SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #875 (43), Friday, June 13, 2003
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TITLE: Criticism MountsOver 300 Expenses
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: According to Kremlin representatives, President Vladimir Putin is pushing for Russia's government and ministries to maintain the tempo of reconstruction in St. Petersburg that has been generated by the 300th anniversary.
But, this week, Federal Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin joined the chorus of voices saying that the money transferred from the federal budget so far hasn't been used properly.
At a Federation Council commission meeting earlier this week, Stepashin said that about 1 billion rubles of federal funds had been misallocated in relation to the anniversary, according to the Kommersant daily.
Stepashin said that he had already sent materials to the Prosecutor General's Office from a recent investigation by the Federal Audit Chamber on the use of the money transferred from the federal budget to prepare for the jubilee.
He also suggested that the problems might provide an impetus for Governor Vladimir Yakovlev to resign his post, while hedging that the governor is unlikely to suffer legal scrutiny as a result of the Audit Chamber report.
"[Governor Yakovlev's] resignation would be good for the city. I hope that Yakovelev has already taken the courageous decision to leave his post soon," Stepashin said. "I think that it will definitely be good for his career."
According to the report from the Audit Chamber investigation, the 1 billion rubles in question were part of money earmarked for the repair of city roads but, instead, were spent by City Hall to cover the cost of purchasing trees, flowers and grass, some of it delivered from abroad, that were planted in city parks ahead of the celebrations.
"When money transferred to repair roads is spent in so-called garden and park areas, with the grass being purchased from abroad, this is very difficult to understand," Stepashin said. "The Audit Chamber paid very close attention to this ... We're waiting for an answer from Vladimir Yakovlev, not through the media, but a concrete answer."
City Hall representatives say that there is no substance to the charges in the Audit Chamber report.
"I don't know which billion [rubles] Stepashin is talking about," Vladimir Anikeyev, the spokesperson for the City Hall Administrative Committee, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
"The laws allow papers to publish anything today, so, as [vice governor] Anna Markova says, 'put a document on my desk with all the figures and circulation, and only then can we discuss an issue,'" he said.
"It is not even clear that the billion ever existed."
Stepashin's comments are the latest in a number of claims of the misuse of funds in relation to the city's anniversary celebrations.
Quoting the same Audit Chamber report, the British daily The Guardian reported that about $100,000 had also been paid to a security company to guard non-existent buildings in the city.
In February, the Northwest Region department of the Transportation Police announced that it had opened 14 different criminal investigations in relation to projects involving a total of 4.5 million rubles (about $147,500) of federal money.
The same month, the head of the Northwest Region Prosecutor's Office, Vladimir Zubrin, said that there was evidence that $4.5 million had been allegedly misspent during preparations for the start of work on the flood-protection barrier for the city in January.
He said that other projects were also being scrutinized.
"Serious investigations are being carried out regarding the work in the historical center," he said at a briefing in February.
"The investigation is into the possible embezzlement of federal funds intended to help with preparations for St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary. The investigation was launched in December of last year," he said.
60 billion rubles (about $1.96 billion) were transferred from the federal budget to be spent over three years, beginning in 2000, to prepare for the anniversary, according to Valentina Matviyenko, the presidential representative in the Northwestern Region.
"This number was quoted to me by Sergei Vyazalov, first deputy finance minister, in a conversation. This includes resources from the federal budget and also spending by various ministries and government departments," Interfax quoted Matviyenko as saying last week.
She said that the amount of funds in question is comparable to the total annual budget for the city, which is estimated at 58 billion rubles (about $1.9 billion) for 2002 and 75 billion rubles (about $2.46 billion) for 2003.
And the questions surrounding how the money has been spent so far doesn't seem to have scared the Kremlin away.
"The president of Russia has asked the government, ministries and departments not to slow down the tempo of renovations to the historical center of the city because there is an understanding that we have only dealt with the first order of difficulties," Matviyenko said, adding that the transfer of further funds was under discussion at the federal level. "There is still a lot left to do."
TITLE: Kasyanov Facing a Challenge In Duma
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The State Duma will consider a motion by Communist and Yabloko deputies to hold a vote of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov next week, legislators said on Tuesday.
The Duma Council, which sets the chamber's agenda, scheduled debate of the motion for next Wednesday, said Oleg Shein of the centrist Russia's Regions faction, who sits on the council. Kasyanov is to report to deputies on the cabinet's social policies Wednesday.
A no-confidence motion needs a simple majority of 226 votes in the 450-seat Duma to succeed. That is considered all but impossible because the Communists, their allies and Yabloko can gather only about 150 votes. The Duma is dominated by pro-Kremlin centrist parties.
"We consider our initiative ... to be the only constitutional means to express our attitude toward [the Cabinet's] work for the past three years and for the last six months in particular," Yabloko head Grigory Yavlinsky told reporters on Tuesday. "Because of the current Duma's composition, the fate of the government fully depends on the president. If he orders the factions controlled by him to vote for the dismissal of the government, it will be dismissed."
In a joint appeal justifying the no-confidence vote, the Communists and Yabloko said that the government had "failed to ensure clear strategic prospects of development for the country, and to secure the national interests of the state, and it also acts against those interests."
"In a few months, by fall 2003, the government's inability to act could bring the country to destabilization, to the rising popularity of extremists of all kinds, right before the parliamentary and presidential elections," the statement said.
The statement also said that the government had proved unable to increase the tempo of economic development, provide for the needs of the army, protect citizens from crime or reform the bureaucracy, while it had followed anti-social policies and favored monopolies and politically connected entrepreneurs.
Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov said that the no-confidence call was "an untimely initiative from a political point of view," adding that it was a way for the parties to attract attention before Dec. 7 Duma elections.
According to a recent national poll of 1,500 people conducted by the Public Opinion Fund, the Communist Party will win the largest chunk of votes in the elections. Twenty three percent of respondents said that they would vote for the Communists, followed by 21 percent for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. Six percent would vote for Yabloko. The customary margin of error is 4 percent.
TITLE: French Provide Alternative for Holiday Weekend
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: If you are looking for something a little different to do over the long holiday weekend and don't feel like sticking with the Russian national theme, then a group of French ships that will be moored on Naberezhnaya Lieutenanta Shmidts could be interesting for a visit. Just be sure to leave any pet rabbits at home.
Three ships attached to the French Naval College in Brest - the oceanographic study vessel D'Entrecasteaux and the training vessels Lion and Tigre - will be open to the public on Friday and Saturday, before leaving port for Tallinn on Sunday.
The one-month cruise, which this year includes stops at Copenhagen, St. nPetersburg, Tallin and Rostok, is part of the standard training for the 57 second-year French Naval Academy students on board the vessels.
"We currently have about 100 students and crew members on board, with about half of these being students," said Commander Xavier Rebour, the dean of studies at the Naval College in Brest. "These medium and small-size ships are recommended by the French Navy for training trips, and so visitors will be able to see the typical vessels, equipment and training that we provide for future naval officers."
According to Anne Cullerre, the commander of the D'Entrecasteaux, which is named after 18th-century French marine explorer Raymond-Joseph Bruny D'Entrecasteau, even mentioning rabbits or hares on board is a taboo in the French Navy. The superstition dates from the old days of wooden sailing vessels.
"The crews would always take along a lot of small animals, hares in particular, as a potential food supply," Cullerre said. "According to legend, the hares aboard one ship gnawed their way through the bow and the vessel ultimately sank."
The cruise this year involves half of the naval academy's second year class of 114 students and is designed to provide hands on instruction in subjects ranging from ship mechanics to navigation.
The cruise on the D'Entrecasteau, a vessel with a displacement of 2,450 tons displacement that is capable of reaching 15 knots at cruising speed and of surviving a force-eight storm, is also a lead in to bigger things, as the next assignment for the students is aboard the 13,720-ton helicopter-carrier Jeanne D'Arc.
For a number of the students, the fact that the ship is named after a woman who occupies a major place in French military history is one that is appropriate.
Rebour said that there are 16 female students in the second-year class at the academy this year and that the number is indicative of the interest among French women in naval careers.
"The only limitation that currently exists in the French Navy for women is that they aren't allowed to serve on submarines," he added.
Cullere, 45, who is one of five females currently serving as commanders on French Navy vessels, says that her choice of a naval career was more geographic than anything. She says that she grew up in a French mountain town, with no marines or sailors in the family, and was looking for a career that would let her work in different surroundings, as well as give her a chance to serve her country.
"What you do sacrifice as a woman is the opportunity to wear skirts and high heels, but I don't really like them even when I am on shore," she laughed.
While the ships will be open for the public, the naval students will take part in a number of official events, as well as having some free time to explore the city.
"We have several official visits in the program, like, for instance, the Admiralty and Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, but I am quite sure that [the students] won't get in trouble when exploring St. Petersburg," Cullerre said. "They are all very responsible and they are always in uniform, which is usually appreciated by local residents."
The students' uniforms include caps topped by bright red pompons. While Cullerre says that it is considered to be good luck to touch the pompons, the commander and the crew hope that visitors to the ship won't take the opportunity too often.
And Cullere herself is planning to spend most of her time in the city on shore.
"A stroll along Nevsky Prospect would be nice, and a visit to the [Mariinsky Theater]," she says. "I can't miss the cruiser Aurora and, certainly, to be here during the famous White Nights period and not to experience it would be inexcusable."
TITLE: Russia Marks Annual 'Independence Day'
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Military jets thundered over Red Square on Thursday as Moscow marked the Day of the Declaration of Russian State Sovereignty - generally referred to as "Independence Day - with a parade that had strong echoes of the communist era.
They were the first non-emergency planes to fly over the capital's center for nearly 50 years, not counting the daredevil stunt by German teenager Matthias Rust, who landed a light plane on Red Square in 1987.
Russian troops were arrayed before a podium bearing President Vladimir Putin and prominent politicians, as representatives of ethnic minorities in national dress and women in the red, white and blue of the Russian flag looked on.
Putin stood a few meters from where Soviet leaders took the salute during the parades of the Cold War.
"Only together can we make Russia economically strong, open to the world, and a democratic power," Putin said, in a speech transmitted live on national television.
"There is already a foundation that could be used to build a solid future for the great Motherland," Putin said, according to Itar-Tass. "Russia can see its abilities. It is certain about its own force, and this certainty is based ... on the whole of Russian society."
The holiday commemorates the affirmation by the parliament of the Russian Federation in 1990 that its laws took precedence over those of the Soviet Union.
An artillery salute boomed out, and 10 jets flew past the onion domes of St Basil's Cathedral and the crenellations of the Kremlin wall.
"I loved it when the planes flew in a big circle and then turned round," said Ira, an eight-year-old Muscovite girl.
Security was tight for the holiday, with 4,500 extra police on Moscow's streets. Nerves have been rattled by suicide bombings in Chechnya that have killed more than 90 in the last month.
"When something started booming on the other side of the square, I thought there had been an explosion, I thought it could be terrorists," said a giggling young woman, who gave her name only as Ira.
