SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #928 (96), Tuesday, December 16, 2003
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TITLE: Out of India, Sahaja Yoga Captures Petersburgers
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Every Tuesday about 500 St. Petersburg residents gather to meditate and think about good things in the hall of the Okhta cinema theater outside the Novocherkasskaya metro station.
Sitting or standing still, some dressed in Indian clothing, others dressed in regular Western attire, they focus on their energy impulses.
The city has about 1,000 adherents of the Sahaja Yoga movement that originated in India, and they strongly believe that it's one of the purest and helpful methods for self-development.
Once a year, those who can afford it go to India or other countries where the movement organizes its festivals.
Mila Kapalkina, 43, an engineer, joined the movement about eight years ago "because it helped her to find the sense of life."
"Before that I was thinking and thinking about this: what is the meaning of life?" Kapalkina said. "Just to eat, live and die? And it was hard for me to think like that, and I had fears inside."
After joining Sahaja Yoga she found "harmony with the world" and "learned to observe difficulties from outside and avoid conflicts," she said.
Adherents describe the movement as "a unique method of self-perfection, self-realization, giving an opportunity for positive transformation of personality and society, which is based on the principles of good, peace and love." It was developed by Indian woman Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi in 1970.
Part of its practice is taken from yoga exercises that are intended to promote control of the body and mind. Sahaja Yoga means the union of an invidual with the cosmos.
Today the movement has spread to more than 90 countries.
Sahaja Yoga came to Russia in 1989, which has since become one of the main centers of the movement.
In Russia it is represented in different cities, including big groups in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
According to its teaching, Sahaja Yoga is not a religion but rather a philosophy. Most adherents in Russia are Orthodox Christians.
It is not the only group with Indian roots flourishing in Russia - Hare Krishnas and several other Indian-influenced movements are a regular sight on the streets of the country's main cities.
Asked why Indian philosophy appeals to them, adherents said that modern civilization has its roots in the subcontinent.
People belonging to the movement do not obviously and actively persuade other people, but they are ready to provide information to those interested.
Sahaja Yoga is also viewed as a spiritual science of the sophisticated human energy system, which is said to be connected with the nervous system and carry the evolution of the highest moral principles.
Vitaly Yermakov, 30, joined Sahaja Yoga when he was 22, when he suddenly realized that he "wasn't a perfect human being."
"At that time I was disappointed in people and in myself," Yermakov said.
Sahaja Yoga taught him to "be calm, generous, and enjoy life," he said.
Vera Babayeva, 43, accountant, said she had felt a loneliness inside since her early childhood, which was difficult.
"When I turned 30, I felt it was a turning point in my life, when I was to change something," Babayeva said. "I didn't know what it should be and went to search for it at different sources, even to telepathists. However, I found the right road only when joining Sahaja Yoga."
The reasons people come to Sahaja Yoga are different, she added. Some are looking for the ways to improve their health, others want to find ways to solve their life problems, and the third are just looking for something new.
Sahaja Yoga is based on an experience adherents call self-realization (kundalini awakening) that can occur within each human being.
Through this process, an inner transformation takes place by which one becomes moral, united, integrated and balanced.
During the action of self-realization one can feel the all-pervading divine power as a cool breeze, Babayaeva said. That's when people get rid of their negative energy and open their spiritual and physical channels to positive and good, she added.
Sahaja Yoga teaches people how to solve problems in life, Babayeva said.
"It's a method which teaches how to turn the bad energy directed a you into good energy," she said.
According to Sahaja Yoga, a person should not react in kind to people who disagree with or argue with them, but treat those people as if they are children.
Vladislav Kanunnikov, 58, a teacher who joined the movement 15 years ago, said the movement has taught him to respect himself and others, remove obstacles in his life, and understand his life goals.
"It helped me get rid of bad features of my character such as laziness and also of fears," Kanunnikov said.
He said his wife, who had been smoking for 15 years, quit a few months after joining the movement.
Kanunnikov said he meditates every day in the morning and in the evening for five to 10 minutes at home and also attends regular mediation gatherings in the Okhta hall.
"This makes me feel good," he said.
Sahaja Yoga also leads people to self-treatment. It teaches that by using simple methods humans can clean their energy centers and thus correct their organs and systems.
The science asserts that people who receive self-realization correct their blood pressure and metabolism without medicine and get rid of stress.
The local Sahaja Yoga movement also organizes festivals for regular people, where they perform concerts and speak about Indian culture and Sahaja Yoga.
Indian vice consul Sanjay Kumar Verma said the St. Petersburg consulate treats the movement positively, though it doesn't promote it, as Sahaja Yoga is a non-government movement.
TITLE: Smolny Shuns Bid For Local Elections
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: City Hall has rejected a long standing grass-roots democracy initiative by liberal Legislative Assembly factions to raise the number of city districts that are run by an elected head and not an appointed one.
The local self-government initiative was stifled last week when legislators were assured that Governor Valentina Matviyenko would want leave the system as it is.
"Our objection is that we want to fix up the system in the state it is now somehow," Pyotr Shevtsov, a lawyer with City Hall's committee that liaises with city district administrations, said Monday in a telephone interview. "There has been quite a long debate [about cutting a number of administrative units in the city], but our position has not changed on that point. We are against it."
A law passed by the Legislative Assembly in December 1996 would have replaced the 21 appointed authorities with 21 elected councils. But City Hall then pushed a radical re-districting law through the assembly, slicing the city into 111 electoral subdistricts.
Furthermore, local lawmakers who supported then governor Vladimir Yakovlev passed legislation emasculating the 111 councils, dramatically curtailing their powers and revenue-raising ability, while keeping in place the governor's appointees in charge of the 21 larger districts.
President Vladimir Putin himself has spoken up in favor of grass-roots democracy.
"The municipal administration is the closest power to a citizen," Putin said at a State Council meeting in February 2001. "This is a power that an ordinary citizen should be able to touch with his hand. He has to influence the administrative activity in a precise way and feel this influence."
"People judge the capability of the whole state according to the effectiveness of the work of a concrete municipal council, a village or district administration," he said.
The original idea was relaunched by the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, and Yabloko factions at the beginning this year. The factions recommended replacing the 111 municipal administrations with 21, to create a county-type system with local councils and heads elected to give more power and responsibilities to local officials.
But the City Hall's latest reply put an end to the initiative.
"Valentina Ivanovna [Matviyenko] has nothing to do with democracy and that is why she would never allow such thing to happen," said Boris Vishnevsky, a Yabloko member, in a telephone interview Monday. "Elected authority at the district level to her means less control over the city.".
"[She] has developed a very interesting habit: not to smile when she pronounces the word 'democracy,'" he said.
Vladimir Yeryomenko, a lawmaker in the Mariinskaya faction, said City Hall has offered "to give city districts a bit more money and hand over responsibilities to oversee district sports clubs." Quoting Victor Lobko, head of the governor's Management Office, Yeryomenko said City Hall wants to maintain the status quo without substantive changes.
"Everything is going to be kept according to an old pattern," Yeryomenko said Monday in a telephone interview. "It's because there is no federal law [on district administrations] and City Hall authorities themselves did not initiate anything on that point."
"For some of the district authorities [such a reform] would mean they could lose some financing and resources," he said. "This reform is not supported by district authorities, nor by City Hall nor citizens, because they don't understand what would they need it for."
On Wednesday, lawmakers introduced a 20 percent minimum turnout requirement for city district elections. Some observers said this could wreck any district-level elections entirely because of low voter interest, unless those elections were combined with presidential elections in March.
Only a third of the required district council members were elected in March 2000 because many voters simply got confused getting ballots containing up to 30 unknown candidates, and then threw them away. The elections were repeated, with a very low turnout of people deciding who their representatives should be.
"The situation might be the same as it was the last time when people came and voted for the president, but voted 'against all' in the city-district elections," said Tatyana Dorutina, head of the St. Petersburg League of Voters, in a telephone interview Monday. "The authorities failed to explain what the difference was between the city-district administration and the president."
"Local government does not have enough plenary powers and economic independence and [the system] in our city contradicts the European Charter on Municipal Administrations," she added.
"It's going to happen again that elections will be declared invalid and from 7 percent to 9 percent of voters will decide their fate upon re-elections," Dorutina said.
TITLE: Auditor Finds No Breaches, But Unclear on Festive Spend
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The City Audit Chamber found no violations in the activities of the St. Petersburg 300 committee, but failed to find out how much of the city money was spent on the 300th anniversary celebrations, the web site FK-Novosti reported last week.
The web site reports on audit activities.
Chamber head Dmitry Burenin said experts of the Audit Chamber made "a little discovery" during the check when they figured out that the financial activities performed through the committee were "rather insignificant," the report said.
All the advertising of the city's 300 jubilee, publishing of brochures, and the pre-celebration equipping of services was financed through other committees of the city administration, he said.
However, Burenin said the positive results of the check do not mean that the celebration can be defined as successful.
"The mechanism of financing events was planned in such a way that it was very hard to be controlled," Burenin said.
Burenin said nobody in St. Petersburg can say for sure how much money the city spent on the celebration.
The financial aspect was clear only with federal money, since it was allocated for specific programs, the report quoted him saying.
Meanwhile, the 300th Anniversary Committee is to stop its work by Feb. 1, said Natalya Batazhok, head of the committee.
Initially the committee, organized to run the city's jubilee celebrations, was supposed to finish its activities by June 1 of 2004.
Before that time the committee was to give financial reports on its activities and find other jobs for its employees.
However, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko has ordered that the committee to be wound up earlier.
TITLE: Disabled Kids Experience Spirit of the Season
TEXT: The children's residential home for handicapped children Internat No.1 is located in the Peterhof district amid fields and inland from the coast. About 300 children live there and are cared for by a similar number of staff.
The children have a range of mental and physical handicaps. Their parents live in the city or in the Leningrad oblast. Many residents are orphans.
Despite all their difficulties, the atmosphere at Internat No. 1 is positive. This is largely because residents are active rather than left to their devices. Many take part in sports.
The residents are inviting all their supporters and friends to their New Year's concert.
TITLE: Defeat Could Widen Split in Communist Party
AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Communist Party is in crisis and facing a possible change in leadership or even a break-up after it was routed in the polls and pushed to the political sidelines.
Ilya Ponomaryov, the party's chief information officer who was in charge of attracting the young vote, said the Communists have only themselves to blame for their worst showing in 10 years.
"It was a surprise for the party, but what do you want? The party did not do any campaigning." Ponomaryov said the party was counting on its traditional voters and did not take into account that it could lose part of its electorate.
For the past 10 years, the Communist Party has been solidly backed by voters nostalgic for the security of Soviet times. In addition, the party has gathered votes from nationalists and populists.
In Dec. 7's State Duma election, many of the party's nationalist voters defected to Rodina, analysts said. "If you add up Rodina's results with those from the KPRF, you'll get what the Communists got in 1999," said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank.
The Communists got 12.7 percent of the vote, compared to 24.29 percent in 1999. Rodina got 9. 1 percent, after running a nationalist and anti-oligarch campaign.
The Communists were well aware that a part of their electorate was nationalist, as reflected in the choice of Krasnodar Governor Nikolai Kondratenko, a nationalist who has made anti-Semitic remarks, to follow Gennady Zyuganov on the party list. The No. 3, Nikolai Kharitonov, who heads the agro-industry faction in the Duma, had the task of bringing in the rural vote.
Ponomaryov said the party weakened itself by trying to appeal to the different ideological groups. Instead, it should have focused its efforts on its core supporters.
The Communists also were hurt by the Kremlin-backed campaign against the Yukos oil company and the arrest of its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in late October.
In the middle of the campaign, the Communists had to abandon their populist stance and explain why they were putting representatives of big business, including five from Yukos, on their list of candidates.
"The party found itself in the position of changing its agenda," said Andrei Ryabov of the Carnegie Moscow Center. "It did not depend on them, of course. If Khodorkovsky had not been arrested, they would not have had to explain what the oligarchs were doing on their lists."
The party not only lost some of its traditional electorate, but failed to attract new voters because it is seen as a relic of the past, unable to offer something new for the country, Pribylovsky said.
Ponomaryov said the election defeat was a needed wake-up call for the party. "Now we have to do something, and this is positive. I'm sure there will be a lot of fighting before we find a solution to our problem," he said.
The Communist Party is divided into factions that are spread across the political spectrum and thus has difficulty reaching agreement, Ponomaryov said.
