SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #841 (9), Friday, February 7, 2003
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TITLE: Powell Briefs UN on Iraqi Weapons
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: UNITED NATIONS - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, methodically making his case that Iraq has defied all demands that it disarm, presented tape recordings, satellite photos and informants' statements Wednesday that he said constituted "irrefutable and undeniable" evidence that President Saddam Hussein is concealing weapons of mass destruction. 
 
"Clearly, Saddam will stop at nothing until something stops him," Powell told a skeptical UN Security Council, saying Baghdad's denials represent a "web of lies." 
 Three months after Iraq pledged that it would disarm, Powell presented his evidence in an appearance that was televised live around the world. The Council members - joined by Iraq's UN ambassador - sat around a large circular table with Powell and listened attentively. 
 "The pronouncements that Mr. Powell made in his presentation are utterly unrelated to the truth," countered Mohammed Al-Douri. "There are incorrect allegations, unnamed sources, unknown sources." He also suggested that audio tapes played to the Council by Powell were "not genuine." 
 Of the 15 Council members, only the United States and Britain have voiced support for forcibly disarming Hussein, but the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is counting on Spain and Bulgaria, among others, to be part of any coalition against Iraq. 
 Powell's remarks did not seem to sway the three other permanent members of the Council that, along with the United States and Britain, hold veto powers. 
 Representatives of China, Russia and France all said the work of the weapons inspectors should continue.
 "The information provided today by the U.S. secretary of state once again convincingly indicates the fact that the activities of the international inspectors in Iraq must be continued," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said. "They alone can provide an answer to the question of to what extent is Iraq complying with the demands of the Security Council."
 Ivanov repeated Russia's position on Thursday at talks with Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimszewicz.
 "Based on the results of yesterday's meeting of the UN Security Council, we believe that the position, under which Iraqi question is settled in strict accordance with the Security Council resolution, is correct," Ivanov said.
 "There are all necessary possibilities for a political settlement," he said, adding that a first analysis of Powell's statement did not reveal any new evidence showing that Iraq is producing weapons of mass destruction. 
 But Ivanov said Russia "will wait for the results of work by the international inspectors [in Iraq], who must verify this information." 
 Coming to Powell's defense, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the secretary made a "most powerful" case. Hussein is "gambling that we will lose our nerve rather than enforce our will. ... We must continue to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis," he said. 
 In a more than hour-long presentation, Powell also detailed the U.S. claims that Baghdad and al-Qaida operatives are working together and that some followers of a senior associate of Osama bin Laden are currently in the Iraqi capital, with the approval of Hussein. 
 In his presentation, Powell: 
 
. Asserted that Iraq "bulldozed and graded to conceal chemical weapons evidence" at the Al Musayyib chemical complex in 2002 and had a series of cargo vehicles and a decontamination vehicle moving around at the site. Powell said that was corroborated by a human source. 
 . Said Iraq is working on developing missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers or more, putting Russia and other nations beyond Iraq's immediate neighbors in potential danger. 
 . Played audio tapes of what Powell said were intercepted phone conversations between Iraqi military officers. One was a purported discussion about hiding prohibited vehicles from weapons inspectors. Another dealt with removing a reference to nerve agents from written instructions. 
 . Cited informants as saying that Iraqis are dispersing rockets armed with biological weapons in western Iraq. 
 . Presented declassified satellite pictures that he said showed 15 munitions bunkers. Powell said four of them had active chemical munitions inside. 
 . Said satellites observed cleanup activities at nearly 30 suspected weapons sites in the days before inspectors arrived. 
 . Said Iraqi informants claim that Iraq has 18 trucks that it uses as mobile biological weapons labs. 
 
Powell presented his case in a rapid-fire delivery, moving from tape recordings to photos and other evidence without pause. He said his case was persuasive that Iraq is hiding its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and missile activity and was deliberately misleading inspectors. 
 "I believe this conclusion is irrefutable and undeniable," he said. "The issue before us is not how much time we are willing to give the inspectors to be frustrated by Iraqi obstruction, but how much longer are we willing to put up with Iraq's noncompliance before we as a Council, we as the United Nations say: 'Enough. Enough.'"
 Meanwhile, an Iraqi arms expert submitted to a private interview with UN inspectors Thursday, a top Iraqi official said Thursday, hours after the top UN nuclear inspector demanded a "drastic change" to improve Iraq's cooperation.
 If confirmed, it would be the first time a scientist linked to Iraq's weapons programs has spoken to inspectors without Iraqi officials present. Such interviews have been a top demand of UN inspectors, hoping the scientists will reveal clandestine weapons programs.
 "One of our scientists is being interviewed alone, as we speak," Iraqi presidential adviser Lieutenant General Amer al-Saadi told a Baghdad press conference. He did not give any details or identify the scientist. There was no immediate confirmation from UN officials.
 Earlier Thursday, top UN nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei demanded Baghdad show greater cooperation, as he and fellow chief inspector Hans Blix briefed British Prime Minister Tony Blair on their way to Baghdad for talks this weekend.
 "They need to show drastic change in terms of cooperation," ElBaradei said. "Our mission in Baghdad this weekend is crucial. We hope we will secure full, 100 percent cooperation on the part of Iraq."

TITLE: One Year, 1 Result for City's Pardons Board
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The St. Petersburg Pardons Commission finally produced its first successful result this month - almost exactly a year after it was set up.
 
Earlier this month, 30-year-old Alexander Nosakov, jailed in 2000 for alcohol-induced violent crime, was officially pardoned by President Vladimir Putin, who reduced Nosakov's six-year term to four years. Nosakov could be released as early as this spring.
 Nosakov received one of 181 pardons granted by Putin in 2002. While the figure may seem very low compared with the 12,400 pardons granted between January and August 2000, immediately after Putin came to office, it represents a marked increase on the 10 pardons granted during 2001.
 The St. Petersburg Pardons Commission was established on Feb. 5, 2002, following a Dec. 28, 2001, decree by Putin that abolished the National Pardons Commission and handed its responsibilities to regional commissions.
 The National Pardons Commission, created in April 1992, was previously the only channel through which prisoners could appeal their sentences - a situation that created enormous backlogs of unconsidered cases.
 "The commission was sometimes stuck with an enormous 400 cases per day," said Alexei Kozyrev, head of the St. Petersburg Pardons Commission. "Creating regional commissions was a smart move, not only because it reduced the burden on [the national commission], but also because regional experts are much closer to the people who appeal."
 The St. Petersburg commission held 10 sessions over the course of its first year, viewing 50 appeals. Of these, it supported eight, asking for the immediate release of two prisoners and for reduced terms for the other six. So far, Putin has supported just Nosakov's appeal.
 Ironically, the pardons process now takes much longer than it did before the reforms. Previously, an appeal went straight to the president after being backed by the national commssion. Now, if an appeal is supported by a regional commission, it must be signed by the regional governor - who may choose not to do so - before being sent to Moscow to be signed - or not - by the president.
 Nosakov, for example, filed his appeal in April 2002. It was first considered by the St. Petersburg commission in June that year.
 The St. Petersburg Pardons Commission blames federal authorities for the current procrastination over pardons, saying that Putin's 2001 decree is full of holes.
 "The decree is very detailed in terms of our work, but is short of regulations as to how long the president may take to reach a verdict," Kozyrev said.
 Before a case reaches Putin, it passes through a special board of the Presidential Administration that deals with pardons. According to Kozyrev, it is at this stage that cases can gather dust for months.
 Regional pardons commissions, two thirds of whose members are representatives of non-government organizations, with one third being civil servants, are appointed by local administrations. St. Petersburg's commission numbers 18 members, who include lawyers, local officials, writers and even a physical-training professor. One point of contention for critics of the commission, however, is the lack of a human-rights-organization representative.
 "It's rather strange for that sort of an organization not to have a human-rights advocate," said Yury Vdovin, of the St. Petersburg office of human-rights group Citizen's Watch.
 Vdovin was invited to join the Leningrad Oblast Pardons Commission, but was prevented from doing so by bureaucratic reasons, as he is not registered as living in the oblast. He regretted the abolition of the National Pardons Commission, and found it alarming the new regional committees are appointed by regional authorities and have their decisions scrutinized by local governors.
 "The national commission was unbiased," he said. "Now, there's so much room to abuse the system - like helping people linked to influential criminal groups in regional administrations, or blocking the release of someone these groups consider undesirable."
 St. Petersburg commission member Mikhail Kurayev, a writer and dramatist, concurred, saying that, contrary to the original intention, regional pardons commissions are not, in fact, the first body to receive prisoners' appeals.
 "The papers first go to local penitentiary organs and, then, to the local Justice Ministry offices," Kurayev said. "I wouldn't even like to guess or imagine how many may have been lost."
 In considering an appeal that reaches it, the St. Petersburg commission strives to make "consolidated" decisions, according to commission head Kozyrev, with a clear majority of members in favor.
 "Very often, we vote unanimously," he said. "The limit for dissent has been 10 to 2. If we're split nearly in half, we continue to work on the case until we reach an almost absolute consensus."
 That consensus is not only based on the papers submitted to the commission, as members can visit the person seeking the pardon and, sometimes, even the victim. In Nosakov's case, for example, the victim, Nosakov's friend since childhood, supported his appeal.
 Medical recommendations are also a factor. In July last year, the St. Petersburg commission appointed, Professor Semyon Simbirtsev, a surgeon at the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Education, to provide independent medical advice. 
 "We have to be able to distinguish between a severe medical problem and a simulation," Kurayev said.
 Given the notoriously brutal conditions in Russia's prisons, however, this distinction can be difficult to make.
 "Nearly 90 percent of people released from jail come out with tuberculosis, which they caught in prison," said Tatyana Linyova, the head of the Red Cross in St. Petersburg.
 "Our jails are overloaded. I would say that a year in a Russian jail is the equivalent of two or three years in jail abroad," she said.
 Last year's national census put Russia's prison population at 919,000, of whom 6,500 are being held in St. Petersburg.
 Kurayev said that the human aspect of each case plays a very important role. The commission does not aim to review verdicts handed down by the courts but, rather, estimates the danger that a prisoner represents to society.
 "One person whose appeal we supported had already served nine years of a 14-year term," he said. "When I met him, I saw someone in a condition I would call 'social and spiritual anabiosis;' someone living an artificial life. Punishment is about correcting a personality. It is not about revenge."
 Applications for pardons receive backing from bodies as diverse as prison administrations and the Russian Orthodox Church, a priest from which was initially asked to join the St. Petersburg Pardons Commission. However, he did not last long in the job.
 "He came to the first meeting, and suggested we pray before starting our work every time," Kurayev said. "We declined his offer. Russia is a multi-confessional country; in this light, such a move would be improper."

TITLE: Bloc Stymies Assembly Again
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The corridors of the Mariinsky Palace were empty once again this week, as Wednesday's session of the Legislative Assembly was stymied for the second week running by the non-appearance of the 17 lawmakers of the pro-governor United City faction.
 
The United City no show meant that the number of lawmakers present was 31, one short of the number needed to form a quorum to legitimize any votes taken. The faction says that not turning up to legislative sessions is the only tool it has at is disposal to force pro-Kremlin groups in the assembly to compromise on the candidates for chairpersonships for key assembly committees.
 However, the tactic may have backfired as, rather than getting the compromise they wanted, the lawmakers found themselves the targets of loud accusations from pro-Kremlin factions of an attempt to discredit the Legislative Assembly as a creditable branch of power in the city.
 United City's opponents say the group's actions are being managed directly from City Hall by Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
 "Last year, the deputies managed to convince [the city] that the representative branch of power is just a bunch of idiots, and the population believed them," Konstantin Sukhenko, the head of the pro-Kremlin United Russia faction, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "Now, they're trying to create the impression that the [new] assembly is also just a bunch of idiots."
 During closed negotiations Wednesday, the groups neared a compromise on the appointment as vice speaker of Sergei Nikeshin, a United City member, according to Legislative Assembly Speaker Vadim Tyulpanov. Tyulpanov also said that a United City member would also be appointed chairperson of the assembly's legislation commission.
 Later Wednesday, however, it appeared that the compromise had unexpectedly collapsed.
 "[United City] doesn't even hide the fact that there was a direct order from City hall not to show up for the session, even if a compromise was found," Sukhenko said. "We found [a compromise], but they didn't come."
 Sukhenko also said that United City wants to show the Legislative Assembly as ineffective and, therefore, unable to solve the question of Yakovlev being able to run for office for a third time. Should this be the case, he said, Yakovlev would go directly to city voters for support of his third-term idea.
 Under local election law, a governer may only serve two terms in office, a decision that was upheld last year by the City Charter Court, which has the final say on electoral matters in the city. In order to go to a direct referendum on any issue, Yakovlev would have to seek approval from the Legislative Assembly.
 United City lawmaker Vladimir Yeryomenko dismissed Sukhenko's accusations outright in a telephone interview Thursday, describing them as "rubbish."
 "We make all our decisions independently at a faction meeting, and we have the right to communicate our decisions to whomever we want, including the governor," he said. "This is no secret. But we make the decisions ourselves."
 According to Yeryomenko, the no-show was aimed at preventing pro-Kremlin factions acting on orders received from Viktor Cherkesov, President Putin's representative for the Northwest Region.
 "The presidential representative's office recently sent a letter to the Legislative Assembly, asking us to allow their representative to participate in and observe faction councils," he said. "What is that supposed to mean? Faction councils are independent bodies."
 Yeryomenko said he couldn't supply a copy of the letter.
 Alexander Gutsailo, Cherkesov's spokesperson, said in a telephone interview Thursday that he had heard nothing about the letter either, but added that a representative from Cherkesov's office "sits in at the sessions" of the Legislative Assembly to monitor its proceedings.
 "Being present is not the same as interfering," he said.
 City Hall, meanwhile, chose to distance itself from the current squabbles in the assembly.
 "The Legislative Assembly is behaving like a person hired to be a gardner who plays the violin all the time," Alexander Afanasyev, Yakovlev's spokesperson, in a telephone interview on Thursday. "Nobody liked him, they fired him, but then hired him again - and he keeps on playing the violin, instead of cutting grass."
 "That's how the assembly worked before, and that's how it works now," he said. "What's new?"

