for women it is 82 and 80 years respectively.
 Not only are the numbers for men bad, they are getting worse. Since 2000, the average life expectancy for Russian men has fallen by 15 days, while the number for women has increased by almost two months.
 Demographic and health-care experts say that the chief factors behind the poor figures are alcohol abuse, psychological stress caused by economic uncertainty, widespread smoking, poor personal-safety practices, an unhealthy diet and a general lack of exercise.
 &quot;The basis for the unprecedented growth of early mortality in Russia is the result of the worsened quality of life for the majority of the population,&quot; Nikolai Gerasimenko, the head of the State Duma Health Committee, said in a Duma report in 2001. &quot;It is the result of a lingering social and economic crisis, characterized by the rise in unemployment; chronic delays in paying salaries, pensions and social aid; worsening nutrition; a decrease in access to medical care and medicines; and the stress generated by people's lack of confidence in their futures and those of their children.&quot;
 Official statistics give the two leading causes of death in Russia as heart disease - accounting for about 60 percent of all deaths - and accidents, followed by cancer, drug abuse and suicide.
 According to Murray Feshbach, a research professor at Georgetown University in Washington, who specializes in demographic trends in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, the rate of deaths from cancer and heart disease are much higher than other developed countries.
 &quot;As to causes, no single explanation will suffice,&quot; Feshbach wrote in an email interview. &quot;Deaths related to stress, smoking, alcoholism and TB are incredibly high, and soon, probably deaths from AIDS will also rise.&quot;
 Yevgeny Andreyev, a demography expert with the Institute of National Economic Forecasting in Moscow, says that average life-expectancy fell steadily between 1965 and 1980, but the statistic has followed a roller-coaster path in the last twenty years. Average life expectancy rose in the mid 1980s, fluctuated through the 1990s, and has remained relatively stable over the last few years.
 Andreev agrees that part of the cause of the recent drop in the figure stems from stresses associated with the fall of the Soviet Union.
 &quot;In the Soviet Union, no one was afraid of losing their jobs - work was guaranteed by the state,&quot; Andreev said. &quot;In modern, capitalist Russia, you have to be good at your job and work hard in order to keep it.&quot;
 Vladimir Khavinson, the director of St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, confirmed that, in his opinion, Russia's tragic life-expectancy statistics are, in large part, explainable by social factors.
 &quot;Life expectancy differs for various social groups in all countries,&quot; Khavinson said. &quot; Thus, a homeless American would live about as long as a homeless Russian, just as a Western drug-addict's life would be, on average, about as long as that of a Russian drug addict.&quot;
 He said that people's financial situation has a direct bearing on life expectancy. Better-off people are able to afford better-quality food, better medicine and doctors, as well as fitness-club memberships and more relaxation time, Khavinson said.
 &quot;The cause of the problem is clear: The majority of Russian population is poor,&quot; he said.
 Alexander Markovich, a doctor at the American Medical Clinic in St. Petersburg, said that the problem is particularly economic for the elderly, whose state pension is to low for many of them to be able to afford the medicine they need.
 &quot;Therefore, many of them just live circulating between their home and a hospital, where they end up repeatedly because they lack the essential, but expensive, medicine they should be taking at home,&quot; Markovich said.
 But not all of the explanations for the negative figures are related to recent developments. Demographers and health-care experts agree that one traditional Russian problem - high rates of alcohol consumption - is also to blame for the low life-expectancy figures. As evidence, they cite a jump in the rates in 1986 and 1987 prompted by an anti-alcohol campaign initiated by then Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Whereas male life expectancy had been 61.7 years in 1984 - its lowest point since the 1960s - the figure for men reached 65 years in 1987, with the overall rate climbing above 70.
 Health experts say that the campaign likely saved the lives of at least 1 million people, who would otherwise have died as a result of illnesses related to alcohol abuse.
 Experts say that another factor underlying the negative figures for Russia - deaths due to accidents - is, itself, partially the result of high levels of alcohol consumption.
 &quot;Half of the accidents happen, again, as the result of alcohol,&quot; Andreev says, &quot;But Russians, in general, seem to be less aware of and pay less attention to regular safety measures. They are more likely to fall from buildings; drown in rivers; get run over by cars; or die in car accidents because they weren't wearing seatbelts.&quot;
 &quot;A look at European countries reveals tiny details that speak of their concern for safety,&quot; he said. &quot;They tend to produce children's clothes with fluorescent stripes. In Germany, children are even forbidden from rollerblading on bicycle paths, and 10 year-old children are required to pass exams on bicycle safety. Nothing like this happens in Russia.&quot;
 &quot;It seems that life isn't valued as highly in Russia as it is in other countries in the West, where both the people and the governments realize that health is the guarantee of their ability to work and earn an income,&quot; Andreyev said. 
 According to Markovich, Russians in general tend to take less care of their health compared to Westerners. 
 &quot;From my professional experience, most Western patients visit a doctor when they see the first signs of something wrong, while Russian people often wait until the last moment, when their illness is so bad that they can no longer work or live normally,&quot; he said.
 Andreyev adds that the same lack of concern for personal health issues is also present in relation to personal-health practices, listing smoking and lack of exercise as two main problems. In 1985, 53 percent of Russian males smoked. The figure rose to 67 percent in 1992 - more than twice the percentage of adult male smokers in the United States - and has remained steady since. At least one third of Russian women also smoke.
 The number of reported cases of lung cancer has increased by 63 percent over the last ten years, with smoking cited as the main cause for 52 percent of all cancer cases, Gerasimenko, who smoked for 30 years before quitting, wrote in his report. 
 With regard to exercise, only 6 percent of Russians take part regularly in some sort of sport or fitness-related activities, according to data from the Russian State Statistics Committee.
 Feshbach said that the problem with life-expectancy rates has been complicated by the increase in the incidence of old as well as new diseases in Russia.
 The number of reported cases of tuberculosis has risen by 70 percent over the last five years, with 2.3 million cases registered in 2001, the last year for which statistics are available.
 The spread of AIDS is also a minor contributor, with Russia trailing only certain African countries in the spread of HIV infection in recent years. Although the official figure for the number of HIV-infected Russians is 220,000, many experts say that the real figure is likely five times higher, said Alla Davydova, a doctor at the St. Petersburg AIDS Center.
 Most of those infected are from 15 to 25 years old, with about 90 percent of them being intravenous-drug users.
 Andreyev says that the poor state of Russia's health-care system remains one of the biggest causes of the problem.
 &quot;Russian medicine is in need of financial reform,&quot; he said. &quot;It's not effective when an ambulance takes half an hour or more to arrive and the doctors working with the ambulances lack essential tools for saving people's lives.&quot;

TITLE: Russian Troops To Go On Trial In Euro Court
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The European Court of Human Rights announced Thursday that it will hear six cases filed by Chechens alleging abuses by federal forces in Chechnya, including executions and torture.
 
The decision, which is likely to increase international attention to widespread complaints of violence against civilians in the republic, was criticized by the Kremlin-backed human rights ombudsperson for Chechnya, but met with approval by a State Duma lawmaker.
 The cases, stemming from 1999 and 2000, the early months of the second military campaign against Chechen rebels, allege that plaintiffs' relatives were tortured and killed, that warplanes indiscriminately bombed civilians fleeing Grozny and that troops destroyed civilian property, according to a statement from the court, based in Strasbourg, France. 
 The Chechen human-rights ombudsperson, Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, said the court's decision was an attempt to put political pressure on Russia.
 &quot;Unfortunately, some officials in the Council of Europe make a political game out of regular court deliberations,&quot; Sultygov told Interfax. The Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights body, oversees the court.
 &quot;The court is a much better method of self-protection than taking up a submachine gun,&quot; said Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the Duma's legislative committee.
 &quot;It is well known that the rights of our citizens, both Chechens and our soldiers, are being violated in Chechnya,&quot; Interfax quoted him as saying.

TITLE: City Fights Lenenergo Over Privatization
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The City Administration has filed a lawsuit against Lenenergo, claiming that the 1992 privatization of the local energy monopoly was not legitimate.
 
In response, Lenenergo has claimed that the legal action is being brought for purely political reasons.
 According to reports in the local press, the City Administration and the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office took the case to a St. Petersburg Arbitration Court in late December. The court is now due to consider the case on Feb. 12, according to an official statement issued by the City Administrative Committee on Thursday.
 The City Administration is claiming in its suit that legal violations were committed during the privatization of the power monopoly. 
 Speaking in a telephone interview on Thursday, Vladimir Anikeyev, spokesperson for the Administrative Committee, said that a decision on the privatization of a fuel or energy enterprise could only have approved by the Russian government, rather than merely by the City Property Management Committee, as was the case in 1992. 
 The City Administration is disputing the privatization as it believes that the power network should belong to the city, rather than having been given to Lenenergo under the privatization plan, Anikeyev said. 
 &quot;We think that this suit isn't a danger to our company or to privatization in the city in general,&quot; said Larisa Semyonova, spokesperson for Lenenergo, in a telephone interview on Thursday. 
 She said that the motives behind the suit are clearly political, as it is well known that Andrei Likhachyov, the general director at Lenenergo, is one of Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's main political opponents. Many analysts believe that Likhachyov, a member of the political council of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party in St. Petersburg, is a potential candidate in the next round of elections for governor.
 &quot;The City Administration had seven years to file this suit, but it preferred to wait right up until the expiry date of the statute of limitations on privatization and went to court just as the temperature goes down to minus 30 degrees Celsius,&quot; Semyonova added.
 &quot;Our shareholders and foreign investment funds keep calling us and we're trying to comfort them, and explain that the suit doesn't have any future,&quot; Semyonova said.
 The official statement of the City Administrative Committee itself states that it brought its case in December of 2002 in order to prevent the power network becoming Lenenergo property irredeemably in January of this year. 
 In 2001, the City Administration established a 100-percent city-owned company, St. Petersburg Power Networks, and gave it an electric-power network that had been built through investment projects worth 150 million rubles ($5 million). 
 Maxim Kalinin, a partner at Baker &amp; McKenzie's St. Petersburg office, is dubious about the grounds for the case, and cites the creation of St. Petersburg Power Networks as evidence of a double standard. 
 &quot;Although we didn't follow the Lenenergo privatization in detail at the time, it's not logical to call the 1992 reorganization process of a state company into a joint-stock company a privatization. In fact, it was a reorganization, with the controlling stake being handed over to UES, a company totally controlled by the state,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;If the City Administration is willing to give infrastructure to St. Petersburg Power Networks, then what's the difference between one joint-stock company, St. Petersburg Power Networks, or another, Lenergo. One is controlled by the city while the other is controlled by the state,&quot; he said. 
 Lenenergo, the largest company working in the energy sector in Northwest Russia, supplies 100 percent of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast's electricity and about 60 percent of their heating energy. 
 Shareholders in the local power monopoly include the state electric power monopoly UES, with a 49-percent stake, the German company E. ON Energi, with a 9.3-percent stake, and the Bank of New York and Prosperity Capital Management, with five percent each. Sales in 2001 totaled 16.8 billion rubles ($525 million) and net profit amounted to 1 billion rubles ($30 million).

TITLE: Central Bank Eases Post-Crisis Restrictions
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russians can now invest their rubles in hard currency bonds for the first time since the Central Bank was forced to ban the practice in the aftermath of the 1998 economic collapse.
 
