SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #972 (40), Friday, May 28, 2004
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TITLE: Illegal Caviar Seized
AUTHOR: By Carl Schreck
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Authorities have confiscated 3 tons of illegal black caviar that might pose a health hazard and was headed for the shelves of Moscow supermarkets, police and prosecutors said Thursday.
Police have also seized more than 100 kilograms of caviar that had already been sold to Perekryostok and Metro Cash and Carry under the brandname Russkaya Ikra, a major player in the caviar market. The caviar was sold in jars with misspellings on the label.
Police discovered the 3 tons of caviar, worth more than 15 million rubles ($500,000) at domestic wholesale prices, during a raid of a warehouse on Stroginsky Bulvar in eastern Moscow, police spokesman Filipp Zolotnitsky said Thursday.
The raid came after the city police's economic crimes department was tipped off that a criminal group was selling poached caviar that failed to meet health regulations to the city's major supermarkets, Zolotnitsky told Interfax.
Undercover officers were then sent into the stores to buy the caviar and test it.
"It was determined that the product does not meet the safety requirements for the ... health of consumers," Zolotnitsky said.
More than 100 kilograms of the suspect caviar has been removed from two major supermarkets, he said.
Perekryostok and Metro Cash and Carry confirmed Thursday that police had confiscated jars of caviar from their stores.
But Perekryostok spokesman Alexander Barkhatov disputed the claim that the caviar was removed because it was unfit for consumption. "It doesn't mean that it's dangerous or of low quality," he said. "It just means it might have come from a dodgy distributor."
Police identified the caviar by the misspellings on the lids and have removed all suspect jars from Perekryostok, Barkhatov said.
Police seized about 15 jars at the Metro store on Varshavskoye Shosse in southern Moscow, Metro spokeswoman Yulia Belova said.
"Typos on the lid means they are counterfeit, and we are analyzing the outside of the jars, as well as what's on the inside," Belova said.
She expressed skepticism that police had removed a total of 100 kilograms of caviar. "That must be a misprint," Belova said of the Interfax report. "100 kilograms is enough to feed all of Moscow."
No suspects have been arrested and an investigation is under way, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the city prosecutor's office.
On May 14, prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the suspected production, possession, delivery and sale of products not meeting health standards.
Petrenko refused to discuss the case further, saying investigators want to finish testing the seized caviar first and should be ready to release more information early next week.
Most of the caviar sold in Russia is poached, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The amount of caviar that is legally exported every year is almost equal to the amount that can be legally harvested from Russia's dwindling sturgeon stocks, the organization said in a report last year.
Russkaya Ikra could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Calls to the press office of the police's economic crimes department went unanswered.
A spokesman for the Moscow Health Inspectorate said tests are needed to determine the possible danger posed by the caviar.
"If it's just that the expiry date has passed, then it will probably only result in a minor case of food poisoning," he said. "If some microbes have infected it, then it could lead to something more serious."
Depending on the type of microbes, food poisoning symptoms could include vomiting, diarrhea, high temperature, weakness and dizziness, he said.
The spokesman said spoiled caviar might only be deadly if it has been infected with Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism, a rare but serious illness.
Three tons of caviar is enough for a banquet of 60,000 people, according to Uley Catering.
TITLE: Putin Talks Of Making Life Better
AUTHOR: By Caroline McGregor
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin used his annual address to lawmakers and the nation Wednesday to reiterate his promise to double the wealth of the nation as a whole and improve the living standards of its individual citizens.
"Our goals are absolutely clear. They are achieving high living standards in the country, a safe, comfortable and stable life," Putin told 800 members of parliament, ministers and leading public figures in the Kremlin.
"They are a stable democracy and developed civil society. They are the strengthening of Russia's international positions. But the main thing, let me repeat it here, is substantial growth in the well-being of our citizens."
Putin said that housing, education and health care should be made more accessible, and the quality should be improved. That, in turn, would contribute to his overarching goal of alleviating the poverty in which more than 30 million people, or about 20 percent of the population, officially live.
Spending money to improve these public services is one way to help redistribute the economic benefit and budget revenues from high oil prices to ordinary citizens.
Last year, the economy grew by 7.3 percent, he said, and in the first four months of this year, growth hit 8 percent.
"If we maintain such rates, we are fully capable of doubling GDP per capita, not in 10 years," he said, refreshing last year's target by one-upping himself, "but by 2010."
Many economists, including some members of his Cabinet, had questioned whether this was realistically within reach, and for their benefit, Putin looked up from the text to add this: "See, the government is also applauding. That means they also agree."
Gone was last year's specific target of catching up with Portugal, though he said that "to reach a leading position, we must grow faster than the rest of the world."
He said that only high growth rates "will prevent us from being thrown into the backyard of the world economy." And in a flash of defiant self-sufficiency: "It's an extremely hard task. But we can do it. And we can do it only ourselves."
"The speech was introspective, with a slight isolationist trend," said Masha Lipman, the editor of the policy journal Pro et Contra. "The message was one of self-reliance, that Russia alone would bolster its position in the world."
Putin's tone toward the rest of the world was vaguely unfriendly as he expressed annoyance with those who have "intentionally" taken his consolidation of power as a sign of growing authoritarianism.
"Far from everyone in the world wants to see an independent, strong and confident Russia," he said, adding defiantly that Russia was committed to democracy and that commitment would not be revised.
Yet his remarks cannot be seen as antagonistic toward the West. Putin hailed closer ties with the European Union, saying its expansion eastward should bring Europe closer "not only geographically, but also economically and spiritually."
Putin's speech was as notable for what it left out as for what it included. The most gaping holes were in foreign policy. Putin never pronounced the word Iraq, instead making a swift, bland and oblique reference to the preeminence of the United Nations in resolving international challenges.
Where other countries were concerned, the topic was economic. Putin said integration in the CIS, including within the common economic space, remained a priority. He said Russia would continue to develop a dialogue with the United States and other major partners such as China, India and Japan.
The rule of law, a prominent point in past speeches, went unmentioned. Administrative reforms and the need to root out corruption from the bureaucracy were also missing. Putin has repeatedly spoken of the need to put the economy on a broader footing, and there has been much talk in the Cabinet of the need to break Russia's oil dependence, but on Wednesday he said not a word about that.
Chechnya got only a passing mention, with Putin saying the policy of an autonomous Chechnya entrenched within Russia would not be derailed by the assassination this month of its pro-Moscow leader, Akhmad Kadyrov.
Lipman complained that Putin has never provided an adequate strategic vision for where the country is headed. "He said we'll stay the course, but stay what course?"
Putin devoted the first half hour of his 47-minute speech to the specifics of his social welfare reforms.
On health care, Putin proposed a European-style system where basic medical care would be provided to everyone by the state for free, while individuals would shoulder the cost of treatment over and above that, with the help of mandatory medical insurance. Life expectancy is 12 years lower than in the United States, he said, and high child mortality, while diminishing, is unacceptably high.
