SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #877 (45), Friday, June 20, 2003
**************************************************************************
TITLE: Economic Experts Gather for Forum
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: At the opening of the seventh annual St. Petersburg Economic Forum at the Tavrichesky Palace on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov praised the government's record, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref delivered a list of work still to be done, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President Jean Lemierre came through with the funds and Unified Energy Systems (UES) chief Anatoly Chubais was simply a no show.
The four-day forum, which, this year, is being co-organized and sponsored by the EBRD, is being attended by several hundred businesspeople and politicians, including prime ministers from five other CIS countries. The main theme is Russia's competitiveness on the world market and improving the country's attractiveness as a destination for investment in public and private-sector projects.
Hours before his government weathered a no-confidence vote in the State Duma, Kasyanov focused on tax reforms, lowering administrative barriers to business activity, reforming natural monopolies, improving conditions for international trade and financial-sector reform as the most important achievements of the government over the last three years.
"The positive economic results of recent months reinforce our confidence that we correctly chose the main principles of reform and that they are now bearing fruit," Kasyanov said.
Speaking later on Wednesday at a press conference, Kasyanov paid particular attention to investment numbers, saying that investment - domestic and foreign - in the country in the first four months of 2003 amounted to $6 billion, a figure higher than that for the whole of the previous year.
"The continuing growth of investment and the increase in personal incomes by more than 10 percent leads us to expect that the Russian economy will grow by 5 percent this year, instead of the 4.5 percent expected earlier," he said.
Gref began his address at the forum, which bears the slogan "An Effective Economy - A Decent Life" this year, by adding to Kasyanov's account of economic success, reporting that collected tax revenues continue to grow at an annual rate of 30 percent, while the tax burden decreases by between 1 and 1 1/2 percent per year.
"The most radical decision has been the changing of the procedure for collecting profit taxes," Gref said. "Although this caused a 1 1/2-percent drop in the investment-volume growth last year, we have now overcome this and, over the first five months of 2003, we've observed 15-percent growth."
Gref also singled out reforms to land-ownership laws and Russia's pension system as significant achievements, saying that the former had created 40 million land owners in Russia, while the latter represented the beginning of a new savings mechanism.
"We estimate that the volume of pension savings will reach $1.5 to $2 billion per year," Gref said.
"This money can be used to finance mortgages and other long-term investment projects."
But Gref tempered his optimism by enumerating nine problems that he says are making the economy less competitive and holding back further growth.
Echoing common statements of concern in Russia, he singled out the economy's dependence on the natural-resources sector as the chief difficulty and then identified inefficient management on the part of the state as occupying second place.
"This is why administrative reform is now the most urgent and important question", Gref said.
Next, Gref focused on regional questions, listing the third problem as the incompatibility of the government-budget systems at different levels as a barrier to regions in fighting for investment and the fourth as the regional differences in levels of economic development.
"Eighty percent of all new investment in Russia goes into only four regions," he said.
The fifth problem, the lack of transparency in Russia's economy, according to Gref, can only be solved by having state governmental bodies determine their budgets and carry out financial reporting in accordance with international accounting and tax standards. Gref said that Russia's accession to the WTO, which he hopes will come about by the end of 2004, would aid the process.
Although he had already mentioned Russia's dependence on natural-resource revenues as a difficulty, Gref said that the overloaded condition of the country's oil-exporting facilities was a major factor in a greater state of malaise in Russia's transport infrastructure.
"We can increase the amount of oil we produce, but we can't step up exports because our pipelines are running at full capacity," Gref said. "We believe the Far East, the Northwest [Baltic Pipeline System] and the North are the most promising areas for development."
Rounding out the list, Gref highlighted tariffs charged the natural monopolies, access rights to natural resources and the ineffectiveness of state social services, such as education and medical care.
"We have to reconstruct the whole system of budget-financed organizations," Gref said.
As the co-host, of sorts, of the forum, the EBRD's Lemierre brought both good reviews for Russia's economy in general and good news for the local economy in particular.
Lemierre said that the EBRD was impressed by significant economic growth and an improved climate for investment in CIS countries, but said that Russia should find new ways to increase productivity and improve its infrastructure.
He also said that the EBRD was willing to provide further funding for these efforts and, on Thursday, backed up his words by signing a $40-million-loan agreement with local power utility Lenenergo to help replace outdated equipment at one of the main power stations serving the city.
The seven-year loan to Lenenergo will finance the completion of a combined heat and power unit at the company's TETS-5 power station, which provides heat and electricity for 500,000 St. Petersburg's residents, replacing equipment that was installed in the 1920s. Lemierre said that the new unit will also bring significant environmental benefits, reducing both air and water pollution.
UES' Chubais had been listed as one of the participants in the forum, but failed to show up on Wednesday or Thursday. UES' interest in the EBRD is significant, as the European organization is the largest provider of long-term financing to the Russian power sector. The loan to Lenenergo is the fifth loan that the EBRD has granted in the Russian energy sector, following close on the heels of a $70-million loan to Moscow regional utility Mosenergo.
In 2002, EBRD investment in the Russian economy amounted to 1.3 billion euros.
TITLE: Kasyanov Survives Test From Duma
AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - As expected, the State Duma's pro-Kremlin majority derailed an attempt by a rather unusual alliance of Communists and liberal Yabloko deputies to pass a vote of no confidence in the government over its unpopular domestic policies.
The no-confidence motion got 172 votes in the 450-seat Duma, with 163 deputies voting against it and six abstaining. A majority of 226 votes was needed for the motion to pass and pave the way for ousting the government headed by Mikhail Kasyanov.
Despite the defeat, both the Communists and Yabloko insisted that they were quite satisfied with the outcome, given earlier estimates that their motion would win no more than the just over 150 votes that they control. They won the rather surprising support of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia faction, which has 13 members.
"We would have needed only 50 more votes for the issue to pass," Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy chairperson of the Yabloko faction, said in an interview. "This is a good lesson for the government."
Viktor Ilyukhin, a senior member of the Communist faction, agreed. Even if the result was not positive it "was a result anyway: Now people know who the pro-Kremlin factions really are."
With the Duma elections nearing, the pro-Kremlin Unity and Fatherland-All Russia have criticized the government for its economic and social policies. Yet both of these factions, which have a total of 136 members, voted against the motion, while all but one of the Union of Right Forces' 32 members did not vote.
In speeches preceding the vote, both Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and Yabloko chief Grigory Yavlinsky accused Kasyanov's Cabinet of pursuing policies that have led to economic stagnation and social stratification.
"Kasyanov's economic policy is good only for the oligarchs. It is an economy based on gas and oil pipes," Zyuganov said in a 20-minute speech.
Yavlinsky used his time slot to shower Kasyanov's government with accusations ranging from being incapable of carrying out reforms to failing to protect common people from crime.
"The current situation will lead to stagnation and instability," he said. "Changing the government would prevent a crisis."
Konstantin Kosachev, the deputy chairperson of the Fatherland-All Russia faction, dismissed the motion as "a show lacking any content." To oust the government six months before the elections "would take the country back to 1999, when Russia was trying to recover from the 1998 economic crisis,'" he said in an interview just before the vote.
The Communists and Yabloko knew that their motion would fail, but still pushed for the vote because it was poised to win much-needed media coverage and reflected the public discontent with the government, independent analysts said.
"With State Duma elections just six months away, it is a good pre-election stunt," said Dmitry Orlov, deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies.
A recent poll by the influential All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Studies, or VTsIOM, indicates Russians are tired of Kasyanov and his Cabinet.
In a poll of some 1,600 people across Russia last month, 64 percent said that they no longer supported government policies, while 30 percent said that they supported the government. The poll has a 3.5-percent margin of error.
Both Orlov and Vladimir Pribylovsky of the Panorama think tank suggested that Yabloko, which initiated the motion, is trying to lure at least some of the protest vote from other opposition parties. Yabloko "wants to attract crucial protest voters, and to become the main protest party," Orlov said.
The party has been losing one percentage point of support at each succeding Duma election (it got 7.9 percent in 1993, 6.9 percent in 1995 and 5.9 percent in 1999) and is now trying to raise the stakes, he said.
The Communist Party is also under pressure to breathe some new life into its support base. The latest VTsIOM poll shows that 28 percent of those who plan to vote in December's elections will cast their ballots for the Communists, while 23 percent will support United Russia, up from 21 percent a month earlier. The margin of error of this poll, which was conducted in May, was 3.5 percent.
It is this dwindling support that prompted the Communists to support the initiative by Yabloko, a party they had considered an opponent, the experts said. "Not joining Yabloko would have meant that the Communists were for the government," Pribylovsky said.
The Communists made an unsuccessful attempt last September to topple the government when they tried to put forward some proposals for a referendum against government reforms on important economic and social questions, such as free sale of agricultural land, housing reforms and the privatization of the energy sector. The Duma vetoed the proposal and adopted a moratorium on holding referendums within two years of national elections.
The no-confidence motion has spoiled United Russia's election plans. The party, which, although having government ministers in its ranks, has built its election campaign around criticism of the government, had no choice but to vote against the no-confidence motion.
According to Orlov, United Russia is now likely to lose popularity, especially among the poor and those still undecided. "This vote was in the president's hands," Orlov said. "If Putin had said that Kasyanov's government needed to be toppled, United Russia would have backed the no-confidence vote."
But Putin believes it is wiser to keep Kasyanov's government six months ahead of the elections, and "United Russia would never make a decision without the Kremlin's approval," Orlov said.
Of the 172 deputies who supported the motion, 17 were from Yabloko, 83 from the Communist Party and 42 from the Agrarian faction. Twelve LDPR members voted for it and the other abstained. Also, one Unity deputy and one Fatherland-All Russia deputy went against their factions' line and voted for the motion.
A total of 163 deputies voted against the motion, including all but one of Unity's 82 deputies and 50 of Fatherland-All Russia's 54 deputies.
In the People's Deputy faction, nine of the 53 members voted against the motion, while four abstained and 40 did not vote at all.
Russia's Regions split, with 24 of its 47 deputies voting against the motion, 14 in favor and one abstaining. Eight did not vote.
TITLE: Yakovlev Gets First Taste of Life in Government
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin presented former St. Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev as the new deputy prime minister to the cabinet on Tuesday with a warning that he was undertaking what could be the most daunting task of his career.
Putin on Monday appointed Yakovlev as a sixth deputy prime minister with a portfolio to overhaul construction, transportation and the collapsing housing sector.
Yakovlev comes to his new job with a lackluster record. During his seven years as governor, St. Petersburg's image as the beautiful imperial capital has been stained by its ever-worsening roads, crumbling buildings and widespread reports of corruption and organized crime.
Putin on Tuesday urged Yakovlev to get right to work and asked the cabinet and the regions to help him tackle the enormous job ahead of him.
"There are going to be some serious changes in the areas that the new deputy prime minister is in charge of," Putin told the cabinet.
The housing and utilities sector "is one of the most complicated areas and is a very tense social issue," Putin said. "From an administrative point of view, this area is twice as complicated."
The communal housing system - the maintenance and repair of buildings and the supply of basic services such as water, electricity, heat, gas, sewage and garbage - is on the verge of collapse after being virtually ignored by the government for decades. Up to 90 percent of the infrastructure of some regions is beyond repair. Tens of thousands of people are left without heat every winter.
Moreover, the whole system is teaming with corruption and, with local governments having free rein to run the sector, the federal government has not been able to muster enough authority to clean house.
While the government is not ready to turn the sector over to private firms, it is willing to let a consortium of powerful businesses - led by state-controlled monopolies Unified Energy Systems and Gazprom - share the burden and reap the possible profits.
