SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #880 (48), Tuesday, July 1, 2003
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TITLE: City To Choose Governor on Sept. 21
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In a vote confirming what most political analysts had been suggesting would be the case, the Legislative Assembly voted in favor on Monday of a regulation setting Sept. 21 as the date for gubernatorial elections.
The regulation passed by a vote of 41 for and only one against, while a competing version, suggesting Oct. 5 as the date and submitted by Yabloko faction lawmaker Natalya Yevdokimova, drew the support of only 11 deputies in the chamber. Yevdokimova had backed her proposal by saying that it would provide prospective candidates more time to campaign.
"This is one of the most acceptable versions at which we could have arrived," Vadim Tyulpanov, the Legislative Assembly speaker, said at a briefing in the parliament Monday.
"In the near future, we will see some more high-profile candidates appear" he added.
The September date means that St. Petersburg voters will chose a replacement for Vladimir Yakovlev - who resigned on June 16 to take a deputy prime minister post in the Kremlin - on the same day that those in the surrounding Leningrad Oblast also chose their governor.
But while the incumbent in the oblast, Valery Serdyukov, is heavily favored to retain his post, the race in St. Petersburg is less certain.
Valentina Matviyenko, who is the presidential representative for the Northwest Region and who drew comments of support from President Vladimir Putin when she announced her candidacy last week, appears to be the front-runner, ahead of vice governor Anna Markova, but other names continue to fly.
Sergei Andreyev, a United Russia faction member in the assembly, and Communist Party lawmakers Konstantin Sevenard and Sergei Glaziyev have also been discussed as possible candidates.
Talk that the campaign might become a 3-woman race was squelched on Monday when Olga Dmitriyeva, a member of the State Duma Budget Committee who heads the St. Petersburg branch of the Small-Business Development Party, after the leadership council of her party advised against her candidacy, announced that she would not run.
"There are problems that have to be resolved at the federal level and most of the country's problems are resolved only at that level and independent of St. Petersburg," Interfax quoted Dmitriyeva as saying on Monday.
She also said that the party would still put forward a candidate "to provide a democratic alternative," citing decisions by potential candidates such as Federation Council member Mikhail Mikhailovsky, St. Petersburg Mining Institute Dean Vladimir Litviyenko and head of the Federal Audit Chamber Sergei Stepashin not to run as making it important for her party to take part.
"We have a team and we have candidates," Dmitriyeva said.
But much of the talk around the Legislative Assembly on Monday was around Matviyenko's candidacy, with a number of analysts suggesting that her backing by the Kremlin would Discourage other candidates from throwing their hat in the ring.
Konstantin Sukhenko, the head of the pro-Kremlin Unity faction in the assembly railed at the suggestion that the choice would be limited.
"How can people be talking about elections with no alternatives when this is your job, to come and vote and, in this way, to decide who's going to be the governor," Sukhenko asked reporters in the assembly on Monday. "There are going to be many candidates, everybody is going to run, including Markova. Don't worry."
Regardless of the ultimate number of candidates, Central Election Commission member Nikolai Konkin told Interfax on Monday that the official campaign for the seat in Smolny will get underway in the next six days. Konkin said that candidates will be allowed to register as soon as the election-date regulation has been officially published, which usually takes five days after it has been passed. The registration period lasts for 30 days.
Konkin also used the occasion on Monday to introduce Alexander Gnyotov, the new head of the CEC, to assembly members, saying that he hoped that "the first election campaign under the new head of the City Election Commission would be carried out effectively and according to law."
Before joining the CEC last week, Gnyotov was the head of the Northwest Region Customs' Legal Department. He had also worked as a deputy to Viktor Cherkesov when the latter held to post of presidential representative to the region. Matviyenko replaced Cherkesov in the position in March.
Former Governor Yakovlev's decision to leave Smolny early for the position of deputy prime minister, where he will be chiefly responsible for overseeing planned reforms to the country's housing and communal-services sector, has raised worries that the subsequent summer election campaign could lower voter turnout.
Sergei Tarasov, the former Legislative Assembly speaker and Yakovlev supporter, who said that he had himself opted not to run for the person because of "personal reasons", said that the time of year wouldn't have a negative effect on the campaign.
"The date was determined mainly because the governor left. If he hadn't, [the elections] would have probably been held in December," Tarasov said on Monday. "September 21 is a good date because it is still summer and people will be in a good mood."
But Yevdokimova insisted on Monday that the date would mean that a significant part of the city's electorate would not take part in the voting because of the dacha season.
"We had three options here: To opt for the earliest possible date [according to the City Charter], which is Sept. 21 - 80 days after the decision; Sept. 28, which would be the middle option; or Oct. 5, which is 100 days after the decision was being made," Yevdokimova said in an interview on Monday. "If the elections had been scheduled for October, we would have given people a little more opportunity to think. As for September 21, people are still going to be out on their plots of land digging up potatoes. It's a period of stagnation."
TITLE: Mariinsky Design Winner Raises Eyebrows, Doubts
AUTHOR: By Peter Morley
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The future of the Mariinsky Theater is black marble and translucent golden glass to a design by a French architect - but jury members were not entirely happy with the choice.
Dominique Perrault, best known for designing the French National Library in Paris, and his team beat 10 other entries to design the new building for the Mariinsky Theater in the most important architectural event in Russia in 70 years.
"A great opera should be an emblematic building that is visible in the city. The golden envelope is the symbol of all the great monuments of St Petersburg," Perrault told a news conference on Saturday at the Academy of Arts.
Perrault's design will cover the new marble building, situated on the site of the current Palace of Culture in Honor of the First Five-Year Plan on Ulitsa Dekabristov, in a "veil" of glass containing gold-colored anodized aluminium strips.
Fontanka.ru quoted Perrault as saying that he aimed not just to "present the theater as a beautiful instrument for the Mariinsky's troupe, but also to intertwine with the city's historical fabric."
"We worked like a clothes designer, wrapping the building in a sort of veil," he was quoted as saying.
News Web site Fontanka.ru quoted Mariinsky Theater Artistic Director Valery Gergiev as saying on Saturday that he was attracted to Perrault's design by the "idea of light."
"The glass cupola above the building will let in a lot of light, conjuring up associations with the White Nights, a symbol of St. Petersburg," Gergiev said, adding that he hoped the new building would be ready in time for the Stars of the White Nights festival in 2008.
However, jury member Colin Amery, director of the World Monuments Fund in Britain, voiced severe reservations about the winning design.
"I think [Perrault] won the competition because of the golden dome, and its symbolism for St. Petersburg," he said in an interview Monday. "I think it's fair to say that there was a reservation about the practicality of that enormous glass structure in this climate. ... This was a major concern."
Amery said that the jury put a caveat on its final statement that, while the "big idea" of Perrault's design appealed to the majority of the jury, there were concerns about its practicality, its maintenance and how much it would cost.
"When he was asked how this very complicated structure would be cleaned, he said 'We'll have to use robots,'" Amery said of Perrault's final presentation to the jury. "[The design] is very experimental but, on the other hand, it's very fashionable."
"The truth about Perrault's design is that it's a flashy umbrella with a very ordinary theater underneath," he said. "And it only has one, rather inadequate, link to the old Mariinsky, which is also experimental because its a telescopic bridge, which I can imagine won't work when it's frozen."
"It doesn't solve quite a lot of the practical problems of linking the two theaters," he said.
According to Amery, Perrault told the jury that, in winter, snow would just "slide off" the building, and that the golden dome would be visible year round.
Culture Minister and jury member Mikhail Shvydkoi told Ekho Moskvy radio on Saturday that the 13-member jury had voted 10-2 in favor of Perrault's design.
The missing, 13th member, according to Amery, was Gergiev, who was absent at the voting and whose deputy, Vyacheslav Lupachyov was not entitled to vote.
"It seemed to be almost a foregone conclusion that Perrault would be the winner," Amery said. "[Lupachyov] came to the jury [in Gergiev's absence], and said that Gergiev wanted Perrault's design. ... He just liked it."
Rumors before the announcement suggested that Gergiev was not really interested in the archictectural merits of Perrault's design, but favored it as it provides the best concert hall in acoustic terms.
Before Saturday's announcement, it was also suggested that Perrault's design was also the preferred choice of St. Petersburg's chief architect, Oleg Kharchenko.
Lyudmila Likhachyov, Kharchenko's press secretary and the competition's secretary, did not return calls asking for comment on Monday.
The head of City Hall's Committee for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, Nikita Yavein, who acted as a consultant to the competition, also refused to comment on the result, referring questions to the Culture Ministry in Moscow, where calls went unanswered on Monday.
The new theater, which will be able to seat 2,000, will increase the space available to the Mariinsky by 39,000 square meters. Currently, the Mariinsky has only 40 percent of the space required by federal law for its 1,590 employees.
The federal government has earmarked $100 million to build the new theater, but Amery said that Perrault's project could end up costing up twice this amount, as the architect's costings had been "modest," and that running costs had not been included.
Culture Minister Shvydkoi said Saturday that "$100 million or $120 million" would be given to the project, Kommersant reported Monday.
Amery said that he had voted for the design by Austrian architect Hans Hollein, who had "asked a very good question: Why do you need two identical theaters, based on the horseshoe plan?"
Whereas most entries adhered to the basic plan for the interior of the theater drawn up by New York-based theater consultants Artec, Hollein proposed an alternative auditorium that Amery said was "more flexible."
He said that there were a lot of things he disliked about all the designs - including Hollein's, which would have "needed a lot of architectural modifications" - and that "the general standard wasn't that high."
While saying that the competition was, in general, well organized, Amery said that certain aspects left jury members scratching their heads.