On housing, he outlined plans to boost the availability of private mortgages, increase competition in the housing construction market and improve property rights, which he said would enable a third of Russians to buy their own homes by 2010. Modern housing is currently accessible to only one-tenth of the population, he said.
On education, where standards have slipped since the days when the system was a national point of pride, Putin proposed that resources be channeled toward professional education, rather than less practical spheres like the arts or humanities. In economic sectors where there is a shortage of specialists, students could apply to the government to cover their tuition in return for working in that area after graduation. Businessmen have a social responsibility to help the state with this task, he said. They should take a larger role in bolstering the skills of the future work force and more of them should sponsor scholarships, Putin said. "It is in the interests of Russian business to contribute to the training of the specialists that the economy needs."
Al Breach, the chief economist at UBS Brunswick, said it was clear to him that the speech was one of hard-headed economic liberalism.
Though Putin did not define once and for all the relationship between the state and business, as Breach had hoped, he praised Putin for a "sensible, serious policy speech" and for the social welfare plans he laid out, to which he drew a parallel with Christian Democratic policies in Europe.
. ARMY - Putin dwelt briefly on the longstanding aim of modernizing the demoralized military, drawing applause for saying Russia had "all we need" to provide up-to-date strategic weaponry. Military spending should be more transparent, and soldiers should be eligible for mortgage credit after three years of service.
. TAXES - The tax system should be reformed to prevent abuse of tax-optimization schemes and criminal tax evasion, he said. Also, the tax system should be made more favorable to allow Russia to better compete with other nations for investment, and the unified social tax and the value-added tax rates should be further reduced.
. MACROECONOMICS - The ruble should be made convertible within two years, even before the current target of 2007. Inflation should be brought down to 3 percent a year, from 12 percent last year, he said without giving a timeframe.
. ROADS - As part of making Russia more competitive, Putin said north-south and east-west arteries must be modernized to better link Russia with Europe and lower the cost of getting Russian goods to export markets, especially in Europe.
TITLE: Investors Eager to Snap Up City Palaces
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A flood of phone calls from investors who would like to buy their own St. Petersburg palace have been received by City Hall's committee for the protection of architectural monuments, authorities said Wednesday.
The calls have been coming in ever since Governor Valentina Matviyenko announced last month that crumbling historic monuments owned by the city-government will be sold off to save them from ruin, they said. "Every day we get several phone calls from potential buyers with offers and different questions," committee spokeswoman Ksenia Cherepanova said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"So far we have an investment list of 26 sites in the city," she said. Investors have already been found for six of them. I have to stress that this is an investment list, not sites for sale because we cannot sell them until federal legislation is amended." Although all such sites are by law supposed to be tendered, Cherepanova would not clarify who the investors are that have been found and under what conditions their proposals have been accepted.
At least two palaces in downtown St. Petersburg are known to have been ceded to structures linked to oligarchs without any public tenders.
At the end of April, Matviyenko and LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov signed an agreement that the oil company will invest up to $100 million by 2007 in the development of the local fuel retail market, and spend another $30 million renovating the Stieglitz Palace at 68 Angliiskaya Naberezhnaya, which the city agreed to sell to the company.
The second palace is Tenisheva's palace, located nearby at 6 Angliiskaya Naberezhnaya, which serves as the headquarters of billionaire Chukotka governor Roman Abramovich. Officially, it is owned by the government of Chukotka.
"I don't care who gets these palaces in the city - Matviyenko's relatives or different businesses," said Alexei Kovalyov, a member of the Union of Right Forces faction in the Legislative Assembly.
"The most important thing here is that City Hall has no right to decide who can buy the palaces," he said Wednesday in a telephone interview.
"That should be determined by a program of privatization approved by the city parliament."
"If that does not happen, everything will either collapse or be stolen," he said.
According to sources close to the city administration, many of the city's 200 or so historical sites might be used for offices of the federal government. "There are many palaces in the city that have several potential buyers," the source, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday. "Sheremetyev Palace, for instance, or Lvov Palace, located near to [the town of] Strelna.
"Different businesses, local and federal power structures are very interested in getting hold of palaces," the source added. "The Federal Customs Service is among them."
"There is some risk that a company could acquire a property, as happened on Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa with Vita Bank. The bank renovated the building, but it was then taken over by the Justice Ministry for its representative office. And here we go again: the backrooms of the administration are full of clerks up to all kinds of tricks," the source said.
TITLE: Amnesty: Russian Abuses Rife
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Amnesty International said human rights abuses remained rife in Chechnya, police stations and prisons last year, while some progress was made in reducing domestic violence against women.
Federal security forces and forces loyal to Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration "continued to enjoy impunity for serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law," Amnesty International said in its 2003 report on human rights in 155 countries, released Wednesday. The report, however, noted that large-scale military raids appeared to decrease in Chechnya.
The report also accused Chechen rebels of continued human rights violations, including an increased number of bombings that "caused indiscriminate harm to civilians."
The criticism over Chechnya largely reiterated what Amnesty International said in its 2002 report. "The topics are the same," said Sergei Nikitin, director of Amnesty International in Russia.
TITLE: Roma Women Rounded Up
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: City police arrested 15 Roma women on Monday night and charged them with stealing from tourists on Nevsky Prospekt, Interfax reported Tuesday.
All the women appeared to be pregnant, so the police called an ambulance that took all of them to a hospital, the report said, citing police sources.
The police action was described as part of Operation Tabor - Tabor means Gypsy Camp - that started last week.
No comment was available from police on Thursday.
Stephania Kulayeva, head of the Northwest Center for Social and Legal Assistance to Roma, said the women could have been detained in the city's Obukhovo district, where one of the Roma camps is located.
"We got a phone call [on Wednesday] that women with children had been detained by the same policemen that were shooting in the air at the camp May 20," Kulayeva said Thursday in a telephone interview. She had not been able to find out which police station the women were taken to or when exactly they were detained.
"I think there's an agreement of some kind between the Roma who are involved in theft and the police because the police know perfectly well who they are and where they operate, especially in the metro," Kulayeva said.
"It looks as if they detain some of them from time to time, but won't say anything about it publicly even though this week it seems they should have after they announced the operation is taking place," she said.
Kulayeva said she is concerned about a police operation targeting a specific nationality and that two previous operations last year aimed at ridding the city of drug dealers had also targeted the local Roma community, but brought no visible result.
Operation Tabor, which is intended to protect tourists from being robbed in the city center, was launched following a request by the Russian Tourist Industry Union which is concerned about the safety of foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg.
TITLE: Russian Staff Quit Iraq After 2 Killed
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - Nearly 100 workers from Interenergoservis returned home Thursday from Iraq, having been evacuated a day after two of their colleagues were killed in an ambush.
An Emergency Situations Ministry plane flew to Baghdad and returned to Moscow with 90 employees of Interenergoservis aboard - 85 Russians, four Ukrainians and one Belarussian - as well as the bodies of the two dead men, Itar-Tass news reported.
The contingent was the first to return after the company decided to evacuate all its workers from Iraq following Wednesday's ambush in southwestern Baghdad, which also wounded eight Interenergoservis employees.
