SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #901 (69), Friday, September 12, 2003
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TITLE: Berezovsky Granted Political Asylum
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Boris Berezovsky, the controversial powerbroker who has been living in exile in London for nearly three years after locking horns with President Vladimir Putin, has been granted political asylum by the British government.
But British courts still have to rule on whether to continue to consider Russia's request for his extradition to face fraud charges.
"The British Home Office sent a letter to Berezovsky dated Sept. 9 stating it had granted him political asylum," Vladimir Voronkov, an aide to Berezovsky, said by telephone Wednesday.
The Home Office said it could not comment on individual immigration cases. But a British government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Berezovsky had been granted refugee status.
Berezovsky was the first to announce the decision, speaking Wednesday on Ekho Moskvy radio. He was unavailable for further comment, but Alex Goldfarb, the head of the New York-based Foundation for Civil Liberties, which is funded by Berezovsky, said he was delighted by the news.
"Naturally, I am very glad and satisfied with the decision because it has been recognized at the level of the British government that if he returns to Russia he will face political persecution," Goldfarb said by telephone from London.
The government official said it was now up to the courts-and British Home Secretary David Blunkett as the ultimate overseer of the process- to decide whether extradition proceedings against Berezovsky could still continue. "There is a clear dilemma," the official said.
Under British law, refugee status is granted if there are well-founded grounds to fear persecution at home on the basis of race, religion, nationality, personal opinions or membership in a particular social group. British extradition laws, meanwhile, state that extradition cannot take place if it can be proved that charges against the accused are in some way connected to his or her political opinions.
Berezovsky has said the call for his extradition on charges he defrauded the state out of 60 billion rubles in a 1994 deal for the AvtoVAZ carmaker is an attempt to muzzle him as Russia enters election season and as payback for his opposition moves. He has claimed his life would be in danger if he was sent back to Russia.
Russian law enforcement officials were unavailable for comment late Wednesday.
Berezovsky had been credited with engineering Putin's vault into the presidency, but he soon ruffled Kremlin feathers by loudly claiming that Putin was plotting a course to undermine democratic freedoms created under President Boris Yeltsin. After he said he was forced to sell his stake in ORT television, he left Russia in November 2000 and began an opposition campaign.
First he accused the Federal Security Service of being behind the 1999 apartment bombings that sparked the second war in Chechnya, which helped propel Putin into the Kremlin.
Then, last year he floated the idea of building a movement in opposition to Putin out of an unlikely alliance of Communists and the liberal Yabloko and Union of Right Forces parties.
The surprising move to grant him political asylum comes as a fellow oligarch, Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, comes under pressure from the Kremlin in part for his moves to finance these same parties ahead of the December parliamentary election. In July, one of his right-hand men, Platon Lebedev, was arrested on charges of theft of state property in a 1994 privatization auction.
The British home secretary had already turned down Berezovsky's asylum request in late March, after the British government gave the green light to start the extradition proceedings.
Blunkett refused the request because he said he did not want to have to make a decision on whether criminal cases pending against Berezovsky in Russia were politically motivated, according to Alun Jones QC, a lawyer for Berezovsky who defended him in the first extradition hearing in London's Bow Street Magistrates Court on April 2. Instead, Blunkett said that should be a matter for the court to decide during extradition hearings, Jones told the court.
Berezovsky had been expecting to appeal that decision in a court hearing on Sept. 18, but, suddenly, he was granted asylum status, Voronkov said.
Analysts said the British government's sudden decision to grant him asylum could have come as a result of concern over the attack on Yukos.
"This is a sensation," independent political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky said. "This is a significant side-effect of the attack [on Yukos]. Berezovsky has used this dazzlingly to back up his case and show what can happen in Russia."
"This is the Berezovsky precedent," said Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"For Russian oligarchs it means it is possible to show in England that being pursued for economic crimes often has political roots. In Russia there is often no difference between economic and political cases."
Berezovsky had said he would attempt to run in the State Duma elections. Goldfarb could not say whether Berezovsky still intended to make that attempt.
Staff Writer Oksana Yablokova contributed to this report.
TITLE: U.S. Researcher Delving Into City for War Letters
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: "It's very bad here ... We're hungry here as wolves in winter, and if I had three loaves of bread I would eat it all at once."
So wrote seven-year-old Asya in a letter to her relatives during the 900-day siege of Leningrad in World War II.
This letter, exhibited at the Leningrad Defense and Siege Museum, as well as many other Russian war letters, is the reason why U.S. historian and writer Andrew Carroll came to St. Petersburg this week.
Carroll has been busy gathering war letters from all American and big international wars since 1998. So far, the 33-year-old historian has copies of 75,000 letters, published his 2001 best-selling book "War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars," and is now on a world tour to gather more letters for his new book.
"My purpose is to humanize the soldiers, who participated in those wars, through telling the stories of those people," Carroll said. "My other aim is to convince people to save those letters because it's world history."
Carroll is on a long world tour of 25 countries, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Britain, Iraq, Poland, Russia to find a broader picture for his next book that will cover international war experiences through letters written from and to those places.
"Russian and Soviet people experienced so much hardship because of the wars they had to fight in that it was very important for me to come here and research, first in St. Petersburg, then in Moscow, " Carroll said.
Carroll said one of the most surprising things about war letters, regardless of the different situations and citizenship of the writers, is that despite the whole variety of stories told in those letters the basic topics touched are very similar.
"In those letters people most often describe their physical hardships - no food, water, cold, heat; many show enthusiasm for fighting, especially at the beginning; others tell of the horror of war; and just as many write about love," Carroll said.
"Think of what the poor fellows suffered lying two nights and nearly two days under the burning sun, on the hot sand, without even a drink of water ...," wrote Sergeant Thomas Bowen to his mother to give her an eyewitness account of the disastrous battle of the Crater at Petersburg during the American Civil War in 1864.
Seventy seven years later, in the middle of World War II, a 16-year-old girl, who stayed in blockade Leningrad, wrote to her mother: 'I've been living without bread for 10 days. I ate only a plate of [yeast] soup a day, because someone stole my bread ration card."
The horrors of war are mentioned in almost every second letter.
Carroll said his project has no pacifist message, and "has no agenda at all," because "it's just a human historical document."
"Wars are different, and there are such ones which people just can't avoid, like the one against Adolf Hilter. However, when reading those documents people can make their own conclusions on what wars bring, without any comments [from me]," Carroll said.
"At 5:10 we heard a plane and then that bad awful whistle a bomb makes and bang!" wrote army nurse Vera Lee in a letter to her family, describing the horrors she experienced in a deadly German attack on her ship in the Gulf of Salerno in World War II.
"When we got on the deck we all had to get on one side because the bomb had torn away the other side of the ship. I'll never forget seeing this one British nurse trying to get through the porthole but she was too large to make it. She was screaming terrible because her room was all in flames.
"One British fellow saw that she could never get out so he knocked her in the head with his fist and shoved her back in his room - She died but was much easier than if she had burned to death," Lee wrote.
"It's so stupid and ridiculous of how so many of our boys are killed by accidents due to some careless mistakes," wrote American soldier Steve in his letter to his parents from Vietnam.
"They say as high as 50 percent of deaths and casualties are caused by our own men and so many parents never know how their son was killed because all the Army tells them is that they are combat casualties," he wrote.
At the same time, in all times and in all wars of the world love was that very stimuli to help people go on in between all the hardships and sufferings they had in the war.
"When I receive your letters I get excited like a kid," wrote Russian pilot Alexander Kukushkin to his Leningrad girlfriend, Galina, in 1944.
"You'll say that it's funny when such grown up man behaves like a child ... But it's a fact that when people are in love even the most serious ones start looking like babies," he wrote.
"I love you and will never forget," Alexander wrote in the other letter. "I will do everything possible to stay alive and be together with you," he wrote.
Kukushkin died in August 1944, but Galina kept loving him through all her life.
"Helen my Darling - You are perfection - the paragon of womankind - and you are my wife - and I adore you!" wrote American Captain Molton Shuler Jr to his wife from the war in Korea in 1952.
"It's impossible to describe what your letters meant to me. More than you can possibly imagine I appreciate your love," he wrote.
Carroll said one of the biggest personal dramas soldiers experienced when in the war was when their girl-friends or wives left them.
Among the letters in Carroll's collection are rare samples such as a letter from an American sergeant who was in Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment in May 1945. The man used the Fuhrer's personal stationary, crossing out Hitler's name and adding his own to describe to his family the horrors of Dachau.
Another rare letter belonged to a dead North Vietnamese soldier, who wrote to his brother "to kill as many Americans as possible because they bombed down a Vietnamese village."
The letter was found on the soldier's body by an American soldier, who saved it, not even knowing the content until Carroll found a translator.
Carroll said the today's letters of American soldiers from Iraq don't differ a lot from the other ones written back in the last century. "Just more of them are written as e-mails."
Carroll said the content and tone of letters differs significantly depending on what person a soldier writes to.
He said letters to mothers are usually milder and more optimistic, whereas fathers, brothers and friends normally get the whole truth, and a little note "Don't tell Mom."
Carroll said his passion for collecting war letter was awoken by a fire that razed the house of his parents in Washington.
"At that time I realized that the most precious things that I lost for that fire was all my correspondence," he said.
At the Leningrad Defense and Siege Museum, Carroll received a number of photocopies of letters from civilians and soldiers written during World War II.
"During wars, civilians often suffer no less than soldiers."
Nikolai Dobrotvorsky, senior scientist of the museum, was surprised by Carroll's interest in Russian war letters.
"I wish our historians had as much interest in these letters," he said.
Carroll said he wants to receive as many photocopies of war letters from Russian war veterans as possible.
His mailing address is:
The Legacy Project
Attn: Andrew Carroll
PO Box 53250
Washington, D.C 20009
TITLE: Clowns Put Horse Up for Election
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: How about a horse for governor?
Walking down Nevsky Prospekt on Wednesday, you were likely to be stopped by several clowns introducing a horse to you and asking you to support it.
This was, of course, no ordinary horse: According to a large poster next to it, the horse is running for St. Petersburg governor and is supported by the president.
Pedestrians crossing Anichkov Bridge, which has statues of men straining to hold prancing horses on its four corners, were asked whether they would elect a horse if the president so requested and were invited to vote by putting an orange ball into one of two transparent containers.
The container marked "yes" was twice as full as the one marked "no," although potential voters showed little enthusiasm.
"The concentration of police around the clowns was huge," said Alena Bolgarova, PR manager for St. Petersburg Vice Governor Anna Markova, whose informal supporters organized the performance. Markova is running second in the election race.
"Even the clowns themselves were clearly uncomfortable with the continuous document checks. The horse was apparently pretty nervous, too: After the first half an hour, it made a mess."