Investment house Troika Dialog on Thursday unveiled a mutual fund that allows the company to convert its rubles into dollars to buy eurobonds and dollar-denominated government-debt issues, called OVVZs, for its investors.
 &quot;Despite the general trend toward currency liberalization, [mutual funds] did not have the right to buy assets nominated in a foreign currency until now,&quot; Troika Dialog Asset Management President Pavel Teplukhin told a news conference. &quot;The fund opens access to a new class of instruments that was not accessible to the general public before.&quot; 
 Troika is thus far the only asset-management company to receive special permission from the Central Bank to provide the service, a distinction that its rivals attribute to the fact that its former chief economist, Oleg Vyugin, is now first deputy chairperson of the Central Bank. The letter granting permission was signed by deputy chairperson Viktor Melnikov, who is in charge of currency controls and reports directly to Vyugin.
 Teplukhin denied that Troika had received preferrential treatment, saying that it took six months to get the go-ahead to launch the fund, called Sadko. 
 Other mutual-fund operators, however, were left wondering if they, too, will be granted permission to compete with Troika in the new market.
 Rivalries aside, market players applauded the development, saying that it would help the whole industry and make it easier for others to follow.
 &quot;Instead of bearing a grudge against Troika for being the first, we all should thank them, because this is a very important victory for the whole industry of collective investments in Russia,&quot; said Alexander Chernyshov, head of the legal department at PioGlobal.
 Previously, Russians could buy eurobonds only by opening a special account at any bank with a general license, but with a minimum-purchase requirement of $100,000, making the instrument extremely exclusive.
 Teplukhin said that the minimum investment allowed in Sadko, Troika's fourth PIF, is 250,000 rubles, or less than $8,000. The fund will focus mostly on Russia's 2030 Eurobond and OVVZ tranches six, seven and eight, he added.
 &quot;We expect insurance and pension funds, as well as wealthy individuals, to become our main clients,&quot; he said.
 Chernyshov said that PioGlobal is ready to compete with Sadko, but that it has not yet applied to the Central Bank for permission. &quot;We will do everything we can to get the same permission as Troika,&quot; he said.
 Alexandra Vodovozova, head of legal affairs at NIKoil, another industry leader, said that it is still unclear &quot;exactly what kind of permission Troika received.&quot; 
 &quot;It is hard to say for sure if Troika will really be able buy these instruments,&quot; Vodovozova said.
 Competition among fund managers is intensifying as the next stage of the government's ambitious pension-reform program, which should bring some $2 billion into the market this year, kicks into gear.

TITLE: Russia Gets To Take a Peek Through Microsoft Windows
AUTHOR: By Larisa Naumenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia will be the first country to get a look at one of the most closely guarded corporate secrets in the world: the blueprint for Microsoft's omnipresent Windows operating system.
 
The U.S. software titan said Wednesday that it would open the source code for Windows to governments and international organizations worldwide to enable them to beef up the security of their software, used for everything from designing weapons to managing money supplies.
 The first two entities to sign up for the initiative, dubbed the Government Security Program, are Russia and NATO, but the company hopes that governments and international organizations in some 60 countries will eventually be involved.
 The move is seen by the international information technologies community as an attempt to slow the growth of Linux, Microsoft's principal rival in the lucrative market of government contracts. Unlike Windows, Linux is an operating system with an open source code, which allows programmers to modify it at will to enhance security.
 Craig Mundie, a senior vice president at Microsoft, said that the move was intended, in part, to dispel media reports and rumors posted on the Internet that a secret &quot;back door&quot; was built into Windows to allow the U.S. government to spy on its users, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
 &quot;This should go a long, long way toward eliminating the popular speculation in many countries that has been used to attack Microsoft,&quot; Mundie was quoted as saying.
 &quot;The issue is how comfortable are governments depending on the technology of a United States company and Microsoft in particular,&quot; he said. &quot;As a technology platform, we want to be demonstrably neutral to national interests.&quot;
 Under the program, governments will be able to access 97 percent of the blueprints for Windows versions used to run desktop computers, network servers and hand-held devices for analysis and testing.
 To view the other 3 percent - the most sensitive part - requires traveling to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
 Both Microsoft in Moscow and Russia's Federal Agency for Governmental Communications and Information, or FAPSI, declined to give details of the agreement, saying that they would be announced Monday.
 &quot;This agreement is a significant step forward in implementation of information-security requirements that, on the whole, improves the opportunities Russia's governmental organizations have to launch and use protected information systems,&quot; said Boris Girichev, the head of NTTs Atlas, the company chosen by FAPSI to represent the government in the Government Security Program.
 &quot;The inaccessibility of source codes and other technical information has limited the opportunities of governmental organizations in Russia to use Microsoft products,&quot; he said.
 The government has not yet announced a preference for which operating systems agencies and ministries use and will now have a chance to see how well Windows can be applied to ensure information security.
 &quot;This is a very good promotion move by the giant in a fight for a giant budget,&quot; said Anatoly Lebedev, president of Lancrypto, which specializes in data security. 
 Still, at a length of tens of millions of lines, Lebedev doubts that any government team of professionals can seriously analyze the Windows coding.
 &quot;Without knowing concrete terms of the agreement, it's hard to say what it will lead to,&quot; he said.
 Market-research agency IDC estimates that a quarter of all servers sold worldwide in 2001 run on Linux and about half on Windows. In Russia, IDC says that Linux's market share that year was less than 5 percent.
 More than two dozen countries, including China and Germany, have been actively encouraging their ministries and agencies to use Linux or other open-source operating systems.
 &quot;In the government sector, the battle between open-source products and Microsoft products is the fiercest. Several European governments have been seriously investigating Linux as an alternative to investing millions of dollars in Microsoft's operating systems,&quot; said Robert Farish, head of IDC's Moscow office.

TITLE: Duma Ready To Vote On UES
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The State Duma voted to go ahead with the crucial second reading of a controversial package of bills next week that will radically alter the country's power industry - one day after the deputy speaker of the lower house said that it would be delayed indefinitely.
 
The deputy speaker, Lyubov Sliska, said Tuesday that the vote would be put off until next month at the earliest, because the government intends to introduce new amendments.
 But Andrei Loginov, the cabinet's representative to the Duma, said Wednesday that there is no reason to exclude the vote from the January agenda. The vote is slated for next Wednesday.
 Oleg Kovalyov, head of the Duma regulation and organization committee and a member of the centrist Unity faction, said that the agenda-setting Duma Council has until the last minute to delay the vote if it feels that there is a reason to do so, news agencies reported.
 The council is expected to make a final decision Tuesday.
 Andrei Yegorov, a spokesperson for power monopoly Unified Energy Systems, which would be broken up as a result of the reform, said that the timing all depends on the government's amendments.
 &quot;Nothing has changed,&quot; he said, adding that UES is confident the bills will pass.
 If the vote is postponed, it won't be the first time.
 After the Duma refused to vote on the bills in December, President Vladimir Putin summoned senior officials involved in the overhaul of UES - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Kremlin Chief of Staff and UES board Chairperson Alexander Voloshin, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref and UES chief Anatoly Chubais - and told them that politics should be put aside and the reform implemented, according to industry sources.
 Putin, in a move that underscores the political importance of the project, then told Kasyanov that he would be personally responsible for the industry revamp. Tasked with the new responsibility, Kasyanov had his people review the bills and decided to make some changes, hence the possible delay in the vote, sources said.
 More than 1,400 amendments had already been agreed to before the second reading was delayed in December.
 If and when the bills pass, however, remain anyone's guess.
 The political horse-trading between presidential economic advisor Andrei Illarionov, Duma factions, the cabinet, UES management and its shareholders and other groups has continued for more than two years and has been further complicated by looming Duma elections in December.
 With no one group powerful enough to get its way, one of the means to break the vicious cycle was to bring Kasyanov into the fray, said Yevgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Troika Dialog.
 &quot;The decision to appoint Kasyanov had to be made because the infighting was becoming pointless and ridiculous in the eyes of investors,&quot; Gavrilenkov said.
 But, regardless of when the bills are passed &quot;there won't be any major developments until elections are over; all the politicians will settle into new places and a two-year window of opportunity will open,&quot; he said.
 Boris Makarenko of the Center for Political Technologies, however, believes just the opposite.
 &quot;The fact that Kasyanov has been put in charge simply indicates that this is top-priority legislation,&quot; he said.
 Makarenko downplayed reports that the reform package did not have enough support in the Duma, saying that dissenting centrist factions could be dramatizing the situation in order to win themselves political leverage for the future.
 &quot;The battle [over the UES reform] is in the upper echelons of Russian power, so it is very difficult to predict the outcome,&quot; said deputy Viktor Pokhmelkin, an independent.
 The market reacted positively Wednesday to news of the reading going ahead, as UES shares edged up 1.94 percent to $0.1315, after falling 3.4 percent the previous day.
 
 <i>
Staff Writer Natalia Yefimova contributed to this report. </i>

TITLE: Ilim Sues Major Tycoons In London Court Action
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - One of Russia's largest forestry concerns has taken its long-running feud with some of the country's most powerful businesspeople to Britain.
 
St. Petersburg-based Ilim Pulp said Tuesday that it had filed suit in London against Russian Aluminum co-owners Oleg Deripaska and Roman Abramovich, Sibneft president Eugene Shvidler and other parties involved in an ownership dispute with Deripaska's industrial holding, Base Element, over forestry assets in Irkutsk.
 The lawsuit, filed in the London Court for International Arbitration, says that Deripaska, Abramovich, Shvidler, RusAl, BasEl, Sibneft, St. Petersburg banker Vladimir Kogan and Base Element's forestry subsidiary Kontinental Management violated an agreement concerning the transfer of shares in various companies, said Simon Cockshutt of Coudert Brothers, Ilim's chief litigator in London.
 &quot;We are ready to sue Deripaska,&quot; Ilim spokesperson Svyatoslav Bychkov said. &quot;Our goal is not to attack. We're taking defensive action. It's not because we don't like him, but because the structures close to him are actively attempting a hostile takeover of our assets.&quot;
 For reasons that are unclear, Shvidler, on behalf of unnamed partners, signed an agreement with Ilim chairperson Zakhar Smushkin in December 2001 that was intended to end an ownership dispute over several forestry plants. Cockshutt said that Deripaska, principal Sibneft owner Abramovich and the others named in the suit are those partners. The agreement stipulated that any dispute arbitration be handled in London.
 &quot;The corruption in the Russian justice system is much higher than in the West,&quot; Bychkov said. &quot;We want to offer Mr. Deripaska the chance to fight on ground that's less convenient for him.&quot;
 BasEl spokesperson Alexei Drobashenko said that neither Deripaska nor any representative of his companies were involved in the agreement, and declined to comment until BasEl is officially notified of the suit.
 Sibneft did not deny that Shvidler signed the agreement, but also declined to comment until official notification.
 The agreement stipulated that no material damage would be done at Ust-Ilimsk and that Shvidler and those he signed on behalf of would not compete with Ilim in Irkutsk for two years.
 Ilim says that the respondents-to-be stripped assets from the Bratsk Foresty Plant, or BLPK, and the Ust-Ilimsk Pulp and Paper Plant, which Ilim bought as part of the agreement, and are breaking the noncompetition clause by its recent attempts to take over BLPK.
 Under the agreement, Ilim paid $200 million to buy Ust-Ilimsk and to regain control of BLPK, which was taken over briefly by managers affiliated with BasEl in 2001.
 In December 2002, managers from Kontinental Management, in which BasEl owns 30 percent, attempted to assert control over BLPK's two main factories, BKKh and TsKK, in which it bought majority stakes through the State Property Fund in a deal that Ilim has contested.
 Last May, a super-minority shareholder in the Bratsk plant, Oleg Rudakov, won a 5-billion-ruble ($157-million) suit in a Kemerovo court against Ilim and other shareholders. Based on that decision, the stakes in BKKh and TsKK were arrested and put up for sale by the State Property Fund, eventually landing in the hands of Kontinental.
 Ilim Pulp owned - and says it still owns - 86 percent of BKKh and, directly and indirectly, 100 percent of TsKKh.

TITLE: LUKoil To Defend Iraqi Stake in Baghdad
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - As positioning for a slice of the world's second biggest oil patch heats up, top executives from LUKoil descended Wednesday on Baghdad to plead their case for winning back a multibillion-dollar contract to develop a vast oil field.
 
