SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #855 (23), Friday, March 28, 2003
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TITLE: Billionaire Looking For Help From SPS
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's $8-billion man, Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, brought Union of Right Forces leader Boris Nemtsov on side Thursday to step up the pressure on the government to approve long-fought-for plans to allow the construction of privately owned pipelines.
At a packed Moscow conference Thursday, Khodorkovsky and Nemtsov joined forces to lash out at the government for slowing down on rooting out corruption through administrative reform and failing to do enough to support small and medium businesses, which, they warned, could lead to growing unemployment and social unrest.
And, at the same time, they called for a decision to be made on pipeline construction as a key way of pulling the economy out of stagnation.
"A political decision needs to be made to allow Russian companies to build private oil and gas pipelines," Nemtsov told the conference, which was called "Strategy for Russia." "This will bring $100 billion of investment into the economy without the state spending a kopeck," he said, adding that this would later trickle down into other sectors of the economy.
In a sweeping speech in which he criticized the government for a whole host of other failings, such as dragging its feet on building a professional army, cracking down on the press, and leaving the healthcare and housing systems on the brink of collapse, Nemtsov singled out the construction of private pipelines as an effective way to turn around the economy and make Russia a global economic power.
"This would change the entire economic landscape of the country," he later told reporters as the television cameras rolled. "It would change the geopolitical position of Russia. It would allow Russia to boost exports to 100 million tons annually. Then it would become more important than Saudi Arabia."
Khodorkovsky, who acknowledged in an interview that he has helped fund the Union of Right Forces this year, said he would continue discussions with the leading lights of Russian business and economists to plot a strategy for Russia's development by the fall - just in time for the run-up to parliamentary elections. He slammed the government for failing to stick to the 10-year strategy Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref had plotted ahead of President Vladimir Putin's election. He said that had left Russia without direction.
The "Strategy for Russia" conference came a day after Putin met with leaders of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and urged them not to think just about winning seats in the State Duma but to play a more active role in formulating strategy for Russia's development.
A battle has been brewing between the state and Russia's powerful privately owned oil majors ever since Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in January knocked down the oil tycoons' plans to build a privately owned pipeline to the Arctic port of Murmansk for shipments to the United States by saying the pipeline system had to remain in state hands.
Since then, the government has delayed a key decision on whether to back plans crafted long ago by Khodorkovsky to build a pipeline from east Siberia to Daqing in China or to approve plans forwarded by state-owned pipeline monopoly Trasneft to build a pipeline to the Pacific port of Nakhodka.
Analysts have said the pipeline spat is a growing sign of strain between the oligarchs and the government, which could lead to sparks ahead of elections. The oligarchs had largely kept mum on policy after Putin came to power and warned them to stay out of politics.
"The oil companies had come to look at Putin as one of the reasons why they had become more acceptable [in the world]," said Christopher Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank, citing the political stability that Putin has brought to Russia. "Right now, however, it seems there could be more tension. The pipeline issue is a big agenda item that could make things interesting leading up to elections."
Khodorkovsky told the conference that building new pipelines was a way to make sure the state does not "dramatically" lose revenues in an expected oil price downturn next year.
He said he expected oil prices to fall to around $18 to $21 for Urals blend next year, a drop of a third from current prices. He warned that the state could lose 40 percent or $6 billion in budget revenues because of this, while the economy would lose $15 billion from GDP.
"This would be a serious blow," Khodorkovsky said, which, however, could be avoided if the government would only pave the way for a significant hike in production from 380 million tons now to 500 million tons by building new export pipelines. He said this would reduce transport costs by a third because oil majors were now forced to bypass the gridlocked pipeline system and use expensive rail shipments.
He warned that Russia's spurt of economic growth driven by the oil sector over the last few years was now at an end. "These six months are the last," he said.
He said that in 2002, a year of high oil prices, Russia's oil companies' earnings stood at $57 billion. He said $22 billion of that amount went to the state in taxes and tariffs, while $15 billion was spent on production, $9 billion on transportation, $10 billion on investments and $2 billion on dividends.
"If no decision is taken [on building pipelines] it will lead to these dramatic losses. [The delay has been caused by] questions of politikanstvo, personal ambitions and corruption," he said.
Khodorkovsky also slammed the government in his speech for not doing enough to help the development of small and medium businesses. "If the government doesn't deal with this, there could be growing unemployment, which socially could be very dangerous," he warned.
In comments to journalists at the close of the conference, he said there was no difference whether the state owned the new pipelines or whether they would be owned by private companies. He said the main thing was that the government stopped delaying a decision.
Nemtsov, however, put things more bluntly. "Khodorkovsky is a businessperson who can't admit these things, he has to be able to continue working tomorrow. But I can [call for private pipelines] because I am a politician," he said. "If state-owned Transneft remains the sole owner of the pipeline system, there will be nothing. The state has no money."
Presidential economic adviser Andrei Illarionov has been vocal in supporting the bid for privately owned pipelines. He said two weeks ago there should be no monopolies in the pipeline business. "A monopoly corrupts and an absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely," he said.
As the rift over pipelines continues, speculation has been rife that Khodorkovsky may start his own political career in time for elections in 2008. On Thursday, however, he denied his appearance at Nemtsov's conference marked the start of his political career. "I am here to talk about a very narrow issue," he said. "Just about oil."
TITLE: Ivanov: Wait on Ratifying Arms Treaty
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan and Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned the United States on Wednesday not to start a propaganda war against Russia and ridiculed Washington's efforts to portray the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq as a war of liberation.
As well as that outburst of criticism reminiscent of the Cold War, Ivanov called for the ratification of a U.S.-Russian arms reduction treaty to be delayed until the flare-up in tensions between the two countries over Iraq subsides.
"Maybe now is not the right moment psychologically to bring this document up for ratification," Ivanov said in a speech to the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.
While calling for the postponement, Ivanov was careful to stress the importance of eventually ratifying the Moscow Treaty, which Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush signed last May. The agreement requires Russia and the United States to cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about two thirds.
"This treaty answers Russia's interests. The Foreign Ministry believes that this document should be ratified, and we will present it for ratification," Ivanov said.
The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, put the ratification of the treaty on the backburner last week.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow conceded Wednesday that the war in Iraq has led to "serious tensions" in U.S.-Russian relations but promised: "We will do everything we can to minimize the damage," Interfax reported.
He said the Moscow Treaty was important for both the United States and Russia, and that Russia would soon ratify it. The U.S. Congress ratified the treaty earlier this month.
The treaty needs to be ratified by both houses of parliament. Just last week, pro-Kremlin lawmakers such as Mikhail Margelov, the chairperson of the Federation Council's international affairs committee, were expressing hope that it would be ratified within days despite the tensions over Iraq.
Those hopes faded Wednesday, as the more reserved Federation Council followed the Duma's lead and passed a resolution condemning the war.
After Ivanov's critical speech, senators even amended the resolution to include stronger language such as the word "aggression" - despite a protest by Margelov that the word should be used only if the war was condemned by the UN Security Council.
In his speech, Ivanov reiterated Russia's position that, by waging war without the UN Security Council's blessing, the U.S.-led coalition is "in violation of international law."
He also said the war has become a threat to international stability.
Ivanov then slammed the United States for growing civilian casualties in Iraq and mocked Bush's pre-war pledge that the day of liberation for the Iraqi people was coming.
"It is becoming clear that the attempts to present the military action against Iraq as a triumphant campaign for the liberation of the Iraqi people with minimal casualties and destruction are far from the reality," Ivanov said.
The foreign minister repeated the Kremlin's stance that the Iraq crisis should be returned to the UN Security Council, and called for the United Nations to lead humanitarian relief efforts in Iraq. The Security Council began a debate Wednesday over the UN's humanitarian role in Iraq.
After condemning the war, Ivanov criticized the Bush administration for airing allegations that Russian companies had supplied Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime with defense equipment in violation of a UN arms embargo.
"We are seriously concerned about attempts by certain circles in the United States to drag Russia into an information war over Iraq by making unfounded allegations that Russian companies have supplied Iraq with some defense equipment," Ivanov said.
The Bush administration last week accused Russia of failing to stop sales to Iraq of night-vision goggles, navigation jammers and anti-tank missiles by three Russian companies. A U.S. diplomat on Wednesday confirmed a Sunday report in The Washington Post that identified two of the companies as KBP of Tula and Moscow's Aviakonversiya and said Aviakonversiya had personnel in Iraq during the first days of the war. Aviakonversiya and KBP deny the claims.
"We have very hard information that directly contradicts what has been said and we stand by that information," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.
He said the Bush administration lodged an official complaint in fall 2002. But he stressed that Washington only decided to go public with the accusations now because of its increasing frustration over Moscow's failure to stop the sales - not because of Moscow's opposition to the war in Iraq.
"We got progressively more frustrated that the Russian side was not investigating the cases seriously enough. And so it was at that point that we decided to express a little of that discontent publicly," the diplomat said at a press briefing in Moscow.
Bush complained about the sales during a telephone conversation with Putin on Monday. Putin denied that Russian companies might have breached UN sanctions, and then tried to turn the tables by presenting Bush with "questions on similar problems that have not been answered yet," according to a Kremlin account of the phone call.
The Kremlin statement did not elaborate, but Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov hinted that the problems might include the alleged sale of nuclear equipment to Iran by Urenco, a British-Dutch consortium.
"We also have complaints against the United States," Rumyantsev said Wednesday. "They are always criticizing us, but their close economic partners supply Iran with sensitive technology."
Urenco is thought to have supplied centrifuges to Iran that could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium.
Sharp statements such as Ivanov's in the Federation Council on Wednesday are aimed at "the home front" rather than a reflection of the Kremlin's real policy toward the United States, the senior U.S. diplomat said.
"We also recognize that for the Russian leadership there is a need to project a position of principle to the domestic audience and to the international community. But at the same time we take encouragement from discussions in private conversations that show determination ... to try to manage to keep the larger relationship on course," the diplomat said.
TITLE: British Police Detain Berezovsky for Fraud
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Boris Berezovsky was arrested by Britain on a fraud charge forwarded by Russia and released on bail. Berezovsky, 57, and his close ally Yuly Dubov were detained Monday morning, London police said.
"Both were charged on the extradition warrant issued by Bow Street Magistrates Court following a request for assistance from Russian authorities investigating allegations of a fraud," the police said in a statement.
The charge is linked to Russian accusations that Berezovsky and Dubov defrauded the Samara regional administration of 60 billion rubles between November 1994 and July 1995 when they were directors of the LogoVAZ car dealership. The amount was worth about $13.5 million at the July 1995 exchange rate.
Berezovsky and Dubov posted a bail of Pound100,000 ($160,000) and promised not to leave Britain before a court hearing April 2 at the Bow Street Magistrates Court, the police said. The Prosecutor General's Office said Tuesday that the extradition request had been forwarded to Britain in November.
"[The arrest] is linked to an appeal by the Prosecutor General's Office to the British police. The Prosecutor General's Office is asking for the extradition of Berezovsky and Dubov to Russia," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The request was drawn up after Berezovsky, Dubov and a business associate, Badri Patarkatsishvili, were charged in October with large-scale fraud at flagship carmaker AvtoVAZ. The three were accused of defrauding AvtoVAZ of over 2,000 cars through a complicated scheme involving LogoVAZ. Patarkatsishvili lives in Georgia, where authorities say they have no plans to turn him over.
Berezovsky, who paints himself as an opposition figure and has been living in self-imposed exile in London, said Tuesday that his arrest was politically motivated and that prosecutors would not be able to win their extradition attempt.
"I can clearly say that prosecutors did not provide any new facts about the case," Berezovsky said on Ekho Moskvy radio, even denying that he had been arrested.
"There was no arrest," he said.
Berezovsky said his lawyer notified him last week that the extradition documents had arrived from Russia and that the police had asked him and Dubov to come in.
"We went. We were shown documents and were asked what we thought about them. I said that this is politically motivated," Berezovsky told Ekho Moskvy. He said late Tuesday night on Russian television that the arrest was linked to State Duma elections
Berezovsky's representatives in London refused to comment Tuesday, saying they were composing a statement.
Analysts agreed that the arrest was connected to politics, but were divided over whether the politics were domestic or international in nature. Yevgeny Volk of the Heritage Foundation linked the arrest to Iraq and the resulting tensions between Britain and Russia. "There was certainly some need for a friendly gesture toward Russia," he said.
"The move is also understandable because there is not much sympathy toward Berezovsky from the British side," he said. "His presence has caused tensions in Russian-British relations, and there was a need to demonstrate good will."
Volk said, however, that he doubted Berezovsky would ever be extradited. "This is more of an attempt to scare him ahead of elections," he said. "The point is to prevent him from using his funds against Putin."
Berezovsky, once named by Forbes magazine as the richest man in Russia, had been talking about running for a seat in State Duma elections this December.
Andrei Piontkovsky, an independent political analyst, said the arrest suggests that Russian authorities have become braver in going after the one-time Kremlin powerbroker, who might be able to air dirty laundry about a number of high-ranking Russian officials if he is imprisoned. This explains why prosecutors have stuck to the old LogoVAZ case, and not looked into Berezovsky's activities in later years, he said.
Piontkovsky said Russia's chances of extraditing Berezovsky and Dubov were much higher than that of Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who is also out on bail in London after being arrested late last year at Russia's request. Russia wants Zakayev in connection with rebel attacks in the first Chechen war of 1994 to 1996.
"With Berezovsky, at least, there certainly was fraud," Piontkovsky said.
TITLE: 300 Preparations Get More Animated
AUTHOR: By Claire Bigg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The already extensive list of projects being launched and the program of events planned to mark St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary continues to grow but, according to one local information and advertising agency, there are few cases where children are a specific target audience. To try to fill this gap, Arc TV is launching a series of educational cartoons dedicated to the themes of St. Petersburg and the upcoming anniversary.
The series will be broadcast on TRK Peterburg several times during the Spring, starting on March 31.