"Our largest companies are paying special attention to the housing and utilities sector," Putin said Tuesday. "Their attention to this issue is being taken ambiguously by the public, experts and regional administrations but, to me, it is a positive sign that large companies are paying attention to this part of our lives."
Putin also told the cabinet that he hoped that the government agencies that deal with transportation would "all collaborate respectfully" under Yakovlev.
"For the country's economy and the country's development, this area is of high importance. There are a lot of intertwining interests among the different ministries and bodies," Putin said.
Yakovlev faces a potentially uneasy job dealing with the Railways and the Transportation ministries, which have often refused to work with each other. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov issued a warning to senior officials at both ministries late last year, saying that their turf wars had created havoc in the nation's cargo transportation system and was threatening to put a dent in economic growth. The government has long planned to unite the ministries, but the project has been slowed by the sheer scale of the task and an ongoing revamp of the Railways Ministry. The railroads are being spun off into a state-owned company and Yakovlev will oversee this process in his new post.
"I think he will succeed," Kasyanov said Tuesday. "Yakovlev has vast experience from being the governor of such a big city, and I am counting on him doing a constructive job."
A government source said that an office was being prepared for Yakovlev in the White House.
Yakovlev said little at the cabinet meeting Tuesday. He told Kommersant in Tuesday's issue, however, that the appointment had caught him off guard. He said that he had been in talks with Moscow for some time about getting a new post, but not the one he had received. He did not elaborate.
Putin said Monday that discussions about the appointment as deputy prime minister started "long ago."
Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Tuesday that the news of Yakovlev's appointment had not come as a surprise to him.
Gref also said that in five to six years St. Petersburg "might become self-sufficient, and the new gubernatorial elections must kick-start this process," Interfax reported.
Yury Korgunyuk of Indem said that Putin has managed to kill two birds with one stone: "Yakovlev is switching from the governor's to the deputy prime minister's seat, which is not a shameful move for him even though the cabinet will probably be replaced in less than a year. And this opens the door for [Presidential Representative in the Northwest Region Valentiana] Matviyenko, which is in the Kremlin's interest."
TITLE: Assembly Gets Laws Ready for Election
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Legislative Assembly on Wednesday put aside the question of setting a date for gubernatorial elections in order to deal with a more pressing question: Ensuring that St. Petersburg's election laws are in accordance with federal legislation.
The assembly passed in third reading the new city election law at its regular session on Wednesday, while scheduling a special session for June 30 to consider the question of the date for the vote to choose a replacement for Vladimir Yakovlev, who announced his resignation as governor on Monday.
"This has created a new, legitimate base for elections to chose someone to fill the highest position in the city's executive branch," Interfax quoted Alexander Vishnyakov, the head of the federal Central Election Commission, as saying on Wednesday.
"There are a lot of people who would like to occupy the position but not all of these have the professional or moral right to do so," Vishnyakov was quoted as saying.
In passing the new law, assembly deputies say that they are confident that they have eliminated the possibility of legal challenges being filed against the looming vote on the basis of contradictions between the federal and local election codes.
"The nature of the [federal election] law of 1996 led different regions to pass different laws," Igor Mikhailov, the head of the Legislative Assembly legislative committee, said in an interview on Wednesday.
"Our new local law is very close in its contents to the federal law passed in 2002, which means that we are very close to fine tuning our law to be in full compliance with the federal law," he said.
One of the most significant changes in the new law is an increase in the limits on campaign spending from 15 million rubles (about $495,000) to 50 million rubles (about $1.65 million).
In order to register to run, candidates must either provide the City Election Commission with a deposit of 7.5 million rubles (about $247,000) or a list of signatures from at least one percent of all eligible voters backing their candidacy.
At present there are just under 3.7 million eligible voters in the city, meaning that about 37,000 signatures would be needed.
"This will prevent cases where it was possible to be registered as a candidate for only $500, as was the case under the previous legislation," Mikhail Amosov, the head of the Legislative Assembly Communal Services commission and leader of the Yabloko faction in the assembly, said in an interview on Wednesday.
The new law also cuts out aid formerly provided to candidates from the city budget.
"According to the old legislation, the city budget paid each candidate 77,000 rubles (about $2,540) to assist them in running their campaign. From now on, these campaigns will be financed only by the candidates themselves," Mikhailov said.
Another stipulation in the new law is that, in order to run for the governor's seat, a candidate must first resign from any other local-government post.
Mikhailov said that he appreciated Amosov's help in getting an amendment to the law passed stipulating that a televised debate must be held between the two remaining candidates should a second round of voting be required. A run-off vote between the top two vote getters is held in the event that no candidate receives 50 percent of all votes cast in the first round of voting. The legislative committee had opposed the debate amendment.
"Certain groups are not interested in participating in debates, particularly those who are currently in power," Amosov said.
The law took only one day to come into effect, as it was published and then signed by acting governor Alexander Beglov on thursday.
Mikhailov said that, though it might appear that the assembly was acting late in passing the new law, this only became the case with Yakovlev's resignation.
"The next elections for the Legislative Assembly are almost four years away and there was no rush, as the federal legislation stipulates that all regional laws must be in compliance by July 14," Mikhailov said.
"But the situation changed, making it necessary to get this done sooner," he said.
TITLE: Matvienko Keeps Electorate Guessing
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: At a press conference on Tuesday Valentina Matviyenko said that she needed more time to answer the question that was on most people's minds and raised another that most people say they don't want to hear.
Matviyenko, the presidential representative in the Northwest Region answered questions about running for the post of St. Petersburg governor with a resounding maybe.
"I've got to have time to think seriously about such a decision," Matviyenko said, adding that she had to gauge "whether I have the legitimate right to run and the necessary resources of support - whether my vision of a proper strategy for development in the city is in accordance with the expectations of its voters."
But, while she herself appeared to be hedging, political analysts said that there are other signs that she has already de facto launched her campaign for the governor's post.
One such sign is her mention at the press conference of a suggestion that has been aired publicly a number of times recently - that of moving some departments or functions of the federal government to St. Petersburg from their present locations in Moscow.
"There is work under way on this question right now," Matviyenko said on Tuesday. "By the end of the year, such a concept will be ready."
"[This] would bring the city a different status and different possibilities," she added.
"[Matviyenko] has come back here from the capital, so maybe she could manage to bring some of the capital's functions here along with her," Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at the Sociology Department of the Russian Academy of Science said in a telephone interview on Thursday, adding that Matviyenko's comments seemed like part of an election campaign already started, even though the date for the vote has yet to be set and candidates have yet to be registered.
Matviyenko did not provide any specifics with regard to the departments or functions that might be involved in such a move while representatives of the presidential administration, which would have to approve such a plan, said that they were not aware of any discussions of the topic at present.
"I don't know anything about it. We're not working on this," Andrei Yatskin, an official with the presidential administration department working on legal reform, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Venyamin Yakovlev, the head of the Supreme Arbitration Court, said that, although discussions about the possibility of relocating parts of the federal court system to St. Petersburg come up from time to time, no concrete discussions are underway right now.
"Nobody has told us anything or asked our opinion on the question up to now, although we have heard talk about it," Yakovlev said in an RIA-News interview on Wednesday, "If we are told about it, we'll work on the problem."
Yakovlev added that the task "could create huge problems" in that it would involve the lives of hundreds of people presently working in the federal court system in Moscow.
According to public-opinion research, the logistical difficulties in the move of some federal departments to St. Petersburg wouldn't be the only difficulty Matviyenko would face in championing such a scheme. A survey conducted by the St. Petersburg Institute of Sociological Study at the end of May found that opinion on the question was skewed, with more than one third of respondents opposing the move of some federal functions here while 26 percent felt that the effect on the city would be positive.
"The common reaction was negative," Tatyana Protasenko, a representative of the St. Petersburg Institute of Sociological Study said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "This is because the city is treated mainly as a cultural capital. The authorities and people directly related to [federal] power have already left the city. [People] were simply frightened by the idea that this would mean closing down different things already in place here."
Whether or not Matviyenko's comments on Tuesday were calculated to curry favor with voters, one appearance a day later was clearly campaign style.
Following local soccer club Zenit's 3-0 victory over Torpedo-Metallurg Moscow (see story, page 12), Matviyenko took a victory lap around the field at Petrovsky Stadium with Zenit President Vitaly Mutko, waving a team scarf and pumping her fists in the air.
"It looks like something an image maker would have advised her to do," Kesselman said.
Christopher Hamilton contributed to this report.
TITLE: Limonov Set To Get Early Prison Release
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A Saratov court on Wednesday granted the early release of National Bolshevik Party leader and writer Eduard Limonov, who was sentenced in April to four years in prison on charges of illegally purchasing weapons and organizing a criminal group.
Limonov, who has already served more than two years of the sentence, mostly in pretrial detention, could be freed on parole in 10 days.
It was unclear whether prosecutors would appeal the decision by the Engels City Court.
Limonov was serving out his sentence at Colony No. 13, in Engels.
Limonov's lawyer, Sergei Belyak, said that he was delighted with the ruling.
"I am extremely pleased that the court has agreed with the defense's position," Belyak said by telephone from Engels after the hearing.
He said that the chief prosecutor had challenged the appeal for early release in the court, saying that Limonov had just "stepped onto the road of correction but has not been corrected yet."
"We had to explain to the court that Limonov is not a recidivist and does not require correction like an ordinary criminal," Belyak said.
Judge Georgy Kurapov decided to grant early parole for good behavior and because Limonov had no previous criminal record, said Boris Logak, a spokesperson for the regional court system.
Limonov's appeal was supported by prison officials and State Duma deputies Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Alexei Mitrofanov and Vasily Shandybin.
The Saratov regional court convicted Limonov, 60, of ordering the purchase of six Kalashnikov assault rifles and leading an organized criminal group on April 15. He was cleared of more serious charges of plotting to overthrow the government, creating illegal armed formations and terrorism, which carried a prison term of up to 12 years.
Limonov was arrested April 7, 2001, and spent 18 months in custody in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. He was held for six months at a detention center in Saratov before his conviction.
In convicting Limonov, the Saratov regional court also sentenced Sergei Aksyonov, the 32-year-old editor of the National Bolshevik Party's Limonka newspaper, to 3 1/2 years in prison on charges of illegally acquiring weapons and being a member of an organized criminal group.
Limonov's lawyer said Wednesday that he now plans to file an appeal for Aksyonov's early release.
Aksyonov is imprisoned in a penal colony in his native Leningrad Oblast.
Limonov has written numerous books and articles critical of the government, and his party has gained notoriety for holding violent demonstrations in former Soviet republics such as Latvia, ostensibly to defend the rights of ethnic Russians living there.
TITLE: Kasyanov Looking To Cut Red Tape
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government plans to slash the number of ministries in an effort to cut the red tape that is stifling economic growth, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Under legislation to be submitted to parliament later this year, the cabinet would be left with 15 to 20 ministries and three deputy prime ministers, Kasyanov said. He currently has six deputies, and there are 24 ministries.
Kasyanov did not specify whether there will be any state committees or federal services left after completion of the administrative reform. The executive branch now has six state committees, two federal commissions, 13 federal services, 11 federal agencies and three independent directorates, according to the government's official Web sites. The prime minister oversees all of these agencies with the exception of law enforcement, defense and security agencies, which report directly to the president.
Putin has already ordered that the Federal Border Service, Tax Police and FAPSI communications agency be disbanded by July, with their functions given to other government bodies. Also, four out of the five federal agencies that supervise the defense and aerospace industries will be disbanded, according to Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin.
A task force is reviewing the existing ministries and agencies in an effort to identify unnecessary and overlapping functions. The task force is to report its findings to the cabinet in July and draft bills containing its findings to be sent to the Duma by September, Kasyanov said.
"After the reform, the structure will look different from the present one," he said. "One needs to change the methods of state regulation in all spheres."
