SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #850 (18), Tuesday, March 11, 2003
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TITLE: Ivanov: Russia Will Use Its UN Veto
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov took Russia's opposition to war against Iraq a step further on Monday and said flatly that Russia would vote against the proposed new U.S.-British resolution at the UN Security Council.
"Russia believes that no further resolutions of the UN Security Council are necessary and, therefore, Russia openly declares that, if the draft that has been submitted for consideration, and which contains unfulfillable ultimatum-type demands, is put to a vote, Russia will vote against this resolution," Ivanov said.
Ivanov did not use the word "veto," but a Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed that he meant exactly that.
But Ivanov's comments seemed directed at the present wording of the draft. The United States and Britain have indicated they were willing to consider amending the text and, by emphasizing that Russia's objections related to the resolution in its current form, Ivanov left considerable room for Russia to change course.
President Vladimir Putin has, so far, played his cards close to his chest.
In other disagreements with the United States - such as NATO expansion and U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty - Ivanov has espoused harder positions than those ultimately adopted by Putin.
As the diplomacy intensified, Putin returned from a weekend retreat in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to hold a closed-door meeting with his closest aides. The Kremlin would not comment on whether Putin discussed Russia's strategy in the Iraq crisis during the meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, Kremlin Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin, Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov and FSB head Nikolai Patrushev, in addition to Ivanov. Putin's press secretary, Alexei Gromov, was quoted by Interfax as saying the meeting at Putin's country estate in Novo-Ogareyevo was held to discuss questions of domestic and foreign policy.
White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said U.S. President George W. Bush would "indeed be disappointed" if Russia were to veto. "The president would look at this as a missed opportunity for Russia to take an important moral stand to defend freedom and to prevent the risk of a missed catastrophe taking place as a result of Saddam Hussein's development of weapons of mass destruction," Fleischer said Monday.
Speaking Sunday on NTV's "Vliyaniye" program, Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said Russia does not believe the disagreement with the United States has to hinder the future development of the relationship.
"We have too many common interests in the world," Fedotov said, citing strategic weapons, Afghanistan and the Middle East. "We are striving to find a common language with the United States, England and other countries. We have never tried to inflame the conflict."
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow, who was also a guest on the NTV program, reiterated the U.S. position that Iraq continues to mislead the United Nations, but he insisted that a chance still exists to disarm Iraq without going to war.
Putin spoke late Sunday with French President Jacques Chirac and on Monday with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who have both pledged to block any resolution authorizing force against Iraq.
Schroeder's spokesperson Bela Anda said the German and Russian leaders were in full agreement Monday that the inspectors should be given more time. Putin, however, did not commit himself to Chirac's proposal that the leaders of the 15 countries on the Security Council attend a vote on the proposed new resolution, which would give Iraq a March 17 deadline to prove it has disarmed or face war.
Only Schroeder so far has publicly welcomed the French idea of a summit, which the United States rejects. Putin "made it clear that the idea is still being reflected on in the Russian government," Anda said.
In Russia, Putin's office said both leaders "expressed satisfaction with the fact that the international inspectors' conclusions fully confirm that there is potential for finding a peaceful solution to the Iraq issues," Interfax reported.
Ivanov, speaking during an appearance at Moscow State Linguistics University, his alma mater, said UN weapons inspectors needed several more months to finish their work in Iraq.
"Today, we have a real possibility to answer the outstanding questions and do so not within years, but within months. This way is real, reliable and it allows us to resolve the problem through political means and defuse the Iraqi crisis," he said.
The Bush administration, struggling to find support in the Security Council, has emphasized that it is prepared to go to war without a new UN resolution.
Ivanov, in a television interview Friday in New York, warned the United States that Russia would consider a unilateral attack against Baghdad a mistake and a violation of the UN charter. Ivanov added that, while he hoped it would not come to that, Washington seemed headed for "exactly that scenario."
The speaker of the State Duma, Gennady Seleznyov, meanwhile, met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on Monday and took with him a message from Putin, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The statement said Putin's message was aimed at confirming Russia's position on regulating the Iraq crisis, and said Seleznyov had traveled there on Hussein's invitation. No further details were given.
Before the meeting, however, Seleznyov told Russian television that he believed there was still a chance for a political resolution to the crisis. "There is still a chance to use the resolution that has already been passed. We need to continue realizing the measures laid out in this resolution and not pass any new documents that would open the way for war," he said, Interfax reported.
Ivanov was headed to Iran on Tuesday for talks during which "special attention" will be given to the Iraq crisis, his ministry said. After Iran, Ivanov is to visit Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
"Russia and Iran speak out firmly against a military scenario for the development of events in the Persian Gulf and for the settlement of the Iraq crisis through political and diplomatic means," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov arrived in Iran on Monday for a two-day state visit, state-run Tehran radio reported. It was unclear whether he would meet with Ivanov while in Iran.
All three countries have oil and gas interests in the Caspian Sea.
The most influential energy ministers in the world, U.S. Energy Minister Spencer Abraham and Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al Naimi, are headed for Moscow on Wednesday for visits that are bound to include talks on a future shake-up of oil production following war in Iraq.
The U.S. Embassy would not comment Monday on whether Abraham was due to discuss Iraq-related oil issues with his Russian counterpart Igor Yusufov in a meeting scheduled Wednesday. A diplomatic source told Interfax on Monday that al Naimi would discuss with Yusufov cooperation on energy strategy "taking into account the disturbing situation being created over Iraq."
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Russian has prepared itself for war by making sure its economy was shored up against a possible drop in the oil price.
"Russia's economy is ready for this. The budget and central-bank reserves will allow us to smooth over any serious changes that could impact the Russia economy. We are ready for this. We prepared for all possible scenarios. We are not afraid of this war," he said in an interview on Rossia television Sunday evening, Interfax reported.
(AP, Reuters, SPT)
TITLE: Matviyenko Set To Take Cherkesov's Place
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: According to anonymous sources within the Kremlin, Viktor Cherkesov, the presidential representative for the Northwest Region, will soon be replaced in the post by Valentina Matviyenko, currently the deputy prime minister responsible for social affairs in Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's government.
The Kremlin sources, quoted by Interfax on Friday, said that Cherkesov would head a new special State Committee to fight drug smuggling, while some analysts believe that Matviyenko may be being positioned for a run for governor when St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's term ends in May 2004.
Should Cherkesov indeed be leaving, it is unlikely that he will be missed by Yakovlev's administration, as Smolny has regularly accused Cherkesov's office of being behind criminal procedings launched against members of the administration.
After meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last Wednesday, Yakovlev complained about Cherkesov putting pressure on and interfering in St. Petersburg politics, as well as about negative coverage of the preparations for the city's upcoming 300th-anniversary celebrations by state-controlled media.
"There was a certain imbalance [in the coverage]," Yakovlev said at a Thursday briefing in City Hall. "Everybody knows about the cases of [vice governors Valery] Malyshev, [Anatoly] Kogan and [Alexander] Potekhin. For how long were they put through the wringer? Who wins by pouring so much dirt on the image of the city?"
Former vice governors Malyshev, Kogan and Potekhin stepped down from their respective posts after coming under criminal investigation.
The last straw for City Hall was recent events in the Legislative Assembly, when pro-governor lawmakers failed to be elected to chair any of the assembly's committees. City Hall officials said the move was orchestrated by the Presidential Representative's Office.
Cherkesov's representatives have consistently denied exerting any influence in having the cases initiated or of having serious political differences with City Hall.
Yakovlev said that Putin had understood his concerns, and seemed to hint on Thursday that the charges made by his adminstration would be vindicated.
"There have been a number rumors for some time. There are clear and understandable reasons for some of them, but we won't rush things," he said. "We'll find out about it in the near future."
A decree to set up a State Committee to fight drug smuggling was signed last by Putin last September, but still has no-one to head it, Interfax reported Friday. The committee, which is taking on another 1,000 employees this year, will bring together high-ranking officials from the Interior Ministry, the FSB - the main successor agency to the KGB - and other federal law-enforcement agencies.
Presidential press-service representatives said they "would neither confirm or deny the report" about Cherkesov's move in telephone interviews on Monday. However, according to Kommersant daily, the presidential representative is already busy packing his bags.
"We're waiting for a special presidential decree, of course," the newspaper quoted a representative of Cherkesov's office as saying on Friday. "Actually, we're not waiting, as rumours have been flying around for quite a while."
Local analysts said that Yakovlev's complaints are not the reason why Cherkesov may be changing his job.
"He completed his mission," said Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Sociology. "He created a certain situation in the region, and now he has to busy himself with another goal."
"If I'm correct, [Putin] wants to set up an organization a bit like an analog of the FBI," he said. "Cherkesov is Putin's college mate, so it would be better to have him there than someone else."
Kesselman said that it is possible that Matviyenko is being sent north in order to prepare for a run in the city's gubernatorial elections, scheduled for May 2004. Matviyenko ran for the post in the 2000 gubernatorial elections - a candidature that many at the time saw as Kremlin-sponsored - but withdrew shortly before the elections took place.
"This is not a drop in Matviyenko's status but, rather, a step forward," he said. "The position she has [at the moment] seems to be transitional. Being Putin's assistant is more important."
Vladimir Yeryomenko, a member of the pro-Yakovlev United City faction in the city's Legislative Assembly, said that, far from resolving the tensions between City Hall and the Presidential Representative's Office, the choice of Cherkesov's successor could exacerbate the situation.
"There was no open standoff, as such, between Yakovlev and Cherkesov," Yeryomenko said in a telephone interview Monday. "As a woman, Matviyenko is very emotional, which could lead to open tensions between City Hall and the Presidential Representative's Office in the future."
"When she withdrew her candidature [from the 2000 gubernatorial election], many people who thought she would run found their careers suffered because they had supported her," he said. "This could be a problem."
TITLE: School Angry Over Shooting of Porn Film
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As the producer and distributor of what are labeled "hard erotica" films by the standards of Russian censors, since he founded his production company - SP Company - in 1997, Sergei Pryanishnikov has angered religious organizations and the St. Petersburg police alike. When the company released the film "Schoolgirl 2" last fall, the staff of St. Petersburg Middle School No. 193 joined the list of groups and people less than impressed with his work.
While Pryanishnikov won't confirm or deny the charge, the staff at the school No. 193 said that SP Company used the premises to shoot "Schoolgirl 2" last summer, with sex scenes being filmed inside the classrooms.
"It came as a big blow to us," said Mikhail Goryachev, the deputy head of the school. "We always lived like one big family in our school and would never have imagined that these kind of ugly things could be taking place here."
The shock of the discovery contributed, apparently, to the school's director, Andrei Kanukhin, going on sick leave with heart problems.
Goryachev said that, while he was not sure how or when the information about the filming in the school came to light, the bigger question is how and when the filming crews gained access to the property, considering that no official permission was ever granted to Pryanishnikov's company.
The Prosecutor's Office of St. Petersburg's Central District, where the school is located, has opened an investigation under Article 242 of the Criminal Code, covering the illegal distribution of pornographic materials, an official at the special department responsible for investigating violations in the sphere of public morality said on Thursday.
"The investigation was opened into the facts of the case, and not against any particular individual," said Vladimir Belyanko, the deputy head of the department.
Belyanko did not say whether a case had been opened in relation to the unauthorized use of the school's property.
The case related to the filming in the school is not the first time Pryanishnikov has been singled out by city law-enforcement agencies for attention.
In 1999, the Association of Adjacent Author's Rights Management, the organization Pryanishnikov formed before SP Company, was fined two million rubles ($82,000) for distributing unlicensed copies of the hit Russian movie "The Peculiarities of National Fishing."
Two years ago, the Ministry of Culture refused to license one film from SP Company's "White Nights" series because of sex scenes shot in front of the Church on the Spilled Blood on Canal Griboyedova. Religious organizations had raised complaints about the film.
Pryanishnikov said that he that he isn't aware of any criminal case being initiated as a result of "Schoolgirl 2." He said that, according to Russian authorities, the film is not pornographic and that there was no way that his film crews could have filmed at the school without permission.
"We didn't break down any doors to get into the school and we usually have an agreement with the people in charge of these types of institutions in these cases," Pryanishnikov said.
Pryanishnikov said that he had no information about who had granted his team permission to film in the school.
"In any case, this film is not pornography, but hard erotica, and had already been cleared for distribution in sex shops," Pryanishnikov said.
The City Administration commission responsible for clearing movies for distribution, uses three major classifications for films with erotic content: erotica, hard erotica, and pornography. Only those films deemed to be in the third group are banned.
Pryanishnikov said that the Special Commission for the Classification of Erotic Productions, set up by a decree from Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, classified "Schoolgirl 2" as "hard erotica."
Pryanishnikov said that the commission classifies a film as "erotica" if there is significant nudity, while "hard erotica" depicts explicit sexual contact. Films labeled as pornographic by the commission depict sex involving actors under the age of 18, bestiality, necrophilia or sexual violence.
"Therefore, we didn't break any laws," Pryanishnikov said. "We didn't film people under the age of 18 and didn't break down any doors."
