SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #845 (13), Friday, February 21, 2003
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TITLE: Legislative Assembly Finally Meets
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Perhaps feeling energetic after a long layoff, the Legislative Assembly managed for the first time in almost a month on Wednesday to achieve a quorum, and then worked until 9:30 p.m., instead of their normal quitting time of 5 p.m, and voting on a full agenda, . One of the draft laws passed, introduced by assembly chairsperson Vadim Tyulpanov, was intended expressly to prevent such a long hiatus from occurring in the city legislature again, but a number of deputies remain skeptical about how effective the new measure will be.
 
Anonymous sources within the assembly said Wednesday that an agreement to prevent a quorum for a fourth-straight week had been reached by members of the "Group of 16" - members of the United City bloc who had not been showing up at the assembly. The absence of the 16 members, along with that of Deputy Yuri Shutov, who is presently in jail, prevented the deputy count from reaching 34, the two-thirds of the 50 deputies required to achieve a quorum.
 One of the formerly AWOL deputies said that the quorum on Wednesday was an accident.
 "It's, you know, funny..." said Igor Rimmer, a United City deputy who sources in the assembly said had been staying at his dacha with all of his telephones switched off to avoid contact with the assembly's pro-Kremlin lobby for the last few weeks. "I wasn't hiding at the dacha. I just got back from Moscow this morning and decided to drop in to the session hall. When I came to my seat, I looked around and noticed there were none of our members in the room ... But it was too late, I was already there."
 Rimmers's appearance touched off a landslide of deputies. After the 34 lawmakers necessary to form the quorum were registered, another ten appeared almost instantly. The assembly then passed a number of measures, including the selection of former Leningrad City Council Deputy Nikolai Gotkin as the city's representative to the Federal Election Commission and the final voting on the memberships of seven of the assembly's committees.
 Struggles over the memberships of the committees were a major factor in United City's decision to boycott the chamber for the last three weeks as it appeared that their push for the chairperson on two of the chamber's two most important bodies - the budget and legislative committees - would fall short. The question of the membership of these committees is still an open one, as they were not discussed on Wednesday.
 But Sergei Nikeshin, the head of the budget committee in the last assembly and a member of the United City bloc, on Thursday withdrew his candidacy for the post in the present assembly.
 "I wanted to keep on working in my favorite spot, but I withdrew my candidacy when it became clear that I would not be reelected," Nikeshin told Interfax. "I'm not happy that this is the case."
 Rimmer ended up with a seat on the assembly's Committee for State Institutions, Local Self Administration and the Drawing of Administrative Territories. His explanation for his arrival raised some eyebrows from other members.
 "Yeah, Rimmer is very cleaver. I definitely believe him," said Vatanyar Yagya, another member of the United City bloc, in an interview Wednesday. Last week Yagya said that the Our City faction, of which he is a member, would participate in the next session. "There was a decision made within the bloc earlier not to show up for the session, but everybody was left the right to make their own individual choice."
 But the biggest winners may have been the pro-Kremlin United Russia faction and other factions within the chamber who tend to oppose many of the initiatives from Smolny. Tyulpanov, who heads the faction, said that one of the most important measures passed on the day, lowering the number of deputies necessary to form a quorum to a simple majority of 26, to avoid a minority to obstruct the chamber's work.
 "The session was very hard," Tyulpanov said in an interview on Wednesday. "It is obvious that [the United City bloc] wanted to wreck the work again in order to stop us from solving the question of the membership of the committees."
 The pro-governor bloc tried to continue the blocking tactics Wednesday by not showing up at moments to vote on certain laws that require at least 34 lawmakers, instead of the simple majority of 26, to be present. These tactics, lawmakers say, seem to indicate that Tyulpanov's initiative might not be effective.
 "It's nonsense to open the Legislative Assembly session with 26 lawmakers present. It would be possible, of course, to open it, but it won't work," Yagya said on Wednesday. "Thirty-four lawmakers are necessary for these votes to take place."
 Prior to Tyulpanov's initiative, 26 lawmakers were required to participate in voting on an issue, with at least 34 registered as present in the assembly. The same regulation says that 34 lawmakers are necessary for votes to amend the City Charter, overturn a veto by the governor or for a vote of no confidence against the governor or a vice governor, which would call for the individual to resign.
 Boris Vishnevsky, a member of Yabloko faction, which has been siding with United Russia in the recent sparring, said that Tyulpanov may have made a mistake in pushing through his amendment.
 "The current rules provide a guarantee that the interests of a minority would not be ignored by a majority," Vishnevsky said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, "This could have a boomerang effect, because the current majority is not forever. A new sort of majority could appear, completely opposed to the one we see today."
 "The only thing I can say is that those who pushed this through will have to be prepared to watch their backs in the future."

TITLE: Pianist Looks for Justice After Losing Finger
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: On Dec. 30, Russian-born pianist Zoya Streib and her German husband, Dieter Stinner, were looking forward to returning to their home in Zurich for New Years when a dispute with Pulkovo Airport customs officials put an end to their plans and, almost certainly, her career.
 
The confrontation began as a dispute over 1,800 Swiss francs ($1,315) Stinner was carrying with him, for which he had no stamped customs declaration, and ended with Streib rolling on the floor of the airport, screaming in pain and trying to stanch the flow of blood from a finger that had been slammed in a door.
 "I had my ballroom dress ready. We were planning to go to Interlaken for the New Year," Streib said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "Then I felt this horrendous pain and saw all of the blood. I didn't know what had happened or if I had lost my finger. I was losing my mind."
 Streib has launched a legal appeal against Pulkovo customs, but the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office rejected her lawyer's first attempt to have a criminal case initiated.
 Streib and her husband had been in St. Petersburg to visit her relatives when they arrived at the airport for the flight bound for Frankfurt and a connecting flight to Zurich.
 When customs officials checked their customs declarations at the airport, they discovered that Stinner was carrying the Swiss funds, and that the customs declaration he filled out upon entering the country had no customs stamp. Stinner argued that there had been no one on duty to apply the stamp when he had entered the country, and that he had filled out the form in good faith.
 According to current Russian legislation, people who are not Russian citizens are not allowed to take sums of money out of the country greater than that with which they arrived. The State Duma this month passed a new law, allowing both foreigners and Russians to take the equivalent of up to $3,000 out of the country without a declaration, but the law is expected to take another couple of months to come into effect.
 The customs officials wouldn't accept Stinner's explanation, and were even threatening to arrest the couple when Olga Golova, an official with SAS, the airline on which they were flying, came through with what seemed to be a solution. She advised Streib that, as a Russian citizen, she was allowed to take up to $1,500 out of the country without any documentation, and told her that all Stinner had to do was give the money to her.
 But Streib said that, when she suggested the solution to the customs officials - Inspector Ilya Trofimov and Senior Inspector Vadim Agarkov - they became more rude and uncooperative in the discussions. She said that, when she saw Trofimov try to put the money in his pocket, she snatched it out of his hand.
 Streib said that Agarkov then said to Trofimov "You idiot you lost the money, but we still have his passport."
 She said that Agarkov took her passport, saying that he needed to take it to make a photocopy and, when she tried to follow him into the office, he barred her way.
 "He pushed me out and pulled the door to shut it, although I was holding the door with both of my hands," Streib said. "I lost my balance and almost fell - still holding the door - but Agarkov pulled the door shut abruptly, chopping off part of my middle finger on my right hand. ... The door was at least 30 centimeters thick and I didn't think that he would close it, knowing that my fingers were still there."
 Streib says that neither Agarkov, nor Trofimov, who witnessed the situation, did anything to try to arrange medical assistance, even though she was visibly in extreme pain and her hand was covered in blood.
 While Agarkov didn't reemerge from his office for another 20 minutes, Golova, the SAS official, called an ambulance.
 Streib was taken to the St. Petersburg Institute for Physical Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery, where surgeons operated on her hand. According to Dagmar Lorenz, the St. Petersburg lawyer who is representing Streib, upon her return to Zurich, the pianist was examined by the local doctors, who delivered an unhopeful prognosis.
 "Her finger bone was so badly damaged that there is still a risk that she will lose most of the finger," Lorenz said.
 Customs officials denied that they were responsible for the injury.
 "Of course I'm sorry for her," Andrei Ozoling, the head of Pulkovo customs told Moskovskiye Novosty. "Only there was no tip of the finger cut off by the door."
 Lorenz filed an appeal with the City Prosecutor's Office last month asking it to open a criminal case against the customs officers for causing severe physical harm to Streib and for failing to provide medical assistance following the accident.
 Earlier this month, however, the appeal was rejected. Yelena Ordynskaya, the senior aide to the Prosecutor General of St. Petersburg, said that the rejection was on the grounds that evidence showing severe physical damage was lacking.
 "We have carried out an investigation, and found no substantial evidence for opening a case," Ordynskaya said. "If Streib's lawyers can gather additional medical evidence, offering more substantial proof of the physical damage done to the pianist, they should file another appeal, which this office will review."
 Neither Streib nor her husband were questioned by the prosecutor's office as part of the initial investigation.
 A copy of the decision, which was obtained by The St. Petersburg Times, says that the investigation "could find no evidence of deliberate mutilation on the part of Agarkov and Trofimov ... ."
 An examination carried out by the St. Petersburg Forensic Medical Bureau on the request of the prosecutor's office, determined that the damage to Streib's health was "minor,"even though the bureau never examined her itself. Its report was based on documents received from the Institute for Physical Traumas and Reconstructive Surgery and an interview with the doctors who operated on Streib.
 According to Andrei Bogdanov, one of the surgeons at the institue who operated on Streib, her finger has shortened by several millimeters as a result of the injury. He said that the chances of Strib's recovering full movement of the finger and resuming her career are difficult to estimate without further examination of the injury.
 But Streib said that she has already had to cancel three concerts.
 "I still wake up at night from horrendous pain," she said. "It feels as if an electric shock goes through it."
 "My middle finger is shorter than the second and the fourth because I have lost [the section past the last knuckle. I can't even straighten the finger," she added.
 The German Generate Consulate in St. Petersburg, which is monitoring the case because Stinner is a German citizen, issued a statement on the incident
 "It is with deep concern that the Consulate General has noted of the news that the case Ms. Streib's case is no longer being investigated and will be dropped," the statement reads. "The Consulate General is of the opinion that the damage done to Mrs. Streib is so great that a criminal investigation is called for. clearly the medical report submitted by independent Swiss medical doctors does not leave room for doubt that Mrs Streib's finger is irrepairably damaged."
 As of Thursday, the Consulate had not received an official reply.
 Streib says that she just wants the Prosecutor's Office to act so that the officials will take responsibility for their actions.
 "I was mutilated by an official who was supposed to do his job, but acted like a bandit," she said. "I know that even if these people go to jail, I won't have my finger back," Streib said. "But if they are guilty, they should be held responsible."

TITLE: Unity Is Gearing Up For Duma Elections
AUTHOR: By Natalia Yefimova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Gearing up for December's parliamentary elections, the United Russia party presented the basics of its platform Wednesday - a heady mix of support for President Vladimir Putin, a resounding "no" to revolutionary reforms and populist measures to win the support of disgruntled voters.
 
"United Russia will try to attract all supporters of the president. That is our aim. We want to become the party that represents the interests of the country's majority," Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, one of the party's leaders, told reporters.
 Aside from dancing to the Kremlin's tune, however, the party - slapped together in 1999 expressly to support Putin - hopes to help write the music.
 "Kremlin policy must be supported, but I think we can shape that policy. That is our aim," Gryzlov said.
 This election year - with pipes freezing, salaries low and sweeping reforms in vital sectors like housing and electricity threatening to put a strain on voters' pockets - one of the greatest fears politicians have is public discontent over the low standard of living.
 According to Gryzlov and his fellow party leaders, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, United Russia has been working hard to collect public feedback about government policy.
 United Russia announced last year that it would act as a watchdog to ensure the timely payment of public-sector wages. Gryzlov said the party has identified some of the worst debtor regions and squeezed an additional 200 million rubles ($6.25 million) out of the federal government to cover wage arrears.
 The party also plans to establish a pager hotline in each of its 89 regional offices to field complaints about unscrupulous bureacrats and other problems.
 The party leaders, who claimed 300,000 members countrywide, said United Russia has not yet formed a list of candidates for State Duma elections but will do so at a party conference March 29. Shoigu called the list the most sensitive issue on the agenda.
 Gryzlov promised that there will be some changes to the party's charter as well as some personnel changes - which could indictate the further sidelining of Alexander Bespalov, currently head of United Russia's general council.

TITLE: Report: Nuclear Watchdog Is Bolstering Its Plant Security
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - The chief of Russia's nuclear-safety watchdog said Thursday that security is being shored up at nuclear facilities across the country, with special attention being given to two nuclear power plants near Chechnya.
 
"Now and then [Chechen warlord Shamil] Basayev and others declare that attacks on nuclear facilities are inevitable. Information from the power agencies indicates that there have been attempted attacks," Gosatomnadzor head Yury Vishnevsky said at a news conference in which he presented an annual report on the state of nuclear safety in Russia.
 The so-called power agencies include the Interior and Defense ministries and the Federal Security Service.
 Vishnevsky said security has been raised at nuclear facilities since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, with his agency more closely screening employees. Starting last year, each employee who operates equipment at nuclear enterprises has been required to pass a series of tests and obtain a license from Gosatomnadzor.
 But Gosatomnadzor remains cautious about security and is looking to increase safeguards at the Rostovskaya and Novoronezhskaya plants in southern Russia, Vishnevsky said.
 He refused to say whether every gram of nuclear fuel is safe and accounted for, noting that many enterprises still lack dependable systems for monitoring nuclear materials.
 He said Gosatomnadzor carried out 11,449 inspections last year and uncovered 12, 294 violations. He said the figure was less than in 2001 but did not elaborate. 
 Seven of the violations last year were serious enough to prompt Gosatomnadzor to ask prosecutors to open investigations. Vishnevsky stressed, however, that none of the violations could be considered grave.

TITLE: Ivanov: Inspectors Pressured To Leave
AUTHOR: By Deborah Seward
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia obliquely accused the United States and Britain of putting strong pressure on UN weapons inspectors to provide a pretext for war against Iraq and warned Thursday that such squeezing undermined chances to keep the peace.
 
