SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #903 (71), Friday, September 19, 2003
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TITLE: City Elections Look Back to Future
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Seven years have passed since May 1996, when then Mayor Anatoly Sobchak was defeated by his deputy, Vladimir Yakovlev.
 
On Sunday, when St. Petersburgers again go to vote, Yakovlev is not running and the city faces another change at the top driven by an aggressive drive to replace the former governor with a pro-Kremlin protege, initiated and provided by the Northwest Region presidential representative's office.
 Since Yakovlev's term was cut short on June 16, when he was appointed deputy prime minister work responsible for fixing the nation's creaking municipal housing services, analysts say the election field has been monopolized by the so-called candidate No. 1, Valentina Matviyenko, the presidential representative to the region. President Vladimir Putin and key authorities in the Russian government, including Boris Gryzlov, the Interior Minister, Sergei Mironov, head of the Federation Council and even by Yakovlev himself in interviews broadcast on state owned channels have all given their support to her.
 "Matviyenko's main policy is not to give up the big projects started in the city while it was preparing for the 300 anniversary celebration," Yakovlev said Tuesday on state channel Rossiya.
 "This is a real program, this is a real leader. Although she criticizes my role in fulfilling the program, she has a point. Not everything turned out how [I] wanted it to. I hope that she will be able to make her program to come true," he said.
 Apart from Matviyenko, seven other candidates remain in the race.
 As recently as the beginning of this year, it would have been hard to believe that Yakovlev would get behind Matviyenko. Yakovlev was in a state of behind-the-scenes war with the presidential representative that often spilled into public at meetings of the Legislative Assembly. But after a new team of deputies were elected to the city parliament in December 2002, those who were loyal to him were no longer in the majority and his hopes to run again in May 2004 and stay on at Smolny until 2008 were gone. 
 Alexander Afanasyev, the governor's spokesman, had been the main proponent of the attacks on the presidential representative office headed by Viktor Cherkesov at that time, saying that the presidential-representative posts that were established in each of the country's seven main regions by President Vladimir Putin are illegal and are not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution.
 "We should raise the question of interference in the work of the legislative branch by an unconstitutional institution of the presidential representative's office but, instead, everybody is screaming that the governor is doing something [wrong]," Afanasyev said in an interview in February.
 At the end of May, Afanasyev quit the political arena completely.
 The clearest omen of Yakovlev's upcoming defeat was a court ruling in April in relation to Yury Rydnik, head of the pro-governor United City bloc, who was forced to drop his plenary powers of the Legislative Assembly deputy after it was determined he had broken the law his election campaign in autumn 2002. The bloc fell apart immediately after Rydnik left his office at the Mariinsky Palace.
 "I had a feeling at that time it was a political order and I treated this as a signal to other deputies to be loyal and not to make any false moves," Vladimir Yeryomenko, an independent Legislative Assembly lawmaker and a former member of the United City bloc, said on Thursday.
 "If they could force such a heavyweight out that showed how much easier it would be to punish others who had less ambition and fewer opportunities to resist [the pressure]. He [Rydnik] had quite big long-term plans to run for governor if, for instance, Yakovlev resigned. And if he had, he would have turned the current election situation up side down completely," Yeryomenko said.
 The official task of Cherkesov, who was appointed in May 2000, was to ensure had official goal local laws were in accordance to the federal legislation, but he became a big thorn in City Hall's side. By March, Cherkesov, a former member of the KGB's Fifth Directorate, which controlled surveillance of the media, churches, educational institutions, trade unions and the general public had completely undermined Yakovlev's office. Then Matviyenko was appointed to replace him.
 With most of the key figures replaced in the city power structures by allies of the presidential representative, the road to City Hall was clear for Matviyenko.
 "It looks as if it was done in accordance with Putin's idea to build a power vertical," said Yury Kravtsov, former Legislative Assembly speaker and one of the authors of the City Charter, a kind of constitution for the city. 
 Kravtsov was removed from the speaker's post April 1998 as a result of a smear campaign led by the pro-governor city prosecutor's office after City Hall got rid of supporters of the charter, which had seriously limited the governor's powers.
 "The Yakovlev era was very hard for the city," he said Thursday. "He is a person of not a high intellect and culture. He is a very limited person with very little abilities to manage such a city. That is why the city is in such a difficult position at the moment."
 While campaigning in spring 1996, Yakovlev made big promises, including completing a ring road around the city and fixing the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya metro line that was severed in 1995 after an underground river flooded tunnels between Lesnaya and Ploshchad Muzhestva metro stations leaving some 500,000 of the city's northeastern districts with no direct metro link to the city center. Both projects are still incomplete.
 Putin, who then worked as head of City Hall's external relations committee and ran Sobchak's election headquarters was outraged by Yakovlev's decision to run for the governor. Yakovlev was supported by then President Boris Yeltsin's former confidante Alexander Korzhakov and Oleg Soskovets, then a deputy prime minister. 
 The election was seen by many politicians as a fight for the city between two power groups in the Kremlin, one head by Korzhakov and another headed by Anatoly Chubais, close ally of Sobchak.
 Putin, to whom Sobchak was a father-like figure, has publicly called Yakovlev a traitor, labeling him "Judas" in one of the television interviews shortly after results of the elections had been announced.
 In his book "Presidential Marathon" published in 2000, Yeltsin said Korzhakov, with the help of then Prosecutor General Yury Skuratov, kept the pressure on Sobchak after he lost the election. In 1997, he was arrested on charges of embezzlement, graft and corruption. During an interrogation in November 1997, Sobchak suffered an apparent heart attack. From the hospital, he was spirited out of the country to France, supposedly to a heart clinic. According to Yeltsin, the flight was arranged by Putin.
 "Later on when I learned of what Putin had done, I felt great respect and gratitude toward him," Yeltsin wrote,
 Sobchak spent 2 1/2 years in exile in France and was cleared of all charges before returning to Russia in July 1999. In February 2000, after unsuccessfully running as an independent for the State Duma in December 1999, he died of apparent heart failure while on a trip to Kaliningrad on a mission for Putin's election headquarters.
 "In the last 15 years, St. Petersburg has managed to lose all the abilities it had to resolve its own problems with its own resources," Daniel Kotsublinsky, editor of newspaper Peterburgskaya Liniya, said on Thursday.
 "It shamefully gave up a system of free, city assembly. This process was started by Sobchak with the help of events of 1993 [Yeltsin's use of force to put down a parliamentary insurrection], and was continued by Yakovlev. This all resulted in the appearance of the current [city] parliament which has no will and is not able to take any decisions by itself," Kotsyubinsky said.
 "As a result, we have returned to the old days of the Communist city committee, when everything was decided for us, including the question of who would lead the city," he said.
 Kotsyubinsky left City-Hall controlled St. Petersburg Television at the end of June after a range of political programs, including his, were discontinued after Igor Ignatyev, former deputy head of St. Petersburg branch of the state-owned Rossiya channel was appointed to head the channel.
 "Life goes on and this is a most important thing," Leonid Kesselman, a political analyst at Sociology Department of Russian Academy of Science said Thursday.
 "There were and are and will be plenty of negative events. I have lived for quite a while and I have seen things worse than they are now," Kesselman said, "The important thing is how we react to this and I see the population feels quite distant from all the machinations and regards them as rather funny. The most preferable method to adapt to the current conditions is to distance yourself from those involved in politics."

TITLE: City's Shabby Image Just Fine for German Film
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: German director Oliver Hirschbiegel sent a team across Europe to find a location for filming his new movie "The Downfall" about the last days of the Third Reich in Berlin. They searched for six months before finding the ideal location - the center of St. Petersburg.
 
Christine Rothe, the movie's executive producer, said the team chose St. Petersburg as a ground for filming because of the city's architecture, which looks pretty much like pre-war Berlin.
 "We've been searching for it in whole Europe from last November to March. We've tried Berlin itself, but it's too modern, because it was totally destroyed at the end of the war. We tried in Prague, Poland, Riga, Romania," Rothe said. 
 Ironically enough, although Russia was on the winning side and Germany lost the war, the rundown buildings on Ulitsa Shkapina and Angliisky Prospekt looked shabby enough to match the image of ruined Berlin 58 years ago.
 On Thursday, the last day of shooting mass scenes in St. Petersburg, the area around Pochtamtsky Bridge, which connects the banks of the Moika River near St. Isaac's Square, turned into a real war scene, crammed with damaged pre-war automobiles and weapons, piles of sandbags, and crowds of people dressed as both Soviet and Nazi soldiers.
 The bridge entrances were barricaded with tank traps wrapped with barbed wires. 'Es lebe der Fuehrer!' said a handwritten sign on one of the decorations.
 "I'm proud to be part of this film, because it's the first German film, which is dealing with this specific problem," said Goetz Otto, who plays Hitler's adjutant, Otto Guensche. "In this film you get an idea of how crazy the whole concept of Nazism was. And how at the very end it inflicted the personal destiny of the leaders, when they start to kill each other and themselves."
 "German film makers were always scared such films would not find an audience [in Germany] because Germans still have so much guilt about that time. However, I hope this very film will attract an audience, because the reality shown in it is so threatening and so important," Otto said.
 The script of the movie is based on a book by historian Joachim Fest, whose latest work, "The Downfall," was inspired by the memoirs of Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge that were published in Germany last year. Junge was a unique witness to the last days of Hitler and his team. She saw Hitler's hasty wedding to Eva Braun and ate dinner with them before the couple's suicide. She was near when Magda Goebbels, wife of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, poisoned her six children.
 "It's such a terrible story," Otto said. "When I read the script I couldn't stop reading it. It was so threatening. As I read I thought all the time, 'This is it, it can't get worse', and it gets worse."
 "It's a really dark film. It's incredible how many dimensions it has in being dark. It shows these people, who were really criminals, some of very high rank, and now you see those people dying."
 Four thousand St. Petersburg residents were hired for the mass scenes of the storming of Berlin. For two days, ULUlitsa Shkapina and Angliisky Prospekt looked like a battle scene with lots of military vehicles - tanks, guns, and artillery - imitating the darkest hours of Berlin.
 The movie's action put a lot of focus on the desperate plight of Berlin's civilian population, whom Hitler had called upon to fight to the very end. 
 Olga Kasyanenko, who lives on Angliisky Prospekt, said when the storming of the Reichstag was filmed on the street, she felt as if she was in Germany.
 "There was German speech everywhere, explosions, soldiers dressed in fascist uniforms," Kasyanenko said.
 A Litfassaule - a column on which bills are posted - that are even today a feature of the Berlin streetscape stood in the street. On it was written a forecast of doom to Jews.
 A supermarket window was framed by sandbags and black paper, suggesting a bombed out building, covered its display window. On it were written the letters NSDAP - the initials of the Nazi Party.
 Otto said he was concerned about "how St. Petersburg residents would feel about such filming in their city, which was under siege for three years."
 However, Kasyanenko said neither she nor her mother, who survived World War II, had any bad feelings.
 "We've already passed through that. And if there's still any negativism, then it's already rather unconscious," she said.
 Kasyanenko said they were rather curious about the filming, and even though there is a parody "in having Reichstag's storming being filmed in St. Petersburg," she said the shabbiness of some districts is the city's problem to solve.
 She said the German team was tidy and cleaned the streets after the shooting.

TITLE: Energy Summit To Focus On Gas
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A year ago, in Texas, it was all about oil. But when the second U.S.-Russia Commercial Energy Summit opens in St. Petersburg next week, the star of the show is expected to be natural gas, particularly in its liquefied form.
 
Eager to diversify its supplies from declining Canadian production, the United States is setting its sights on Russia as a long-term supplier of liquefied natural gas by sea.
 Notably, Russia has no capacity for the time being to fulfill the role and North American ports are not equipped to receive any large volumes of LNG. A lot of these issues are likely to pop up at the two-day summit, which starts Monday.
 Sending Russian gas to the United States "is a natural marriage of interests" because America wants to diversify supplies and Gazprom wants to expand its markets, a U.S. Department of Energy official said.
 In the long run, the opportunities are huge. Although the United States imported only about 6.5 billion cubic meters of LNG last year, it may be importing up to 100 bcm by 2020 under a plan to boost the share of gas in domestic fuel consumption. The country last year used nearly 670 bcm of natural gas, more than a quarter of the world's gas consumption.
 With such drastic plans to increase gas consumption, many U.S. officials are openly talking about Russia, which holds the largest gas reserves in the world. And while 2020 may be years away, the first trial balloons have already been sent across the Atlantic.
 Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller went to the United States last week for what some insiders called a relationship-building trip. Miller was warmly greeted by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who told him that America "welcomes the possible appearance of Gazprom on the American natural gas market as a supplier of LNG," according to Gazprom.
 Commerce Secretary Donald Evans expressed similar interest.
 Both Abraham and Evans are to attend the summit in St. Petersburg. Abraham was to meet with Nuclear Power Ministry officials to discuss nuclear issues in Moscow on Friday.
 While the potential of a U.S.-Russian gas deal is big, the summit is unlikely to yield any concrete results, said Stephen O'Sullivan, co-head of research at United Financial Group.
 "In the immediate future, and based on the experiences of last year's summit, it is likely to be more talk than action," O'Sullivan said Thursday.
 While gas is a key issue, Russian oil will not be forgotten. Speculation is swirling that a U.S. oil major is considering buying a stake in Yukos and that a deal might be announced during the summit. All of the key players in such a deal are expected to attend the summit.
 A senior U.S. diplomat, however, said the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has not been approached for help in navigating any possible deal through the corridors of Russian leadership. 
 A report is to be presented during the summit on how to lower barriers for commercial cooperation between Russian and U.S. companies in the oil and gas sector. The report, prepared by industry officials, will focus on legislation and other government issues that obstruct the development of commercial ties. 
 Sources familiar with the report said they hoped both the U.S. and Russian government would take the findings seriously.
 However, attempts to find closer cooperation have not been glitch-free in preparations for the summit. Conspicuously absent from the agenda is the issue of Iraqi oil.
 One summit topic that seems to be a priority only for the Russian side is cooperation in electricity production. U.S. officials who participated in the summit's preparation said this week that electricity was added to the agenda because Unified Energy Systems management expressed an eagerness to find investment to fund the restructuring of the sector.
 U.S. officials and diplomats, however, said in various off-the-record remarks that the bid is unlikely to be successful given the huge demand for investment in the sector back in the United States.

TITLE: Kresty Gets Unexpected Female Arrival
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Staff at Kresty, St. Petersburg's most notorious pre-trial detention center, got the shock of their lives when Anna Vladimirova, 29, who was visiting her common-law husband, unexpectedly gave birth to a baby daughter inside the prison on Monday.
 