TITLE: Poll Says Russians May Be Kicking Smoking Habits
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russians may still smoke more than all other Europeans except Albanians, but a new poll shows that a growing number disapprove of the unhealthy habit, and there are signs that smoking is going out of style.
 
Some 52 percent of Russians have a negative attitude toward smoking and smokers, and 70 percent object to smoking in public places, according to a poll conducted by ROMIR Public Opinion Monitoring Center among 1,500 smoking and non-smoking respondents across Russia last month. 
 In a similar poll conducted a year ago, only 40 percent said they had a negative attitude to smoking and smokers, ROMIR spokesperson Olga Zharova said. The poll has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
 The increase in the anti-smoking sentiments is attributed to a greater interest in health and fitness, at least among the young and successful.
 "A new healthy lifestyle is gaining a place for itself and it is very good," said Nikolai Uskov, editor of Men's Health magazine. "Even nightclub goers spend more time dancing in clubs than sitting and smoking."
 In the past, a cigarette was a sign of a man's masculinity, but it lost this meaning as smoking spread widely among women, he said. In recent years, smoking has become just a bad habit and is no longer associated with style. 
 "A nice smile obviously looks more attractive than a cigarette between the lips," Uskov said.
 Galina Tkachenko, who runs the Health Ministry's anti-smoking campaign, agreed that smoking is becoming less popular among the urban, upwardly mobile. But she said the overall picture remains gloomy because smoking is still widespread in the regions, where living conditions are poorer. 
 High numbers of teens who smoke is another reason why there is no noticeable decline in the number of smokers, she said. One in 10 secondary-school students aged 15 to 17 smokes, according to Health Ministry statistics.
 An estimated 63 percent of the male population and 10 percent of the female population smoke, said ministry official Andrei Yuryev. The percentage of woman smokers rises to 30 percent in the 30-35 age group.
 The 63 percent figure puts Russia tied with Belarus for second in Europe for men who smoke, after Albania, he said.
 Russians spend some $15 billion on tobacco a year, while an average family of smokers spends up to 15 percent of its budget on cigarettes, Yuryev said.
 Tkachenko said poor awareness of the dangers of smoking may attribute to the high number of smokers in Russia.
 "General awareness of the fact that smoking is bad is high among all age groups, but fewer people know what these risks are," she said in a telephone interview this week.
 Smoking has accounted for 63 percent of deaths from lung cancer in Russia over the past 10 years, according to World Health Organization statistics.
 Awareness of smoking-related dangers is higher among educated segments of the population but, at the same time, educated people are generally more tolerant of smoking in public places, the poll results showed. 
 Legislation was passed last year to protect non-smokers and discourage children from picking up the habit. It outlaws tobacco sales to children under the age of 18 and restricts smoking to designated areas in government offices, hospitals, theaters and universities.
 But Tkachenko said the law remains toothless because it contains no specific penalties.
 Vladimir Usanov, a spokesman for the State Duma's health committee, which sponsored the legislation, said it is up to the Justice Ministry to submit amendments to the new Administrative Code, which took effect in July.
 "We have done everything we could and expect the government to step in," Usanov said.
 Tkachenko said reaching out to the army of Russian smokers and encouraging them to quit the habit is a daunting prospect. Many people want to quit, but do not know where to go for help or just can not find time to deal with the problem, she said.

TITLE: NTV Strife Continues as 'Namedni' Closes
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The conflict surrounding the appointment of new management at NTV television brought its first major loss for viewers Thursday evening, when one of the country's most celebrated journalists and the face of NTV, Leonid Parfyonov, closed his top-rated "Namedni" weekly analytical show for at least three months. The last program is scheduled for Sunday.
 
"After a meeting with [Gazprom CEO] Alexei Miller, we [the "Namedni" team] decided that "Namedni" will not come out again," Parvyonov said in a televised statement, leaving it unclear whether the program will be closed for good or just temporarily. 
 Parfyonov was one of 12 members of NTV's advisory board who protested the appointment of Nikolai Senkevich as the channel's acting general director to replace U.S. financier Boris Jordan, and Alexei Zemsky as his first deputy. Miller made clear in their meeting Tuesday that he was not going to reverse the appointment, Parfyonov said Thursday.
 Miller met on the same day with chief of news Tatyana Mitkova, who also is considering going on vacation, sources in NTV said Thursday. Mitkova could not be reached. 
 "I was told that the changes that happened and against which we spoke out will not be reversed," Parvyonov said. "It is impossible to work in such conditions."
 Parfyonov said that during his 99-day vacation, he will complete the last part of his "Russian Empire" documentary series and supervise the new weekday evening news show, "Strana I Mir," which he had helped start.
 Senkevich's spokesperson, Irina Gan, confirmed that he had agreed to Parfyonov's vacation request. "The channel's management hopes that he will return to work after the vacation," she said.
 Against a buzz in media circles that he was considering an offer from Channel One, Parfyonov said last Friday, when he received the TEFI prize for best television program, that he was not quitting NTV over the crisis.
 Miller was scheduled to return to Moscow on Friday. In a sign that his appointments at NTV have generated him enemies outside the channel too, government-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Thursday published an article strongly critical of Miller's personnel policy.
 It was not clear Tuesday whether Parfyonov's decision was a gesture of despair or an attempt to gain leverage in the battle with Gazprom. It destroyed the hopes for a compromise, which appeared after Miller met with Parfyonov and Mitkova. Sources in Gazprom said earlier Thursday that they had named former NTV officials Vladimir Kulistikov, now with VGTRK, and Grigory Krichevsky of TVS as acceptable candidates for deputy director in charge of news.
 "A person has the right to a vacation, especially if he has not had any time off for a long time," said Anna Kachkayeva, media analyst with Radio Liberty. "But when, in the zenith of its fame, mid-season, a program leaves prime time on Sunday, when advertising is most expensive, it can mean nothing other than a demarche expressing the authors' attitude to an unresolvable crisis or a strong method of pressuring the shareholders."

TITLE: Group Aiming To Get Russians Armed, Ready
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Last fall's siege of a Moscow theater by armed Chechens sparked debate on how the attack could have been prevented. A new organization believes it has the answer: Let the population arm itself. That way, the group's members say, instead of accepting their fate, the hostages could have pulled out their legally registered handguns and fought off their captors.
 
"It would have been impossible to hold [hundreds of] people if one in 10 potential hostages were armed," said Andrei Vasilievsky, head of the newly formed Civil Arms Union, or Soyuz Grazdanskoye Oruzhiye, which is lobbying for all Russians to have the right to carry arms.
 Less than a week after the end of the siege, Vasilievsky and his supporters sent a letter to the government, calling for the repeal of gun control laws.
 Current legislation allows Russian citizens to buy smooth-barrelled firearms for hunting and self-defense after undergoing a mental examination and a background check for any past criminal record. Those guns must be kept at home in secure metal containers. 
 The idea of loosening gun control in a country with one of the worst murder rates in the world may seem foolhardy to some, but the union insists that it would allow a population buffeted by crime and left vulnerable by ineffective law enforcement to defend itself properly.
 The front page of the union's Web site declares: "If you understand that the policeman cannot protect you from attack in your favorite place, from your home's entryway to the wild forest, ... you're with us. Because weapons are independence and responsibility."
 The staunchest opposition to the union comes from the Interior Ministry, the federal agency that oversees the country's police force. 
 "The Interior Ministry's position is negative," Leonid Vedenov, deputy head of the ministry's organized crime department, said in a recent interview. "And so is public opinion."
 Vedenov said that those lobbying for the right to carry arms are doing so in the interest of gunmakers. 
 Vasilievsky said that the ministry opposed the union's proposals because of its conservatism and because it was trying to preserve its profitable private security business. 
 He also said that the strict gun possession laws now in effect help police when they need to frame somebody. A single shell found on a person could be used "to fabricate criminal cases," he said. 
 Many of the union's arguments echo those of the powerful U.S. organization, the National Rifle Association.
 Like the NRA, the union considers the carrying of arms to be a civil right and protection not only for a person's life but for his property.
 "If we want our society to be democratic, this is one of the rights we have to have," said Andrei Nasomov, a supporter of the arms union and an advocate for the rights of small business. Nasomov added that small businesses were in special need of self-defense, squeezed from both sides by criminals and corrupt police.
 The union also says that the right to bear arms would cut crime figures rather than boost them, citing recent increases in gun crime in Great Britain and Australia since the introduction of tighter gun control. 
 Although more than 6 million guns are legally registered nationwide, they are used in only 1,000 out of the 5,000 to 7,000 crimes involving guns annually, said Valery Polozov, an expert with the State Duma's Security Committee and a supporter of the union
 Matthew Bennet, spokesperson for Americans for Gun Safety, said he was skeptical about the union's arguments.
 "There's no evidence that criminals are worried about victims carrying guns," Bennet said in a telephone interview from New York. "There's no relation between the loosening of gun control and a drop in the crime rate."
 Gun control advocates need not worry yet about measures allowing the public to arm themselves. Vasilievsky, who is vice president of the political think tank Panorama, admits that his initiative has little public support.
 The union's eventual aim is to form a nonfaction group in the Duma to back their cause.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Samsung Sponsorship
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - South Korean giant Samsung Electronics has pledged $1 million toward St. Petersburg's 300th-anniversary preparations
 Samsung representatives signed an agreement with the St. Petersburg 300th-Anniversary Fund on Wednesday, Interfax reported.
 Yury Skvortsov, the head of the fund's press service, said that Samsung intends to direct $400,000 to the opening ceremony of a water celebration on the Neva River, with the rest of the money going to other events of the Korean firm's choice.
 The fund has so far raised $12 million for the anniversary, Interfax reported.
 
 
<b>Flu Epidemic
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The flu epidemic currently spreading through Russia has already reached Astrakhan, Barnaul, Kazan, Kirov, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Roston-na-Donu, Chelyabinsk, Chita and Pskov, the State Epidemic Service reported Thursday.
 Six deaths from the epidemic have already been registered - two in St. Petersburg, two in Voronezh, and one each in Astrakhan and Ulyanovsk.
 Children between seven and 14 have been worst affected in Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Yakutsk, while children aged between three and six have been severely affected in Stavropol.
 Some schools in the Komi Republic have cancelled classes because of the epidemic.
 
 
<b>Pacific Fleet Trial
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - A military court in the Far East convicted three Pacific Fleet servicemen for stealing explosives, Interfax reported Thursday. 
 The servicemen, a senior lieutenant and two warrant officers, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to six years, the report said. 
 They were convicted of stealing explosives from a military warehouse two years ago, the report said. Following their arrest, police found 389 kilograms of TNT and more than 2,000 electronic detonators in their possession. 
 Investigators said that the suspects intended to sell the explosives to criminal groups in the Pacific ports of Vladivostok and Nakhodka, Interfax said. 



TITLE: Gorbachev To Record Classic
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev will team up with Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren for his English-language recording debut in a new narration of Sergei Prokofiev's &quot;Peter and the Wolf.&quot;
 
The last leader of the Soviet Union will join the former U.S. president and the Italian actress on a special charity recording of Prokofiev's work by the Russian National Orchestra. The recording will be issued by PentaTone Classics this spring.
 Gorbachev follows in the footsteps of a host of stars - including Boris Karloff, David Bowie, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery and Sting - in participating in &quot;Peter and the Wolf.&quot;
 Three-time Grammy-winning conductor Kent Nagano has already conducted the music and will work with Gorbachev when he records his narration Monday.
 Clinton and Loren recorded their parts with Nagano in Geneva in December. 
 Nagano and Sergei Markov, the general director of the RNO, were shy at a news conference Tuesday about saying which parts each of the three will narrate. Their unwillingness may have been prompted by the laviscious way one reporter posed the question: &quot;Who is the wolf and who is Peter?&quot; - in a reference to Loren and Clinton. The RNO web site says Gorbachev will narrate the introduction.
 As well as narrating Prokofiev's tale, the three are recording a newly written piece, &quot;The Wolf and Peter,&quot; with music by French composer Jean-Pascal Beintus and text by writer Walt Kraemer.
 Prokofiev's version tells the tale of a young boy's encounter with a dangerous wolf and eventual capture of the hungry animal. In the new version, the story is more from the wolf's side.
 &quot;We thought it would be interesting to see the story from the point of view of the wolf,&quot; Nagano said. &quot;He's in the forest, but the forest is disappearing, urbanization is cutting the trees away. ... We see why the wolf is so desperate.&quot;
 The new version perhaps especially appeals to Gorbachev, who is heavily involved in environmental work. He is donating his fee for the performance to Green Cross International, an environmental organization he founded in 1993. Clinton is donating his fee to the International AIDS trust, whose advisory committee he chairs with former South African leader Nelson Mandela.
 Loren is donating her fee to the orchestra's own charity Music for the Masses, which brings art therapy to orphanages and facilities for the physically and mentally disabled. The album will be decorated with pictures by children from some of the orphanages.
 &quot;We chose former politicians who have a great ability to communicate,&quot; said Nagano, when asked why Clinton and Gorbachev were picked. 
 It was an answer that might seem odd to many Russians because Gorbachev, when in power, was often criticized for his provincial accent and long, indecipherable sentences.
 Nagano and Markov said Gorbachev speaks English very well, although a spokesman at his foundation said earlier Tuesday that he didn't speak English at all.
 The recording comes in a year filled with events to mark the 50th anniversary of Prokofiev's death.
 &quot;Peter and the Wolf&quot; was one of Prokofiev's first compositions after his return to the Soviet Union in 1936. Written in a week for a Moscow children's theater, the piece acts as a child's introduction to the orchestra, with each character played by a different instrument or a group of different instruments - Peter by the strings, the wolf by the horn section and the cat by the clarinet.
 Kent Nagano has previously recorded &quot;Peter and the Wolf&quot; with the Orchestra de L'Opera de Lyon and &quot;Star Trek&quot; actor Patrick Stewart.