The orthodox Communists, for example, idealize a Soviet kind of society and refuse to accept any modernization. Two representatives of this group are Alexander Kuvayev, first secretary of the organizational committee for the party's Moscow branch, and Boris Kashin, a member of the presidium of the party's central committee and a well-known mathematician.
Another group comprises nationalists, such as Kondratenko, who call for a strong Russia for ethnic Russians.
There also are moderate Communists who are close to European social democrats. Deputy party chairman Ivan Melnikov is the main representative of this group, according to Ponomaryov.
Another problem, Ponomaryov said, is Gennady Semigin, who in the last Duma was a deputy speaker. He wants the party to find a compromise with the Kremlin.
According to Ponomaryov, Semigin will try to become the party's candidate in the March presidential election, replacing Zyuganov, who has run and lost in the past two presidential elections.
Semigin, often a key player in behind-the-scenes intrigue, heads the executive committee of the Popular Patriotic Union of Russia, or NPSR, an umbrella group uniting some 15 political movements, with the Communists as its backbone.
Earlier this year, the editors of two hard-line Communist newspapers, Zavtra and Pravda, published a joint article called "Operation: Mole," accusing Semigin of helping Kremlin officials organize a fifth column in the NPSR.
Zyuganov has always tried to balance the different moods inside the party, and it is not clear which party faction he will line up with, Ponomaryov said. "He has always been a mediator," he said.
Party members may also decide to chose another leader, and plan to discuss the issue at a party congress to be held in the next month or two, Ponomaryov said.
What direction the party takes will depend on which faction takes over the leadership. Ponomaryov, who is close to the social democratic faction, said the nationalists and the social democrats sometimes are able to find a common language, but the orthodox Communists and Semigin are the main problems. And the party has to find a way of keeping all these forces together.
Boris Kagarlitsky, the director of the Institute of Globalization Studies and an expert in Russian left-wing movements, said the social democrats are the weakest faction inside the party and are unlikely to take over. "The most probable scenario is that the party will transform itself in a very authoritarian way" under the leadership of the orthodox Communists, he said.
During the reform process, the party is likely to lose some deputies, Kagarlitsky said. "Some people elected on the KPRF ticket are unlikely to join the party in the next Duma. They might seek other coalitions," he said.
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party, was launched in February 1993. It boasts more than 500,000 members.
TITLE: President Has Votes to Change Constitution, But Says He Won't
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In an apparent attempt to squash speculation that he might seek to extend his term through the new parliament, President Vladimir Putin said last week that he has no plans to change the Constitution.
"It's high time to stop all talk about the need to change the Constitution but focus our attention [instead] on preserving the Constitution and using all the opportunities it offers to help develop the country," Putin told a meeting of regional legislative leaders.
Later on Constitution Day on Friday he repeated the message.
"The resource of the Constitution is far from being exhausted, and those who are trying to speculate on the topic of possible amendments to the Fundamental Law must remember it well," he said.
"Our duty is to treat the Constitution carefully, respect it as we respect our country, our history and our achievements," he added.
Pro-Putin deputies have secured the two-thirds of the new State Duma needs to amend the Constitution. Changes would also need to be approved by the compliant Federation Council and by at least two-thirds of the country's regional legislatures.
Putin is widely expected to win a second four-year term in the March presidential election.
But with several politicians recently calling for a longer presidential term, rumors has swirled that Putin might try to extend his term to five or seven years or even ask for the right to run for a third term.
Putin said Tuesday that he had no such plans. "I absolutely agree that the current Constitution has become the foundation for stability in society, and I think that it, of course, hasn't exhausted all of its positive potential," he said in televised remarks.
In some cases, the Constitution is only beginning to be enforced, he said, highlighted his efforts to bring numerous regional laws in compliance with the Constitution - something he made a priority at the start of his first term.
"This serious problem has practically been solved now," Putin said.
Putin has long spoken out against amending the Constitution, and his rhetoric could easily change after March, said Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"He's always said that about the Constitution, but he is a politician and he can change his mind," Petrov said. "However, things like that can be done only after his re-election as president"
In addition to seeking a third term or an extension of his second term, Putin could forge a new country that incorporates Belarus or breakaway Georgian regions and then run for president of that country, Petrov said.
Putin's stated determination to preserve the Constitution came as the chief judge of the Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, warned that any attempt to amend the Constitution, including an extension of the presidential term, could spell trouble.
"Is it worth changing the Constitution just for the sake of four or five years? Just start talking about making changes and the next thing you know they'll want to change not only one number but also the division of power - something that everyone always wants more of," Zorkin told Rossiiskaya Gazeta in an interview published Tuesday.
"This will give rise to competition, a fight to redivide influence and chaos ... Is that what Russia needs now?" he said.
Dmitry Kozak, Putin's first deputy chief of staff and a senior presidential legal adviser, echoed Zorkin's concerns on Tuesday. "Starting the process of changes in the Constitution may entail more negative consequences than any possible gains," he told reporters after the Kremlin meeting.
Changes other than the presidential term have under discussion for some time. Zorkin said one of the most prominent flaws in the 1993 Constitution is a tilt toward the executive branch at the expense of the parliament - something sought by then-President Boris Yeltsin at a time when he was hamstrung by a Communist-dominated State Duma.
Zorkin argued there should be no rush to change that tilt since Russia is continuing to face a number of domestic and international challenges.
But Suren Avokyan, head of the constitutional law department at Moscow State University, argued that the Constitution should not only be changed but also completely thrown out while the public is consolidated around the president. Avokyan said a new constitution should be adopted that empowers the parliament to take part in appointing Cabinet ministers, conducting investigations and defining government policy.
TITLE: Tiny Liberal Bloc Faces Trade-Offs in Duma
AUTHOR: By Caroline McGregor and Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The seven deputies from the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko know they have to fight for influence in a State Duma where they are massively outnumbered. In deciding which alliances are in their interest, they face a tough tradeoff between pragmatism and principles.
Should they negotiate with United Russia to form a deputies' group with some of its more liberally minded members for the sake of getting a few seats on committees, even if United Russia would dominate the group, which requires a minimum of 35 deputies to form?
Or is it better to stand on moral high-ground and refuse to be co-opted into a coalition where the Kremlin, ultimately, can call the shots, even if it means being sidelined from all debates?
It's a fine line to walk, since the parties have been accused of erring too far in both directions. The failure of the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, to win party-list seats has been widely blamed on its eagerness to cooperate with the Kremlin, which blurred the distinction from United Russia. Yabloko's leader Grigory Yavlinsky has been criticized for being long on lofty talk and short on policy action.
Galina Khovanskaya, a Yabloko deputy who won a seat from a Moscow district, for one, says a coalition is necessary: "On your own, it's almost impossible to get anything done."
Khovanskaya had not anticipated life as a lonely warrior, without party backing from SPS and Yabloko, which together had 48 seats in the last Duma. "Believe me, I'm not happy about my victory," she said.
One option is to join forces with 10-year Duma veteran Vladimir Ryzhkov, who was re-elected as an independent from the Altai region. Ryzhkov said last week that he has started to form a liberal group in the new Duma, which will convene for the first time on Dec. 26.
"We are trying to unite liberal like-minded [deputies] into this group," Ryzhkov said Thursday in an interview with Interfax. He proposed calling the group the Union of Democratic Forces, or SDS.
Ryzhkov, who has been named as a possible liberal nominee to run against President Vladimir Putin in presidential elections in March, denied that he has been in talks with the Kremlin over padding his group's ranks with United Russia deputies, but he did not rule out such consultations in the future.
Counterbalancing the nationalistic Homelan, or Rodina, party and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democrats, he said, was more important than preserving distance from United Russia centrists. "We are convinced it is necessary to do our best to make sure that the nationalists have serious opponents in the Duma."
The four Yabloko deputies elected, including Khovanskaya, and SPS's three are the logical core of that group.
From Yabloko, three deputies were re-elected: Mikhail Yemelyanov, from Rostov; St. Petersburg lawyer Sergei Popov and Mikhail Zadornov, a former finance minister. Khovanskaya, previously a Moscow City Duma deputy, is the only freshman.
The SPS freshman deputy is Arsen Fadzayev, an Olympic champion wrestler who won a seat from North Ossetia. Pavel Krasheninnikov, a former justice minister, was chairman of the legislative committee in the last Duma. Alexei Likhachyov worked with SPS leader Boris Nemtsov in the early 1990s when Nemtsov was governor of Nizhny Novgorod, and he served on the Duma's economic policy and entrepreneurship committee.
Krasheninnikov said last week he had few reservations about collaborating with United Russia. "In the elected Duma, United Russia seems to be the most liberal faction of all," he said.
In addition to United Russia, the only parties to pass the 5 percent threshold to win a share of the 225 Duma seats allocated on the basis of the party-list vote are the Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party and Rodina. The other 225 seats are chosen in single-mandate districts.
Krasheninnikov noted that deputies' groups in past Dumas, like Russia's Regions and the People's Deputy group, were also eclectic conglomerations of people with diverse views. The ultimate objective, he said, was to get "the status of a group, and a representative on the Duma's Council and committees."
Once in the Duma, parties become known as factions - in Russian, fraktsia - and alliances among 35 or more deputies are known as deputies' groups. Under parliamentary regulations, each deputies' group gets a vote on equal footing with factions on the Duma Council, which sets the agenda.
Ryzhkov said that Viktor Pokhmelkin, a co-leader of the now defunct Liberal Russia party who ran this time from New Course-Automobile Russia, was likely to join his coalition, as was Nikolai Gonchar, an independent deputy who is an ally of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Gonchar is an exception. Observers predict that most of the Duma's 60 or so independents will align themselves with United Russia, to sign on with the winning team.
Even if Ryzhkov can cobble together as many as 15 liberals from outside United Russia, this suggests that in order to reach the deputies' group threshold, he would have no choice but to strike a deal with Putin's party.
The downside of that, said Alexei Makarkin at the Center for Political Technologies, is that Putin, then, will have "the controlling stake."
If United Russia loans deputies to the Ryzhkov group, it won't be unprecedented. In the past, the Communist Party loaned deputies to bolster the Agro-Industrial group, which, in return, backed its initiatives.
There has been speculation in the last week that United Russia may choose to break itself into a number of smaller, more manageable subgroups. One of these could be a liberal group entirely of its own members, a rival to Ryzhkov's.
Igor Klyamkin, at the Liberal Mission Foundation, said this would amount to "imitation liberalism," because politically, their slavish subordination to Putin is not liberal at all.
Makarkin said that with the media's help, the Kremlin could give its liberal group a leader, and over four years, the group could take over the political space once occupied by SPS and Yabloko, forcing those parties further off the stage.
And there is another centrist initiative that may help to undermine the real liberals' position.
A party called New Right Forces declared its existence on Dec. 8, the day after the elections dealt the liberals the stunning blow. Party leader Alexei Chadayev described himself as a disillusioned SPS voter who wanted to build a "pro-Western party of power."
Yabloko and SPS promptly dismissed it as a Kremlin project aimed at deepening the schism between the two.
"It's some kind of circus," SPS member Leonid Gozman scoffed. "No one's ever heard of them and they don't represent anyone."
Forced to fight for the right to speak for a fragmented and demoralized electorate, liberals' best hope to reinvent themselves is to unite behind a single presidential candidate, Klyamkin said, adding that the person should not come from either the SPS or Yabloko leadership, because their failure in the Dec. 7 vote is still too fresh. "They must pick someone neutral, a consolidating figure," he said.
Antagonism and divisiveness between the two also runs too deep, although SPS leader Irina Khakamada and Yabloko's Sergei Mitrokhin indicated on Ekho Moskvy radio on Saturday that they were willing to put past differences aside and unite behind one candidate.
"We think that the current leaders of SPS have all been discredited by the defeat and are responsible for all the mistakes," Khakamada said, "so a new person needs to be put forward."
Mitrokhin said Yavlinsky would agree not to run if a consensus were reached to back someone else.
Neither party leader offered any candidates' names, but Klyamkin did not hesitate. "Today I see only one possibility: Vladimir Alexandrovich Ryzhkov."
TITLE: Homeland Urges Program of 'Social Responsibility'
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The leaders of the nationalist Homeland bloc, also known as Rodina, that gained a surprise 10 percent of State Duma seats said last week they would push for a state program of "social responsibilty" and a redistribution of the wealth currently concentrated in the hands of big business.