"The jury was not very happy that we had so little time with Mr. Gergiev," he said. "He only came to about 10 minutes each day" of the two-day jury deliberation.
"I think that's in the Gergiev tradition," he said. "We were disappointed, because it's going to be such a major thing for the Mariinsky."
Amery also said that, unlike most architectural competitions, jury members had no opportunity to visit buildings designed by the entrants, to see "how their existing buildings look and work."
Whereas all the other entrants made one model of their proposal, Perrault "was for some reason allowed to make two models ... and the second model showed it in the context of the whole city," Amery said.
"He rather sold it on the idea of the golden domes and golden spires of the city," he said, adding that Perrault seemed to have "allies on the jury."
The current competition was announced on Jan.14, after an initial design solicited by Gergiev from California-based architect Eric Owen Moss caused uproar last year.
The design, which envisaged copious use of Brazilian blue cobalt, was derided by local critics for failing to fit in with St. Petersburg's predominantly rococo architectural ensemble, and was nicknamed "the garbage bags."
Amery said that, given the competition's history, he thought Moss ought not to have been invited to take part in the competition, and that the architect is now "very cross" about not winning, as he had expected.
St. Petersburg analysts gave a cautious welcome to the result on Monday.
Local architect Yevgeny Gerasimov said that the competition was a positive event for the city, but declined to comment on how he thought Perrault's design would fit into the city's architectural ensemble.
He said that he would have chosen the design by Swiss architect Mario Botta as the winner, although he said Perrault's project was "fully worthy" of winning.
"[Perrault's project] was one of the best designs," he said in a telephone interview on Monday.
"The competition project is only an idea," he said. "The final result depends on how successfully it is carried out."
TITLE: Limonov Set Free From Jail In Saratov
AUTHOR: By Nabi Abdullaev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Eduard Limonov, the writer and head of the radical National Bolshevik Party, walked free Monday after serving almost 25 months of a four-year sentence on an arms conviction - and immediately headed for the Volga River for a dip.
Four hours after his 9:20 a.m. release from the Engels correction colony - and after the swim - Limonov called a news conference in nearby Saratov to announce he will put writing on the backburner to focus on politics.
"I have not been corrected, and I have not abandoned my political beliefs," said Limonov, 60.
"I will devote myself only to politics, trying to change the system altogether and uproot the traditional Russian servility," he said, promising "to continue fighting by all legal means."
He said that he did not plan to run for public office but that his National Bolshevik Party should consider joining forces with a likeminded party to seek seats in the State Duma in December elections, local news agencies reported.
Limonov, a cult figure for thousands of teenagers, was released early on parole for good behavior after serving half of his sentence. A Saratov court in April convicted him of ordering National Bolshevik members to buy weapons, while clearing him of more serious charges of terrorism, forming a private army to invade Kazakhstan and plotting to overthrow the government.
Clad in a gray, double-breasted jacket, a black shirt and black jeans, Limonov said in televised remarks that he had not expected to get out Monday after seeing his release postponed from Saturday. He said he had just had a breakfast of porridge and boiled fish and was preparing to take a bath when the warden called for him and handed him the release papers.
Limonov promised the warden "not to get caught anymore," Gazeta.ru reported.
He told reporters in Saratov that he was going to get serious about trying to make a difference in Russia. "I don't want to waste myself with lightweight ventures," he said. "I wouldn't want to ridicule what I have earned in life."
He slammed rules requiring organizations to register as political parties with the Justice Ministry to participate in Duma elections and criticized the provision barring parties that get less than 5 percent of the vote from parliament.
The National Bolshevik Party submitted its registration papers to the Justice Ministry in May but has not heard back from the ministry yet, acting party head Anatoly Tishin said.
The Justice Ministry said Monday that Limonov is free to pursue whatever political aspirations he wishes.
"Limonov, as any free citizen, has the right to travel freely and get involved in political activities. He can participate in elections and be elected," Vladimir Logachyov, spokesman for the ministry's prisons directorate, was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Limonov - who wrote eight books and numerous articles during his 815 days in pre-trial detention and then prison - said that writing will be of "secondary" interest for him and mainly a source of income.
The Federal Security Service arrested Limonov in the Altai region in April 2001, and he spent most of his time served awaiting trial in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. He was locked up in the Engels colony for only six weeks.
Limonov, in interviews published Monday in Rossiiskaya Gazeta and Gazeta, said that in prison all he dreamed about was "leaving Saratov somewhat quicker, having a drink of cognac and tasting a woman."
One of those dreams came true at 6 p.m. Monday, when he left Saratov on a train for Moscow. He arrives in the capital Tuesday morning.
And Boris Berezovsky, who is in self-imposed exile in London, sent Limonov a bottle of cognac Monday, Gazeta.ru reported.
TITLE: Moscow's Police Facing Investigation
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The entire staff of the Moscow police force's criminal investigations directorate was suspended Monday as federal investigators continued to look into allegations that officers from this unit were running an extortion ring.
As many as 700 officers from the unit, known as MUR, were suspended while city-police inspectors review their personal files to determine whether or not they are qualified for their jobs. The process can take anywhere from one to several weeks and may result in the ouster of some of the senior officers who head MUR's subdepartments, Moscow city-police spokesperson Dmitry Filimonov said in a telephone interview on Monday.
The spokesperson said that the timing of the evaluation had nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into the alleged abuses by six senior MUR officers and Sergei Ganeyev, a lieutenant general at the Emergency Situations Ministry, who were arrested last week. They are suspected of conspiring to extort protection fees from Moscow businesses and planting drugs and pistols on those who refused to pay.
Calls to MUR's press service went unanswered on Monday. In newspaper and television interviews in recent days, MUR chief Viktor Trutnev has said nothing about the pending suspensions, although in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets published Saturday, he referred to a major reorganization of his directorate when he took over in 2001.
Among his arrested subordinates Trutnev singled out Yevgeny Taratorkin - who played a major role in an investigation of terrorist acts allegedly planned by a group of Chechen rebels in Moscow last fall - as one officer he believes is innocent.
Teams of federal agents detained the six MUR officers and Ganeyev on June 23 and searched their apartments, offices and country houses, seizing more than $5 million in assets. A Moscow court subsequently sanctioned the arrests, but no charges have yet been filed.
The Prosecutor General's Office, which is leading the investigation, decided to delay charging Ganeyev until Wednesday.
Ganeyev's lawyers announced on Monday that he will not answer investigators' questions, citing his constitutional right to remain silent.
TITLE: Latest Budanov Verdict Rules Accused Colonel Was Sane
AUTHOR: By Sergei Venyavsky
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ROSTOV-NA-DONU, Southern Russia - A colonel on trial for the murder of a Chechen woman was sane at the time of the killing, according to the latest psychiatric report Monday by an expert panel in the highly publicized trial.
Colonel Yury Budanov's mental state at the time of the March 2000 killing has been a key element in the case, the first public trial of an officer for alleged abuses in Chechnya.
Budanov has admitted to killing 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva in March 2000 but said that he suspected her of being a rebel sniper and strangled her in a fit of rage. Kungayeva's family said that she was dragged from her home in a Chechen village, raped and murdered during a drunken rampage by soldiers.
The experts found that Budanov was sane at the time of the attack, but also noted that he was in a "highly agitated state," according to their report.
The new examination was requested by Prosecutor Vladimir Milovanov and Abdulla Khamzayev, the lawyer for the victim's family. Both said that a new analysis was needed because the previous examinations reached conflicting conclusions.
Budanov's lawyers want the court in this southern city to declare that their client was temporarily insane when he killed Kungayeva, a ruling that could lead to Budanov's freedom or a lighter sentence.
The expert group had included psychiatrists from Moscow's Serbsky Center for Forensic Psychiatry. Experts from the center took part in previous examinations that found Budanov insane and led rights activists to accuse doctors of bowing to political pressure.
On the basis of those earlier diagnoses, the Rostov court ruled that Budanov was not criminally responsible for the killing, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision and ordered a new trial.
The new expert panel included nine people, with a representative from Kungayeva's family and three members - one from the Defense Ministry - appointed by prosecutors. Defense lawyers appointed the other six experts.
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LONDON - A Chechen envoy accused by Russian authorities of terrorist violence has been "politically demonized" and would not receive a fair trial if extradited, a writer told a London court on Monday.
Moscow says that Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen separatist, was a senior rebel military commander who helped kill at least 300 federal security personnel during the 1990s. He faces 13 charges, including kidnapping and murder, if extradited from Britain.
But political analyst Thomas de Waal told the extradition hearing that Zakayev was the victim of Russian opposition to the peace process.
"As a moderate peace envoy this was a politically motivated charge to destroy an incipient peace process, and that worries me," de Waal told the hearing at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in central London.
He said that Zakayev had acted as a peace envoy and had been received in the Kremlin. But the Moscow theater siege in October 2002, in which 127 people died, had changed the political climate, he said.
"In my view, if Mr. Zakayev is returned, I would find it difficult to believe that he would receive a fair trial. This case has got great notoriety. The foreign minister has compared Mr. Zakayev to bin Laden. He has been politically demonized," he added.
The Chechen's supporters say that Zakayev - who denies all the charges - is a peace negotiator and a minister in the government of Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected president of Chechnya in 1997.
His case has been championed by Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave, who paid Zakayev's Pound50,000 ($83,000) bail after he was arrested by immigration officials at Heathrow airport in December.
De Waal, a journalist for The Moscow Times and The Times in London from 1993 to 1997, conceded that he was not an expert on the Russian legal system.
Lawyer James Lewis, representing the Russian government, said that Zakayev would be entitled to choose between a trial by a single judge, by a panel or trial by jury and would be allowed to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
The extradition proceedings are expected to take several months.