TITLE: Tsar Ivan, Rasputin Split Church Over Sainthood
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A heated debate over Russia's first tsar, Ivan the Terrible, and the mystical healer Grigory Rasputin, who scandalized the monarchy in its waning years, is threatening to create a split in the Russian Orthodox Church.
 
At issue is a campaign to canonize the two men that is rooted in a widely embraced belief that the monarchy fell victim to a plot masterminded by Jews and Freemasons. Last week, a group of theologians, church historians and official Orthodox journalists de facto proclaimed what has long been discussed privately in church circles - that the campaign is being carried out by a sect that is undermining the Russian Orthodox Church from within.
 The canonization drive, which has been picking up steam for years, has grown so strong that the Moscow Patriarchate is considering dropping its decade-long policy of tolerating it in order to avoid a schism at all costs. It is unclear, however, whether the patriarchate would be able to muster enough strength and moral authority to do so.
 Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II spoke out against the canonizations in unusually strong terms over the past year, stressing it would be impossible to canonize Ivan the Terrible, who ordered the deaths of several clergymen who were later sainted, and Rasputin, whose debauchery and dubious healing practices compromised the last royal family of Tsar Nicholas II.
 &quot;This is madness!&quot; the patriarch said in his first statement on the subject in December 2001. &quot;What believer would want to stay in a church that equally venerates murderers and martyrs, lechers and saints?&quot;
 But repeated statements by the patriarch have had little affect. In October, canonization proponents held a conference in Moscow and urged him to consider their request.
 The theologians who last week linked the drive to a sect drew up a list of unofficial Orthodox newspapers, Internet sites and radio programs involved in the push and warned in a statement that they &quot;undoubtedly could lead to a schism in the church.&quot;
 &quot;These publications juggle the facts of church history, distort the foundations of the Orthodox faith and ultimately create a sectarian mentality,&quot; the statement said.
 The theologians said canonization supporters were also behind a protest the government's decision to issue tax identification numbers (protesters likened the numbers to the apocalyptic sign of the beast) and a drive to venerate Nicholas II not as a passion bearer, as he was canonized in 2000, but as a co-redeemer - which would put him on par with Jesus.
 They said the campaign was being fueled by a low level of church culture and a large influx of neophytes with a dissident mentality.
 &quot;Those demanding the canonization of Ivan the Terrible and Rasputin are a small but very noisy group,&quot; said Alexander Dvorkin, the church's leading expert on sects. &quot;This will be followed by demands to canonize Stalin - there is already some so-called research showing that he was secretly a monk. It is impossible to disprove all of these myths. Religious hysterics are the basis of this pseudo-Orthodox sect acting within our church.&quot;
 Alexei Beglov, an Orthodox historian, said the roots of such thinking - which includes the belief that Jesus will appear on Earth as a new tsar - can be traced to the apocalyptic superstitions of Russian peasants in the early 1900s. 
 These beliefs could be written off if it wasn't for the fact that they represent the development of the most appealing and coherent anti-Semitic ideology within the Russian Orthodox Church today. 
 Books and articles describing Ivan the Terrible as &quot;Saint Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich&quot; and Rasputin as &quot;Martyr for God and Tsar Elder Grigory Novy&quot; first appeared in the mid-1990s, along with icons depicting them as saints. Most of these writings have a strong anti-clerical slant, accusing church officials who condemned Rasputin's magical practices during his lifetime and his supporters today of betraying the foundations of the Orthodox faith.
 One prayer to Rasputin, written by a certain Nikolai Kozlov and published in a brochure, reads: &quot;Seeing thy otherworldly struggle and labor with their carnal eyes, Oh St. Grigory, and having listened to the Jewish slander and libel, many bishops and priests were tempted and persecuted thee and thy kin. ... Thereupon thou received bodily wounds and a ferocious death from the Jews.&quot;
 It is a matter of historical record that Rasputin was killed by monarchists - Prince Felix Yusupov and Duma member Vladimir Purishkevich, with the knowledge of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. But this does not sway the myth-makers. They describe Rasputin's killers as Freemasons, which is synonymous with Jews for them. They believe that Rasputin's orgies were carried out by a double and staged by his enemies. They say Rasputin was a holy elder serving the tsar and healing his hemophiliac son, Alexis.
 The same is true of Ivan the Terrible. Proponents of his canonization see him only as a devout leader who formed the Russian monarchy in the 16th century and showed mercy while suppressing revolts. The dark side of his reign - mass murders, including those of prominent clergymen and his son, as well as his many marriages - are ignored or denied as slander. Proponents also ignore Russian Orthodox hymns that describe Ivan as a new Pharaoh and new Herod.
 The canonization drive is an outshoot of the teachings of the charismatic and controversial Metropolitan Ioann of St. Petersburg, who died in 1995. He taught that the monarchy was the last bastion of the Orthodox faith in a battle against the anti-Christian forces of Jews, Freemasons and Western Christian heretics, who he said led the Russian people to atheism and liberalism. He taught that Ivan the Terrible founded the bastion and Rasputin was sent to protect the last tsar and his son. 
 The belief that Nicholai II was a sacrificial lamb slain by anti-Christian forces propelled a years-long campaign to canonize the royal family.
 The Moscow Patriarchate, however, rejected the theories by canonizing the royal family in 2000 as passion bearers - people who accepted their imminent death with Christian humility. 
 The canonization has only bolstered the confidence of people like Konstantin Dushenov, a former aide to Metropolitan Ioann who is one of the leaders of the campaign.
 He said Moscow Patriarchate officials were worried about the campaign only because they were realizing that they lack the moral authority to influence church members.
 &quot;They can control cash flows and administrative resources but not the way that believers really feel,&quot; said Dushenov, editor of the St. Petersburg newspaper Rus Pravoslavnaya.
 &quot;If it is God's will, no one will be able to stop us - neither the patriarch nor the synod,&quot; he said.

TITLE: 'Lesbian' Hit Top of Pops
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The two most famous Russian teenagers in the world - the pseudo-lesbian duo in the pop group Tatu - came out Thursday ... as completely unfazed about calls to ban them from British stage, radio and television.
 
Anyone expecting a different kind of coming out from Lena Katina, 17, and Yulia Volkova, 18, was sorely disappointed. The group, whose career has skyrocketed with a combination of catchy pop songs and lesbian teen hype, remained determined not to clear up questions about their sexuality.
 &quot;Maybe and maybe not,&quot; said Volkova, when asked whether she and Katina were lovers. &quot;You know, we're not going to give a straight answer.&quot;
 Few doubt that their sexual ambiguity is a ploy to boost album sales. Russian papers regularly report that the girls have boyfriends, but the implied underage sex antics of their videos have raised a storm in Britain, where critics say Tatu is targeting &quot;the dirty old man market.&quot;
 The controversy has not hindered sales. Tatu's single &quot;All the Things She Said&quot; went to No. 1 on the British pop charts Sunday and is at No. 5 in the United States.
 &quot;Thank you to those who banned the playing of the video and the playing of the song on the radio,&quot; said manager Ivan Shapovalov, although no one has actually banned the video or song yet. &quot;I think the sale of the album grew several times as a result.&quot;
 &quot;We quite often get relatively old men [at concerts] who collect autographs, clap, smile at us and sing our songs,&quot; Katina said.
 &quot;England is sick like America, and the only thing to do is provide a cure,&quot; Shapovalov said.

TITLE: Cult Cartoonist Quarrels With Producer
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Oleg Kuvayev, creator of the cartoon &quot;Masyanya,&quot; which has made its way from humble beginnings on the Internet to a primetime spot on national television on NTV, has announced that he will no longer be working for the St. Petersburg Web site where the cartoon first appeared. 
 
In a statement issued on the site on Monday, Kuvayev cited conflicts with the cartoon's producer, Grigory Zorin, as the cause of his departure. 
 Referring to the site's management company, Kuvayev said in another statement issued this week that &quot;The company was managing the project for better or for worse, with the collaboration with NTV being the only success. As a result, we haven't been paid in accordance with our contract for some time.&quot; 
 &quot;We owe 1 1/2 month's payments - about $17,000 - to an 'underground artist,' due to problems with advertisers on NTV,&quot; Zorin said on Thursday. 
 &quot;Kuvayev treated that as a personal insult and 'declared war.' To be honest, we've been at war since we started working together, because a 'trendy underground artist' couldn't bear a friendship with a 'commercial' man,&quot; he said.
 &quot;Masyanya&quot; - a cartoon about a St. Petersburg girl of the same name and her comic exploits - first appeared on www.mult.ru, a site created by Kuvayev, at the end of 2001. Kuvayev then created his own studio-company, Mult.ru, to manage the project, making himself general director. 
 In February, 2002, Mult.ru joined forces with Grigory Zorin to create a new company, Masyanya, to manage the site. The show soon won a slot on the popular weekly news program &quot;Namedni&quot; (&quot;On the Eve&quot;) on NTV, and video tapes of the program were released at the end of 2003.
 &quot;They have the copyright to Masyanya cartoons for another two years more, and I can't do anything about if I don't want to mess around in court,&quot; Kuvayev said in another statement, this time made on his new Internet site, www.hrundel.ru. &quot;But I'll keep on working with NTV, because I'm obliged to by contract. Mult.ru has ended rather sadly and absurdly. We'll go into the underground&quot;, Kuvayev said.
 &quot;It is sad that all this is happening to the best Internet project in Russia, and I'm upset that conflicts have stopped the normal functioning of the site,&quot; said Georgy Slugin, spokesperson for the Rambler Internet holding, which currently hosts www.mult.ru.
 &quot;Personally, I feel sorry for Kuvayev, who is facing problems - It's a typical Russian situation, where creative people can't agree with their producers. I'd like the project to go on and there to be less depression from St. Petersburg,&quot; he said.
 &quot;On the other hand, I do not think [the company] Masyanya managed the project badly - I've seen the project on NTV and lots of T-shirts and notebooks with Masyanya on it. Masyanya has been promoted really well, and Grigory Zorin has good business sense. It was a surprise to find out that they're having financial difficulties,&quot; Slugin said.
 Slugin added that, as usual, the money is always in Moscow, while everything that's interesting is always in St. Petersburg

TITLE: 'Mystery' Stakeholder Is Revealed As MDM
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - MDM Group confirmed analysts' suspicions that it was the &quot;mystery buyer&quot; snapping up shares in Unified Energy Systems by going public with its bid for seats on the UES board. 
 
A source at MDM Group, who wished to remain anonymous, said Thursday that the industrial holding's main shareholders, board chairperson Sergei Popov and Andrei Melnichenko, who is chairperson of the board of MDM Bank, will be nominated as candidates to the UES board by March 3. 
 UES shareholders have until March 3 to nominate candidates ahead of the power utility's annual general meeting, set for May. 
 The UES board has 15 seats, and shareholders are required to own at least 2 percent of the company to be eligible as candidates. 
 The government controls around 52 percent of shares in UES, the national power utility that is due to be reformed. 
 The source, who asked not to be identified, said that Melnichenko and Popov would represent the &quot;interests of a pool of Russian and Western financial investors&quot; on the UES board. He did not elaborate. 
 MDM Group, together with oligarch Oleg Deripaska's Base Element, another aggressive industrial group, is reported to have accumulated a 17-percent stake - an investment that analysts estimate to have cost around $600 million. 
 The MDM source neither denied nor confirmed this information. But he did say that MDM Group started buying UES shares as early as last summer and would continue to increase its stake. 
 In December, UES CEO Anatoly Chubais accused the buyer of trying to engineer delays of power reform legislation, which is up for consideration in the State Duma. 
 If reforms are not enacted in 2003 as planned, analysts said, the share price is likely to fall, making it cheaper to buy up further shares.
 &quot;We have a vital interest in seeing reforms implemented soon,&quot; the MDM source said. He said that there had been disagreements between MDM and Chubais, but that they had been resolved. 
 Three minority shareholder representatives now sit on the Unified Energy Systems board: two fund managers - Halcyon Advisors executive David Herne and Prosperity Capital Management director Alexander Branis - as well as National Reserve Bank chairperson Alexander Lebedev. 
 Herne was elected to the UES board last year by a narrow margin, but expressed doubt this week about whether he would be able to get elected again this year. 
 On Wednesday, Herne said that a representative of Deripaska planned to run for the board. 
 A Deripaska spokesperson denied the report. Lebedev told journalists Wednesday that he held over 4 percent of UES, but he would step down from the board this year and throw his support behind Branis. 
 UES' share price closed down 2.7 percent on Thursday at $0.114.

TITLE: Norilsk Nickel Makes Appeal To Employees, Talks Collapse
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The management of metals giant Norilsk Nickel said Wednesday that it would appeal to employees to go on working after pay talks with trade unions collapsed.
 
After a conciliation committee failed to find a common solution, the management of Norilsk's key Arctic division decided to call an employee conference, the company said in a statement.
 But a minority union at Norilsk Nickel said that it would start a hunger strike Thursday in response to management's decision, Interfax reported.
 About 30 members of the Trade Union Federation could participate, union Deputy Chairperson Vladimir Dryamov said.
 If management at Norilsk's Arctic Division does not compromise, the hunger strikers would call on other employees to join them, he said.
 &quot;Such an announcement sounds like blackmail,&quot; Interfax quoted a Norilsk spokesperson as saying. &quot;This looks extremely strange, considering the attempts to bring all conflicts directly to an employees' conference.&quot;
 The company proposed that the conference, which would be attended by managers and employee representatives, be held in the first half of March. &quot;I believe that the employees will support us,&quot; the statement quoted Arctic Division head Vitaly Bobrov as saying. 
 