Kasyanov said that he will have one of his deputies lead the planning of the administrative reform, but said he could not rule out that Igor Shuvalov - who recently quit the post of Kasyanov's chief of staff to become an adviser to President Vladimir Putin - will help to draft it.
The reform is currently being handled by the task force, which includes representatives of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Justice Ministry, Kasyanov's staff and the presidential administration. This team is led by First Deputy Economic Development and Trade Minister Mikhail Dmitriyev.
Kasyanov's estimate of how many ministries will be left after the reform is completed is close to what Shuvalov proposed while still his chief of staff.
Putin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, also seems to share Kasyanov's vision. Like Kasyanov, Voloshin favors a structure that would include 17 ministries divided into three blocs and overseen by three deputy prime ministers, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Monday. Rather than coordinate with the government's efforts, however, Voloshin's team is drafting a rival plan, the paper said.
TITLE: Police Bus Hits Land Mine in South, Three Officers Killed
AUTHOR: By Yuri Bagrov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VLADIKAVKAZ, Southern Russia - A police bus hit a remote-controlled land mine in southern Russia on Thursday, killing three officers and wounding at least six others, officials said.
The explosion occurred in the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia near the border with Ingushetia, said Oleg Vershinin, spokesperson for the Federal Security Service in Vladikavkaz.
Rossiya television showed footage of a red bus, its front end mangled and all the windows shattered. It stood in a grassy field just off the edge of an unpaved road.
The mine was near a checkpoint of troops from the Interior Ministry, Russia's main law enforcement agency, Vershinin said.
The officers were en route to Magas, the Ingush capital, when their bus struck the mine, said Yuri Krivopusk, spokesperson for the Emergency Situations Ministry in North Ossetia. He put the number of injured at six.
The Interior Ministry said three of the injured were in serious condition.
Prigorodny has been a flashpoint of tensions between the Ossetian and Ingush ethnic groups. War broke out between them in 1992, killing hundreds and leading to the expulsion of some 75,000 ethnic Ingush from the region. Efforts to allow the return of Ingush refugees have met with sometimes violent resistance.
The region also has been troubled by spillover violence from Chechnya, where Russian forces have been fighting rebels for much of the last decade. The outnumbered and outgunned rebels frequently use land mines as a major part of their arsenal.
Russia's Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky was quoted as telling the ITAR-Tass news agency that "most likely there is no connection with events in Chechnya." He cautioned, however, that an investigation was still under way.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Another Cap
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was granted an honorary degree from Bard College, in New York state, on Wednesday, Interfax reported. Kudrin recieved the degree for "scientific contributions and achievements in the field of government service, and for his devotion to the strengthening of the ties between Russian society and the West" the news agency said.
In receiving the award, Kudrin joined such noted recipients of honorary doctorates from the school as civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Indian economist and 1998 Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, American economist and 2001 Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and the founder of IBM, Thomas Watson.
Go West?
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A petition drive calling for visa-free travel between Europe and Russia was launched in St. Petersburg on Wednesday by the Youth Union of the Yabloko Party, Interfax reported.
"We are working toward the creation of a visa-free system with the countries of Central and Western Europe. Freedom of movement for Russians in Europe and for Europeans in Russia - this is the natural and logical step in the development of Russian-European integration," Igor Artemyev, a member of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma, told Interfax.
Artemyev also lauded an agreement between the the interior ministers of Russia and Germany to intorduce a medium-term visa-free system for students and government officials.
"That's just the start," Artemyev told Interfax. "Thousands of Russians are standing in lines at consulates as they wait for the repeal of visa regulations."
Burnt Out
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Twelve families, totalling 38 people, were left homeless by a fire that swept through an apartment building in St. Petersburg's Kolpinsky Region on Tuesday night, according to information from the St. Petersburg Department of the Emergency Situations Ministry, Interfax reported.
The wooden building caught fire on Tuesday evening, leading the shingled roof of the building, with an area of about 500 square meters, to collapse.
Interfax reported that ten people were in the building when the fire started, all of whom were evacuated. One person was injured.
MiG-29 Crashes
MOSCOW (AP) - A MiG-29 training jet crashed Thursday during a flight in the Krasnodar region, but the two crew membbers safely ejected, the Defense Ministry said.
The plane crashed at the Armavir Air Force garrison in the southern region. The crash caused no casualties on the ground.
Duma Attack?
MOSCOW (SPT) - The group of Chechen rebels that seized the Dubrovka theater last October also may have planned to storm the State Duma, the Moscow city prosecutor said.
Prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov said that a suspect who has been arrested on suspicion of helping organize the raid has told investigators that Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev ordered a series of attacks that would have culminated in "an action of intimidation," most likely the storming of the Duma, Avdyukov was quoted by Rossiiskaya Gazeta as saying.
TITLE: Local Beer Ad Too Hot for TV
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A sexy television ad for Tinkoff beer has excited too many people and should be pulled from the airwaves, the Anti-Monopoly Ministry said Wednesday.
In an award-winning 30-second spot, a man in boxer shorts dreams he is lying on the deck of a yacht with his arms around two naked women - one black, one white - and one of the black woman's nipples can be seen briefly.
"Due to the many letters received from people complaining about the nonethical character of this advertisement, the ministry on Tuesday instructed television stations to avoid airing it," said Larisa Bulgakova, spokesperson of the Anti-Monopoly Ministry, which oversees the advertising market.
What the ministry issued is technically called an "instruction" and is not legally binding. A special commission will decide next week whether to accept the ministry's recommendation and officially ban the ad.
If the commission upholds the recommendation, Tinkoff, Russia's only super-premium beer and, reportedly, the favorite tipple of President Vladimir Putin, will have the distinction of being the first company to ever have a commercial pulled off air for "moral" reasons.
"The chances that the ad will be prohibited by the commission are very high," Bulgakova said. She blamed "complicated bureaucracy" at the ministry for taking so long to issue the warning.
The ad, called "The Yacht" and punchlined with the phrase "Tinkoff -he [or it] is one of a kind," can be viewed online at www.tinkoff.ru and has been running on television for about six weeks. It was recognized as the best television advert of the month earlier this month by the largest advertisers in Russia, including British-American Tobacco, Coca-Cola, LG Electronics, Alfa Bank, Megafon and IKEA. The jingle for the ad was penned by Ilya Lagutenko, the lead singer of well-known rock group Mumii Troll.
In the ad, a young professional male, Tinkoff's target customer, dreams in black and white "because he is so unique ... While everyone drinks beer, he drinks Tinkoff because he is so unique," the narrator says in the ad.
Tinkoff and advertising agencies alike said they were surprised by the ministry's move.
"It is a very cool, uplifting, brilliant and professionally made ad," said Vladimir Yevstafyev, president of the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies.
"There are no violations in it. A man, who is obviously over 35 years old, is surrounded by two beautiful women. There is no sex. It is all very chaste," he said. "What is wrong with a naked body? Let's not be hypocritical. All kids are studying Greek sculptures in school, and none of those sculptures are wearing bras."
"This is the Anti-Monopoly Ministry's job, but I don't understand it. Look at adverts for shower gel," said Tinkoff spokesperson Oksana Grigorova.
"The situation is quite amusing," she added, pointing out that the company originally planned to run the spot for just a month and a half and pulled it Monday.
Now the commercial can only be viewed on Fashion-TV, which is not Russian and, therefore, not regulated by the Anti-Monopoly Ministry.
"The Yacht" was the first stage of a new campaign, and not a single bottle of beer was shown. The sequel, advertising the beer itself, started this week, Grigoriova said.
"The campaign has been more successful than we could have expected," she said, adding that demand for the specialty drink is up 40 percent this year and the company, which brews the beer in Pushkin, near St. Petersburg, has a three-month backlog of orders.
Yevstafyev said that it was "very strange" that the ministry waited until the advert had been showing for more than a month before starting proceedings to ban it.
TITLE: Troika Wins Tender for Rosgosstrakh
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Troika Dialog won a government tender Wednesday for 26 percent minus one share of Rosgosstrakh, one of the state's leading insurance companies, for 661 million rubles ($21 million), or just 10 million rubles over the starting price.
The five other companies participating in the auction put up little competition, and Troika's vehicle in the tender, Troika Invest, was declared the winner in a matter of minutes.
"Troika Invest won the auction by increasing the price by one step. Why the others stopped bidding is their business," said Vladimir Zelentsov, spokesperson for the Property Ministry, which conducted the tender. "No one made them keep quiet."
Market watchers said that the result was predictable since the consortium of investors Troika represents already had a 49-percent stake.
Troika Dialog President Ruben Vardanyan, who is also general director of Rosgosstrakh, which the state controlled before Wednesday, said by telephone that $162 million would be invested in the company over the next four years. Funds will be channeled into improving IT facilities and bolstering sales staff, he said. "By then, we hope the company will be transparent, big and interesting enough to take public."
Rosgosstrakh employs nearly 8,000 people.
Metals giant Base Element, via a company called Alma-Luks, and Rosbank through Zodiac Siti, participated in the auction, according to Gazeta.ru. Another bidder, Bassian Invest, is registered at the same address as Troika Invest, the online newspaper said.
Neither Rosbank nor Base Element would comment Wednesday.
Rosgosstrakh, Ingosstrakh, Rosno and Reso are considered the big four domestic insurers.
In the Soviet era, Ingosstrakh insured state property abroad, shipping and international agreements, while Rosgosstrakh's predecessor, Gosstrakh, insured dachas and lives. Rosgosstrakh's main focus now is on the regions and poorer households. Ingosstrakh, on the other hand, targets commercial clients and wealthy individuals, mainly from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Rosgosstrakh's assets were worth 3.29 billion rubles as of April 1, according to Vedomosti.
The deputy head of the State Property Fund, Kirill Tomashchuk, said that the remaining 25-percent stake would not be sold until the company fulfills its obligations under more than 50 million policies written by Gosstrakh, which would not likely be before the end of 2004.
TITLE: Centralized Elections
AUTHOR: By Nikolai Petrov
TEXT: Much has been said about the predictability and lack of intrigue in the upcoming federal parliamentary elections. The reality will be far more colorful than we imagine. This is not to say that something will happen to turn the tables on the major political parties, as happened the last time around - though this can't be ruled out. The real surprises will come on the technical side of the election, which has unfortunately attracted little attention from the public or the pundits. In effect, we are witnessing Russia's transition from a disorderly managed democracy to an orderly one.
While the politicians rehearse their various roles and the press focuses on the shifting preferences of the audience, the stage managers have been making drastic changes behind the scenes. While their handiwork has not yet been unveiled in full, we can get an idea of what they're up to by studying recent regional elections.
Where will the deus ex machina emerge this fall? The four most important factors affecting the upcoming elections are: the reformed regional electoral commissions; the regional courts and law-enforcement agencies, now under increased control from Moscow; and the presidential envoys' recently created system of local outreach centers.
The regional electoral commissions are currently being organized into a single, vertical structure under the direct control of the Central Election Commission. The CEC has completed its transformation into an elections ministry that drafts the rules of the game, lobbies for their adoption, and controls their implementation. Russia's convoluted election laws allow for just about any candidate to be struck from the ballot for exceeding campaign-spending limits, violating the rules on campaign activities, and so on. They also make it very easy to shut down newspapers and television stations. By law, the CEC now installs two members on each and every regional election commission, including its chairperson. The CEC also has the right to dissolve regional commissions through the courts - a procedure that has already been tested in Krasnoyarsk.
Even during the last parliamentary elections, in 1999, results were increasingly determined not by the voters, but by the courts and the regional election commissions. Think back to the last gubernatorial races in the Kursk, Saratov and Rostov regions. Now that the federal government has taken full control of the courts and the prosecutors, this practice will become more widespread.