TITLE: Thieves Kill Chechens Collecting Benefits
AUTHOR: By Sergei Venyavsky
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ROSTOV-NA-DONU, Southern Russia - Armed thieves opened fire on a crowd of Chechen villagers as they were collecting benefit payments, killing four and wounding at least eight, Chechen officials said on Monday.
Four gunmen in masks attacked just as administrators in Starye Atagi, 20 kilometers south of Grozny, were distributing unemployment allowances on Sunday, regional administration head Shaid Zhamaldayev told Interfax.
The shooting began after residents resisted the attackers' attempts to take their money, Itar-Tass reported, citing the police.
About 50 people were in the crowd at the time of the shooting, a local Chechen official said on condition of anonymity.
The dead included a recently graduated student, a 50-year-old retiree, a police officer and an officer with the Federal Security Service, Interfax and Itar-Tass reported. The head of the village administration was among the injured.
The Chechen official said that police immediately flooded the village and an investigation was under way, but so far no suspects had been detained.
Although the Kremlin contends that Chechnya is stabilizing, daily fighting persists with deadly clashes and federal air and artillery assaults. Chechen-administration officials are often a favorite target for the rebels, who view them as cooperating with Moscow.
The Kremlin has refused to negotiate with rebel leaders, whom it labels terrorists, and instead tried to sideline them by calling for the republic to hold presidential and parliamentary elections and receive a high degree of autonomy.
The exact scale of autonomy remains to be decided, but Chechnya's Kremlin-appointed leader Akhmad Kadyrov has already pitched a plan to grant Chechnya wide powers.
Kadyrov said in an interview printed on Monday in the Vremya Novostei newspaper that his proposal would be submitted to a presidential working group on Monday.
The proposal, which Kadyrov already published in the Chechen media, calls for giving Chechnya control over its oil wealth and other natural resources, the ability to set up tax-free zones and the right to create a national bank.
"The given document grants the republic powers that are impossible in a federal state," Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote last week, warning that Moscow was in danger of becoming "hostage to its strategic stake in Kadyrov."
But Kadyrov defended his plan in the Monday interview, saying that it does not "in any way contradict the constitution of the Russian Federation."
"If we are an entity of the Russian Federation, we must be full-fledged," Kadyrov said. "I will seek that."
Kadyrov's demands are seen as an effort to distance himself from the Kremlin and prove his independent credentials at home. Kadyrov has announced his plans to seek the Chechen presidency and said a vote could be held in October.
In other violence in Chechnya, eight soldiers were killed and 23 wounded in rebel attacks and land-mine explosions in the last 24 hours, said an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Three of the soldiers were killed and 11 wounded when their armored personnel carrier exploded on a land mine in Tsa-Vedeno, the official said.
TITLE: Ceremony Remembers Early Prison Campaigner
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A ceremony on Friday at the German School in Moscow in honor of Friedrich-Josef Haass, who, until his death 150 years ago, worked to improve the lot of Russia's prisoners, featured a speech by the man who perhaps most carries on his work today: presidential adviser on pardons Anatoly Pristavkin.
And he said little has changed. Russia's prisoners still live in miserable conditions and those who try to help them face indifference or hostility.
Even the prisons are little better today than they were in the early 19th century, Pristavkin said.
"The buildings used date back to the time of Catherine the Great, only on the windows they have installed blinds, so-called muzzles, through which even less light and air enters the cell," he said.
"To this day the cells are dirty and the only toilet is a bucket, hygiene is lacking and the cells are so crowded that the prisoners have to sleep in shifts."
German Ambassador Hans-Friedrich Von Ploetz also spoke during the ceremony at the school, which was named in honor of Haass, a philanthropist and doctor whose work in Russia has led the Vatican to begin the process of making him a saint.
Haass was a practicing doctor when he moved to Moscow in 1805, and from 1828 until his death in 1853 he was a member of the city's prison committee.
Pristavkin, a writer who headed the liberal presidential pardons commission until it was abolished and replaced with commissions appointed by each administrative region at the end of 2001, said that the cries for help heard by his commission were very similar to those Haass heard.
"We were called an island of mercy in a sea of cruelty; the cruelty was not only against those incarcerated, but also against those who sought to protect them," he said.
"We had to recognize that our population, our society and the authorities, despite all the talk about the great Russian soul, are extremely cruel - perhaps even crueler than in the time of Dr. Haass."
Haass had argued that "the lucky should be reminded of the unlucky."
In his time, prisoners on their way to Siberia were led through the center of the city where sympathetic citizens had the opportunity to give them a piece of bread.
"Today, I assure you, prisoners are neither led through the city ... nor do Muscovites express their sympathy; instead of them giving them a piece of bread, it is quite conceivable that citizens would throw stones at them," Pristavkin said.
He said his commission found little sympathy for prisoners.
For instance, when the commission tried to stop the beatings in prison, it found no one in a high position willing to listen.
Haass also ran up against a bureaucracy that thwarted his efforts and suspected his motives.
For 19 years, he was under investigation, accused of wasting state funds in renovating the prison hospital.
If Haass were around today, his efforts to help prisoners would fall under no less suspicion, Pristavkin said.
"Today he would likely be accused of being corrupt or a spy."
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Seleznyov Long Run
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov announced on Monday that he intends to run for President in the 2008 Presidential Elections, Interfax reported.
Seleznyov made the announcement on Monday while meeting with students of the Surgutsky State University as part of a working tour of the Khanti-Mansyly Autonomous Region.
When asked if he planned to run in the 2004 Presidential Elections , Seleznyov answered: "Each of us knows that the Constitution allows for a president to have two four-year terms, and each of us understands who will be the president after the next elections. And then, after four years, I will announce my candidacy," Interfax quoted Seleznyov as saying.
Grave Expulsion
MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Belarus expelled an NTV television journalist on Saturday, accusing him of slandering the government in a news report on the funeral of Vasil Bykov, a writer and opponent of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Correspondent Pavel Selin said he was told he must leave Belarus within 24 hours after a Saturday afternoon meeting at the Interior Ministry.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrei Savinikh said that the ministry has proposed to the Council of Ministers that NTV's representation in Belarus be closed until it broadcasts an apology. He said that NTV's reports on Belarus "have a tendentious, provocative character, pursuing the goal of creating a negative representation of the socio-political situation."
Selin had already received two official warnings over his news reports.
"I am sorry that this is happening against the background of Bykov's death. I am sorry I have been involved in this dance on his grave," Selin said. "I feel sorry for this country."
Selin's report on Bykov's funeral, which brought tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Minsk on Wednesday, included an interview with opposition figure Stanislav Shushkevich, Belarus' first post-Soviet president.
"I think the main reason behind this [expulsion] is the interview with Shushkevich, who said Lukashenko was the only person in Belarus not to have read Bykov's books," Selin said.
Hepatitis in Dagestan
MOSCOW (AP) - Emergency officials have quarantined a city in Dagestan after an outbreak of hepatitis at a kindergarten infected dozens of children, Interfax reported Monday.
Forty-two children from a kindergarten in Buinaksk and one adult have been hospitalized since June 16 and confirmed to have Hepatitis A infections, local emergency official Oleg Grekov told Interfax. Doctors say none are seriously ill, he added.
Contaminated water has been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, and preventative measures are being taken along with the quarantine.
Tatu Panned in Japan
TOKYO (AP) - After canceling a concert, walking out of a live TV show and yawning through a news conference, the female pop duo Tatu left behind a less-than-thrilled Japan on Monday.
The 18-year-olds, on their first visit to Japan, were scheduled to shoot a promotion video, appear on a popular music program and perform live before about 1,000 fans during their brief visit.
But they canceled the concert at the last minute Saturday and walked off the set of the live music show after complaining that they had to share airtime with other Japanese performers.
They later appeared at a news conference to explain why they had walked out, but said they had nothing to apologize for, yawned and played with their cell phones, prompting angry headlines in the morning newspapers.
TITLE: Japan Sweetens Pipeline Deal
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: VLADIVOSTOK, Far East - Japan, keen to become a major Russian oil importer, has decided to provide Moscow with aid of up to 900 billion yen ($7.54 billion) to develop an oil field in Eastern Siberia, a Japanese economic daily reported Saturday.
The planned aid comes after Russia and China vowed last month to beef up cooperation in the oil and gas sector - including the construction of a huge Russia-China oil pipeline.
This has thrown into doubt Japan's hopes for a project to build a pipeline to the Pacific port of Nakhodka to ship oil to Japan, the world's second-largest oil importer, taking 88 percent of its energy resources from abroad, mostly from the volatile Middle East.
"The planned aid is aimed at tilting Russian thinking towards building an oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to Nakhodka in the Russian Far East, instead of to Daqing, China," the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi flew to Vladivostok in the Far East on Saturday for talks with Russia officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko.
Kawaguchi said that a Siberian pipeline that could bring oil to Japan would substantially deepen cooperation and relations between the two states.
"If the project materializes, it will become one of the solid pillars of mutual trust," Kawaguchi said Sunday.
In meetings with Russian officials, Kawaguchi reiterated Japan's readiness to finance development of east Siberian oil fields if Russia directs the pipeline toward the Sea of Japan, according to her spokesperson, Hatsuhisa Takashima.
She did not mention money, but Nikkei said that the financial aid would include unspecified low-interest loans.
In talks with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in St. Petersburg last month, President Vladimir Putin said only that the Nakhodka pipeline, worth some $4 billion to $5 billion, was worth considering.
Energy analysts have said that the pipeline to the Pacific could be built only after 2010, when more oil is found in eastern Siberia, which may contain as much energy wealth as western Siberia.