But, as throughout the crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov charted a cautious course, suggesting Russia might consider a new U.N. resolution but indicating that his country would be reluctant to use its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council.
 "According to our information, strong pressure is being exerted on international inspectors to provoke them to discontinue their operations in Iraq, as happened in 1998, or to pressure them into coming up with assessments that would justify the use of force," Ivanov told reporters.
 Ivanov did not identify the source of the pressure, but he said such efforts were counterproductive.
 "The faster we receive concrete results from the international inspectors' activities, the greater the chances of a political settlement of the situation," Ivanov said.
 Later Thursday, after a ceremony marking the founding of a new foreign-affairs quarterly, Ivanov stressed the dangers of pressuring the inspectors.
 "We thought it was very important to make such a warning because decisions of the Security Council depend on just how objective the reports are, and we can't make mistakes here," he told reporters.
 Ivanov did not appear to feel under any pressure himself, laughing with colleagues and members of the Russian foreign-policy elite at the ceremony before making short and very serious remarks in front of the camera.
 Russia, which has veto power in the UN Security Council, has been playing both sides of the Iraq issue recently, on the one hand seeking guarantees from Washington to protect Russian interests in a post-Hussein Iraq while supporting French and German efforts to extend the inspection process.
 Opposition to war by a growing number of countries at the United Nations and peace rallies around the world have emboldened Russia to poke at the United States and Britain with stronger criticism.
 The Russian Foreign Ministry praised this week's debates on Iraq in the United Nations, saying they confirmed "the broad support" for Russia's search for a solution within the UN framework.
 In an interview published Thursday in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Ivanov warned that the use of force against Baghdad could make other countries, such as North Korea, feel threatened - ultimately pushing them to develop weapons of mass destruction.
 Ivanov stressed that Baghdad must cooperate with the inspectors. "A lot depends on Baghdad as to whether the international community can solve this crisis in a political manner," he said.
 The Russian diplomat expressed confidence that the crisis could be settled on the basis of UN Security Council resolution 1441. He said a new resolution was not needed but didn't rule one out.
 "Consideration of any additional resolutions is probably not necessary because the inspectors have all the necessary mandates." However, he said Russia would consider further steps to strengthen the inspectors' mandate should they ask for it at the next Security Council meeting on their work March 1. He did not elaborate.
 Ivanov, however, has made a lot of statements this week and has been very murky on how Russia would ultimately react were a new resolution introduced.
 Ivanov said Russia had not given up its right to a veto in the Security Council although he indicated that Moscow would be reluctant to use it.
 One day earlier, on wednesday, the deputy head of the General Staff confirmed that Russian forces would not take part in a U.S.-led military action against Iraq, Interfax reported.
 "In the event of a forceful development of the situation, the military forces of Russia do not plan any participation in these war actions," Colonel General Yury Baluyevsky was quoted as saying.

TITLE: Babkin Convicted and Then Set Free
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Anatoly Babkin, a 73-year-old university professor who has been under house arrest for 34 months, was found guilty of espionage by a Moscow court on Wednesday and given a suspended sentence of eight years in prison.
 
Babkin, 73, a professor at Moscow's prestigious Bauman Technical University, was accused of providing classified information about the high-speed Shkval torpedo to former U.S. Navy intelligence officer Edmond Pope, who was convicted of espionage in December 2000. President Vladimir Putin pardoned Pope a week later.
 Prosecutors said Babkin accepted a total of $25,000 from Pope.
 "Pope was an intelligence officer, and Babkin acted as his assistant," Prosecutor Ilya Yerokhin said after the verdict was issued Wednesday.
 Babkin maintained his innocence during the two-month trial. He testified that the Federal Security Service (FSB) had forced him to confess to espionage during the Pope investigation.
 "I have done nothing to break the law. I am not guilty," he said firmly after the trial. "During the investigation, I was bluntly told by investigators that my case is political and has nothing to do with blueprints."
 Babkin's lawyer, Viktor Danilchenko, said he would appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court.
 Moscow City Court Judge Nina Kuznetsova pronounced only the sentence at the end of the trial Wednesday. She did not read the entire verdict, which the FSB said was extensive and contained classified information.
 Kuznetsova declined to award 27 million rubles ($850,000) in damages to the navy, as it had requested. She said the navy should file a separate civil suit.
 It was not immediately clear whether the navy would do so.
 The prosecutor and FSB officials said they were satisfied with the verdict.
 "For me it is important that the court found Babkin guilty," Yerokhin said. "I think the court chose such a light punishment after taking into consideration the defendant's health, age and his academic accomplishments." Babkin has suffered from heart problems in recent years.
 "Babkin was found guilty - that is the main thing," said an FSB official, one of three who attended the sentencing. "I know that if he had been sent to prison, he would have died there quickly. Do you want us to tell you that we would like to have his death on our hands?"
 Babkin's lawyer interpreted the verdict differently. "A suspended sentence in such a sensitive case is in fact an acquittal," Danilchenko said. "The judge just did not have the courage to acquit Babkin outright."
 Babkin's wife, Galina Yashina, who attended the hearing with the couple's eldest son, broke into a furious tirade about the verdict outside the court. 
 "If Babkin isn't acquitted in Russia, we will complain to the European Court [on Human Rights]," she said, before being nudged into silence by her husband.
 The prosecutor and FSB officials offered reporters a detailed account of the case Wednesday. According to their account, Pope, acting as a representative of Pennsylvania University, signed a $28,000 contract on scientific cooperation with the Bauman University in 1997. Pope then approached Babkin to get blueprints for the Shkval torpedo.
 The officials said that Babkin, an expert on torpedo engines, provided Pope with excerpts of classified documents on the Shkval engine that had been written by his colleagues. Later, Pope asked Babkin to find classified information on the torpedo's fuel and offered him $20,000 for it, they said.
 "When we learned about that, we changed our charges against Babkin from divulging state secrets to espionage," an FSB official said. "Pope confessed to this during our investigation into him."
 Pope denied doing so Wednesday. "That is absolutely false," he said in a telephone interview from his home in State College, Pennsylvania. 
 He said he and Babkin had discussed a fuel that was similar to the type used in the torpedo but, knowing that the Shkval's fuel was classified, had not pursued the matter. 
 Pope said that the fuel they had talked about is used in Russian fireworks and that its characteristics are not classified. "I believe that Babkin's case was purely political. I never saw anything classified," Pope said.
 The FSB official said investigators seized classified documents about the Shkval's fuel in a raid on Babkin's apartment in April 2000. He said the papers were for Pope.
 The Babkin investigation opened in April 2000.
 Pope said the FSB told him during his detention that they had confiscated classified information from Babkin that was meant to be sold to the United States. "It is my firm belief that this claim was fabricated by the FSB to fit their script," he said.

TITLE: City Faces New Investigations
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Federal Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Zubrin said Wednesday that St. Petersburg was lagging behind the rest of the Northwest Region in fighting crime, providing a laundry-list of particular charges, investigations and statistics, but few specifics.
 
At a Wednesday press conference, Zubrin said that the Prosecutor General's Office had opened criminal investigations into the handling of funds earmarked for reconstruction in the St. Petersburg city center, the city's botanical gardens, the ring road and the flood-protection barrier system.
 "Serious investigations are being carried out regarding the work in the historical center. The investigation is into the possible embezzlement of federal funds intended to help with preparations for St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary. The investigation was launched in December of last year."
 Zubrin said that the investigation into the usage of funds for the flood-protection system was opened in January, with serious questions being raised about the usage of about $4.5 million of federal funds.
 The Deputy Prosecutor General added that additional cases may be opened, as 21 different projects were presently under intense scrutiny by the presidential administration and by Gosstroi, the State construction agency.
 Zubrin also announced that another member of Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's administration, Sport and Fitness Committee head, Valentin Mettusa, was now under investigation under Article 286 of the Criminal Code, which covers abuse of office. Zubin said that the investigation was opened on Feb. 6.
 According to Zubrin, reported crimes in the Northwest Ristrict dropped by 20 percent in 2002 from the year before, with the number of first degree murders, for example, dropping by 9.4 percent. 
 He added that, at the same time, the percentage of all premeditated-murder cases solved in the Northwest Region rose by two percent, including an 11-percent jump in the Leningrad Oblast. 
 But the numbers for St. Petersburg were not as impressive, with a 66-percent success rate in solving cases, one of the poorest figures for the entire region.

TITLE: Moscow Ups Pressure For Spacecraft Funds
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenkov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's space chief strongly urged the U.S. Administration on Thursday to waive legislation that bars NASA from financing construction of extra Russian spacecraft needed to run the international space station during a break in U.S. shuttle flights.
 
"We expect that the spirit of our relationship that has emerged from our nations' fight against the threat of international terrorism ... will be applied to this specific and very important area," Russian Aerospace Agency Director Yuri Koptev said at a news conference.
 With U.S. space shuttle flights suspended pending the investigation into the Columbia disaster, Russia's Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships are now the only link to the ISS. Russian space officials said that they were ready to build the extra ships necessary to service the station during the interim. However, they urged the United States and other partners in the 16-country project to share the costs incurred.
 NASA has said it is constrained by U.S. legislation. The Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 bars "extraordinary payments" to Russia's space agency for the station unless the United States confirms Russia has not transferred missile technology or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons to Iran in the previous year.
 The nonproliferation law reflects strong U.S. concerns that Russia's ties with Iran are helping the Islamic republic advance its nuclear and missile programs. 
 Russia says its nuclear cooperation with Iran is strictly limited to a contract for building a civilian nuclear-power plant in Bushehr and denies any leaks of missile technology.
 Koptev on Thursday dismissed the U.S. accusations of cooperation with Iran as "political myths" and urged the U.S. Administration to seek a waiver of the nonproliferation act.
 Koptev said that his agency and NASA were also talking to the Europeans about possible financial support for building extra Russian ships.
 Koptev said that the replacement crew to be sent to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz ship in May would most likely consist of only two men instead of the regular three, although no final decision has been made.
 "That would allow us to reduce the resources needed for the crew and, correspondingly, the number of launches," Koptev said. 
 A two-man crew would also allow some extra cash to be earned by flying a European astronaut on a short mission to the station in October or November when the next Soyuz brings the next replacement crew, he added. The third traveler would then be able to return to Earth with the initial two-man crew.
 Russian space officials had previously talked about sending a replacement crew in late April, but Koptev said it would be able to go up only in early May because the Soyuz is still unfinished.
 Koptev said Russia's partners must quickly make up their minds about financial contributions for next year's program.
 "If we don't make a decision today on building a certain number of ships and provide the necessary funds, we can say for sure that we won't have the necessary number of ships next year," Koptev said.
 Russia has budgeted the equivalent of US$130 million to fulfill its obligation to send two Soyuz and three Progress ships to the station this year.
 Next year, two Soyuz capsules and six Progress ships will be needed if the break in shuttle flights continues, Koptev said. 
 In addition to what has already been spent to lay down ships for future ISS missions, Russia needs to spend about 2.7 billion rubles (US$85 million) this year to finish construction of the eight spacecraft needed next year, he said.
 He said that the Cabinet had tentatively agreed to redistribute budgetary funds to speed up the ships' construction, but warned that Russia cannot finance the project alone.

TITLE: Ambassador Pushes Idea of Papal Visit
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II received the Vatican's new envoy to Moscow on Thursday, raising hopes of a possible end to a dispute between two major branches of Christianity that has prevented Pope John Paul II from fulfilling his dream of a visit to Russia.
 
"I would like to carry greetings from the pope to Your Holiness and convey his utmost respect," Archbishop Antonio Mennini told Alexy at their meeting at the patriarch's official residence.
 Alexy said he hoped Mennini's presence would help mend ties.
 "Now the two churches' relations leave a lot to be desired," he said.
 The meeting was not reported in Russian media, although they usually follow the Orthodox Church head's activities closely. Photographers and television-camera operators were permitted to record the beginning of the meeting but were then asked to leave after the prelates' exchange of pleasantries.
 Earlier this week, Russia's ambassador to the Holy See indicated that the state hoped that the Russian Orthodox and Catholic hierarchies could smooth over their differences, allowing for John Paul's long-desired trip to Russia.
 President Vladimir Putin, too, has indicated that he would favor a papal visit, but said that it would be dependent on the two churches' resolving their conflict.
 "A visit by the pope to Moscow is not only possible but necessary," Ambassador Vitaly Litvin was quoted as saying by the Vremya Novostei newspaper.
 He said that the Catholic Church could send replacements for five foreign-born priests who have been banned from Russia, and claimed that their expulsions had nothing to do with religion.

TITLE: Chechens Blame Federal Authorities in Poll
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A majority of Chechens blame Moscow for the war in Chechnya, but few want to see separatists take power, according to a poll conducted by regional officials.
 
Some 62.5 percent of 1,000 residents surveyed by the Moscow-backed Chechen government's Press Ministry blamed federal authorities for "the tragic events in Chechnya," the Izvestia newspaper reported Tuesday. 61.8 percent - said illegal actions by federal forces were the most acute problem facing the region.
 But few Chechens place their hopes for the future on the rebels Moscow has been battling for much of the past decade, the poll indicates. One percent of respondents said they would like to see a rebel representative as president, according to Izvestia. 
 The largest number of respondents - 36.3 percent - said they would favor a member of Moscow's Chechen community. Some 19.5 percent said a representative of the federal government should head the region, while 16.5 percent said they favored the current administration. Some 26.7 percent were undecided.
 The report came as Chechnya prepared for a March 23 referendum asking voters to approve a constitution that would be subordinate to federal law. Approval would pave the way for presidential elections, and Moscow is touting the plebiscite as the key to peace.
 According to the poll, 23.4 percent of residents want authorities to negotiate with rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, while 41.5 percent oppose such talks.
 Some 9.8 percent of respondents blamed separatists for events in Chechnya; 14.6 percent blamed Wahhabis, or Islamic fundamentalists.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Conscript Kills 4
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - A conscript shot and killed four fellow servicemen guarding an equipment storehouse on a missile base near Krasnoyarsk early Thursday, then killed himself, the Strategic Rocket Forces said.
 Sergei Khanov had been stationed at the base for a year, the Rocket Forces said in a statement. Shortly after midnight Wednesday, he opened fire with a Kalashnikov automatic rifle at the head of the guards and three other conscripts in a guardroom. Interfax reported that other soldiers in the unit escaped by hiding in an attic.
 According to a preliminary investigation, the Rocket Forces said, "the cause of the tragedy might be a psychological breakdown caused by a higher burden of military service."
 
 
<b>Ivanov to Visit China
 </b>

BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will visit China from Feb. 26 to 28 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan, China's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
 Ivanov will follow closely on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will be in Beijing on Sunday and Monday for talks expected to focus on Iraq and nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula.
 "The two foreign ministers will exchange views on issues of common interest in bilateral relations, and on regional and global issues," spokesperson Zhang Qiyue told reporters without elaborating.
 
 
<b>Manhunt Widens
 </b>

ROSTOV-NA-DONU, Southern Russia (AP) - About 1,500 police officers in Krasnodar were combing mountains Thursday for two gunmen who attacked a police unit as it patrolled for poachers, leading to a shootout in which seven people were killed, officials said.
 The Interior Ministry of the Krasnodar region said police had identified the two gunmen who fled as residents of Neftegorsk. A third gunman was killed in the shootout Wednesday.
 The ministry said the group was believed to be a drug trafficking band. Initially, officials said they thought the attackers were poachers. Police found a 200-liter barrel full of marijuana, along with automatic weapons, in a hiding place in the mountains in the area, officials said.
 