Several hundred employees had already returned home following previous attacks, but more than 240 had stayed behind despite Foreign Ministry warnings that the unstable security situation endangered their lives.
One or two more flights to bring the remaining workers home were expected Friday.
"Neither my friends nor I will come back before firm power is established here," electricity engineer Anatoly Sharpov told NTV television before boarding the flight in Baghdad.
Interenergoservis executive director Alexander Rybinsky said that two of the company's injured workers would have to stay in an Iraqi hospital because of their condition, and several company managers would stay behind with them.
Rybinsky said five of the injured had gunshot wounds, and three were cut by shards of glass and had other injuries, Itar-Tass reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko denied media speculation that the attack Wednesday was a provocation aimed at forcing Russian businesses out of Iraq.
The first operation to evacuate nearly 500 Interenergoservis employees was conducted in April. The second one was last week after a staff member was killed.
TITLE: Bleak Conditions Don't Stop Party
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Drizzle and fog did not stop St. Petersburg celebrating its 301st birthday Thursday.
Government officials and honorary citizens sheltered under their umbrellas during a ceremony at the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Governor Valentina Matviyenko had been expected to attend, but didn't show, reportedly due to a meeting with Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Despite the rain, the officials and guests were upbeat; some likened the city to "a locomotive that pulls all of Russia into the future" while others hailed its heroic past.
Celebrations began with a festive service in St. Isaac's Cathedral conducted by the city's chief Orthodox cleric Metropolitan Vladimir.
"The city birthday festivities coincide with your 75th birthday, and therefore I would like you to personally bless the celebrations," Matviyenko said.
While Thursday was the day for ceremonies, birthday entertainment and massive events are scheduled for the weekend.
With many of the festivities scheduled to be held outdoors, citizens are hoping for fine, sunny weather. The celebrations are modest in comparison to last year's pomp, and no top guests are expected to attend.
That doesn't seem to have affected the traffic jams, which were at their worst on Thursday from dawn till dusk.
City Hall issued warnings three days in advance of street closures. Ploshchad Ostrovskogo will be closed to private transport from 9.30 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. on Friday for an ice-cream festival, while on Saturday Staro-nevsky Prospekt will be closed.
Starting 4 p.m. on Friday and running through late evening will be the 9th International Brass Band Festival. The bands will play in front of Kazan Cathedral, near the Winter Palace, at the Summer Garden, next to the Bronze Horseman, near the Gogol monument on Malaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa, at the State Cappella courtyard, outside the Admiralty and by the Rostral columns of Vasilyevsky Island.
The fountains at Peterhof will start spouting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, while the brass bands will march along Nevsky Prospekt from Ploshchad Vosstaniya down to Palace Square at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Once the musicians have reached the square (about 3 p.m.), the city's main street will welcome the flamboyant and extravagant participants of the Carnival Parade. A separate carnival is organized at 6 p.m. at the Kirov Park for Culture and Leisure on the Petrograd Side.
Luzhkov is not in town just to pay his respects to his northern rival. Days of Moscow are running concurrently with the city's birthday throughout the weekend. An array of popular singers from the Russian capital are giving a concert on Palace Square at 6 p.m. on Saturday as part of the Days of Moscow. Between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. a series of street performances will be organized in the city center along the Neva River.
The major event on Sunday will be a concert marathon from 4 p.m. on Palace Square. It will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.
TITLE: Smile, You're at Russia's Border
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Travelers entering or leaving Russia should be prepared for a shock: Next time they cross the border they could well be greeted by polite border guards, who instead of their trademark grimaces and suspicious looks, will wear smiles on their faces.
Under an order issued by the Federal Border Guard Service, officers will be required to smile politely when dealing with travelers. "As individuals and transport vehicles cross the state border, special attention will be paid to treating passengers very politely and to preventing callous and rude behavior," border service chief Colonel General Vladimir Pronichev announced in an order, Interfax reported.
Unit commanders will be personally assigned to oversee complaints, the order also said.
A duty spokesman for the Federal Security Service confirmed that the order "on the politeness of border guards" does exist, but he refused to comment.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Prosecutor's Aide Fired
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Viktor Zabelkin, an assistant to the city prosecutor who was this month charged with exceeding his authority for stealing the seals from the City Prosecutor's Office, has been fired, Interfax cited City Prosecutor Nikolai Vinnichenko as saying Thursday.
"The criminal case is still being investigated, but a means of punishment has not yet been chosen," he said. The investigation is not worried that he will escape."
Zabelkin is alleged to have committed the crime while he was on vacation, the report said.
Budget Wages Rise
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Salaries for state employees will grow by 1,800 rubles ($62) per month before the end of the year, Governor Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with city-owned TV station Channel 5 on Wednesday.
"[After that] we won't have anyone working for the state organizations that has a salary less than the minimum wage," Matviyenko said.
The minimum wage in the city is 2,700 rubles ($93) per month, she said.
"By the end of the year we will not have a single person earning less then 3,000 rubles a month," she added. "We're going to be the only administrative region in the country to do that. It will take Moscow another two years to solve this problem."
Peterhof Fountains
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The opening of the fountain season in Peterhof on Saturday will be dedicated to the 280th anniversary of St. Petersburg State University, Interfax reported Wednesday.
The opening will feature an hour of music played by different orchestras followed by fireworks and performances at the Monplaisir Palace and the Chess Mountain.
Representatives of City Hall and the Legislative Assembly had been invited to the celebration.
The museum's management said Peter the Great founded both Peterhof and the university.
20,000 Rats Killed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Some 20,000 rats were exterminated during the first stage of a mass extermination program in the city in April and May, Interfax reported Wednesday, quoting the city's main sanitary doctor Valery Kurchanov. "[Specialists] have collected 20,000 dead rats and this is not counting what cleaners might had found," Kurchanov said.
After May 14, the number of complaints about rats dropped, he added.
"In mid-April there were up to 100 complaints but by the middle of May there were less than 10," he said.
The second part of the program targets industrial plants, the food industry, warehouses and private companies.
City Hall is spending 24.2 million rubles ($844,000) to rid the city of rats.
Konstantine Palace Suit
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The St. Petersburg Arbitration Court will on June 23 hear a lawsuit filed by the Federal Agency for Special Construction against the presidential administration over an unpaid bill for work done on the Konstantine Palace, Interfax reported Tuesday.
The agency is claiming 220 million rubles ($7.6 million) for the construction of 14 cottages around the palace.
The total cost of the Konstantine Palace renovation has been estimated at $280 million. The palace was used by President Vladimir Putin to meet heads of state invited to St. Petersburg to celebrate its 300th anniversary a year ago.
TITLE: Mayor: A Tale of Two Cities
AUTHOR: By Sophia Kornienko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg-produced goods will soon no longer require separate certification in Moscow. In return, St. Petersburg will help Moscow reach new economic heights, especially in the tourism industry. These are only a few steps in the mutual cooperation planned between the two cities. These plans were announced during the Days of Moscow that started in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
The Days of Moscow in St. Petersburg marked the business-llike way St. Petersburg is celebrating its birthday this year. Round table discussions accompany an industrial exhibition, featuring Moscow companies self-promoting to the country's north-west, which is held at the Mikhailovsky Manezh from Thursday to Sunday.
