SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #943 (11), Friday, February 13, 2004
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TITLE: Teen Killers Of Tajik Girl Still At Large
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: None of the teenagers who killed a nine-year-old Tajik girl on Monday night had been found or detained by Thursday, St. Petersburg police said.
 
However, the main department of Interior Ministry in the Northwest region told Interfax that St. Petersburg police are following leads. And the acting head of the Interior Affairs Rashid Nurgaliyev said that he took the case under special control.
 The body of Khursheda Sultanova was to be sent for burial to Dushanbe, the capital of her homeland, on Thursday night, Interfax said.
 A group of drunk teenagers brutally murdered Khursheda Sultanova and beat up her father and cousin.
 About a dozen teenagers, armed with a knife, knuckle-dusters, chains and bats attacked Yusuf Sultanov, 35, and his daughter Khursheda and nephew Alabir, 11, in the city center at 4 Pereulok Boitsova about 9 p.m., said Yelena Ordynskaya, spokeswoman for the city prosecutor's office. 
 The victims were attacked when Sultanov and the children were on the way home from a walk to one of the ice slides in the city's Yusupov Garden. The group of teenagers followed them, and then hit Sultanov on the head with something heavy from behind.
 The attackers also hit the boy on the head, but Alabir managed to hide under one of the cars parked nearby.
 Then the group turned to the girl and stabbed her 11 times in her arms, chest and stomach. Khursheda died from blood loss before an ambulance arrived.
 The man and the boy managed to survive the attack and were hospitalized with head injuries. However, the next day they returned home from hospital. 
 On Tuesday only a few drops of blood remained on the trampled snow at the scene of Khurseda's murder near the building where her family rents an apartment.
 "This crime defies human comprehension," Ordynskaya said, adding that the girl was the only one of the three victims to receive knife wounds.
 Investigators consider that the murder is likely be "a crime committed by so-called skinheads" and "a revelation of hatred toward people of Tajik nationality," said Alexander Zhukov, deputy city prosecutor, Interfax reported.
 However, Ordynskaya said that until the killers are caught it would not be possible to confirm that the crime was committed by skinheads.
 Therefore, the prosecution office of Admiralteisky district initiated a criminal case on the article 105 of the Criminal Code (murder).
 The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office said the murder is likely to have been committed "under national, race or religious hatred and hostility."
 Nazar Mirzada, official representative of the Tajik community in St. Petersburg, who arrived on the scene of the murder on Tuesday, said Khursheda's family came to St. Petersburg five months ago looking for work. 
 The girl's father worked as a porter at Sennoi market in the center of the city, just next to where he and his family were attacked and where they rented an apartment.
 Mirzada said the attack looked like the work of skinheads.
 Governor Valentina Matviyenko gave an order on Tuesday to the head of St. Petersburg police Mikhail Vanichkin to do everything possible to find the teenagers who brutally killed the girl.
 "Get them even from under the earth and try them with all severity of the law," Matviyenko said to the city's police head at an administration's meeting on Tuesday, Interfax reported.
 Matviyenko appealed to the city residents "to create an atmosphere of intolerance to such phenomena in the city, so that criminals will not feel free here."
 "We must stop this evil," Matviyenko said.
 Mirzada said on Tuesday he was also planning to gather representatives of the Tajik community to discuss the situation on Wednesday.
 "We need to warn our people to be careful, help the family, and also prevent our community from having negative reactions," Mirzada said.
 Emomali Rakhmonov, president of Tajikistan, appealed on Thursday to Maxim Peshkov, the Russian ambassador to Tajikistan, to "inform him personally on the investigation of the case," Interfax said.
 Rakhmonov expressed his hope that the murderers of the girl would be found.
 Meanwhile, 36 representatives of St. Petersburg's national diasporas on Thursday sent a letter to the city governor and heads of St. Petersburg police, where they expressed their indignation. 
 "We... are extremely angered by another bloody crime, committed by a group of brutal young men, whose victim became a nine-year-old girl who lived in our city," they wrote.
 The national representatives underlined that "rousing the fire of national hostility by certain extreme circles usually has a clear aim - to destabilize the situation in this very area or the country as a whole".
 "Therefore it should be always stopped by any means," they wrote.
 The representatives said that they are hoping that the city authorities will do everything possible to save the city's residents from more of such incidents.
 Mirzada said some 3,500 Tajiks live in St. Petersburg, many of whom come to the city to earn cash because of the grinding poverty in Tajikistan.
 St. Petersburg has a bad track record for race-based crimes.
 In September, city police detained four skinheads suspected of killing another 6-year-old Tajik girl and seriously injuring a 5-year-old and an 18-month-old in an attack on a gypsy camp south of the city on Sept. 21.
 The suspects were taken into police custody on murder charges.
 A year earlier about 30 skinheads beat Mamed Mamedov, an Azeri melon trader, to death. 
 Another three skinheads were detained in February 2003 after they allegedly beat to death Atish Kumar Ramgoolam, 23, a Mauritian student at the Mechnikov State Medical Academy.
 The president's representative in the Northwest region Ilya Klebanov said St. Petersburg should strengthen measures to keep stability between the nationalities in the city.
 "In our multinational country the state can and should protect the interests of all its residents regardless of their ethnic status," Klebanov said, Interfax reported.

TITLE: Putin: I Can Pick My Heir
AUTHOR: By Caroline McGregor
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin kicked off his re-election campaign Thursday with a speech to supporters in which he laid out the achievements of his first term and plans for his all-but-assured second - and made an unexpected promise to pick an heir.
 
Analysts said his remarks to a packed auditorium at Moscow State University looked more like an address to a Communist Party congress than a campaign speech.
 Putin rambled through the successes of his first term: Gross domestic product has grown by 29.9 percent since 1999, he said. Unemployment has fallen by one-third. The real minimum wage has quadrupled in three years.
 The president also spoke with pride at having strengthened the "executive power vertical" and reversing the weakening of the army and "the destruction of law enforcement organs."
 In the speech broadcast live on state-owned Rossia and shown at length on Channel One, Putin said, "It would be inappropriate for an incumbent leader to advertise himself. That should have been done in the last four years."
 He said that to strengthen the political system, "civilized political competition is absolutely necessary." 
 Putin has refused to debate his six challengers - as had the pro-Kremlin United Russia party before State Duma elections, in which favorable state television coverage helped it win a two-thirds majority - but he spoke with no evident sense of irony.
 He repeated his opposition to letting the Duma change the Constitution to extend the presidential term from four to seven years, though not very categorically. Five years would be acceptable - "it's a nice round number" - but seven would be "too much."
 Instead, Putin said, it is the task of any leader after two terms to propose someone who can carry his work forward. "If people agree and support" the successor, the future "will be a continuation of what there is now," he said.
 Analysts expressed surprise that Putin, who himself was picked by President Boris Yeltsin as his successor in 1999, spoke so directly about that matter.
 "It's funny," said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences. "His understanding of democracy means offering us an heir."
 "Now it's official," said Andrei Piontkovsky, an independent political analyst. "They'll come up with an heir as a PR product to be sold to the people on television. He'll give us the same gift as Yeltsin did."
 People in the Kremlin speak about such things among themselves, "but I never expected such openness," Piontkovsky said.
 Putin's work, however, is not yet over, he said. Tasks remain, like administrative reform and restructuring the economy away from overdependence on high oil prices.
 In his speech, Putin also said he would continue to build an "active" civil society, which requires "genuinely free and responsible media outlets."
 "But such freedom and responsibility must have a legal and economic basis, which the government is obligated to create," he said.
 The government, he said, is the "alpha and omega" of economic success.
 "Today we feel that the time of uncertainty and fearful expectations is behind us. 
 "A new period has arrived, a period in which we can create conditions for a fundamental improvement in the quality of lives," Putin said from the stage, flanked by two giant video screens.
 "The question naturally is: 'Will we be able to manage this?' On the basis of the results of recent years we have every reason to believe, 'Yes, we can!' It is within our capabilities."
 Piontkovsky said the speech was reminiscent of those given by Communist leaders in Soviet times.
 "It's a classic Party congress speech, all the talk of big achievements and new plans," he said. "Stylistically, it's 'back in the U.S.S.R.'"
 Kryshtanova agreed. "The tone is optimistic, with only quick mentions of problems. And he's addressing his people, not the country.
 "It's as if we're in a country where there was no metro explosion last week."
 After leaving the podium, Putin sat down at the dais with a teacup and his campaign chairman, Dmitry Kozak, asked for questions from the friendly floor. 
 Some were softballs. Gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, for example, asked what Russian athletes could do to win in Athens.
 Khorkina was one of some 300 campaign representatives attending the speech. 
 The representatives, who are registered with the Central Elections Committee, also include Vitaly Ignatenko, the head of state-run news agency Itar-Tass, Mariinsky Theater director Valery Gergiyev, Severstal president Alexei Mordashov.
 Another question came from a uniformed military officer, who asked for his views on the Soviet Union's collapse.
 It was "a national tragedy of gigantic proportions," Putin replied. "I think that ordinary citizens ...won nothing." 
 But "we must look forward," he said. There were "certain pluses" to the current situation, among them the chance for Russia to "stop being a cow for each and all to milk."
 Russia takes its partners' interests into consideration and expects the same in return, he said.
 The president lashed out at what he saw as a patronizing tone from the West. "Why do we need to be helped. What, are we invalids?" Putin said.
 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell raised concerns over the direction of Russia's democracy during a visit two weeks ago, and the European Union released a strongly worded document warning Moscow that cooperation hinged on "common values" earlier this week.
 Putin said he was frustrated with those whose thinking remains in the Cold War era. "[They] cannot get out of the freezer and see us as political counterparts. We must seek allies, must melt this ice of distrust, laid over 80 years, setting the Soviet Union apart from the rest of the world."
 But he went on to name Europe and the United States as "our true partners." 
 The main goal is to make Russia "a full member of the international community," Putin said.

TITLE: Businesses Tackle Decline of the Dollar
AUTHOR: By Greg Walters
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - As the dollar fell steadily throughout the summer and fall of 2003, Patrick's employees began to clamor for a change.
 
"Their salaries were pegged to the dollar, and people were upset," said Patrick, who heads the Moscow branch of a European company. "The dollar was falling very quickly, and people's lifestyles were getting more expensive very fast."
 Patrick's company ultimately dumped the dollar for the euro.
 "My employees are definitely happy about it," he said. "And anyway, we're a European company, so it's a little easier for us. There's no going back."
 Patrick found himself among a growing number of people in Russia forced to cope with the depreciating dollar, which lost more than 10 percent of its value against the ruble over the last year and about 25 percent against the euro. 
 A year ago a dollar would get you 31.85 rubles or 1 euro. Now it will get you only 28.5 rubles or 78 euro cents.
 For most Russians, the firming of the ruble against the dollar isn't such a bad thing. In a recent nationwide survey by polling agency VTsIOM-A, 49 percent of respondents said they owned no dollars at all. Thirty-five percent said the U.S. currency's decline had had no affect whatsoever on their lives. Eleven percent of those polled said they had been adversely affected, and only 2 percent badly so.
 But in economic centers like Moscow and St. Petersburg, many salaries are pegged to the dollar, especially in large and foreign companies. Indeed, as much as three-fifths of the total value of all salaries paid in Russia are calculated in dollars, according to Natalya Orlova, an economist at Alfa Bank.
 "About 30 percent of the value of salaries in Russia are in the gray market, and those are paid in dollars," Orlova said. "Of the remaining economy, maybe 40 percent is pegged to the dollar. So the rate of the dollar is very important in Russia."
 And as the dollar falls, employers are looking at ways to guard the value of their employees' paychecks, and those with dollars are increasingly looking for ways to ensure the value of their earnings and savings.
 Companies paying in dollars have three basic options for coping with the change, according to analysts and business leaders: switch to euros or rubles, raise wages or set an internal exchange rate above the official one.
 "These three methods are the most common that we've heard of," said Piotr Zimowski, an analyst at Ernst & Young, which is currently preparing a study on how companies in Russia are dealing with a weakening buck. "But it may be a fully logical choice for some employers to just do nothing at the moment and carefully monitor the situation in the market."
 Zimowski said that while switching to euros may be a natural step for European-based companies, the move is not without risks, as there are no guarantees that the euro will not reverse course.
 Partly for that reason, many firms have chosen to stick with the dollar and make adjustments as warranted.
 Michael Lange, European director at real estate dealer Jones Lang LaSalle, said his company continues to value its employee's salaries in dollars - but makes regular revisions to adjust for factors like inflation and fluctuations in the exchange rate.
 "Every year we review in order to make up for any potential shortfalls," Lange said.
 This may turn out to be the preferred method. In a recent salary survey, the Moscow-based employment agency ANCOR found that 93 percent of foreign firms are planning to raise wages - up from 76 percent last summer.
 Yekaterina Varga, a project manager at ANCOR, was quick to point out that the falling dollar was not the only reason companies are paying their employees more. Other factors include inflation, a shortage of qualified specialists and increasing competition.
 "A lot of companies still have salaries fixed in dollars," Varga said. "And their employees are still losing money."
 Setting an arbitrary internal exchange rate - such as paying 30 rubles to the dollar - can serve as a short-term fix that is easily reversible. But it's a tough choice for companies whose revenues are mainly dollars.
 "The idea is to set an internal policy for a certain period of time, or make it dependant on the situation in the currency market," said Zinowski. "You review once every six months or once a year, or you include in your policy that certain changes in the currency market would also trigger review. It's not fixed in stone forever."
 Meanwhile, those with savings in dollars have been making a push for the exits.
 In 2004, according to official estimates, Russians converted $5.5 billion of their dollar savings into rubles, a significant chunk of the estimated $30 billion to $60 billion total.
 "When the dollar weakened, the opportunity cost of holding dollars increased," said Peter Westin, chief economist at investment bank Aton. "People are exchanging mattress dollars. There are still banks in Russia that don't ask where the money is coming from, and that's key to getting the mattress dollars in."
 Central Bank statistics also show that individual Russians have been saving more in banks over the last year - which means saving more in rubles - up from 649 billion rubles last February to 984 billion in December.
 But in the long run, the dollar's tailspin may have more widespread ripple effects than simple currency swapping. It might make Russians think more creatively about their savings, said Alexander Ivlev, an Ernst & Young partner. 
 "People have to protect their money now," said Ivlev. "In the past, people with dollar savings - which is not the majority of Russians - have been OK with keeping their money in the bank for very small interest."
 But Ivlev said that the dollar's deflation may spawn new trends.
 "Now, people start looking at things like stocks, investment companies, banks - all the options," Ivlev said. "They talk to their friends, they start getting advice. You could say it's changing people's mentality about their finances."