"We will push for the introduction of royalty taxes" for the extractors of natural resources, "fines for damage to the environment and a cut in taxes on the labor force," Homeland co-leader Sergei Glazyev told a news conference.
He was optimistic his bloc's program would find its way onto the government's economic agenda even though Homeland does not have anything close to a majority in the Duma. "Our economic program was approved by the State Council unanimously two years ago," he said, referring to the loose body of governors headed by President Vladimir Putin. "I am optimistic that it will finally find its way into policy."
The majority win for pro-Putin parties and the ousting of all but a handful of liberal deputies from the Duma could erode the lobbying power of the nation's big businesses and make tax hikes on the owners of raw materials more likely, analysts said.
The government has long been gearing up to start diversifying the economy from its dependence on raw materials. Earlier this year the Economic and Trade Development Ministry published a mid-term economic program that envisioned a large tax hike on the oil industry as a chief way of achieving that. But strong lobbying by big business though the Duma managed to keep the issue off the agenda.
Rodina's campaign platform tapped into a deep vein of discontent among a public resentful of a decade of "liberal" economic reforms that enriched a handful of politically wired businessmen as the rest of the population plunged into poverty.
"All these policies have threatened the state's national economic security," said Yura, a Rodina voter and a former engineer who saw his profession rendered irrelevant by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"If property is seized illegally, it's like building a house on sand. It's going to collapse some day," he said.
Dmitry Rogozin, the other co-leader of Rodina, stopped short of calling for an outright review of those privatization results Monday, but said that courts should have the right to rule on past violations of the law, including fraudulent privatizations.
"We are not talking about a wholesale revision of privatizations. We understand this would rock the boat," he said in an interview after the news conference. "But if courts can make rulings on violations of the law, they also should be able to do so on economic crimes, including the robber privatizations.
"There can't be anything taboo about this issue."
Some observers have worried that the strong showing of Rodina and the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party could give rise to a wave of nationalist socialism.
Rogozin and Glazyev rejected those concerns Tuesday. Glazyev said his bloc rejected nationalism "in the negative sense of the word," and Rogozin said attempts to link the parry with fascism were "dirty PR tricks" by political opponents.
"We have never made any statements that could be qualified as chauvenistic," Rogozin said.
Rogozin's rhetoric was rather low- key Tuesday, but he has a track record of making strong nationalistic statements. In a 1997 speech to the Congress of Russian Obschin, of which he and Glazyev are leaders, Rogozin called for the nationalization of all strategic sectors of the economy and slammed the rise of "democratic" forces whose "experiments" defined "human rights as the right to die, the right to send you son to war and sell your daughter into prostitution.
"Russians! How did we get to a life where everyone is spitting in our faces and we only lower our eyes? We were once the world's second superpower," he said, according to a copy of the speech.
On Tuesday, he criticized the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for issuing a scathing report on the fairness of Sunday's elections. "I understand they are upset because they lost their representatives in the Duma," he said.
TITLE: Chechen Insurgents Seize Hostages, Flee
AUTHOR: By Simon Saradzhyan
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - A band of armed Chechen insurgents killed nine border guards and took four civilians hostage Monday before fleeing in a mountainous corner of Dagestan, leaving the military guessing where they might be headed as night fell.
The attack was the biggest incursion by Chechen rebels since they invaded Dagestan in 1999, triggering the second Chechen war. It provides a stark reminder that the situation in Chechnya and neighboring regions remains restive despite efforts by Moscow to portray a return of stability.
A heavily armed group of up to 60 insurgents entered the village of Shaury at about 3 a.m. on Monday and camped out at the local clinic. They initially tried to buy food in the village, but were acting "aggressively" from the start, Rossia television said, citing local residents.
A villager walked to the closest border guard post, in the nearby settlement of Mokokh, and alerted the servicemen about the rebels.
The commander of the outpost, Captain Radim Khalikov, and eight border guards set out for Shaury, only to be ambushed by the rebels en route, the border guard service's North Caucasus department said in a brief statement.
The rebels used knives to finish off the wounded and beheaded Khalikov. They then took four villagers hostage and left Shaury in three vehicles, NTV television reported.
Among the hostages was an employee of the clinic and a father and son with the surname Gamidov, local officials said. No ages were provided.
Several groups of police, military commandos and border guards set out on the rebels' trail. As the day wore on, the rebels apparently split into several groups, with one band of 25 people heading north, Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgyrei Magomedtagirov told NTV, citing reports from a helicopter crew involved in the search.
Some of the rebels could be foreign mercenaries, Chechen Security Council chief Rudnik Dudayev told Interfax.
The search, which was hindered by rugged terrain, was put on hold Monday evening due to darkness.
Also, units from the Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and FSB's border guard service were on their way to the district to reinforce local forces, Interfax reported Monday night.
Authorities could not say late Monday where the rebels might be and what was the condition of the hostages. They also could not say where the rebels might have come from.
NTV, citing unidentified sources in the Dagestani Interior Ministry, reported that the band might have come from Dagestan's Tsumadinsky district, which borders Chechnya. Shaury is located in Dagestan's westernmost district of Tsuntinsky, some 200 kilometers from Chechnya and 20 kilometers from Georgia.
Federal officials have often blamed attacks in the North Caucasus - including an incursion into Ingushetia in September 2002 - on rebels who crossed over from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge. However, mountain passes from Georgia into Dagestan and Chechnya are currently inaccessible due to snow.
"This is the most formidable event since 1999," a spokesman for the Dagestani branch of the Federal Security Service said by telephone from the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala.
It took thousands of troops several months to rout the rebels involved in the 1999 incursion, said the spokesman,.
The Chechnya conflict has grown from a separatist bid to an ideologically charged fight by Islamic extremists in and around the troubled republic, said Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
The Kremlin is trying to implement what President Vladimir Putin has described as a "normalization" plan in Chechnya, first by holding a referendum there to confirm Chechnya's status as part of Russia and then by having an ally elected president.
However, these and other political measures have failed to end violence, which regularly spills out of Chechnya in the form of suicide bombings and other terrorist acts in southern Russia and even Moscow.
TITLE: Cyprus to Open a Consulate General
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A St. Petersburg Cyprus Consulate General was officially accredited on Wednesday in preparation for the Jan. 1 introduction of visas for Russians wanting to visit the republic, the Greek part of a divided Mediterranean island.
"Cyprus will now require a visa from Russian travelers because Cyprus is to join the European Union on May 1," Consul General Demetris Samuel said Monday.
"We ourselves didn't want to introduce visa requirements for Russia, but such is the rule of the EU," Samuel said.
Cyprus, which is a very popular destination for Russian tourists and businessmen, has given Russians visa-free entry to date. About 140,000 Russians make the trip to the balmy and investment-friendly island each year.
Samuel said Russians make up a large part of tourist flow to the republic, and bring significant profit to the country.
Samuel said it plans to keep the cost of visas under $20, and to issue them in less than 24 hours. "We want to have people applying for a visa in the morning, and getting it in the afternoon," he said.
Samuel said Cyprus had been worried that introducing visas would cost Cyprus a few Russian tourists at the start, but it is expected that any losses will be compensated for through a short and convenient visa procedure.
Yekaterina Kudryavtseva, head of the overseas department of St. Petersburg's Fremad Russia travel company, which organizes trips to Cyprus, said her firm doesn't expect any significant decrease in Russian tourists traveling to Cyprus.
"It will, of course, depend on how well visa arrangements work at the new consulate," Kudryavtseva said. "If it's quick and not very expensive then it won't influence the tourist flow."
Samuel said the Russian government had been "very understanding" about the new visa requirements.
Russia will also introduce visa requirements for Cypriots, who until now had not needed visas.
Samuel said the consulate general will operate from temporary rented premises until a permanent office opens in the spring.
TITLE: Women's Club Charity Fair Raises $2,000
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The International Women's Club of St. Petersburg raised about $2,000 at its Christmas Charity Fair at the Radisson SAS Hotel on Sunday, said Jane Hunter-Blair, chairwoman of the charities committee.
The proceeds will be distributed in the near future to charities that have applied to the club, she added.
Recipients in the past have included organizations that feed, rehabilitate, house and offer specially needed therapy for children and adults who find themselves either born into situations or in living conditions that have families or individuals without homes, starving or abandoned.
Hunter-Blair said the fair was not only a fundraiser, but it was also a cultural event with entertainment and children performing.
"It was great that we had all those kids," she said. "It had a great international flavor."
One group of Russian special learning children performed songs in German, others played guitar and the Anglo-American School choir sang carols, she said.
The city's leading hotels had all contributed to the event, including providing cakes for a raffle. Some of the items on sale were made by prisoners at Tosno.
The fair was put together in just 10 weeks with members of the club stitching, creating, baking, collecting, and contacting businesses and business people for goods to sell and assistance.
TITLE: City's Rybakov Loses Platform for Inquiry
AUTHOR: By Douglas Birch
PUBLISHER: the baltimore sun
TEXT: One of the small but telling consequences of the watershed parliamentary elections was to remove a nagging thorn from President Vladimir Putin's side.
That thorn's name is Yuly Rybakov.
For the past eight years, Rybakov has served in the State Duma from a liberal St. Petersburg district. From that post, he has rallied other liberal politicians. And he has criticized the Kremlin for its stranglehold on the major media, for the slow pace of economic reform and for the brutal war against Chechen separatists.
But most prominently, Rybakov has questioned the official version of events surrounding a string of deadly apartment house bombings four years ago. Those attacks helped trigger a second war in Chechnya and launched Putin onto the political stage.
But in the Dec. 7 elections, parties that support the Kremlin won control of more than two-thirds of the seats in the Duma, giving Putin a level of power unmatched since the Soviet era.
The Communist opposition suffered heavy losses, but it was the liberal, pro-democratic forces that were dealt the harshest blow. Rybakov, 52, was among the casualties.
His defeat may accomplish what arrests and assassination have failed to achieve: the silencing of outspoken and muckraking Kremlin critics such as those who served on what came to be called the Terror '99 Commission.
A few years ago, Rybakov helped set up that independent panel of citizens to investigate the 1999 apartment bombings.
Authorities claim to have solved the crimes, blaming Chechen separatists - two of whom are on trial in a closed courtroom here. Although there has been little controversy over blaming Chechens for subsequent attacks, Rybakov wasn't so sure about their involvement in the apartment bombings.
Eventually, Rybakov and some of his political allies came to the conclusion that it was possible the Russian security services had played a role in the blasts - accusations that have been repeatedly denied by officials.
In trying to find answers, Rybakov used his Duma office to demand sensitive records and publicize the panel's work. When he lost the election last weekend, he lost that kind of access.
"Now, as private figures, we will get only meaningless answers," he said.
And they still have so many questions.
Those uncertainties began after a huge explosion tore through an apartment building on Ulitsa Guryanova on Sept. 9, 1999, killing 90 people. In quick succession, bombs blew apart other residential high-rise buildings in Moscow and the city of Volgodonsk.
Authorities quickly blamed Chechen rebels. The interior minister claimed, citing no evidence, that Osama bin Laden was involved.
Then, on Sept. 22, police apparently foiled an attempted bombing in Ryazan, 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
A couple returning to their 12-story apartment building spotted mysterious figures going in and out of the basement. They summoned police, who discovered a detonator, sacks of what they determined was a high explosive, and a timer set for 5:30 a.m. An investigation by local police began to point to security officials in Moscow.
Two days later, the incident took a strange twist.
A spokesman for the Federal Security Service went on television to say the Ryazan bomb was a dummy, planted by security officers as part of a secret civil defense drill. The sacks, he said, were filled with sugar.
As dubious as the official explanation sounded, Russians were reluctant to question it. The local police investigation was dropped.
A few days before Putin was elected president in March 2000, the Duma voted 197-137 for an independent investigation of the bombings. But 226 votes were needed to approve the measure.
Doubts persisted.
In early 2002, critics of the Kremlin released a documentary titled "The Attempt on Russia," which argued that security agencies were behind the 1999 bombings. The film was financed by the London-based Boris Berezovsky, a fugitive billionaire and bitter Putin foe.
When Rybakov tried to bring 100 copies of the film into Russia, they were confiscated by customs officials at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg. Another human rights activist who showed a smuggled copy in St. Petersburg was beaten in broad daylight on the city's crowded Nevsky Prospekt.
