SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #899 (67), Friday, September 5, 2003
**************************************************************************
TITLE: Putin's Help a Scandal for Matviyenko
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova, Irina Titova, and Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Gubernatorial candidate Valentina Matviyenko has been the most vocal of those running in calling for a clean election campaign for the city's top post.
But, now, she finds herself the center of an election-law controversy after President Vladimir Putin openly endorsed her candidacy in nationally televised coverage of a meeting between the two at the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Anna Markova, who is currently running a distant second to the Matviyenko - the presidential representative for the Northwest Region - filed a lawsuit on Thursday, charging her with breaking election laws and requesting that she be disqualified from the race.
While Matviyenko has long been considered the Kremlin's pick to take over in City Hall, Putin publicly acknowledged his support for the first time on Tuesday, in a meeting that was given prominent coverage by state television stations Channel One and Rossia.
Beside wishing Matviyenko luck in the campaign during their meeting in the Kremlin, Putin also asked her to pay attention to concerns.
"You are one of the candidates, and I sincerely wish you luck in the election," Putin told Matviyenko. "But, despite the campaign-related workload, please work hard on the 2004 budget."
As the city budget is determined in an annual tug-of-war battle between the governor's office and the Legislative Assembly, the comments suggested that Putin was already taking a Matviyenko victory for granted.
Vladimir Anikeyev, the spokesperson for Markova, said that she had filed a complaint with the Federal Prosecutor's office and the Central Election Commission, the text of which he said would also be posted on the candidate's official Web site.
He was confident that the complaint was valid.
"Markova is a lawyer by education, and she knows what the law says," Anikeyev said.
"Putin violated the law," Markova's lawyer, Vita Vladimirova, said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
What's more, she said, Matviyenko "used her privileged position of Putin's envoy to the Northwest Region."
Vladimirova said this broke the 2002 law on voters' rights, which forbids campaigning that is not paid for with official campaign funds, and provided grounds to remove Matviyenko's name from the ballot. The elections law also forbids high-ranking civil servants from using their office to lead or support someone's election bid.
Central Elections Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov reluctantly acknowledged on Tuesday that it appeared that Putin might have made a mistake, but said that the question was not one that his organization was responsible for dealing with.
"This issue is a subject for the consideration of local election officials," Veshnyakov said at a news conference on Wednesday, which was initially scheduled to discuss the State Duma elections in December.
"The Central Election Commission is a not a fire brigade that races around the country looking into every regional election spat," he said.
The City Elections Committee said Thursday that it has asked Channel One and Rossia to provide copies of footage that they aired.
"The clips have to be sent to the election committee by Sept. 8," St. Petersburg elections-committee spokesperson Olga Korneyeva told Interfax.
"We will only be able to make a comment after we watch the tape. So far none of the commission members has seen it," election commission official Marina Sakharnova said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
The elections law forbids high-ranking civil servants from using their office to support someone's election bid.
The Kremlin press office refused to comment Wednesday.
Matviyenko's campaign team defended Putin, saying no law had been broken because he at had discussed issues the meeting that Matviyenko will have to tackle regardless of whether she is the presidential envoy or the St. Petersburg governor.
Matviyenko herself has not directly addressed the issue.
"I see [Putin's support] as an assurance that I can win these elections honestly, competing with the other candidates," she was quoted by Interfax as saying on Thursday.
Her spokesperson, Galina Gromova, said that Matviyenko viewed Putin's comments more in the light of a major responsibility.
"In other countries, presidents are also interested in having their supporters coming to power," Gromova quoted Matviyenko as saying. "However, voters have the complete right to decide to support that candidate or to give their support to another."
Other candidates and analysts had a hard time seeing the incident as honest electioneering. One, Sergei Pryanishnikov, a local pornographic-movie producer, said that it was a contributing factor in his decision on Wednesday to drop out of the race.
"The inequality between the candidates was obvious and quite tangible from the very beginning, but the further I got into it the more uncomfortable I felt," Pryanishnikov said on Thursday. "Of course, Putin's statement didn't play the key role. It was just that the whole question of the election has become completely senseless for me."
Alexei Titkov, an election analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the only possible outcome would be a few more votes for Markova.
"It's obvious that there will be no sanctions against Matviyenko and, of course, against the president," Titkov said.
Tatyana Protasenko, a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the biggest problem with regard to the elections is the general lack of strong candidates.
"If there were serious politicians interested in the post of St. Petersburg governor, the whole style of this campaign would have been different," Protasenko said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "As for the Putin's wish of 'good luck,' it is in line with the current style of politics. I am sure it wasn't planned, arranged and organized. The move was natural, which makes it all the more revealing. This election campaign, in its every turn, is a perfect illustration of the rules of the game that Russian political players understand."
TITLE: A Yukos Charity Goes to The Press
AUTHOR: By Denis Maternovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - With its benefactor's business empire under siege and the election season officially underway, Open Russia on Thursday said that it had snapped up one of the country's most prestigious newspaper titles and hired a leading Kremlin critic to run resurrect the publication.
The charity, set up by Yukos tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky ostensibly to promote relations with the West, said that it had acquired the rights to publish Moskovskiye Novosti and hired investigative television journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov as its editor in chief.
The weekly, a champion of Perestroika-era reforms in the 1980s and democracy in the 1990s, has lost much of its former glory and has been struggling financially for years. It claims to have a circulation of 119,500, but media watchers say the figure is much lower.
The paper's previous owner, theatrical producer Alexander Vainstein, "was paying for it from his own pocket," said Kirill Legat, a television producer and the new general director of the publication's eponymous publishing house.
Open Russia spokesperson Maxim Dbar said that the fund wants to expand the scope of the publication, which is also published in English, in order to make it "understandable not only to the old intelligentsia, but to a much wider audience."
"We are not seeking to change ideology 180 degrees. I would not call today's newspaper a clear opposition newspaper," he said. "Although some changes in content are anticipated, they will not be radical in nature and editorial policy will stain in the same vein."
Media and political analysts, though divided on what Kiselyov can bring to the paper, agreed that his involvement is sure to draw attention to the project.
One of the country's most recognizable personalities, Kiselyov was essentially driven out of television as the channels he worked for - NTV, TV6 and TVS - were systematically taken over with the consent of the Kremlin, which he frequently criticized, especially for the quagmire in Chechnya.
Kiselyov, who is currently on vacation, will replace Viktor Loshak, who has run the paper for the last decade. Loshak declined requests for comment, but called the situation "self-explanatory" during an interview broadcast on Ekho Moskvy radio.
News of Loshak's resignation came as a shock to his colleagues. "We learned about it on the radio this morning," said one reporter at the paper, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kiselyov, who has recently turned down a number of job offers from leading news outlets, including Gazprom-owned NTV, seems an unlikely choice to head Moskovskiye Novosti, said Anna Kachkayeva, television analyst with Washington-funded Radio Liberty.
While Loshak is universally regarded as a seasoned newspaper journalist, Kiselyov's journalistic experience is limited to television, although he has been writing a political column for Gazeta newspaper and recently announced that he wanted to get into making documentaries.
But Irina Yasina, project manager of Open Russia, saw no contradiction in that, telling Ekho Moskvy that " there is such a profession as 'journalism' and it makes no difference if someone works on television or for a newspaper."
Some media experts were less generous.
"Kiselyov's appointment makes no sense at all," said Alexei Pankin, editor of the media magazine Sreda. "The only explanation I can come up with is that they felt sorry for him and decided to give him a job. - Kiselyov is probably the worst candidate they could find - he had already ruined three companies and I see no reasons to believe it would be different this time around."
With or without Kiselyov, however, liberal political observers were delighted with the development.
"This is very good news," said Andrei Piontkovsky, an independent political analyst.
"This is Yukos' way of saying that it won't surrender easily to the advancing chekists," he said, referring to the legal assault launched against Khodorkovsky's business empire two months ago by hawks in the Kremlin.
Khodorkovsky's right-hand man and the co-founder of Yukos' parent company Menatep Group, Platon Lebedev, has been locked up in the Federal Security Service's Lefortovo prison since his arrest July 2 on charges of stealing state property during the privatization of Russia's largest fertilizer producer in the mid-90s.
The charges are widely believed to be payback for Khodorkovsky's criticism of the Kremlin and his funding of liberal opposition parties. Nevertheless, the billionaire said last week that he intended to continue financing parties such as Yabloko ahead of parliamentary elections in December.
"This is the last chance for the shrinking free press, for everyone who chose the European model of development," Piontkovsky said. "Yukos and Khodorkovsky are doing all they can to stop the ongoing attack on the last vestiges of freedom and democracy in this country."
Liliya Shevtsova, senior associate at the Moscow Carnegie Center called the move symbolic.
"The positions of liberals in Russia are growing stronger, especially with the new professional management team and money allocated to reviving Moskovskiye Novosti," she said. "Khodorkovsky is making a bold move at a difficult moment both for him and his company. He chose to support this newspaper because democratic ideals mean a lot to him."
"Kiselyov, with his image of a journalist unjustly prosecuted by the regime, can prove to be an invaluable asset for Yukos," said Pankin of Sreda. "From now on, any attack on Yukos by the authorities can be blamed on "supporting the freedom of the press."
As early as April, in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times during the World Economic Forum in London, Kiselyov said that wealthy private businesspeople were looking for ways to support opposition figures and opposition parties "to create a system of balances."
He also said, however, that newspapers were not the ideal propaganda tool.
"Probably the most important thing is control of the electronic media, of major TV stations, as its very powerful weapon in Russia. There are many examples of this," he said.
Indeed, as previous oligarchs who have run afoul of the Kremlin have discovered, control of television matters above all.
Boris Berezovksy, for example, who is living in self exile in London, was forced to give up control of ORT, now Channel One, but still retains control of the influential dailies Kommersant and Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Likewise, NTV founder Vladimir Gusinksy, who was recently detained in Greece at Russia's request, lost control of his television network to state-controlled Gazprom. He also lost his publishing house and Ekho Moscvy, but still controls Ezhenedelny Zhurnal and Echo-TV.
Other tycoons with media interests include metals magnate Vladimir Potanin, whose Prof-Media holds stake in the Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda dailies, as well as Independent Media, the parent company of The St. Petersburg Times and Vedomosti.
Staff Writer Catherine Belton contributed to this report.
TITLE: Kadyrov Holds All the Cards in Chechnya Race
AUTHOR: By Yevgenia Borisova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - With the Chechen presidential race officially about to begin, it is becoming more and more apparent that the way is being cleared to make it easier for Akhmad Kadyrov to win on Oct. 5.
Kadyrov, said Thursday that he is confident he will win the Chechen presidential election in the first round on Oct. 5, and denied his rivals' allegations that he is putting a system in place to rig the vote.
"I want the elections to be the most democratic," he said at a news conference in Moscow. "I don't want any forgeries, I want fair elections. I want observers to control the elections.
"No one is going to vote for other candidates," he said.
Who has run the Kremlin-backed administration in Chechnya for three years, faces some serious contenders among his nine remaining challengers, specifically State Duma Deputy Aslanbek Aslakhanov, who is respected throughout Chechnya, and Malik Saidullayev, a wealthy Moscow-based businessperson, whose charity work in Chechnya has made him a household name.
But two other leading candidates have backed out. One of them - Khusein Dzhabrailov, the first deputy director of the Rossiya hotel in Moscow and a member of a prominent Chechen family - on Tuesday unexpectedly announced his decision to withdraw after meeting with members of the presidential administration.
A potential favorite, Ruslan Khasbulatov, a Moscow-based economics professor and former speaker of the Russian parliament, decided earlier not to run.
Aslakhanov and Saidullayev said that they also will pull out if it becomes clear that the vote has been rigged.
"I would withdraw for three reasons," Aslakhanov said at a news conference on Wednesday. "First, because of a bullet, which I am threatened with all the time. Second, if they throw me out of the race. Third, if in Chechnya no conditions are in place for democratic elections.
"I am not going to participate in a farce," he said.
Kadyrov's challengers accuse him of controlling the electoral system, and his administration took action on Wednesday to take control of the media.
Bislan Gantamirov, the popular Chechen press minister, who oversaw state television in the republic and promised to support Dzhabrailov in the campaign, was dismissed and his ministry disbanded.
His duties were handed to Taus Dzhabrailov, who is running Kadyrov's campaign. Taus Dzhabrailov - no relation to candidate Khusein Dzhabrailov - was Chechnya's nationalities minister and will now head a united press and nationalities ministry.