The LUKoil executives traveled as part of a heavyweight delegation of top government officials and business people seeking to secure Russia's economic interests as the threat of a U.S.-led military strike mounts. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov headed the delegation, which also included First Deputy Energy Minister Ivan Matlashov, Zarubezhneft president Nikolai Tokarev and Viktor Lorents, president of Stroitransgaz, the construction arm of Gazprom, LUKoil and Stroitransgaz said Tuesday.
 LUKoil spokesperson Mikhail Mikhailov said that the priority of the two-day Baghdad visit was to make sure that the oil field contract remains in LUKoil hands.
 &quot;We are going there to try and clarify the situation surrounding the contract,&quot; Mikhailov said.
 He said that LUKoil still considers its contract valid, despite a surprise announcement by Iraq late last year that it was tearing up the deal because the oil giant had failed to meet its obligations to develop the West Qurna field, which is thought to hold about 2.5 billion tons of reserves.
 He said that the deal can only be voided through a decision of an international arbitration court.
 Mikhailov could not say, however, which LUKoil managers were traveling with the delegation or with whom they will meet.
 Russian oil companies, including No. 1 LUKoil, have long feared that they might lose their competitive edge in Iraq to richer U.S. oil giants should a successful military strike lead to Saddam Hussein's removal.
 The Baghdad trip comes in the wake of reports that leading U.S. oil majors have been in intense talks with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush administration over the future of Iraq's oil reserves. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Texaco Corp., Conoco Philips and Halliburton met with the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney in October to discuss a future carve-up. The Bush administration denies that the meeting took place.
 Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz last month accused LUKoil of trying to win U.S. guarantees that its stake in the West Qurna field would be retained under a new regime. He said this &quot;outrageous&quot; behavior led to the deal being axed. LUKoil's stake is estimated to be worth as much as $20 billion.
 Leading Iraqi Oil Ministry officials have promised that the West Qurna field would be reserved for another Russian company.
 LUKoil Vice President Leonid Fedoun sharply criticized the Iraqi government for deciding to break the deal, which he said could not be implemented under UN sanctions.
 &quot;We have not violated any terms of the contract,&quot; he said in a recent telephone interview.
 He said that the company had not conducted any official talks with the United States on the possibility of gaining guarantees for the stake. He would not say whether the issue had been discussed unofficially.
 &quot;But there is nothing in the contract that prevents us from having contacts with whomever we want,&quot; he said.
 The Energy Ministry on Tuesday declined comment on the purpose of the visit.
 Stroitransgaz spokesperson Valentina Smirnova said that the company was hoping to sign off on a deal to develop Block Four of the Western Desert field during the trip.
 &quot;All the formalities have already been agreed,&quot; she said. &quot;All that remains is to get the signatures of both sides.&quot;
 She could not say how much the contract might be worth or put a figure on the volume of reserves contained in the field.
 Vremya Novostei daily reported Tuesday that Iraq was dangling licenses for the vast Nahr Umr field before state-owned companies Rosneft and Zarubezhneft.

TITLE: Drive Towards Reform at Gas Monopoly Stalled By Miller
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Investor fears over the lack of a clear restructuring plan for Gazprom pushed its shares down 2.7 percent on Wednesday, following news that the natural-gas monopoly was fiercely resisting government plans to begin the breakup of its mammoth structure.
 
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller convinced President Vladimir Putin to slow down the drive to restructure the company by sending him a letter late last year in which he argued that such plans would endanger the country's energy supplies and frighten off investors, a source in Gazprom, who wished to remain anonymous, said Wednesday.
 That move led to the postponement of a cabinet meeting slated for Dec. 26 to discuss the reform. Putin was due to meet with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, and Miller, on Thursday, to hammer out a compromise ahead of the cabinet meeting, rescheduled for February.
 In the letter, Miller objected to Gref's plan to split off gas pipeline and distribution companies from the monopoly and incorporate them into 100-percent Gazprom-owned daughter companies.
 &quot;We are convinced that it is vital to keep a unified system of gas supplies under a centralized production complex because this is the basis for maintaining the reliability of energy supplies in the country,&quot; the Gazprom source cited the letter as saying. It also said that such moves would provoke investor jitters, he said.
 Analysts said Wednesday that Gref's proposals would not radically change Gazprom and that they are a big compromise on earlier plans.
 &quot;People are getting tired of the government's failure to make a decision [on Gazprom]. It has drifted into a pre-election hiatus,&quot; said Stephen O'Sullivan, oil-and-gas analyst at United Financial Group.&quot; There's clear opposition to restructuring within Gazprom. Miller was brought in to clean up the company. But to a certain extent he's gone native. Now that he heads a monopoly, he wants to keep it as a monopoly,&quot; he said.
 William Browder, managing director of leading Gazprom minority shareholder Hermitage Capital Management, said Wednesday that he did not think investors were spooked by the plan to create daughter companies.
 &quot;What is problematic is the next step: the hiving off of production assets to independent oil companies,&quot; he said. &quot;The main thing we don't want is a repeat of the UES experience.&quot;
 Minority investors have been up in arms over plans to break up electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems into a distribution network and competing generating companies, saying that the process would allow assets to be transferred out of their hands to crony companies at knockdown prices.

TITLE: Sberbank Assailed By Own Director
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Despite efforts to keep him quiet, independent Sberbank board member Vadim Kleiner on Tuesday reiterated accusations of poor management at the retail-banking monopoly and raised more concerns about its inefficiency.
 
The Sberbank supervisory board on Dec. 24 passed a resolution condemning a presentation that Kleiner gave in London earlier that month as violating joint-stock company law and damaging the bank's reputation.
 During a conference call Tuesday, Kleiner expressed concerns about the decline in loan provisions in the first nine months of 2002 compared to the same period in 2001 and a dramatic 46-percent increase in staff costs, which he said were already high.
 He criticized Sberbank's three-page justification of its 28-billion-ruble ($880 million) expenditure program for 2003.
 &quot;Imagine you're a borrower of Sberbank and try to get from them not even $900 million but, say, $1 million, and you would provide as support ... for your loan three pages with charts,&quot; Kleiner said. He said that the plans would be discussed in more detail at the board's next meeting in February.
 He also vowed to put a discussion of his London presentation on the agenda. In that presentation, Kleiner accused Sberbank of cheating both investors, by wasting value, and retail customers - the Russian population - by subsidizing loans at their expense.
 Kleiner said that Sberbank loses out on $1 billion of net income - which was $911 million in 2001 under international accounting standards - by giving loss-making loans to management and cheap money to corporate majors, while exercising poor cost controls.
 Analysts have long bemoaned Sberbank's cheap loans, which discourage competition.

TITLE: No Nuclear Blackmail
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Frolov
TEXT: CALLS for a diplomatic settlement of the current North Korea crisis are largely based on the premise that the North Koreans are simply interested in exchanging their nuclear-weapons program for the largest possible quantity of political and economic benefits. Under this interpretation, ending the standoff and returning North Korea to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty framework requires providing it with specific promises of security guarantees, heating-oil shipments, light-water nuclear reactors and normalized political relations with the United States. This logic implies that a simple return to the status quo of North Korea freezing its nuclear program under UN International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards is an acceptable outcome.
 
Unfortunately, it is not. Much more is required.
 The biggest flaw in this strategy, aside from rewarding nuclear blackmail and brinkmanship, is that its underlying premise - that North Korea is simply bargaining for the best terms to end its nuclear program - could be entirely wrong. What if North Korea's real objective is to acquire a sizable nuclear arsenal and to become a declared nuclear power, just as India and Pakistan did in 1998?
 And what if its overtures for direct talks with the United States are nothing but a diplomatic cover to gain valuable time for completing the extraction of weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods and to assemble a few more nuclear weapons?
 It is also quite possible that, based on its experience with the Agreed Framework of 1994, North Korea is counting on achieving both objectives simultaneously - rapidly to build additional nuclear weapons and to trade a freeze on further production for security guarantees and regime-saving economic aid from the international community.
 Such an outcome would be a disaster, and a complete failure of the nuclear-nonproliferation regime. This should not be allowed to happen.
 Although dialogue with North Korea is essential, including bilateral dialogue with the United States, the outcome should be a complete end to North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
 A simple return to the status quo that existed before October 2002 is not enough. A complete roll-back of the entire North Korean nuclear program is imperative, with full accounting for fissile material produced - including through the secret uranium enrichment program - and nuclear weapons assembled. It should be undertaken under an intrusive international verification regime that would provide for on-site inspections without the right of refusal. Such an inspection regime might have to exceed the standard IAEA requirements and could be extremely upsetting for North Korea's leadership. But it is the only way to guarantee that the international community will not be deceived again, as was the case with the Agreed Framework of 1994.
 This is the penalty North Korea has to pay for its brinkmanship.
 Furthermore, the Agreed Framework cannot be implemented as signed. It should be modified or replaced to eliminate international obligations to build light-water nuclear-power reactors in North Korea. North Korea's power generation needs should be met through conventional non-nuclear options (Russia seems to have a surplus of electric generation capacity in the Far East that might come in handy). With two nuclear crises, a record of violating its nuclear commitments and two withdrawals from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, North Korea has essentially forfeited its right to be trusted with nuclear energy for civilian use.
 It could be argued that North Korea might not find such a diminished package of incentives appealing enough to return to the international community's good graces. This might be true if North Korea's main objective is to acquire nuclear weapons at all costs.
 However, in that case, no amount of &quot;carrots&quot; is likely to be effective and quite different options, including the use of force, should be seriously considered.
 If, on the other hand, North Korea's strategy is indeed to trade its entire nuclear program for U.S. security guarantees, diplomatic recognition and economic aid, as we are told, then it should have no problem with accepting stringent limitations on its ability to engage in things nuclear ever again. After all, no one seriously believes that North Korea needs nuclear reactors for electricity generation.
 North Korea should not be allowed to build &quot;a few more nuclear weapons.&quot; This is a country whose only internationally competitive exports are long-range ballistic missiles, and whose regime does not blink before allowing 2 million of its citizens to die of starvation.
 Having now disposed of the IAEA safeguards on its nuclear facilities, North Korea is unlikely to hesitate in diversifying its export flows with nuclear weapons, the designs, or weapons-grade materials.
 This is not a prospect that the international community should brush off lightly.
 Any diplomatic settlement of the current crisis needs to ensure a complete denuclearization of North Korea. Otherwise we will be forced to go through similar nuclear standoffs over and over again.
 It is in Russia's security interests to drive this message home to North Korea.
 
 <i>Vladimir Frolov, the deputy staff director of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. The views expressed are the author's own and do not reflect the position of the committee or any of its members. </i>

TITLE: Mariinsky the Perfect Stage For Change
TEXT: IF ever there was an opportunity to find a compromise between the classical and the modern, it is the new design project for the Mariinsky Theater.
 
The voices that have, in the past, called for at least a modicum of modernism to be introduced into the city's architectural landscape have, so far, been drowned out by those determined to preserve the city's rococo architectural traditions.
 To be fair, the traditionalists have done St. Petersburg a good deal of good in the past. Some point out that Moscow is a more modern-looking and vital city than St. Petersburg. They have a point. But the traditionalists themselves score a point in noting that, between the 1950s and 1970s, the city's skyline was spared the blots suffered by the capital from architectural monstrosities that can only be categorized as Stalinist gigantism from an architectural point of view. Brief consideration of the mammoth Rossia Hotel, located a short walk from the Kremlin, is all the evidence the traditionalists need.
 At the same time, spicing things up a bit every once in a while has its own advantages. There's no question that a good part of the city's character and the self image of those who live here is generated by the impressive collection of magnificent traditional structures. The view from Palace Bridge includes the Hermitage, the Admiralty, the Strelka and the Peter and Paul Fortress, to name only a few of the highlights. From the same spot, the more modern appearance of the Hotel St. Petersburg looks out of place. But that's why the Mariinsky project is such a perfect opportunity to provide a little change of pace.
 The nearest building of real traditional interest to the Mariinsky's location on Teatralnaya Ploshchad is Nikolsky Cathedral, which won't even be visible from the new location. More importantly, the new building won't be visible from the grounds of Nikolsky Cathedral, so building a more contemporary home for the theater won't ceate the danger of spoiling a more classical view for others.
 In fact, the opportunity currently staring the city in the face can keep both the traditionalists and the modernizers happy. The old building will stay - and, importantly, be brought up to par technically - while the money is there for a new one, and some well-known architectural minds are interested in providing a new design. The choice of design should be one that stands out from the city in a place where people who don't want to see it stand out don't have to.
 Perhaps Eric Owen Moss' initial design last year went a bit too far, and deserved the nickname &quot;garbage bag&quot; given to it by some. On the other hand, given the amount of trash that can accumulate in the city's streets and courtyards, even a so-called &quot;garbage bag&quot; might not be such an inappropriate choice.