(AP, Reuters)
TITLE: Manchester Delegation Building Business Links
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A Manchester business delegation, in St. Petersburg from June 29 to July 4 as part of the official Manchester Week in St. Petersburg program, will place an emphasis on creative industries, according to the delegation's head Anil Ruia. Nevertheless, it's overall aim will be to build better business relations between the two cities - though twinned in 1962, members of the delegation admit that the business links between the two cities remain underdeveloped.
"The emphasis of this week is on creative industries, so we've got things like music events, organized by Martin Leaver, and sound equipment programs and fashion shows, and we've brought people with links to the education sector, which is very strong in Manchester, because we have four world class universities," said Ruia, who is also a director of Wrengate, a family textile-importing business, said at a press conference on Monday.
"Textiles have always been a strong link, because a lot of the machinery used in Russia is made in Manchester or in the Northwest," he said.
The Manchester business delegation will take part in a seminar on the reconstruction of old buildings in St. Petersburg on Tuesday. "We'll share the experience that we've had in Manchester," Kath Robinson, a Manchester councilor, said on Monday.
Robinson said that 15 years ago, some 25 percent of the buildings in Manchester city center and 75 percent of the buildings outside the city center needed reconstruction.
Other members of the delegation are organizing their own programs and seminars. Stadium Consumer Products, which specializes in the design and sale of furniture, automotive and childcare products, Bentley Jennison, working in corporate finance, and Bircol, a research and consulting firm, have said that they intend to create a joint venture for the manufacture of wooden furniture in St. Petersburg and to find distributors for their produce in the city. A wider-reaching aim of the joint venture is to establish business links for a variety of UK companies in consumer goods and other industries.
Creative Industries Development Service will be presenting a program of two seminars aimed at developing capacity in the creative-industry sector in St. Petersburg and an industry networking event to launch a TACIS project.
"There are lots of things we can share with each other, so it's to our mutual advantage," Ruia said.
He believes that, although the cities were twinned a long time ago, no genuine project has yet been accomplished, and there are none currently under way.
"To be perfectly frank, I think we've lost touch, a little bit, the emphasis now has to be on beginning the friendship and the contacts over again," Ruia said.
The Manchester business delegation comprises representatives of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Arts for Health, an organization of the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation, the Creative Industries Development Service, an economic development agency for creative industries in the Manchester area, Marketing Manchester, the School of Sound Recording and a number of universities, colleges and schools from Manchester.
The Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry represents over 3,200 companies and is the largest such chamber in the Northwest of England.
TITLE: U.S. Court Rules Russian Fraud Ring Guilty
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Four executives of a currency-trading firm that was run by a former adviser to Moscow region Governor Boris Gromov and had offices in the World Trade Center were found guilty last week of cheating investors out of more than $100 million in a scheme that surfaced soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A jury in Federal District Court in Brooklyn convicted the executives - Polina Sirotina, Mamed Mekhtiev, Albert Guglielmo and Philip Levenson - on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and money laundering. The men, who worked for Evergreen International Spot Trading, each face up to 30 years in prison when they are sentenced on Sept. 26.
In all, prosecutors said, more than 1,400 Evergreen clients in more than a dozen countries - many from Australia and New Zealand - were cheated of $110 million from 1998 to September 2001. Problems at Evergreen surfaced soon after Sept. 11, when customers began trying to cash out their accounts. At first, they were told that their money had vanished. In a subsequent letter, clients were led to believe that the money was secure in a Chase Manhattan Bank account.
Prosecutors contended that Andrei Kudashev, the owner of Evergreen and a related clearinghouse called First Equity Enterprises, and others had used the money themselves. An arrest warrant has been issued for Kudashev. He has denied the charges and is thought to be in Russia, which seldom extradites its citizens on fraud charges.
In September 2001, Kudashev, who had been an economic adviser to Gromov for the previous 18 months, was given the reins of Mosoblgaz, a gas utility with 8,000 employees responsible for heating the homes of millions of people.
Kudashev's appointment came just a few days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. It also came a few days after it was discovered that $100 million had disappeared from a U.S. foreign currency trading firm with offices in the World Trade Center that Kudashev operated from Russia, according to U.S. Justice Department officials.
The defendants' plan, according to court documents, was to raise $160 million more from investors around the world to cover the money that was reported missing a few days after the terrorist attacks, along with Kudashev.
Four other executives of Evergreen and First Equity have pleaded guilty to charges related to defrauding customers and are awaiting sentencing, a prosecutor said.
Evergreen customers in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and elsewhere were promised annual profits of 25 percent to 30 percent, prosecutors said. They were also guaranteed that any losses would not exceed 10 percent.
A lawyer for Guglielmo, Louis Aidala, said that he thought that the government's case was legally inadequate and that there was no evidence strong enough to convict his client of money laundering and other charges. "In our opinion," he said, "the government failed to prove the conspiracy the defendants thought they were charged with."
Calls to other defense lawyers were not returned.
Evergreen, which had three offices in Manhattan, was the sales operation, employing several dozen people who scoured business directories and then called wealthy people around the world to recommend currency trading as an investment.
First Equity acted as what one prosecutor called a "sham clearinghouse" for Evergreen.
(NYT, SPT)
TITLE: Megafon Wins Tender for Spy Phone
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government has asked GSM operator Megafon to operate a secure network especially for government agencies such as the security services, the Defense Ministry and the police.
Nikolai Klimashin, the acting general director of the Federal Agency for State Communication and Information, or FAPSI, said that all that remained before the creation of the coded system - meant to make communication between government departments confidential and quick - was the signature of Megafon General Director Sergei Soldatenkov.
The system works using special phone units that are able to code and decode information sent via the GSM network. The idea was proposed by FAPSI in March and is to be operational in the Southern, Central and Northwest federal districts by 2005 and in the rest of the country by 2007.
The phones themselves - developed by FAPSI's commercial branch Atlas - are now the size of a small suitcase, but the company plans to reduce them to the normal size of personal GSM phones in the near future.
Megafon, the No. 3 operator in the country and the only one with licenses to operate in every region, won the government contract by tender, trumping No. 2 operator Vimpelcom.
"The system will first be developed in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the south of the country, where Megafon's network has been operating for many years," a company spokesperson said.
Megafon and state satellite company Kosmicheskaya Svyaz installed the first part of the secure system last year in Chechnya. The second was created this spring in St. Petersburg, in time for the city's 300th anniversary.
FAPSI says that it gave Megafon the job both times because it is the only GSM operator in Chechnya and has the most extensive network in St. Petersburg, where it has been operating since 1995.
Although Megafon would not say how much the secure communication would cost the government in comparison to ordinary service, a representative of another GSM operator estimated the difference in price to be insignificant.
TITLE: BP Seals Historic TNK Tie-Up
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: LONDON - BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, agreed on Thursday to invest $6.15 billion in its joint venture with Tyumen Oil Co., $600 million less that initially planned, in part because of debt its partner took on to purchase additional assets.
The company will pool its Russian assets with those of TNK and pay $2.4 billion in cash and $3.75 billion in stock to buy half the venture, the London-based company said in a statement.
BP in February said that it would pay $6.75 billion for the stake.
The cash payment was reduced from the $3 billion announced earlier this year, in part because of financing for Tyumen's acquisition of a stake in Slavneft, BP said. Talks on including Slavneft in the venture continue.
If Slavneft's assets are included at a later date, however, BP said that it expected to pay more. Analysts said that the additional amount could reach $1.5 billion, but industry sources say that BP has balked at the price being asked by TNK's owners, investment groups Alfa Group and Access-Renova.
BP CEO Lord John Browne is increasing investment in Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter, as projects in the Middle East face delays. "This is one important element in the process of strategic renewal within BP," he said.
The agreement on the final terms of the transaction was announced during President Vladimir Putin's four-day state visit to Britain.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said last week that the BP venture would make Britain the biggest foreign investor in Russia.
BP's rival, Royal Dutch/Shell, and its partners Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan in May approved a $10-billion project to tap deposits off Sakhalin and build the country's first liquefied gas plant.
Shell has 55 percent of the venture, which plans to sell oil and LNG to Taiwan and the U.S. West Coast.
Shell and BP will each get more than 10 percent of their production in Russia by 2007, according to Deutsche Bank.
"BP's venture has still to be proven successful," said Ruben Mikkers, who helps oversee the equivalent of $12.9 billion at Robeco Groep NV in Rotterdam, including BP and Shell shares. "The bet BP is taking is a bit bigger than Shell."
BP said that "Western principles" of corporate governance will apply to the Tyumen venture.
The BP venture includes fields in Western Siberia that were first developed in the Soviet era.
Among these is the Samotlor field that produced 3 million barrels of oil per day in the 1970s and spurred an oil boom that made Russia the world's top producer.
The field was damaged when Soviet engineers attempted to maintain production by injecting water into the reservoir, Deutsche Bank said. It now pumps 19 barrels of water for every one of oil.
(Bloomberg, Reuters, SPT)
TITLE: Deripaska Buys Up Farms In His Childhood Region
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: MOSCOW - Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska is returning to his roots, buying up a number of collective farms in the region where he spent his childhood.
Deripaska has created an agricultural holding in the Ust-Labinsky area of the fertile Krasnodar region, where he grew up while living with his mother's parents.
The head of the regional collective-farm committee, Ivan Matviyenko, said that Deripaska's new venture, Yugagrobiznes, started buying up collective farms in the area late last year and already owns 49 percent of the local grain elevator and six of 15 farms.
Matviyenko said that Yugagrobiznes has already invested substantially in the area and has acquired 40 Don harvesters for 1.5 million rubles ($48,000) each.