Pryanishnikov said that the reaction has been exaggerated, and that the Culture Ministry actually gave him de facto permission to film in the school.
"When the Culture Ministry refused to register the 'White Nights' film because of the scene in front of The Church on the Spilled Blood and the film 'The Fight For That' because we used the communist anthem in a sex film, I asked them if we could film in schools," Pryanishnikov said. "The answer was 'yes.'"
Pryanishnikov said that he didn't see anything wrong with making a sex movie about schoolgirls, when using actors who were above the age of consent, saying that "erotica is a big game, where people can create any fantasy."
"In these games some people want to play medical nurses, while others want to play schoolchildren," he said. "What we produce is just meant to excite people, and we don't portray sexual violence or use underage actors."
"In my opinion, it's much worse to see scenes of murder on television than to see sex," he added.
School No. 193's Goryachev said that the staff was relieved that the whole affair had not generated any real complaints or concerns among the parents of the school's students.
Pryanishnikov said that the uproar over "Schoolgirl 2" has just generated publicity for the film.
"When we make these movies, we try not to advertise them, so that we don't attract the attention of children to them," he said. "The attention from the mass media does just this."
TITLE: Iraq Debate Likely To Influence Duma Vote
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a treaty that would cut active U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds.
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday welcomed the ratification of the Moscow Treaty, but State Duma lawmakers warned that Russian passage could be complicated by a war against Iraq.
Senate Republicans said the treaty, passed Thursday, will make the world safer by taking missile levels to their lowest point in 50 years. Democrats were skeptical the treaty would make Americans safer, but recognized that it has at least a strong symbolic value in demonstrating unified political support for friendship and cooperation with Russia.
In a statement issued Friday, President George W. Bush said the required reductions are "essential steps toward achieving greater political, economic and security cooperation between our two countries" and will help "lay to rest the legacies of Cold War competition and suspicion."
"The treaty will benefit both our peoples and contribute to a more secure world," Bush said.
That message came as Bush tried to persuade Russia not to veto a UN resolution authorizing force to disarm Iraq - but did not appear to budge Moscow from its opposition to a military solution to the crisis.
The 95-0 vote Thursday "is truly remarkable," said Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "This is bound to leave both Russians and Americans to consider the value of the relationship."
The treaty calls on both nations to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals to 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads by 2012 - down from about 6,000 for the United States and 5,500 for Russia. It was signed by Bush and President Vladimir Putin in May.
No further action is needed in Congress, because the constitution gives the Senate sole authority over foreign treaties.
Ratification is expected in the Duma within weeks.
Two Duma lawmakers said Friday that they did not foresee any obstacles to the treaty's ratification but expressed concern that, if the United States takes unilateral action against Iraq, the Duma debate could become complicated.
Lawmakers "sentiments will of course depend on the situation around Iraq," Dmitry Rogozin, chairperson of the Duma's international-affairs committee, was quoted by Interfax as saying. "I hope there will be no direct connection."
He said lawmakers must remember that the treaty "touches on our immediate bilateral relations and deals with agreements about strategic deterrence."
"Some difficulties might arise if the United States begins a military operation against Iraq," said Andrei Nikolayev, head of the defense-affairs committee, adding he expected not problems in ratification.
The Foreign Ministry, predicting Russian ratification, said that "in the current difficult international environment, the agreement serves as an example of a legal and political resolution of the most complicated and critical problems of security through bilateral and collective efforts [taken] by the great powers in the interests of the entire world community."
TITLE: Second Arms-Destruction Site Speeding Up
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's state commission on chemical disarmament ordered authorities to speed up construction of a second weapons-destruction facility to eliminate the country's huge Soviet-era arsenal, an official said Sunday, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The facility would be built on the site of a former chemical weapons plant near Kambarka in the Udmurtia region of central Russia. It would be tasked with destroying about 6,360 tons of lewisite, an arsenic-based fluid, still stored on the site.
"The task was set to destroy supplies of lewisite there by April 29, 2007," Nikolai Bezborodov, deputy chairperson of the commission and deputy chief of the parliamentary defense committee, was quoted as telling ITAR-Tass. "The date is predetermined."
Bezborodov said the construction would be financed in part by German aid of approximately 30 million euros, ITAR-Tass said. The report did not have any details about when the facility would be constructed or how soon it could begin operating.
Russia's first chemical-weapons-destruction facility opened in December in Gorny, 724 kilometers southeast of Moscow. The facility, which so far has destroyed 200 tons of mustard gas, was always planned to be the first of three. But it has sparked controversy among environmentalists and earlier this month was ordered to shut down by a Natural Resources Minstry official for environmental violations. The plant, however, has continued working.
Russia committed itself in 1997 to destroying its chemical weapons arsenal, which at nearly 44,000 tons is the world's largest. The Kremlin, citing a lack of money, has said it will not fulfill its initial pledge to eliminate the stockpile by 2007 and has asked for a five-year extension.
The U.S. Congress has financed much of the effort to destroy the weapons under a program to improve the safety of Russia's nuclear, chemical and biological-weapons programs. But American officials have grown increasingly skeptical about Russia's efforts, which will receive $450 million this year from U.S. taxpayers.
TITLE: Moscow Is Praising Weapons Decision
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia on Saturday cautiously welcomed last week's vote by lawmakers in a separatist enclave in Moldova to provide for the withdrawal and destruction of Russian weapons and ammunition from the region.
The Foreign Ministry said it hopes the vote in Moldova's Trans-Dniester region will enable Russia to fulfill its obligations before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Russia promised Europe's top security body that some 35,000 tons of ammunition would be removed by the end of 2002 but, after delays caused by Trans-Dniester's lack of cooperation, it asked the OSCE for a one-year extension.
The decision "gives us grounds to believe that [the region's leadership] intends to cooperate constructively in this matter," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
Some 2,500 Russian troops remain in the region to guard the weapons, which Western countries and Moldova itself fear threaten stability in the region and could fall into the hands of terrorists.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: 'Meeting of Hope'
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze on Monday called a recent meeting with President Vladimir Putin aimed at resolving the status of the separatist republic of Abkhazia "a meeting of hope."
Shevardnadze held three-way talks Friday with Putin and Abkhaz Prime Minister Gennady Gagulia in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The main issue under discussion was the return of refugees to Abkhazia. Some 40,000 to 45,000 residents live there now, compared to nearly 100,000 before Abkhazia broke away from Georgia during the 1992-93 war.
Another key point was the restoration of railroad service between Sochi and Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, which is of "great importance for ... Georgia since it connects us with Russia, Ukraine, other countries," Shevardnadze said.
Friday's meeting did not produce any major advances, but was seen as a sign of renewed interest in resolving the Abkhaz problem.
Noviye Izvestia
MOSCOW (AP) - The board chairperson and main shareholder of Noviye Izvestia has transferred publication rights to its editor-in-chief, news media reported Friday.
The transfer could mean that Noviye Izvestia will resume publication. The newspaper's last edition was Feb. 28, when its staff members said they were quitting after a business shake-up they said threatened their independence.
The liberal daily newspaper was not widely read but, as one of the dwindling number of papers criticizing the Kremlin, was seen as important by media observers.
In the shake-up, publisher Oleg Mitvol fired Igor Golembiovsky, who was also editor in chief, from the post of director, citing discrepancies in the company's financial records.
33% of Kids Healthy
MOSCOW (AP) - Only one-third of all children can be considered healthy, a decline of 7 percent over the past 10 years, Deputy Health Minister Olga Sharapova said Monday.
A countrywide pediatric health survey, carried out last year, found that only 33 percent of the 31.6 million Russians aged 18 and under are in good health, Sharapova told Itar-Tass.
The rest are suffering from some type of health problem. Officials in the past have said the problems are primarily bronchial and respiratory illnesses.
Chechnya Pullout
MOSCOW (AP) - A train carrying soldiers and military hardware pulled out of Chechnya on Monday, the final contingent to leave as part of a planned troop reduction ahead of a constitutional referendum this month.
The small withdrawal is part of an intense Kremlin effort to show that security in Chechnya is improving ahead of a March 23 referendum on new Chechen constitution.
More than 700 soldiers and some 10 pieces of military equipment left by train from the Khankala base, escorted by two armored trains, according to news reports.
It was the third and final contingent of federal forces pulled out of Chechnya in recent days, part of the government's pledge last week to immediately withdraw 1,270 troops and 200 pieces of military hardware.
The withdrawal represents only a small part of the Russian forces currently deployed in Chechnya, which military officials say is 80,000, but some estimate at 100,000.
TITLE: MinFin Chief Supports Dollar
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin urged Russians not to worry about the recent decline of the U.S. dollar, telling them in a televised interview Sunday that it is not necessary to shift their savings out of the American currency because it will not fall dramatically.
"The dollar is, after all, theworld's main currency, and the American economy is the largest - a third of the world economy," Finance Minster Kudrin, who is also a deputy prime minister, told state-run Rossiya television. "So, there will be no dramatic fall of the dollar."
Because of the instability of the ruble since the Soviet collapse, most Russians keep their savings in dollars. But the dollar has lost ground lately against the euro and even against the ruble, leaving many increasingly nervous about the practice. Some have already shifted to euros.
"We can, of course, talk about some speculative fluctuation, but I would calm everyone: the dollar will not fall dramatically, and to run away from investment in dollars is not necessary," Kudrin said - though he did not neglect to mention the recent strength of the ruble against the dollar.
The euro has risen steadily against the dollar for the past year and hit its highest point in nearly four years Friday, at $1.1064 in trading in Frankfurt.
Russia is the biggest dollar economy outside of the United States, and by some estimates its citizens have tucked away as much as $40 billion in mattresses, closets and shoeboxes.
The Russian government is also heavily dollar-dependent, with most of its hard-currency reserves held in dollars and the ruble unofficially pegged to the dollar.
Sunday's interview on a weekly program aimed to reach a wide audience marked at least the second time this year that Kudrin has sought to ease concerns about the dollar's fall. In early February he said that it shouldn't cause any significant harm to the economy.
The ruble extended its gains against the dollar on Friday after the Central Bank stopped soaking up extra dollars and dealers expected fresh oil-revenue receipts to push it higher this week.
The currency rose 2.72 kopeks in official early trade to a weighted average for settlement today of 31.5619 to the dollar from 31.5891 on Thursday, when it nudged higher by a third of a kopek.
The Central Bank wants to contain the real appreciation of the ruble against the euro and the dollar basket to less than 6 percent this year.
(AP, Reuters)
TITLE: General Electric Pledges Investment in LenOblast
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: General Electric is planning to build a factory for the production of railway engines in the Leningrad Oblast the Leningrad Oblast revealed in a statement issued on Thursday.
The project is part of an agreement between General Electric and the Railways Ministry under which the company is helping to modernize and replace the country's rolling stock.
According to the official statistics of the Railways Ministry, 756 locomotive engines have to be replaced over the course of the next five years.
General Electric will only begin construction of the new plant after an official contract with the Railways Ministry has been signed, GE Project Director Douglas Rockwell said at a press conference on Thursday. Rockwell said that the exact location for the plant within the Leningrad Oblast has not yet been decided, with two options currently being pursued.
The company is planning an initial investment of $25 million for the completion of the first phase of the project, which will allow for the production of 200 diesel engines per year from 2005. Further GE plans involve an additional investment of $50 million, which will bring the plant's production capacity to 500 diesel engines per year.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, GE Transportation-Systems Managing Director in Russia and CIS Boris Borisov said that there was a possibility that the diesel engines manufactured in the Leningrad Oblast could be exported to the U.S.
Rockwell said that the high personnel potential and the favorable investment policies of the local administration that had attracted GE to the Leningrad Oblast.
Leningrad Oblast Governor Valery Serdyukov said that he would "personally support General Electric's initiative by all possible means."
The Railways Ministry will not be buying engines exclusively from GE, however. In November 2002, the ministry signed an agreement with Kolomensky Zavod, part of the Russian Severstal group, for the supply of 156 engines in 2003. Kolomensky Zavod is the only factory in Russia to produce complete diesel passenger trains.
TITLE: Race for Seats Underway at Table of Power
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The race is officially on for what is being billed as the wildest corporate election the country has ever seen.
The directors of UES on Thursday signed off on the final list of candidates eligible for a seat on the monopoly's board at a time when the government is embarking on an unprecedented carve-up of the electricity sector that promises to make or break fortunes.
The run-up to the election has seen some of Russia's richest tycoons buying up chunks of shares in UES and its subsidiaries ahead of the vote.
In total, 32 men from several countries are vying for the 15 slots at the annual shareholders meeting in May, and it is looking likely that minority shareholders will be left without any influence over the company's operations.
"There is a multitude of candidates, and a lot of excitement about the vote and the emergence of strategic investors whose interests may run counter to those of UES management," said Zenit bank utilities analyst Sergei Suverov.
The cast of candidates is led by incumbent chairperson and top Kremlin power broker Alexander Voloshin, who tops the list of 15 nominees put forward by the government, which owns 53 percent of the company.