"The idea of the cartoon was to organize something for children linked to the city's 300th anniversary, because it is clear that the majority of television programs, concerts and events that will take place during this period are designed for adults," said Marina Kozlova, the general director of Arc TV.
The original plan was to produce 33 cartoons, each devoted to a word describing a particular aspect of St. Petersburg and beginning with each of the 33 letters in the Russian alphabet. Arc TV immediately ran into problems, as it was unable to find workable options for three letters. Although some letters are represented twice and more than three are not covered, the 30-cartoon series is called Azbuka Malenkikh Peterburzhtsev, or the Alphabet of Little St. Petersburgers.
The initiative to create the cartoons came from the city administration's Printing Committee, which organized a contest to find the best concept for a children's television project to promote the city's 300th anniversary. Arc TV won the contest and received a grant from the committee to finance the production of the cartoons. However, according to Kozlova, the 500,000 rubles provided by the printing committee was not enough to fund the entire project and additional sponsors were found to cover the total cost of the work, which stretched over eight months.
Each of the cartoons briefly introduces a St. Petersburg landmark or a service, including the metro, the airport, street lamps, bridges, palaces, stadiums, and the renovation of building facades.
"My favorite is the one about garbage cans. The one about the construction of the flood-protection barrier turned out well too," Kozlova said. "Some of the cartoons are educational and aim at teaching small Petersburgers to behave respectfully. For example, not to throw trash on the ground but in garbage cans."
The cartoons, only 30 seconds long so children will be able to remember the rhymes that form the narrative, are designed for children aged three and up, says Kozlova. The rhymes were written by local poet Natalya Pokhomova.
The characters portrayed are Masha, a young woman, and two small children, Dimka and Ksyusha. Masha acts as the children's guide to the city, answering their questions and providing information on the site that is featured in each cartoon. Masha also changes clothes in relation to the particular topic. In the cartoon devoted to the airport, for instance, she is dressed as a flight attendant. She also appears as a tram driver, construction worker and a sailor.
Arc TV itself held a contest to choose an animator for the series, with the winner being Yekaterina Gorelova of mult.ru, home of popular cartoon character Masyana. But choosing the type of characters for the 300th-anniversary series was difficult.
"For a long time we couldn't decide on the kind of characters to use in the cartoons," Kozlova said. "First, we thought of using an animal, a baby lion, because the lion is one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. We then considered a clever cat, and then a boy who would ask a computer questions about the subject. Ultimately, we decided that the best option was to simply feature people."
TITLE: Putin Backs Plan for Chechnya Amnesty
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin called on officials in Chechnya on Thursday to draft an amnesty law for rebels and to lay the groundwork for providing a wide degree of autonomy, the latest move in the Kremlin push to re-exert control over the war-battered republic.
It was unclear what the terms would be, but it would apparently go beyond what Russia already offers to rebels who lay down their weapons and have not participated in terrorism.
Putin requested the moves in a meeting with Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov held four days after a referendum in which Chechens approved a draft constitution placing the republic under the Russian federal government.
Chechnya has been de facto independent since Russian troops pulled out in 1996 at the end of the first Chechen war. Russian forces returned in 1999 following rebel incursions into a neighboring region and a series of apartment-house bombings in Russia blamed on rebels.
The referendum was promoted by the Kremlin as a first step toward restoring civil order in Chechnya, even as fighting between rebels and Russian soldiers continues, and Russian officials proudly touted its passage as evidence that Chechnya can be brought under control without negotiating with rebels.
But critics, including an aide to Kadyrov, denounced the referendum as a farce. A U.S. diplomat said Wednesday that the Kremlin must move quickly to widen the political dialogue on Chechnya.
Putin's meeting with Kadyrov appeared to be an effort to neutralize such criticism.
He said the top priority was to develop a power-sharing agreement allowing the republic to "develop effectively and as a full-fledged member" of the Russian federation. Chechnya "must be given autonomous status in the broadest sense of the word," he said.
Also Thursday, Russian security officials detained a fifth suspect in the December car bombing of the Chechen government headquarters that killed at least 70 people and demolished the building.
Four Russian service personel were also reported killed on Thursday when their truck ran over a land mine in the Chechen capital.
On Wednesday, rebels stopped a car driven by the brother of the Chechen emergency situations minister, Major General Ruslan Avtayev, and shot him and a female co-worker dead, said Yury Kolodkin, a duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry department for southern Russia, in Rostov-Na-Donu.
TITLE: Meeting for Anniversary Recalls Vote Win in '99
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In what could be seen as a reminder of his political victory three years ago and a preview of another electoral campaign to come, President Vladimir Putin marked the third anniversary of his presidency on Wednesday by meeting with the leaders of the United Russia party - some of whom were once seen as his political opponents.
Addressing a group of pro-Kremlin party leaders, including Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who once harbored presidential ambitions, and his comrade in the 1999 parliamentary race, Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiyev, Putin praised the party's "unique organizational and intellectual potential" and urged it to assume a more active role in formulating strategy for Russia's development and not just vie for seats in parliament.
The party leaders, for their part, consulted the president on United Russia's manifesto ahead of its congress Saturday, and were likely to get some additional points for having their meeting with the super-popular president shown on the evening news.
"We are a party created not for the elections, but for improving the country's living standards," Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, who heads the party's higher council, said, reflecting Putin's urgings.
Gone are the times when political commentators speculated about Luzhkov's imminent demise after Putin's election or the president's clampdown on regional barons such as Shaimiyev, who can now run for his post for a third and even fourth time.
Commentators were nearly unanimous Wednesday in their opinion that, during his first three years in power, Putin has avoided rocking the boat and by far has preferred stability. This has been reflected in his stable and consistently high ratings.
According to one of Russia's leading polling firms, VTsIOM, Putin's approval ratings are at least as high this month, at 74 percent, as they were in the months after he won the presidency, 70 percent. The polls have a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
Only 6 percent of Russians who voted for Putin in 2000 regret their choice, while 82 percent said they made the right choice, according to another pollster, ARPI, Interfax reported Wednesday.
Some other indicators, however, paint a less rosy picture.
Three years ago, Putin was seen as a president of hope, who would bring order to the country, improve its economy and suppress the Chechnya rebellion. But of the 1,600 Russians VTsIOM polled March 21 through March 24, 65 percent said Putin had had little success in securing economic growth, and roughly the same percentage judged his Chechnya policies a failure.
Political analysts said the president's sky-high approval ratings say little about the real situation in the country, and may even be perceived as a sign of stagnation.
"[Putin] has managed to disconnect his personal image from the economic situation that people see around them," Nikolai Petrov of the Moscow Carneige said in a telephone interview.
"Moreover, he has become hostage to his high ratings, which impede decisive steps, because if, as a result of some unpopular policy, they drop to a normal level of say 50 percent, it would be perceived as a catastrophic fall," he said
TITLE: Shvydkoi Could Face Charges Over German Art Exchange
AUTHOR: By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Prosecutor General's Office summoned Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi on Tuesday to hand him an official warning that he faces criminal charges if he goes ahead with a plan to return an art collection to Germany.
The prosecutor's office, which has been investigating the matter over the past few weeks, said the Culture Ministry does not have the authority to decide to hand over the 362 drawings and two paintings that once belonged to the Bremen Kunsthalle.
First Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Biryukov delivered the warning to Shvydkoi.
Another deputy prosecutor, Vladimir Kolsenikov, said Tuesday that Shvydkoi has not signed any orders to return the collection to Germany but if he does he will be charged. It was not immediately clear which charges would be brought.
Culture Ministry officials said Shvydkoi was unavailable for comment and said only he could speak about the issue.
The ministry said last week that the art transfer was on hold after getting a first warning from prosecutors. But Shvydkoi at the time described his contacts with prosecutors as "positive" and said there was a common understanding that the art collection is different from other trophy art seized by Soviet troops in Germany at the end of World War II.
Shvydkoi said the Bremen Kunsthalle artwork was brought to Russia by an individual, Captain Viktor Baldin, and thus subject to the law on import and export of art rather than the law on the restitution of trophy art, which declares all such art Russian property.
Shvydkoi told Ekho Mosvky radio last week that the plan had been to return the collection to Germany as a goodwill gesture, and Germany would have handed over 20 pieces of art selected by State Hermitage Museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky.
The Baldin collection was scheduled to go on exhibit in Bremen in late March, Izvestia reported.
The plan, which was announced by Shvydkoi during a visit to Germany in early March, sparked an uproar in the State Duma. Deputies last Tuesday unanimously passed an appeal to President Vladimir Putin urging him to stop the handover.
The head of the Duma's culture and tourism committee, Nikolai Gubenko, said the Baldin collection would be just the beginning.
Baldin, an art restorer by profession, gave his collection to the Architecture Museum in 1948. He pioneered the trophy art debate in the early 1990s when he told of how he took part of the collection from the basement of an aristocratic hunting lodge and bought the rest from other soldiers. The collection includes pieces by Titian, Duerer, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Rodin and Van Gogh.
Baldin repeatedly said that he wanted the collection to be restored to its original owners in Bremen. He has since died. Shvydkoi said the collection is worth $30 million to $35 million. Gubenko put the value at $1.5 billion.
The issue of trophy art is highly sensitive for many Russians, who consider the art looted from Germany as compensation for Soviet losses in World War II. There also is concern that Germany will not return any art its soldiers took from Russia, because most of it is held in private collections.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Elections Chief
MOSCOW (AP) - The head of the Central Election Commission was appointed to a second term in office, news agencies reported Wednesday.
Alexander Veshnyakov, who oversaw the election of President Vladimir Putin in 2000, was reappointed by a unanimous vote of his fellow commission members, Interfax reported.
Veshnyakov's name was the only one on the ballot, Interfax said.
Veshnyakov oversaw this month's constitutional referendum in Chechnya and will preside over parliamentary elections this December and presidential elections next March.
Not Giving Up
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Governor Vladimir Yakovlev said he may call for a referendum to amend the City Charter so he can run for a third term in office, Interfax reported Thursday.
"According to the current legislation, I, just like any other St. Petersburg citizen, have the right to request such a referendum," Yakovlev said.
Yakovlev cautioned that he would not push the issue immediately, as his term doesn't end for another year and he is busy with other questions.
"Let's run the 300th-anniversary celebrations properly first and attaind the goals we have in the short term," Interfax quoted Yakovlev as saying. "Then we'll think about it again and decide."
The St. Petersburg City charter Court already ruled on Oct. 2 that Yakovlev was inelligible to run again, despite federal laws that appeared to provide him with such an opportunity.
Body Recovered
MOSCOW (AP) - Rescuers recovered the body of one of four air-crew members who died when their helicopter fell into the sea during a training flight off the Pacific coast, officials said Thursday.
The Ka-27 PS helicopter fell into the Ussuri Gulf in the Sea of Japan after taking off from a Russian navy ship on a night training mission. Salvage workers have recovered the body of one crew members and some debris from the helicopter, said Pacific Fleet spokesperson Captain Alexander Kosolapov.
The Interfax-Military News Agency said that remained unclear whether the crash was caused by pilot error or a technical malfunction.
TITLE: Anti-War Protests Draw Tepid Response
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: While opposition to the war in Iraq is very strong in Russia - public-opinion polls generally show that about 90 percent of Russians are opposed - public reaction here has been relatively tame. The launching of the war by the United States and its coalition partners has generated huge peace demonstrations in major cities around the world, and analysts in Russia say that the lack of such demonstrations here says much about the level of apathy in the Russian polity.
Since the beginning of the war, major demonstrations have been held in cities such as London, Berlin, Tokyo, New York and Sydney. Last Saturday, an estimated 20,000 people marched through the center of nearby Helsinki, which has a population of only 500,000. But, with the exception of crowds of about 100 people at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and of less than 50 at the consulate in St. Petersburg, nothing has happened here.
"It is obvious that Russian society has become passive," said Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at the Sociology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. "The average Russian today is estranged from the problems of others, and this estrangement is the result of a boomerang effect after the illusions and hopes that the country's population stood up for in the early 1990s proved to be unjustified."
In the early 1990s, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, throngs crowded Nevsky Prospect here or Red Square in Moscow to protest in favor of democracy, human rights or simply better living conditions. Kesselman says that the impetus for these demonstrations came from the desire by many to "call things by their proper names," a phrase that is the equivalent of "calling a spade a spade" in English. The focus was on addressing the negative character of the Soviet past, as well as pushing for open public discourse in the present.
Although labor organizations have managed to attract larger crowds to protests, the actions against the war held outside of the U.S. Consulate or, as on Wednesday, in front of the offices of Valentina Matviyenko, President Vladimir Putin's representative in the Northwest Region, have been small. The 20 to 30 people who show up are generally either Communist Party members or ultra-nationalists, and are either youth or seniors.
The demonstration on Wednesday, which was organized by anti-globalists, featured mostly members of the National Bolshevik movement and a few pensioners. Among the former, shaved heads and nationalist symbols were prominent.
Most passersby opted to travel a wide route to avoid the group, which was shouting slogans against the United States and presidents George W. Bush and Putin. They were also calling for the Kremlin to break off diplomatic relations with the United States, to stop Bush from making a planned visit to St. Petersburg this May, and to provide the Iraqi government with arms.
Kesselman said that the anti-American character of the Russian demonstrations is not unusual.
"In fact, in many countries the activity is the result not just of an anti-war mood, but by anti-American feelings in general," Kesselman said. "America's unilateralism in everything irritates people."
Boris Pustyntsev, the head of the Citizen's Watch human-rights organization, agrees that there has not been the type of reaction to the war that has been seen in other major cities, but he sees this as a positive sign.
"Thank God that this massive psychosis hasn't hit Russia," Pustyntsev said Monday. "I'm convinced that, unless we're suicidal, we should understand that [Hussein] has to be disarmed."
However, Pustyntsev agrees with Kesselman that, in general, Russians have changed their attitudes toward mass public actions.
"Now, Russians take the position that 'nothing depends on me' because their expectations that their standard of living improve with freedom turned out to be an illusion," Pustyntsev said.