The exhibition, called "Moscow - Science & Industry," "offers a range of large-scale profitable investment projects for the local business community," said Moscow's Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who brought nearly his whole office on the visit to St. Petersburg. Luzhkov and Valentina Matviyenko signed a cooperation agreement between the two cities Thursday. In Luzhkov's opinion, the agreement may help the cities unite their efforts to fight common aches, such as run-down housing and decaying monuments.
The main task now is to even out the conditions for entrepreneurs in both metropolies, so that the market itself defines development priorities, instead of the government executives, said Sergey Zimin, deputy head of St. Petersburg's committee on economic development. The official agreement guaranteeing mutual liabilities and acceptance of common quality certificates will be signed two months from now, Zimin said.
While both Moscow and St. Petersburg lead the country in numbers of small businesses per 1,000 residents (24 in Moscow and 23 in St. Petersburg,) the cities don't support entrepreneurs in the same way, Zimin said. Though at a set back from the start, St. Petersburg allocates only 20 million rubles to support small businesses in the area in 2004, while Moscow plans to spend 1.2 billion rubles for the same purpose, Zimin said.
Luzhkov defined tourism and technological innovations as the main priorities of cooperation. Without adding St. Petersburg as a destination, Luzhkov said, Moscow will not be able to reach the 5 million tourists yearly turn-out. Besides, he added, St. Petersburg can help Moscow to develop some of its high-tech programs.
Matviyenko said she wanted a more active interaction between the cities. The two largest projects currently in the works are the express highway and railroad construction between Moscow and St. Petersburg. "Neither cities' governments are weak at generating ideas, but they are weak at fulfilling them," Luzhkov said, alluding to the failed attempts at cooperation made by St. Petersburg's former governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
Out of all the Moscow-St. Petersburg projects initiated since 1996, only the reconstruction of the notorious Khruschevka houses has been successful so far, Delovoy Peterburg reported Thursday.
Accompanying her husband on the visit to St. Petersburg was Elena Baturina, Luzhkov's wife, the head of Inteko construction company. Inteko recently purchased 100 percent of Pikalevskyi Cement, a manufacturer occupying 65 percent of the north-western cement market, Delovoy Petersburg said. Forbes recently rated Baturina 35th in the magazine's list of Russia's richest people.
In 2002, the turnover of goods between Moscow and St. Petersburg amounted to over 25 billion rubles, compared to roughly 15 billion in 2001, Moscow's department of science and industry said at the exhibition. St. Petersburg's main exports to Moscow are cigarettes, beer, cheese, confectionery products and paper.
TITLE: Intel Adds Russian Research Centers
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Intel, the world's No. 1 maker of microchips, has hired some 600 Russian computer specialists, more than doubling its research capacity in the country.
Moscow-based Elbrus and its Novosibirsk subsidiary Unipro - two prominent but cash-strapped research centers - signed an agreement last week with Intel Capital, the corporate development branch of the California-headquartered company.
The deal will swell Intel's Russian ranks to 1,000, giving hundreds of researchers, programmers and engineers significant pay raises.
Neither side would comment on wages, but one industry watcher said that specialists could expect a monthly salary of between $2,000 and $3,000.
Intel will also receive licensing rights to its new specialists' patents.
"This makes Russia a very significant research and development center for us," Intel spokesman Christian Anderka said by telephone from the company's European headquarters in Munich.
"This is part of our commitment to invest in growing economies."
The deal will be finalized with U.S. and Russian government agencies within 90 days, the company said. Intel CEO Craig Barrett is set to fly into Russia later this year to meet the new hires and discuss future investment plans with government representatives.
Western tech giants are finding it hard to resist moving to countries like Russia, Brazil, China and India.
A booming economy and large numbers of well-educated people willing to work for low wages means IT and telecoms corporations are increasingly moving jobs to developing markets.
"Instead of outsourcing them, we hired them," said Intel's U.S. spokesman Chuck Mulloy, CNET news reported.
Rather than sign short-term contracts with Intel, Elbrus and Unipro employees will actually be on the U.S. company's payroll.
In the past, Intel's research and development capacity in Russia has been software-heavy, Anderka said, meaning Elbrus' cutting-edge work designing microprocessors for super computers will be a welcome addition.
Contracts with Elbrus' other clients would be completed, and teams currently finishing work on the government-commissioned E2K and Elbrus microprocessors would not be transferred immediately to the Intel payroll, said Boris Babayan, Elbrus' founder and chief technical officer.
The deal will add Intel research centers in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Moscow to the company's existing locations in Nizhny Novgorod and Sarov.
Unipro, a Elbrus subsidiary, will chiefly provide software development services, Ivan Golosvov, the company's general director, said by phone from Novosibirsk. Intel has hired 190 Unipro specialists, he said.
Rival computer giant Sun Microsystems said Intel's latest brain harvest could take time to take effect.
"The question is whether the corporate culture is able to absorb the international intellectual potential," said Sergei Moiseyev, marketing director with Sun Microsystems in Moscow.
"Sometimes communication can be difficult because of language problems and cultural differences."
Moiseyev said that Sun Microsystems uses over 300 Russian specialists in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. The company pins great hopes on Russian brainpower, he said.
"Russia has always been on the top of technology progress... Almost all high-tech companies respect and appreciate the fruits of Russian education and the high abilities of Russian professionals."
Past agreements with Western firms have not always been successful.
A much-touted agreement between the Moscow division of British investment bank Fleming UCB in 1999 came to nothing, Babayan said, with a promise to invest $60 million in the Elbrus 2000 microprocessor falling through.
In the past, Elbrus' partners have included Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Transmeta, Avant! and Infineon Technologies.
TITLE: Italians Coming to Leningrad Oblast
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Several Italian manufacturers announced plans to get involved in the Lenigrad Oblast development as Vasco Errani, president of the Italian province Emilia-Romania started his three-day visit to the Oblast Thursday.
Italian furniture company Natuzzi is in the process of choosing an area for a soft furniture production plant, the regional economic and international relations committee reported.
Natuzzi may invest over $40 million in the factory, said an expert from the committee. However the possible starting dates of the project and its size remain unspecified. Natuzzi owns 15 factories located in Italy as well as in China, Brazil and Romania. Its yearly turnover is 960 million euros.
Another Italian company, the Lorenzi Vasco Group, plans to build a plant for producing Thermex - electric water heaters the committee reportedto Interfax on Thursday. "The group's investments will be around $50 million," said a committee representative. The plant located in the Tosno district of the Oblast is planned to start in the fall of 2004. Lorenzi Vasco Group is one of the top three electric water heater manufacturers in the world.
Meanwhile the Italian company Merloni TermoSanitari is planning to open its Ariston water heaters factory in 2005, the region committee reports.