The performance alluded to ancient Roman history. Roman Emperor Caligula is said to have entered the Senate on his favorite racehorse, Incitatus, and made every senator give a deep bow to honor the animal. The despotic emperor is said to have even considered making the horse a consul.
The performance also alluded to a Sept. 2 meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his envoy in the Northwest Federal District, Valentina Matviyenko, who is the frontrunner for governor.
State-run Channel One and Rossia television gave wide coverage to the meeting, at which the president gave Matviyenko his blessing in the election. Markova has filed suit, accusing Matviyenko of breaking election rules.
Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst with the Institute of Sociology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said he had mixed feelings about the street performance.
"On one hand, the Roman connection is sublime, smart, resonant and very fitting," he said. "But if you take the same performance on a biological level, making parallels between the animal and the real candidate supported by the president, it's offensive."
Kesselman compared the gubernatorial elections to mud wrestling. "I personally find it quite disgusting when women are fighting in the dirt. And this is what is happening in St. Petersburg."
Sergei Pryanishnikov, a pornographic-movie producer who dropped out of the race this week, said the barracks humor of the horse stunt is a perfect reflection of the actual campaign.
"The whole point of the campaign has switched from comparing the candidates' programs to a stupid division between those who are with the president and their opponents," he said.
If elected governor, Pryanishnikov had promised to turn St. Petersburg into the erotic capital of Europe.
Unlike the meeting between the president and his envoy, the performance on Nevsky Prospect was not televised by a single St. Petersburg television channel.
"There was only one cameraman, from Rossia, but their bosses are only interested in one candidate," Bolgarova said.
Many observers have complained of biased coverage of the election campaign, and political commentator Daniil Kotsubinsky said the performance on Nevsky was a welcome change.
"Candidates who offer an alternative to Matviyenko, whatever they do, barely get any coverage in the mass media," Kotsubinsky said.
"At the same time, the president blatantly violates the law, endorsing one of the candidates in front of TV cameras," he said. "In such a context, I very much welcome the horse vote - as a rare opportunity for the opposition to have their say in public."
Yulia Tanaisova, deputy director for promotion issues at Expert North West magazine, said the performance was a smart PR move.
"I have to say that if I had the chance to vote for that horse, I would do so - not because the president supports it," she said. "The president should be sued for breaking the law.
"I would vote for the horse," she said. "Because it doesn't lie and doesn't use dirty tactics."
TITLE: Kadyrov Set for Easy Run in Chechnya Poll
AUTHOR: By Anna Dolgov
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - The last two serious challengers in Chechnya's presidential election w!ere taken out of the race Thursday, clearing the way for the Kremlin's favored candidate, Akhmad Kadyrov, to win handily on Oct. 5.
Aslambek Aslakhanov, who represents Chechnya in the State Duma, said Thursday that he withdrew from the race and will serve as an adviser to President Vladimir Putin.
Malik Saidullayev, a prominent Moscow-based businessmen, was removed from the race Thursday by Chechnya's Supreme Court, which said some of the signatures he had submitted in support of his candidacy were fake.
"There is a big chance that the election will become a theater with one actor," Aslakhanov said at a seminar at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Kadyrov, who heads the Moscow-backed administration in Chechnya, no longer faces any serious competition in the election.
Election officials also had been going after Aslakhanov for irregularities in his registration documents. He acknowledged there were some problems: He had forgotten to fill out the "citizenship" box in the form that he submitted to the elections commission, got one figure wrong in his street address, and was late in submitting his income declaration.
A court was to decide Thursday whether Aslakhanov had violated registration rules and should be removed from the race, and few believed the court would decide in his favor.
But before any final decision was made, Aslakhanov said he got a telephone call Wednesday night from Putin, who offered him a job as an adviser on southern Russia issues.
"I said I will probably be removed tomorrow [from the race], I have no doubt about it," he said. "And the president said: 'You had long wanted to work on the problems of southern Russia and I can offer you a job as an adviser.'"
Saidullayev, however, denies there were any violations in his registration documents and plans to appeal to Russia's Supreme Court, one of his campaign staffers said.
The staff member, who would only give her first name, Rimma, said Saidullayev had been contacted with offers of government posts and business deals in exchange for dropping his bid, but he had refused. She made clear that Saidullayev's staff believes that the Kremlin influenced Thursday's ruling.
Some observers see the Kremlin's hand behind the sidelining of both Aslakhanov and Saidullayev.
Aslakhanov, though, denied suggestions that his departure from the race had been orchestrated. "I have nobody to blame," he said. "The blame for my withdrawal lies entirely on me.
"To say that there is some mechanism, some conspiracy, some story behind it - I don't possess such information."
But Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said things were not that simple. "Of course not," he said. "There are just things that a person cannot talk about."
Kadyrov, meanwhile, met with Putin on Thursday in Sochi. Interfax said they discussed compensation to Chechens who lost their homes in the war.
The Kremlin had publicly backed the relatively predictable and controllable Kadyrov throughout most of his three years as head of Chechnya's administration.
Even though Putin says his government will work with whatever president the Chechen people elect, the Kremlin has "placed its bet on Kadyrov," Malashenko said.
"If a new person appeared, who knows what he would be up to. What if he starts digging around to find where the money [allocated to Chechnya] had gone?"
Aslakhanov denied reports that Chechens are being pressured to vote for Kadyrov. A former police official, Aslakhanov said his friends in the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service - the same agencies whose troops are stationed in Chechnya - told him they had received no orders to coerce a Kadyrov vote.
"There has been no pressure in Kadyrov's favor," Aslakhanov said. "Maybe it will appear in the final stages, I don't know."
But the Kremlin would hardly need to resort to such crude methods to ensure Kadyrov's victory. The seven other candidates now remaining in the race present little challenge to Kadyrov.
Aslakhanov, Saidullayev and another top contender in the race - Khusein Dhzabrailov, first deputy director of the Rossiya hotel and a member of a prominent Chechen family - had earlier agreed to form an alliance to defeat Kadyrov in the election, Aslakhanov said.
They decided to try to prevent Kadyrov from winning in the first round and agreed that whichever of them made it into a second round would have the others' support, he said.
But Dzhabrailov unexpectedly withdrew from the race earlier this month. He did so after meeting with the Kremlin chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, and his deputy Vladislav Surkov, a source close to Dzhabrailov said at the time.
Dzhabrailov later said he withdrew because he feared his victory would fuel a conflict between armed rebels who support him and their opponents, according to Aslakhanov.
Artur Matirosyan, senior researcher of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Conflict Management Group, said there is little doubt that Kadyrov took pains to have all the serious candidates removed from the ballot.
With his strongest rivals gone, Kadyrov can now negotiate with their clans to ensure their support in the upcoming election in exchange for future spoils. And the presence of several rather weak candidates on the list will allow Kadyrov to maintain a smokescreen of pluralism in the election, said Martirosyan, whose center helped mediate in negotiations between Chechen separatists and the Kremlin in 1995-97.
Kadyrov's office could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Chechen election officials refused to comment, with a representative of the election commission, Magomed Mezhidov, saying only that the commission had not yet received Aslakhanov's official statement about his withdrawal from the race.
TITLE: VTsIOM Gets a New, Younger Director
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A 29-year-old, little-known political analyst who once campaigned for the pro-Kremlin party was named the head of leading national polling agency VTsIOM after its original team of researchers left in protest at a state takeover and started an independent agency of their own.
Valery Fyodorov, the new general director of VTsIOM, said Thursday that he will update the agency's methods of research, focus more on social rather than political surveys, and will sue the old team for using a similar name in their new agency.
Fyodorov walked into the office of his predecessor, 73-year-old Yury Levada, on Wednesday, only a day after Levada, the country's most respected sociologist, moved out of the agency that he founded 15 years ago.
Levada and most of his 105 staffers quit state-owned VTsIOM after it was revamped into a joint-stock company last week and given a new board of directors. They registered a new polling agency named Analytical Center VTsIOM, or VTsIOM-A for short.
Levada and his supporters believe they were forced out because of their polls, which have not always produced favorable results for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and have shown negative opinions about the military campaign in Chechnya.
Property Ministry officials, who reorganized VTsIOM on behalf of the government, have insisted that it will make the agency more accountable and its finances more transparent.
Fyodorov said that although VTsIOM will continue to conduct political surveys and marketing research, its main focus will be social surveys.
"This field was completely neglected by the previous management in the past three to four years," Fyodorov said by telephone Thursday. He said he expects contracts for surveys related to social issues from governmental agencies.
Fyodorov said he intends to strip VTsIOM-A's team of its name because it contains the brand name of the company he now heads and by using it the new agency violates the copyright.
"It should not be difficult to prove in court," Fyodorov said, adding that he plans to file a law suit within days.
Levada had no comment on Fyodorov's plans for VTsIOM. "This in not a business of mine any more, do not ask me," Levada said in a telephone interview from his new office.
He said he met Fyodorov briefly earlier this year. "There were a couple attempts to force him upon us [as a researcher], but I did not need him so I did not hire him," Levada said.
Fyodorov is the former director of the Center for Current Politics and previously ran a sociological center at the Academy of Sciences' Institute for Social and Political Studies. In 1999, he worked at the election headquarters of Unity, which later became United Russia after merging with Fatherland-All Russia.
Fyodorov was appointed by VTsIOM's board of directors, which met last Friday. Headed by Deputy Labor Minister Valery Yanvaryov, the board also includes officials from the Property Ministry and the presidential administration.
Fyodorov said the door is open for all VTsIOM staffers who wish to stay and work under the new management.
He said Levada's team was using outdated research methods for its polls, and the new team will put new methods in place by next year.
TITLE: City Remembers Attacks of Sept. 11
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The U.S. Consulate held a ceremony to commemorate the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on Thursday at the consul general's residence.
"Sept. 11, 2001 was a day of shock and horror which no American will ever forget. Before Sept. 11, most Americans felt we were secure against terrorist attack. After Sept. 11, we realized that no nation is immune to terrorism, and that all nations were faced with a common danger," Consul General Morris Hughes said in his remarks, addressing the gathered diplomats, Russian government representatives and cultural figures.
"Americans were deeply moved by the outpouring of sympathy by the Russian government and Russian people after Sept. 11."
"The American people deeply felt Russia's anguish during the hostage crisis in Moscow, and after the recent bombings and attacks in Southern Russia," the Consul General said, striking a note that has set the tone for U.S.-Russian relations.
The Consul General drew another parallel between the experience of Russia and the U.S.
"During World War II, our nations united to face a common enemy, fascism," he said. "Today, our nations have come together to fight a new common enemy, terrorism. Our nations have begun to share intelligence, to organize joint military exercises, and to work together in other ways that were unimaginable before Sept. 11."
"It is fundamental to the freedom of a nation that its people be able to live free from fear. As we remember the victims of Sept. 11, we also resolve that we will continue our war against terrorism; that terrorists will find no sanctuary and no rest; and that we will continue until Russians and Americans can feel safe and secure in their homes and cities. This will be the best legacy we can give to the victims of Sept. 11," Hughes concluded.