TITLE: Why Do We Need To Have A Referendum?
TEXT: It is becoming increasingly obvious that the deadly truck-bomb attack in Grozny on Dec. 27 that virtually leveled the pro-Moscow Chechen government building, killing or wounding almost 200 people, has not led to a change in Moscow's policies in the region. The Kremlin is continuing to press forward with a referendum in March to adopt a new Chechen constitution, to make the republic a &quot;normal&quot; province of the Russia Federation with limited autonomy.
 
Chechnya's territory is not large - 160 kilometers from north to south and 80 from east to west. During the wars and with the constant lawlessness of the 1990s, virtually all the Russians that settled in Chechnya during tsarist and Soviet times left - together with a sizable portion of the Chechen population - to become refugees inside Russia proper.
 The remaining population is very close-knit. One would think that Chechens well know the true organizers of the truck-bombing in Grozny.
 But there have been no arrests and the Russian authorities seem to be clueless as to who organized the attack and how. The Russian military has instead been pointing the finger in the general direction of Chechen separatist President Aslan Maskhadov and notorious warlord Shamil Basayev.
 Maskhadov and Basayev have been accused of other vicious crimes for many years. Yet they are still free to move and operate within Chechnya, which is occupied by some 80,000 Russian service personnel. The protection enjoyed by the separatist leaders under conditions of very harsh military occupation seems to indicate that the rebels are not isolated. It is the Russian &quot;victors&quot; and their Chechen lackeys who are under siege.
 The so-called Chechen government is, in fact, run by Russians appointed by Moscow, with ethnic Chechens acting as figureheads. This week the Kremlin-appointed head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, attempted to appoint a new finance minister when the previous one - an ethnic Russian - resigned. Chechnya's Prime Minister Mikhail Babich (also Russian) resisted the appointment, accusing Kadyrov of overstepping his authority.
 The prosecutor general of Chechnya (again, a Russian) publicly supported Babich, acknowledging the existence of a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin that all appointments in Chechnya are to be made only by the Kremlin.
 Today, all Chechens - including the pro-Moscow ones - are indiscriminately considered to be potential terrorists by the Russian authorities. A close friend of mine, a high-ranking businessperson at a prominent Russian company, recently wanted to employ an ethnic Chechen business-school graduate. The young man and his qualifications fitted the job, but his nationality did not.
 The CEO of the company where my friend works explained that, if you employ an ethnic Chechen in Moscow, you have to report to the security authorities each month about his activities, and, if a Chechen employee does something wrong, the Moscow authorities will hold the company responsible.
 The referendum to link Chechnya forever to Russia is a pointless exercise, if Chechens are, in any case, treated as unwanted foreigners. Their situation, in many respects, is worse than that of Jews in Soviet times. The government building in Grozny is being rebuilt after the bombing with new fortifications, including reinforced concrete gun positions. It seems that Russians and Chechens are settling in for the long haul.
 
 <i>Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent defense analyst. </i>

TITLE: euro culture capital looks east
AUTHOR: by Sami Hyrskylahti
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: VIENNA - At first sight, it seemed like a super high-powered gathering of St. Petersburg luminaries. Governor Yakovlev was at the opening gala; Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev had taken over the airwaves; popular band La Minor was playing in the streets; and the public saunas played host to people such as Viktor Mazin, the director of the city's Freud Museum.
 
Yet this was Graz, and the reason that brought these people together - and will bring over 100 more - was the European Culture Capital. St. Petersburg also vied for the title, first awarded to Athens in 1985, for the year of its 300th anniversary, but missed out to its Austrian rival. Generous in victory, however, Graz decided to honor St. Petersburg and its anniversary with a large-scale program celebrating its art and culture.
 While some of Graz' St. Petersburg program comprises sure-fire winners - such as Gergiev and the Mariinsky, who are slated to perform for two weeks in February, playing Russian music from three centuries - the most avant-garde and experimental section, called &quot;spb.fineart.discussion.film.rock - current art from petersburg&quot; represents one of the most comprehensive review of St. Petersburg's contemporary culture ever seen outside the city.
 &quot;We started work at the end of 1999. Altogether, there are around 50 artists and musicians from St. Petersburg involved,&quot; said Herwig Hoeller, who, together with two other young Austrians and St. Petersburger Olesya Turkina, put together the monumental project, which has already been greeted with great enthusiasm.
 &quot;Last weekend's opening went extremely well,&quot; said Hoeller. &quot;One reason for that might be that, because of some smaller events we have organized in recent years, Russian culture has become more and more current here.&quot;
 Turkina was also very satisfied with the arrangements in Graz.
 &quot;Eveything was lively and not at all bureaucratic,&quot; she said. &quot;Surprisingly, St. Petersburg art looks very contemporary and non-bourgeois here.&quot;
 Among the artists whose work Turkina is curating are photographer Dmitry Shubin, who is exhibiting a series called &quot;Chosen Places,&quot; about recent contract killings in St. Petersburg, and necrorealist Yevgeny Yufit.
 La Minor, whose concert in Graz was the opening performance of a mini-tour of Europe, was also very warmly welcomed. The urban-folk band, which mainly plays Soviet-era gangster songs - although it has started writing its own material - also played at the concert that officially opened this year's European Culture Capital.
 &quot;We felt like stars,&quot; La Minor frontman Slava Shalygin said later in a radio interview.
 Denis Medvedev, a.k.a. DJ Redisco, was also surprised to see his set of Soviet disco tunes keep the full house dancing until the end of the last record.
 &quot;The audience was great; I didn't expect people here to be that interested in my music,&quot; he said. &quot;I think [the program] shows the best, most cutting-edge of St. Petersburg culture has to offer.&quot;
 Turkina pointed to the professional organization of the event, which she attributed mainly to Hoeller and his partners' good knowledge of Russian language and culture.
 Another noted St. Petersburg artist, Sergei &quot;Afrika&quot; Bugayev, who lectured in Graz on the theme &quot;The Artist, Politics and Globalization,&quot; was also grateful for the invitation.
 &quot;There are not many places where people like us Russians,&quot; he said. &quot;That's why it's important that there are still neutral and non-NATO countries, like Austria.&quot;
 Hoeller agreed that a new phase in relationships between Russia and Austria seems to be getting under way.
 &quot;[President Vladimir] Putin was the only foreign politician who sent his greetings to the opening ceremony [of Graz' year as European Culture Capital],&quot; he said. Part of the ceremony - at which Austrian President Thomas Klestil and Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel were present - was conducted in Russian.
 Hoeller pointed to the recent publication of many large articles - some front page - in Austria's national press, in which Putin has even been presented as the &quot;new Russian tsar.&quot;
 &quot;Maybe that's not critical enough, but there seem to be possibilities for collaboration on various levels,&quot; said Hoeller. &quot;It's like an Austrian cliche, in which the country is located on the border between the East and the West and has to talk to, deal with and negotiate with both sides.&quot;
 
 <i>
The St. Petersburg festival runs through Feb. 15 in Graz, Austria. Links: www.Graz03.at, http://forum. mur.at/spb </i>

TITLE: punk rocking all over the world
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Punk from Myanmar and Thailand, underground rock from Indonesia, Macedonia and Nepal, and countless bands from all the distant places in which it is hard to believe that rock exists - all brought together on one label.
 
A fantasy? No. It's all available thanks to Strasbourg, France-based Luk Haas, and his label, Tian An Men 89 Records.
 The label, named as a protest against the massacre on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, was created in 1993 to release punk music from parts of the world where, due to financial reasons, civil wars or a lack of record factories, bands have no way to release their music.
 Although the 7-inch EP-format vinyl records that Haas produces at a factory near Prague are not popular these days, Haas insists they are perfect for the music.
 &quot;Certainly, more people have CD players, but most people who are really into weird, interesting or strange music still have turntables,&quot; he says. &quot;There's a hell of a lot of music still only available on vinyl. It's a favorite format for punk, rap, reggae ... underground styles.&quot;
 &quot;The styles I produce are so underground, obscure and limited that I think people who are into discovering it have turntables, so it doesn't really matter,&quot; he says. &quot;Also, because I only produce 500 copies of each record, I'm not aiming for a 'market' anyway. And analog, well looked after, is long-lasting; not like some CD or digital formats that self-destruct after a few years.&quot;
 Haas was raised in a remote village of 4,000 people in the minority German region of France, before moving to Strasbourg to study in 1981. His background played a large part in forming his tastes.
 &quot;I guess that, being from an ethnic minority in France, and a militant in different organizations as a teenager had some influence on my musical and social research,&quot; he says.
 He cites Polish bands Perfect and Maanam, whose records were sent to him by a penfriend, as a &quot;revelation ... good rock in Polish.&quot; In the same way, he discovered the Soviet Union's Magnetic Band and Aquarium.
 &quot;It was great; listening to weird music and languages and enjoying it,&quot; he says. &quot;I had friends who were militants in a local organization for my region's culture, and [via contacts with other organizations] they recorded Basque rock, Portuguese rock, Finnish rock, etc. I loved it. I wanted more.&quot;
 In 1983, Haas' first trip to an Eastern-bloc country - Poland - was decisive.
 &quot;I bought all the rock records I could find,&quot; he says. &quot;From blues rock to psychedelic to metal to punk to new wave to reggae. Then I went to Czechoslovakia and Hungary and continued to dig into local rock and punk. It opened my eyes.&quot;
 &quot;They were exciting times - the banning of Solidarity, the state of emergency, etc.,&quot; he says. &quot;Very rock 'n' roll-influencing situations, especially in the wake of punk.&quot;
 Punk, which Haas sees as a form of folk music, made him more than a listener and collector, a fact he attributes to &quot;discovering that DIY spirit, fanzines and small labels, like MRR [U.S. punk magazine and label Maximum Rock 'n' Roll], Jazzova Sekce in Prague, and Mikolas Chadima in [Czechoslovakia]. I had to share what I discovered.&quot;
 Haas began writing for MRR in 1986, and founded his own label, Ukrutnost Tapes, that year, before starting a fanzine, Wielka Rewolucja, Mala Ewolucja, and then Tian An Men 89 Records. His first, and so far only, trip to Russia brought him to St. Petersburg in 1993, and left ambiguous impressions.
 &quot;I was scared most of the time,&quot; he says. &quot;The city looked so dangerous, and I didn't have much experience in such chaotic places. But I met so many people, and made lasting friendships.&quot;
 &quot;[It was] quite an experience - depressing, to say the least - seeing peoples' situation and being unable to help, or even think of a solution.&quot;
 Even the legendary, now defunct, TaMtAm Club, the city's only underground rock venue at the time, left Haas wondering what was going on.
 &quot;I went several times; it was hard to understand,&quot; he says. &quot;One night a reggae band, [another] a Nazi punk band. And people getting smashed on vodka and smoking like crazy. I don't drink, so it was hard. But, again, I met so many real people - just natural, not fake or pretenders like you often meet in the West.&quot;
 In 2001, Tian An Men 89 Records launched &quot;Pank Federatsiya&quot; (&quot;Punk Federation&quot;), devoted to punk bands from remote regions of Russia. The first release was a disc of Kabardino-Balkaria's Zuby (&quot;Teeth&quot;) and Tatarstan's Vitamin Rosta (&quot;Growth Hormone&quot;). Later this year, he plans to release a split of Karelia's Revolver and Buryatia's Imperya Snegov (&quot;Empire of Snows&quot;).
 Despite all his travelling, Haas' punk map still has blank spots.
 &quot;I'm still looking for other Central Asian bands, but it's not easy,&quot; he says. &quot;I was in contact with a guy in a metal-core band from Kyrgyzstan, but he was stupid, a real metalhead, and wasn't interested. Nothing at all from Turkmenistan, Tajikstan or Azerbaijan. And the North Caucasus seems quite empty.&quot;
 Haas, an idealist whose project is not for profit, no longer believes that music can change the world.
 &quot;When I first got into punk, I thought we could change something, and punk ... had the answers for me,&quot; he says. &quot;Now, probably not. Music is a superficial artefact that most people see as a fashion show.&quot;
 &quot;I love music, and there are great people making great music everywhere,&quot; Haas says. &quot;But, in the end, money and weapons rule the world. ... Music isn't a solution.&quot;
 Haas is still passionate about what he does, though.
 &quot;Music isn't a consumer item, to be thrown out when the fashion is over,&quot; he says. &quot;Music is culture, human heritage.&quot;
 
 <i>
Links: http://www.geocities.com/tam89 rds/ </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: The new <strong>Cynic </strong>continues to win back its old public with a series of &quot;official openings.&quot; This Friday will see yet another opening party - the fifth since Jan. 6, according to the venue's management.
 