"What is going on is very sad," Khamzat Bogatyryov, one of Gantamirov's deputies, said by telephone from Grozny. "I don't even have to explain it. Every single sane person understands what will happen next."
Until recently, Kadyrov, 52, had Putin's public support. He appeared to be a part of the Kremlin's plan to install an elected government in Chechnya with the aim of restoring some sort of order to the republic. But, since Kadyrov announced his plans to run earlier this summer, the Kremlin has distanced itself from his candidacy. Putin has said he will support whomever is elected by the Chechen people and has demanded that the elections be free and fair.
Dzhabrailov, 43, whose brother Umar ran for the Russian presidency in 2000, was vague about his decision to withdraw. In a statement carried by Interfax, he said that his decision was "dictated by my confidence that, in the current circumstances, I can be of more use to our society if I direct my efforts and public and economic resources toward improving dialogue among Chechens and the formation of civil society in the Chechen republic and the North Caucasus."
A source close to Dzhabrailov said that he withdrew after meeting late Monday and into early Tuesday with Alexander Voloshin, the Kremlin chief of staff, and his deputy, Vladislav Surkov. Surprisingly, the source, who was not at the meeting, said that Voloshin and Surkov expressed a desire for Aslakhanov to win.
"We are all puzzled. No one knows exactly what is up. [Dzhabrailov] has switched all of his phones off," the source said on Wednesday.
However, a second source, someone close to one of the other candidates, gave a different account of the meeting. This source said that Kadyrov had the Kremlin's support.
Timur Muzayev, Dzhabrailov's spokesperson, said that "Dzhabrailov didn't discuss the issue of withdrawing his candidacy with anyone from the Kremlin administration." Asked what they discussed, Muzayev answered, "We aren't commenting on it."
Khasbulatov also weighed in.
"[Dzhabrailov] was subject to very serious pressure, I know it," Khasbulatov said on Wednesday in a telephone interview. "He was pressured to withdraw by the presidential administration.
Khasbulatov said that he believes that Kadyrov is the Kremlin's favored candidate.
"Of course it is Kadyrov, it is clear. No, it can't be Aslakhanov," he said. "I can't understand why they decided in favor of a person who does not enjoy even 1 percent of the population's support. Perhaps because they decided to completely ignore the population."
He had some harsh words for the Chechen leader and his backers.
"He covers up the [federal troops'] crimes, permits the embezzlement of oil riches," Khasbulatov said. "He is a very convenient slave who fulfills all of his master's orders because he is himself involved in these crimes.
"I think that it is the twilight of Russian democracy. And not only in Chechnya. Chechnya is a special case - genocide is being committed there in plain view of the entire world - but it is very clear that, in the rest of Russia, the totalitarian state is being restored."
Khasbulatov decided earlier this summer not to run, citing concerns about possible fraud but also "armed provocations and other serious actions from the side of the rebels." But if he had run, he could have been a favorite.
In a survey conducted by the Validata polling agency for the Public Opinion Fund from June 20 to June 25 in 75 Chechen villages and towns, Khasbulatov was picked by the most respondents, 25.7 percent, as their choice for president. Saidullayev came second with 23.3 percent, followed by Aslakhanov with 22.4 percent and Kadyrov with 13.1 percent. Dzhabrailov was not included in the survey.
More damning for Kadyrov was a second question, which asked voters which candidates they would not support. More than 60 percent said that they would not support Kadyrov. Saidullayev's negative-rating was 19.5 percent and Aslakhanov's 12.5 percent.
All of the leading candidates, with the exception of Kadyrov, a former imam who called for jihad against the Russians in the 1994-96 war, live outside Chechnya. Dzhabrailov moved to Moscow in 1993. Saidullayev also started his business in Moscow before the first war, in 1992. Aslakhanov, a retired Interior Ministry major general who has a Ph.D. in law, served outside Chechnya in criminal and economic-police forces starting in 1967.
None of the separatist leaders is running. One apparent reason is that, to file their candidacy, they would have to show up at the Chechen election commission. Since all rebel leaders are wanted by the police, they would inevitably be arrested.
The Chechen election campaign officially opens on Friday.
Timur Aliev contributed to this report from Chechnya.
TITLE: Russia Considering UN Role for Troops
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Isachenov
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday that Russia may send peacekeepers to Iraq as part of an international force, a strong signal that Moscow was edging closer to Washington in efforts to rebuild Iraq.
"It all depends on a specific resolution. I wouldn't exclude it outright," Ivanov said during Russian military maneuvers in the southern Astrakhan region, when asked whether Moscow can contribute peacekeepers to Iraq, Interfax reported.
Ivanov's statement, which precedes President Vladimir Putin's visit to the United States set for later this month, appears to be an attempt to bolster ties with Washington, badly hurt by a rift over the war in Iraq. Russia vociferously had opposed the war and after its end pushed for the United Nations to take charge.
Ivanov said Thursday that Russia's decision will hinge on discussions in the UN Security Council on a new U.S.-proposed draft resolution on giving the United Nations a greater role in Iraq.
"Everything depends on the unity of opinion in the UN Security Council on whether it will be really able to influence the development of the situation in Iraq," Ivanov said.
The United States wants the United Nations to vote soon on the proposed resolution that would expand the UN's role in governing Iraq and providing security. The U.S. draft offers the United Nations a greater role in peacekeeping in Iraq, although U.S. commanders will retain control.
Ivanov would not say whether Moscow might acquiesce to the U.S. command of a future UN peacekeeping force. He said only that the final decision on whether to send Russian peacekeepers "will depend on the unity in the international community on how fully and scrupulously international legal norms are observed in Iraq."
Ivanov said that Russia was very concerned over the latest violence in Iraq.
"Terror attacks continue unabated and terrorists of all kinds are heading to Iraq," he said. "Russia is vitally interested in the quickest possible restoration of legitimate authorities and law and order in Iraq."
Russian officials have avoided direct comments on the U.S.-proposed draft UN resolution circulated Wednesday, but Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday reaffirmed Moscow's push for a quick transfer from the U.S.-backed interim administration in Iraq to a sovereign government to help restore peace.
"We believe that only the soonest creation of representative and internationally recognized power bodies can ensure stabilization of situation in the country and restoration of its sovereignty," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
He also welcomed an international conference on aid to Iraq set for October in Madrid, Spain, as "an important step in coordinating international efforts in helping postwar economic restoration of Iraq." Russia will send a delegation to the conference, he added.
On Saturday, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was open to the creation of a multinational force with an American commander, but stressed that the UN must be granted a stronger role in postwar Iraq, particularly in political an economic affairs.
TITLE: Ukraine's Kuchma Has a Point To Make
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In the gangster flick "25th Hour," Ed Norton's drug dealer suggests that his sidekick is a little persnickety to insist on being called Ukrainian, not Russian.
"There's a difference?" he wonders.
Ukranian President Leonid Kuchma was in Moscow for the 16th International Book Fair on Wednesday for the official release of his new book, titled simply "Ukraine Is Not Russia," in which he spends 513 pages explaining that there most certainly is a difference.
Kuchma was the star of the show at the bustling opening.
After a quick circuit of the main pavilion, accompanied by Russia's ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin - and a small posse of stony-faced security guards - Kuchma fielded journalists' questions in mid-fair.
"I don't hide that the book was written in Russian," Kuchma said to assembled book fans. "I still can't write freely in Ukrainian. I can speak fluently, but not in the kind of Ukrainian that our writers curse me in."
What started as a long article penned during his first presidential term evolved into a weighty tome retailing at 250 rubles ($8) a throw.
Staff at Moscow's Vremya publishing house reported that 300 visitors had bought the book, the cover of which shows a smiling Kuchma squatting in a field of blue flowers.
The genre? "Explanatory," the book's introduction intones, "... for those millions of people in Ukraine and Russia who do not understand this simple truth. For them my book may be of use."
And Kuchma wasn't the only head of state to roll out his literary efforts.
"Zabibah and the King," a romantic novel by fugitive Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, was also on sale.
Yelena Suvorova of publisher Amfora said that her company had been approached by a former staffer at the Iraqi Embassy with the offer. "When we read it, we found it was actually quite good," she said.
But while there had been plenty of interest, Hussein did not attend the official launch at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
"People were asking if we have anything by bin Laden," muttered one of Suvorova's colleagues.
To whet visitors' appetites for the pending fourth edition of what once was the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a handsomely bound gray-blue volume was on hand.
Its glossy pages, however, were blank.
The greatest minds in Russia will fill the 30 volumes of the Great Russian Encyclopedia with some 80,000 articles over the coming decade, according to Sergei Kravets, the project's chief editor, with the first volume available next March.
"The encyclopedia will definitely include Yukos and LUKoil," he said, when asked if the oligarchs would warrant an entry.
"But individual articles devoted to [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky probably won't be included. Its harder with [Boris] Berezovsky, since he starts with 'B' and there's no time to ponder his inclusion."
St. Petersburg managed to make its own splash at the Moscow show. Local publisher Continuing Life attracted a large crowd of middle-aged men with its broad and vividly illustrated selection of sex manuals.
TITLE: Rumors Surface on Sunk Sub
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The crew of the K-159 submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea while being towed to a scrapyard, reported a leak and asked to be re-routed to shallow waters, but their commanders denied the request, Kommersant reported on Thursday.
K-159 commander Sergei Lappa radioed the towboat at about 2:00 a.m. Saturday to report a leak in one of the rear compartments as the sub was being towed through rough waters by Kildin island, Kommersant said, citing a source close to the Northern Fleet command.
Lappa then asked that the towboat change its route from the Gremikha base to the scrapyard in Polyarny and head toward shallow waters near Kildin in case the leak grew worse, the source said, on condition of anonymity. The towboat captain probably relayed this request to the Northern Fleet command in Severomorsk, Kommersant said.
It remains unclear whether the towboat captain or someone higher up in the chain of command rejected the request and ordered Lappa to have his crew fight to keep the submarine afloat, the newspaper said. The battle was lost when water in the submarine's ninth compartment rose to 1.5 meters and the extra weight caused steels cables harnessing the vessel to four pontoons to snap, it said.
The K-159, which had its conning tower open, went down with seven of its 10 crewmembers, including Lappa, trapped inside and struggling to seal the leaks, the paper said.
Anatoly Stavropoltsev, deputy commander of the Gremikha base's submarine unit, confirmed in an interview with NTV television Thursday that the crew "was fighting to stay afloat until the very last moment."
The submarine sank to a depth of some 238 meters at around 3:00 a.m. Saturday, according to press reports.
The three other crew members were later found in the water near the site of the sinking, but only one of them - Lieutenant Maxim Tsibulsky - survived.
Officials at the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the sinking, refused to comment on the Kommersant report Thursday. Northern Fleet officials also refused to comment.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Chubais To Run
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Unified Energy Systems (UES) chief and former deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais said on Wednesday that he woule run for a seat in the Duma in December, but remain in his present job during the campaign.
"I have decided to participate in the elections to the State Duma ... as a candidate of the Union of Right Forces political party," Chubais said in a letter that was published by UES and addressed to the heads of UES subsidiaries.
"Russian legislation allows me to combine management of a corporation with participation in elections. So I will be with you to conduct our day to day work," Chubais said.
But he could be required to quit his job as chief executive of the sprawling national electricity company in the thick of a massive restructuring if he wins a seat.
Political analysts say the Union of Right Forces has a narrow following and is not certain to win seats, under the proportional representation system that requires a party win 5 percent of the popular vote to make the lower house.
Another Copter
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A helicopter carrying nine people crashed in bad weather in southern Russia on Thursday and rescuers have yet to find any survivors, Interfax reported.
A rescue helicopter spotted the burning wreckage of the Ka-32 near Babuk-Aul, not far from the southern beach resort of Sochi, but were unable to land because of weather conditions and difficult highland terrain, it said.
The crashed helicopter, which was involved in the construction of a cableway in the mountains near Sochi, was carrying four crew members and five passengers, it said.
Oil Spill
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - An oil tanker belonging to Yukos was holed on its port side and spilled some of its cargo in the Onezhskaya Bay in the White Sea, Interfax reported on Thursday.
The tanker 57-M, registered in Astrakhan, spilled more than 50 tons of oil into the sea, the news agency said, quoting port authorities in the Arkhangelskaya Oblast.