Kesselman says that the active anti-war protests in the West are symptomatic of states with "the presence of a civil society," where people believe that their opinion is important and can influence something.
"Russia's people do not count on the government's help anymore," he said. "They are mostly interested in finding ways to get around the government in order to obtain better life," Kesselman said.
However, Irina Flige, the head of the Memorial human-rights organization, which organizes twice weekly pickets of protest against the war in Chechnya, pointed to a different reason for the country's apparent indifference to the war in Iraq.
"It's easier to protest against international events when you have no sore spots of your own," Rige said on Monday. "Russia has its own major problem - the war in Chechnya.'
Flige doesn't agree that the state of civil society is as week here as other analysts suggest.
"People join us, though not in great masses, in protests," she said "Many just prefer to express their opinion on our Internet site on the topic."
TITLE: Birds Find Migration Routes Hit By the War
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The U.S.-led war in Iraq has claimed the lives of both civilians and coalition soldiers and is now beginning to take its toll on an unlikely population: flocks of migrating Russian birds.
Ornithologists said they feared more oil wells would be set on fire, releasing smoke that will cause several thousands of birds wintering in Iraq to become disoriented and confused. As a result, the birds will not be able to complete the flight back to their summer homes in Russia, scientists said.
International environmental groups have warned of the impact the war in Iraq might have on the region's environment. Many have predicted the damage could be more costly than after the 1991 Gulf War, as the war may be more far-reaching this time.
After the Gulf War, scientists found many migrating birds with oily plumage in Russia, said Vadim Ryabitsev, an ornithologist with Yekaterinburg-based Academy of Sciences Environmental Institute. Many more birds may have died before starting the migration home.
So far, only a handful of oil wells have been set on fire in Iraq, compared with as many as 700 in Kuwait in 1991.
Vladimir Galushin, chairperson of the Russian Bird Protection Union, said he believes that burning oil wells and oil spills on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Persian Gulf are imminent given the intensity of fighting in the area. The fires will most certainly kill a good deal of birds and other fauna, he said.
"The marshlands of southern Iraq, including the Basra region and the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, have long been known as popular wintering places with our water and near-water birds," Galushin said.
Amirkhan Amirkhanov of the Natural Resources Ministry said thousands of birds might veer off their migrating route because of the smoke and fire. Most of them will not survive in the desert, he was quoted in Izvestia as saying.
Scientists said they do not know exactly how many birds winter in Iraq, and cannot estimate how many will be effected by the war. The country is on one of the migration routes for an estimated one billion birds, including ducks, geese, loons, seagulls, snipes and gray cranes, that inhabit the European part of Russia each year.
Ducks and snipes will start their way home at the end of April. The trip can take up to two months. Seagulls, storks and cranes will head north after the ducks, Galushin said.
When a bird's feathers are covered with oil, it is impossible for it to fly and it soon dies of hypothermia, Galushin said. On top of that, oil blinds birds once it gets into their eyes, Ryabitsev added.
"The problem is that birds do not distinguish oil from water, and they will land on oil spills like they would on water," Ryabitsev said.
Despite the threat against the bird populations, concerns about their fate will come secondary to those of the people living in the conflict areas, Ryabitsev said.
"Nature preservation was the last problem the people of Iraq were thinking about before the war,'' he said, referring to the region's difficult living standards." Besides, research and observation of local and migrating birds, or any other fauna, has not been done in the area for decades. No foreign scientists dare to go there.''
TITLE: Tax Cops Busted in Undercover Swoop
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In the twilight days of the Tax Police, two of its officers - one a major general - were caught at work in the process of accepting a $20,000 bribe.
The internal sting took place Monday at noon in the offices of the Federal Tax Police at 12 Ulitsa Maroseika in downtown Moscow as part of the agency's "clean hands" anti-corruption drive, launched two years ago.
Sergei Platonov, a major general and deputy head of the organizational and inspection department, and Mikhail Petrovsky, an employee of the same department, will be held until Wednesday, when a court will decide whether to arrest them, representatives of the Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.
Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the two officers on Monday under articles 290 and 291 of the Criminal Code, which concern giving and taking bribes.
The sting operation was carried out by officers from the Federal Security Service's economic-security department and the Tax Police's own security and anti-corruption department.
"These weren't just strangers who came in off the street and detained them - they were our own employees," a Tax Police spokesperson said.
Platonov's department is responsible for monitoring the day-to-day, administrative side of the Tax Police's work, the spokesperson said.
The department falls halfway between the Tax Police's internal-security department and its personnel department and aims to ensure that personnel adhere to the agency's internal instructions and regulations, said Maxim Maximovsky, a senior tax lawyer with Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners in Moscow.
The prospect of Platonov's arrest would not affect his department's work, the spokesperson said.
Neither prosecutors nor the Tax Police source would provide further details.
If convicted, Platonov and Petrovsky face a maximum jail term of eight years.
The investigations come on the heels of sweeping changes in the structure of the Tax Police. Under a presidential decree dated March 11, the service will cease to exist on July 1, and its functions will be taken up by an expanded branch of the Interior Ministry.
Some of the current Tax Police officers are likely to be transferred to the ministry, while those who remain will be put to work for the counter-narcotics body that President Vladimir Putin created earlier this month under former Northwest Federal District envoy Viktor Cherkesov. Sources at the Tax Police had no estimate of how their staff of 30,000 would be split. The Interior Ministry has hinted it may take 12,000 officers.
In the month before the shakeup, the Tax Police had been subject to a barrage of criticism.
Some observers have claimed that the agency was trying to reinvent itself as "thought police" after two internal edicts recommended that officers target potential tax criminals and gave them the right to use lie detectors in interviews.
Sergei Veryovkin-Rokhalsky - the author of one of those edicts - was appointed head of the new Federal Service for Economic and Tax Crimes under the Interior Ministry, Interfax reported Monday. Veryovkin-Rokhalsky will hold the rank of deputy minister at the Interior Ministry. Until July 1, he will be acting director of the Tax Police.
Veryovkin-Rokhalsky had been scheduled to give an interview to Rossia television at 2 p.m. Tuesday until prosecutors requested that he not appear, due to the confidentiality of the investigation.
Asked if the lack of certainty about staff transfers were causing any alarm at the Tax Police, the spokesperson replied that officers were made of tougher stuff.
"Bear in mind that many of these people come from the military. This is just a temporary moment of slackness."
TITLE: Sewage System Finally Back on Track
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Work on the construction of the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant was restarted at a ceremony on Friday, following a halt in construction in 1995.
Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Vladimir Yakovlev said that the facility will service the homes of 700,000 inhabitants or process 85 percent and the total volume of sewage produced in the city, contributing to efforts to clean up the ecology of the Gulf of Finland.
Work on the plant was begun in 1987, but abandoned due to a lack of finances in 1995, when 40 percent of the construction had been completed at a cost of $34 million, Yakovlev said. The project is now due for completion in 2005.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a loan of 35.4 million euros for the project, which will reduce the amount of untreated effluent being pumped into the Baltic, Richard Wallis, spokesperson for the bank, said.
The estimated total cost for the project, which is being undertaken by Vodokanal - the city's water-utility monopoly - is 170 million euros, with a 45-million euro loan being provided by the Nordic Investment Bank and the European Investment Bank providing a 15.5-million-euro loan.
Other investors include Swedfund International, providing 3.9 million euros, the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation with 3.9 million euros, and the Helsinki-based Nordic Environmental Finance Corporation, according to information provided by the EBRD.
A portion of the financing is being donated, rather than loaned, with the Northern Dimensional Environmental Partnership Support Fund giving 5.8 million euros, the Swedish International Development Agency and the Finnish Government giving 10 million euros each, and another contribution being made by the European Union's TACIS program.
Matti Rantala, a spokesperson for the three companies responsible for the design, construction and launch of the plant - Skanska East Europe, YIT Construction and NCC International - said that the project is the most important of its kind currently underway in the Baltic Sea basin.
Wallis also characterized the project as the "No. 1 environmental project in the Gulf of Finland."
Gavin Anderson, the EBRD's business group director for infrastructure, said that the project is part of a broader environmental safety plan currently being considered by the bank, aimed at preventing St. Petersburg from being a pollution threat to its Baltic neighbors.
In addition, Vodokanal's plans for the facility will allow for the construction of 4 million square meters of housing in the southwest and central districts of the city.
At the opening ceremony, a time capsule with a note addressed to future St. Petersburg citizens was set in the plant's foundations. The note said: "Today, in the 21st Century, environmental problems are very pressing. We recognize our responsibility before you for environmental security and safety."
TITLE: State Attempts To Block Pratt & Whitney
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - National security is on the line, a government agency is claiming as it moves to edge out a U.S. aviation industry investor.
Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney should not be allowed to hold more than a blocking stake in Aviadvigatel, the designer of engines for most modern domestic aircraft, the Russian Aviation and Space Agency reportedly argued in a recent letter to the Aviadvigatel board of directors.
P&W holds less than 25 percent in Aviadvigatel, along with a 2-percent stake held by a subsidiary, Turboenergoprom, that is Russian-registered but P&W-owned.
The Rosaviakosmos letter, dated last month but delivered to the board on March 19, is said to argue that this effectively gives P&W a 27-percent stake. It brings the firm into conflict with last year's licensing regulations for aviation-technology development, under which the share of foreign capital should be kept under 25 percent.
If the stake is not reduced, Aviadvigatel risks losing its operating license, board member Sergei Permyakov said by telephone Wednesday, quoting from the letter. The letter gives the board until April 1 to deal with the issue, he added. The meeting is scheduled for March 31.
Neither Permyakov nor Rosaviakosmos spokesperson Sergei Gorbunov would release a copy of the letter.
The Rosaviakosmos letter comes at a time when P&W is weighing whether to buy a blocking stake, or 25 percent plus one share, in the Perm Motors Plant, currently owned by Vladimir Potanin's Interros holding. This stake would add to the stake of almost 25 percent that it already owns. The deadline for its decision is next month, and Interros said Wednesday that P&W has yet to pursue the stake.
The Perm Motors Plant, or PMZ, manufactures the PS-90A aviation engine and gas turbines for Gazprom. Aviadvigatel, also based in Perm, designs the PS-90A engine, used on Il-96 and Tu-204/214 aircraft.
Rosaviakosmos head Yury Koptev said in a recent interview that he did not think P&W would buy the PMZ stake. If it did, "PMZ would lose its license," he said.
Interros also held a blocking stake in Aviadvigatel until last month, when it sold the shares for $25 million to the State Investment Corp., or Gosinkor, whose assets are now being transferred to the Property Ministry after Gosinkor was disbanded in February by a presidential decree.
Permyakov represents the interests of Gazprom-affiliated Tekhnologii Motorov on the Aviadvigatel board. Tekhnologii Motorov, in turn, owns blocking stakes in both Aviadvigatel and PMZ through its own subsidiaries.
Permyakov said he would propose that Aviadvigatel buy out Turboenergoprom's 2 percent to eliminate any legal worries.
Permyakov said Tekhnologii Motorov has proposed pooling its stakes in the two Perm-based engine firms into a state-owned holding company, along with those belonging to Gazprom and the federal government.
Tekhnologii Motorov proposes to leave P&W's assets in Perm companies outside the new holding, Permyakov said. Instead, it wants to create a joint venture with P&W called International Commercial Motors to modernize the PS-90A engine.
TITLE: Official Arrested in Crab Probe
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - When Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov let slip during a news conference last week that Yury Moskaltsov had been arrested, he quickly corrected himself. But it was clear that the deputy head of the State Fisheries Committee's days were numbered.
It didn't take long: Moskaltsov was detained by prosecutors Tuesday on suspicion of participating in a scheme to illegally catch and sell more than $6-million worth of crabs.
The prosecutor's office declined to comment on the case on Wednesday, but the affair has already shed new light on the extent of corruption in the fishing industry.
Kolesnikov said Tuesday that three people have been arrested in the case and "several others will soon be charged."
Joining Moskaltsov in the scheme, he said, were the director of Magadan's state fishing research institute, Alexander Rogatnykh, and Viktoria Tikhachyova, a former assistant to Magadan Governor Valentin Tsvetkov, who was gunned down in broad daylight on Novy Arbat in October.
Kolesnikov said that the case grew out of evidence that came to light as a result of the investigation into Tsvetkov's murder, which has yet to be solved. Tsvetkov himself is also alleged to have been involved.
Moskaltsov's detention was given heavy coverage by local media Wednesday, but it is still unclear who ended up with the $6.2 million.
What is known is that the money came from the sale of 2,200 tons of crabs caught in the Sea of Okhotsk near Magadan from September to December, and that Rogatnykh is believed to have been the mastermind behind the scheme.
Scientific quotas are issued to institutes that study shellfish and fish populations, as opposed to the commercial system introduced last year in which quotas are auctioned.
Scientific quotas, however, account for just 4.5 percent of all quotas - free quotas are granted to the regions and account for 51 percent, and the majority of the rest are offered at tender.
Additional scientific quotas have to be approved by several ministries and, eventually, by the cabinet.
Izvestia quoted prosecutors Wednesday as saying that Rogatnykh, together with Tsvetkov, Tikhachyova and Moskaltsov, prepared, signed and backdated a fraudulent document giving the institute additional quotas "on biological grounds."
But, since institutes do not have their own fleets, they use commercial fishing firms to actually catch their quotas.
Moskaltsov's lawyer, Zinaida Batrakova, said her client did nothing wrong. "He signed, at the request of Tsvetkov and Tikhachyova, just one paper of a general nature. And when this issue was on the table, he was on vacation," she told Vedomosti.
Rogatnykh said in an interview last month that he had done nothing wrong.
"I did it to increase the volume of fish allowed to be caught in the Sea of Okhotsk, and that is why they opened a criminal case against me," he told the newspaper Vesti Magadana. "But my conscience is absolutely clear."
The total amount of fish that can be legally caught is normally established scientifically, but industry players say there was a clear need to allow more fishing in the Sea of Okhotsk last year. "Nature does not follow our bureaucracy and, whenever there are a lot of fish, they must be caught," said one.