The construction of the new factory plant began in June 2003 on land plots rented from Russkyi Dizel in the Vsevolozhsky district of the Oblast.
Experts say the plant has the capacity to produce 500,000 water heaters per year, with a possibility of doubling production. The 26 million euro project began in November 2002. The water heater parts are transported from Italy.
Merloni TermoSanitari is one of the leading electric and natural gas heaters manufacturers in the world with offices in 150 countries and a yearly turn-ver of over 1 billion.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: French Port Proposal
St. Peterburg (SPT) - The French Havre seaport has proposed a direct route project to the St. Petersburg administration.
The Havre port, which is the largest French sea gate in international trading volumes and container transports, has a 60 percent share of the French market.
"Next year, we are planning to open a route to St. Petersburg," said the port director Jean-Mark Lacaf. The popularity of sea transportation has been increasing, due to the fact that the road system in continental Europe is often unable to carry the necessary car volumes.
Current shipment circulation between Havre and St. Petersburg amounts to 35, 000 tons yearly, and deliveries involve many layovers in Northern European ports. The St. Peterburg administration showed interest in the proposal, Radio France International reported.
Salans Wins Law Award
St. Petersburg (SPT) - Salans, which has had a local office since 1993, won the the Eastern Europe Law Firm of the Year award at the Chambers Global Awards 2004. Chambers, one of the leading legal resources in Europe, publishes guides to the legal profession used extensively by in-house counsel worldwide. The award was announced by Ms. Cherie Booth, wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, before an audience of 800 lawyers from 80 law firms.
Salans, was nominated in the Eastern Europe Law Firm category with other prestigious international firms: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, CMS Cameron McKenna, Dewey Ballantine, Linklaters, Weil Gotshal & Manges, White & Case. The panel consisted of senior in-house counsel from some of the world's largest global corporations. Runners up were CMS Cameron McKenna and Linklaters. Yukos Tax Bills Pile Up
MOSCOW (SPT) - Russian oil major Yukos could go bankrupt by the end of the year if tax officials continue their action against the firm, Yukos said on Thursday. The company said it expected the tax ministry to press more charges relating to taxes for 2001.
A court on Wednesday upheld a $3.5 billion claim against Yukos for taxes and fines relating to the year 2000.
"At the moment there is a court order banning us from selling any property belonging to the company, including shares," Yukos said in a statement.
"While this order is in place, it is impossible for us to realise any assets in order to raise capital. Consequently, if the tax ministry actions continue, we can talk of the high likelihood of bankruptcy by the end of this year."
Yukos shares were down by 6.7 percent on the RTS exchange at $8.86, while they were down 3.5 percent on the more liquid MICEX exchange at 255 roubles.
Baltika Earnings Flat
MOSCOW (Reuters) - First quarter 2004 net profit at Baltika totaled $13.7 million, little changed from $13.6 million in the same period last year, Russia's biggest brewery said Wednesday.
Baltika, jointly owned by Denmark's Carlsberg and Scottish & Newcastle, retained a 20 percent share of the world's fifth largest beer market, the level held in the fourth quarter last year, although its market share increased to 20.5 percent in April, Baltika spokeswoman Marianna Volodina said.
UES Wants Guarantees
MOSCOW (SPT) - Large-scale investment projects in the electrical energy sphere are impossible without a clear decision on guarantees for investments, RAO UES Chairman Anatoly Chubais announced at a government meeting Thursday. Currently the Russian energy grid has to find ways of financing projects instead of providing funds by increasing its tariffs, he said. Several projects are being implemented now. Such is RAO's project on cooperating with German E.ON for the construction of Shchukinskaya, a combined-cycle gas turbine, in the Tula region.
German investors are interested in the project, but it cannot be developed without a mechanism of guarantees for investments, Chubais said.
TITLE: Clients Claim Famed Eggs
AUTHOR: By Alex Nicholson
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Depositors of a bank that went bust two years ago are laying claim to billionaire Viktor Vekselberg's eggs.
Clients who lost money when Pervyi Gorodskoy Bank (First Municipal Bank) closed its doors in 2002 said Wednesday that a bank belonging to the oil and steel tycoon ended up with $40 million of their assets. So they're asking a Moscow court to freeze the $100 million collection of Fabergé eggs that Vekselberg recently bought and ceremoniously brought back to display in the Kremlin.
Armen Rshtuni, who represents the depositors, said Vekselberg's Aljba Alyans bank had sucked cash out of First Municipal prior to its liquidation this March. He said the lawsuit was filed Tuesday.
Aljba Alyans said the funds in question are its own and accused Rshtuni of being a conman, of attempting to exploit both the publicity generated by the eggs' return and the recent high-profile creditors' dispute at another collapsed bank, Sodbiznesbank, to greenmail the company.
"We think his latest actions are aimed at misleading the public, confusing investigators and covering up his illegal activities," Aljba spokesman Alexander Sergeyev said. Sergeyev said Rshtuni is currently under investigation by the Federal Security Service, or FSB, for his alleged role in scamming First Municipal out of millions of dollars through a complicated scheme involving promissory notes (known as veksels in Russian.)
Rshtuni, an advisor on gas issues to Yukos CEO Simon Kukes, is the former vice president of both Sibur, a Gazprom subsidiary, and TNK, an oil company partly owned by Vekselberg that British supergiant BP bought half of last year for more than $6 billion.
Rshtuni said he and other creditors are merely civilian plaintiffs looking to get their money back, and that he is personally seeking to retrieve $6 million of the $40 million requested.
Aljbas said the $6 million Rshtuni is seeking is nothing more than an attempt to cash in the veksels he conned out of the bank.
The ownership of First Municipal is unclear. Rshtuni says Aljba is actually the beneficial owner of First Municipal and that it engineered its demise, accusations Aljba denies. "I spoke with Vekselberg quite often when working at TNK. I asked him about this problem with the depositors. 'You are the owner of the bank, where has this money gone?" I said. He promised that it would be sorted out, and told me not to make a fuss," Rshtuni said.
The meltdown at First Municipal began in the summer of 2002, at around the same time that the nominal owner and head of the bank, Maxim Listovsky, fled the country.
In March, a day after the Moscow Arbitration Court ordered the liquidation of First Municipal, the legal documents pertaining to the bankruptcy case were destroyed by a fire that gutted the floor of the court building where most bankruptcy documents were stored.
As for the future of the Fabergé eggs, which went on public display last week at a Kremlin museum, Vekselberg's representatives say they are safe.
"They can't even theoretically be frozen," said Andrei Shtorkh, representative of Vekselberg's Svyaz Vremen fund, which acquired the eggs in America earlier this year.
Shtorkh said that Vekselberg's lawyers would file a counter claim against Rshtuni next week. "These kind of allegations can't go unanswered," he said.
TITLE: Lukoil Stake for Sale
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will hold a meeting this week or next on the sale of the state's remaining 7.6 percent stake in oil major Lukoil, Economy Minister German Gref said Thursday.
Gref said the sale was likely to take place in the form of an auction, but declined to elaborate and specify what type of auction this would be. "We have decided on the scheme and terms of the sale," he told reporters.