But Rybakov didn't give up. In April last year, he and two others liberal Duma deputies - Sergei Kovalyov, a Soviet-era dissident, and Sergei Yushenkov, a leader of the Liberal Russia political movement - decided to bypass the Duma and set up a citizens commission to investigate the bombings.
The panel worked quietly for a year; its troubles began last spring.
On April 17, Yushenkov returned to his Moscow apartment building, got out of his chauffeur-driven car and was shot several times in the chest. The 52-year-old died on the spot. The assailant left the pistol next to the body.
Yushenkov's death caused a flood of public grief and outrage, as well as demands for an aggressive police investigation.
Two months later, police arrested another Duma deputy - a Berezovsky ally - and charged him with hiring two men to kill Yushenkov. The suspect is in jail awaiting trial. His wife says he was framed.
A few months after the shooting, the panel lost another member. Yury Shchekochikhin, a Duma deputy and high-ranking editor of the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, died in a Moscow hospital.
In June, he had traveled to Ryazan to look into reports of police corruption. After dinner with friends, he started to feel ill. He returned to Moscow, suffering from a high fever, a sore throat and a rash.
Doctors sent him to the Kremlin's prestigious Central Clinic. But he grew sicker, struggling to breathe, then to walk. "It's the first time in my life that I'm scared," he told a friend.
Shchekochikhin died July 3 of what doctors described as an allergic reaction; prosecutors found no grounds for an investigation. But Ilya Ashgekhin, Shchekochikhin's father-in-law and a retired professor of pharmacology, said he suspects that his son-in-law was poisoned.
"He was very dangerous for the authorities," Ashgekhin said in an interview. "He penetrated into things he should not have."
The Terror '99 Commission's troubles didn't end there.
The panel's lawyer, Mikhail Trepashkin, 46, a former KGB official who became a critic of the security services, was arrested during a traffic stop just north of Moscow in late October.
He was accused of illegal possession of a pistol and is being held without bail. He claims that police officers planted the weapon on him.
Otto Latsis, a commission member and crusading editor of the newspaper Russky Kurer, was beaten unconscious Nov. 10 in his apartment building's elevator. Police called it a simple robbery. Latsis, sitting in his hospital room in plaid pajamas, wasn't so sure.
"It doesn't look like the work of a small-time thief," said the gruff journalist, who has been highly critical of Putin. The thief overlooked Latsis' wallet - and walked off with his address book, which contained the names and telephone numbers of his sources.
The committee's fears of a government conspiracy may be overblown. But if nothing else, the story of Rybakov and Terror '99 reflects how increasingly isolated and powerless opposition political figures here feel.
In the weeks leading up to the elections, Rybakov's political foes tried to strike his name from the ballot on technical grounds seven times. He was falsely accused of receiving aid from Osama bin Laden. The St. Petersburg city administration, he says, donated office space and telephones to his main opponent, a Kremlin ally.
"Four hundred students of a military academy were marched to one polling station, and an officer checked every ballot paper" to make sure they had been marked for another candidate, Rybakov alleged. He lost by about 400 votes - a single percentage point.
One group of European observers said the national election was marred by "extensive use of the state apparatus and media favoritism to benefit the largest pro-presidential party."
Rybakov says he doesn't plan to appeal the election results. The new Duma, he said scornfully, will be filled with secret service officials and bureaucrats. He wants no part of it.
"As before, I am convinced that the secret services are involved in the Moscow bombings," he said. Now, those responsible may never be identified.
"I think that the story of the Moscow and Ryazan bombings may be the biggest secret of the 20th century," he said.
TITLE: Station Ties East and West
AUTHOR: By Alla Startseva
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: KALININGRAD - A military band struck up a tune and an Orthodox bishop chanted a blessing as a train left Kaliningrad in a new direction.
For decades neither Moscow nor the West regarded the Russian enclave as little more than the last stop at the end of the line. But now President Vladimir Putin is giving Kaliningrad a second look.
Precisely his political support has made it possible to restore a direct railway link to Berlin on Sunday, making Kaliningrad the focal point of a strategic transportation corridor.
At Kaliningrad's magnificently restored Yuzhny Station, Gennady Fadeyev, president of Russian Railways, or RZD, saw off the two cars in the train as they embarked on their 600-kilometer journey through Poland to Berlin. "[ Putin] pays enormous attention to this region. [Kaliningrad] region is his priority," Fadeyev said.
Putin, who is fluent in German from his days as a KGB agent in Dresden, has made improved relations with Germany a top foreign policy priority.
Before it was ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II, Kaliningrad had an illustrious past as the East Prussian city of Koenigsberg.
During Soviet times all trains from the closed city went east. In the '90s Germany financed a narrow-gauge track to make westward rail travel possible - but in the aftermath of the 1998 economic crisis service to Berlin was cut again.
The idea to restore the link was raised at an October summit between Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Yekaterinburg. At that meeting RZD and its German counterpart Deutsche Bahn AG signed a memorandum on cooperation, which included the resumption of a direct service between Kaliningrad and Berlin. By next summer the line should extend all the way to St. Petersburg.
In the space of just two months, all the necessary agreements between Germany, Poland and Russia have been signed. Carriages, trains stations and track have been renovated, the ticketing system overhauled, and 39 Russian conductors given trainng in German.
RZD spent nearly $7 million to refurbish the route. Most of those funds went toward the renovation of the gleaming train station at Mamonovo, the last stop before Poland. The well-maintained 40-kilometer section of track to the Polish border has little in common with other Russian routes.
"This is an important event not only for Kaliningrad region and Russia but also for Germany and Europe," said Ortwin Hennig, head of the economic and science department at the German embassy in Moscow. The route was resumed at "the right moment," at a time when Europe is moving towards Russia and Russia towards Europe, Hennig said at the ceremony.
TITLE: Yukos Divorce Could Cost Sibneft Billions
AUTHOR: By Valeria Korchagina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The question is no longer if the largest merger in Russian corporate history will be unraveled, but when - and how much Sibneft will have to pay because of it.
"It's off," a source close to Yukos parent company Group Menatep told The Washington Post over the holiday weekend. As for the divorce, the source said, "you can do that as friends or you can do that as enemies. We'll have to see how it goes."
The Sunday Times and the Financial Times both reported that Yukos shareholders will this week ask Sibneft for up to $2 billion in penalties and damages for the collapse of their record $11 billion tie-up, which was prompted by Sibneft owners' last-minute request for managerial control of the much-larger Yukos.
"We are in no hurry," Leonid Nevzlin, the largest Yukos shareholder not in prison, told the Financial Times from Israel, where he fled after the arrests of fellow Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Nevzlin said that in addition to the $3 billion Yukos paid Sibneft, Yukos shareholders are likely to demand a lump sum of $1 billion to $2 billion in compensation for the losses in Yukos' stock price that followed the decision by billionaire Roman Abramovich, who controls Sibneft, to freeze the deal on Nov. 28.
Yukos shares crashed below $10 per share for the first time in eight months Thursday. As recently as October, Yukos shares had reached a record high of $16.35, fueled by reports of the pending sale of a stake in YukosSibneft to U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil.
As part of the merger reversal, Yukos would have to return its 92 percent stake in Sibneft in exchange for the 26.01 percent stake in Yukos currently held by Sibneft shareholders.
The divorce became inevitable after Yukos shareholders refused to give up the control of the company to Sibneft's appointed managers. Sibneft's move was rumored to have had the Kremlin's blessing.
The Kremlin has reportedly said that Khodorkovsky tried to seize control of one-third of the State Duma's 450 seats.
"He was trying to control 150 votes in the Duma," an international banker told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "He had at least 100 people lined up who would vote as he wanted."
"They [the Kremlin] believe he was launching some initiative to take over the reins of power and that it was a very well thought out attempt," an investment banker, who is in frequent contact with Kremlin insiders, was quoted by the news agency as saying.
Igor Kostikov, chairman of the Federal Securities Commission, expressed regret over the merger's collapse.
"It would be good to have a Russian oil company that is No. 4 in the world,'' Kostikov told Bloomberg. Kostikov also noted that the deal is still valid as no formal requests to annul it have been filed by either company.
Yet as hopes for the merger fade, foreign interest in both companies has apparently not.
ExxonMobil, previously rumored to be after a stake in YukosSibneft, is now eyeing a large stake in Yukos only, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation.
There were no official confirmations from ExxonMobil. "Like everyone else, we go where the oil is," Exxon spokesman Tom Cirigliano told the paper.
Smaller Sibneft too could attract an array of buyers including companies like French oil giant Total.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: IKEA Grand Opening
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The IKEA Kudrovo store celebrated its grand opening Friday.
More than 20,000 shoppers visited the store on opening day, according to a company press release.
Investment in the three-story 31,000 square meter home furnishings store amounted to $40 million.
IKEA operates 186 stores in 31 countries of the world, but this is only the third store in Russia, and the first opened outside of Moscow.
By 2008 the company plans to open between 15 and 20 shopping centers in Russia, and also a wood processing plant in Tikhvin, Leningrad Oblast.
In 2002 IKEA sales in Russia amounted to $200 million. Sales of $240 million have been forecast for 2003, according to Interfax.
Tissot Ticks On
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Tissot Swiss watch company marks the 150th anniversary of its founding in 2003, as celebrated in St. Petersburg last Thursday at a gala event held at the Yusupov palace, a company press release said.
Tissot has released a special anniversary edition of 8,888 steel watches, 1,853 steel and gold watches, 1,853 gold watches and 150 platinum watches.
Charles-Emile Tissot, the founder's son, left Switzerland for Russia in 1858, where he found a market for the covered pocket watch that failed to catch on in Switzerland.
Tissot has been a member of the Swatch Group since 1983.
Oblast Power Hike
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Leningrad Oblast Regional Energy Commission will raise electricity prices for all consumers by 11 percent Jan. 1, 2004, Interfax quoted commission chairman Lev Khabachev as saying.
Rates per kilowatt hour will range between 86 kopeks and 1.32 rubles depending on the voltage used.
Public institutions will pay 97 kopeks per kilowatt hour.
Khabachev said domestic consumers would see a gradual increase in rates, with a kilowatt hour in towns and villages costing 80 kopeks and 56 kopeks respectively starting Jan. 1, and 97 kopecks and 68 kopeks starting May 1.
$41,000 Payroll Heist
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A vehicle carrying 1.2 million rubles ($41000) that was to pay workers on a building site was held-up Thursday and robbed of the cash it was carrying, Interfax reported the police press service as saying.
Three men came out of a black jeep and approached the vehicle, and after making threats made off with the bags of money, the report said.
The hold-up occured at about 11 a.m outside 141 Ulitsa Savushkina, where the Merkury shopping center is under construction. Employeers of the firm Monolit, which is building the center, were the intended recipients of the cash, the report said.
The police said it was the seventh robbery of its type in three months.
Oblast Media Accord
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The administration of the Leningrad Oblast and the journalist union Media-Soyuz on Thursday signed a co-operation agreement, Interfax reported.
The agreement includes transmission of information about a program to revive the first capital of northern Russia, Staraya Ladoga, and the return of the icon of the Tikhvin Virgin, the report said.
Leningrad Oblast governor Valery Serdyukov asked journalists "to not only report on the positive sides of life in the oblast, but also to raise problems that the authorities are sometimes unaware of," the report said.
Investor Head Named
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Andrei Mikhailenko, a former executive of Telekominvest and partner in investment consultants Zest Leadership, has been named head of City Hall's investment and strategic project committee, Interfax reported Monday.
In addition, Alla Manilova, who was acting head of the media committee, has been appointed its permanent head, the report said.
Royal Rehabilitation
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday called for the last tsar Nikolai II and his family, who were murdered by the Bolsheviks, to be rehabilitated because they were victims of political repression, Interfax reported.
"It would be a highly moral thing to do and completely in accordance with our laws," Gorbachev was quoted as saying.
The family had been murdered after the Soviets lifted the death penalty and without the family having committed any crime after the tsar's abdication, he added.
Envoy Backs Mergers
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Ilya Klebanov, the presidential envoy to the Northwest Region, said Monday his office is preparing plans for the merger of several administrative territories in the region, Interfax reported.
He was speaking after last week's referendum approved the merger of the Komi republic and the Perm region.
Klebanov said that about three pilot projects ware being prepared by his office to be sent to the presidential administration at the beginning of next year.
Earlier reports have said officials are considering the merger of the city and the Leningrad oblast, the Pskov and Novgorod regions, and that the Nenets Autonomous Region with either Komi or Arkhangelsk.