The prosecutor's office said in the indictment that the crabs were "sold abroad for the sum of $6.2 million, causing grave damage to the state."
Half of the proceeds were paid to four fishing companies: state-owned MPDPM; Magadanrybflot and Dalrybflot, which are headed by Tikhachyova, and Dalryba, which Moskaltsov co-heads, according to Izvestia.
Seventy percent of the other half would normally have been allocated to the research institute and 30 percent to Natsrybresurs, which manages the commercial enterprises of the State Fisheries Committee, the newspaper said.
But Natsrybresurs' chief accountant, Marina Chiginyova, said Wednesday that her organization "never gets any proceeds from the fish sales."
The institute also got nothing, according to an unnamed prosecutor's office official quoted by Vedomosti.
Natalya Arefyeva, spokesperson for the State Fisheries Committee, declined to comment on the case.
She did say, however, "Moskaltsov is 62 and worked all his life in this industry. It is very hard to believe that he was involved in any wrongdoing."
One official in the committee told Prime-Tass on Wednesday that operations had become virtually paralyzed, blaming the chairperson, Yevgeny Nazdratenko, and his "hangers on."
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov suspended Nazdratenko from his post last month over his handling of quotas for Magadan and Primorye, where he was governor before being forced to resign by President Vladimir Putin.
Nazdratenko later reinstated himself, citing a law that allows officials to be suspended for one month, after which they must be reinstated or sacked. The government, however, has done nothing about the move, as it is planning to terminate the committee altogether as part of a bureaucratic overhaul.
TITLE: Russia Offers Wheat Stocks to Iraq as Aid
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia is ready to supply stocks of wheat to Iraq as humanitarian aid, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"Russia is ready to help Iraq if there is a humanitarian disaster, a shortage of food and famine," Gordeyev was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying. "Wheat is the most essential and necessary commodity for a country in need."
Gordeyev said Russia had supplied grain to Iraq under the UN oil-for-food program, which allowed the country to export crude oil and to buy basic necessities, but the program had been suspended last week.
The Russian Grain Union, the industry lobby body, said last month that Russia supplied Iraq with about half a million tons of wheat under the UN program. The figure could not be officially confirmed.
The government has bought nearly 2.5 million metric tons of wheat at intervention tenders aimed at propping up domestic prices.
It has said part of the stocks could be used for humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, Iraq's ambassador to Russia on Wednesday rejected donations of humanitarian aid, even as Russia sent tents and food supplies for a possible Iraqi refugee influx to neighboring Iran.
"There is no emergency situation in Iraq. We are waging a holy war," Interfax quoted Iraqi Ambassador Abbas Khalaf as saying. "I am authorized to state that we will not receive any humanitarian aid. We have money and all the necessary reserves at our disposal."
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia had no plans to halt its relief efforts.
"We aren't playing any political games. We are simply taking part in helping civilians," Interfax quoted him as saying.
Russia is building a tent camp in Iran that can accommodate 5,000 refugees and is also sending food, water, medicine and electricity generators, Shoigu told Rossia television.
Some 94 metric tons of supplies have already been delivered, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Plans are also under way to send a mobile hospital, the ministry said.
Aid officials had expected at least 600,000 people to flee Iraq in the initial stages of the U.S.-led war, with about half going to Iran, though few refugees have fled Iraq so far.
(Reuters, AP)
TITLE: Having a Party Could Solve Putin's Problems
AUTHOR: By Alexander Sokolowski
TEXT: WITH the approach of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections in March next year, the Kremlin's political advisors are no doubt devising and pitching various electoral strategies to President Vladimir Putin. While it is unlikely that any of Putin's advisors will recommend it, they should advise him to join a political party and to join one now.
To the tough-minded political strategists on Moscow's Staraya Ploshchad, such a proposal must appear naive and even reckless. It would unnecessarily tie Putin's re-election prospects to that party's performance in December's elections, they would argue. Further, by joining a single party - presumably United Russia - Putin's popularity ratings would certainly lose some of their luster, because his party membership would alienate at least some independent-minded voters. Finally, these analysts would point out that joining a party would needlessly complicate Putin's ability to build coalitions in the next State Duma and to attract broad-based organizational support for his upcoming re-election campaign. Although these concerns are valid on some level, they inadequately consider the broader and longer term political challenges the Russian polity now faces.
Putin can put an end to the vicious circle that Russia's presidential-party relations have been trapped in for the past decade. The Catch-22 has been the following: Presidents have refused to join a party largely because parties were underdeveloped, could not consolidate enough of the vote, and had an uncertain future. And pro-governmental parties have remained underdeveloped, could not consolidate enough of the vote and had an uncertain future largely because Russian presidents would not join them. A major reason that both Russia's Choice and later Our Home Is Russia were essentially stillborn and short-lived parties was that they were burdened with responsibility for the government's performance, but were deprived of a clear connection to, and the unequivocal support of, the most powerful actor in the political system - Boris Yeltsin.
More recently, the latest "party of power," United Russia, has all but begged for a closer association with Putin. And while Putin has clearly shown less indifference to his party of power than Yeltsin vis-a-vis his, Putin's public support has remained that of a sympathetic outsider. And so United Russia awkwardly remains a "presidential party" without a president.
As Putin approaches his second and final term in office, his political advisors should encourage him to consider his broader role in Russian history - his legacy. By joining and leading a democratic political party, Putin would establish himself as the Russian leader who finally forged a more reliable, direct and genuine institutional connection between state and society, between political power and policy responsibility. By joining and leading a democratic political party, Putin would finally bring an end to Russia's tsarist and Soviet modes of executive authority that have so often isolated state power from society and obscured accountability.
Putin's official party leadership would also have a transformative effect on United Russia, and on the party system as a whole. Putin's personal popularity and the prestige of his office would bring to United Russia the key element that previous parties of power have lacked - the ability to attract an enthusiastic, broad grass-roots following. By providing United Russia with a popular leader and an enthusiastic base, Putin could give this top-down, "cadre" party a chance to develop into a more mass-based and lasting right-of-center party. More broadly, when the most powerful figure in the political system decides to engage directly in party politics, the party system will become a more central and durable feature in the political landscape.
A glance across the presidential summit table provides Putin with further arguments for joining a political party. First, the Russian president would notice that all of his counterparts in the G-8 are also members of political parties. Then, at other summit meetings, Putin might take note that neighboring presidents who have refused to join parties - Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko and Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma - have unimpressive records of economic and political reform. While a multitude of factors are responsible for the differences in economic prosperity and governance between East and West, it is also clear that countries with executive branches with strong links to society and clear accountability ultimately are governed more effectively and with greater stability than those without such institutional channels. If Putin wants to set Russia on a path to look more like Europe's wealthy and stable democracies and less like Russia's struggling and increasingly isolated Slavic neighbors, then joining a political party clearly is a step in the right direction.
Admittedly, one political strategist close to the Kremlin, Gleb Pavlovsky, has recently suggested that Putin should consider joining United Russia - but only after the party has proved itself in December's parliamentary elections by becoming a majority party. But this insistence that the party of power must prove itself before enjoying an unequivocal association with the president was also Yeltsin's strategy in 1993 and 1995 - a strategy that by the late 1990s resulted in two failed parties and a politically isolated president.
Instead, Putin's advisors should encourage him to join a party now. Putin has amassed considerable political capital, with popularity ratings that remain persistently and remarkably high. Now is the time to use that political capital to ensure a cooperative Duma for Putin's second term and to ensure the continuation of his reforms. If Putin chooses to lead United Russia in the near future, the party will undoubtedly win December's elections and likely earn a majority in the Duma. In contrast, simply borrowing a page from the 1999 campaign playbook and scheduling several pat-on-the-back photo-ops with United Russia's leaders may not be enough to secure a working majority in the Duma this time around.
Putin's joining the party now would also demonstrate his political courage and toughness. By agreeing to lead and transform United Russia even when he did not have to, Putin would elevate his reputation as a bold yet responsible and foresighted leader. In addition, Putin's decision to lead would also throw United Russia's rivals off balance during the campaign, as opposition parties will be less likely to make aggressive attacks on a party led by a highly popular president.
Kremlin advisors should remind Putin that the risks of remaining above party politics are also high. Recent public opinion polls show United Russia's popularity is flagging. And if the history of previous parties of power is any guide, a state-sponsored, top-down, ideologically nondescript party led by bureaucrats is likely to face great difficulty in winning over a majority of voters. If United Russia fares poorly in December, then Putin could face a recalcitrant Duma and a slowdown in his reform plans starting early next year.
By the time of the parliamentary elections, Russia will have lived a full decade under the Yeltsin Constitution of 1993. This has been a sufficient transition period when it could be argued that a president should refrain from an openly partisan approach to politics. While Yeltsin will always be remembered for the 1993 Constitution, Putin has the chance to be remembered as the leader who rehabilitated political parties and put that Constitution on a more solid societal foundation.
Alexander Sokolowski, an adjunct professor of comparative politics at George Washington University, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Media Managers Should Lighten Up a Little
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
TEXT: "Moscow, the Kremlin, 2003.
Alexander the Great and Napoleon are standing on the Lenin Mausoleum, watching a military parade
A: If had all of this equipment, I could have concurred the world in 30 days.
N: If I this kind of media, nobody would have found out that I lost at Waterloo."
WATCHING Russian state television, it's pretty clear what the role of the journalists and the stations for which they work is. They are there to cover the Kremlin in a positive light first, second and, often, even third, and then, if there's still some time left, they turn their attention to us, the less important masses. For example, one evening recently I was treated to extensive coverage of some routine meeting held by President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, followed by a report about a few park rangers who had been murdered in a forest in the Krasnodar region. Perhaps they just believe that political news should come before crime-related information but, even if it is a sort of policy, to me, it just shows that the lives of common people are less important than some mundane presidential announcement that we all know is unlikely to make any difference in the lives of most Russians?
This is just another example of the fact that the value placed on life in Russia is much lower than it should be and than it is in, for example, most European countries. Unless, of course, that life is Putin's.
A recent flap between a journalist at the St. Petersburg bureau of Rossiya television and the station's management is a glaring example of the ridiculous situations that can arise when the subject of any report is Putin.
Marianna Faktorovich, a reporter for Rossiya, was asked by local newspaper Chas Pik to write a short, humorous piece describing the way that she and friends ushered in the new year. Unfortunately for her, while describing the arrival of some friends as she was watching Putin's New Year's message, she added a little humorous touch that led her suspension by the station.
"At precisely one minute to twelve, a screaming crowd rolled into [my friend's apartment] and rushed to the table shouting 'pour the drinks!' After the last word from the president (I'm not sure I remember who it was), we had only seconds left to throw some salad on our plates. Basically, [as people say] would spend the new year the way we celebrated it. Long live everything new and let the new year bring us only good luck and nothing else. Happy New Year!" Faktorovich wrote.
It turned out to be wishful thinking. After her little quip about the president (a hint for Faktorovich - the name starts with "P"), there was little hope that what would follow would be "good luck and nothing else." St. Petersburg bureau Rossiya chief Marina Fokina didn't take long to get around to straightening her misguided reporter out, accusing her of unprofessional behavior, laziness, irresponsibility, etc.
"The paper was published Dec. 8 and, on Jan. 8, I was called to the management's office, where I was executed completely. For a whole hour, they tried to explain to me the specifics of the crime I had committed but, to be honest, I failed to understand what they meant," Faktorovich wrote in a letter published by the St. Petersburg Center for Extreme Journalism.
Fokina's reply to Faktorovich's account, published in the same source, was, perhaps, even more outrageous than the incident itself, reminding me of a time I thought (or, perhaps foolishly, hoped) had passed.
"Jokes in poor taste made by a person under the influence of alcohol are [his or her] private business when that person is a freelance writer or not a journalist at all. But an employee of any company (state or private) has to understand that public behavior of this sort harms the reputation of the company and should expect to be held accountable. And, a fully conscious and sober journalist is unable to identify the president of the country, how can we speak of any level of professionalism," Fokina said. Talk about missing the joke.
Basically, this means that if our job is to praise the president, then all of our employees are in the same boat, whether they are off duty or not. Great!
Napoleon's response in the joke at the start of this column suggests the danger inherent in these tactics. If everyone spends all of their time managing Putin's image, he could face his Waterloo without even noticing it himself.
In the Tver region, where about a hundred Unity members recently resigned from the party, complaining about the bureaucratization of their work and claiming that the party's management had distanced itself from real people and was concentrating on party business only.
I saw the event reported on TVS, in my opinion the only independent television station left in Russia. Rossiya doesn't have time to report stories like this. It's too busy making sure its journalists aren't joking around.
TITLE: golden masks get under way
AUTHOR: by Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: One of the most high-profile events taking place in St. Petersburg this year, the Golden Mask, the annual festival and award ceremony honoring the top achievements in performing arts in Russia, got underway on Thursday with an opening ceremony at the Alexandriinsky Theater and a performance of one of the nominated productions.
Previous runnings of the festival have all been held in Moscow, but is coming north this year in honor of St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary. The festival runs through April 14, when it wraps up with the award ceremony at the Mariinsky Theater
Golden Mask Director Eduard Boyakov said earlier this year that the idea of holding the festival in St. Petersburg was first mooted in 2000.
"Bringing the Golden Mask to St. Petersburg should breathe fresh air into the festival," Boyakov said. "[Moscow and St. Petersburg] have different theatrical mentalities. The festival will need a different approach, and we will have to revise certain things that we used to do without thinking in Moscow."
Thursday's opening ceremony, staged by local director Andrei Moguchy, was also a first for the festival.
"We have decided to do an opening ceremony this year because we have made a very important move in holding the festival outside of Moscow," said actor Georgy Taratorkin, president of the Golden Mask Association. "I very much hope that this year's event will bring all the elements of a successful festival, with its surprises and discoveries."
St. Petersburg actors, directors and designers have been nominated for 34 awards in 15 categories. A surprising absentee from the list of opera nominees, however, is the Mariinsky Theater, which had garnered eight nominations, including best opera, for its production of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte."