 <i>(Reuters, SPT) </i>

TITLE: Kasyanov Widens Information Access
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - The cabinet on Thursday ordered all government agencies to publish information not regarded as a state secret - including financial data - on their Web sites in an effort to curb corruption.
 
The corresponding resolution was signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and will take effect next week, when it is to be published in the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the cabinet-information department said.
 Some controversial categories of information, including data on tenders and contracts, remained in the final resolution despite fierce rejection from a number of government agencies, said Galina Bronnikova, spokesperson for the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, which drew up the legislation.
 All laws and regulations, draft laws in the State Duma, information on meetings and news conferences, information on federal programs, official speeches and ministers' travel itineraries will be published online, Bronnikova said.
 All information can be viewed through the cabinet's Web site, www.government.ru, which provides links to the sites of all ministries and government agencies.
 The resolution is part of a package of laws being drawn up by the cabinet on reforming the government with the aim of reducing corruption. 
 The Economic Development and Trade Ministry is expected to finalize work on a draft law that will determine levels of access to government information in March.
 The cabinet also announced Thursday that it has begun a large-scale project to sell off state companies.

TITLE: French Cows To Save Russian Agriculture
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Agriculture Ministry, which hopes its new quotas on imported meat will give Russian producers some breathing room, said Wednesday that it is turning to French cows to revive the domestic beef industry.
 
Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev presented to reporters a model ranch with French cattle in the Tyumen region that is to be replicated throughout the country over the next few years.
 &quot;We have lost our leading position in beef cattle-breeding on the world market,&quot; said Gordeyev, who is also a deputy prime minister. &quot;If we let meat imports remain at current levels, we will have to forget about our own [production].&quot;
 Under the pilot project, National Reserve Bank and the Tyumen regional administration have formed the $6-million National Meat Co. in the south of the Tyumen region, said National Reserve Bank chairperson Alexander Lebedev.
 The new company, whose ownership is split evenly between the region and the bank, is intended to serve as the model for vertically integrated beef production, from pasture to table.
 The Agriculture Ministry, which has thrown its weight behind the project, has promised that the enterprises will receive long-term subsidized loans through state-owned Rosselkhozbank.
 National Reserve Bank will invest $5 million in livestock from France in 2003, and a possible $20 million over the next two to three years, Lebedev said.
 By the end of 2003, National Meat plans to buy 2,000 more cows, said its president, Andrei Zhuravlyov, who also heads the Interregional Fund of Meat Stockbreeding.
 Last month, 500 head of cattle were delivered to the Tyumen region from France as part of an intergovernmental program approved in fall 2001. The program could send some 10,000 French cows per year to Russia until 2012.
 &quot;This is only the start,&quot; Gordeyev said.
 Similar enterprises are to be set up in the Moscow, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Smolensk, Belgorod and Ryazan regions.
 The beef industry, which collapsed along with the Soviet Union, has seen herds shrink from 57 million head in 1992 to 26.6 million in 2002, of which only 1 percent are beef cattle and the rest are dairy cattle, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
 Not only the beef industry has slumped: The number of pigs dropped from 38.3 million to 17 million and the number of poultry from 660 million to 345 million.
 Russia now imports 60 percent of all meat products consumed. It is now the world's leading importer of poultry, the No. 2 pork importer and No. 3 beef importer.
 Every third kilogram of beef eaten in Russia today is imported, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
 &quot;If, today, we do not work out a system of measures to protect the local meat industry, imports will overwhelm it,&quot; said State Duma Deputy Viktor Semyonov, a former agriculture minister who is now chairperson of the Belaya Dacha farm near Moscow.
 &quot;If we enter the WTO without a market-regulation mechanism, we won't get one afterward,&quot; said Musheg Mamikonyan, chairperson of the Meat Union.
 Most market participants agree that quotas will, eventually, lead to price hikes, but they say that importers will try to bring into an already full market as much meat as possible before the quotas, which were announced two weeks ago, come into force. Quotas will be phased in starting in April.
 While welcoming the government's steps to protect the meat industry, meat producers, lawmakers and market experts worry about how new import limitations will work in reality.
 Quotas are very effective in the West, but new to Russia, Semyonov said, speaking at a three-day meat-industry conference that ends Thursday.
 In the food industry, the European Union has set 87 import quotas and the United States has set 57. Russia introduced its first only three years ago - on raw sugar - and that caused the domestic sugar market to crash.
 Albert Davleyev, head of the U.S.A. Poultry &amp; Egg Export Council office in Moscow, said that the introduction of quotas is a positive sign of the government's interest but warned that a poorly applied quota system could strangle domestic growth.
 &quot;Historically, quota distribution is very difficult to implement. It leaves no possibility for the appearance of new companies on the market, which leads to a growth in gray imports,&quot; Davleyev said.
 Dmitry Rylko, general director of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, said that the government should improve tax and customs legislation and the state-standards system, and provide subsidized, long-term loans, as well as quotas.
 &quot;Take a knife. It can cut a cucumber, but it can also cut a finger, or do something worse. The same with quotas,&quot; Semyonov said. &quot;If the government applies them without the assistance of the business community, we will create an environment ripe for corruption.&quot;

TITLE: Latvia Seeks EU Help on Russian Oil Shipments
AUTHOR: By J. Michael Lyons
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VENTSPILS, Latvia - Lights on the wall-sized monitor usually shine like a Christmas tree in the pipeline-control room at Ventspils Oil, a sign that Russian oil is rushing into the country.
 
But the lights aren't flashing anymore, due in part to a dispute about oil shipments that Latvia has asked the European Union to help resolve. Russia's state-owned pipeline monopoly, Transneft, halted deliveries in December, citing what it called unreasonably high transit tariffs charged by Latvia.
 Latvian officials claim that Russia is pressuring them to sell Ventspils - which stores the oil and loads it onto tankers bound to the West - to Russian investors.
 Latvian Transportation Minister Roberts Zile said that Russia is bent on controlling the flow of its oil from the wells on the ground to the fuel depots in the West. &quot;There is no economic argument Russia can make in doing this - cutting off the oil to Latvia,&quot; he said. &quot;Russia just wants to keep the infrastructure in its hands.&quot;
 It's the latest dispute between Russia and Latvia, a staunchly pro-Western state of 2.5 million people that will join the European Union and NATO in 2004.
 &quot;We are concerned that decisions related to oil transportation via Latvia are politically colored,&quot; Latvian Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete wrote in a Jan. 17 letter to the EU Commission.
 Russia has denied that it is acting out of political motives, and the EU has yet to formally respond to the letter.
 Oil shipments to Ventspils dropped sharply after Russia opened a new oil terminal at Primorsk, near St. Petersburg, in December 2001. Russia said that the terminal will save $1.5 billion annually in transit tariffs - most of which have gone to Latvia.
 Russia built the terminal, in part, to supplant dependence on Ventspils Oil, which the Soviets constructed in 1961 to ship Russian oil to Western markets but lost when Latvia regained its independence as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
 Latvia has since reaped billions in oil-transit fees from Russia, which has been a boon to Ventspils, a town of just 44,000 people, 150 kilometers northwest of the capital, Riga.
 There is little unemployment in cash-rich Ventspils, and the brick-paved streets are clean and relatively crime free - thanks to a well-funded public sector.
 Until Primorsk opened, Russia shipped as much as 300,000 barrels per day to Ventspils through a 550-kilometer pipeline from Polotsk in western Russia.
 Deliveries fell off last year and stopped completely last month, six months before Latvia hopes to sell off a 38-percent stake in Ventspils Oil.
 The company is now scraping by on much costlier railroad deliveries of oil.
 Ventspils Oil posted a profit of 25.7 million lats ($42.8 million) in 2001. Company officials expect a profit this year of 40,000 lats ($66,666), according to estimates released last Thursday.
 Latvia is reluctant to sell shares in the company to a Russian firm because critics fear that would leave it open to pressure from the Kremlin.
 Several Russian firms, including Transneft, have expressed interest in buying a controlling stake in Ventspils Oil. The Latvian government's 43-percent stake includes seats on the company's board of directors. A consortium of several smaller shareholders owns the rest.

TITLE: Ministry Calls For Import Quotas To Protect Local Dairies
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A dairy crisis is looming in the next 18 months as subsidized imports squeeze domestic manufacturers' margins, Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergei Dankvert said Wednesday.
 
The solution, he said, is to introduce import quotas on dairy products and minimum purchasing prices for raw milk.
 &quot;Unfortunately, today, our state must take steps and regulate [the market] by setting minimum purchasing prices on milk,&quot; Dankvert said. &quot;We can't expect the dairy market to develop effectively without state intervention.&quot;
 Dankvert said that Russia increased milk production in 2002 by 17 percent to 33.5 million metric tons. But pressure from state-subsidized imports -15 percent of the market - pushed milk prices down 10 percent, thus depriving dairy farms of incentives to develop, he said at the Russian Dairy Union Congress.
 Dankvert said that the ministry planned to submit proposals on price regulation to the government and appealed to the dairy union and regional governors to lobby for the measures.
 But, in interviews with The St. Petersburg Times, top executives of the dairy union and Washington-based International Dairy Foods Association said that such measures would be harmful for the industry.
 Vladimir Labinov, executive director of the dairy union, said that minimum purchasing prices cannot be set on raw milk because seasonal factors push prices higher in winter. &quot;Farmers produce three times more milk in summer than in winter,&quot; he said.
 Import restrictions would only lead to higher prices and, thus, lower consumption, Labinov said.
 &quot;If prices increase, say, 10 percent, consumption will decrease 20 percent. So, if we drop imports, the consumption will drop, too,&quot; he said.
 Furthermore, dairy imports don't threaten domestic manufacturers in terms of volume, Labinov said. Imports of most dairy products make up only 10 percent to 12 percent of the market, while only imported butter and cheese have significant market share, 30 percent and 40 percent, respectively, Labinov said.
 &quot;But this is about quality,&quot; he added.
 Linwood Tipton, president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association, called Dankvert's proposed measures counterproductive.

TITLE: EU Wary of Oil Tanker on Baltic Sea
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - The European Commission said Wednesday that it had expressed its concern to Russia over a tanker transporting 100,000 metric tons of crude oil in icy weather off Finland, but said that it could not stop the ship.
 
EU member Finland has failed to persuade Moscow to prevent the Greek-registered ship from leaving the Russian port of Primorsk and braving the icy conditions of the Baltic Sea. The boat left port on Tuesday.
 The companies whose oil the Stemnitsa is hauling have not been identified.
 &quot;This is the object of great and understandable concern in Finland and the Baltic region,&quot; spokesperson Jonathan Faull told a news briefing, adding that the commission had written to Russia's EU ambassador and would contact Russia's transport minister.
 Stemnitsa's operator Minerva Marine Inc. objected to the attack on its tanker, saying that it has always strictly followed international regulations. Stemnitsa is an ice-class tanker, Minerva emphasized.
 Finland is concerned by a rise in the number of crude-oil transports through the Gulf of Finland.
 <i>(Reuters, SPT) </i>

TITLE: Magadan Vote Provides No Hope for Change
AUTHOR: By Nikolai Petrov
TEXT: PRE-TERM elections are usually more interesting than the scheduled variety. They catch the political elite unawares, and the incumbent governor often doesn't take part, meaning that the outcome is less predetermined.
 
