SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #932 (100), Tuesday, December 30, 2003
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TITLE: Tame Duma Selects Gryzlov for Speaker
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Deputies, many of them smiling and hugging one another, gathered for the first session of the new State Duma on Wednesday and picked United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov as speaker. 
 
Gryzlov told the session that pro-Kremlin United Russia has won over dozens of independent deputies since it swept Dec. 7 elections and now has 300 seats - exactly the two-thirds majority needed to make changes to the Constitution.
 President Vladimir Putin, in a welcoming speech, urged the Duma to serve as an example of democracy and to pass legislation that would noticeably improve living standards.
 However, shortly after Putin left, Communist and pro-Kremlin deputies got caught up in a clearly undemocratic dispute. The Communists, who lost about half of their seats in the elections, proposed changes to the day's agenda and were blatantly told by rivals to shut up.
 "It's pointless to waste our time, so behave yourselves in accordance with the number of the votes you received," Liberal Democratic Party Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov said.
 Communist Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin reacted angrily and said such remarks were uncalled for.
 Independent Deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov went further, saying after the session that he will appeal to the Constitutional Court over the way that United Russia attracted so many independent deputies to its faction - an effort that he said distorted the outcome of the elections.
 "The voters did not give their approval for United Russia to get a constitutional majority," Ryzhkov said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
 But political analyst Vladimir Pribylovsky of the Panorama think tank expressed doubt that anything would come of the appeal. 
 "Cases of deputies running from faction to faction were typical in all previous Dumas - it just has never reached such proportions before," he said. "Maybe it is not a bad idea to ask the Constitutional Court for a clarification of the issue, but I doubt that there will be a ruling in Ryzhkov's favor."
 Putin gave a short address to deputies in a heavily guarded Duma building. "I suggest that first of all we should concentrate on issues that are directly tied to Russian citizens' quality of life," Putin, said in a speech interrupted several times by standing ovations.
 He named as priorities the reform of education, health and housing, singling out the development of a mortgage system.
 By a majority of 352 votes, the Duma elected Gryzlov as speaker. United Russia deputies Lyubov Sliska and Alexander Zhukov were named first deputy speakers, while five deputy speaker posts also went to United Russia. The three remaining deputy speaker positions were handed to the other three parties in the Duma - the Communist Party, LDPR and Rodina.
 United Russia received eight of the 11 seats on the agenda-setting Duma Council.
 United Russia won a total of 246 seats in the elections, but managed to woo over 54 independents since then for a total of 300. Nationalists LDPR and Rodina garnered 36 seats each, while the Communists ended up with 52 seats.
 On the whole, the deputies were in a cheerful if not celebratory mood. Many of them were newcomers and arrived at the Duma well ahead of the start of Monday's session. State television showed them walking into the Duma lobby, decorated with New Year's trees, and curiously looking through their welcome gifts - briefcases containing cellphones, daily planners and stationery.
 Following tradition, the oldest deputy, 80-year-old retired General Valentin Varennikov of the Rodina bloc, opened the session.
 Central Elections Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov then took the floor, providing a run down of who was in the new Duma. He said the Duma has 45 female deputies, 10 more than in the previous one, and 440 of the deputies have university degrees. Nine lawmakers are younger than 30, 74 are between the ages of 40 and 50, 179 are 50 to 60 years old, and 50 are over 60.
 Three seats remain unfilled after their single-mandate districts voted overwhelmingly "against all." A second vote will be held in those districts March 14. 
 The Duma reconvenes after the New Year's holidays, on Jan. 15.


TITLE: Presidential Poll Eclipses 2003 Events
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Despite the city's 300th anniversary celebrations being the major event in St. Petersburg's cultural and political life this year, local politicians say it was overshadowed by the looming presidential elections for which the October gubernatorial and this month's State Duma elections were merely dry runs.
 
A big reshuffle took place within factions in the Legislative Assembly in favor of the United Russia party under the direct orchestration of the president's representative office to the Northwest region and the election of the Kremlin-backed governor, Valentina Matviyenko. The city's liberal spirit bowed down at the feet of the presidential administration, the politicians say.
 Having completed his task of clearing the political field for Matviyenko to be elected as the city governor, Viktor Cherkesov, her predecessor, left his post in March to head the National Anti-Drug Committee in Moscow. On June 16, then governor Vladimir Yakovlev was appointed deputy prime minister to work on reform of communal services.
 Oksana Dmitriyeva, a State Duma lawmaker and head of the Business Development party, said the authorities have yet to understand why only 28.24 percent of voters turned out for the gubernatorial elections. If such an extremely low turn out is repeated at the presidential elections, there is a risk they will be declared invalid, she said.
 "The main political conclusion of the year is that the authorities have to learn from this lesson," Dmitriyeva said last week at a conference.
 Matviyenko's mandate came from only 63.16 percent of about a quarter of St. Petersburg's 3.7 million eligible voters.
 "For an ordinary resident in Moscow such a topic is not interesting," Igor Shatrov, head of the Moscow branch of the information agency Rosbalt, said at the conference. "It is interesting for political analysts, experts and journalists from St. Petersburg."
 He said that when Russian journalists visited Switzerland in the late 1980s, they talked to a construction worker who said he knew who the Soviet president was, but had no idea who the president of Switzerland was.
 "He remembered the name of the previous president of Switzerland because he worked with him on the same construction site," Shatrov said. "When we have reached the stage of development in our country where people don't know who the president is, then we will know that everything will be fine.
 "No one will be surprised or worried whether people go to vote or not," he added. "They have to live and work."
 Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly, said the results of the Duma elections both nationally and in St. Petersburg show that people want to return to the past. The liberal Yabloko party failed to break the 5-percent barrier to enter the Duma, according to the Central Election Commission.
 "The main result of the year is that the current thaw is finished," he said, alluding to the so-called thaw under Nikita Krushchev, who relaxed authoritarian role after Stalin's death before being thrown from power by forces that wanted a return to a hard line.
 "A majority of people went to the polling stations and consciously voted to turn the country back [to the state] it was 20 to 30 years ago," Vishnevsky said last week in an interview.
 "We are witnessing a complete suppression of independent media and are living in conditions when any criticism of the party of power [United Russia] is treated as a crime against the state," he added. "We are facing a backlash that many have talked about."
 "If the dissidents of the early 90s were told about how things are now ... that a former KGB officer would become president of the Russian Federation, they would have treated it as a bad joke," Vishnevksy said.
 Yury Vdovin, co-chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of international human rights organization Citizen's Watch, agreed.
 "The imposition of managed democracy has led us straight back to the U.S.S.R.," Vdovin said Monday in a telephone interview. "The city parliament is distant from voters and is just an extension of the [city] administration. 
 "Instead of a division of powers, we have one power now ... and the journalists have restored a genetic memory of some kind to defend the administration in any way they can," he added.
 "There's one hope left: that hidden forces in the federal administration will undertake serious liberal reforms in conditions of a managed parliament, but this is not a big hope," he said. "This a very serious break in the development of democracy [in Russia], but it cannot be a full stop. The solid positions of the United States and the European Union would not allow that to happen and sooner or later all these [nationalists] are going to be washed away."
 Yelena Babich, head of the St. Petersburg branch of the nationalist Liberal-Democrat party, said the year had been exciting.
 "The year was so filled up with events that it became a center for all the world for the 300th anniversary celebrations," she said last week. "All the world's attention was on the city and its name [is now] closely linked to the president."
 "During the gubernatorial elections attention of all the country was on St. Petersburg." Babich added. "Elections elsewhere were not that interesting for the [national] public ... And again, that election was marked by close ties to the president."
 Joseph Diniskin, a Moscow-based political analyst and co-chairman of the National Strategy Council, an analytical structure with close ties to the presidential administration, said that a council study showed a solid base for a market economy has been formed in Russian society.
 "From 35 percent to 45 percent of the population are not concerned about the authorities, but are occupied with making their own rational choices," he said last week. "Another 15 percent to 20 percent are changing the way they think and will soon be joining them."
 "This way there's a base for a market economy and democracy is in a state of formation in the country," he said. "We have a principally new Russia now."
 But Yabloko's Vishnevsky was skeptical about the analyst's conclusion.
 "What percent of the population does he think is interested in the market economy," he asked. "The percentage of people not concerned with the authorities, but in making their own way, was the same in Soviet times."


TITLE: Vaganova Dancers To Show Their Moves
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Lera Martynyuk wraps a warm woolen scarf around her waist and starts stretching. This seventh-year student at the prestigious Vaganova Ballet Academy looks confident and concentrated as she takes her usual place in the rehearsal room exactly under a portrait of the legendary Agrippina Vaganova.
 