"I've been working in Kresty for 30 years, but we have never had women giving birth here before. It was a shock," said Alexander Zhitinyov, head of the detention center.
 Vladimirova started having strong contractions soon after she saw her husband through a glass window in a meeting room, and called for help.
 "The baby was born within half an hour," Zhitinyov said.
 The duty officers, who heard her cries, called for a local doctor's assistant, and took the woman into a neighboring room, where staff take their breaks.
 "The only furniture in there were chairs, so they put the chairs together, making a kind of bed, and brought in clean linen," Zhitinyov said.
 The ambulance, which had been summoned immediately after Vladimirova asked for help, was still on the way to Kresty, so paramedic Valentin Tsaryapkin had to deliver the baby by himself.
 "It was his first delivery, and we were all impressed with how well he coped," said Yelena Leonchenko, the acting head of the prison's medical department.
 While Vladimirova was giving birth, her husband, Georgy Kochetov, 37, who is awaiting trial on burglary charges, was so shocked that he couldn't respond to staff's questions. Kochetov did not see his daughter being born, but he could hear it, Zhitinyov said.
 The rules of detention centers prohibit minors visiting because of the risk they will be taken hostage. Therefore, Kochetov won't be able to see his daughter before he is either released or sent to a prison where such meetings are allowed.
 Meanwhile, the duty officers, who called for the doctor when Vladimirova was having contractions, suggested the girl be named as Kristina after the place where she was born.
 The doctors at the maternity house, where the newborn girl and her mother were taken to from Kresty, said the baby was in good condition. Her weight was 2 kilograms 820 grams, and she was 49 centimeters tall.
 The girl was lying in a special crib next to a soft duck toy, given to her by the Tsaryapkin, who delivered her. Vladimirova herself could not be reached for a comment, as she had left the hospital before The St. Petersburg Times got there.
 Kresty detention center, which consists of several red-brick blocks, is located in the center of St. Petersburg, on the embankment of the Neva River, is infamous as the most overcrowded pre-trial detention center in Europe.
 Built in 1893 to hold political prisoners in mostly in solitary confinement, it was for many years a symbol of political repression. Prominent historical figures as Lev Trotsky and Anna Akhmatova's son Lev Gumilyov are among its former inmates.
 Today Kresty holds up to 14 people suspected of different crimes in one cell, where they wait for their trials for years.

TITLE: Markova Complains Over Campaign Ad
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Lawyers for gubernatorial candidate Anna Markova on Monday asked the Central Election Commission to file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against President Vladimir Putin for breaking election laws by publicly supporting another candidate, Valentina Matviyenko.
 
Lawyers for candidate and Vice Governor Anna Markova say Putin violated Article 48.8 of the election law, which says "Persons working as category A staff ... are banned from election campaigning on television and radio channels and in printed media outlets, except if the person is registered as a candidate for a State Duma seat or for other elected positions."
 The president's meeting with Matviyenko, his envoy to the Northwest Region, was broadcast repeatedly on state television channels Channel One and Rossia a fortnight ago. 
 The lawyers complained on the same grounds about campaign posters featuring Matviyenko and Putin.
 "Campaign posters appeared on streets of St. Petersburg placed at bus stops and billboards in September. They show Matviyenko, the gubernatorial candidate, and President Putin, with Matviyenko's hands apparently measuring some hypothetical object as she talks to the president. The words say: 'Valentina Matviyenko. The candidate for St. Petersburg governor. Together we can do anything,'" the complaint reads.
 "If the guarantor of the Constitution breaks the law, how should other branches of the administration behave?" Markova wrote Tuesday in a letter sent to Putin. 
 Marina Sakharnova, secretary of the City Election Commission, said on Wednesday that Putin had given written approval for his image to be used on the campaign posters. as is required by the federal election law.
 "According to Article 48.1 [of the federal election law], anybody can campaign. He is the president and it is hard to determine when he is a private person and when he is not," Sakharnova said.
 Alexander Veshnyakov, head of the federal Central Election Commission, said Markova's request had been handed to the City Election Commission to take actions if a violation of the law was found. Such matters are not the business of his commission, , he said, because the elections are to be held in St. Petersburg.
 "The incident with the president talking to Matviyenko on television was handed over to the City Election Commission to provide an administrative investigation," Veshnyakov said at a briefing Wednesday. "I saw [the posters] and others placed by different candidates. It is impossible to propagandize citizens of such a democratic city. They see everything, so they will make their choice."
 Vitta Vladimirova, Markova's lawyer, said her candidate would insist that the central election commission deals with her inquiry, under the Procedural Code Article 259.1, which says that a law violation affecting a significant number of people is a federal matter.
 There are just under 3.7 million eligible voters in the city.
 "We will wait the five days during which the Central Election Commission is obliged to respond. If it doesn't, we have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court," Vladimirova said Wednesday.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Ferry Touches Vessels
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Finnish passenger ferry Silja Opera brushed against two other vessels moored in Morskoi Kanal as it sailed for Helsinki on Wednesday night.
 Some technical equipment on the deck of the two boats suffered as a result was damaged, but the ferry continued on its voyage after a hasty inspection, Interfax reported.
 The incident happened in the narrowest part of the canal, although the reasons for it are still under investigation.
 
 
Cactus Thief Caught
 

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Police detained a 26-year-old woman on Wednesday for stealing a cactus from the flower shop Nikol on Sept. 16.
 A saleswoman at the store told the police that the cactus robber entered the store, and struggled with her before leaving with the cactus, Interfax said.
 Police detained the unemployed woman and have opened a criminal case of robbery against her under which she could be jailed for four years. The woman was released after pledging not to leave town. 



TITLE: Echo of NTV Returns to Airwaves From Russia
AUTHOR: By Anna Dolgov
PUBLISHER: Special to The Moscow Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - From a cluttered television studio in central Moscow, a small group of journalists and commentators is doing the kind of broadcasting that has all but disappeared from the major networks - by daring to criticize Kremlin policies.
 
With the closure in June of TVS, Russia's last national non-state-controlled television channel, the small broadcaster Ekho TV has become a refuge for some TVS personalities, including satirical commentator Viktor Shenderovich and news anchorman Vladimir Kara-Murza.
 But most Russians would have to leave the country to see them. Ekho TV is watched by Russian-speaking audiences in the United States, Israel, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine and the Baltics. But tuning in to its broadcasts in Russia requires special satellite equipment, which is expensive and hard to find.
 Ekho TV is a new sprout rising from the ruins of a media empire built by Vladimir Gusinsky, the once-powerful financier who fell out of the Kremlin's favor and fled Russia after having been charged with defrauding the state of $262 million, to which prosecutors later added a money-laundering charge. But he may reclaim a place on Russia's airwaves, if Ekho TV's plans to begin broadcasting in some regions of the country pan out.
 The station is headed by Andrei Norkin, who used to work for Gusinsky's NTV television before it was taken over by government-controlled Gazprom in 2001. Against the backdrop of largely pro-government reports on all major networks, his newscasts have the same cutting edge and sharp criticism of the authorities that had marked his NTV broadcasts. 
 "All newscasts on federal channels are very much alike and made according to the same standard. Their top story is the president's presence here or there," said Alexei Simonov, head of the Glasnost Defense Foundation. "If you switch channels, you see the same thing, at best shot from a different spot." 
 "They [Ekho TV journalists] are certainly producing alternative and unbiased information," Simonov said. 
 Ekho TV also airs satirical comments by Shenderovich, whose program "Besplatny Sir" ("Free Cheese") on TVS had harshly ridiculed officials' blunders and general misdeeds.
 Shenderovich was the main screenwriter for the political puppet show "Kukly" on NTV, and he mocked the powers that be in his "Itogi" program on TV6.
 Since the Press Ministry ordered TVS shut down, Shenderovich said he has not received a single offer from any of the national channels.
 "If I wanted to host some silly show, there would not have been any problem with that," he said. "But an absolute ban has been placed on the genre in which I work."
 Ekho TV provides news from Russia for RTVI - which stands for Russian Television International - a New York-based company owned by Gusinsky. Although technically a separate entity, Ekho TV can best be regarded as the "Moscow bureau" of RTVI, in Norkin's words. 
 And now Ekho TV may be about to bring its newscasts about Russia to viewers in Russia. Norkin said the station expects to clinch deals to sell its programs to at least five local television companies, including in key regions such as Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg. 
 Although Ekho TV was created in February 2002, it was this June, when TVS was shut down, that regional television stations began to express an interest in its programs, Norkin said. 
 "The way I see it, the closure of TVS served as that last drop that overfilled the cup of patience and the lack of information began to be felt very strongly," he said.
 Media watchers welcomed Ekho TV plans to break into Russia, saying it would be a much-needed return of high-quality, independent journalism on television.
 "This would be wonderful," said Oleg Panfilov, head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, a media watchdog group. 
 "The mere fact that Andrei Norkin is working there is a good sign of honesty and objectivity. This is a man who would not produce bad news," Panfilov said. 
 Simonov called Ekho TV's possible broadcasting to Russian regions "exceptionally important." But Alexei Pankin, the editor of media magazine Sreda, was more skeptical. 
 Large cities like Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg receive up to a dozen television channels, he said, and although Ekho TV would provide "a different kind of news," its appearance would not be likely to make much of a difference. 
 Still, it might be enough to make the authorities nervous. "Our authorities are stupid enough" to decide that the appearance of one more channel presents a danger for them, Pankin said. 
 With a staff of only about a dozen full-time correspondents and a corps of stringers, Ekho TV provides a view of events that is conspicuously missing from the main television channels. 
 When the last two main challengers to the Kremlin's favored candidate in the Chechen presidential race were removed last week, Ekho TV made it a lead story for two days running. 
 "The election in Chechnya can already be considered over," Norkin said in his newscast, adding that the way was now clear for Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed head of the Chechen administration. The main television channels simply reported that one of the challengers decided to withdraw from the race and another was removed by a court.
 "The principles that my colleagues and I previously held, we still hold them," Norkin said in an interview. "If some event happens, we try to cover it from all points of view: what this side believes, and what that side believes, and what a third side believes, if there is a third side.
 "Because we have no taboo topics, there are some painful points in our programs."
 TV coverage of such "painful points" in the past often brought repercussions.
 Following the NTV takeover, its journalists fled to Boris Berezovsky-owned channel TV6, but that was driven into bankruptcy in 2002 by a group of minority shareholders with close ties to the Kremlin. The journalists then formed TVS, but it lasted for only a year. 
 "The way I see it, the country's leadership believes that the implementation of those reforms that they have in mind is possible only if they have control over the media," Norkin said.
 Ekho TV has had no problems with the authorities, which Shenderovich suggests is because the authorities only care about broadcasts that reach the voters.
 "As far as they [the authorities] care, we simply don't exist," he said. 
 But with parliamentary elections coming up in December, to be followed by a presidential vote in March, Ekho TV could expect to be treated differently if it started broadcasting in Russia.
 "I think they may get into trouble, because it wasn't for nothing that the authorities put central television in line, which now can rightfully be called the Central Television of the Soviet Union," Panfilov said. 
 "Alternative information will certainly be met with bayonets." 
 Simonov predicted that if Ekho TV programs become widely received in Russia, the authorities may try to shut down the station. 
 "As soon as some alternative information is noticed by the center, we may see the same development [as with TV6] involving minority shareholders or something like that," Simonov said.

TITLE: Fourth Candidate Pulls Out of Chechnya Race
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia - A fourth candidate in the Chechen presidential race withdrew his candidacy Wednesday, raising further fears that the Oct. 5 poll has become a one-horse race with Moscow-backed acting Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov facing no serious competition.
 
Said-Selim Tsuyev has given election officials notice of his withdrawal, but did not give a reason for his decision, Itar-Tass reported.
 Seven candidates remain in the election race.
 The Kremlin has not publicly cast support behind any of the candidates, but Kadyrov is widely seen as the Kremlin's favorite. Analysts say a victory by another candidate could be an impediment to President Vladimir Putin's strategy of rejecting negotiations with the rebels while pushing for control through political means. Moscow has presented the presidential election this fall and last March's constitutional referendum as key steps toward an end to fighting.
 Last week, the two candidates who posed the biggest threat to Kadyrov, Malik Saidullayev and Aslanbek Aslakhanov, left the race. Saidullayev's candidacy was canceled by a court ruling and Aslakhanov announced he was withdrawing to become an adviser to Putin.
 Fighting persisted in Chechnya on Wednesday, with five servicemen and Chechen police killed in clashes with rebels and land mine explosions in the past 24 hours, an official in the region's Moscow-backed administration said. 
 Two Russian military police were killed and four others wounded when their convoy was ambushed by rebels, the official said on condition of anonymity. One serviceman was killed and five wounded when their armored personnel carrier hit a mine, and one policeman and another soldier were killed in separate clashes with rebels, the official said.

TITLE: Equivocal Voloshin Keeps Business Nervy
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton and Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The nation's leading businessmen were left sweating Wednesday after presidential Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin made rare public statements on two multibillion-dollar issues that are eating big business - property rights and the rules of the game for the upcoming UES sell-off - and failed to clear the air.
 
On the possibility that this summer's legal attack on the nation's biggest privately owned company, Yukos, might open the way for a reexamination of the controversial results of 1990s privatizations, Voloshin was guarded and vague.
 He said that while official policy was not to revisit privatization results, the murky legal situation surrounding most of the sell-offs meant that nothing was certain.
 "There has been no revision of privatization results. There are just certain cases that are being investigated," Voloshin said at a news conference in Baku on Tuesday evening.
 "The political course in the country is being named as this: There will be no revision of privatization results. However, from a practical point of view this is a complicated matter, from both a political and legal point of view," he said.
 Voloshin said he could only "hope" that it would not be necessary to revisit deals when laws governing the privatization process had been flawed.
 "In Russia we need to gradually move away from the period of initial capital accumulation without undermining the foundations of our economy," he said. "This is a difficult issue. I hope that we will resolve it - in both the sense that the law will be upheld and that it will not be necessary to revise the results of privatization."
 And then, turning his attention to the next big state sell-off - the restructuring of electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems - Voloshin added his voice to government calls to change the rules.
 He said there could be cash auctions for UES asset sales instead of just using UES shares as the sole currency to gain stakes in newly spun-off power stations - as has been the plan. Russia's massive financial industrial groups have already spent more than $2 billion buying up UES shares in hope of getting prime positions for the sell-off.
 Analysts said Voloshin's statements seemed to be a signal that the Kremlin wants oligarchs under its thumb before State Duma elections in December.
 Raising questions about the UES sell-off and remaining ambiguous on property rights appear to indicate "the Kremlin wants to take back control of the commanding heights of the economy that right now are dominated by the oligarchs," said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital.
 He said the Yukos affair was another clear attempt to rein in the growing might of the oligarchs.
 "This happened just five months before the elections. The coincidence of that is extremely significant. And secondly, the mechanism by which the administration is sending these signals [to the oligarchs] indicates that the judiciary, property rights and the legal system are all negotiable by the Kremlin," Nash said.
 "It sounds to me from Voloshin's statements that for a good chunk of the Russian economy we still don't know who it belongs to," said Bernard Sucher, chairman of Alfa Capital, the asset-management arm of Alfa Group. "It's very difficult to make investment decisions under these circumstances."