Efforts to stop the leak failed when the boom-plug being used became tangled in the ship's screws, Interfax reported. Authorities said they had drawn up an action plan to minimalize the ecological damage caused by the leak, which happened near the Osinki Islands near the town of Onega. An official from the local administration visited the scene on Thursday
According to local residents, the oil spill happened on Tuesday. The oil slick on Thursday was about 10 kilometers from the Osinki Islands and moving in the direction of the Solovetsky archipelago, Interfax said.
TITLE: New TV Channel Hits the Air
AUTHOR: By Aliona Bocharova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg has a new television station on the air. TV STO, short for Saint Petersburg Television Association - "hundred" in Russian - strives to become the top city channel, says Andrei Maksimenkov, the station's general producer and presenter.
The city was on the verge of losing its own local television station when main local broadcasting company TRK Petersburg fell under the jurisdiction of the federal RTR channel and Igor Ignatyev, former executive director of the RTR Petersburg office, was appointed the channel's new acting general director. TRK Petersburg has always been known as a pro-city administration channel that offered broad coverage of city politics and paid little attention to the everyday life of average citizens.
"We have fifty programs in our portfolio, with presenters who communicate with the audience live throughout the day, delivering news updates in between news reports, answering questions, etc.," Maksimenkov names some advantages of the new channel with confidence.
The station's resources are modest: the channel functions on a 31-decimeter frequency and its transmitter capacity is only one kilowatt, which may cause problems with geographical coverage as well as image quality. Yet "it is the first digital channel in St. Petersburg," notes PR Director Denis Yeleonsky. "We use only high-quality equipment for broadcasting in hi-tech style, showing all the cameras, projectors, and remote controls."
The channel is an entirely commercial enterprise financed by loans and private investments, although there have been rumors that it is supported by an institution affiliated with Lenenergo. Yet politics are not prominent here. "We do not support any contenders in the upcoming gubernatorial elections, nor do we provide air time for them," comments Yelena Utekhina, head of the news department. "Our main focus is local human interest stories."
"We also plan to become an independent production company and make our own serials and reality shows that could even be sold to federal television," notes Yeleonsky, naming another possible source of financing for the channel.
The city not only needs an independent city-oriented television channel, but also one that would cater to a middle-class audience with higher education. "We offer a new, fresh concept of open, contemporary television,' says Polina Fedosova, the channel's art director, who shapes and monitors the channel's image. "Many moderators and reporters are in their early 20s and represent a new generation of people who are smart, quick, and have good communication skills. Bad journalistic habits such as heavy smoking do not appeal to them and the 'old-timers' have to smoke out in the corridors," she says with a smile.
The staff numbers 160 and consists of both young journalists and professional television sharks, such as Natalya Ukhova, a famous local journalist who used to work for TRK Petersburg.
It is not yet clear whether a decimeter channel could be a real competitor for TRK Petersburg, which broadcasts on the fifth channel, yet Maksimkov sees great promise for the channel's development.
Yulia Smirnova, press secretary of TRK Petersburg, said that "TV 100 does not affect our work at all. There are many TV channels in Petersburg, and the appearance of a new one does not make us tremble. No matter what the channel claims to be in the future, we will have to see what it can really achieve."
TITLE: Saudis and Russians Agree On Choppers, Diamonds
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Saudi Arabians will soon be building Russian choppers and wearing diamonds cut in Smolensk under agreements reached Wednesday during the first state visit to Moscow by a Saudi ruler since 1932.
A day after signing a landmark agreement to cooperate in stabilizing world energy markets, the world's top two oil exporters moved to capitalize on the newfound friendship and lessen their dependence on hydrocarbons.
After meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a delegation headed by Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, the de-facto ruler of the desert kingdom, met with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other Russian officials and executives to explore additional areas of cooperation.
Neither side, however, could escape the oil issue.
Kasyanov reiterated the Kremlin's willingness to work with the OPEC heavyweight to preserve global oil-price stability.
"The stability of the world market largely depends on the predictability of our policies," Kasyanov told the crown prince, Interfax reported.
Moving beyond oil, Kasyanov said Russia's business community was "very much interested" in wider economic cooperation with Saudi Arabia, which appears to have been achieved on the sidelines of the royal visit.
Saudi company Geralsy Group signed an agreement with Moscow conglomerate Sistema to produce under license civilian helicopters made by its Kamov subsidiary.
News agencies quoted a Geralsy executive as saying that the choppers would initially be used in the Saudi health-care system, but eventually be exported to other Persian Gulf countries, where "preliminary market research shows [considerable] demand for civilian helicopters."
Vladimir Yevtushenkov, CEO of Sistema, which is involved in everything from high-tech to natural resources, said he hopes the Kamov deal is just the tip of the iceberg.
"We have a diversified business, and thus the volume of cooperation with Saudi Arabia is expected to be rather big," he was quoted as saying.
Additionally, Kristall, the Smolensk-based diamond-cutting monopoly, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Trade and Industrial Chambers to export finished gems.
TITLE: Bank Gets Nod on Pensions
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Pension Fund on Wednesday signed a two-year contract with Vneshtorgbank that gives the state-owned banking giant full control of the billions of pension dollars that 40 million future retirees will soon be able to invest.
Unified Depositary Co., or ODK, a fully owned VTB subsidiary, last week won a government tender to be the specialized depository for pension payments after putting up 5 billion rubles ($163 million) in guarantees.
ODK will be responsible for overseeing purchases of government bonds by the private companies that the government will choose to manage pension accounts, Pension Fund chief Mikhail Zurabov told reporters after the signing.
Fifty nine private-investment companies have applied to manage pension accounts. A special government commission was to name on Thursday which of them will have the right to manage part of the current 40-billion-ruble pension fund. Next year this figure will jump to 170 billion rubles and is expected to hit 1.3 trillion rubles by 2010.
Under the original schedule of the government's ambitious revamp of the pension system, future pensioners were to select by Oct. 15 which of the approved management companies would handle their accounts. Zurabov, however, said Wednesday that this deadline may be moved back to Dec. 1 because of delays in getting personalized account information printed and mailed.
TITLE: Two Flawed Approaches To Iran and Nukes
AUTHOR: By Jon B. Wolfsthal
TEXT: Even during the depths of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union often worked together to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to new countries. Now, both countries are dealing with the realization that Iran's nuclear program is more advanced than previously thought, and may be aimed directly at acquiring nuclear weapons in the next few years. Unfortunately, the approaches being pursued by both countries will do nothing to slow Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons, and a new approach and better coordination is desperately needed before it is too late.
For the better part of a decade, U.S. officials pressured Russia to stop its support for the Bushehr nuclear-reactor project in Iran. The United States argued that the power plant was a front for Iran to acquire weapons-related technology, a charge that Russia rejected. It now appears that both sides may have been wrong.
Counter to U.S. projections, Iran appears to have used Pakistan and other third parties to develop a uranium-enrichment technology based on centrifuges, instead of relying on covert acquisitions of Russian technology. This does not mean, however, that Russian experts or companies have not been involved in this program without the Kremlin's knowledge or permission - only that Russia appears not to be the primary source of Iran's newfound capabilities. Yet Russia also ignored clear signs that Iran was interested in much more than a peaceful nuclear-power program. Its willingness to engage in nuclear commerce with Iran, while financially beneficial, is now coming back to effect Russia's security negatively.
To remedy the situation, the two countries have adopted similarly flawed approaches. Russian officials are working with Iran to ensure that any fuel used in the reactor at Bushehr - fuel that, when reprocessed, could produce hundreds of nuclear weapons worth of plutonium - is returned to Russia. For its part, with Russian support, the United States is pushing Iran to join the IAEA's enhanced inspection agreement, which will give the agency broader inspection and monitoring rights in Iran.
While both of these initiatives are helpful, they will do absolutely nothing to head off the main challenge posed by Iran's growing nuclear program - Tehran's construction of advanced centrifuge enrichment facilities that could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for 20 weapons per year by the end of the decade. Iran has stated that it is developing the means to produce its own enriched uranium fuel for the Bushehr reactors out of concern that the United States will convince Russia to cut off its fuel supply.
Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a party, states are entitled to engage in all manner of peaceful nuclear development as long as they accept international inspections. This provision, however, allows states to use the cover of the treaty to acquire the very means to produce a formidable nuclear arsenal, and then later withdraw from the pact and use the material for nuclear weapons. At the heart of international concerns is the risk that Iran will follow just this scenario to the detriment of regional and even global security.
To head off this eventuality, the United States and Russia should reach quick agreement on a new strategy that would not only head off Iran's nuclear-weapons potential, but address the underlying flaw in the NPT system. At a minimum, Russia should offer to guarantee - with explicit U.S. endorsement - Iran's supply of fuel for the Bushehr reactor as long as Iran abandons its indigenous uranium enrichment and plutonium production programs. This offer would give Iran a clear choice - a reliable foreign source of nuclear energy or an internal nuclear program with weapons potential. The choice that Iran makes would help show the international community Iran's true intentions.
To many, it is already clear that, at a minimum, Iran is seeking the option of producing nuclear weapons through its own independent nuclear program. Given its history of conflict with Iraq - a state by no means guaranteed of a peaceful and stable future - as well as the perceived threats from Israel's and America's nuclear arsenals, Iran's position is understandable in some circles. But this nuclear option would only serve to increase the desire of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and even a future independent Iraq, to acquire their own nuclear options, to say nothing of the steps Israel might take before Iran's became a reality.
Thus, in addition to the offer to guarantee Iran's supply of low enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear reactor, the United States and Russia should revisit the idea of establishing a clear policy that nuclear weapons will not be used to threaten states that do not have nuclear weapons or an active nuclear program. Amazingly, since the end of the Cold War, both the United States and Russia have increased the circumstances under which they would be willing to use or threaten use of nuclear weapons. It is time the two countries recognize that such a policy has negative implications that could drive states to acquire nuclear weapons.
Russia and America have an important legacy of preventing proliferation of which they should be proud. It is a legacy that should be revived and focused on the core proliferation threats in Iran and elsewhere before the nuclear confrontation of the Cold War is replaced by a broader nuclear competition the two states will not find as easy to control.
Jon B. Wolfsthal, is the deputy director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: My Advice for the KPRF: Smear Yourselves
TEXT: For journalists, the summer months are a time of intense creative activity. So little happens during the traditional vacation period that reporters have to wrack their brains and use a little imagination to keep the pages filled. When the campaign season arrives in the fall, journalists can actually relax. Sure, a lot is going on, but it's all so similar to what happened during previous campaigns in 1993, 1995-96 and 1999 that all the hacks really have to do is update stories from the archive.
Take a story that ran last week in Novaya Gazeta, for example. Valentin Kuptsov, the second in command at the Communist Party, complained at the Election 2003 forum that the major television stations were muzzling his party. Monitoring of prime-time programming in July on Channel One, Rossia, NTV and TV Center revealed that the Communists received a total of six minutes and 50 seconds of airtime. United Russia, the "party of power," garnered about seven times as much: 46 minutes and two seconds. The thing is that the Communists have been complaining about this imbalance for the past 10 years.
In a column that ran in February, I advanced the thesis - backed up by facts and figures - that dominance of the airwaves in Russia results in a poor showing at the polls. The more the major stations pander to a particular party, the fewer votes it collects on election day.
It seems to me that our political strategists have failed to take into account two major factors determining the behavior of Russian voters. The first is anarchism: figuring out what the establishment wants and doing the exact opposite. The second is a tendency to sympathize with the underdog. Television's main role in election campaigns is to make clear which parties and candidates are backed by the establishment and to demean everyone else.
This general rule comes with exceptions, of course, notably when the establishment itself is split and gets caught up in an internecine information war. You probably remember the brutal propaganda campaign in 1999 that ORT and RTR waged against the Fatherland-All Russia coalition, led by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. The networks accused Luzhkov's coalition of everything under the sun, including embezzlement and corruption. According to the election-coverage rule, this sort of attack should have spelled a landslide victory for Fatherland-All Russia in the Duma election. Unfortunately for Luzhkov, two other major stations, NTV and TV Center, backed his coalition and savaged the Unity party, which ORT and RTR were doing their best to promote. The struggle for the airwaves left the average voter disoriented. How were people to know which candidates to vote against?
Luzhkov also fell victim to the assumptions of Russian voters, tempered by long experience of politics in this country. There's no such thing as a free lunch, so if the networks back a particular party, the obvious conclusion is that the party has paid for the privilege. And if the party can pay for positive coverage, that means it has money. And if it has money, that means it has stolen it from somewhere. In other words, the support for Luzhkov provided by NTV and TV Center was perceived by voters as indirect corroboration of the charges leveled at the mayor's coalition by his opponents.