Some questioned the wisdom of having jets fly over the city center, especially since some were Su-27s - the type that crashed a year ago at a Ukrainian air show, killing 78 bystanders.
"The planes could have fallen on our heads, you can't have tanks in Moscow, but you can have planes? That's a mistake, planes crash every day," said Viktor, 63, who declined to give his last name.
(Reuters, SPT)
TITLE: CITYSTATE
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
TEXT: Regardless of when the powers that be decide elections to replace Governor Vladimir Yakovlev will ultimately be held (September, December and next April are all still possible dates), the two-person list of the most likely candidates at present ensures that this will be an election of firsts.
Don't, however, jump to the conclusion that I mean that this will be the first time a woman has led the administration of the St. Petersburg (remember that empresses Elizabeth and Catherine were rulers of the entire country). I mean that, for both prospective candidates - Anna Markova and Valentina Matviyenko - this will be the first real foray into electoral politics. For both, it's a first stab at personal democracy.
Markova, presently the city's vice governor responsible for dealing with emergency situations, actually touched on the subject of democracy while announcing her candidacy last week.
"...I will participate in the gubernatorial elections ... in order to provide an alternative, to allow us to remain proud that democracy has been protected in St. Petersburg," Markova said in a speech before the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
I had to laugh. Where does Markova get off talking about this subject.
Forget about the fact that a good portion of her time climbing to public power and office was spent working in the city's law-enforcement agencies - not exactly a bastion of defense for the basic civil rights guaranteed by our democratic constitution. Instead, take a look at the administration of which she was a member of at Smolny.
Since Yakovlev's team took office in 1996, it has been involved in pressuring the media, forcing out Legislative Assembly speaker Anatoly Kravtsov as a little revenge for his role in authoring the City Charter (the local analog of the constitution), trying to move election dates around and rework the City Charter to ensure and prolong Yakovlev's stay in the governor's chair.
These are just a few examples of the "democracy" that Markova claims to be entering the race to defend.
Matviyenko doesn't fare much better when put to the elected-office test. Matviyenko's career - including her present assignment as presidential representative for the Northwest Region - has involved a string of positions that were essentially given to them. If she gained a post, it was because she was appointed.
Starting her career as an official with the Komsomol - the only youth organization sanctioned in the Soviet Union - she climbed the Communist Party ladder until she landed in a seat in the Supreme Soviet. She didn't even win election to this body as an individual but, instead, as part of a bloc of deputies put forward by the Union of Soviet Women - a substructure of the Communist Party.
Political analysts from the period still recall the negative reactions of Supreme Soviet deputies who actually had been elected individually to Matviyenko's repeated claims to "speak in the name of all Soviet women." It sounded like a pretty democratic claim coming from somebody who had only gained a seat by being part of a pre-selected list.
So that's where we stand so far. Admittedly, much may change before the vote for governor is actually held and there are a number of prospective candidates who have yet to announce whether they will throw their hats in the ring.
If the two hats that ultimately represent the choice in the gubernatorial ring are, as we see now, of women's styles, this would be a step in a democratic direction - visible representation for an under-represented part of the population.
It's just a shame that neither of the women wearing the hats has a lot of democratic experience.
TITLE: VOX POPULI
TEXT: Thursday was a day off for most people in Russia but, it appears, very few people know exactly why this was the case. Although the official name for the holiday is the "Day of the Declaration of Russian State Sovereignty," a poll by the Russian Center for Public Opinion Research found that the majority of" Russians - 65 percent - refer to the holiday simply as "Independence Day." Only six percent of those asked in the same poll were able to identify the holiday by its proper name. Staff writer Irina Titova talked to people on the street to try to get an idea of what the June 12 holiday means to them.
Nikita Blagovo, 72, pensioner:
On June 12 we celebrate Russia's Independence Day. I think that it's good that we observe this date. I believe that, in around 50 years, it will have become a significant and popular holiday, even though, from what I know, people don't really take it very seriously as a holiday now.
We have to remember this day because it's an important part of our history, so I have a lot of respect for this day. I think of this holiday as the day on which we became independent from a part of our past that helped to give Russia a bad reputation. I think that, now, our policies are more independent and less ideological.
Vladimir Lyutov, 33, publisher:
It's the day of independence of something from something.
To be a little more serious and straightforward, after a drinking party in Belovezhskaya Puscha [a governmental residence in Belarus where the agreement founding the CIS as an organization was signed in December 1991], Boris Yeltsin decided that he wanted to be cooler than Mikhail Gorbachev.
In the process of signing this declaration of independence, Yeltsin was able to undercut Gorbachev.
Alexander Nikulin, 35, Special Police Forces officer:
It's Independence Day. Since I'm against the communists, this holiday has certain significance for me.
But, lately, it seems that many of the numerous holidays we have here are losing their sense. Personally, I only really care seriously about two of them - New Years and Victory Day.
Olga, 26, engineer:
I know that it's Russia's Independence Day, but I don't really know what this is supposed to mean.
It seems that the day means something to the state for the simple reason that they think it's important enough to give people the day off but, for me, it doesn't hold any real significance.
Tamara Melishnikova, 74, cafeteria worker:
I have already forgotten what this holiday is supposed to be about. Over the 75 years of my life I've seen so many official holidays come and go that I can't keep track of them all any more. It's too bad, really.
Viktor Polushin, 25, engineer:
God only knows what this holiday is about.
I think that it has something to do with the former Soviet republics gaining their independence?
It doesn't have any real meaning for me. It's just a day off.