TITLE: Visas, Registration Revamped
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW- Expats, tourists and companies with foreign employees face a few more visa and registration hurdles that promise to create more paperwork - and headaches. 
 
The new rules, which came into force over the past couple of weeks, appear to be an attempt to keep closer track of foreigners, particularly the large number from other former Soviet republics who illegally live and work in Russia.
 Officials responsible for visa and registration regulations are notoriously inaccessible to the media, and none could be reached for comment about the new rules. But lawyers and visa agencies, whose livelihood depends on understanding the rules, explained the changes. Many of them spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to antagonize the authorities.
 The simplest and perhaps least-welcome change is in registration. Expatriates and tourists staying in a private apartment now need a letter of permission from their landlord and anyone else registered in the flat.
 The landlord has to go to the local maintenance department, known by its Russian acronym DEZ, and get the document officially stamped. The rules leave it unclear whether just the landlord or all the people registered in the apartment have to go to the DEZ office. 
 Getting the DEZ stamp could be difficult - DEZ offices are known for keeping erratic hours, and one visa agent said a client - a landlord - recently went to his local DEZ office and learned that no one there was aware of the new rules.
 This change was prompted by numerous cases of people being registered in apartments where they never lived and without the knowledge of those actually registered there, said a representative of Infinity Travel, which offers visa services.
 "They're probably just trying to track foreigners more closely and are looking for tax revenues," another visa agent said.
 A second new rule is that a foreigner must register his place of residence at the OVIR office handling passports and visas nearest to his apartment. Before, foreigner registrations were handled at the central OVIR office. Local OVIR offices are housed in local police stations, and they previously only dealt with registering foreign students. 
 This promises to create a logistical nightmare for companies with large foreign staffs. For example, a company with 50 foreign employees previously was able to take all the documents to one place, the central office at Pokrovka. Now it has to visit an untold number of local OVIR offices. 
 Complicating matters, the registration - which is issued for a maximum of six months at a time for all visas but work visas - is now being stamped on the migration card that everyone fills out when arriving in Russia. This means that those with business visas have to get re-registered every time they leave and return to Russia, as border officials remove the migration card every time foreigners leave the country.
 "For a businessman who perhaps leaves and goes back to Russia 50 times a year, this is a problem," said Sergei Melnikov, a lawyer at the law firm Your Lawyer. 
 The Russian Embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands, recommends that foreigners avoid this hassle by keeping photocopies of their migration cards in their passport that they can give border officials when they leave.
 Two other new rules - these involving one-year multi-entry business visas and tourist visas - also will create difficulties for foreigners, but they appear to be part of a drive to adopt international standards. The authorities are trying to make sure that a foreigner carrying one type of visa is in Russia doing exactly what that visa entitles him to. 
 As such, a foreigner working here must have a work visa - not a one-year multi-entry visa as in years past. Those with one-year multi-entry visas - which are for business travelers - can no longer stay in the country longer than 180 days in one stretch. So foreigners used to going once a year to renew their visas now have to leave and then re-enter the country at least every six months.
 A reason the work visa was shunned was because it typically takes four months to obtain, an unacceptable delay for many businesses. The visa also is single entry. Furthermore, it requires that the holder apply for an exit permit 45 days in advance of his planned departure.
 The authorities now are promising to give foreigners with work visas the documentation needed to come and go as many times as they want within 20 days of their arrival.
 As for travelers with tourist visas, they now must also go through the registration rigmarole - the DEZ letter and a visit to the local OVIR office, or pay a tourist agency to do this. The rule does not apply to tourists staying at hotels.
 "They [the rules] are just not suitable for foreign tourists," a travel agency official said. "I feel sorry for people who have to do this."

TITLE: More Babies Born Last Year, but Birthrate Low
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg residents are having more children, marrying more and later, officials say.
 
They also use surrogate mothers more frequently than before, and prefer to marry Americans more than other foreigners.
 This summary of the city's births, deaths and marriages in 2003 was released by the St. Petersburg Civil Registry Office, or ZAGS on Wednesday, Interfax reported.
 The only pessimistic signs of the latest research was that exactly half of marriages break up, and that the city's birth rate remains the lowest in the country.
 "The number of births in St. Petersburg increased to 40,700 in 2003 compared to 37,720 born in 2002," said Galina Bogdanova, head of St. Petersburg ZAGS.
 "However, the birth rate in St. Petersburg is still the lowest in Russia," she added.
 Bogdanova said during the last three years St. Petersburg's birth rate had gradually increased after a demographic low point in 1999, when only 29,879 children were born.
 In the last 20 years the highest number of births registered in the city was in 1987, when 74,065 babies were born, Interfax reported.
 The number of children born to surrogate mothers is rising, Bogdanova said.
 "In 2003 children were born from 15 surrogate mothers, while in 2002 there were only six children born that way, and in 2001 - five cases," she said.
 The first case of surrogate motherhood in Russia was also registered in St. Petersburg, she said.
 At least 570 children were born to mothers aged under 18 last year.
 Foreigners gave birth to 311 children last year. Eighteen of the babies are American citizens, there were 17 each with Turkish and Afghan citizenship, 16 are Lithuanians, and 14 have Finish citizenship.
 According to the civil registration office, the most popular names in St. Petersburg are Alexander, Alexei, Anatoly, Andrei, Dmitry for boys and Yekaterina, Yelena, Anastasiya, Natalya, Darya and Maria for girls.
 However, rare names such as Savva, Luka, Akakii, Hamlet, Aida, Karmen, Solomeya were also registered. 
 The number of marriages registered in St. Petersburg rose in 2003 to 37,270 compared to 35,429 in 2002 and 31,751 in 1999.
 The number of marriages registered in the Northern capital by residents of other cities also increased in 2003 to 1,269 compared to 874 in 2001.
 Bogdanova said people come to get married in St. Petersburg even from distant foreign countries.


TITLE: Addict Support Group Offers Aid to Those Wanting to Quit
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Representatives of the international public organization for recovering drug-addicts Anonymous Drug Addicts or ADA gathered for an international four-day meeting in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
 
St. Petersburg has a high rate of drug addiction as evidenced by its HIV rate that is among the highest in the country. Most of those infected with HIV have received the virus through intravenous injections.
 "We gather here to discuss our common needs... and share our experience of the ways of recovering for drug addicts," Simon, a British former addict, said Wednesday at a news conference. 
 ADA was founded in 1953 to help people addicted to drugs but wanting to break the habit.
 ADA's program of recovering involves a succession of certain actions known as 12 Steps. The steps include such actions as acknowledgment of the problem; appeal for help; honest self-estimation; trustful narration about oneself; compensation of the damage that person caused to surrounding people; and help other drug-addicts who want to recover.
 One of the ADA's main concepts is that a drug-addict who managed to quit can be the most successful adviser to others who are still hooked . 
 To provide such help ADA's members gather at regular meetings and share their experience on how they gave up drugs.
 Viktor, St. Petersburg representative of ADA, said the movement started in the city in 1990 and now unites about 600 people.
 He said there are at least eight places in the city and Leningrad Oblast where ADA members gather.
 "I haven't been taking drugs for the last three years," he said.
 Simon said the activities of the organization prove that the saying of "once an addict, always an addict" is not true.
 Membership at ADA is free, but people can contribute financially to the organization's work if they have the opportunity or wish to do so.
 
 <i>ADA's international conference is taking place at Ul. Aerodromnaya, 4 in the building of the State Regional Education Center. Another contact is 476-5784 (Kostya, Nastya). </i>

TITLE: Leading Liberals Take New Jobs
AUTHOR: By Oksana Yablokova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Two months after their painful defeat in the State Duma elections, most of the country's leading liberals have put their political ambitions on hold, with many saying they had found other jobs outside politics.
 
Some have accepted posts in government or private business, while others have resumed their academic careers.
 The Union of Right Forces, or SPS, leader Boris Nemtsov was named a director of Kontsern Neftyanoi, a company led by Igor Linshits, an associate reported to be an SPS party sponsor, Interfax reported Wednesday. 
 Several leading lights in Yabloko, including party chief Grigory Yavlinsky, his deputy Sergei Ivanenko and several former deputies, including Alexei Arbatov and Alexei Melnikov, have joined EPI Center, a think tank Yavlinsky founded in the early 1990s to generate economic programs.
 The center has been largely overshadowed in recent years as most of its staffers were employed at the Duma.
 Arbatov, a prominent defense and security expert, has also resumed his academic career with the Academy of Sciences' Center for International Security, and on Feb. 1 also took up a post as an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. 
 President Vladimir Putin asked the Duma on Wednesday to appoint Yavlinsky's other deputy, Vladimir Lukin, as its human rights commissioner. 
 Putin wrote to the Duma naming Lukin as his candidate for the job, the presidential press service said in a statement. Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov told reporters later Wednesday that deputies would most probably vote in favor of the president's nomination. 
 Lukin, a foreign affairs expert who served as Russia's ambassador to the United States from 1992 to 1993 before his election to the Duma, accepted the offer, Interfax reported.
 The term of Russia's first human rights commissioner, Oleg Mironov, expired last May, but he has stayed on as interim commissioner because the Duma has not elected a successor.
 The day after the elections, when it became clear that neither Yabloko nor SPS had managed to pass the 5 percent barrier required to get its leading candidates into the Duma, Putin said the ideas and experience of liberal lawmakers would be in great demand.
 But two months after the elections, only a few former liberal deputies have found governmental jobs.
 A reported exception is Yabloko's Igor Artemyev, who has been offered the post of deputy economic development and trade minister, Yabloko party spokeswoman Yevgenia Dillendorf said Wednesday.
 Another prominent Yabloko member, Valery Ostanin, has been appointed to head the personnel department of the Audit Chamber.
 At least two other ex-Yabloko deputies were in talks over governmental jobs, Dillendorf said.
 Former Education Committee Chairman Alexander Shishlov was in talks for a job with the Education Ministry to push through education system reforms, his spokesman Mikhail Lebanon said.
 Sergei Mitrokhin, a housing and utilities sector expert, was touted for a post with Gosstroi, the State Construction Committee.
 Mitrokhin confirmed Wednesday that he was in talks with Gosstroi, but had not received a formal job offer yet.
 Some former deputies, including SPS deputy leader Boris Nadezhdin, who said that he had returned to a full-time lecturing job at the Moscow Physical Technical Institute.

TITLE: Rybkin's Explanations Leave Riddle
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - In a rambling hourlong radio interview, presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin suggested Wednesday that for at least part of his five-day absence in Ukraine he was hiding out from shadowy operatives - but at the same time he lashed out at authorities for not being able to inform Russians about his whereabouts. 
 