The campaign this fall is expected to be much simpler, without any confusing information wars.
United Russia has such a stranglehold on the mass media as to leave no doubt in anyone's mind: This is the establishment party. The Communists are in a trickier position: They're being muzzled but not attacked. My advice to the Communist Party's campaign managers would therefore be to launch a savage smear campaign against their own party. They could save money by recycling the battle-tested ads used against the party in the 1996 presidential election, when the Communists raked in 40 percent of the vote, a huge improvement on the 20 percent to 25 percent they usually receive.
Alexei Pankin is the editor of Sreda, a magazine for media professionals (www.sreda-mag.ru)
TITLE: the wild boys of rock return
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: It's official: Leningrad is very much alive and kicking
Apart from a few tours, the hugely popular ska-punk band has been largely inactive this year, while its frontman, Sergei Shnurov, seemed to be more interested in other projects. He went to literary award ceremonies, recited Pushkin poems on CD, wrote music for television series and films and worked on solo projects or with other groups.
Now, all has changed. Leningrad has spent the last month recording a new album - which, judging from the tracks Shnurov showed off last week, will be quite a departure from its past work - and is getting ready for a big concert next week.
The gig, at the Yubileiny Sports Palace, will be Leningrad's first proper stadium gig in the city since its Dec. 27 show at the same venue. Then, Shnurov (a.k.a. Shnur) was dismissive about working further with Leningrad, saying "I've already solved the crossword and there's nothing else to do with it, except show it to friends and wipe your ass with it."
This week, however, he sounded enthusiastic about the new Leningrad album, which was being recorded at his Neva Records studio on Nab. Reki Fontanki.
"Well, the crossword has now turned out to be unsolved, hasn't it," he said, explaining that he was tired of nothing new happening musically in Russia.
"I wanted to stir up the situation, to drive around the frogs in the swamp of contemporary music," he said. "I decided to put on my gumboots again and enter the swamp."
Indeed, the new rap track "Menya Zovut Shnur" ("My Name Is Shnur") contains swipes at many popular Russian rock acts, from the veteran Akvarium and DDT to more recent pop/rock bands such as Tantsy Minus.
The track premiered at the end of Leningrad's scandalous live set at the Nashestviye festival in early August. Shnurov said he was inspired to write it by his "endless sense of humor and self-irony. But it turned out to be good, funny song. I think it will be the next album's title song."
The album also has a song called "Babu Budu," an alliterative play inspired by Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula," according to Shnurov, who said that the album will be "mainly rap" - with some reservations.
"It depends on how to understand the word 'rap,'" he said. "I call it chastushki [humorous folk chants]. Chastushki are also rap."
Another new feature is the swinging female backing vocals, something that Leningrad - previously an exclusively male affair - has not tried before. According to Shnurov, the singer's name is Natasha, although he claimed not to know either her last name or what she has done previously.
The new album promises to be strong, which is just what Leningrad needs. "Tochka" ("Period"), released in November, was a final contractual obligation to Moscow's Gala Records that was hastily thrown together from old material and out-takes, but its last proper album was "Piraty XXI Veka" ("Pirates of the 21st Century") in February 2002.
Shnurov said he could easily have stayed afloat without another Leningrad album - "I could have done nothing for another year" - but he is also suing Gala Records, which signed the band in 1999, as he claims it owes him $74,000 in unpaid royalties.
"I don't like it when money goes somewhere I don't know," he said. "I feel like I'm being ripped off."
The first court hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
The new Leningrad album will come out on Moscow label Misteriya Zvuka, which also released Shnurov's solo disc "Vtoroi Magadansky ..." in December. Meanwhile, Shnurov is also getting ready to launch his own label, Shnur O.K., with the first two releases set to be new albums by local ska-punk bands Spitfire and Kacheli.
Shnurov split with most of the old Leningrad early last year, augmenting what was left with the eight members of Spitfire to produce a new line-up with 12 musicians.
The only survivors from the old Leningrad are percussionist Vyacheslav Antonov (a.k.a. Sevych), bass-drum beater Alexander Popov (a.k.a. Puzo), and tuba player Andrei Antonenko (a.k.a. Andromedych). Shnurov described Antonov and Popov as "the worst mucians in the world."
Sound engineer Denis Mozhin (a.k.a. Dens) also adds drum tracks to Leningrad's recorded output.
His enthusiasm for the new album notwithstanding, Shnurov said Leningrad as it used to be is a thing of the past.
"I'm interested in different music now," he said. "I think that the Leningrad of the past is a total anachronism. It's impossible to listen to. I can't listen to the same for the whole my life. Well, except for Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix."
Of more recent music, Shnurov said the only group of interest is Detroit duo The White Stripes.
In recent months, Leningrad's enormous popularity has even seen the band involved in a few political controversies.
In June, young people wearing "Shnur for Governor" T-shirts were spotted gathering signatures for Shnurov, but soon disappered. Shnurov responded that he never considered running in the Sept. 21 elections for city governor, and dismissed the episode as dirty tricks that accompany any elections.
"It seems it was because I'm a strikingly odious figure," he said.
Around the time of the city's 300th anniversary celebrations, several television channels showed President Vladimir Putin's wife, Lyudmila, dancing to Leningrad's hit "WWW." Shnurov said he saw it as a sideswipe at Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who banned several of the band's gigs at local admininstration-owned arenas in the capital because of the band's expletive-laden lyrics.
"I think he went a bit gray when he saw this, but I don't know where," he said about the bald Luzhkov.
However, while many bands are preparing to cash in on the impending State Duma elections by playing at party-political events, Shnurov said Leningrad will never play for politicians.
"To play for politicians is absolute nonsense," he said. "I don't know why they do it. I have difficulty imagining Jimi Hendrix at election rallies for [former U.S. President Jimmy] Carter."
Having recently recorded an oddball CD on which he recited Pushkin poems such as "Count Nulin" to music by Leningrad tuba player Antonenko - who played piano on the disc - Shnurov said he is now looking forward to less bizarre work.
Next week, Leningrad starts recording with London trio The Tiger Lillies, a band that Shnurov said was a big influence on Leningrad's breakthrough second album, "Mat (Bez Elektrichestva)" from 1999. In particular, the song "Diky Muzhchina" ("Wild Man") resembles The Tiger Lillies' "Whore."
"It will be a collaboration - they sing our songs and we sing theirs," he said.
Shnurov made a guest appearance at The Tiger Lillies' concert at Red Club in June, when he sang "Diky Muzhchina" with the London trio's accompanying.
Although next week's gig will probably feature several new songs, Shnurov said the band will not have time to prepare a completely new set. He said the new album, which has yet to be mixed and mastered, will not appear before October.
Leningrad plays at the Yubileiny Sports Palace on Sept. 12. Links: www.leningradspb.ru
TITLE: it's not ballet, but it's not theater ...
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg audiences will get to see a new theatrical genre next week when the DanceTheater festival kicks off at the Alexandriinsky Theater on Thursday.
Dance theater, and original genre that in which dance and drama are equal partners, took shape in Western Europe in the 1970s.
"Dance theater responds to the requirements of both dance and drama, but it shouldn't be confused with ballet," Wilfried Eckstein, director of Goethe Institute in St. Petersburg and one of the festival's organizers, said at a press conference on Thursday.
"We hope that this art of movement, which is not very familiar to Russian audiences, will be of interest to everyone interested in theater and ballet," he said.
Dance theater - originally called tanztheater, from the German tanzen, meaning to dance - was invented by German choreographer Gerhard Bohner as a name for his troupe in 1972. The genre's basic principle is that a choreographer-cum-director uses the human body as an instrument to explore emotions or express an idea. Some of the directors presenting their work at the festival are not even choreographers or dancers by training.
The Dance Theater festival runs through the end of October, with 32 performances by troupes from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Russia.
The performances will take place at a number of local venues, including Baltiisky Dom, the Alexandriinsky, the Hermitage Theater, the Mussorgsky Theater, the Bryantsev Young Audiences Theater and S'tantsia Theater.
There are no taboos in dance theater. One company will plunge its spectators into the world of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, while a male dancer will perform eight different takes on Michel Fokine's "The Dying Swan." The work, to music by Camille Saint-Saens, was originally designed for legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, but has reworked by eight contemporary female choreographers.
According to Eckstein, the festival's internatlonal element expanded as work went along.
"We initially expected five countries to participate, then five became six, and now we have companies from eleven countries," he said, adding that the decision to invite companies was very carefully made.
"We contacted various other festivals, cultural offices in different countries, watched videos and sometimes even went to see some of the shows," Eckstein added.
The festival opens with "Petrushka" and "The Hunt" by Finland's Tero Saarinen Company. The company's founder, Tero Saarinen, 39, a former soloist with Finnish National Opera, left the classical stage in 1992 at the peak of his career to learn contemporary dance in Europe and Japanese folk dance in Japan. The result of this melting pot of influences can be seen at the Alexandriinsky on Thursday.
"I have always been intersted in Petrushka's very complex character," Saarinen has said of his work, which premiered in June 2001 in Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
"In my version [of Stravinsky's ballet], I wanted to explore those countless contradictions in the love triangle [between Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Moor], and the characters' inner fight for survival."
On Sept. 29 and 30, the British Council is bringing over Fin Walker's "Silence of the Soul," set to music by Ben Park.
"We chose Fin Walker because she is one of the most successful contemporary choreographers in Great Britain," British Council arts coordinator Anastasia Budanok said on Thursday. "Another factor was that she has just renewed her troupe, gaining performers from Britain's leading troupes, such as DV-8."
According to Sergei Shub, director of Baltiisky Dom, ticket prices for shows - at least those at his theater - will be under 100 rubles ($3.30)
"We are introducing the viewers to a new theatrical language," Shub said on Thursday. "And, like everything new, it needs the time, space and opportunity to be noticed."
See Stages for details, or visit www.arteria.ru/tanz_theater
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: The Russian edition of New Musical Express has decided to call it quits after two years of publication, and this week's issue is the last.
Alhough it contained a lot of articles translated from the British original, the Russian NME also tried to promote Russian bands that its editors considered to be "Brit-like,"such as the local pop/rock band Multfilmy.
Different in format and frequency to its British progenitor, Russia's NME was an A4 bi-weekly magazine, more in the vein of the U.K.'s teen pop glossies, such as Smash Hits and No. 1. The Moscow editors claimed that the format was more attractive to Russians.
With the magazine finally gone - presumably because few people were really interested - it seems that it did not affect the Russian public much. The main people to profit from the magazine's short existence are record pirates, because some people learned about such bands as The White Stripes, The Strokes and The Vines from it.
Iva Nova, the folk-punk band formed around a trio that quit the all-female band Babslei, will celebrate its first anniversary with a big concert featuring a few special guests at Moloko on Sunday.
The band will play a full set, augmented by performances by its friends, incluing Figa of the folk-punk bands Nordfolks and Skazy Lesa, Greblya (a psychedelia-tinged act recently formed by the garage-rock band Chufella Marzufella) and the trip-hop band Tribal Massive Orchestra.
Iva Nova's record debut, tentantively called "Iva Nova," which the band is now busy recording at a Moscow studio, is expected to appear in November.
Female-fronted alt-pop band Kolibri will appear at Red Club on Saturday, while its former frontwoman Natasha Pivovarova will play with her own band S.O.U.S. at Triel Lesbian Club, which recently started working openly having operated in secret for a few months, on Thursday.
Red Club reopened last week with new interiors and a fine concert by the Anglo-Dutch band The Legendary Pink Dots.
However, there was a small cultural misunderstanding when a bunch of goth fans wearing a lot of mascara and whitewash turned out, as rumor the rumor had gone round that the band was some sort of goth-rock legend.
In the immediate future, watch out for The Tiger Lillies, a British off-the-wall trio that many Russians love.
The band will arrive in the city this Sunday to record a collaboration with Leningrad (see article, this page), before going to play a couple of gigs in Moscow and then returning to St. Petersburg to perform a pair of shows at Red Club on Sept. 20 and 21.
Let's hope the shows are as good as the ones that the band played at the same venue in June.
- By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: hare krishna, krisna rama, hare ...