TITLE: Metro Making Tracks Towards the Regions
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Firmly established in Moscow and St. Petersburg after just 18 months, Metro AG is now embarking on an aggressive expansion into the regions, including breaking ground by the end of the year on its first outlet in an undisclosed city in the Volga-Don region.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday prior to the opening of the German retail giant's fourth cash and carry store in the capital - a $28-million, 8,500-square-meter store on Ryabinovaya Ulitsa - CEO Hans-Joachim Koerber said the company intends to invest about 1 billion euros in Russia over the next five years.
Metro, which is opening its second store in St. Petersburg next week, posted revenues of 287 million euros ($335 million) in 2002, and is expecting sales to double this year, he said.
"This is still only the beginning of our Russian expansion."
Asked if the Russian operation is profitable, he said that it was still in the startup phase.
"We are investing in the country and profit is not our primary focus. Our focus is gaining market share and developing our business," he said.
Andrei Ivanov, a consumer-market analyst at Troika Dialog, said that no one has accurate statistics for the local wholesale market, but Metro enjoys a unique position because it is "not quite wholesale," but serves individuals as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
Because of their relatively small orders, such businesses find it hard to negotiate favorable terms with producers. Metro AG, however, takes large orders and can bargain for good terms on their behalf, he said.
By 2005, the company plans to spend 400 million euros to expand the chain to 20 stores, including several hypermarkets under its Real brand name.
Koerber said that they had spoken to mayors and governors of all the major cities in the Volga-Don region, including Samara, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Volgograd.
The first Real hypermarket, built in partnership with local entrepreneur Shalva Chiriginsky's Moscow Development Co., will open next year. There will be four or five stores valued at 40 million euros to 50 million euros each in Moscow by 2005, Koerber said.
Domestic producers, who supply more than 70 percent to 80 percent of Metro's merchandise and have the potential to supply more than 90 percent, local administrations and wholesale buyers are all eager for the company to open in their district, he added.
"The government wants safe food, transparent accounts and a wide assortment of goods to be available," he said. "They also want to shut down the black and gray markets."
Koerber and other top Metro executives last week reportedly met with senior Russian officials including Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin and Russian Chamber of Commerce Chairperson Yevgeny Primakov to talk about the company's expansion.
Metro has paid 700 million rubles in taxes since starting activities in Russia, according to the company.
TITLE: Golden Sees 2003 Sales Up $340M, 20 Percent
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Telecom and Internet provider Golden Telecom expects sales this year to jump 20 percent to $340 million, company president Alexander Vinogradov said Tuesday.
Vinogradov added that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization could reach $100 million to $120 million, up from $61.4 million in 2002. The company plans to invest $55 million this year to further develop its networks and currently has $24 million in cash.
Vinogradov also said that the company's board of directors, next month, may consider ways to increase the free float of its shares.
Currently, 15 percent of Golden Telecom is available on stock markets in the form of American Depositary Receipts, but the company would like to increase that figure to between 25 percent and 30 percent, he said.
Vinogradov said that there are two ways to do this - either issue additional shares or get current shareholders to sell part or all of their stakes. The second scenario is more likely, he said.
Major stakes in the company belong to Alfa Group with 40 percent, state fixed-line long-distance monopoly Rostelecom with 15 percent and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with 11 percent.
Vinogradov declined to comment on reports of an impending asset swap with Telenor, in which Norway's leading telecom operator would swap its stake in Moscow alternative operator Combellga for a stake in Golden Telecom.
Telenor owns 75 percent minus one share in Comincom which owns 100 percent of Combellga. The total value of the deal has been estimated at $170 million. Telenor also owns a 25-percent stake in national No. 2 mobile provider Vimpelcom.
Golden Telecom operates in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod and in Kiev, Ukraine.
TITLE: $100 Bln Bill for Land Puts RSPP in a Lather
AUTHOR: By Alexander Bekker
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Property Ministry has recommended that business owners purchase the real estate on which their enterprises are located before Jan. 1, but the country's biggest business lobby group, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, says that doing so would cost investors $100 billion.
Due to exorbitant land prices, business owners would prefer a fixed-rent scheme, though they understand that this choice may run contrary to the wishes of the state.
From Jan. 1, companies will no longer have the right to use land without time limitation, which was granted to entrepreneurs in the course of privatization. In accordance with the Land Code, companies must either buy the land on which they operate or finalize a rental agreement with the landowner - be it the federal, regional or municipal authorities - before the January deadline.
The Property Ministry is having trouble convincing businesses that the purchase of real estate is necessary.
United Heavy Machineries CEO Kakha Bendukidze has calculated that to buy all his firm's real-estate plots would require $180 million - $20 million less than his company's market capitalization and nearly double its profit last year. And the way federal taxes are calculated, the value of that land will soar from $3.5 million to $62 million. More than 90 percent of the land controlled by enterprises will be leased, no matter whether the government owns shares in the enterprise, Bendukidze said.
Throughout the regions there are 80 distinct rates, which can differ by a factor of 75.
The RSPP estimates that land purchases in accordance with set parameters would take a $100-billion chunk out of company turnovers. This is equivalent to industrial workers' salaries for two years and 25 percent of GDP, or 120 percent of industrial production. The purchase of real estate will raise the tax payload from 30.1 percent to 55.1 percent.
Norilsk Nickel assistant CEO Alexander Perov said that the main problem facing companies is the lack of clarity concerning the real estate prices of plots of land and their rental rates. "For this reason, I hope our decision to rent [from Jan. 1] does not close the door to buying the land," Perov said.