Deripaska's Base Element, a holding company that controls half of Russian Aluminum and sizeable stakes in several other companies, confirmed that Yugagrobiznes is part of the holding.
Yugagrobiznes public-relations director Viktor Ivashenko would not say how much money the company is planning to invest in the agrarian sector of the region, citing the fact that Deripaska himself was personally overseeing the project.
TITLE: Russia Making a Risky Gambit For Leadership in Gas Business
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia and the United States are locking horns in Central Asia in a politically charged battle for global gas supremacy that will largely determine the fate of Gazprom, the government's single largest source of budget revenue.
Moscow, via its "commercial foreign ministry," has been moving to regain control of the vast gas reserves of Central Asia in order to buy Gazprom time to replenish its own reserves at home and maintain its role as a dominant player abroad - particularly in Western Europe, where Russian gas accounts for a quarter of the market.
Not only does Gazprom, already heavily in debt, need time, but it also needs money - tens of billion of dollars - to undertake several risky projects to develop new fields in the frozen Far North. In the meantime, the state-controlled monolith has been working overtime in the south to secure the new supply sources needed to meet commitments and maintain market share.
The trouble, however, is that the new offensive in the former Soviet republics, particularly Turkmenistan, which has the world's third-largest gas reserves, comes at a time when Washington is accelerating efforts to create its own gas corridor into Europe from the region, heightening geopolitical tensions between the former Cold War foes.
A recent foray into the region by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller has the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush riled. Last month, for example, on a visit to Tbilisi, Miller asked the Georgian government to approve a scheme that would divert gas away from a future U.S.-backed pipeline that will run from a massive neighboring field in Azerbaijan, Shah Deniz, across Georgia into Turkey. Miller wants that gas diverted into Blue Stream, Gazprom's new flagship $3-billion pipeline running under the Black Sea to Turkey.
Steven Mann, the U.S. ambassador to the Caspian region, called Miller's plan "a transparently foolish suggestion" that would be "destructive" for the Shah Deniz project.
In addition, Mann said in a recent interview that Miller's proposal would violate existing agreements Georgia has signed regarding the transport of Shah Deniz gas.
Miller's plan also counters U.S. efforts to undermine Gazprom's monopoly in Georgia and beyond by diversifying supplies and transit options. As the sole supplier of gas to Georgia, Gazprom can bring enormous pressure to bear on President Eduard Shevardnadze's government; with its chronic inability to pay its gas bills, Miller could freeze the entire republic simply by cutting supplies.
"Gazprom uses its monopoly power in a way that poses a challenge to the economies of the Caspian states," Mann said.
The United States is also riled by another Gazprom move in the region. In a deal Mann calls a clear illustration of the dangers the company poses due to its monopoly status, Gazprom managed in April to convince Turkmen strongman Saparmurat Niyazov to sell it massive volumes of gas at fire-sale prices.
Under the 25-year deal, Gazprom will pay $44 per 1,000 cubic meters, but half of that amount will be paid in goods that have a real value not of $22 but of $7, Mann said. The total price will be far below the $53 per 1,000 cubic meters a U.S.-backed consortium offered the Turkmen leader three years ago for an alternative pipeline project.
The deal with Gazprom was cut at the same meeting in which President Vladimir Putin and Niyazov agreed to do away with a 10-year-old dual citizenship agreement, which the unpredictable Turkmenbashi saw as a gateway to refuge for opposition figures.
"This is the cautionary tale for gas exporters in Eurasia," Mann said. "If you don't have alternatives, you are going to be in the hands of the monopoly power."
Analysts, however, say that the Turkmen deal, although a poke in Washington's eye, is vital for Gazprom, allowing it to keep its head above water and meet its contracts in Europe, which account for the lion's share of its revenues.
With production declining at its rapidly aging existing fields, cheap Turkmen gas buys Gazprom time to move into tough, capital-intensive projects to develop new Arctic Circle fields on the Yamal Peninsula and in the Barents Sea. Gazprom must develop these fields just to keep production at current levels, but the costs are enormous - up to $65 billion to develop Yamal alone. Without Central Asian gas, Gazprom will face a shortfall in meeting its obligations of between 50 billion and 70 billion cubic meters by 2007 or 2008, or more than 10 percent of its current output, according to Brunswick UBS estimates.
Indeed, analysts say, Gazprom, which has never failed to deliver on a contract, is now facing its biggest challenge since the 1970s. "Things are changing very rapidly and dramatically for Gazprom," said Paul Collison, a senior energy analyst at Brunswick UBS. "Over the last 20 or 30 years, management has not had to pursue new projects. Once fields were discovered and infrastructure was put in place, all the management had to do was turn on the taps," he said. "Now those fields are 60 to 70 percent depleted and management needs to go and build new fields like Yamal. This is going to cost tens of billions of dollars."
The task would be challenging even for the best run or most efficient company in the world, but it is even more difficult for Gazprom because it is an overly bureaucratic, inefficient, state-run company with a low level of financial control, Collison said.
"With Central Asian gas, we estimate Gazprom could put off development for about three years ... But, ultimately, this is only a Band-Aid solution. It does not address the more fundamental problem that major fields are in deep decline."
A MATTER OF EXPERIENCE
Potentially making matters worse is the fact that the managers Putin installed at the company last year to replace the team of former CEO Rem Vyakhirev, an old and wily gas-industry hand accused of siphoning off billions of dollars in assets, have no experience in the industry.
As a result, analysts say, the risk is high that poor financial controls at the company could lead to massive investment contracts not being completed on time and money disappearing.
Gazprom's only major construction projects of the last decade are already facing massive difficulties. The Yamal pipeline to Poland, on which Gazprom has already spent $18 billion, is only partially completed because Poland now wants to diversify its supplies. Meanwhile, the much-anticipated Blue Stream underwater pipeline, which came on line earlier this year, already looks dead in the water. Costs were higher than planned, and shortly after it was completed the Turkish government, facing an economic crisis at home, decided it didn't need the extra gas. The pipeline is now empty and, according to Gazprom deputy CEO Yury Komarov, the Turkish government has until the end of June before it will be in violation of a "take or pay" clause in its contract. The Turks, for their part, have launched a corruption probe into how the deal was clinched.
"Blue Stream is a bad harbinger of projects to come," Collison said. "The projects that Gazprom are due to develop are going to be much bigger than Blue Stream. This is tiny in comparison."
The U.S.-backed Shah Deniz pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey and eventually Europe, if it goes through, could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Blue Stream. Indeed, according to U.S. Caspian envoy Mann, the consortium running the project, which is headed by BP and Statoil, has already sealed a pricing deal with Ankara that will undercut Blue Stream by $15 to $20 per 1,000 cubic meters.
"Russia is trying to make sure that Blue Stream does not turn into a white elephant," said Julia Nanay, energy analyst at Petroleum Finance Corporation in Washington. "But Gazprom is now seeing the United States target its own markets ... I don't know if this can be a win-win situation."
BETTING ON THE BALTIC
But even as Blue Stream and Yamal run into difficulties, Gazprom, undeterred, is seeking to spread its already sprawling tentacles even further across the globe with a series of ambitious and hugely expensive pipelines.
No. 1 on the list is the Northern Europe project, a 3,000-kilometer pipeline running under the Baltic Sea to Germany and then across Europe and under the North Sea to Britain, with spurs to Scandinavia. Miller has toured Europe several times in search of financing for the $5.7-billion project, designed to handle 30 bcm per year.
Getting the Northern Europe link off the ground could also depend on Gazprom's ability to secure long-term contracts, no easy feat at a time when the European Union is looking to diversify supplies and lower prices by liberalizing its gas market.
But Brussels may just have to bow to Gazprom's will because European demand is projected to continue growing and other major suppliers are facing problems of their own. Norway, which supplies 60 bcm per year to Europe, second only to Gazprom's 130 bcm, is not doing as well as it hoped with some of its fields in the North Sea. And Algeria, the No. 3 supplier at 40 bcm, is behind schedule bringing new fields on line.
Gazprom estimates that demand in Europe will grow by 100 bcm within a decade, which is pretty much in line with the International Energy Agency, which predicts 2 percent to 2.9 percent growth every year through 2030.
With that kind of growth in its target market, "Gazprom has a great future in Europe" if it can develop its Arctic fields in time, said Valery Nesterov, energy analyst at Troika Dialog.
INDIA, CHINA AND BEYOND
Even further afield, Gazprom is now moving aggressively into Iran and targeting direct deliveries to India, China and even South Korea.
Just last week the company announced that its main export arm, Gazexport, would take over trading operations for its stake in an Iranian gas-condensate field from France's Total. Together with Total and Malaysia's Petronas, Gazprom signed an agreement in 1997 to develop the second and third stages of Iran's massive South Pars offshore Persian Gulf field, which is one of the biggest in the world with reserves above 12 trillion cubic meters. Stroitransgaz, Gazprom's construction arm, has also begun work on a pipeline that starts in Iran and, if all goes well, will finish in energy-starved India.
That's another project that could go against U.S. interests. Washington is backing a project that it hopes will, one day, ship Turkmen gas across newly conquered Afghanistan and, depending on the state of relations, through Pakistan to India.
"India is the prize," Mann said.
Mann said that the Asian Development Bank is currently conducting a feasibility study on the pipeline, but he acknowledged that Gazprom's Iran-India link could scuttle U.S. plans. "It's a competitive environment out there."
Gazprom's project to market Iranian gas condensate will also give it valuable experience in a potentially vital new area: liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which allows natural gas to be shipped. At the World Gas Conference in Tokyo earlier this month, Miller said that he wanted LNG sales to become "one of the major directions" for Gazprom's development.