<b>Chemical Weapons
 </b>

MOSCOW (AP) - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Wednesday that the disposal of Soviet-era chemical weapons remains a priority for Moscow, but extensive international support is needed to speed up the giant task.
 "We are interested in constructive cooperation ... so that we can honor all of our commitments," Interfax quoted Ivanov as saying during a meeting with Rogelio Pfirter, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
 
 
<b>Lab Blast Kills 1 
 </b>

ROSTOV-NA-DONU, Southern Russia (AP) - One person was killed and another injured Wednesday in an explosion apparently caused by a bomb at a medical clinic for railroad workers, an official for the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
 The blast killed a 24-year-old worker in the biological laboratory of the clinic in Rostov-on-Don and injured a 78-year-old patient, said ministry duty officer Igor Mikhailov. 



TITLE: Aerospace Giant Sees Blue Skies
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The country's manufacturing sector may be contracting for the first time in more than four years, but not all industry players are suffering.
 
United Technologies Corp., for example, says that it is poised for its best year ever in Russia, where it has invested more than $400 million over the last decade in two dozen projects that make everything from elevators to aircraft engines.
 But life would be even better for all manufacturers if the government would streamline its hair-pulling value-added tax regime and domestic companies would open themselves up to foreign partnerships, said Richard Brody, president of UTC in Russia, in a recent interview.
 The secret of success for Connecticut-based UTC, which posted worldwide sales of $28 billion last year, is taking advantage of the same competitive edge Russian manufacturers ought to take advantage of - cheap but highly educated and technically proficient workers, Brody said.
 But in present day reality, he said it is foreign investment and integration into the global industry that are the key elements of success.
 &quot;HS Nauka is a perfect example,&quot; he said, referring to a joint venture UTC set up in 1995 between its subsidiary Hamilton Sunstrand and Moscow's Nauka Scientific Industrial Association to make heat exchangers used in the air-conditioning systems of Western aircraft like Boeing's 747 and 777.
 &quot;We have invested a lot in a modern production facility. But, just as important have been the processes we have invested in to ensure that our highly qualified labor force can make products efficiently and reliably, products that meet all of the most stringent standards,&quot; Brody said.
 The venture has an all-Russian staff of more than 100 and recently opened a design bureau whose first project was to develop heat exchangers for the Airbus-380 - the world's first double-decker, four-aisle jumbo jet, which is expected to be launched in 2006.
 &quot;It's a sign of our confidence in the ability of a Russian joint venture to perform to world standards, and it's a sign of the tremendous ability of Russian engineers and Russian manufacturing talent,&quot; Brody said.
 UTC is hoping to replicate the success of HS Nauka in its new partnership with Chelyabinsk-based metals plant Mechel, the first in Russia to produce steel made to Western aviation specifications, Brody said.
 Another UTC division, Otis Elevator, which has 3,000 Russian specialists and just four expatriates working at three production facilities, is also forging ahead.
 Every fifth elevator sold in Russia last year came from Otis, making it the company's fastest-growing market after China.
 Brody declined to give exact sales figures for Otis, HS Nauka or Mechel.
 Another moneymaker for UTC is engine maker Pratt &amp; Whitney.
 In addition to making booster engines for Lockheed Martin's Atlas rockets with Russia's Energomash in a venture called RD AMROSS, P&amp;W has teamed up with the Perm-based Aviadvigatel design bureau and Perm Motors, which design and make Russia's most advanced aviation engine, the PS-90A.
 P&amp;W owns roughly 25 percent in both Perm companies.
 The Perm Motors Plant raised its revenues by two-thirds last year to $100 million and is expecting sales of $150 million this year, Brody said.
 Business would be even better, he said, if the government would lift a 25-percent cap on foreign ownership in aviation enterprises and cut the amount of time exporting manufacturers must wait for their VAT refunds.
 HS Nauka, for example, pays a value-added tax of 20 percent on the components it buys to make its goods, 80 percent of which are exported. VAT paid on exported goods is supposed to be refunded, but the Tax Ministry is notoriously slow in doing so.
 HS Nauka is among the thousands of companies waiting months for a refund, which in its case is about $1 million or 20 percent of its annual sales.
 &quot;This is a tremendous disincentive to business,&quot; Brody said.
 Another issue is the 25-percent limit on foreign ownership in the aviation industry, which was established in 1998.
 &quot;It is important for the government to remove restrictions on foreign investment in aviation. It will allow foreign companies like ours to do more projects,&quot; Brody said.


TITLE: Gref Submits New Plan To Drain Cash from Oil
AUTHOR: By Victoria Lavrentieva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Is the government ready to bite the hand that feeds it?
 
German Gref says that it ought to be if it wants strong and sustainable economic growth, although &quot;bite&quot; might be a little strong. Nibble would be more like it.
 After three years of broad-scale reforms and general economic liberalization, Gref is asking the government to approve a development plan that he says will produce a robust 5-percent growth annually over the next three years - but only if it tackles head on its overdependence on oil.
 On Thursday, Gref submitted his Economic Development and Trade Ministry's medium-term strategy to the cabinet for its approval. If accepted, it will become the blueprint for bureaucratic behavior toward business through 2005.
 The main objective of Gref's 127-page plan, made available earlier this week, is to diversify the economy away from the energy sector by, among other things, shifting the tax burden from manufacturers to extractors by hiking taxes on energy exports.
 &quot;If Russia fails to change the structure of its economy, we will see growth rates slow down to 2 percent to 3 percent by 2005,&quot; the document says. &quot;If Russia fails to compete on world markets, it will not only lose a significant amount of economic resources, but also political weight, international influence and potential for sustainable growth.&quot;
 But, if the government sticks to this program, Russia will achieve sustainable annual GDP growth of 5 percent from 2004 and 7 percent to 8 percent growth in 2007-2015, up from 4.3 percent last year, the document says. It also says that the plan will reduce inflation from the current 12 percent to between 6 percent and 8 percent by 2005.
 More important, however, the plan envisions a strategic shift in the structure of Russian exports - from commodities to finished goods.
 The numbers, say economists, are alarming: While oil and gas accounted for about 40 percent of all exports five years ago, they now account for more than half. Fuel is also now the source of every third ruble of fiscal revenues and 30 percent of industrial production.
 There is growing consensus among economists that something must be done quickly to prevent, as Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky recently said, &quot;the Saudi Arabia-ization of Russia.&quot;
 Gref's plan may help do just that.
 &quot;The main difference between the new program and the 2000-2002 program, which was a general reform plan that established a framework and set political guidelines, is that the new one looks like a concrete action plan,&quot; said Christof Ruhl, the World Bank's chief economist for Russia.
 It is difficult to gauge how many of the objectives called for in the 2000-2002 plan were actually implemented.
 Although progress has been made in many areas, such as the introduction of new Tax, Labor and Land codes and the start of pension and administrative reforms, major structural reforms have stalled and the government has failed to make the economy more competitive on world markets.
 &quot;This is something that has appeared on the government's agenda, that has become obvious over the last three years,&quot; Ruhl said.
 In addition to recalibrating the current tax system - which is more burdensome for the manufacturing sector than it is for the fuel sector and fails to provide enough incentives to stimulate investment activity or scientific research - Gref's plan stresses the importance of state support for innovative technologies and high-tech industries, including the organization of exhibitions for private companies abroad.
 It also calls for liberalizing the labor market by abolishing the propiska, or permanent domicile registration. The current system hinders economic potential and prevents the creation of a unified labor market, the plan says.
 The plan also calls for Russia to join the World Trade Organization during the current round of negotiations, which ends in 2005, and for the ruble to become a fully convertible, or hard, currency &quot;in the near future.&quot;
 Even more important, according to the ministry, is developing the small-business sector, which it calls the key to sustainable growth.
 The country needs new institutions for micro-lending, such as credit bureaus or mutual lending societies, which &quot;will help to provide financing to small businesses which do not meet banks' lending requirements,&quot; the document says.
 Gref's ministry also confirms its commitment to further liberalizing the economy and reducing the role of the state. &quot;The introduction of any new government regulations in any sector of the economy requires a thorough analysis and serious justification,&quot; it says.
 Although most economists applauded the program, some found the main goal of diversification questionable.
 Christopher Granville, senior political analyst and equity strategist at UFG, for example, said that the government is limited in what it can do.
 &quot;The government might improve the investment climate, provide a stable macroeconomic background, lower inflation and interest rates to generate lending, and investments may find their way to interesting projects,&quot; he said. &quot;But, even if the government does deliver on every promise it makes in this document, the great unknown is the response of the private sector and individuals.&quot;
 Ruhl agreed, saying that the problem now is how to enforce the process.
 &quot;They want to give the right incentives without directly interfering with the market,&quot; he said. &quot;But if the shift in the tax burden will be adjusted to oil prices, it will have a positive affect on the economy, as we have seen in other successful oil-exporting countries, like Canada or Norway, for example.&quot;
 Most analysts called Gref's program very idealistic and extremely ambitious, but they saw nothing wrong in this because people want the government to aspire to the highest performance possible. 
 &quot;This is not something that should be trusted or not, and this is not a document that we expect to be implemented 100 percent,&quot; said Marcin Wisznewski, Russia analyst at Morgan Stanley in London.
 Wisznewski said that there has been a lot of talk in the government and economic circles about the need for diversification for quite some time.
 &quot;But, in fact, Russia became even more dependent on oil in 2002. So, on this account, they have yet to achieve success,&quot; he said. &quot;There are a lot of issues that are not under government control - like oil prices, for example.&quot;


TITLE: MinFin Plans $35 Bln Cushion
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - When Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov tasked the Finance Ministry with designing a stabilization fund to cushion against vacillating oil prices, he didn't tell it to make the money off-limits for use in pursuing tax reform.
 
First Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Tuesday that under his ministry's draft concept, stabilization-fund resources could not be used to finance tax reform, as it was difficult to determine exactly how much financing would be needed.
 Meanwhile, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry's economic plan for 2003-2005, to be presented to the cabinet on Thursday, calls for a rather different strategy. It proposes to reorient the economy away from oil dependence toward manufacturers by easing the sector's tax burden, and it wants to use the stabilization fund as support for doing so.
 The Finance Ministry wants to set aside 1.1 trillion rubles ($34.8 billion) in a lockbox by 2007 to cushion against oil prices falling to $12 per barrel. This would replace the current financial-reserve fund as of 2004.
 After 2007, the fund's resources could finance the budget deficit, ensure smooth debt repayments and underwrite structural reforms, like military reform.
 Barring the need for an emergency withdrawal, money will remain untouchable until the fund matures to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product, or at least 1.1 trillion rubles.
 &quot;Until the pillow reaches this volume, the fund will be spent exclusively in unfavorable periods,&quot; Ulyukayev was quoted by Prime-Tass as saying.
 As long as oil is selling at above $18.50 per barrel, the price at which government budget calculations are pegged, surplus budget money will be deposited to the fund.
 The fund is to be a part of the federal budget and managed by the Finance Ministry. A base volume of 8.7 percent of GDP is intended to make the fund able to replenish key parts of the budget in the event of oil prices dropping to $12 per barrel.
 The Finance Ministry's draft concept says that the fund will receive revenues from export tariffs on oil and oil products. It will also get money collected in mineral-resource-extraction taxes as long as oil stays above $18.50. The fund will also receive whatever resources are left in the financial reserve as of Jan. 1, 2004. The financial reserve fund's balance last month was at 209 billion rubles ($6.62 billion), Finance Ministry data show.
 Once the fund boasts resources equal to 8.7 percent of GDP, any overflow will be unlocked for servicing debts and structural reforms. And the capital itself could be used to refinance the country's foreign debt, Ulyukayev added.
 The government will identify the instruments needed to keep the fund liquid and sterilize the money surplus, but options include using foreign currency and foreign-government securities.
 Russia is expected to pay back $17.3 billion of its foreign debts this year, $14 billion in 2004 and $16.8 billion in 2005. As of last October, the country's total foreign debt stood at $149.7 billion.

TITLE: Russia To Unleash Latest Secret Weapon: the Ruble
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government is making it stronger, pushing it on its neighbors and planning to proliferate it around the world.
 
It's not a new weapon but it could be. It's the ruble.
 Emboldened by the unprecedented strength of the currency, which is rising against the greenback for the first time in recent memory, the government is mulling grandiose plans for the ruble, including making it fully convertible internationally and using it as the basis of a monetary union with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus.
 &quot;It is possible and it is time to think of a unified currency system for the [Eurasian Economic Union],&quot; Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told the leaders of the five-member EEU during their summit in Moscow on Wednesday.
 &quot;We would like, and I think it would be effective, to use the Russian ruble for this purpose,&quot; Kasyanov was quoted by news agencies as saying.
 Kasyanov's remarks came just a day before the cabinet is scheduled to debate the Economic Development and Trade Ministry's blueprint for growth through 2005, which calls for, among other things, &quot;securing full convertibility of the national currency in the nearest future.&quot;
 That is, the ministry wants the ruble to join the buck, euro, yen and pound as permanent features on exchange-rate boards in banks around the world as soon as possible.
 In order for the ruble to achieve hard-currency status, however, the government would have to radically liberalize its currency regime and allow Russians to move their money around the globe freely - an idea many economists support.
 &quot;Current protectionist measures are a wall that don't do anything but degrade the choice people can make,&quot; said James Fenkner, head of research at investment bank Troika Dialog.
 Such measures, he said, do not work in practice - they only create obstacles to the effective use of capital, leading to too much money floating around that is not being used efficiently.
 Awash in record amounts of petrodollars, the Central Bank has been struggling to strike a balance between excessive ruble appreciation, which hurts domestic producers, and inflation, caused in part by its own rules that force exporters to sell half of their hard-currency revenues.
 One result of this is booming demand for domestic-debt paper as investors struggle to put their rubles to use.
 &quot;[The currency-control regulations] force people to make decisions they otherwise wouldn't make,&quot; Fenkner said. &quot;Too many Russians currently buy Russian bonds, which artificially depresses yields, raises prices and causes excessive issuance by domestic issuers.&quot;
 One way to solve this problem is to make the ruble fully convertible, which is certainly possible, given Russia's track record over the last five years, Fenkner said.
 Russia now has a proven five-year history of credible monetary policy - it has not squandered, for example, its oil windfall, but has used it to reduce the national debt to an expected $109 billion by year's end from $166 billion in 1998, he said.
 &quot;France could envy this.&quot;
 Not all economists, however, are as bullish on the ruble's future.
 &quot;In principle, the ruble should be convertible one day. But among the requirements for full - internal and external - convertibility, one needs to eliminate all sorts of restrictions, including those on the [movements of investments],&quot; said Christof Ruehl, the World Bank's chief economist for Russia.
 &quot;But, if these restrictions are removed, and people can move and exchange money here and abroad freely, there is always a danger of quick capital outflow,&quot; he said.
 Alexei Moiseyev, senior economist at Renaissance Capital, disagreed, saying that current rules do little to stop &quot;big money&quot; from leaving the country.
 However, it is much harder to move &quot;middle-class money&quot; abroad, in light of worldwide efforts to combat laundering, Moiseyev said.
 Meanwhile, creating a monetary union with four other former Soviet republics is not as farfetched as it may sound.
 &quot;The economies of these states were tightly integrated under the Soviet Union,&quot; Moiseyev said. &quot;Simplifying trade by means of using the ruble as the main currency for deals, or even turning it into some kind of alternative to what the euro is to the European Union, should give a boost to national economies,&quot; he said.
 The first test will be in less than two years, when Belarus officially abandons its own ruble for the Russian version.
 Even with relatively tiny Belarus, it took years for Moscow to convince Minsk to give up on its desire to print its own money.
 This is an issue of reduced sovereignty that will be difficult for the other EEU countries to swallow, Moiseyev said.
 Tatyana Paramonova, first deputy chairperson of the Central Bank, said that Russia will insist on full control of money printing and monetary policy.
 &quot;We will not back down on this,&quot; she told Ekho Moskvy radio station Wednesday.
 &quot;Historically there are practically no examples of currency being emitted by different centers,&quot; she said.
 Kasyanov said that, before the ruble could become the single currency of the EEU, key factors like inflation, budget policy and business conditions would have to be equalized.
 &quot;The main problems continue to be the differences in economic development and mismatched rates of transition,&quot; he said.
 It was unclear Wednesday how far other EEU members would be ready to go in order to acquire the ruble as their national currency, although the initial proposal seemed to have been voiced by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
 Nazarbayev said that the ruble's reign within some of the former Soviet republics could be re-established by 2011.
 