The words of the senior U.S. representative in St. Petersburg were reinforced by statements made by Deputy Presidential Representative Valery Bolshakov, St. Petersburg Vice Governor Alexander Prokhorenko, and chairman of the City Charter Court Nikolai Kropachev.
Representatives of churches active in the city were also present, including the city's chief rabbi and the mufti.
TITLE: Official: Iran Plant Deal Could Be Off
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Tehran has made an unexpected and unacceptable demand that could derail Russian-Iranian cooperation on the Bushehr nuclear plant, a senior Nuclear Power Ministry official said Wednesday.
To address concerns that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, Russia has said it will freeze construction on the $1 billion plant and will refuse to supply fuel unless Iran agrees to return all of the spent fuel. Both sides in recent weeks have said that an agreement was close to being signed.
On Wednesday, however, Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Valery Govorukin said Iran is now demanding that Russia pay for the spent fuel, Itar-Tass reported. Usually it is the other way around; countries get paid for receiving and storing spent fuel, he said.
Govorukhin chose to go public with Iran's demand as the board of directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency debated in Vienna a U.S.-backed resolution that would find Iran in non-compliance of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it has signed.
The draft resolution - put forward by the United States, Britain, France and Germany - gives Iran until the end of October to prove that it is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. If Iran fails to meet the deadline, the IAEA would refer the issue to the Security Council, which would vote on whether to slap sanctions on Tehran.
Reuters reported Thursday that the United States and key allies is pressing Russia and other skeptics to back the resolution.
A diplomat said the U.S.-backed draft already had a "strong majority" of well over 20 states who would support it. A vote had been expected Thursday, but was postponed until Friday, the agency reported.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is designed solely for generating electricity, but it has avoided signing an additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that would allow for comprehensive IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities without notice.
Govorukhin insisted the dispute was commercial and said both sides have agreed to start talks, Itar-Tass reported. Should Iran refuse to withdraw its demand, Russia would have to charge Iran a higher price to include the cost of buying it back, he said.
Alexander Pikaev, a security expert with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Iran might have concluded that it can produce fuel compatible with the Russian-made reactor itself and, thus, be deliberately making unrealistic demands in order to disrupt the deal altogether. If Iran used its own fuel in the power plant's reactors, it could then enrich the spent fuel to weapons-grade using one of the centrifuges that it possesses.
The IAEA has recently said that its inspectors found residue of highly enriched uranium on gas centrifuges at a nuclear facility in Natanz, about 300 kilometers south of Tehran, during an inspection in February. Iran said it imported the centrifuges and that they were "contaminated" with enriched uranium by a previous owner.
The Nuclear Power Ministry's decision to publicize Iran's demand during the IAEA debates may be an attempt to create international pressure on Iran to drop its demand and sign the agreement on the return of spent fuel, Pikayev and Ivan Safranchuk of the Center for Defense Information said.
Moreover, Pikayev said, it may be a sign that Moscow has decided to end its lucrative nuclear cooperation with Teheran altogether because of its own security concerns.
The Nuclear Power Ministry may have decided that it is time "to wash their hands" of Iran rather than continue cooperation with a country that avoids making its nuclear program fully transparent and draws constant fire from the United States, Pikayev said.
Safranchuk, however, said he believes the ministry will complete the reactor unless Iran refuses to sign the fuel return agreement.
Earlier this month, the ministry said Iran had already reviewed a draft of the agreement and was ready to sign it. Officials said the agreement would be signed as soon as Russian government agencies finished reviewing it.
Govorukhin himself said in late August that the ministry intended to sign it within a month. Ministry officials said Russia should complete construction of the first reactor at Bushehr plant in 2005 but may send the first batch of nuclear fuel to Iran as soon as this year.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Markova Files
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Gubernatorial candidate Vice Governor Anna Markova filed a complaint with the City Election Committee against opponent Valentina Matviyenko over a poster featuring President Vladimir Putin, Interfax reported Thursday.
Posters featuring Matviyenko, widely seen as the Kremlin's choice for city governor, with Putin and the slogan "Together We Can" have been placed prominently around the city. The complaint questions whether the president consented to appear in the posters.
Matviyenko's campaign headquarters said that all the necessary approval had been obtained for the posters.
Fire Prompts Measures
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday that some theaters could be closed "until they are brought into compliance" with fire prevention regulations, Interfax reported.
Shoigu was speaking after a fire destroyed sets in a Mariinsky Theater warehouse on Sept. 5.
Such closures, he said "resonate with the public when we stop letting children enter schools and viewers into theaters." He blamed legislation that limits fire inspections to once every two years "to decrease the burden on business."
Fatal Shooting
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - One woman was shot dead in a special operation conducted by city police on Wednesday, Interfax reported.
A group of organized-crime operatives were initiating a search at the office of Soyuzkhoztorg, which is accused of large-scale fraud, but security guards of the company refused to open the door and put up armed resistence.
Reinforcements were called by the police, who attempted to open the door by firing six shots in the "upper door jamb."
One of the bullets ricocheted and hit a woman sitting behind the door, the city prosecutor's office told Interfax. The woman died at the scene.
Biggest Ringing Bell
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The largest ringing bell in the world was poured at Baltiisky Zavod on Wednesday and is intended for the Trinity-Sergeyevskaya Lavra, the center of Russian Orthodoxy near Moscow.
The bell weights in at 72 tons with a height of 4.55 meters and a diameter of 4.5 meters and has been produced using new technology that guarantees that the metal will resist temperatures as low as minus 40 Celsius, Interfax reported.
New Visa Rules?
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - U.S. and Russian diplomats are working on draft proposals to streamline U.S. visa applications after criticism that hundreds of Russian students missed out on foreign trips this summer due to delays in processing visas.
An official at the U.S. Embassy said Thursday on condition of anonymity that the State Department is considering a draft proposal put forward Tuesday by Russian diplomats in Washington to replace a 1993 agreement between the two countries.
The director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular services department, Vladimir Kotenyov, said Wednesday that a Russian draft agreement had included a proposal that applicants for U.S. visas receive a decision within 30 days.
North Korea Missiles
WASHINGTON (AP) - North Korea has been using Russian technology in developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching any target in the continental United States, an administration official said Thursday.
The official, asking not to be identified, estimated the potential range at 15,000 kilometers. The distance from Pyongyang to San Francisco is about 8,800 kilometers.
The U.S. administration has raised the issue with Russian government officials, who indicated surprise and disapproval of the activity, the official said.
According to the official, the missile is based on Russia's SSN6, a Soviet-era submarine-launched ballistic missile.
No Radioactivity
OSLO (Reuters) - Tests on fish from the Barents Sea have shown no sign of increased radioactivity since a Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank there at the end of August, Norway's atomic safety authority said Thursday.
The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority said that samples of Baltic Sea fish and water were routinely checked as part of Norway's general surveillance program.
TITLE: Duma Revisits Auto Insurance
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The State Duma wants to radically cut the law on compulsory automobile insurance this fall, a year after the same deputies passed it, amid loud public complaints that insurance costs too much.
The proposed amendments would slash the base insurance premium, postpone the full introduction of compulsory third party insurance for at least a year or cancel it altogether.
Despite over 30,000 deaths on the roads yearly and millions of dollars in damage, most accidents are still settled privately on the side of the road.
Mandatory third-party insurance kicked in on July 1, but drivers may be punished for driving without a policy only after Jan. 1, 2004. The insurance now comes with a base price tag of about $65 and provides compensation of up to 400,000 rubles ($13,000) for injury or death and 120,000 rubles for property damage. The tariff, however, can more than quadruple if the driver is a novice or causes an accident.
The introduction of mandatory car insurance - the first of its kind in Russia's history - has sparked a wave of public complaints over the size of the premiums.
The loud discontent has fallen on sensitive ears in the State Duma, where the vast majority of the deputies are readying themselves for this December's parliamentary elections.
State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov said Thursday that at least seven draft amendments to the law on mandatory insurance are seeking deputies' approval. He said the lawmakers had appealed in June to the government to introduce lower tariffs for specific groups like war veterans, but the government failed to take any action.
"The government wasted the whole summer," Interfax reported Seleznyov as saying. He said the Duma deputies will look at all seven existing proposals, some of which envision complete cancellation of mandatory car insurance.
While cancellation of mandatory insurance is unlikely, some changes might be introduced, said Andrei Shchavelyov, the head of public relations for the Union of Russian Automobile Insurers, or RSA. RSA unites 138 insurance companies that are licensed to sell mandatory automobile insurance.
According to Shchavelyov, a primary change would be widening social categories entitled to discount premiums to include war veterans and some other groups, such as people who participated in cleaning up the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
"But I can assure you that the base tariff of 1,980 rubles would not be changed. Neither are we planning to reset the rates for regions," he said.
The rates distinguish between heavy-traffic and rural areas where accidents are much less likely to happen. Moscow has the highest rate: The base tariff starts out doubled for all drivers.
According to Shchavelyov, about 1.5 million cars have been insured through the mandatory insurance program since July 1, and about a 1 million rubles ($326,000) have been paid in compensations so far.
Shchavelyov said that in the near future the RSA will approach the government with proposals to widen the list of people eligible for discount premiums.
"You have to understand that the law is brand new and there will be a lot of adjusting and fine tuning. But halving premiums across the board, as some deputies want, would simply mean driving the insurance companies to bankruptcy, and nobody wants to do that," he said.
TITLE: S&P Set To Downgrade Failing Russian Regions
AUTHOR: By Torrey Clark
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Government efforts to smooth the vast budget imbalances among the regions will likely succeed - leading to possible ratings downgrades for the wealthiest regions, Standard & Poor's warned in a report Wednesday.
Twelve regions with S&P ratings could lose up to one-third of their budget revenues as a result of reforms, the agency said.
"The aim of the reform is the creation of a supportive and transparent system of interbudgetary relations," said Yevgeny Korovin, one of the authors of the report.
"In the long-term perspective, this aim will be achieved. But the proposed amendments create a significant risk for wealthier-rated regions," he said.
The cancellation of the national sales tax from Jan. 1 would hit the Moscow region, which relies on the tax for 10.9 percent of its revenues, the hardest, followed by St. Petersburg and Moscow, S&P said.
More painful for some wealthy regions are proposed amendments to the mineral extraction tax, which would lower the regions' take from 20 percent to 5 percent for oil and to zero percent for natural gas from 2005.
Oil-and gas-rich regions are the most likely to be downgraded. In Tatarstan and Tomsk, the tax makes up 20 percent of the budget, and in Khanty-Mansiisk it is 50 percent.
For regions that fall behind on payments, the state is planning to introduce external management, which would centralize financial control and could be "a potential danger for regions' financial autonomy," Korovin said.