Rybkin also announced &quot;a weeklong time-out&quot; to decide whether or not to scrap his candidacy in the March 14 election, which President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to win.
 Rybkin, a long-shot presidential candidate and fierce Kremlin critic, resurfaced in Kiev on Tuesday. He flew back into Moscow, returning to a torrent of questions about what happened since he was last seen by his bodyguard and driver outside his Moscow home on Thursday night. 
 Initially, Rybkin suggested his absence was just a much-needed rest from the swirl of activity around his campaign, but after arriving back in Moscow, he hinted at a more sinister reason. 
 &quot;If I had started to say what I'm saying to you now ... it is possible that we wouldn't be having this conversation,&quot; Rybkin said on Ekho Moskvy radio on Wednesday.
 But when asked point blank if he was the victim of violence or some type of assassination attempt, he answered evasively: &quot;I don't want to qualify it,&quot; he said. 
 Moscow police on Wednesday formally closed their investigation, which began Sunday when Rybkin's wife, Albina, and his campaign staff officially reported him missing. 
 Rybkin gave odd accounts of people that he came across in Kiev who might have been involved in intrigues against him. He never specified exactly what he meant, however. 
 &quot;For the last two years, I've been shadowed,&quot; he said, adding later that when he saw the news reports about his disappearance, he suddenly felt &quot;very uncomfortable&quot; and felt the need to hide out. 
 As a head of the Security Council under former President Boris Yeltsin, Rybkin repeatedly said that he knew how the agencies work. 
 But he also chastised the same agencies for not reporting his whereabouts. Rybkin said that he presented his passport at the Ukrainian border, as required, and dealt with numerous customs and other officials. 
 &quot;They wished me a good trip, they bade me farewell,&quot; he said. 
 He said as soon as the swirl of questions arose surrounding his disappearance, the Federal Security Service should have said that he was in Ukraine. 
 &quot;They would have immediately found me ... but instead a very complicated situation arose,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Reporter Said To Be Safe
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Rebeccca Santana, an American reporter for Cox Newspapers whom the U.S. Embassy had reported missing in the North Caucasus, was located Wednesday afternoon in Chechnya and was safe, her editor said.
 
&quot;She's been in Chechnya the last couple days, unaware there was any concern for her safety or whereabouts,&quot; Cox Newspapers foreign editor Chuck Holmes said by telephone from Washington. &quot;When she realized that, she left [Grozny] to Mozdok and gave me a call.&quot;
 Santana was on her way back to Moscow, he said.
 Santana had not been heard from since Sunday, when she flew to Mineralniye Vody, a city in North Ossetia, on the first leg of a trip to cover the conflict in neighboring Chechnya.
 From there, she was to travel by car to the nearby city of Mozdok.
 Santana's friends and fellow journalists in Moscow grew concerned when they received a call from a contact who was to have met her in Mozdok saying she had not shown up as planned.


TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Average Wage $250 
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The average monthly wage for St. Petersburgers was 7,388 rubles (about $250) last year, Interfax quoted Vladimir Blank, head of City Hall's committee for economic development, industrial policy and trade, as saying Tuesday.
 The average wage was 4,287 rubles in 2001 and 5,658 rubles in 2002, he said. 
 Over the same period the average income per capita had risen from 3,772 rubles in 2001, to 4,544 in 2002 and 7, 323 in 2003, Blank added.
 In addition the structure of consumer spending had changed. A total of 47.5 percent of individuals' income is spent on buying goods, 18.9 percent for services and 14 percent to buy foreign currency. The amount of money being converted into foreign currency had doubled, Blank said.
 "This shows that we need to develop our service and production centers because the population has got money to spend," he said.
 
 
<b>Plan to Fight HIV
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - City Hall plans to create an HIV-prevention program for 2004 to 2006, Interfax quoted Yury Sherbuk, head of the health committee, as saying Tuesday.
 "An effective defense against this disease is only possible through a well organized prevention program," he was quoted as saying.
 Speaking after Sherbuk had completed a presentation on an HIV-prevention program that ran from 2001 to 2003, he said it was important not to lose the initiative, and that even stronger efforts are required. 
 St. Petersburg is one of the worst regions in the country for HIV infections. A total of 24,000 cases have been registered since 1987.
 He also spoke of the need to address treatment for people with AIDS saying that 60 cases in St. Petersburg are not being treated. Annual treatment would cost 295,000 rubles, the report said.
 
 
<b>Pope's Envoy to Visit
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Cardinal Walter Kaspar, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will visit Moscow on Tuesday, Intefax quoted Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the head of the Catholic Church in Russia, as saying in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
 "We hope that the arrival of the cardinal will help the development of dialog between the Catholic and the Orthodox church in Russia," he said.
 Kaspar is to meet the Patriarch Alexey II and Mitropolit Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, secretary of the international commission preparing for dialog between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
 Kondrusiewicz said St. Petersburg is the most religiously tolerant city in Russia.
 "In St. Petersburg after the Revolution only one church was spared and now it has been restored and six others have been returned. In Moscow of three churches, only one has been returned," he said.
 
 
<b>Estonian Funds Church
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Estonian Culture Ministry is to cofund the restoration of the St. Jaana Lutheran church in St. Petersburg with a 3 million kroon ($246,000) grant, Interfax reported Tuesday..
 "These funds have already been set aside and will be allocated for that purpose," the news agency quoted Anton Pern, deputy chancellor of the department of preservation of monuments of culture at the ministry, as saying.
 "The Estonian Philharmonia, which initiated this project, and the Culture Ministry, hope that the church will be a place not only for religious purposes, but also for cultural ones," he added.
 The church was built in 1860 when 50,000 Estonians lived in the Russian Imperial Capital and another 20,000 lived near the city, a total greater than the number of Estonians living in Revel, modern-day Tallinn, at that time. Today about 4,500 Estonians live in the city and about 4,000 in the Leningrad Oblast.
 
 
<b>Oblast Phone Code
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Leningrad Oblast is to get its own intercity telephone code 813 from March 1, Interfax reported Tuesday.
 Lensvyaz, the operator of the oblast telephone utility, said that calls between cities will start with 8-813 and within the oblast 8-2, followed by the district code and the five-digit individual number.
 "For the convenience of subscribers from March 1 until April 1, 2004 the code "812" that used to serve both the city and the oblast will continue to work," Lensvyaz's press service was quoted as saying.
 
 
<b>Matviyenko in Finland
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Governor Valentina Matviyenko left on Tuesday for a four-day visit to Finland. She visited Helsinki and Turku and met President Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paula Lehtom&auml;ki. 
 Among other decisions taken during the visit was close cooperation between St. Petersburg and Helsinki on the project Baltic Metropolis, Interfax reported. The project was founded in October 2002 and includes large cities of the Baltic region, including Berlin and Copenhagen. 
 Another project discussed was the creation of a high-speed train link between Helsinki and St. Petersburg by 2008, Interfax reported.
 
 
<b>Faberg&eacute; Museum Plan
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A Museum of Carl Faberg&eacute; may be established in the jeweler's former mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa, Interfax quoted Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum, as saying Wednesday.
 "A lot of space in the building has been bought by foreign businessmen, and there will be legal and financial questions [on how to establish the museum]," he said. "But the idea is realistic and it is strongly supported by the administration and the public." 
 Speaking on the recent purchase of nine Faberg&eacute; eggs from the Forbes family by TNK boss Viktor Vekselberg, Piotrovsky denied that there was a contest for where the eggs should be displayed when they return to Russia.
 "The eggs could be in one of two places - in St. Petersburg in the Hermitage or in Moscow in the Armory Chamber," he said, adding that he thought the Hermitage was the right place.
 
 
<b>Latvia Education Protest
 </b>

RIGA, Latvia (Reuters) - Thousands of ethnic Russians rallied outside the Latvian president's office on Wednesday to protest an education law that has also angered Moscow by reducing Russian language use in schools. 
 Police estimated the crowd to be up to 8,000 mainly young students, who shouted "No reforms!" and "Hands off our schools!" in a second wave of protests after a similar rally last week when parliament passed the law. 
 President Vaira Vike-Freiberga approved the law late on Tuesday, saying she failed to see why any minority should find the law - which requires that at least 60 percent of teaching at minority schools will be held in Latvian - provocative. <b>$76Bln Trade Surplus
 </b>

MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) - The foreign trade surplus jumped $16 billion to $76.3 billion in 2003, the State Customs Committee said Wednesday.
 Foreign trade turnover increased 25 percent to $191.1 billion.
 Booming exports amid favorable market conditions, as well as growing imports as a result of the increase in domestic demand and Russians' real disposable incomes, led to the surplus, the biggest in nine years, the committee said.
 Exports rose 25.3 percent in 2003 to $133.7 billion, while imports increased 24.3 percent on the year to $57.4 billion.
 
 
<b>7.5% Industry Growth
 </b>

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Industrial output rose 7.5 percent in January compared with 4.9 percent growth in the same month a year ago, Interfax quoted Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov as saying on Wednesday.
 Industrial output rose 7.9 percent in December 2003, year-on-year, and 7 percent for the year as a whole.
 The State Statistics Committee is scheduled to release its official data for January's industrial output Feb. 16.
 Kasyanov's data appeared to confirm the trend indicated by a Manufacturing Purchases Index that signaled that the manufacturing economy continued to expand in January albeit at a slower pace due to a slowdown in output and new orders.
 Industrial sector growth was seen as an important factor behind a 7.3 percent economic growth in 2003. Officials target a 4.5 percent growth of the industrial sector in 2004.
 
 
<b>Aluminum Exports Up
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - The government increased aluminum exports to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States by 14 percent last year, the State Customs Committee said Wednesday.
 Russia exported 3.14 million tons of aluminum to non-CIS countries, the committee said.
 Exports of nickel fell 15 percent to 237,900 tons, while copper exports slid 21 percent to 406,800 tons.
 The government raised crude oil exports 19 percent to 186.4 million tons (3.74 million barrels per day) to countries outside the CIS, the committee said.
 
 
<b>Kiev Joins Bird Ban
 </b>

KIEV (AP) - Ukraine has temporarily banned imports of poultry products from Delaware following the discovery of bird flu on a farm in the eastern U.S. state, an official said Wednesday.
 Mykola Patsiuk, deputy head of the veterinary department of Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry, said the ban applies not only to meat and eggs, but to feed and feed additives as well.
 Ending an 11-month ban in December, Ukraine began accepting American chicken shipments certified to contain no growth stimulants, hormones or other banned additives.
 Before the ban, U.S. producers supplied about 90 percent of Ukraine's chicken imports.
 Ukraine has banned poultry imports from Vietnam, Thailand and several other Asian countries following the outbreak of bird flu.
 Russia banned poultry from Delaware on Tuesday.
 
 
<b>$1Bln RZD Loan?
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Russian Railways, or RZD, the country's state-owned rail monopoly, may get a $500 million to $1 billion loan from the World Bank to modernize its equipment.
 The bank is ready to provide a five-year loan if the company presents it "with a five- to 10-year reorganization plan together with an investment program and modernization program for the same period," Russian Railways said in a statement Thursday.
 The loan will be provided if the Russian government guarantees its return, the statement said.
 RZD expects a profit this year of about $300 million profit on revenue of $22 billion. It ships 40 percent of all cargoes in Russia, including oil and gas transportation through pipelines. <b>Rosneft Cool on Deal
 </b>

ARKHANGELSK (SPT) - Rosneft is not rushing to jump into a joint venture deal with U.S. firm Marathon Oil, the Russian company's vice president announced Thursday.
 "We are in consultations and have not made a final decision on cooperation," Rosneft vice president Sergei Oganesyan told journalists.
 Marathon has its sights set on the Timano-Pechorsk fields in the Khatny-Mansiisk autonomous district. "But there are other assets in that region that Rosneft is counting on," Oganesyan said.
 Rosneft signed a memorandum of understanding with Marathon in 2002 to drill and sell oil to the United States. 
 
 
<b>More Oil Pumped
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Transneft subsidiary Spetsmornefteport Primorsk loaded 1.9 times more oil in January 2004 than in January 2003, Interfax reported Thursday.
 The terminal loaded 2.904 million tons of oil in January 2004.
 
 
<b>Panasonic Investment
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Panasonic Co. invested more than $1 million in an interactive plasma screen project in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Wednesday.
 At a press conference Panasonic vice president Macao Motoki announced that similar projects would be implemented in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Nizhny Novgorod.
 The project is called TVIster and uses a screen that is 6.5 meters high and 7.3 meters wide. The screen is mounted outside the Tekhnologichesky Institut metro station.
 
 
<b>Technology Park
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - St. Petersburg may become home to a technology park called "Finnish Village," Interfax reported Thursday.
 The idea was proposed by Governor Valentina Matviyenko during a recent visit to Finland, the City Hall press service announced.
 In Finland Matviyenko met with representatives of major Finnish concerns operating in the Northwest Region of Russia. 
 The technology park would develop high-technology production, testing and implementation of innovations in various fields of industry, the press service said.
 