 <i>
Staff Writer Victoria Lavrentieva contributed to this report. </i>

TITLE: President, Oligarchs Discuss Corruption
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The so-called union of oligarchs rolled into the Kremlin on Wednesday night to chat about corruption, a problem that the President Vladimir Putin said would take time to fix.
 
&quot;This is a problem that cannot be resolved in an instant,&quot; Putin said in televised remarks.
 &quot;Corruption cannot be uprooted using only punitive measures,&quot; or through revising the state's functions, he said.
 A $30-billion problem by some estimates, corruption has flourished over the past decade, to the detriment of small and medium-sized businesses, Russia's standing in global ratings and its ability to attract foreign investment.
 Putin and about 25 representatives of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, agreed that corruption is an increasingly pressing problem. Even as big businesses aim to streamline their holdings, meaning potentially massive layoffs, bureaucracy maintains its stranglehold on small and medium businesses, leaving fewer opportunities for the newly unemployed.
 &quot;It would be much more productive to create a situation in the market where it is easier to follow the rules than break them,&quot; news agencies reported Putin as saying. &quot;I'm talking about destroying the breeding ground for corruption.&quot;
 It was the first time business's big guns had sat down en masse with the president since May, when the RSPP put aside plans to discuss corruption to focus on more pressing issues, such as tax and pension reform and bankruptcy laws.
 With a number of those issues settled, or at least under discussion, corruption has risen on both the government's and RSPP's list of priorities.
 &quot;The problem of how government institutions function is coming to the forefront,&quot; Severstal chief Alexei Mordashov said. &quot;On the one hand, everyone has noticed improvement. But on the other hand, the army of bureaucrats is growing and this is one reason reforms are spinning their wheels.&quot;
 &quot;Many bureaucrats understand the strengthening of the government to be the strengthening of bureaucracy,&quot; Mordashov said. &quot;While strengthening the government is absolutely correct, increasing bureaucrats' powers impedes business.&quot;
 Bureaucracy continues to stunt the growth of new business, he said, citing a business partner who spent half a year collecting 137 signatures and permits in order to open a retail chain.
 Putin appeared to hold the same opinion: &quot;We see that there has been no real improvement,&quot; despite a raft of laws passed over the past two years to reduce bureaucracy.
 Laws either are not followed or are not fully enforceable, he said.
 Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that the government &quot;must be willing to show its readiness to get rid of some odious figures&quot; in the government to prove its readiness and ability to combat corruption, &quot;even though corruption is one of the hardest crimes to prove.&quot;
 Putin promised that the tax burden on businesses - and the red tape that comes with it - would continue to ease.
 &quot;The tax burden must be lightened and there should be no doubt about it,&quot; he said.
 Putin also took the opportunity to fire a few shots across big business's bow.
 &quot;I would like to hear concrete suggestions from you about what we should do, not just criticism,&quot; he said. &quot;I know there's going to be criticism tonight, and I too can criticize.&quot;
 When Khodorkovsky demanded that Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, who is also chairperson of state-owned oil company Rosneft, reveal some details about Rosneft's acquisition of medium-sized crude producer Severnaya Neft from Senator Andrei Vavilov, Putin said that a discussion of how large private oil companies created their holdings would be apropos.
 Khodorkovsky said that he and other business leaders must share some of the blame for government corruption.
 &quot;You can say that it all started with us,&quot; The Associated Press quoted him as saying. &quot;Well, it started at some point and now it must be ended. The situation has come to a head.&quot;
 In the end, Putin asked the lobby to join in the battle against corruption.
 &quot;The government alone cannot solve the problem,&quot; Mordashov said.

TITLE: Nestle Snaps Up Expat-Founded Firm
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Nestle announced Wednesday that it has purchased 100 percent of Clearwater, putting the Swiss food and beverage giant atop the country's rapidly expanding water-delivery market.
 
The deal is Nestle's second Russian water acquisition in the last seven months, having bought bottled-water and delivery company Saint Springs for about $50 million last July.
 Neither company would comment on the value of the deal, though analysts, basing their calculations on last year's purchase of Saint Springs, said that Clearwater probably cost between $25 million and $40 million.
 Scott Nicol, an American expatriate who founded Clearwater with a $70,000 loan from his father in 1993, would not comment on the deal, citing a &quot;gentlemen's agreement&quot; between the parties.
 Hubert Genieys, Nestle Waters spokesperson, the company's water division, said the deal was in line with Nestle's European expansion policy.
 &quot;It's a young and dynamic market, and Russia is the most populated country in Europe,&quot; he said by telephone from Paris. &quot;For us, it's a very important and strategic acquisition.&quot;
 With more than 40,000 clients, mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Clearwater gives Nestle a strong base in Russia's water-delivery market, said Mary Gamzian, marketing manager for Clearwater.
 Alexei Krivoshapko, an analyst at United Financial Group, put the size of the water-delivery market at about $40 million last year, or some 130 million liters, about 10 percent of Russia's total water market.
 Some 25 percent of Saint Spring's revenues come from deliveries to 20,000 clients. Companies make up 70 percent of all water-delivery clients, Gamzian said. In Moscow, 30 percent of all offices have bottled water, compared with 90 percent in the United States.
 Nicol started up Clearwater out of a small Moscow apartment. In 2001, he opened a bottling factory and distribution center outside the city with the capacity to supply up to 120,000 clients in the greater Moscow area.
 King Water, which claims to be the second-largest water-delivery company in Moscow - though analysts place it third - said that the deal &quot;could have been expected.&quot;
 Boris Yelenich, marketing manager for King Water, said that &quot;time would tell&quot; whether or not his company would change its tactics with the arrival of Clearwater's powerful new owner.
 Analysts said that the purchase of Clearwater, the market leader, was logical for Nestle.
 Natalya Zagvozdina, an analyst with Renaissance Capital, said if the Saint Springs deal was taken as a benchmark, Clearwater would have cost about $35 million given expected revenues this year of 15 million euros ($16.11 million).
 &quot;For Nestle this is a very sensible purchase,&quot; Zagvozdina said. &quot;They have gotten rid of the competition and acquired another good brand.&quot;

TITLE: After NTV, RenTV and TVS Management Reshuffles Loom
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A controversial management reshuffle at NTV television and its sister companies appears to have been completed with the election of a new board of directors and that board's approval of the appointment of Nikolai Senkevich as the channel's general director.
 
But more shuffles are looming in the media market, with electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems planning to sell its controlling stake in the second-tier RenTV network later this year and TVS's board scheduled to approve a new business strategy.
 The conflict at NTV began last month, when Gazprom gave the boot to Boris Jordan, the U.S.-born financier who had run NTV since April 2001 and its parent company, Gazprom-Media, since October 2001. The appointment of Senkevich - a physician and Gazprom official with little experience in television and media management - as acting NTV general director had startled the media community and prompted protests among the NTV team. One of NTV's most prominent producers and hosts, Leonid Parfyonov, left the channel over the conflict.
 Nonetheless, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and his pick to run Gazprom-Media, Alexander Dybal, have stood by their decisions. They managed to disperse tension slightly over the weekend by appointing former NTV journalist and manager Alexander Gerasimov as Senkevich's first deputy in charge of news.
 Gazprom has confirmed that a new media holding with Evrofinance as a nominal holder will be set up in the second quarter, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing a Gazprom financial report. The new holding will manage the assets now held by Gazprom-Media.
 In the meantime, a UES board meeting scheduled for Feb. 28 is expected to approve the sale of the company's 70-percent stake in RenTV, Interfax reported.
 RenTV founders Irina Lesnevskaya and Dmitry Lesnevsky, who is the channel's general director, are interested in buying the stake, RenTV spokesperson Yulia Yermarkevich said Tuesday.
 The founders currently hold 30 percent.
 There is speculation in media circles that UES management may snap up the company's stake on its own.
 At TVS, the channel's management company Shestoi Telekanal was expected to end months of uncertainty over TVS's future by finally approving a business plan for the channel Tuesday night, spokesperson Tatyana Blinova said.
 TVS has suffered a shortage of funds under its current business strategy.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Great Danes
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - In an official statement released on Monday, Bravo International General Director Viktor Pyatko announced that the company will be renamed Heineken Breweries on March 1 The brewery will also begin producing beer under the Heineken label this year, the statement said.
 Heineken N. V. acquired the St. Petersburg beer and low-alcohol beverage manufacturer Bravo International in 2002 for $400 million. 
 The brewery has a maximum yearly production capacity of 280 million liters of beer per year, which it intends to increase to 500 million by the end of the year. 
 
<b>Money Market
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Investment Technochimbank, owned by Ego-Holding, opened the city's first "financial supermarket" on Millionnaya Ulitsa on Wednesday, having invested $600,000 in the project. The supermarket will serve as an outlet for the bank, the Energocapital investment company, the Northwest Industrial insurance company and Uni-Leasing, Alexander Kashin, Ego-Holding chairperson, said at the opening.
 Last fall, a number of banks, including Alfa-Bank, Menatep St. Petersburg and Avtobank, unveiled plans to create financial supermarkets in the city. Analysts believe that the trend is intended to attract private customers to the financial products on offer. 



TITLE: New Europe Responds
AUTHOR: By Mart Laar
TEXT: THE past few weeks have changed Europe. With their signatures on the &quot;Letter of Eight&quot; and the subsequent &quot;Letter of 10&quot; resolving to stand by the United States in the confrontation with Iraq, the future members of NATO and the European Union from the east of the continent demonstrated that they are not simply interested in joining the Western clubs - but also in influencing them.
 
The new Europe has arrived with its own aspirations, ideas and hopes. At the same time, deep divisions in old Europe are now clear to all. French President Jacques Chirac on Monday night made clear his frustration by lashing out at the new Europeans for daring to speak out on behalf of a strong trans-Atlantic relationship. &quot;It is not well brought-up behavior,&quot; Chirac said. &quot;They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.&quot;
 As when Moscow told its Soviet satellites what to do, the countries of Eastern and Central Europe were ordered to shut up. But we do not want to shut up and we will not. Our understanding of Europe is that smaller countries have as much right to speak up as any other country. We could not imagine a Europe where some countries consider themselves more equal than others.
 East Europeans are no more eager for war than their counterparts in Western Europe. A unilateral U.S. attack against Iraq would be unpopular here as well. Cooperation and participation are the preferred routes. But that means no one country presumes to speak on behalf of Europe. Everyone must have a voice and do their share.
 So, even before Chirac's impromptu lecture, the Franco-German decision to exclude the 10 future EU members from Monday's dinner party in Brussels went down like a rock in Estonia. Presumably Paris and Berlin decided to snub the East Europeans because they're too &quot;pro-American.&quot; Is this how the future EU will function?
 For similar reasons, the recent crisis at NATO raised troubling questions, too. If a member state feels threatened, like Turkey does, and asks NATO to take necessary countermeasures, how can it be rejected (until a quiet deal, behind France's back, pulls the alliance from the brink)? Is this the great defense institution we all dreamed of joining?
 From the point of view of the new Europeans, U.S.-European tensions aren't to blame. The fault lies within old Europe.
 Some Europeans, perhaps Chirac among them, see an American conspiracy in East European support for the United States; others think the new Europeans support Washington because only the United States can guarantee their security. Still others see a logical reaction to Franco-German attempts to keep a bigger EU under their control.
 It's more complicated than that. These countries, including my own, bring a different historical perspective to the EU and NATO. They experienced not only a short Nazi occupation, but a much longer communist one. Words such as &quot;freedom&quot; or &quot;democracy&quot; have real meaning in my part of the world. To survive and overthrow dictatorship, people here had to stand by values - even if, sometimes, that meant hiding them deep inside oneself. As a result, the Central and Eastern Europe approach to foreign policy is today based more on values than that of Western Europe. They are more receptive to &quot;moral arguments,&quot; on Iraq and a host of other issues, and less understanding of &quot;European realpolitik.&quot;
 The new Europeans remember that when President Ronald Reagan issued a moral indictment of the Soviet Union by calling it what it was - an &quot;evil empire&quot; - he was heavily criticized in Western Europe. To the United States, the evil was self-evident; they couldn't understand why West Europeans didn't grasp this simple truth. Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are still popular in Eastern Europe and even in Russia: Their decisiveness boosted the captive nations in their struggle and ultimately brought down the Soviet Union. People in Eastern Europe know appeasement does not work. They know dictatorships must be dealt with head on.
 But the new Europe will never turn against old Europe. On the contrary, new Europe wants to reinvigorate all of Europe through enlargement. This is not only in the interest of the new member states. The Letter of Eight was signed by &quot;old&quot; member states who were frustrated with German and French attempts to claim EU leadership all for themselves. And the Western world needs a united Europe; the United States can benefit from it too.
 The coming enlargement of the EU will force large-scale reforms upon Europe, whether it wants it or not. Central and East European countries have some of the highest economic growth rates in Europe. Taxes in future member states are lower, economies more open, labor markets more reasonably regulated, social security networks less expensive. All of which means they should make a united Europe more competitive.
 The dramatic standoff over Iraq is another reminder that it is time for Europe to change. It must become more dynamic, decisive, competitive, open and future-oriented. European nations can retain their unique identities while remaining open to each other.
 This is the real European identity - not some false oneness. But it will require genuine cooperation and not a division of Europe into first-and second-class members. It will require a Europe where countries aren't told to stay quiet but are free to speak their minds.
 Unfortunately, some EU members have yet to embrace this message, as Monday's summit and Chirac's great outburst showed. We all need to be proud of Europe but first we must make all Europe new.
 