AUTHOR: By Greg Walters
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: "The food here is pure," said Alexander, the disarming man with the shaved head behind the counter at Gauranga on Ligovsky Prospect. By "pure" he meant organic, vegetarian - and, most importantly, spiritually pure.
"This food has no karma," he assured me.
A comforting thought. It had never occurred to me before that eating poorly meant not only extra calories, but also spiritual additives.
"Guaranga," he explained, means "gold" in Sanskrit. And it's also the name of a pleasant Hare Krishna-run cafe not too far from Ploshchad Vosstanniya.
I must confess I have a certain soft spot in my heart for run-down, out-of-the-way, almost-Indian restaurants run by the Hare Krishna. In fact I have eaten at a number of them east of where the Iron Curtain once hung, and they are uniformly relaxed and friendly, and the food is almost always decent though rarely is it note-worthy.
And where else does a lesson in rudimentary Sanskrit come included in the price of a $10 dinner?
When I arrived at dusk on Wednesday the place was empty, although Alexander said the crowd usually comes earlier in the day. The single dining room is a rich forest-green color, ornamented with gold-colored squiggles that run all over the ceiling and walls, and it is filled with a unique and heady smell probably best described as a cross between fried bread and vegetable compost.
I ordered a smattering of dishes at the counter, and paid up front. Then I sat back to admire the portraites of a sky-blue Krishna posing with his shepherd's flute beside his consort, the sky-blue Radha. Chimes, bells and whistles filtered out over the stereo system.
If, during my 1 1/2-hour stay Guaranda, a word was sung on the PA that was not "Hare," "Krishna" or "Rama," I certainly didn't hear it.
The food arrived all at once. The avocado salad (90 rubles, $3) was a simple but tasty assemblage of avocado and tomato bits, with just a toss of what I think was dill. Avocado, of course, is not a cheap vegetable - but even so, it was probably the smallest salad I've ever eaten in my life. Quite tasty (I am partial to avocados), but probably something you could do at home for much less money and much more food.
In fact, meagerness seems to be a common theme at Guaranga - just about every dish I ordered was smaller than I had expected.
The main course, Jagannath Sabdji, was also a bit paltry for 90 rubles; although the potatos, peas, eggplant, tomatos, and mild curry sauce combined to form a pleasant whole. I quickly realized, though, that if my main course could fit entirely inside a large American coffee mug, I was going to have to go back for more.
I ordered the mango chutney (10 rubles, $0.30) as a side order - and, for the first time in St. Petersburg, I am pleased to report that my server's warning ("careful, it's spicy") was actually worth heeding.
The stuff was positively nuclear. I loved every bite of it.
The puri - a puffy, golden, somewhat greasy bread for 20 rubles ($0.60) - was fresh cooked and deliciously savory, a wonderful change from the ubiquitous brown bread so hard to escape from in this city.
Another pleasant surprise was the lassi, for 60 rubles ($2), a traditional South Asian yogurt drink. It was thick and delicious, and cut through the heat of the mango chutney brilliantly.
I went back for seconds and ordered another puri, plus a "guaranga," for 50 rubles ($1.60). Guaranga the dish turned out to be a kind of South Asian-styled eggless quiche, with thin-sliced potatos underneath, "homemade cheese" on top, and spinach bits thrown into the mix. It was, to be honest, a bit boring, as well as a bit greasy.
All in all, I liked Guaranga, and if I ever find myself hungry in that neck of the woods again, I would seriously consider going back.
"God has brought you here," Alexander told me, with a glint in his eye,
Perhaps. But if so, then there is no need for me to recommend you try Guaranga for yourself. You will simply arrive - God willing.
Guaranga. 17 Ligovsky Prospect. Tel.: 273-7723. Open daily, noon to 9 p.m. Credit cards not accepted. Dinner for one, without alcohol (not served at all): 370 rubles ($12.10).
TITLE: ukrainian gets top prize in opera contest
AUTHOR: By Anastasia Makarova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Ukrainian baritone Vitaliy Bilyy scooped the top prize in the third Yelena Obraztsova Competition for Young Opera Singers, which wrapped up at the Shostakovich Philharmonic on Saturday.
The 28 year old, a soloist at Moscow's Novaya Opera, beat 191 other hopefuls from 21 countries to take the Grand Prix, which carries $10,000 in prize money. He also received invitations to perform at the Mariinsky Theater and Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, although these were not part of the official prizes.
Bilyy trained at the Negdanova State Conservatory in Odessa, Ukraine, and sung with the Odessa State Opera and Ballet Theater from 2000, before moving to Novaya Opera in 2002 after participating in that year's running of the capital's Tchaikovsky Competition.
The jury, which contained luminaries of the vocal world such as sopranos Joan Sutherland and Renata Scotto and countertenor Robert Expert, said it had found choosing the prizewinners very difficult.
"Many soloists who had been singing wonderfully in both the first and the second rounds failed in the third round, and vice versa," said jury chairperson Yelena Obraztsova, the renowned Leningrad-born soprano who founded the competition in 1999.
After two hours debate, first prizes went to bass Mikhail Kolelishvili and soprano Oksana Shilova, of the Mariinsky's Academy of Young Singers. According to jury member and academy Artistic Director Larisa Gergieva, Shilova's award was especially noteworthy, as "it is incredibly difficult to be noticed among more than 100 soprano hopefuls."
"You need to be noticeably superior, and have a naturally amazing voice," Gergieva said.
Bass Mikhail Petrenko and Ukrainian soprano Tatyana Hanina were given second prizes.
A prize awarded by tenor Placido Domingo also went to Petrenko, an academy member and student at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory whom Gergieva said with pride had "performed perfectly well in the competition."
Hanina shared her second prize with mezzo-soprano Yelena Maximova, who also took the audience prize, voted for by the public, who snapped up all the seats at the Shostakovich Philharmonic for the final round.
"Maximova has her own individual interpretation of musical works," Gergieva said. "She lets it pass through her heart."
Third prize among the men went to baritone Ilya Kuzmin, and was not awarded this time round in the female competition.
Gergieva said she was impressed with the strength of singers of all voices in this year's event.
"Many gifted operatic soloists were present, and demonstrated different schools and styles of singing," she said, adding that many singers apart from the prizewinners had attracted the jury.
"Susanna Bagamyan has a bright operatic voice," Gergieva said. "She sung an aria from Verdi's 'Aida' with no difficulty in hitting a top C, which is usually a stumbling block for all sopranos."
Although Robert Expert said that "it is unconditionally a great competition," jury members agreed that many competitors had a lot of weak points, and that the competition had to take that into consideration. Obraztsova was particularly demanding in listing areas that singers ought to improve.
"The level of foreign languages is very feeble, most soloists aren't used to singing legato, they can't sing quietly," she said, adding that many singers "don't understand the stylistic peculiarities of the works - they sing Mozart and Verdi in the same way, for example."
As a result, the special Obraztsova prize was not awarded this year.
Expert, a specialist in Baroque music, said that spirituality, which netted Maximova the audience prize, is an important trait in Russian voices.
"Russian soloists can easily combine head voice and chest voice, which is in the tradition of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries," he said.
However, Expert said, "Russian singers should pay much more attention to their training."
"Singing is a very hard profession," he said. "You are always a pupil, even if you're Joan Sutherland or Renata Scotto. They have to work constantly, like students. It's always necesssary to work and work hard, so I hope that [these] operatic soloists will always feel young - like Obraztsova does - and not lose enthusiasm."
TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Bukhalovo: name of a village in the Vologda region, Tipsyville, Drunktown.
More than a decade of post-Soviet power has not erased the signs of the Great October Revolution on Russia's highways. You can still find a dozen collective farms imeni Lenina, 60-letiya Oktyabrskoi revolyutsii, or XX syezda KPSS (The Lenin, 60th Anniversary of the October Revolution, or 20th Congress of the CPSU collective farms). But I am fonder of the old Russian place names that once were simply used to describe the folks who lived there or what the place was known for. There are rivers called Gryaznaya (Muddy), Gryazukha (Mudhole), Tyomnaya (Dark), Mutnaya (Murky). There is a small village on the way to Tver called Chyornaya Gryaz (Black Mud), which does not sound like a pleasant place to call home. Neither would I want to live in Musorka (from the word musor, garbage) mainly because I would spend all my time doing a bad imitation of Bette Davis, "What a dump!" I do not think I would enjoy the country life in Staryye Chervi ("Old Worms") or Tukhlyanka (from the word tukhly, rotten, "Stinkville"). And woe to those poor souls who live in Dno (Bottom), a city not far from Pskov that may have once seemed like the dregs (a Russian version of Pittsburgh?).
When you come across a name like Novopozornovo you wonder what went on there centuries ago. Pozor is something shameful, novo denotes something new. Did the local Vanya take his pants down once again at the annual fair? Did Masha cheat on her husband time and time again? However, in Trusovo you must assume the first residents were chicken-hearted (trus is a coward), in Durakovo they were simpleminded (durak is a fool), in Lokhovo they were rubes (lokh is slang for a rube, a sucker) and in Bukhalovo they made a lot of noise (bukhat means to thump or to bang), although today it sounds more like they were serious drinkers (bukhat is slang for "to drink," "to go boozing"). In Khotelovo they wanted to do something (khotet is "to want"). One wonders if they couldn't have or shouldn't have. Or maybe they did.
They probably did do something interesting in Verkhneye Zachatye, a town not far from Moscow which means "Upper Conception." And in Peredelkino they did it over and over again (peredelat - to redo).
It would be embarrassing to live in Deshyovki (Cheapies), dirty in Svinovye (Pigsville), noisy at night in Zhabino (Frogsville), dangerous in Byki or Bychikhi (Bulltowns), miserable in Khrenovoye (Lousyville), sad in Krasnaya Mogila (Beautiful Grave), and downright impossible to live near the river Voblya, which is what Russians say when they do not want to swear. (Every time someone asked you where you went fishing, you would swear at them.) On the other hand, it might be nice to live in Dobryye Pchyoly (Nice Bees) and delightful in Bolshiye Pupsy (Big Sweetie Pies).
There is a town in the Nizhny Novgorod region called Lomki, which probably referred to broken shards of something, but now reminds one of withdrawal symptoms (lomki are the shakes, the sweats, when someone stops taking drugs). And in Perm you can find Kokainovyye Gory (Cocaine Mountains). This would not be too odd if it were a mountain range, but it is a river. The mapmaker must have really tied one on.
And then there are places where the residents clearly ran out of imagination. How would you like to live in a village called Takoye (That)? Or better yet: the village of Da-Da! Oi, net!
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator.
TITLE: dutch coming to colonize again
AUTHOR: By Charles Hoedt
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Just as they did 300 years ago, hundreds of Dutchmen are coming to establish a colony on the banks of the Neva River this month.
More than 600 artists, scholars and businesspeople from the Netheralands to Peter the Great - the man they consider their country's closest Russian friend, and the 300th anniversary of his Northern Capital - which was built with the help of many Dutch architects and engineers.
With more than four weeks of events and thousands of people expected to take part, the eighth Window on the Netherlands festival is bigger than ever. The addition of a new cultural festival, Days of Dutch Culture, brings the total to over 50 events.
Highlights include the M.C. Escher exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum, a special Dutch version of the SKIF rock festival at LDM, and a vintage-car rally currently on its way to the city from Amsterdam via Warsaw and Riga. In addition, Baltiisky Dom will open a Dutch cafe, based on the renowned Dutch cafe in New York's Museum of Modern Art. The cafe will be decorated by well-known Dutch artists, and is rumored to have cost 150,000 euros.
Seven Russian radio stations are joining the party too. From Sept. 15 through Sept. 30, stations including Radio Classica, Radio Hermitage and Europa Plus will be playing Dutch classical, jazz and pop music.
And, although the Dutch traditionally have a reputation for fiscal frugality, the Netherlands are pulling out all the stops to bring gifts to the city that many see as the new Amsterdam.
Crown Prince Willem Alexander, a descendant of the Russian Romanov royal family, will officially give St. Petersburg a new modern-art gallery in the Peter and Paul Fortress' renovated Gosudarev Bastion. The project has been completely paid for by the Dutch government, which plowed over 330,000 euros into it.
"Once again, we have a great program that we hope many Russian people will enjoy," Dutch Consul General Henri Everaars said.
Coincidentally, Everaars was born in Zaandam, which Peter the Great visited in 1697 and where he got his first taste for shipbuilding and navigation, which became a lifelong obsession for the tsar. After Peter visited the Netherlands with the Russian Great Embassy, about 800 Dutchmen came to Russia to help him build his new capital.