She knows precisely what she is here for.
 "My career choice was no accident," she says. "I love ballet and I know I was born to dance."
 December and May are usually the most exciting and most challenging months at the Vaganova as the best students have a chance to perform at the Mariinsky Theater - in "The Nutcracker" around Christmas and another graduation performance in May or June.
 Rehearsals are going full steam at the Academy's spacious and slightly chilly auditoriums.
 "Everyone at the school is always so excited about 'The Nutcracker,' and it is different every year because we have some students graduating and new people coming," says Vaganova's Artistic Director Altynai Asylmuratova. "Almost always, these shows bring surprises, with the students just showing us something we'd never expect."
 Asylmuratova, herself a former principal dancer at the Mariinsky Theater, admits to preferring "The Nutcracker" when it is danced by youngsters. "Their naivete, innocence and that special excitement work so well in it," she said. "There is just so much more truth in the story."
 For the students, naturally, a real stage performance is an overwhelming experience. Martynyuk is looking forward to her next performance at the Mariinsky on Jan. 7.
 "Many of us were physically shaking, but I wasn't," the 18-year old Martynyuk said of her debut at the Mariinsky Theater in the role of Masha in "The Nutcracker" on Jan. 11, 2003. "If you love to dance and have rehearsed a lot, just bring your confidence with you on stage, and it will help you do your best."
 "I really can't thank choreographer Vassily Vainonen enough for his version of 'The Nutcracker,'" Asylmuratova said. "This ballet has immense opportunities for our students of various ages to reveal their capabilities."
 Martynyuk's professor, Tatyana Terekhova, a People's Artist of Russia and another former principal dancer at the Mariinsky, often reminds her students of a piece of popular wisdom in the theatrical world: love the ballet, and not yourself in it; perform your character and not yourself. 
 For Martynyuk, these words are common sense.
 "As a human being I only have one life - and quite honestly, it doesn't seem to be enough - but as a ballerina I can live through so many," she said. "I love ballet for this opportunity to experience so much, plunging myself into my personalities' worlds. My feelings for ballet, so childish and superficial when I started attending classes, have evolved into something much stronger and a lot more sensible."
 The Imperial Ballet Academy was founded on May 4, 1738 by the order of Empress Anna Ioannovna to be run by Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lande. The first class was composed of 24 students - 12 girls and 12 boys. Foreign teachers taught French and Italian dance. 
 But it was not until celebrated French ballet master Charles Didelot arrived in 1801 that Russian-style classical ballet took on a pre-eminence of its own. Didelot quickly took over the direction of the ballet and the school, where he taught for 20 years. Thanks to his efforts, Russian ballet was taken seriously both within the country and abroad.
 In 1847 another Frenchman, Marius Petipa, arrived. Together with Lev Ivanov, he further developed Russian classical ballet. Petipa's works form the lion's share of the Mariinsky Theater's current repertoire.
 The academy has spawned some of the ballet world's most famous names, including Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, George Balanchine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Galina Ulyanova, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ulyana Lopatkina and Diana Vishnyova.
 Today, the Imperial Ballet School is called the Vaganova Academy in honor of Agrippina Vaganova, who radically changed the way ballet was taught in Russia. The school still retains Vaganova's basic principles of classical dance, but in other ways it has had to change.
 Like many other artistic institutions in Russia, the academy is affected by the state no longer handing out the subsidies and grants that were liberally distributed in Soviet times. Its only sources of finance are the state and fee-paying students. A matinee performance of "The Nutcracker" earns the Mariinsky $31,000, while an evening performance brings $64,000, said director Leonid Nadirov, but none of this comes back to the academy.
 "After perestroika things got worse, government funding decreased and in the last few years it has reduced even more," said Nadirov, who has run the academy for the past 15 years. "A professor gets a state salary of 4,800 rubles ($164). To make it 10,000 to 11,000 rubles, we have to use the money we receive from fee-paying students from abroad."
 About 500 students study at the Vaganova, with nearly 300 of them focusing on performing arts. This year there are 26 foreign students, all of them studying performing. They pay $9,000 a year. 
 State funding provides 30 million rubles ($1 million) a year, with 11 million going for repairs. 
 "We have to buy new fire-fighting equipment next year, and the Culture Ministry doesn't have the money [an additional 8 million rubles] for it, suggesting that we pay from our own resources," Nadirov said.
 Asylmuratova said today's dancers have rather limited career choices. In Soviet times, when the Vaganova had twice as many students as it has now, graduates received offers from numerous theaters.
 "There was no risk of unemployment," she said. "But now many theaters, especially in the smaller towns, have closed down. We do our best to place our graduates in ballet companies, but that task is becoming more difficult every day."
 Although the school used to take in foreign students in limited numbers from former Eastern bloc countries and even from the United States, the need for money and the relaxation in political freedom has generated a larger influx of fee-paying students from what were described as capitalist countries.
 Asylmuratova's students do not think they will become rich through dancing, she said. 
 "They know that if they had wanted money they would have been better off in showbiz," she said, adding that she finds the devotion to the art of ballet that she sees in her youngest pupils very encouraging. 
 "Although they are growing up in a very pragmatic world, they do not look at dance as a way to make some cash," she said. "I can see their eyes sparkling during rehearsals. I feel the warmth when they talk about ballet. And I know that they are not here for money. They are here for art."
 
 <i>Vaganova Ballet Academy presents Vassily Vainonen's staging of Tchaikovsky's &quot;The Nutcracker&quot; at the Mariinsky Theater on Dec. 28 and 30, Jan. 2, 7, 9 and 11. Links: http://www. vaganova.ru, http://www.mariinsky.ru </i>

TITLE: Jury Acquits Physicist Danilov Who Was Accused of Spying
AUTHOR: By Anatoly Medetsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - In a major setback for the Federal Security Service, a Krasnoyarsk jury on Monday acquitted physicist Valentin Danilov on charges of spying for China while working on a commercial contract. 
 
Danilov's case is one of a series of high-profile espionage cases that have been brought against researchers and whistleblowers in the past few years by an FSB whose deep suspicions of their contacts with foreigners seem little changed from Soviet times.
 Danilov's defense lawyers and human rights activists attribute the rare acquittal in such cases to his being granted a jury trial, still a novelty for the Russian judicial system.
 &quot;Eight of the 12 jurors deemed the physicist innocent on all counts,&quot; Danilov's lawyer Yelena Yevmenova said from the Siberian city.
 Prosecutor Sergei Kharin said the trial was tarnished by procedural violations and he would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. 
 Danilov repeated his insistence that he dealt only in open scientific sources. &quot;I'm not a traitor but an ordinary physicist who cares about the interests of my country,&quot; he said by telephone. He was arrested in 2001 and spent 19 months in detention before being released on his own recognizance.


TITLE: Absent Lawyer Stalls Starovoitova Trial
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The trial of those accused of murdering liberal State Duma Deputy Galina Starovoitova in 1998 was adjourned Monday until Jan. 5 because a defense lawyer was said to be too ill to travel from Bryansk to St. Petersburg.
 
The trial began Monday with the hearing lasting about an hour, but the lawyer of Yury Kolchin, one of the six suspects on trial, had last week asked the city court to postpone the hearing.
 Kolchin worked for the General Staff's Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, at the time of the crime and, Interfax reported Monday, is a former chauffeur for one of the leaders of the so-called Tambov group, a St. Petersburg-based organized crime structure. His nickname was Yura Bryansky, the report said.
 The judge said Monday that if a lawyer is absent for more than five days, he could be replaced by another lawyer or the hearing could be adjourned until he is able to resume his duties.
 &quot;I support the lawyer's request to adjourn the hearing,&quot; Kolchin said in the courtroom, where the suspects were held in a barred cage. &quot;The lawyer has been absent for more than five days, so let's wait for the lawyer.&quot; 
 The other suspects on trial are Igor Lelyavin, Vitaly Akishin, Igor Krasnov, Anatoly Voronin and Yury Ionov. Kolchin and the others were all born in the city of Dyadkovo in the Bryansk region, according to local media reports.
 They have been in custody since November last year.
 Another two suspects are in the process of being extradited from an unidentified European country, according to the General Prosecutor's Office.
 Prosecutors say that Kolchin was involved in preparation of the November 1998 assassination of Starovoitova. They say he was waiting outside the State Duma deputy's home at 91 Canal Griboyedova for a phone call from Pulkovo airport saying that the deputy had arrived and that he then ordered the alleged killers Akishin and Fedosov to get ready to shoot.
 Kolchin said Monday in court that he was ill and felt sleepy after taking pills.
 But the prosecutors branded Kolchin's actions as an attempt to prolong the trial.
 &quot;This request was prepared in advance to wreck the hearing,&quot; said prosecutor Viktoria Shuvalova.
 &quot;If all of us are going to get ill one after another all this will go on forever,&quot; Olga Starovoitova, sister of the slain deputy, said in court Monday.
 Earlier this month the court declined a defense request to hold a jury trial.
 Yury Shmidt, lawyer for Starovoitova's family and for Ruslan Linkov, Starovoitova's assistant at the time of the killing who was injured in the fatal attack, said the hearing could last three to four months if there are no long breaks.
 &quot;I understand that a person from Bryansk wouldn't want to come [to St. Petersburg] just before New Year's Eve, but he should have at least sent an official form saying he is ill,&quot; Shmidt said.
 The judge said the lawyer had tried to send a form but &quot;it did not come through by fax.&quot;
 &quot;Nobody would want to start such a hearing just before New Year's Eve,&quot; Shmidt said outside the court Monday. &quot;Nevertheless, it should still be determined whether the case is being dragged out unnecessarily.&quot;

TITLE: Deputies to Forget Politics For New Year Celebrations
AUTHOR: By Francesca Mereu
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - State Duma deputies have decided to forget about politics, at least for one night. 
 
Both winners and losers of the recent election are looking forward to greeting the New Year with loved ones, friends or - in the case of Vladimir Zhirinovsky - with the homeless. Zhirinovsky, 57, has planned the last day of 2003 down to the smallest detail. 
 He told reporters Friday that he will go to a homeless shelter to ring in the New Year. He said he wanted to meet &quot;people forced to live in a shelter due to personal circumstances,&quot; and he promised to find out who was to blame. 
 Sergei Proshin, 35, a deputy elected on the Rodina ticket, also has good reason to celebrate. His bloc, created just two months before the elections, won a surprise 9.02 percent of the vote. Proshin said he will borrow a page from writer Nikolai Gogol for his festivities. 
 &quot;Everything will be in Gogol's style, like in his tales 'Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,'&quot; he said. 
 Deputy leader of the Union of Right Forces Alexander Barannikov, 33, said the failure of his party to clear the 5 percent barrier to get into the new Duma will not stop him from spending New Year's &quot;as usual.&quot; As usual, this year, is a trip to the white, sandy beaches of the Canary Islands &quot;with a large number of friends.&quot; 
 &quot;The Canaries are a good choice - it is cheap and warm, the right place to relax and celebrate New Year's,&quot; he said. 
 For Yabloko deputy leader Sergei Mitrokhin, whose party also failed to get into the Duma, New Year's will not be anything special. &quot;Everything is so boring in my life recently. I think I will spend the day with my closest friends, but I'm not planning anything special,&quot; he said. 
 Communist Party deputy chairman Ivan Melnikov, 53, said that even though his party lost almost half of its Duma seats, he and his family will continue their tradition of celebrating New Year's together. 
 &quot;Me, my wife and our three children usually spend the evening together,&quot; Melnikov said. &quot;We will sit at the table with food and drinks as usual.&quot;

TITLE: Trans-Dniestr Arms Removed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The Russian military has removed all Soviet-built anti-aircraft missiles from its vast arms depots in the Trans-Dniester province of the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists, officials said Monday.
 
The missiles were brought from Trans-Dniester to the Chkalovsky military air base near Moscow on Saturday by two heavylift Il-76 military cargo planes, the Defense Ministry said.
 A spokesman for the ministry wouldn't say how many weapons were evacuated. 
 The ministry said in the statement that it had decided to remove the weapons by cargo plane to &quot;minimize the potential danger of terrorists seizing the portable and other air defense missiles and using them for terror goals.&quot;

TITLE: Heavyweights Shun Presidential Election
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Two staples of all post-Soviet presidential elections - Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov and ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky - have decided at party congresses not to run in the March election.
 
With Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, the other candidate in all post-Soviet elections, already out of the way, President Vladimir Putin faces no serious challengers in the March 14 vote and is on course to secure a resounding victory, political analysts said.
 The Communists picked Agrarian Nikolai Kharitonov, 55, as their presidential candidate at their congress Sunday, while LDPR chose Oleg Malyshkin, a 50-year-old former boxer and a political unknown, as its candidate Friday.
 Zyuganov refused to run after the Communists suffered disappointing losses in this month's State Duma elections, securing only 12.61 percent of the vote, and he is thought to have put forward Kharitonov's candidacy.
 &quot;I thinks it is a complete collapse of the Communist party, its ideology. It is a total fiasco,&quot; said Lyubov Sliska, a deputy speaker in the previous Duma who was re-elected on the pro-Kremlin United Russia party list.
 Kharitonov beat out wealthy businessman Gennady Semigin, a candidate supported by Zyuganov's deputy Valentin Kuptsov, in the congress vote Sunday. Two other Communists were shortlisted for the nomination - former cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskya and former prosecutor Viktor Ilyukhin - but they withdrew before the vote in favor of Kharitonov.
 Zyuganov earlier supported the candidacy of former Krasnodar Governor Nikolai Kondratenko, but Kondratenko, who is well-known for making anti-Semitic remarks, refused to run, citing health problems.
 Vladimir Pribylovsky, political analyst with the Panorama think tank, said Kharitonov's candidacy was a compromise aimed at keeping the party's traditional electorate from leaving for other parties.
 &quot;The Communists were forced to pick someone or they risked losing their electorate to someone else, to Glazyev, for example,&quot; Pribylovsky said, referring to Sergei Glazyev, the co-leader of the recently formed nationalist Rodina bloc.
 Pribylovsky said keeping voters interested was also important because the Communists would need their support if they decide to later call for a boycott of the presidential election. He said Kharitonov might register as a candidate and then, closer to the vote, abruptly pull out and call for a boycott on the grounds that his rights as a candidate had been violated.
 Rodina co-leader Dmitry Rogozin predicted that Kharitonov's nomination for presidency would lead to &quot;the complete degradation and marginalization of the Communist Party.&quot; He said Zyuganov got so carried away by a power struggle inside the party that he did not find time to pick a worthy candidate.
 Irina Khakamada, a leader of the Union of Right Forces, said Kharitnov was not really in opposition to the Kremlin. In the previous Duma his Agrarians often voted for pro-Kremlin bills.
 Zhirinovsky on Friday gave little reason for his decision not to run in the election. The day after the Dec. 7 Duma elections - when preliminary results showed that LDPR had done astoundingly well, taking 11.45 percent of the vote - Zhirinovsky announced that he would run for the presidency next year.
 &quot;I will intentionally avoid taking part in the presidential election personally, but I will persistently promote LDPR's program and campaign for our candidate,&quot; Zhirinovsky said Friday.
 LDPR's appeal to disgruntled voters lies squarely with Zhirinovsky's personal performance and charisma, and recent opinion polls indicate that he could have won about 5 percent in the presidential election.
 Despite being in the political opposition, LDPR has always backed the Kremlin in the Duma.
 Yavlinsky decided at a Yabloko congress a week ago not to run for president.
 Putin's application to seek re-election was filed with the Central Election Commission last Wednesday.
 Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the lack of familiar faces in the presidential race is an indication of how the political landscape has been reshaped over the four years of Putin's presidency. Now, he said, it is all but impossible for opposition parties to take part in any elections.
 At the same time, an election in which Putin has to run against &quot;extras&quot; is not very favorable for him, either, Petrov said.
 &quot;The outcome of the 2000 presidential election also was clear long before the election took place, but in that race Putin won over weaker candidates who were still the strongest challengers out there,&quot; Petrov said.
 &quot;The weaker the rival, the less sound the victory will be,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Jury to Rule On Murder
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - The suspects in the murder of a prominent liberal Deputy Sergei Yushenkov will be tried by jury, the Moscow City Court ruled Friday.
 
The court made the move on an appeal from lawyers of the six defendants accused of involvement in killing Yushenkov, a co-chairman of the Liberal Russia party, in front of his apartment building April 17. The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 26.
 Prosecutors have accused Mikhail Kodanyov, the chairman of a rival branch of Liberal Russia, of organizing the killing with five accomplices.
 Yushenkov, 52, a vocal opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was killed just hours after announcing that his fledgling party would take part in December's State Duma elections.
 Liberal Russia had split before Yushenkov's death, with Kodanyov taking the helm of a rival faction sponsored by businessman Boris Berezovsky. Berezovsky, who has been granted political asylum in Britain, accuses Russian authorities of organizing the murder.

TITLE: Compensation Deal Agreed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Ukraine and Russia agreed Friday on a compensation package for Russian relatives of 78 people killed in the downing of a passenger jet by a stray Ukrainian missile.
 
It did not say how much the compensation would be, but Russia's prime minister said it would be in line with the $200,000 per victim that Ukraine agreed to pay Israeli relatives.
 The Sibir Airlines Tu-154 jet crashed into the Black Sea on Oct. 4, 2001, after being hit by a S-200 missile fired during a Ukrainian military exercise. Ukraine's deal with Israel provides about $200,000 in compensation to each of the 101 relatives of the 40 Israeli dead.
 Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Thursday the compensation for Russian relatives would be comparable.

TITLE: A Plaque for 'Ironiya Sudby'
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A plaque was unveiled Thursday at the site of the 1975 filming of &quot;Ironiya Sudby,&quot; or &quot;The Irony of Fate,&quot; and one of its stars received a national award at a Kremlin ceremony recognizing his contribution to the movie that remains a New Year's Eve tradition.
 
Actor Andrei Myagkov received the award from President Vladimir Putin with 48 other cultural, scientific and military leaders recognized for their contributions to society.
 Giving Myagkov his award, Putin called him the man &quot;with whom we celebrate the New Year for almost 30 years,&quot; Itar-Tass reported.
 Also Thursday, a plaque was unveiled at the site of the movie's filming on Prospekt Vernadskogo in southwestern Moscow, Itar-Tass reported.
 &quot;I am very happy to say that the film has turned into a relic admired by the whole nation,&quot; director Eldar Ryazanov said at the ceremony.
 &quot;The Irony of Fate&quot; depicts the story of a Moscow man who mistakes his own apartment for an identical one in St. Petersburg after drinking himself to oblivion on New Year's Eve. The satirical story ends with him and the woman who owns the apartment falling in love.
 Among the other recipients of awards Thursday were Valery Gergiev, the director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg; Moscow theater directors Galina Volchek and Pyotr Fomenko; conductor Yura Temirkanov; composer Rodion Shchedrin; and Valentina Tereshkova, the world's first female in space.
 &quot;Here are gathered those who steadfastly endeavored toward their goals and knew what it would entail, who knew how to achieve results and did not spare their efforts, who labored, created and worked,&quot; Putin said.

TITLE: Plum Wine Hits Local Market
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The first plum wine bottled in Russia is on sale in St. Petersburg. Although plum wine currently occupies less than 1 percent of total wine sales, with fruit wines holding a bit more than 2 percent, local wine producers might be eager to shift from poor-quality grape wine brands to a wider range in fruit wine production.
 
Ke-Co, the first plum wine to be bottled in Russia, is produced at the Moscow-based wine bottling factory Rubin and made under the license and using the wine components supplied by Ke-Co Japanese Bottlers Limited. 
 According to Gennady Muratov, deputy general director of Rubin, Ke-Co is packaged in bottles of 1.45 liters, the retail price of which is estimated to be between 195 and 220 rubles. The factory bottles two sorts of wine: white plum and rose plum.
 Rubin has already sold 20,000 bottles in Moscow, while it currently produces 200,000 bottles per month. 
 Muratov said the factory is planning to increase production up to 1 million bottles per month by the end of 2004, as well as to expand the range of wines to bilberry, apricot, mango and chokeberry and launch a new 0.725 liter bottle.
 Rubin invested $10 million in the new production, including the purchase of two tankers of plum wine ingredients from Japan.
 Dmitry Khoroshev, president of Euroservice, the distributor of Ke-Co in St. Petersburg, said that the local market offers plum wines of Japanese, Chinese and German origin, while the market share of plum wine in Russia is less than 1 percent. According to research carried out by the St. Petersburg Club of Alcohol Market Professionals, the market share of both fruit and grape wine in Russia amounted to 7.5 percent over the period between January and October 2003. 
 Rubin's management thinks that the bottling and production of fruit wines in general - and plum wines in particular - have good prospects in Russia, mainly due to the fact that locally produced grape wines are usually of poor quality. Igor Zavyalov, Rubin commercial director, said that the factory might consider shifting the main emphasis of wine production from grape to fruit wines in the next few years. &quot;We've already purchased next year's crop of plums in Uzbekistan,&quot; he added.

TITLE: Poll: Chubais Anti-Hero To Putin's 'Most Loved'
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The first plum wine bottled in Russia is on sale in St. Petersburg. Although plum wine currently occupies less than 1 percent of total wine sales, with fruit wines holding a bit more than 2 percent, local wine producers might be eager to shift from poor-quality grape wine brands to a wider range in fruit wine production.
 
Ke-Co, the first plum wine to be bottled in Russia, is produced at the Moscow-based wine bottling factory Rubin and made under the license and using the wine components supplied by Ke-Co Japanese Bottlers Limited. 
 According to Gennady Muratov, deputy general director of Rubin, Ke-Co is packaged in bottles of 1.45 liters, the retail price of which is estimated to be between 195 and 220 rubles. The factory bottles two sorts of wine: white plum and rose plum.
 Rubin has already sold 20,000 bottles in Moscow, while it currently produces 200,000 bottles per month. 
 Muratov said the factory is planning to increase production up to 1 million bottles per month by the end of 2004, as well as to expand the range of wines to bilberry, apricot, mango and chokeberry and launch a new 0.725 liter bottle.
 Rubin invested $10 million in the new production, including the purchase of two tankers of plum wine ingredients from Japan.
 Dmitry Khoroshev, president of Euroservice, the distributor of Ke-Co in St. Petersburg, said that the local market offers plum wines of Japanese, Chinese and German origin, while the market share of plum wine in Russia is less than 1 percent. According to research carried out by the St. Petersburg Club of Alcohol Market Professionals, the market share of both fruit and grape wine in Russia amounted to 7.5 percent over the period between January and October 2003. 
 Rubin's management thinks that the bottling and production of fruit wines in general - and plum wines in particular - have good prospects in Russia, mainly due to the fact that locally produced grape wines are usually of poor quality. Igor Zavyalov, Rubin commercial director, said that the factory might consider shifting the main emphasis of wine production from grape to fruit wines in the next few years. &quot;We've already purchased next year's crop of plums in Uzbekistan,&quot; he added.

TITLE: World Bank Loan Audited
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Russian Audit Chamber said on Friday that at least $120,000 allocated by the World Bank for the reconstruction of St. Petersburg's center was used for purposes not specified in the contract.
 