Gas at 10-Year High
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer, is selling the fuel to Western Europe at a 10-year high this year as gas prices gained along with crude oil, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov said Friday.
Gazprom, which supplies about a quarter of Europe's gas consumption, is selling the fuel at an average price of $126 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from $70 to $80 in past years, Yusufov said at a press briefing in Moscow.
RTS Index Changes
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - RBC Information Systems, which operates a newswire and a business television channel, will join the dollar-based Russian Trading System Index on Jan. 1 as part of the benchmark's quarterly adjustment.
The other two companies that will be added to the 59-member index at the start of the year are Ufaneftekhim, an oil refiner, and Europe's biggest titanium producer, Vsmpo-Avisma.
Industry Grows 7.1%
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Industrial output grew 7.1 percent from a year earlier in November and 6.8 percent in the first 11 months of the year, an official at the State Statistics Committee said Thursday.
Industrial output rose 0.8 percent, year-on-year, last November, which led to a 3.7 percent increase in the January-November period of 2002.
Latvia Bans Tankers
MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Latvia has promised not to let any more single-hulled fuel oil tankers use its ports, the European Union's Transport and Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said Thursday.
Latvia, due to join the EU in May, has been criticized for allowing the 24-year-old Geroi Sevastopolya to sail on Saturday from its Ventspils oil port with a 50,000-ton cargo of heavy fuel oil.
The EU banned single-hulled tankers following two major oil slicks from similar vessels, the Prestige off Spain last year and the Erika off France in 1999. The restriction only applies to vessels loading in EU ports.
TITLE: Diplomat Increases British Presence
AUTHOR: By Eve Heathcoat Amory
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Peter Langham has somehow managed to achieve the great balance between working hard while maintaining his family life. This is especially impressive given that he has not one but two roles at the British Consulate General, which was established in St. Petersburg in 1994 (it will celebrate its ten year anniversary next year). He is Head of Trade and Investment, and Deputy Head of Mission under Consul General Barbara Hay. It is largely thanks to Hay that he has been able to achieve this balance. "She strongly encourages the people who work here to have a private life," Langham says.
Langham describes his commitment between his two posts as being 60:40 with commerce consuming the majority of his time, although as a result of the 300th anniversary celebrated in St. Petersburg this year, recently the ratio has almost been reversed. The consulate in St. Petersburg is small and Peter Langham is assisted by a team of three in his role as Head of Trade and Investment.
"Our responsibility is to assist small- and medium-sized British businesses to sell their products and services here," Langham says.
The types of businesses they work with are diverse, and include larger companies such as KPMG and Pricewaterhouse Coopers. "We aim to be proactive as well as reactive in that we will approach companies if we see opportunities for them, but much of the initial work takes place in Britain."
Langham's other role as Deputy Head of Mission entails maintaining an overview of what is happening in the Consulate. A significant part is presenting a positive image of Britain and putting together British and Russian partners to - choosing his words carefully to avoid sounding trite, Langham says - "...enrich and improve the lives of people living in Russia." He works with five other British diplomatic staff and 20 Russians and is keen to emphasize the total integration between workers regardless of nationality - "we are all pulling in the same direction."
Langham is a relative newcomer to St. Petersburg (he arrived in January this year), but not to Russia. His first posting with the diplomatic service was to Moscow as a 21-year-old where he met his wife Elizabeth, who was also posted to the Embassy, having previously studied Russian in college. They have two daughters, Holly (11) and Eliza (9), who both attend the Anglo-American School.
Langham is valiantly tackling the Russian language with frequent one-on-one lessons. He has just taken his first set of Foreign Office exams in the subject, both written and oral papers, but rather frustratingly will not receive the results until January of next year. Despite his efforts, he describes his children's rapid progress: "They have almost overtaken me!"
Langham's father was also in the diplomatic service, so it appears highly likely that this heavily influenced his career choice. "People always say that," Langham said somewhat resignedly. In fact, his decision to enter the diplomatic world was not lightly taken. After completing A-levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, he was set to take up his secured place at Liverpool to study sports science.
Although keen on sports, especially athletics, rugby and football, he states "I was not going to be a David Beckham and had to consider the fact that after completing my degree I would be left with the choice of running a leisure center or becoming a PE teacher." Instead, having spotted an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph, he applied for a very junior Diplomatic Service position and was accepted.
Langham admits, "Certainly, having a family member with experience in the diplomatic service was useful in that I was familiar with the kind of work I would be doing." A two-year hard slog in London followed, his main responsibility being, as he puts it, "ordering car spares." But the years following were much more exciting.
Having come from a posting in Stockholm and after completing three years in St. Petersburg, by 2006 he will have been working abroad for 12 years and knows that "we've been lucky to stay abroad this long." Foreign postings are extremely competitive and he expects to return to London in 2006. "We also want to settle the girls into secondary education without interruption," Langham explains.
He is very keen on St. Petersburg as a city, but as many businessmen who come to St. Petersburg to work discover, the real chance for sightseeing comes when entertaining visiting family or friends: "Everyone loved trips down the canals, seeing the Hermitage and the Summer Gardens."
Having travelled as a child and as an adult, Peter Langham finds it difficult to respond to the simple question "Where exactly are you from?" Distinctly British in both accent and mannerisms, the conclusion is Nottingham. "Well, that's where I return to in England."
Langham enjoys his job greatly but describes the biggest obstacle when encouraging British investors is overcoming their "naturally suspicious attitude to Russia and the Russian economy." As the number of registered British companies in Russia has increased by 20 percent since January when Langham arrived, St. Petersburg is surely grateful that for now, this is where Peter Langham calls home.
TITLE: Investors, Gov't Navigate Tax Laws
AUTHOR: By Ruslan Vasutin and Elena Zaitseva
TEXT: Since its introduction in 1991, Russian tax legislation never exemplified a system that would help authorities create a stable business environment. This year was no different. Amendments introduced by the federal and regional authorities in 2003 will revise familiar tax practice and affect investors' activities to a considerable degree.
First of all, the good news about 2004 is that there will be fewer taxes next year than in 2003. The notorious sales tax and cleaning levy will disappear. Certain positive changes have also been made to currency regulation. Starting July 10, 2003, a norm of 25 percent was established for the mandatory sale of currency proceeds from export operations. More lenient rules were also put in place for individuals bringing foreign currency into and out of Russia. Regulations for taking currency from Russia abroad no longer discriminate between residents and non-residents. Two rules now apply. First, individuals regardless of their residence are now allowed to take abroad up to $10,000 in foreign currency in cash - with amounts in excess of $3,000 to be declared at customs. Second, amounts in excess of $10,000 cannot be taken from Russia at any time unless they were previously wired or brought into Russia.
As for customs legislation, changes concerning valued added tax (VAT) incentives for import of technological equipment as contribution to the charter capital of Russian companies are worth mentioning. The procedure for obtaining an exemption from VAT charged on manufactured equipment, components and spare parts for equipment imported as an in-kind contribution was changed in 2003. According to the new procedure, a company must receive a resolution from the State Customs Committee to obtain the VAT exemption. Needless to say, this will make the process of obtaining customs incentives more difficult for investors since they will have to spend more time and cover administrative costs connected with the application.
July 2003 amendments to Federal Law 117-FZ also deserve special mention. They introduced certain additions to Part Two of the Russian Tax Code concerning changes in the profit tax and VAT rates. Effective Jan. 1, 2004, the VAT rate will drop from 20 percent to 18 percent. The profit tax rate remains unchanged at 24 percent, however, the amount of profit tax payable to the federal budget is reduced from 6 to 5 percent, while the regional budget's share goes up from 16 to 17 percent.
The increase in the regional budget's share of the profit tax means that Leningrad Oblast authorities will be able to grant profit tax concessions in 2004, reducing the regional profit tax rate to 13 percent, but not to the 12 percent that existed in 2003 according to the Oblast concession law, since any further concessions would contradict the Tax Code. Amendments of Nov. 25, 2003, to the Leningrad Oblast investment law have reflected this tax rate change.
Another significant change to the Russian Tax Code concerns property tax. Federal Law 139-FZ, introduced in November, gained its Chapter 30 on "Property tax of organizations." According to the law, starting Jan. 1, 2004, there will be a new property tax. Chapter 30 establishes the framework for the application of the new property tax, but separate regional legislation was also required before Dec. 1, 2003, since it is a regional tax. St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Oblast and Novgorod authorities were on time with the tax code deadline and passed their property tax laws within a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the legislative process was so quick that neither St. Petersburg nor the Leningrad Oblast thought about keeping major property tax concessions previously available for Russian and foreign investors operating in the region. Property tax concessions for capital investments will be phased out at the year's end. As a result, manufacturers investing in reconstruction of their production base will incur significant additional tax costs for paying extra property tax amounts in 2004. Novgorod property tax law preserved certain property tax concessions for specific investment projects.
The Leningrad Oblast government advised that it plans to reinforce former property tax concessions on a retroactive basis from Jan. 1, 2004, to avoid disruption of the investment process. The situation with St. Petersburg property tax concessions is not clear and the business community - notably the St. Petersburg International Business Association - is actively lobbying for "grandfathering" of previously granted property tax concessions. Unless the authorities take decisive actions, a number of court cases and disputes with the tax inspectors regarding unutilized tax concessions in St. Petersburg - including the reduction of the tax base for 8, 16 or 24 quarters depending on the amount of capital investments into fixed production assets - will rise in 2004.
The new property tax rate has been increased from 2 percent to 2.2 percent of the taxable base. However, this increase of the tax rate is made up for by the reduction of the taxable base, which in broad terms now includes only fixed assets. Property tax will no longer be charged on inventory, intangible assets and deferred expenses. No tax means that intellectual property planning will get a boost in Russia starting in 2004 and will likely become a much more popular technique for tax optimization.
The final "surprise" from the federal authorities at the end of 2003 is a law signed last week by President Putin that abolishes all unused 18 percent profit tax concessions historically granted by regions and municipalities before Jan. 1, 2002. No profit tax concessions in excess of 4 percent envisaged by the Tax Code will be allowed after Jan. 1, 2004. Thanks to these efforts of the federal authorities to fight Russian local offshore zones such as Kalmykia, regional authorities in the Northwest would have to search for alternative ways of compensating investors. One possible option would be to grant concessions in the form of "subsidies," which are actually a refund from the budget of the previously paid portion of profit tax not eligible for direct exemption. For these purposes, regional budgetary law must specifically allow for payment of such subsidy rebates to investors. How and if this subsidy system can apply to recently repealed concessions is yet to be seen in practice. Care should be taken by investors to determine the effect of these changes on their business plans and investment agreements signed with the authorities.
Ruslan Vasutin is senior manager and Elena Zaitseva is senior consultant at EY Law, St. Petersburg.
TITLE: Japan, China Court Russia for Oil Pipeline Deal
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: TOKYO - Energy-hungry Japan urged Russia on Monday to build a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline to the Sea of Japan and abandon a rival plan to deliver oil to China, saying that would help Russia tap resources in remote eastern Siberia and develop ties in the Pacific region.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi met on the first day of Kasyanov's three-day visit for talks with top Japanese officials on trade and energy.
Russia is considering two rival projects to pump Siberian oil to either northeastern China or the Russian port of Nakhodka on the Sea of Japan, with Beijing and Tokyo both courting Moscow for the deal.
"I want you to take advantage of your visit to fully listen to our ideas and understand our ideas," a Japanese official quoted Kawaguchi as telling Kasyanov, referring to the proposed pipeline.
Kawaguchi told Kasyanov that building the pipeline to the Far East would allow Russia to ship oil to a broad area of East Asia - including South Korea and Japan - and would be a good strategic move, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
She added that it would bolster the development of eastern Siberia.
Japan imports more than 80 percent of its oil from the Middle East and is eager to secure an alternative, closer source. But Japan's hopes for the Nakhodka pipeline, worth up to $5 billion, were thrown into doubt this year when Russia and China signed a declaration that they would strengthen cooperation in the oil and gas sectors, including construction of a huge Russia-China oil pipeline.
But analysts and Russian government officials have said Russia does not have enough reserves to justify building pipelines to serve both and more exploration was needed.
The Chinese plan calls for a 600,000 barrels per day pipeline to Daqing in northern China. The proposed Japanese pipeline is designed to ship up to 1 million bpd by 2007-2009.