 <i>Mart Laar is the former prime minister of Estonia. This comment appeared in Wednesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal Europe. </i>

TITLE: Interpreting Oligarchs on Corruption
TEXT: President Putin's meeting Wednesday night with business leaders from the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs to discuss the delicate issue of corruption proved an interesting spectacle. Putin wanted to discuss methods of battling corruption, as the presidential administration prepares its plan for the overhaul of the administrative machine and the civil service.
 
It's hard to deny that among those gathered in the Kremlin were men with rich experience in the art of graft and presumably, therefore, well qualified to advise the president on how to combat corruption.
 As Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky put it: &quot;You can say that it all started with us. Well, it started at some point and now it must be ended.&quot; 
 Take, for example, two of the three main <i>dokladchiki</i> at the meeting, Khodorkovsky and Norilsk Nickel CEO Vladimir Potanin. Both were intimately involved in some of the most scandalous privatization deals of the 1990s, the loans-for-shares auctions, in which Khodorkovsky seized control of Yukos and Potanin of Norilsk Nickel and Sidanko. And UES CEO Anatoly Chubais (also present) presided over the loans-for-shares give-away as first deputy prime minister. 
 Many of these business leaders clearly thrived in the lawless environment of the past decade, so are the concerns voiced about corrupt officials anything more than disingenuous cant?
 In some respects, the game has genuinely moved on, and now tycoons are focusing more of their energies on rule-of-law issues (and sprucing up their images) because they want to secure their ill-gotten gains. But, this does not exclude them from trying to grab more goodies. Last year's Slavneft saga, culminating in a farcical auction, with essentially no competition, provides a salutory reminder of this. And the upcoming restructuring of UES is already being compared to a re-run of the loans-for-shares auctions.
 While the oligarchs' know-how may be of value, Putin would be well-advised to proceed by next inviting SME representatives to the Kremlin to hear another side of the story. 
 As studies show, small business disproportionately bears the brunt of red tape and corrupt officialdom. For big business, corruption may be an irritant, but for SMEs it's a matter of life or death. Moreover, a study by CEFIR shows a correlation between a high concentration of ownership and high barriers to entry for businesses, suggesting that big business actively conspires with regional authorities to limit unwelcome competition from below.
 It is instructive to remember that even when the oligarchs take an indisputable position - that corruption is bad - they have their own interests at heart.

TITLE: The Downside Of a Governor Looking Ahead
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: WHILE I understand that just about anything is possible, it is hard for me to imagine a place where ice has occupied a bigger place in the news than it has here of late.
 
On Thursday, the Fontanka.ru Web site reported that eight city residents this week suffered concussions from falling ice. Last month, the city's ambulance service reported that 2,510 people had suffered serious injuries as a result of falling on the ice between the beginning of November and Jan. 22 - a jump of 634 people from the same period the year before.
 I remember the moment when I noticed that the ice problem was worse in the city this year. It came when I saw a member of a group of stray dogs running along a street suddenly slip off a sidewalk and fall in a puddle. Not even street animals can deal with the conditions this year.
 The ice has managed to grab media attention that, otherwise, would likely have been focused on another big story - the city's 300th anniversary and the state of preparations for the celebrations. It occurred to me this week that, sadly, the two stories may be related.
 It seems that the main culprit behind the difficulties this year is the latest experiment by Governor Vladimir Yakovlev to regulate how the City Hall departments responsible for the condition of the city's streets and sidewalks work.
 In January, local newspaper Delo quoted a decree signed by Yakovlev at the end of last year that orders these departments to avoid using certain materials - salt and sand - in the city center if the temperature drops below -12 degrees Celsius. 
 &quot;During an inspection tour of the city last spring, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev was outraged by the amount of sand that had not been cleaned from the streets and was causing frequent sand storms all through the city,&quot; the paper reported.
 So, now, the ice is only removed using physical methods, and only in those regions where the local street cleaners still bother to do their jobs.
 The consequences of the decision are clear from the numbers, and have even reached the governor's own administration. City Hall spokesperson Alexander Afanasyev showed up for work last month walking with the aid of a cane. The explanation: He fell on the ice. Ivan Uralov, the deputy head of the City Hall Committee for Constriction Planning and Architecture broke his leg earlier this month. Same explanation.
 So, what do the residents of central St. Petersburg - including a couple of his own colleagues - have to thank for the governor's rising awareness of blowing sand? The answer is simple - the upcoming anniversary.
 The last thing Yakovlev wants is for 45 government delegations from all around the world and hundreds, if not thousands, of officials from Moscow to find themselves in the middle of a sandstorm come May. It would give St. Petersburg the type of bad image that it can't afford in its 300th anniversary.
 Sure, people have been falling and getting injured but, in the spring, this aspect of being a northern city won't even be noticed by our esteemed visitors.
 A number of officials from federal bodies have criticized the city administration for not doing enough to prepare for the upcoming event. The denizens of the city center - including the stray dog I saw - might argue that, in at least one case, doing nothing at all would have been better.

TITLE: art from russia's two capitals
AUTHOR: by Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As Moscow artist and avant-garde fashion designer Andrei Bartenev performed a &quot;rescue operation&quot; on a boat involving large-scale paper figures of &quot;shark-journalists,&quot; the curators of Moscow and St. Petersburg galleries turned their attention to summing up the results of the first day of &quot;Moscow Art Manezh St. Petersburg,&quot; the &quot;festival of Moscow and St. Petersburg art galleries&quot; that opened at the Manezh on Tuesday.
 
The event is a spin-off from the hugely successful &quot;Art Manezh,&quot; one of the largest art fairs in Moscow, held annually in the capital. Strictly speaking, there is no official fair at the St. Petersburg version - it is also one of the few events at the moment not to claim a link to St. Petersburg's upcoming 300th anniversary - but, according to the organizers from the Moscow Manezh, the show has an &quot;experimental character,&quot; and is intended as a test of the St. Petersburg art market.
 The exhibition is the first of its kind in St. Petersburg, where the participants are art galleries who, in turn, put forward artists of their choosing. The works on display, from galleries in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, date from the end of the 1990s and the current decade. According to the organizers, there were no special requirements or rules for the participants except the desire to take part and the ability to pay $500 for the privilege.
 This somewhat high figure, confess the organizers, has led to &quot;the one weak spot of the exhibition&quot; - only three St. Petersburg galleries are represented, which they had not anticipated. Of these three, only the recently founded Winter Gallery - a branch of Moscow's London Contemporary Art Gallery - is worth mentioning. At the same time, however, it presents works mainly by foreign, rather than local, artists, although these include the amazing Croatian Mersad Berber's &quot;In Cory of Ingres&quot; and &quot;Hommage Ilia Riepin.&quot;
 The 14 Moscow galleries taking part represent about 15 percent of the total number of galleries in the capital. However, it is worth noting immediately that the top end of the Moscow art scene - establishments such as the Aidan and Guelman galleries - are &quot;traditionally,&quot; according to the organizers, not represented at the annual Moscow exhibition, and are not they present at the St. Petersburg version. According to Moscow Manezh Directro Stanislav Karakash, the current show &quot;is not a question of the percentage [of Moscow galleries on display], but a question of the quality of art represented by these galleries, which is very high.&quot;
 At the same time, this question raises doubts about &quot;Moscow Art Manezh St. Petersburg.&quot; Does it really show the best that the two cities have to offer, or is it a fair/market showing art that caters for every taste and budget? Nevertheless, there are a few exhibits worth seeing, one of which, the nice set from the Arslonga Gallery, includes works by noted St. Petersburg-based artists Andrei Belle and Konstantin Chmutin. Chmutin's works are exciting as they are executed in the rare mezzotint technique - an engraving technique invented by amateur German artist Ludwig von Siegen in the 17th century.
 Another set, this one from the Fine Art Gallery, partly fills the void created by the absence of the above-mentioned top-flight Moscow galleries, as it displays works by well-known figures from the Moscow art scene of the 1980s and 1990s, including Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Dmitry Gutov, Valery Koshlyakov, Alexander Belyayev, and the pair of Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubosarsky.
 As well as these engaging selections, some galleries' shows include works by noted artists from older generations: Anatoly Basin (Blagodatov's Private Collection) and Oskar Rabin (Gallery Pan-Dan) from the 1960s and 1970s, Ivan Sotnikov (also Blagodatov) from 1980s Leningrad, and others.
 Photographic art also occupies a significant position at the exhibition. The most interesting works are presented by the Moscow-based Union of Russian Photoartists, which is showing fresh prints of works by Alexander Grinberg, Ivan Shagin, Arkady Shaykhet, Yevgeny Heldin and other photographers, developed from negatives from the 1920s and 1930s.
 
 <i>
&quot;Moscow Art Manezh St. Petersburg&quot; runs through Sunday at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall. See Exhibits for details. Links: www.manege.spb.ru </i>

TITLE: nobody knows anything about them
AUTHOR: by Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Residents - described as the &quot;World's Most Famous Unknown Band&quot; on their official unofficial Web site - bring their current tour to St. Petersburg next week. 
 
The San Francisco-based prog-rock act's members have maintained their self-imposed anonymity throughout the band's more-than-30-year career, and are best known by their famous giant eyeball masks - and, lately, one skull mask, after an eyeball was allegedly stolen from a show.
 The tour, which started in late October, is based on the band's most recent release, &quot;Demons Dance Alone,&quot; which was influenced by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The band was on tour in Hamburg at the time of the attacks.
 According to a statement from The Residents' office, the album was &quot;written, for the most part, in the days following September 11th,&quot; and &quot;captures a quite different side of The Residents, a vulnerable uncertain Eyeball asks questions which have no answers.&quot; 
 &quot;Demons Dance Alone,&quot; The Residents' first album of entirely new material in five years, is an ambitious affair comprising two parts - &quot;Tongue&quot; (subdivided into &quot;Loss,&quot; &quot;Denial&quot; and &quot;Three Metaphors&quot;) and &quot;Demons Dance Alone.&quot; Musically, it encompasses a wide range of styles, from chorales to radio-friendly pop.
 The innovative group - whose activities include visual art, performance art and multimedia art as well as music making - is famous for its stage performances, which features actors as well as musicians. 
 Although The Residents' anonymity conceals even how many members are in the band, its current show has a cast of seven, according to Hardy Fox, of the Cryptic Corporation, which represents the band on the business and public fronts.
 &quot;The group just wants their work to be the focus. It is sad when people become obsessed with personalities,&quot; explained Fox in a recent email interview, on the behalf of The Residents. The band, as Fox puts it, has &quot;no interest in explaining anything to anyone&quot; and, therefore, does not give interviews.
 The Residents are infamous for their puzzling statements, which throw little light on the band, but effectively confront the linear thinking that, according to Fox, &quot;plagues our culture,&quot; 
 &quot;The first thing one needs to know about The Residents is that there are no Residents,&quot; say the liner notes for &quot;Demons Dance Alone.&quot; &quot;And, at the same time, the band has remained completely unchanged for 30 years. If you are a person easily disturbed by these obvious contradictions, then read no further - it doesn't get any better.&quot;
 The Residents celebrated their 30th anniversary late last year, but this will not affect the show, which will not include the band's favorite tunes.
 &quot;The group counts from the release of their first record,&quot; wrote Fox. &quot;They were together long before that, so '30 years' means nothing to them at all. Just a bit of marketing. The group writes a show, and then tours it. They play no music they have played live before.&quot;
 Though The Residents surround themselves with all kinds of myths, it is assumed that the band hails from Shreveport, Louisiana, where its members were brought together by common interests, such as J.D. Salinger's &quot;Catcher in the Rye,&quot; and common dislikes, such as Louisiana's redneck culture, and moved to the more creatively relaxed atmosphere of California in the late 1960s.
 Legend has it that the band owes its name to Warner Bros., which returned an unsigned demo tape addressed simply &quot;for the attention of the residents.&quot;
 With their early influences including music innovators Harry Partch, Sun Ra and Captain Beefheart, The Residents released their first single, &quot;Santa Dog,&quot; in 1972, starting its monstrously large discography. In its work, the band has incorporated a plenty of styles and made quite a few musical breakthroughs - even being seen by some as forefathers of punk for their irreverent 1976 cover of The Rolling Stones' &quot;Satisfaction.&quot;
 For the uninitiated, Fox suggested the 2001 DVD &quot;Icky Flix&quot; - which contains 1 1/2 hours of video and three hours of music - and the albums &quot;The Third Reich 'N' Roll&quot; (1975), &quot;Duck Stab&quot; (1978), &quot;Eskimo&quot; (1979), &quot;God in Three Persons&quot; (1988) and &quot;Freak Show&quot; (1991) as &quot;musically, the best.&quot;
 Pioneers in music video and performance art, The Resident's video work is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the costumes from their Mole Show (1981 to 1984) are in the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art collection. The band has created several touring stage shows, videos, soundtracks, and CD-ROMs.
 With its programmatic albums and cryptic art statements, it is small wonder that The Residents have a plenty of die-hard followers among Russian prog-rock fans, who stormed Moscow's 16 Tons club when The Residents came for a one-off concert in September, 2001. 
 Reports said many fans missed the band's notorious stage act, as they were stuck in the staircase and unable to squeeze into the hall.
 &quot;16 Tons is a small venue so it made presenting the show very difficult, even after the stage was rebuilt our set would not fit on the stage. It will be even worse this time,&quot; wrote Fox.
 When asked about The Residents' Russian impressions, Fox replied, &quot;I think we all reacted to the giant sculpture of the ship and sailor in the river [Zurab Tsereteli's controversial monument to Peter I in Moscow]. Anyone would have to say that it is unusual.&quot;
 
 <i>
The Residents play PORT on Feb. 22. Links: www.residents.com </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Boris Grebenshchikov once said that <strong>Akvarium </strong>is a club band that plays concert halls due to a misunderstanding. However, the band has never been seen in local clubs, with one notable exception - a gig at the now-defunct Poligon, which used to define itself as an &quot;extreme club.&quot;
 