TITLE: Shell to Invest $1 Bln
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - A day after trading accusations with the government over the cause of project delays, Royal Dutch/Shell on Tuesday approved a budget of more than $1 billion to develop the Salym fields in western Siberia.
 
"The fact that we are actually making this investment shows that we have complete confidence that the license issue will be resolved," Shell spokesman Simon Buerk said.
 The announcement comes hard on the heels of threats by the government to withdraw the Salym license because of the Anglo-Dutch group's failure to meet exploration targets.
 Shell became one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia when it gave the green light this year for a $10 billion project on the remote eastern island of Sakhalin, where it will build the world's largest liquefied-natural-gas plant by 2006.
 But while the Sakhalin plan is progressing smoothly, the company is finding it increasingly difficult to agree on developing Salym, which has reserves of up to 880 million barrels.
 Shell has been waiting for years for a production-sharing agreement for Salym that would give it tax exemptions, but in the absence of such a deal last year the oil major decided to develop the fields on a regular tax regime.
 &quot;The decision to proceed with the Salym fields is an important step forward in the development of Shell's presence in Russia, a country of high strategic importance for the group,&quot; Walter van de Vijver, CEO of Shell Exploration and Production, said in a statement. Shell has already invested $170 million in Salym. <i>(SPT, Reuters) </i>

TITLE: Belarus, Putin Agree to Move On Gas Prices, Currency Plan
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin came out of talks with his Belarussian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Monday saying the two sides had reached an understanding on differences over the pricing of Russian gas supplies and over their planned monetary union.
 
&quot;We reached the conclusion that we need to move to market-based relations in this sphere and not stop the negotiation process on creating a joint company for a single pipeline system,&quot; Putin said in televised remarks after the meeting at his Sochi residence. &quot;We should keep in mind that Russia can in all ways consider the possibility of Belarussian companies taking part in extracting gas in Russia.&quot;
 Relations between Russia and Belarus took a blow last week when Russia accused Belarus of stalling on the introduction of a single currency and said its smaller neighbor will no longer pay discount prices for natural gas.
 Belarussian officials responded by saying price increases could scuttle the scheduled introduction of the Russian ruble as the common currency from 2005, and Lukashenko accused Moscow of blackmail.
 On Monday, Moscow cancelled an agreement that forced Gazprom to sell gas to Minsk at the same price it sells domestically, about $24 per thousand cubic meters.
 Gazprom spokesman Igor Plotnikov was quoted by Interfax as saying that the gas giant would try to boost the price to $40 to $45. Independent producers sell gas to Belarus for $46.
 As a result of the standoff, the summit, originally scheduled for Friday, was put off. <i>(SPT, AP) </i>

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>$1.5Bln Paper Mill
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Finnish firm Metsaliito plans to build a new pulp-and-paper mill in Leningrad Oblast, Interfax reported Wednesday.
 Announcing the plan at a St. Petersburg news conference Wednesday, Metsaliito said the project, costing $1.5 billion, will be carried out by a partnership with another Finnish company, UPM Kummene, the report said.
 The first phase of the project, in which the companies are investing 60 million euros, includes the construction of a sawmill in Podporozhsky district of the Leningrad Oblast, with a planned capacity of 300,000 cubic meters of lumber per year. 
 The mill will start working in 2005 and will require 600,000 tons of wood per year, Metseliito says. 
 
 
<b>New Line for Ravioli 
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - St. Petersburg foodstuffs firm Ravioli on Wednesday launched a new production line for production of frozen food from chicken under the brandname "Totally Ready Product," the company said in a statement.
 Ravioli invested $6 million euros into re-equipping of the production facilities and leasing the equipment from Dutch company CFS. 
 The new line's capacity is 1 ton of frozen chicken ribs, fillets, or cutlets per hour. The new production line will boost Ravioli's production by at least 20 percent, the statement said.
 Founded in 1994, Raviloli produces 40 frozen foodstuff products and says it has 30 percent of the city market.
 
 
 
<b>NIB To Update Plant
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Nordic Investment Bank is to provide Russian enterprises in the Northwest Region with loans for the programs of replacement of old and outdated machinery with more ecologically secure equipment, Delovoi Peterburg reported the bank as saying Wednesday.
 The local partner of Nordic Investment Bank is Vneshtorgbank, which will issue and service the loans. 
 The bank is ready to provide enterprises even without government guarantees. The only requirement is the acquiring of the new equipment - either Russian or foreign. The bank estimates loans for this purpose could amount to several hundred million euros.
 In June, NIB signed an agreement with Vneshtorgbank, under which NIB will provide the Russian bank with 20 million euros for up to 15 years to finance ecological projects in the Northwest of Russia. 
 
 
<b>Heineken Wants 15%
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (Prime-Tass) - International brewing giant Heineken plans to control 15 percent of the Russian beer market, up from about 6 percent now, the head of its representative office Roland Pierme, said in a Vedomosti interview published Wednesday.
 "Russia is a very big country, and in order to survive on this market you have to be a big company. It means our market share should be at least 15 percent. This goal could be reached in two ways, either by increasing our own production or by acquiring competitors."
 However, he added, "At the moment, Russian companies are not very interested in selling their businesses."
 Pierme said the company sees the Ochakovo and Krasny Vostok breweries as the most attractive acquisitions.
 Heineken owns one brewery in the country, St. Petersburg's Bravo brewery, which it bought in April 2002. 
 
 



TITLE: Russia's AIDS Problem
AUTHOR: By John Tedstrom
TEXT: At a time when international leaders have rightly focused attention on Africa's HIV/AIDS tragedy, the potentially devastating epidemic has surfaced in Eurasia.
 
Russia, in particular, faces a serious crisis: Experts estimate that as many as 1.5 million Russians - more than 2 percent of its adult population - have become infected in the past six years, potentially making this the world's highest rate of new HIV infection.
 A strong, confident Russia - one that is democratic, prosperous, healthy and integrated into the international community - will be a vital contributor to global stability and security. HIV threatens Russia's ability to achieve its full potential in this regard ,and its eradication should be a priority both for Russia's leaders and for its partners in the West.
 HIV entered Russia about 10 years later than it reached the United States and Western Europe, but has since struck with a vengeance. If current trends persist, as many as 8 million Russians, or more than 10 percent of the adult population, could be infected within a decade.
 The virus is spreading rapidly from high-risk groups to the general population; rates of new infection are highest among people aged between 15 and 30. Left unchecked, HIV will rob Russia of its next generation of teachers, doctors, soldiers and artists.
 Given HIV's late arrival in Russia, its leaders have a unique opportunity to build on the successes of other nations battling against this epidemic. President Vladimir Putin, in his May state of the nation address, declared that HIV/AIDS represented a threat to Russia's national security. His declaration marked an important step toward creating the political environment necessary to confront the epidemic. Experience elsewhere has shown conclusively that, without political leadership from the very top, a society's response to the disease will be limited and ineffective.
 Russia's priority should be to expand dramatically its own resource allocation for combating HIV/AIDS. The federal AIDS budget for 2003 is only $3.9 million, and the draft federal budget for 2004 does not increase HIV-targeted resources. For a country facing the world's highest rate of new infection, its current level of spending is insufficient.
 Second, to meet the surging demand for treatment that will soon arise, Russia must begin to train doctors and give them the authority to treat AIDS patients.
 Currently, these patients must be treated in one of Russia's designated federal or regional centers. As the epidemic progresses, however, the centers will be unable to handle the volume of new patients; fully trained independent physicians (and counselors and social workers) will need to step in.
 Third, the hundreds of thousands of new AIDS patients that will soon emerge in Russia will require vastly increased supplies of antiretroviral medication. Compulsory licensing, production of generic drugs and procurement of drugs at significantly reduced prices are all options for expanding treatment in a manner that is fair, efficient and sustainable.
 Fourth, Russian leaders must acknowledge that, for the foreseeable future, intravenous drug use will remain an important channel of new infection. Experience and research over the last 20 years has shown that needle exchange and substitution therapy programs do not increase drug use; rather, they reduce HIV transmission among drug users and, consequently, from that community to the general population. These programs should be legalized and supported alongside other education initiatives aimed at reducing drug use. Likewise, the restrictions on discussion of drug use, sex and related issues in the mass media and public schools must be relaxed if Russian citizens, especially young people, are to have any hope of learning how to protect themselves and others from HIV.
 Russia's HIV epidemic also brings the opportunity to set new standards on a host of human rights issues. At present, HIV-infected Russians often face severe discrimination, including in the workplace and in obtaining healthcare.
 Political leaders should work to expand legislative protection for people living with HIV/AIDS, ensure that laws are implemented in a rapid and measurable manner and include representatives from among HIV-positive people in the process of policy development and program implementation.
 Last, Russia's international partners should expand efforts to help fight HIV in Russia and the region. Now is not the time for Western partners to reduce their support. Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush, together with other Group of Eight leaders, should call for an enhanced international response to HIV/AIDS in Russia, Ukraine and neighboring countries on the front-line of this epidemic.
 Curbing Russia's HIV epidemic will require serious reform of its healthcare system; an end to stigma and discrimination; a greater allocation of federal resources; and urgent, decisive leadership from government, business and civil society.
 By launching these important changes at home, Russia's leadership can create a legacy of achievement and compassion and demonstrate its commitment to tackling a truly global menace.
 
 <i>John Tedstrom is president of Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS, whose report &quot;On the Frontline of an Epidemic&quot; was released on Wednesday. This comment appeared in the Financial Times. </i>

TITLE: The Visa Wall Has To Come Down Soon
AUTHOR: By Deborah Anne Palmieri
TEXT: The problem of getting visas for Russians traveling to the United States just seems to be getting worse. Certainly the number of cases of delays and denials, coming across my desk, experienced by our membership supports that contention.
 
Russian Ambassador to the United States Yury Ushakov accented the depth of diplomatic concerns about the restrictions in an August comment for The Washington Post. The St. Petersburg Times raised awareness through timely coverage of visa nightmares over the summer. New Counsel General James Pettit has addressed embassy concerns to keep the visa processing system humming along, given constraints and the necessity to meet enhanced national security requirements.
 But no resolution is in sight without a fundamental overhaul of the system. An already stringent process was made stricter in August, requiring a personal interview and more paperwork. On each side of the issue there are legitimate requirements and interests. On the one hand, business needs the free flow of people, goods and services across national boundaries to thrive. On the other hand, post-Sept. 11, 2001, governments must take measures against the terror threat and control illegal immigration.
 The sensible long-term solution to visa woes is that the visa system must be phased out and eliminated on both sides. Travel relations with Russia must be normalized. The visa system is a carryover from the Cold War for both countries. We don't need a visa to go to Britain, France or Germany. Why do we need one to go to Russia? Americans face a mountain of cumbersome and often contradictory paperwork and bureaucracy when they want to visit Russia. Conversely, does it still make sense to require that Russians get a visa to come here?
 Serious analysis of the fundamental purpose of visas must be evaluated in the context of our new relationship with Russia - one strengthened in recent years by dialogue and cooperative initiatives between the two countries' administrations. The present visa regime is cumbersome and unnecessary for both Americans and Russians. Americans need to treat Russia like any European country, with passport travel and easy travel access. And Russians need to make it easier to travel to Russia.
 It won't happen any time soon, but the reciprocal elimination of the visa requirement by the U.S. and Russia needs to be the goal if we want to look ahead to what will really open up business and trade.
 Meanwhile, a special &quot;fast-track&quot; commercial processing system is required to expedite business travel between the two countries. Special cooperation is needed to define and implement such a fast-track system. We must be able to move business travelers smoothly between both countries to minimize the negative and punitive effects of the current restrictive policies to the business community.
 If we can't travel, we can't trade, and dollars are lost to unnecessary bureaucracy. It's a major trade barrier now. Also, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow is seriously understaffed to handle the volume of visa applications it receives, and so requires a greater budget allocation and a better appreciation in Washington of its requirements and staffing needs.
 The effects of visa barriers on optimal business relations should be a top agenda item at the upcoming Bush-Putin summit. Some of the examples on both sides of visa bureaucracy are horror stories. Removing unnecessary obstacles for legitimate people conducting legitimate business, education and recreational pursuits is essential to the future of positive and productive U.S.-Russian relations.
 
 <i>Deborah Anne Palmieri is president and CEO of The Russian American Chamber of Commerce, based in Denver, Colorado. She contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.</i>


TITLE: Dunderheaded Dictatorship of Election Laws
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: The meaning of what President Vladimir Putin called a &quot;dictatorship of the law&quot; in spring 2000 became clearer to me after a conversation on election issues with the St. Petersburg police this week.
 
A police official warned me - off the record, of course - that our newspaper might be stripped of its license if we are not sufficiently careful in following new election laws. Specifically, I was told that we are obliged to ask gubernatorial candidates for permission to use their names whenever we write articles about them.
 I had always thought there was at least some limit to the stupidity of the authorities, but at moments like this I am on the verge of giving up hope. I asked if we needed permission each time we ran an article mentioning a candidate's name and the answer was &quot;yes.&quot;
 &quot;Well, in that case we wouldn't lose much by mentioning candidates' names two or three times more without asking, as we have already done so on numerous occasions. On those grounds, our paper could have been closed a hundred times over by now,&quot; I replied.
 I don't have the slightest idea where the police found a regulation that media outlets can be deprived of their license on such grounds. According to what a local Press Ministry official told me last month, newspapers' activities can under certain circumstances be suspended for the duration of an election campaign, but not entirely shut down.
 Only a few newspapers in St. Petersburg in the last two months have been affected in some way by these regulations, including the daily Smena and weekly Delo. Both got warnings, but were not suspended. The most ridiculous example of the police attempting to enforce a dictatorship of the election law here took place at the end of August when more than 200,000 copies of Delo Chesti, the campaign newspaper of gubernatorial candidate Anna Markova, were confiscated by the police because it contained a small picture of Admiral Mikhail Motsak, the deputy presidential envoy. The reason given was that the editors had not asked Motsak for permission to use his picture in an article about his activities in support of Valentina Matviyenko.
 I don't know which law Motsak was referring to, but if it really exists, Putin could legally demand the closure of all media outlets in the country at once. However, he prefers to focus his energies on shutting down national television channels, as has been demonstrated with the closure of TV6 and TVS.
 I would be happy if the police were strict about everyone adhering to national and local legislation, but it seems that law enforcement officials are mainly concerned about catering to the needs of certain people close to the president who are interested in dictatorship - but not of the law, which is no more than a toy in their hands.