The theater said it had scheduled tours to Helsinki and Washington for the first half of April and was, therefore, unable to assemble a cast including all five of its nominees for vocal awards - Tatyana Pavlovskaya, Irina Matayeva and Galina Sidorenko for best female operatic role, and Ildar Abdrazakov and Daniil Shtoda for best male operatic role. Golden Mask rules, however, state that if a production - no matter how expertly staged and successful - can not be performed during the festival, it is automatically removed from the contest.
"Cosi fan tutte" was probably the Mariinsky's weakest operatic nomination of the last few years, and was unlikely to repeat the success last year of its production of Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh" - which took best opera and best stage director - so it is likely that the move was a damage-limitation exercise. The situation also illustrates the theater's sense of priorities - this season, the company's opera and ballet divisions are scheduled to spend some 200 days on foreign trips.
With the Mariinsky gone, two of the five remaining opera nominees are Moscow productions, Helikon Opera's production of Alban Berg's "Lulu" and the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater's production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly."
According to Raymond Stults, opera and ballet critic of The Moscow Times, insiders in the capital say that "Lulu" has improved with age since its premiere in June, which got an indifferent reception. On the other hand, "Madame Butterfly," which premiered a month earlier, "turned out to be as beautifully wrought a production of opera as Moscow has seen in recent seasons," said Stults.
The remaining nominees are another "Madame Butterfly," this one from the Rostov-Na-Donu Musical Theater, the Yekaterinburg Experimental Musical Theater's production of Britten's "The Turn of the Screw" and, bizarrely, a production by Armenia's Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater of Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma" that qualified by virtue of what Stults called "obscure Moscow connections."
"Norma" played on the New Stage of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in January and, according to Stults, is unlikely to win much, as it suffers from " amateurish staging and decor." Perhaps tellingly, it won't be repeated in Moscow during the Golden Mask festival, but will only be seen at the Mariinsky on Wednesday.
In the ballet category, the Mariinsky represenation is as strong as ever, with its "Cinderella" nominated for best ballet and four other awards. Alexei Ratmansky is nominated for best choreography - as he is for "Lea" at the Bolshoi's Postmodern Theater - and the production is also in the running for best set design (by Ilya Utkin and Yevgeny Monakhov), best female dancer (Diana Vishnyova) and best male dancer (Andrei Merkuryev).
Two St. Petersburg shows - Lyudmila Petrushevskya's "The Moscow Choir" at the Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe and Alexander Vampilov's "The Elder Son" at the Lensoviet Theater - are nominated for best large-scale theater productions, with two more in the chamber-stage category - Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's "Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg" at the Theater of Young Spectators and Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" at the Theater on Liteiny. Three directors from the city are also nominated - Igor Konyayev, for "The Moscow Choir;" Yury Butusov, for "The Eldest Son;" and Andrei Prikhotenko for "Oedipus Rex."
St. Petersburg gets half of the nominations for best actress - Ksenia Rappoport as Jocasta in "Oedipus Rex" and Tatyana Shchuko as Lika in "The Moscow Choir" - but only one of the seven best actor nominations, which goes to Alexei Devotchenko, as He in "Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg."
The Golden Mask festival runs through April 14. See Stages for details, or check www.goldenmask.ru. For an interview with the director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater's production of "Carmen," see p. ix.
TITLE: a ex-moron, hungry for success
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: With her simple, yet cheeky, pop songs, local singer/accordionist Sveta Kolibaba is now looking to hit the big time in Moscow. However, the road to success, always strewn with obstacles, may be further complicated for Kolibaba, whose profile doesn't really fit any of the accepted categories of Russian showbusiness.
Kolibaba got her stage name - her real name is Svetlana Shesterikova - by adopting her Ukrainian mother's maiden name. Her first appearance on the St. Petersburg scene was a stint with all-female folk-punk band Babslei. However, she became a more familiar name through the two years she spent in the group 3D, short for Tri Debila, or Three Morons.
In 1998, when she was 17, Kolibaba joined Babslei as the band's original accordion player.
"I met [Babslei founder and drummer] Katya Fyodorova via [local producer] Sergei Firsov, and we discussed her idea of getting some girls together at the very first meeting," Kolibaba said this week.
However, her time with Babslei did not last long. According to Fyodorova, Kolibaba quit after two years, appalled by a particularly ghastly scene at a punk festival in Vyborg, when the frontman of another band started cutting his body on-stage in a self-destructive fit. Kolibaba, however, has a different explanation, saying that Fyodorova is "exaggerating."
"I just wanted to change the band's performances and repertoire a little, but Katya somehow failed to understand," she said.
It was then that going solo first occured to her, as she wrote the first few songs of her current set and album while in her first year at music college. Before she could get started, however, she was recruited by Sergei Shnurov, frontman of popular ska-punk combo Leningrad, who was putting together a smaller, "more intimate" lineup for club gigs, which Leningrad found impossible due to its popularity.
Kolibaba played with 3D - which included her then-boyfriend, Andrei Antonenko, on tuba and drummer Dmitry Melnikov - through its two-year lifespan, which produced the album "Made in Zhopa" in 2001. Although playing with Shnurov was "great," Kolibaba said it was also a crazy time.
"I was asked all the time, "Who are the three morons? Is it Shnurov and the three morons? Are you a moron?" she said, remembering in particular the group's debut concert, in Moscow in June 2000.
"We went on an overnight train, and [the other members of the group] had a fight in the smoking area [between compartments] while I was asleep. I woke up in the morning and saw blood everywhere," she said. "Since then, I've been saying, 'Yes, they are morons. Three morons and a small girl, Sveta Kolibaba."
The Leningrad connection continues to haunt Kolibaba, who recently had to post a notice for journalists on the band's Web site saying she is not Shnurov's wife - although his wife is also called Sveta - and has no children by him.
"It's fresh gossip [in Moscow]," she said. "Some journalists turned up while we were shooting a video, and the first question was the 'Shnurov's wife' one. Wherever I go, people say, 'Look, it's Shnurov's wife, Sveta."
Shnurov wound up 3D in early 2001, when he grew tired of playing clubs, and Kolibaba finally got her shot at a solo career. She made her live solo debut supporting Leningrad at the Lensoviet Palace of Culture in May 2001.
Early the following year, Kolibaba recorded her first solo album, which has yet to be released. Although she wrote all the lyrics, Antonenko wrote some of the music, and arranged and produced the album. Still untitled, the disc is being considered for release by Moscow label Real Records.
Kolibaba said the 11-track album, which covers styles from 1960s-style Soviet retro to rap, was deliberately conceived as "eclectic, polystyle."
"I get bored singing in one style," she said. "It's like reading crime novels all the time."
Kolibaba's also disagrees with Shnurov's description of her solo work as a "purely pop project."
"Yes, the recording turned out as pop," she said. "But when we play live, it doesn't sound like pop. The arrangements are more rock and roll, harder edged."
While Moscow-based Nashe Radio, which specializes in Russian rock, liked Kolibaba's songs, it said they were better suited to the format of the more Russian pop-based Russkoye Radio. At the same time, MTV Russia thought Kolibaba's video "Ne So Mnoi" ("Not With Me"), shot by Moscow singer and now movie-maker Garik Sukachyov, was "too clever" for its new music policy.
"They all liked it, but MTV is now aimed at cattle," Kolibaba said. "They say so themselves, quite unashamedly, 'We play videos for cattle.' But they said that, if the song is played on the radio, they'll definitely show the video."
Kolibaba played a farewell concert at Moloko and at the Jan. 6 opening of the new Cynic, before moving to Moscow, where she will perform as "Sveta Kolibaba and Mongol Shuudan," backed by the veteran rock band of the same name. Although no concerts have been arranged in St. Petersburg, Kolibaba says she wants to return, but doesn't know how yet.
"We're not planning anything before we sign a contract and launch the video," she said. "It doesn't make sense to come to [St. Petersburg]. We won't be booked by Red Club, because we're an unknown band, so who would come? And I'd have to pay musicians."
Links: www.kolibaba.ru
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Local all-female alt-pop act Kolibri celebrates its 15th anniversary with a concert at the Estrada Theater on Saturday. For the occasion, the band will reunite, if only for a couple of numbers, with its founder, Natasha Pivovarova, who quit in 1998 to indulge in her theatrical projects, as well her pop/grunge band S.O.U.S.
The original idea of the band, whose name means "hummingbirds," was to collect "the most beautiful girls in St. Petersburg in one group." As time passed, Kolibri cemented as a vocal quartet that used backing tapes, but, unlike most Russian pop artists at the time, sang live.
The band officially dates its history from March 8, 1988, when Pivovarova invited some young women whom she thought appropriate for her future project to a concert by Pop Mechanics, the late Sergei Kuryokhin's flexible, eclectic ensemble. Pivovarova was then a member of Pop Mechanics' "industrial section" and is memorable for dancing while rotating a heavy metal stick over her head, risking injuring the other musicians.
The Kolibri celebrations were postponed to the late March because the band went on a three-date German tour earlier this month. Over its 15-year history, the band, which now includes vocalists Yelena Yudanova, Inna Volkova, Irina Sharovatova and guitarist Andrei Gradovich, has become an integral part of the local art and music scenes, and produced five albums of new material with a few really remarkable songs.
In the wake of Jarvis Cocker's Desperate Sound System, another pop singer comes to spin some vinyl at another "exclusive," invitation-only party. Although the event is being vividly discussed by local party goers, Lady Kier and the band she fronted, Deee-Lite, were a one-hit wonder - unlike Cocker's Pulp - but, for people who grew up in the early 1990s, when "Groove Is in the Heart" was on Russian television all the time, it is something of an imperishable classic. See Gigs for details.
Meanwhile, the gig by U.S. blues band John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, scheduled at Lensoviet Palace of Culture on April 12, has been canceled, according to its promoters, NCA.
Early reports about ex-Ramones drummer Marky Ramone coming to Russia with his new band, The Speedkings, were dismissed this week by the tour's Russian promoters, Web publication Rockmusic.ru.
As the band is now in a state of "semi-disintegration," according to Rockmusic.ru's spokesperson, Ramone will come without his band, and will drum through a series of Ramones hits with Moscow punk band Tarakany!, under the name Marky Ramone and the Pinhead Army. A local concert, also featuring a set by Tarakany! on their own, will take place at Orlandina on April 13.
Good entertainment this weekend might also be gigs by Afro-Cuban-style band Markscheider Kunst (Moloko, Saturday), Pep-See (Red Club, Saturday) or Kirpichi (Orlandina, Sunday).
Don't miss the Trash Horror Film Festival at Dom Kino, featuring such Troma studio gems as "Chopper Chicks in Zombietown," "Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part 4" and, especially, "Tromeo & Juliet." The latter's tagline is "Body Piercing, Kinky Sex, Dismemberment. The Things That Made Shakespeare Great," and it features Lemmy of British metal legends Motorhead. See Screens for times and dates.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: for dedicated followers of fashion
AUTHOR: by Tobin Auber
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The prospect of making a trip to Che, located just a stone's throw away from Moskovsky Voksal, was the subject of some heated discussion in our office. In its favor was a solid reputation among the city's in-crowd, rumors of the finest cheesecake to be found in St. Petersburg, and a laid-back, "trendy" atmosphere, stylish enough for the understated "elite" crowd, rather than the gold-chain and casino brigade. Counting against it, however, was the fact that Che isn't really a restaurant and doesn't have a proper menu - there are salads, desserts and snacks, but nothing in the way of main courses.
In the end, however, it was the desire to find out what exactly it is that makes a cafe bar popular with the local fashionable set (and that cheesecake, of course) that won out. But, having been, the question as to what it is that attracts St. Petersburg's fashion-conscious bright young things remains unanswered - Che certainly has a few things to recommend it, and you may have to go as far as Helsinki or Stockholm to find anything comparable, but you might still find yourself wondering what all the fuss is about.
Without swinging as far as minimalism, Che's interior is simple and cosy, and the high ceilings with vast windows, looking out onto Poltavskaya Ulitsa and letting in an abundance of natural light, certainly make a refreshing change from the majority of would-be up-market cafe-bars in the city, where you often feel you've been boxed in at the bottom of a deep mineshaft. But why Che's interior has proved such a hit with the fashion conscious remains something of a mystery. I'm far from being a furniture snob, but much of the decor has or could have been lifted from IKEA - if this place is setting the standards, then 15 minutes with a catalogue and an order form will qualify you as St. Petersburg's top interior designer.
As we were having a mid-afternoon lunch, the cafe wasn't overly packed, but legend has it that you would be well advised to book in advance if heading to Che in the evening, when it features live music. In order to overcome the problem of there being no main courses, we decided to order a broad selection of the snacks, salads and desserts in no particular order and hope that we'd come away satisfied. We did, but the menu has the odd booby trap to be avoided among some culinary delights.
The Gonsaga salad, for 200 rubles ($6.35), went down exceptionally well, with its tasty cheese and chicken fillets, and will definitely be repeated on subsequent visits. The "Anies Sare-Gambrette," for 210 rubles ($6.70), with lettuce, shrimps, paprika and a cream sauce, was less of a standout, being a little heavy on the mayonnaise, while the potato and smoked-salmon salad, for 150 rubles ($4.75), seemed to lack any taste whatsoever, apart from the tomato sauce covering what could have been baked beans from a tin.
For hot snacks, we took the third in a selection of three English breakfasts for 150 rubles. I can't quite understand why continental-style cafes and coffee bars attempt English breakfasts - if you're going to going to make it authentic, you have to accept that the bread, eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes and mushrooms must be fried in rivers of oil, and there should be a team of medical experts on hand to keep an eye on your blood pressure and the amount of cholestorol mercilessly clogging your arteries with every bite. Instead, the continental health-food variety on offer at Che is a fairly bland experience. The "Alsace strudel" for 130 rubles ($4.15), on the other hand, with its thick pastry, ham, paprika, crab meat and mushrooms, was a revelation.