The Audit Chamber Collegium said that in 1997 the Russian Finance Ministry gave the St. Petersburg administration a loan from the World Bank for $31 million dollars for a pilot project to rebuild the city center.
 Part of that money - $11.5 million - went to pay for consulting services. At least $9.8 million was allocated to pay for the services of the general consultant.
 YaPK Group, Ltd., a U.S.-Finnish company, won the tender for general consultant and signed a contract with the St. Petersburg administration.
 According to the conditions of the contract, the office equipment, furniture and various goods used by YaPK Group, Ltd. belonged to St. Petersburg.
 However, when work under the contract was completed in February 2001, the Audit Chamber did not receive confirmation that the property was returned to the client. The location of the property was unclear.
 Other spending under the loan was also questioned, including an additional $60,000 spent without documentation, according to the Audit Chamber.
 The auditors found no documents confirming hotel bills of foreign specialists in St. Petersburg. They also said that payment of accommodations for Russian specialists went against the contract's conditions, and that some other expenses lacked documentation.
 As a result of this check, the Audit Chamber sent notices to the St. Petersburg administration, the St. Petersburg Foundation for Construction Investment Projects and the Russian Finance Ministry.
 It also sent the results of the check to the State Construction Committee, the general prosecutor's office and to some other state agencies.
 Marina Vasilyeva, a spokeswoman for the World Bank office in Moscow, said the bank was not ready to comment.
 She said the St. Petersburg administration would need to provide the Audit Chamber with an explanation before the World Bank would review the case.
 &quot;We've never had such precedents before, and if it's confirmed then the bank will have to take certain measures with respect to the case,&quot; Vasilyeva said.
 &quot;It's a bit of an anecdote, though, that it's partly about some missing chairs,&quot; she said.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Aa2 Rating Confirmed
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - Interfax Rating Agency, a strategic partner of Moody's Investors Service in Russia, confirmed St. Petersburg's credit rating on the national scale on Monday.
 St. Petersburg's long-term credit rating is Aa2 (rus), and the city's short-term credit rating is RUS-1.
 The ratings testify to the city's debt management strategy, growth of budget revenues and stable economic growth. The city was also commended for showing flexibility in expenditures, conservative budget policy and ongoing lessening of the debt burden. Long-term uncertainties mean budget revenues could fluctuate, for example, as a result of federal tax reform and unsteady development of the city's industry.
 St. Petersburg's debt dropped 17 percent in the first three quarters of 2003 to 11.3 billion rubles. Industrial growth stands at 17.1 percent for the first nine months of 2003 as compared to the same period in 2002.
 
 
<b>Gas Stations Refused
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Two companies that failed to pay excise taxes on petroleum products were refused the right to build filling stations, Interfax reported Monday.
 A press release from the city's committee on economic policy, entrepreneurial development and trade said the Viktoriya and Tatneft-Baltika companies planned to build filling stations in the Vyborgsky and Moskovsky districts.
 Eleven of the city's fuel companies pay the excise tax.
 November saw excise tax payments double over October, when Governor Matviyenko issued a warning to delinquents.
 
 
<b>Housing Investment 
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Gosstroi plans to invest $100 million in replacing outdated housing in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Friday.
 Deputy construction minister Anatoly Petrakov announced at a Friday press conference that the ministry is set to sign an agreement with German companies to carry out the project.
 "Gosstroi is working with the St. Petersburg administration to attract loans from German firms, companies and banks to get rid of worn-out housing in the city center," Petrakov said.
 Federal financing for reconstruction of old housing in 2004 will amount to 160 million rubles, while 500 million rubles will come from the city.
 The St. Petersburg administration developed a program worth 15.4 billion rubles to be spent by the end of 2008 to relocate inhabitants of old and condemned housing.
 
<b>Logistical Center
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Ahlers Logistic &amp; Maritime Services will invest $30 million in construction of a logistical center outside St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast Governor Valery Serdyukov told journalists on Friday.
 The complex in the Gorelovo industrial area is already under construction, Interfax reported. The first stage of the center is slated to open in fall 2004 with a 70,000-square-meter warehouse.
 
 
<b>Church Appeal
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - Russia's Patriarch Alexy II called on Russian businessmen to finance more social projects, Interfax reported Monday.
 Alexy, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia, told a meeting of the Orthodox Businessmen's Club on Monday that "the state of society today demands considerably more selfless efforts in the field of social service."
 Alexy thanked members for their support of charitable causes in the seven years of the Club's existence. Such support included assistance for orphans, the handicapped and needy, restoration of churches, construction of a cultural and business center at the patriarch's headquarters and publication of a children's Bible that is distributed free through schools and the Internet. <b>Metro Milestone
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Viktoriya tunnel-boring mechanism was hauled to the surface on Friday, Interfax reported. This marks a milestone in the completion of the break between the Lesnaya and Ploshchad Muzhestva metro stations.
 Anatoly Petrakov, deputy minister in the State Construction Committee, or Gosstroi, said Friday that the first test train will hit the tracks on May 27, 2004, and regular traffic is scheduled to resume on June 30, 2004.
 St. Petersburg's red line was cut off between Lesnaya and Ploshchad Muzhestva in 1995 when tunnels were flooded by an underground river.
 The cost of the project to restore the line is $180 million. The majority of this sum, $120 million, went to finance the work of the Italian-Swedish team that operated Viktoriya.
 
 
<b>News More Accessible
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The city's post offices will start selling newspapers starting Jan. 1, 2004, Interfax reported Friday.
 The move is intended to make inexpensive wide-circulation newspapers more accessible to the public. The cost of running a subscription service for such editions is two to three times greater than the cost of publishing them.
 Governor Valentina Matviyenko ordered the creation of a commission to oversee the new distribution system.
 
 
<b>Markova Ruling Due
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The court is expected to rule Tuesday in the case of St. Petersburg gubernatorial candidate Anna Markova's complaint against the actions of the city prosecutor's office, Interfax reported.
 Markova took the case to court after the prosecutor's office dismissed previous complaints about the investigation of the criminal case concerning the legality of remarks made by Markova during her televised debates with now-Governor Valentina Matviyenko.
 Markova insisted the criminal case go to the Leningrad Oblast prosecutor's office. When her request was denied she applied to the court.
 
 
<b>Fire in City Center
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Forty teams of firefighters were called out to extinguish a fire that broke out early Saturday morning in an apartment building on Ulitsa Rubinshteina, Interfax reported.
 According to the St. Petersburg fire chief's office, 105 residents were left homeless by the fire and were temporarily housed in a nearby school.
 Governor Valentina Matviyenko, who visited the scene of the fire, promised that homeless residents will receive new apartments in the near future.
 
 
<b>High-Speed Trains
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Russia and Finland intend to cut the travel time between St. Petersburg and Helsinki to 3.5 hours by building a high-speed railway between the two capitals in 2004, Interfax reported Monday.
 A Russian Railways spokesman announced that the chiefs of the two countries' railways discussed construction of the route at a meeting in Moscow on Monday.
 
 
<b>Finnish Consular Fee
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - Starting Jan. 1, 2004, the Finnish embassy and consulates will institute a fee of 35 euros for processing all types of visas to Finland, Interfax reported on Monday.
 Single-, double- and multi-entry visas will no longer generate fees of 25, 35 and 50 euros, respectively. 



TITLE: Business: Much Work Done, More to Come
TEXT: This year was special for Russia, and for St. Petersburg in particular. St. Petersburg Times correspondent </i><i><strong>Angelina Davydova </strong></i><i>asked top managers of four companies what they think of 2003.
 
 </i><strong>Dmitry Kiselyov, </strong><i>Deputy Chairman of the Board, OOO Okhta Group
 </i>
 <strong>Q.</strong><i> How would you assess the results of 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> For St. Petersburg the year 2003 passed under the sign not of the 300th anniversary, but under the sign of &quot;Road Work.&quot; There was an enormous program of city center reconstruction, while most work happened during the first half of 2003. 
 
In spite of the fact that the majority of renovations took place at the very last moment and the reconstruction was often cosmetic and not capital, the city did change its face by the anniversary. 
 As for commercial property, a great number of large business centers and shopping and entertainment centers have been opened. However, the demand for business centers and offices is due to exceed supply for a long time yet, as there still aren't enough of them.
 For our company, 2003 was also quite successful. In May we opened the Askold business center in the District 700 business and entertainment complex. Apart from that we've launched a number of large-scale projects.
 Okhta Group acquired several sites for future development, including the Karelia Hotel and property that formerly belonged to the Narvsky Bakery. These sites are being converted into a business hotel, industrial park and business center.
 
 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> Which events were most important in 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> In Russia any large- or medium-sized business is closely linked to the executive branch of power. The city administration defines the rules of business, which is why I reckon the most important event for the business community of St. Petersburg was the gubernatorial elections.
 <strong>
 Q.</strong><i> What impact will the new city administration have on the business environment and investment climate?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> Time will show. I hope it will become easier and more convenient to work. Apart from that, I'd like cooperation between the federal center and the new governor to be fruitful and useful for the city.
 

 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> What importance did the 300th anniversary have for St. Petersburg?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> The celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg obviously stimulated the growth of business activity in the city. The anniversary celebrations have made St. Petersburg better known and famous. At the end of May the city was the center of attention all over the world, and from people in business and the arts from different countries. However, we can't expect foreign investment will flow into our city immediately. Investment attractiveness depends on many factors, and promoting the brand is only one of them.
 

 <strong>
Pyotr Chernyshyov, </strong><i>General Director, Vena Brewery
 </i>
 <strong>Q.</strong><i> How would you assess the results of 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> For St. Petersburg in general the year 2003 was a year of hope for the next four years. On the local beer market the situation has approached the European one. This year the market faced a critical moment when growth stopped and competition started getting stronger. All of us will have to learn how to work under such conditions.
 
For our company this year was also a turning point: we rebranded our leader, Nevskoye, and also launched several new brands, including Triumph and Kronverk. In July 2003, Vena hit record sales with 20 million liters of beer and other drinks. By October 2003, the total sales volume for the year reached 130.7 million liters.
 
 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> Which events were most important in 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> The crucial event of 2003 was the St. Petersburg gubernatorial elections.
 
 <strong>Q.</strong><i> What impact will the new city administration have on the business environment and investment climate?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> A positive one, without any doubt. I've already become acquainted with some representatives of the new city administration dealing with economic issues and I can say that talking to them made me optimistic.
 

 <strong>
Q. </strong><i>What importance did the 300th anniversary have for St. Petersburg?</i>
 Not much, if any.
 

 <strong>
Vladimir Kirillov,</strong> <i>General Director, Creative Investment Technologies Management Company
 </i>
 <strong>Q.</strong><i> How would you assess the results of 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> I assess the results of the year in a very positive way. For us, most important was creating a company clients trust. We opened in 2002, and 2003 was a year of growth. Our eight mutual funds began working, we received a license for trust management and we created a regional network.
 
Work in pension reform is a lot different from what we expected. The absence of information support and efforts to promote the reform means that less than 1 percent of the population has really taken part in the reform and chosen a management company. This can have a long-term impact not only on the sector, but on all people who have consciously or unconsciously cut their own pension. 
 The collective investment sector has been developing dynamically. An increase in the number of companies and mutual funds as well as substantial growth in the volume of assets prove that this sector has a bright future. More and more investors realize the advantages of mutual funds while receiving income from collective investment. To a certain extent, the situation is caused by the clear and strict laws on mutual funds.
 
 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> Which events were most important in 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> In 2003 there were two major events with the rest looking pale in comparison. The year was divided by the 300th anniversary, before which there was the old administration's preparation for the celebration, and then preparation for the change of the administration itself.
 
Without any doubt, business has already felt the influence of the new team. Relationships between the authorities and business are being built by totally different people, and the influence of new policies is becoming more and more significant. There is a good chance that this influence will be positive for the economy of the city and its inhabitants and will not be restricted by sporadic reforms and steps. I hope that in attracting investment the city will be able to take the Leningrad Oblast as a model, which creates a favorable investment climate and works in the same geographical region.
 