The current gubernatorial election in Magadan is doubly interesting in this regard. The late Valentin Tsvetkov, who ruled the region from 1996, was so powerful that nobody had even contemplated running against him. All that changed last October, when Tsvetkov was murdered in Moscow. Immediately, the knives came out in Magadan, as rival factions began battling for control of the Tsvetkov administration's business empire.
 At 50, the Magadan region is one of Russia's youngest. Until Stalin's death, it was part of the Khabarovsk region and home to an enormous prison-camp system. It covers some 500,000 square kilometers, making it twice the size of Great Britain, but its population numbers less than 4 million. Nine tenths of the region's residents live in cities, with more than half in the city of Magadan. The rest are spread out in mining settlements, the largest of which, Susuman, is one tenth the size of Magadan. The region boasts abundant natural resources: precious metals (yearly gold production is 33 tons), fish and seafood from the Sea of Okhotsk, and promising petroleum reserves. The Chukotka region broke away in 1991, the only autonomous district in Russia to become totally independent. Oligarch Roman Abramovich has been the governor of Chukotka since 2000 and, at one point, rumors were flying that he had set his sights on Magadan.
 Before Tsvetkov, no governor had been assassinated in post-Soviet Russia. Most explanations of the murder proceeded from the governor having all of the profitable sectors of the regional economy under his thumb: gold, fish, vodka and the emerging oil sector. Any attempt to shift the balance of power in these industries would have directly affected the governor's interests. Whoever put out the contract on Tsvetkov didn't target a politician. They murdered a businessman, which, in today's Russia, is far from unusual. A huge brigade of Interior Ministry agents was dispatched to Magadan but, for all their efforts, including numerous arrests, they have yet to find the killer.
 Several regional leaders quickly emerged as front-runners to succeed Tsvetkov. The best-known among them was Vladimir Pekhtin, head of the Unity faction in the State Duma. Pekhtin formerly served as speaker of the Magadan regional legislature, and was second only to Tsvetkov in popularity. Another early favorite was Vladimir Butkeyev, a Duma deputy and Tsvetkov's chief rival in the last gubernatorial election. But, after thinking it over, both Pekhtin and Butkeyev ruled out a run for the governorship, and threw their support behind Magadan Mayor Nikolai Karpenko. Pekhtin lined up Kremlin and government support for the mayor.
 The &quot;party of power&quot; was represented by two candidates in addition to Karpenko: acting Governor Nikolai Dudov, formerly Tsvetkov's first deputy, and Andrei Zinchenko, a former deputy governor who was recently elected general director of Magadan's sea port. Karpenko, Dudov and Zinchenko immediately pulled away from the remaining candidates: businessperson Alexander Sechkin, an assistant to Butkeyev who represented the Union of Right Forces; another businessperson, Yury Grishan of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, or LDPR; and Anatoly Chirkin, the Communist Party candidate and deputy director of the local brewery monopoly, Magadanskaya Gruppa.
 Apart from the Tsvetkov and Pekhtin factions, however, nobody really stood a chance. Most of the candidates ran in order to position themselves for a spot in the new governor's administration, or to advance their private business interests.
 The most intriguing aspect of the campaign was that all three of the leading candidates represented a single party, United Russia. Yet the party didn't publicly back Karpenko until a few days before election day, apparently worried about picking the wrong horse or tripping up its chosen candidate. Local businesspeople also adopted a wait-and-see attitude, withholding their support until the last minute. 
 The campaign was waged with remarkably little mud-slinging. You could put this down to the character of northerners, who dislike all the blackmail and attack ads. But the campaign was also more like a boardroom dispute than a dogfight. None of the candidates wields total control over the machinery of regional government - Dudov because the bureaucracy split over the question of its future leader, and Karpenko because, in the regions, the capital and its mayor are never particularly loved. On the eve of the election, Dudov filed suit in a regional court, demanding that Karpenko be struck from the ballot for putting the power of the mayor's office, including the local television station, to use in his campaign. Similar charges were made against Dudov. The court found no serious violations, however, and chose not to get involved.
 A new election model is being tried out in Magadan. There is a new law in place, introducing a two-round system and a 25 percent minimum voter turnout in the first round. More important, the election seems to be a trial run for gubernatorial campaigns between two candidates from the same party who are equally acceptable to the Kremlin.
 In the first round, Karpenko came in first with 37.6 percent of the vote, while Dudov came second with 26 percent. The second round is scheduled for Feb. 16. Turnout was high - 53.7 percent - and a remarkably low 5.8 percent of voters cast their ballots for &quot;none of the above.&quot;
 Regardless of who wins in the end, there will be no changing of the guard in Magadan. Karpenko and Dudov have much in common. They're both in their early 50s, and both moved to the region from elsewhere (Karpenko from the Rostov region, Dudov from the Tula region), although they've been in Magadan for 25 years by now. Both worked their way up in local Communist Party organizations. The main difference between them might be that Karpenko has now been mayor for nearly 10 years, while Dudov, although he has climbed to the heights of the bureaucratic ladder, has never reached the top.
 The Magadan election is instuctive in another way as well. The region is known for backing opposition parties. At the last Duma election, nearly half of all votes were cast for the Unity party, but the Communists came second with 17.5 percent of the vote, and the LDPR came third with 13 percent. In the first round of the gubernatorial election, however, the Communist and LDPR candidates mustered just 1.3 percent of the vote each. The Union of Right Forces candidate, on the other hand, won 9 percent - the best showing of any party not aligned with the Kremlin. Victory, finally, will go not to any one political party, but to the &quot;indestructible bloc&quot; of the party of power and independents, just as it did in the Soviet era.
 
 <i>Nikolai Petrov, the head of the Center for Political and Geographical Research in Moscow, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Russia's New Visa Laws Put It on a Fast Track to Chaos
AUTHOR: by Vladimir Kovalev
TEXT: LAST month, Russian archaeologists found something that, they reckoned, is the grave of Ivan Susanin, the national hero who, in 1613, according to legend, saved young Mikhail Romanov from an invading Polish army - sacrificing his life in the process.
 
Susanin died after leading the Polish soldiers into a forest full of bogs in which they got lost and, eventually, drowned, thereby failing to capture Romanov, the future head of the Russian state, who started the dynasty that ruled Russia through 1917.
 I don't want to diminish Susanin's contribution to Russian history but, looking at the way things are going in the country at the moment, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he was merely using a time-honored Russian method for dealing with everyday situations - getting an enemy or a partner (it doesn't really matter which) totally confused.
 Susanin's tactics have been employed in Russia on countless occasions both before and since 1613, and today is no exception. Today's Russia is basically a country in the grip of helpless confusion.
 What other explanation is left after attempting to analyze the present maze that foreigners have to negotiate to get a visa just to come to the country, for example? The problems and the confusion - both in Russia and abroad - began at the end of last year, when the government decided to hand over responsibility for dealing with visas from the Foreign Ministry to the Interior Ministry.
 Now, its got to the point where the responsible - in the loosest possible sense of the word - authorities don't even try to explain who is supposed to do what. Who, for instance, is currently responsible for issuing the so-called &quot;fast-track&quot; three-day visas, launched with much fanfare this time last year, that were supposed to kick-start the tourism boom in St. Petersburg in time for the city's heavily hyped 300th anniversary this year? Nobody knows.
 While the local branch of the Foreign Ministry is busy telling everyone that the program has been given up as a dead duck - something to do with only 150 people taking advantage of it - the federal Tourism Department in Moscow says that it is still alive and quacking. Susanin would have been proud - foreigners won't take Russia that easily!
 Meanwhile, St. Petersburg's travel companies are reduced to shaking their heads and seeing money disappear down the drain - tour firms stood to gain most in financial terms from the new visas. Perhaps the most telling comment came from a rep who said that &quot;we wanted everything to be easy and smooth, but it turned out like it always does.&quot; 
 Tourism issues, although pressing, pale almost into insignificance when compared to the total chaos currently reigning in the realm of business, however.
 The main questions that a company's management asks while considering how to get businesspeople and tourists from other countries into Russia have always been: &quot;Where should we go, and to whom do we need to talk?&quot; A bit like the great questions of the Russian intelligentsia: &quot;What is to be done?&quot; and &quot;Who is guilty?&quot;
 Back to business, as it were. The answer to the management's question is obviously: &quot;Get a load of papers, because Russian authorities love it.&quot;
 So what has changed since the Interior Ministry became &quot;responsible&quot; for the visa question?
 1. Foreigners employed in Russia by companies that pay taxes in Russia can no longer get a year-long, multi-entry working visa, but only a single-entry version that doesn't give a definite date of expiry. In simple terms, each time foreign employees leaves Russia, they have to pay for a new visa. Which is a nice little earner, not just for the Interior Ministry, but also for the Russian police.
 2. Getting an invitation for a working visa now takes at least one month to approve, instead of two weeks, as previously.
 3. Now, foreign employees have to fill in nine different documents to be registered, instead of the six needed before the changes.
 4. Foreign employees must be registered within three days of getting to Russia - although the relevant authorized offices work just two hours per day, three days per week. According to the new rules, the Interior Ministry can apply to deport any employee who does not register in the stipulated time..
 5. Foreign-owned companies in Russia now have to get &quot;accreditation&quot; from the government to obtain a work permit for foreign employees. This involves turning over a staggering 22 different documents to the police, including such brilliant ideas as a form &quot;proving&quot; that the necessary working conditions have been created for the employees. The stroke of genius here is that the employer has to provide the form. Hmmm.
 6. Registration requires that the employee undergo an HIV test. Recently, a colleague took such a test at a government-accredited clinic, only to be told that, now, only results of tests carried out at an international clinic are accepted. In other words, Russian authorities do not trust their own domestic medical system.
 7. The company then has to pay 3,000 rubles (about $97) just to get the police to <i>accept </i>the papers - and then <i>another </i>580 rubles (about $17) for the work permit.
 8. If a foreign-owned company fails to get accreditation for a new manager inside a month, the manager has to leave the post. Stroke of genius no. 2: The new rules came into force Jan. 15, and it takes between two and three months to be accredited.
 Visas provide just one example of Russia's authorities employing the tried-and-trusted tradition illustrated in glorious Technicolor by Ivan Susanin: taking their foes into a forest where they will all drown in a bog. Today's travel companies, tourists and businesspeople - heck, even the Interior Ministry - are getting lost in a forest of paperwork and drowning in a bog of pettifogging rules.
 Russia is a great country. But the experience of Ivan Susanin is even greater.

TITLE: raging against the machine
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: PTVP's intense punk songs and frequent attacks on the establishment - especially President Vladimir Putin - has gained the band, which hails from Vyborg, on the Russia-Finland border, a devoted St. Petersburg fanbase.
 
The band's political stance led it to take part in the Punk Ska Festival Against the War in Chechnya in February 2000, one of very few musical anti-war protests held in the city since the current military campaign in Chechnya started in September 1999.
 It also distributed a flyer showing Putin, then acting president, with a Hitler-esque mustache and the slogan &quot;Hex@gen,&quot; a reference to the explosive used in the 1999 apartment-block bombings in Moscow that were a reason cited for the subsequent invasion of Chechnya. &quot;Hex@gen&quot; later became the title of both a song and the band's first CD album.
 PTVP is an acronym for Posledniye Tanki v Parizhe (&quot;Last Tanks in Paris&quot;), a reference to Bernardo Bertollucci's classic 1972 film, &quot;Last Tango in Paris,&quot; as well as to the failed uprisings in that city in 1968, according to Alexei Nikonov, the band's singer and songwriter.
 &quot;You can always find an explanation for any slogan,&quot; he says. &quot;We have other explanations as well.&quot;
 Nikonov was initially motivated by what he saw as the superficial nature of Russian punk.
 &quot;I expected to see something more existential, more considered,&quot; he says. &quot;Instead, I found that snobbish Moscow writers from [the magazine] Kontr Kult Ura thought that the celebrated Yegor Letov was the most considered thing around.&quot;
 Letov is the frontman of Siberian band Grazhdanskaya Oborona, which embraced extreme nationalist politics in 1993.
 &quot;The way I see it, [Letov] is the [Alexander] Solzhenitsyn of contemporary punk, with all his statements&quot; Nikonov says, referring to the former dissident Soviet author. &quot;When I learned that this was called 'Russian punk,' I felt sick.&quot;
 Bands like Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Nikonov argues, can not be called part of the &quot;Russian tradition.&quot;
 &quot;The real Russian tradition is [the writers] Pushkin, [Afanasy] Fet, [Fyodor] Tyutchev or Nabokov,&quot; he says. &quot;That's what I wanted to express through punk - not tearing the shirt off your chest, but the real prerogative of Russian consciousness, from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy to Brodsky. My idea is still to turn punk into something bigger.&quot;
 PTVP, whose other members are guitarist Maxim Kiselyov, bassist Yegor Nedviga and drummer Denis Krivtsov, was conceived in 1991, but was &quot;not serious&quot; for its first three years, when it played unrehearsed noise-punk.
 &quot;We started to play more considered music, which I call 'spaghetti punk,' in 1998,&quot; he says. &quot;It's now called glam-punk. It's nothing like pop-punk but, at the same time, has nothing to do with anarcho-punk.&quot;
 PTVP's seven releases to date have mostly been self-produced tapes. Only &quot;Hex@gen,&quot; from 2001, was given a CD release on the label AnTrop, whose owner, Andrei Tropillo - the legendary local producer responsible for underground albums by Akvarium, Zoopark and Kino in the 1980s - discovered the band by chance while in Vyborg club Kochegarka during a visit to the town.
 &quot;Tropillo's the only normal guy of his generation,&quot; says Nikonov. &quot;Despite his age [51] and all his money, he's not blinkered. He offered us his studio, and never meddled with what we were doing,&quot; he says. &quot;I didn't even get any advice from him.&quot;
 Nikonov says &quot;Hex@gen&quot; is PTVP's &quot;most eclectic album - from electro and noise to punk and post-new wave.&quot;
 Playing live, Nikonov frequently fills inter-song gaps by reciting his poems, some of which are collected in an as-yet-unpublished anthology, &quot;NeKhardKor&quot; (&quot;NoHardCore&quot;), available on the Internet.
 &quot;I consider myself primarily a poet,&quot; he says. &quot;And a poet must recite his poems.&quot;
 PTVP has played in a variety of venues over the years, including such un-punk venues as Hollywood Nites and City Club, where, during a recent gig, Nikonov said that the band took a deliberately antagonistic stance.
 &quot;I very consiously dedicated the song 'Zhirnym Ublyudkam' ('To the Fat Bastards') to the concert's promoters. We also sang 'Pulyu - Burzhuyu' ('Bullet for the Bourgeois'),&quot; he says. &quot;My position is that we should play any concert except those promoted by fascists. You can create any mood you want, depending on the situation. You can even play play with [pop diva] Alla Pugachyova; the main thing is how you use the situation.&quot;
 A self-described &quot;leftist guy,&quot; Nikonov never misses a chance to express his political views in a radical way. During November's alternative film festival Deboshir at the Palace of Youth, he produced a portrait of Putin for the audience to rip to shreds. 
 &quot;I came across two Putin posters backstage, and took one onstage with me,&quot; he says. &quot;When we started playing 'Hex@gen,' I took this big portrait of Putin, put it in front of the speakers, and started to sing. Just thirty seconds later, I looked and saw people tearing it to pieces.&quot;
 &quot;I didn't have to do anything; it's clear how young people see our president's gang,&quot; he says. &quot;It's symptomatic.&quot;
 
 <i>
PTVP plays Orlandina at 7 p.m. on Thursday. 
 Links: www.nehardcore.narod.ru </i>

TITLE: a weird and wonderful exhibition
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: With an impressive 3 million items in its collection, the State Hermitage Museum will always find trying to put a representative selection of its works on display to be somewhat akin to the labors of Hercules, no matter how hard it strives and no matter how many foreign branches it opens.
 