Bendukidze and other businesspeople met with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in April to discuss the issue, and Kasyanov suggested they put their recommendations in writing. Bendukidze took their suggestions to the White House in May.
TITLE: jazzing about on the river
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: This year's jazz-boat season, a traditional St. Petersburg summer entertainment, opened on Wednesday. After their impressive success last year, the boats this year are scheduled to run twice weekly, on Wednesday and Saturday.
The boats are organized by the city's oldest surviving jazz club, Kvadrat, which now is a rather loose organization of some 25 to 30 jazz musicians who, until recently, met on Mondays for jam sessions and social events.
The jazz boats have changed radically over their 36-year history. Originally members-only events for which Kvadrat had to organize volunteer security to prevent the boats become overcrowded by non-member jazz fans, the sailings went commercial in 2001 and are now financially dependant on the paying public.
"We wanted to make it a public event, and to make some money for the musicians, and it looks like we've managed it," Kvadrat boss Natan Leites said by telephone last week.
So far, the idea has been a great success: After starting with three public jazz boats in 2001, last summer saw about a dozen sailings and this year's plans are even grander.
The boats have been a local tradition since 1967, when Kvadrat organized the first sailing, an all-night affair on the Gulf of Finland.
"It was the very first jazz boat in Russia," said Leites, 66, who has run Kvadrat since its inception in 1964. "Afterward, we went to a festival in Riga, [Latvia], saw the Daugava River and said to [the festival promoters], 'You've got such a great river, why don't you have a jazz boat?' We helped them to rent a boat and, since then, jazz boats have appeared in Moscow, Vitebsk [in Belarus] and elsewhere."
According to Leites, St. Petersburg's jazz boats originally started as a tribute to world jazz history.
"A long time ago, jazz in the United States travelled down the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Chicago, and jazz musicians worked on the steamboats there. That's why Chicago became the next center where jazz rapidly developed," he said. "When we started, we knew all about this jazz history. In 1967, it was sacred to us."
Unlike rock music, jazz was basically tolerated by the Soviet authorities, but conflicts still occurred, ranging from innocent larks - when, to the dismay of local residents, drink-laden musicians continued to play on the pier until 6 a.m. until the police came to break up the improvised performance - to a now-infamous incident in 1976 when the KGB put a last-minute ban on the jazz boat scheduled to host a U.S. student jazz band.
Partly for technical reasons, the musical element of the jazz boats is split into two - the acoustic-instrument-only upper deck is occupied by Dixieland bands, while the lower deck is reserved for smaller, amplified groups playing more contemporary styles, mainly be-bop and hard bop.
Kvadrat itself, meanwhile, has been homeless since last December, when the rooms in the Kirov Palace of Culture occupied by its headquarters changed hands. Leites has since attempted to arrange the club's traditional Monday jam sessions at local jazz clubs, but was forced to drop the idea when, one after another, three venues - Neo Jazz Club, (812) Jazz Club and the Red Fox - kicked the Kvadrat crowd out, mainly, according to Leites, because the musicians played "too loudly."
Leites said that he recently received a reply to a letter that he had written to the State Propert Committee, and now has to check some possible basement venues for Kvadrat's future home.
"Jazz can only exist at David Goloshchokin's [Jazz Philharmonic Hall] and JFC Jazz Club, which have their own premises and hired bar staff, wait staff and so on themselves," Leites said. "Otherwise, [venues] want to keep everything quiet, so people can eat and drink in peace."
The jazz boats embark from the Hermitage Pier, Dvortsovaya Nab., at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. The next boats will feature Ivan Vasilyev Band (lower deck) and Alexei Kanunnikov Jazz Band (upper deck) on Saturday, and jazz singer Olga Ponomaryova (lower deck) and Alexei Kanunnikov Jazz Band (upper deck) on Wednesday. The trip lasts two hours, and tickets are available from the city's ticket kiosks. For more information, call 315-9046 or 153-4020.
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Boris Grebenshchikov and Akvarium will play two concerts this week at Lensoviet Palace of Culture on Friday and Saturday. The band is showcaseing its new album, "Pesni Rybaka" ("Fisherman's Songs"), which was released on May 15.
The album - Akvarium's first since "Sestra Khaos" ("Sister Chaos"), the January 2002 dish whose title was inspired by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 - demonstrates Grebenshchikov's new found positivity, and is still full of irony.
According to Grebenshchikov, the new album is "pure poetry ... an experiment in how little chords it is possible to use and still have a song." The concerts will feature all 10 of the album's tracks, as well as older material and a "couple of surprises."
Despite Grebenshchikov's earlier plans to go on vacation right after the St. Petersburg's shows, Akvarium annoucned a six-date European tour this week. The tour will start at Hamburg, Germany on June 26 and end at Geneva, Switzerland on July 9.
Formed by ex-Akvarium accordion player Sergei Shchurakov, eight-member art-rock band Vermicelli Orchestra, which has just travelled by boat down the rivers of Germany as part of a cultural enterprise called "Kulturschiff," will play at Moloko on Saturday.
For the past six months, the band has been in a process of recording its third album, which will be finished by autumn, according to its management. Like Grebenshchikov, Vermicelli Orchestra helped record Marc Almond's forthcoming Russia-inspired album, tentatively called "Heart on Snow." After a couple of postponements, the album is scheduled to be released in September. Almond is expected to come to showcase it here that month.
Leningrad and Spitfire will be touring the United States starting this Friday, when Leningrad will open in Boston. In total, the 10-date tour includes six concerts by Leningrad and four by Spitfire and is scheduled to continue through June 29, when Leningrad will play at New York's Roxy, but more dates may be added as the tour progresses.