Local ska-punk outfit Chirvontsy will headline the evening. Call in advance for details - the club's phones have now been connected. (See Club Guide for numbers.)
 After its high-energy, late-night gig in late November, alternative hip-hop/ rock band <strong>Kirpichi</strong> will play another concert at Red Club on Saturday.
 However, if the November show contained mainly material from Kirpichi's 2002 album &quot;Sila Uma&quot; (&quot;Strength of Mind&quot;), then Friday's gig will include new material, according to the band's singer/guitarist Vasya Vasin.
 &quot;Because we are now in the process of recording [a new album], concerts like this are important for us,&quot; he said about the concert, which will likely include six or seven new songs.
 However, there is no release date yet for the new album, which will be put out &quot;not soon,&quot; according to Vasin. The band is also scheduled to play on Feb. 2 at Orlandina.
 Meanwhile, <strong>Red Club </strong>has changed its schedule. Starting from January, live concerts all start at 8 p.m. - instead of the previous situation of arbitrary times between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. - which seems a rational decision. At midnight, live shows will be followed by DJs specializing in two-step and drum 'n' bass.
 <strong>Markscheider Kunst </strong>will play a full-size concert at Moloko on Friday. According to the Afro-Carribean-style band's guitarist, Sergei Yefremenko, alongside older material, the group will showcase a number of new songs, such as &quot;Schastye&quot; (&quot;Happiness&quot;), &quot;Mama #8&quot; and &quot;Lyusya.&quot;
 Yefremenko adds that the band will be augmented with a conga player for the concert. &quot;It will be a real concert, with no holding back,&quot; he says.
 Popular band <strong>Multfilmy </strong>will make a rare club appearance at Orlandina on Saturday. The gig will be the band's second gig at the venue - the first was a sell-out show in August that was technically an open rehearsal for Multfilmy's spot at the Nashestviye Festival near Moscow.
 &quot;It will be a normal concert,&quot; says Multfilmy's frontman, Yegor Timofeyev. &quot;It will include everything, old and new.&quot;
 The band, which has not performed in the city for a few months, toured extensively in Russia lately, having played around 20 concerts in Siberia and the Volga region in November.
 Timofeyev now calls Multfilmy's third album, &quot;Vitaminy&quot; (&quot;Vitamins&quot;) recorded in one take and released in September, &quot;foolish&quot; - despite waxing enthusiastic about it at the time.
 &quot;I don't like it, it's all crooked,&quot; he says. &quot;But some people like it. Zhenka [Yevgeny Lazarenko, Multfilmy's guitarist] likes it.&quot;
 Timofeyev says the band has recorded two new songs, a fast track called &quot;Mama&quot; and an as-yet-untitled slow number.
 Multfilmy will also feature the open-air festival, promoted by local student newspaper Gaudeamus, at the Kirov Stadium to simultaneously celebrate Tatyana's Day and Student's Day on Jan. 25. According to the band's management, the promoters promise to heat up the stage - but what about the audience?
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: not yet gold-medal standard
AUTHOR: by Tobin Auber
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Midday was perhaps not the best time to sample the atmosphere and cuisine at Platinum. With a stage for live music and at least four cavernous, brick-lined rooms and a stage, you could easily imagine that, in the evening, it would be a great venue for locals looking for a night out in the vicinity. As it was, the place was empty and, although the service was polite, prompt and friendly, we couldn't help getting the feeling that the six people on duty were simply pleased to see some new faces and, at last, have been given something to do. 
 
It would probably be unfair, however, to write it off too quickly - having only opened in mid-December, this bar-restaurant may be taking some time to establish a set of regulars large enough to fill out its spacious, low-ceilinged interior in a basement located along Kanal Griboedova.
 The menu did, however, offer some compensations. I went for the tuna salad (130 rubles, $4), which was a generous portion of fresh vegetables with a few morsels of red caviar thrown in for good measure. My companion took the crab salad, a beautifully presented dish comprising crab meat, rice, Chinese cabbage and avocado (190 rubles, $6), which was, however, just a little too heavy on the tomatoes. 
 Both were more than passable, but they were absolutely no competition for the soups, which were in a class of their own. My Tsarsky soup (100 rubles, $3.10) was a deliciously rich and creamy concoction that blended salmon, prawns, mushrooms and caviar with a biting, but not overpowering, lemony tang. 
 My companion's &quot;Urata&quot; soup (110 rubles, $3.45) was equally rich and tasty, even if the main components - mutton pelmeni and noodles - were somewhat surplus to requirements. 
 While there were twenty or thirty main courses to choose from, many of them veering towards the exotic, a notable tendency on the menu was for the dishes to feature nuts of some description, severely limiting the selection if you're not a nut fan, or have an allergy to the ingredient. My companion took the roast beef in a &quot;demiglyas&quot; sauce, with parsley, potato, bacon, paprika and coriander sauce (230 rubles, $7.20). I opted for the duck with almond and a subtle pomegranate sauce (290 rubles, $9.10). Again, the portions were beautifully presented and designed, clearly a feature at Platinum, but, disgracefully, our appetites were already beginning to flag. Even without ordering garnishes, we struggled to finish the dishes - a reflection on the generosity of the portions rather than the quality of the food. 
 As we reclined at our table, our appetites entirely satiated, sipping our green teas (20 rubles, $0.60), we couldn't help wondering at whom this new bar-restaurant is aimed. Despite the high quality of the food and the excellent service, it's a tad too formal (and, for the time being, too empty) to be a cozy destination when in search of a quick lunch during the day and, if first impressions are anything to go by, it fails to reach the mark as a full-blown restaurant that you would go out of your way to frequent in the evenings. 
 Like many of the mid-priced venues of its type springing up around the city, it's the kind of place that would be ideal to rent out for a celebration or an office occasion but, perhaps in view of it having only just opened, it hasn't yet developed a personal and intimate character of its own that would keep you coming back for more.
 
 <i>
Platinum, Gorokhovaya Ulitsa 26/40. Open daily, noon until the last customer leaves. Menu in Russian only. No credit cards. Meal for two, with no alcohol 1,050 rubles ($33). </i>

TITLE: singer hits high and low notes
TEXT: In Russia, the number of countertenors, or male singers who can sing as high as female altos and even sopranos, can literally be counted on one hand, and not all of them are even willing to identify themselves as such. While Oleg Ryabets prefers the term male soprano and Erik Kurmangaliyev calls himself a male alto, St. Petersburger Oleg Bezinskikh uses the word countertenor. Bezinskikh, 37, whose vocal range encompasses 3 1/2 octaves, was the first and only countertenor student in the history of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory.
 
Bezinskikh has a voice so flexible that he can sing soprano, mezzo soprano, alto, tenor and baritone roles with equal success. In 2001, scientists from the St. Petersburg Institute of Physiology measured the frequency of Bezinskikh's voice, which turned out to be stunning 1,000 hertz, a soprano frequency. 
 Ironically, although Bezinskikh has toured in Germany, Spain, France and the United States, there is not a lot of work for countertenors on the Russian music scene. Bezinskikh spoke with Staff Writer </i><strong>Galina Stolyarova </strong><i>about his versatile career, which has included baroque operas, contemporary music and even dubbing voices for Walt Disney cartoons.
 </i>
 
q:<i>As a child, did you dream of a career as a singer?
 </i>a:Not really. I always liked singing but grew up with no ambitions of becoming a musician. After I finished school, I wanted to become a theatrical director and entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Culture, and dreamed of a career as a director.
 
But when a professor heard my imitation of popular singer Tamara Sinyavskaya, he practically forced me to enter the conservatory. I was admitted, even though I had never been to music school and had no musical training at all. 
 
 
q:<i>Was it difficult for you to study?
 </i>a:It seemed like everyone was excited to have me at the conservatory, but at the same time, some of the professors refused to teach me. There is no method of training a countertenor in Russia, so teaching me was something of a problem. My professor, Viktor Yushmanov, didn't know the limits of my voice's range and didn't want to overestimate and damage my vocal cords. He frequently said that, while teaching me, he was learning a lot himself.
 

 
q:<i>Have people made assumptions about your voice?
 </i>a:Yes, a lot, especially at the start of my career. Everyone asked [Yushmanov] if I had been castrated. 'No,' he replied. &quot;Then he's a homosexual,&quot; was the next suggestion. &quot;Not that either,&quot; Yushmanov said. The rumors persisted until I brought my son to the conservatory. He was wandering around the corridors, talking to people and telling them about his daddy. I wish I didn't have to do that, but at the time, it seemed the only reasonable option. I felt cornered.
 
Now I have been in the business for some time, and people know I have been married twice, so the speculation has stopped. But the memories are still vivid, indeed.
 
 
q:<i>With your unique voice, are you in demand in Russia?
 </i>a:Unfortunately, my voice has been used in very few productions. The first attempt was made by Yury Alexandrov, artistic director of the St. Petersburg Opera, who invited me to sing the Holy Fool's aria in his 1995 production of Modest Mussorgsky's &quot;Boris Godunov.&quot; The performances were a scandal in local musical circles; several articles hinted that I had been castrated. I considered it extremely offensive. Didn't they know that the last castrato died in 1922?
 
Of course, after such a reaction, no invitations to prolong our cooperation followed from Alexandrov, who was also accused of sensationalism by the media. My next appearance wasn't until a one-off production of Dmitry Bortnyansky's &quot;Alcide&quot; at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in 1999.
 I do get some engagements. Last year, I recorded a CD with the Mariinsky Theater of the contemporary opera &quot;Tsar Demyan,&quot; which was composed by five Russian composers, including Leonid Desyatnikov, Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and Vladimir Nikolayev. I sang the role of the Giant Knight. But my concert schedule could certainly be more packed. Russia has always frowned upon the countertenor voice.
 
 
q:<i>Why do you think that is?
 </i>a:Russian authorities are good at ignoring talent. They treat the country's artists with so little care and attention. For example, if I want to give a recital at the Glinka Philharmonic, I would have to rent the hall for the night [which costs from $800 to $1,000] and be in charge of distributing the tickets. Even if I could afford the fee, the tickets would have to be very expensive, the hall would only be half full, and I would be saddled with losses. They tell me that the hall's concert schedule is too full to accommodate me but, at the same time, they tell me that I can choose any date for my concert if I rent the hall. This is just one example of how the state is forcing ailing concert halls and theaters to battle for survival.
 
Another problem is that Russian theaters tend to stick to habit. Even the Mariinsky Theater prefers to cast female singers in its rendition of &quot;Orfeo ed Eurydice,&quot; although Gluck originally wrote the opera with a countertenor in mind to sing the role of Orfeo. Every respectable opera company in the West has guest countertenors. In Handel's music there are arias for countertenors, Monteverdi designed his operas for them - as did Schnittke, by the way - but in Russia we are ignored and even called castrati.
 
 
q:<i>Have showbiz producers or promotional agencies approached you?
 </i>a:Yes, a few times, but I couldn't accept. The main reason why I keep refusing their offers is that I would be deprived of my privacy. I wouldn't have to worry about the financial side, but I wouldn't be able to choose my repertoire. The producer would decide with whom I should be performing, and at what venues. Furthermore, my personal contacts would be scrutinized, and I'd be advised on everything from where to dine to my prospective dining companions.
 

 
q:<i>You dubbed the voice of Mickey Mouse in the adaptation of the Disney cartoon for Russian television in 2000 and 2001. How did you feel about that new experience?
 </i>a:I enjoyed it very much. I plunged myself very deeply into the work, although it was very different from what I had been doing before. When I saw a video of myself during the dubbing, I was shocked. I saw myself curling up, jumping, pinching myself, clapping and so on. I feel very close to [Mickey], with his optimism, resourcefulness and ability to fight on without doubts and mistrust. I hate doubts. They destroy everything.
 

 
q:<i>After years of battling for survival, are you looking West?
 </i>a:I've done all I can to show my willingness to work in Russia, and my experiences have convinced me that no one needs me here. I regret turning down invitations to join Western companies. If a good offer comes up, I'll move.
 