Although Akvarium effectively packed the 2,000-seat Lensoviet Palace of Culture at its traditional Christmas concert in December, it will perform at Orlandina - which can barely squeeze in 250 fans - on Wednesday.
 Grebenshchikov was not available for comment at press time, but it is to be hoped that Wednesday's gig will not be based on last year's album &quot;Sestra Khaos&quot; (&quot;Sister Chaos&quot;), but will give a glimpse of the band's forthcoming, &quot;Indian&quot; album.
 Grebenshchikov was also due to appear to showcase some of his new songs on ORT television's show Apology early on Friday at 1 a.m.
 After a brief appearance at Spitfire's 10th-anniversary concert last week, <strong>Tequilajazzz</strong> play a full-length concert at Moloko on Saturday. The band has made it a tradition to appear at the club twice a year - once in summer, once in winter - after an especially inspired, sweaty gig there in June 1999.
 The concert was released by the band as a live album, &quot;Moloko,&quot; the following year, and exists in both one-CD and two-CD versions.
 Tequilajazzz frontman Yevgeny Fyodorov says the band's Moloko concerts were also meant to improve the club's modest financial situation, but this time it is also to express disagreement with the club's imminent closure, due to the unwillingness of the City Property Committee to renew its three-year rent lease.
 &quot;We'll talk to the audience about the situation, and we'll try to find ways to resolve it,&quot; says Fyodorov, adding that the band sees it as its personal problem. &quot;It's the only place in the city with a good attitude to music,&quot; he says. &quot;It has cheap beer, an easy-going atmosphere and peaceful gig goers.&quot;
 With Uriah Heep dropping out of the <strong>World Rock Legends </strong>affair at the Ice Palace on Saturday, the event's posters now list three reformed U.K. acts from the 1970s that are coming to Russia to capitalize on some nostalgia.
 Local rock writer Andrei Burlaka has calculated that three bands have only four original members between them - a guitarist (Sweet), a guitarist and drummer (Slade II) and another drummer (Smokie).
 The reformed bands from the former era are attractive to Russian promoters for being cheap - but moving to the stadium an event better suited to a bar and giving it a pompous name seems utterly provincial.
 On the jazz front, the JFC Jazz Club opens its annual <strong>Jazz Guitar Festival </strong>on Friday. Running through Thursday, it will take place mostly at JFC, with a few dates at Take Five, a small venue on the Petrograd Side that works sporadically. 
 According to JFC manager Felix Naroditsky, who is promoting the festival, the highlight of the event will be Ivan Smirnov, a virtuoso guitarist from Moscow. Smirnov first became known as a member of the 1970s rock band Vtoroye Dykhaniye, and later played with Alexei Kozlov's fusion band Arsenal. 
 Smirnov will appear at the Drama Academy Student Theater on Monday, and at JFC on Tuesday. The theater is located at 35 Mokhovaya Ul. M.: Chernyshevskaya.
 
 <i>- by Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: shanghai'd in shanghai
AUTHOR: by Eric Bruns
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Before we put on the metaphorical bib and tuck into this week's The Dish, there is a bit of dirty laundry I need to get out of the way. (Don't all great liaisons begin under dubious circumstances?) The choice for this week's evaluation in fact hosted The St. Petersburg Times' Christmas/New Year's party at the end of last year. And I had a good time. It's hard not to enjoy yourself when your server acts as a continuous source of assorted delicacies and the bottles at your table never seem empty. But, I hope, we can get beyond that nasty little affair and move on to something more meaningful.
 
Upon returning to Shanghai, just off Nevsky Prospect on Sadovaya Ulitsa, everything was exactly how I remembered (as unbelievable as that may sound). The entrance room has several larger-than-life golden statues of Buddha, bamboo shoots, plants crawling down a tiled stone wall - and even a small wooden bridge that leads you to the coat check. To get to the restaurant itself, you need to climb a promenading staircase to the second floor.
 Everything up to this point would have you believe Shanghai offers refined Chinese dining. But settling into my chair and taking a look around revealed its adulterous Russian roots. Despite the continued bamboo theme and pictures of Chinese temples on the walls, you quickly see that it is all framed by modern Russian sensibilities, and that the overall style can be found at any number of local restaurants.
 In addition, after a moment's confusion while staring at the menus, I found that this split personality manifests itself in yet another more concrete and pertinent form: There are actually two physically separate menus, with two completely disjoint cooking styles and selections - one Russian and one Chinese.
 I decided to attack the establishment on the Chinese front, while my dining companion stayed closer to home. In neither case, however, were we able to find a single vegetarian main course. There are a few soups and salads in that category but, if that will not satisfy your hunger, then your only other option is to proceed directly to one or more desserts. Alternatively, there is an extensive seafood selection for those who are interested.
 At this point, I noticed the near complete lack of other customers. (Something that led to the second menu, perhaps?) We received excellent service, but I had the uncomfortable feeling it was more a result of our server's boredom than anything else.
 Undaunted, I began with the &quot;rainbow salad,&quot; which consisted of pork, Bulgarian peppers, Chinese noodles, seaweed and soy sauce for 180 rubles ($5.70). Although I am not an avid salad fan in general, this one was fresh, appetizing, satisfying and all around delicious.
 On the other front (or menu anyway), my companion took a different tack, and ordered the &quot;meat assortment&quot; of homemade pork, smoked beef, beef tongue, chicken stuffed with fried apricots and nuts for 250 rubles ($7.90). It was huge! Neither of us had seen or tasted the likes of those delicately thin slices of delicatessen heaven in Russia before, which is saying a lot, considering the length of my friend's engagement to the country.
 I continued the attack with &quot;shrimp and cashews&quot; and a portion of steamed rice for 320 rubles ($10.10) and 15 rubles ($0.45), respectively. It came with decorative slices of mandarins, black olives and cucumber, successfully combining tender baby shrimp with roasted cashews, and was, on the whole, an excellent choice, if a bit bland.
 Stalking prey on the other border, my associate spotted reindeer, boar and quail, but in the end, bagged the &quot;hare steak served in the classic Russian style&quot; and fries, for 270 rubles ($8.55) and 40 rubles ($1.25), respectively. When it arrived somewhat later than the other dishes, we found out that &quot;traditional Russian style&quot; means there are a lot of bones in the chicken-wing-size pieces, and your best bet is to drop your fork, knife or chopsticks and dig in with your fingers. The juicy white meat came with a pretty standard red sauce and chopped green onions for decoration. Although somewhat exotic, its primary inspiration lies in its anticipation, before it lands on the plate.
 I finished with &quot;apples in caramel&quot; for 120 rubles ($3.80), while my companion settled for another half-liter Russian draft beer for 60 rubles ($1.90). My dessert consisted of several bite-size portions of fruit, bonded together by caramel with a force that sent our cutlery skittering to the floor. Still, when bits of soft, warm apple were pried loose from the conglomerate, their flavor melted away my misgivings and concluded the meal pleasantly.
 Overall, we found Shanghai to be a perfectly respectable restaurant, but it failed to enthrall us as much as on our first encounter. (Aren't all rendezvous more stimulating the first time?) It might have something to do with the fact that we had to pay the second time, and my gut tells me there are better deals around town for the money.
 
 <i>
Shanghai. 12 Sadovaya Ul. Tel.: 314-8373. Open daily, noon until the last guest leaves. Menu in Russian and English. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, with alcohol: 1,694 rubles ($53.55). </i>

TITLE: of princes and hunchbacks
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a principal dancer at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, is used to being a prince. He has the lead roles of much of the classical ballet repertoire under his belt, including &quot;Giselle,&quot; &quot;Sleeping Beauty,&quot; &quot;Swan Lake,&quot; &quot;The Nutcracker,&quot; &quot;Legend of Love,&quot; &quot;Romeo and Juliet,&quot; and &quot;La Bayadere,&quot; in which he dances the role of Solor on Sunday for the Mariinsky International Ballet Festival at the Mariinsky Theater.
 
Princely roles have been rewarding for the Tbilisi-born dancer, who has already received all of the top Russian awards, including Soul of Dance (1995), Golden Mask (1997 and 2000) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2001). He was named a People's Artist of Russia in 2001.
 Tsiskaridze's first ballet memory is still vivid in his mind.
 &quot;I was three years old, and my mother took me to see 'Giselle,'&quot; he recalled in a telephone interview from Moscow this week. &quot;Giselle&quot; has been one of his favorite ballets ever since. Over a decade later, when already a student at the Tbilisi Ballet School, Tsiskaridze turned a hand-made Thumbelina doll into a model of Giselle.
 Interestingly, dolls have long been an addiction for Tsiskaridze - although not in a traditional, girlish sense.
 &quot;I didn't play with dolls; I made them for my improvised theater at home,&quot; he said. &quot;We had a great collection of opera and ballet recordings in the house, so the repertoire at my in-house puppet theater was quite extensive. For example, I staged 'La Traviata' and 'Aida.'&quot;
 His first ballet experience at &quot;Giselle,&quot; Tsiskaridze said, convinced him to make dancing his career. As a child, when relatives tried to warn him about the potential pitfalls of being a ballet dancer, the young Tsiskaridze always gave the same answer: &quot;It's so easy, and I will be a great dancer. You just wait a while.&quot;
 In 1984, Tsiskaridze entered Tbilisi Ballet School and, three years later, he moved to Moscow to continue his studies at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1992. He has continued studying since then: While dancing at the Bolshoi and touring the world, he studied at the Moscow Choreographic Istitute, graduating in 1996 as a ballet coach.
 This month, Tsiskaridze, who turns thirty this year, danced a new role that was quite a departure from Prince Albrecht in &quot;Giselle,&quot; Romeo in &quot;Romeo and Juliet,&quot; Hermann in &quot;The Queen of Spades&quot; - or, in fact, anything he had performed before - when he appeared as Quasimodo in French choreographer Roland Petit's new version of his 1965 ballet &quot;Notre Dame de Paris,&quot; which premiered last week at the Bolshoi.
 According to Tsiskaridze, there are notable differences between Petit's ballet and Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, on which it is based. The novel, he said, is entirely romantic, reflecting the traditions and color of the 19th century, when it was written, as well as of the 15th century, in which it is set. The beginning of the ballet also pays tribute to the Romantic era, although this turns out just to be a trick by Petit.
 &quot;The dancers enter wearing detailed, ornamental historical costumes and dance the first passage,&quot; he said. &quot;But, after a few moments, you suddenly realize that it's modern dance.&quot;
 In addition, Tsiskaridze said, Petit's ballet is more of a philosophical work than Hugo's novel.
 &quot;For Petit, the era is very important,&quot; he said. &quot;The story takes place in 1482. The cathedral [of Notre Dame] is only half built: tThe walls and the roof are already there, but the spire - the very thing that connects Gothic churches to God - has yet to be completed. All of the drama, the interrelationship of the four principal characters, evolves in the context of the half-finished cathedral.&quot;
 Petit, Tsiskaridze said, makes the ballet's main characters very human, even mundane: Phoebes, whose name means &quot;Sun,&quot; is visibly tainted; Esmerelda is torn between being French and a Gypsy; while Frollo is a priest of a devilish, rather than divine, nature. Quasimodo, however, despite his physical ugliness, is the only character to whom the choreographer gives the chance of being spiritually reborn in the ballet's finale, after the murder of Esmerelda. During the finale, Petit portrays the main characters as they would appear in the afterlife, and it is then that Quasimodo finally achieves the physical equality with the others for which he has been striving throughout.
 &quot;Petit sees Quasimodo as the only character who deserves transformation,&quot; Tsiskaridze said. &quot;He is the only character for whom the divine overwhelms the carnal.&quot;
 While Tsiskaridze does not find playing Quasimodo a psychological burden, he does admit to finding it physically stressful.
 &quot;Dancing a hunchback is very painful,&quot; he said. &quot;When I got home after rehearsals and tried to straighten my back, it hurt a lot.&quot;
 Despite his extensive experience, Tsiskaridze is still bursting with ideas of other parts that he wants to take on.
 &quot;If I started counting the other parts I want to dance, the list would fill a whole book: Georges Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Kenneth MacMillan ...,&quot; he said. &quot;I'm so happy to be able to dance Roland Petit's Ballets. He was the first choreographer to create something for me, in 'The Queen of Spades.' That taught me a lot.&quot;
 Tsiskaridze's Hermann in &quot;The Queen Of Spades&quot; was described by some critics as &quot;infernal.&quot; He confessed that his dream is to play a part as infernal as Voland, the incarnation of the devil from Mikhail Bulgakov's novel &quot;The Master and Margarita.&quot;
 &quot;I wish I could play Voland, but I realize that I am a bit of a 'baby Voland' now,&quot; he laughed, saying he is &quot;far too immature&quot; for the role at the moment.
 &quot;I still have to absorb and experience more and just know life better,&quot; he said. &quot;It would be an enormous challenge to portray the wise, controversial Voland, who belongs to evil forces, yet all he does is kind and always turns out for the best. Voland offers everyone a choice, and it is not as a result of his evil influence that people tend to choose the easiest way of doing things. Rather, their choices are their own.&quot;
 In choosing his own life paths, Tsiskaridze often resorts to ancient Oriental wisdom. If something happens that upsets him or that seems utterly unfair, he recalls a stanza from the famous Rubiyat of Persian poet Omar Khayyam.
 &quot;The moral is very simple,&quot; he said. &quot;If my wish doesn't come true, then it merely means that my wish is unworthy, and that I had better get over it.&quot;
 However, despite his seemingly philosophical outlook, bright smile and cheerful manner, Tsiskaridze said he would describe himself as a pessimist.
 &quot;I've always been like that. Pessimism derives from my desire to be realistic,&quot; he said. &quot;I am also very much a dreamer, and I often have to force myself to see things as they really are.&quot;
 Perhaps this philosophy explains Tsiskaridze's perception of his talent, which, in general, he sees as burden of responsibility.
 &quot;If you are blessed with a talent, you can't waste or ignore it, but you have to live up to it every day,&quot; he said. &quot;That means you can't afford to rest.&quot;
 
 <i>
Nikolai Tsiskaridze dances in &quot;La Bayadere&quot; at the Mariinsky Theater as part of the Mariinsky International Ballet Festival on Sunday. </i>

TITLE: ballet stars assemble in petersburg
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Mariinsky International Ballet Festival, which kicks off at the Mariinsky Theater on Friday is by no means a veteran in the theatrical world yet, over first three years of its history, it has grown big enough to attract the world's top dancers to St. Petersburg.
 