Big international concerts start this week with a solo show by Depeche Mode frontman David Gahan, who will promote his album "Paper Monsters" with a concert at Ice Palace on Tuesday. More concerts to follow at the Ice Palace are Moby (June 24) and Bjork (July 16). St. Petersburg dates are often inconvenient, because the better, weekend dates are normally reserved for Moscow.
Finally, rumor has it that Lou Reed will come to St. Petersburg in August to play a concert at the Shostakovich Philharmonic - something that Bryan Ferry did 2 1/2 years ago - although there is no confirmation as yet on Reed's official Web site.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: unfinished monkish business
AUTHOR: By Peter Morley
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There's an old joke about a traveler who knocks on the door of a monastery late in the evening seeking food and a bed for the night. This being an English monastery - and, therefore, presumably before Henry VIII hived off the English church from Rome so he could get divorced - the traveler is served fish and chips. (It must have been quite a trendy monastery as well, not to mention technologically advanced, but let that pass.)
Anyway, the traveler eats his fish and chips, and Brother Jerome, who is serving him, asks if he enjoyed his meal.
"Oh, Brother Jerome, I've never had such a wonderful feast," the traveler enthuses. "Those chips were wonderful, and the fish ... well, the fish was just out of this world. Where does the monastery get it from?"
"Well, my son, you'd have to ask Brother Simeon about that," comes the reply. "He's the fish friar; I'm only the chip monk."
The reason for this pair of painful puns is that now I can make the very tenuous link that, were that traveler's modern-day descendants to pitch up hungry at Pogreba Monakha, or "The Monk's Cellars," on Millionaya Ulitsa, they would probably come away equally satisfied. (Whether they would get a bed for the night is debatable, but let's not quibble over details).
The first thing to say about Pogreba Monakha is that the monk in question is very much a Western monk - no Russian wandering fool or Rasputin here (although the restaurant's menu comes with musing cartoons of friars engaging in suitably stereotypical non-monkish activities, such as getting drunk in a wine cellar, peering down a waitress' cleavage and chasing with sticks after little children).
Accordingly, the restaurant has a feel of a cozy, unpretentious Western establishment. In fact, it's probably the first eatery I've visited in St. Petersburg that manages to achieve this Western orientation without being either self-consciously upmarket or just plain tacky.
Pogreba Monakha is laid out in a series of cellars that create a large venue that doesn't feel like a large venue. The interior decoration is pleasingly restrained, with the building's presumably original brickwork having been left intact, subtle lighting and subdued music (although the choices while we were there were somewhat uneven, from noodly jazz to Bjork to sub-house dance beats). It's all about unfussy stylishness and clean lines, and the service - polite and efficient - reflects this as well.
Having been ushered to a table in the rearmost chamber, my dining companion and I perused the menu while sipping on grapefruit juice (30 rubles, $0.98) and Borzhomi mineral water (45 rubles, $1.45), respectively.
My companion started out with a chicken meatloaf (160 rubles, $5.20), which was an instant success. The meat was stuffed with fresh vegetables and came with slices of orange, and the whole combination had a pleasant tang that my companion, who is not a fan of spicy food, greatly enjoyed.
My eggplant rolls (140 rubles, $4.55) were also decent, comprising half a dozen small slices of the vegetable wrapped around ground walnut, although the allegedly "piquant" sour-cream sauce turned out to be anything but, as my companion's more sensitive taste buds confirmed.
For my main course, I ordered my personal favorite, sturgeon, which at Pogreba Monakha comes fried, on a bed of thinly sliced fried potato with a creamy sauce and tiny prawns and red caviar. (At 560 rubles, $18.95, it's also the most expensive dish on the menu.) I generally find that sturgeon, quite a bland fish that mainly provides dining pleasure through its texture, needs something more flavorsome to make it a standout item, and the dish lacked this to some extent. That said, the fish was nicely cooked, and I enjoyed almost every mouthful.
I was barely 10 words into explaining to my companion that the wide availability of cheap sturgeon is a major plus for me of living in Russia when I realized she was not listening to a word I was saying. The reason for this - apart from maybe my stultifying attempts at conversation - was her main course, the "Meat a la Normande" (myaso po-normandsky, 400 rubles, $13.05), which had her spellbound from the first bite. The meat - pork, as it turns out - comes stuffed with berries and apricots, and my companion, who has a certain predilection for sweet food, could not praise the dish highly enough.
My companion was also enraptured with the vegetable garnish, which included fried chunks of peppers and zucchini and some tremendous mushrooms cooked in cream, an unexpected bonus as she is something of an expert on all matters mushroom.
We rounded off a very satisfying evening with an excellent mixed-berry tart (110 rubles, $3.60) for my companion and a gorgeous, moist nut cake (130 rubles, $4.25) for me, which we accompanied with green tea (20 rubles, $0.65) and cappuccino (40 rubles, $1.30), respectively.
Overall, Pogreba Monakha proved an unexpected success. I'm always wary of restaurants here that display interior photos and a stylized menu outside the front door, but I was extremely happy to be proved wrong, and can only pronounce Pogreba Monakha to be an unqualified civilized pleasure.
Pogreba Monakha, 22 Millionaya Ul. Tel.: 314-1353. Open daily, 11 a.m. until the last guest leaves. Menu in Russian and English. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, without alcohol: 1,655 rubles ($54).