 
<b>Travel Agents Propose
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Northwest regional chapter of the Russian Tourism Industry Union proposes creating recreation and tourism zones in St. Petersburg, Interfax reported Thursday.
 According to a press release issued by the union, such zones would be given a "special status restricting use of these zones for other purposes, for example, construction not connected with tourism infrastructure."
 
 



TITLE: Aeroflot Flies to Asian Skies
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Aeroflot on Wednesday moved a step closer to achieving its goal of increasing its market share in Asia by 30 percent this year after Russia and Hong Kong agreed to expand air services.
 
As part of an agreement signed by civil aviation authorities from both sides, Russia's flagship carrier will add a sixth weekly flight to the former British colony and eventually a seventh. The deal also allows partially state-owned Cathay Pacific, Asia's No. 6 airline, to start direct flights to Moscow and to get greater access to Russian skies for flights to Europe and North America.
 In addition, a pending code-sharing agreement will allow Aeroflot and Cathay to sell tickets for each other, said Alexander Kanishchev, head of route planning at Aeroflot.
 &quot;The fact that Cathay has agreed to share codes with Aeroflot says a lot about our quality of service and would have been unthinkable five years ago,&quot; Kanishchev said by telephone.
 Kanishchev said Cathay plans to operate three weekly direct flights from Hong Kong to Moscow beginning next year.
 Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov late last year said Asia would be the centerpiece of the company's long-term growth strategy, and Kanishchev said talks on code-sharing agreements with other Asian carriers are already under way.
 Aeroflot currently has agreements with more than 30 carriers worldwide.
 Aeroflot is in the process of adding more weekly flights to all of the cities in Asia it services, and it already has daily flights to Beijing and Tokyo. Aeroflot has also resumed flights to Bombay, now Mumbai, after an 18-month break.
 The biggest hurdle to faster expansion, Kanishchev said, is a shortage of aircraft.
 &quot;The government could have understood that it would be more beneficial to the state if airlines earned money here,&quot; Kanishchev said, referring to its refusal to lift prohibitive import duties on foreign aircraft.
 Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin on Tuesday told The Moscow Times that the duties would remain in place at least through the end of the year.
 Kanishchev said Aeroflot suffered like all other international carriers from the outbreak of the SARS virus in China last year, but the airline recovered more quickly than most.
 &quot;We began to increase the number of our flights in advance and rode out of the crisis like a surfer,&quot; he said.
 Yelena Sakhnova, transportation analyst with United Financial Group, praised Aeroflot's strategy of focusing on Asia, but doubted that it could achieve 30 percent growth in the market this year.
 &quot;We originally expected growth of 7 percent, but now we are expecting 10 percent,&quot; she said.
 Meanwhile, having decided to scale down its existing operations in North America, including abandoning service to San Francisco, the company is now looking for other ways to tap that market.
 Kanishchev said Aeroflot has teamed up with Alaska Airlines and a few other carriers in a special pro rata agreement that will give it access to 42 points on the U.S. West Coast, instead of the three it previously had.
 &quot;We hope that other American carriers, when they see the success of this partnership, will sign up,&quot; he said.

TITLE: Kasyanov Questions Bank Reform Success
AUTHOR: By Alex Fak
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - The government's commitment to bank reform was called into question Wednesday after the Cabinet failed to approve a much-anticipated five-year development blueprint for the struggling sector.
 
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov sent the blueprint back to the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry for several minor revisions, while at the same time warning that failure to speed development of the industry would stunt overall economic growth.
 Kasyanov told ministers that the banking sector must grow three times faster than the rest of the economy as a whole if the country is to maintain its five-year expansion.
 &quot;Without a fast-growing banking sector, we will not be able to support high rates of economic growth,&quot; news agencies quoted Kasyanov as saying. There is &quot;no room for optimism,&quot; he said.
 Some analysts questioned the sincerity of Kasyanov's remarks.
 &quot;It's interesting that statements like that are made and on the very same day the bank sector reforms do not get approved,&quot; said Andrew Keeley, bank analyst at Renaissance Capital. The reasons for the postponement &quot;seem to be very technical. I think... this is a bit of a smoke screen, really.&quot;
 However, Mikhail Delyagin, Kasyanov's former economic adviser, said sending the plan back for minor revisions &quot;has become a standard procedure lately&quot; and does not necessarily imply that it has been derailed.
 The strategy calls for submitting to parliament several bills this year to protect banks from defaulting borrowers and allow lenders to penalize depositors for early withdrawals from term accounts. Another bill would create an electronic bookkeeping system to lower the costs of reporting for banks.
 The strategy also sets several bold targets, such as increasing the ratio of lending to the nonfinancial, or real, sector of the economy to 28 percent from 18 percent, and the ratio of bank assets to gross domestic product to 60 percent from 42 percent by 2009. In most Western countries, total assets held by banks exceeds annual GDP.
 Commercial lending by Russian banks has tripled over the last three years, while retail lending has doubled in the past year alone, according to the Central Bank. As of Jan. 1, banks had outstanding loans to the real sector of 2.4 trillion rubles ($81 billion), or 45 percent of total assets.
 But growth in assets and lending &quot;is not enough, because the development of the banking sector lags behind the development of the economy,&quot; said Kasyanov. 
 The underdeveloped and fragmented banking system - the country has more than 1,300 banks - is widely seen as the chief obstacle to an efficient flow of funds to the private sector and to diversification of the economy.
 Several points of the document came under criticism in the run-up to the meeting.
 The strategy stipulates, for instance, that from 2010 all banks must have minimum capital of 5 million euros. This requirement is meant to speed up consolidation, but it could wipe out most regional banks whose capital rarely reaches even half that sum, said Anatoly Milyukov, managing vice president of the Association of Russian Banks.
 Milyukov said that 800 banks in the last four years have surpassed the limit on their own and that government interference is unjustified.
 The strategy also fails to address the unusually high reserve requirements Russian banks face. They have to place between 7 percent and 10 percent of their deposits in illiquid Central Bank accounts, as opposed to between 2 percent and 3 percent in most other countries. &quot;It definitely is a drain on banks' resources,&quot; Keeley said, because &quot;these fairly large chunks of their deposits are frozen in illiquid accounts at the Central Bank.&quot;
 Meanwhile, it emerged that the government is backtracking on its December promise, made to reluctant State Duma deputies before the third and final vote on national deposit insurance, to fully insure all deposits in Sberbank.
 State-controlled Sberbank is the only bank in the country with government guarantees on deposits and is exempt from the new law on deposit insurance that banks must fund themselves.
 First Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said the government guarantee Sberbank currently enjoys will only cover deposits made before the deposit insurance law comes into effect later this year.

TITLE: New Yavlinsky Book Says Russia Run By 'Gosklan'
AUTHOR: By Caroline McGregor
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia's economic system provides &quot;growth without development,&quot; Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky told an audience gathered in Moscow on Tuesday for the launch of his latest book, &quot;Peripheral Capitalism.&quot; 
 
Economic indicators like credit ratings and Central Bank reserves may rise, he said, but they are not helping to modernize society. 
 Yavlinsky, an economist by training, established himself as a leading democrat after entering politics in the early 1990s. One quarter of the population enjoys an &quot;average, modern standard of living,&quot; he said, while the remaining three quarters falls short of that. 
 Europe's middle class is made up of &quot;teachers, doctors, engineers, managers,&quot; he said, while Russia's is &quot;a very narrow circle of people providing specialized services - restaurants, taxis, girls.&quot; 
 Russia has a capitalist economy that, unlike its Soviet predecessor, is tied to world markets, he said, explaining the book's title, but it exists &quot;on the most distant margins.&quot; Yavlinsky said that the oligarchic economic system &quot;has no future from the medium and long-term point of view.&quot; 
 &quot;We used to have Gosplan,&quot; the state central planning agency, he said. &quot;Now we have Gosklan. What's the difference? In substance, nothing has changed.&quot; 
 Less than 150 people make all key decisions in the country, and ultimately &quot;all business, parliament, media and courts are controlled by one person,&quot; he said, in reference to President Vladimir Putin. 
 One &quot;exceptionally important&quot; weakness of the system is that property rights &quot;are not unconditional,&quot; he said. &quot;Nothing is guaranteed to anyone.&quot; 
 Without a dismantling of the oligarchic system, in which he said 20-30 top business structures control 70 percent of the economy, Russia will eventually lose what it has gained through &quot;deep demodernization.&quot; 
 Yavlinsky is the author of some 60 books and articles, his web site says. His previous books include &quot;Russia's Phony Capitalism,&quot; published in 1998, and &quot;Demodernization,&quot; published in 2002.

TITLE: Chocolatiers Slow to Warm to Valentine's Day
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Step into the shops around St. Valentine's Day and you will see that local chocolate makers have yet to discover a marketing tool already familiar in the West. In St. Petersburg, you'd have to walk your feet off to find heart-shaped Valentine's chocolates decorated with red ribbons. 
 