Downgrading Moscow, the benchmark for ruble debt, or St. Petersburg would seriously affect the market, said Alexei Moisseyev, economist at Renaissance Capital. "But I wouldn't worry too much [about them]."
"The reforms are unpleasant for us, but not critical," said Alexander Kovalenko, deputy head of Moscow's borrowing committee. "Our rating is no worse than sovereign and it shouldn't lag behind a sovereign upgrade."
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: City to Get New Hotels
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Accor SA, the owner of the Motel 6, Novotel and Red Roof Inn chains, will open two hotels next year in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city.
Accor will open the 211-room Novotel Moika and the 260-room Novotel Mayakovsky in 2004, a press spokeswoman said. She didn't say how much the company will invest.
Moody's: Russia Rating
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Moody's Investors Service will decide whether to raise Russia's sovereign debt rating at a meeting in October, Moody's analyst Jonathan Schiffer said in an interview.
"The Russian economy is performing more strongly than we thought it would," Schiffer said in Moscow, where he is attending a conference. "There will be a decision about Russia's rating before the end of October."
Standard & Poor's raised Russia's rating to BB, two levels below investment grade, in December, while Fitch's has Russia at only one notch below.
Gazprom-U.S. Future
MOSCOW (MT) - Gazprom's gas is welcomed in the United States and the domestic monopoly is likely to have little difficulty forming partnerships with U.S. energy companies, Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday, citing top U.S. State Department officials.
A delegation of Gazprom executives, including CEO Alexei Miller, returned Wednesday to Moscow from a working visit to Washington, where they met with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
The United States is facing record shortages of liquefied natural gas, and Miller has said the country could be a major export market for Gazprom.
TITLE: Unconstitutional Muzzle
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Pribylovsky
TEXT: Meeting with Valentina Matviyenko last week, President Vladimir Putin said that he sincerely wished her luck in the upcoming St. Petersburg gubernatorial election. During their meeting, parts of which were broadcast on national television, Putin also discussed with her economic issues relating to the northern capital that she will have to deal with once elected. In doing so, Putin made it quite clear that he does not see anyone except "aunty Valya" in the role of St. Petersburg governor.
The immediate cause of the presidential demarche is fairly obvious: Matviyenko, who is best known in St. Petersburg as a Komsomol activist (with the sobriquet "Valka-Stakan" or "Valka the Glass"), depends on some of Putin's popularity rubbing off on her to secure victory at the polls. If she fails to win the election in the first round, then she could be defeated in the second round by the vote "against all candidates." To avoid potential embarrassment, Matviyenko needed public endorsement - which she got.
However, according to the federal law on voters' rights, officials are not allowed to use their official position to help a given candidate. And even if one interprets the president's words as his personal opinion, expressed in his capacity as a private citizen - which of course is a bit of a stretch - in any case, for the media to be able to report it, the coverage would have to be paid for out of the candidate's campaign funds. It's absurd, but it's the law.
Finding himself in an awkward situation, Central Elections Commission chairman Alexander Veshnyakov is not blaming the president for violating the law, but the media: If Matviyenko has not paid for dissemination of information about what the president said out of her campaign funds, then journalists had no right to report them.
The "minister of elections" has adopted this position before. In the autumn of 1999, when then-Prime Minister Putin said that "as a citizen" he would vote for Unity, Veshnyakov described this not as abuse of the power of office (or "administrative resources") but as journalists' abuse of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Veshnyakov did not say anything critical in December 1999, when the Union of Right Forces included in a party political broadcast a piece about how Putin had favorably received a thick tome of economic recommendations from the hands of Sergei Kiriyenko, then leader of SPS.
Verbal interventions by officials during an election campaign are not explicitly forbidden by the law. Strictly speaking, the law forbids officials from using (or abusing) the powers of office - and that can be interpreted either narrowly or broadly (or narrowly in some cases, and broadly in others).
The broader interpretation of the powers of office (when any statement by an official regarding an election is considered use of administrative resource) can be justified up to a point: If a boss expresses his political preferences, then many subordinates may well be willing to violate the law in order for their boss' wishes to come true. There is always the possibility. (But by the same logic, you could argue that all men in the Russian Federation should be castrated, as otherwise they might commit rape).
In fact, the Constitution guarantees all citizens the right to freely express their views - including, by implication, the president. And most democratic countries do not forbid their presidents or prime ministers from campaigning on behalf whomever they want to.
However, the new law on the basic guarantees of voters' rights forbids any campaigning not paid for out of the campaign funds of a party or candidate. No matter who is doing the campaigning - whether it be a homeless person, a journalist, governor or the president.
Moreover, the law defines the following activities as campaigning: "describing the possible consequences of the election or non-election" of a candidate or party; "dissemination of information about the activities of a candidate not connected to their professional activities," and also "other actions" that could influence the choice of the electorate.
Putin's televised meeting with Matviyenko, at the absolute minimum, falls into the category of "other actions" that could influence the St. Petersburg electorate.
In Russia, all laws are applied selectively, and some are specially written in such a way as to provide plenty of room for the imagination and for bureaucratic interpretation - often for diametrically opposite interpretations depending on the circumstances.
Citizens can try to turn the ambiguity of Russian legislation to their advantage.
From now on, no doubt, not only will governors and mayors cite the example of the president, in order to justify campaigning for their favored candidates, but also journalists and ordinary citizens can assert their constitutional right to free expression of their views - illegally restricted by Veshnyakov's anti-constitutional law - by citing the example of the president. And it cannot be ruled out that they will sometimes be successful.
Alas, there is no reason to expect in the near future that the law on voters' rights will be brought into line with common sense - giving all citizens, including officials and journalists, the right to express their political and personal preferences during an election period without let or hindrance.
This is despite the fact that the president has the indisputable right to put forward the necessary legislative amendments, and has the influence in parliament to ensure that his amendments become law in very short order.
Vladimir Pribylovsky, president of the Panorama think tank, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Hardliners to Fore 2 Years After Sept. 11
AUTHOR: By Pavel Felgenhauer
TEXT: Two years ago, the entire world was shocked by the scope and deadliness of the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The seemingly invincible sole superpower, far from the hotbeds of war, deprivation and discontent in Asia and Africa, turned out to be soft and vulnerable.
The al-Qaida masterminds most likely believed that this demonstration of vulnerability would teach the "Yanks" some humility and facilitate a U.S. strategic withdrawal into Fortress America. In Moscow, many in the military, intelligence and political elite believed that, after Sept. 11, Washington should turn to the UN and act with other countries, paying special respect to Russia.
The post-Sept. 11 world seemed to offer an opportunity for a true equal partnership with America, fighting a common enemy in Chechnya, Afghanistan and so on. The prompt, positive response by President Vladimir Putin after Sept. 11 and the support offered in 2001 to oust the Taliban regime from Kabul were manifestations of the belief that we were now somehow equal.
Of course, there were skeptics in the Russian military and intelligence communities. After so many U.S. unilateral actions, these skeptics seem to be in the process of taking over Russia's domestic and foreign-policy decision-making completely.
The turning point was Iraq. The bitter squabbles in the UN Security Council were mirrored by infighting inside the Kremlin.
The intelligence and military lobby - the chekists and siloviki - pressed for Russia to oppose America adamantly.
This joint opposition did not stop the U.S. invasion, but it altered profoundly Russia's internal political balance. After winning over Iraq, the chekists' power inside the Kremlin continued to increase.
The Family and pro-Western oligarchs wanted to build a mildly authoritarian state. The chekists and siloviki want instead the restoration of "Great Russia," Soviet-style - a rigid authoritarian police state with a state-run economy, xenophobic, anti-American and anti-Semitic.
Today, the world seems in many respects to be as bleak a place as it was two years ago. Will there be an "exit" from Iraq? Will the U.S. forces retreat into Fortress America, leaving the rest of the world to face the inevitability of future local nuclear wars in the Middle East and Asia? Will the coming Bush-Putin summit reestablish some kind of an alliance? Today, the future of billions of people depends on the good judgment of a few, as it did during the Cold War.
Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent defense analyst.
TITLE: 9/11 Outrage Led to Some Bad Decisions
TEXT: In all the justifiable rage that swept America in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, we made some bad decisions. Two years later, they remain with us, like hangovers so miserable they demand we just keep drinking.
Consider the Sept. 28, 2001, op-ed column "Talk Later," in which The New York Times foreign-affairs expert Thomas Friedman enthused about having Vladimir Putin on America's side in the "war on terror" - because now we could enlist the Russian mafia.
"If Osama bin Laden were hiding in the jungles of Colombia instead of Afghanistan, whose help would we enlist to find him? U.S. Army Special Forces? The Colombian Army? I don't think so," Friedman wrote.
"Actually, we would enlist the drug cartels. They have the three attributes we need: They know how to operate as a covert network and how to root out a competing network, such as Mr. bin Laden's. They can be bought and know how to buy others. And they understand that when we say we want someone 'dead or alive,' we mean 'dead or dead.'"
"The Cali cartel doesn't operate in Afghanistan. But the Russian mafia sure does ... Something tells me Mr. Putin, the Russian president and former KGB spymaster, has the phone number of the guy in the Russian mafia who knows the guy in the Afghan cartels who knows the guy who knows the guy who knows where Mr. bin Laden is hiding."
How clever! Never mind that Putin and his contact book have for years been unable to find the guy who can find the guy who can find anything in Chechnya - a patch of mud and mountains one thirty third the size of Afghanistan.
Instead, all Putin & Co. could ever think to do was bomb, kill, bomb, kill, indiscriminately, boastfully, combatants and civilians, women and children, without one hesitant tremor of conscience.
So yes, Putin understands that "dead or dead" can be an emotionally satisfying cry, even if "dead or alive" is smarter. What he doesn't get is this: When a foreign invader kills a man's wife or rapes his children, that man is ready to return the favor.
But never mind. In the "kill, kill" days of September 2001, Putin suddenly looked prescient. Germany's Gerhard Schroeder called for "a new evaluation" of the Chechen war. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi argued, "Europe must reconstitute itself on the basis of its Christian roots [!]. Europe must be convinced that Russia is a peaceful country."
(Translation: All Christians must take a collective leap of faith and "be convinced" that Russia, elbow-deep in the blood of thousands, is peaceful - because it's only killing Muslims - except for all the ethnic Russians also being killed!)
"We need to be really focused, really serious and just a little bit crazy," Friedman wrote. "I don t mean we should indiscriminately kill people, especially innocent Afghans" - Heavens to Betsy, no! - "[but] people have to see that we are focused, serious and ready to use whatever tactics will make the terrorists feel bad, not make us feel good."
It was that sort of time, when it made sense to argue we should all agree - now - that we unreservedly support any future military action regardless of its morality or utility. Onward Christian soldiers! To Baghdad!
Matt Bivens, a former editor of The St. Petersburg Times, covered the first war in Chechnya for the Los Angeles Times.