In addition to several serving government ministers, board hopefuls include Russian business heavyweights Andrei Melnichenko and Sergei Popov of MDM Group, National Reserve Bank president and current board member Alexander Lebedev, as well as a number of Europeans representing minority and strategic investors. This list even includes a surprise American entry - former U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, who was nominated by National Reserve Bank.
Experts said that the frenzy of activity that has unfolded as the election approaches has been unprecedented. Unlike last year, when candidates put forward either by UES or the government gained four-fifths of the seats without much opposition, this year several tycoons have emerged as powerful strategic shareholders.
With heavyweights like financial industrial groups MDM and Oleg Deripaska's Base Element putting forward candidates, the chances of minority shareholders retaining their two seats have diminished dramatically, analysts said.
"The risk of minority shareholders not getting a seat is very high," said Renaissance Capital utilities analyst Hartmut Jacob.
Analysts were in agreement that the best minority shareholders can hope for this year is a single seat - if they play their cards right.
Current board members representing minority shareholders are Alexander Branis of Prosperity Capital Management and David Herne of Brunswick Capital Management.
"But the structure of share ownership has changed significantly this year and so will the board," Jacob said.
The consensus is that the emergence of MDM and Base Element, which are thought to have paid up to $800 million over the last several months acquiring an estimated 17 percent of UES, will result in at least three board seats and possibly four.
Likely winners include Melnichenko, Popov, State Duma Deputy Yevgeny Ishenko, who co-founded MDM with Melnichenko, and Base Element director David Giovanis.
Utility specialists expect the government will retain nine seats, and UES management, namely CEO Anatoly Chubais and his deputy Leonid Melamed, will keep their two.
That leaves just one board seat representing minority shareholders, and the odds-on favorite is Branis.
But, with so many candidates standing for election, the vote could be split so thin that minority shareholders run the risk of being shut out altogether.
"If no group of minority shareholders emerges to take the responsibility for lobbying one candidate, then they could end up with nothing," said Zenit's Suverov.
However, Branis has proven himself to be a very consistent critic - and civilized opponent - of UES management and should get just enough support from the "insider funds" to retain his seat, Suverov said.
None of the major utility analysts polled Thursday had ever heard of several figures on the list, including former Senator Johnston, Brunswick UBS Warburg's candidate Ed Kaufman and Alfa Group's nominee Vladimir Tyurinkov, who is listed as the managing director of Hansberger Capital Management.
Analysts were also surprised by the number of candidates put forward by National Reserve Bank, which is thought to control about 4 percent of UES.
The fact the bank put forward 13 candidates, including Lebedev himself, suggests that Lebedev either has not determined his position on UES reforms yet, or that he has determined his position and is trying to hide it by nominating people representing totally opposing views.
For example, NRB nominated both Vyacheslav Sinyugin, UES's pointman on reform, and Viktor Kudryavy, a former energy minister and UES board member who categorically opposes the government's reform plan and has called publicly for the sacking of Chubais and his entire management team.
Perhaps the most interesting candidate, although likely meaningless, analysts said, is Johnston, who retired from the U.S. Senate in 1996 after 24 years to open his own advisory group. He is also on the board of U.S. oil supermajor ChevronTexaco.
Aton analyst Alexander Korneyev said that putting Johnston on the list indicates Lebedev "might have absolutely no interest in what happens at UES."
"The aim of nominating 13 people is absolutely unclear," especially since many were already nominated by the government, such as Voloshin, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, Deputy Property Minister Sergei Kosarev and Senator Valentin Zavadnikov, Korneyev said.
TITLE: Possible War Could Hit Auto Sector
AUTHOR: By Simon Ostrovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's second-largest automaker could lose its best customer if Iraq's government is toppled.
GAZ, in Nizhny Novgorod, has halted all production of its once popular and prestigious Volga sedan ~ except for 5,000 taxi versions of its largely unwanted model that are destined for Baghdad.
But even that may not save the legendary Volga.
Most of the first batch of 250 of the sedans are ready for shipment, but the cars aren't scheduled to be shipped to Iraq until the end of next week, or some four days after the March 17 deadline the United States is giving the sanctions-battered country to disarm or face war.
With U.S. President George W. Bush saying that the crisis over Iraq and its alleged weapons of mass destruction is in its "last phase," the Volga looks increasingly likely to be one of the first casualties if war breaks out, costing GAZ millions of dollars in lost sales.
Although GAZ won't reveal the size of the deal, a Volga retails in Russia for around $5,000 and the taxi versions being assembled for Iraq will have added frills such as air conditioning, suggesting a total price tag of around $25 million for the 5,000 cars.
The cars, which are meant to replenish the city's aging taxi fleet, were ordered last year.
GAZ was not available for comment over the weekend, but general director Alexei Barantsev was quoted by Interfax as saying that the company plans to produce another 1,500 taxis for Baghdad next month if all goes well.
In the past, the company has played down the war threat to its business in Iraq.
"If we thought about that sort of thing, we couldn't do any business at all," company spokesperson Vasily Sarychev said earlier this year.
Nevertheless, with domestic demand at an all-time low, the importance of the deal to GAZ's automobile division couldn't be more evident.
At the end of last year, GAZ was forced to shut down its assembly line because of over-supply problems that analysts blamed on rising prices for its cars, which can't compete with more durable and comfortable foreign imports. In December, the company said that it had stockpiled a two-month supply of Volgas that it has yet to clear.
In addition, profit margins on Volgas are getting slimmer as metals prices rally.
TITLE: Corporate Raiders Let Loose in Moscow
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - When the Moscow City Administration wanted to move a shoe factory out of the city center in the mid-1990s because the glue it used was too dangerous for downtown, the 70 or so workers at the plant voted to stay put.
According to financial director Yekaterina Balabanova, they undertook a lengthy buyout of the building from the city, and eventually transformed it into a successful office center called Asta, where nearly all of them still work in different capacities.
It didn't take long, however, for their refurbished building, strategically located in Kitai-Gorod, to catch the attention of a shadowy corporate raider.
Now, Balabanova fears that she and her fellow shareholders will be victims of a hostile takeover.
She said that a murky company called ROSbuilding bought about 3 percent of Asta's shares in August from several pensioners who used to work for the shoe factory. Shortly afterward, she said, ROSbuilding took advantage of convoluted securities regulations to challenge a seven-year-old share emission in court.
"If ROSbuilding's lawsuit succeeds, its 3 percent stake will become 75 percent," Balabanova said. "We have already lost in court, and we are now preparing an appeal."
Asta's legal struggle is just one of hundreds of heavy-handed takeover attempts recently launched in Moscow by shadowy, but seemingly well-connected, predators who exploit legal loopholes while pressuring their prey.
"The number of hostile-takeover attacks has snowballed in the last year," Vyacheslav Ivanov, a section head official in City Hall's economic-security department, said in an interview.
More than 300 cases similar to Asta's have been reported in the last six months - most of which involve struggling light-industry enterprises with highly coveted properties either downtown or near metro stations, Ivanov said.
"We had only 10 such cases just half a year ago," he said.
The ownership wars are being waged mainly by three companies - ROSbuilding, Aktsept and Vash Finansovy Popechitel ("Your Financial Guardian") - and are "far from ethical," said Nikolai Kartashov, vice president of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Trade.
These companies use a variety of methods in their pursuit of properties, Kartashov said in an interview.
The one employed against Asta is a typical variant, as is using legal loopholes to get otherwise profitable companies declared bankrupt. Another method is extortion, or a combination of all three.
One popular scheme involves creating a fake supplier that advances a consignment of goods to a target company and then disappears, so the target cannot clear the debt off its books, said Yury Kruglyakov, chairperson of Yedinstvo, a Moscow-based union of lawyers that has been involved in defending companies from predators for seven years.
Kruglyakov said that, after just three months, for a debt as little as 50,000 rubles ($1,600), bankruptcy proceedings against the target could be initiated once that debt is sold or transferred to the company orchestrating the hostile takeover.
"An enterprise can be bankrupted within a few months this way," he said.
City Hall has made no secret of its desire to remove industrial enterprises from downtown in order to free up space for more offices, but Ivanov of the city's economic-security department denied that the city is connected with ROSbuilding, Aktsept or VFP, though VFP claims its efforts are helping the city.
ROSbuilding, which once organized privatization tenders for the city, refused to comment or even explain what type of business it does.
The other two companies made no apologies for what they do.
Kirill Savitsky, VFP's chief analyst, said that, among other activities, his company specializes in hostile takeovers - both orchestrating and fighting them.
"We are consultants. We work under concrete orders," Savitsky said.
"In 99 percent of takeovers with which we're involved, hostile or not, our goal is to put in place effective management," he said. "This activity goes along with the interests of the Moscow city government."
Aktsept says on its Web site (www.accept.ru) that "bankrupting enterprises" is one of its specialties.
"This is normal business," said Aktsept General Director Oleg Brezhnev.
"We are cleaning the city of weak enterprises," Brezhnev said. "Most of the time, managers have stripped away all the assets of these enterprises by the time we appear, and they never pay dividends. Is this a good way to do business?"
"Many enterprises have a former communist nomenklatura leader who just sits there and would rather die than give away the enterprise to a better owner," added Kliment Rusakomsky, head of Aktsept's legal department.
"In the end, what we are doing is profitable for the country," Rusakomsky said.
It is also very profitable for the company initiating the takeover.
"This business is 10 times more profitable than trading with securities," Brezhnev said.
He said that a new bankruptcy law that came into force last month will make takeovers tougher, but he said that it wouldn't drive Aktsept out of business.
The new law raises the debt threshold needed to initiate bankruptcy proceedings to 100,000 rubles ($3,184) and closes the "fake supplier" loophole. It also prevents an entire enterprise from being sold if it can pay its debt by selling a part of its assets.
"The new law makes hostile takeovers harder," said Sergei Voitishkin of Baker & MacKenzie, adding, however, that only time will tell how well the law will actually work.
"We need to wait until it starts working," he said.
Kruglyakov, however, said that the problem is not legal, but economic, and that "until the state creates conditions for the development of business and enterprises remain weak, companies like ROSbuilding will continue to have an easy ride, and financial capital will keep consuming impoverished enterprises."
According to Moscow-based real-estate experts polled for this article, the new law on bankruptcy is unlikely to hinder the activities of ROSbuilding, in particular, because the company appears to be extremely powerful.
Although several real-estate experts declined to comment on ROSbuilding's activities, many said that the company is very professional and of great help to City Hall in its attempts to drive industrial enterprises out of the downtown.
"The company works very professionally and quickly, but in a tough way," said one manager of a Moscow real-estate company, who requested anonymity. "Of course the ethical side of its work is questionable," he added.
Another real-estate professional characterized ROSbuilding's toughness as legendary, putting the company in a league of its own.
"Few companies want to argue with ROSbuilding - basically the issue is whether you want to survive or not," he said.
"I don't know where these people are from or who backs them up, but judging by the methods they use it looks like they have a very strong krysha."
Oddly, for a company as well known in the industry as ROSbuilding, few seem to know who actually controls it.
Some said that it is a well-known oligarch, but that his identity is so secret that few of ROSbuilding's employees know who it is.
One source in a reputable real-estate firm said that the company is made up of well-connected former employees of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service.
"I don't know under whose umbrella they work but, judging by the methods that they use, it must be a high one," said another expert who asked that his name be withheld.
"Their methods are barbarian, and many takeover targets have to choose between their lives and their assets," the expert said.
Ruzanna Shumskikh, the general director of the METF clothing factory, thinks ROSbuilding is behind the attack on her company, which recently won an award for paying the capital's highest average salary - 4,500 rubles ($143) a month - and is strategically located near Paveletsky Station.
Shumskikh said that the hostile takeover began last month when someone acquired a few shares in METF and then filed a complaint in the Volgograd arbitration court that was based on forged minutes of the company's shareholders meeting.
"The court ordered the arrest of our real estate on Feb. 20. Shortly afterward, someone approached me and suggested I sell the company, but I refused. Then pressure was put on other shareholders to sell their shares, and some did," Shumskikh said.
"We can't initiate a criminal case against this person because he claims in his appeal that he has the minutes of the meeting with fake signatures," she said.
"The court can, of course, hear a complaint from anyone, but I can't understand how a fake piece of paper can be reason enough to seize our property. Now, we are told that we must prove that our signatures are not on that document.
"Our legislation does not correspond to reality. And the situation is the same for the other companies that have found themselves in the same trouble," she said.
Like Shumskikh, Balabanova of the Asta office center said that she and other shareholders are prepared to fight the takeover attempt, but they are at a disadvantage because they can't use the same methods being used against them.
"People claiming to be ROSbuilding managers are calling me at home, on my mobile, and insulting me. They are even writing bad things about us to our bank," Balabanova said.
"We are being bombarded with telegrams about an extraordinary shareholders meeting," she said. "One informed us that the meeting would be held at 8 a.m. on [Defenders of the Fatherland Day] Feb. 23. The latest said that the meeting would be on Sunday at 10 a.m. We came, but no one else was there, so we slept in the office just in case."