Chocolate is a hugely popular present in Russia for any holiday. According to a January 2004 poll by Moscow-based Obshchestvennoye Mneniye Foundation, chocolate topped the list of most common New Year's presents in Russia. Seventeen percent of respondents received chocolate as a New Year's present, while 15 percent received perfume or cosmetics. Toys, clothes and souvenirs held 9 percent respectively. Six percent of respondents received money as a present. The same research shows that 29 percent of respondents received no present at all.
 Similar polls are routinely done around every major holiday - be it the New Year or International Women's Day on March 8 - and chocolate always tops the list. 
 The chocolate market has substantial potential for growth, experts say. According to a survey conducted by St. Petersburg-based market research agency TOY-Opinion at the end of 2003, an average Russian consumes 3.1 kilograms of chocolate per year - a far cry from 12 kilograms per person in Switzerland or 10 kilograms per person in Germany and Belgium. Even France with 7 kilograms per person a year is far ahead.
 As for Valentine's Day, most Russian chocolatiers have yet to wake up to it - and St. Petersburg chocolate-makers, in particular.
 Perhaps predictably, a selection of chocolates specifically made and designed for Feb. 14 can be found in the Museum of Chocolate, an exclusive chocolate boutique that currently boasts three branches in town. The three shops, famous for their inventive approach and fine French ingredients, have much on offer, from traditional hearts to miniature sculptures of Romeo and Juliet. 
 The Krupskaya Confectionery Factory, the absolute leader on the St. Petersburg chocolate market - holding 86 percent of the sold-by-weight chocolate candies market, 32 percent of the chocolate bar market and 23 percent of the boxed chocolate market - has developed a special series called Mily Drug, named after &quot;Bel-Ami,&quot; a famous novel by Guy de Maupassant. 
 &quot;Designed in a very romantic and elegant way, these chocolates exist in two versions: for the female and male beloved,&quot; said the factory's spokeswoman Anna Gridasova. &quot;The box for women is red, and the box for men is blue, but the original design makes them parts of one whole.&quot; 
 Gridasova said the factory's sales do go up around Valentine's Day. &quot;We have a large choice of chocolate boxes designed as presents which sell well but Mily Drug is the most symbolic and most popular,&quot; Gridasova said. &quot;The younger customers are particularly keen on giving sweet presents for the lovers' day.&quot; 
 Tatyana Troitskaya, regional manager for U.S. company Kraft Foods, said the company has made a Valentine's wrapping for one of their products. Barkhat (Velvet) chocolates in 200 gram boxes come in special decorative wrappings decorated with hearts. &quot;We have installed special stands in large supermarkets to attract customers' attention,&quot; Troitskaya said.
 Kraft Foods, manufacturers of Alpen Gold and Milka chocolate bars, dominates the chocolate market in Russia. Every seventh chocolate bar sold in Russia last year was made at the company's factories. Alpen Gold and Vozdushny chocolate bars count among the ten most popular chocolate bar brands, according to St. Petersburg market research company Komkon.
 &quot;Valentine's Day is still a very new holiday for the Russians,&quot; Troitskaya said. &quot;Our sales are not affected by Lovers' Day, like they normally are by the New Year and March 8. During the New Year holidays sales jump by more than 20 percent, and around Women's Day they rise by more than 10 percent.&quot;
 Most Russian chocolate makers haven't yet developed their own series of products for the Feb. 14 holiday. 
 &quot;We have a choice of ten different so-called assorted chocolates and several versions that say 'Congratulations' - beautifully decorated - which sell very well throughout the year and would fit any special event from a birthday to Womens' Day to Valentine's Day,&quot; said a spokeswoman for the marketing department for St. Petersburg chocolate factory Azart. She also said Azart's sales are not affected by St. Valentine's Day.
 TOY-Opinion, the local market research agency, discovered that St. Petersurgers are truly fond of chocolate: 36 percent of them buy chocolate bars at least once a week, while 94 percent of respondents said they buy them from time to time but without any regularity. &quot;There is a popular stereotype that women are more keen on chocolates than men but our survey shows that men buy chocolate nearly as often as women,&quot; said Anton Cheryomushkin of TOY-Opinion. &quot;The correlation is 56 percent to 45 percent.&quot;
 But a similar survey by Komkon says the breakdown of active chocolate consumers in St. Petersburg is different: 61.1 percent women and 38.8 percent men.
 In her book &quot;Why Women Need Chocolate,&quot; U.S. nutritionist Debra Waterhouse argues that indulging a craving for chocolate can help women lose weight, boost energy and maximize mood-elevating brain chemicals. Chocolate cravings, she adds, are &quot;not a problem to be treated, but a blessing to be encouraged.&quot;
 Other researchers, however, have adopted a slightly less romantic stance. According to Cathleen Henning, a specialist on anxiety disorders, chocolate can make some women depressed, nervous and unable to concentrate.
 The strongest player on the St. Petersburg chocolate market is the Krupskaya Confectionery Factory, which holds more than 30 percent of the market, makes more than 130 brands of chocolate and produces more than 20,000 tons of chocolate per year. 
 According to TOY-Opinion, 65 percent of St. Petersburgers named Krupskaya as their preferred chocolate producer. The nearest two rivals are Fazer with 17 percent and Russky Shokolad with 13 percent.
 Krupskaya's Gridasova said the largest share of the factory's customers are women aged 25 to 50. &quot;Most of our customers prefer the classic dark chocolate they grew up with and which the factory has always been famous for,&quot; Gridasova said. &quot;These brands account for most of our sales.&quot;
 Alla Kosyakova, a researcher with Komkon, points out that although generally the Russian chocolate market is dominated by Western companies, in large cities the top positions belong to local confectionery giants. &quot;In St. Petersburg it is the Krupskaya factory, in Moscow it is Krasny Oktyabr and Babayevsky,&quot; Kosyakova said. &quot;These confectioneries have kept a good reputation since the Soviet years, and they don't have to spend much on promotion because they are known in every house.&quot;
 However, Kosyakova said, on the national level, these companies can't compete with foreign holdings like Nestle and Cadbury. 
 A Komkon survey says the five most popular chocolate brands in St. Petesburg include Mishka Na Severe (A Bear In The North) produced by the Krupskaya Confectionery with 32.4 percent, Alpen Gold produced by Kraft Foods with 31.3 percent, Troika produced by the Krupskaya Confectionery with 25.2 percent, Finland's Fazer with 19.4 percent and Fruit and Nut produced by Cadbury with 18.3 percent. Letny Sad (Summer Garden) produced by the Krupskaya Confectionery is very close with 18.1 percent. The Komkon survey was held in July-August 2003.
 The surveys by Komkon and TOY-Opinion show that most St. Petersburgers prefer dark chocolate. But Cheryomushkin of TOY-Opinion suggests that the trend may soon change as younger people demonstrate a much greater interest in Western chocolate brands.
 &quot;Dark chocolate has been a traditional favorite on the Russian market but now only 23 percent of respondents aged 16 to 19 said they prefer dark chocolate,&quot; Cheremushkin said. &quot;Sixty-five percent of respondents in that age group fancy milk chocolate.&quot;
 Alla Gotvald, chief technologist at Krupskaya Confectionery, said the greater interest toward milk chocolate follows a tendency that already exists in Europe, where dark chocolate is not always easy to find in regular shops. 
 Komkon's Kosyakova suggested that the youngsters' interest in Western brands is a result of massive advertising campaigns for brands like Alpen Gold, Milka and Snickers.
 Most Russian chocolate factories are now owned by foreign companies. Up to 70 percent of the Russian chocolate market is controlled by foreign companies, experts say. Mars International holding purchased two factories in Stupino, on the outskirts of Moscow, in 1995 to produce Mars, Snickers, Twix and Bounty bars. British firm Cadbury owns a factory in Chudovo, Novgorod region. The Samara-based Rossiya factory belongs to Nestle of Switzerland, while the Pokrov factory was bought by the German company Stollwerk in 1997 and subsequently sold to America's Kraft Foods.
 St. Petersburg consumers do not necessarily know who makes their favorite chocolate. While the Krupskaya Confectionery is widely known, the experts point out that almost no respondents mentioned Kraft Foods or Stollwerk as a producer of chocolate, although Alpen Gold is the top-selling brand across Russia.
 The most popular extra ingredients among St. Petersburgers are nuts and raisins, according to experts. Younger people prefer whole nuts and usually almonds, while older consumers go for ground nuts. &quot;Prunes and dried apricots are difficult to work with as they are sticky and the technology requires a lot of manual handling,&quot; Gotvald said in a recent interview with Izvestia.
 White chocolate is popular with about 10 percent of active consumers, most of them women under the age of 20. The older the consumer, the more conservative they are and the more reluctant to try new brands. &quot;When promoting new brands on the Russian market we target the younger audiences as the most sensitive to new trends and most active spenders,&quot; said Troitskaya of Kraft Foods. &quot;This strategy is most effective.&quot;
 At Krupskaya, too, a number of new brands are designed to respond to younger people's tastes. &quot;Most clients are people with classic tastes but for the younger people who like to experiment we have new products, like Peterburgskie Nochi (Petersburg Nights) assorted chocolates with melon filling, Vernisage chocolate bars with caramel and additional versions of Mishka Na Severe: white with puffed rice and milk with puffed rice,&quot; Gridasova said.

TITLE: Authoritarianism and Its Discontents
AUTHOR: By Alexander Lukin
TEXT: The drubbing taken by the Communist Party, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko in December's State Duma elections obviously resulted from the Kremlin's decision to bring all the power of the state to bear in its battle with disobedient political parties. But there was a second, less obvious but fundamental cause: a sea change in the mood of the Russian electorate. 
 Polls conducted both before and after the election revealed that voters had grown tired of big talk and bigger upheavals, and that they were prepared to partially sacrifice the right to choose their leaders to whomever held out the promise of stability. United Russia's one-point campaign platform - we stand with our young, energetic president, who knows everything and will do everything for you - tapped directly into this sentiment.
 This mood explains the general satisfaction with the way the election was run and with the result. A post-election poll conducted by VTsIOM-A showed that 38 percent of voters who cast their ballot for United Russia did so because the party had Putin's endorsement; another 20 percent chose United Russia simply because it was the front-runner. The desire among voters to free themselves of responsibility for the political situation in the country and to pass the buck to somebody else is underlined by response to another question: When asked how they would have voted if the election result had been known beforehand, 46 percent said they would have voted for United Russia - nine percent more than actually backed the party on Dec. 7. 
 At the same time, a VTsIOM-A poll showed that freedom of speech and of the press, the freedom to travel abroad, free enterprise, rapprochement with the West and even the right to strike enjoyed no less (and sometimes more) support among United Russia voters than among the &quot;liberals&quot; who voted for Yabloko and or SPS. Of the major achievements of the last decade, only multi-party elections failed to arouse the sympathy of United Russia supporters. This suggests that the people will go along with the restriction of their rights and freedoms only to a point: If the regime curtails freedoms that people enjoy in their everyday lives, a backlash could ensue.
 Russians' political ideals haven't changed much in essence since the Stalin era, when they were analyzed as part of the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System, based on interviews with immigrants from the Soviet Union. American researchers then concluded that Soviet citizens did not value state control as an end in itself. They rather saw it as the only way to promote both public and private interests. Russians did not share the American tendency to see state interference as negative in all cases. They wanted to live in &quot;a paternalistic state with extremely wide powers which it would vigorously exercise to control the nation's destiny, but which yet served the interests of the citizen benignly, which respected his personal dignity and left him with ... a feeling of freedom from arbitrary interference and punishment.&quot;
 Current polls reveal a similar attitude toward the state, meaning that the so-called liberal reforms of the last 10 years were carried out against the wishes of most Russians, who wanted nothing more than to curtail the excesses of Soviet socialism. They certainly didn't support Yegor Gaidar's vision of a &quot;minimal&quot; state, which cast ordinary people to the whims of fate. Sooner or later a leader had to come along who opted to ride the wave of popular sentiment. Recent polls only confirm the prescience of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and others before him who maintained that Russia could not move directly from Communism to democracy. The people, no longer accustomed to independence, would not accept rapid change. After a decade of crazy experiments and the loss of huge swathes of territory, authoritarianism has got the upper hand once again.
 This does not, of course, mean that we have to sit back and take it. It is one thing to propose authoritarian rule as a phase in the transition from totalitarianism to democracy intended to reduce the sacrifices made by the majority. Restoring authoritarian rule after all the sacrifices have been made is another thing entirely. In this situation, it would be far better to build on the positive achievements of transition while correcting the excesses of &quot;liberal&quot; anarchy in the 1990s.
 The parliamentary election revealed the full extent of the opposition's failure to realize that things had changed and to present the electorate with new ideas. None of the &quot;opposition&quot; parties, including the Communists, reached out to voters at the grassroots level. They gave us politics as usual, seemingly unaware that an authoritarian regime was on the rise in Russia and that voters were fed up with empty rhetoric. Opposition leaders, through their refusal to offer real opposition, looked more like advisers to the regime than its critics. The Kremlin has made it clear that it doesn't need their advice.
 However, it is not enough simply to be in opposition, you also have to fight for voters' support. Russian opposition leaders have rallied popular support for the ideal of freedom only by uniting it with a call for social justice. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of thousands turned out for demonstrations, fueled by widespread anger at the privileges enjoyed by the Communist bureaucracy. The leaders of the democratic movement won support for Westernizing reforms and democratization by explaining that they were necessary to bring down the old system. As the current authoritarian and bureaucratic regime consolidates its control of the country, acting in the interests of corrupt officials and their friends in big business, the demand for social justice will only grow. 
 The challenge for all who oppose this regime is to harness the rising tide of discontent and to direct its power toward freedom, democracy and cooperation with the outside world. 
 Independent trade unions could prove invaluable allies in this cause, though it's no secret that current labor laws are not followed in the private sector and that anyone who tries to form a union shop is summarily fired and subjected to persecution. Consumers' rights groups, especially in the housing sector, could play an important role, along with the environmental movement and organizations protecting the rights of small and medium-sized businesses. 
 Opposition parties should consider providing free legal consultations for the general public. The point is that people will support the opposition when it provides them with practical assistance, not abstract arguments about freedom and democracy.
 Popular support for a broad movement opposed to authoritarianism and corruption - call it social-democratic if you like - is growing. The Communist Party could tap into this support if, like its European counterparts, the party moves to the right, rejecting Stalinism and racism. Yabloko might have a chance if it moves to the left, closer to average Russians. Someone will step in to fill the void; if the opposition does not seize the day, an organization like Rodina will move in and establish a 21st-century &quot;zubatovshchina,&quot; the police-state trade unionism practiced by the tsarist government. Setting this new course will require the sort of systematic, grassroots work that most traditional party leaders simply are not prepared to undertake. 
 In the end, the emerging authoritarian regime will fall. When people are forbidden to vent their discontent, they take to the streets. It's hard to say when this will happen, in five years or 10. But recent history has shown that authoritarian regimes bent on economic development inevitably collapse. Russia differs little from the other CIS countries in terms of its political life, and most of those countries are run by authoritarian regimes (some have already managed to collapse more than once). Change occurs more slowly in Russia, but the end will be the same. Only three questions remain to be answered: How do we survive the next 10 years? What form will the regime's collapse take - the &quot;velvet&quot; version of a Georgia or the bloodier version of a Serbia or Romania? And will this collapse will give rise to democratization or a new round of authoritarianism?
 