Despite having been limited to salads and snacks, the size of the portions was such that appetites were beginning to fade as we heroically launched into three desserts. First, the good news: The rumors are true, and this is definitely the best cheesecake in the city (120 rubles, $3.80 per slice) with the subtlest of lemon tangs and the perfect, pure texture. Though they couldn't compete with the cheesecake, the Grandmother's Pie, - a chocolate glazed cake with prunes and nuts - and the apple strudel, both 120 rubles, were also excellent.
As we drank our "megacapuccino" (a double espresso, for 130 rubles) and Cortado - an espresso with cream, honey, cinammon and orange peel for 100 rubles ($3.20) - we couldn't help reaching a fairly mixed, even confused verdict on Che. Quite why it has been such a hit with the in-crowd as the place to be seen remains something of a mystery, but we couldn't help wishing that there was a Che on every street corner, the perfect place to drop into for a coffee and slice of cheesecake during the day.
Che. 3 Poltavskaya Ulitsa. Tel.: 277-7600. Open 24 hours. Menu in Russian and English. Credit cards accepted. Meal for two, with one glass of wine: 1,680 rubles ($53.50).
TITLE: something new from novosibirsk
TEXT: Alexei Stepaniuk, nominated for a Golden Mask for his production of Bizet's opera "Carmen" at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater, graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. He started his directing career at the Chelyabinsko Opera and Ballet Theater, where he put on Puccini's "La Boheme," Camille Saint-Saens "Samson and Delilah," Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Snow Maiden" and Tchaikovsky's "Yevgeny Onegin," among other operas.
In 1993, Stepaniuk staged his first work at the Mariinsky Theater, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sadko." Other productions quickly followed, including Verdi's "Aida." In 1998, he staged "Yevgeny Onegin" in San Francisco for a production conducted by Shostakovich Philharmonic principal conductor Yury Temirkanov.
Today, Stepaniuk works in many opera houses both in Russia and abroad, and also serves as an assistant professor at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory.
A few days before the start of the Golden Mask festival, Stepaniuk talked to Larisa Doctorow.
q:"Carmen" is your first production for the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. Had you staged it before?
a:The Novosibirsk "Carmen" is my fourth staging of the opera. They're all different, depending on the theater, the soloists and the scenography. For example, at the Kazan Opera Theater we worked with scenery designed by Alexander Golovin, a well-known painter from Russia's Silver Age [in the 1910s] who also designed the famous Mariinsky Theater curtain. There was also no question about how we would show the tobacco factory [in which Carmen works] and its poor female employees - they had luxurious dresses, and their appearance on stage looked like a fashion show. You can't stage a tragedy with such a setting; it would be an aesthetic contradiction. With each "Carmen," I have acquired experience and knowledge. Nevertheless, I start afresh each time.
q:What is your own in this "Carmen"?
a:There is a new insight into the central figure. In Russia, we imagine Carmen as a passionate woman with dark hair, a red rose and many petticoats and lacquered black fans. This is a stereotype. In Seville, [Spain, where the opera is set,] however, I saw a monument to Carmen, executed in dark stone, that portrayed a figure of a rather small woman. As we say today, she had a predisposition toward being on the plump side. Her face was hidden by a veil that was also carved from dark stone. The enigmatic figure, and particularly her veiled face, is very intriguing. What does it hide? Love? Death? Hatred? You stand there and try to solve the riddle.
The Novosibirsk show was an attempt to do this. It was the first time that I felt really free and independent to create what I wanted. If I failed, it would be my own doing; if I failed, likewise. The feeling was intoxicating because I could express my personal understanding of the character.
q:What vision of Carmen are you trying to convey?
a:I see her as a person hypnotized by death. There are people like that. Carmen is born to love and be loved, but she is equally attracted by death, and brings death to the people she loves. [Carmen's lover Don] Jose dies. In Peter Brook's staging [in 1983], Escamillo [the glamorous bullfighter to whom Carmen is attracted] is killed during the corrida [bullfight]. Brook went further than I do; I only contemplated the idea.
When Carmen sees Jose for the first time, she sings the "Habanera" to him, which is not a cheerful piece. It is her reflections on love, but also introduces the theme of fatalism, which is repeated throughout the opera. She knew Don Jose was capable of killing her, and tries to change him. He tries to change according to her wishes.
Before he met Carmen, Don Jose had an orderly life, a career. She smashed all this. He runs away with her to freedom. What sort of freedom is that? The life of a smuggler? Carmen does everything to get him into a state in which he is capable of killing her. They're both unhappy.
Carmen doesn't love Escamillo either, at least as far as I can tell from the music. They have a traditional duet at the end of the opera, but a duet without passion - she repeats his words like an echo.
q:When you prepare your staging, is the music your point of departure, or something else?
a:I look for a balance. Some people say that stage directing is a creative profession in comparison with, for example, singing, conducting or playing an instrument, where you follow the written scores. Everyone hears music differently and, here, we can deliberate what level of free interpretation of the musical score is permissible. It is a complex process, which depends upon personal experience, mood, understanding and feelings. I'm looking for a balance between artistic freedom and the discipline imposed by the score.
q:You've produced an interesting, daring show. How was it accepted by the theater and the singers?
a:Very well. Judging by the reaction of some singers, I felt I could go even further. They enjoyed working at something new and not traditional.
The Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater is huge - bigger than Moscow's Bolshoi Theater - so it was impressive that the theater was sold out on all 30 evenings of "Carmen" that we put on there last year. The public loves it. We have something to show off.
q:So, in your opinion, it doesn't feel like a production of some provincial theater?
a:Not at all. I don't consider the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater provincial. They have good voices, a good orchestra, and a very good scenographer in Igor Grinevich, whose stage design for "Carmen" has also been nominated for a Golden Mask. Our Carmen, Tatyana Gorbunova, sings in [Milan's world-renowned theater] La Scala, and in the Bolshoi's new production of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress," where she is great in the comic role of Baba the Turk. Our Don Jose, Oleg Videman, is in great demand. He sang here in the Mariinsky, and he often sings in [Mstislav] Rostropovich's opera stagings in Western Europe. In our show here we have another Carmen, the soprano Yulia Gertseva, a soloist at the Mussorgsky Theater, because Tatyana Gorbunova won't be singing for a few months. Gertseva knows our production and, when she was in Novosibirsk, we liked her interpretation of the role. She will be singing Carmen here and in Moscow.
q:Do you want to continue working with the Novosibirsk theater?
a:Yes, very much. For the last year and a half, it has had a new director, Boris Mezdrich, who understands that an opera theater has to have new items in the repertoire, new aesthetics. Now, the theater is rehearsing "Life With an Idiot" by Alfred Schnittke. The scenery was done by world-renowned Moscow designer David Borovsky. There are other projects for new productions to come.
The Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater performs "Carmen" at the Mariinsky Theater on April 4, and at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow on April 7.
TITLE: making the case for russian theater
TEXT: One of the most influential figures on the Moscow theater scene, Yelena Kovalskaya is no backstage Machiavelli, making and breaking careers.
As well as being theater editor of the Moscow edition of the popular entertainment magazine Afisha - the first St. Petersburg edition of which came out on Sunday - and the main organizer of the New Drama Festival, which emerged within the Golden Mask festival organization last year, Kovalskaya is co-curator of the Russian Case festival, a showcase of Russian theater within the Golden Mask that attracts foreign producers and critics.
Kovalskaya sat down with Russian Case's other co-curator, The Moscow Times theater critic John Freedman, to talk about theater in Russia and their aspirations for the festival.
q:How strong is the Russian Case program this year?
a:Since the festival is being held in St. Petersburg, in connection with the city's 300th anniversary, we wanted to emphasize local shows. That meant we were particularly sensitive to reigning opinions in St. Petersburg. We listened to what the critics and other observers were saying. For example, we included Andrei Prikotenko's extremely popular production of "Oedipus Rex" at the Theater on Liteiny. I suspect it's not a great show, but it has captured the imagination of the public in St. Petersburg. It's a lively, youthful show with a certain emphasis on sex.
The show I'm probably closest to is Mikhail Ugarov's "Oblom Off" for Moscow's Playwright and Director Center. Again, I don't think it's a great production, but it is one of those shows that arrived on time, so to speak. It is a good reflection of the age we live in.
q:Russian Case has always been an adjunct of the Golden Mask, but has grown tremendously in the four years of its existence: This year, 100 producers, managers, critics and scholars from 22 countries are expected to attend. Could it break away and become an independent entity?
a:No. There is no point in an independent festival here catering to foreigners. It must remain an integral part of the Golden Mask.
It's another thing that the Russian Case has great significance for Moscow and the country as a whole. Interest abroad is not as strong as it was, say, eight years ago. Not many of our theaters tour foreign countries. The Russian Case creates an opportunity for foreigners to come and see what we're up to.
I also like the idea of the Russian Case because it's not a competition festival. At heart, the notion of competition in art is deadly. By comparison, the Russian Case is both more ambitious and freer than the Golden Mask. We take the most interesting shows from the Golden Mask program and we add to them several recent shows that illustrate the very latest developments.
q:What, for you, would constitute a successful running of the Russian Case?
a:I want our guests to be surprised. They can always come see a brilliant show that they expect to see from one of our great directors, like Pyotr Fomenko or Kama Ginkas. But I want to show them something they had no idea was here, whether they like it or not.
q:Both festivals this year are dominated by shows from Moscow and St. Petersburg. What happened in the provinces?
a:This is an honest reflection of the situation in Russia. Realistically, we have two theatrical capitals. There are good theaters elsewhere, but they cannot consistently compete with Moscow and St. Petersburg. One exception is the field of modern dance. Olga Pona's Theater of Contemporary Dance in Chelyabinsk and the Yevgeny Panfilov Ballet from Perm have become integrated into the European dance movement, although they remain very Russian. Both have entries in the Golden Mask and Russian Case festivals. Panfilov's production of "The Blockade," incidentally, is the last show he created before his tragic death last year.
q:The styles of theater in Moscow and St. Petersburg differ significantly. How would you describe them?
a:I respect St. Petersburg theater and its level of culture. I would say it is close to European theater in its precision and highly developed formal traits. But there tends to be more substance to theater in St. Petersburg than in Europe where formal questions are foremost. This is true, say, of the Derevo and AKhE theaters, both of which were founded, and remain based, in St. Petersburg but who work most of the time in Europe. They are nominated for a Golden Mask this year in the Innovation category and are participants in the Russian Case. Moscow theater is clumsier and more imperfect, which is why I love it. Moscow theater is easier for outsiders to misunderstand because they may not comprehend the processes which are underway in Moscow. But, while such fabulous directors as Grigory Dityatkovsky and Yury Butusov have matured in St. Petersburg, Moscow has seen the rise of a wild and crazy group of boys and girls, some of whom are talented, some of whom may not be. The activity in Moscow is furious.
Russian Case runs from April 4 through April 9. For details, check www.goldenmask.ru/festivals/2003/russiancase
TITLE: same again, only less funny
AUTHOR: by Stephen Holden
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: For those who find more reality than they can easily stomach in the season's harrowing final episodes of "The Sopranos," "Analyze That" offers instant antacid relief. As the lightheaded sequel to the 1999 hit comedy "Analyze This" evaporates across the screen, its low-cal effervescence emanates from the comfortably goofy chemistry of its stars, Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. Reprising their roles of a mob boss, Paul Vitti, and his beleaguered psychotherapist, Ben Sobel, De Niro and Crystal exude a breezy camaraderie that recalls Bing Crosby and Bob Hope ambling jauntily down some nonsensical road to nowhere.
From the moment Paul, imprisoned in Sing Sing, fakes a psychotic break and begins maniacally singing "I Feel Pretty" inside his cell, and then lapses into feigned catatonia, "Analyze That" turns into a kind of mob vaudeville show in which there is not much difference between a whacking and a "West Side Story" ditty delivered in mob dialect. The ludicrous finale is a rendition of "Somewhere" bellowed on a waterfront promenade facing Lower Manhattan.
The movie, directed by Harold Ramis from a screenplay he wrote with Peter Steinfeld and Peter Tolan, is contented to be a loose-jointed series of skits, laced with running jokes that poke mild fun at mob-movie cliches and therapeutic psychobabble. The most prominent of those leitmotifs, the cliche that grief is "a process," is repeated enough times to become an annoying tic.
For De Niro, the role of Paul is a piece of cake because it doesn't appear to involve any work. One reason the star has enjoyed such success in comedy is that audiences feel an instinctive relief from the intensity of his screen persona when he lightens up. In "Analyze That" he somersaults off his Great Actor pedestal to become just another Hollywood star hamming it up with his buddies in front of the camera. Spoofing his own screen image, he is like a little boy scrunching his face into silly expressions while peering into a mirror, the menace in his slivery eyes brightened by a twinkle signaling that it's all in fun. "See, it's easy?" he seems to be saying with a big wink. "Dark or light, it's only play-acting."
Crystal's Ben conveys a similar on-again-off-again sense of a star alternately toying with a role and just being himself on a well-paid professional vacation. It's always reassuring for audiences to glimpse the vulnerable neurotic behind a therapist's omniscient mask. And, in a story that plays with role reversals, Ben, smarting from the death of a father whom he remembers as cold and withholding, experiences paroxysms of neurotic self-doubt.
But those twitches are never more than airy comic shtick. Behind Crystal's clowning, there is always the sense of a shrewd, quick-witted comic who keeps a cache of chicken soup simmering behind the curtain. Should an emergency arise, he would be the first to start dishing it out. Eventually, Ben finds himself accompanying a crew of mobsters during a heist in Lower Manhattan. At a critical moment he is forced to save the day by becoming a man of action.
The story to which these characters have been attached is a bogus contraption wrested from the same twilight zone of television sitcom where hillbillies find themselves in Beverly Hills and buxom, chirping genies materialize to satisfy the whims of their bumbling masters. Under the stern eye of a United States attorney, Paul is discharged from Sing Sing and put in Ben's custody. Ensconced in the doctor's home, he lunges around like the proverbial bull in a china shop, keeping the Sobels awake at night as he cavorts noisily with a prostitute, and disrupts a solemn family gathering by appearing in his pajamas to chase the same woman out of the house amid a flurry of curses.