Balabanova said that she felt that she had no alternative but to ask the police for "protection against hooliganism."
"The struggle must be fair," she said.
TITLE: Business Channel To Debut In May
AUTHOR: By Larisa Naumenko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's first 24-hour cable channel dedicated to business news will go live after the May holidays, RBC said Thursday after securing $15 million to launch the project.
Through RBC TV, RosBusinessConsulting hopes to parlay its news agency's success into a Russian version of popular financial news networks CNBC and Bloomberg.
The channel will fill the gap in business coverage left by Russia's main television networks, RBC general director Yury Rovensky said.
"This channel will be about Russian business and for Russian business," Rovensky said, adding that business professionals and government officials will be RBC TV's target audience.
The country's big networks dedicate less than 1 percent of their air time to business coverage, he said.
Rovensky estimated that the first year of operations will cost $30 million to $40 million.
It has already raised $15 million, RBC announced Wednesday; RBC itself will provide the channel with $10 million, and the other $5 million will be sought through a private-debt placement with Western investors.
RBC expects advertising income to cover the rest.
"We expect to return the investments by the end of the second year of operation," Rovensky said.
RBC's revenues from advertising on its news Web site totaled $14 million in 2002, he added. The television-ad market is considered far more lucrative than the Internet market.
RBC TV's daily programming will include 18 hours of live coverage news, trends, analysis of current events and interviews with market experts. Some of these will be rerun to fill the remaining six hours of air time.
RBC has negotiated with cable and satellite providers Kosmos-TV, NTV Plus, Comcor TV and Divo TV to broadcast the channel via their networks in Moscow and in St. Petersburg.
NTV Plus will bundle the channel with its service packages in St. Petersburg, the only city where it will be broadcast on an open frequency, allowing residents with only a TV antenna to tune in.
Kosmos-TV and NTV Plus both said that they were still in negotiations with RBC.
To prepare for the May launch, RBC has brought in CNBC Europe specialists to train its staff of 300, hired from investment banks for their business knowledge, not their television expertise.
"We're going to rely on this newly trained staff," Rovensky said. "These are people who know what's going on in Russian business today."
TITLE: Tokyo Stock Market Hits Lowest Point Since 1983
AUTHOR: By Kenji Hall
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TOKYO - Tokyo stocks plummeted Monday, sending the market's benchmark index to a 20-year low as the growing threat of war in Iraq and a sliding dollar prompted investors to sell a broad range of shares.
The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average briefly dropped below the 8,000-point level - an important psychological barrier - before recouping some of its heavy mid-afternoon losses.
By the close, the Nikkei had fallen 101.86 points, or 1.25 percent, to 8,042.26 points - its lowest since it closed at 8,027.64 points on March 10, 1983. On Friday, the index lost 225.03 points, or 2.69 percent.
The U.S. dollar traded at 116.68 yen by late afternoon Monday, down 0.50 yen from late Friday and also below its New York level late Friday of 117.06 yen. The currency traded between 116.64 yen and 117.14 yen in Tokyo.
On the stock market, depressed brokerage and banking issues undercut the Nikkei, and traders cited uncertainty about the impact that a possible U.S. attack on Iraq would have on the global economy. Investors brushed aside Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa's remarks Monday that share-price movements were "abnormal" and he would prod stock exchange officials to investigate, traders said.
Banks - which have shed between 20 percent and 30 percent of their value in the past month - were Monday's biggest losers, following a weekend report in the financial newspaper, Nihon Keizai, that a major Japanese life-insurance company plans to unload some of its bank stock.
Major banks Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and UFJ Holdings all plunged, as did brokerages Nikko Salomon, Daiwa Securities Group and Nomura Holdings.
Shares of export-dependent issues ended mixed, some - including chip makers Tokyo Electron and Advantest - hurt by the dollar's slide to 116-yen levels.
A strong yen makes Japanese exporters' products less competitive abroad and hurts revenues that are generated overseas and repatriated.
But select blue chips weathered the broader market's decline. Toshiba and Honda Motor posted gains, Canon ended flat, while Toyota Motor closed only 0.4 percent lower.
The broader Tokyo Stock Price Index retreated 11.65 points, or 1.47 percent, to 784.52 points at Monday's close, a 19-year low. The index, which includes all first-section issues, tumbled 20.05 points, or 2.46 percent, Friday to end at 796.17 points - its lowest level since Aug. 9, 1984.
Volume on the first section was estimated at 817.48 million shares, down from Friday's 896.35 million. Decliners outpaced advancers 1,201 to 243, while 74 issues ended unchanged.
Japan's benchmark 10-year government-bond yield rose to 0.755 percent on Monday, from 0.75 percent late Friday. Its price, which moves in the opposition direction of the yield, fell 0.05 to 100.41.
TITLE: Ministry Prepares Heady Brew
TEXT: THE Agriculture Ministry, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Gordeyev, has put forward a new "alcohol policy" plan. If the plan is implemented it could lead to a doubling in the price of vodka - Russia's main consumer product.
The plan envisages banning the construction of new distilleries, as well as introducing quotas for the production of pure alcohol and liquor. If one accepts Gordeyev's version, the plan was inspired purely by the deputy prime minister's love for his fellow man and desire to battle alcoholism.
Allow me to explain in more detail the philanthropic process according to the Agriculture Ministry. Currently, the ministry only distributes quotas for the purchase of pure alcohol. In other words, if you are a private vodka producer, you cannot simply go and buy spirit from a distillery. First, you must go to the Agriculture Ministry and declare that you would like to buy X liters of spirit from distillery Y. Then, ministry officials will sign a quota for you - or perhaps they won't.
They might instead say: "Listen, you want to buy spirit from a private distillery, but we need to keep the state distilleries employed." To which you counter, "But the spirit they produce is foul - you can't make decent vodka out of that stuff!"
"So," the officials will say, "you need spirit from that distillery and not this one? Let's see if we can come to an arrangement."
Or to give a very simple analogy - it's as if before going to the baker's to buy a loaf of bread, you had to go to a committee, which would sign a form authorizing the purchase of the specific loaf in that particular bakery. Bearing in mind the behavioral characteristics of those that sign quotas in this country, it is pretty clear that in reality you will have to pay twice: once for the loaf and once to get the quota signed.
This may explain why Gordeyev's approach to fighting alcoholism involves multiplying the number of quotas his ministry gets to distribute.
Indeed, many Agriculture Ministry regulations start out life exclusively with the common weal in mind, and end up serving the interests of bureaucrats. Not long ago, the ministry introduced quotas on meat imports to protect domestic producers. However, importers are complaining that the procedure for receiving meat import quotas is identical to the procedure for winning additional "scientific"quotas for catching crab - as described in a recent criminal case against State Fisheries Committee officials.
Prior to this, there were interventions in the grain market. At the end of last year, Gordeyev became a passionate advocate of the idea of supporting poverty-stricken peasants by allocating government money for the purchase of grain. Truth be told, by this point the harvest had already been sold, and the taxpayer's ruble was not going to support impoverished peasants, but major grain buyers.
What can you say? The suspension of State Fisheries Committee head Yevgeny Nazdratenko, in whose agency quota allocation procedures - according to those in the know - differed in no way from the process of taking bribes, might serve to restrain Gordeyev from the total commercialization of his ministry.
At the end of the day, vodka is Russia's second national currency after the ruble, and if the Agriculture Ministry doubles the price of vodka it will effectively be assuming the prerogatives of the Central Bank. The thing is, adoption of the ministry's alcohol plan will either result in extra ruble emission in favor of the Agriculture Ministry or the debasement of Russia's national currency through a massive rise in moonshine production.
Yulia Latynina is author and host of "Yest Mneniye", ("Some Believe") on TVS.
TITLE: Russia in Own League of Talent for Bending Rules
TEXT: NOT long ago, a Finnish company received a contract to make a metal door for a Russian defense installation in the far north. For some reason, no Russian firm could produce a door of such complexity and such unusual dimensions. The special door was to be delivered by airplane the moment it was ready.
The Finnish worker in charge of loading the door on to the plane discovered that it wouldn't fit in the cargo bay. Following instructions, he removed the foam rubber in which the door was packed, and tried to load it onto the plane. However, the door still wouldn't fit. So he once more followed instructions and sent the plane off to Russia carrying just the foam rubber, figuring the door would go out on the next flight.
I have a pretty good idea what the Russian workers waiting to install the door said when the plane touched down. A lengthy investigation followed. The Finnish worker who had followed instructions too closely was reprimanded, and the door was finally delivered.
We Russians love to tell stories about the craziness that goes on around us. But the story with the Finnish door couldn't happen here. If a Russian worker were in charge, instead of a Finn, he would have scratched and dented the door, damaged the plane forcing it into the cargo bay, or lost the shipping receipt. But it would never have occurred to him to send the foam rubber separately.
Russians and Westerners have an entirely different take on instructions, rules and bureaucracy in general.
In the West, people have come to expect the bureaucracy to be rational. Conscientious citizens of Western countries follow instructions almost automatically, often not even trying to figure out what the point is. The Russian, on the other hand, views instructions with a skeptical eye. Experience has taught him that two-thirds of all instructions are totally pointless, that the government is run by incompetents and that rules are created for the express purpose of making life more difficult.
What do you do with unnecessary rules and outdated or reactionary laws? We deceive the boss and avoid cooperating with the government, knowing well that they do the very same thing to us.
In a sense, Eastern Europeans are more effective than their counterparts in the West. If not for our constant readiness to break the rules, we would never have made so many scientific discoveries. We have developed a remarkable capacity for rationalization, and a striking sense of humor that foreigners seem to find touching. Former citizens of the Soviet Union are making successful careers in the West, amazing their bosses with their ability to "think outside the box."
Resisting the established order in Russia is a private act: a little chicanery, not a political statement. For all the talk of their collective spirit, Russians in practice are committed individualists.
"There are so many talented people here," foreigners often remark. To which I would add: "And such a weak society."
Boris Kagarlitsky is director of the Institute of Globalization Studies.
TITLE: President Misleads American Public on Tax-Cut Figures
AUTHOR: By Isaac Shapiro
TEXT: IN U.S. President George W. Bush's recent speeches about the tax cuts in his "economic growth" package, he has emphasized an eye-catching point when talking about its benefits. "Under this plan," he has said, "92 million Americans receive an average tax cut of $1,083. That's fair."
He also has asserted that "We estimate that 23 million small-business owners across America will receive an average income tax rate cut of $2,042. That matters."
These points, which have been echoed repeatedly by other administration figures, convey the impression that the proposals are balanced and of benefit to the little guy, or at least the little-business owner. That's flat-out misleading.
Most taxpayers and small-business owners would receive far less than this average amount because, in generating its figures, the administration has averaged the massive tax cuts that those at the top would receive with the far more modest tax cuts that those in the middle of the income spectrum would get. To illustrate how this deceptive use of averages works: If 10 people were in a room, nine of whom have low- and middle-incomes but one of whom is Bill Gates, on average all of these people are very rich.
An analysis of Bush's tax-cut plan by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center shows that the average cut for filers in the middle fifth of the population - folks right in the middle of the income spectrum - would be $256, a quarter of the $1,083 figure the administration cites for the average taxpayer.
Overall, 80 percent of filers would get less than $1,083. The top 1 percent of tax filers would receive an average tax cut of $24,100 in 2003, and those with incomes of more than $1 million would get tax cuts averaging a whopping $90,200.
Similarly, nearly 80 percent of filers with small-business income - or nearly four of every five - would receive less than the $2,042 average the administration is touting. The majority of all small-business owners would get less than $500.
When confronted at a recent congressional hearing with some other average numbers related to the budget, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels conceded that the budget numbers in question were averages and that "averages can be misleading."
Yet the administration persists in pushing its numbers, ignoring their obvious problems and evidently calculating that repetition and the public's desire to trust in the president's veracity will win the day on support for the package.
Isaac Shapiro is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He contributed this comment to The Los Angeles Times.
TITLE: War in Iraq May Be In Russia's Interests
TEXT: In response to "How To Avoid Losing a Potential War in Iraq," a comment by Vyacheslav Nikonov on March 7.
Editor,
The comment piece is the most pragmatic and sensible one I've read in the non-U.S. press. Unfortunately, your foreign minister doesn't seem to share the same views.
Russia should act according to Russian interests. In the case of a war on Iraq, it would be much better to support the U.S. position than to oppose it.
James Ma
San Jose, California
Editor,
I just finished reading the comment piece by Vyacheslav Nikonov. This is the first news article I've ever read from Russia. I would just like to say that I really enjoyed it, and found the article very well written, not to mention well thought out.
Richard Feiling
Nampa, Idaho
Editor,
Your writer shows great common sense and a fine grasp of realpolitik. Let us hope President Vladimir Putin is not willing to throw away everything he has done to build bridges to this U.S. president.
In World War II, the Soviet Union was good enough to declare war on Japan after we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, as a way of grabbing some islands (the Kuriles) from Japan after the war. I don't think that will be good enough this time.