TITLE: finns take over city for a week
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg has seen a number of "invasions" by different countries to promote cultural events this year, but the Finns seem to have done more than most to get themselves noticed.
All week, the city has been flooded with Finnish art, dance, music, poetry, puppetry and other art forms - even Finnish magicians have been spotted. Finnish-flavored events have been taking place at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, Red Club, the Alexandriinsky Theater, the Rumyantsev Mansion, private galleries and even local schools. The events are all part of the Week of Finland in St. Petersburg, which runs through Saturday.
To get people coming to the city by train in the mood, special carriages hosting festival-themed events - concerts, puppet-theater performances, and so on - have been attached to the daily Sibelius trains that run between Helsinki and St. Petersburg
"Our program brings Finnish arts and culture here on many levels," said Merja Hannus, secretary general of the Finnish-Russian Society. "St. Petersburgers will be able to see all spheres of our life and culture."
Friday sees one of the most important cultural events of the Week of Finland, when the internationally acclaimed Avanti Chamber Orchestra plays at the Glinka Philharmonic. The orchestra, which has never previously visited Russia, will perform a program of Russian and Finnish contemporary music, as well as Sibelius' ever-popular Violin Concerto, with John Storgårds as soloist.
Earlier this week, the Conservatory's Glazunov Hall hosted a series of concerts of Finnish contemporary music for piano and accordion. The series was organized by Helsinki's Sibelius Academy, Finland's only musical conservatory and one of the largest in Europe.
Finns also opened the inaugural DanceTheater festival on Wednesday. The Tero Saarinen Company, founded by the eponymous former soloist from Finnish National Opera, appealed to its Russian audience's sensibilities with "Petrushka" and "The Hunt," both set to music by Stravinsky.
Rock fans will probably want to head to Red Club on Sunday for its Tuskovka Party. The event, featuring local band Deadushki alongside Finnish groups Cleaning Women, Candy Darling and Don Johnson Big Band, is being run by Finland's Tusovka Rock Festival, which was launched four years ago in Helsinki as a mixed bag of Russian and Finnish rock gigs and documentary films. Some tickets for Saturday's party have already been snapped up by Finns coming to town specially for the event.
A more children-oriented event will be happening at Gostiny Dvor over the next few days, as Finnish magician Heikki Harha puts on shows at 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Some exhibitions being held as part of the festival emphasize the many connections between the two countries.
The State Russian Museum's Marble Palace is currently hosting an extensive exhibition of works by Eero Jarnefelt (1863-1937), one of the most important artists of the Golden Age of Finnish art. Jarnefelt studied at St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where his uncle, Professor Mikhail Klodt, taught at the time. The exhibition juxtaposes paintings, sculptures and drawings by Jarnefelt with works by other members of the Klodt family.
On a more city-specific level, "Russian Features in Helsinki," an exhibition at the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg in the Peter and Paul Fortress, examines the influence of St. Petersburg on the Finnish capital. It documents Helsinki's Russian past - modern-day Finland was part of the Russia empire from 1809 to 1917 - which demonstrated a tangible influence in virtually all walks of life, as Russians brought Orthodox Christian churches, tea, tobacco and even ice cream with them to the Finnish capital.
The exhibition brings together documents, photographs, silver dishes, crystal cups and glasses that once belonged to Russian emigre nobility and gentry, as well as views of Helsinki as seen by Russian emigre artists and photographers.
The Museum of the Political History of Russia is also getting in on the act, hosting an exhibition about the life of Verner Lehtimaki. Lehtimaki, a Finn, founded the cavalry of the Red Guard - the forerunner of the Red Army - in Turku in 1917, and was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the new Bolshevik regime.
The display follows the most dramatic twists and turns in the life of Lehtimaki, a worker at St. Petersburg's Vauxhall Factory in 1916 who enjoyed an incredible career rise to become a commander in the Red Army. After his detachment was defeated in Tampere, Lehtimaki escaped to newly Soviet Russia, and by 1919 was a pilot with the Red Army, fighting against the White Guard.
Four years later, and the indefatiguable Finn fled to the United States, where he soon became friends with no less than Franklin Roosevelt. He returned to Russia with numerous drawings of military airplanes, but it wasn't enough to save him from the political repression under Stalin. The display includes Lehtimaki's files from his questioning by the NKVD - the predecessor of the KGB - and his death sentence.
Links: www.ru.pietari2003.net
TITLE: rebuilding old cultural bridges
AUTHOR: By Sami Hyrskylahti
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: After over a century of stormy relations between Finland and Russia, one of the most celebrated artistic happenings in the two countries' history is making a high-profile comeback, and there seems to be renewed hope that the cultural ties linking the two countries can once again become as strong as they were before 1917.
"The Return of World of Art" was opened at the Rumyantsev Mansion on Monday by Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, an indicator of just how seriously his country is treating relations with its Eastern neighbor. The exhibition's title refers to the legendary World of Art exhibition held in St. Petersburg in 1897.
That exhibition, called Mir Iskusstva in Russian, was curated by Sergei Diaghilev, who later went on to achieve worldwide fame with his Monaco-based Ballets Russes. This year's version is being run by Finnish former gallery owner, journalist and DJ Eeropekka Rislakki.
"To anyone who has been saying cynically that World of Art can not make a comeback, I have to say that the process has already started, and nothing is going to stop it," Rislakki said.
The time from the end of the 19th century until 1917 witnessed an amazing burst of cultural activity linking St. Petersburg and Finland. Artists from the Grand Duchy of Finland - as the country was called from 1809 until independence in 1917 - flocked to Russia's northern capital in droves, and many close links and collaborations were formed between artists from both countries. The results were shown most brilliantly at the 1897 World of Art exhibition.
The current exhibition has taken two years of intense work by Rislakki. But the aim of the exhibition, he said, is as much political as it is artistic.
"Even today, the Finnish media paints a very depressing picture of Russia," Rislakki said. "But every time I bring new people to St. Petersburg, they always leave with an expression on their faces saying 'Wow, what a place!'"
Rislakki said he sees great possibilities for Finnish modern art, modern dance and contemporary music in St. Petersburg, and will be working together with his company, Unione Oy Rislakki, to create more projects along the lines of "The Return of World of Art."
Rislakki's personal history of connections with Russia is a story of cold-headed pioneering. After first visiting what was then the Soviet Union in 1982 to interview then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the Kremlin in Moscow, Rislakki returned in 1985, after Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated his policy of perestroika.
Acting on his gut feeling that there must be secret talents hiding behind the facade erected by official, state-sanctioned Soviet art, Rislakki was among the first foreign promoters to introduce the West to works by artists such as Sergei Bugayev (a.k.a. Afrika) and the late Timur Novikov, both of whom went on to build extremely good reputations there.
Later, Rislakki also produced new Russian electronic music, bringing out the ambient album "Astra," by St. Petersburg's New Composers. The album gained critical acclaim from critics at many of the world's leading music magazines.
The master of ceremonies at Monday's opening ceremonies for "The Return of World of Art" - which drew more than 3,000 people to the Rumyantsev Mansion for the occasion - was the most famous Finn in Russia, bilingual actor Ville Haapasalo.
Haapasalo shot to his current celebrity status in Russia after starring in St. Petersburg director Alexander Rogozhkin's hugely popular film series "Peculiarities of ... ," which leant on Russian stereotypes of "hot Finnish guys" to achieve some of its most memorable humor, as well as the director's award-winning picture from last year, "The Cuckoo." He agreed that ties between Finland and Russia are growing fast.
"Recently, there has been rapid movement in a positive direction," he said.
"I also liked this exhibition a lot, because contemporary art is one of the best ways to see what is happening in other cultures," Haapasalo said, referring to "The Return of World of Art."
Currently, Haapasalo is shooting a series for NTV television, where he will go fishing - for real, this time - with, talk to and cook with well-known Russian politicians and celebrities.
Comments made by art-world professionals at Monday's opening also suggested an appreciative public reaction.
"This is the best exhibition that I have seen here," fashion photographer Alexander Yanpolsky said. "It was done with such good quality and taste that I even thought I was back in New York."
Yanpolsky recently returned to St. Petersburg after having lived for several years in the United States.
The whole of Finnish Week in St. Petersburg was characterized by a range of cultural events (see story, p. ii). A highlight was a four-hour marathon performance by Finnish musicians in the Summer Garden.
Accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen, one of Finland's best-known contemporary musicians, questioned the strength of cultural ties between Finland and Russia while shooting photos after playing at the event.
"I think very few people in Finland understand what is happening in St. Petersburg," he said. "Our countries have a long common history, but we're still very different. That's why there's room for fruitful cultural exchange."
Pohjonen may not have had rock gigs in mind, but the Zerkalo travel agency exists to bring young Finns to St. Petersburg purely to have a good time. The agency's co-owner and chief ideologue, Jukka Timonen, aims to break Soviet-era prejudices by bringing mainly Finnish students to experience St. Petersburg's vibrant nightlife and clubs.
"In certain Finnish circles, St. Petersburg is little by little becoming a trendy travel destination," he said. "However, St. Petersburg will never fulfil its potential as a tourist Mecca if it doesn't sort out its visa regulations."
"The Return of World of Art" runs through Oct. 26 at the Rumyantsev Mansion. Links: www.miriskusstva.spb.ru/ main_eng.html
TITLE: cross-border business booming
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Finland continues to be one of St. Petersburg's most important trade and business partners, with investment and trade turnover growing every year.
Finnish companies outnumber other foreign companies in the city. Although they find a number of administrative barriers here, including long and tiresome bureaucratic procedures, they are eager to carry out cooperation with the city and local businesses, developing already existing projects and launching new ones.
Finland invested $135.4 million into the economy of St. Petersburg in 2002, which accounts for 20.4 percent of the total amount of foreign investment and ranks Finland as the second largest investor after the Netherlands, Alexander Prokhorenko, the head of the city administration's External Relations Committee, said at a press conference kicking off Days of Finland in St. Petersburg.
The trade turnover between St. Petersburg and Finland reached $660 million in 2002, which makes Finland again the second largest trade partner after Germany. St. Petersburg exports mostly wood and timber (up to 40 percent) and imports machine-building products, electrical equipment and dairy products.
According to Finnish Consul General in St. Petersburg Kauko Jamsen, Finland sees Russia - and the Northwest Region in particular - as one of the rare growing markets for export.
"While Finnish export in general has fallen by 9 percent during the first quarter of the year, exports to Russia have grown by 14 percent in the same period," he said.
Finland leads the way in the number of companies working in St. Petersburg, External Relations Committee statistics say. The largest companies are Neste-St. Petersburg (gasoline stations), Fazer-Khlebny Dom (bread products), Metsa-Serla Neopak (cardboard and packaging materials), Rannila Rautarukki Group (metal roofing) and Talosto (frozen foods).