Although the influence of countries like Italy and France on St. Petersburg is more often remarked on, it is perhaps unsurprising that many scholars think that Peter took Amsterdam as the model for his new city.
"Although the Dutch community was limited in number [the German community, for example, was much bigger], the Dutch influence was far-reaching," said Werner Scheltjens, a postgraduate student from Belgium who has recently published two books on Russian-Dutch relations in the 18th century.
"People from the Low Countries worked in high official positions for the tsars, for example as admiral in the Russian Navy," Scheltjens said. "The common language of the Russian navy was Dutch until 1725. Even six Dutch whalers came to Russia to assist developing this economic branch."
During the Days of Dutch Culture, the Netherlands-Russia Archive Center where Scheltjens works will present a series of publications about Dutch-Russian relations.
The center, based in Groningen, the city known as the Dutch Northern Capital, has 30 Russian coordinators working in St. Petersburg to help assemble all its archive information.
"We know all about the time of Peter the Great, this period has been discussed over and over again, but hardly anyone did serious research into the Dutch colony in Petersburg after his reign," Scheltjens said.
One of the new books, to be officially published in November, is called "From Our Reporter on the Spot," and is a collection of articles about the Dutch from Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti newspaper from 1728 to 1775.
The book is especially rich in new information on Dutch sailors and businesspeople, imported not only fresh vegetables to the new Russian capital, but also herring and meat, and produced flowers, roofing tiles and bricks.
One merchant mentioned even had two black children, aged seven and eight, for sale. "They speak English and German," the newspaper wrote in 1769, when the Netherlands was a world power with colonies all over the world and active in slave trade.
In the last two weeks of September, two trade missions from the Netherlands will visit Petersburg to work with Russian companies. One mission will comprise companies operating across the Netherlands, while the other will come from the province of Twente, where most of St. Petersburg's Dutch community from 1706 to 1726 came from.
According to St. Petersburg Business Guide, the last descendent of the former Dutch colony in Petersburg was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1927.
"Window on the Netherlands" officially runs from Sept. 15 through Sept. 30, although events take place from Sept. 8 through Oct. 11. Links: www.holland2003.spb.ru, www.petersburg2003.nl
Through Sept. 28
"Cobra and Contemporaries" exhibition State Hermitage Museum
Saturday, Sept. 13
s 3 p.m. Opening of the exhibition "Boundless" Fotoimage Gallery, Free Arts Foundation at Pushkinskaya 10
Monday, Sept. 15
s 4 p.m. Opening of an exhibition of works by contemporary artists from Rotterdam Artists Union of Russia Exhibition Center
s 4 p.m. Opening of the Dutch Room cafe Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. "Tsar Pjotr," a production by the Zaandam Muztheater Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. Concert sponsored by the Mikhail Gnesein Foundation House of Composers, 45 Bolshaya Morskaya Ul.
Tuesday Sept. 16
s 10 a.m. Opening of "St. Petersburg, My Love," an exhibition of works by Katya Westerhoff Association of Free Artists Gallery
s 2 p.m. Opening of the exhibition "Escher at the Hermitage" State Hermitage Museum
s 2 p.m. Jazz masterclass Mussorgsky Music College, 36 Mokhovaya Ul.
s 3 p.m. "Tsar Pjotr" Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. Concert sponsored by the Mikhail Gnesein Foundation House of Composers, 45 Bolshaya Morskaya Ul.
s 7 p.m. Jazz concert by Iga Henneman Drama Academy Student Theater
s 8 p.m. Mike del Ferro Trio jazz concert JFC Jazz Club
Wednesday, Sept. 17
s 3 p.m. Concert by the Rainbow Ensemble Marble Palace
s 6 p.m. "Vincent, Madmen's Blues," a musical about the life of painter Vincent van Gogh State Hermitage Museum
s 6:30 p.m. "History of Dutch Families in St. Petersburg and Their Descendants," a genealogical seminar Russian National Library, 18 Sadovaya Ul.
s 7 p.m. Mike del Ferro Trio jazz concert Jazz Philharmonic Hall
s 7 p.m. "The Neverlands," a play by the Kris Nikilson Theater Company Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. Concert sponsored by the Mikhail Gnesein Foundation Hessed Avraam, 45 Sampsonievsky Pr.
Thursday, Sept. 18
s 10:30 "Niderlandika," presentation by the Netherlands-Russia Archive Center Blok Library, 20 Nevsky Pr.
s 7 p.m. "The Neverlands," a play by the Kris Nikilson Theater Company Baltiisky Dom
Friday, Sept. 19
s 3 p.m. Book presentation Russian National Library, 165 Moskovsky Pr.
s 3 p.m. Concert by the Rainbow Ensemble Glinka Philharmonic
s 4 p.m. Opening of the exhibition "The Reus Collection" Kunstkamera Saturday, Sept. 20
s Noon Concert by St. Philomen Royal Wind Orchestra Cathedral Square, Peter and Paul Fortress
s 7 p.m. Jazz concert by Gus Janssen and David Queksilber Jazz Philharmonic Hall
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Male Byzantine Choir of North Holland Dom Kochneva, 41 Nab. Reki Fontanki Sunday
s 1 p.m. Concert by the Male Byzantine Choir of North Holland Kazan Cathedral
s 4 p.m. Lecture-seminar by Eric van Grootel State Hermitage Museum
s 7 p.m. "From Black to Green," concert by the St. Philomen Royal Wind Orchestra Hermitage Theater
s 7 p.m. Concert of contemporary Dutch music Blok Library, 20 Nevsky Pr.
s 8 p.m. Jazz concert by Gus Janssen and David Queksilber Jazz Philharmonic Hall
Monday, Sept. 22
s 10 a.m. Fifth Russian-Dutch legal conference Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel
s 6 p.m. Concert by the Male Byzantine Choir of North Holland Catholic Cathedral, Pushkin
s 7 p.m. Jazz concert by Michel Borstlap and Trente Oosterhuis Jazz Philharmonic Hall
s 7 p.m. The play "Amour Fou" Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. The opera "Tattooed Tongues" Musical Comedy Theater, 13 Italyanskaya Ul.
s 7 p.m. The play "The Bottom, or From the Depths of the Soul" Baltiisky Dom
Tuesday, Sept. 23
s 5 p.m. Official presentation of the new art gallery Gosudarev Bastion, Peter and Paul Fortress
s 6 p.m. Loos Ensemble concert Pro Arte Institute, 3 Peter and Paul Fortress
s 7 p.m. "Amour Fou" Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. Concert by the St. Philomen Royal Wind Orchestra/Rotterdam Boys Choir Shostakovich Philharmonic
s 7 p.m. The play "The Bottom, or From the Depths of the Soul" Baltiisky Dom
8 p.m. Jazz concert by Eric Vlijmans JFC Jazz Club
Wednesday, Sept. 24
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Rotterdam Boys Choir Petrovsky College, 35 Baltiiskaya Ul.
s 7 p.m. Concert by Huub Emmer and the Eric Vlijmans Trio Drama Academy Student Theater
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Konni Janssen Dances group Alexandriinsky Theater
Thusday, Sept. 25
s 5 p.m. Opening of a literary-musical Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fontanka House
s 7 p.m. Performance by the Kristina de Chatel Dance Theater Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Moscow Contemporary-Music Ensemble House of Composers
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
s 8 p.m. Jazz concert by Michel Borstlap JFC Jazz Club
Friday, Sept. 26
s 5 p.m. Opening of a lecture cycle State Hermitage Museum
s 7 p.m. Concert of ethnic music by the Vedaki and iMprovised Roots Music groups Raikin Variety Theater, 27 Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ul.
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Rotterdam Boys Choir Krasnoselsky Palace, Pesochnaya Naberezhnaya
s 7 p.m. Evening of poetry Blok Museum, 20 Nevsky Pr.
s 7 p.m. Performance by the Kristina de Chatel Dance Theater Baltiisky Dom
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Saturday, Sept. 27
s 2 p.m. Literature and music seminar Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fontanka House
s 6 p.m. SKIF LDM, 47 Ul. Professora Popova
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Rotterdam Boys Choir Smolny Cathedral
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Sunday, Sept. 28
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Willem Breker group Drama Academy Student Theater
s 7 p.m. Premiere of the opera "The Imaginary Philosophers" by Domenico Paisiello Hermitage Theater
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Monday, Sept. 29
s 7 p.m. Premiere of the opera "The Imaginary Philosophers" by Domenico Paisiello Hermitage Theater
s 7 p.m. Concert by the Dalgu Ensemble JFC Jazz Club
s 8 p.m. Performance by the Stoikost Orchestra Parisiana Cinema
Tuesday, Sept. 30
s 7 p.m. Performance by the Orkater Theater Bryantsev Young Audiences Theater, 1 Pionerskaya Pl.
TITLE: artist's life is a biographer magnet
AUTHOR: By Roberta Smith
PUBLISHER: new york times services
TEXT: The arrival of "Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work" by Hayden Herrera confirms that the Armenian-born American painter has largely eluded the three hefty biographies that have clustered around the centennial of his birth in the early 1900s.
First was "From a High Place: A Life of Arshile Gorky" (1999) by Matthew Spender, a sculptor and writer who is married to Gorky's older daughter, Maro. Then came "Black Angel: The Life of Arshile Gorky" (2000) by Nouritza Matossian, a London-based music critic of Armenian descent.
Herrera, the author of an acclaimed biography of Frida Kahlo, has her own Gorky connection. Her godmother is Mougouch, as Gorky renamed Agnes Magruder (now Agnes Gorky Fielding), an independent-minded 20-year-old socialite when he met and married in 1941. (Without explanation, Herrera also mentions that her father was Mougouch's second husband.)
Yet while these books provide vastly more information about the artist's extraordinary life, none ties his achievement to history, art history or his tortured psyche as memorably as Harold Rosenberg's slim, fiercely lucid "Arshile Gorky: The Man, the Time, the Idea" of 1962.
Gorky's saga is a biographer magnet, bracketed as it is by the Ottoman Empire's killing of more than a million Armenians in World War I (when his mother starved to death) and his death by suicide in 1948. In between he found salvation in denial, fabrication and an inordinate ambition to be a great painter.
By 1926, he was living in Greenwich Village, having shed his real name (Vosdanik Adoian) and recast himself as Russian, a cousin of Maxim Gorky. Over the next 15 years he painstakingly worked his way through Ingres, Cezanne, Picasso and Miro to the vanguard of Abstract Expressionism. The voluptuous forms and glowing colors of his late abstractions were inspired by memories of the landscape of his childhood, recalled in three breakthrough summers of drawing from nature on a northern Virginia farm belonging to Mougouch's family.
Then, within 18 months beginning in 1946, Gorky endured a devastating studio fire; a colostomy for rectal cancer; and a car accident that left his neck broken and his painting arm paralyzed. Finally, the marriage that had brought happiness and artistic fulfillment collapsed under the strain. Mougouch had a brief affair with the Chilean Surrealist Roberto Matta Echaurren, a close friend of the couple. In physical and emotional agony, Gorky hanged himself.
Herrera's "Gorky" is the most thoroughly researched and reliable, and it devotes the most space to Gorky's art. She argues convincingly that Gorky was born in 1900 rather than 1903, 1904 or 1905, and gives the frankest discussion of his sex life. Like Spender, she reappraises Mougouch's predicament, seeing her affair with Matta as desperation, not betrayal. But she lacks his ease as a writer and does not, for example, detail as vividly Gorky's bonds with his strange, sometimes violent Armenian relatives or his early friendships with Stuart Davis, John Graham and Willem de Kooning.
For long stretches Herrera's Gorky is vague and out of focus, especially in the book's shapeless, repetitive first half, which at times seems barely edited. We learn more than once that Gorky had a mania for work and that he was attracted to beautiful young women he could "teach and mold." While elucidating, Herrera's meticulous analyses of individual paintings can drag on or conclude with banal interpretations.
Perhaps Herrera felt hobbled by the crowded field. She seems to have included every fact she unearthed. Some are fascinating, like Gorky's putting a 1917 date on a 1937 portrait for a show at the Museum of Modern Art. Many are clutter, including the names of the play and theater in Cincinnati where one of Gorky's girlfriends met her unidentified husband. Perhaps the problem is that Gorky's tumultuous life was not, like Kahlo's, explicated in passionate letters and overtly autobiographical paintings.