 <i>Alexander Lukin, an independent political analyst, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times. </i>

TITLE: 'Patriotic' Duties Coming Before Real Ones
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalyev
TEXT: Last week Vsevolod Khmyrov, head of the administration of St. Petersburg's Frunzensky district, reproached me for being unpatriotic by calling into question a letter he had sent to 200 private housing committees, demanding that they work to ensure a high turnout in the presidential election next month.
 Another official in St. Petersburg City Hall said that we have to love each other and be tolerant instead of paying attention to letters of this kind. 
 It's best if journalists avoid getting themselves into disputes with the people they interview, because the main purpose of the communication is to find out information or a person's opinion which will then be reported in an article without distortion. 
 Unfortunately, however, sometimes it happens - as it did this time. One of the most hilarious things about my conversation with Khmyrov was that right from the beginning he was convinced the article I was writing was &quot;ordered&quot; by somebody in order to discredit him and smear his good name. 
 My guess is that authorities have become so used to &quot;ordering&quot; such articles themselves that they do not have a clue how real journalism works. 
 I have to admit I was trying quite hard to avoid getting into a debate with him, but Khmyrov was quite insensitive. 
 My argument was that everyone should stick to their own job and not meddle in other matters. Khmyrov's job is to ensure that the people who live in the district he is responsible for have a good quality of life. It is not they who are obliged to do things for him, but Khmyrov who was hired to serve the 400,000 residents of the Frunzensky district, to keep their yards clean and apartments warm in winter. 
 Unfortunately, the Frunzensky district administration does not work along these lines. It would be quite wrong to assume that everything is working so well in the district that the authorities have time on their hands to devote to sending out letters expressing concerns about the level of patriotism in the area. 
 As I found out, the officials there consider patriotism more important than ensuring a reliable supply of hot or cold water to people's apartments. 
 Khmyrov claimed it was purely his own initiative to pressure the private housing committees to work for a higher turnout. When I asked him if there had been a meeting of some sort at City Hall, where Governor Valentina Matviyenko might have ordered administrators to send out such letters, his voice changed, turning rather squeaky. 
 From time to time I wish I had a lie detector connected to my phone that would help me to draw conclusions based on the timbre of a person's voice. 
 I have not got one yet, so the only thing left for me to do was to burst out laughing. 
 It is quite clear to me that Khmyrov's feelings of patriotism are only as big as the post he holds (and is afraid of losing). There is a well established tradition of regional officials being ordered &quot;to get the vote out&quot; and being punished if they do not. 
 While talking to Khmyrov I kept thinking of an NTV report on the eve of the Dec. 7 State Duma elections. It told of doctors in a local hospital in one of the cities of Komi-Permyatsky autonomous district refusing to assist pregnant women if the women did not have official confirmation from a polling station that they had voted. 
 I am far from wanting to insult Frunzensky district officials, but it seems to me the words &quot;patriotism&quot; and &quot;madness&quot; have become synonyms in their heads. It is hard to be tolerant in these conditions.

TITLE: top talent shines in submarine flic
AUTHOR: By Tom Birchenough
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The mood at last Wednesday's Moscow premiere of Vladimir Khotinenko's &quot;72 Meters,&quot; which opens in St. Petersburg this week (see Screens, page viii) was understandably somber. With naval bands and officers in the audience, the Russian drama about a sinking submarine inevitably brought back memories of the Kursk submarine tragedy of August 2000, in which 118 crewmembers died.
 
But there was also a celebratory feeling in the air; the film, released to general acclaim, focuses on the submariners' bravery and comradeship. Written by Valery Zalotukha, it has great humanity and an unexpected level of comedy. It's not an action film, although there are brilliantly and tensely shot action scenes. Instead, &quot;72 Meters,&quot; the title of which refers to the fateful depth at which the vessel, the Slavyanka, is lodged, brings the past lives and present relations of those trapped in its hull to the surface.
 As it happens, the novel on which the film is based - written by Alexander Pokrovsky, himself an ex-submariner - was written long before the events of Kursk, and, for Khotinenko, its appeal is broader.
 &quot;This is a story of people who find themselves in a critical situation, and show their very best qualities,&quot; the director said. &quot;Here there is some level of allegory, connected to what is happening today in Russia. A lesson on how to decide at a moment when a moral choice is paramount. A human being, above all, must remain a human being.&quot;
 Khotinenko agreed to take on the project after reading social research commissioned by Channel One television, which produced the film via Nikita Mikhalkov's Tri-Te studio, indicating that viewers would welcome a film on the subject - even without a happy ending.
 Comedy stands in sharp contrast to more serious moments, raising their emotional power. Scenes shot in light sepia flash back to the life of vessel and crew in Sevastopol, focusing on the romantic rivalry between the two best-friend lieutenant heroes; in a hilarious scene from 1991, the vessel's captain (Andrei Krasko) refuses to swear allegiance to the new Ukrainian state, and marches his officers ceremoniously into the water. The appearance of a newcomer onboard before the fateful voyage, an inept researcher brilliantly played by Sergei Makovetsky, also makes for rich comedy.
 Soon the crew is re-based in the much harsher clime of the Barents Sea, where most of the location work was done; the scenes inside the flooded submarine, were impressively filmed in a specially constructed water-stage at Mosfilm.
 Critics have argued that &quot;72 Meters&quot; is part of a general imperative in the Russian film industry (and in the country as a whole) to find new, patriotic themes. There has even been talk, albeit loose, of remaking Soviet-era war films. In &quot;72 Meters,&quot; however, there is no external enemy - only the challenge of accident and natural forces, and the bravery and humanity of those involved.
 It's that most welcome, and rare, thing: a highly professional Russian mainstream film, with strong cinematography, unusual standards of editing and an emotional score from veteran Italian film composer Ennio Morricone.
 As such, it should reach wide local audiences - most crucially those under 20 years of age who make up such a large part of Russia's filmgoers. (Here, the comedy can only help.) Its release is on an impressive 110 copies, and it is the first Russian film handled by the major distributor Gemini Films.
 &quot;We have been looking for this for 10 years,&quot; said Gemini's Michael Schlicht, who was impressed by the film even before it was edited , and is risking an impressive sum on publicity. A decade ago, Schlicht was involved in promoting screenwriting competitions, with scenarist Zaloutukha an early winner. 
 Everybody leaving the premiere was talking about the ending, which remains open. There is an implication that a rescue may yet save the day (as it does in the original novel); but the audience is also left with the fear, re-enforced by memories of the Kursk, that the brave survivors face slow death on the ocean bed.

TITLE: gallego: don't write off the disabled
AUTHOR: By Victor Sonkin
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In the mid-'60s, the head of Spain's Communist Party sends his daughter off to Moscow. After studying in Paris, she has strayed too far from Marxist ideas, and this must be corrected. Once in Moscow, she meets a student from Venezuela, falls in love and gives birth to twins with severe cerebral palsy. One baby dies shortly after birth. The other spends over a year in hospitals with his mother, who talks to him in French. 
 
Years pass. It's 1968. Soviet tanks are patrolling the streets of Prague, and the disillusioned grandfather tells his daughter that her son is dead and convinces her to leave the country. 
 But the boy has not died. Instead, he spends the rest of his youth in bleak Soviet institutions for disabled children and the elderly. Exotic looks, exotic name: Ruben David Gonzalez Gallego. 
 &quot;My teachers were forced to think that I was an idiot,&quot; Gallego said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Madrid. &quot;Officially, disabled children did not exist in the U.S.S.R. Imagine a constructor who designs a space docking module. His work is top-secret - the module does not exist, and he does not exist either. For my teachers, seeing us as idiots was a defense strategy. I can't blame them.&quot;
 Gallego was to prove them wrong. During the chaotic years of early perestroika, he managed to leave the home and begin a life of his own. He got an education and started a family. He found work wherever his intellectual skills could be employed and began to turn his experiences into a novel, typing with the one usable finger on his left hand. 
 But it wasn't until a documentary film director organized a quest to re-unite him with his mother that his story got out. In 2000, Gallego and his mother finally met in Prague, moving to Madrid the following year. 
 Using Gallego's foreign name as an excuse, the editorial board of Russia's Foreign Literature magazine broke its hard-and-fast rule of only publishing prose in translation and printed an early version of Gallego's novel. Last year, &quot;White on Black&quot; came out in book form from St. Petersburg's Limbus Press, and, in December, it received Russia's most prestigious literary award, the Booker Prize.
 Despite his recent success, however, Gallego is rather secretive about his private life, comparing himself to Stephen Hawking, the world-famous physicist who has been bound to a wheelchair by motor neurone disease since he was a student. 
 &quot;One doesn't know many personal facts about Stephen Hawking, right?&quot; Gallego said. &quot;He avoids speaking about it. He's an Englishman. He has this in-built sense of privacy. Why should a Spaniard be different?&quot; 
 Award-granting procedures in any country are always beset by controversy. In this case, most critics and readers applauded the jury's decision, but approval was not unanimous. Some attributed the decision to political correctness and sympathy for the conditions under which Gallego lived and wrote. 
 Others said the Booker Prize was supposed to be awarded to a novel, while Gallego's book is, at best, a selection of short stories. Critic and Booker jury member Nikolai Alexandrov complained that the award's shortlist reflects the present sad condition of Russian prose. &quot;It's all mediocre,&quot; he said.
 Defenders of the book point out the fact that today's novels come in all shapes and sizes. The Booker winner of 2000, for instance, Mikhail Shishkin's &quot;The Capture of Izmail,&quot; was a collection of stories and intertwining plots written in different styles and spanning different epochs. 
 Literary merits aside, Gallego's success has been a source of inspiration for disabled people in Russia and all over the world who are still fighting for humane treatment. &quot;Here in Spain, I'm better off because I have my wheelchair,&quot; Gallego said. &quot;In Russia, it's still a rarity. One person in 20 is disabled. Go to any concert - a rock concert, a recital of church music - and count the people in wheelchairs. If it's less than every 20th, that means they're at home, and, more likely than not, without wheelchairs.&quot;
 Having recently undergone complex surgery, Gallego is unable to travel outside of Madrid. &quot;I just live, day by day,&quot; he said. &quot;For someone who's not very healthy, everyday tasks take some time. I'm learning Spanish, and I must say that my so-called genetic memory does not help.&quot; 


TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: It is probably not too difficult to pack out Fish Fabrique, a small underground art cafe and part of Pushkinskaya 10 art center, but it was packed anyway last Saturday when Spanish band <strong>Refree</strong> played there and, moreover, the concert was good.
 
Raul Fernandez, the singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Barcelona-based Refree, is reported to like the band's Russian concerts so much that he wants to come back in May with a five-member lineup, rather than a trio, as was the case last week.
 Meanwhile, two tracks by Refree are available on <strong>&quot;Barcelona Dreams,&quot; </strong>the 14-track compilation of indie music from two Spanish labels which has been released just before the tour and will be available in a selection of local record shops next week.
 &quot;These are two labels that I've been especially closely cooperating with all this time, and I agreed with them about rights, so it was realistic for me to release these bands legally,&quot; said Maxim Silva-Vega of Vegadreams label, the man behind both the tour and the record.
 &quot;I took Spanish labels because I was entering the world of music through Spain due to my historical and family ties,&quot; said Silva-Vega.
 His Spanish communist grandfather escaped to Moscow when General Francisco Franco won the Spanish civil war in the late 1930s.
 Also he mentioned the current upsurge of indie music in Spain, with U.S., Canadian and British acts releasing their records on Spanish labels, such as The Decembrists, the U.S. band which will release its CD on Madrid-based label Aquarela in September, Britain's Piano Magic (Spanish label Green UFOs), and U.S. singer Steve Wynn (Astro Discos). Wynn toured Moscow last year and is represented on the compilation with a track called &quot;Maybe Tomorrow.&quot;
 &quot;I wanted to call the compilation 'Barcelona Dreams' because of Refree, which was the first foreign group that I brought [to Moscow] 18 months ago,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;Barcelona is the city where main festivals take place, where Spain's leading music magazine Rock De Luxe is published, and all the tendencies from different countries meet.&quot;
 The photo on the cover was casually made on the beach in Barcelona, where Silva-Vega was walking around when Refree visited in November. Vegadreams' plans in the near future include an exchange between Russian and Spanish bands.
 The first could be a joint summer tour from one of the leading local bands, Tequilajazzz, and Schwarz, the Spanish band represented on compilation, first in Spain and then in Russia.
 Silva-Vega added that his more distant plans include bringing all 14 acts featured on the &quot;Barcelona Dreams&quot; compilation to Russia.
 Returning to the local scene, the all-girl folk-punk band <strong>Iva Nova </strong>will play a series of gigs after its 11-date tour in Germany and the Netherlands in January. 
 This weekend, Iva Nova will play at Moloko on Friday and at Fish Fabrique on Saturday.
 The <strong> Pushkinskaya 10 </strong>art center will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a huge concert featuring Akvarium at Yubileiny Sports Palace on Saturday. See article, page ix.
 Check out <strong>Poimanniye Muravyedy</strong> at Griboyedov, <strong>Kirpichi</strong> at Red Club or <strong>Volkovtrio</strong> at JFC Jazz Club, all on Sunday.
 
 <i>- By Sergey Chernov
 </i>

TITLE: journalist in boring food shock
AUTHOR: By Simone Kozuharov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: If a restaurant has delicious food at fantastic prices with prompt service, it is easy to write a glowing review. Likewise, if a restaurant is an absolute abomination with greasy food, outrageous prices and painfully slow staff, it is simple to report the facts.
 