 <i>
Oleg Bezinskikh sings at the Glinka Philharmonic on Jan. 24. </i>

TITLE: golden mask festival set to shine
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Golden Mask awards, Russia's top performing-arts festival, are usually held in Moscow but, this year, are coming north, and kick off at the Alexandriinsky Theater on March 27. The productions nominated for awards will show for two weeks at various venues, and the award ceremony will be held at the Mariinsky Theater in April.
 
According to Golden Mask Director Eduard Boyakov, the idea of holding the festival in St. Petersburg first occurred to him in 2000. (Perhaps coincidentally, the decision was announced shortly after Vladimir Putin, a St. Petersburg native, was elected president.) Few would argue that the city, which claims a hearty share of each year's prizes, deserves to host the country's most prestigious arts event.
 St. Petersburg actors, directors and designers have been nominated for 34 awards in 15 categories. Somewhat oddly - especially given the location of the final ceremony - perennial conducting nominee Valery Gergiev has been passed over this year. Why the Mariinsky's new production of Mussorgsky's opera &quot;Boris Godunov,&quot; the premiere of which Gergiev conducted, has been overlooked remains a mystery to everyone except the festival's &quot;Expert Council,&quot; or nominations committee. However, Gergiev will likely sufffer less from the decision than will the reputation of the council.
 Also missing are the theater's magnificent versions of Puccini's opera &quot;Turandot&quot; and controversial take on Tchaikovsky's opera &quot;Yevgeny Onegin,&quot; which, although produced during the 2002 season, were ineligible as they did not premiere before Aug. 1, the deadline stipulated by the Golden Masks' charter.
 Meanwhile, the Mariinsky's staging of Mozart's opera &quot;Cosi fan tutte,&quot; by Italian director Walter le Moli, has garnered eight nominations, including best opera production. Also nominated are Gianandrea Noseda (best conductor), Tatyana Pavlovskaya, Irina Matayeva and Galina Sidorenko (all for best female operatic role), and Ildar Abdrazakov and Daniil Shtoda (both for best male operatic role).
 Although the singers demonstrate a fine understanding of Mozartian delicacy and harmony, &quot;Cosi fan tutte&quot; is perhaps the Mariinsky's weakest Golden Mask nomination in the last three years. While not a bad show, it is not even the best that the theater did in the relevant season. Noseda is a good bet to take the conducting award, but Ildar Abrazakov has the best chance of all Mariinsky candidates. However, this is not necessarily due to the production - this rich, velvety bass of rare talent excels in virtually all his stage roles.
 Alexei Ratmansky is nominated twice as best choreographer, for the Mariinsky's &quot;Cinderella&quot; and &quot;Lea&quot; at Moscow's Bolshoi Post Modern Theater. His only rival is France's Rolan Petit, for &quot;The Queen of Spades&quot; and &quot;Passacaglia,&quot; both at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. &quot;Cinderella&quot; is also listed for best set design (by Ilya Utkin and Yevgeny Monakhov), best female dancer (Diana Vishnyova who, earlier this month, was named Europe's best dancer, also for Cinderella, by Dance Europe magazine), and best male dancer (Andrei Merkuriyev, as the Prince). &quot;Cinderella&quot; is also nominated as best ballet.
 Drama-wise, three locals are up for best director: Yury Butusov (Alexander Vampilov's &quot;The Eldest Son,&quot; at the Lensoviet Theater), Andrei Prikhotenko (Sophocles' &quot;Oedipus Rex&quot; at the Theater on Liteiny) and Igor Konyayev (Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's &quot;The Moscow Choir&quot; at the Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe). &quot;The Moscow Choir&quot; is also nominated for best large-stage drama, while &quot;Oedipus Rex&quot; has a good chance of taking the best chamber-stage award, although it may struggle against Moscow's Pyotr Fomenko Studio, for &quot;La Folle de Chaillot.&quot;
 Ksenia Rappoport (Jocasta in &quot;Oedipus Rex&quot;) is nominated for best actress, but the favorite here will be another St. Petersburger, Tatyana Shchuchko (Lika in &quot;The Moscow Choir&quot;).
 Moscow's ill-famed musical &quot;Nord-Ost&quot; is a three-time nominee (for best operetta/musical, best male operetta/musical role and best female operetta/musical role). However, as its sets are not even vaguely transportable, it will only be performed here in a concert version.
 
 <i>
Links: www.goldenmask.ru </i>

TITLE: 'two towers' not as well built
AUTHOR: by Manohla Dargis
PUBLISHER: The Los Angeles Times
TEXT: HOLLYWOOD - When the final chapter closes on Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's &quot;The Lord of the Rings,&quot; the whole extravaganza may well be heralded as one of the more heroic ventures in commercial cinema. Launched last December to enormous success with &quot;The Fellowship of the Ring,&quot; the ongoing epic has now entered an awkward adolescence with its middle feature, &quot;The Two Towers,&quot; on its way to its concluding volume, &quot;The Return of the King.&quot; Slated for completion next year, the entirety of the &quot;Rings&quot; looks auspicious, even if, in its present manifestation, this once and future landmark is a bit of a yawn. 
 
Based on the second volume of Tolkien's novel, &quot;The Two Towers&quot; begins fairly soon after &quot;The Fellowship of the Ring&quot; leaves off with the Hobbits, Frodo (Elijah Woods) and Samwise (Sean Astin), warily traveling toward the Dark Tower of Mordor, the lair of Sauron the Great. Conquered in an ancient war, Sauron has been gathering his forces with the intention of obliterating the world of men, Middle Earth, for which he needs the ring. In the first film, Frodo had become the ring's reluctant keeper, charged with its destruction by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan), a mission that transported him out of the idyll of his homeland, the Shire, and into a fellowship with eight other Middle-earth inhabitants. Splintered at the close of the first volume, the fellowship has been scattered and has to fight its enemies separately. 
 Tolkien began writing &quot;The Lord of the Rings&quot; in 1936 and, for years after its publication, insisted that it had nothing to do with World War II. Jackson has no such qualms, but his inspiration is cinematic, not political. In &quot;The Two Towers,&quot; he cribs an iconic image of massed troops from Leni Riefenstahl's &quot;Triumph of the Will,&quot; but the allusion loses its punch when you realize that another shot of goose-stepping troops has been lifted from &quot;The Wizard of Oz.&quot; Tolkien built his story on foundation myths; Jackson builds his on movies: The film's most charming new creature, a mossy shepherd named Treebeard, walks like the heron described by Tolkien but looks like a relation of the animated trees in &quot;Oz.&quot; When Gollum (voiced by Andy Serkis, with goggling CGI eyes and slithering silvery body) returns to the scene to pull the word &quot;master&quot; from its mouth, it's with the same sinister fawning as Dracula's helper Renfield. 
 Despite these cinefile fillips, Jackson and fellow screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Stephen Sinclair have enough to do just keeping Tolkien's histories and characters in play. To that end, the new film faithfully opens with the human warrior Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), a hunter with his own impending quest issues, in the company of the Elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). Together, the three are hotfooting across green slopes in search for two other fellowship members, the hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), who have been kidnapped by Orcs, servants of Sauron's strongest ally, the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee). 
 Tolkien devotes the first half of &quot;The Two Towers&quot; to Aragorn's exploits and the second to those of Frodo; Jackson, instead, oscillates between the questing travelers, before getting swept up in a battle that nearly proves the undoing of Aragorn and the film. While searching for the hobbits, Aragorn and his companions enter the human kingdom of Rohan, where they're soon engaged in protecting its people from Sauron's army. Jackson spends an interminable amount of time in Rohan, lavishing his attention on a battle that consumes less than a chapter in the novel. Set at night, the fight unfolds with hordes of the enemy (&quot;thick as marching ants,&quot; in Tolkien's words) descending in waves. Despite Mortensen's energetic vaults across the set, the tension slackens precipitously. It isn't only that there's no fun to be had watching ants get squashed; it's that the battle, designed for the video-game generation, proceeds in frustrating starts and stops, as if Jackson couldn't get past the first level. 
 With &quot;The Fellowship of the Ring,&quot; Jackson delivered us into never-before-seen worlds. The fellowship covers new ground in &quot;The Two Towers&quot; but the story bogs down in Rohan, a dreary stopover that fails to capture the imagination; unlike the Shire or Elvish lands, it doesn't look that different from the back-lot Middle Ages we've seen elsewhere. During the past few decades, computer technologies have enhanced (and waylaid) numerous films, but it wasn't until Jackson's first try at Tolkien that we saw the greater possibilities of those technologies, particularly in the realm of fantasy, where everything now seems possible. After years of anemic space escapades, in which the blue screen was invariably more important than the flesh-and-blood actors, digital video technologies were put in the service of a juicy story, and not the reverse. 
 That more or less holds true in &quot;The Two Towers,&quot; even if, for stretches at a time the tools at Jackson's disposal distract him from what he does best, which is push the story forward with the enthusiasm of a filmmaker who hasn't put ego before movie love. The director's great strength is the confidence with which he translates Tolkien's vision into visual imagery, even if he still gets tripped up converting that vision into dialogue. &quot;The Fellowship of the Ring&quot; was periodically hampered by the writers' attempts to cut swathes of narration into remnants. There's as much exposition in &quot;The Two Towers&quot; but, because Jackson and his screenwriter partners don't want to repeat themselves, they lay out the story even less clearly than they did on their first outing. When Aragorn consults with Gandalf it's easy to get lost in a thicket of names and allegiances. 
 As with &quot;The Fellowship of the Ring,&quot; the excitement and pleasure of &quot;The Two Towers&quot; comes from the feeling that we're doing more than simply watching a film but have, rather, embarked on an epic journey with like-minded travelers. If the second film never reaches the highs of the first - we have met the players before and there are no new worlds of wonder - it nonetheless invests moviegoing with a sense of adventure. Like Frodo and Aragorn, we have to cover a lot of middling expository ground in &quot;The Two Towers&quot; - here, we're just passing through on our way to the end.
 

 <i>
&quot;The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers&quot; shows at Kolizei, Leningrad and Mirage Cinemas from Thursday. </i>

TITLE: the eternal russian question
AUTHOR: by Aliona Bocharova
TEXT: The question of &quot;what is to be done?&quot; - which was immortalized by 19th-century radical Nikolai Chernyshevsky and, subsequently, Vladimir Lenin - has plagued intellectual and popular discourse about the fate of Russia since the time of Peter the Great.
 
Now, an exhibition running at the Borey Gallery asks three St. Petersburg artists more or less the same question, but with a less cliched title. For &quot;How Are We To Renovate Russia?&quot; - a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn - the gallery has given Vladimir Kozin, Igor Mezheritsky and Oleg Khvostov a hall each to express their solutions.
 Kozin, who works with newspaper clippings, presents a series entitled &quot;Jews, Please Come Back To Russia.&quot; Employing common stereotypes, he exaggerates the importance of his characters by placing them in new contexts. President Vladimir Putin, for example, has a Pushkin-esque curly head of hair, playing on and rhyming with the popular expression &quot;Pushkin is our everything.&quot; Astronaut Yury Gargarin, the national hero with the snow-white smile in the television commercial for Orbit chewing gum, holds a snow-white dove in his hands.
 Kozin even quotes Chernyshevsky. &quot;Who is guilty? What is to be done? These questions from classical Russian literature reflect the infantile belief of most Russians that someone should come and help us rebuild Russia. Maybe the Jews?&quot;
 Kozin is a member of &quot;The New Dullards Association,&quot; which formed around the Borei Gallery in 1996. The association represents the left wing of St. Petersburg's artistic scene, and mocks Soviet idealism and proletariat-oriented themes, peppered with a philosophical background. However, it is far from thriving - Kozin points out that two members have emigrated to Germany. The gallery itself, it seems, is, like Russia, in need of renovation.
 The central hall, devoted to works by Oleg Khvostov, contains merely an empty wall with a solitary announcement: &quot;Three works already sold for $500 each.&quot; Whether an apology or proof of the works' value, the notice is a disappointment. Khvostov's paintings, garish and and almost decorative, border on the kitsch in terms of form and content. One work portrays the anti-Christ raising Lenin from his coffin. Khvostov tries to define his work in terms of the similarities between icons and comics, &quot;as they both tell the story of either a saint or a hero.&quot;
 Pseudo-pop artist Igor Mezheritsky duplicates a political campaign poster from a street advertising hoarding and defaces it chaotically using a pencil. Another photocopied image is apparently that of Solzhenitsyn - although the inscription has been altered with blue pen to read &quot;anybody but&quot; Solzhenitsyn.
 Both Khvostov and Mezheritsky work periodically with &quot;The New Dullards Association,&quot; leading to the conclusion that all three artists in the Borey Gallery's current display are prepared to use idiocy as an artistic trick, which is appropriate, since anyone who would take on the task of reconstructing contemporary Russia would have to be a genius, like Solzhenitsyn, or a complete fool.
 