Kasyanov, the first Russian prime minister to visit Japan in five years, did not say whether Russia would accept Japan's proposal but he called for Japanese help in developing eastern Siberia and its giant oil reserves, the Japanese official said.
"There are vast energy resources in the region and developing the resources would be a big boost for regional development," Kasyanov was quoted as saying. "But ... we need cooperation from our neighboring countries, including Japan."
Japanese Vice Trade Minister Seiji Murata said earlier that the pipeline question would not be decided during Kasyanov's visit, and it was up to Russia when a decision would be made.
Kasyanov was to meet Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and business leaders Tuesday, and then travel to the ancient city of Kyoto on Wednesday.
Kawaguchi told Kasyanov that Russia should ratify the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming.
"Russia holds the key to the fate of the Kyoto Protocol," the official quoted Kawaguchi as saying. "Please conclude the treaty as soon as possible."
But Kasyanov made no response, the official said.
Russia has pulled back from previous promises to ratify the treaty, apparently worried it might choke economic growth.
Officials and businessmen joining Kasyanov on the trip include Far East Federal District presidential envoy Konstantin Pulikovsky, Primorye Governor Sergei Darkin, Irkutsk Governor Boris Govorin, Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, Transneft chief Semyon Vainshtok, aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, and Vneshekonombank chairman Vladimir Chernukhin, according to Itar-Tass.
(AP, Reuters, SPT, Bloomberg)
TITLE: Business Regrets Liberal Loss, Hails Stability
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Russian businessmen reacted calmly to the results of the State Duma elections. The majority of those businessmen surveyed by Vedomosti recognize that they will miss the democratic fractions, but hope that a loyal Duma will help the president further economic and social reforms. This is a sampling of opinions.
I am disappointed by the showings of the rightists, but they are not all of Russia's democrats. These forces demonstrated their inability to get a feel for the situation, and the [Union of Right Forces election commercial about] the "plane in the clouds" [shows] how far they are from the people.
Vladimir Lisin, chairman of the board, NLMK
The main cause of the failure of the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko was their own mistakes. A scientist once told Rutherford, the prominent physicist, that he worked up to 24 hours a day. "So when do you have time to think?" Rutherford asked. I think the defeat of the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko is something along these lines. They made too many ad-lib comments during the campaign and reacted a lot to the actions of their political opponents and to the words of government officials. The Union of Right Forces and Yabloko campaign managers forgot to keep proportionate amounts of thinking and doing. They didn't think much but acted a lot. But there was no well-though-out strategy behind their actions. They acted like there had been no four-year cycle between these elections and the last.
Alexander Mamut, co-owner of Ingosstrakh and Troika Dialog
I am satisfied with the election results. I hope that now the process of legislative support for housing and utilities reform will go more quickly. Moreover, if you look at the Duma as a corporation, then it's a good thing if it works smoothly and is able to use its carte blanche to get important decisions made.
I regret that the democratic parties lost. I know many capable and talented people [in these parties] who are dedicated to acting in the country's interests. Now they probably need to rethink their positions and express them more clearly and accessibly to the voters.
Sergei Yashechkin, chairman of the board of Rossiiskiye kommunalnye sistemy
We are satisfied with the election results. The centrists coming to power means that reforms will be continued and, possibly, even sped up since there will be fewer contradictions between the legislative and executive branches of power. The only negative part is that the center will experience pressure from Glazyev's block [Homeland, or Rodina] with his idea of charging rent for natural resources. Maybe society doesn't need the democrats' ideas at this time.
Leonid Fedin, vice president of LUKoil
I am not satisfied with the results of the elections, primarily with what happened to the right democratic parties. It is sad that one big ego made it impossible to unite into a single force. The loss of the rights is the logical result. But it isn't fatal. Maybe our liberal leaders will be able to formulate more precisely what they want in four years and gain their voters.
Olga Dergunova, head of Microsoft Russia
I voted for United Russia and, from that perspective, I'm happy with the outcome of the elections. I see two reasons for the defeat of the rights [the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko]. First, it became decisively obvious that our people have not tasted the full flavor of democracy and, if they have, managed to become disenchanted with it. Second, the defeat of Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces is a result of the crisis inthese parties, reflected on the one hand in their unwillingness to reach a compromise and, on the other, in the unacceptable compromises of years past. But any parliament must have a right wing. Today this niche is rather small in Russia, but I think it will be formed soon by single-mandate districts.
Mikhail Shishkhanov, president of BIN Bank
I am satisfied. A majority in parliament isn't so bad, as Western democracies show. At least there won't be any conflict between the government and parliament. It is too bad that there won't be any Union of Right Forces or Yabloko in the Duma, and their absence means that the legislature as a structure is not reliable. If they had joined forces, then they would have gotten into the State Duma. Yavlinsky's ambitions got in the way.
Sergei Sarkisov, general director of RESO-Garantiya
Since the rights didn't get into the Duma, United Russia will have to take on their role in the new parliament. The new Duma won't have its own position, and the majority of deputies will follow the president's course. The country's further development will depend on him.
Lev Khasis, chairman of the board of Perekryostok and GUM
I was saddened to learn that Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces didn't get into the new Duma. Both they and the communists lost votes to the Rodina and LDPR parties, whose followers tend to vote "against all." The large number of votes for LDPR means there are more people dissatisfied with the current situation.
The reason for the defeat of Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces lies in their unclear position on the main political and economic issues over the past one and a half or two years. For example, Yabloko only recently, in the past two or three months, started actively bringing its position to potential voters, but there wasn't enough time. Moreover, during the last elections the party of power was less aggressive, and some of those who sided with moderate reforms voted for the democrats, but this time voted for United Russia.
Alexander Kandel, general director of Aton Investment Group
It's too bad that the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko didn't overcome the five-percent barrier. On the other hand, there is a positive tendency in the drop in the number of communists. I think the rights didn't get enough votes because of the passive nature of their supporters. People involved in business are always less active in elections. I think the real share of Union of Right Forces and Yabloko voters should be around 12 or 13 percent.
Ilya Mikhailenko, general director of Renaissance Insurance Group
It's good that the party of power will make up the foundation of the Duma. There should be one master in the house. The composition isn't better this time, but it will evolve. In such a state as Russia there should be a strict state hierarchy, just like in our holding. Governors should answer to the president, and the State Duma should be an analytical center. A multi-party system and democracy are not for Russia. The democrats lost because they talk a lot but don't do much. Even the average people understood this.
Alexei Kobtsev, general director of the Rusagrokapital agroindustrial holding
I'm not very happy with the outcome of the elections, but I don't think they were a disaster. We have a presidential republic and we shouldn't overestimate the power of the State Duma. I don't see any real threats to business based on the policies of the president and United Russia up until now.
The rightist parties need to think hard about their approach to the future. Of course they should have united, then they would have gotten into the Duma without any trouble. Their campaign would also have been clearer. It should have been aimed at people like me, but it didn't make an impression on me, although I voted for the rights.
Sergei Krivonogov, director of DDB advertising
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: Bullet PointsSometimes the smallest sliver of glass can reflect the brilliance of the entire moon, full and blazing in the midnight sky. And just so, a simple story in an out-of-the-way journal can illuminate the ethos of an entire age, piercing the murk with a sudden flash of stark and painful truth.
The brutal essence of the Bushist Era was thus laid bare last week in the unlikely venue of the Army Times, a corporate-owned military newspaper in Washington. In an article detailing the effectiveness of a new kind of ammunition, the paper -- inadvertently, we assume -- stripped away the patriotic tinfoil wrapped around the arms industry and revealed that "patriotism" for what it really is: extortion, crude and thuggish, a raw greed driven by threats -- including the threat of turning their death-wares against the Americans they are purporting to defend.
The story, by John Roos, deals with the controversy over a new bullet made by a Texas firm, RBCD, and distributed by Le Mas Ltd. of Arkansas. As Roos explains, the new 5.66-mm Le Mas round is "frangible" -- it will "penetrate steel and other hard targets but will not pass through a human torso." Instead, it effectively explodes inside a body, ravaging tissue in all directions, "creating untreatable wounds."
The ammo has not been adopted by the U.S. military yet, but it is being used by some of the "private security consultants" hired by the Bush administration to prowl the streets of occupied Iraq. These mercenaries are not always bound by the laws and codes of honor that govern regular military forces, so they're free to do any dirty work that the Bushists want to keep off the books. They are also free to carry out productive "field experiments" of new ammo on human targets, the paper reports.
Roos writes of hired gun Ben Thomas, who works for an unnamable company carrying out unspecified tasks in Iraq for the Bush Regime. Thomas cheerfully relates his first kill with Le Mas' fabulous frangible, during what he said was a skirmish with Iraqi gunmen in a rural village near Baghdad. "It entered his butt and completely destroyed everything in the lower left section of his stomach," Thomas said of the single bullet from his M4 carbine. "Everything was torn apart. Nobody [could] believe this guy died from a butt shot."
Thomas and his fellow irregulars made sure to examine his handiwork when the fight was over, exploring the dead man's exploded rectum to study the effects of the new round. The verdict? The bullet's a beaut. "There's absolutely no comparison, whatever, none" to the piddling damage caused by lesser 5.56-mm cartridges, Thomas said. And he should know, telling Roos that he has "shot people with various types of ammo" in his shadowy work around the world. He's stocking up on the Le Mas butt-buster, he added, and will be taking plenty to his privatized pals when he returns to Baghdad after a brief chill-out in Florida.
But it seems there's trouble in this shooter's paradise. Despite the butt-buster's marvelous ability to create untreatable wounds -- guaranteeing an agonizing death to any enemy (or innocent bystander, or victim of friendly fire, etc.) -- the Army has yet to place an order with Le Mas. Army experts say earlier tests show the bullet doesn't wreak appreciably more tissue-ripping havoc than ammo already in stock. Although more tests have been mandated by well-greased Bushist congressmen, Army brass have remained dubious.
But Hell hath no fury like an arms dealer scorned. Le Mas says the Army's tests were fatally flawed: They fired the bullets into cold gelatin, while the ammo's true effectiveness can only be measured by blasting live animals (or Iraqi villagers). Company officials hint darkly of a conspiracy among Pentagon brass to protect their own favored ammo programs. To break the power of this dastardly cabal, Le Mas has hired lobbyist Bill Skipper to carry the fight to Washington. And Skipper has a simple message: cross our palms with public silver -- or else.
"When I heard of the ballistic characteristics of this ammo, as a retired military officer, I realized it has to stay in the good guys' hands," Skipper told Army Times. "This is an issue of national security."
Let's ponder that for a moment. Why is the Army's decision in this matter "an issue of national security?" It's obvious: because if the "good guys" don't buy Le Mas' gut-chewing ammo, then they will sell it to the bad guys -- to anyone who'll pay the price. There is no other possible way to construe the firm's position. The Army's failure to purchase the ammunition can only put the nation's security at risk if Le Mas sells the bullets to America's enemies. If they would forswear this possibility, there would be no such risk. Instead, they have made it the linchpin of their money-grubbing campaign.
Here we see the "morality" of those who traffic in death -- from small-time players like Le Mas to the Bushist boardrooms of the Carlyle Group, the corruption-riddled Boeing Corporation, Britain's scandal-plagued BAE and all the other masters of war who girdle the planet with blood and steel. Stripped of high-vaulting, self-deluding rhetoric, their pitch boils down to this: Pay us to help kill your enemies -- or we'll help your enemies kill you. The money is what matters.
Tear off that mask of patriotism and this is the reality: a death's head with dollar signs glowing in its empty eyes.