TITLE: more tigers than lily-livered
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: This weekend sees the return of The Tiger Lillies, a trio of London musicians whose accordion-driven operatic ballads have been drawing crowds at concert venues in both Moscow and St. Petersburg since the band debuted in Moscow in April 2000.
 
After that first show - at the then newly opened club Project O.G.I. in Moscow - counterfeit versions of Tiger Lillies albums appeared at music kiosks all over Moscow and St. Petersburg, the band's music was used in a handful of soundtracks for locally produced movies and plays and cinematic director Sergei Bodrov began work on a documentary - as yet unfinished - about the trio.
 It's no surprise, perhaps, that The Tiger Lillies have made their mark on local music lovers: When the band takes the stage, the radically falsetto voice of frontman Martyn Jacques combines with lyrics that are often shocking - tackling themes such as London's underworld, prostitution, murder and sex with animals and insects - to produce a show that has few analogues in the world of contemporary music.
 &quot;There are big things and there are small things. Sex and death are big,&quot; said Jacques, sitting on a kitchen stool in a St. Petersburg apartment earlier this month.
 The Tiger Lillies arrived in St. Petersburg on Sept. 7 to begin work on a collaboration album with popular local ska band Leningrad, whose frontman and founder Sergei Shnurov admits that The Tiger Lillies had a considerable influence on his work.
 The two bands played together with Jacques singing, after which Shnurov, who does not speak English, overlaid his vocals in Russian with lyrics written or improvized from word-for-word translations provided by a friend.
 Out of 14 recorded tracks, 12 are Jacques' songs with Shnurov on vocals and two are Shnurov numbers sung in English by Jacques. The album is due early next year to give fans a break after Leningrad's long-awaited new album, scheduled for October.
 The idea of the collaboration came about at The Tiger Lillies' concert at Red Club in April. Shnurov, who borrowed music for Leningrad's 1999 hit &quot;Diky Muzhchina&quot; (&quot;Wild Man&quot;) from Jacques' song &quot;Whore,&quot; paid his respect to the trio by making a suprise appearance to sing the song with The Tiger Lillies playing.
 &quot;Sergei is a really good singer, he is probably even a better singer than people realize,&quot; said Jacques, whose favorite vocalists include Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel. &quot;I think he's got seeds of greatness in him, in fact.&quot; 
 &quot;He's got an emotion. I think Sergei's voice is lived-in, he's a person who's seen things, suffered,&quot; he said. &quot;I think he's got that kind of voice.&quot;
 After four days in the studio, The Tiger Lillies headed to Moscow to perform three shows, followed by a gig in Donetsk, Ukraine before returning to St. Petersburg for two more dates.
 Though The Tiger Lillies may have influenced the work of Leningrad and frequently perform at rock venues, the band distances itself from rock 'n' roll - even posting messages on its web site that read &quot;How dare they call us a 'rock' band?&quot; beside copies of reviews - and claim its roots lie in the theater, specifically with German playwright Bertolt Brecht and German composer Kurt Weill.
 &quot;Brecht and Weill were big influences for me - 'The Threepenny Opera' ['Der Dreigroschenoper'] in particular,&quot; Jacques said. &quot;It was one of the records I used to listen to when I was very young, when I was about 20.&quot;
 In addition to Brecht and Weill, Jacques includes cabaret and Gypsy music and Russian folk songs among his influences, adding that he is also a fan of the music of the New York Dolls, Tom Waits and &quot;the intellectual aspect of punk.&quot;
 &quot;I've always been interested in less popular things, the less commercial side of music,&quot; Jacques said, adding that he moved to London's Soho district six years ago to be closer to &quot;unusual&quot; people. &quot;At the time, weird people used to live there.&quot;
 Jacques, who sings and plays accordion, is backed by double bassist Adrian Stout and drummer Adrian Huge. The band boasts a vast, ever-expanding repertoire of songs written by Jacques, who said he never uses set lists during gigs, simply playing what song he feels ought to be performed next.
 The Tiger Lillies' 10th and most recent album, &quot;The Gorey End&quot; (2003) is based on the poems and prose of the late U.S. writer and illustrator Edward Gorey, who in 1999 wrote a letter to the band suggesting a collaboration. The band agreed, but Gorey died the following year before he had the opportunity to hear the resulting songs, which use pre-existing Gorey texts chosen by Gorey and Jacques (and occasionally reworked to conform to rhythms) as lyrics.
 &quot;[Gorey] was a very eccentric man,&quot; Jacques said. &quot;He used to draw pictures and he used to write words to the pictures. They are very, very dark and black - very Victorian - and he was quite similar to The Tiger Lillies in that way, because they are also very dark and Victorian.&quot;
 On the album, The Tiger Lillies are joined by San Francisco string ensemble the Kronos Quartet.
 &quot;We did a show called 'Shockheaded Peter' in San Francisco, and they came to see us play,&quot; Jacques said. &quot;They're always very keen on working with avant-garde, unusual musicians, and I talked to them about [Gorey] and the songs I'd just written and they were very interested. They were fans of his as well.&quot;
 The new album's lyrics are dark, fantastical and at times absurd, but always considerably tamer than The Tiger Lillies' previous texts. In one of the band's best-known songs, 1996's &quot;Banging in the Nails,&quot; for example, Jacques sung: 
 &quot;I'm crucifying Jesus/Nail him to the cross/The poor old bastard bleeds to death/And I don't give a toss./I'm bang, bang, banging in the nails.&quot;
 Despite the songs' graphic imagery, Jacques likens his lyrics to the images on show at art museums.
 &quot;If you go to some national gallery - any national gallery - you see paintings of people being raped, violence, terrible violence, terrible things going on,&quot; Jacques said.
 &quot;And if you look at crucifixion, there's a man and he has nails in his wrists. His ribs are cut and blood comes out. ... It's violence. It's obscene. And so much of the Bible is graphic violence - and that's art. What's the difference between that and what we do? I just wish people ... saw what we do as art.&quot;
 
 <i>
The Tiger Lillies perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at Red Club. Links: www.tigerlillies.com </i>

TITLE: contest finds plenty of new plays
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: &quot;Well, Moses finally stopped leading his people through the desert. We have the manuscripts now,&quot; was how prominent local actor Andrei Tolubeyev, head of the St. Petersburg's Theater Workers' Union, referred to the outcome of a contest for young dramatists.
 
The results of the competition, which ran from mid-June to mid-September, were announced on Wednesday at Dom Aktyora on Nevsky Prospect. Excerpts from about a dozen plays were performed by students from the St. Petersburg Drama Academy.
 The first prize in the full-length drama category went to Dmitry Yegorov, writing under the pseudonym Danila Privalov, for his &quot;People of the Most Ancient Professions.&quot; Two second prizes were also awarded in the category, going to Pyotr Shereshevsky for &quot;Yesterday, or the Sixth Proof that Ded Moroz Exists&quot; and Olga Polunina for her &quot;Marmalade.ru.&quot;
 Two prizes were awarded in drama shorts category, going to Boris Pavlovich for his &quot;Bologoye Blues&quot; and Pavel Basov for his &quot;White Dance.&quot; Several other plays received a commendation from the jury.
 
 ***
 
 &quot;I would like to be a bottle of champagne ... wrapped all in silver, with lots of medals on my chest, standing in a bucket of ice. And then I'd explode, making all the people at the table so happy!&quot;
 &quot;But empty bottles go under the table.&quot;
 &quot;Well, nobody gets any younger with age.&quot;
 
 ***
 
 The Drama Academy students read excerpts from the plays on Wednesday, on stage with no costumes or sets used to decorate a 30-minute performance called &quot;2003. Sept. 17. 7:29 p.m. St. Petersburg. Perceptions.&quot;
 &quot;We deliberately used no scenery and minimized the director's potential influence on the plays,&quot; said Tatyana Kopylova, the performance's co-director. &quot;All we wanted to show are the rhythms and moods of the texts. The idea was for the audience to concentrate on the audible part of the performance.&quot;
 Kopylova said the excerpts were chosen at random from the plays submitted, regardless of whether the play won an award or not.
 The contest was organized jointly by the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Theater Workers' Union and two Moscow-based organizations - the Novaya Drama contemporary-drama festival and the Lyubimovka young-dramatists festival. Those involved with setting it up shared the opinion that the major problem for Russian theater - and St. Petersburg theater in particular - is a shortage of cutting-edge drama. The competition was launched to find young local talent, and to introduce that talent to local theater directors.
 The organizing committee received over 100 plays, but skepticism and reservations were expressed before - and even during - the contest that it was a hopeless enterprise. Jury member Eduard Boyakov said that a number of theater professionals tried to dissuade the organizers fom holding the competition, as they said it would achieve nothing.
 The theory went that St. Petersburg is simply too conservative and that potential writers would be put off by the city's immense literary tradition; in short, no-one would want to try to follow Dostoyevsky or Brodsky, for example. Boyakov was jubilant Wednesday that the doubters had been proved wrong.
 &quot;This is one of the happiest moments in my career,&quot; said Boyakov, the director of the annual Golden Masks, Russia's top performing-arts festival. 
 &quot;Of course, it would be silly to expect literary jewels, but we were stunned by the number of talented young dramatists,&quot; he said. &quot;We didn't even dare hope to see so many gifted playwrights.&quot;
 The winning plays are scheduled to be presented during the ongoing Novaya Drama festival in Moscow, which runs from Sept. 18 through Sept. 28.
 Boyakov said the organizing committee is going to work on getting funding to publish the plays, or at least the most successful of them.
 Tolubeyev of the Theater Workers' Union, who performs at the Bolshoi Drama Thater, said he would like to see the contest become an annual event.
 &quot;I was amazed to see so many young people who take other's sorrows so personally,&quot; he said. &quot;We should nurture their talent, and create more opportunities for them to declare themselves. We need to show that we are interested to hear them, and encourage them to continue writing.&quot;

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Red Club's second anniversary festivities continue this week with <strong>Akvarium</strong> playing on Friday and two concerts by <strong>The Tiger Lillies</strong> on Saturday and Sunday (see article, this page).
 
Akvarium, the seminal Russian rock band whose history officially started in 1972, used to perform at stadiums and large concert halls after Russian rock was legalized in the late 1980s, but over the past couple of years has become more of a frequent sight in local clubs.
 Although the band's last club appearance at Stary Dom in August was described as a dress rehearsal for a rock festival in Liepaja, Latvia, frontman Boris Grebenshchikov does not agree.
 &quot;I think audiences can see the difference between a concert and a rehearsal,&quot; he said this week.
 &quot;You can think just anything, but when you enter the stage, it's all the same. It's like they teach a child to swim. They throw [the child in the water] - swim, that's all.&quot;
 The younger, pop-rock band <strong>Multfilmy</strong> will play Lensoviet Palace of Culture, the place where Akvarium usually performs, on Friday. The show, which will also feature a number of bands that are friends with Multfilmy, is to introduce Multfilmy's new album &quot;Muzyka Zvyozd i Arkticheskikh Stantsii&quot; (&quot;Music of Stars and Arctic Stations&quot;). With Andrei Samsonov as producer, the 10-track affair was released on Sept. 1.
 The concert will start at 6 p.m., rather than the more usual 7 p.m.
 <strong>Iva Nova</strong>, the all-female folk-punk band that celebrated its first anniversary with a packed gig at Moloko earlier this month, will play at Fish Fabrique on Friday.
 The band is now busy mixing its debut CD at a Moscow studio. Eponymously titled, the album is scheduled to be premiered at a yet undefined venue on Nov. 1.
 <strong>Skazy Lesa</strong>, yet another folk-punk band fronted by vocalist/accordion player Andrei &quot;Figa&quot; Kondratyev of Nordfolks fame, will play at Front on Saturday. Whereas Nordfolks was based on Irish folk and was reminiscent of The Pogues, Skazy Lesa draws mainly from the Russian tradition. 
 For those looking for something entirely different, there is a show by <strong>Ole Lukkoye</strong> at Stary Dom on Saturday.
 The local art-rock band is now a rare sight in the city, releasing its records on Klangbad, the label founded by the German band Faust, whose founding member keyboard player Hans Joachim Irmler claimed it coined the term &quot;Krautrock&quot; back in the 1970s when spoke to The St. Petersburg Times in 2000.
 <strong>Manhattan/Kotyol</strong>, the formerly members-only club pompously launched by local film director Dmitry Meskhiyev as a haven for noted artists and musicians in 1996, has changed hands a few times and now is best remembered for Sergei Shnurov's club concerts in 2000 and 2001.
 In the past few years, the venue has scared away its clientele by its repertoire of mostly unknown hard-rock acts and its dubious practice of booking acts on the condition that the band should sell a certain amount of tickets itself.
 This week, there are signs of a change in its policies, as there are posters advertising bands that stand out from most acts that play at local clubs. <strong>Kacheli</strong> will play on Friday, while <strong>Chufella Marzufella's Greblya</strong> project is scheduled to appear on Saturday.
 Finally, there is the massive Dutch jazz program going on for the next two weeks. Check Gigs for details.
 
 <i>- By Sergey Chernov </i>

TITLE: pub food takes a swiss step forward
AUTHOR: By Eric Bruns
TEXT: The first thing I noticed on approaching the brand-new Marius Pub on Ulitsa Marata from Nevsky was a gigantic red flag with white cross flying outside the same building. As I got closer, I saw that the consulate general of Switzerland, the Hotel Helvetia, and the pub are all intimately acquainted with each other, stacked side-by-side in a block of Swiss services. The association forming in my head was corroborated as I entered by a subdued din of German dialogue filling the room. Unfortunately, it not only filled the atmosphere, but all of the tables as well.
 