Frankly, we have found the support of Russia in the war against terror to be extraordinarily helpful. We have a common cause against Muslim fanatics. Nearly everyone here in the United States likes Russia and Russians. We see the current age as the fruition of the dream of Peter the Great. There are many people fuming at the French for their position, but no one is angry at Russia.
There is still time for President Putin adroitly to shift his position and benefit Russia's future economic development enormously. But there are only two weeks at the most.
Chris Wyser-Pratte
New Paltz, New York
Editor,
You are to be commended for publishing Nikonov's piece.
The Anti-Communist International, which strongly supports Russian democracy under the stewardship of President Vladimir Putin, does not believe that Russia lost the Cold War, but that Russia liberated itself from Communism and now deserves a full leadership role as a co-leader of the free world. Therefore, we take the concerns expressed by Nikonov in relation to Russia's national interests very seriously.
Despite the encroachment of other agendas on the bottom line necessitating regime change in Iraq, i.e., the necessity for removing the scourge of terrorism as a viable option for anyone, that bottom line for both the United States and the United Kingdom remains, as President George W. Bush stated, preventing a terrorist - caused "mushroom cloud" from exploding above any city, and that includes not only include New York, Washington, and London, but Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Riyadh, and any other urban center on our globe.
The Anti-Communist International would have preferred a joint effort by the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and Saudi Arabia, as rightful co-leaders of the free world, to peacefully implode the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq without recourse to violence by depriving it of any legitimacy or finances.
Following the denouement of events in Iraq, it is to be hoped that the aforementioned co-leaders of the free world will jointly address their unified attention to resolving immediately the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, ending both brutal Israeli colonialism over the Palestinian occupied territories and the use of terrorist bombs by Palestinian extremists.
The Russian Federation has set, for the most part, a democratic example worthy of emulation in the autonomy of its minority-ruled regions. Long before the Bolshevik regime isolated Russia from the democratic mainstream, Russia was a leader in the field of international law. Democracy is a process, not an absolute, in which direction is the essential dimension.
It is time now for Russia to be a pro-active leader in establishing free-world standards for democracy in which the direction of a regime towards greater democracy should be the criteria. No one can objectively say that Hussein's regime in Iraq has shown any tendency toward genuine democracy, as his garnering 99 percent of the votes in Iraqi "elections" so obviously attests.
Democratic Russia and the United States are most important friends, neighbors and allies of each other, and it is the duty of all patriotic Americans and patriotic Russians to see that attention is paid to the concerns and interests of each other, along with the special responsibilities their size as democratic states requires.
Dr. Jon Speller
Chairperson,
Anti-Communist International
New York, New York
Editor,
The commentary by Mr. Nikonov on Russian foreign policy is a most intelligent analysis of your country's self-interest. It also reconizes some realities of the present international situation.
It is hard for an American to see why Russia would take a position favoring the survival of Saddam Hussein in the modern world. I have before me a new book by an English journalist (Con Coughlin, "Saddam: King of Terror"), which spells out the nature of the beast. In a sober book by an American analyst, (Kenneth Pollack, "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq"), the author calmly calls Hussein a "thug" throughout, and will get no rebuttal from, really, anybody.
Is supporting such an individual, a force on the wrong side in human history, what Russian leaders want to do? And do it, moreover, out in plain sight of everybody? What greater benefit for the Russian state, may we ask, could possibly occasion such folly?
It is easy enough to see why your government might want to stand with what at least seems to be "international order." But Hussein is going to be toppled by force; count on that. It is not too late just to watch quietly the American effort to bring a better life to Iraq, and thus help to eliminate the weapons-of-mass-destruction threat to goodness knows whom in coming years.
Vaughn Davis Bornet, Ph.D.
Ashland, Oregon
Editor,
Regarding Iraq, people are always making the claim that we want control of their oil but, if that's what we care about, why aren't we controlling Kuwait's oil today?
I know that U.S. President George W. Bush is supposed to be this big dummy, but what if the war is short and sweet and Iraq gets a representative democracy out of the deal, along with all kinds of U.S. economic assistance? How are they the losers, especially if they get rid of a guy who tortures children in front of their own parents and gases his own people?
Even Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, runs around Baghdad raping and killing young women! What a creepy family! Can't the world find something better to do than to defend this evil man?
If you really want to know what's behind what the United States is doing, try turning on your television and finding out that someone had tried to arrange the assassination of your father.
I knew that Hussein was dead the second Bush stepped into office! George Bush can flip a switch and have a military at his command that has a $330-billion annual budget and you think that he's not going to get rid of a little weasel who tried to kill his father? Get real!
Now, I know that the United States does not always do what is right, such as backing sanctions that punished the Iraqi people instead of their evil ruler. That was wrong!
But we were desperate to do something to make an impact on Hussein's thick head! The guy just doesn't care about his own people!
Those of you who don't like Bush will not have to worry for long, the skyrocketing price of oil will send the U.S. economy back into recession and Bush will not be re-elected.
But, if he gets rid of the evil tyrant Hussein and his bloodthirsty family, at least he will have done one good thing while in office!
William Combs
Butler, Alabama
Editor,
In my view, the war to disarm and change the regime in Iraq is justified, not because war is moral, but because inaction is immoral.
First, the Iraqi regime is under a "temporary reprieve" to stay in power after the invasion of Kuwait, as long as it agrees to, inter alia, disarm, pay restitution to Kuwait, return all Kuwaiti prisoners, etc. It has been almost 13 years and it has still refused to comply, expect for some superficial compliance to win "cheap publicity."
Second, to all those who equate international legitimacy with the UN, look no further than a couple of years back, when the United States and it's allies took military action against Yugoslavia "outside of the UN." Why? Because China and Russia in the Security Council would have blocked any such war.
Third, the talk about U.S. hypocrisy with respect to "Iraq and North Korea." Well, the war on Iraq gains greater credence because of the situation we now find ourselves with North Korea, i.e. we need to stop Hussein etting to that position of power by which time, we cannot disarm, but only appease.
Fourth, hundreds of children, the elderly and the sick die in Iraqi hospitals every day, not because of the sanctions, but because they are powerful "publicity stunts" for Hussein. Iraq can import as much food and medicine as it needs under the UN sanctions ... but, Hussein refuses! Why? Their suffering serves him better!
Finally, who speaks for those above and for the hundreds of thousands who have died because of Hussein and many more who will continue to die. Five hundred to 1,000 people are executed in Hussein 's prisons every day, according to estimates by Kurds and Iraqi exiles (by the way, about 30 percent of Iraqis are exiles). Surely not the anti-war choir, many of whom, a year and more ago, were singing the same song with regard to Afghanistan.
In the world in which I live, sadly, war is a necessary evil.
Kumar Johor Bahru
Malaysia
In response to "Kaliningrad Rejects Euro Dung" on Feb. 28.
Editor,
Please see the article on this situation in Izvestia (in Russian), where you can find more information about the subject and our position on it.
The ship is currently in Belgium and probably will be unloaded. Our lawers are analyzing the documents and, in proper time, we will take the Russian government to court. But this was not what we were aiming to do. We are disgusted by the whole situation, which is understandable for any reaonable person, by the way the Russian administration works (first giving permission, confirming it through its diplomatic service, and then saying "no" while searching for any ridiculous explanation for the decision that it can find).
We are sorry for the Kaliningrad farmers who lost their hope to start planting again and their right to a dignified life. We are sorry for the people of the Kaliningrad region, which is ranked 81st among Russia's 89 regions in attracting investment. We are sorry for the European governments that are not strong enough effectively to support their citizens, or to force another side to aknowledge and honor the official documents they issue and confirm.
Such an ostrich policy does not do any good for the administration or for foreign investors, who will never be safe in Russia. This is another blatant example of the Russian administration's lawlessness.
Victor Orlov
Director
Bimeks, Poland
In response to "Fifty Years on, Russia Still Divided on Stalin," on March 7.
Editor,
Whether tyrant or genius, one must be objective and recognize what is historical fact. Stalin did lead Soviet Union to victory in World War II. It was the near fanatical worship of Stalin that inspired your fighting men and women to heroic, sometimes superhuman, deeds, with the cries of "Za Rodinu, Za Stalina" ("For Motherland, for Stalin").
Peter the Great was a tyrant, responsible for the deaths of thousands in the building of St. Petersburg, his "Window on the West," and for ruling a country in which the peasantry was kept in serfdom/slavery. Yet your history books honor him and there are monuments to him. More recently, Tsar Nicholas II, although apparently a gentile soul, was responsible for getting Russia into a terrible war, resulting in the waste of millions of lives, and bringing ruin to his country, eventually leading to the revolutions of February and October 1917. Yet he has been rehabilitated.
No doubt, in time, Stalin's true place in Russian history will be realized.
Alex Gab
Houston, Texas
In response to "The Changing Face of Books" on March 7.
Editor,
Great story. I cannot wait to visit Dom Knigi the next time I am in St.Petersburg. I have been to the "northern capital" five times and, this time, I have another favorite haunt.
I love your city, and I am not afraid to say I love Russia and its tremendous people. I would gladly move there if I could find work in my area of specialty, drinking-water treatment.
Bill Powers
Mechanicville, New York
In response to "City Plans To Take Transportation Overground," on March 4.
Editor,
I am an Italian and live in Geneva. A few ideas. What about the historical image of the city of St. Petersburg. Would it not be better to see horses and chevaliers on the streets of the city? Just a joke.
What St. Petersburg really needs is a peripherical railway system around the center, about 10 kilometers away from center of Nevsky Prospect.
The idea for a railway system is a good one, but not in the center, where there must be free space for architecture and walks on Sunday and during other free time.
Emanuele De Angelis
Geneva, Switzerland
TITLE: Playing Russia's Hand
AUTHOR: By Grigory Yavlinsky
TEXT: IN the manner of his Soviet predecessor Andrei Gromyko, Igor Ivanov, Russia's foreign minister, now repeatedly suggests that Moscow might veto a second United Nations resolution on Iraq. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has maintained a protracted silence. According to today's Kremlinologists, this role play can mean only two things: either Russia's position has not yet been decided; or, as in previous crises, Putin has formulated it himself, but is waiting for the appropriate moment to announce it to the world.
Sensing an opportunity either way, a host of political and commercial representatives have rushed to the Kremlin clutching their price lists to lobby the president. In essence, they are urging Moscow to sell its consent to war in exchange for guarantees of Iraq's $8 billion Russian debt, for participation in the economic and commercial development of postwar Iraq, and for access to Iraqi oil reserves for Russian oligarchs.
If the Americans say yes to such a deal, Russia should keep quiet and avert its gaze, say these lobbyists. It is precisely this mercantilist attitude that preoccupies Western analysts and journalists writing about Russia.
In fact, Russian national interests lie elsewhere. Putin rightly rejected the policy of support at a price in September 2001. That was the moment when Russia at last realized that its true national interests lay not in Western hand-outs, but in much closer cooperation with the West and, above all, with the United States, in international security and the war against terrorism.
In regard to Iraq, Russia's vital interests lie neither in setting a price for its support for America nor in propping up the oil price. They lie in guaranteeing the security of Russian citizens and the stability of neighboring regions. Russia's neighbors must adhere strictly and transparently to nonproliferation and to total and irreversible destruction of biological and chemical weapons. From this viewpoint, the need to disarm Iraq is absolutely indisputable. As a goal for the international community, it is beyond question.
Besides, if Russia wants at least to be called a democratic country, it cannot be indifferent to the existence of the Baghdad regime, with its politically motivated persecution, mass repression, torture and executions. That dictatorship must be consigned to the past. Russia also has a duty to strengthen the international coalition against terrorism, to enhance United Nations authority and the effectiveness of Security Council decisions.
But does that mean war against Iraq is inevitable? No, it is still possible to avoid war - but only if there is a compromise between the supporters of war and its opponents that preserves the unity of the international community and its capacity to act decisively.
That compromise could involve the long-term deployment of a powerful international armed force along Iraq's borders. It is already obvious to everybody that only the presence of an armed contingent would allow UN inspectors to do their job effectively and demonstrate to Saddam Hussein that the time for playing one member of the international community off against another has long passed.
Of course, this plan is already being implemented. It is precisely the threat of force from the United States that has forced the Iraqi leader into cooperating with UN weapons inspectors. Over time, it should bring about full Iraqi disarmament and regime change. History proves that such regimes, like the Soviet Union, are gradually worn down when subjected to constant pressure.
What we need is the modern equivalent of the cold war, not a hot war against Hussein. After all, the combination of constant political pressure and the threat of military force have already proved effective in containing Iraq. Why abandon it now? This approach could also be used to deal with other dictatorships searching for weapons of mass destruction. North Korea has resumed its nuclear program, provoking a second crisis for the international community. And Kim Jong-il is not the last in the line of unpredictable dictators.
Russia should support the containment and erosion of the Iraqi regime, but resist a precipitous Anglo-American war. Instead, it should attempt to reassemble an international coalition in a new cold war against rogue states seeking weapons of mass destruction. That could be acceptable to the United States, Britain, France and Germany. But Moscow will not succeed through either the posturing of Ivanov or the deliberate ambiguity of Putin.