The museum's collection of Western European <i>objets d'art, </i>for example, has, for the most part, remained obscure. However, at its new exhibition, which opened on Tuesday, the Hermitage invites visitors to plunge into &quot;the magical world of the grotesque&quot; - which is, conveniently, the name of the display.
 &quot;The Hermitage boasts an incredible collection of objets d'art,&quot; Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky said at Tuesday's opening. &quot;We have to be creative in the way we exhibit them - we can't just unload everything we have and put it into a kilometers-long display.&quot;
 According to exhibition curator Tatyana Kosourova, the exhibition is the Hermitage's first attempt at focusing on the grotesque as seen in objets d'art.
 &quot;The idea was to show this theme through majolica plates, carved dressers, embroidery, tapestry, silver, enamels and even upholstery,&quot; she said.
 The exhibition has something of a mystical feel to it, and the objects on display abound in chimeras and weird creatures. This trend conjures up images from contemporary fantasy movies and provides a link from the present day to the historical tradition of the grotesque.
 The grotesque as a mode of ornamentation first appeared in classical antiquity, and has enjoyed waves of popularity at various times since. Although it is most associated with the Medieval era and, especially, gothic architecture, it actually reached its peak during the 16th century, with the Vatican's Rafael Halls among the most famous examples. 
 &quot;The reason that most people think the grotesque flourished in the Middle Ages probably comes from reading novels by Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo,&quot; Kusourova suggested. &quot;In reality, when the Italians rediscovered the grotesque in the late 15th century, it was the beginning of its real heyday.&quot;
 During the Renaissance, the grotesque made the leap from pure artworks into interior design. Similarly, the Hermitage exhibition includes plates and dishes, furniture, keys and even hunters' whistles. Particularly worth looking out for is a sophisticated ebony-and-ivory chessboard, created in 1620 by Munich artist Christoph Angernair, that is decorated with whimsical depictions of jesters, violin-playing bears, drum-playing donkeys and the like.
 While all the works on show are united by the same broad theme, each item has a long history behind it. Some of the items are deeply personal, for example, a tiny prayer book with scenes from the Nativity and the Resurrection on its cover that once belonged to King Christian IV of Denmark. The very fine book, made of gold and decorated with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and enamel, was produced in Copenhagen toward the end of the 16th century.
 In a similar vein, an engraved suit of armor, produced in Brunswick (now a part of Germany) in 1560, was presented to the Duke of Braunschweig on the occasion of his wedding to the Princess of Brandenburg, also toward the end of the 16th century.
 &quot;It was a time when [knightly] tournaments were very popular, and royal families collected armor,&quot; Kosourova said. &quot;So it was a very appropriate wedding present for a knight or cavalier.&quot;
 &quot;Nowadays, people are expressing more interest in objets d'art, especially as they are paying more attention to interior design,&quot; Piotrovsky said. &quot;However, most of us have yet to develop a deeper understanding of what this kind of art is.&quot;

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Three of the city's clubs are having problems with their premises.
 
On Sunday, <strong>Fish Fabrique </strong>was abrubtly closed on the orders of sanitary inspectors, according to rumor. 
 &quot;We closed for brief repairs, some redecoration,&quot; said the art cafe's owner, Pavel Zaporozhtsev, on Thursday. &quot;We did a lot of good work.&quot;
 According to Zaporozhtsev, Fish will reopen Friday, so this week's concert schedule will not change.
 Unlike Fish Fabrique, bunker underground rock club <strong>Front, </strong>which also closed down without notifying the public - it has been inactive since Jan. 15 - will take longer to reopen.
 According to Ilya Khvost, who co-owns Front, the place is now under repairs. &quot;We'll reopen on April 30, our second anniversary,&quot; he said, adding that, after repairs, the club will look &quot;more expensive.&quot;
 Worse is the situation of <strong>Kvadrat, </strong>the city's oldest surviving jazz club. The cafe it used for Monday gatherings and concerts has been closed, as the rooms it occupied have changed hands. 
 As a result, Kvadrat is looking for a new location, the seventh or eighth, depending on whom you believe, in its 38-year history.
 Launched back in 1964 as one of the first jazz clubs in the country, it was the underground center of Russian jazz for decades. 
 According to Natan Leites, who has run Kvadrat since its inception, the club has been advised by the city's Culture Committee to write a letter to Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
 &quot;We wrote the letter, and now have to send it,&quot; he says.
 Meanwhile, Kvadrat will be promoting its jam sessions at Neo Jazz Club for the time being, also on Mondays.
 Leites is not sure how long the jam sessions will last.
 &quot;The place is private, so it depends on whether its owner likes it,&quot; he says.
 <strong>Auktsyon, </strong>the city's long-established leading art-rock band, will play Red Club on Friday. It will be the band's first club concert in quite a while, and its first ever at the venue.
 Alhough the band's leader, Leonid Fyodorov, frequently appears solo at clubs like Orlandina, the band hasn't played the city since a show at Lensoviet Palace of Culture last December.
 <strong>Vermicelli Orchestra, </strong>which prefers to play big shows with symphony orchestras and now-trendy electronic groups, will do a smaller, club version of its act at Moloko on Saturday. 
 &quot;It will be all the material from the third album we're recording now,&quot; says accordion player Sergei Shchurakov, formerly of Akvarium, who leads the band, adding that one new number will be premiered.
 According to Shchurakov, Vermicelli's regular, eight-member lineup will be playing, with producer Artyom Tamazov behind the sound console.
 Shchurakov hopes that Vermicelli Orchestra will finish its third album in spring. &quot;It's difficult to say. It depends on how it goes. I hope very much that we'll make it in time.&quot;
 Meanwhile, <strong>Vezhlivy Otkaz </strong>- a Moscow art-rock band similar to Auktsyon, both in its style and approach - will start a series of farewell concerts with a televised live gig at a Moscow studio in a program called &quot;Zemlya - Vozdukh&quot; (&quot;Surface to Air&quot;) on TVS. The program starts five minutes after midnight on Saturday.
 The band will make its way to St. Petersburg next week, where it is scheduled to say goodbye to its local audiences at Red Club on Feb. 14.
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: a paradise for carnivores
AUTHOR: by Eric Bruns
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: You may have thought that Ms. Kseniya Onatopp (&quot;Onatopp?&quot; &quot;Onatopp&quot; is a classic exchange from &quot;Goldeneye&quot; - you can almost see the raised eyebrow) had got the best of my James Bond alter ego following the fiery review of Tiki Bar in December (see &quot;food for playing the spying game,&quot; Dec. 6).
 
But, this week, my more restrained superego had the pleasure of visiting one of the city's less-known restaurants, which proved to be one of the more intriguing, serving cuisine from the Dagestan region.
 Named after the city in Dagestan, Sumeta is located on Ul. Yefimova, which is perhaps better described as the street that connects Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanka to the McDonald's at Sennaya Ploshchad (useful as a landmark, if nothing else). Outside, it advertises its menu as &quot;European and Avarian.&quot; For those not in the know, the Avar are &quot;a traditionally Muslim people of southern Dagestan and neighboring areas of Azerbaijan,&quot; according to the ever-helpful Web site www.dictionary.com.
 Unlike many ethnic restaurants in St. Petersburg, Sumeta maintains an atmosphere of authenticity rarely seen in the establishments catering to New Russian ideas of what non-Russian food should taste like. The interior is somewhat cavernous, with walls composed of layers of hand-sized tiled rocks, and even a fountain cascading down one wall of the first room. Ceramic pots, stained glass and iron lamps, a weathered wooden ceiling and stuffed wild game all add to the Caucasian air.
 But by far the most enticing aspect comes from the staff. The person who is clearly the owner of the restaurant is quite obviously from the Caucasus, and knows what he is doing. He gives the impression of an Avarian godfather, promptly settling trifles as they arise but, otherwise, (dis)comfortingly soft-spoken. That demeanor was similarly demonstrated by our server, who was notably amiable and professional.
 If there is anything negative to be said about Sumeta, it is its lack of vegetarian choices - although that, I have a feeling, is another aspect of its authenticity. There are a few salads without meat, and two fish dishes on the menu, but everything else is meant for carnivores. If you fit in that category, you are obliged to try one of the four variants of <i>khinkal </i>- morsels of meat served with soft pieces of dough, small bites of which you stab together on a fork and dunk into an accompanying bouillon with a touch of sour cream. I had the Avarian dried-meat variety for 250 rubles ($7.85). Although a bit bland, I would highly recommend this regional delicacy for anybody's first try. I also had &quot;eggplant tongues&quot; as a starter for 100 rubles ($3.15), which came rolled with a wonderful garlic-and-cream filling and a touch of parsley and oil, heavy on the garlic side - just the way I like it.
 My dining companion had the home-style vegetable salad as a starter for 80 rubles ($2.50). There is little you can do with slices of cucumbers, tomatoes and sour cream, but all of it was fresh and tempting, especially when combined with a half serving of lavash homemade bread for 10 rubles ($0.30): firm, crispy and slightly warm, it approached a state of perfection. He continued with the lamb <i>shashlyk </i>for 200 rubles ($6.30), which prompted him to remark: &quot;When lamb is juicy like this, it's made the right way. Better than I had in Greece.&quot;
 We were warned, however, that the shashlyk requires 30 minutes to prepare. As we watched the staff build a fire and roast the tender delight in an open hearth in the main dining room, the scents that floated our way assured us it was worth the wait.
 We finished the dinner with coffee and herbal tea with a pleasant basil aroma for 30 rubles ($0.95) each. Both of us agreed that Sumeta is a remarkable find, with excellent food and service, without the pretension that often comes with dining aimed to provide more than mere sustenance. With choices like this, Ms. Onatopp won't be keeping me away from the dining scene for long.
 
 <i>
Sumeta, 5 Ul. Yefimova. Tel.: 310-2411. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Menu in Russian only. Dinner for two, with alcohol: 815 rubles ($25.60). </i>

TITLE: a cure for the midwinter blues
AUTHOR: by Helen Tchepournova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Germany has always been a popular travel destination for St. Petersburg holiday-makers. Its relative proximity to Russia, combined with the number of direct flights from the city, are undoubtedly two key factors in this.
 
So, when the recent spell of relatively warm weather transformed St. Petersburg from a magnificent winter goose into an ugly duckling - stripping it of its fancy, snow-white garments, turning its streets into treacherous ice rinks and revealing the previous few months' worth of garbage, all under a drab, grey sky - there was only one thing to be done to see off the inevitable blues and revive the suddenly absent feel-good factor: book a flight, pack a few essentials, and get away from it all.
 This time, I decided on the southern Land - the German equivalent of an American state - of Bavaria, a paradise for anyone who, like me, loves splendid, snow-covered scenery, skiing, the crisp, countryside air and picturesque castles.
 While Munich, the Bavarian capital, is one of Germany's largest high-tech and industrial centers - home to BMW, among many others - Bavaria handles nearly 23 percent of Germany's foreign tourist inflow, according to the regional government's Web site, www.bayern.de, providing an annual turnover for the region in excess of 25 million euros. In practical terms, Bavaria is at its best during the winter, when both Alpine-skiing fanatics and culture buffs can do their respective things without having to dodge the hoards of camera-toting tourists that swamp the region at other times during the year, for example, during Oktoberfest, Munich's annual celebration of all things beer-related. The region caters for lovers of everything from history and culture to top-level sport - Bayern Munich won the Champions League in 2001 - and, for anyone less concerned with staying in shape, there is hearty, home-style cooking, plus top-notch brewing galore. 
 
<b>a land of fairy tales
 </b>

 Fuessen, a lovely medieval town, dating from the early 13th century, about 160 kilometers from Munich, makes a convenient base for exploring the Bavarian Alps, venturing into the Tyrol region of neighboring Austria, or - should you have more time and, preferably, your own transport - the binominated South Tyrol/Northern Italy. (Depending on which side you take, either title is correct. The area was annexed by Italy from the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I under the Treaty of Versailles, but returned to Austria after World War II. Today approximately two thirds of the region's population is German-speaking.)
 
However, prior to any such trip, it is definitely worth seeing the Fuessen area's biggest tourist attractions - the magnificent royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, just 4 kilometers from Fuessen, and the Wieskirche, a gleaming, 18th-century rococo jewel about 30 kilometers northeast of Fuessen that is built around a miraculous, weeping, wooden statue of Christ. According to tradition, the statue was first seen weeping by a local farmer in 1743. Shortly afterward, the brothers Dominikus and Johann Baptiste Zimmermann were commissioned to build a church to house it.
 Neuschwanstein is the physical manifestation of the concept of an ideally romantic medieval castle. In fact, though it was built just a few years before the first skyscrapers went up in New York. The castle was built to be the residence of Bavaria's King Ludwig II (1845-1886), who became increasingly eccentric after losing a war with the northern state of Prussia, and retreated into a fantasy world of the lost knightly days of yore.
 The unprecedented grandeur of this lofty eagle's eyrie of a castle invariably produces an impression of deja vu. In this case, it's quite likely that you have seen it before - Neuschwanstein was the model for the castle in Walt Disney's &quot;Sleeping Beauty.&quot; Its lavish, Neo-Gothic interiors reflect Ludwig's twin obsessions - the composer Richard Wagner and, interestingly, swans.
 The neighboring castle of Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein's less famous and flamboyant counterpart, was originally built in the 12th century, but has undergone many massive reconstructions over the years. The best way to see the castles is on a guided tour, available in English and German; audio-guide tours are available in eight other languages. To save time and money, go for a combination ticket for both castles (13 euros/11 euros concessions).
 Be careful, however, as, surprisingly, the castles are not clearly signposted. It's relatively easy to head for the wrong one, as happened to me and my trusty German friend - which produced a major hassle, as the tickets are time-limited. The entry procedure is supposed to run smoothly: you wait by a castle entrance until the tour time indicated on your ticket, put it into the slot by the turnstiles and, after that, if all goes well, you meet your tour guide inside. Assured by a booking clerk of a leisurely, 10-minute walk to Hohenschwangau, we took a wrong turn, and suddenly found ourselves breaking all sorts of records to ascend a long, steep climb in 15 minutes, rather than the 30 it would otherwise take. When we finally got to the top, huffing and puffing, we discovered that, not only were we hopelessly late, we were at the wrong place. The day was saved, however, by a visit to one of the numerous local establishments serving &quot;King Ludwig's Dunkel,&quot; a dark beer that proved a perfect remedy.
 Another helping of medieval treats can be found in Fuessen's scenic historical center, which bears numerous traces of its long past. The Hohe Schloss (&quot;High Castle&quot;), a former residence of the bishops of Augsburg and the town's most distinctive landmark, towers over a maze of narrow lanes. Today, the castle's former living quarters house the Staatsgalerie im Hohen Schloss (State Picture Gallery), which houses an excellent collection, strong in art from the region and with much late Gothic and Renaissance flair. Below the castle is the monumental complex, dating from the 8th-century, of the former St. Mang Abbey, which makes for a memorable visit.
 