In particular, Miller said, the company wants to sell directly to the United States, which is music to Washington's ears. Even though the United States is the world's No. 2 gas producer, its reserves are rapidly running out and it is already experiencing a massive supply crunch. On Friday, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow said that he hoped Russia could become a major new supplier. He is due to arrive in Moscow next month to discuss plans to build a massive new LNG terminal, possibly at Murmansk, that could ship gas directly to the United States.
Gazprom is now holding negotiations on the possibility of taking part in the giant Sakhalin 2 LNG project led by Royal Dutch/Shell. But it could take years and a lot of cash for Gazprom to catch up with the likes of Shell on the LNG market.
Gazprom is already working with a Shell-and ExxonMobil-led consortium to build an internal pipeline for China. The $18-billion, 4,200-kilometer line might not carry Russian gas, but, for Gazprom, it's a chance to get its foot in the door and tap a potentially massive market.
And just last month, Gazprom and South Korea's state-owned gas company, Kogas, agreed to jointly finance a feasibility study for a new pipeline from eastern Siberian fields directly into South Korea.
"There are major Asian opportunities for Gazprom," said Adam Landes, energy analyst at Renaissance Capital.
PIE IN THE SKY?
But the big question is whether Gazprom will be able to bring all or even any of these grand plans to fruition.
With little progress on liberalizing the domestic industry, the company continues to be plagued by inefficiencies that could prove fatal if global prices fall.
Some analysts, however, say that the lack of reform at home is encouraging management's appetite for global expansion - a situation that raises the risk of collapse from overstretching.
"Why is management suddenly planning ahead for all these pipelines? The reason is that they feel very comfortable in their role since the government has not in any shape or form introduced market reform," Landes said.
On the contrary, at a reception celebrating the gas giant's 10th anniversary this year, Putin called the company "a powerful political and economic influence over the rest of the world" and said that it was too valuable to allow market reforms to break it up.
"Gazprom is still seen as an important policy tool," Landes said. "But Gazprom will remain in basket-case territory if there is no change."
The Kremlin, however, seems to see things differently. It is reluctant to push ahead with radical reforms because it does not want to spook Gazprom's long-term European customers, analysts say. Another major factor is the risk of getting it wrong in a quick push for change. That could disrupt gas supplies and prove fatal for citizens in the cold winter months. It would also be the kiss of death for a president heading into election year.
IN COMES BIG OIL
With reforms on hold due to political concerns, Gazprom's financial situation could deteriorate very rapidly if global gas prices, which are linked to oil, head south.
"In the absence of high international gas prices, many of these projects are a joke," Landes said.
With gas prices capped at home and the government allowing only moderate increases every year, Gazprom has operated at a loss domestically for years, although it is now close to breaking even. Further price hikes at home could help Gazprom survive a financial squeeze from lower world prices, but there would be a knock-on effect on the rest of the economy.
Brunswick UBS estimates that the price for Brent will be down to $19 per barrel by 2005, with the gas price falling accordingly. In that situation, Brunswick's Collison says that Gazprom's debt-to-equity ratios look safe enough even if it does take on more loans to finance new projects.
But Gazprom's bid to boost its global standing could mean it risks shooting itself in the foot.
"This is where the risks are - if these projects are not completed on time or if money is lost," Collison said.
In the meantime, with these make-or-break risks hanging over its head, Russia's hungry oil majors are already trying to move in.
"There are very powerful economic forces that are looking to change the situation at Gazprom," said Landes at Renaissance Capital. Oil majors Yukos, LUKoil, Surgut, TNK and Sibneft are already spending millions on gas-refining projects and fields, in the hope that Gazprom will not be able to meet demand in Europe.
"The oligarchs in the oil industry are generating billions of dollars in excess cash while Gazprom is still trying to pull itself out of massive mismanagement," Collison said. "To me, it's only a question of how much and when the oil industry grabs hold of Gazprom. There is no question that they will eventually gain access to the gas industry."
If and when that happens, the global gas market will never look the same.
TITLE: Banking Sector Reform: Work Still in Progress
AUTHOR: By Andrei Kozlov
TEXT: Russia's banking sector and its development are frequent topics of vigorous debate, and the range of views and opinions expressed tend to be very broad.
It is safe to say that implementation of the strategy for banking-sector development, approved by the government and the Central Bank at the end of 2001, is progressing apace. The main provisions of the strategy - increasing banks' stability and making them more effective financial intermediaries, preventing banks being used for dubious commercial purposes, and strengthening creditors' and depositors' confidence in the banking system - were supported both by the business community in Russia and by business circles abroad.
Some of the planned measures have already been implemented, while others are in the process of implemention. Some important legislative initiatives have been passed - in particular, the new law on the Central Bank that contains a number of innovations as regards improving banking regulation and supervision. Unstable banks and credit organizations are now removed from the market of banking services in a much more timely and effective manner. Those banks under the management of the Agency for Restructuring Credit Organizations, or ARCO, have almost completed restructuring. And work is under way on the key issues of improving creditor and investor protection, securitizing assets, creating a system of deposit insurance, setting up a payments system that operates in real-time, and making the transition to international accounting standards.
The plain facts support the thesis that Russia's banking sector is developing dynamically. The real growth rates of key banking indicators - assets, capital, credits and deposits in real terms - significantly outstrip GDP growth. At the beginning of the year, the assets of the banking system as a share of GDP were 38.2 percent (compared with 34.9 percent in 2002 and 33.3 percent in 2000); credits to the real sector of the economy were 14.6 percent of GDP (compared with 13 percent and 9.3 percent); and funds attracted from enterprises, organizations and households totaled 19.5 percent of GDP (compared with 17.5 percent and 16 percent).
It cannot be disputed that the position and role of banks in the country's economy are growing. Banks have started to focus more on lending to the real economy. Moreover, the quality of banking activities and services has improved, as reflected in the appreciable growth of credit and investor confidence in the sector.
As far as the stability of the banking system is concerned, recently a major study of Russia's financial system was completed under the Financial Stability and Assessment Program. For more than a year, the IMF and World Bank studied in great detail our banking sector and system of bank regulation, the strong and weak points as well as the potential threats. The study concluded that it would be difficult to destabilize the banking sector and that it is sufficiently robust to survive even in crisis conditions comparable to those of 1998.
Nonetheless, there is no room for complacency. Banking sector reforms are not moving as fast as we would like. The passage of important legislation is being delayed - for example, on household deposit insurance and the bankruptcy law.
The role of the banking sector - although on the rise - remains exceedingly modest. Banking services are unevenly spread across Russia's regions, mirroring irregularities of regional economic development. Some regions and certain sectors of the economy (primarily the small-business sector) lack access to good quality banking services. Banks' lending to enterprises in the real sector is, to a large extent, held back by the low level of transparency of many potential borrowers - which, in turn, increases banks' credit risks. In addition, banks continue to experience a deficit of medium- and long-term resources.
These factors have prompted various comments along the lines that the banking sector is a "bottleneck," restricting reform of the economy as a whole. I would like to put forward a somewhat different position.
Creating a competitive banking sector in the medium term is clearly in line with the strategic interests of the economy. Furthermore, banking reform is an important element in the overall reform of the economy. However, the banking sector's potential can only be realized properly if there are positive changes in legislation, the economy, taxation and legal proceedings.
There is no point relying on the banking sector to "pull" the whole economy along with it. What we should really be talking about is improving the environment for banks to do business and strengthening banking supervision.
Further development of the banking sector requires new initiatives from the government and the Central Bank. In this connection, the decision has been made to introduce neccessary amendments and additions to the strategy document.
The main short-term goal is to ensure that the banking sector becomes more effective in its core role as financial intermediary. This requires reducing the risks associated with banking activities, reducing the cost of banking products and services - primarily loans - to the real economy and households; enabling banks to attract longer, cheaper money; increasing the quality of banks' own charter capital; and cutting banks' costs.
Simplification of procedures for the merger of banks has already been sorted out, and a draft law has already received approval from the relevant bodies. Work on this was conducted by the Central Bank in close cooperation with representatives of the banking community - and such cooperation will be repeated in other areas of importance.
In order to further develop bank lending to the real economy, it is necessary to create a legal basis for clearing debts which are secured by collateral via a selloff of the assets provided as collateral. During the bankruptcy of a debtor, these assets should be kept separate. The absence of such a provision per se considerably limits the potential for developing lending.
One area of particular priority in economic policy is the mortgage market. It could become an major part of the banking business. However, for this to happen the neccessary legal framework must be in place. This urgently requires the passage of a federal law on mortagage securities, moreover in a version that would allow banks, under certain conditions, to issue such securities. A stimulus to the developing mortgage lending could be provided by allowing credit organizations to manage the property of investment or pension funds.
More generally, development of the credit market and expanding banks' resource bases should create the necessary conditions for securitizing assets - a standard way of increasing the liquidity of financial intermediaries in developed financial markets. The main thing here is to allow banks to issue securities backed by risky assets on their balance sheets. This would mean that banks could reduce their risks.
Turning to banking supervision, improving supervision requires that the Central Bank be given legal powers to take supervisory decisions based on an assessment of the extent of a bank's risks, and the quality of the bank's internal risk management procedures.
Particular attention will be paid to the quality of a bank's own charter capital. This must be based on a multifaceted assessment of the financial health of a bank's founding shareholders and of those that acquire significant stakes in the bank, as well as efforts to prevent the use of "fictitious capitalization" schemes. A lot of work is being done to improve an early warning system to prevent violations.
A huge amount of work needs to be done in order to go over to international accounting standards, both in terms of methodology and the practical organization of the transition process.