Grigory Yavlinsky is leader of the Yabloko party. He contributed this comment to the Financial Times.
TITLE: City Politics Must Watch Its Language
TEXT: BECAUSE of the day off in lieu of International Women's Day, which fell on Saturday, Monday was a tough day in The St. Petersburg Times office. Government offices and those of most businesses were closed, making it a difficult to find anyone with whom to speak about the latest news. But Monday also turned out to be disappointing as a result of one of the comments made by an official we were able to reach.
Vladimir Yeryomenko, a member of the pro-Smolny United City bloc in the Legislative Assembly, had this to say about Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko possibly taking over from Viktor Cherkesov as the presidential representative in the Northwest Region: "As a woman, Matviyenko is very emotional, which could lead to open tensions between City Hall and the Presidential Representative's Office in the future."
The whole idea of International Women's Day seems, sadly, to have been lost on Yeryomenko completely. Evaluating Matviyenko's likely influence on the political situation in the city on the basis of the relative presence of X and Y chromosomes is absurd. Not quite as absurd as some countries' representatives for countries claiming, at a 1982 meeting of the Organization of American States, that the entire Falklands War was a direct result of Margaret Thatcher's meunstral cycle, but close.
Covering politics in St. Petersburg, it is astounding the number of downright offensive statements made on a regular basis in the city. Last Tuesday, in an article concerning the City Court finding Yury Rydnik, the leader of the United City bloc, to have committed election-law violations during December's vote for the Legislative Assembly, the editorial decision was made to cut a quote from Governor Yakovlev's official spokesperson, Alexander Afanasyev. Fortunately, the choice was made easy because Afanasyev's comments made no sense in relation to the content of the article.
But the statement - "If the governor raped a five-year-old girl on his way to work, and the presidential representative did the same thing the day before, reporters would be calling to ask the governor how he enjoyed his lunch" - doesn't belong in a newspaper article, regardless of whether it addresses the subject at hand or not. The bottom line is that such a comment, like that from Yeryomenko and a disturbing number made far too regularly by politicians and their representatives here, should simply not be uttered.
While some may find this to be overly politically correct, the fact is that these people are responsible for representing their constituents, and for providing a level of public discourse on their activities that sets an example and befits their offices. Their words not only let down the people for whom they are supposed to work, but also condone attitudes that they should be helping to stamp out.
TITLE: Women Setting The Agenda in Today's Media
TEXT: THERE is no Russian woman who will not speak contemptuously of March 8, International Women's Day. And yet I know of no Russian woman who is not pleased as punch to be showered with bouquets, presents and words of love and gratitude on this day.
In the media industry these days, one frequently hears laments about the shortage of fresh ideas and qualified managers. So, at Sreda magazine, we decided to deluge our industry colleagues with new ideas and new names. We ploughed through the coursework produced by final-year students in the faculty of international journalism of MGIMO specializing in media management. After a strict review process, we produced a collection entitled "50 Ideas for Publishers." Forty nine of the 50 ideas, it turned out, belonged to the "fairer sex."
"TV journalism has long been a predominantly female preserve in this country," said Nina Zvereva, director of the Nizhny Novgorod center of television "Praktika." But is it just TV journalism?
Let's have a look. Manana Aslamazyan is director of Internews, a organization that has worked tirelessly to improve the professionalism of regional television in Russia. Olga Nikulina is president of the Union of Publishers and Distributors of Print Media and mastermind and organizer of the annual "Pressa" exhibition - the main event in the world of print media. Olga Shcherbakova is executive director of the National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters. Yulia Kazakova is executive director of the Guild of Periodical Publishers. Yelena Zelinskaya is executive director of the Media Union. Olga Yermolayeva is director of the Media Committee, an organization monitoring the quality and accuracy of television viewing ratings. Women run the Moscow headquarters and four of the five regional offices of the influential Institute for Press Development. The editors of The Moscow Times and Vedomosti are women. And I have far from exhausted the list of women across the country occupying the strategic heights of the media industry.
For us men, it is becoming increasingly hard to break through and make a career in this world dominated by women. You might think all this would be cause for sounding the alarm, protesting against gender discrimination and making appeals to male solidarity. However, things are not that simple. For example, the leadership of the Union of Journalists is an exclusively male preserve, and this is the most ineffectual of our industry organizations. They console themselves by thinking up pompous job titles, such as General Secretary. Try as you like, it is impossible to feel solidarity with them. All you can do is feel sorry for them. Which is exactly what the women, who play a key role in deciding the grant policy of many foreign charitable foundations, seem to do out of the kindness of their hearts.
No matter how you look at it, the conclusion is the same: In the media, men lose out to women not for some random reason or due to society's injustices - quite the reverse, men lose in fair and honest competition. And it is only women's endless tolerance and indulgence of our weaknesses that saves us men from feeling like completely vacuous nonentities.
Thanks must go to our dear women for their indulgence!
Alexei Pankin is the editor of Sreda, a magazine for media professionals. [www.sreda-mag.ru]
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: Gangs of D.C.
And the war came.
- Abraham Lincoln
The war is always coming, it's always here, either in utero, full fury or chaotic aftermath. The newest war - the invasion of Iraq - will come because a gang of like-minded men is willing it into being. They want it - it's as simple as that. They want what they believe this war will give them: wealth, dominion, and empire.
The ultimate goal is not Iraq - that bombed, blockaded state partially controlled by a witless thug whom the gang once succored - but domination of the world's oil supplies in the coming century, when the currently surging China and India reach their economic peak. These vast entities could eventually tilt the imbalance of world wealth away from the Anglo-American elites who have, for so long, held the high and palmy ground of privilege. But the voracious economies of the Asian behemoths will require unstinting draughts of the oil reserves now locked under the sands of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. There is oil elsewhere, yes - but nowhere else in the world are there reserves deep enough to satisfy the thirsts of China and India as they come into their own.
Therefore, it is imperative for the Anglo-American elites to dominate this indispensable resource, if they are to maintain their wonted ease beneath the palms. Or so they believe. Actually, the narrowly-concentrated wealth of the West is so staggeringly great that these elites could quite easily devote abundant resources toward developing new forms of energy, national self-sufficiency, and what used to be known in Abraham Lincoln's day as "internal improvements" - roads, schools, hospitals, parks, the extension of liberty, leisure and opportunity - and still keep their corpulent noses planted deep in the trough of their unearned riches.
But alas, they too - like the thugs they hire and fire so easily (see: Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden) - are moral idiots. They don't care about their own countries. They don't care about the hapless people they rule - except, of course, as cannon fodder or hired help. The "national interest" is what best serves the elites and their retainers.
Throughout history, elite factions have always acted in similar ways to maintain and augment their dominance. At various times, for various reasons, their interests converge and they act loosely in concert; at other times, they tear each other to shreds - killing millions of people in the process. You can see this pattern of behavior - the belligerent lust for dominance coupled with crafty temporary alliances - at work among many primate groups. Our modern "elites" (see: Iraq's Ba'athist clique, al-Qaida, the Bush Regime, the British Establishment, etc.) are simply secretions of the most primitive and ape-like elements still lurking in our brains. They're a kind of heavy scum that forms on the free-flowing, light-dazzled stream of human existence.
So, the attack on Iraq isn't really a war for oil, not in the strictest sense. The United States doesn't need Iraq's oil. In recent years, America has been carefully diversifying its own sources of foreign oil, and is no longer overly dependent on the Arab-held fields. In fact, that's one reason the long-planned attack on Iraq is coming now. Before, America couldn't risk a military takeover of one of the major oil states (minor Kuwait, of course, has been occupied since 1991): Too much could go wrong, irreplaceable supplies could be cut off. Now, however, the game is worth the candle; even in the highly unlikely event of disaster - an Arab oil embargo, a long, intractable war - the Bush Regime believes they can ride it out until the situation stabilizes by drawing on other sources: Africa, Venezuela, Russia, plus the oil still lying off America's coasts and under its few remaining wildernesses.
Iraq is not the end, but the means. What America needs - or rather, what the thugs in the Bush Regime desire - is dominance of Middle Eastern oil in order to hold the economies of China and India hostage in the coming decades. The aim is not conquest, in the classic sense; our elites are imperialists, not colonialists. They don't want to settle amongst all those funny-looking foreigners; heaven forfend! It's bad enough there are so many of them in God's country already, where, as one august national leader, Republican Representative Sue Myrick, noted recently, they "run all the convenience stores," thus posing the ever-present danger of gustatory terrorism. ("What's that white powder on my donuts? Aieee!")
No, what is sought - what is demanded, what will be enforced with human cannon fodder and treasure extorted from ordinary citizens ("You're under attack! Give us your money!") - is that the emerging powers become pliant "friends" and business partners, along the lines of Western Europe. Naturally, this will require a heavy U.S. military presence in the vicinity for generations, as in Europe (58 years and counting); naturally, as in Europe, obedience to U.S. "interests" will be mandatory - or else, as warlord Donald Rumsfeld recently threatened Germany, there will be "punishment": the threat of economic ruin. And of course, there will be the overarching "missile shield," the exciting "new generation" of nuclear weapons the Regime is developing, and the "full-spectrum dominance" of space-mounted superweapons to provide that hint of violent coercion so essential to any warm friendship.
So the game's afoot; the knives are out; the gangs are on the march. What happens next, no one can tell, but this much is certain - whatever the cost, in lives and lucre, the elites will not be paying it.
TITLE: Tensions Rise Over N. Korea Missile Test
AUTHOR: By Christopher Torchia
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea test-fired a short-range missile into the sea on Monday in what was seen as an attempt to raise tension further in the standoff over its nuclear programs and pressure the United States into negotiations.
The widely anticipated launch from a base on North Korea's east coast fit a pattern of unusual military maneuvers in recent weeks, including North Korea's interception a week ago of a U.S. reconnaissance plane.
"This is another show of North Korean brinkmanship," said Yoon Dong-min, an expert at the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul.
"They are trying to raise the stakes in the nuclear standoff, and trying to get the upper hand ahead of possible talks with the United States," Yoon said.
North Korea wants a nonaggression treaty and economic aid from the United States, but Washington says the UN Security Council should handle the nuclear problem.
In Washington, top officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush said Sunday the time still isn't ripe for one-on-one talks with North Korea, and any lasting solution to the nuclear dispute will need the support of Russia, China and other countries.
"I think eventually we will be talking to North Korea, but we're not going to simply fall into what I believe is bad practice of saying the only way you can talk to us is directly, when it affects other nations in the region," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition."
Powell, on Fox News Sunday, said that during his visit to the United Nations last week, he worked with diplomats to develop a multinational approach to North Korea.
Democrats are pressing the Bush administration to begin direct talks immediately.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on ABC's "This Week" that the United States isn't afraid to talk, "but we need to do so in a way that will bring maximum pressure on North Korea to actually this time not just freeze its weapons of mass destruction, but begin to dismantle them."
There had been indications that North Korea was planning to fire a missile. The Pentagon earlier cited a North Korean warning to ships to stay out of a sector off the east coast from Saturday to Tuesday.
Major Kim Ki-Beom, a spokesperson at the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the missile was believed to be an anti-ship missile similar to one that North Korea test-fired on Feb. 24, the eve of the inauguration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
South Korean officials said the second missile was launched from a pad at Sinsang-ri and flew 110 kilometers. It had a range of 160 kilometers.
South Korea was trying to determine whether the new test was successful. It had said the earlier one was a failure since it appeared to have exploded in midair due to defects.
The United States had sought to minimize the significance of the earlier missile test, saying it involved a small weapon and not one of North Korea's stockpile of long-range ballistic missiles.
U.S. and South Korean officials are more concerned about a possible North Korean test of a Taepodong-2 missile, which analysts believe is capable of reaching parts of the United States, though there are widespread doubts about its reach and accuracy. In 1998, North Korea test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan and into the Pacific.
North Korea has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting an attack, and says its military maneuvers are defensive.
In its first public comment on the March 2 plane interception, a state-run North Korean newspaper criticized the South Korean military for objecting to the maneuver off the North's east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
Yonhap cited a North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, as saying that the dispatch of fighter jets to intercept the U.S. plane was a "just act of the right to self-defense."
Citing a senior defense official, The New York Times reported that a North Korean pilot made the internationally recognized hand signals to follow him in an apparent attempt to take the U.S. crew hostage.
North Korean fighters illuminated the U.S. plane with targeting radar, but there was no hostile fire. The U.S. plane broke off its mission and returned to its base in Japan.
Rodong Sinmun also noted a statement by the South Korean Defense Ministry on Friday that expressed deep concern about the North Korean action and urged its neighbor's military to act with restraint.
"If South Korean authorities are at all interested in peace, they should speak out to the foreign power, the United States, which is threatening peace," the newspaper said.
For decades, North Korea has tried to undermine the alliance between Washington and Seoul with appeals for Korean solidarity in the face of what it calls foreign interference. Washington keeps 37,000 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.