Wendy Whelan, Maria Kowroski and Jock Soto of New York City Ballet are coming for their first performance in Russia. Joining them will be Alina Cojocaru, a rising star of the London's Royal Ballet, and her Royal Ballet dancing partner, Johan Kobborg. The pair will appear in Giselle on Monday, and then in the gala performance on March 2. Paris Opera soloists Agnes Letestu, Manuel Legris and Jose Martinez will make their second visit to the festival.
 On Friday, Diana Vishnyova and Andrian Fadeyev will perform in the reconstruction of the original 1900 version of Marius Petipa's 'La Bayadere.&quot; On Sunday, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, principal dancer at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, will appear in the same ballet in the role of Solor. Tsiskaridze was meant to dance the ballet's premiere last May, but was replaced at the last moment when the Mariinsky decided to have its own dancers perform.
 The festival's international element reaches its peak on Wednesday with George Balanchine's &quot;Jewels.&quot; Paris Opera dancers will dance the ballet's first part, &quot;Emeralds;&quot; New York City Ballet soloists will appear in &quot;Rubies;&quot; while the Mariinsky troupe will perform &quot;Diamonds.&quot; Balanchine created the ballet with the French, American, and Imperial Russian ballet schools in mind.
 &quot;Of course, for the audiences, the most important thing is the performance, the result of our work,&quot; said Makhar Vaziev, the head of the Mariinsky's ballet division. &quot;But, for me, the process, the interpenetration of cultures is most important and even the most enjoyable. It's so creative and inspiring.&quot; 
 On Thursday, the audience will be treated to the world premiere of &quot;Princess Pirlipat,&quot; choreographed by Kirill Simonov, who was responsible for last year's smash-hit version of &quot;The Nutcracker&quot;. As with &quot;The Nutcracker,&quot; &quot;Princess Pirlipat&quot;'s conception, sets and costumes are by Mikhail Shemyakin.
 &quot;Princess Pirlipat&quot; is based on a part of E.T.A. Hoffmann's story &quot;The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.&quot; In 1891, choreographer Marius Petipa commissioned Tchaikovsky to write the music for a ballet based on the tale, but left out the story of Princess Pirlipat.
 Shemyakin sees his ballet as a prologue to the ballet that resulted - &quot;The Nutcracker&quot; - and both ballets will be shown on Thursday. Shemyakin wrote the libretto for the one-act &quot;Princess Pirlipat&quot; himself, and the music has been written specially for the ballet by prominent local composer Sergei Slonimsky. 
 The Mariinsky is keeping the audiences in suspense over the cast for &quot;Princess Pirlipat.&quot; Vaziev wouldn't give any names of the possible soloists on Tuesday, and declined to give his opinion of Simonov's work, on the grounds that it would be too early to judge a production that hasn't yet premiered.
 Pierre Lacotte's &quot;Undine,&quot; expected to premiere during the festival, won't be ready this month. Vaziev said the ballet division will continue rehearsing with Lacotte, although he wouldn't even give a possible date for the first performance. 
 The festival's closing performance, on March 2, will be dedicated to the memory of Rudolf Nureyev, whose career began at the Mariinsky. The 10th anniversary of Nuryev's death was marked on Jan. 6, and various events are taking place around the world to commemorate the date. The Nureyev Foundation is supporting the gala, although the Mariinsky will not perform any of Nureyev's choreography.
 &quot;We decided that the gala would be dedicated to Nureyev shortly before the festival and, unfortunately, we simply haven't had enough time for proper rehearsals,&quot; Vaziev said. &quot;But Nureyev's repertoire will be presented in great variety at the festival.&quot;
 Meanwhile, Jiri Kylian's Nederlands Danse Theater may not be able to perform Kylian's &quot;Bella Figura&quot; at the gala, because the troupe encountered bureaucratic problems while preparing documents for Russian customs.
 &quot;[Nederlands Danse Theater] told us that it may not be able to provide all of the necessary documents for customs regarding sets, costumes and so on in such a short time,&quot; Vaziev said. &quot;It said it wasn't expecting to have to give so many documents to Russian customs.&quot;
 Former Mariinsky principal dancer Ulyana Lopatkina, who has been absent from stage for nearly two seasons, has been rehearsing for the last several months to prepare for a return to the stage. Lopatkina gave birth to a daughter last summer, but had had to quit dancing before that, owing to a foot injury. According to Vaziev, Lopatkina has just returned from the United States, where she underwent an operation in a New York clinic to help her get back in shape.
 &quot;I know she is eager to come back, and we are just as eager to see her back on stage,&quot; said Vaziev &quot;However, at the moment, there is no guarantee that she will make it and, of course, I wouldn't even try to predict when she might be ready to perform.&quot;
 
 <i>
The Mariinsky International Ballet Festival runs through March 2. See Stages for details. Links: www.mariinsky.ru </i>

TITLE: touching 'play' could be fatal
AUTHOR: by Elvis Mitchell
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: &quot;Before you die, you see 'The Ring,'&quot; as the ads for this remake of a Japanese suspense film say. With ads like this, the movie has certainly built up a lot of anticipation. But, while impressively made, this impassive and cold feature fails, in a spectacular fashion, to deliver the thrills.
 
The film is about an urban legend come to life: whenever a mysterious videotape is run, its unlucky viewer gets a phone call just after seeing it. The voice on the phone says simply, &quot;Seven days.&quot; It's how long the viewer has to live; the corpse is straight out of Francis Bacon.
 When her niece dies after seeing the tape, Rachel (Naomi Watts), a Seattle reporter, decides to investigate the rumors. And that's when &quot;The Ring&quot; begins its downward spiral. She watches the freakout videotape, which looks like a director's cut of &quot;Closer,&quot; starring the band Nine Inch Nails, complete with suffering animals, a fly crawling across the screen and static-ridden flash cuts. As music-video effluvia goes, this tape is not even as unnerving as the outfits Lenny Kravitz wears to the VH1 fashion awards.
 Much of what follows consists of close-ups of the clues that Rachel, desperate to beat the clock and stay alive, sifts through to solve the mystery. The screen-filling shots of newspaper headlines and photographs chronicling the grisly deaths could be from a different kind of horror movie: &quot;Night of the Working Dead,&quot; starring Nancy Drew.
 Initially, Watts, the versatile star of David Lynch's &quot;Mulholland Drive,&quot; does a fine job with Rachel's off-putting toughness. Under the best circumstances, she scares everyone but her son, Aidan (David Dorfman) and, based on the dark circles under his eyes and his solemn, old-man's enunciation, he's got problems of his own. But, once it becomes clear that tight-jawed anxiety is, surprisingly, the only note on her piano, the movie feels numbed. Eventually, the phone calls don't even generate the anxiety of telemarketer hits during dinnertime.
 The director, Gore Verbinski, stages the opening with a tribute to &quot;Scream,&quot; which itself was a tribute to &quot;When a Stranger Calls&quot; - the first scam thriller in which every single scare was in the movie's trailer. Perhaps the most puzzling thing about &quot;The Ring&quot; is that it seems to assume that horror-movie audiences have no memory.
 David Dorfman, with his &quot;Village of the Damned&quot; haircut and precocious maturity, seems to have studied at the Haley Joel Osment school of acting. Though there are a few chilling moments - one big scene involving a horse on a ferry is spectacular - everything in &quot;The Ring&quot; feels recycled, including its look and tone, reminiscent of &quot;The Blair Witch Project.&quot; &quot;Ringu,&quot; the Japanese original of &quot;The Ring,&quot; preceded and probably inspired &quot;Blair Witch.&quot; Copies of the director Hideo Nakata's 1997 cult classic have made the underground circuit like the deadly videotape that fills the center of the plot of &quot;The Ring.&quot;
 &quot;Ringu&quot; felt like an era-defining scare picture: whispers about its imminent remake have been drifting through chat rooms since word of its existence first made it to America. But the real spark came from the &quot;Closer&quot; video. &quot;Closer,&quot; director Mark Romanek's grim, romanticized nightmare, with its well-appointed nihilism, was the perfect integration of visuals and the morose showmanship of Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor.
 At least the channeling of &quot;Ringu&quot; in &quot;The Ring&quot; is reverent. Unfortunately, there are other problems. Verbinski can assemble a movie like a machine, which worked for the scare comedy &quot;Mouse Hunt.&quot; Here, the mechanical assembly simply emphasizes how devoid of feeling the film is. One particular scene is just such a hollow set piece: a mentally handicapped young man pushes himself backward on a carousel while yet another crucial nugget of plot information is delivered. &quot;The Ring&quot; is there to be admired instead of to creep you out. There's also much huffing and puffing to add a psychological underpinning to the plot.
 Yet after the opening sequence - well acted by Amber Tamblyn and Rachael Bella as targets of the killer tape - &quot;The Ring&quot; mostly drags along until its climax. In trying to give the movie narrative plausibility, the makers have diluted it. &quot;Ringu&quot; doesn't make a great deal of sense either, but instead has a swift ruthlessness that borders on cruelty.
 &quot;The Ring&quot; rejects the fear-of-girls stain that covered its original. Cinematographer Bojan Bazelli does tone up the bleary-eyed interiors - the movie's color scheme is &quot;Exorcist&quot; green and rotting-plaster white - but it doesn't make much difference; rather, it just exaggerates the relentless sameness. The Seattle location must have been chosen for its sunless, drizzly skies; there are so many shots of car windows weeping with rain that theaters should pass out squeegees.
 This seems to be the season for horror movies that are basically teases - offering a promise of a good scare and then running away before delivering. &quot;The Ring&quot; is just one more in that cycle.
 
 <i>
&quot;The Ring&quot; shows at Leningrad from Feb. 27. </i>

TITLE: uncovering the kursk cover up
AUTHOR: by David E. Hoffman
PUBLISHER: The Washington Post
TEXT: At 11:28 on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 12, 2000, the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk was just below the surface of the Barents Sea, preparing to fire a practice torpedo in a naval exercise. The submarine, covered in special sound-absorbing rubber tiles, was one of the most modern in Russia's Northern Fleet, and all appeared calm as the crew spotted its two targets on the surface: some fishing boats and the giant warship, Peter the Great. But all was not calm. The sub was loaded with a torpedo that used hydrogen peroxide as fuel. Colorless and odorless, the fuel causes a violent reaction when it comes into contact with such metals as copper, and the reaction gives off intense heat. The 650-millimeter torpedo in tube No. 4 on the Kursk was old, manufactured in 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. It had never been launched before.
 
What happened at 11:28 that morning is not known for certain, but all indications are that the hydrogen peroxide fuel leaked, touched metal and triggered an inferno in the torpedo room. The Kursk was instantly disabled and dove to the sea bottom, and much of the crew perished immediately. Just over two minutes later, the remaining torpedoes exploded, sending out seismic waves that were detected hundreds of kilometers away.
 The disaster is a story unto itself - the most dramatic example yet of frightening deterioration in the former Soviet Union's military machine. Worn-out submarines, aging intercontinental ballistic missiles, decrepit early-warning systems and loose nuclear materials are all part of this legacy of decay. In &quot;A Time to Die,&quot; journalist Robert Moore does not probe deeply into the reasons for the Kursk disaster; instead, he chronicles the failed effort to rescue the Kursk survivors. This is an emotion-packed and ultimately heartbreaking story that also sheds light on the Soviet military's decay. The book's title is drawn from a poem one sailor wrote to his wife before the voyage.
 Twenty-three men in the aft compartments of the submarine survived the explosion and sinking, according to notes they left behind. It is not known how long they were alive, but they huddled in the rear of the vessel, and did not try to escape the doomed sub, suggesting that they were waiting to be rescued. Moore, the chief United States correspondent for Britain's ITN News, shows how the Russians bungled the emergency and how British and Norwegian teams struggled to assist them when the Russians belatedly sought international help.
 As the shock waves of the explosion pulsed through the Barents Sea, they were monitored by another Russian submarine, the Karelia. In the first of many astounding miscalculations, its captain decided not to report what he had heard, figuring the explosion was just part of the exercise. The Peter the Great warship, the ostensible target of the Kursk practice torpedo, also detected the shock waves. A report was sent to the Navy brass, but they ignored it. It was only later, when the Kursk failed to send an expected signal, that the Russian Navy launched a hunt. But the search and rescue teams were totally unprepared. The primary rescue ship was 20 years old and originally designed to carry timber. The vessel did not reach the area where the stricken sub went down until 21 hours after the Kursk sank. One Russian rescue submersible reached the Kursk but ran out of power; another submersible began to sink almost immediately on deployment and had to abort its mission. Meanwhile, Russian officials repeatedly lied to the public and the sailors' families about the sinking and the mishandled rescue.
 Moore, relying on the British and Norwegian experts who joined the rescue operation, provides a vivid account of the last desperate efforts to open the hatch. At one point, foreign divers were struggling to open a key valve that would indicate whether there was still air behind the hatch. Russian experts at the surface insisted that the valve must be opened counter-clockwise, and they said it would break if turned the other way. The valve didn't budge. After debate, the divers tried turning it clockwise - and the valve moved. The Russians were wrong about a simple valve on one of their most technologically advanced ships.
 Moore's narration is fast-paced, but he disappoints on sources and offers no footnotes. With few exceptions, he does not indicate to the reader what information came from his own interviews and research and what was taken from other sources. Overall, however, his findings parallel those of the official investigation, which was closed last summer.
 Although Moore lightly sketches the role of President Vladimir Putin, who was acutely embarrassed by criticism of his slow reaction to the disaster, he does not delve into the implications for today's Russia. The tragedy was a telling example of how the Soviet legacy still lingers. The Kursk families and the Russian people were repeatedly misled by the authorities. In the absence of a strong civil society, Russian leaders still assume they don't have to communicate with the people they govern. Until they do, the most important lessons of the Kursk disaster will not have been learned.
 
 <i>
David E. Hoffman is foreign editor of The Washington Post.
 
 &quot;A Time to Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy.&quot; By Robert Moore. Crown. 271 pp. $25. </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: by Michele A. Berdy <i>
TEXT: <i>Nerovno dyshat: </i>to be interested in someone, to be keen on someone, literally &quot;to breathe heavily.&quot;
 
It's surprising that Russia didn't invent Valentine's Day - Russian is a great language for expressing affection and intimacy. First, Russian gives you a chance for the linguistic equivalent of undressing as you go from the buttoned-up <i>vy </i>form of address and Gospodin Ivanov to Ivan Ivanovich and then - traditionally after drinking brudershaft (or, with your arms entwined) - to the unadorned <i>ty </i>and Vanya. This can take months or years, or, if romance is on fast-forward, a single evening. This is so much more interesting than hyper-democratic American English, with its slap-on-the-back palsy-ness, which seems to have lost the use of honorifics altogether. I can hardly remember the last time someone called me Ms. Berdy - bank clerks call me by my first name and I get business correspondence from people I've never met that begins, &quot;Hi, Michele.&quot;
 Once you switch to ty and nicknames, Russian gives you a plethora of ways to express affection through diminutives. My American friends call me Mickey and - in moments of great affection - Mick. Not very romantic. Russians, on the other hand, almost never call me Miki (for one thing, because it sounds like I'm not a person, but a lot of miks). Instead they call me Mikusya, Mikus, Mikusik, Mikushenka, Mikulya, Mikulenka, Mikusha, Mikushka, Mikochka, Mikunchik. Every American who enters our office goes through this process of linguistic softening: Laurie becomes Larochka, Ron becomes Ronchik. Lisa is Lizochka. Affection is measured in the number of syllables and sibilants. Is this a great language or what?
 Once you are adding syllables to someone's nickname, you can also use all kinds of terms of endearment: <i>dorogoi </i>(dear), <i>zolotoi </i>(precious, literally &quot;gold&quot;), <i>lyubimy </i>(beloved), <i>rodnoi, rodimy </i>(sweetheart, literally &quot;kinsman,&quot; someone so close as to seem like family), <i>mily, milenky </i>(dear, dearest); <i>golubchik </i>(lovebird) <i>zaichik </i>(bunny rabbit), <i>lastochka </i>(darling, literally a &quot;little swallow&quot;), <i>lapushka </i>(literally &quot;little paw&quot;), <i>kotik, kisa </i>(pet, literally &quot;kitty cat&quot;).
 Another way of expressing affection is to use diminutives of other words - to soften the environment around the one you love, as it were. Instead of saying, <i>Posidi ryadom so mnoi, </i>(Sit next to me) you might say <i>Syad so mnoi ryadyshkom </i>(Sit right up close next to me). Or instead of <i>dai ruku </i>(give me your hand), try <i>dai ruchenku </i>(give me your little hand). You can convey this in English by adding words, but the sweetness seems to get lost in translation. (Perhaps I think of sweetness because we use a lot of confectionary terms in English to address our loved ones: sugar, honey, baby cake.)
 And then there's falling in love. You first might have occasion to say, <i>On polozhil na menya glaz </i>(he noticed me). Next you might say, <i>On stal za mnoi ukhazhivat </i>(we've started to date; he's courting me) or more colloquially <i>on za mnoi priudaril, on za mnoi begayet. </i>Then you hopefully will be able to say, <i>On ko mne nerovno dyshit </i>(he's keen on me; literally &quot;he breathes heavily&quot;). And then, <i>on vlyubilsya </i>(he fell in love), <i>on vtreskalsya </i>(he's wild about me), <i>on s uma soshyol </i>(he's mad for me), <i>on poteryal golovu ot menya </i>(he's head over heels in love with me). By this time you've undressed your Russian down to ty and are talking to each other as if you were furry little creatures <i>(Ty moi kotik! Lapushka moya!). </i>At which point your friends sigh, <i>Akh! Golubki! </i>(What a pair of lovebirds!)
 