The Central Bank will continue to participate in a dialogue on all issues relating to the development of the banking sector. We hope that discussion will be maintained at a serious professional level.
Andrei Kozlov is first deputy chairperson of the Central Bank. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Federalism Is Not the Best Future for Russia
TEXT: The perception of bureaucracies as inherently conservative and inert is common, but mistaken. Bureaucracies welcome change because they tend to grow as a result, to sprout new divisions and subdivisions. At the same time, they destroy the objects of their reformist experiments. Now, when almost nothing remains to reform in Russia, the state machine has decided to put its own house in order. Administrative reform is the latest buzz word in the Kremlin and the White House.
This idea is nothing new. Russia's administrative districts are too small to be practical, and they do not match economic reality. The territorial-administrative division of the country today is not all that different from what it was in imperial Russia. The tsarist gubernia and the Soviet oblast, or district, were drawn with an eye to facilitating centralized rule. Every major city received the status of district capital and served as the control center for nearby towns and rural areas. The exception was Siberia, whose vast expanses and scattered population made it impossible to carve out small administrative units. In the Soviet era, new administrative units, defined along ethnic lines, also appeared.
In a federal state, this political geography performs about as well as a steam engine in a Formula 1 car. When Soviet districts became "federal subjects" - the official term for Russia's 89 regions - they proved economically too weak to stand on their own. In nearly every region, a conflict arose between the mayor of the largest city and the governor. Local elites, forced to feed at a very small trough, turned into the equivalent of feudal clans, jealously guarding their domains.
The Kremlin's desire to amalgamate the regions is entirely reasonable. But the devil is in the details. In the 1990s, many regions claimed broad sovereignty in their relations with Moscow and passed all sorts of local laws. We are told that the majority of such laws no longer contradict the federal constitution. But it seems highly likely that the laws of regions slated for consolidation will contradict one another. On what basis will the regions be merged? Will ethnicity and cultural identity still be taken into consideration?
The Kremlin's desire to break the power of local clans is understandable and would, by and large, serve the country's interests. Lacking the firm resolution to draw up a consolidation plan and see it through, however, the Kremlin is proceeding in a hit-or-miss fashion and risks rousing the ire of regional elites. Russia's current governors are not all that different from Soviet regional party secretaries. When Nikita Khrushchev, in 1964, decided to implement "personnel rotation," he was one of the first to be "rotated" into retirement.
Russia has no tradition of federalism. America's states and Germany's lander were created by the forces of history, not administrative decree. From enormous California to pint-sized Rhode Island, each state has its own political and cultural traditions. Political centralization in the Soviet Union made such organic development impossible. However much our current leaders might carry on about the "rebirth of the regions," Russia will remain strictly divided between the two capitals and the provinces. Putin's policies have consistently aimed to expand the rights of the federal government, while eliminating regional pseudo-sovereignty. The Kremlin's priority has been the restoration of control, not the development of federalism.
Only Russia's autonomous ethnic regions boast a semblance of political culture, though that culture is overwhelmingly authoritarian. Moreover, these regions are now on the chopping block. The Kremlin has proposed a compromise: ethnic and cultural rather than territorial autonomy. When you get right down to it, why should the cultural autonomy of the Tatars, for example, be limited to the territory of Tatarstan, taking in none of Bashkortostan or the Saratov region? Then again, it's not hard to imagine how many ethnically charged conflicts would erupt if Tatarstan were merged with Bashkortostan.
The Kremlin faces another problem as well. The new consolidated regions would, by design, be economically independent. Their leaders would, therefore, enjoy a large measure of political independence from Moscow. If these leaders were to win popular support on their home turf, they would quickly emerge as rivals to the president.
The basic difficulty with administrative reform in Russia is that a centralized state is attempting to become a federation. Until recently, the ruling elite has done a pretty good job of simulating federalism, while living by a feudal code. In recent years, it has become obvious that this code is poorly suited to life in a modern society, yet we have had no luck in creating a real, workable federal system. And the main obstacle is the Kremlin itself, which, for all the lip service it pays to federalism, has no interest whatsoever in putting this principle into practice.
Boris Kagarlitsky is director of the Institute of Globalization Studies.
TITLE: Israel Pulls Out Troops, Cease Fire Shaky
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli and Palestinian commanders shook hands on Monday, bulldozers dismantled checkpoints and Palestinian traffic flowed freely in the Gaza Strip - the most significant sign of disengagement after 33 months of bloody fighting. But one man was killed in a Palestinian shooting.
In line with a U.S.-backed peace plan, Israel pulled troops out of northern Gaza late Sunday, and agreed to withdraw from the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Wednesday.
In another reflection of the bid to end 33 months of fighting, Prime ministers Ariel Sharon of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority were to meet in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Palestinian sources said.
Several Palestinian militant groups announced a suspension of attacks against Israelis on Sunday. But the first full day of truce was marred by the killing of a Romanian truck driver on an Israeli construction crew. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia affiliated with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility. Fatah had earlier said that Al Aqsa would halt attacks.
Even before that, both sides were skeptical that the cease-fire will hold, having been disappointed so many times before - and a dispute loomed over Israel's demand that the Palestinian Authority dismantle the militant groups altogether.
But there was also a first glimmer of optimism as Israeli troops pulled out of Beit Hanoun, which had seen most of its farmland razed by Israeli bulldozers.
"You were late," Mohammed Shabat, 65, pointing to the destruction, told Palestinian police officers who took over the Israeli positions. "But, God willing, we will bring this town back to the old days."
"This is a very important and serious step by the Israeli side toward the implementation of the road map," said Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said that Israel should withdraw from all West Bank towns within six weeks. "Things are promising and we must seize this moment," he said.
The two largest Israeli dailies, Yediot Ahronot and Maariv, framed their front-pages in blue, normally reserved for editions on Jewish holidays. "Cease-fire," read a banner headline in the Maariv daily, above a photo of two soldiers hugging in Gaza. Yediot had soldiers posing on a tank with an Israeli flag.
The withdrawal scenes were reminiscent of the mid-1990s, when Israeli troops pulled out of Palestinian population centers as part of interim peace deals. Since fighting erupted in September 2000, Israel has reoccupied most of those areas; 2,414 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 806 on the Israeli side.
Two new ingredients raised hope for the current cease-fire effort: both sides, exhausted by the carnage, are grateful for the break in fighting, and the United States is intensively engaged in supervising implementation of the so-called "road map" to Mideast peace and Palestinian statehood by 2005.
On Sunday, the three major Palestinian factions - Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah - announced a suspension of attacks. The two Islamic militant groups agreed to lay down arms for three months, while Fatah announced a six-month truce.
Israel reacted coldly to the Palestinian truce announcements, which were accompanied by a number of demands, including a prisoner release and a halt to all Israeli military strikes. They were not presented as preconditions.
Israel has refused to make blanket promises, but pledged to halt targeted attacks of wanted Palestinians in areas now controlled by Palestinian police.
"The cease-fire agreement [with the militants] was not reached with Israel," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Monday. "Since we are not party to it, its conditions are none of our business." Shalom said Israel had U.S. backing that "the Palestinian Authority dismantle the terror organizations."
A senior security source said that this meant confiscating the militants' weapons, destroying bomb factories and arresting anyone trying to carry out attacks - but in an important nuance added that arrests of leaders or militants who carried out attacks in the past would not be required.
TITLE: U.S. Forces Step Up the Hunt for Hussein
AUTHOR: By Borzou Daragahi
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CAMP BOOM, Iraq - A massive sweep that has already netted at least 60 suspects in 20 lightning raids across central Iraq entered its second day on Monday, as U.S. forces tried to capture Saddam Hussein loyalists and curb a wave of attacks on American soldiers.
The raids by the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse troops which began early Sunday came as the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq said U.S. forces must kill or capture Hussein so he can no longer be a rallying point for anti-coalition attacks.
As part of the operation, dubbed "Sidewinder," the 4th Infantry Division detained a colonel from Hussein's Baath Party, along with five other individuals, a military statement said Monday, without providing details. The statement said that at least 319 Iraqis have been detained in several operations, including Sidewinder, across Iraq since Sunday.
On Monday, planners of the Fourth Infantry Division - the most high-tech unit in the army - used an array of electronic tools to plan further raids on militant supporters of the deposed regime.
Sidewinder is taking place across an area of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days, according to military officials in Camp Boom, near Baqouba, 55 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.
The region has become "the nexus of paramilitary activity in central Iraq," the military said in a statement.
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Young, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division's 367th Armored Battalion, said on Monday that the operation is allowing the army to focus on recent intelligence.
"It causes all units to focus on a consolidated effort all at once," he said. "The effect is like a hammer being slammed against the bad guys."
U.S. forces in central Iraq have been plagued by sneak attacks on their positions and patrols. On Sunday night, less than 24 hours after Sidewinder's start, two M-1 tanks patrolling a section of Baqouba rife with hostile fire, were attacked by rocket-propelled grenades.
The near-impenetrable tanks were undamaged and the crews unhurt, but the patrol failed to find the attackers.
There were no reports of U.S. casualties during Sidewinder, the military said, nor was there any indication that the operation had netted any of Iraq's most wanted fugitives.
The military said that the raids targeted loyalists from Hussein's former Baath Party, as well as "terrorists suspected of perpetrating attacks against U.S. forces and former Iraqi military leaders."
On Monday, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International said that it has gathered evidence that points to U.S. violations of international law by subjecting Iraqi prisoners to "cruel, inhuman or degrading" conditions at its detention centers here.
The group said in a report that hundreds of Iraqis held at U.S.-run tent camps and former Iraqi government prisons have been denied the right to see families or lawyers or have a judge review their detention.