I was assured that a place would be available in about 30 minutes, so I went back outside to wait for my dining companion. Unable to stave off my hunger pains for so long, however, I decided to grab a quick appetizer at the more established Teremok at the end of the block. This review thus begins with a positive, albeit unusual, assessment of the cherished <i>bliny</i> chain. If you find yourself waiting in a similar situation in the future, I highly recommend their delicious new Alyosha Popovich blin (grilled chicken breast) for 47 rubles ($1.55) as a starter.
 When I made my way back to the new kid on the block after a mere 15 minutes, I saw that nearly the entire restaurant had emptied onto a large tourist bus waiting outside and that my friend and I had our choice of seats. We settled into the polished wood decor, reluctant to say it felt very much like a pub, but encouraged by some of the draught beers on tap. In addition to a full page of bottled beers, Warsteiner, Stary Melnik (rarely translated into English but, in this case, as &quot;Old Miller&quot; - a misplaced reference to the incomprehensibly popular American brew?), Krusovice, Carlsberg, Heineken and Efes Pilsner can all be ordered in third-liter, half-liter, 1 1/2-liter and &quot;1-yard&quot; quantities. We were informed that the last possibility is an English tradition, drawing our attention to the window sill where a long glass cylinder sat in a wooden frame. Our server refused to specify how much reverie you'd be in for if you ordered it but, judging by the price list, I'd bet it's about one liter.
 We each excitedly ordered a half-liter glass of Krusovice for 130 rubles ($4.25). Our server returned saying only the dark version was available - as with all Czech beers a bit of a disappointment - but we acquiesced and were happy enough with our decision. A bit parched from my appetizer on the street, I also got a half-liter bottle of mineral water for 40 rubles ($1.30).
 As we perused the extensive and largely Central European menu - in my opinion, the best beer food in the world, for obvious reasons - we also took in the ubiquitous perfectly faded wall murals depicting Middle Ages townfolk engaged in all sorts of merry-making around the dinner table, all perfectly arranged with modern lighting and a speaker system as if in an IKEA display room. The foreign newspaper rack by the entrance clinched a growing suspicion and our server confirmed that Marius Pub is actually the Hotel Helvetia restaurant, although they have separate entrances. They opened two months ago, before which guests only had the option of room service. It was just about then that another busload of foreigners arrived, once again filling an air that had fallen almost completely empty.
 We quickly got on with the business at hand and began with the &quot;Dutch Set&quot; for 130 rubles and Norwegian salmon with mustard sauce and toasts, also for 130 rubles. I had ordered for both of us, but our server asked me to clarify what was for whom so that she could set the table appropriately. That brings me to say that throughout the meal, the entire staff was impeccably polite and friendly and, as would be expected at a tourist hotel, fluent in English.
 Enough banter, on with the food. The salmon consisted of three soft, fatty, tender slices accompanied by three perfectly toasted triangles of white bread (without the crust), served with a light mustard sauce and lemon on the side, which, when combined, melted in my mouth in a gastronomic orgy of flavor. The &quot;Dutch Set&quot; was no less pleasing, if a bit heavier. It consists of three varieties of deep-fried spring-roll-style finger food: one containing pork, one with cheese, and one comprised of sausage wrapped in bacon. They were accompanied by Worcester sauce and a very mild yet richly flavored salsa. Although the cheese morsels were a bit rubbery, all in all, it makes great beer food and I already pictured myself snacking on them while sipping a light Krusovice at some point in the future.
 We didn't have to wait long, however, for the main courses to arrive. My Australian companion ordered the pepper steak for 310 rubles ($10.10) with boiled potatoes on the side for 60 rubles ($1.95). Although she asked for it to be cooked medium, it came well done, but still proved exceptionally tender and juicy, and well seasoned by a light peppercorn gravy. She said it reminded her of the steaks at home, prompting me to steal a bite from her plate. I reckon it is one of the city's best (I can only hope it will drive up competition in the area).
 I got the baked sturgeon with shrimps, mushrooms and potatoes for 230 rubles ($7.50), without the need for a side dish. It came on a bed of thinly sliced escalloped potatoes, topped with hard boiled egg and soft tomato wedges that lightened the all-encompassing heavy cream and cheese sauce. Once I finished savoring the perfectly prepared fish, the abundant remaining sauce was an ideal match for the basket of fresh white and dark bread that mysteriously appeared on our table.
 Marius Pub advertises itself as serving &quot;real beer cuisine,&quot; and for that it excels. The selection of beers is a delight and the fare complements it at a reasonable price. My only regret is that it never seemed to grow beyond its role as a hotel restaurant. In that respect, there was nothing to complain about, but also no strong impetus to call the fellas and head to the pub.
 
 <i>
Marius Pub. 11 Ul. Marata. Tel.: 315-4880. Open 24 hours. Menu in Russian and English. Credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, with alcohol: 1,200 rubles ($39.10). </i>

TITLE: earlymusic: pushing boundaries further
TEXT: The annual Earlymusic festival, which opened Thursday with a concert by the brand-new Catherine the Great Orchestra, is now as inseparable a part of the St. Petersburg autumn as the capricious weather.
 
Glamorous pictures of festival director Marc de Mauny and artistic director Andrei Reshetin in carefully studied poses and stylish costumes can be found in all of the city's glossy magazines. After six years of existence and struggling to survive by finding funding from private sponsors, they have become past masters of the art of packaging the festival's image. 
 Promotional flair has arguably been the key to the festival's success. It has gone further than merely being an annual series of sold-out concerts; in January, it won a prize from the Center for International Cooperation, set up by former Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, as best cultural event of 2002.
 In keeping with the festival's cultivated non-mainstream image, de Mauny played down the award: &quot;I tend not to overestimate the value of this kind of accolade.&quot;
 Indeed, his personal image is of calculated extravagance. Often looking more like a well-spoken hippie or a manicured renegade with made-to-measure costumes and ethnic necklaces, de Mauny seems to swim against the stream and appears impeccably unconventional.
 The festival has come a long way since its first running, when it had the less fashionable name of the Festival of Ancient Music.
 &quot;Only initiates came at first, and there was very little advertising,&quot; said Alexander Kuznetsov, who runs St. Petersburg's only dedicated classical-music shop, The Open World. &quot;The booklet, printed on cheap paper and full of mistakes in the names was particularly awful.&quot;
 Now, the festival has its own orchestra - the Catherine the Great Orchestra, which Reshetin conducts - and could be held up as a model for any start-up in post-Soviet Russia. Its innovative positioning - making old viols and forgotten 16th-century madrigals trendy - active communications policy - for example, the 10,000 free CDs given out just before the festival - dozens of memorable slogans and just enough aggressivity have conquered unknown territory and given the often-staid St. Petersburg classical-music scene both a breath of fresh air and food for thought. This year, it is staging its first opera - the modern-day premiere of Giovanni Paisiello's &quot;The Imaginary Philosophers.&quot;
 This week, de Mauny spoke with</i> <strong>Lonais Jaillais</strong>.
 
q:<i> What is baroque in you? Your soul, for example, or your clothes?
 </i>a: You know where the word &quot;baroque&quot; comes from? ... A flawed pearl - not a perfect pearl. I find flawed beauty more effective than perfect beauty. I'm not making an allegory for my soul, particularly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. I simply think I am attracted to baroque arts.
 

 
q:<i> Would you therefore say early music is flawed music?
 </i>a: No. I think &quot;flawed&quot; here refers to &quot;irregular.&quot; I remember my first impressions of baroque architecture, for example: I just found that beauty is created out of irregularity and tension, and conflict, in constant vibration. Just think of [Belgian pedagogue] Peter Van Heyghen talking about it last year when he explained &quot;inegalite&quot;. Inegalite, which is the baroque term, or swing, the jazz term for exactly the same thing, are the things to which I respond quite simply, aesthetically. Both as a jazz musician and someone who has played some baroque music, and enjoys listening to it more than any other. So what is baroque in me is only my response to what is baroque in arts.
 

 
q:<i> Earlymusic's manifesto proclaims &quot;sensuality&quot; and &quot;a different life here and for ever.&quot; Is early music a hedonistic movement?
 </i>a: Historically speaking - though we are not in the business of &quot;costumed historical reconstruction&quot; - it is always interesting to replace every artistic manifestation in the context in which it arose, and certainly a lot of baroque music arose in the context in which music was a delight for the senses; it was never unaccompanied. The idea was to delight all the senses. We were planning to recreate this. Now what we have done this year in terms of what we said we would do last year is the main thing: we have staged an opera. And that is what has taken most of our energy, and resources this year.
 
But we are moving toward that form in which we would really make a sort of integral experience (with good wine and food, candlelight ... ): we are learning how to combine these elements. For example, the closing concert in Tsarskoye Selo includes a buffet during the interval and a baroque firework after the concert. A lot of festival life outside he concerts will be centered around Cafe-Club Che, including most of our parties and official sections. So we are not necessarily combining these things to the sense that we would sit people down with a glass of wine in the concert hall but we take them as a whole. When you go from a concert to Che it is all part of the festival
 
 
q:<i> What is Earlymusic's audience? It seems that it only gets across to well-defined musical circles.</i>
 a: It is a little bit odd to suggest that some music circles stay away from the festival. But we don't go running off to them. We do definitely appeal to a non-standard, non-Philarmonic concert-going audience, because early music is viewed as an alternative to the standard diet of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. We do attract a public on the look out for something new and different, and generally these people tend to be likelier to go to a jazz club or to a rock concert than they would go to a Tchaikovsky symphony. Although, as a part of the cultural legacy, ancient music can also be seen as an enrichment to classicism. Therefore, we maintain the highest standards in terms of delivering performance: people who perform at the festival have attained a world renown. But the repertoire presented appeals to a slightly different type of music lovers.
 

 
q:<i> Apart from its musical aspects, what does the festival bring to St. Petersburg's culture as a whole?
 </i>a: I think this year's new slogan - &quot;novaya sistema koordinat,&quot; which is difficult to translate in English but could be rendered by &quot;a new set of values&quot; - summarizes our philosophy. What we do is more than just music. Mathematically, on our system of coordinates, the horizontal axis would be &quot;returning to cultural roots,&quot; whereas on the vertical would be &quot;breaking new ground.&quot; That is: moving forward towards something new while at the same time returning to the sources.
 
We have another, very baroque image, which we like very much. It is a sort of allegorical personification of what we want to do: a punk aristocrat. The aristocrat, apart from his material possessions - that is the less important - possesses discernment and taste: that is what distinguishes an aristocrat more than anything. A punk is someone who is happy to be an outsider, who challenges the stereotypes and is not scared to go against the flow - that is, in arts ,going against the academic and music establishment.
 
 
q:<i> What goes on behind the scenes of the festival? What are the roots that allow it to blossom?
 </i>a: Unfortunately, our masterclasses program is less ambitious this year than it was last year because of the opera. We will have a masterclass by Maria Leonhardt, who comes regularily to work with the orchestra. We have a lecture by Felix Ravdonikas, one of the most respected musicians and theorists on early music and making of instruments. Then we have a masterclass in baroque acting by the stage director of our opera [Javier Lopez Pinon].
 
The Catherine the Great Orchestra has been the main focus of our work this year, because essentially, until January 2003, the orchestra had no real existence. It existed as a project, as a session orchestra. We had to consider who to invite into the orchestra, trying different combinations of people, inviting students from Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg. Then the agreement came through with the Utrecht Festival to perform for the opening concert. Therefore, in January, we decided which groups of musicians could make it so to speak, and started rehearsing with that band on a daily basis. Our challenge was to create an international-standard orchestra which had to be up to a premiere in Utrecht; an orchestra which could perform with class and honor at Europe's leading earlymusic festival. We had eight months to create practically from the scratch a world-class orchestra. And this is what we have done.
 One quote from the Dutch magazine Het Parool says: &quot;From now on, we have reasons to feel concerned about serious competition from Russia in the field of early music.&quot; Our orchestra gripped the audience for an hour and a half, and provoked a standing ovation.
 
 
q:<i> Is it possble to say that you have implanted baroque culture in Russia?
 </i>a: For one thing - though the baroque is my favourite period - early music is everything from medieval to renaissance and early classicism. The opera, for instance, is not a baroque opera, it is early classical, contemporary to Mozart. Yes, I believe we have. Without any chance of that happening, we would throw the towel and open a caravan site in Majorca. If we said we had enough from the festival, I am sure it would have a prolongation.
 
The reason why I say this is not possible is that, once you have launched a movement like this, you essentially become responsible for what you've started. It is now essential to provide the right framework in which people can start to find their own way. As performers, and as listeners.
 
 
q:<i> One thing pointed out last year was the lack of materials and so on from the era in Russia. Does this mean early music in Russia is doomed to be a superficial phenomenon?
 </i>a: We have done a certain amount of work. Since last year, we have started to supply physical things: we have bought a harpsichord - an excellent one, in fact - then we have equipped the orchestra with baroque and classical bows, and string instruments. But this is going to take time. The scores, the treatises are what is extremely important, and we work on that step by step.
 
This year, we have published a fantastic book with music by [the violin teacher of Alexander I] Anton Tietz which [festival deputy director Andrei Reshetin] discovered in the archives. This is a collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Natalia Ogarkova, who did a lot of research around this music, and the first of a series of publications we intend to do. We are planning to publish Russian translations of treatises by [German theorist Joachim] Quantz and all of the leading proponents of baroque music. We have started working in the archives in the regions and Reshetin discovered [in a library of Ulyanovsk] more music by Anton Tietz and also music by Khandoshkin, a sort of Russian Paganini, but of the 18th century. We are going to print and publish this in facsimile editions.
 We are building up a resource base: The purpose is to publish treatises on baroque art and make them widely available. Obviously, we will have a library accessible here, but also we will be distributing copies throughout Russia, to music schools, conservatoires and - it is not a commercial project particularily - they will be on sale as well in music shops.
 
 
q:<i> What has early music taught you over the years?
 </i>a: There are a number of answers to that question, but to keep it short one of the things it taught me is that it is possible to achieve the impossible. And setting up an early-music festival in post-Soviet Russia without any state support was practically mission impossible. It proved possible because of the nature itself of early music. Its beauty provides a framework for freedom. 
 
What I love about a lot of baroque repertoire, especially, is stateliness, and the fact that it provokes noble, never sentimental emotions. It is all about how to &quot;hold yourself&quot; as the French put it, about your bearing in the very physical sense. The music has caused an almost physiological effect on me. It makes you sit up, dart, hold your head high. It gives an impulse to physicality so that your gestures are connected to noble sentiments and emotions. 
 A lot of baroque music has a very clear-defined structure - and within that structure, incredible freedom - for improvised ornamentation, for instance. That's what I try to apply to other areas of my life. You can only achieve freedom through discipline. 
 