<b>out on the piste
 </b>

 Most visitors are drawn to the Bavarian Alps by the opportunities for outdoor sports. In winter, the region's lively ski resorts attract cross-country and alpine skiers, snowboarders, tobogganists and other lovers of the great outdoors, who are completely in their element at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a favorite meeting point of the international jet set that is easily accessible from Fuessen by car, bus or train. The pleasant village of 27,500 holds top skiing events annually, and somehow manages to maintain its rustic looks while being able to accommodate up to 10,000 visitors at once.
 
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the gateway to the best skiing in Bavaria, including the slopes of Germany's highest mountain, the 2,964-meter Zugspitze. You don't have to be a champion mountain climber to enjoy the breathtaking views - which, in fine weather, extend into four countries - from the top; a steep, swaying and swinging, cable-car ride from the Eibsee lake gets there in about 10 minutes. For the less brave, a cogwheel railway takes longer, but is a less hair-raising option. Neither option is cheap, however - the cable car costs 34 euros for adults, and 20.50 euros for children for the round trip.
 Slightly lower down the mountain, at an altitude of between 2,000 and 2,830 meters, is the Zugspitze's skiing and snowboarding territory, a diverse terrain encompassing all levels of difficulty that provides a challenge for snow enthusiasts of all levels of expertise. A three-day Happy Ski Card, covering the Zugspitze plateau, plus three other Garmisch ski fields, costs 79 euros for adults, and 47.50 euros for children.
 Garmisch-Partenkirchen abounds in ski schools running classes for novices, as well as renting out a wide range of gear. The Flori Woerndle school (www.skischulefloriwoerndle.de) provides beginners lessons - three hours daily for one, two, three, four or five days costs 30, 60, 80, 90 or 100 euros, respectively - and hires out kit for 22 euros (adults)/14 euros (children) per day. Snowboards cost just 15 euros per day.
 A day's intensive skiing will no doubt generate a mighty appetite. Thankfully, decent food is easy to find in the immediate area, at the restaurant Sonn Alpin, which dishes out some classic German fare. Grab a window seat to sit back and watch the bustling crowd of old-timers and novices. The aptly named Snowbar is another popular place to rub shoulders with the skiing crowd, especially when Garmisch-Partenkirchen hosts a round of the skiing World Cup, which, this year, happens on Feb. 22 to Feb. 23.
 
<b>road trippin'
 </b>

 After the castles and the skiing, it could well be time - as it was for me and my trusty ally - to get in the car and head for neighboring Austria, with a view to getting down to some serious sampling of <i>kaffee und kuechen </i>(coffee and cakes), which the Austrians, even more than the Germans, take very seriously - the number of different coffees on offer can be pleasantly mind-boggling.
 
Innsbruck, the capital of the gorgeous Austrian state of Tyrol, is 120 kilometers south of Fuessen, putting it in the range of a one-day trip by car that is definitely worth the effort. Set at the base of the spectacular Alps, the 800-year-old city is fairly compact, with an old town reminiscent of the middle ages, and makes for a spectacular sightseeing stroll, weather permitting. Even so, the indoor sights can be explored in any weather. Of the city's museums and collections, the most entertaining is Ambras Castle, which includes medieval armor for dwarves, paintings of the Austrian royal family and curious collectibles in its collection.
 Our road-trip appetites whetted, my friend and I headed for Mirano, a melting pot of southern and central European influences in both cultural and climatic terms, and a lovely spa resort that basks in the Mediterranean sun, even in winter.
 Driving to Mirano via the narrow and winding Jaufen Pass (Giovo in Italian) can be testing, so allow plenty of time. However, the drive provides the opportunity to admire the majestic grandeur of the Alps.
 In Mirano, sidestepping the usual arts-and-crafts tourist spots, and heading straight for the town's medieval shopping arcades, is a great temptation. Winding up at the end of the day in a lively Italian eatery to pack away an authentic pizza and enjoy life to the full is the perfect way to finish a trip and banish the mid-winter blues. 

<b>TRAVEL TIPS </b>

<strong>GETTING THERE
 </strong>There are no direct flights to Munich from St. Petersburg, but a number of Russian and international airlines run regular flights from Moscow.
 
Trains between Munich and Fuessen cost 18 euros one way, and leave Munich's Hauptbahnhof every one or two hours. The journey takes about 2 1/2 hours. By car, head west from Munich on the A96 to Lansberg, then turn south onto the B17.
 
 <strong>
PLACES TO STAY
 Landgasthof Schaeder,</strong> <i>Romantische Str. 16, Halblech - Buching. E-mail: landgasthof.schaeder@t-online.de 
 </i>
Bavarian-style spacious rooms with a decent range of amenities, balcony, TV and mountain views are offered at this family-run friendly inn with a lovely downstairs restaurant outfitted in rustic country style. Single rooms go from 34 euros per night.
 
 <strong>
DJH Hostel, </strong><i>Mariahilferstr. 5, Fuessen. E-mail: fuessen@djh-bayern.de
 </i>
A conveniently located - a 10-minute walk from the train station - option for the budget-conscious (beds go from 14 euros per night).
 
 <strong>
PLACES TO EAT
 </strong>The Landgasthof Schaeder's kitchen produces carnivorous Bavarian fare and tipple in enormous portions. A word of warning, though: Make sure you don't order too much, as the owner-cum-waitress will be much aggrieved if you don't manage to finish it all.
 
In general, though, meal and snack options in Bavaria and Austria are so abundant that it is best to discover them for yourself.

TITLE: artist biopic almost a classic
AUTHOR: by A. O. Scott
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: The movie biography, a tricky genre to begin with, is never more so than when the subject is an artist. The lives of creative people are sometimes dramatic, but they rarely make satisfying drama, and even well-made, well-acted biopics tend to be dutiful, decorous and lifeless. The psychology of inspiration and the tedium of artistic labor seem to elude the conventions of filmmaking, so that our desire to glimpse the inner workings of genius is teased and thwarted. Instead, we are usually treated to the superficial pageantry of the artist's career - sex and politics, drinking and fighting, celebrity and ruin.
 
Occasionally, a movie comes along that transcends these limitations. Julian Schnabel's &quot;Before Night Falls,&quot; a passionate exploration of the life of the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, was one. &quot;Frida,&quot; Julie Taymor's teeming, color-soaked portrait of the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, comes tantalizingly close to being another.
 Taymor's film is as restless and determined as its subject, whose painful, promiscuous life has become, almost 50 years after her death, something of a pop-culture legend. But, while Kahlo, at least in the account favored by Taymor, refused to be constrained by her sex, social convention or disability, &quot;Frida&quot; is corseted by the norms of high-toned, responsible filmmaking, ticking off important events in Kahlo's life without much insight or feeling. Only when the movie manages to break free - in bursts of color, imagination, music, sex and over-the-top theatricality - it honors the artist's brave, anarchic spirit.
 Early in the movie, young Frida (Salma Hayek) shows up for her sister's wedding portrait dressed in a man's gray flannel suit, sending up propriety to the delight of her father (Roger Rees) and the chagrin of her mother (Patricia Reyes Spindola). Too often, &quot;Frida&quot; squeezes its carnal spirit into respectable clothes, enacting the artistic compromise that is one of its themes. It's a staid film biography that wants most desperately to be a musical - to bracket its subject's name between gratuitous exclamation points.
 Taymor has a brilliant sense of spectacle. &quot;Frida&quot; begins with a tour of the artist's courtyard garden, where monkeys and peacocks wander among the flowering cactuses. Suddenly, a narrow canopy bed seems to float into the frame, carried like a coffin out into the street - an image worthy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And &quot;Frida&quot; is at its best when it forsakes earnest psychological exposition for magic realism, when, instead of trying to explain Kahlo's life, it conjures the moods and sensations that fed her art.
 After the prologue, we see Frida as an ardent teenager, intoxicated by art, sex and left-wing politics - spying on the great muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina) as he seduces a model, stealing off for a tryst with her boyfriend (Diego Luna) and arguing Marxist dialectics on a crowded city bus. That bus is also the scene of her first great catastrophe, an accident (filmed with surreal, hallucinatory intensity) in which her back and pelvis are horribly injured. The second catastrophe, as she puts it later in a moment of disillusionment, was her entanglement with Rivera, 21 years her senior, whom she married in 1929.
 As the movie presents it, their relationship was certainly volatile. Shortly after the wedding, Frida discovers that one of Diego's previous wives lives upstairs, cooking the chicken mole that stokes his creative fires. His appetite for sex exceeds his appetite for food: he promises Frida loyalty but not fidelity. What is mole for the gander, however, is mole for the goose and Frida takes an impressive array of lovers, both men and women, including Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush), Josephine Baker and a willowy New Yorker (Saffron Burrows) who had also been one of Diego's conquests.
 Hayek and Molina are both wonderfully charismatic, but their scenes of recrimination and reconciliation have a dull, actorly flavor that makes the characters seem smaller than life. Although Frida and Diego's bumpy marriage is the narrative heart of the movie, its emotional core resides elsewhere, in Taymor's captivating disregard of the boundary between fantasy and reality. The bus accident is followed by an eerie animated sequence whose iconography of skeletons and broken body parts comes from Kahlo's painting and from the Mexican folk art that fascinated her. Later, Taymor renders New York in the 1930s as a Dadaist collage, complete with paper-doll Fridas and Diegos, and inserts them into scenes from the old &quot;King Kong.&quot; Much of Kahlo's later work consisted of self-portraits, and Taymor ingeniously incorporates these vivid, frightening pictures into the film.
 The further it strays from sober naturalism, the better &quot;Frida&quot; is. The parade of historical celebrities - Trotksy, Andre Breton (the balding fellow with the pipe), Nelson Rockefeller (Edward Norton) - is matched by a stream of stars enjoying florid cameos and trying out silly accents. Judd, playing photographer Tina Modotti, bends her usual Kentucky accent around phrases like &quot;Basta!&quot; and &quot;Viva la Revolucion!&quot;; Rush speaks Russian like the Australian he is. So much the better. Frida Kahlo was no realist, and neither, despite her occasional dutiful, desultory efforts, is Taymor.

TITLE: a dance through nureyev's life
AUTHOR: By Peter Kurth
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: When Rudolf Nureyev died of AIDS in 1993, a war broke out over his estate. In 1997, the European arm of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation was ordered to pay $2 million to his sister and niece. &quot;What they want is their share of the $7 million,&quot; said their lawyer, referring to the dancer's assets in New York. According to a friend, Nureyev had little good to say about his sister, Roza, or her daughter, Gouzel, &quot;and he would say it in quite colorful terms.&quot; 
 