 <i>
&quot;How Are We To Renovate Russia?&quot; is at the Borey Gallery until Friday. </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: by Michele A. Berdy <i>
TEXT: Sekvestr: </i>budget cutting
 
My New Year's resolution is to stop speaking Ruslish - the lazy use of literal translations or transliterations. For example, in this hybrid language, <i>zhenskaya konsultatsiya </i>becomes &quot;women's consultation.&quot; When you hear <i>Ya reshila proveritsya i poshla v zhenskuyu konsultatsiyu, </i>you find yourself translating it as &quot;I decided to check it out and went to the women's consultation,&quot; which is nonsense to anyone not familiar with the Russian health-care system. Zhenskaya konsultatsiya should be properly translated as a &quot;women's clinic,&quot; or &quot;OB/GYN all-service clinic.&quot;
 This can be the downfall of even good translators. Take <i>perspektivny. </i>It's 2 a.m. and you are scrambling to finish translating a promotional brochure for a friend. <i>Eto napravleniye yavlyaetsya odnoi iz samikh perspektivnikh oblastei sovremennoi nauki. </i>You write: &quot;This direction is one of the most perspective areas of modern science.&quot; It's now 9 a.m. and you are proofing your translation. &quot;Perspective area?&quot; Try &quot;promising, having great prospects, propitious, favorable.&quot; And cross out &quot;direction&quot; (another trap) and try &quot;aspect, trend, line of inquiry.&quot; Or ignore it altogether: &quot;This is one of the most promising areas of modern scientific inquiry.&quot;
 <i>Aktualny </i>is another translator tripper-upper. <i>Pri vstreche prezidenty obsuzhdali samiye aktualniye voprosy sovremennosty. </i>Aktualny doesn't mean &quot;actual,&quot; it means &quot;urgent, pressing, high-priority.&quot; Here, <i>voprosy </i>(questions) are more like &quot;issues&quot; or &quot;problems.&quot; So you could translate this: &quot;At their meeting, the presidents discussed the most urgent problems of today's world (or modern civilization).&quot;
 One word that annoys me in English and Russian is exclusive/<i>eksklyusivny. </i>Exclusive used to mean &quot;excluding others&quot; or &quot;limited to a socially restricted group,&quot; as in &quot;an exclusive resort.&quot; Now, it means &quot;highly fashionable&quot; (read: &quot;unbelievably expensive&quot;). It's the same in Russian. <i>Eksklyusivny raion/dom/magazin/restoran </i>can be &quot;exclusive neighborhood/apartment building/store/restaurant&quot; but it is more likely to mean &quot;so mind-bogglingly expensive you'll think it's April Fool's Day when you get the bill.&quot; This also causes problems in the press. <i>Segodnya na nashem kanale - eksklyusivnoye intervyu s Maratom Safinym. </i>Now, if you translate this literally - &quot;Today on our channel, an exclusive interview with Marat Safin&quot; - it means that Marat Safin isn't giving interviews to any media outlets except this channel. What it really means is: Marat Safin gave us a one-on-one interview. Since he probably gave interviews all day, there's nothing very exclusive about that.
 Another false friend is <i>sekvestr. </i>In English, sequester means &quot;to set apart, to segregate, to hide from sight.&quot; A secondary meaning is &quot;to confiscate, to seize, to impound property.&quot; In Russian, it means budget cutting. <i>Nevypolneniye gosbyudzheta i otkloneniye parlamentariyami predlozheniya Minfina uvelichit vnutrenniye zaimstvovaniya delayut vse bolee realnym sekvestr gosbyudzheta - 2002.</i> (The failure to stay within the budget and parliamentarians' refusal to accede to the Finance Ministry's request to increase domestic borrowing make slashing the 2002 state budget more and more likely.) Sekvestr has also been turned into a verb, <i>sekvestirovat, </i>as in the sentence <i>Imeem li my pravo segodnya sekvestirovat obrazovaniye, kulturu, meditsinu? </i>(Today, do we have the right to cut the budgets for education, culture and health care?)
 In Russian, the two meanings have been conflated and applied to budgets: Sekvestr means &quot;the act of going off to a place far from prying eyes in order to seize funds best spent otherwise.&quot;
 
 <i>
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. </i>

TITLE: U.S. Envoy: No Quick Fix on North Korea
AUTHOR: By Sang-Hung Choe
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEOUL, South Korea - The search for a peaceful resolution to the standoff between the United States and North Korea over its nuclear-weapons programs will be a &quot;very slow process,&quot; a top U.S. envoy to the region said Thursday.
 
The call for patience from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly followed North Korea's angry rejection of American offers to consider energy and agricultural aid to the isolated regime if it gives up its nuclear efforts.
 Traveling in Asia to seek support in getting North Korea to give up its nuclear-weapons program, Kelly said in Beijing on Thursday that there was no quick-fix solution to the issue, and that it would take time to secure a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
 &quot;And we're going to have to talk and work together and communicate with other people, including with North Korea, very, very clearly,&quot; Kelly said before leaving Beijing for Singapore. &quot;It's going to be a very slow process to make sure that we achieve this in the right way.&quot;
 Tensions escalated between North Korea and the United States after U.S. diplomats said that North Korea admitted in October that it had a secret nuclear program. The isolated communist regime pulled out of the nuclear-nonproliferation treaty last week after the United States suspended oil-aid shipments.
 Washington, however, has taken a more conciliatory stance toward North Korea in recent days, offering to consider energy, agricultural and other aid, if the country gives up its nuclear ambitions.
 Those offers, however, have not satisfied Pyongyang, which appears to be after more ironclad guarantees of aid before surrendering its nuclear programs.
 The state-run news agency KCNA quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesperson as saying late Wednesday that the U.S. offers were &quot;loudmouthed&quot; and &quot;pie in the sky.&quot; White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer called the reported comments &quot;unfortunate.&quot;
 The South Korean government has also dampened any illusions of a quick solution to the impasse on Thursday.
 Defense Minister Lee Jun told a parliamentary hearing that the military was preparing for a &quot;worst-cast scenario&quot; should the standoff between Pyongyang and Washington turn violent.
 The comments, which did not include any specifics about the preparations, seemed aimed at dispelling the general complacency about North Korea in the South, where ordinary citizens have shown little sign of alarm.
 Lee, for example, said that there was a &quot;high&quot; possibility that North Korea would target South Korea if it builds nuclear weapons. North Korea has argued that the only confrontation on the peninsula is between Koreans and Americans, not between the North and South.
 &quot;We cannot conclude that [North Korea] would target the Korean peninsula. But we cannot rule out the possibility, and such a possibility is high,&quot; Lee said.
 On Thursday, North Korea's news agency said that it &quot;wants detente, peace and reunification, not serious tension, confrontation and war.&quot;
 &quot;If war breaks out in Korea due to the U.S. imperialists keen on nuclear blackmail, it will lead to a nuclear war whose victim will be the Korean nation,&quot; it said.
 U.S. officials believe that the communist regime already has one or two nuclear bombs.
 Diplomatic efforts gathered pace, with U.S., British and French officials meeting in London. They decided on Wednesday that the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-state board of governors should convene as a next step in the dispute with North Korea, a U.S. official said. Britain's Foreign Office confirmed that envoys from the three states met, but did not say what was discussed.

TITLE: Venezuela Threatened By Protest Actions
AUTHOR: By Christopher Toothaker
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CARACAS, Venezuela - Opponents of President Hugo Chavez threatened round-the-clock protests if the Supreme Court rules against a referendum on Chavez's rule. As their general strike dragged into its seventh week, a group of regional leaders agreed to help seek a resolution.
 
Opposition leaders in November presented Venezuelan election authorities a petition with 2 million signatures demanding a Feb. 2 plebiscite. The referendum is nonbinding, but strike leaders believe that Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, would be so embarrassed by its outcome that he would voluntarily step down.
 &quot;There will be no other recourse than taking the streets, remaining in the streets 24 hours a day,&quot; if the court rules against the referendum, opposition governor Enrique Mendoza said on Wednesday.
 Chavez headed to the United States on Thursday to meet with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Annan has said that he will stress the importance of using &quot;constitutional and democratic means&quot; to resolve Venezuela's standoff.
 Chavez has called on high-court magistrates to reject the referendum as unconstitutional. Venezuela's constitution allows citizens to petition for a binding referendum halfway through a six-year presidential term - in Chavez' case, August.
 Meanwhile, representatives from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain and Portugal agreed Wednesday to create a forum known as &quot;Group of Friends of Venezuela&quot; to seek solutions for the strike.
 &quot;We are seeking a solution that is peaceful, constitutional, democratic and electoral,&quot; Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria said after the meeting in Quito, Ecuador.
 The U.S. State Department has voiced support for Gaviria's mediation mission on an almost daily basis, and expressed backing for the new group.
 &quot;We look forward to being a part of this group and to beginning its important work,&quot; State Department spokesperson Lou Fintor said Wednesday.
 While allies and adversaries of Chavez await a possible high-court ruling, economic ills in this South American state continue as a seven-week-old strike to force the president's removal drags on.
 Venezuela's bolivar currency hit a new low on Wednesday closing at 1,716 to the dollar, down 6 percent from Tuesday. Citizens lined up at banks and exchange houses to buy dollars.
 The strike has reduced oil exports to a trickle, depriving the government of half its income.
 Trying to calm fears of an economic crash, the government denied speculation that it plans to devalue the bolivar so that it can balance its $25-billion budget. Most government income is in dollars, and a weaker bolivar would increase its domestic-spending power.
 Venezuela has acknowledged that the oil strike has cost $4 billion so far.
 Opposition governors have warned that they won't be able to pay public servants at the end of the month if the government doesn't transfer the necessary funds. Roughly one out of every sixteen Venezuelans is employed by the state.

TITLE: France: Future of Africa at Stake in Ivory Coast Peace Talks
AUTHOR: By Kim Housego
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - Warned by France that Africa's future lies in their hands, glum-faced leaders of Ivory Coast's warring factions traded demands Wednesday at the start of peace talks in Paris.
 
The spiraling conflict in the former French colony - the economic anchor of West Africa - threatens the security and prosperity of the entire region.
 &quot;Your people are watching you and they are obliging you. You do not have the right to let them down,&quot; French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told the 32 negotiators from the Ivorian government and rebel groups that have been responsible for nearly four months of killing.
 &quot;What is at stake, beyond Ivory Coast, is the future of the African continent,&quot; de Villepin said at the talks' opening ceremony in a conference hall near the Champs-Elysees.
 France has worked hard to get all sides around the negotiating table and obtained pledges to stop hostilities for the duration of the talks.
 But the obstacles to lasting peace are considerable.
 Economic hardship and discriminatory citizenship rules have fanned ethnic hatreds in Ivory Coast, notably between the mostly animist and Christian south, where the government is based, and the largely Muslim north.
 In the late 1990s, commodities prices collapsed, slowing Ivory Coast's growth as debt soared. Money and jobs grew scarce, and rivalries sharpened among the ethnic groups making up the country's 17-million people.
 Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes since rebels launched their failed coup attempt in September to oust President Laurent Gbagbo, who came to power in elections in 2000.
 In Paris, the government insist that insurgents lay down their arms, a demand that derailed previous negotiations. Rebel movements - who now control half the country - still want Gbagbo's resignation.
 Gbagbo refuses, on the grounds that he was democratically elected. But insurgents reject the vote, saying that it excluded one of the country's leading opposition leaders, Alassane Ouattara, and was tainted by violence.
 &quot;We need new elections,&quot; said Ouattara, a former prime minister barred from the 2000 vote because of challenges to his nationality. &quot;The government has to show that it's finally credible, which it has not been, so we have to have a government of transition.&quot;
 Gbagbo said that he has only one goal.
 &quot;I have a single objective, not two: that the fighting stops, my country is liberated and that administration is re-established in areas occupied by the rebels,&quot; he said in an interview published Wednesday in the French daily Le Monde.
 Gbagbo has that said he will not attend the talks unless other African heads of state attend. But he might attend a Paris conference on Jan. 24 of regional African leaders.
 France has a huge stake in the outcome. With more than 2,000 troops in Ivory Coast, France is keen to avoid getting bogged down there. The soldiers were sent to protect the 20,000 French citizens and to enforce an oft-violated cease-fire.
 France and other mediators are concerned about the economic impact of the war on the poverty-ridden region. Ivory Coast is the world's largest supplier of cocoa, used in chocolate.
 Peace efforts have been complicated by the emergence in November of two rebel groups in western Ivory Coast. French soldiers have repeatedly clashed with insurgents in the west during a rebel drive toward Abidjan, the government-controlled economic hub and a strategic port.
 Guillaume Soro, leader of the main northern rebels, expressed hope that peace was attainable but insisted that they could not disarm first.