Law-enforcement agencies are another critical piece of the election puzzle. They are used to put pressure on candidates, and to collect and circulate information that has an impact on the course of elections. The only thing new this time around is that regional law-enforcement agencies are now much more loyal to Moscow both personally - during Vladimir Putin's first term, two-thirds of the top regional officers in the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service were replaced - as well as institutionally. Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, the head of the country's largest law-enforcement agency, is also a leader of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. And regional law enforcement officials have joined "politically nonaligned" clubs supporting United Russia en masse.
The presidential envoys' outreach centers, which have sprung up across Russia in the last two years, provide an ideal mechanism for gathering vital information about the situation in the regions, campaigning, raising money, and for bypassing governors to work directly with local leaders.
The resources and influence of the state have been brought to bear in past elections; now they will simply be better consolidated and controlled from the Kremlin. The sharp increase in federal strategic and operational control of regional election commissions, law-enforcement agencies and the courts will allow the Kremlin to alter the makeup of elections radically.
The biggest impact will be felt in the single-mandate districts, where the opposition could lose its collective shirt, leaving the Kremlin to reap the benefits. Opposition incumbents would not necessarily be discarded, provided they switch camps and swear their allegiance to the Kremlin.
All of this raises the question: What does the Kremlin have to worry about? And what can its opponents, and society as a whole, hope for come election day?
For starters, they still haven't figured out how to hold elections without voters. Low voter turnout is a common problem of managed democracy. The trick is to dupe the voters in a clever way, so that they don't swear off voting altogether. You've got to allow at least a semblance of a contest, a clash of opposing political forces and platforms. This necessity helps to explain the fashion of this political season, the so-called expert discussion groups attached to the various parties. The electorate must also be mobilized. In State Duma elections, which require a 25 percent minimum turnout, voter participation is important not so much to ensure that the elections are valid as to maximize the legitimacy of the legislature. Low turnout would also swing the results in favor of the opposition.
The Kremlin, with its wealthy backers, is not monolithic, neither are the other oligarchs. Divisions and conflicts within the ruling elite are almost inevitable, and they add a touch of drama to any election. The alliances between clans in the Kremlin, the oligarchs and regional leaders shift over time. Elections in Russia are becoming less ideological in essence but not in form. Political parties are becoming less and less independent but as "brands" they remain extremely useful. This competition between "brands" provides the democratic window dressing for the elections. How skilful the Kremlin has become at marketing we will find out in November.
Nikolai Petrov, head of the Center for Political and Geographical Research, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Keep That Government Out of Here
TEXT: It is an idea whose time has come ... and gone. To be more specific, the idea of St. Petersburg as Russia's capital was abandoned by Lenin and the Bolshevik government in 1918 and, regardless of how people feel about the Bolsheviks or the reasons for the decision at the time, the intervening 85 years have rendered it virtually impossible to reverse the decision.
Although most suggestions to move Russia's capital back to St. Petersburg appear to be half-serious - at best - the partial-measure proposal to move some parts of the federal government north persist. In what appeared to be the first salvo fired in Valentina Matviyenko's (yet undeclared) candidacy for the post of governor, she seems to think that it's a good idea.
This despite the fact that only a small portion of St. Petersburg's residents actually support such an move.
This despite the fact that moving federal ministries here would increase demand for already scarce office real estate in the city's center. (You don't really think that Russian bureaucratic pooh-bahs are going to settle for offices in some complex way out in the sticks?)
This despite that fact that the benefits people like Matviyenko cite when they talk about the move are tenuous, at best, and pale beside the benefits that might be gained by a more concerted effort on the part of the city to attract investment (foreign and domestic) and to work on creating a more favorable climate for small and medium-sized businesses.
This despite the fact that it's difficult to see how a federal bureaucracy that already suffers from severe difficulties in coordinating any work between its component parts is going to do any better when offices are separated by a distance of 650 kilometers.
This despite the fact that St. Petersburg - a city of just over 4.5 million - already boasts more than 1 million automobiles that, when combined with criss-crossing streets that are beholden to a relatively small number of bridges crossing its numerous canals and rivers, have already turned the city into a traffic nightmare. Gubernatorial motorcades and those of President Vladimir Putin and his guests on his numerous visits to his hometown simply wreak more havoc. Moving a few ministries here isn't going to help.
This despite the fact that, no matter how you look at it, the idea just doesn't make sense.
Hopefully, the recent variants of the "move the capital - or part of it - north" suggestions are simply the result of 300th-anniversary-induced nostalgia.
Hopefully, Matviyenko's suggestions are simply campaign promises that, should she end up being the next governor, will end up in the "unfulfilled" category.
With luck, the whole idea will be forgotten.
TITLE: Staying Out Of Town for The Summer
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
TEXT: It's time for a drastic change in tactics. This isn't the time for cleaning workers wearing the name of one of the candidates on their backs, for running television commercials providing subliminal messages promoting a certain candidate or for handing parcels of free food to prospective voters, as was the case in the Legislative Assembly elections in December. This is the time to work the commuter trains running to the small communities that surround the city, for sound trucks blaring out the candidates' messages as they rattle along dirt-track roads and for handing out big bags of cucumber seeds. This is the summer!
With Vladimir Yakovlev's resignation as governor and the likelihood that the vote to replace him will be scheduled for Sept. 21, we're all set for a Dacha-season election campaign, with half of the city's residents (and voters) either roaming the forests and fields out of town or flocking to seaside resorts in Russia and abroad.
The city's most popular spots for putting up campaign posters and handing out political literature will be thronged by tourists who, last time I checked, aren't allowed to vote in St. Petersburg elections anyway. It's unlikely that they will be checking local papers for promises to keep the city's streets clean and its apartments warm in the winter.
The people who would be interested in these promises will all be too busy working in their gardens or catching some rays to notice or, for that matter, care.
Valentina Matviyenko, the current bet to receive the Kremlin's blessing to run for the top job in Smolny, said on Tuesday that she was still weighing her options with regard to the campaign. One of the biggest factors in her (or, more realistically, the Kremlin's) decision will be whether she has a realistic chance of winning. Figuring out the answer to this question is going to prove interesting for some poor public-opinion-research firm. They are going to have to learn the timetables for the commuter trains running from the city's five train stations and try to figure out which settlements in the Leningrad Oblast are most likely to have a large and representative number of St. Petersburg residents walking around with their garden tools at any one point in time.
If she does decide to run against Anna Markova, the vice governor who has already declared for the race, then the possibilities for the campaign posters tacked to trees all through dacha land are endless. Imagine "Matviyenko will help you to get your potatoes back to the city! Hop aboard an extra train leaving at 11:30 pm, Sunday!" Or "A vote for Markova is a vote for cleaner beaches." Priceless.
As far as handouts are concerned (unless, of course, the candidates decide that this election should be run completely above board), the logistics involved in getting the goodies destributed over an area within a 70-kilometer radius of the city will be daunting.
But the PR folks are ready to give it a go.
"They will figure out what to distribute," says Alexei Musakov, the head of the St. Petersburg Center for regional development.
My advice to the PR gurus is to load the car up with gardening implements and head out to dachaville.
With the chance to breathe in some fresh air, they should all come back feeling a little healthier - as long as no one steps on a rake.
TITLE: mariinsky's magnificent ring
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The first production of the whole of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in Russia since the tsarist era took the stage of the Mariinsky Theater last week. The four operas, sung in German, ran on four evenings from Friday through Wednesday, finally fulfilling Mariinsky Artistic Director Valery Gergiev's most ambitious project and long-held dream.
The Ring Cycle, loosely based on old Germanic legends, last appeared in Russia at the Mariinsky in 1914, the year in which German operas disappeared from the country's stages with the onset of World War I. With the onset of World War II in 1939, Wagner's music was banned in the Soviet Union; as one of Hitler's favorite composers, he was seen as the "voice of Fascism." This state of affairs remained until Gergiev brought the composer back to Russian stages in the early 1990s, introducing "Lohengrin," "Parsifal" and "The Flying Dutchman" to the Mariinsky repertoire.
The Mariinsky's Ring Cycle was originally done piecemeal, despite Gergiev's intention to have German director Johannes Schaaf stage the whole tetralogy. Although Schaaf staged "Das Rheingold" in 1999, "Die Walkuere" was staged in 2000 by his compatriot Gottfried Pilz. The final two operas, "Siegfried" and "Goetterdaemmerung," which followed last winter, were directed by Moscow's Vladimir Mirzoyev.
To bring the cycle together, Schaaf's romantic production and Piltz' intense, dramatic rendition have been sacrificed to Georgy Tsypin's conceptualist sets, and the first two operas restaged accordingly. The two now don't have an official director, with Tsypin listed as set designer and Gergiev as artistic director.
Tsypin's minimalist, highly compelling sets - which, he says, "aim to reflect our era of clones, genetic experiments and mutations" - from "Siegfried" and "Goetterdaemmerung" now form the visual link between the four operas, and in "Das Rheingold" and "Die Walkuere" he continues with his prediliction for giant figures and bold, basic color schemes. The megalithic figures create a prehistoric environment for the story, and also reflect it in the way their positions change through the cycle.
In Act 2 of "Die Walkuere," for instance, during the love scene between Siegmund and Sieglinde, the figures' heads and hearts pulsate with red light. In the same act, a symbolically beheaded figure lying on stage creates the atmosphere for the battle between Siegmund and Hunding, the result of which is preordained. In the final two operas, the figures chronicle the physical, mental and emotional evolution of the central character, Siegfried.
The musical thread is, inevitably, provided by Gergiev, with different soloists in the lead roles each night. For example, Olga Savova, Larisa Gogolevskaya and Olga Sergeyeva appeared as Bruennhilde in "Die Walkure," "Siegfried" and "Gotterdammerung" respectively. While this may have been deliberate, to showcase the Mariinsky's Wagnerian vocal talents, it is also arguable that the theater does not have any clear-cut choices for lead roles, with the possible exceptions of Viktor Chernomortsev and Edem Umerov as Alberich and Sergeyeva and Gogolevskaya as Bruennhilde.
In any case, musically, the Mariinsky's Ring Cycle is a huge success, and the singers took their abilities to another level. As usual for the theater's Wagner productions, the rapport between the orchestra, the cast and the conductor was flawless.
Dramatically, however, "Die Walkure" was surprisingly static; at times, the characters did not even look at each other, focusing instead on singing. The Act 2 scene in which the tormented Wotan (Vladimir Vaneyev) is telling Bruennhilde (Savova) about being trapped in his own careless promise, although musically overwhelming, has no visual drama at all: the characters either stood on the fallen, beheaded giant, sat on it, or lay down for a while.
However, moments like this are barely noticeable glitches in terms of the whole cycle. In fact, the decision to let the imaginative, metaphor-laden sets act as a kind of director is a concept in itself, and the sets compensate fairly well for the lack of inventive direction. Gergiev's feat in putting together the new "Das Rheingold" and "Die Walkuere" - not to mention the whole of the Stars of the White Nights festival - would probably have taxed the forces in Valhalla itself. The Mariinsky's Ring Cycle is a must see for anyone who wants to see the theater at its inspired best.
TITLE: fortress gets ready for jazz fest
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Next weekend sees the first running of an ambitious project set to turn the Peter and Paul Fortress into a jazz-festival venue for the first time in its history.
The Peter and Paul Jazz Festival aims to bring diverse kinds of jazz to mainly open-air sites within the fortress, as well as having a DJ stage and programs at local clubs and restaurants. Dozens of musicians from Russia, the United States, Israel, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and Australia are set to perform over the festival's two nights.
"I'd describe it as a variety of geographical colors," festival music director Andrei Kondakov, a pianist and musical director of JFC Jazz Club, said by telephone this week.