 <i>
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. </i>

TITLE: Minister:Deadlock In Turkey Ending
AUTHOR: By Louis Meixler
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ANKARA, Turkey - A U.S.-Turkish dispute that is delaying the deployment of U.S. troops for an Iraq strike should be resolved &quot;within the coming days,&quot; Turkey's economy minister said.
 
The United States and Turkey failed on Wednesday to agree on the terms of an economic aid package designed to offset Turkey's losses from a possible war on Iraq. The standoff came as U.S. ships loaded with tanks and other armor awaited orders off the Turkish coast.
 Turkish leaders have said that they will not agree to the deployment until the aid package is settled.
 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, a move that emphasized how critical the issue is for the United States.
 CNN-Turk television quoted Ali Babacan, the economy minister, as saying that Turkey and the United States would resolve the deadlock &quot;within the coming days.&quot; A spokesperson at Babacan's office, Halit Ertugrul, confirmed the quote.
 In Washington, a Turkish official also said that he expected a government decision quickly.
 But Turkey's top politician, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted as saying that the timing of a Turkish decision depended on the United States accepting Turkey's demands for aid.
 &quot;We don't have a timetable in mind,&quot; the Yeni Safak newspaper quoted him as saying. &quot;Whenever there's an agreement, that's when a motion will be brought to parliament.&quot;
 The deadlock comes as ships loaded with armor for the 4th Infantry Division waited off the coast of the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun in the hopee of unloading the equipment, a U.S. defense official said. Another 35 supply ships are on their way to the area.
 Without access to bases in Turkey, the U.S. military would have to abandon a central feature of its strategy for war against Iraq: using armored forces to open a northern front that would divide the Iraqi army.
 The stalemate centers over Turkish demands for a reported $10 billion in grants and $20 billion in long-term loans. Babacan said that the United States had offered $6 billion in grants, CNN-Turk reported. It is not clear how much was offered in loans.
 The negotiations with Turkey involve the stationing of ground forces. Warplanes are widely expected to be based in Turkey, as they were during the 1991 Gulf War. Some 50 U.S. aircraft have long been in southern Turkey patrolling the &quot;no-fly&quot; zone over northern Iraq.
 White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer stressed the need for a quick decision by Ankara.
 &quot;There's not a lot of time left,&quot; Fleischer said. &quot;There comes a moment when plans must be made, decisions must be made, and cannot stretch on indefinitely.&quot;
 Many analysts say that the U.S.-Turkish talks are part of a delaying strategy by a Turkish government that feels trapped between the desires of its strongest ally and the wishes of the Turkish public, which is overwhelmingly against war.

TITLE: Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian, Split Gaza
AUTHOR: By Greg Myre
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and carried out house-to-house searches in the West Bank on Thursday and divided the Gaza Strip into three parts, restricting the movement of more than 1 million Palestinians.
 
The operations appeared to be part of Israel's stepped-up efforts against the militant Islamic group Hamas, which killed four soldiers in an attack on a tank Saturday in Gaza.
 Despite the violence, Israelis and Palestinians have been holding increased contacts on the possibility of a cease-fire, though no breakthroughs have been achieved.
 In London, William Burns, a U.S. State Department official, met Palestinian cabinet ministers on Wednesday to discuss a U.S.-backed peace plan that envisions the creation of a Palestinian state in about three years.
 Burns told the Palestinians that formal discussions on the plan would not resume until after Israel forms a new government - a process that could take several more weeks - and would also depend on developments in Iraq, said Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, one of the participants.
 The Palestinians asked the United States to send international monitors in the meantime to protect their civilians during Israeli military offensives, but Burns said that Washington did not support such an idea.
 In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers entered the town of Tulkarem early Thursday and shot dead a 24-year-old Palestinian. The army said that the man was armed, but Palestinians said that he was an unarmed Hamas supporter who happened to be standing near the Palestinian sought by Israel.
 In Nablus, the largest West Bank city, Israeli soldiers went door-to-door through the narrow streets of the Old City looking for suspects. Soldiers on loudspeakers called on Palestinian residents to hand over wanted men.
 The troops used explosive charges to blow the locks off shops in the Old City, and a gold jewelry workshop was destroyed. The shops use chemicals, including acids, that can also be used in bombmaking, and Israeli soldiers have torn them down in previous raids.
 Dozens of Palestinians were arrested and taken to two Nablus schools that the soldiers have commandeered, Palestinians said.
 In the Gaza Strip, the scene of most of the recent violence, Israeli soldiers blocked Gaza's main north-south road, carving the territory into three parts.
 As in the past, Palestinians sought to evade the barrier by traveling along a narrow strip of beachfront.
 Subhi Abu Assad, 48, was desperate to get three tons of squash to market before it went bad. His solution was to remove the squash from his truck and put it on a trailer bed, attached to a tractor, which he drove along the beach.
 &quot;It normally takes about an hour to go to market and come back,&quot; he said. &quot;We started at seven this morning and it will probably take all day.&quot;
 The army said that its operation in the Gaza Strip was in response to Palestinian rockets fired from northern Gaza at the Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday. One Israeli was injured.
 Since the attack on the Israeli tank Saturday, 29 Palestinians have been killed, including at least eight Hamas members.
 In another development, Israeli authorities have approved construction of 126 houses in Efrat, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Kobi Bleich, a Housing Ministry spokesperson, said that there was a demand for additional homes in Efrat as the population continued to grow.

TITLE: U.S., Britain Prepare Resolution To Increase Threat of War
AUTHOR: By Edith Lederer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: UNITED NATIONS - The United States and Britain will soon introduce a new UN resolution that would pave the way for military action and give Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a final few weeks to fully cooperate with weapons inspectors, diplomats said.
 
U.S. and British officials said Wednesday that the short resolution, to be circulated later this week or early next week, would declare Iraq in &quot;material breach&quot; of its UN obligations to completely eliminate its weapons of mass destruction - a determination that can be used as legal justification for the use of military force.
 &quot;It is time for the Security Council to consider a resolution that says Iraq is in material breach,&quot; said Richard Grenell, spokesperson for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte.
 The Americans and British will then demand a decision on the resolution in two or three weeks, said the diplomats from the two states, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 The deadline would put all parties on notice that war was looming unless Iraq demonstrated it was actively cooperating with inspections, the diplomats said.
 Details of the U.S.-British plan surfaced Wednesday at the end of a two-day Security Council meeting where more than 60 countries spoke out on the Iraq crisis. The vast majority called for continued inspections and intensified efforts to peacefully disarm Saddam, the same message sent by millions of anti-war protesters around the world this weekend.
 But U.S. President George W. Bush has made clear he will not be swayed by the protests - and the U.S. and British diplomats stressed that time for Security Council action will be short.
 &quot;It will be a debate about a specific proposition and it will be on a timing that will concentrate people's minds,&quot; said British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock. &quot;You've heard ministers in Washington and London saying weeks not months, and that will be the framework for the debate.&quot;
 The draft resolution will force the Security Council - whose members strongly support more time for inspections -to decide whether to authorize military action soon or to continue inspections if the Iraqi government begins to disarm voluntarily, he said.
 Greenstock predicted that debate over this &quot;crunch decision&quot; would go beyond March 1, when chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix is due to present his next written report to the council. That would put back the U.S. timetable for a possible war, ruling out February and its optimum weather conditions.
 Washington and London face an uphill struggle in getting the minimum nine votes for a new resolution. The other permanent council members, France, Russia and China, don't think that a new resolution is necessary - and one of them could veto it.
 Several other council members, including Mexico and Chile, reiterated privately that they would abstain in a vote on the resolution unless the United States and Britain found a way to ease tensions with France, Russia and China.
 U.S. and British officials said that the final language in the resolution was still to be decided by Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, but both sides were close to agreement.
 &quot;A resolution within the next few working days is highly likely,&quot; Greenstock said.
 Asked whether the council would need to impose a deadline for Iraqi compliance, Greenstock said: &quot;Explicitly or implicitly, yes, I do expect that.&quot;
 In Washington, White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said Bush &quot;intends ... to offer a resolution either this week or next.&quot;
 &quot;And the president has made repeatedly clear that the preferable outcome is for the United Nations to act,&quot; he told a news conference Wednesday.

TITLE: Subway Disaster Strikes in South Korea
AUTHOR: By Soo-Jeong Lee
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DAEGU, South Korea - Hundreds of people grieving over the victims of a devastating subway fire angrily confronted South Korea's president-elect on Thursday, demanding quick action to identify the dead and return bodies to families.
 
&quot;Where am I supposed to find my child?&quot; one sobbing woman asked as President-elect Roh Moo-hyun arrived to lay a flower at a makeshift altar for the dead in Daegu, the site of Tuesday's blaze.
 Bereaved relatives placed long-stemmed chrysanthemums before the altar, where photographs of some of the estimated 126 dead - including a picture of a mother and her young son - were displayed.
 A man reportedly trying to commit suicide ignited the blaze that engulfed two subway trains, burning many of the victims beyond recognition.
 Police said Thursday that subway operators allowed the second train to pull into the blazing underground station even after they knew that the first train was on fire at the platform.
 That may have more than doubled the toll: More than 70 of the deaths apparently occurred on the second train. Investigators were focusing Thursday on how the error happened.
 Officials also hesitated to evacuate the passengers, wasting minutes that could have saved lives, police said, citing radio transcripts between the engineer and rail controllers.
 As the second train approached the blaze, the driver was waved on by a controller who advised only: &quot;When you enter the Joongang Station, drive carefully. There is a fire.&quot;
 After the train arrived, its driver said: &quot;It's a mess. It's stifling. Take some measures please. Should I evacuate the passengers? What should I do?&quot; But moving the train was impossible by that point because electricity had been cut.
 Authorities on Thursday said that they had identified only 46 of the dead, and that 388 people were still unaccounted for. Officials said that the number of missing was inflated by double-reporting and other clerical glitches.
 After laying a flower on the altar, Roh made his way slowly through the agitated crowd for a meeting with town officials and representatives of the victims' families.
 Later, Roh told families that authorities would identify the victims as quickly as possible and that the government would compensate the bereaved.
 &quot;This is something that cannot be solved by money, but the government will make its best efforts to provide assistance for the pain you have gone through,&quot; said Roh, who takes office next Tuesday.
 Outgoing President Kim Dae-jung said Tuesday that he would tone down his farewell ceremonies in deference to the victims, canceling a state dinner and military honor-guard salute.

TITLE: Bryant Continues Red-Hot Streak With 40 Against Utah
AUTHOR: By Doug Alden
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SALT LAKE CITY - A sore knee and exhaustion from playing two overtimes the night before weren't enough to end Kobe Bryant's torrid scoring run.
 
Bryant scored 11 of Los Angeles' last 17 points and finished with 40 as the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Utah Jazz 93-87 on Wednesday.
 Bryant has scored 40 or more in seven straight games and has at least 35 in his last 11. The Lakers have gone 9-2 during his scoring binge.
 &quot;I don't really know what it is,&quot; Bryant said of what's driving him during the streak. &quot;All this has done is help us win games. Maybe when I retire I can look back and see what an accomplishment it was.&quot;
 When he finally does look back, Bryant will find himself in good company.
 The last player to score 40 in as many consecutive games was Michael Jordan, who did it in nine straight early in the 1986-1987 season. Wilt Chamberlain scored at least 40 in 14 consecutive games early in the 1961-1962 season.
 Bryant, who scored 52 the night before in a 106-99 double-overtime win over Houston, decided just before tipoff to play with a sore right knee, as the Lakers were without Shaquille O'Neal for a third straight game.
 &quot;Kobe was Kobe. He carried the load for two superstars tonight,&quot; said Rick Fox, who scored 11 for the Lakers.
 Bryant was booed throughout the night until the end, when the sellout crowd realized he was about to continue the streak. With the crowd chanting &quot;Ko-be! Ko-be!&quot; Bryant got his 40th point on a free throw with 0:08.2 left, after the Jazz had no choice but to foul him.
 &quot;I never thought I'd hear that,&quot; Bryant said. &quot;It felt like the Staples Center out there.&quot;
 Bryant finished 15-for-29 from the floor and 4-of-6 on 3-pointers. Most of his points came from the outside because his knee was too sore to drive. Despite being tightly guarded by Calbert Cheaney and Andrei Kirilenko, Bryant kept hitting his shots.
 &quot;He's the best player in the game right now. He's playing as good of basketball as I've seen in my career,&quot; Jazz guard Mark Jackson said.
 Derek Fisher scored 16 for the Lakers, who won less than 24 hours after beating Houston in double overtime.
 &quot;If you lose a game like tonight, then all that fighting we did yesterday was pretty much for nothing,&quot; Bryant said.
 In other games, Portland crushed Golden State 125-98, Houston topped Phoenix 107-89, Detroit defeated Toronto 89-84, New Orleans downed Washington 87-75, Minnesota beat Denver 85-77, Philadelphia drubbed Chicago 110-82, Seattle defeated New York 103-94 and the Los Angeles Clippers topped Milwaukee 110-104.