The acting head of Russia's Federal Property Fund, Kirill Tomashchuk, told Reuters last week the sale of all or part of the stake may take place by the end of 2004, but the decision to hold the meeting means it might happen earlier.
The Lukoil stake slated for privatisation is estimated at up to $1.9 billion based on the firm's market capitalisation of $24.75 billion.
Many government officials have suggested the state should try to sell the stake promptly as international oil prices may fall from their current peak levels, leading to a subsequent decrease in the stock value.
Government officials have said there were three different ways to sell - through an exchange outside Russia, inside Russia as a single lot, and at a special auction in Russia in many lots.
In 2002, Russia sold 5.9 percent of Lukoil through an issue of depository receipts in London, raising $775 million or $15.5 a share.
Russian stocks have rallied since then, with high oil prices a key driver, and Lukoil traded at $28.85 on the RTS exchange on Thursday.
Should the government decide to sell the Lukoil stake inside Russia, the sell-off is likely to take place soon after the decision. But it may take up to six months to prepare a sale abroad.
Lukoil's stock is one of the most liquid on the Russian market and analysts believe up to 50 percent of the shares are traded freely in Russia and abroad. Lukoil management is believed to control more than 30 percent of the firm.
TITLE: Rhetoric and Reality
AUTHOR: By Roland Nash
TEXT: For the fourth year in succession, President Vladimir Putin has given a marvelous state of the nation address. Clear, reform-focused, liberal and structured - the speech contained much of the blueprint for a liberal, market-based Russia. The trouble is, so did all the others.
There seems to be something of a disconnect between what Putin says and what Putin does. Publicly, Putin aims at building the economy and reducing poverty through an ambitious reform agenda to create a diversified economy and a set of stable institutions capable of protecting democracy and civil society. In practice, Putin seems at least partly focused on centralizing authority and diversifying the economy through controlling the natural resource sector and funneling its finances elsewhere.
Four years ago, in his first state of the nation address, Putin defined his agenda as tax reform, administrative reform, Chechnya, establishing stable property rights, reform of the military, improving the social infrastructure and freeing the media from the grip of business. Most of this has been repeated in one form or another in every year since, including in Wednesday's address. The positive spin, then, is that the underlying strategic goals of the Putin administration remain largely unchanged; at the very least, you've got to admire his consistency.
But the actual policies implemented over the past four years have only roughly corresponded to those outlined. His two main policy themes of last year - further centralization of authority and forcing a closer cooperation between the state and the natural resource sector - were not mentioned in the speech. Similarly, two of the most controversial ongoing issues in Russia - post-Akhmad Kadyrov Chechnya and the Yukos affair - were largely ignored.
This is not to say that Putin and his administration have not been successful at implementing policy. Given the decrepit institutional framework that Putin inherited, his administration has a remarkable track record on reforming Russia. Tax reform, land reform, reform of the customs system, budget stability, a viable stabilization fund and the initial stages of pension reform, banking reform and utility sector reform are all notable successes.
Equally, muzzling the media, undermining first the political and later the economic power of the oligarchs, reconfiguring the Federation Council, ending the independence of regional governors and managing the election of a docile State Duma have radically changed the face of Russia. The reward for his policy success is a stable Russia that is attracting the domestic investment and consumption which are now the main drivers of economic recovery.
A number of Putin's policy successes conform to the aims described in his annual address, but equally many do not. It is hard to escape the conclusion that Putin has one set of objectives for public consumption, and a rather different one that he is actually implementing. Sometimes they coincide - sometimes they don't.
There are two possible explanations for this discrepancy between stated aims and actual policy. First, that Putin's government is simply unable to implement large parts of its agenda. Tax reform is not particularly contentious in theory and fairly straightforward in practice. Military and housing reform, on the other hand, face much stiffer opposition and depend on a determined bureaucracy for implementation - something that Russia blatantly lacks. According to this view, the most important indicator of Putin's future success is administrative reform: If Putin can get that right, then implementation of the rest of the reform agenda should follow.
But it is equally plausible that Putin has never had any intention of implementing much of what he claims in his annual speech. Liberalism, the rule of law, private property and a free media sound great from the podium. In practice, however, they can be an annoying inconvenience to the rule of an ambitious government. By definition, they limit and scrutinize the rule of the Kremlin. Generating consensus on policy and opening up to the criticism of a free media is both time-consuming and risky - much better to get on with the business of government and worry about liberalism later.
A number of the more concrete proposals in this year's speech were encouraging. The development of a viable mortgage market will both make it easier to move away from the more economically depressed regions and encourage the development of a stable middle class. Similarly, hearing the president make some reasonably detailed commitments to expand Russia's oil export capacity will be taken well by the investor community. Mentioning competition in the provision of education and the extension of toll roads is an indication that some of the more reformist elements in the administration are still writing Putin's speeches. But, unfortunately, much of the rest of Putin's admirable speech must be treated with caution: Look to what Putin does, not what Putin says.
The state of the nation address has become a formulaic, feel-good speech that is reformist enough to play well to an international audience and populist enough to go down well domestically. Each year, as opposition to Putin becomes more muted, the speech is met with greater applause. The audience has certain expectations and, like any good performer, Putin delivers. Meanwhile, the market will focus on the fate of Yukos, the bureaucracy will defend its privileges, the oligarchs will fear a knock at the door, the private sector will go on restructuring, and Russians will continue to enjoy their recently acquired relative prosperity.
Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Cold Citizens Not Warm To Price Reform
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
TEXT: Whoever I talk to these days complains about how cold their apartments are. They say they have to sleep under two blankets, switch on several rings on their cooking stove or spend most of the day in the bathtub just to keep warm. However, the last option is possible only if hot water is present, which is a real difficulty in summer.
That is how the so-called central heating system operates. It makes people suffer on hot spring days when the heating works, but is not needed, and people also suffer when it's off if a series of cold days occur.
The system would be fine if the communal service providers were able to adapt to changes in the weather, but instead they follow a plan for which they keep a bottle of vodka on their table that they empty in toasts to Governor Valentina Matviyenko's health when the official heating season ends.
Last New Year's Eve, a drunken worker fell asleep on a switch for an electricity substation in the Leningrad Oblast and gave several thousands of the region's residents the pleasure of lighting their gatherings with their families and friends with candles only.
St. Petersburg's official heating season ended May 5. The communal service providers wasted energy for more than a week beforehand while conditions in city apartments were like being in a Finnish sauna. Outside the temperature surpassed 20 degrees Celsius on some days.
A week after the heating was switched off, the outside temperature dropped to about 10 degrees during the day time and close to 0 degrees at night. But the communal service providers had done their job for this year and don't care that a significant part of the city's population is sneezing and coughing.
One City Hall official told me that the reason so many are is that they "run around in summer clothes while it's cold outside."
Oh, well ...
Combined with an absence of hot water in many districts, the lack of heating can be noticed even more acutely these days.