 

<strong>Sept. 18</strong> The Catherine the Great Orchestra, conducted by Andrei Reshetin <i>Glinka Philharmonic</i>
 <strong>Sept. 21</strong> Markku Luolaian-Mikkola (Finland) <i>Sheremetyev Palace</i>
 <strong>Sept. 23</strong> La Poeme Harmonique (France) <i>Glinka Philharmonic</i>
 <strong>Sept. 24</strong> La Poeme Harmonique <i>Gonzag Theater, Arkhangelskoye Estate, Moscow</i>
 <strong>Sept. 24 </strong>A la Russe <i>Glinka Philharmonic
 </i><strong>Sept. 27</strong> La Venexiana (Italy) <i>Glinka Philharmonic</i>
 <strong>Sept. 28</strong> &quot;The Imaginary Philosophers&quot; <i>Hermitage Theater</i>
 <strong>Sept. 29</strong> &quot;The Imaginary Philosophers&quot; <i>Hermitage Theater</i>
 <strong>Oct. 1</strong> Nachtmusique (the Netherlands) <i>Glinka Philharmonic</i>
 <strong>Oct. 2</strong> Paolo Pandolfo (Italy) <i>Gonzag Theater, Arkhangelskoye Estate, Moscow</i>
 <strong>Oct. 3 </strong>Florilegium (U.K.) <i>Glazunov Hall, Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
 </i><strong>Oct. 4 </strong>Michael Chance and Andrew Lawrence-King (U.K.) <i>Maltese Capella, Vorontsov Palace (Suvorovsky Academy)</i>
 <strong>Oct. 5</strong> Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin (Germany) <i>Grand Hall, Catherine Palace, Pushkin</i>
 
 <i>All concerts start at 7 p.m. </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy <i>
TEXT: Obkhodnoi list:</i> departure clearance; a document signed by department heads certifying that an employee leaving his job doesn't owe anything.
 
For those of your who aren't sick to death of the ins and outs, ups and downs of Russian verbs of motion, there are a few more that are particularly rich in primary, secondary and alternative meanings.
 <i>Obkhodit/oboiti</i> is a good example. It can mean to walk around something: <i>nado oboiti dom</i> (you have to go around the house). It can also mean to go around several people, as in the phrase: <i>on oboshyol vsekh druzei, chtoby poproshchatsya</i> (he went around to all his friends to say goodbye). By analogy and logically (for once!), <i>obkhod</i> can either mean &quot;the rounds&quot; or &quot;a detour on foot.&quot; <i>Vrach na obkhode</i> (the doctor is doing his rounds). It can also mean &quot;an evasion,&quot; as in the phrase: <i>v obkhod zakona</i> (getting around the law). Or it can mean &quot;to pass/surpass&quot;: <i>on menya oboshyol</i> (he passed me, he surpassed me). You can also say, <i>on reshil deistvovat obkhodnym putyom</i> (he decided to act in a roundabout way). And <i>obkhodnoi list</i> in Russia is a document an employee who is leaving his job takes around to all department heads to get their signatures certifying that he doesn't owe any money, etc. (in slang this is called <i>begunok</i> - something you run around for).
 At least it's easy to see the logic in the examples above. But when you make <i>obkhodit</i> a reflexive verb, you get all kinds of new meanings. For example: <i>on plokho obkhoditsya so mnoi</i> (he treats me badly). <i>Obkhoditsya</i> also has several meanings connected with the concept of &quot;making do.&quot; <i>Ya obkhozhus tremya tysyachami rublei v mesyats</i> (I can manage on 3,000 rubles a month). 
 <i>On oboidyotsya</i> can mean &quot;he'll manage,&quot; but if the tone is dry, angry or exasperated, it can convey the sense of &quot;dream on, buddy&quot;: <i>On khochet povysheniya zarplaty. Oboidyotsya</i> (He wants a raise. Fat chance! He'll survive without it). It can also mean &quot;to cost,&quot; as in the phrase: <i>novyye kolodki oboshlis mne v 2,000 rublei</i> (the new brake pads cost me 2,000 rubles). You also frequently hear <i>&quot;oboshlos!&quot;</i> which means &quot;it worked out,&quot; or &quot;that was a close call&quot; - depending on the context. I'm rather fond of the phrase <i>oboshlos maloi krovyu</i> - literally, &quot;it worked out with a minimum of bloodshed,&quot; which conveys the sense of &quot;getting by without too much damage or cost.&quot;
 <i>Podkhodit/podoiti</i> is another multifunctional verb. Its first meaning is &quot;walk up to something/someone.&quot; <i>Podoidi ko mne</i> (come over here). And somewhat similar to English, you can say in Russian, <i>moya ochered podoshla</i> (it's my turn; my turn is up). However, <i>podkhodit</i> can also mean &quot;to suit,&quot; or &quot;to fit.&quot; Here you have to pay attention to context. <i>Etot tsvet tebe podkhodit</i> (that color suits you). <i>Kostyum mne podoshyol</i> probably means &quot;the suit fitted me,&quot; but it can also mean &quot;the suit looked good on me.&quot;<i>Podkhod</i> is an approach, either literally or figuratively: <i>Ostorozhno! Podkhod k domu ochen skolzky</i> (Be careful! The approach to the house is very slippery). <i>Ikh podkhod menya ustraivayet</i> (I like their approach; I like the way they do business). 
 On doors, of course, you see <i>VKHOD</i> (ENTRANCE) <i>VYKHOD</i> (EXIT). You'd also think that the entrance to an apartment building would be <i>podkhod</i> (&quot;what you walk up to&quot;) but no joy here. It's <i>podezd</i> (&quot;what you drive up to&quot;), presumably because entrances were originally approached on horse or by vehicle.
 Or perhaps to spite us poor foreigners, just when we thought we were beginning to get the hang of things.
 
 <i>
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.</i>


TITLE: a severe case of painters' blok
AUTHOR: By Aliona Bocharova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Attractions like the Anna Akhmatova Museum at Fontanka House or Amsterdam's Anne Frank House are proof, if proof were needed, of the international obsession with the personal side of celebrities. For contemporary-arts fans, however, it may all be a bit staid, but a new exhibition at the Peter and Paul Fortress is aiming to change that by bringing the two worlds together.
 
The Pro Arte Insitute, which has a reputation for adventurous artistic projects as well as good commercial sense, is trying to combine these two interests - what it would probably call &quot;target groups&quot; - with the exhibition &quot;Alexander Blok's Shirt,&quot; comprising the eponymous item of clothing and contemporary artistic interpretations of it.
 The exhibition is the third in a series called &quot;Things&quot; - <i>shtuchky</i> in Russian - being run jointly by the Pro Arte Institute and the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, both of which are located in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
 The museum's collection holds well in excess of a million items drawn from the lives of city residents from the 18th to the 20th century, and includes rarities and wonders such as old smoking pipes and perfume bottles, door handles and vacuum cleaners. Yet, according to museum director Boris Arakcheyev, &quot;most of the items have never been put on public display, as they are hard to preserve.&quot;
 &quot;Blok's shirt, a textile item that belonged to a famous Silver Age poet, is one of our most precious possessions,&quot; Arakcheyev said.
 The exhibition is also fascinating for another reason: It not only reveal's some of the great symbolist poet's private life, but dispels some common myths about early-20th-century glamor. The title piece of the exhibition is a traditional shirt sewn in 1904 by the poet's mother, Alexandra Kublitskaya Piottukh, and would seem more appropriate to a 19th-century Russian peasant than a Silver Age dandy. 
 However, &quot;Blok often wore such shirts. In any case, it was a common practice for young men in those days,&quot; said Natalya Tsendrovskaya, the museum's senior researcher and archivist, who recorded a lecture about the history of Blok's shirt for visitors to the exhibition.
 The contemporary art works on display also add to the atmosphere of the exhibition. &quot;Soul and Flesh of Blok,&quot; an installation by Alexandra Kaurova and Maria Zaborovskaya, consists of a set of white shirts decorated with black-and-white photographs of parts of the poet's face and hung out on a clothes line, as if to dry.
 &quot;The faded images of Blok should resemble ancient frescos that become obliterated with time, and offer space for personal exploration and imagination,&quot; Kaurova said. &quot;My mother compiled the collected works of Alexander Blok, so he was always invisibly present in my childhood, like a distant relative.&quot;
 Peter Belyi also juggles with stereotypes in his &quot;Dream of a Fan of Russian Poetry,&quot; a soccer shirt with the name Alexander Blok and the numeral 1 written with a ligature.
 &quot;The Silver Age poet is thought to be sickly and refined, as opposed to a football player, who is physically strong but dumb,&quot; Belyi said. &quot;Personally, I hate football, and this aesthetic is entirely foreign to me. I just chose the most unnatural material of the ugliest chemical pink color.&quot;
 Nevertheless, the shirt looks pretty in its box shimmering pink and adds some magic to the atmosphere. As for the number, &quot;If Blok played for the Silver Age football team, he would be No. 1, and if it were a national team of Russia, he would wear No. 12&quot;, Belyi said.
 One of Blok's best-known poems is called &quot;The Twelve.&quot;
 &quot;Blok remains one of the most significant figures in the Russian culture, and even contemporary artists cannot avoid traditional Russian piety for poetry,&quot; exhibition curator Tatyana Bykovkaya said. &quot;This exhibition is not only for contemporary art lovers, but those interested in literature history, poetry, and so on. Indeed, we have been getting a lot of very specific visitors professionally connected with literary world, for example, from Pushkin House.&quot;
 


TITLE: illuminating corners of a dirty empire
AUTHOR: By William Taubman
PUBLISHER: New York Times Service
TEXT: During the Soviet period, some of the best books about Russia were written by Western journalists. Soviet secrecy limited scholars' ability to study the present, or even the past. Journalists, too, faced official obstructions, but they tended to stay longer and to travel more widely, and they were able to find and interview a surprisingly wide assortment of people. The views they reported were sometimes partial and unrepresentative, but added up to a revealing picture of contemporary Soviet life. Among the best surveys of this sort were Hedrick Smith's &quot;Russians&quot; and Robert G. Kaiser's &quot;Russia: The People and the Power,&quot; both published in the 1970's; David K. Shipler's &quot;Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams&quot; and Kevin Klose's &quot;Russia and the Russians,&quot; which appeared in the early 1980's; and David Remnick's &quot;Lenin's Tomb,&quot; of 1993.
 
The end of the Soviet Union, and its replacement by a more open society, has allowed for a certain &quot;normalization&quot; in writing about Russia. Social scientists have been able to study subjects ranging from privatization to voting behavior. No longer obliged to cover the whole spectrum of political and social life, journalists can now focus more narrowly, as David E. Hoffman did in &quot;The Oligarchs&quot; and Chrystia Freeland did in &quot;Sale of the Century.&quot; In this sense, then, Andrew Meier's &quot;Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall,&quot; a book in which the author recounts his travels crisscrossing post-Soviet Russia, is a throwback, and all the more interesting for being so.
 Meier first visited Russia in 1983. Returning there in 1988 while a student at Oxford, he remained until 1991. By the time he covered the country for Time from 1996 to 2001, Russia seemed less fascinating to his editors than it did to him. &quot;Black Earth&quot; begins with a heart-breaking account of a family that lost a son to the brutal war in Chechnya, a tale that Meier could not convince his editors was &quot;a story.&quot; Newspaper editors have their own ideas of what Russian news is fit to print in the post-Soviet era, and much of it still has to do with Kremlin politicking.
 Meier, in contrast, sensed that the real story lay far beyond Moscow. He wanted to go, he recalls, &quot;to the country's extremes, to the corners where no 'Kremlin insiders' dwelt and few oligarchs set foot.&quot; What he found there were Russians who had &quot;seen little of the rewards of the new era but felt much of its pain,&quot; who lived &quot;without the slightest expectation that anything good should ever come to a people who deserved so much better.&quot; Apart from brief sections devoted to Moscow at the beginning and end, the bulk of the book is devoted to the south (Chechnya), the north (Norilsk), the east (Sakhalin) and the west (St. Petersburg).
 The focus of Meier's trek through the Chechnya war zone is the village of Aldy, where a My Lai-type massacre by Russian troops took place on Feb. 5, 2000. Meier reconstructs the carnage from interviews with survivors. The day before the massacre, a group of young Russian draftees, srochniki, had treated the villagers politely. In contrast, a squad of <i>kontraktniki</i>, or contract soldiers, killed indiscriminately, despite the squad leader's horror. A Chechen woman was dragged into an abandoned house, where she expected to be raped and killed. Instead a soldier gave her his home address. &quot;So write my mama,&quot; he said. &quot;Tell her I didn't kill you.&quot; It is stories like this that convince Meier that whatever else has changed in Russia, the land outside Moscow is &quot;dark and wondrous as ever.&quot;
 Located far above the Arctic Circle, Norilsk claims to be the northernmost city in the world. It is the former hub of a network of Gulag prison camps, and still the base for a huge metal-refining complex. Meier calls it &quot;a severed world, a Pompeii of Stalinism that the trapped heirs of the Gulag still called home.&quot; Why do more than 200,000 residents remain where smelters spew six times more sulfur dioxide pollution per year than the entire American nonferrous metals industry, and &quot;few ... workingmen could expect to live much beyond 50&quot;? Not only because the pay is good, but because &quot;like so many of the freed slaves in the American South who settled beside the plantation gates, the former prisoners stayed on to work for the Kombinat,&quot; still hoping, like many of the elderly Chechens in Aldy, that the state, which had done so much harm, would come to their aid.
 Like Norilsk, Sakhalin, the huge island at Russia's easternmost edge, is rich in natural resources, especially oil and fish, but in many ways desolate. According to a Western oilman, on Sakhalin &quot;there is no culture, there is no history and there is no environment.&quot; A local council member observes that &quot;the three great Russian diseases&quot; are plentiful there: &quot;greed, corruption and bureaucracy.&quot; One might add that Lenin once defined Communism as &quot;Soviet power plus electrification of the whole country.&quot; In post-Soviet Sakhalin, where the electric company cuts off current to whole villages that can't afford to pay, capitalism amounts to neither Soviet power nor electrification. Yet on this same island, Meier came upon &quot;a personification of the possible,&quot; some of &quot;the freest men and women I had met in Russia,&quot; new entrepreneurs who tore down the old fisheries and then slowly began &quot;to build something anew.&quot;
 Galina Starovoitova, the firebrand liberal legislator who was assassinated in 1998, is the focus of Meier's essay about St. Petersburg. And once again ironies abound. One is that Starovoitova's idealism, which verged on a kind of naive romanticism about the possibilities of liberalism and democracy, is partly traceable to the utopian side of the Soviet mind-set, which in turn built on the messianism of the Russian intelligentsia. Yet what she fell victim to in the end was the cynically realist side of the same Soviet mentality, which, finally freed from the need to keep up idealistic appearances, has guided the bloody hands of criminals and killers of the kind who shot Starovoitova.
 Despite all the insight, passion and love for Russia to be found here, Meier's book shows the limits of the genre. Even the most artfully constructed vignettes and portraits add up to impressions rather than analysis. Given his focus on Russia's outlying regions, it is natural for Meier to note that Yeltsin told them to take &quot;as much sovereignty as you can swallow,&quot; whereas Putin has &quot;reined in those who had.&quot; But the actual story of this centrifugal ebb and centripetal flow is much more complicated and ambiguous than Meier's short summary would indicate.
 It may indeed be true that the reporter Lev Lurie understands better than most &quot;the canny ways that political power and underworld muscle had joined forces in Petersburg,&quot; but is it enough to report that &quot;everyone in town talked openly&quot; of how the Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev's campaign &quot;had been funded by the <i>grupirovki</i>, the city's organized crime gangs&quot;? Even if it is true, as Meier was told by a young public relations aide to the Norilsk magnate Vladimir Potanin, that &quot;cities like Norilsk should never have been built,&quot; what should be, what can be, done about them?
 Questions like these have indeed been studied. Yet such studies often lack the feel for the people involved, and the color and mood of their lives, which a book like &quot;Black Earth&quot; provides. Furthermore, some of the biggest issues of all cannot be addressed except impressionistically. How does one total up the social and psychological gains and losses since the collapse of the Soviet Union? Different Russians answer differently, as Meier discovered. Although &quot;the end of empire had ended a world,&quot; he concludes, &quot;so much of course remained the same.&quot; That paradox cannot be fully comprehended without hearing the kind of individual voices included here. Since so much of the reality that Meier is getting at is ineffable, it helps that he is a fine, lyrical writer, though it doesn't help that he often makes himself the co-star of his story - as when he reports that the popular writer Viktor Pelevin asked his advice on the English title for one of his novels, and one night awakened Meier, &quot;as always, from the depths of sleep,&quot; to tell him a new joke.
 Meier's self-advertisements can be annoying. But they may be the price one has to pay for a wonderful travelogue that depicts the Russian people yet again trying to build a new life without really changing their old one.
 