TITLE: Polls: Sharon's Likud Party Ups Rating
AUTHOR: By Steve Weizman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - The popularity of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party is recovering from corruption allegations less than two weeks ahead of elections, according to opinion polls published Thursday.
 
The polls also show the opposition Labor's popularity slipping or static. The surveys came two days after Labor leader Amram Mitzna announced that he would not join a government led by Sharon - a gamble Labor had hoped would energize its campaign.
 Instead, the decision seems to have hurt Mitzna.
 A poll published Thursday in the Haaretz daily showed Likud winning 30 places in the 120-seat parliament, up from 27 a week ago, but off its high of about 40 at the beginning of the campaign in November. Labor was down from 21 to 20 seats in the new poll, which questioned 1,040 people, with an error margin of 3.38 percentage points.
 The daily Yediot Ahronot's poll of 811 respondents had Likud at 34 seats, from last week's 32-33 and Labor unmoved at 20. It had an error margin of 3.5 percentage points.
 A poll by Maariv newspaper put Likud at 32 seats, down from last week's 30, and showed Labor falling to 19 seats from 22. It said that it polled 1,036 potential voters, but did not give its margin of error.
 Another survey, conducted by Geocartographia for Israeli Army Radio, showed Likud gaining one seat to 33 and Labor slipping one, to 19. It did not state the size of the sample or the margin of error.
 Army Radio's poll indicated that Mitzna's decision against joining a Sharon government drove away 12 percent of traditional Labor voters.
 The campaign for the Jan. 28 election has been dominated by accusations of corruption. Maariv reported Wednesday that Mitzna, who is mayor of the northern city of Haifa, favored a construction project funded by two American brothers who were convicted on charges of laundering Colombian drug money.
 Mitzna dismissed the allegations as the work of political opponents.

TITLE: Serena Blasts Through Into Third Round
AUTHOR: By Phil Brown
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MELBOURNE, Australia - Serena Williams was back in &quot;Serena slam&quot; form Thursday.
 
After nearly losing her opener, Williams advanced to the Australian Open's third round with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Belgium's Els Callens, who gave the world's No. 1 player a tough challenge at Wimbledon last year.
 Williams now is five matches away from becoming the reigning champion of all four major tournaments.
 Her potential semifinal opponent, No. 4 Kim Clijsters, advanced with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Hungary's Petra Mandula in 33 minutes. It was the first perfect scoreline of the tournament.
 No. 9 Andy Roddick, being counted on as a successor to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in United States tennis, overpowered Romania's Adrian Voinea 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
 Czech player Radek Stepanek, who climbed from 547th to 63rd in the rankings last year, knocked out three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, who never has advanced beyond the second round in the Australian Open. Stepanek won 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in 3:47.
 Kuerten, seeded 30th, became the 13th casualty among the 32 seeded men. The top 10, however, is missing only No. 5 Carlos Moya, a 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 loser to Mardy Fish of the U.S. on Wednesday night.
 Third-seeded Marat Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion and last year's Australian runner-up, advanced by beating France's Albert Montanes 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. No. 6 Roger Federer defeated Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 6-3, 6-0, 6-3.
 Last year, an injury on the eve of the Australian Open ruined Williams' chance for a true Grand Slam - winning all four majors in the same calendar year. She went on to beat her sister, Venus, in the finals at the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.
 A rash of errors left Williams on the verge of defeat before she rallied to edge France's Emilie Loit on Tuesday. This time, she said she was inspired by Venus' 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ansley Cargill the previous night.
 &quot;She played a great match,&quot; Serena said of her sister. &quot;I was motivated after watching her, thinking, 'OK, she wants to be No. 1 again.'&quot;
 Serena faced two break points in her first service game, but she then broke Callens at 15 in the fifth game by hitting winners or forcing errors. Callens, ranked 66th, managed to hold serve twice more in the first set but had no answer for Williams' power.
 Williams needed two tiebreakers to beat her in the third round at Wimbledon.
 In the opener here, she acknowledged being &quot;a little too lackadaisical&quot; against Loit. She vented her frustration in that match with an audible obscenity, for which she was fined $1,500 on Thursday.
 She had few troubles this time. She hit 21 winners to Callens' eight and had 19 errors to Callens' 20.
 &quot;I have five more matches to go. It's going to be really tough,&quot; Williams said, noting that Clijsters and No. 6 Monica Seles are in her half of the draw.
 Seles beat Venus in the quarterfinals here last year. Clijsters beat both sisters on her way to winning the WTA Tour Championships in November.
 As for playing against her sister, Serena said, &quot;We've gotten used to it. If it comes to the final, at least we've both reached our maximum potential.&quot;
 Serena next plays No. 26 Tamarine Tanasugarn, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Russian Alina Jidkova.
 In other men's matches, Spain's Alberto Martin ousted No. 13 Fernando Gonzalez 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).
 Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian, seeded 10th, beat Australian qualifier Jaymon Crabb 6-1, 7-6 (12-10), 6-3, No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui defeated Uzbek qualifier Vadim Kutsenko 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, and No. 20 Xavier Malisse beat France's Anthony Dupuis 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5.
 No. 23 James Blake beat Argentina's Jose Acasuso 6-1, 6-4, 6-4; No. 31 Rainer Schuettler ousted 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek 6-3, 7-5, 6-4; Spain's Feliciano Lopez defeated American Robby Ginepri 6-2, 6-4, 6-2; and Swedish qualifier Andreas Vinciguerra advanced when Austrian Julian Knowle retired with a torn right calf. Vinciguerra was leading 6-2, 0-1.
 On the women's side, No. 10 Chanda Rubin beat Mary Pierce for the first time in four meetings. Rubin, who missed the first four months of 2002 because of knee surgery, won 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 against Pierce, the 1995 Australian and 2000 French champion.
 No. 11 Magdalena Maleeva beat South Korean Cho Yoon-jeong 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
 No. 14 Anna Pistolesi advanced when Slovenia's Maja Matevzic retired with a right lower leg strain. Pistolesi was leading 5-1.
 No. 16 Nathalie Dechy beat Czech player Daja Bedanova 6-3, 6-3, No. 18 Eleni Daniilidou beat Amy Frazier of the United States 6-1, 6-2, No. 20 Yelena Bovina defeated Italy's Rita Grande 6-1, 6-2, and No. 25 Meghann Shaughnessy beat Slovakia's Ludmila Cervanova 6-1, 6-1.

TITLE: Mavericks Get Lesson From Regal Sacramento
AUTHOR: By Greg Beacham
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SACRAMENTO, California - Although Chris Webber and the Sacramento Kings don't have the NBA's best record, they sure look like the NBA's best team.
 
Webber had 29 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists, and Peja Stojakovic scored 23 points as the Kings reminded the league-leading Mavericks of their place in the NBA's hierarchy with a 123-94 victory over Dallas on Wednesday night. Led by Webber's 16th career triple-double - and the second of his spectacular season - the Kings jumped to a huge early lead that demoralized Dallas in the season's first meeting between the Western Conference's division leaders.
 They still trail the Mavericks (31-6) for the NBA's best record, but the Kings (29-10) have met every big test they've faced this season. Sacramento beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, then trounced East champion New Jersey by 36 points last week.
 Webber was nearly unstoppable - from inside and outside, whether passing or shooting. He closed the third quarter by sprinting behind Dallas' defense for a dunk off a pass from Keon Clark, and he returned the favor with an alley-oop to Clark for a two-handed reverse slam early in the fourth.
 With 4 1/2 minutes left, Webber left to a raucous standing ovation from the crowd at Arco Arena, where Sacramento is 17-2 this season. Last season, Dallas was the only team to win twice in Sacramento during the regular season.
 Doug Christie had 18 points and six assists, while Mike Bibby added 16 points and six assists. The Kings shot better than 55 percent.
 Sacramento, which beat Dallas in five games in last season's conference semifinals, ended a three-game losing streak to the Mavs in the regular season.
 Nick Van Exel scored 20 points in a reserve role for the Mavericks, who came out flat and never got into the game. Dallas' six-game winning streak was snapped, despite 15 points and nine rebounds from Dirk Nowitzki.
 The Kings led by 17 points in the first quarter and by 20 at halftime before cruising to an exciting victory full of the flair and solid defense that have become their trademarks.
 Sacramento showed the confidence, steadiness and controlled explosiveness that develops through years of teamwork - years that the Mavericks haven't accumulated yet, which became obvious in last season's playoffs.
 Much has been said about the Mavericks' renewed commitment to defense, and they have allowed 10 fewer points per game than last season. But the Kings made a similar commitment two seasons ago, when they also were a shoot-first team like Dallas. 
 In other NBA games Wednesday, it was: Boston 86, Atlanta 66; Utah 92, Denver 81; Golden State 108, Cleveland 80; Houston 102, Phoenix 96; Indiana 104, Miami 81; Minnesota 95, L.A. Clippers 64; L.A. Lakers 90, New Orleans 82; Philadelphia 108, New Jersey 107; Portland 100, Memphis 92; Milwaukee 99, Toronto 87.

TITLE: Hartley Gets Winning Start As Atlanta Downs Montreal
AUTHOR: By Paul Newberry
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATLANTA - Bob Hartley has been a winner everywhere he's coached. For one game at least, he kept his reputation intact with the woeful Atlanta Thrashers.
 
Marc Savard scored with 4:29 left, Pasi Nurminen recorded his second career shutout and Hartley won his debut as Thrashers coach, beating the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 Wednesday night.
 &quot;It felt a little strange to see the different-colored jerseys,&quot; Hartley said. &quot;But once the puck dropped, it was back to business.&quot;
 Hartley was hired by the Thrashers on Tuesday, taking over the NHL's worst team after coaching one of the best, the Colorado Avalanche. His new team was eager to make a good impression.
 &quot;The guys were a little nervous,&quot; captain Shawn McEachern said. &quot;We know he's the guy who coached in Colorado. He's been coaching Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, those guys.&quot;
 Hartley guided Colorado to four straight Western Conference finals and the 2001 Stanley Cup. He was fired less than a month ago when the Avalanche got off to a sluggish start. Hartley, who also won two junior and two minor-league championships, is back behind the bench with the team that has compiled the fewest points in two of the last three years and is last overall again this season.
 The Thrashers scored the only goal after Dany Heatley was dragged down by Montreal defenseman Patrick Traverse with 4:42 remaining. Just 13 seconds into the power play, Jose Theodore made a save on Heatley's long shot but the rebound went to Savard, who flipped a shot through the screened goalie's legs.
 &quot;We kept going at them all night,&quot; Savard said. &quot;We had four lines chipping in, and that's what we need.&quot;
 Nurminen, starting in place of the injured Byron Dafoe, stopped 22 shots for Atlanta's first home win since Dec. 16. In that game, Nurminen beat Toronto 1-0 for the first shutout of his career.
 In other games, it was N.Y. Rangers 2, Washington 1 (OT); Pittsburgh 2, Carolina 0; Anaheim 4, Columbus 3; Florida 3, Boston 0; New Jersey 5, the New York Islanders 0; and Chicago 4, Detroit 1.