"Although the festival is short, it will present very different cultures," he said. "If all goes to plan, world-music projects will be at the forefront."
St. Petersburg has not seen anything like that recently, with the exception of local jazz guru David Goloshchokin's White Night's Swing festival, which holds a concert in the Mikhailovsky Garden in July every year. The massive jazz festivals for which the city used to be famous finished in 1993 with the final Osenniye Ritmy ("Autumn Rhythms") festival.
The new festival can probably be compared with the Sergei Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF), which is geared toward world music and more experimental, improvised styles, plus some rock. Kondakov, however, is not so sure.
"SKIF is still mainly oriented toward avant-garde and free jazz as the main way to continue Sergei Kuryokhin's ideas," Kondakov said. "We have totally different music."
"[Our] festival is not large scale or long; if it ran for a week, we could discuss preferences and plans more seriously," he said.
"It's a collection of diverse outfits united by this [world-music] idea," Kondakov said. "It's not dominated by mainstream jazz."
Most of the festival, which will be opened by a specially formed Festival Big Band, based on the local Sergei Gusyatinsky Big Band plus some guests, will be open-air, taking place at the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The main stage will be erected on the "Helicopter Site" opposite the Military Historical Museum of Artillery and Engineers, while the second stage, with DJs playing more jazzy styles will be on the spit of Zayachy Island, opposite the Rostral Columns. A third stage, called "VIP Atrium," will be located on the previously closed yard of the Commandant's House.
Highlights include U.S. trumpet player Randy Brecker, who blends jazz, rhythm and blues and rock. A founding member of jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears in 1967-68, he moved on to perform with Art Blakey's Messengers, and then with his saxophonist brother, Michael, as The Brecker Brothers. Brecker, a Grammy winner for best contemporary jazz performance, will appear with mainstream Moscow-based combo Igor Butman Quartet.
The festival's other star is U.S. saxophonist/vocalist Chico Freeman, whose collaborations range from jazz giants like Dizzy Gillespie and Elvin Jones to pop bands The Eurythmics, Earth, Wind and Fire and the Temptations. Freeman will appear with Andrei Kondakov's Brazilian Project, which will also include U.S. guitarist Paul Bollenbeck - who in turn will also appear with Australian mainstream jazz vocalist Chris McNulty. Kondakov himself will also appear with Interjazz, another of his own projects, when he will be joined by French and German musicians.
India will be presented by Senses, the Paris-based band led by Bapi das Baul, an innovator in Indian Baul music and culture. Senses is based on his traditional group, Baul Bishwa, but also features musicians from England, France, Russia, Argentina and Congo, mixing traditional music with Western instrumentation and electronic sounds.
Local double-bass player Vladimir Volkov will play with his Strings on Fire Project, featuring Hungarian and Bulgarian players, while Finnish, Karelian and Ingermannland traditional music will be played by veteran Petrozavodsk-based folk band Mullarit.
Apart from regular festival performances, the event will also feature club programs at JFC - whose founder and director, Felix Naroditsky, is the new festival's artistic director - Take Five, Decadance, Onegin, PAR.spb and Che cafe/club, with Che's two nights called "That's What a Jazzman Thinks About a DJ" and "That's What a DJ Thinks About a Jazzman" sounding particularly intriguing.
An act called the Dmitry Dibrov Festival Project might sound out of key with most of the festival's acts, as Dibrov is a popular Moscow-based TV host who is going to perform his own electronic music in the vein of the opening theme to his late-night talk show Apologiya on ORT television.
However, Kondakov described Dibrov's electronic debut CD as "interesting" - but also said that he might not come at all.
"For some reason, I think he won't come," he said. "There is the [Moscow International] film festival in Moscow, and [the festival chairperson Nikita] Mikhalkov simply won't let him go."
Peter and Paul Jazz Festival at the Peter and Paul Fortress. M: Gorkovskaya. For more information, call 973-8144, 089 and 323-9313. See Gigs for listings. Links: www.spb-jazz-fest.org
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: The next couple of weeks will see two jazz festivals, the new Peter and Paul Jazz Festival (see article, this page) and the traditional White Night's Swing, promoted by David Goloshchokin's Jazz Philharmonic Hall. However, there is also a hybrid genre called nujazz that is supposed to open new horizons in blending jazz and electronic music, and the NuJazz Festival is being held in the city for the second year.
The brainchild of the crew of house club Par.spb, the annual festival will open there on Friday for the second year in row and, as last year, will be headlined by New Zealand's Nathan Haines Band. As well as Par.spb's usual stages, the festival will use a new, open-air stage located in the closed yard of the club. See www.nujazzfest.ru for more information.
The rumors about Moby having difficulty selling tickets for his Ice Palace show on Wednesday seem to have been indirectly proven, as local promoters have launched an unlikely campaign, saying that anyone who buys four tickets will get a fifth for free.
The U.S. dance-music artist arrives this week after Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, who reaped the first crop of teenagers' money this week, and will be followed by Bjork, who looks to be a more attractive option for fans of electronic-tinged pop to spend their money.
Alternative guitar-based quartet Kirpichi plays a concert at Orlandina on Thursday to showcase some new material, including the talked-about "Naina," dedicated to Naina Yeltsina, wife of former President Boris Yeltsin.
According to singer/guitarist Vasya Vasin (a.k.a. Vasya V.), the new songs are taken from the band's forthcoming album, due some time in the fall.
"We recorded it a long time ago and then forgot all the songs, so now we have to rehearse them once again," Vasin said in a telephone interview last week. The album, he said, will be "out-and-out grunge," harking back, in a way, to Kirpichi's days at the pioneering local alternative club TaMtaM.
Those who find it tiresome to go all the way to Orlandina can wait until July 14, when Kirpichi appears at Red Club.
Punk concerts this week include NAIVE, Moscow's premier punk band, whose vinyl debut was released in 1990 on Maximum Rock'n'Roll Records, the label of the eponymous San Francisco punk magazine, bringing it to the attention of people like the Dead Kennedys' frontman, Jello Biafra, and making NAIVE the best-known Russian punk band in the U.S. for a period.
On the experimental front, Les Halmas' Trixa Arnold and Ilya Komarov play their electronic/acoustic impro at the Gallery of Experimental Sound on Sunday, while Alexander Ragazanov, an in-demand drummer on the art-rock circuit, will play a one-hour solo concert at the same venue Tuesday.
- by Sergey Chernov
TITLE: the good side of russian cuisine
AUTHOR: By Tobin Auber
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: To tell the truth, there are few fans of Russian cuisine to be found among the ex-pat community. Complaints frequently heard center around the appalling and recklessly excessive use of mayonnaise in salads, the parsimonious use of spices of any kind and, dare it be said, the complete lack of taste of your average pelmeni - for many, getting through a bowl of the latter without an industrial-sized canister of soy sauce, is an uphill struggle. And there really are only so many imaginative things that you can do with a cabbage, not to mention the fact that borshch isn't even Russian. Vegetarians confronted with a Russian menu usually find themselves looking down the business end of a green salad (if they're lucky), the total absence of meat-free dishes compensated for with copious quantities of dill.
But all is not lost. Gorchakov, tucked away on a side street off Kamennoostrovsky Prospect on the Petrograd Side, is a gift to anyone who needs convincing that there is more to decent Russian cooking than pancakes with jam. This is a place to which you can safely bring visiting friends and relatives, secure in the knowledge that they will become dedicated converts to the delights of Russian cuisine.
As we settled in at our table, we were immediately brought two mugs of zbiten - a deliciously spicy, warmed concoction of red and white wine, "young" honey, cloves, cinnamon, apple and orange (the first served on the house, but costing 110 rubles ($3.60) if you should wish to order another).
As we sipped our drinks, we took in our surroundings. The decor is understated by St. Petersburg standards, but, nevertheless, dangerously bordering on out-and-out kitsch, with its dacha-garden theme and piano set into the floor (although, credit where credit's due, the pianist was excellent).
Another minor niggle - of which there were very few - was that the garden-bench-style seating was a little on the hard side. Otherwise, the restaurant's three very spacious rooms and the general atmosphere created were very warm, intimate and cozy.
Our server, the exceptionally helpful and polite Olechka, talked us through the impressively extensive menu, giving detailed descriptions of every dish about which we inquired. Cold starters range from 80 to 290 rubles ($2.60 to $9.50), hot starters from 140 to 180 ($4.60 to $5.90), soups from 120 to 190 ($4 to $6.25) and main courses from 250 to 1,300 ($8.20 to $39.50). In what is something of a novelty for the city, there is also a comprehensive vegetarian menu, with prices ranging from 90 to 190 rubles ($3 to $6.25) - vegetarians won't find themselves forced to go for the meat-and-vegetables-without-the-meat option.
For a starter, I took the "fine wheat pancakes" stuffed with chicken and mild cheese, 140 rubles ($4.60), very generously portioned, but perhaps the only dish we tried that wasn't a taste sensation. The kholodets, 150 rubles ($4.90), a meat jelly with beef and chicken served with horseradish and mustard, was deemed by my dining partner to be deliciously tender. We accompanied our starters with freshly baked knysh, 20 rubles ($0.65), a piping hot wheaten roll with sesame seeds, much like soda bread.
My dining partner then tried the venison medallions in Burgundy, 520 rubles ($17.10). Pan-fried and marinated in wine with spices and honey, they came with an oversized baked potato, sour cream and blackberries. All together, the dish was rich and deliciously filling.
I opted for the half pound of salmon fillet, 390 rubles ($12.80), which came with tasty, crunchy and very lightly fried vegetables. The fish beautifully tender, and although the portion was huge, the combination wasn't too heavy.
A good tip at Gorchakov is to try the various traditional Russian non-alcoholic drinks - the medovukha, blending honey, raisins, lemon and peppermint, 70 rubles ($2.30) and the mors, made of forest berries, 50 rubles ($1.65) can both be highly recommended. Also, be warned - the portions at Gorchakov are not on the meager side. My dining partner struggled with her venison and we could only manage one desert between the two of us, almond blancmange with biscuits and a homemade jam for 150 rubles ($4.90).
All in all, then, Gorchakov has much to recommend it, and although the kitsch interior might be a little too touristy for a regular haunt, the outdoor section in the courtyard, now opening for the summer, will prove all too tempting for anyone living on the Petrograd Side.
Gorchakov. 19 Bolshaya Monetnaya Ulitsa. Open daily, noon until midnight. Menu in Russian and English. Credit cards accepted. Lunch for two, without alcohol: 1,600 rubles ($52.50).
TITLE: wanted! local young playwriting talent
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The major plight of Russian theater, and St. Petersburg theater in particular, is a shortage of cutting-edge drama, at least according to the founders of a new competition to unearth fresh young talent that kicked off in St. Petersburg earlier this week.
The brains behind the as-yet-unnamed project are the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Theater Workers' union and the Novaya Drama contemporary-drama festival and the Lyubimovka young-dramatists festival, both of which are based in Moscow. The nine-member competition jury includes theater directors, critics and playwrights from both cities.
"Certainly, you can easily get away with saying that Russian theater lacks good directors, good lighting designers and even good actors, but the shortage of good modern drama is the main thing," jury member Eduard Boyakov, the director of the annual Golden Mask festival, Russia's top performing-arts festival, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Golden Mask launched Novaya Drama last year in cooperation with Moscow's Chekhov MKhaT theater.
Theater insiders complain of the difficulties involved in getting directors interested in staging modern plays. Poorer companies especially prefer to stage old classics, for which they don't have to pay royalties to the dramatist, and which don't entail the costs involved in promoting new names.
Directors, meanwhile, admit that they have to strike an uneasy balance between choosing the play and finding a capable director who is interested
in it.