 <i>
&quot;Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall.&quot; By Andrew Meier. 511 pp. New York: W. W. Norton &amp; Company. $28.95.</i>
 

 <i>
William Taubman, the Bertrand Snell professor of political science at Amherst College, is the author, most recently, of &quot;Khrushchev: The Man and His Era.&quot;</i>
 



TITLE: director uchitel takes a stroll around the city
TEXT: Born in Leningrad in 1951 and graduated from that city's Institute of Cinematography in 1975, director Alexei Uchitel spent nearly two decades making documentary films before he found his true calling: feature films.
 
It happened in the mid 1990s, when one of Uchitel's principal subjects died during the making of a documentary film. In order to salvage the footage already shot, Uchitel chose to produce the film as a feature and released it in 1995 as &quot;Mania Zhizeli&quot; (&quot;Gisele's Mania&quot;), a dramatic portrait of noted choreographer Boris Eifman's relationship with the late Olga Spesivtseva, who died during filming at the age of 90. 
 Five years later, Uchitel's Ivan Bunin biopic &quot;Dnevnik Ego Zheni&quot; (His Wife's Diary) garnered international awards that included an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. The director's most recent work, &quot;Progulka&quot; (&quot;The Stroll&quot;), a documentary-cum-feature that follows three young people on a long walk around St. Petersburg, premieres this week. He talked with </i><strong>Kirill Galetski</strong><i> last week.</i>
 
 
q:<i> What were the origins of the idea for the film?
 </i>a: My frequent collaborator, screenwriter Dunya Smirnova, and I had long been looking for a worthwhile contemporary theme. One day, she told me about an idea she'd had about three people walking down Nevsky Prospect for an hour and a half. I liked the idea, so we started adding layer upon layer [to the story] and thinking up details. It was deceptively simple. Dunya wrote the screenplay in a short time and we shot most of the film in one month, August of last year, but the film was in post-production for more than six months. Dunya and I wanted the story to be left out somehow, we wanted ellipses rather than periods, so that it would be non-prescriptive and viewers could imagine any number of resolutions. I think we accomplished this, but all the same we had trouble putting a finale on the film. We came to the current ending after considering endless possibilities.
 

 
q: <i>Talk a bit about how you shot the film. 
 </i>a: We shot most of the film using a Mini DV [video] camera, and later transferred it to film. The opening sequence on Nevsky Prospekt lasts 20 minutes. If one were to go the classic [35-millimeter] route, you would have to close off the street, build kilometers of rails, use a railcar, a Steadicam, whatever. We could have done this, but we needed everything to look natural. It was a real experiment for me, because this was a real environment in which the actors had to maneuver. If we were moving down the street with a large camera, three-fourths of the people would gawk at it, so we needed to have an unobtrusive cameraman and camera. We were test-shooting on the St. Isaac's Cathedral viewing platform, and when Irina Pegova's character faints, bystanders became concerned for her, offered her water, etc., totally unaware that a feature film was being made. This convinced me even more that [using the mini camera] was the right approach. Although the finished film seems improvisational, I like it when people regard it as such - but it was actually very carefully thought out. 
 

 
q: <i>How did you make the transition from documentary filmmaking to directing fully fledged features?
 </i>a: When Olga Spesivtseva died during the making of &quot;Mania Zhizeli,&quot; I was forced to adapt, or I would have been left without a film. So Dunya and I went to work on the dramatic elements of the film, and I had to learn a new craft. It was like going to film school all over again, like starting from scratch. Many people have the mistaken impression that documentary and feature filmmaking are similar, but in reality they are two different professions. ... In documentary filmmaking, you're pretty much a bystander. You can follow your subject, but you can't govern him. The most interesting thing for me about feature filmmaking are the opportunities presented by the director's ability to shape the situation with the actors. In hindsight, I think that if I had not made the transition to doing features, I would have lost much from my life. I feel very fortunate that I did indeed make that transition.

TITLE: Bush: Hussein Not Involved in Sept. 11
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush said Wednesday there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 - disputing an impression that critics say the administration tried to foster to justify the war against Iraq.
 
&quot;There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties,&quot; the president said. But he also said, &quot;We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with Sept. 11.&quot;
 The president's comment was the administration's firmest assertion that there is no proven link between Saddam and Sept. 11. It came after Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday clouded the issue by saying, &quot;It's not surprising people make that connection&quot; between Hussein and the attacks.
 Cheney, on NBC's &quot;Meet the Press,&quot; also repeated an allegation - doubted by many in the intelligence community - that Mohamed Atta, the lead Sept. 11 attacker, met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague five months before Sept. 11.
 &quot;We've never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it,&quot; Cheney said Sunday. However, other U.S. authorities have said information gathered on Atta's movement show he was on the U.S. East Coast when that meeting supposedly took place.
 Critics of the Bush administration have pointed to statements like Cheney's as evidence that the administration was exaggerating al-Qaida's prewar links with Hussein to help justify the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
 A recent poll indicated that nearly 70 percent of Americans believed the Iraqi leader was probably personally involved. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday, &quot;I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that.&quot;
 The administration has argued that Hussein's government had close links to al-Qaida, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden that masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks.
 
 
q 
 

 Spain's leading investigating judge issued the first known indictment against Osama bin Laden in the Sept. 11 attacks on Wednesday, accusing al-Qaida of using Spain to plot the devastating strikes on New York and Washington.
 Investigative magistrate Baltasar Garzon indicted 35 people for terrorist activities connected to bin Laden's al-Qaida network. In a nearly 700-page document, Garzon wrote that Spain served &quot;as a place or base for resting, preparation, indoctrinating, support and financing&quot; of al-Qaida.
 U.S. Justice Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. government did not play a direct role in the Spanish indictment. But the officials did say that the United States and its European allies have been sharing vast amounts of information on al-Qaida and the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. 
 Garzon has previously tried to prosecute abuses under military rule in Chile and Argentina.
 The list of 35 indicted includes Tayssir Alouni, the Al-Jazeera journalist arrested Sept. 8 in Spain, and Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, who was accused of leading an al-Qaida cell in Spain and was arrested in Madrid in November 2001.

TITLE: Hurricane Isabel Batters Coast of North Carolina
AUTHOR: By Allen G. Breed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATLANTIC BEACH, North Carolina - The eyewall of the weakened, 160-kilometer-per-hour Hurricane Isabel began moving across North Carolina's Outer Banks on Thursday with howling wind, stinging rain and pounding waves, packing enough punch to knock out power to tens of thousands of customers. 
 
The federal government shut down in the nation's capital. Amtrak halted service south of Washington, dozens of airline flights in the region were canceled and the Washington-area Metro system was shutting down all subway and bus service. US Airways alone canceled more than 70 flights along the East Coast. 
 Numerous schools closed in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, and schools were to close Friday in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. 
 The Federal Aviation Administration closed its air traffic control tower in Norfolk, Virginia, and flight arrivals at New York's LaGuardia Airport were delayed up to six hours, the FAA said. 
 Forecasters said Isabel was expected to move north across North Carolina and Virginia and then take a path through western Pennsylvania and western New York state before dissipating in Canada by Saturday. 
 Most of the coastal barrier islands were nearly empty as rain flew at a 45-degree angle, driven by wind that turned sand grains into darts and howled like jet engines. Wind blew at a sustained 128 kilometers per hour before noon on Ocracoke Island, with a gust to 156 kilometers per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. Seas up to 11 meters were reported off the Virginia coast. 
 Isabel's top sustained wind had eased to 180 kilomters per hour as it edged toward land, making it a borderline Category 1 or Category 2 storm. The decreased wind lowered the potential storm surge to 2 to 3 meters, from the previous forecast of up to 4 meters, the National Hurricane Center said. 
 More than 412,000 customers had lost power by late morning in southeastern Virginia and North Carolina, according to Dominion Virginia Power and other power companies. More than 311,000 of them were in Virginia. 
 More than 300,000 people in North Carolina and Virginia had been urged to move to higher ground. Even seasoned storm veterans gave in to the five days of warnings that started when Isabel was a Category 5 leviathan with 260-kilometer-per-hour wind. 
 But a few thousand hardy - or foolhardy - souls ignored evacuation orders. Virginia Beach police suggested they write their names in permanent marker on their forearms so they can be identified if they are injured or killed. 
 At Howard's Pub on isolated Ocracoke Island, bartender James Tucker said he and five other employees resolved early Thursday to &quot;hang out and drink beer until the cable runs out.&quot;

TITLE: NYSE Head Grasso Quits
AUTHOR: By Amy Baldwin
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW YORK - New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso resigned Wednesday amid rising fury over his $139.5 million pay package, his 36-year career ruined by cries that he made too much money running the world's richest financial market.
 
Grasso called an emergency meeting of the NYSE board shortly after the market closed and offered to resign as chairman and chief executive if the board requested, said Carl McCall, chairman of the NYSE compensation committee.
 &quot;The board did so and accepted that resignation,&quot; McCall said.
 Grasso, in a statement, said he was stepping down &quot;with the deepest reluctance.&quot; He added that &quot;I believe this course is in the best interest of both the exchange and myself.&quot;
 Along with the $139.5 million in accrued compensation, Grasso could get $10 million more in severance pay, along with other benefits such as lifetime health insurance.
 Critics, from investor advocates to politicians and traders, say the lavish pay undermined the credibility of the exchange, a not-for-profit institution that is owned by its members and also serves as a regulatory watchdog.
 &quot;In an era of corporate scandals, you can't have the regulator of the world's largest stock exchange take tens of millions of dollars in remuneration from the people he's regulating. That's a conflict of interest,&quot; New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi said.
 News of the lump-sum payment roiled Wall Street, and some board members were surprised by certain pay arrangements. Grasso has insisted he did nothing to influence his pay.

TITLE: Police Shoot and Kill Hostage Taker After 9-Hour Standoff at U.S. College
AUTHOR: By Woody Baird
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: DYERSBURG, Tennessee - A gunman held at least a dozen people hostage in a college classroom before he was shot and killed by police after a nine-hour standoff. Two hostages were wounded.
 
Police rushed into the building at Dyersburg State Community College around 10 p.m. after hearing shots. Authorities said the gunman, 26-year-old Harold Kilpatrick Jr., had left a note saying he &quot;wanted to kill some people and die today.&quot;
 Dyersburg Police Chief Bobby Williamson initially said Kilpatrick fatally shot himself, but he later confirmed that officers shot him.
 &quot;Our people shot one - the hostage-taker - and two others were wounded,&quot; Williamson said.
 Four ambulances were at the college building in Dyersburg, about 120 kilometers northeast of Memphis. Three people were carried out of the building on stretchers. Police escorted several other people from the building.
 The gunman, believed to have had a 9-millimeter pistol and what looked like a butcher knife, made no demands - aside from food and drink - in the standoff. 
 Authorities said Kilpatrick, of Memphis, was staying with his sister in Dyersburg. In the suicide note, left at his sister's house, he also said he didn't like Americans and had spoken with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
 Justice Department officials in Washington also said they had no evidence that the gunman was a member of the terrorist organization.

TITLE: WORLD WATCH
TEXT: <b>Ex-General to Run
 </b>

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) - Wesley Clark launched his first bid for elective office Wednesday, setting his sights on the presidency with a war-tested military record he said makes him the ideal Democrat to ensure the nation's security in a post-Sept. 11 world.
 The retired general became the 10th candidate in the race, entering with an 11-minute address filled with military references, criticism of President George Bush and pleas to Democratic, independent and even Republican voters alienated by the political process.
 Clark did not detail his domestic policies or offer concrete solutions to troubles overseas; he promised major economic and foreign policy speeches soon.
 
 
<b>California Poll Turmoil
 </b>

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The U.S. court that Monday postponed a vote to oust California's Democratic governor said Wednesday it may be willing to reconsider the explosive decision that Republicans are greeting with fury.
 The state's top electoral official jumped at the offer by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which opened a political hornet's nest by delaying the Oct. 7 vote on the fate of Democratic Governor Gray Davis.
 The court did not set a new date for the recall vote and delayed implementation of the decision for seven days pending appeals, but the most likely date would be March 2, the date of presidential primary polls. 
 
 
<b>Concorde Lands Short
 </b>

LONDON (AFP) - A British Airways Concorde traveling from New York to London landed in Wales after experiencing engine problems, a company spokesman said.
 Flight BA002 "grounded safely. Everybody on board is okay," said the spokesman.
 The aircraft experienced a temporary engine surge when dropping from supersonic speed and began using fuel at a higher rate, so the pilot decided to land the aircraft at Cardiff.
 An Air France Concorde made its last commercial flight in May, while the last British Airways Concorde flight is scheduled for Oct. 24.
 