Although Paul declares he wants to leave the world of crime for legitimate employment, he doesn't try very hard and soon finds himself and his old crew forced to choose sides between rival mob clans, one of them led by Patty LoPresti (Cathy Moriarty-Gentile). In her brief screen appearances, Ms. Moriarty-Gentile, blonder than ever, is as salty a presence as she was two decades ago in "Raging Bull."
The movie's cleverest notion is to have Paul hired as a consultant for a television series based on "Little Caesar." At his suggestion his mobster friends are brought on to the set to heighten the realism. Although there is the germ of a very sharp comedy in the intersection of real mobsters and make-believe thugs in a Hollywood mob comedy, "Analyze That" is far too lazy to do much with it.
A scene in which the series' Australian star (Anthony LaPaglia) consults Paul for acting tips falls flat. In a cheap shot, the movie makes that series' director an effeminate, hoity-toity refugee from the theater. Poor Lisa Kudrow is wasted in the one-note role of Ben's gently nagging wife, Laura. The choicest smaller performance is Joe Viterelli's sweetly avuncular portrayal of Paul's slit-eyed rhino-size right-hand man, Jelly.
Given the success of both phenomena, it was probably inevitable that "Analyze That" plays off "The Sopranos" in its show-within-a-show concept. Although they may be cousins, the artistic gap between them is as large as the chasm separating a "Saturday Night Live" sketch from "Crime and Punishment."
"Analyze That" shows at Kolizei through April 4, and at Leningrad and Mirage Cinema through April 9.
TITLE: the giant of soviet brinkmanship
AUTHOR: by Robert G. Kaiser
PUBLISHER: The Washington Post
TEXT: It is too easy to forget how crazy the Soviet Union was - not the madness of Joseph Stalin, but the everyday craziness of a cockamamie system. Consider the tragicomic case of Alexei Larionov, who in 1958 was the Communist Party boss of Ryazanskaya Oblast.
Larionov was the faithful toady of Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's successor as near-absolute dictator of the Soviet Union. When Khrushchev was trying desperately to increase agricultural output in 1958, Larionov pledged to triple Ryazan's production of meat in a single year. Aides warned Khrushchev that this intemperate promise would be "impossible" to keep. Newspaper editors in Moscow tried to avoid publishing stories about Larionov's folly, but Khrushchev ordered them to report and praise it.
As the deadline approached, Larionov struggled desperately. He ordered the slaughter of virtually every animal in his oblast, including dairy herds, breeding stock and the cows and pigs owned by peasants. He sent agents into other parts of the country to buy meat wherever they could. He exacted taxes from the citizens of Ryazan in kilos of meat. None of this was enough. "In the end, Ryazan Province delivered 30,000 tons of meat to the state," William Taubman writes in his new biography of Khrushchev, "a mere one-sixth of the 180,000 it had promised." For a time, Larionov hid this result under a blizzard of deceptive propaganda, but a team of officials from Moscow eventually discovered the truth. Then he shot himself.
This is one of scores of engaging, revealing anecdotes in Taubman's masterful and monumental study. Starting with a juicy subject for a biography, Taubman, a professor of political science at Amherst College and the author of several other books on the Soviet Union, has drawn on a huge body of material, much of it from newly available Soviet sources, but also a vast quantity of published material from Russia and the West. He spent nearly 20 years on the book. The result is fun to read, full of insight and more than a little terrifying.
It's not a revelation that Khrushchev, Soviet leader from 1954 to 1964, was a mercurial character, remembered for banging his shoe on a podium at the United Nations, the intemperate wisecrack that "we will bury you," or provoking the Cuban missile crisis. Taubman makes it clear that those episodes were all manifestations of Khrushchev's standard operating procedures. Though shrewd, energetic and determined, the rotund little man from the village of Kalinovka in southern Russia could never escape his demons - personal insecurities and resentments that never let him out of their grip. He constantly looked for shortcuts to success - for ways to triple meat production in a single year. The mostly faceless party hacks who finally pushed him out of office in October 1964 accused him of "harebrained schemes," and no lawyer could have got him off that charge. He was emotional, unpredictable, stubborn and ignorant about history, economics, the outside world and the workings of his own country.
With Khrushchev in charge, the Soviet Union was in the hands of a genuinely dangerous man. He actually believed in the propaganda he had grown up on, so he saw the Western countries as wicked "imperialists" determined to do communists in because they defended the cause of the working class. He had no qualms about killing people for political purposes, collaborated with Stalin's Great Terror and ordered the brutal crushing of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 without an evident blink.
He rarely listened to his aides or comrades but made decisions on instinct or whim. Repeatedly, Taubman recounts episodes in which Khrushchev launched some initiative (sending missiles to Cuba, for example) without carefully considering where his impulsive decision might lead. He loved risk. "The situation is highly dangerous, and I think the people with the strongest nerves will be the winners," he told Egypt's President Gamel Abdul Nasser during one Mideast crisis. Dealing with such a crisis "is like playing chess in the dark," he exulted.
Khrushchev was reckless, but he was not a fool. His peasant's intuition served him reasonably well at critical moments. Most important, Taubman writes, was Khrushchev's belief that "the missiles were meant to frighten, not to be used." When Kennedy reacted `more aggressively to the missiles than Khrushchev had expected, setting up a naval blockade around Cuba and implicitly threatening nuclear war if they weren't removed, Khrushchev quickly folded his cards. On the third day of the crisis, Oct. 25, 1962, he told his comrades that "we must dismantle the missiles to make Cuba into a zone of peace." He was humiliated, but nuclear war was averted.
Taubman is especially good when describing Khrushchev's endlessly complex relationship with Stalin, who made Khrushchev's career and tormented him even from the grave. Arguably, his greatest achievement was his "secret speech" to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party revealing and denouncing Stalin's crimes in 1956, yet he could never abandon the idea that Stalin was a great man. Khrushchev's daughter Rada explained why: "On many things he thought Stalin was right because he himself thought like Stalin." Exactly so.
That Taubman could get such an insight from Khrushchev's own daughter suggests one of the great strengths of this book. He has given us a post-Soviet biography of a Soviet leader, one based on interviews and documents that should be the basis of any good biography, but unavailable for Soviet leaders until recent times. It is exciting to think how rich a portrait of Soviet history will now be possible if more books as good as Taubman's are written using the new sources.
Robert G. Kaiser, associate editor of The Washington Post, is the author of "Russia, The People and the Power" and "Why Gorbachev Happened."
"Khrushchev: The Man and His Era." By William Taubman. Norton. 876 pages. $35
TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: by Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Kak vam ne stydno: you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
I started my translating career in Moscow in the late 1970s, when to translate Soviet articles about international politics was to learn a thousand ways of expressing criticism, from mild to wild. So I feel very much at home these days as we discuss what is usually called the "skladyvayushchayasya slozhnaya obstanovka vokrug Iraka" (the complex situation concerning/ around Iraq).
Vokrug is a good, old-style "code" word. When someone uses it, they mean to let you know that they believe whatever horrible situation is under discussion is not the fault of the country cited but has appeared due to other forces. So when the foreign minister raises the issue in this way, you already know something about his point of view.
This is still in the mild category of criticism. In Russian, like English, the most tentative criticism is expressed as a lack of agreement: ya ne mogu soglasitsya (I can't agree) and ya ne mogu razdelit vashe mneniye (I don't share your opinion) are both polite forms that give hope that you might yet win them over to your side. The next stage of disagreement is the unadulterated form of vystupat protiv (to oppose, to speak out against). The level of intensity is supplied by adverbs: neuklonno (categorically, unequivocally); posledovatelno (consistently); tverdo (strongly); reshitelno (resolutely).
If someone says, ya zayavlyayu s otvetstvennostyu (I declare with authority, I am authorized to declare), you know you are hearing not only the official version, you are hearing a well-considered and unwavering position. Protest is disagreement that implies a bit of hand-slapping: My vystupali s (reshitelnym, goryachim, kollektivnym, spravedlibym) protestom protiv voyennykh operatsy. When translating these kinds of phrases, you sometimes have to change the English grammar to accommodate adverbs or adjectives: We resolutely protested military operations; we collectively lodged a legitimate, strongly worded protest against military operations.
If you want to shift the spotlight to your noble actions, you might refer to your printsipialnaya pozitsiya protiv boyennykh deistvy. Here you want to avoid the trap of "principled position," which doesn't actually exist in English, and say instead, "our opposition to the war is a matter of principle" or "our committed position against war."
Another way public figures can express strong criticism is skazat vo ves (v polny) golos: My skazali v polny golos: net voine! This is literally "to raise one's voice in protest," but is better translated as "we emphatically (or forcefully) said no to war!"
When you want to go from hand-slapping to "... or else!" you use the phrase vydvinut emu ultimatum - to deliver an ultimatum to someone. In the personal arena, if you want to criticize someone at the top of your lungs, you can osypat ego rugatelstvami - to curse someone out (to rain curses down on them). To convey the nature of those curses without actually quoting them, you can say on pokryl menya matom (he let me have it with both barrels).
However, in Russian, one of the best ways to let someone feel your utter contempt for them and their behavior is the simple "kak vam ne stydno" (you ought to be ashamed of yourself). This has always struck me as a rather heartening form of criticism. After all, invoking shame implies that the "evil-doer" still has a conscience, and hence, may yet repent.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
TITLE: N. Korea Nuke Feud Looms in Iraq War
AUTHOR: By Christopher Torchia
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEOUL, South Korea - If the United States ever threatens to bomb North Korea's nuclear facilities, one South Korean activist says he would try to send so-called "human shields" of civilians to protect the site from attack.
It's a whimsical idea: getting permission to enter North Korea is tough, even for its few sympathizers, and the Yongbyon nuclear complex is one of the most restricted military areas in a country where travel is circumscribed.
Still, activist Ko Young-dae's improbable plan is an example of how some Koreans are beginning to think about - and brace for - a conflict in their region once the war in Iraq ends and the United States focuses on North Korea's suspected efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
"Our human shield plan is a way to stop a war from breaking out on the Korean Peninsula," Ko said.
The United States is seeking a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute, but has not ruled out a military option. U.S. officials say they consult closely with South Korea, an ally that fiercely opposes military action against North Korea because of the threat of widespread destruction.
"There will be no war on the Korean Peninsula as long as we do not want a war," South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Wednesday. He was quoted by his office.
Some analysts believe that the standoff with North Korea is essentially on hold now that the Iraq conflict is underway. North Korea had staged a series of military maneuvers that were seen as attempts to goad the United States into talks, but has been quiet since U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq last week.
"North Korea had hurried to try to bring the United States to talks before the Iraq war. They missed the timing, and are now just observing the situation," said Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.
"North Korea believes that no matter what it does, the United States does not have time to pay attention," he said. "It also fears the international community would turn its back on it if it crossed the red line now."
The so-called "red line" is widely perceived as a possible decision to start reprocessing spent-fuel rods at Yongbyon that could yield enough plutonium to make several nuclear bombs within months. North Korea earlier reactivated a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor, but U.S. officials say any tampering with the fuel rods is a more immediate threat.
For now, North Korea appears to be hunkering down, announcing on Wednesday that it was pulling out of weekly military meetings with the U.S.-led UN Command at the border village of Panmunjom. It also canceled a round of economic talks with South Korea that were scheduled for this week.
North Korea has complained bitterly about U.S.-South Korean exercises now underway in the South, saying they are a preparation for war. But one analyst said the drills may have deterred further Northern military actions like the March 2 interception of a U.S. military surveillance plane.
"The timing of the exercise here, coinciding with the start of the Iraq] war, has probably helped to reinforce the message that the U.S. really wants to focus on the situation in Iraq, but that it's also prepared for other contingencies," said Scott Snyder, head of the Asia Foundation office in Seoul.
Chung Jong-wook, former national security adviser to the presidential Blue House in the 1990s, said North Korea could try to develop nuclear weapons rather than wait for the United States to come to the negotiating table. Washington believes North Korea already has one or two atomic bombs.
"Perhaps we are in for a more serious situation," said Chung, comparing the confrontation to a 1994 crisis over North Korea's nuclear site. "North Korea may be moving very fast to make it a fait accompli before the end of the war in Iraq."
TITLE: Palestinians Killed in Gaza Strip Troop Raid
AUTHOR: By Ibrahim Barzak
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops raided this northern Gaza town in a hunt for suspected militants Thursday, killing two Palestinian policemen with a pair of missiles fired from a helicopter.
Troops left Beit Hanoun after dawn Thursday, taking with them three wanted Palestinians who the army said had fired Qassam rockets at Israel border towns.
Beit Hanoun is close to the Israeli border, and Palestinian militants often launch mortar bombs and short-range Qassam rockets from there at Israeli targets.
The raid began after midnight. Ten tanks entered the outskirts of Beit Hanoun, surrounding police posts, witnesses said.
A gun battle erupted and an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a post from which shots had been fired at Israeli forces, said the Israeli commander of the operation, who would only give his rank and first name, Lieutenant Colonel Nir.
Two Palestinian policemen were killed by the missiles, security officials said. Sixteen Palestinians were wounded, including eight members of the security forces.
Palestinians also detonated several bombs, the army said. It denied Palestinian reports that a tank was damaged or blown up during the incursion.
Ahmed Ismail, 28, a rescue worker, said Israeli forces kept medical teams out of the area. "Our cars came under fire three times when we tried to evacuate injured and dead people from the site," he said.
The army denied it prevented ambulances from entering the area. "I told them it was OK to enter with ambulances ... we saw the ambulances entering," Nir said.
In the past two months, Israel has frequently sent troops into Gaza towns and refugee camps. The army has said the purpose is to hunt militants from Hamas, an Islamic group responsible for dozens of attacks, including suicide bombings, that have killed and wounded hundreds of Israelis in more than two years of conflict.