TITLE: Palestinian Parliament Approves Post of PM
AUTHOR: By Ibrahim Hazboun
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian parliament on Monday approved the new position of prime minister as part of reforms sought by the United States, Europe and Israel to curb Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's near absolute powers.
However, it appears the Palestinian leader will retain control over two key issues - security and peace talks with Israel - while the new prime minister will deal largely with internal affairs, including naming and supervising cabinet ministers.
The power-sharing agreement, worked out last week by Arafat and his appointee for prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, falls short of demands that a new prime minister effectively replace Arafat as the chief peace negotiator.
Arafat reluctantly agreed last month to name a prime minister, after balking at the idea - which has become popular among Palestinians as well - for months. His critics remain skeptical about Arafat's intentions, saying that while the appointment of a prime minister could be presented as genuine reform, they expect the Palestinian leader to put up a fight over relinquishing power.
"It would be a radical change for someone other than Arafat to be exercising broad powers," legislator Ziad Abu Amr said Monday. "It don't think it will be easy for this prime minister to extract power from President Arafat."
There was no immediate reaction from Israel, where officials have welcomed Abbas' appointment but have been skeptical that he would wrest real power from Arafat.
Arafat opened Monday's parliament session with an hour-long, often rambling speech. He revisited familiar themes, including accusations that Israel's military strikes against Palestinian militants amount to "state terrorism," and that Israel is sabotaging peace efforts. He also said he opposes attacks on civilians.
After the speech, legislators approved the creation of the position of prime minister by a vote of 64-3, with four abstentions. Later in the day, parliament was to begin debating the authorities of the new job and pass the needed legislation.
Easy approval of the creation of the position had been expected; a majority of the 88 members of parliament are from Arafat's Fatah movement, which has been pushing for reform and had urged Arafat to share power.
Abbas was also expected to win the support of parliament. Fatah leaders had demanded that Abbas, a senior official in the movement, be chosen for the job.
Seventy four of the lawmakers participated in the session at Arafat's compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Ten took part via video conference from Gaza City, having been barred by Israel from traveling to the West Bank. Israel has said those 10 have been involved in violent activities.
Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy to the Mideast, said the international community had hoped the prime minister would have a key role in negotiations. There was an expectation that "Abu Mazen would be fully empowered to go back to the table and start negotiation with a 100 percent authorization from the legitimate Palestinian organ," Roed-Larsen told Israel Army Radio.
TITLE: 'Yes' Vote in Malta Gives EU Expansion Program a Boost
AUTHOR: By Frances D'Emilio
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VALLETTA, Malta - Tiny Malta has given a big boost to the European Union's ambitious expansionist vision, with its residents voting to join the bloc next year in the first such verdict among the 10 countries on the verge of entering.
EU headquarters in Brussels had been awaiting the outcome on Sunday of Malta's referendum, especially since recent times have seen resolve among the candidate countries to join weakened by worries that they would be overshadowed politically by the major EU countries like Germany, France and Britain.
Going into Saturday's referendum on this Mediterranean island group closer to northern Africa than to mainland Europe, citizens appeared to be split over whether membership would be helpful or harmful to their nation's future.
Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, a conservative who swept to power in 1998 on a pro-membership platform, pretty much staked his government's credibility on yes votes' prevailing.
Archrival Alfred Sant, a socialist who contended that Malta would lose jobs when forced to sacrifice protectionist measures to qualify for EU entrance, campaigned hard for a no vote.
Although yes won out over no, 53.65 percent to 46.35 percent, Sant refused to take no for an answer, insisting that the vote was too close for this country of barely 400,000 people. He immediately challenged the prime minister to call elections far ahead of their due date in September.
European Commission President Romano Prodi said the result boded well for ratification in other countries.
"This is a choice for stability and growth, as well as for the peaceful reunification of Europe and the European people," Prodi said in a statement.
Maltese supporters of membership took to the streets in joy, waving the EU's blue flag with its gold stars, honking car horns and shouting in glee.
Other supporters, noting that an early election in Malta might give the socialist Labor party one last chance to yank the country off the path of EU membership in favor of less-demanding partnership, were more subdued.
TITLE: Ivory Coast Rebels Make Offer
AUTHOR: By Kwasi Kpodo
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ACCRA, Ghana - Ivory Coast's rebels said Saturday they would cede key cabinet positions in a national reconciliation government if the West African country's president gives up rights to choose those ministers.
The rebel offer, if accepted by President Laurent Gbagbo, could open the way for a new, rebel-included government and thereby remove a hurdle blocking a French-brokered January peace accord meant to end Ivory Coast's five-month rebellion.
Rebels and the country's top political bosses met this week alongside officials from the United Nations and a West African economic bloc, currently presided over by Ghana's President John Kufuor, who called the meeting.
After two days of talks, rebels agreed to forgo demands for control of any new government's defense and interior ministries, providing Gbagbo allows those cabinet members to be nominated by new Prime Minister Seydou Diarra, appointed as part of the Jan. 24 peace pact.
The insurgents presented their conditions in a statement co-signed by the other parties to the talks.
Gbagbo, who did not attend the meeting, has insisted he alone will name the cabinet. The rebel statement said that if Gbagbo agrees by March 14 to their conditions, they would be satisfied with two lower ministries. The statement did not state any consequences if the deadline passes. A 15-member council drawn from rebels, the government, political parties and Ivory Coast's security forces would then decide whether to ratify the cabinet picks, the statement said.
Ivory Coast has been split into rebel-and government-held regions since a failed Sept. 19 coup erupted into a civil war by three rebel factions.
More than 1,000 people have died and 1 million been forced to flee their homes in the fighting. Some 3,000 French troops are enforcing a fragile cease-fire in their former colony and protecting their citizens and other foreign nationals.
The French army said it was involved in a clash with "armed elements" early Saturday near the town of Duekoue in western Ivory Coast, and two French soldiers suffered minor injuries.
French army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Philippe Perret said soldiers fought a brief battle with unidentified "armed elements" between the towns of Duekoue and Daloa in western Ivory Coast.
"They tried to filter through and cross the line maintained by the French army, but they were pushed back," Perret said of the assailants. "We don't know who they are."
TITLE: Gunmen Shoot 2 on Philippines Bus
AUTHOR: By Teresa Cerojano
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MANILA, Philippines - Suspected Muslim separatist rebels seized a bus in the southern Philippines on Monday, and two people were killed before the gunmen escaped, authorities said.
The bus was traveling between Cotabato City and Davao on the southern island of Mindanao when about 200 gunmen fired on the vehicle and forced about 40 passengers into a nearby school, said Mayor Farida Malingco of nearby Pikit town, 920 kilometers southeast of Manila.
Officials at the scene said the gunmen said they were rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and robbed the passengers of mobile phones, money and other belongings.
Last week, suspected members of the same rebel group killed 21 people and injured more than 100 in a bomb blast at Davao airport, the country's worst terrorist attack in three years. The group has been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines for three decades.
The gunmen fled on Monday as security forces approached about two hours after the seizure, Malingco said.
One passenger - a soldier who was in civilian clothes but had a military ID - was shot in the head and died.
A pro-government militiaman was also killed and five villagers wounded as troops, backed by two helicopter gunships, chased the attackers in Takepan village, about one mile from the attack site, officials said.
Malingco said the other passengers were unharmed, along with other civilians in three cars also seized by the gunmen.
"The civilians don't know the motive but they were just held there," she said, adding that there were no negotiations and the gunmen made no demands.
Army Captain Onting Alon, deputy spokesperson of the army's 6th Infantry Division in the area, said he suspected the Moro rebels in the incident.
Rebel spokesperson Eid Kabalu denied involvement, but acknowledged the guerrillas were active in the area.
The rebels are suspected of carrying out bombings in the south to divert a military offensive. Last month, government troops overran a guerrilla stronghold in Pikit, killing at least 160 rebels.
TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: Blair Faces Fines
LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to register his family car for London's congestion charge and could face fines, his office said Sunday.
As a resident of central London, the prime minister qualifies for a 90 -percent discount on the $8 daily charge, introduced last month to help ease the traffic gridlock that often paralyzes the capital.
His Downing Street office said Blair had been paying at the discounted rate, but had not registered his vehicle with City Hall because "he has been busy."
"If there are any fines to pay, then he will, of course, pay them," said a spokesperson on customary condition of anonymity, adding that the matter had now been "sorted out."
The spokesperson declined to comment on a report in The Sunday Times newspaper that Blair could face fines of more than $1,600.
Bombers Convicted
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Four Algerians accused of plotting to bomb a French Christmas market were convicted Monday of conspiring to murder and sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 12 years.
The four were also convicted of conspiring to plant a bomb and of weapons violations, capping a trial that opened under intense scrutiny last year but failed to establish solid links to al-Qaida.
Prosecutors claimed the defendants were part of a network of predominantly North African extremists called the Nonaligned Mujahideen, with ties to al-Qaida. But the government dropped charges of belonging to a terrorist organization in January to speed the trial.
Salim Boukari received the highest sentence, 12 years, followed by Fouhad Sabour, 11 1/2 years. Both had denied intent to kill, insisting the group had planned to target an empty synagogue in Strasbourg, France.
Alleged co-organizer Aeroubi Beandalis - the only one to admit to charges that the cell intended to bomb holiday revelers outside the Strasbourg Cathedral on New Year's Eve 2000 - received 10 years.
Lamine Maroni, who remained silent throughout the trial, was sentenced to 11 years.
A fifth suspect was dropped from the trial in August due to lack of evidence.
Turkey To Vote?
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's top politician, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, poised to become prime minister, said his country needs more assurances from Washington on the future of Iraq before agreeing to base U.S. troops for a possible war.
Erdogan has backed the deployment of American soldiers to Turkey and hinted he would seek a fresh vote on the matter after parliament on March 1 rejected basing of 62,000 troops here to open a northern front against Iraq.
But in an interview after Sunday's sweeping local-election victory that won him a seat in parliament, Erdogan appeared in no hurry to resubmit a motion on deployment.
"I cannot give a date. There are also steps that the United States has to take," he said.
Erdogan said Turkey, a key U.S. ally and the only NATO member bordering Iraq, was still seeking assurances from Washington "on the role" it would play post-Saddam Hussein. He did not elaborate.
Turkey, which fears northern Iraqi Kurds may declare independence in the aftermath of a war, has been pressing for a say in the future of Iraq if Hussein is ousted. Secession by Iraqi Kurds could inspire Turkey's rebel Kurds, who for 15 years have been fighting for autonomy.
"What will Turkey's role be? If Turkey has no role in this, why would Turkey share such a risk? This must be clarified," Erdogan said.
Columbia Evidence
HOUSTON (AP) - In the moments before Columbia broke apart over Texas, an astronaut may have tried to override the shuttle's autopilot, according to officials familiar with an analysis of the final bits of data.
But one official close to the investigation stressed: "The data are really suspect. They can't ensure the integrity of any of the data, and some of the stuff that they're saying may be inaccurate or misinterpreted."
A NASA spokesperson, Eileen Hawley, also said any attempted override could have been unintentional; in other words, one of the pilots may have bumped the control stick.
The new information was presented to the Columbia accident investigation board Sunday. ABC News reported the data showed one of the crew may have tried to take over the spaceship before its destruction during its Feb. 1 re-entry.
For weeks, in an attempt to reconstruct what went wrong, NASA and other experts have been analyzing data transmitted in the last 32 seconds of flight. The final two seconds of data, which follow 25 seconds of nothing, indicate there was an input to disengage the autopilot system, the official said.
The computer-operated autopilot never went off, the official noted, possibly because there was not enough time for it to do so - or perhaps because there was no attempt by the crew to override it.
"Had you had more data after two seconds, you might know whether it would have gone off or not," the official said. It is difficult if not impossible to know "whether that was unintentional or whether it was intentional or whether it even occurred at all," the official said.
Jinxed Rocks?
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tourists who have taken home chunks of rock from Uluru, Australia's most sacred Aboriginal site, are sending them back because they believe the souvenirs have brought them bad luck, park rangers said on Friday.
The Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park, which oversees the huge red monolith - previously known as Ayer's Rock - in the desert of central Australia, said some of the pieces returned by post weighed as much as 7.5 kilograms
"Everyone seems to say that they have had bad luck," park manager Brooke Watson told the Australian Associated Press news agency. "[Rock pieces] come from all over and they just keep coming every day."
It is illegal to take away a piece of Uluru, which stands 415 kilometers from the outback town of Alice Springs and is famed for the palate of deep reds that tinges its 344-meter flanks in the setting sun.
Watson could not be reached, but a park spokesperson said many of the rocks came back with letters. Every now and then, park rangers and Uluru's traditional Aboriginal owners hold ceremonies to put the rocks back where they belong.
Many others end up being destroyed because of Australia's tough quarantine laws covering the import of soil and rocks.
Around 500,000 foreign and Australian tourists visit Uluru every year, many choosing to climb the hallowed monolith despite the objections of local Aborigines.
TITLE: Grady and Garnett Provide the Heroics
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - In a season where the NBA's superstars seem to top each other on a nightly basis, Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett turned in two more monumental performances Sunday night.