Annotations
"1-Shot Killer,"
Army Times, Nov. 24, 2003
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2426405.php
"Le Mas Ltd. Rebuttal of Blended-Metal Bullet Tests,"
Le Mas Ltd. website
http://www.lemasltd.com/1Shot/bDrGKrebuttal.htm
"The Privatisation of War,"
The Guardian, Dec. 10, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1103566,00.html
"MoD Chief Refused to Sign e800 Million Hawk Order [With BAE],"
The Guardian, Dec. 10, 2003
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1103611,00.html
"Whistleblower Speaks: The Moral Sewer of Pentagon Procurement,"
NOW With Bill Moyers transcript, Dec. 5, 2003
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript245_full.html
"Boeing's Pentagon Link in the Limelight,"
Financial Times, Dec. 7, 20003
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493783148&p=1012571727092
"Air Force Pursued Boeing Deal Despite Concern of Rumsfeld,"
New York Times, Dec. 6, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/06/business/06BOEI.html?hp
"Boeing Has $20 Million Stake in Perle Fund,"
Financial Times, Dec. 3, 2003
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493697693&p=1012571727162
"The Saudi Connection,"
US News, Dec. 15, 2003 edition
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031215/usnews/15terror.htm
"Britain Has Armed Both Sides in India and Pakistan Conflict,"
The Times, May 28, 2002-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-309678,00.html
"Settling Some Debts,"
Village Voice, Dec. 10, 2003
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0350/mondo1.php
"Carlyle: The Ex-President's Club,"
The Guardian, Oct. 31, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,583869,00.html
"Problems With a Globe-Trotting Father,"
Los Angeles Times, May 7, 2000
http://ahrc.com/old/HOAorg/Media/ma_050700_LAT_CHUBB.html
"Bush's Texas: Dark Heart of the American Dream,"
The Observer, June 16, 2002
http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,738196,00.html
TITLE: Pyongyang Rejects Solution To Stand-Off
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: SEOUL - North Korea on Monday rejected a U.S. proposal to end a nuclear dispute and warned that Washington's "delaying tactics" would only prompt the communist government to step up development of atomic weapons.
The North's main state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said the U.S. offer, sent to Pyongyang last week, did not meet North Korea's demand for "a package solution based on the principle of simultaneous actions."
North Korea wants a deal that would trade aid and security guarantees for the dismantling of its nuclear program. The United States says North Korea must give up its nuclear weapons first.
"If the U.S. fully accepts the DPRK-proposed simultaneous package solution, though belatedly, the DPRK is ready to respond to it with the elimination of all its nuclear weapons," Rodong said, using the acronym of the North's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"But the U.S. in its proposal sent through a channel did not mention the DPRK-proposed simultaneous package solution at all but only asserted that the DPRK should 'scrap nuclear weapons program first,'" Rodong said.
The United States and its allies sent their blueprint for resolving the nuclear dispute to Pyongyang last week. Officials did not divulge details of the plan, but news reports said it broadly seeks the verifiable and irrevocable dismantling of the North's atomic weapons program along with security assurances for Pyongyang.
North Korea last week suggested that it would join six-nation talks on the crisis and freeze its nuclear weapons activities if the United States agreed to remove the North from its list of terrorism-sponsoring countries and provided oil and economic aid. President Bush rejected the idea.
"As the U.S. urges the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear weapons completely, verifiably and irreversibly, the latter has the same right to demand the U.S., the dialogue partner, give it complete, verifiable and irreversible security assurances," Rodong said.
"Its delaying tactics would only result in compelling the DPRK to steadily increase its nuclear deterrent force," it said. North Korea refers to its nuclear program as a "deterrent force."
The United States wants to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear programs through talks involving South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. The first round, held in Beijing in August, ended without much progress.
TITLE: World Reacts To Saddam News
AUTHOR: By Chris Brummitt
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: JAKARTA, Indonesia - World leaders joined stunned Iraqis in hailing the capture of Saddam Hussein as a chance to move the country forward in its journey toward peace, but skeptics warned that it would not end the insurgency plaguing Iraq.
"The shadow of Saddam has finally lifted from the Iraqi people," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "We give thanks for that but let this be more than a cause simply for rejoicing."
"Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq," said Blair, who faced substantial domestic opposition for his decision to commit British troops to the war.
French President Jacques Chirac, a firm opponent of the U.S.-led invasion, said the former dictator's capture was "a major event that should strongly contribute to democracy and stability in Iraq," according to his spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna.
Other opponents of the war, including China, Russia and Germany, also welcomed Saddam's capture.
Stocks rallied across the Asia-Pacific region Monday as traders bet Saddam's capture could mark a turning point in the Iraq conflict.
"It could be the beginning of the end of the war," UBS Securities equity strategist Shoji Hirawaka said.
Reaction in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and a fierce critic of the war, was more skeptical. "The arrest has not really changed how we feel about the situation in Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said.
Muslim leaders said they didn't believe the capture would mean an end to attacks on U.S. troops.
"The capture of Saddam will not stop or even diminish the pattern of attacks against Americans," said Syafii Maarif, the leader of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadyah.
As news of the capture spread on Sunday, celebratory gunfire rang out across Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. Across the Arab world, many expressed joy that Saddam would never return to rule Iraq. But others were disappointed that he was captured by Americans and saw his surrender as a stain on Arab honor.
"What the Americans are doing in Iraq and everywhere else is humiliating," said Samer Saado, a flower-shop employee in Damascus, Syria. "There's nothing to say we're not next in line."
Saudi Arabian student Rasheed al-Osaimi, 22, said he was happy for the Iraqi people.
"Saddam should not be spared, he should get the death penalty, which is the least he deserves," he said.
In Kuwait - whose 1990 invasion by Iraq sparked the 1991 Gulf War - Information Minister Mohammed Abul-Hassan said the Iraqi people and the world had been "liberated."
There was a muted response from other Arab governments. Jordan said it hoped Saddam's capture would contribute to the dawning of a new era in Iraq but stopped short of welcoming the arrest.
In Syria, which strongly opposed the war, Information Minister Ahmad al-Hassan said his country hoped the unity of Iraq's land and people would be preserved and that Iraqis would be able to choose their government, the official Syrian Arab New Agency, SANA, reported.
TITLE: Saddam Interrogation Is Race Against Clock
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - First, find out whether Saddam Hussein knows of any impending guerrilla attacks planned against U.S. troops or Iraqis.
Then ask where Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and other remaining senior regime officials and insurgent leaders are hiding. Get Saddam to paint a picture of the resistance - if he knows much about it, which some U.S. officials doubt.
Down the road, when his interrogators have perhaps established a rapport with him, or perhaps even broken his will to resist questions, try to answer the many unresolved questions about Iraq's efforts to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and ties to terrorists.
U.S. intelligence and military officials laid out these priorities Sunday for their interrogation of the ousted Iraqi president, believed to be under way already.
Although Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, described Saddam as talkative and cooperative, other officials shied away from suggesting that he has provided any useful intelligence in the hours since his capture.
"He has not been cooperative in terms of talking or anything like that," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CBS' "60 Minutes."
Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described Saddam's demeanor as sullen, not overtly defiant but sarcastic.
The immediate hope of American officials is that Saddam will have a wealth of knowledge on the guerrilla war being waged against the U.S.-led occupation force and their Iraqi allies, officials said.
It's a race against the clock since his information grows more outdated by the hour, and other regime leaders and cells change locations or take other security precautions to avoid capture.
It is unclear what evidence, if any, troops uncovered of Saddam's possible operational control over the resistance. Officials announced they found no communications equipment, maps or other evidence of a guerrilla command center at Saddam's hiding place.
In the longer term, intelligence officials hope Saddam will put to rest questions about the Bush administration's stated reason going to war - weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorists.
Thus far, the hunt has not come up with much that would validate the prewar assertions by Bush and the U.S. intelligence community that Saddam had such weapons ready to unleash on short notice.
Perhaps Saddam could point to a hidden stockpile of weapons, if any exist - although none of his followers have. He may say what many of his former underlings have stated: Iraq didn't have any weapons and only low-level research and development programs.
His information may even be inaccurate. Some Iraqi scientists have said Saddam was misled by fearful minions into believing that Iraq's weapons programs were more advanced than they actually were.
The success of the interrogation depends on the skills and methods of the interrogators, who must divine aspects of Saddam's psychology and figure out the best way to keep him talking.
"They're going to use every interrogation method in the book, short of torture," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.
TITLE: Williams In The Money For Slams
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MELBOURNE, Australia - Andre Agassi and Serena Williams will defend their titles at next month's Australian Open.
Williams, who reportedly inked a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with sportswear giant Nike last week, is coming back from a quadriceps injury that forced her to miss the late part of the 2003 season and lose her No.1 ranking.
Agassi will try to win a fifth Australian Open title. He will face three first-time Grand Slam winners from 2003 - No. 1-ranked Andy Roddick, No. 2 Roger Federer and No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The organiser of the event, Tennis Australia said Friday that only three of the top 100 women are not committed to the year's first Grand Slam event - No. 50 Iroda Tulyaganova; No. 71 Virginie Razzano, who is injured; and No. 60 Monica Seles, a four-time Australian Open winner.
Williams agreed to terms on a sponsorship contract with Nike, a deal that could be worth close to $40 million over five years, a tennis source told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The agreement has an option for a three-year extension, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The contract includes royalties and performance bonuses for winning Grand Slam tournaments and reaching No. 1 in the rankings.
Nike announced it reached a multiyear deal with Williams but did not reveal the length or financial terms. "Serena Williams is more than a world-class tennis player - she is a world-class athlete," Nike marketing director Riccardo Colombini said.
"Working with Serena will give Nike valuable insights."
Williams, 21, has won five of the last seven Grand Slam tournaments, beating older sister Venus in the final each time.
She held the No. 1 ranking for a year until being sidelined because of knee surgery on Aug. 1. Williams pulled out of every tournament the rest of the year and finished 2003 at No. 3.
Venus Williams has a deal with Reebok that could be worth up to $40 million over five years. She signed that in December 2000 after winning Wimbledon and the U.S. Open for the first time.
Serena Williams' contract with Puma expired early this year.
Nike figures to benefit from non-tennis interests that have made her more visible, including clothing designs and acting.
She drew a lot of attention for the black "cat suit" and pink zippered outfit she wore while winning the 2002 U.S. Open.
With help from the William Morris agency, she landed roles in a movie called "Beauty Shop" and the Showtime drama "Street Time."
A 2002 survey of the public relations industry deemed Williams and Tiger Woods the most attractive spokespersons among athletes.
"We'll work very closely with Serena, not only as a tennis player and an athlete, but also as an athlete to develop products that will support her tennis performance and help grow the game," Nike spokesman Dave Mingey said.
"We're all very excited about the opportunity to see her input in the development of products, both for on the court and off."
The Australian Open runs from Jan. 19 to Feb. 1 in Melbourne.
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Despite possible travel difficulties posed for top United States players, The Mohegan Sun Casino in Conneticut on the East Coast of the U.S. will host the team's first-round Davis Cup match against Austria in February.
The Feb. 6-8 series will be the first Davis Cup matches in Connecticut since 1987, when the United States faced West Germany at Hartford.
Team captian Patrick McEnroe said last month that he expected the best-of-five series against Austria to be played on the West Coast. That would have made travel easier for players because the Davis Cup matches come between the Australian Open and an indoor hard-court ATP Tour tournament in San Jose, California.
(AP)
TITLE: Palander Edges Miller For First Giant Slalom Cup Win
AUTHOR: By Andrew Dampf
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ALTA BADIA, Italy - Bode Miller is a pretty good judge of talent. After posting the fastest first run in Sunday's World Cup giant slalom, Miller watched Kalle Palander navigate the course.
"You might want to watch this," Miller said. "Palander will probably win this."
The Finn did just that, edging Miller for the best first run, then laying back slightly in the second leg for his first giant slalom victory in a combined time of 2 minutes, 30.57 seconds.
Miller, who won the season's first two giant slaloms, finished 1.12 seconds back in fourth place, behind Davide Simoncelli of Italy and Frederic Covili of France.
"My goal for this season, or this career, was a podium finish in giant slalom," Palander said. "It was the first time in my career that I was leading after the first run of a giant slalom. I know the feeling from slalom, but when Bode Miller is behind you, it's not nice."
Overall World Cup leader Hermann Maier fell midway through his second run, but appeared unhurt and was joking after he got back up and skied down to the finish area. He still leads the overall standings.
Palander's best previous finish in a giant slalom was fifth in Park City on Nov. 22. He is better known for his slalom success, winning four races to take the World Cup title in that discipline last season. He also won the opening slalom of this season in Park City on Nov. 23.
Palander said he is not about to become an all-around specialist and race all four disciplines like Miller.
"I'm a crazy guy, but I'm too old for that," Palander said. "My last super-G was in 1999 and I almost killed myself."
Sunday's race originally was scheduled for Val d'Isere but was moved to Italy because of lack of snow at the French resort.
TITLE: Montreal Bounces Back After Tampa Flop
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TAMPA, Florida - The Montreal Canadiens responded quickly to a disappointing loss the team had suffered the day before when Yanic Perreault and Stephane Quintal scored 45 seconds apart late in the first period to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 Saturday night.