One of the largest recent investments is the opening of Stora Enso Timber sawmill in Karelia in August, at a cost of 8 million euros. The mill's planned capacity is 100,000 cubic meters per year, and it employs 54 people. The company is also intending to open a second sawmill in the Novgorodskaya Oblast in December, costing another 5 million euros. Stora Enso Timber is an international company producing and selling wood, timber and lumber, with annual sales of 1.2 million euros, and employing 4,600 people at 22 saw mills and 18 timber plants in Europe.
In addition to timber, Finns are very active in the construction industry in St. Petersburg. Apart from export of construction materials (estimated at $400 million per year), Finnish companies built the Pulkovskaya hotel, Sweden House, the Ice Palace and several other sites. One of the largest projects to be launched in the near future is Nova Park - an area of 70 hectares in the eastern part of St. Petersburg, 10 hectares of which will be used as a technology park and 60 hectares as an industrial park.
Nova Park will be built by Skanska East Europe, a joint venture of Skanska St. Petersburg Development and the St. Petersburg administration. Management of the project has been entrusted to Turku-based Finnish company Ailecon Oy. One of the companies already signed up to occupy space at Nova Park is Hansaprint Oy, also based in Turku. Hansaprint, the largest printer in Finland, exporting a third of its production volume, has been working on the St. Petersburg market for 10 years, printing telephone directories, magazines, and so on.
Turku, one of St. Petersburg's sister cities, has many joint projects with St. Petersburg, ranging from the design and hi-tech industries to shipbuilding and tourism. To promote and advance this cooperation, St. Petersburg has an official representative office in Turku known as the Bizkon Business Contact Center.
According to project manager Kirsti Pakkala, the center was opened in 2001 and acts as "strategic center of St. Petersburg business life."
Bizkon also helps St. Petersburg enterprises (especially small and medium-sized businesses) to look for business partners in the Turku region and vice versa.
"Now we are working on establishing a direct flight between Turku and St. Petersburg, and are also holding a training and study program for small and medium-sized Finnish businesses on the peculiarities of running business in Russia," Pakkala said.
In spite of the booming cooperation between neighboring businesses, most Finnish companies see many barriers and even obstacles to running a business in Russia, these being mainly administrative hurdles.
"Business in Russia is more bureaucratized and hierarchical than in Finland. The decision-making processes seem to be extremely slow," said Vesa Ruuttunen, planning manager for Sonera-Rus, which owns a major stake in local cellular-phone operator Megafon.
"The law on telecommunications does not encourage the development of competition on the local market, and there are also problems with border and customs procedures. But I hope that Russia' entry to WTO will change the situation for the better," he said.
However, Finns believe that working closely with both local business partners and regional administrations can also bring benefits and influence the over-bureaucratized state of affairs.
"Thanks to our intensive and goal-oriented work, we've achieved relationships with some officials that are based on trust," Jouni Kosloff, Valio International Vice president, said.
TITLE: keeping their faith alive
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Evangelical Lutheran St. Mary's Church is the only Lutheran church in St. Petersburg where services are held in the Finnish language.
Its parishioners are the hundreds of city residents with Finnish and Ingermanlands roots or Finns working in St. Petersburg.
Ingermanlands is a term used for many different nationalities that speak Finnish or languages close to Finnish. Many such people live in St. Petersburg or the Leningrad Oblast.
Services are held every Sunday at 10:30am.
"We also arrange plenty of other activities for our parishioners," said Juhani Porsti, senior priest at St. Mary's.
"We haveFinnish and Russian choirs, Sunday school in both languages, we organize exhibitions, and so on," Porsti said.
It was more than a year ago when the church at 8 Bolshaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa was completely reconstructed with the support from Lutheran parishes in Finland and the Central Fund of the Finnish Lutheran Church. The project cost 3.4 million euros.
The restored church has turned out to be one of the nicest buildings in the central city.
When the Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg in 1703, many Finns took part in the building of the city. The tsar upheld the right of the Lutheran people to practise their own religion. An independent Finnish parish was founded in 1745. St. Mary's was completed in 1805.
After the Russian annexation of Finland in 1809, the parish was legally and administratively a Russian religious community. All the pastors came from Finland. In its peak at the beginning of the 1890s, the church had almost 17,000 members. The church seated 2400.
The surrounding "church manor" was built in 1842-44. It became an important meeting place for the many Finns living in St. Petersburg. Sunday schools where religion and Finnish were taught were conducted from the 1820s.
After the 1917 revolution, St. Mary's became a center for the parishes in Ingermanland surrounding St. Petersburg. From the end of the 1920s Ingrian Finns and their congregations were subject to increasing pressure and oppressive measures. The last vicar was finally forced to leave for Finland in April of 1937, and in the summer of 1938 the church was closed.
Soviet officials allowed Ingrians to re-establish congregations in the 1970s, and parishes were re-established in Peatroskoi and in Pushkin near Leningrad. New congregations were founded during the period of glasnost at the end of the 1980s.
St. Mary's parish was re-established in 1990. The parish was given permission to hold services on church premises. During the services a conspicuous bust of Lenin was covered with a cloth. St. Mary's was returned to the parish in 1994.
The renovation of St. Mary's began in 1999 and was completed in 2002.
Today the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in the Russian Federation comprises already more than 70 congregations, the majority of which are located near St. Petersburg and in Russian Karelia, but the most far-flung ones are in Murmansk and in Irkutsk. Ingria is the church's name for the Finnish-speaking church.
"We understand that not all the people of Finnish origin, who live in St. Petersburg know Finnish, therefore we also provide services and activities in Russian," Porsti said.
TITLE: countries examine migration of labor
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Labor migration and the employment policies were discussed during the international seminar "10 Years of Labor-Market Cooperation Between Russia and Finland" on Wednesday, as part of the exhibition of the Finnish region of Southern Savo, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday at the Ethnographic Museum.
More than 10,000 Russians come to Finland annually for jobs, most as seasonal workers in farming - collecting strawberries, for example - during summer and autumn, estimates Markku Turkia, the head of the Labor Market Department of the Employment and Economic Development Center in Southern Savo, the region of Finland just across the border with Russia.
"Ten years ago, we knew only about Russian prostitution and trade in Finland, while now more and more of Russia's qualified workers are leaving their homes to engage in temporary employment in Finland, while Finnish citizens also come to St. Petersburg to work in joint Russian-Finnish companies, which are mainly in the construction business," said Dmitry Cherneiko, the head of the city administration's Labor Committee.
The Finnish government will introduce amendments to the existing law on foreign workers by next summer.
"The revised law will significantly shorten the period during which an application for a work visa and work permit is considered, as well as make the whole procedure more flexible. We also hope that the new law will increase interaction between labor authorities in Finland and the incoming workforce," said Pertti Sorsa, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Labor in Finland.
The Finnish government is also planning to change the law on people of Finnish extraction applying for the right to live and work in Finland permanently.
"We'll revise the language test so that greater proficiency in the Finnish language will be required," Sorssa said.
On the other side, Russia has made the terms for employing foreign workers even more difficult, Cherneiko said.
"After the new law on the status of foreigners in Russia came into effect in early 2003, the number of foreign workers began to decrease. This law also influenced the migration of labor from Finland to St. Petersburg in that we have already noticed a drastic reduction in the number of Finns employed in St. Petersburg," he said.
Finland, with a population of 5.18 million people and an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, faces a shortage of qualified professionals in some sectors of the economy, mainly in high technology, construction, healthcare and the social sector, according to Sorsa.
While 15,000 foreign employees come to the country every year, 10,000 Finns leave the country to work abroad. At present there are 100,000 foreigners working in Finland, with Estonia and Russia being the major suppliers of migrant labor to Finland, said Mervi Virtanen, the Finnish labor minister.
Along with labor migration policy, the Finnish government is considering the option of raising the retirement age to 69 years for men, as well as shortening the period of schooling for much of the younger workforce, according to Pertti Sorsa.
St. Petersburg, with a population of 4.5 million and 2.49 million people of employable age, has an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent. According to information from the city administration's Labor Committee, the demand for workforce has been growing at a steady pace for the past three years, while unnecessary and outmoded jobs are being eliminated.
While the yearly average demand for workforce is 24 to 25 percent of total jobs available, the workforce supply is 1 to 1 1/2 times short of this figure. In addition to this, one of the key problems of the current labor market is a disparity between the qualifications of graduates of educational institutions and requirements of the real market, Cherneiko said.
The Employment and Economic Development Center in Southern Savo has been cooperating with the St. Petersburg city administration Labor Committee for ten years now, with a number of joint projects under way. The project launched in September 2003 and titled "Mobility of Workforce Between Finland and Russia," which is a part of the Interreg program, aims at creating a unified workforce base between Southeast and East Finland and the Northwest Region.
"Under this project, a special network of advertising and promoting employment will be set up and shared by city administrations and local employment centers," offical project information says.
TITLE: native knowledge pays off again
AUTHOR: By Thomas Rymer
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: To take a little liberty with an old cliche, "When in China, do as the Chinese do."
It is my experience, however, that if you're in St. Petersburg and not in China, but you're still looking for some good Chinese food, go where the Chinese go. Over the last couple of months, I've watched with interest on my way home from the office the last couple of groups of Chinese tourists filing into a new restaurant on Gorokhovaya Ulitsa called Zhen Zhen. So, eager to find out what was to be had, a couple of friends and I dropped in to see.
Zehn Zhen occupies a location that used to be home to a barbecue joint, which, mercifully, ended its existence earlier this year. Much of the original design remains, with dashes of oriental decorations - ying yang symbols and red lanterns thrown into the grey and steel mix that was left over. The result is relatively clean and airy, if a little sterile.
Plopping ourselves down in a booth and ordering drinks - a couple of draft Baltika No. 7s (35 rubles, $1.14) for myself and my American companion, while our Russian friend opted for the Chinese plum wine (60 rubles, $1.95), we turned our attention to the menus. And a lot of attention was necessary. The menu is in Russian, Chinese and what can only be described as "interesting" English. Descriptions like "Fried pork with edible fungus" and the repeated use of the term "pignuts" might not be the best options to make a diner salivate, but we got the point. As it turns out, ordering is easier than reading the menu, as our waiter asked us to identify the dishes by number. Apparently, all of the cooks are Chinese and the number system is about the only way the service staff can communicate with them.
I decided to open up with the Xihu-style beef soup (59 rubles, $1.95), while our American went with the mushroom soup (also 59 rubles). Mine was excellent, coming steaming hot and shunning the standard beef-bouillon base and, instead, being a good serving of tasty chunks of beef with fresh parsley in a vegetable broth with egg drops. The mushroom variant was essentially the same, with the "edible fungus" taking the place of the beef. To go with his soup, my dining companion ordered a deep-fried Chinese roll (12 rubles, $0.40), while we all shared an order of Spring Rolls (164 rubles, $5.35), which were crispy and full of cabbage and a great beef flavor.