"I am sometimes forced to take an uneven play if I'm sure it will generate audience interest," jury member Viktor Novikov, the artistic director of the Kommisarzhevskaya Drama Theater, said on Tuesday.
"Artistically, the result is not always of the highest quality, but at least we can attract people to the theater," he said.
The new competition has two categories, for plays and short plays, respectively. Anyone under 35 who lives permanently in St. Petersburg - no propiska required - and is confident enough can submit a work for consideration before Sept. 5. The prize fund currently stands at 90,000 rubles (about $3,000), but the jury is determined to persuade the Culture Ministry to provide a grant for the overall winners in each category.
"One of the most important things is to encourage theaters to stage contemporary plays, so we suggest that the theater that takes the winning play will get a grant from the Culture Ministry to cover its expenses," Novikov said. "I'll be asking for 1 million rubles [about $33,000] but, realistically, the figure may be smaller in the end."
Three prizes will be awarded in each section, and all six prize-winners will be performed during the second Novaya Drama festival in Moscow in September.
Commenting on the decision to organize the competition in St. Petersburg, Moscow dramatist and jury member Mikhail Ugarov compared the city with a "great mute man."
"There are many shows going on in the city every day, but all I can hear is a deadly silence," Ugarov said on Tuesday. "What theaters here offer are interpretations, not fresh, independent statements."
While labelling St. Petersburg's theater scene and theater critics "autistic," Ugarov said that he hopes the festival will create a more pleasant environment and adequate context for first-time dramatists in the city.
"There must be a rich artistic soil here," Ugarov said. "There must be hacks as well, but I don't mind reading hundreds of their opuses. A genius may turn up after 48 hacks, because they'll create the natural environment."
Golden Mask head Boyakov said that the city has to make an effort change the situation, and that a system of grants should exist to support the production of modern plays here. He suggested copying the European system under which theaters staging a work that is not subject to copyright pay between 10 and 12 percent of the profits from the production directly to funds supporting modern drama.
Plays can be sent until Sept. 5 by e-mail to newdrama@goldenmask.ru, or handed in to the Golden Mask's St. Petersburg office in Dom Aktyora at 86 Nevsky Pr. Texts will only be accepted in electronic format. For details, call 102-0545. Links: www.newdrama.ru, www.goldenmask.ru
TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Telega: poison-pen letter
I don't think my Russian friends and colleagues will take offense if I say that Russia is a gossipy country. I don't condemn it; to the contrary, I take off my hat. In Russia, where decision-making everywhere from the boardroom to the Kremlin is as opaque as a foggy, starless night, and where official pronouncements are more likely to conceal than reveal the truth, having a reliable system of information gathering and exchange is a survival technique. And Russians have mastered it.
A rumor is slukh, from the word for something heard. Po-moyemu, on rasprostranyayet o tebe slukhi (I think he's passing around rumors about you.) You can also use the word porodit, "to generate," as in Vystupleniye direktora firma porodilo mnogo slukhov. (The speech by the director of the company generated a lot of rumors.) More colloquially, rumors are said to "crawl" about, like the snakes they are: Polzut slukhi, chto on zdorovo vypivaet. (Rumors are going around that he is a heavy drinker.) Or they simply "get around": O nyom khodyat slukhi. (There are rumors about him.)
If you want to say that "everyone has heard it," you can say, U vsekh na slukhu. Or you can switch the emphasis and say, Eto u vsekh na ustakh (everyone is talking about it) or simply govoryat ... (they say ... ) If you are talking about "word of mouth," you say Iz ust v usta. You can emphasize the reliability of your information by saying, Ya eto slyshal iz pervykh ust (I heard it first hand, or "from the horse's mouth.") Ya slyshal iz tretykh ust, used less commonly, means "I heard it third hand."
When you are not at all sure of your information, you can say, za chto kupil, za to i prodayu - literally "I'm selling it for the purchase price," i.e., "for what it's worth ..." And when you are quite sure that the original truth has gotten garbled in transmission, in Russian you say, Eto kak isporchenny telefon. Davai sprosim ego, chto on skazal na samom dele! (This is a broken telephone. Let's ask him what he said!)
Gossip is another matter; here the truth is held in less high esteem. Spletnya (an item of gossip) comes from the word plesti, "braid," "weave," that is, something tangled. Ne slushai ego! On uzhasny spletnik (Don't listen to him! He's a terrible gossip!) O chyom vy tut spletnichaete?! (What are you gossiping about?! - often pejoratively asked of any women deep in conversation.)
This is a short step from the worst of rumors and gossip: denunciations. It's a sad reflection on Russian history that there are lots of words for this: donos (denunciation), kleveta (slander), kompromat (compromising information, "dirt"), nagovor i ogovor (slander, unjust comments). V gazete opublikovali kompromat na kandidata. (A newspaper printed some dirt about the candidate.) V 37-om godu po donosu sazhali. (In 1937, people were imprisoned on the strength of a denunciation.)
Anonimka is an anonymous letter: Yeyo uvolili - direktor poluchil anonimku o yeyo romane s sotrudnikom konkuriruyushchei firmy. (She got fired - her boss got an anonymous letter about her affair with someone in a competitor's company.) Telega (literally "a cart,") is a poison-pen letter. Posle togo kak yego zaderzhala militsiya, k nemy ne rabotu prishla telega. (After he was detained by the cops, a poison-pen letter arrived at work.)
And as anyone who has ever been the subject of rumors and gossip knows, the problem is that no matter how improbable the rumor, someone will always believe it and say, Nu znaesh - net dyma bez ognya! (There's no smoke without fire!)
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
TITLE: a wrap on the city's holidays
AUTHOR: By Andrei Vorobei
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russians, like any other people, love holidays. The difference, as anyone who has lived here for a while will confirm, is that Russia seems to have more of them than other countries.
"Holiday St. Petersburg," an exhibition that opened at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall on Monday, documents the history of holidays in St. Petersburg. The organizers see the exhibition as the last word on St. Petersburg's official 300th anniversary, or "the quintessence of the jubilee celebrations."
In terms of quantity of material, they have succeeded. A variety of museums, libraries and archives have contributed about 950 items - paintings, drawings, medals, banners, items of clothing, photographs and even weapons - reflecting St. Petersburg's public and private, military and civil, religious and secular holiday traditions.
In the 18th century, St. Petersburg celebrated mainly military and official occasions dictated by high-society issues, such as the wedding of Peter the Great and Catherine in 1712, or Catherine the Great's accession to the throne in 1762, events reflected at the exhibition in engravings by Alexie Zubov and Yefim Vinogradov. Outdoor public merrymaking, a feature of traditional holidays like Easter week and maslenitsa, the week-long Russian equivalent of the Western Shrove Tuesday, received no attention from the authorities. They, therefore, had no permanent locations and were spread all over the city.
After the Napoleonic Wars - and, in particular, the victory of 1812 - official holiday policy was reconsidered. Traditional popular celebrations were given more prestige and scope and, in 1827, finally obtained a permanent location on Admiralteiskaya Ploshchad, now part of Alexandrovsky Garden. Although such outdoor events were not included in the list of official festivals - mainly because high society was not involved - they became the most eagerly anticipated events for much of the city's population.
Admiralteiskaya Ploshchad was home to maslenitsa and Easter festivals through 1872, a period seen as the dawn of St. Petersburg's culture of holding festivals on the city's squares. The two festivals in question had their own cast of regular entertainers, including jugglers, magicians, comedians and acrobats and attractions like swings and carousels. Features such as a rayok, or street theater, a wooden model of which is featured at the current exhibition, panoramas and magic lanterns provided festival goers with the chance to see pictures of cities, landscapes and wonders from around the world and to keep up with the latest technological innovations, such as photography. The celebrations were also famous for street theater, and a puppet-theater performance of the Russian folk tale "Petrushka" was an obligatory event.
This celebration of culture became the subject for both Russian and foreign artists and musicians; Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" is just one of the many works to draw its inspiration from it.
After 1872, the outdoor maslenitsa and Easter celebrations moved to Tsaritsyn Lug (now Marsovo Polye). The exhibition reflects this period in works by photographer Karl Bulla, the most famous chronicler of St. Petersburg at the time. It was the beginning of the end for the city's square-based festival culture but, nevertheless, produced cultural figures such as Alexei Alexeyev-Yakovlev, who became famous for organizing enchanting theatrical performances. The current exhibition includes a model made by Alexeyev-Yakovlev in the Soviet era, when he was also responsible for organizing public events. After 1898, the festivals moved to Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad and Semyonovskaya Ploshchad, where they gradually faded into oblivion.
As well as a huge display of 19th-century St. Petersburg festival culture, "Holiday St. Petersburg" includes a small, but attractive, display of significant events from the era, like the opening of the train station at Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin) in 1837, and the first rail link between St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1851.
The beginning of the 20th century saw the commemoration of several events of national importance, including St. Petersburg's 200th anniversary in 1903, the 100th anniversary of the victory of 1812 and the 300th anniversary of the Romanov imperial dynasty in 1913, all of which are reflected at the exhibition in Bulla's photographs. The display also includes items such as a timetable of the city's official 200th-anniversary events - which is interesting to compare with this year's 300th-anniversary version - and a series of stamps dedicated to the Romanovs' 300th jubilee.
The exhibition winds up with Soviet-era celebrations through the 1950s, starting with NEP-era posters from the 1920s, passing through celebrations of physical culture in the 1930s, and finishing with Victory Days, October Revolution Days and the 250th anniversary of the city in 1953.
"Holiday St. Petersburg" is also interesting in terms of the correspondence between the technical possibilities of the times and the ways in which the celebrations were documented. Thus, the early-19th-century square-based culture is reflected mainly in cheap popular prints, which were replaced later in the century by engraving and, subsequently, by photography. One thing worth mentioning that is, unfortunately, not included, is cinematography: For example, the French firm Pathe was officially appointed to film both Nicholas II's coronation in 1896 and the 1913 celebrations.
"Holiday St. Petersburg" runs at the Manezh through July 16. Links: www.manege.spb.ru
TITLE: literature: it's serious and fun
AUTHOR: By Aliona Bocharova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The middle of June is the traditional time for the month-long Summer Literary Seminars, or SLS, a program that brings established American writers and literary scholars to St. Petersburg in the name of creative inspiration, as well as to get a feel for the city and Russian literature.
This year's fifth running of the SLS seem to have struck a good balance between challenge and inspiration. Intensive seminars on fiction, poetry, non-fiction or translation are followed by more relaxed discussions on Russian literature led by St. Petersburg critics and writers like Alexandre Skidan and Dmitry Golynko-Volfson. The evenings are informal occasions, when teachers get back to being simply writers and read their works at the Museum of Theater and Musical Arts or the Brodyachaya Sobaka Art Basement cafe; students, meanwhile, turn into writers, and get time to enjoy the city and express their thoughts on authors like Dostoyevsky and Daniil Kharms.
"SLS is a unique and outstanding event that has no equivalent anywhere else, apart from the Prague writers' seminar, but that puts more emphasis on film and photography and doesn't have as strong a staff body," local poet Arkady Dragomoshchenko, who has been working with the program since its inception, said during the SLS opening evening at Brodyachaya Sobaka on Sunday. "The SLS faculty includes some living classics of American literature."
"Besides, some of the staff are my friends, so it's more pleasant, easier and cheaper for me to spend time with them in St. Petersburg, rather than to fly to California, for example, to see them," Dragomoshchenko said, adding that he is convinced that the program is effective for students, who gain knowledge and experience first hand.
For example, author Robert Olmstead, who teaches fiction at the SLS, talked at his seminar about a universal "wisdom" essential for good stories, and gave a piece of advice that, itself, sounded like creative writing: "It's not what you write about, it's how you write what you write about."