 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> What importance did the 300th anniversary have for St. Petersburg?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> In general federal financing influenced the city's economy. Two sectors won: construction and tourism. The construction sector has substantially expanded the range of its work, while tourism received a stimulus for full-scale development. For the rest of business the influence was of a short-term nature.
 
What amazed us was the drastic growth in real estate prices, which to a certain extent has already led the market to a certain stagnation: buyers were not ready for new prices, whereas sellers hold on to their properties, hoping for growth to continue.
 
 <strong>
Natalya Kudryavtseva, </strong><i>Executive Director, St. Petersburg International Business Association for North-Western Russia (SPIBA)
 </i>

 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> How would you assess the results of 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> The year was successful. I hope the changes that took place in 2003 will become a good basis for moving forward.
 

 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> Which events were most important in 2003?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> The 300th anniversary celebration, the city governor's election, the State Duma elections.
 

 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> What impact will the new city administration have on the business environment and investment climate?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> The results of initial contacts with the newly-elected St. Petersburg administration give us reason to believe that it is likely to work to improve the investment climate. The intentions of the administration to take serious measures to improve infrastructure and provide security for business as well as to lower administrative barriers for business correspond to our expectations.
 
We're also glad the new city government is willing to engage in dialogue with business. During the past month SPIBA managed to meet with two new members of the government, Mikhail Brodsky and Mikhail Oseyevsky. We've submitted a list of the main problems companies in Russia are facing, prepared by the SPIBA Committee on Law and Social Politics, to Mikhail Oseyevsky. He reacted to us with understanding and is ready for constructive cooperation.
 The administration of the city has agreed that those tax-payers who had invested in fixed capital should continue to receive the property tax benefit. This benefit was introduced earlier, but was canceled by the new St. Petersburg law &quot;On the property of organizations,&quot; enacted in November 2003. As a result of the benefit's cancellation, many investors would have suffered unexpected losses, which are not offset by the taxation base mentioned in the law. Such a state of affairs might have had a negative impact on the city's reputation among investors. The fact that the administration has admitted its own mistake and is planning to correct it is good news.
 There's a good Russian proverb that says one counts chickens in autumn. I suggest we revisit this question next autumn.
 
 <strong>
Q.</strong><i> What importance did the 300th anniversary have for St. Petersburg?</i>
 <strong>A.</strong> In my view, this event is amazing PR for the city, which created serious potential for the attraction of investment. But for potential energy to transform into kinetic energy, it's necessary to take real steps, take effective measures to eliminate serious barriers in investment's way: it should be easy to invest in the city economy, and the conditions should be understandable and fair. Otherwise, the effects of the celebration will be lost.
 



TITLE: Investment Stalls as Administration Changes
AUTHOR: By Anna Shcherbakova and Gleb Krampets
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: St. Petersburg's government officials and entrepreneurs this year learned a valuable lesson: money likes peace and quiet. The bustle of politics during the sixth months leading up to the inauguration of a new governor stalled several projects, and foreign investment shrank by at least one quarter. Experts say it was not so much the regime change that had a negative impact as the legislative confusion connected with it.
 
In 2003 St. Petersburg endured the longest &quot;interregnum&quot; in recent memory. In February the Charter Court ruled that Vladimir Yakovlev could not run for a third term. Then the Legislative Assembly refused to even discuss amendments to the city's Charter that would make a third term possible. Soon after Valentina Matviyenko was named the president's representative in the Northwest Federal District, deputies started talking about scheduling gubernatorial elections to coincide with the State Duma elections, which would have curtailed Yakovlev's term by six months. But the gubernatorial elections were held even earlier. Yakovlev stepped down as governor in mid-June when he was appointed vice-premier of the Russian government.
 Matviyenko won the second round of the gubernatorial elections on Oct. 5. The new government was formed by early November.
 
 <strong>
24% LESS</strong>
 According to Vladimir Blank, head of the city's committee on economic development, industrial policy and trade, foreign investment in St. Petersburg's economy dropped 23.8 percent during the first 10 months of 2003 as compared to the same period last year. In his opinion, federal funds are now the main investment resource in town. Blank explained the drop in foreign investment by saying the administration &quot;hasn't done everything to ensure a good investment climate.&quot; Blank said several investment projects, including those for construction of new hotels, were postponed during the change of administration.
 
Andrei Mikhailenko, chairman of the city's committee on investment and strategic projects, agrees. &quot;Investment activity was put on hold in the past six months and attention was turned to works in progress,&quot; he said. &quot;If I were an investor I wouldn't come to St. Petersburg at such a time. With all due respect, a temporary administration probably can't make firm promises.&quot;
 <strong>
NEW FACES
 </strong>Kirill Solin, head of Ramenka in St. Petersburg, said that after Yakovlev stepped down in the summer, mid-level bureaucrats on the committees not even affected by the change in power hardly worked at all. &quot;Two months, June and July, nothing was done to advance our project. Every piece of paper that should have taken a week to process [in reality] took three,&quot; he said. Ramenka plans to open four Ramstor hypermarkets in St. Petersburg by 2005. The company originally planned to open the first store by mid-2003.
 
Andrei Galayev, commercial counselor at the Canadian Consulate General in St. Petersburg, said many projects were put on hold as the government and city leaders were being changed. Bombardier, the company that intends to build a monorail system in St. Petersburg at a cost of $527 million signed a memorandum of understanding with the administration in March 2003. The preparatory phase of the project, which involves partial city financing, was shifted by almost six months, and in December Bombardier had to sign a new agreement with the new administration.
 &quot;Investors are forced to wait during a change in power,&quot; YurKonsalt International general director Marina Sidorchuk said. &quot;There were too many gaps in the legislation, especially land laws. The decision-making mechanism is only now being devised,&quot; she said.
 Many local companies, on the contrary, became more active during the past six months. According to Alexei Shaskolsky, head of the real estate valuation group at the Institute for Entrepreneurial Issues, right before the change in power there was a huge race among companies who wanted to get their hands on sites and lots before the administration changed.
 
 <strong>
RULES CHANGE</strong>
 The new administration intends to change the rules for distributing land plots, in part by disbanding or reorganizing the investment and tender commission. The government itself, which has already started reviewing investment proposals at its sessions, would make the decisions.
 
Shaskolsky said changing rules of the game, for example the rules for granting plots of land, have confused business. &quot;The fight for land hasn't let up,&quot; he said. &quot;But there is still an element of confusion. The old way of doing things is gone, but the new way isn't quite clear. Some investors may take a break to see what's going on, but that won't take long, and investors will establish a new system for interacting with the authorities in a couple of months. It could be worse.&quot;
 Artyom Zhavoronkov, a lawyer with Salans international law firm in St. Petersburg, also named unclear rules of the game as a formidable barrier for investors. &quot;It's not important who makes the decisions, what matters is that investors understand procedures,&quot; he said.
 Olga Litvinova, managing partner of Ernst &amp; Young and EYLaw in St. Petersburg, said investors interested in projects try to resolve their issues even during a regime change. &quot;For potential investors it's not so much the absence of bureaucrats needed to resolve practical matters as St. Petersburg's vaguely formulated investment policy that makes a difference,&quot; Litvinova said.


TITLE: Few Hotels Finished Race To Open by May
AUTHOR: By Andrei Musatov
PUBLISHER: Vedomosti
TEXT: Only three of the dozens of hotels slated to open in time for the city's 300th anniversary have opened. Even such a slow pace is revolutionary for this market. In addition to the big names, the city also gained 20 new mini-hotels.
 
The 230-room, three-star Dostoyevskaya Hotel that opened at 19 Vladimirsky Prospect in early December cost around $20 million. The 93-room, five-star Grand Hotel Emerald at 18 Suvorovsky Prospect opened its doors at the end of October at a cost of $20 million. The Emerald is operated by Neval, a Russian company, and is part of Summit Hotels &amp; Resorts. Reconstruction of the building at 4 Pochtamtskaya Ulitsa for a 100-room Renaissance hotel was completed in the fall. The cost of this project is estimated at $8 million. 
 In contrast, the previous decade saw only two new hotels in the city - the four-star Radisson SAS in 2001 and the five-star Nevskij Palace in 1993.
 Roman Lvov, chairman of Caspian Developers in St. Petersburg, said City Hall made the new hotels possible. In 2001, the governor issued a resolution covering allocation of buildings and lots for construction of hotels at market cost. &quot;The goal of the resolution was to make it easier to get real estate for new hotels that would be opened in time for the tercentenary,&quot; Lvov said. &quot;It didn't work. There was a real boom and everyone grabbed lots for hotel construction,&quot; he said. Most of the companies that received lots didn't understand what they were getting themselves into at the time, he said. As a result, some projects were never completed, and others dragged on indefinitely.
 Even successful developers were forced to review their deadlines when faced with unexpected obstacles. For example, the shopping center where the Dostoyevskaya Hotel is located was not hooked up to heating and electrical networks on time, which delayed its opening.
 The Europe Hotel Co., which runs the Grand Hotel Europe, planned to build four cottages with apartments on Krestovsky Island by summer 2003. The opening was rescheduled for the following year. Andrei Mikeshin, general director of Europe Hotel, explained that construction was behind schedule due to undeveloped utilities networks, and also because of concerns raised by the city's committee on state control, use and protection of monuments. The Grand Hotel Emerald faced similar problems and was forced to open in October rather than May.
 Experts think the demand for expensive hotels will be met by the Emerald and the Renaissance. &quot;Maybe St. Petersburg can handle one or two more five-star hotels,&quot; Lvov said. &quot;But it's obvious that there aren't enough four-star hotels in the city center to ensure balance on the market.&quot;
 &quot;We are still able to fill [new four-star] hotels,&quot; said Natalya Belik, public relations director at Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel. &quot;But if there are more of them, then the market will take over and rates will fall.&quot; She thinks the mid-range hotel market needs developing.
 Lvov says St. Petersburg needs around 30,000 quality beds for tourists, 70 percent of which should be in mid-range hotels. Statistics show that St. Petersburg has around 130 hotels with a total of 30,000 beds.
 The mini-hotel market was the most successful in 2003, experts say. This includes three-star equivalent venues with a few dozen beds. Alexei Musakin, general director of Pervaya Kompaniya, which manages the Shelfort mini-hotel, said at least 20 mini-hotels opened this year. Musakin said St. Petersburg counts between 60 and 70 mini-hotels with a total of 1,400 beds. The market can handle just as many more. One 20-room hotel costs about $1 million to build. The investment can be recovered within two or three years thanks to rising prices on real estate in the city center.

TITLE: Governor To Improve City
TEXT: ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Governor Valentina Matviyenko sees turning St. Petersburg into a European city as her main task, Interfax reported Matviyenko as saying at a press conference in Moscow on Thursday.
 