For our mains, we opted to share a number of dishes, ladling them over the two orders of chicken fried rice (49 rubles, $1.60), which was exactly what you would expect it to be, and one order of noodles with fried pork and vegetables (56 rubles, $1.80). The slivers of pork, accompanied by sliced carrots, celery and tomatoes, were nicely balanced in what were wonderfully firm homemade noodles. We were definitely off to a good start.
As our mains arrived, our delight continued. The lemon chicken (118 rubles, $3.85), instead of swimming in sauce, consisted of slender deep-fried strips of chicken coated in a caramelized sauce, which was slightly sour, and diced zucchini and carrots.
Looking to add a little spice, we also ordered the Peking-style stir-fried veal in hot sauce (138 rubles, $4.50). As is often the case in St. Petersburg, the use of the word "hot" was not entirely accurate, although the slivers of beef in a thick sauce with onions, yellow and green peppers and chilies did have a bit of a snap to it.
But the best treats were still to come.
The sizzling beef in a pan (258 rubles, $8.45) definitely came as ordered - so much so that our server advised us to give the dish a little while before we tried to remove the lid. When we finally worked up the courage, we were treated to a cow-shaped pan filled with slices of beef done in a much lighter sauce than the veal had been, creating a cleaner beef taste accented by onions, peppers and mushrooms.
The most interesting dish came last. While dropping off our crispy fried duck (288 rubles, $9.44), our server explained to us that the best way to eat the breaded slivers was to roll them first in the powdery substance at the side of the plate. To our delight, we discovered that this lent the duck (which wasn't exactly crisp, but close enough) the tangy flavor that we had been looking for. Along with the sliced tomatoes added as a garnish, the dish balanced out in a wonderful fashion.
Surveying the mess we had made during our clumsy, but valiant, attempt with chopsticks to finish what we had ordered (I did end up taking home a small doggy bag, the contents of which - in the best Chinese-food tradition - tasted great as a cold breakfast the next day), we agreed that we had found a place to ease the longings felt for Chinese restaurants back home. As they have a little more experience, I can't claim that the Chinese tourists feel the same, but they also looked completely satisfied with their dining experience on their way back to the bus.
Zhen Zhen. 17 Gorokhovaya Ul. Tel.: 314-0563. Open daily, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Menu in English, Russian and Chinese. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for three, with alcohol: 1,354 rubles ($44.40)
TITLE: dutch jazz on the way
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A 40-strong crowd of Duch jazz musicians will swarm into the city this week, with 15 acts playing in seven venues and jamming with their local counterparts over two weeks in September.
In a change from most local jazz agendas, Dixieland and jazz standards will not be featured. Instead, what will be performed is very diverse European contemorary improvized music from some of the finest Dutch bands or international acts who happen to live in Holland.
Part of the Days of Dutch Culture in St. Petersburg, the jazz events will start with a workshop given by viola player Ig Henneman at the Mussorgsky Music College on Tuesday and end with a concert by Dalgoo, an unusual quartet described as using different narrative techniques from literature, cinema, theater and dance to structure its compositions and improvisations, at JFC Jazz Club on Sept. 29.
For or the occasion, Dalgoo has prepared a special set based on Leningrad absurdist author Daniil Kharms.
The music events are promoted by the Dutch Jazz Connection, an independent foundation that aims to broaden international recognition for Dutch jazz and increase the possibilities for Dutch musicians to get concerts abroad, and, on the Russian side, by the Baltic Art Agency.
"The Dutch Jazz Connection works with experimental, original music, rather than classical, dogmatic jazz," said Felix Naroditsky of the JFC Jazz Club, who was involved in selecting the acts.
"We chose from what we were shown by the agency," Naroditsky said.
SKIF, the local festival of improvised music, is using the occasion to promote a special Dutch night at its usual location, the Palace of Youth (LDM), on Sept. 27.
For local improvized music lovers, VeDaKi is probably the best known of the acts slated to play. Popular local double-bass player Vladimir Volkov is a member of this international band, which was founded by Amsterdam-based pianist/accordion player Alexei Levin and features a Senegalese singer and an Indian tabla player.
Volkov frequently performs locally with his Volkovtrio as well as with other ensembles, while VeDaKi (formerly known as Vershki Da Koreshki) has, as yet, been seen by few.
q
Days Of Dutch Culture Jazz Program
Tues., Sept. 16
2 p.m. Master-class by Ig Henneman (viola, improvisation) Mussorgsky Music College, 36 Mokhovaya Ul. 2 p.m.
7 p.m. Ig Henneman String Quartet Drama Academy Student Theater, 34 Mokhovaya Ul. Tel. 273-0432
8 p.m. Mike Del Ferro Trio JFC Jazz Club
Wed., Sept. 17
7 p.m. Mike Del Ferro Trio Jazz Philharmonic Hall
Sat., Sept., 20
7 p.m. Guus Janssen and David Kweksilber Jazz Philharmonic Hall
Sun., Sept. 21
8 p.m. Guus Janssen and David Kweksilber JFC Jazz Club
Mon., Sept. 22
7 p.m. Michiel Borstlap and Trijntje Oosterhuis Jazz Philharmonic
Hall
Tues., Sept. 23
8 p.m. Erik Vloeimans Trio JFC Jazz Club
Wed., Sept. 24
7 p.m. Huib Emmer (solo)/Eric Vloeimans Trio Drama Academy Student Theater, 34 Mokhovaya Ul. Tel. 273-0432
Thurs., Sept. 25
7 p.m. Moscow Contemporary-Music Ensemble (works by Dutch composers) Concert Hall of the Composers Union
8 p.m. Michiel Borstlap JFC Jazz Club
Fri., Sept. 26
8 p.m. Yuri Honing and Misha Mengelberg JFC Jazz Club
8 p.m. VeDaKi Estrada Theater, 27 Bolshaya Konyushennaya. M: Nevsky Prospect. Tel. 314-6661
Sat., Sept. 27
6 p.m. SKIF - Misha Mengelberg, Yuri Honing Trio, Dalgoo, Willem Breuker Kollektief, VeDaKi LDM, 47 Ul. Professora Popova, M: Petrogradskaya, Tel.: 234-4494
Sun., Sept. 28
7 p.m. Willem Breuker Kollektief, Yuri Honing Trio, Misha Mengelberg Drama Academy Student Theater, 34 Mokhovaya Ul. Tel. 273-0432
Mon., Sept. 29
8 p.m. Dalgoo JFC Jazz Club
Links: www.dutchjazzconnection.nl
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Hugely popular ska-punk band Leningrad, which has been showing a renewed burst of activity over the last couple of months, will play a local stadium concert on Friday - something it hasn't done since last December.
The band's long-awaited new album, on which it worked in a studio througout August, has been recorded and went into the pre-mastering stage on Sept. 4, while this week the band recorded a collaboration CD with the extravagant London trio The Tiger Lillies. The whole thing took a little more than three days.
The Tiger Lillies, who have been coming to Russia since April 2000, arrived in the city on Sunday and spent most of the time in the studio, paying visits to underground places like Fish Fabrique and Moloko in the evenings. The band's Russian schedule includes three concerts in Moscow and one in Donetsk, Ukraine (it turned out there is a cool place there, called Gung'yu'bazz) before returning to St. Petersburg to play two shows at Red Club on Sept. 20 and 21.
Spitfire, another local ska-punk outfit that is now and integral part of Leningrad, will have its own show at Stary Dom on Saturday - after appearing with Leningrad at the Yubileiny Sports Palace the night before.
Though some local sceptics express doubts if the members will be in proper condition after the stadium gig, Spitfire's trumpet player, Roman Parygin, claimed this week that the Spitfire concert will be very good, and that he even intends to drive home after the Leningrad show.
International music events this week deal with Finland and Holland, the two countries that are promoting weeks of their culture in St. Petersburg this month.
Dutch music is represented by diverse, improvizational artists who take their inspirations from Italian arias, ABBA songs and Russian absurdist author Daniil Kharms. The concerts will start taking place at various locations in the city from Tuesday (see article, this page.)
The main course offered by Finland is the chart-topping Don Johnson Big Band, which is in fact a four-piece. The band's main achievement to date is three weeks at number one in the Finnish charts with "Breaking Daylight," and a gold record given to the band when its album sales exceeded 15,000 copies.
Don Johnson Big Band will appear at Tusovka Rock Festival at Red Club on Saturday, alongside Finnish bands Candy Darling and Cleaning Women, as well as local electronica trio Deadushki.
Red Club will start celebrating its second anniversary with a gig by local hip-hop/guitar-rock band Kirpichi on Thursday, followed by seminal rock band Akvarium on Sept. 19.
From its shaky beginnings, the club has grown to the venue where most international acts and some of the finest Russian bands choose to play.
One of the city's biggest club attractions, Markscheider Kunst, will perform its Afro-Carribean blend at Moloko on Friday, but there is no guarantee that the gig will be less sweaty than the Leningrad show the same night - the band's gigs at the place are normally packed.
- By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: street musicians set to ... take it to the streets
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A festival this weekend aims to showcase some of the people whom you probably walk past every day without noticing them.
Singing Nevsky, a festival that brings together the city's multitudes of street musicians, will take over most of the city's major thoroughfare for much of the weekend.
Performances will be given between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at five different venues all within a short walking distance of each other.
The main stage, usually a fairly improvised affair, will be located in front of Gostiny Dvor, while rock musicians will perform on the Rock Tusovka stage on Dumskaya Ulitsa. Bards - popular singers like the late, legendary Vladimir Vysotsky - and jazz musicians will hold sway on the St. Petersburg Blues stage on Malaya Sadovaya Ulitsa, pop groups will play on the Pop Hit stage on Malaya Konyushennaya UIitsa - where karaoke will also be available - while children's groups and folk-music bands will perform in front of St. Catherine's Church on the same street.
Street musicians have been an integral part of the city's image for well over a decade. In the late 1980s, a flood of musicians of all kinds - amateurs and professionals, young and old, cheerful and miserable, talented or undistinguished - swarmed into the city, where many have stayed ever since.
A decade ago, while the musicians were already an accepted sight - and sound - in the city, they had yet to win any official recognition. Before the Goodwill Games in 1994, the city administration - which had forcibly removed many homeless people from the city so as not to tarnish its image - decided that, rather than treat the musicians in the same way, it would be better to organize them. And so the Singing Nevsky festival was born.
This year's tenth running of the event is being organized by the St. Petersburg Musical and Concert Association, with support coming from the city administration's Youth Affairs Committee.
As in previous years, Singing Nevsky also features a competition for young musicians, as well as concerts by more established bands.
The latter group this year includes Opasnie Sosedi, Cherny Kot and Beshenie Ogurtsy, all of which are regular fixtures in clubs and bars around town. They will be performing between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on the stages at Gostiny Dvor and on Dumskaya Ulitsa.