If a restaurant is average, however, there is not much to say, well, because it has all been said before. And eaten before. At least a hundred times.
 Such is the case with Journalist, located on Nevsky Prospect near the Fontanka River. With such a prime location, it should be simple to attract tourists, shoppers or people out for a stroll. The question is how to keep them coming back for more.
 There are 25 main dishes listed on the menu, only one of which they didn't actually have. There are also nine soups, a handful of desserts - also minus one - and chewing gum and cigarettes. The food served at Journalist is not bad, just mundane - save for one or two exceptions.
 One is the mushroom <i>zhulyen</i> (34 rubles, $1.19). Zhulyen is a delicious, traditional Russian dish that is frequently served in clay pots. Journalist serves its version in two small metal pots with long handles (reminiscent of those used for fondue) and cheese is melted on top of each serving. The zhulyen was hot, creamy and flavorful. 
 The salmon steak (190 rubles, $6.60), although served hot, was uneventful. It was simply cooked, without sauce, spices or much flavor. Next to the salmon was something billed on the menu as Idaho potatoes (30 rubles, $1.05). It is highly doubtful that the management went to the trouble and expense of importing Idaho potatoes, but if they did they should send them back. They taste just like the ones here.
 Another guest said the forgettable Bavaria salad (45 rubles, $1.57) was good and the portion appeared ample. That same guest tried the potatoes baked in sour cream (30 rubles, $1.05) and &quot;Cold Pork, Warmed&quot; (120 rubles, $4.21). Perhaps a fancy way of saying &quot;leftovers&quot;, the guest was unimpressed. Good, but not great; tasty, but not delectable; likely available in your own refrigerator.
 There was still a glimmer of hope for dessert, but it turned out to be in vain. The dessert took ages to arrive and when it did the reason was clear: it was still frozen in the center, with little ice crystals still clinging to the cherry topping. They were waiting for it to defrost before serving it. The situation was more humorous than anything else, but frozen dessert is not a laughing matter for some. It was billed as &quot;creamy cake with cherry,&quot; (72 rubles, $2.52) but it's difficult to detect a creamy consistency between bites of icicles.
 Journalist isn't all bad. Its atmosphere is quite calm, pleasant and relaxing - conducive to having a lingering conversation over dinner - if you don't freeze waiting for it to arrive.
 There is a draft that manages to make its way into the tiny, narrow single dining room despite the fact that there is an entrance door, a foyer, a babushka, a guy purveying cheap CDs and another door between the street and the restaurant.
 The servers aren't any slower than in other places and their timing was just as it is in most places - not fast. They don't lack the desire to please though, and they were certainly friendly and helpful without oozing saccharine-sweetness. They are also fairly prompt with taking orders. A menu in English is available upon request.
 The best thing about Journalist is its atmosphere. Nestled in a little grotto, it is perfect for lingering over coffee and conversation. Unlike many places, music there was neither too loud nor too obnoxious, making pleasant conversation easy and enjoyable. Even the lighting was lovely and calming.
 It's difficult to say why Journalist is so named. Save for an old-fashioned quill pen on the logo and an antique typewriter in the dining room, there is no sign of anything that would suggest an <i>homage</i> to journalists. 
 Journalist is worth a return visit for a late cup of coffee with a friend and perhaps the mushroom zhulyen. The entrees weren't poorly done, but were, as one guest summed them up, &quot;nothing special.&quot;
 
 <i>Journalist ('Zhurnalist'), 70 Nevsky Propekt. Tel: 272 4510. Menu available in Russian and English. Dinner for two without alcohol: 625 rubles ($21.92). </i>

TITLE: pushkinskaya 10 marks15 years
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Pushkinskaya 10, a former squat populated by underground artists and musicians since 1989, used to mark its anniversaries with open-air performances right in the middle of the downtown building complex, calling the celebrations &quot;Den Dvora,&quot; or &quot;Day of the Yard.&quot;
 
Hordes of alternative-looking people used to gather at Pushkinskaya 10, drinking beer and stronger drinks and enjoying the music even if irritating the neighbors. The building was decrepit, with plaster falling from the ceilings and basements filled with water.
 Having legalized its status and undergone renovation in exchange for part of the rooms, Pushkinskaya 10 moved the festivities to concert halls. 
 The anniversary events became more organized and tickets were sold. The proceeds usually went for non-profit purposes such as publishing an album dedicated to the center.
 Top local bands such as Akvarium, that has a studio at the building, usually performed while more radical and experimental acts fostered by Pushkinskaya 10 were not included on the bill.
 The center's name, Pushkinskaya 10, is now not fully accurate as visitors now enter the art center only from 53 Ligovsky Prospekt, the next street.
 Over the years Pushkinskaya 10 won many victories but also had some losses. The rock club Art Klinika, or Art Clinic, run by underground artist Kirill Miller, was closed by the center shortly before reconstruction. 
 Among the highlights of its existence, the Art Clinic is remembered for the debut concert of ska-punk band Leningrad on Jan. 13, 1997. For the past few years, Leningrad has been clearly the most outrageous and popular band in St. Petersburg.
 Pushkinskaya 10's other legend is the &quot;old Fish Fabrique,&quot; a huge venue on the 4th floor, which used to cater to expats and &quot;progressive&quot; Russian fans and hosted plenty of new and innovative music acts.
 After the restructuring, Fish Fabrique was turned into a small basement art cafe unable to either promote such massive events or hold such big crowds.
 &quot;[Pushkinskaya 10] is the only example I know of in which such an alternative cultural center was allowed to exist in the center of the city,&quot; said Irina Aktuganova, who works with the Gallery of Experimental Sound, Techno Art Center and Cyber-Femin-Club, all located at Pushkinskaya 10.
 Art galleries and studios can only exist because, under an agreement with the city authorities, they pay only for electricity, heating and water, but not rent. 
 &quot;If we were asked to pay the rent, we'd have to close immediately,&quot; said Aktuganova, who promotes concerts of noise and experimental music that usually attract only a few fans.
 &quot;There was a time in the 1990s when the media suddenly became interested in culture, but now this art has again become absolutely marginal,&quot; said Zhenya Fyodorov, the frontman of Tequilajazzz. 
 Fyodorov said that one of his favorite clubs is Fish Fabrique, part of Pushkinskaya 10, the place where Tequilajazzz celebrates its own anniversaries with secret concerts in September. Tequilajazzz also included the name &quot;Fish Fabrique&quot; in the lyrics of one of its songs.
 &quot;When every media outlet has been restructured to be state-oriented, there remains an oasis of art, which has suddenly became underground again. It's far from being what is now considered mainstream. It's good,&quot; he said.
 &quot;Despite forced contacts with the city officials because of the building, this community doesn't go for any secret agreements with authorities which is why Pushkinskaya 10 is so dear.&quot;
 For the list of galleries and current exhibitions see Exhibits.
 <i>Pushkinskaya 10 Art Center's 15th Anniversary Concert with Akvarium, DDT, U-Piter and Chizh &amp; Co. at Yubileiny Sports Palace, 18 Pr. Dobrolyubova. M: Sportivnaya. Tel.: 119-5614. 7 p.m. Links: www.pushkinskaya10.spb.ru </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
TEXT: Êîíòðîëüíûé çâîíîê: a confirmation call, a call to confirm a meeting.
 
 We’ve all had it happen. The phone rings in your apartment, you answer in your most polite voice, “àëëî?” And in reply a cantankerous voice asks, “êòî ýòî?”(who’s that?) You sigh and say: âû, íàâåðíîå, íå òóäà ïîïàëè (you’ve probably got the wrong number, literally, you landed in the wrong place). And the voice, which is now downright belligerent, continues: “êàê íå òóäà ïîïàëè? Âåðà, ýòî òû?” (What do you mean, wrong number? Vera, is that you?) 
 Although sometimes it seems, especially with older callers, that phone etiquette is honored more in the breach than the practice, Russian has very clear rules. Answering is simple, you say: “àëëî” (hello) or the slightly old-fashioned “ÿ âàñ ñëóøàþ” (literally, I’m listening to you). If the caller asks you, “áóäüòå äîáðû, ìîæíî Âåðó ê òåëåôîíó?” (May I please speak to Vera?), you can answer, “ÿ ó òåëåôîíà” (this is she) or if you are not Vera, “ÿ å¸ ïîçîâó” (I’ll get her). 
 If the caller wants Ivan Ivanovich or the Belka company, you can say, “òàêèõ çäåñü íåò” (there’s no one by that name here). Sometimes if they insist this must be a company (and you are the secretary, instructed not to put calls from creditors through to the boss), you might insist back, “ýòî — êâàðòèðà, à íå ôèðìà” (this is an apartment, not a company). By then they should have heard enough of your accent to believe you. 
 If the cranky caller insists he or she has the right number and you are hiding Ivan Ivanovich, you can ask, “ïî êàêîìó íîìåðó âû çâîíèòå?” Or, “êàêîé íîìåð âû íàáèðàåòå?” (What number are you calling?) When they rattle off a number that is clearly not yours, you can say, “âû îøèáëèñü íîìåðîì” (you misdialed). 
 Sometimes you dial a number absolutely correctly and yet, time and again, you ring through to some poor person who is trying to watch a cop show or finish their dinner. When this happens it’s best to say, “èçâèíèòå — ÿ ïðàâèëüíî íàáèðàþ, íî íå òóäà ïîïàäàþ” (I’m sorry! I’m dialing the number correctly, but the call has been misdirected / the call isn’t going through). 
 In business situations, a polite way to introduce yourself over the phone is, “âàñ áåñïîêîèò Èâàí Èâàíîâè÷. Ìîæíî ïåðåãîâîðèòü ñ Ãåííàäèåì Åâãåíüåâè÷åì?” (This is Ivan Ivanovich calling; literally, “you are being disturbed by Ivan Ivanovich.” Might I have a word with Gennady Yevgenyevich?). Ïåðåãîâîðèòü implies that you just need a minute of his time, while ïîãîâîðèòü opens the door for a longer conversation. If he’s not around, you might hear, “åãî ñåé÷àñ íåò” (he isn’t here right now); or “îí âûøåë” (he has gone out). You can then say, “ïåðåäàéòå, ïîæàëóéñòà, ÷òî ÿ çâîíèë” (please tell him that I called). 
 If you do get to talk with Gennady and set up an appointment, the chances are that he will add, “íî ñäåëàéòå êîíòðîëüíûé çâîíîê”(but call to confirm). The confirmation call is a very Russian phenomenon. An American will set up an appointment for a Tuesday at 2 p.m., three months from today, and show up without a second call or a second thought. At 1 p.m. a Russian will make an appointment for 5 p.m. that day and insist on the êîíòðîëüíûé çâîíîê. Because you never know if the weather will change, the boss will call you into a meeting, the government will be overthrown, or the traffic will be impossible. “Ïåðåçâîíèòå íà âñÿêèé ñëó÷àé!”(Call me back just in case!) 
 
 <i>Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter. 
</i>

TITLE: Koreans Clone First Human Embryo
AUTHOR: By Lauran Neergaard
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Researchers in South Korea have become the first to successfully clone a human embryo, and then cull from it master stem cells that many doctors consider key to one day creating customized cures for diabetes, Parkinson's and other diseases.
 
This is not cloning to make babies, but to create medicine.
 It's sure to revive international controversy over whether to ban all human cloning, as the Bush administration wants, or to allow this &quot;therapeutic cloning&quot; that might eventually let patients grow their own replacement tissue.
 Embryonic stem cells are the body's building blocks, cells from which all other tissue types spring. They're present in an embryo only days after conception and are ethically sensitive because culling stem cells destroys the embryo.
 Scientists have used therapeutic cloning to partially cure laboratory mice with an immune system disease. And they know how to cull stem cells from human embryos left over in fertility clinics.
 But attempts to clone human embryos - so the resulting stem cells would be genetically identical to the patient who needs them - have failed until now.
 Scientists from Seoul National University say they succeeded largely because of using extremely fresh eggs donated by South Korean volunteers and gentler handling of the genetic material inside them.
 The lead scientist, veterinary cloning specialist Woo Suk Hwang, was to unveil the research Thursday at a meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. Details will be published in the journal Science.
 It's elegant work that provides long-anticipated proof that human therapeutic cloning is possible, said stem-cell researcher Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
 Still, &quot;it's not of practical use at this point,&quot; Jaenisch cautioned.
 Years of additional research are required before embryonic stem cell transplants could be considered in people, he stressed.
 But it's sure to renew debate over whether all forms of human cloning should be banned. 
 U.S. scientists almost universally want a ban on cloning for reproduction, because the high rate of birth defects in cloned animals shows the technique is too dangerous.
 But the South Korean research is &quot;one tiny step closer to some medical use. It would be a wise thing to support,&quot; said Laurie Zoloth, a Northwestern University bioethicist. 
 &quot;It is clearly time - now that it is more tangible - to set in place a process where we can have some kinds of experiments supported and some things banned.&quot;
 The Seoul researchers collected 242 eggs from 16 unpaid volunteers. Each woman also donated some cells from her ovary.
 Using the same process as is used to clone animals, they removed the gene-containing nucleus of each egg and replaced it with the nucleus from the donor's ovarian cell.
 Chemicals jump-started cellular division, resulting in 30 blastocysts, early-stage embryos that contain a mere 100 cells. From those, they harvested just one colony of stem cells - a small success rate.
 But those stem cells were a genetic copy of the donor, and began forming muscle, bone and other tissues in test tubes and when implanted into mice, the Seoul team reported.