Also in the Gaza Strip, some 700 Palestinians took to the streets Thursday, waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags and calling for an end to the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Demonstrator Fatima Mukhtar, 55, who wore a headband with the inscription "We Love Saddam," said: "All of us believe that this is a time that America should be defeated and only he is capable of doing that and bringing back the hope and joy of thousands of families who are victims of Israeli and American terror."
In the West Bank city of Hebron, about 200 Palestinians marched in solidarity with Iraqi. "With our blood, with our soul, we will redeem you Saddam," they chanted as they waved Iraqi flags.
Also on Thursday, Israel dismissed comments by the Britain's foreign minister, Jack Straw, who suggested Western powers are guilty of a double standard in insisting Iraq implement UN resolutions, but not forcing Israel to do the same.
The Palestinians have long complained that Western states enforce UN resolutions regarding Iraq with determination while not doing the same regarding Israel.
TITLE: Former Peruvian President Appears on Most Wanted List
AUTHOR: By Joseph Coleman
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - Interpol put Peru's disgraced former president, Alberto Fujimori, on its most-wanted list Wednesday, issuing a "red notice" calling for the exiled leader's arrest and extradition on murder and kidnapping charges in Peru.
The move by the international police agency does not carry the force of an arrest warrant. But it could put further pressure on Japan, where Fujimori fled to escape a corruption scandal in 2000 and is protected from extradition by his Japanese citizenship.
The Japanese government said Thursday it would not act on the Interpol request.
"Our laws do not make such provisions," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said. "We will consider this issue on the basis of Japanese law."
Fujimori did not immediately return a call to his office in Tokyo seeking comment.
Fujimori, who as president closed down Congress and gave the army sweeping powers in a successful campaign against Maoist guerrillas, faces murder charges for allegedly authorizing death squads who massacred suspected rebel sympathizers in the 1990s.
"Because Interpol was familiar with the underlying charges brought against Mr. Fujimori, the organization was able to satisfy itself quickly that all the relevant legal requirements for a 'red notice' request had been satisfied by Peru," the Lyon-based police agency said in a statement.
The notice, which was requested by Peru, means Fujimori's appearance, identity and details of the charges against him will be posted on Interpol's Web site. The "red notice" status puts Fujimori on Interpol's equivalent of a most-wanted list.
Fujimori took office in 1990 and launched a harsh but victorious military crackdown against the leftist Shining Path guerrilla group. But he was criticized for antidemocratic moves, alleged human-rights abuses and rampant corruption.
Fujimori, who was born in Peru to Japanese immigrants, fled to Japan in November 2000 as scandal toppled his decade-long regime. Peru has pushed for Fujimori's extradition, but Japanese officials originally argued that his Japanese citizenship - established after his arrival - protected him.
Since then, however, Tokyo has requested a Japanese translation of the Peruvian criminal charges and other documents from Lima as a condition for considering the request. Peru has not yet provided the paperwork.
Since arriving in Tokyo, Fujimori has become something of a celebrity, with his love life detailed in the tabloids. The local media have speculated Fujimori, who formed close ties with Tokyo during his 1990-2000 presidency, could even seek political office in Japan.
In the meantime, his legal troubles continue mounting in Peru. Last week, Peruvian lawmakers unanimously approved new corruption charges against Fujimori, accusing him of illegally authorizing millions of dollars in government purchases.
The week before, the Peruvian Congress approved embezzlement and illegal enrichment charges accusing Fujimori of secretly shifting state funds to pay for intelligence activities.
TITLE: Fifteen Held by Police in Djindjic Case
AUTHOR: By Dusan Stojanovic
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - About 15 members of an elite police unit that was close to former President Slobodan Milosevic were arrested on suspicion that they helped organize the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, police sources said Thursday.
The Unit for Special Operations, numbering about 300 men, was disbanded peacefully Wednesday under a government order, said police general Goran Radosavljevic, whose troops took over the unit's base in northern Serbia.
The unit's deputy commander, Zvezdan Jovanovic, was arrested Monday for shooting Djindjic on March 12 as the prime minister left an armored car in front of his Belgrade headquarters.
Jovanovic served as Milosevic's bodyguard before the former Yugoslav president was ousted in a popular revolt led by Djindjic in October 2000.
Dusan Maricic, the unit's commander, also was detained. He allegedly has ties to the Zemun Clan, the underworld criminal group believed to be behind the assassination.
In all, about 15 members of the unit have been arrested this week and are being questioned in connection with Djindjic's killing, police sources said.
The sources said on condition of anonymity that an unspecified number of secret police officials have been detained.
Still at large, though, is the alleged planner of the assassination ? Milorad Lukovic, the unit's former commander and Zemun Clan's alleged leader.
Bojan Pajtic, the governing coalition's parliamentary leader, told B-92 radio that, with the disbanding of the special police unit - used by Milosevic during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo - the former president's "pillars of power" and "repressive mechanisms" finally are crumbling.
The investigation into Djindjic's murder has shown "an alarming link between the secret services and organized crime" in Serbia, Pajtic said.
Milosevic's regime allowed crime figures to fight with notorious paramilitary units in the Balkan wars. Afterward, he gave them a free hand to join regular police forces - such as the special unit - linked to underworld figures running lucrative drug trafficking operations, authorities say.
Djindjic made enemies by declaring war on organized crime, which flourished in Serbia under Milosevic's rule.
TITLE: Shaq Dominant Once Again As Lakers Win Over Rockets
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HOUSTON - Shaquille O'Neal is satisfied that his self-proclaimed title is still intact.
O'Neal scored 39 points and took over the game in the closing minutes with three straight baskets as the Los Angeles Lakers overcame the emotionally charged Houston Rockets 96-93 Wednesday night.
O'Neal outplayed Houston's Yao Ming in their second meeting, then denied it was a statement game.
"I don't have to make statements," O'Neal said. "Everybody knows the type of player I am. I've been doing this for 10 years and just because he had one good game against me doesn't mean he had the MDE [most dominant ever] title. I took that title from Hakeem when he left Houston a couple of years ago."
Despite the Yao-Shaq matchup, the pre-game talk was about Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich, who told the team earlier in the day he would take an indefinite leave of absence to fight bladder cancer.
"I think we did a good job defensively, we just did not do the job down the stretch," Rockets acting coach Larry Smith said. "We're still learning. A lot happened this week. I'm not making excuses, but this was a very trying day."
Houston led 89-86 with 2:37 to play before a basket by Robert Horry set the Lakers' winning rally in motion.
O'Neal followed with a 2-meter hook, a turnaround jumper, both over Kelvin Cato, and then went right at Yao and dunked on his third try for a 94-91 lead with 0:19 remaining.
"[O'Neal] gets pumped up on matchups like this," Kobe Bryant said. "He looks forward to silencing those people. It took him a minute to figure him out, but once he figured him out, he'll dominate him like he does everyone else."
Bryant scored 31 points for the Lakers, with a team-high nine rebounds.
James Posey and Steve Francis each scored 19 points for Houston and Cuttino Mobley and Maurice Taylor scored 15 apiece.
The biggest lead of the game was Houston's early 20-10 edge. Then it got tight and stayed that way. There were 15 lead changes and 11 ties. O'Neal made the difference.
"He [O'Neal] was motivated, no doubt about it," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. "He really didn't want to come out of the game in the first half and in the second half I let him play more."
The Lakers took a 41-38 lead into the third quarter and had to fight to keep it. Los Angeles was leading 47-46 when Yao hit his chin on Rick Fox's head and fell to the floor. He had to leave the court briefly.
The Rockets edged ahead 55-52 in Yao's absence, but a basket by Derek Fisher and three free throws by Bryant gave the lead back to Los Angeles. The Lakers held a 66-64 advantage going into the final period.
The first meeting between Yao and O'Neal was a big media event, complete with Chinese protests over remarks O'Neal made concerning Yao. O'Neal had 31 points and 13 rebounds to Yao's 10 points and 10 rebounds, but the Rockets won the Jan. 17 meeting 108-104 in overtime.
Tomjanovich was diagnosed with the disease last week and missed the team's five-game road trip. He was expected to return for Wednesday night's game but said he thought his illness would be a distraction to the team.
Houston dazzled the Lakers by hitting four of their first six 3-point attempts, but Fox led a 12-2 run with a pair of 3-point baskets and the Lakers closed within 24-22 at the end of the first quarter.
Orlando 97, New Orleans 95. On the verge of a blowout loss, Tracy McGrady blocked out any negative thoughts and led a comeback from a 20-point deficit.
McGrady capped his performance by blocking fellow All-Star Jamal Mashburn's shot with 0:06 left, giving the Orlando Magic a 97-95 come-from-behind victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night.
"I'm just really proud of the guys because I thought in the first half it was easy for them to fold the tent and think about tomorrow," Orlando coach Doc Rivers said. "But they just didn't do that. They just hung around long enough until T-Mac got hot. Once he got it going, you could see the whole spirit of the game change."
The Hornets, who led by 20 points in the second quarter, matched the third-largest blown lead in franchise history.
The Magic trailed by 18 points at halftime, but McGrady carried his club in the second half, scoring 25 of his 41 points. In the third quarter, McGrady scored 16 points - as many as New Orleans did - and the lead was cut to 76-66.
In the fourth, the Magic went on a 10-2 run to start the quarter, cutting the Hornets' lead to 78-76. The Hornets responded with a 10-5 run, sparked by a 3-pointer by Mashburn, who finished with 40 points.
With 1:52 left, Orlando guard Darrell Armstrong was fouled while making a 3-pointer. The ensuing free throw cut the Hornets' lead to one, and when Armstrong made a steal on the Hornets' next possession and fed Gordan Giricek for a layup, Orlando had its first lead - 93-92.
Orlando led 97-95 with 0:17.2 left as the Hornets looked to tie the game. Point guard Baron Davis, who finished with a game-high eight assists, fed Mashburn. But McGrady blocked Mashburn's shot and Courtney Alexander picked up the loose ball in the corner and misfired a 3-point attempt
(For other results, see Scorecard.)
TITLE: Penguins Snap 16-Game Winless Streak
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - The Pittsburgh Penguins came into Madison Square Garden without Mario Lemieux, without a win in over a month, and without a chance to make the playoffs.
They skated off with the two points the New York Rangers desperately needed.
Martin Straka and Tomas Surovy scored power-play goals in the first period as the Penguins snapped a 16-game winless streak and put another crimp in the Rangers' postseason hopes with a 3-1 victory Wednesday night.
"It was a must-win game for them, and for us they are all must-wins because it's been a frustrating couple of weeks," said Pittsburgh forward Steve McKenna, who spent last season with the Rangers.
Sebastien Caron made 33 saves and was 11:46 away from his third shutout in 22 career games when Brian Leetch scored his 10th goal.
Eric Meloche also scored for the Penguins, who were 0-14-2 since defeating St. Louis on Feb. 22 and just two winless games away from tying the worst stretch in club history.
"This is the National Hockey League. Nobody is going to come out and give you two points because they're out of the playoffs," Rangers forward Anson Carter said.
New York lost three of five games to Pittsburgh, losing the season series for the fourth straight season. The Rangers have eight losses to Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Buffalo - three of the bottom four teams in the East.
"If I had the answers to all those things, I wouldn't be a fourth-line left winger," McKenna said.
The Penguins hadn't scored more than two goals since registering three in each of the first two games of the winless streak, and their power play connected only six times in 64 opportunities during the slump.
The unit didn't figure to jump to life without Lemieux, but it did. Lemieux, fifth in the NHL scoring race, missed the game after back spasms flared up Tuesday. The Penguins took advantage of the Rangers' recently stellar penalty-killing to grab a 2-0 lead.
"It's been a long time. It's been weird," Caron said of the sudden lead.
Brian Holzinger made a pass from the left boards up to the point to Dan Focht. The defenseman sent a soft chip shot down toward the slot where Straka got a stick on the puck and sent it skittering between the pads of Dan Blackburn at 7:18.
The Rangers had won three straight and killed 26 straight penalties over the previous five games, not allowing a power-play goal since March 10.
"I've been through some of the losses, and you just can't put a finger on it," said forward Rico Fata, dealt to the Penguins by New York in the Feb. 10 deal for Alex Kovalev. "Maybe we were just a little more ready."
Surovy made it a two-goal lead and made the Penguins 2-for-2 on the man advantage with his fourth goal this season and first in 18 games. This time Pittsburgh capitalized on a too many men on the ice penalty.
Just 20 seconds into the advantage at 19:48, Surovy took a pass from Holzinger, drove to the net and put a shot inside the left post. Even with their recent fine play, the Rangers still entered with the seventh-worst penalty-killing unit in the NHL.
Surovy scored goals in three of his first four games after being recalled from the minors on Feb. 14. He managed only five assists since his initial goal spurt.
Meloche made it 3-0 at 1:53 of the third when he intercepted a pass from behind the net by Darius Kasparaitis and backhanded a shot past Blackburn.
St. Louis 1, Minnesota 0. Chris Osgood stopped 31 shots and Cory Stillman scored the game's only goal as the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
It was the second shutout for Osgood since he was traded to St. Louis from the New York Islanders on March 11 and his fourth of the season. He blanked the Nashville Predators 1-0 on March 15 in his first start with Blues.
"I've felt really good since I came here," Osgood said. "I've got a lot of confidence in the forwards and defensemen I have here because I know they're going to work hard to block shots, and they did that again tonight."
Despite being outshot 6-1 in the opening half of the first period, the Blues managed a goal on just their second shot of the game.
A pass from Al MacInnis launched Pavol Demitra and Stillman on a two-on-one break. Demitra carried the puck into the Minnesota zone, drawing defender Filip Kuba and Fernandez to the left of the net. Demitra then flipped the puck to Stillman, who was all alone at the left side of the crease. Stillman tapped the puck into the net for his 23rd goal of the season before Fernandez was able to dive across the goal to block it.
"We caught them on a breakdown, which is rare," Stillman said. "Pavol faked a shot and held the goalie for as long as he could, so when I got the pass I had a wide open net. We're not going to get many two-on-ones on that team."
(For other results, see Scorecard.)