The winners in all six categories - rock, jazz, folk, pop, children's and bards - will be announced on Saturday, with an award ceremony slated to be held at 7 p.m. on the Gostiny Dvor stage All winners will receive practical prizes, such as professional microphones or the opportunity of recording sessions at local recording studios. As usual, participants pay no entrance fee, and there is no age limit. Previous years have seen winners aged from 13 to 80.
The only factor that could potentially derail the event is St. Petersburg's unpredictable weather, which has wreaked havoc on at least one occasion in the festival's history.
In 2000, the final gala concert and some of the preceding concerts were canceled because of a sudden downpour. The rain even saddled the event's organizers with losses, as some equipment was damaged by the water.
TITLE: Children Mourn Victims of Sept. 11 Terror
AUTHOR: By Erin McClaim
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - Two years after the profound horror and grief of Sept. 11, the small voices of children rang out at ground zero, joining in song and reading the names of the 2,792 people who died there.
More than 200 children, each of whom lost a relative in the most devastating terrorist assault in U.S. history, approached the microphone in pairs and began reading the names.
Many of the children included a personal message. Christina Marie Aceto, 12, said: "I love you, Daddy. I miss you a lot. Richard Anthony Aceto."
The ceremony opened with two bagpipers and a drummer marching onto the site of the World Trade Center, bearing an American flag that once flew over its ruins. A children's choir sang The Star-Spangled Banner.
"We come here to honor those that we lost, and to remember this day with sorrow," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Minutes later, the anniversary ceremony at ground zero paused for a moment of silence - the first of four commemorating the times when each jetliner crashed into a tower and when each skyscraper collapsed.
Across the nation, bells tolled, firefighters stood at attention, and in many places, moments with no words at all were held for the second anniversary of the terrorist assault that killed more than 3,000 people.
At the White House, U.S. President George Bush stood with his staff on the South Lawn and bowed his head in silence at 8:46 a.m., the moment that the first terrorist-hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center.
He left the lawn without speaking, but earlier, he described his thoughts as he left a morning church service.
"We remember the lives lost," Bush said. "We remember the heroic deeds. We remember the compassion, the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day.
"We pray for the husbands and wives, the moms and dads and the sons and daughters and loved ones ... we pray for strength and wisdom."
In lower Manhattan, at the site where the World Trade Center once stood, 200 children whose relatives were among the 2,792 began the solemn, careful task of reading the names of the victims in a morning ceremony.
"I know I'm very proud of my children," said Lynn Morris, whose husband, Seth Allan Morris, died Sept. 11, 2001, and whose two children, 11-year-old Madilynn and 9-year-old Kyle, were reading names. "It's amazing the strength that they have developed over the years."
Families began arriving well before the ceremony, many wearing ribbons of white or black, symbolizing mourning, or yellow, for hope. They also carried flowers - daisies, petunias and roses to leave at the site during the ceremony.
The footprint of the trade center's north tower was outlined by a meter-high fence draped with banners bearing drawings and messages painted by children of the victims.
One of them was a simple red heart, outlined in black, with the inscription: "To my Dad, Steve Chucknick. Your in my heart forever. Love always, your son Steven."
A silent vigil began Wednesday night in New York at St. Paul's Chapel, once in the shadow of the trade center.
"There's no getting over it; there's just getting through it," said the Rev. Julie Taylor, 33.
At sunrise Thursday, about 200 people sat quietly at an ecumenical service at a small park not far from ground zero that included a violinist, readings of poems and songs by a children's choir.
The ground zero ceremony, lasting about 3 1/2 hours, was to fall silent at the four moments when the terror peaked two years ago: the time of impact of each plane that flew into the trade center, and the time of each tower's collapse.
Memorials at other Sept. 11 sites were keyed on each place's moment of attack.
The ground zero commemoration, similar to last year's, featured readings by Bloomberg and other dignitaries.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, speaking before the ceremony, said he still wakes up at night thinking about that day. "It's something that's with you. It's going to be with you for the rest of your life," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."
TITLE: Cubs Lose Their Way, Drop Out of Lead in NL Central
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Matt Clement had everything under control, taking a no-hit bid into the sixth inning against the Montreal Expos.
Then he lost his rhythm and Chicago later lost its composure as the Expos scored five runs in the eighth and overcame a four-run deficit to beat the Cubs 8-4 Wednesday night.
Clement walked his first three batters in the sixth, with the Cubs ahead 4-0. When manager Dusty Baker came to the mound for the second time and with the no-hitter still at hand, he knew his time was up.
"I think Dusty made a good move," Clement said. "I wasn't worried about the no-hitter and I didn't know I had one. Unfortunately the result turned out the wrong way for us."
Clement was replaced by Mark Guthrie, who walked the next two batters, forcing in a pair of runs. Orlando Cabrera followed with an RBI single off Dave Veres to make it 4-3.
"We gave it away," Baker said. "Five walks in one inning. It's tough to look up there and see two runs and still a no-hitter."
The Cubs could have escaped with a 4-3 win but they crumbled in the eighth.
Endy Chavez opened the inning with a single off Mark Remlinger and stole second. Kyle Farnsworth (3-2) relieved, and Cabrera bunted to first baseman Randall Simon, who missed the tag as Cabrera reached on the infield hit.
"I did tag him," Simon asserted.
Two outs later, pinch-hitter Jose Macias hit what appeared to be a routine fly to short left field, but three Cubs stood around as Moises Alou made a failed last second effort and the ball fell to put Montreal ahead 5-4.
Brian Schneider doubled down the right-field line for a 6-4 lead, and Henry Mateo and Jamie Carroll hit RBI singles.
Shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who ran back on the play and watched as the ball dropped, said nobody took charge on the Macias flyball.
"That was one of those plays you look back at. It's a tough game to lose," Gonzalez said.
Chicago began the night tied with Houston for the NL Central lead. The Astros later beat Milwaukee 3-1 and took a one-game lead in the division.
Atlanta 4, Philadelphia 2. Javy Lopez homered to give the Braves a franchise-record 216 homers this season, and Atlanta rebounded from a big loss to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2.
A day earlier, Philadelphia won 18-5, the fifth time this season the Braves have lost by 10 or more runs. Each time, they've bounced back to win the next game.
"It's not a coincidence," Lopez said. "This is what makes this team better. Once you bounce back, you know you've gotten rid of all the frustration from the night before."
Philadelphia dropped one game behind Florida in the NL wild-card race, and Atlanta lowered its magic number to clinch the NL East to six.
"We've had a fire lit all year," Phillies manager Larry Bowa said. "That's not going to change. You have to worry about yourself. You can't worry about other people."
Horacio Ramirez (10-4) won his second straight decision, allowing six hits in seven innings. He gave up solo homers to Pat Burrell in the second and Tomas Perez in the seventh, and struck out seven without walking a batter.
It was the second strong start in a row for the rookie left-hander, making a bid to be included in the postseason roster. The previous time out, he held Pittsburgh to one earned run and three hits in nine innings.
"I'm just happy to be here," Ramirez said. "Last year at this time, I was in the Instructional League. I have a lot to play for."
The decision on who pitches in October could narrow to between Ramirez and veteran Shane Reynolds, who has been hit hard in two straight starts. In 7 1-3 innings during those two games, he's allowed 11 runs on nine hits.
"I'm not thinking about it, I'm really not," Ramirez said. "I'm still trying to finish strong."
Lopez lined a 2-2 pitch from Vicente Padilla (13-10) to the seats in center, tying the game at 1 in the second. It was Lopez's 39th homer this season, leaving him two shy of the major league record for a catcher. Todd Hundley hit 41 for the New York Mets in 1996.
"I just don't want to think about it," Lopez said. "I'm just trying to make good swings on every pitch. If it happens, it'll be good."
The major league record for homers in a season is 257, set by the Baltimore Orioles in 1996. The Houston Astros hold the NL mark at 249, set in 2000. Atlanta hit 215 homers in 1998.
Lopez finished 3-for-4, and Chipper Jones also had three hits for the Braves, who won for the fourth time in five games.
The Phillies lost for only the third time in 13 games since a six-game losing streak, and they still have six games left this season against the Marlins.
(For other results, see Scorecard.)
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Spartak Sacks Coach
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Andrei Chernyshov became the second Spartak Moscow coach to lose his job this season after being sacked by the former Russian champion on Thursday.
The Premier League club said on its official website that Spartak boss Andrei Chervichenko decided to make a change following a two-hour meeting with Chernyshov earlier in the day.
"The head coach had been unable to find common ground with the players, and it had a negative effect on the team's performance," Spartak spokesman Alexei Zinin said.
Chernyshov's assistant Vladimir Fedotov has been appointed as a caretaker coach until the end of the season.
At 35, Chernyshov became the second youngest manager in the Russian premier league in June when he replaced former Russia coach Oleg Romantsev following a string of poor results.
Spartak, which has won nine Russian titles since 1992, suffered four defeats in its last six matches to drop to 11th place in the table. It has also conceded 40 goals so far this season, the most of all the 16 Premier League clubs.
Bryant Evidence
EAGLE, Colorado (AP) - A prosecutor outlined the sexual assault case against Kobe Bryant for the first time Wednesday, saying there are photographs of injuries to the woman and a videotaped statement from her.
In a court brief, Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said he planned to present the evidence at the Oct. 9 preliminary hearing that will determine whether the NBA All-Star will stand trial. Hurlbert also said the main investigator in the case will testify, as will a nurse.
While detailing his evidence, Hurlbert also asked the judge to throw out a defense subpoena calling for the accuser to testify. Hurlbert said testifying at the hearing would subject the 19-year-old woman to needless "anxiety and intimidation."
The defense can instead question investigators about the accuser, the prosecutor said.
Bryant's attorneys, Pamela Mackey and Hal Haddon, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.
Bryant is charged with sexually assaulting the woman June 30 in his suite at a nearby mountain resort. She worked there, and Bryant was staying there while in Colorado for knee surgery. Bryant has said they had consensual sex.
The Los Angeles Lakers' star is free on $25,000 bond pending the October hearing.
Larionov Playing On
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (AP) - The oldest player in the NHL will play one final season: Igor Larionov signed with the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
Larionov, who turns 43 in December, signed a one-year contract, filling the Stanley Cup champion's hole at center. Joe Nieuwendyk left the Devils to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent Tuesday.
Larionov is entering his 14th season. The Russian won Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings in 1997, 1998 and 2002.
Larionov said he would have retired after last season but changed his mind after the Red Wings were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
"I decided I want another year so I can have another chance to win the Cup," Larionov said Wednesday. "This is my last year."
Despite his age, Larionov has been durable. He had 10 goals and 33 assists in 74 games for the Red Wings last season.
Nieuwendyk had 14 goals and 28 assists in 80 games with the Devils last season.