The poor service offers little justification for the Legislative Assembly to pass a City Hall bill that will raise the charges for communal services. It looks as if the bill will pass anyway, which makes Matviyenko's policy look absurd.
In a market economy, prices for a product will rise when demand for it is high. According to Matviyenko's logic, the price can go up even when the product does not exist.
Some will say more money is needed to fix the system, and therefore charges must be raised. If I thought the extra money would be well spent, I would have to agree, but my recent experience does not give me any hope.
A friend told me the other day his family pays up to $100 for communal services for an apartment located in downtown St. Petersburg. But a private company, which is in charge of the building, cannot even keep the staircase and yard free of rubbish.
Calculations made by the Yabloko faction of the Legislative Assembly show the planned fee hike will add 3.5 billion rubles ($120 million) to City Hall's coffers. To keep clean one stairway in a 9-story building, the city budget will receive on average 3,300 rubles ($113) a month or up to $600 for cleaning a building with up to five staircases. Currently each such building pays only $150 for the service, but how this money is used and by whom is a big question.
Cleaners should really be happy about such financing, but will they do the job? I doubt it.
TITLE: Putin Speech Is Mixed Bag Of Promises
TEXT: As he began his state of the nation address, President Vladimir Putin said he would make a break from the tradition of discussing macro socio-economic issues and concentrate instead on practical problems of vital importance to "every citizen, every Russian family."
He then proceeded to devote more than one-fourth of his speech to the need to provide accessible housing, health care and education, spelling out problems and solutions in considerable detail.
For instance, Putin said the housing situation hinders mobility in the labor market and discourages people from having children. But by creating a more competitive housing construction market and a better mortgage system, some of the problems could be solved.
The main problems with higher education, he said, are that the poor are excluded and the needs of the labor market are not met. Putin called for the state to forecast the demand for various specialists and for businesses also to help train necessary specialists.
Without a more modern health care system, life expectancy will continue to fall, thus increasing the problems of the work force, he said. Putin made clear that he sees improving housing, health care and education as necessary not only for raising the standard of living but for increasing economic growth and Russia's competitiveness in the global economy.
Other things he called for in the speech, such as further tax reform and development of the transportation system, also were touted for their potential to increase Russia's economic clout.
There was little mention of the major issues that Putin had emphasized in past addresses, namely corruption and bureaucracy.
Putin's speech gave short shrift to foreign policy, yet here, too, he stressed the economic goals. Even the Foreign Ministry was asked to help increase Russian exports and protect the interests of Russian companies abroad.
Putin devoted some time during his address to the question of democracy in Russia. He repeated his commitment to democracy, called for the development of a civil society, and rebuked those who accuse him of creeping authoritarianism.
Yet his remarks about non-governmental organizations, saying some were more interested in getting funding from abroad or corporate sponsors than in "defending the real interests of the people," were chilling.
Putin wrapped up his speech by talking about the shortcomings of political parties in Russia. Parties "must learn to come to power and cede power in line with the will of the people," he said.
But will Putin practice what he preaches? In post-Soviet Russia there has never been a democratic handover of executive power from an incumbent to the opposition. The day there is an "unmanaged" handover of power will be the day we have proof positive that Putin's commitment to democracy is more than mere rhetoric.
TITLE: kraftwerk to play 'robot pop'
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov
TEXT: Kraftwerk, one of the world's most influential bands - which has had an effect on everybody from David Bowie to Depeche Mode, not to mention today's techno music - will bring its self-described "robot pop" to St. Petersburg for a one-off stadium concert on Tuesday.
The band's current Tour 2004 is to promote last year's "Tour de France Soundtracks," Kraftwerk's first album of new material in years.
But even if its previous fully-fledged album, "Electric Cafe," came out as long ago as 1986, Kraftwerk's founding member Ralf Hutter claims the band has never really been away.
"We never made a pause, it's a complete misunderstanding," said Hutter in a recent telephone interview with The St. Petersburg Times.
"Kraftwerk has been continuously working for the last 34 years. As you know, we set up Kraftwerk in 1970 in the Kling Klang Studio in Duesseldorf with my friend and partner Florian Schneider, so we have been continuously working ever since.
"Over the last years we have been transforming the Kraftwerk catalog into a digital format with laptop technology and mobile computer technology. So now it's a fully digital, mobile Kraftwerk setup.
"Last year we were touring Australia and Japan and this year we're doing a world tour with our new digital programs, and everything's functioning very well."
According to Hutter, he and Schneider had the idea for "Tour de France Soundtracks" in Paris in 2002. The bicycling theme came from Hutter and Schneider's healthy lifestyle.
"We're are big bicycling fans but also practice bicycling for health programs to stay in shape. In summer we go Benelux or to France or Italy to ride bicycles in the mountains, in the Alps where the Tour de France is, and that's where the idea for the Tour de France music came from.
"Last year the Tour de France marked its 100th anniversary, and that was when the album came out, so the Tour de France organizers played the music at the race."
Hutter added that the album could be actually used for cyclists' training programs. "It's very close to the idea of cycling, for training programs, and also sounds of cycling are on the record, such as breathing and heartbeats."
The original concept of then-classical music students Hutter and Schneider to combine music and the machine has since resonated in work of many artists, from avant-rock bands to electronic dance acts.
"The initial inspiration was the technology of today," said Hutter.
"I think music is an art form that reflects the society and the time of its existence, like in the Middle Ages music was made with choirs and church organs. Now in the computer age, music as an art form should be made on computers, so that's our idea. Kraftwerk is electronic music, live, with the technology of today."
The idea came very suddenly, Hutter admitted.
"We had to start something contemporary, with electronics," he said.
"Germany has very long classical music tradition. At one point we wanted to create an electronic Volkswagen. Kraftwerk was like the invention of the Autobahn in music which became integrated in contemporary life and dance music and the culture of the discotheques."
Hutter describes Kraftwerk's essence as "The Man-Machine," which was also the title of the band's 1978 album.
"For us Kraftwerk was always 'The Man-Machine,' that is the interaction or cooperation between men and machines," he said.
"That's the way we make music. For us it's the reality of everyday experience - men and music machines."
Understandably, Kraftwerk's equipment in its early days was a far cry from the state-of-the-art equipment and technologies that they have at their disposal today.
"We were students and we didn't have any money, so we started with old tape-recorders, oscillators, and then we built some drum machines ourselves and used some of the very first synthesizers. They were, of course, monophonic," said Hutter.
"And then, over the years we got more equipment, and it developed; we have programs with our engineers, new music machines and new artistic ideas. So it took us nearly 35 years to arrive at where we are today; now we have this mobile digital technology. But we had, of course, many visions for the future, and today has become reality."
Hutter, a great admirer of the Russian constructivist art from the 1920s, said that he studied Russian for two years in a high school and incorporated the Russian language in Kraftwerk's 1978 composition "The Robot." The line "Ya tvoi sluga, ya tvoi rabotnik" ("I am your servant, I am your worker") was intended as a reference to the writings of Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem, he added.