TITLE: Nets Scrape Win To Knot NBA Finals at 2
AUTHOR: By Greg Beacham
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey - In one impossibly fluid motion, Manu Ginobili stole a New Jersey pass and dribbled the ball behind his back while hurdling the intended receiver. He raced up the floor for a layup - and he somehow missed the entire rim.
Almost every moment of beauty so far in the NBA Finals has been obscured by something hideous. The Nets and the San Antonio Spurs are crossing new frontiers of offensive ineptitude while embarrassing their high-scoring ABA forefathers.
But when Ginobili launched a 3-pointer that could have tied the game with 3 seconds left, the struggles of the previous 48 minutes were forgotten for a moment. Strangely enough, these teams' relatively equal awfulness has produced a tense series with the promise of genuine drama - or at least more tragi-comedy.
Kenyon Martin had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Ginobili badly missed the next-to-last shot in the Nets' bruising 77-76 victory over the Spurs in Game 4 Wednesday night. New Jersey's first home finals victory evened the series at 2-2, with Game 5 set for Friday night at the Meadowlands.
Martin personified the Nets' ragged determination on a play that probably determined the game. New Jersey trailed by a point with 1:16 left when Richard Jefferson drove the lane and passed to Martin, whose shot was blocked by Tim Duncan.
Martin grabbed the ball and went up again, and Duncan blocked it again. Martin snarled as he grabbed the ball again; the third time up, he drew a foul, and his two free throws put New Jersey ahead for good.
It was ugly, it was messy - but it got the job done.
"We're not satisfied," Martin said. "I wasn't satisfied when he blocked the first one and got it back and blocked the second one. I was going to make something happen. ... That's the attitude of this team. We are never going to quit until it's over."
Jefferson added 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Jason Kidd had 16 points, nine assists and eight rebounds despite another horrible shooting performance. The Nets survived an 11-point third quarter that was just the start of their troubles.
They shot 36 percent. They blew a 15-point lead. They didn't have a basket in the final four minutes. They allowed Ginobili to get open on the final inbounds play.
But their woes were nothing compared to the Spurs' miserable offensive performance. San Antonio shot 29.8 percent (26-of-90) - the third-worst shooting game in NBA Finals history. Duncan had 23 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks, but Tony Parker's 1-for-12 performance lowlighted an erratic team effort.
Put them together, and it's no wonder Martin left the court shrugging his shoulders and grinning sheepishly. There have been only three lower-scoring games in the finals since the advent of the shot clock in 1954.
"Shooting was a little bit of a problem," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
Nets coach Byron Scott added: "We struggled offensively, but the good thing is, so did they, the whole game."
After Martin won his low-post battle with Duncan, New Jersey stayed ahead by controlling the ball for 45 straight seconds during the final minute. The Nets got two offensive rebounds before Kidd made two free throws with 0:09.1 left for a three-point lead.
After a quick jumper by Duncan and two more free throws by Kidd in the hushed arena, the Spurs executed a pretty cross-court inbounds pass. Ginobili got a clear look at the basket after a pump-fake, but the Argentine guard barely got it to the rim, where Kidd swatted it away.
Duncan made a jumper as time expired - but San Antonio needed three points to tie, not two.
The Nets and the Spurs have played two of the seven lowest-scoring finals games since the invention of the shot clock. Those games have included two of the lowest-scoring quarters in finals history, both by the Nets - and they've still made it halfway to the franchise's first NBA title.
"This was a big-time win," Scott said. "It ties the series - a series a lot of people thought wasn't going to be a series. Now, it's just the best two-out-of-three."
The Spurs got dreadful performances from four key players. Parker, Stephen Jackson (1-for-9), Bruce Bowen (2-for-9) and Malik Rose (0-for-9) combined to go 4-for-39 (10.2 percent).
David Robinson had 14 points and seven rebounds - and also had strong words for Parker, the 21-year-old point guard who had three points after getting 26 in Game 3.
"Tony has to do a better job of staying involved in the game and choosing his moments," Robinson said. "I don't think Tony did a very good job of that tonight. He's got to understand he plays a big role for us, so he has to come in there and make good things happen. You don't make good things happen by necessarily standing out there and taking ill-advised jump shots."
In the two days between games in New Jersey, the Nets' coaches and top brass complained vehemently about the free-throw disparity favoring the Spurs. It seemed to work: Duncan, Parker, Rose and Robinson had 11 total fouls in the first half, while Jefferson and Martin were able to attack the basket with a passion rarely seen from them in this series.
With its fast break finally in high gear, New Jersey led by 15 in the third quarter after closing the first half with a 14-2 run. But the Nets then missed 11 straight shots as the Spurs made a 16-0 run spanning the third and fourth.
TITLE: Astros Reach Bizarre Heights In No-Hitting Scrappy Yanks
AUTHOR: By Ronald Blum
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - It took a record six pitchers to no-hit the New York Yankees, and that wasn't the only bizarre thing about the Houston Astros' big night in the Bronx.
Forced to scramble after ace Roy Oswalt was injured, five relievers finished off the first no-hitter against the Yankees in 45 years.
Completing the Astros' 8-0 victory Wednesday night were Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner.
"First appearance for most of us in Yankee Stadium," Wagner said. "What better place could there be? This is like the history book."
It was the most pitchers ever to combine on a no-hitter in the majors - four had twice done the trick.
The Yankees had gone 6,980 games - the longest streak in big league history - without being no-hit, since Hoyt Wilhelm's 1-0 victory for Baltimore on Sept. 20, 1958.
Since then, the proud franchise had won nine World Series titles and 15 AL pennants.
The last time New York was held hitless at Yankee Stadium was on Aug. 25, 1952, by Detroit's Virgil Trucks.