Another popular part of the program is a series of walking tours led by Golynko-Volfson that explore the city's myths and history and the contemporary nature of Russian literature.
"We walk around the city, and then squeeze into a cafe or bar and have a nice conversation," Golynko-Volfson said on Sunday. "I personally enjoy the experience: The students are smart, so it's an eye-opener."
Several students enjoy the SLS so much that they are coming back for the third or even fifth time. However, according to Mikhail Iossel, SLS founder and director, this year's student body is slightly different.
"The scholars are older, with an average age of 30, and are more talented," Iossel said on Sunday. "A lot of them have had books published, never mind magazine articles."
They also have very varied backgrounds, from students enrolled in MFA (master of fine arts) creative-writing programs to social workers or street-kid counselors. Forty-two-year-old Ian Pound, from Ripton, Vermont, is a case in point.
"I studied anthropology and philosophy, had tons of jobs, went hitch-hiking 10,000 miles across the U.S. and overseas," Pound said on Sunday. It is, perhaps, no surprise that he ended up in St. Petersburg looking for new experiences and inspiration.
The scholars are selected on the basis of competitions in fiction and poetry. The two lucky winners get all their expenses covered to come to St. Petersburg, as well as their entry published in hip New York literary magazine "Tin House." Other scholars, however, have to find over $2,000 to get onto the program.
"I don't know whether I would have taken part in the program if I hadn't won," Adam Levin, this year's fiction winner and a creative writing fellow at Syracuse University in New York state, said on Sunday. "I didn't give it a thought."
Despite the lure of St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary, the organizers of this year's SLS were worried that it would be difficult to attract applications, although this turned out not to be the case.
"Only 1 1/2 months ago, we had just 20 participants, as people did not want to leave [the United States] due to the war [in Iraq] and recession there," Iossel said. "However, the situation changed, and we've had about 900 literary submissions from those applying for the program."
One of the SLS' concrete results has been a book entitled "Russkiye Pisateli o SShA" ("Russian Writers on the United States"). Dragomoshchenko, one of the book's authors, hopes that "the next step will be another book - 'American Writers on Russia.'"
TITLE: big films hit moscow ...
AUTHOR: By Tom Birchenough
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the Moscow International Film Festival, which begins Friday and continues to June 29, will once again function as Russia's window onto world cinema.
Although the festival was first held in 1959 - if you discount a one-off event that took place in 1935 - the MIFF was for many years not an annual event and thus this year celebrates its 25th birthday. The festival's screenings ran to packed houses during the Soviet era, drawing audiences keen for a glimpse of what life was like on the other side of the Iron Curtain; while, through much of the 1990s, when local film distribution was suffering an unqualified slump, the MIFF offered local cineastes an opportunity to see the cream of world film production.
However, that set of circumstances is rapidly changing: Today's brave local, smaller distributors are purchasing as much art-house film as any of their counterparts in Western Europe - if not, in fact, more. Nevertheless, as a big city festival (like Berlin's, and unlike the resort festivals of Cannes and Venice), Moscow still retains a few advantages - as well as a considerable audience. While, after years of uneven organization, program-selection committees still struggle to attract prestigious titles for the Competition Program, interest in the festival's various side programs more than compensates for the Competition Program's failings.
The presence of Russian films at the festival is always an issue, especially for the festival's president, filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov. This year, he was instrumental in securing St. Petersburg director Alexei Uchitel's "Progulka" ("The Stroll") as both the festival's opening film and an entry in the competition - the first time in more than a decade that a Russian film has been entered in the competition in addition to opening the festival. Shot in real time on the streets of Russia's northern capital, the film is a tribute with dramatic undertones to that city, in time for its tricentary year, and could certainly feature in final honors.
Two other Russian works to watch out for are "Petersburg" by Irina Yevteyeva (whose short film "The Clown" won top honors at Venice two years ago) and "Koktebel" from debut directors Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky. But beware: Quantity doesn't necessarily imply quality here. Last year, during the awards ceremony, the jury of Russian film critics ruffled feathers by publicly stating that one of the Russian films in competition - Roman Prygunov's "Odinochestvo Krovi" ("The Solitude of Blood") - was not worthy of selection for the category.
English-language fare in the 19-strong competition slate is represented by Mike Barker's English Civil War drama "To Kill a King," starring Tim Roth as Oliver Cromwell and Rupert Everett as King Charles I; and the Mike Hodges British-American coproduction "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead," with Charlotte Rampling and Malcolm McDowell. Danish director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen has followed the lead of her Dogma colleagues by filming her "Skagerrak", the story of a Danish traveler adrift in Scotland, in English.
At a total of nine entries, European production dominates the program, which also contains three films from Asia, including one from nonagenarian Japanese veteran - and a record three-time Moscow main prizewinner - Kaneto Shindo with "The Owl," and two from Latin America.
Links: www.miff.ru
TITLE: ... but we have a festival here too!
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Festival of Festivals, probably St. Petersburg's top annual film event - screening dozens of films shown at film festivals over the world lately as well as retrospectives - opens Monday, showing films at four cinemas through June 29.
Though aiming at films from the past year's international festivals that have not been shown in Russia, some have been already released in this country. For example, Chinese martial-arts drama "Hero," part of the festival's program, opens in the city this week anyway, independently of the Festival of Festivals; Lars von Trier's "Dogville" will open in early July; while "Far from Heaven" is widely available in local video stores.
Though the films are mainly translated into Russian by an interpreter, films already released in Russia have most likely already been overdubbed in a studio, which in most cases destroys half of the atmosphere, as happened with David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" last year.
Launched in 1993, the Festival of Festivals was inspired by the Rotterdam and Toronto international film festivals, both of which then specialized in screening the cream of contemporary European and American cinema, although the Rotterdam festival later added a competition of debut works.
For the past three years, the Festival of Festivals has - most likely deliberately, though the local organizers are reluctant to comment - coincided with the year's main national event, the Moscow International Film Festival, which opens in the capital Saturday (see article, this page).
The situation brings certain advantages, allowing the St. Petersburg event to borrow films playing in Moscow as well as festival guests, who come primarily to Moscow, but pay a visit to St. Petersburg as well.
Last year, actors Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter, as well as independent U.S. director Bob Raffelson, best known for his work with Jack Nicholson, including "Five Easy Pieces" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice," attended the local event. However, despite early rumors of a possible visit by Matt Damon, nobody of this status is expected this year.
This year's festival will open with Alexander Sokurov's "Russky Kovcheg" ("Russian Ark"), which has been already on show in the city, but the program features his more recent, controversial film "Otets I Syn" ("Father and Son" ).
Apart from "Dogville," interesting points could be Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool," Marleen Gorris's "Carolina" and first-time Icelandic director Dagur Kari's "Noi the Albino."
One of the festival's attractions will be the morally dubious "Commandante," Oliver Stone's sympathetic portrayal of Fidel Castro, which attempts to whitewash the dictator's brutal regime.
Special programs include "New Cinema of Russia," "Films of CIS and Baltic Countries," "Shorts" (short films by young directors), films from Lenfilm, Canadian and Finnish studios, as well as retrospectives of Japanese director Takashi Miike, who rose to international fame in 2000 with "Dead or Alive" and "Audition" (both of which will be shown) and seminal German filmmaker Wim Wenders.
Despite the festival's scale, it can't escape certain provinciality, as the films are shown at theaters often in need of renovation or at least a good clean; the openings are full of pompous speeches and feature amateur dance performances, and can be somewhat trying.
Like last year, the more contemporarily equipped theaters are not taking part, with some of the festival events ghettoized into such exotic venues as the Lider cinema, hidden somewhere in the northern outskirts.
The Festival of Festivals will run at Rodina, Dom Kino, Molodyozhny and Lider cinemas. Call 237-0304 for more information. Links: www.filmfest.ru
TITLE: Suicidal Acts Follow French-Iranian Raid
AUTHOR: By Pierre-Antoine Souchard
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - An Iranian opposition group was planning to attack Iranian diplomatic missions in Europe and elsewhere, the French chief of intelligence said Wednesday, after three more Iranians set themselves on fire to protest a crackdown on the group.
Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, the head of France's counterintelligence agency, said that none of the targeted missions were in France, where the Mujahedeen Khalq is headquartered.
On Tuesday, police raided the group's walled compound in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris, and 12 other sites, detaining 159 people and seizing at least $8 million in U.S. currency.
The Mujahedeen Khalq "was preparing to commit attacks outside Iran, including in Europe," the intelligence chief said. He said that the group was making Auvers-Sur-Oise "an operational center for terrorism."
Bousquet de Florian spoke at a news conference after a day of protests outside the agency's headquarters by scores of Mujahedeen Khalq members - three of whom set themselves on fire in the course of the day.
Police said that the three were severely burned. Late Wednesday, the Mujahedeen Khalq office in Washington said that one of the three, a 40-year-old woman identified as Marzieh Babakhani, had died of her burns.
Two other Mujahedeen Khalq supporters - in London and in Bern, Switzerland - set themselves alight. There have been no deaths from the protests.
Paris Police Chief Jean-Paul Proust later banned demonstrations by the group "given these suicidal acts," and said that protesters would be arrested.
In Switzerland, an Iranian man tried to set himself on fire outside the French Embassy in Bern during a small protest against the raids but was stopped by police. A woman set herself afire in front of the French Embassy in London, a day after a man set himself on fire there on Tuesday.
The sweep came a month after the Mujahedeen Khalq's armed wing was disarmed by U.S. forces in Iraq. The group, blacklisted by the United States and the European Union, has fought to topple Iran's clerical regime.
Developments in Iraq "deprived [the Mujahedeen Khalq] of its Baghdad headquarters" and of financing by the regime of Saddam Hussein, the French counterintelligence chief said.
An official of the National Council of Resistance, the group's so-called parliament-in-exile, denied the charges leveled by the DST chief.
"The Iranian resistance, in the last 22 years, has always functioned within the realm of the law of the host country," said Shahin Gobodi by telephone. "This is only an excuse to cover up the French dirty deal with the mullahs," he said, referring to Iran's clerical leaders.
Iranian President Mohammed Khatami praised the French action, and said that the United States should follow suit.
"It is natural that we want all the people who have been involved in terrorist acts," he said apparently suggesting Tehran would like their extradition. Khatami said "there are documents and evidence against them."
The crackdown, which France said was planned a month ago, came as pro-democracy protesters in Iran put pressure on the government with demonstrations calling for greater freedom.
Tuesday's raids by 1,300 police, some masked and heavily armed, were carried out based on intelligence indicating the group's "dangerous and illegal" activities, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said Wednesday.
"Our services had specific information on the development of activities of this organization," Cope said without elaborating.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy had said Tuesday that the group planned to turn France into a major support base.
The Mujahedeen have been based in France since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Iranian monarchy and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The group had initially supported the revolution, but then engaged in a bitter dispute, in part, because the group disagreed with the supremacy of religious leaders. It has offices in several western cities.
TITLE: Two Iraqis Killed During Protest in Baghdad
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: BAGHDAD - Scores of gunmen fired in the air and cursed America on Thursday at the funeral of a former Iraqi air force officer killed by U.S. troops during a violent protest in Baghdad the previous day.
"There is no god but Allah, America is the enemy of Allah," several hundred mourners chanted as men with Kalashnikov assault rifles fired volleys into the air, in defiance of a U.S. ban on the carrying of weapons in Iraq.
There was no sign of U.S. troops in Baghdad's impoverished al-Hurriya district where Tareq Mohammed, a former air force non-commissioned officer, had lived with his wife and five children.
He was one of two Iraqis shot dead on Wednesday when sacked members of Iraq's dissolved armed forces confronted U.S. soldiers during furious protests outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration in the capital.