In Colum McCann's beautiful, floating novel about Nureyev's life and art, the dancer's sister becomes Tamara, and his niece, Nuriya. Undoubtedly this is for legal reasons, but it easily reflects the distance, the gulf in worlds, between Nureyev and his family, whom he abandoned to an uncertain fate in the Soviet Union when he defected to the West in 1961, in the cold war's most spectacular &quot;leap to freedom.&quot; (Born on a train in 1938, or so the story goes, Nureyev had never stopped moving.) 
 &quot;The West is using him as a pawn,&quot; Tamara says. &quot;They will suck the life out of him and spit him out into their dump yards.&quot; Previously, she had been a teacher in a Moscow kindergarten. But, with Rudik's defection, she is ordered home to Ufa and her obedient Tatar parents. &quot;We are to tell nobody about the betrayal, yet they go ahead and question the dancers in the Opera House, his friends, even Rudik's old teachers, how do they expect word not to get out?&quot; 
 Tamara is one of many ephemeral characters in &quot;Dancer&quot; - some anonymous, some fictional and some based on &quot;real-life&quot; figures - whose memories of Nureyev lead them to discover themselves. The first appears at a makeshift hospital in Ufa, bathing wounded soldiers at the end of World War II. &quot;For some reason, I don't know why, their legs were the worst,&quot; she recalls. &quot;Maybe it was from standing around in those boots all the time. Their feet were covered with sores and scabs. Most of the time they could hardly walk straight. They always talked a lot about their legs.&quot; 
 With minor changes, this is a description that could fit the experience of any ballet dancer. &quot;Everything I do is already sprayed with my blood,&quot; Nureyev says. We first see him at 5 or 6, in the same Ufa hospital, dancing for lumps of sugar. Rudik's first dance almost fails, but he improvises a save: &quot;For a moment he looked as if he was about to cry, but he didn't, he was up once more, his blond hair flopping over his eyes.&quot; Returned from the war, Rudik's father tells him, &quot;This is the dream of men, to straighten crumpled things,&quot; and that's what he does. Everyone else in the novel, one way or another, is trying to do the same. 
 As McCann's narrative makes clear, nothing really changed for Nureyev after that. &quot;Work on phrasing,&quot; he tells himself. &quot;The others like to take a bite to see if I am gold or brass. Let them. They will break their teeth either way.&quot; We watch as he exhausts what training he can find in Ufa, where his teacher, a former member of the imperial ballet corps in St. Petersburg, lives in faded exile with her husband, an intellectual and a gulag survivor, who chopped off his toe in the camps to prevent gangrene and believes that &quot;it's our function in life to make moments durable.&quot; 
 The images of water and weather, memory, motion and time, are the essence of &quot;Dancer,&quot; because they're the essence of Nureyev. Everyone here is caught in his thunderstorm - the ballet shoemaker, proud scion of a family concern, who detests the word &quot;slippers&quot; and would never have strayed far from his rented room in London if Nureyev hadn't married him to his homely French maid, Odile; Victor, a gay, drug-drenched Venezuelan hustler, on the loose in pre-AIDS New York, whom McCann evokes in an astonishing extended monologue; or the anonymous Kirov student who watches Nureyev's course with undisguised resentment - because &quot;you know - you know! - you are a better dancer, and you wonder where you went wrong, when it was that you slipped.&quot; In Khrushchev's Russia, such slips might have happened anywhere, especially in the cruising grounds off Nevsky Prospect. Rudi prefers bathhouses, both in Russia and abroad. His &quot;mother has told him that the baths will make him immune to sickness,&quot; but that, too, will go amiss. As Victor exclaims: &quot;Hey, Rudi! You and me! We're Bedouin boys!&quot; 
 It's hard to tell what a reader unfamiliar with the outlines of Nureyev's life might make of &quot;Dancer.&quot; Much, deliberately, is left unsaid. Reduced to words, the dance evaporates - only passion and the personal can make it move again. McCann makes no mistake in this regard, not stopping even to explain the terms of classical ballet, because they really don't matter. When Nureyev's daughter sees him perform in Leningrad, she becomes faint and goes home to make love with her husband, whom she will finally divorce. &quot;Rudi had stood upon that stage like an exhausted explorer,&quot; she thinks, &quot;who had arrived in some unimagined country and, despite the joy of the discovery, was immediately looking for another unimagined place, and I felt perhaps that place was me.&quot; 
 
 <i>
&quot;Dancer.&quot; By Colum McCann. Metropolitan Books. 356 pages. $26.
 
 Peter Kurth's most recent book is &quot;Isadora: A Sensational Life,&quot; a biography of Isadora Duncan. </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: by Michele A. Berdy <i>
TEXT: <i>Zhalovat: </i>to favor someone, to bestow or grant something on/to someone, to favor someone with a visit.
 
Time for a pop quiz. For 10 points in the category, &quot;Fun Facts About Language,&quot; what do the words complain, pity, grant, salary, pathetic and welcome have in common? In English, not much. But look at them in Russian: <i>zhalovatsya, zhalost, zhalovat, zhalovaniye, zhalky, dobro pozhalovat.</i>
 Don't worry if you missed that one - the next question is worth 25 points: How are love and pity related? Answer: in old Russian and, one must presume, in old Russia, they were one and the, same word. To sort this out, let's go back to find the root word in Old Church Slavonic, which is <i>zhaliti </i>(to feel pain, suffering). From here it was one step to the next meaning of <i>zhalet, </i>&quot;compassion, feeling someone else's pain.&quot; And, in time, another step to the current meaning: &quot;to feel pity for, sorry for, to regret,&quot; in any shade of intensity from a feeling of slight ruefulness to deep regret.
 This evolutionary line produced a plethora of related words: <i>zhalost </i>(pity, compassion), <i>zhalky </i>(pathetic, pitiful), <i>zhalobny </i>(mournful, sorrowful), <i>zhalostny </i>(plaintive, mournful; also compassionate, sympathetic).
 To get another evolutionary spin off, we take zhaliti and make it reflexive to get <i>zhalovatsya. </i>You know the trick - if zhalet is &quot;to feel pity for someone else,&quot; zhalovatsya would mean &quot;to feel pity for oneself.&quot; My Dal dictionary gives the original meaning as <i>plakatsya </i>(to cry about something), <i>roptat </i>(to grumble about something). The sense was originally to &quot;evoke pity for oneself.&quot; From there we add the preposition <i>na </i>to indicate the cause of grief, and we get &quot;to complain about something or someone&quot;: <i>Grekh zhalovatsya na svoyu sudbu </i>(it's a sin to complain about one's life).
 So where does love come from? We have to go back to zhaliti/zhalet. This meant &quot;to feel someone's pain, to be compassionate.&quot; Then humans began to evolve: If they felt someone's pain, they wanted to protect them. So language evolved, too: Zhalet began to include the notion &quot;to care for someone.&quot; And from there we get to love, but this isn't love between equals: Just as <i>zhalko </i>implies that the person pitying is a bit above the person being pitied, zhalovat is the kind of love a superior feels for a subordinate. <i>Prosim lyubit i zhalovat </i>means &quot;we ask you to love and cherish us,&quot; in the way a subject might ask for his lord's good favor. This &quot;favor from on high&quot; mutated into the second meaning: to bestow or award.
 It makes sense: If the tsar favors you, he might bestow upon you a title, or better yet, an estate and 100 serfs. This, in turn, gave us the word <i>zhalovaniye, </i>which, according to my etymological dictionary, originally meant <i>darit chto-libo iz lyubvi bez pravovogo osnovaniya </i>(to bestow something out of love without any legal basis). Another couple of centuries went by and, today, zhalovaniye is a synonym (albeit less common) of <i>zarplata, okhlad </i>(salary). So, we can stop blaming the oligarchs: There's apparently a long Russian tradition of legitimizing wealth that found its way from the state coffers into private pockets.
 A final sign of lordly favor is the third meaning of zhalovat: to visit, to go see someone. <i>Tsaritsa zhalovala nas </i>can mean &quot;the tsaritsa favored us&quot; or &quot;the tsaritsa visited us.&quot; And this, of course, gave us the standard Russian phrase for &quot;welcome&quot;: <i>Dobro pozhalovat.</i>
 <i>Dobro pozhalovat v evolyutsiyu russkogo yazyka!</i>
 
 <i>
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. Professor Vladimir Yelistratov contributed to this column. </i>

TITLE: Business as Usual for Williams
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - Serena Williams easily won her first match since capturing the Australian Open, beating Myriam Casanova 6-0, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the Gaz de France quarterfinals.
 
Williams, who won her fourth straight Grand Slam title in Australia less than two weeks ago, defeated her Swiss opponent in 0:59. The 17-year-old Casanova is ranked 53rd.
 The top-ranked Williams ended the match with an ace, her 12th of the match.
 &quot;The first match you play after a big win like in Melbourne brings you back to reality,&quot; Williams said. &quot;You do so well, you put all your energy into a Grand Slam, and you really have to focus when you come back.&quot;
 Spain's Magui Serna earlier reached the quarters, defeating France's Stephanie Cohen Aloro 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-2), 6-3.
 Also making the quarters was Daniela Hantuchova. The second-seeded Slovakian scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over Slovenia's Maja Matevzic.
 In Hyderabad, India, teenage Russian qualifier Maria Kirilenko saved five match points in the second set and beat Angelique Widjaja 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Indian Open.
 After splitting the first two sets, the 16-year-old raced to a 5-1 lead, breaking Widjaja in the third, fifth and ninth games.
 Kirilenko will face Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Tatiana Poutchek.
 In other second-round matches, fourth-seeded Mary Pierce beat Evie Dominikovic 6-1, 6-3; fifth-seeded Iroda Tulyaganovo beat Swaori Obata 7-3, 6-3; eighth-seeded Silvija Talaja advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Tian Tian Sun; and sixth-seeded Christina Torrens Valero was beaten 6-2, 6-0 by Italy's Flavia Pennetta.

TITLE: Madden's Hat-Trick Leads New Jersey Past Washington
AUTHOR: By Joseph White
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Good defense beat good offense in a battle of division leaders.
 
And the team with the good defense wants some credit for scoring a little bit, too.
 John Madden got three goals - two on fast breaks and one on an empty-netter - plus an assist, as the New Jersey Devils beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 on Wednesday night.
 New Jersey has allowed a league-low 98 goals, but coach Pat Burns said it was unfair to make his team sound so one-dimensional.
 &quot;We scored four last night, scored four tonight, scored five the other night. What do we have to do, more?&quot; Burns said.
 &quot;Defense is part of it. If we can keep the goals against down, we're going to win more games.&quot;
 The Atlantic Division-leading Devils set a franchise record with at least one point in their 14th consecutive game, although the streak includes one overtime loss that would not have counted as a point before the 1999-2000 season.
 They have also 12 wins and one tie during the streak.
 The only setback was an injury to center Sergei Brylin, who might have broken his wrist when he was sandwiched by three other players along the boards in the first period.
 &quot;It looks like a fracture; we're not sure,&quot; Burns said. &quot;We have to get a hard cast on it, and we're going to re-evaluate tomorrow.&quot;
 &quot;If it is serious, it's going to be a big loss for us,&quot; he said. &quot;He's an all-around player whom we can put in any position.&quot;
 Brylin was replaced on his line by Patrik Elias, who got assists on all three of Madden's goals. Turner Stevenson also scored for New Jersey, and Martin Brodeur made 27 saves.
 Michael Nylander scored for the Southeast Division-leading Capitals, who failed to get a point for only the fourth time in 24 games.
 &quot;The New Jerseys and the Ottawas, those are the measuring sticks,&quot; coach Bruce Cassidy said. &quot;And this team's still got a ways to go,&quot; he said. &quot;But I don't think we're that far off.&quot;
 The game featured the Eastern Conference's second-most prolific offense against its best defense, but the Capitals were slowed by early penalties, and got their usually potent power play on the ice only twice.
 The Devils otherwise disrupted an attack that had scored 17 goals in its last four games.
 The Devils took the lead for good late in the second period, after Jaromir Jagr's careless cross-ice pass in the neutral zone during a four-on-four situation.
 The turnover led to a three-on-one Devils rush, with Madden getting the goal off the rebound from Brian Rafalski's shot to put New Jersey ahead 2-1.
 Jagr said the puck slipped off his stick.
 &quot;I made a mistake, and they scored on it,&quot; Jagr said. &quot;They're too good a team to come back on.&quot;
 Madden made it 3-1 in the third period on a three-on-two break, getting clear by racing ahead of Nylander down the center of the ice.
 &quot;It's all about confidence,&quot; Madden said. &quot;You score one, you feel like you can get some more. It comes and goes.&quot;
 Nylander scored on a rebound early in the second period. Stevenson tied the game about five minutes later with a one-timer from the right circle.
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>

TITLE: Big Win Snaps Celtics' Streak
AUTHOR: By Howard Ulman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BOSTON - Five days after the most lopsided loss in their history, the Boston Celtics posted their most decisive win in 10 seasons.
 
Paul Pierce scored 26 points and Boston beat the Seattle SuperSonics 114-74 on Wednesday night, ending a four-game losing streak that included a 118-66 loss to Detroit.
 &quot;It's good to finally put it to a team like some teams have put it to us this season,&quot; Antoine Walker said.
 Boston led 61-44 at halftime and put the game away with a 21-2 run that began the fourth quarter, and made it 100-63 with 6:27 remaining.
 The 40-point margin was Boston's biggest since a 132-91 win over San Antonio on March 3, 1993.
 It tied for Seattle's fourth-most lopsided loss, and was seven fewer than the biggest margin, 47 points against Boston on Nov. 20, 1968.
 &quot;I hope we get the message that we have to respond after losing by 40,&quot; Gary Payton said.
 &quot;If we don't, well, that says a lot about our team,&quot; he said
 Celtics coach Jim O'Brien got the 100th victory of his NBA career as they got plenty of backcourt bench help.
 Tony Delk scored 22 points and former SuperSonic Shammond Williams added 15.
 &quot;We were focused. We never lost four games in a row,&quot; Williams said.
 &quot;I don't have any anger toward them,&quot; he said
 The Sonics were led by Rashard Lewis with 15 and Payton with 14.
 The Celtics go into the All-Star break with a 27-22 record, fourth best in the Eastern Conference.
 Their next game is at Seattle next Tuesday, completing the teams' two-game season series.
 &quot;When you have a long layoff like that, you want to get the last win,&quot; said Pierce, who will join Walker in the All-Star game.
 &quot;It would have been hard going into the weekend with a five-game losing streak,&quot; he said.
 Leading 79-61, Boston opened the fourth quarter with the 21-2 run. Delk started it with two 3-pointers and J.R. Bremer ended it with another.
 That was the Celtics' seventh basket of the period. Four of them were 3-pointers.
 &quot;I felt a lot better, like I could finally run,&quot; said Delk, who missed seven of the previous 12 games with an ankle injury.&quot;
 Delk made 4-of-8 shots from 3-point range.
 The team went 16-for-36, one less than its season high for 3-pointers made and matching its high for attempts.
 &quot;We can't beat teams like this when they're hitting wide-pen jump shots,&quot; Payton said. &quot;My little son could make those.&quot;
 It was the first meeting between the teams since an offseason trade sent Williams and Vin Baker to Boston for Kenny Anderson, Vitaly Potapenko and Joseph Forte.
 Baker missed the game with lightheadedness, while Anderson, Potapenko and Forte combined for nine points.
 Boston took control in the second period when it outscored Seattle 34-15 in the last 11 minutes. The Sonics scored the first four points of the second quarter for a 29-27 lead, then faltered as the Celtics consistently passed underneath for easy baskets.
 Walker started the run with a 3-pointer and a driving layup and Pierce ended it with a dunk on which he left the floor just after crossing the foul line. 
 
 <i>
(For other results, see Scorecard.) </i>