Ultimately, Herrera's book is saved by a Frida of its own: Mougouch, whose letters she quotes from extensively and to telling effect. Once Mougouch enters the picture, Herrera's insights sharpen, the pace picks up and the story becomes a portrait of a rich and unusual union that made possible some great painting.
In addition to giving Gorky two daughters whom he adored, Mougouch was willingly molded into an artist's wife in the most laudable sense. She identified totally with him and functioned as his personal aesthetic sounding board and liaison with the art world. Yet something in her background and perhaps in Gorky's example enabled her to remain or become her own person, and her letters provide an intimate, oddly mature account of their seven years together and their painful disintegration. Although she never knew about her husband's Armenian past, as Gorky's tendencies toward jealously, violence and paranoia were worsened by his tribulations, Mougouch gradually realized that his problems were bigger than both of them. Worn down by his raging rejection and domination, she turned to the affair with Matta that, she later wrote, "ruined my life in one zip."
By the end of Herrera's accelerating narrative, you may wish it would continue, following Gorky's widow and daughters as they come to terms with the legacy he left them. Perhaps Herrera's next book will tell that story. It seems to be one that she knows exceptionally well.
"Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work." By Hayden Herrera 767 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $45.
TITLE: an over-the-top return for the power-puff girls
AUTHOR: By Elvis Mitchell
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is like eating a bowl of Honeycomb drenched in Red Bull - a dizzying mouthful of unabashed silliness that leads to an equally precipitous crash once the buzz wears off after the film's first hour. Still, it would be fair to say that the movie is better than both the television show that inspired it and its film predecessor. That's half a compliment at best.
Keep in mind that the high point of the series was Farrah Fawcett riding a skateboard away from some heavily sideburned thugs. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu return as clumsy Natalie, boy-crazy Dylan and semi-prim Alex, bouncing girl adventurers, in a sequel whose sugar-rush absurdity almost defeats the forces of logic, taste and conventional narrative. It is a defect that might undermine a lesser movie but that in this case proves to be as cheerfully, enjoyably humid as the first blast of summer light and heat.
"Full Throttle" is so much like a feature-length cartoon that you may find yourself sitting through the end credits waiting to see who provided the voices for the, if you'll pardon the expression, characters. The reward for your patience will be a music video with the Angels frolicking in wet and soapy slow motion, washing a Porsche as "Anyway You Want It" massages your temporal lobe.
The director, McG, and the writers inform the picture with an abiding sweetness by treating the Angels like a family. The disembodied Charlie - whose voice, as in the television show, is suavely provided by John Forsythe - is still a Daddy Figure. The terrific trio is enlisted to retrieve a pair of purloined silver rings that blow the cover of everyone in the federal witness protection program, with predictable lethal results.
But what carries more weight than any threat to law and order - which the Angels can overcome with one hand tucked into thongs behind their backs - is peril to the bonds that hold the three together.
In "Full Throttle." there are three looming perils to Charlie's brood. One is Madison Lee (Demi Moore), the retired Angel-gone-renegade who is saddled with providing the traditional danger to the forces of good. Another is Dylan's former lover, the Irish mob leader Seamus O'Grady (Justin Theroux), a color Xerox of Max Cady from "Cape Fear" - complete with a tattoo covering his back and a score to settle. And perhaps the most insidious of all is Pete (Luke Wilson), who has just moved in with Natalie and may pop the question.
Amusingly, the movie hasn't nerve enough to deal with what Pete's presence really intimates: jealousy, especially since the Angels seem as happy to tumble into one another's embrace as the Aaron Spelling stablemates Starsky and Hutch did.
There is a more specific nonfamilial intrusion, the return of the silent but deadly Thin Man (Crispin Glover), who exploits Dylan's penchant for falling for the bad guy; this probably explains why she ended up with Tom Green in the first screen version of "Charlie's Angels." Family peeks in from another direction, too, as a new Bosley (the nubby-silk Bernie Mac) steps into the mix to replace his brother.
In one of the many nods to other movies, the Bosley clan is basically Steve Martin's family from "The Jerk"; it turns out that the original Bos, played by Bill Murray in the last film, was adopted by a black family. And in "Full Throttle," Mama Bosley takes in another orphaned white boy, Max (Shia LaBeouf).
"Throttle" seems to have so little confidence in the new Bosley that his subplot feels tacked on and condescending. The director isn't up to using Mac's acting talents as well as Steven Soderbergh did in "Ocean's Eleven."
The movie is so abundantly playful that when one of the characters, like Dylan, needs to register fear, her fright is too insubstantial to throw a shadow (though by now, if it hadn't been for her performance in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," we'd have forgotten that Barrymore could even act). Obviously, the director chose not to take the high road of ratcheting up the intensity in making a movie inspired by a television show, as with "The Untouchables" or "The Fugitive." Rather, he went for the no-road approach: "Full Throttle" was fired out of a cannon.
To that end, this sequel spends so much time keeping its stars airborne, suspended in kung-fu somersaults, back flips and throw-downs that appear to be a combination of Hong Kong action film and Herbal Essence commercial, that it seems to want you to believe they really are angels. The stunt performers get so much screen time they should be billed as co-stars.
The "angels" motif is often rendered visually, too: the Angels, including Moore, are frequenty given a shimmer that looks like a haloish backlight. The film is so thoroughly unapologetic about its riffing that the cameos (including the appearance of a totemic figure who, like Dylan, has a past) and the lively score (including updated versions of the Angels' theme and segue music) will make you smile as much as the Angels themselves.
There's something endearingly dopey about the picture's grown-up girl-power fantasies. The movie's conception of adulthood is to show that 40ish Dark Angel, Madison, as being in such spectacular shape that she upstages the don't-dare-scratch-me red Ferrari she drives.
With such plot elements as a Justice Department official who has a private jet and a United States marshal (Robert Patrick) who drives a Maserati Spyder, the movie feels cobbled together by a particularly well-heeled 13-year-old. The cars - which include another, vintage Ferrari, a 1967 GTO and an Aston-Martin DB5 - are as lovingly photographed as the actors. The movie seems as if it's partly underwritten by Forza magazine.
An extreme motocross chase-fight scene - daredevil motorbikes on rough-and-tumble cross-country "tracks" - which qualifies as "Ben-Hur" for the ESPN2 crowd, explains the "full throttle" part of the title. The smirky sexuality and what passes for innuendo, with the Angels offering fully clothed lap dances while backed by the dance troupe Pussycat Dolls, is more of a tease than a ninth-grade first date.
In addition to lifts from "The Jerk" and "Face-Off" - Madison keeps a pair of gold-plated automatics tucked in a holster behind her back like Nicolas Cage - the movie rams home so many pop-culture quotes and cameos that it functions as a time capsule, an artifact grab that will probably be taught in American culture classes at Yale.
"Full Throttle" is a novelty of sorts: the first mass-market phenomenon that wouldn't cast a reflection if posed before a mirror. And that makes sense. There's something slightly vampiric about the way the movie drains the life fluids of everything that has come before it.
By the time the sugar rush of the first hour wears off, the movie falls back on a VH1 classic score to keep its twitching fingers from falling asleep. (The film's exhaustive shallowness is so apparent that the Edwyn Collins hit "A Girl Like You" almost registers as symbolism.) "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is like digging through the world's grooviest thrift store treasures; even rummaging pirates won't care if the booty is on duty.
"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is showing at Barrikada, Crystal Palace, Kolizei, Leningrad and Mirage Cinema. See Screens for details.
TITLE: U.S. Drafts New UN Resolution on Iraq
AUTHOR: By Edith M. Lederer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: UNITED NATIONS - Reaching out to the international community for help restoring stability and security to Iraq, the administration of U.S. President George Bush on Wednesday offered the United Nations a bigger role in Iraq's security, political transition and reconstruction.
But whether it is big enough to satisfy members of the UN Security Council remains to be seen.
The draft resolution would transform the U.S.-led military force in Iraq into a UN-authorized multinational force under a unified command. It would also ask the Iraqi Governing Council to cooperate with the United Nations and U.S. officials in Baghdad to produce a timetable and program for drafting a new constitution and holding democratic elections.
But Secretary of State Colin Powell, who outlined the U.S. proposal at a news conference, made clear that "the United States will continue to play a dominant role" both politically and militarily. An American commander will take charge of the multinational force and U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer will keep the top political post, he said.
The United States faces tough negotiations on its proposed UN resolution that seeks troops and money from all nations for Iraq's postwar reconstruction, but doesn't relinquish political or military control of the country.
France, which led opposition to the war on Iraq, has made clear that if the United States wants to share the burden of restoring peace to Iraq, it must share information, authority, and decision-making.
France, Germany, Russia and other council members are also seeking a much larger UN role in Iraq and the speedy restoration of Iraqi sovereignty - a demand reiterated Thursday by Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said Thursday that the U.S. offer to share Iraq's postwar reconstruction was in line with the objectives of China, which has "actively participated in the endeavor."
To council countries that want responsibilities in Iraq to be shared, Powell said, "With the resolution, you're essentially putting the Security Council into the game."
Powell discussed the proposed resolution Wednesday with his Russian, German and French counterparts, as well as with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte followed up, holding meetings with Annan and the four other veto-wielding permanent council members - France, Britain, Russia and China.
"I would expect by the end of the week ... I will have received indications from my Security Council colleagues with respect to their reaction to the resolution and what suggestions they might have," Powell said. "We will see where we are at the beginning of [next] week and push it as aggressively as we can."
U.S. diplomats are expected to engage in behind-the-scenes negotiations on the text of the resolution, to ensure it would be agreeable first to the veto-wielding permanent members and then to the rest of the Security Council.
That would enable the UN's most powerful body to project a unanimous international stand on what happens next in Iraq.
Powell said he didn't foresee "an extended process" of negotiations. Other council diplomats said they would like the resolution to be adopted before ministers gather for the meeting of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23.
But some European countries are likely to resist, or protest, if the United States continues to try to hold on to all the lucrative and influential ventures - such as oil contracts and the political rebuilding process, according to some council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Council diplomats expect France to take the toughest position, pressing for the United Nations to take charge of Iraq's political transition - though Paris is unlikely to achieve that degree of power for the world body.
"The problem is, the situation is so difficult there on the ground, the question is how to win the peace - and how to have the situation stabilized," said France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, who hadn't yet seen the text. "So we will see the resolution with this in mind, how to help the situation stabilize, and how to have the Iraqis recover their sovereignty as soon as possible, because this is essential."
Pakistan's deputy UN ambassador, Masood Khalid, said how central a role the United Nations is given in the new resolution "will be very carefully scrutinized and debated."
The postwar operation is costing the United States about $3.9 billion a month, and has strained the American military, which has some 140,000 troops stationed in Iraq.
The resolution envisions a substantial infusion of international aid to defray costs now largely borne by U.S. taxpayers. At the same time, the administration is preparing a new budget request for $60 billion to $70 billion for reconstruction and the military operation of Iraq - nearly double what Congress was expecting, The Washington Post reported.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on his way to the Mideast, said countries that donate troops and money in Iraq would have a voice in both civil and military operations there.
"To the extent countries step up with troops and support and money, they have a seat at the table," Rumsfeld said. "They have the opportunity to work with us and the Iraqis."
Key provisions in the U.S. draft would:
. Call on UN member states to help train and equip an Iraqi police force.
. Invite the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to cooperate with the United Nations and U.S. officials in Baghdad to produce "a timetable and program for the drafting of a new constitution for Iraq and for the holding of democratic elections."
. Ask the UN representative in Iraq to facilitate a "national dialogue and consensus building" to promote the political transition.
. Ask all UN member states and international and regional organizations "to accelerate the provision of substantial financial contributions to support the Iraqi reconstruction effort" and appeal to international financial institutions to take immediate steps to provide a full range of loans and other assistance.
. Call on countries in the region "to prevent the transit of terrorists, arms for terrorists, and financing that would support terrorists."
TITLE: Abbas Asks Parliament To Support His Efforts
AUTHOR: By Lara Sukhtian
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, weakened by a power struggle with Yasser Arafat, on Thursday asked parliament to back him, saying that otherwise no progress can be made on a U.S.-backed peace plan.
In his speech to parliament, Abbas said there were "problems" between his government and the Palestinian leadership, although he did not mention Arafat by name.
Abbas hinted at resignation if he did not win support, saying he would not put up a fight to keep his job, which he described as a "difficult mission that some would say is impossible."