"They deprived us of our jobs and have not offered us new ones," said one mourner, Khazaal Qatie, of the U.S. move to disband Saddam Hussein's armed forces, security services and two ministries, throwing 400,000 people out of work.
"The Americans should expect problems now. He (Mohammed) has relatives, friends and neighbors."
People who gathered for funeral prayers at the neighborhood mosque complained bitterly about the lack of electricity, water and other services in the area.
"The former regime was 1,000 times more merciful," said one resident, Abdul-Azim Abdul-Wahed.
U.S. forces have struggled to impose order and restore services in Iraq since Hussein's government fell on April 9.
Demonstrations have taken place regularly outside the arched gate leading to the compound of Hussein's former Republican Palace. Past protests, usually by former soldiers and civil servants demanding new jobs or back wages, have been largely peaceful.
The U.S. Central Command said the violence began when protesters tossed rocks at a U.S. convoy which it had tried to pass through.
"One demonstrator pulled out a weapon and began shooting. U.S. forces responded, killing two of the demonstrators," said a military statement.
Samir Mizban, an Associated Press photographer, said that a civilian driver fired a pistol into the air after crowds began smashing his car. Mizban said that the protesters were stoning every vehicle within range.
"It was a new car. The demonstrators broke the windscreen with wooden sticks. The driver tried to escape, so he fired in the air with his pistol," said Mizban.
After the driver fired his gun, the enraged crowd threw rocks at the American soldiers blocking the palace gate and at journalists, who fled. That's when the U.S. troops opened fire, Mizban said.
(Esmat Salaheddin, REUTERS
Arthur Max, AP)
TITLE: Youth Has Its Day as Zenit Thrashes Torpedo-Metallurg
AUTHOR: By Christopher Hamilton
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Zenit's youth players led it to a 3-0 win over Torpedo-Metallurg Moscow at Petrovsky Stadium on Wednesday night.
midfielder Oleg Vlasov capped Zenit's youthful display with his first Premier League goal just five minutes after being introduced as a substitute in his first game for the club. Two minutes into added time, Andrei Arshavin threaded a pass through the demoralized Torpedo-Metallurg defense to the 18 year old, who scored on a breakaway.
"It's great that our young players scored three goals tonight," Zenit head coach Vlastimil Petrzela said. "It is really challenging for them to be playing at this level, but they are really trying."
Torpedo-Metallurg, second to last in the standings, came out strong, challenging Zenit keeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev in the first minute. However, the Moscow club's defensive 5-4-1 formation failed to contain Zenit for long, and 19-year-old Igor Denisov, widely seen as Zenit's most promising rookie, opened the scoring in the 13th minute.
Ukrainian midfielder Olexander Spivak fed the ball up to striker Alexander Kerzhakov, who manoeuvered into the penalty area before being slide-tackled by visiting goalie Andrei Novosadov. Denisov picked up the rebound and easily found the back of the empty net - his second goal for the club in only his second Premier League appearance.
Spivak, credited with two assists, played brilliantly the whole game, as Torpedo-Metallurg's plan to dominate the midfield failed. Spivak linked well with Denisov and Vladimir Bystrov until early in the second half, when Petrzela replaced them with the more experienced Arshavin and Alexei Katulsky, both key players from last year who have spent most of this season on the substitutes' bench as Petrzela has worked his Czech compatriots into the lineup.
Spivak's second assist came at 62 minutes on a corner kick to Pavel Mares. The Czech defender redirected the ball to 20-year-old Dmirty Markov, who easily found the near corner.
Torpedo-Metallurg upped the tempo, playing more aggressively until Alexander Komadina was sent off in the 72nd minute for his second bookable offense.
Tempers had flared as early as the 31st minute, when Bystrov had a good chance to add his name to the list of goalscoring teenagers. Torpedo-Metallurg midfielder Maxim Veletsky screened then fell on Bystrov, dragging him to the ground in the penalty box.
Referee Marat Galishov failed to award a penalty, and Bystrov punched at Veletsky in frustration. Torpedo-Metallurg goalie Novosadov left his net to punch Bystrov on the shoulder, and more shoves were exchanged before the game was halted and Veletsky booked for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The much-needed win for Zenit, playing at home for the first time in over a month, eased some pressure on Petrzela, who came under fire after disappointing losses to struggling Shinnik Yaroslavl and Uralan Elista and an unconvincing 2-0 win over Spartak-Alaniya in Vladikavkaz.
TITLE: Cubs' Sosa Returns, Homers, Gets Booed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CINCINNATI, Ohio - Sammy Sosa was back. The adulation was gone.
Sosa cracked his bat as he singled the first time he made contact, later hit a prodigious homer and made a sliding catch in his first game back from a suspension for using cork.
No matter what he did, the reaction was the same. One of baseball's most beloved players was booed by a capacity crowd.
Sosa hit a two-run homer and Kerry Wood pitched a three-hitter Wednesday night as the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 in their slugger's return from a seven-game suspension.
Sosa heard some cheers in his return, but they were drowned out by reminders that it will be a while before his popularity is restored.
"He can erase a lot of stuff with his performance," manager Dusty Baker said. "His performance is what shot him to that pinnacle in the first place."
Sosa has fallen hard since his bat broke in half and the umpires found cork June 2 at Wrigley Field, raising suspicions from fans and fellow players about his three 60-homer seasons.
Some fans yelled "Cork!" and "Corky!" during his at-bats on Wednesday.
"I'm a tough man," said Sosa, who was 2-for-4. "I pray every night. I'm strong physically and mentally. Anybody else probably would be home, but I'm not."
"Whatever the situation, you've got to fight for it, you've got to deal with it. It happens, and you've got to face it."
Sosa's fifth-inning homer off the top of the batter's eye in center field against Jimmy Haynes (1-6) showed that he's ready to get on with it, even if some fans won't let it go.
On the last day of his suspension, he asked fans to forgive and forget. Many of the 39,053 fans at Great American Ball Park weren't ready to do either.
The Reds sold 7,835 tickets when the windows opened, their biggest walk-up sale of the season for only their eighth sellout. Some Cubs fans wore Sosa jerseys and held up supportive signs. They were in the minority.
The last time Sosa was in town, he heard cheers and got a standing ovation for hitting career homer No. 500 on May 4. The mood was much different this time.
"Controversy follows great players, and the fans react to that," Reds shortstop Barry Larkin said. "If he wasn't as impactful a player, the boos wouldn't have been as loud. They always want to boo the star player, especially when he comes to your house."
Sosa heard the taunts, but didn't react to them.
"Some of them had things to say, but that's part of the game," he said.
Sosa was jeered even before he started digging his right foot into the back of the batter's box in the first inning, and boos drowned out the cheers every other time he came up.
Sosa did his trademark home-run hop in the fifth, when the ball left the bat with a loud crack and soared to center, smacking off the top of the enormous batter's eye party room. Sosa again was booed as he rounded the bases with his head down on the homer, estimated at 142 meters
It was his first since May 1, a span of 69 at-bats, and his seventh of the season.
"I just hit it very good, but I don't want to make a big deal out of it," Sosa said.
Wood took it from there, holding the Reds without a runner until Reggie Taylor lined a single to center with two outs in the sixth. Jose Guillen led off the seventh with his 12th homer.
Wood (6-5) didn't walk a batter and struck out nine in his first complete game of the season. He got some help in the ninth from Sosa, who got a late break on Larkin's sinking liner, then made a sliding catch.
The Cubs went 3-4 without Sosa, but managed to hold onto first place in the NL Central. His return has them optimistic.
"I don't think we've played our best baseball yet, but we're still at thetop," Wood said. "Hopefully we'll put together some wins in a row."
N.Y. Yankees 1, Tampa Bay 0 (12 Inns). There's still only one thing missing from Roger Clemens' Hall of Fame pitching resume: a no-hitter.
Clemens held Tampa Bay hitless through 7 1/3 innings Wednesday night, but Marlon Anderson connected for a clean single to left to end The Rocket's bid. The Devil Rays matched the Yankees pitch for pitch until Alfonso Soriano's single in the bottom of the 12th gave New York a 1-0 win.
"I've never thrown one since I've been playing ball, and I got on the mound when I was 7," Clemens said. "If a no-hitter happens that's great, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over that."
Five days after winning his 300th game, Clemens gave up just the one hit to Anderson. He was lifted after eight innings and 116 pitches with the game still scoreless.
"Sometimes, that's my worst habit - I'm around the plate too much. I've got to try to bounce that one," Clemens said of the pitch Anderson hit. "It was a split that was up, and that's a hittable pitch."
In other games, it was Toronto 6, Baltimore 2; Cleveland 4, Detroit 1; Kansas City 8, Minnesota 6; Chicago 3, Boston 1; Seattle 2, Anaheim 0; and Oakland 4, Texas 3 (11 inns.); New York Mets 10, Florida 5; Atlanta 6, Philadelphia 1; Arizona 2, Houston 1; St. Louis 9, Milwaukee 1; Colorado 5, San Diego 3 and Los Angeles 8, San Francisco 2. Pittsburgh swept Montreal in a doubleheader, winning 7-3 in the first game and 4-3 in the second.
TITLE: Davenport Comes Unstuck Again on Road to Recovery
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: EASTBOURNE, England - Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport lost in yet another injury comeback, beaten by Italy's Silvia Farina Elia 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3) in the wind at Eastbourne on Wednesday.
Defending champion Chanda Rubin, Jennifer Capriati and Daniela Hantuchova won second-round matches at this grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon.
Rubin, seeded second, downed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-0, 6-3; Capriati, seeded third, reached the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Amy Frazier; and fourth-seeded Hantuchova of Slovakia topped Alexandra Stevenson 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan was eliminated, beaten by Nathalie Dechy of France 6-1, 7-5. Conchita Martinez of Spain defeated Amanda Coetzer of South Africa 7-5, 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria ousted Yelena Likhovtseva of Russia 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Capriati, playing at Eastbourne for the first time since 1990 when she was 14, sped through the opening set in 22 minutes. Frazier won the first five games of the second set before Capriati regrouped, winning seven straight games.
In Nottingham, top-seeded Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco was upset in the second round of the Samsung Open on Wednesday, losing to Wayne Arthurs of Australia 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
"I knew his backhand was his weakness, so I placed a lot of my serves to that side," Arthurs said.
Also reaching the third round of this Wimbledon tuneup were Hicham Arazi, Greg Rusedski and Mardy Fish.
Arazi of Morocco defeated sixth-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6 (7-4), 6-2; Rusedski of Britain downed Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-4, 6-1; and Fish of the United States stopped Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-4.
Alexander Popp of Germany defeated Andre Sa of Brazil 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-3, and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden eliminated Arvind Parmar of Britain 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
In Rosmalen, the Netherlands, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the Ordina Open quarterfinals, moving a step closer to a rematch of their all-Belgian final at the French Open.
Amelie Mauresmo did not fare as well. The third-seeded Frenchwoman lost to Germany's Barbara Rittner 6-7 (7-1), 6-0, 7-5 in the second round.
Clijsters, seeded first, lost the first three games Wednesday but defeated Zimbabwe's Cara Black 6-4, 6-4. Henin-Hardenne, seeded second, downed Maria Sanchez-Lorenzo 6-4, 6-3.
Among the men, second-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand lost to Raemon Sluiter of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-4 in the second round. Paradorn has won only one match since the first round of the German Open in April - his victory Monday over Paul Logtens.
Third-seeded Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands routed Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-0, 6-0, and sixth-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain beat Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.
In other women's matches, fourth-seeded Yelena Dementieva of Russia, the 2002 losing finalist, downed Els Callens of Belgium 6-2, 6-1; fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia topped Stephanie Cohen Aloro of France, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0; and sixth-seeded Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan defeated Anca Barna of Germany 6-3, 6-3.