A U.S. military spokesperson in Baghdad said military officials could not comment on the Amnesty report because they had not yet received it.
TITLE: Women's Seeds Storm Into Quarterfinals
AUTHOR: By Steven Wine
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WIMBLEDON, England - Venus Williams avenged her French Open defeat and advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the sixth consecutive year by beating Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3 Monday.
Williams was upset by Zvonareva four weeks ago in the fourth round at Paris, her earliest exit at a Grand Slam event in two years.
But that was on clay, with Williams slowed by an abdominal strain. On her favorite surface - Wimbledon's grass - the two-time champion was a much more confident, aggressive opponent.
"The circumstances were different," said Williams, who raced to a 5-0 lead and won in 0:59. "Last time she was the better player. This time it was nice I was able to win."
Advancing in rapid succession along with the No. 4-seeded Williams were defending champion Serena Williams, No. 2-seeded Kim Clijsters, No. 5 Lindsay Davenport and No. 8 Jennifer Capriati. The five winners swept every set and lost a total of 23 games, fodder for the argument that women's tennis lacks depth.
Following a rain delay, No. 3 Justine Henin-Hardenne beat unseeded Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-3.
"The top players are playing well right now," Davenport said.
There will be two all-American quarterfinals Tuesday - Capriati vs. Serena Williams and Davenport vs. Venus Williams.
Serena Williams, seeded No. 1, won 16 of the first 18 points and beat No. 15 Yelena Dementieva 6-2, 6-2 in 0:50
Clijsters worked even faster, eliminating No. 13 Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-2 in 0:49. The French Open runner-up has lost 12 games in four matches.
"In all of my matches I've started really well," Clijsters said. "That's a great feeling to have. It really helps your confidence."
Davenport, the 1999 champion, beat unseeded Shinobu Asagoe 6-4, 6-1. Capriati eliminated No. 10 Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-3.
Now Capriati will try to break her streak of nine consecutive losses against the Williams sisters, including seven in a row against Serena.
"The last few times I haven't been able to pull it out," Capriati said. "But I'm going to concentrate on playing the ball and my own game, and not see Serena across the net."
Davenport has lost five times in a row to Venus Williams, who is 24-1 at Wimbledon since 2000.
"Venus has had an extraordinary record here the last three years or so," Davenport said. "She does a lot of things very, very well. On grass it's very hard to combat that sometimes."
All 16 fourth-round matches for the men and women were scheduled to be played Monday. With the start of play on the outer courts delayed because of rain, the Williams sisters, Clijsters, Davenport and Capriati found themselves in action at the same time.
"Seems like we all walked in the locker room at the same time," Davenport said.
Rain again interrupted play at mid-afternoon with four men's fourth-round matches under way.
Serena Williams broke a string on her first shot, but little else went wrong for her. She briefly struggled late in the first set, losing six consecutive points, before closing the set with three big serves in a row. Williams finished with six aces, topping out at 190 kilometers per hour on her serve, and committed only 10 unforced errors.
"I never really exceed my expectations," she said. "I was just playing pretty good."
Fifteen minutes after she finished, Williams was joined in the quarterfinals by her older sister. Venus overcame Court 2's reputation as "the Graveyard of Champions," hitting 25 winners to five for Zvonareva and winning 13 of 16 points at the net.
"I like Court 2," Williams said with a smile. "I'm OK with that."
Williams won 10 of the first 11 points in the second set. She was slowed only by an erratic forehand, committing seven unforced errors with that shot in a single game.
Still, Williams showed impressive patience to go with her characteristic power. On one point, she hit a deep forehand that sent Zvonareva sprawling to the turf, then finished off the point with a drop shot. Three points later she won an 18-stroke rally, and Zvonareva squealed in frustration.
"To be honest, I would have liked to have played better," Williams said. "I was a little bit off on my game, but it's impossible to play perfect every match."
TITLE: Player's Death Overshadows Final of Confederations Cup
AUTHOR: By Ronald Blum
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAINT-DENIS, France - The Confederations Cup final will be remembered for tears, not goals.
The death of Marc-Vivien Foe three days earlier created a somber finish for the much-criticized tournament, which ended Sunday when Thierry Henry scored seven minutes into overtime to give defending champion France a 1-0 victory over grieving Cameroon.
"For once, it was a match that I would not have minded losing," Henry said. "That's the first time I have felt like that about a game."
There was a subdued mood at Stade de France for the finale of the eight-country, 12-day tournament, three days after Foe collapsed and died during his team's semifinal win over Colombia in Lyon. Results of the autopsy have not yet been released.
With the widow of the 28-year-old midfielder watching from the official box, players from France and its former colony joined arms before and after the game, bonding to carry the burden of having to play the match. Cameroon goalkeeper Idriss Kameni kept thinking of Foe.
"I've hardly slept over the past few days. The images kept coming back into my head," he said. "We missed Foe on the field as a player and off it as someone we could lean on."
Les Bleus celebrated briefly after Henry's tournament-high fourth goal ended a dull game with few scoring chances, and the opponents then hugged each other. Though fans chanted Henry's name for a minute or so, their reaction was muted.
When they accepted their runner-up medals, Cameroon players wore green jerseys with Foe's No. 17 and carried a 1 1/2-meter-high photograph of him onto the podium. Cameroon captain Rigobert Song placed Foe's medal on a corner of the picture.
"The result wasn't the most important thing here today. We did this for Marco," Song said. "It's just a pity we lost."
Cameroon's starters posed for their pregame team picture along with Foe's photo. The starters from both teams then walked to the center of the field, where they stood in a circle, players alternating by team, arms around each other's shoulders. After an announcement was made, fans and the teams stood silently for about 30 seconds. Some Cameroon players cried.
Many players and coaches have said the Confederations Cup is unnecessary following the long European seasons, and they complained about a schedule that forced the finalists to play five games in 12 days.
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REUTERS
MOSCOW - Premier League leader CSKA Moscow suffered a 4-1 beating at the hands of Zenit on Saturday, but remained six points clear at the top of the standings.
Russian international Igor Yanovsky put CSKA ahead in the 23rd minute, but Romanian defender Daniil Ciritcu equalized three minutes later for Zenit. Ukrainian midfielder Olexander Spivak put the home team ahead with a 45th-minute penalty.
After Vladislav Radimov made it 3-1 with a harmless-looking free kick 10 minutes into the second half, CSKA and Russia coach Valery Gazzayev replaced international goalkeeper Venyamin Mandrykin with 17-year-old Igor Akinfeyev. But the move came too late to save the army club from a humiliating defeat, as Russia striker Alexander Kerzhakov added a fourth goal nine minutes from time to finish them off.
Second-place Saturn Ramenskoye failed to take full advantage of CSKA's stumble after being held to a 1-1 draw by Dinamo Moscow.
The draw left Saturn, on 27 points from 15 matches, six points adrift of CSKA, with Dinamo in third on 25 points and Zenit a further point back.
TITLE: Young Guns Blaze Again For D'backs
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DETROIT - Rookie Robby Hammock drove in three runs, including a two-run homer in the 10th inning that lifted Arizona to a 5-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday and extended its franchise-record winning streak to 11 games.
Fellow first-year players Lyle Overbay and Matt Kata also played well in Arizona's three-game sweep of Detroit.
"It seems like our rookies are in the middle of everything right now," manager Bob Brenly said. "Not to overlook Gonzo [Luis Gonzalez] and Fins [Steve Finley], but the rookies are getting on base and coming up with big hits to drive in the go-ahead or winning runs. They don't get rattled and they don't get awed by the situation - they just go up and do their job."
Hammock also had an RBI single, and Finley homered for Arizona.
"We act like rookies off the field," said Hammock, hitting .321 in 24 games. "But on the field, you are taught to play baseball as soon as you sign. Once you get up here, you are supposed to act like you have been here before. We just try to follow the lead of the older guys."
Detroit lost its ninth straight and 21st in 23 games. The Tigers (18-61) are the first team in baseball history to lose 60 games before July 1, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, baseball's statistician.
The 1996 Tigers came closest previously, losing their 60th game on July 2. That team finished 53-109.
"It was a good ballgame, but we just couldn't finish it off," manager Alan Trammell said. "We scored two runs in the first inning and one run in the next nine innings. That's just not enough."
Finley singled with one out in the 10th, stole second without a throw and went to third on a wild pitch. He scored on Hammock's homer to left off Chris Spurling.
"The kids have been doing this since they got up here," Finley said. "They've been doing this in spring training for two years and now they are carrying it into the season with us. They are out there in tight games and coming through."
Eddie Oropesa (2-1) got the win with two innings of shutout relief and Jose Valverde pitched a perfect 10th for his ninth save in nine tries.
Starting pitchers Miguel Batista and Nate Cornejo both ended up with no-decisions. Batista allowed three runs in seven innings, while Cornejo saw his winless streak extend to nine starts despite allowing only two runs in 6 1-3 innings.
"I felt more confidence today - I was able to get the sinker working and get ahead of hitters," said Cornejo, who had allowed at least six runs in three straight starts. "It just didn't work out for us in the end."
In other interleague games, it was: N.Y. Yankees 5, N.Y. Mets 3; Chicago Cubs 5, Chicago White Sox 2; Montreal 10, Toronto 2; Cleveland 3, Cincinnati 1; Atlanta 2, Tampa Bay 0; Philadelphia 4, Baltimore 3; Boston 11, Florida 7; Texas 8, Houston 5; Minnesota 5, Milwaukee 4, 10 innings; St. Louis 13, Kansas City 6; San Diego 8, Seattle 6; Anaheim 3, Los Angeles 1; Oakland 5, San Francisco 2. In the lone National League game, Pittsburgh beat Colorado 9-0.