&quot;In the big picture, we see our task as doing everything necessary to turn St. Petersburg into a city with a European standard of living. That means a European quality of life for citizens, developing business, creating fertile conditions to attract investment, European standards for civic rights and freedoms, freedom of the press, and more,&quot; Matviyenko said.
 &quot;Developing and fostering the city's industrial potential,&quot; is the key to developing St. Petersburg, the governor said. High technologies would play a key role.
 St. Petersburg can compete in the areas of education, the sciences, tourism and culture, the governor said.
 The administration plans to double the city's budget revenues within three years, Matviyenko said.
 Transportation and housing will receive particular attention from the administration. 
 The governor announced that St. Petersburg is engaged in several joint projects with the city of Moscow. Moscow investment in a project to replace an entire block of condemned five-story apartment buildings with new housing will start in April of next year. 
 Referring to her cooperation with colleague Yury Luzhkov, Matviyenko said &quot;I think we need to use his experience in St. Petersburg while keeping in mind the special features of our city.&quot;


TITLE: Market Poised for Holiday
AUTHOR: By Angelina Davydova
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The stock market has been showing steady but had insignificant growth over the past week, with most market participants preparing for the holidays. Most shares experienced a moderate upward trend, while the RTS index fell 7.080 points (0.38 percent) to 567.4 points by Friday. 
 
On Tuesday the market opened up with Tatneft leading the way (up to 4 percent), however, it closed down and most shares tumbled. The leader of the downward trend was UES, which, according to VEO analysts, was caused by German Gref's official statement that the decision on wholesale generating companies will be made no sooner than next year. Yukos shares, on the contrary, rose, in spite of the Basmanny court decision to keep Khodorkovsky behind bars.
 Wednesday did not bring any change, but market participants became less active. Surgutneftegas became a growth leader, while Yukos, Sibneft and Norilsk Nickel saw prices tumble.
 Market participants were sluggish again on Thursday, largely due to the fact that foreign markets were closed because of the Christmas holiday. Yukos shares kept on sinking, while the market saw two new leaders in Mosenergo and LUKoil. Friday turned out to be a positive day for most shares with even Yukos growing by 2.74 percent. 
 On Monday the market was also not very dynamic, with the RTS index growing 0.41 percent to 569.73 by 4 p.m. The market situation was neutral, with neither external nor internal news. 
 On the foreign currency front, the U.S. dollar kept falling last week down to a record historical minimum as compared to the euro (0.46 percent) and three-year-minimum as compared to the yen (0.28 percent). The drastic fall of the U.S. dollar versus the ruble over the past week (0.03 percent) was corrected slightly by Monday's rate rise of 20 kopeks up to 29.45 rubles. Due to the holidays, this rate will be valid until Jan. 5. The euro rate also rose 22 kopeks up to 36.69 rubles. Russia's Central Bank resorted to foreign currency intervention due to a deficit of dollars. Finmarket analysts believe the growth in the rate is caused by a technical correction to the previous significant fall and can't be seen as a benchmark after several months of a downward trend.
 The GKO-OFZ market went slightly down with a 0.19-point fall of the index over the week. The Eurobond index, on the contrary, rose 0.04 points between Monday and Friday.
 The commodity market followed a downward trend with the Brent oil price falling 5.79 percent and Urals oil 4.83 percent over the week (from Monday to Friday).
 The beginning of the new year with foreign investors coming back to the will again pose the question of reevaluating political risks taking into account the lack of challengers in the presidential election, according to Rosbank analysts. 
 The market after the New Year holidays is likely to be determined by two major factors: a &quot;dividend&quot; period when the main issuers will determine the year's dividends and reveal year-end results and by the political situation in anticipation of the presidential elections.
 Moreover, the uncertainty over the Yukos case along with the Audit Chamber's intentions to review 1990s privatizations and examine taxes in the oil and gas industry also create an uneasy feeling for investors. According to Aton's capital conclusion, &quot;the Audit Chamber's announcement confirms our view that the investment environment for Russia's major corporations will likely worsen in 2004, with increased taxes and a stronger state hand in the running of some of Russia's key industries being the most likely outcomes.&quot;
 &quot;It's possible that shares will continue growing by default in early 2004, mainly because of market expectations and an inflow of money kept out over the holidays to the market,&quot; Web-Invest Bank analysts said. However, growth is unlikely to have a long-term tendency. &quot;First, room for fall of yields was used up in December. Second, the current interest rate is becoming attractive for issuers and from the year's start we expect news about new stock issues.&quot;
 &quot;As in June 2003, current rates and issue expectations may lead to corrections,&quot; Web-Invest analysts believe.
 


TITLE: British Hotelier Supports Arts and City Style
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: &quot;If I wasn't married and had a girlfriend, I would bring her to St. Petersburg to stay in the Astoria Hotel. This is the most romantic place I can think of,&quot; says Sir Rocco Forte of his business in St. Petersburg.
 
Forte is executive chairman and principal shareholder of Rocco Forte Hotels, the luxury hotel group he founded in 1996 that currently includes Hotel de Russie in Rome, the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, the Astoria and Angleterre in St. Petersburg, the St. David's Hotel &amp; Spa in Cardiff Bay, the Hotel Amigo in Brussels, the Hotel Savoy in Florence and the Lowry Hotel in Manchester.
 &quot;The concept is to cover the major cities in Europe because at the moment there is no luxury hotel group seriously represented in the region,&quot; Forte said. &quot;Obviously, I have to take opportunities as they come along, and I can't organize the time for myself to go to a particular city. For instance, I waited six years to get a hotel in London, and London is a very important city for me.&quot;
 Would he describe his business as English or Italian? &quot;I suppose in terms of technical aspects and punctuality it is an English business, but in terms of the flair and imagination, it is an Italian business.&quot;
 Forte says it is crucially important for his hotels to reflect the spirit of the cities in which they are located. &quot;St. Petersburg... is beautiful, fascinating and romantic,&quot; he says. &quot;I do believe the Astoria reveals its spirit. Its design tells you about the city. We used the main St. Petersburg colors, all those blues, pinks and yellows, those pastel shades....&quot;
 One of Forte's five sisters, Olga Polizzi, works with him and looks after the design side. Sometimes she does it herself or she hires a designer whom she controls and directs.
 Forte describes the old decor of the Astoria as basic, old-fashioned and outdated. &quot;I think we have given it a more modern feel but also elegance and a bit of a Russian flavor, which is very important,&quot; he said. &quot;Most American companies do the same hotels wherever they go, in Prague or Milan. I don't like that. I believe that every hotel should reflect the city it is in.&quot;
 Yekaterina Sirakanian, head of the marketing department at the Mariinsky Theater, calls the Astoria the most European of St. Petersburg hotels. &quot;I believe that Sir Rocco brought elegance and style to this place; all European guests of the Mariinsky Theater choose to stay in the Astoria and Angleterre,&quot; she said.
 The personal friendship between Forte and the Mariinsky's artistic director Valery Gergiev plays a role in their professional cooperation as well. Forte speaks with much enthusiasm about the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra performing at the opening ceremony of the Hotel de Russie in Rome under the baton of Gergiev. 
 Sirakanian points out that the idea for the International Mariinsky Ballet Festival, launched four years ago and now a prestigious annual winter event, came during a conversation between Gergiev and Forte. &quot;They were talking about winter seasons in St. Petersburg, and how to make them more attractive,&quot; she said. &quot;And Sir Rocco has been support personified. Our guests and even some journalists who travel from Europe to cover the festival stay in the Astoria and Angleterre for free.&quot; 
 The Astoria's list of high profile guests is impressive and features, among others, French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush, designer Paco Rabanne, baritone Placido Domingo, tenor Luciano Pavorotti, and actors Marcello Mastroiani, Gina Lollobrigida, Alain Delon, Jack Nicholson and Gwyneth Paltrow.
 Natalya Kudryavtseva, executive director of the St. Petersburg International Business Association, said that since the Forte Group's arrival in St. Petersburg, the Astoria has seen largely positive changes. &quot;The hotel has become very European, it now has so much style,&quot; she said. &quot;Their management is extra attentive and mindful of the smallest details. This attitude really pays. I have to add that we wish we could organize our SPIBA events there more frequently, but when we call them, the place is often taken. It shows they are popular.&quot;
 British born and Oxford educated, Forte never lived in Italy and is comfortable with the English way of life. &quot;I do have Italian instincts but I am British in so many ways,&quot; he said. &quot;When I go to Italy for holidays, it feels very strange - different lifestyle, different approach, everything is so different. I would probably get used to it but it might be very difficult.&quot;
 But there is an Italian approach in the family, he said. That includes being openly displeased with one of his daughters' &quot;early interest in boys.&quot;
 &quot;My wife and children are Italian and they speak Italian,&quot; he said. &quot;Of course, now English is the principal language for us, but when I married my wife in 1986 she didn't speak the language at all.&quot;
 Now, his office, his base and his home are all in London. &quot;If you want to be a serious luxury hotel group you have to have a hotel in London,&quot; Forte smiles. &quot;The timing is dependent on the opportunities but you have to be there.&quot;
 Forte was formerly chairman and chief executive of Forte Plc, a company founded by his father, Lord Charles Forte, back in 1934. During that time he was responsible for over 800 hotels, 1,000 restaurants and almost 100,000 employees in 50 countries. In 1996 the Forte business was taken over by Granada ,led by Gerry Robinson, and since then it has been broken up.
 Thinking back to the old times, Forte doesn't regret the past and just gets along with the new business and new life. &quot;What I regret is that it was a very fine company, with potential to become an even better company, one of the world's dominant hotel chains,&quot; he said. &quot;But it nearly disappeared from the scene because people who bought it were selling it out at less money than they paid for it. So it's a completely wasted opportunity. &quot;
 Now the Rocco Forte hotel group is looking at all the major cities in Europe - Paris, Madrid, Milan, Venice, Zurich, Geneva, Berlin, Munich, Barcelona and Moscow. A new 166-bedroom hotel in Frankfurt is scheduled to open in 2006.
 &quot;When it comes to 20 hotels, I will see where we can go after that,&quot; Forte said. &quot;I definitely do not consider expanding to other continents as I wouldn't like to spread myself too thinly.&quot;
 There is a strong rational element in his choice as there is a gap in the market. The reason why Forte prefers luxury hotels is because he says it is a very complicated and challenging business, a lot more sophisticated than, say, three-star hotels. &quot;Sophistication - especially of the service you deliver to your guests - makes it more interesting and exciting,&quot; he said.
 Forte admits he never saw himself in a different business, saying he has always had a feeling for hotels. &quot;From a very early age I have been involved in this business,&quot; he said. &quot;When I was at school, and subsequently at the university, I always spent part of my holidays working in my father's business. As a waiter or in the kitchen in restaurants I did all aspects, even the washing up, which is hard work.
 &quot;It is a business you should have an instinct for, and it is also a business which is hard to separate from your life,&quot; he added. &quot;You have to make your life around your hotels, which is rather difficult.&quot;
 What qualities are most essential for the business?
 &quot;The general manager of a hotel has to be a man of many skills. A very good psychologist to start with, he has to have a nice personality and be good at dealing with people. He also has to have marketing, business and technical skills. And of course you have to like it to do it well.&quot;
 Built in 1912, the Astoria Hotel was state property until 1997, when Rocco Forte Group purchased 15.5 percent of the shares. In 1999, another 35 percent of the shares were sold at an auction but Forte Group lost the tender to St. Petersburg alcohol producer Alexander Sabadash.
 Forte is now reluctant to talk about that disappointment. He believes that the last three years brought huge changes in the way businesses in St. Petersburg are treated by the city authorities. &quot;A number of taxes have been reduced, which makes it more attractive to come and work in St. Petersburg,&quot; he said. &quot;When I first came here, everyone just wanted to extort the money.&quot;
 It used to be that the only Russian-made items to be found in the St. Petersburg hotels were linen napkins. &quot;Everything was imported. We couldn't even find proper eggs here, and I had to send people to the local markets to get them,&quot; Forte said. &quot;The eggs were too yellow, almost red, which means they come from chickens who don't run around and are kept up in their boxes.
 &quot;Now, all the furniture and redecorations in the Angleterre, and some of the furniture in the Astoria were made in Russia. We can now print our brochures here.&quot; 
 Another major change he has noticed is the mentality of the people who work in the hotel industry. &quot;I am especially pleased by the attitude of the younger people: hardworking, bright and efficient,&quot; he said. &quot;Some of the people we had inherited from the old hotels never did realize how important customers are. But I am happy to see that the new generation does.&quot;
 Forte openly admires the promotion St. Petersburg receives through president Vladimir Putin. &quot;He couldn't do it better if he tried,&quot; Forte said, smiling. He added that he didn't attend St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebrations in May for one simple reason: his hotel had already been overbooked.