Perreault added an empty-net goal in the third period for the Canadiens, who had allowed three third-period goals by dropping 4-2 in Florida on Friday night.
"Last night was a poor effort by everybody, so we wanted to bounce back," said Jose Theodore on Saturday, who made 35 saves. "We started out really slow the first 10 minutes - I didn't like what I saw - but then the guys bounced right back and showed a lot of character."
Niklas Sundstrom and Saku Koivu had the other Montreal goals, and Sheldon Souray had three assists as the Canadiens improved to 6-3-2 in their last 11 games.
"We came in here against a tough Tampa Bay team and salvaged our road trip," Souray said.
Dmitry Afanasenkov and Dave Andreychuk scored for the Lightning, who have lost three straight and are 2-7-2 in the past 11.
"We are not the same team we were at the start of the year right now," Lightning center Tim Taylor said. "When a bad bounce goes the opposite way of us, our heads just seem to go down instead of shake it off. Right now we have to get back to getting upset, a little angry and a lot more desperation. I think that's what we have to do more instead of feeling sorry for ourselves."
Detroit 5, Washington 1 One of Pavel Datsyuk's goals was a fluke. The rest of his season sure isn't.
Datsyuk scored twice, including once when his pass was deflected in the net by a defenseman, and had two assists in the Detroit Red Wings' 5-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.
"It's not by accident," teammate Brett Hull said. "He's a wonderful, wonderful player."
Datsyuk, who has already surpassed his career high in goals, got his 16th when Washington's Jason Doig diverted Datsyuk's crossing pass into the open side of the net. Datsyuk also assisted on goals by Kris Draper and Brendan Shanahan and drew the assignment of shadowing Jaromir Jagr most of the game.
To cap off the night, the 25-year-old Russian, who was scoring on an NHL-high 28.3 percent of his shots, scored a more conventional goal with a late slap shot.
Florida 2, Nashville 2, OT The Nashville Predators earned a split decision in goals reviewed by video replay. Then they ended in a tie with the Florida Panthers.
"It's a big part of the game now, but unfortunately it takes so long because everything has to go through the league in Toronto," Nashville captain Greg Johnson said Saturday night after the 2-2 tie. "It's takes away some momentum from the game."
The Predators were awarded the tying goal on review but were prevented from getting the winning goal when another replay showed that Scott Walker batted the puck into the net with his arm.
"They like us in Toronto," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "It is good that they take the time to make the correct call.
"No matter what happens the next shift had got to be a good one. You can't dwell on the good or the bad."
The Predators pressed hard for the winning goal in the final minute of overtime. They kept the puck in the Florida end the whole time and fired several pucks at the net, including a drive by Scott Hartnell that rang off the right goal post.
"A guy like Hartnell is trying to blast the puck at the net all the time which is great," Trotz said.
"We had a lot of puck possession." Nashville took a 1-0 lead when Greg Johnson passed the puck across the front of the crease to Rem Murray, who was skating in from the left side. Murray tapped the puck past Florida's Roberto Luongo at 13:49 of the first period.
San Jose 2, Anaheim 0 Though Yevgeny Nabokov's shot still needs a little work, not much else has been wrong with the San Jose goalie since his return to the lineup.
Nabokov stopped 28 shots for his second shutout of the season, and Alex Korolyuk scored the first goal in the San Jose Sharks' 2-0 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on Saturday night.
Jonathan Cheechoo also scored a late power-play goal for the Sharks, who extended their franchise-record home unbeaten streak to eight games (4-0-4) with a conservative victory.
Nabokov was solid in his second start following a three-week absence with a groin injury. He made several big saves in the third period, holding on for his 19th career shutout - his first since a 0-0 tie with Philadelphia on Oct. 16.
Nabokov even took a shot at the Ducks' empty net with 45 seconds left, trying to duplicate the power-play goal he scored against Vancouver two seasons ago. Nabokov's try missed wide right - and his teammates didn't plan to let him forget it any time soon.
"I was going for it, but I'm not upset," Nabokov said. "I just try and do my job out there. In a game like that when the score is 1-0, every save is more important."
Nabokov returned Thursday for a 2-2 tie with Edmonton, stopping 42 shots in his first game back. Backup Vesa Toskala was impressive in his absence, and coach Ron Wilson plans to use both goalies frequently for the foreseeable future.
TITLE: Kirilenko Dunks Career High
AUTHOR: By Dan Gelston
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PHILADELPHIA - All Andrei Kirilenko needed was a lecture from his coach to get his game and confidence back.
Kirilenko tied a career high with 30 points and added a career-high 14 rebounds to lead the Utah Jazz to a 94-86 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.
Coach Jerry Sloan met with Kirilenko last week about his low energy level and changing his offensive and defensive approach.
"Sometimes he gets frustrated because he gets in there and gets knocked around a little bit, but he kept his composure real well. That's a sign of growing a great deal,'' Sloan said.
Kirilenko did a little bit of everything, shooting 9-for-12 from the field and adding four steals, four blocks and three assists
"I'm trying to concentrate more on team actions, more on team offense," Kirilenko said. "I'm just trying to analyze everything. We've got 82 games. I throw out the negatives and think about the positives."
Another sign of maturity is learning to share the ball and play more within the offense. Kirilenko, in his third season out of Russia, was used to being the superstar. Sloan reminded Kirilenko that he didn't have to win games by himself.
"When I saw him play on the Olympic team, he had the ball all the time. Well, I didn't see that with our team," Sloan said. "I had to change his thought process just a little bit."
Matt Harpring added 27 points for the Jazz, combining with Kirilenko to outscore Philadelphia's starters 57-53. The 76ers played without Allen Iverson, the NBA's leading scorer at 28.9 points per game. He sat out for the second time in three games because of swelling in his right knee.
Carlos Arroyo added 15 points and 11 assists to help the Jazz win for only the second time in nine road games. Kenny Thomas led the 76ers with 16 points and Derrick Coleman and Kyle Korver each had 14.
The Jazz pulled away with a late 18-9 run. They took the lead on Raul Lopez's three-point play, and got consecutive 3-pointers from Raja Bell and Kirilenko to help push the lead to 10.
Philadelphia's Aaron McKie hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds to go, making it 88-83, but the Jazz sealed the win from the free-throw line.
"I thought down the stretch, we made some tired plays that didn't help us at all," coach Randy Ayers said. "We've got to get back at it and try and get some guys healthy."
The 76ers shot 34 percent in the first half and trailed for most of the game, until a 12-for-20 third quarter got them within one. Korver hit two 3s, Samuel Dalembert had a three-point play and Coleman had 10 points as the 76ers cut Utah's lead to 64-63.
Glenn Robinson, activated off the injured list last week after missing 15 games because of a sprained left ankle, scored only two points and had three turnovers in 16 minutes. He was booed after two turnovers in the second quarter and received some mock cheers when he was benched early in the third.
Ayers said Robinson had no strength in his ankle and couldn't push off.
How big is the disparity between the Eastern and Western Conferences? The Jazz (13-10) are in last place in the Midwest Division, and the 76ers (12-12)are tied for first in the Atlantic.
TITLE: 'Telephone Receiver' Makes Touchdown a Mobile Stunt
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: NEW ORLEANS - Joe Horn had just caught his second touchdown pass of the game, and wanted nothing more than to talk to his family. So he tried to call them - from the end zone.
"I had told my kids to be at home, watching the game, and I told my momma, 'Mom, if I score the second one, I'm going to get my cell phone out,'"Horn said.
The New Orleans receiver did just that. After catching the second of four touchdown passes in a 45-7 win over the New York Giants on Sunday night, Horn was handed a flip-phone by teammate Michael Lewis, who pulled it out from under the padding used to protect the goal post.
Horn was still wearing his helmet when he punched in numbers, put the phone to the earhole and began speaking into it for a few seconds.
It was a surprising celebration, reminiscent of San Francisco's Terrell Owens pulling a pen from his sock after scoring a TD against Seattle last season, signing the ball and handing it to his financial consultant seated in a nearby suite.
Just like Owens' antics, Horn's drew criticism.
"You don't do stuff like that," New Orleans coach Jim Haslett said after the game. "I know it was premeditated. I know it was national television. But you don't do it."
However, Haslett said he would not fine the receiver, who finished with nine catches for 119 yards.
"I have great respect for Joe Horn, but that's not original," New York defensive end Michael Strahan said. "Terrell Owens already beat everybody to that stuff. That's bush league."
After calling his mother, Horn ran back to the bench. The chat drew a 15-yard penalty and a tongue-lashing from Haslett, who was angry about the celebration's effect on the Saints' field position.
"I was just bringing excitement to the nation watching Sunday night football," said Horn, who refused to say how he had hidden the phone. "I hope they enjoyed it at my expense, but it was worth it."
Horn also pledged to pay any fine that could be levied against Lewis, who was not supposed to be part of the prank.
"It [is always] the same thing," Haslett said. "He'll learn. He's only 32."
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Pentathlon Progress
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Britain's Georgina Harland won the modern pentathlon world title Sunday to qualify for next summer's Olympics.
Harland, who also won the gold medal at the 2001 world championships, secured her victory in the last of the five events - the 1.8-mile cross-country race.
She finished 10 minutes behind race winner Michelle Kelly of United States but picked up enough points to pass Tatyana Tereshchuk of Ukraine, 5,384 to 5,376. Tereshchuk also automatically qualified for the Aug. 13-29 Olympics.
"It is fantastic that I took a first taste of Athens," Harland said.
Rustem Sabirhuzin of Russia won the men's modern pentathlon World Championship Saturday to earn a spot at next year's Olympics (see picture opposite page.)
Sabirhuzin, who finish fourth in last year's world championships in Hungary, sealed the victory in the last of the five events - the three-kilometer cross-country run.
Sooner Wins Heisman
NEW YORK (AP) - Jason White capped a remarkable comeback with American college football's most prestigious award, winning the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night a year after an injury nearly ended his career.
The Oklahoma quarterback, who almost quit football following his second major knee injury in September 2002, beat out Pittsburgh receiver Larry Fitzgerald for the award.
White threw 40 touchdown passes and led the third-ranked Sooners to 12 straight wins to open the season and a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game against No. 2 LSU.
Even a subpar performance in a loss in the Big 12 title game last week against Kansas State could not stop White from winning the award. His three months of brilliance before that were more than enough to convince voters to pick him.
White, The Associated Press Player of the Year, led the nation in passing efficiency, completing 64 percent of his passes for 3,744 yards and only eight interceptions.
Swim Breaks Record
DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuters) - Russia's Yuri Prilukov broke his own European record when he scored an easy victory in the 1,500 meters freestyle Saturday and claimed his second gold medal of the European short-course championships.
Prilukov, who shared gold with Italy's Massimiliano Rosolino in Thursday's 400 meters freestyle, seized the lead from Britain's Graeme Smith halfway into the 60-length race in Ireland's National Aquatic Center and forged away to win the event by more than 10 seconds.
The 19-year-old Russian clocked 14 minutes 31.82 seconds to beat the 14:35.06 mark he set at the last edition of these championships in Riesa, Germany, a year ago.
Chelsea Wants Henry
MADRID, Spain (Reuters) - Arsenal received a formal offer from Chelsea billionaire owner Roman Abramovich earlier this week for Thierry Henry, the Spanish sports daily As said Saturday.
British media Sunday said the sum offered was between Pound40 million and Pound50 million.
But Arsenal has ruled out any possibility of the striker leaving despite the interest not only of Chelsea but also of Spanish champion Real Madrid.
Vice chairman David Dein was quoted by As, saying that Arsenal had received a formal offer from Chelsea for the 26-year-old French international, but that it would be rejecting any approaches.
"Look carefully at my lips so that there is no doubt over what I am going to say," Dein told an As reporter at Friday's Champions League draw in Nyon. "Henry is not for sale at any price.
"We know that Real Madrid are interested in our player, and we know that Chelsea also want him, because last week Roman Abramovich himself came to Highbury to present a formal offer for him."
Zidane is FIFA's Best
BASEL, Switzerland (AFP) - Real Madrid's silky-skilled French midfield star Zinedine Zidane has once again won the vote of the world's international coaches for the title of best player in the world, it was announced Monday.
World soccer's governing body FIFA quizzed the 142 national team bosses and the 31-year-old outscored his French compatriot Thierry Henry by a very comfortable margin.
His Real Madrid team-mate Ronaldo, another three-time winner, finished third.