TITLE: Clark Pulls Out of Race to Run for President
AUTHOR: By David Hammer
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas - Wesley Clark dropped out of the race for the White House on Wednesday, a retired four-star general unable to command significant support as a first-time presidential candidate.
 
&quot;This is the end of the campaign for the presidency,&quot; Clark told supporters in his home state of Arkansas.
 He coupled his withdrawal with words of praise for his remaining rivals - the front-runner, Senator John Kerry, as well as Senator John Edwards and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
 &quot;They're good men, they're good Democrats and they're good patriots,&quot; said Clark, who decided to abandon his quest after finishing third behind Kerry and Edwards in Democratic primaries Tuesday in Virginia and Tennessee. &quot;Our country is well-served&quot; by them, he added.
 He also used his campaign farewell to criticize President George W. Bush, accusing him of pursuing a &quot;fatally flawed&quot; foreign policy.
 &quot;I am not anti-war, but I am pro-national security,&quot; added the former general, a critic of the war in Iraq.
 &quot;I am going to fight on and I hope you'll join me because we are going to fight on to create a new vision for America,&quot; Clark said. &quot;And folks, this soldier will not fade away.&quot;
 Clark, a 59-year-old career military man, burst onto the campaign last fall.
 Strategically, his first key decision was to bypass the kickoff Iowa caucuses in favor of the New Hampshire primary eight days later. Kerry's surprise caucus triumph trumped Clark's plan, and the former general faded to a distant third.
 Clark's only triumph in 14 caucuses and primaries came in Oklahoma last week, and Kerry's twin victories in Virginia and Tennessee sealed his decision to withdraw.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Iraq Blasts Kill 100
 </b>

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A second suicide bombing in as many days killed up to 47 people Wednesday, pushing the toll in the back-to-back attacks to 100. Again, Iraqis were the targets - this time, a crowd of volunteers for Iraq's new army - in an apparent campaign to wreck U.S. plans to transfer power by summer.
 The United States made public a letter to al-Qaida leaders. In it, he warns that militants are in a "race against time" to stop the June 30 handover of power, when Iraqi security forces will take a stronger role in battling the insurgency. 
 
 
<b>No Gay-Marriage Deal
 </b>

BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts lawmakers debated a constitutional ban on gay marriage for more than six hours Wednesday, but ended the day as divided as they began - and still with no resolution on an issue that has drawn nationwide scrutiny.
 Legislators meeting in joint session at a constitutional convention shot down two compromise proposals that would have allowed for civil unions, rather than the full-fledged marriages the state's highest court has ordered the state to begin allowing in mid-May.
 Lawmakers were to reconvene Thursday.
 
 
<b>Powell Defends War
 </b>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday he was surprised UN and American inspectors did not find storehouses of hidden weapons in Iraq.
 But Powell told the International Relations Committee that "we presented what we believed the truth to be at the time."
 He said the administration had relied on intelligence provided by CIA Director George Tenet.
 
 
<b>UN Plugs Cyprus Deal
 </b>

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The search for a deal to reunite Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1 stretched into a third day as UN negotiators again came up empty-handed but kept both sides talking.
 A second day of negotiations between Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, hosted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, broke up after less than 90 minutes on Wednesday with no hint of progress.
 Annan wants Papadopoulos and Denktash to accept a previously drafted UN blueprint as the basis for their work.
 
 
<b>Haiti Unrest Kills 3 
 </b>

SAINT MARC, Haiti (AFP) - Three more people were shot dead as government forces clashed with rebels, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he would send a team to assess the humanitarian situation.
 The latest blood letting raised the death toll in the stricken Caribbean republic since last Thursday to at least 46. <b>Phelps Stars at Champs
 </b>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Phelps swam the second fastest 200 meters backstroke of all time at the U.S. national championships in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday. 
 Phelps, 18, who holds world records in the 200 meters butterfly and the 200 and 400 meters individual medley, clocked 1 minute 55.30 seconds, 0.15 off the mark established by Aaron Peirsol two years ago at this meeting. 
 Phelps's swim was even more impressive since he came to the championships during a period of heavy training. 
 He also won the 100 meters freestyle. Turning in seventh place at 50 meters, he came storming back to overtake the field and touch in 49.05sec. 
 
 
<b>Easy Win for Roddick
 </b>

SAN JOSE, United States (AFP) - Former world number one Andy Roddick advanced with ease in a first-round match here at a $380,000 ATP event but fellow American Taylor Dent was ousted in the second round.
 Roddick advanced by defeating Belgium's Christophe Rochus 6-4, 6-2 in his first match since leading the US team past Austria in the Davis Cup.
 "Earlier in the match I wanted to try to establish my wide serve so things would open up," Roddick said. "The first set it wasn't so great. The second set I picked it up."
 
 
<b>Oilers, Thrashers Brawl
 </b>

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - The Edmonton Oilers picked up a key two points Wednesday night. As a bonus, they did some team bonding during a wild late-game brawl. 
 Shawn Horcoff and Raffi Torres each had a goal and assist and the Oilers beat the struggling Atlanta Thrashers 5-1, Edmonton's third straight win. 
 Before the brawl began with 1:49 remaining, Edmonton played one of its best games in recent memory. 
 The Thrashers' frustration boiled over when the melee erupted in the neutral zone near the Atlanta bench. Everyone on the ice paired up, including goaltenders Ty Conklin and Pasi Nurminen. 
 "It's always fun," said Nurminen, sporting a swollen upper lip. "Just give a couple punches, take a couple punches, still alive." 
 
 
<b>Warne Returns to Lose 
 </b>

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) - Shane Warne completed his comeback from a 12-month drugs ban as a loser on Thursday, taking match figures of five for 152 for Victoria against Queensland in a second XI match. 
 Warne struggled to contain the scoring rate as he took three for 120 from 19.5 overs in Queensland's second innings of 306 for seven from 57.5 overs. 
 Nathan Hauritz (54 not out) hit Warne for a six and a single from the fourth and fifth balls of the final over as the visitors won by three wickets with one delivery to spare. 
 
 
<b>Brothel Sponsors Team
 </b>

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) - Heidelberg United, which plays in Victoria's state league in Melbourne, have fallen on hard times and successfully approached a local brothel for sponsorship. 
 "They basically approached this establishment. They said, "you helped out a netball team, can you help us?'" Gotham City manager Angelo Corcasio said Thursday. 
 The brothel, which he described as "six-star", had also sponsored other teams, he said.
 
 
<b>Arroyo Ejected
 </b>

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) - Utah guard Carlos Arroyo was ejected from the Jazz's game against Minnesota on Wednesday night after picking up his second technical during a heated exchange with Minnesota's Sam Cassell and Kevin Garnett. 
 Arroyo, who got his first technical in the second quarter for complaining about a call, was ejected with 2:34 left in the third after a whistle when players from both sides were shouting at each other before separating. 



TITLE: Yao Ming Outplays O'Neal in Rockets Win
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: HOUSTON, Texas - Kobe Bryant was back in the Lakers' lineup, joining Shaquille O'Neal. But none of that mattered to Yao Ming. 
 
Yao had 29 points and 11 rebounds, outplaying O'Neal to lead the Houston Rockets over Los Angeles 102-87 on Wednesday night. 
 The Rockets pulled away in the fourth quarter behind Yao, who scored 11 of Houston's last 15 points in the final 6:12. He hit five free throws and three field goals, including a hook over O'Neal. 
 &quot;I was very surprised how I was able to do [that],&quot; Yao said. &quot;We kept moving the ball and moving our people on defense and Shaq couldn't catch up to it. We have to face a lot of Western Conference teams and this will be a big boost to our confidence.&quot; 
 O'Neal, who finished with 24 points and nine rebounds, fouled out with 3:20 to play. Bryant came off the injured list and scored 14 points for the Lakers. 
 &quot;We played as a team and everybody played together with great chemistry and they couldn't get hold of what we were trying to do,&quot; Yao said. 
 O'Neal didn't concede too much to Yao. 
 &quot;He made the shots, but he got the whistle, too,&quot; O'Neal said. &quot;He's a big guy and has a soft touch. I don't think he'll ever be able to play me one-on-one, ever, ever, ever. We let this one slip away. They played with a lot of effort. We just made mistakes.&quot; 
 The Rockets went ahead 73-63 late in the third quarter, and Yao got them off to a quick start in the fourth with two free throws and a jumper. Steve Francis and Jim Jackson hit 3-pointers to boost the lead to 83-69 with 9:01 to play. 
 Francis then hit two free throws after a flagrant foul against O'Neal, and the Rockets were up 85-70. They beat the Lakers for the second time this season. 
 Lakers coach Phil Jackson thought Yao played his best game in four meetings with O'Neal. 
 &quot;It was a great effort from Ming down the stretch,&quot; Jackson said. 
 Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was pleased with Yao's performance. 
 &quot;We have to make adjustments throughout the game if you're playing against the best player in the league, and he did that,&quot; Van Gundy said. &quot;He went with his jump hook and he drove and he spun.&quot; 
 The battle between All-Star centers started with O'Neal scoring on a hook over Yao for the Lakers' first points. Yao scored over O'Neal moments later. 
 Yao got more votes than O'Neal and will start for the Western Conference in the All-Star game Sunday. O'Neal has outscored Yao 116-63 in their matchups. 
 Gary Payton scored 19 points for Los Angeles. 
 Bryant missed seven games with a cut on his right index finger. 
 &quot;I was about 90 percent, but I felt great,&quot; he said. &quot;I was just waiting for things to open up for me. If they did test me, I didn't notice it. I felt fine and my stroke was there. It didn't affect me at all.&quot;
 There were 14 lead changes in the first quarter before the Rockets took the lead late in the period and held on for a 46-45 lead at halftime. Houston led most of the first half. The Lakers took a brief 43-42 lead late in the second quarter before Yao's dunk over O'Neal put Houston ahead. 
 Yao gave the crowd its biggest thrill in the first quarter when he came racing through the lane and batted away a shot by Stanislav Medvedenko.

TITLE: Prince Albert, Popov to Carry Torch
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATHENS, Greece - Prince Albert of Monaco and Olympic swimmer Alexander Popov of Russia were added Wednesday to the Olympic torch relay, which will start and finish with Greek champions. 
 
Both will run in the initial legs. The flame will be lit in ancient Olympia, birthplace of the games, on March 25. It will be brought to Panathenian stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held. 
 The flame will burn at the stadium until June 4 before starting a journey across six continents, 27 countries and 33 cities. 
 Greek javelin thrower Costas Gatzioudis will be the first to take the torch from Ancient Olympia. Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou will deliver the torch at the stadium. 
 Organizers are looking for about 7,700 &quot;local heroes&quot; to carry the torch on the two halves of its 791-mile route throughout Greece, including resort islands and ancient sites such as Delphi and Marathon. 
 The torch relay returns to Greece on July 9 for the second half of its domestic relay. 
 According to organizers, 78 percent of the torchbearers for the domestic route will be chosen from applicants. The rest will be chosen by organizers and international and national Olympic committees.
 An additional 35,230 tickets for the Olympics will go on sale Friday, exactly six months before the start of the games. 
 The extra tickets were made available as the construction process nears completion. They include 1,000 tickets for the opening ceremony, 4,000 for the closing ceremony, 11,700 for track and field, 5,150 tickets for basketball. The sale will end on April 16. 
 The next round of ticket sales will start June 1 and will continue during the Aug. 13-29 Olympics or until all places are sold. 
 Organizers have said they expect to make $232 million from ticket sales. They have made 3 million tickets available to the public, while 2.3 million are reserved for Olympic sponsors and International Olympic Committee officials. 
 Tickets available to residents of countries outside Europe can be purchased though national Olympic committees.
 Health officials are looking for about 50,000 volunteers to donate blood to be used during the Olympics and Paralympics. 
 Dina Politi, head of the state's blood donation committee, said Wednesday 15 percent more blood will be needed. 
 The Olympics are Aug. 13-29 and the Paralympics Sept. 17-28. 
 Politi said 45,000 to 50,000 volunteers are needed to give blood once or twice during that period to cover the shortage.