Just before the session, Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli in a shooting ambush near the West Bank town of Jenin. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an armed group linked to Arafat's ruling Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.
In an angry demonstration outside the parliament building earlier Thursday, about 200 Fatah activists promised to defend Arafat, and seven masked men from the crowd broke down a door to the building and smashed windows. Unarmed guards eventually forced the men out.
Abbas said the disputes among Palestinians leaders are not a personal issue, but part of an underlying problem.
"For without the oneness of authority and without the unity of decision-making and without an absolute enforcement of law on all, and without a legitimate force in the hands of one authority and without political pluralism, we will not advance one step on the political track," he said, referring to the "road map" peace plan.
The prime minister told legislators it was up to them to create these conditions.
"You either provide the resources of power and support those things ... or you take it back," he said, but stopped short of demanding a vote of confidence in Thursday's session.
Abbas was summing up his first 100 days in office, a period marked by somewhat reduced violence but also disappointment over a lack of movement in implementing the U.S.-backed "road-map" peace plan.
A cease-fire declared June 29 by militant groups collapsed after a Hamas suicide bombing in mid-August killed 21 people on a Jerusalem bus.
Abbas told lawmakers he would continue talks with militants rather than launching a campaign to disarm and dismantle their groups.
"This government does not deal with the opposition groups with the policing mentality, but the mentality of dialogue," he said.
The parliament speaker, Ahmed Qureia, has temporarily blocked a confidence vote Abbas had wanted to follow his address.
Qureia said parliament shouldn't be dragged into the struggle between Abbas and Arafat, who have been arguing over job definition and control over security forces.
However, a vote might be held next week, if mediation efforts fail.
Abbas was reluctantly appointed by Arafat as the Palestinians' first prime minister in April under pressure from Israel and the United States, which have accused Arafat of blocking peace efforts.
TITLE: Roddick Beats Rain, Malisse To Advance
AUTHOR: By Hal Bock
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - The soggy U.S. Open limped through another rain-soaked day on Wednesday, completing just one match and further backing up a schedule that could stretch the tournament into next week.
After managing to squeeze just three matches in between numerous rain delays on Monday and Tuesday, organizers waited better than 13 hours before finishing another one on Wednesday - Day 10 of America's Grand Slam.
The start of play was delayed by nearly three hours because of a stubborn mist that left courts damp and unplayable. When the weather cleared long enough for a match to begin, top-seeded Kim Clijsters won three games from No. 5 Amelie Mauresmo in 10 minutes.
Then it started raining again.
About seven hours later, two men's matches reached court. No. 4 Andy Roddick was up 6-3, 2-2 against Xavier Malisse and No. 12 Sjeng Schalken had a 5-1 jump on No. 8 Rainer Schuettler when the weather window closed and play was halted by still another rain delay. They resumed long enough for Roddick to win 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). Schalken and Schuettler returned to the court but never played another point. They will resume on Thursday.
"It was tough conditions out there," Roddick said. "The ball was like a watermelon. I was glad to get through it. I don't have to worry about the weather tomorrow.
"I didn't think we'd get on the court tonight. I was hanging out in a suite. Somebody said, it's not raining anymore. I'd better get downstairs.
"It's tough, frustrating. You want to get out there. You want to play."
The tournament had ambitious plans for Wednesday, scheduling a record 106 matches in an effort to catch up. At day's end, the event was 174 matches behind where it was supposed to be with 388 matches completed at a time when it was supposed to have finished 562. There are 110 on Thursday's schedule.
The biggest problem is on the men's side of the draw where just two players, Roddick and top-seeded Andre Agassi, has reached the quarterfinals. If the Open is to conclude as scheduled on Sunday with the men's final, it would require the men still stuck in the round-of-16 to play best-of-five matches on four straight days, a grueling schedule.
"I can't imagine playing three out of five sets two days in a row, let along three or four, which is what it's looking like," said third-seeded Lindsay Davenport, whose quarterfinal match against No. 24 Paola Suarez was among Wednesday's postponements.
The women face an ambitious schedule of their own, with their quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday, semifinals Friday and women's final Saturday night.
"We continue to make our best effort to complete this tournament on time," said Arlen Kantarian, the USTA's chief executive for professional tennis. "That challenge, of course, has gotten all the more challenging. We are determined to make the best of a very difficult situation."
That said, Kantarian added that inclement weather on Thursday would push the entire schedule back another day, meaning the men's final would be played on Monday.
The last time the Open stretched past Sunday was 1987 when rainouts forced the final to Monday. Ivan Lendl needed 4 hours, 47 minutes to defeat Mats Wilander in four sets for the title.
Perhaps the players most disrupted by the rain this week were No. 15 Ai Sugiyama and No. 29 Francesa Schiavone.
They began their fourth-round match on Monday. It was halted in a first-set tiebreak by rain. They returned long enough on Tuesday for Sugiyama to win the tiebreak and take a 5-4 lead in the second set before the match was interrupted by rain again. They never played a point on Wednesday and so their match remains in limbo, four days after it began. The other women's fourth-round match still incomplete has No. 7 Anastasia Myskina leading Mary Pierce 7-6 (7-2), 2-0.
The USTA hopes to finish those matches Thursday and then move the winners immediately into the quarterfinals Thursday night, with No. 6 Jennifer Capriati to face the Sugiyama-Schiavone winner and No. 2 Justine Henin-Hardenne to play the Myskina-Pierce winner.
The other women's quarters are scheduled to begin Thursday's program with the completion of Clijsters vs. Mauresmo and Davenport against Suarez.
The Open also hopes to complete the men's round-of-16 during the day.
In the bracket whose matches started Tuesday, No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero leads Todd Martin 6-2, No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan is up 4-3 against No. 6 Lleyton Hewitt, and No. 5 Guillermo Coria leads Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 2-0.
Four other round-of-16 matches, the completion of Schuettler-Schalken and Roddick-Malisse, as well as No. 7 Carlos Moya vs. No. 22 Younes El Aynaoui and No. 2 Roger Federer vs. No. 13 David Nalbandian are also on the schedule.
If all of that falls in place, the men's quarters would be played during the day Friday with the women's semis in an added session Friday night. Then the men's semis would be played as scheduled Saturday before the prime-time women's final Saturday night and the men's final on Sunday.
That would be without any more rain on a tournament that has had more than its share.
TITLE: Ortiz Leads Bosox Over White Sox
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CHICAGO - David Ortiz finally leaves the AL Central, and still finds a way to haunt the Chicago White Sox.
Ortiz homered in back-to-back at-bats Wednesday night, including a solo shot in the 10th inning to give the Boston Red Sox a 5-4 victory over the White Sox.
The loss dropped Chicago into a first-place tie with Minnesota in the AL Central.
"He definitely does some damage against us," Frank Thomas said of Ortiz. "We have to keep fighting. We just need to win by one game."
Ortiz spent the previous five seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago's fierce AL Central rival. And he was brutal to the White Sox when he was there, hitting .375 against them last year and .353 lifetime.
He may have moved to Boston as a free agent in the offseason, but still knows how to give Chicago fits. He went 3-for-5 with four RBIs Wednesday night, matching his career and season highs.
"The guy's having a great season, and today made it even better," Boston manager Grady Little said. "He's a good kid, he's a good teammate and he means a lot to this ballclub."
Manny Ramirez showed how much he means to the Red Sox, too. Back in the lineup a day after being benched, he went 2-for-4 with a run scored and made a great defensive play in the ninth to save what would have been a game-winning run for the White Sox.
With the victory, Boston moved three games behind the AL East-leading Yankees heading into their weekend series. The Red Sox also pulled even with Seattle in the wild-card race.
"Obviously some things have been going on the last week, and people like to stir up controversy," Boston pitcher Derek Lowe said. "We stay together. And we don't let one game affect us. This game isn't going to affect Friday night's game."
Both teams struggled to get clutch hits early. The Red Sox left runners at second and third in both the sixth and seventh innings, while the White Sox stranded six through the first six innings.
But they found their grooves in the seventh, and Ramirez and Ortiz seemed to have sealed a victory in the eighth.
Ramirez was out of the lineup Tuesday in a thinly veiled punishment for his recent behavior. He missed the weekend series against the Yankees with a severe sore throat, yet was spotted out Saturday night.
Then when Little asked him to pinch-hit Monday, Ramirez said he was still "too weak."
Though Little claimed he wasn't punishing Ramirez by benching him, the message was clear. And Ramirez apparently got it.
He drew a leadoff walk off Scott Sullivan in the eighth, and Ortiz followed with a home run to give Boston the 4-3 lead.
"I was surprised Ortiz didn't hit the ball further - it was right down the middle of the plate," Sullivan said. "A big ballgame like that, there's no excuses, to tell you the truth. I just didn't get the job done."
Jose Valentin bailed out Sullivan with a leadoff homer in the eighth off Mike Timlin, and the White Sox had a chance to win it in the ninth. Thomas singled with one out, and Aaron Rowand came in to run.
Magglio Ordonez hit a grounder down the left-field line that rolled to the wall. Third-base coach Bruce Kimm decided to send Rowand, but Ramirez made a perfect throw to Nomar Garciaparra, who rifled the ball home to beat Rowand by about 2 meters.
Chicago Cubs 8, St. Louis 7. Moises Alou had a career-high five hits, including a go-ahead single in the eighth inning that capped a comeback from a six-run deficit and led the Chicago Cubs over the St. Louis Cardinals 8-7.
"Against St. Louis, right in the middle of a pennant race, for me to come up clutch and get the game-winning hit was awesome," he said. "It was a huge game. Down 6-0 this team really showed a lot of heart."
Before the game, Alou said he was still upset over an umpire's call that the Cubs felt cost them the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader. A bases-loaded drive down the line by Alou was called foul - even though a photo appeared to show it hit the line - and the Cubs lost 2-0.
Alou then went out and drove in four runs to lead the Cubs to a big win in a tension-filled game that included a shouting match between managers and the two starting pitchers hitting each other with pitches.
"That was a great, great victory for us," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "We were hitting the ball hard all day long and had nothing to show for it. The guy's kept battling and fighting and grinding and grinding."
"This was the ultimate comeback in a big game and a big series," Baker added.
Chicago trailed 6-0 before scoring three runs in the sixth, then allowed a run in the seventh before closing to 7-6 with three more runs in the bottom half.
Mark Grudzielanek hit an RBI triple in the eighth and scored on Alou's single. Both hits came off Woody Williams (14-8), making his first relief appearance since pitching for Toronto at the New York Yankees on June 6, 1996.
"We had nobody else available," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "It was his day to throw in the bullpen. It's a shame that he had to go in that tough of a situation."
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Pacers Ink Carlisle Deal
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - New Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird signed Carlisle to a four-year contract Wednesday to replace Isiah Thomas, who was fired last week.
Carlisle was Bird's hand-picked choice, and the move had been talked about since Bird returned to the Pacers in July. Carlisle, fired by the Detroit Pistons in June, was the only person Bird talked with about the vacancy.
"In Detroit, it ended suddenly and abruptly, but this situation came up suddenly, too," Carlisle said. "Not many coaching changes happen at the beginning of September."
Bird, Carlisle and Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh all declined comment on how much the deal was worth.
But Bird indicated Carlisle agreed to a contract worth less than the going rate for an experienced NBA coach, at least initially, because the Pacers still owe Thomas $5 million for this season.
Richter Retires
NEW YORK (AP) - New York Rangers goalie Mike Richter was officially to retire Thursday, nearly 10 months after he was sidelined with a second concussion.
Richter spent his entire 14-year NHL career with the Rangers. The popular goalie led the team to the Stanley Cup in 1994 - the Rangers' first NHL title since 1940 - and leaves with more than a dozen club records.
His record was 301-258-73, and he holds team marks for most games in net at 666, and most minutes played at 38,185.
The Rangers called a Thursday news conference, and a hockey source who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity confirmed Wednesday it was to announce Richter's retirement.
Richter, who turns 37 later this month, was kneed in the head during a game against the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 5, 2002 - the final win of his career. The hit came after Richter missed the final nine games from the previous season with a skull fracture, which occurred after he was hit in the mask by a shot.
A three-time all-star, Richter was also a member of the 1998 and 2002 U.S. Olympic hockey teams, the latter of which won the silver medal in Salt Lake City, and was the goalie on the U.S. team that won the World Cup in 1996. He was MVP of the 1994 NHL All-Star game, and holds eight Rangers' regular-season records and five postseason records.