With Yankees' fans standing and applauding, Wagner pumped his fist as he stepped on first base to end it. Many of the Astros ran onto the field to give high-fives while the Yankees couldn't clear out of the dugout fast enough.
"This is one of the worst games I've ever been involved in," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "It was a total, inexcusable performance."
Torre called it the low point for the Yankees since he started managing the club in 1996.
New York dropped out of first place in the AL East, falling a half-game behind Boston. Torre held a team meeting after the loss.
"Tonight was an ugly, ugly performance," he said. "Once things started snowballing, I think we lost our composure."
Wagner, who kept the final ball, couldn't even hear the crowd as he wrapped up Houston's eighth win in nine games.
"My heart was about to pound out of my chest," he said.
The closest New York came to a hit was in the fifth inning against Saarloos, when Alfonso Soriano sent a fly ball into short left field. Lance Berkman, who hit a two-run run homer in the third inning, ran in, stuck out his glove and made a tumbling catch.
"It wasn't that close," Berkman said. "It probably looked more spectacular than it really was."
Third baseman Geoff Blum made a barehanded pickup on Juan Rivera in the third inning and threw him out at first.
"One guy usually goes out there and does it," Astros manager Jimy Williams said. "Maybe two, but not six."
By the time the Astros returned to their clubhouse, the Yankees had left bottles of Mumm champagne in front of the lockers of all six pitchers.
"That's how the Yankees are, they're pretty classy," Wagner said.
Many of the Astros hadn't even realized a no-hitter was in progress until the late innings - Wagner said that Jeff Kent didn't even know it at the end of the game. But out in the bullpen, Wagner knew it would come down to him.
"I'm sitting out there going, 'Oh my goodness,'" Wagner said. "Jimy doesn't even have to call."
Astros pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts, including four by Dotel in the eighth, which tied the major league record for an inning. Soriano reached when he struck out on a wild pitch.
Wagner struck out Jorge Posada and pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell to start the ninth.
Wagner then got Hideki Matsui to ground to first base with one pitch to complete the Astros' 10th no-hitter, the first since Darryl Kile against the New York Mets on Sept. 8, 1993.
This was the second no-hitter in the majors this season. Kevin Millwood pitched one for Philadelphia on April 27 against San Francisco.
And it came on the 65th anniversary of Johnny Vander Meer's first no-hitter. The only pitcher to throw consecutive no-hitters, he started that streak on June 11, 1938, for Cincinnati against the Boston Braves.
Overall, it was the third no-hitter in a game between AL and NL teams, and all of them have been at Yankee Stadium. The other two were perfect games - Don Larsen did it against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series and David Cone did it against Montreal on July 18, 1999.
Oswalt strained his right groin and left in the second inning. He looked toward catcher Brad Ausmus after his second pitch of the inning, his 23rd of the game, and was immediately replaced.
Munro pitched 2 2-3 innings, Saarloos 1 1-3 innings and Lidge (4-0) went two innings. Dotel threw the eighth and became the 44th pitcher in history to strike out four in an inning.
"The first time to step on the Yankee Stadium mound and be part of a no-hitter is something special, something I'll never forget," Saarloos said.
TITLE: Devils Roast Ducks on Home Ice To Clinch Cup
AUTHOR: By Alan Robinson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey - The New Jersey Devils, riding the greatest home-ice advantage in NHL playoffs history and a goal from one of the unlikeliest Game 7 stars ever, ended the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' remarkable playoff run and won the Stanely Cup with a 3-0 victory Monday night.
Mike Rupp, who hadn't played in the postseason until unexpectedly being called in Game 4, scored the first goal and set up Jeff Friesen for the other two. Friesen scored five goals in the series, all at home.
The Devils swept all four games at home - all with the second period proving decisive - in the first finals since 1965 and only the third in which the home team won every game. The Ducks rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to force a Game 7 by winning all three games in Anaheim.
"It's been a bumpy ride, with a great deal of adversity," goalie Martin Brodeur said. "We definitely came through at the right time."
And in the right place. The Devils were a record 12-1 at home, allowing only 13 goals. They outscored the Ducks 15-3 in four games in New Jersey, all decided by three goals.
"We feel really at ease playing in our own building. The only reason we won the Stanley Cup is because we were so dominant in our own building," said Brodeur, who turned aside 24 shots in his third shutout of the series - all at home.
The Devils' John Madden credited coach Pat Burns with establishing during training camp the importance of winning win at home; they were 25-11-3-2 at home during the season.
Burns found a home too; he coached three Original Six teams before finally win the Cup with New Jersey.
"It starts with Pat," Madden said. "Previously our record at home was terrible. But he said were going to compete hard and play hard ... in our building."
The Devils, despite lacking the huge payroll and plethora of stars that Detroit does, won their third Stanley Cup in nine seasons - matching the Red Wings for the most since the Edmonton Oilers won their fifth Cup in 1990.
Brodeur bounced back from his worst game in the playoffs, a 5-2 loss in Game 6 in which he was pulled in the third period, to outduel Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Giguere was only the fifth player to win the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP while on the losing team and the first since Philadelphia's Ron Hextall in 1987. He never smiled as he accepted the MVP trophy to the boos of the New Jersey fans and the applause of the Devils players, immediately leaving the ice in tears.
"It's tough to lose like that," Giguere said after receiving his trophy. "It was really tough to see [the Devils] cheer. ... Like I said, this is not the one you want. You want the big silver one."
Brodeur said Giguere deserved the award and, "I got the one I wanted."