McGrady scored 43 points despite going to the bench for good late in the third quarter of Orlando's 111-98 home victory over Denver. He outscored the Nuggets 37-32 in the first half and finished 13-for-24 from the field, including 6-for-12 from 3-point range, and 11-for-14 from the foul line.
"It didn't matter who they were going to put on me, they were at my mercy, because I was in a rhythm all night," McGrady said after scoring 40 points or more for the ninth time this season. "And, once I get into that rhythm, I feel like nobody can stop me and that was the case tonight."
Garnett was not to be outdone. He had his fourth triple-double of the season, including the go-ahead baseline jumper with 1:04 to play, and Minnesota won in Phoenix, beating the Suns 105-98.
Garnett finished with 29 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists to lead a balanced Minnesota offense. All five starters scored in double figures for the Timberwolves, who outscored Phoenix 9-2 over the final 1:04.
After three quarters, Garnett had 25 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, but Minnesota's superstar wasn't concentrating on individual statistics.
"I'm a winning kind of guy. My teammates know not to come to come to me with that kind of stuff until the game is well in hand," Garnett said. "But no, I can't ever remember having a triple-double after three quarters."
McGrady hit 12-of-17 shots, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range, for 37 of Orlando's first-half 63 points. He set a Magic record for most points in a half, breaking the mark of 34 set by Shaquille O'Neal in 1994. McGrady's 25 points in the second quarter also eclipsed the team mark for points in a quarter.
New York 97, Washington 96. Michael Jordan finished one point shy of 40 in what was likely his final game at Madison Square Garden as New York blew all but one point of a late 15-point lead and came away with a victory Sunday.
"We were throwing the ball all over the place. We weren't executing the trap," Latrell Sprewell said. "When you're up, you have a tendency to not be as focused. That was the case with us."
Jordan was brilliant in the first half, scoring 26, and quiet for most of the second half until the game went down to the final minute.
That's when the Knicks nearly had a complete collapse, with the NBA's leading free-throw shooter, Allan Houston, missing a pair from the line with 0:18.8 left and Shandon Anderson making only one of two with 0:05.4 remaining.
That left Washington trailing 97-94, but the Knicks wouldn't let Jordan go for the tie. Sprewell fouled Jordan immediately after he received the inbounds pass, forcing him to shoot two from the line.
Jordan made both with 0:04.2 remaining, and the Knicks were able to run out the clock with some quick passing off the inbounds play.
L.A. Lakers 106, Philadelphia 92. Shaquille O'Neal, with 39 points, again seemed virtually unstoppable, and the Los Angeles Lakers again look like the three-time defending NBA champions.
Kobe Bryant added 28 points and nine assists for the Lakers, winning for the ninth time in 10 games and 16th in their last 19. Now 35-26, they were a .500 team just over a month ago.
Allen Iverson scored 30 points on 12-of-28 shooting, and Keith Van Horn had 19 points for Philadelphia, losing for only the second time in 13 games since the All-Star break.
O'Neal went 14-of-24 from the field and 11-of-19 from the free throw line, and Iverson said the Lakers' center was simply overpowering.
"He's the hardest man in the league to guard. Nobody can guard him. If you double on him, you have so many guys out there just licking their chops for the opportunity to hit a wide-open shot," Iverson said. "Just imagine if they kept throwing him the ball on every play? Nobody could do anything."
Sacramento 107, Indiana 88. Chris Webber had 16 points, 12 rebounds and six assists and the Kings snapped a five-game losing streak to Indiana.
Indiana, which lost its fourth straight and ninth in a row on the road, played without fiery forward Ron Artest, who was suspended Sunday for one game after accumulating six flagrant-foul points, and center Brad Miller, out with a sore left foot.
(For other results, see Scorecard.)
TITLE: Real, Juve Maintain Leads, Sociedad Rebounds With Win
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MADRID - Real Madrid got goals from Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane to hold its one-point lead in Spain's Primera Liga, while Juventus needed a late winner from David Trezeguet on Sunday to restore its three-point edge in Italy.
In Germany, Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 for the second time in a week. Giovane Elber scored two goals and set up Claudio Pizarro for the third.
Real Madrid, which took over the top spot from Real Sociedad last week, beat Racing de Santander 4-1, as Javier Portillo and Jose Maria "Guti" Gutierrez also scored.
Sociedad had little trouble with Alaves, winning just its second league match in six tries 3-1 on goals from Darko Kovacevic, Nihat Kahveci and Valery Karpin.
In Udine, Trezeguet scored in the 84th minute as defending Italian champion Juventus beat 10-player Udinese 1-0. Giampiero Pinzi was ejected in the 60th minute.
Spain. Turkish winger Nihat Kahveci, who missed last week's 3-0 defeat at Valladolid, was the catalyst to the Sociedad revival, when he carved open the Alaves defense to set up Darko Kovacevic for his team's first goal on 17 minutes.
He then added the finishing touch to score a superbly-fashioned second a little more than 20 minutes later and Russian midfielder Valery Karpin set Sociedad on its way to a comfortable win with another goal before the first half was out.
The result means that the Basque team reclaims second spot from Deportivo la Coruna and is now just a point behind leader Real Madrid, which strolled to a 4-1 win over Racing Santander on Saturday.
Valencia lost ground on the leading trio after it slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Atletico Madrid and is a further two points behind the Galicians in fourth.
But the defending champion has a comfortable eight-point advantage over fifth-placed Celta Vigo, which suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at second-from-last-place Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
Italy. Juve coach Marcello Lippi left French striker Trezeguet, who finished last season as Serie A's top scorer but has been struggling for form after returning from a knee injury, on the bench to start with a strike partnership of Marco di Vaio and Marcelo Zalayeta.
Despite early pressure, the defending Italian champion was unable to break the deadlock in an arid first half, coming closest in the 12th minute when Udinese keeper Morgan de Sanctis blocked a Zalayeta header from close range.
The balance of the game, however, changed in the 61st minute when midfielder Giampiero Pinzi was red-carded for a tackle on Juve's Edgar Davids.
Lippi brought on Trezeguet for Zalayeta and added Chilean striker Marcelo Salas to bolster his attack as Udinese desperately tried to close out the match.
But in the 84th minute, left winger Gianluca Zambrotta stole the ball from Udinese striker Roberto Muzzi and sent in a low cross for Trezeguet to tip, right-footed, past De Sanctis.
With his side in urgent need of a win to put pressure on Juve and Inter, Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti abandoned his usual single-striker formation to deploy both Filippo Inzaghi and Andriy Shevchenko in attack.
Yet while the home side enjoyed the lion's share of possession, they could not find a way past Chievo's alert keeper Cristiano Lupatelli, who pulled off a series of remarkable saves to keep the scores level.
In the first minute of injury time Milan wasted their best opportunity to win the game. Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf lashed the ball against the post and the rebound fell to playmaker Rui Costa, alone in front of goal.
But the Portuguese international flicked his shot wide for Milan to record their third consecutive draw at the San Siro stadium.
England. Sheffield United upset Leeds United 1-0 and was joined in the FA Cup semifinals by Watford and Southampton on Sunday. Southampton ensured there would be 50-percent representation from the top flight in Monday's last-four draw by beating first division Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 as all three home teams won the Sunday quarterfinal ties.
Defending champion Arsenal was held 2-2 by Chelsea in an all-Premiership tie between last year's finalists at Highbury on Saturday and face a replay at Stamford Bridge on March 25. Watford beat fellow first division Burnley 2-0 at Vicarage Road to reach the last four for the fourth time, the last time in 1987.
Playmaker Chris Marsden put Saints ahead in the 56th minute with an overhead kick from a corner, the ball sailing past goalkeeper Matt Murray, who appeared to be distracted by striker James Beattie. Southampton went two ahead when Wolves captain Paul Butler put the ball in his own net in the 81st minute after a teasing cross from the right by substitute Jo Tessem.
In Sheffield, striker Steve Kabba scored 12 minutes from time to give United, which has won the trophy four times, an upset victory over Leeds and a place in the semi-finals for the 13th time. England defender Danny Mills blocked a shot from midfielder Michael Tonge but Kabba volleyed the rebound low into the far bottom left corner.
(For other results, see Scorecard.)
TITLE: Tar Heels End Year With Big Victory
AUTHOR: By David Droschak
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina - North Carolina dived head first back into its rivalry with Duke on Sunday. The Tar Heels salvaged their up-and-down season and three-year slump against their arch rival by beating the 10th-ranked Blue Devils 82-79 in a wild ending to the regular season.
"We've been taking punches to the face all year and we've come off the mat each time," said North Carolina coach Matt Doherty, who was involved in a shouting-shoving incident during the game. "We came off the mat today and played a great game against a great opponent. What a gutsy effort. To me it was one of those classic Carolina-Duke games."
The Tar Heels went a program-worst 8-20 last year and lost to the Blue Devils by 29 at home before rebounding this season with a 16-14 record with one of the country's youngest teams.
"To double the win total from last year, I think that shows a lot about this team," Doherty said. "And again, this schedule is one of the toughest in the country."
Rashad McCants scored 26 points and Raymond Felton added 18 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists as the Tar Heels snapped a six-game losing skid to Duke, which saw its streak of 12-win ACC seasons end at six.
"I just wanted to be more aggressive and make a mental statement," said McCants, who scored his most points since getting 26 against Maryland on Jan. 22. "I went out and didn't think about anything but just playing."
A 10-meter shot by Dahntay Jones, who led Duke with 22 points, that would have tied the game came just after the buzzer sounded. The officials watched TV replays to confirm the late shot as thousands of fans stormed the floor at the Smith Center.
"I was getting ready to drop to my knees and cry," North Carolina's Jawad Williams said. "But it was good feeling that it didn't count."
There were 21 lead changes before a layup by McCants and a long 3-pointer by Felton gave the Tar Heels (16-14, 6-10) a 68-64 lead with 7:03 left.
The Blue Devils then went to a zone, seldom employed by Mike Krzyzweski, to slow down North Carolina's offense and tied it 72-72 with 2:23 remaining. McCants then hit a 3-pointer and Jackie Manuel added a driving layup for a five-point lead.
North Carolina sealed it from the free throw line, going 5-of-6 over the final 0:24 . Felton and David Noel, a 38-percent foul shooter, each made two while clinging to a two-point lead.
"This whole year we've been going through the same thing," Duke captain Chris Duhon said. "We just can't play 20 minutes of basketball and expect to win. It has to be a full 40 minutes and until we get that concept we're just going to be a good team, we're not going to be an outstanding team."
TITLE: Senators Hand Sliding Penguins Ninth-Straight Loss
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: OTTAWA - Despite facing Pittsburgh for the second straight night, Marian Hossa and the Ottawa Senators almost felt like they were playing a completely different team.
Hossa scored his 39th goal and added an assist as Ottawa beat Pittsburgh 4-2 Sunday night to extend the Penguins' losing streak to nine games.
Mario Lemieux was rested and didn't play for the Penguins, who got goals from Eric Meloche and Dick Tarnstrom as they tied the second-longest losing streak in team history.
"It's definitely different," Hossa said. "They've got respect when there's a Mario - he's somebody. Without him, they've got a hard-working team, so it's something different."
Mike Fisher, Zdeno Chara and Radek Bonk also scored for Ottawa, which beat Pittsburgh for the second night in a row to retain its lead atop the NHL's overall standings with 94 points.
Meloche, recalled from the minors, got his first NHL goal on a power play 4:18 into the third, just 1:18 after Chara scored to put Ottawa up 3-0. Tarnstrom made it a one-goal game 3:08 later when he scored his sixth.
"We kind of gave them some life there," Senators defenseman Wade Redden said. "We had to settle it down and get back to keeping it simple. We just tightened up a bit and kept working, and ended up getting another power play and making good on that."
Bonk scored the Senators' second power-play goal of the game to restore Ottawa's two-goal lead.
"I think we dominated them," Hossa said. "We thought it was going to be easy after we made it 3-0, and all of a sudden they got two quick goals. But we found a way again to win. We said, 'That's enough. We have to play our style of game,' and we finished pretty strong."
Pittsburgh, which was able to dress just 19 players after trading Randy Robitaille earlier in the day, last lost nine in a row during Lemieux's rookie season in 1984-85. The Penguins had a team-record 11-game losing streak in 1983.
"Everybody's kind of down, and no confidence at all," Penguins forward Martin Straka said. "But the last 40 minutes ... nobody gave up."
Hossa got his first in eight games to open the scoring. With goalie Sebastien Caron sprawled out stopping Shane Hnidy's point shot, Hossa picked up a loose puck from the left edge of the crease. He switched to his forehand to take advantage of an open left side.
"I was having chances before, I just couldn't put it in," Hossa said. "Today, I got a garbage goal, so it's nice."
Fisher got his 15th goal in the second period when he poked in a puck that Caron failed to control to put the Senators up 2-0.
Pittsburgh, which had just two shots in the first, didn't get its third shot of the game until nearly midway through the second.
(For other results, see Scorecard.)