TITLE: Showman Has a Tired Act
AUTHOR: By Robert Procope
TEXT: It's pantomime season in London and Boris Berezovsky is one of the hottest tickets in town. He spoke Dec. 8 at the Reform Club in the West End, and a week later addressed the Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House.
 
The crowds came to hear what the RIIA had billed as Berezovsky's &quot;trenchant interpretation of current events in Russia,&quot; particularly the &quot;leading oligarch's&quot; views on the recent parliamentary elections and the fate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of Yukos.
 I was genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing Boris Abramovich in the flesh for the first time and, judging by the full house, I wasn't the only one expecting a good performance.
 I had come to see and hear the sinister villain whose shadow loomed long and large over post-Soviet Russia. A man who, if some accounts are to be believed, was responsible for the murder of Vlad Listyev (among others) and exercised such influence within the Kremlin that he virtually selected the Cabinet for much of the 1990s.
 Whether those allegations are true or not, Berezovsky was at the apex of political, commercial and perhaps criminal influence in Russia for much of that decade and had to be worth listening to.
 I expected to be struck by his charisma and presence, beguiled by his quicksilver talk and ability to hold an audience.
 I anticipated an undercurrent of alarm at being so close to such a ruthless and influential operator. At the very least I expected some of the comedy of Berezovsky's doll from &quot;Kukly,&quot; with its frenetic, jabbering talk and wild gesticulation.
 I was disappointed on all counts.
 Perhaps his imperfect English diluted his potency, but Berezovsky seemed tired and uncertain.
 Instead of the much-touted &quot;Godfather of the Kremlin,&quot; Berezovsky had the air of an accountant, more gray suit than gray cardinal.
 If his stage presence was less powerful than expected, the address itself was predictable and came from a well-rehearsed script.
 He described Putin as an animal committed to the destruction of all the elites that oppose him, be they business, regional, military or journalistic. 
 He argued that Putin's only ideology is power and that Khodorkovsky's arrest and the events at Yukos are a logical step in the president's relentless progress toward the establishment of a dictatorship.
 He also said he thought it likely Khodorkovsky's Yukos shares would be sold at auction to insiders, thereby ensuring the Kremlin's control of the company.
 While he made lots of good points, he made no mention of the fact that those shares were acquired in just such a rigged auction and that he himself had benefited from similar fixed tenders in the 1990s.
 When a controlling stake in Sibneft was auctioned in 1995, it was acquired by entities controlled by Berezovsky and his one-time protege Roman Abramovich, the other London-based oligarch.
 Berezovsky's account of his falling-out with Putin, which he traced to the then-prime minister's use of the war in Chechnya to fuel his presidential campaign, failed to mention his own role in the selection of Putin as Yeltsin's replacement. Similarly ignored was his control of parts of the mass media that helped ensure Putin's victory.
 The corollary of Berezovsky's anti-Putin polemic was his depiction of the Yeltsin era as some kind of democratic and liberal idyll that his successor had set out to destroy.
 Berezovsky conceded that mistakes had been made under Yeltsin but insisted that everyone's hearts (his own included, presumably) had been in the right place - and that, in a time of flux, laws were fluid.
 There was, of course, no mention of the storming of the Duma in 1993 or the deals done to guarantee Yeltsin's re-election in 1996, hardly moments of great democratic or liberal achievement.
 And yet, his audience listened with undisguised deference, and there were no questions to challenge his highly selective recollections. We even applauded Platon Yelenin (a name Berezovsky seems to have adopted on being granted political asylum in Britain) once he had finished.
 At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea Football Club's West London stadium, they now sell fur hats with the club's logo and play &quot;Kalinka&quot; before every home game.
 Red Rom, as Abramovich is fondly known, is seen in Britain as a benevolent investor in the Premier League, the shy but smiling sugar daddy of Chelski.
 Some even believe an altruistic spirit motivates Abramovich's political activity in Chukotka, rather than the immunity from prosecution it offers.
 In the same way, instead of the stage villain we boo and hiss, Berezovsky has somehow transformed himself into the pantomime innocent.
 Perhaps his brilliance lies in his disappointment of expectation and his banality.
 
 <i>Robert Procope, a forensic accountant who works regularly in Russia, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: Mergers May Spawn a New Gerontocracy
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: Jokes during this year's gubernatorial election that Governor Valentina Matviyenko's term in office could end up looking like that of former Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev are not funny at all; they could be realized. 
 
And those who are bound to be tied to the governor's apron strings, possibly until 2020, are citizens of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast. Yury Gladkov, leader of the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, faction in the Legislative Assembly this month proposed that the two administrative territories be unified by a draft law that he submitted to the city parliament. 
 Looking into a future where elections may be fully controlled by the Kremlin, it seems likely that by 2012, when a second term for Matviyenko would finish, she could easily find herself elected to head a new, unified territory. The unification could be completed officially by that time. 
 By 2020, the year when she would finish a second term as governor of the unified territory, Matviyenko would be 71 years old and the leadership would look something like the gerontocracy that ruled at the end of the Soviet Union. 
 In this happens she has a good chance to become a living monument to managed democracy. 
 Matviyenko would look quite at home alongside other Soviet-type regional leaders for life, or autocrats, or whatever one wants to call them. There would be little difference between her and, let's say, Yury Luzhkov, for instance, the mayor of Moscow, has headed the capital's government since June 1992. Or another typical example - Murtaza Rakhimov, president of Bashkartostan, who has managed to hang on to being head of the republic for 13 years in a row and just got granted another four years after murky elections.
 The names and characters are different, but the scheme remains the same. Authorities become so professional in manipulating the law that they can retain one person in the same position for decades. The law becomes nothing more than a source of entertainment and additional income for regional legislators. Getting around the law could mean creating a slush fund of $1 million for each of 50 Legislative Assembly lawmakers to spend in their districts every year since 1996 in exchange for them voting to extend a mayor's or governor's term. Or it could be something else more useful for certain politicians' personal advantage. 
 St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast are not the only territories earmarked to become one in the near future. Not counting Komi-Permyatski District and Permskaya Oblast, where citizens have already voted for unification in a referendum held at the same time as this month's State Duma elections. There are at least couple of other examples much closer to St. Petersburg. Novaya Gazeta has reported that Ilya Klebanov, the presidential envoy to the Northwest region, is about to hand the Kremlin a draft plan to unify the Nenets Autononomous Region with the Arkhangelsk Oblast or Komi Republic and the Pskov Oblast with the Novgorod Oblast. I bet that if the unification of these regions takes place, the faces of the authorities elected to head them are going to be the same ones that we see at the top of the regional pecking order in these regions at the moment. The most powerful of them will be allowed to rule for another eight or 10 years, depending on the appetite of the authorities. 
 Such a deal would appeal to Matviyenko's appetite because a merger of the city and oblast would deliver such reliable taxpayers as Caterpillar, Philip Morris, IKEA and Ford Motors factory into her hands. All these companies have successfully started operations in the Leningrad Oblast in the past few years. In addition, the coffers of a unified territory administratin would be topped up with taxes from at least five oil terminals that have either already been built or are under construction in the oblast. That's quite a prize piece of pie. 
 Expectations are, however, that the pie is not being warmed up for the benefit of citizens. And I am not alone in thinking this. According to a web survey conducted by the Fontanka.ru site last week, 69 percent of respondents think unification would change nothing or would disadvantage St. Petersburg. Only 7 percent said it would be in the city's favor.

TITLE: 2003: A Year Of Missed Opportunity
TEXT: This year had the potential to put St. Petersburg in the forefront of a progressive and modernizing Russia.
 
A team of hometowners are holding the reins of power in the Kremlin and the city became the focus of national and international festivities as it marked its 300th anniversary. 
 There is much to celebrate - not only the city's attractive architecture and its cultural and intellectual achievements, but also its physical and spiritual links to Europe, its tolerance and its readiness to accept outside ideas. 
 Its decaying facades received coats of paint, its main thoroughfare Nevsky Prospekt was cleaned up and the world's political and cultural elite visited the city. 
 Along with the rest of the country, the city got an economic boost as the &quot;stability&quot; of President Vladimir Putin's term in office prolonged economic growth of above 5 percent and world oil prices stayed high.
 Russia finally recieved an investment-grade rating, albeit from only one international agency - Moody's. Both the European Union and the United States recognized Russia as having a market economy, foreign investment grew and entry to the World Trade Organization became closer. 
 St. Petersburg badly needed to change its ineffective and corrupt administration and in the interests of democratic development should have been able to do it. 
 But the heavy hand of the Kremlin, with a native son of the city at its head, was not ready to let the city make up its own mind. Instead it sought to micro-manage the whole operation itself. In a series of personnel shuffles that were made with little regard for the benefit of the city, Putin's close friend and secret service bully boy Viktor Cherkesov intimidated local lawmakers, then vacated his post so that Valentina Matviyenko could boosted her public image and would later have an easy run for governor after Vladimir Yakovlev was sidelined.
 The governor says she wants to make the city one with a European standard of living and with regard for human rights. She has also said she will not tolerate city officials who exploit their posts to extort bribes. 
 We wish her well in her endeavors and hope that her policies will be realized but we also note that businesses are still suffering from &quot;inspections&quot; that are little more than threats to pay up or be shut down. Foreigners still regularly tell The St. Petersburg Times that police are stealing from them. 
 The State Duma elections showed the population giving a thumbs down to the liberal, energetic and innovative state that St. Petersburg citizens longed for. We still hold to their dream and wish that for our readers they will share it and advance it in 2004.

TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
AUTHOR: By Chris Floyd
TEXT: <b>Head Master
 </b>OK, we admit it: we were wrong. The big news that shook the world this month has finally convinced your humble correspondent to wolf down a huge plate of crow tartare and confess the error of his ways. Like the worst kind of partisan hack, the Eye completely swallowed the liberal media line on this all-important issue, and our blind zealotry led us to launch a series of savage - but unjustified - attacks on American leaders trying their best to defend the country against a remorseless, treacherous enemy who hates everything the nation stands for: its laws, its liberties, its most noble traditions.
 
Thanks to the revelations that emerged after the historic capture of Saddam Hussein, we now have the clearest picture yet of the brazen perfidy and moral depravity of the unelected tyrant directly responsible for the deaths of an untold number of innocent Iraqis and hundreds of American soldiers. Much of this sordid history has long been known - although tragically ignored or excused by the tyrant's apologists - but its true extent has now been laid bare so starkly that no rational person could deny it. 
 We refer of course to the disclosure that the Bush Regime knowingly gave false testimony to Congress in secret sessions last fall in order to manipulate legislators into supporting George W. Bush's war of aggression against Iraq. These oathbreakers told senators that not only did Saddam possess armed and ready weapons of mass destruction, but that he also had the physical means to launch them directly against the United States at any time.
 This stunning deceit was revealed by U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who told Florida Today that administration officials gave a classified briefing to at least 75 senators before the October 2002 vote on Bush's demand for a blank check to invade Iraq. The Bushist Party perjurers told the Senate that Saddam had an arsenal of deadly chemical and biological weapons - including anthrax - which could be fired from his fleet of highly advanced unmanned drone airplanes. These drones could devastate the eastern seaboard of the United States, the Bush liars swore: millions of lives were at imminent risk.
 Faced with these scarifying &quot;facts,&quot; the Senate finally gave Bush his blank check to make war on Iraq at his whim. We were among the many who denounced this vote as timorous kowtowing to an illegitimate, bullying blowhard. Our epithets flew like knives: &quot;jellyfish,&quot; &quot;rubberstamps,&quot; &quot;spineless toadies.&quot; We even quoted the Emperor Tiberius' judgment on the obsequieous Senate that flattered his every desire: &quot;Men fit to be slaves.&quot;
 But now we know the truth. There were no weapons of mass destruction, cocked and ready to fire. There were not even any active programs to produce them. This was the conclusion of the regime's own CIA-paid weapons hunter, David Kay (who coincidentally - or maybe not so coincidentally - announced his retirement from the job last week). The fleet of seaboard-ravaging intercontinental super-drones turned out to be a handful of tiny unmanned reconnaissance planes, with a wing-span of just 24 feet and no capacity for even carrying - much less delivering - weapons of any kind. 
 But of course Bush's bearers of false witness already knew that. They knew it before they briefed the Senate. Air Force intelligence experts - whom one might expect to know a little something about aircraft - repeatedly told the White House that their attack-drone angle was nonsense. Even amid the boiling war fever that fueled the Regime's concoction of its &quot;National Intelligence Estimate&quot; on Iraq - a fetid stew of stale news, cooked data and pure hokum - the Air Force held firm, officially dissenting from the NIE conclusions, the Associated Press reports. But this didn't stop the deceivers from peddling their prevarications to Congress - or keep the &quot;moderate&quot; Colin Powell from telling the same lies to the whole world at the United Nations.
 Thus our apologies for the imprecations we heaped upon those senatorial heads. Surely it's too much to expect the second-rate backslappers and bribetakers who make up the majority of any political party to stand firm against such an onslaught of radical deceit. And even for the most astute and honorable legislator, it would be hard to believe - harder still to accept - that the leader of your country would lie so completely, so shamelessly, especially to advance a cause so criminal and murderous in nature: a war of aggression, based on false evidence, leading to the unnecessary deaths of thousands upon thousands of innocent people.
 But he did lie. Bush is steeped so far in lies and blood that his very grasp of reality has been effaced. This was evident in the rare TV interview he gave. Asked why he had claimed Saddam's possession of WMD was a &quot;hard fact&quot; when the intelligence showed nothing of the sort, when it was obvious now that Saddam had, at most, only the possible intent to acquire them again someday, Bush replied, with bone-chilling moral incoherence: &quot;So what's the difference?&quot;
 No difference between a physical threat and a disembodied potential? Apparently not: both are equal justifications for killing innocent people. Like other wielders of illegitimate power - Stalin, Saddam, Osama - Bush's lies have turned into deadly hallucinations. He's entered an alternative world, where reason vanishes, facts melt and nothing remains but his own disordered sense of rectitude, the unchallengeable righteousness of his vagrant whims and base desires. 
 Life, death, truth, lies - what's the difference? None, to Bush's corroded mind. And we're all living in his head now.
 
 <i>
For annotational references, see the Opinion section at www.sptimesrussia.com </i>

TITLE: Islanders Snap Maple Leafs' Streak
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: UNIONDALE, United States - The last time the Toronto Maple Leafs lost in regulation, the New York Islanders were a team NHL clubs couldn't wait to play.
 
So much has changed in five weeks.
 The Maple Leafs had their 16-game point streak snapped Saturday by the surging Islanders, who have rebounded from a freefall.
 &quot;That's a pretty determined team,'' Toronto forward Joe Nieuwendyk said. &quot;I think every team we play now is determined because of the roll that we have been on.''
 On Nov. 20, the Islanders and Maple Leafs lost road games 3-2. New York dropped six more in a row, while Toronto went on a run that included 14 victories, one tie and one overtime loss.
 The Maple Leafs' streak tied the NHL's longest since the 1999-00 season, when the league began awarding one point to teams tied after regulation.
 On Saturday, the Islanders rallied from an early 1-0 deficit and beat Toronto 3-1 behind Mark Parrish's two third-period goals.
 &quot;They wanted it more,'' forward Tom Fitzgerald said. &quot;We didn't execute the way we have been executing.''
 Toronto went from 7-6-5-2 to an NHL-leading 51 points.
 While the Islanders had trouble winning anywhere, the Maple Leafs had success both on the road, going 7-0-1, and at home, with a 7-0-0-1 mark.
 Toronto's only blemishes between its loss at Edmonton a week before Thanksgiving and Saturday's defeat were a tie at Washington and an overtime loss to St. Louis.
 &quot;The streak seemed to take on a life of its own,'' said Nieuwendyk, who had six goals and nine assists in the run. &quot;We're disappointed that it's over.
 &quot;We need to get our heads on straight and get back to basics.''
 That's exactly what the Islanders have done.
 Starting with a victory over Chicago on Dec. 6, the Islanders seemingly salvaged a season that appeared headed down a slippery slope. New York's troubles were not unlike a collapse late last season that ultimately got coach Peter Laviolette fired after a second straight first-round playoff exit.
 The Islanders have won a season-high six straight at home and have lost only twice in regulation. Included in the run are an overtime win and an overtime loss to the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, and victories over division leaders Philadelphia, Atlanta and Toronto.
 Of the Maple Leafs' seven regulation losses, two are road defeats to the Islanders.
 The Maple Leafs have succeeded without Alexander Mogilny, their leading scorer last season who injured his hip during the Edmonton loss and is out indefinitely. Toronto has missed defenseman Tomas Kaberle the last five games because of a shoulder injury, and the Maple Leafs sustained more player losses right after Christmas.
 But the Maple Leafs didn't place blame for their latest loss, instead citing poor play that they say has crept in recently. The Leafs even suggested that they were lucky to keep the streak going as long as they did.
 &quot;That's what happens in things like this. You don't need to work after a while, you don't need to pay attention, you don't need the coaches, you don't need anybody because you're really great yourself,'' coach Pat Quinn said. &quot;Your experience should be able to overcome that, but it doesn't. You just put a dagger in your heart and come up with a game like [Saturday's].''
 While Quinn was critical after the loss - saying his team was lazy and lacking cohesion - he was also quick to praise his players.
 &quot;They were marvelous through this whole thing,'' said Quinn, who guided the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers to an NHL-record unbeaten streak of 35 games. &quot;They owe themselves a pat on the back, they were terrific.''
 And the Leafs feel they will be again.
 &quot;You don't like to play the way we did and lose,'' forward Darcy Tucker said. &quot;Hopefully, it's a little bit of a wake-up call for us.''

TITLE: Packers Make Playoffs After Viking Loss
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GREEN BAY, United States - The biggest cheer at Lambeau Field came for a play more than a thousand miles away that got the Green Bay Packers into the playoffs.
 
Ahman Green ran for a 98-yard touchdown and Brett Favre completed a hard week in which he buried his father back in Mississippi to lead Green Bay to a 31-3 rout of the Denver Broncos.
 But it was at the 2-minute warning when the Arizona Cardinals completed an amazing last-second comeback to beat Minnesota and give Green Bay an improbable NFC North title that the place went wild.
 &quot;I've never heard a crowd cheer that loud for a 2-minute warning before,'' linebacker Nick Barnett said.
 The Packers, who had little hope of playing into January only moments earlier, celebrated wildly on the sideline after their crowd, listening on radios, broke into frenzied elation over the fourth-down miracle.
 Favre sauntered over to the stands and twirled his right arm around as if whipping up the crowd with a rally towel.
 Instead of going home, the Packers (10-6) will host the Seattle Seahawks (10-6) and former coach Mike Holmgren on Sunday. Green Bay won the first meeting 35-13 on Oct. 5.
 Green set a franchise record with 218 yards rushing and ran for two scores, giving him 20 and breaking Jim Taylor's record of 19 set in 1962. He ran for a team record 1,883 yards this season.
 Favre finished with the most touchdown passes (32) in the league for a record-tying fourth time.
 But it looked as though the Packers would miss out on the postseason party despite a 4-0 December as the Vikings built a 17-6 lead in the waning minutes at Arizona.
 Then, Josh McCown threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Poole as time expired to rally the Cardinals to an 18-17 victory. The Packers knew it by listening to their 70,299 fans going wild.
 &quot;I thought we fumbled the football,'' Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said.
 The turnabout was so extraordinary that Favre, still struggling with his father's death, suggested something spiritual was taking place.
 &quot;I've been around people who have lost a family member or have lost someone close to them and they say that person's there watching or angels, whatever,'' Favre said. &quot;I would say two weeks ago I didn't really didn't believe in that, but I think we'd better start believing in something.&quot;
 Favre passed for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns in Oakland last Monday, less than 24 hours after the death of his father. He wasn't nearly as sharp Sunday after spending most of the week with his family.
 Still, the Packers drove 80 yards in 12 plays on their opening possession, capped by Bubba Franks' 2-yard touchdown catch after a deflection by linebacker Jashon Sykes.
 &quot;That first drive was the drive that won the game for us as it turned out,'' Favre said. &quot;We didn't put up numbers like we did Monday night, but we did rush them. Ahman Green had an unbelievable game.''
 And Arizona provided the amazing finish.