 
<b>Suspect Denies Killing
 </b>

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The man arrested by Swedish police in connection with last week's murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh says he was not involved.
 "I just met my client and during the hearings he said he had nothing to do with the murder of Anna Lindh," Gunnar Falk, the suspect's court-appointed legal counsel, said Wednesday after his first meeting with the man arrested by police Tuesday.
 Lindh was stabbed on Sept. 10 while out shopping without bodyguards in a central Stockholm department store. 
 
 
<b>Man on Blaster Charge
 </b>

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Jeffrey Lee Parson, the teenager suspected of creating a variant of the destructive Blaster worm, appeared in a Seattle court Wednesday to face one count of causing damage to a computer.
 Parson, 18, a burly high-school senior from Hopkins, Minnesota, pleaded not guilty. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
 According to a complaint filed in the Western District of Washington, Parson had told law enforcement officials that he created a variant of the worm, which exploited a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software. 



TITLE: Loko Loses, but Italians Keep on Rolling
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: KIEV - Defending Premier League champion Lokomotiv Moscow got off to a bad start in its Champions League campaign Wednesday, losing 2-0 to Dynamo Kiev in its opening Group B game.
 
Dynamo's Brazilian forward Diego Rincon was the hero of the match, netting twice after coming on as substitute to chalk up three points for his team.
 The host looked more aggressive early on, pinning Lokomotiv back immediately after the kickoff, but failed to find the net in the opening quarter hour.
 Loko midfielder Sergei Ignashevich had the best chance in the 16th minute, forcing Dynamo keeper Alexander Shovkovsky to dive low to save his 20-meter shot. Dynamo replied positively and piled the pressure on its rival, but Loko defended stoutly and counter-attacked dangerously.
 Loko created another clear opportunity in the 61st minute, when midfielder Dmitry Khohlov's powerful shot from just inside the box forced Shovkovsky into another remarkable save.
 But Dynamo's second-half substitute striker Rincon opened the scoring with seven minutes remaining, heading the ball in from captain Valentin Bialkevich's precise cross from the right.
 Rincon scored his second in injury time - also on a pinpoint cross from Bialkevich - to secure Dynamo's well-deserved win.
 Elsewhere, Italian clubs carried on where they left off last season, as Inter Milan and Juventus made it a perfect start for Serie A.
 Inter Milan crushed Arsenal 3-0 at Highbury while Juve, last season's beaten European finalist, beat Galatasaray 2-1 in Turin to follow wins by defending European champion AC Milan - 1-0 over Ajax Amsterdam - and Lazio - a 2-0 winner at Besiktas - on Tuesday. 
 After providing three semifinalists last season and an all-Italian Champions League final, the renaissance has continued, with all four Italian clubs winning over the two opening matchday nights of this season's competition. 
 Inter, beaten by Milan in the semifinals last season, stole Wednesday's honors with a deserved Group B victory at Arsenal, as the first-ever European meeting between the two clubs ended in the London side's biggest home defeat for 2 1/2 years. 
 Arsenal has now failed to win in six successive home games in the Champions League and coach Arsene Wenger could not hide his disappointment afterwards. 
 &quot;We started brightly, but we were perhaps a little naive on the goals and made it difficult for ourselves. It's painful enough to lose, now we must stick together and respond well in the next [Champions League] game,&quot; he said. &quot;We made it very hard for ourselves by going 3-0 down by halftime, but there are five games to go and we must play better in the next one in Moscow [against Lokomotiv].&quot; 
 Inter's Dutch scorer Andy Van der Meyde said: &quot;I'm still surprised we were 3-0 up at halftime, we expected a very hard match. It's a dream start for us and we can go home happy now.&quot; 
 A well-worked goal from Julio Ricardo Cruz (21), a stunning angled volley from Van der Meyde (24) that keeper Jens Lehmann could only help parry into the net, and a cool finish by Nigerian youngster Obafemi Martins (41) sent Arsenal crashing to what could ultimately prove a very costly defeat. 
 To complete a miserable night for Arsenal, Inter keeper Francesco Toldo also saved a Thierry Henry penalty after 32 minutes. 
 While Inter, without injured striker Christian Vieri, was outstanding, Juventus gave a more workmanlike performance that in the end still proved too good for Galatasaray in front of just 14,000 fans at their Group D game in Turin. 
 A 73rd minute goal, claimed by defender Ciro Ferrara, gave Juve victory, although he only appeared to get the slightest touch to an Alessandro del Piero free kick. 
 Del Piero had put Juventus ahead in the fifth minute, when he was given a surprising amount of space to hook home a right-wing cross from Mauro Camoranesi. But Juve struggled after Hakan Sukur brought Galatasaray level with a 19th minute header. 
 Del Piero, who had struck the bar with a 66th minute free kick, set up the winner with 36-year-old defender Ferrara left unattended to poke his cross past Faryd Mondragon. 
 Meanwhile, in a battle between two former European champions, Celtic, last season's UEFA Cup runner-up, threatened an upset at Bayern Munich in Group A after dominating much of the game against the German defending champion. 
 Alan Thompson headed Celtic ahead after 57 minutes, but Bayern recovered to win 2-1 with two goals from new signing Roy Makaay in the last 17 minutes - the winner a speculative long-range curler four minutes from time. 
 &quot;I'm bitterly disappointed, we controlled 75 minutes of the game against one of the best sides in Europe and ended up with nothing,&quot; Celtic manager Martin O'Neill told Sky Sports. 
 But goalscorer Makaay, winner of last season's Golden Shoe after 32 goals for Deportivo Coruna, said: &quot;We had a lot of chances in the second half. We knew Celtic would make problems for us and they did, but it's important to start the Champions League with three points and we did just that.&quot; 
 Olympique Lyon beat Anderlecht 1-0 in the other game in the group, with Juninho Pernambucano scoring the only goal from the penalty spot after 26 minutes. 
 Former Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes marked his European debut for Monaco, where he is spending the season on loan, with the opening goal in a 2-1 win over PSV Eindhoven in their Group C game. 
 Morientes struck with a far post header after 31 minutes, before Edouard Cisse added a second after a breakaway attack in the 56th minute. 
 Wilfred Bouma powered home a free-kick for PSV after 65 minutes, but Monaco held on for all three points. 
 AEK Athens and Deportivo Coruna drew 1-1 in the other Group C match, with Vassilis Tsiartas equalising for AEK in the 89th minute after Walter Pandiani had put Depor ahead at 12 minutes.
 A late penalty from striker Darko Kovacevic gave Real Sociedad a 1-0 win over Olympiakos in Group D.

TITLE: San Francisco Wraps Up NL West Title by Giant Margin
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Giants have been the best in the West since March 31 - and now they're heading for October. 
 
Jason Schmidt had 11 strikeouts in his 16th win, and Andres Galarraga and Marquis Grissom each hit a two-run homer as the Giants beat the San Diego Padres 8-3 Wednesday night to clinch the NL West title and their third playoff berth in four seasons. 
 By taking first place on opening day and never letting go, the defending NL champions became just the ninth wire-to-wire winner of a division or pennant in baseball history. 
 &quot;I'm happy that we get another shot at going all the way,&quot; said Barry Bonds, who silently pointed to the sky after the final out. &quot;I'm not surprised that we're here. We won because we have a good team, but there's still more games to win to get where we want to go.&quot; 
 The Giants' win coupled with the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2-0 loss to Arizona gave San Francisco an insurmountable 13-game division lead with less than two weeks to play - including seven games against the rival Dodgers. 
 The Giants have been ahead by at least 8 1/2 games since mid-July, but that didn't prevent a spirited celebration in the clubhouse. 
 &quot;We knew we were going to be pretty good, but to do what we did is amazing,&quot; general manager Brian Sabean said after getting a champagne soaking. &quot;We've proved to baseball we know what we're doing, and we've overcome a huge number of obstacles along the way. This is the sweet part, but we'll go right back to work.&quot; 
 After the final out, the players slapped high-fives as they normally would following a victory. The team then displayed the ninth inning of Los Angeles' game on the video board in center field, and the crowd began chanting &quot;Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!&quot; 
 Most of the players leaned on the dugout railing and watched the Dodgers' game. When it ended, the Giants thrust their hands in the air and joined in a huge group hug near the dugout steps. 
 In the clubhouse, players doused each other with champagne and beer to celebrate the earliest playoff clinch in franchise history. The festivities became increasingly raucous, with several players apparently competing to douse everyone giving postgame interviews. 
 After a rocky beginning, Schmidt (16-5) mowed down the Padres while getting his career-best 200th strikeout of the season. The San Francisco ace allowed seven hits over seven innings in his fourth straight victory. 
 &quot;You know this is just the first step,&quot; Schmidt said. &quot;We know we can go further. We just have to show it.&quot; 
 The Giants have lost just seven of their 34 home games since the All-Star break, and a chilled, non-sellout crowd enthusiastically roared with each of Schmidt's strikeouts and his teammates' hits. 
 Mark Loretta homered for the Padres, who blew an early three-run lead while losing their sixth straight. The Giants beat San Diego for the 14th time in 18 meetings. 
 
 <strong>
Atlanta 14, Montreal 4.</strong> Mike Hampton allowed three hits in five innings and hit a home run as the Atlanta Braves closed in on their record 12th straight division title with a victory over the Montreal Expos.
 
Javy Lopez and Andruw Jones also homered, and manager Bobby Cox got his 1,900th win as the Braves reduced their magic number for winning the NL East to one. 
 &quot;If we don't celebrate, I may not play again,&quot; Jones said. &quot;Last year we didn't, and we go bang in the first round. We celebrate this year. We're going all the way. A lot of teams don't get a chance, so we should take it when we can.&quot; 
 Hampton (14-7) struck out three and walked four. 
 Lopez's 41st homer was his 40th as a catcher, one behind Todd Hundley's major league record set in 1996 for the New York Mets. 
 Vladimir Guerrero, eligible to become a free agent after the season, went 2-for-2 with a walk as Montreal ended its home schedule with a 39-20 record at Olympic Stadium. The Expos finished with a 52-29 home record, including 22 &quot;home&quot; games at Puerto Rico. 
 
 <strong>
Colorado 7, Houston 5.</strong> Todd Helton homered and pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney had a two-run single, leading Darren Oliver and the Colorado Rockies over the Houston Astros. 
 
The loss trimmed Houston's lead in the division to a half-game over the Chicago Cubs, who defeated the New York Mets 2-0. 
 &quot;It's not something that you panic over,&quot; Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell said. &quot;We have to take care of our business ourselves. We can't worry about what the Cubs are doing. We have to win our ballgames, and we're good enough to do that. 
 &quot;You have to tip your hat to the Cubs because they are playing great. And so are we.&quot; 
 Houston had its four-game winning streak snapped, but still has won 10 of 13. Colorado ended a three-game losing skid. 
 Charles Johnson homered off Brad Lidge in the eighth for the Rockies, and Chris Stynes added an RBI double to make it 7-3. Justin Speier then allowed two runs in the ninth before getting his eighth save in 11 opportunities. 
 &quot;That home run really turned out to be big,&quot; Johnson said. &quot;It gave us a little extra breathing room at the end.&quot; 
 Oliver (12-11) allowed nine hits and two runs - none earned - in 5 2-3 innings. He helped his cause with an RBI single. 
 Ron Villone (6-5) went 4 1-3 innings, allowing seven hits and five runs with three walks and a season-high eight strikeouts. 
 
 <strong>
Toronto 6, Detroit 0.</strong> Roy Halladay shut out the Detroit Tigers for the second time in 10 days, throwing a six-hitter to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a win Wednesday night and pushing Detroit one step closer to baseball history. 
 
&quot;He's amazing - I've said it before, but he's Cy Young,&quot; Toronto manager Carlos Tosca said. &quot;I saw Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling when I was in Arizona, and he's made out of the same stuff. I've run out of things to say about him.&quot; 
 Halladay had a 10-inning shutout against the Tigers on Sept. 7 at SkyDome, and is 9-1 in his career against Detroit. 
 &quot;They have a younger team and they like to swing the bats,&quot; Halladay said. &quot;A big part of what I do is to throw strikes with movement and get guys swinging, so it is nice to face an aggressive team that is anxious to try to get out there and put some runs on the board.&quot; 
 Detroit (38-113) has lost five straight and needs five wins in its final 11 games to avoid matching the post-1900 record of 120 losses set by the 1962 New York Mets. 
 The Tigers became just the fifth team since 1900 to lose 113 games, and the first AL team to do so since the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics. That club set the AL record with 117 losses. 
 &quot;We gave up some runs today on balls that landed right in the middle of three fielders,&quot; Tigers catcher Brandon Inge said. &quot;Those are the type of things that just keep happening in a season as bad as this.&quot; 
 Halladay (21-6) pitched his second shutout of the season, becoming the first 21-game winner in the majors. He tied the team record for wins in a season held by Roger Clemens (1997) and Jack Morris (1992). 
 &quot;He's awfully good,&quot; Tigers manager Alan Trammell said. &quot;The only question left about the Cy Young is if the voters will like this guy, who has the better stuff, or [Chicago's] Esteban Loaiza for what he has done in the pennant race.&quot; 
 Halladay has allowed only an unearned run in his last 36 innings, strengthening his Cy Young credentials. He walked none and struck out seven, throwing 72 of 102 pitches for strikes.

TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: <b>Russia Gets Worlds
 </b>

HERSONISSOS, Greece (AP) - Russia was awarded hockey's 2007 World Championships on Thursday after Canada withdrew. The Canadians plan to bid next year for the 2008 event. 
 Russia earned 61 of 88 votes. Germany received 16 votes and Sweden 11 in balloting at a meeting of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Crete.
 The Russian federation has not decided whether the tournament will be in Moscow or St. Petersburg. 
 Hockey Canada President Bob Nicholson said his nation pulled out of the bidding because the marketing agreement for the 2007 event was geared toward a European host. 
 "That was the best solution for all," IIHF president Rene Fasel said. 
 
<b>Fan Falls, Dies
 </b>

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A fan fell to his death at Pacific Bell Park on Wednesday night, shortly before the San Francisco Giants clinched the NL West title. 
 According to witnesses, the man attempted to climb down the outside of the right-field wall onto the walkway 8 meters below to retrieve something he dropped during the eighth inning. 
 He slipped and fell onto the field-level walkway between the fence and McCovey Cove, according to Giants Vice President of Communications Staci Slaughter. 
 Police and paramedics responded to the scene, but the fan, whose identity was not revealed, died from his injuries, Slaughter said.