The concert will be a more-than two-hour, multi-media presentation of the whole Kraftwerk catalogue, from "Autobahn" (1974), "Radio-Activity" (1975), "Trans-Europe Express" (1977) to "The Man-Machine" (1978), "Computer World," (1981) "Techno Pop" (1983) as well as the band's most recent release, Hutter said. The music will be synchronized with video projections and computer imagery.
Kraftwerk performs at Yubileiny Sports Palace on 7.00 p.m. on Tuesday. Links: www.kraftwerk.com
TITLE: young talents on show in olympus
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Some of the brightest of the world's youngest musicians assemble in town this week to take part in "Musical Olympus," a respected and internationally recognized annual festival launched by acclaimed Russian pianist Irina Nikitina in 1995.
The "Musical Olympus," which kicks off at the Hermitage Theater on Friday has been designed to introduce young talent, or more precisely, winners of prestigious international musical competitions throughout the world to St. Petersburg audiences. Along with Valery Gergiev's "The Stars of the White Nights" (see page x,) Nikitina's brainchild is the only other Russian event accepted by the World Federation of International Music Festivals. The festival's honorary committee has Claudio Abbado, Placido Domingo, Valery Gergiev and Mstislav Rostropovich among its members.
Nikitina herself, or several experts who she personally trusts, visit the finals of the contests, so that the opinions are based on live impressions rather than recordings or written recommendations.
Although frequently referred to as parade of winners, the festival's criteria for inclusion is not so straightforward. Despite its sport-influenced name, the "Musical Olympus" is not about systematically featuring the No. 1 performer from every prestigious event.
For example, Friday's concert juxtaposes Ian David Munro of Canada, winner of the Grand Prix for Composition at the Queen Elizabeth International Musical Competition in 2003, with Italy's Roberto Giordano who won fourth prize at the same festival. "It is crucially important for the festival to introduce contemporary composers," Nikitina said. "We can't continue performing the same 19th or at best early 20th century music in the 21st century. It is important to move forward and not to ignore the emerging art."
Nikitina's subjective choices create and shape the special atmosphere of her festival, in which there are no random guests. "They need genuine talent, and they have to touch my heart," she said. "These are the main criteria."
What is especially precious about the "Musical Olympus" is that the Russian audiences get to see the rising stars immediately after they have claimed fame but haven't settled their concert diaries for years to come or started charging mighty fees.
When it started in 1995, the festival seemed a risky enterprise as at the time it was difficult to fill the local classical music venues even during concerts given by established musicians. But those who fancy going to a concert for the sake of prestige have never been Nikitina's target audience anyway.
"I do this festival for concert-goers with taste, daring, enthusiasm and curiosity," she said. Thankfully, time has proved that such audiences do exist in St. Petersburg in quantities sufficient to keep the event going.
An evening of violin music will take place on June 1 at the Shostakovich Philharmonic. The program is comprised of works by Mozart, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saens and Henry Vietan and features Valentina Svyatlovskaya (Russia), who took first prize at the Renata Molinari International Violin Competition (Switzerland) in 2002; Nikolas Koeckert (Germany), first prize winner at the Novosibirsk International Violin Competition in 2001; Patricia Kopachinskaya (Austria), who was awarded The Credit Suisse Young Performers Award in 2003, Suyoen Kim (Korea), first prize (Mozartpreis) winner at the Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg, Germany in 2003 and Corinne Chapelle (France), second prize winner at the Liana Issakadze International Violin Competition in St. Petersburg in 2003. The conductor for the evening will be 24-year-old Andris Nelsons of Latvia, who will soon become the principal conductor of the Latvian National Opera.
Participants in the festival are getting younger. "Before, the musicians were accompanied by their boyfriends, girlfriends or spouses, now they come with the parents or teachers," Nikitina smiled.
The range of instruments represented at the festival isn't limited by violin, piano and voice, although the majority of music competitions are organized for these instruments. This year, a daytime performance at the Yusupovsky Palace on Sunday showcases an extravagant combination of balalaika, bayan and marimba.
Lovers of classical guitar music, which is a rarely heard in St. Petersburg's concert halls, shouldn't miss the festival's opening event featuring Manuel Maria Ponce's Concierto del Sur performed by Flavio Sala of Italy, first prize winner at the Michaele Pittaluga International Guitar Competition in Alessandria in 2003.
Links://www.musicalolympus.ru
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: This weekend's biggest event comes, not very conveniently, on Tuesday. Germany's seminal electronic pop band Kraftwerk will bring its two-hour long show to the city on this day as part of its Tour 2004 in support of their first album of new material for years. See interview, this page.
Also from Germany comes saxophone revolutionary Peter Brotzmann, one of the leading forces behind the European free jazz scene.
Brotzmann missed this year's SKIF festival of avant-garde music and arts, but will perform this Friday at Estrada Theater.
The 63-year Brotzmann is notorious for his high-energy, aggressive style of playing, although he is also capable of subtlety.
Originally a student of painting, he soon grew disillusioned in the gallery system and become interested in jazz, Dixieland and bebop in his early years, and then switched to more experimental styles, not without influence of such modern composers as Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage.
Brotzmann will perform solo and in duo with Alexei Plyusnin, one of SKIF's art directors. The concert will be crowned by a performance from a local avant-rock band called Totalitarnaya Muzykalnaya Sekta.
Dva Samaliota, the influential 1990s ska/pop local band with a jagged history, returns with a small gig at Fish Fabrique on Saturday.
Since the death of its frontman Vadik Pokrovsky last September, the band has recruited two new members and performed only seldom.
"It will be a sort of a training concert for us," said drummer Mikhail Sindalovsky, adding that the band is yet to improve its playing as an ensemble before moving on to bigger venues.
Drummer Sindalovsky, bassist and vocalist Anton Belyankin, tenor horn player and guitarist Alexei Lazovsky and trumpeter Andrei Kogan have been now augmented by Armen "Mon" Chi-kunov on keyboards from the 1990s pop-rock band Ulitsy and guitarist Andrei Gradovich. Gradovich used to play with a more hard-edged alternative band Jugendstil in the 1990s, but now is a member of the alt-pop band Kolibri.
A gig by Tequilajazzz has been widely advertised through posters at the unlikely venue of Apollo, primarily known as a dance-pop nightclub, but the band's Yevgeny Fyodorov had a vague idea about the concert this week.
"We've located the promoter at last and is he now heading to the place to see if we could play there," he said by phone on Thursday. "The posters are everywhere, but I wouldn't advertise this concert, because it seems like a Eurodance club."
However, a spokesman for Apollo confirmed that the concert will take place as advertised. He also denied that the club is changing its policies toward alternative music genres. "We haven't yet developed any policy," he said.
Last month, Apollo announced a concert by popular electronica trio Deadushki, but it was canceled at short notice. "We were called a day and a half before the concert and told that it was canceled," said a spokesman for the band.
Apollo is located at 12 Izmailovsky Prospekt, Metro Baltiiskaya or Tekhnologichesky Institut. Tel. 340 0407, 316 4516.
- By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: 'les' is more in the caucasus
AUTHOR: By Matthew Brown
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The word les means wood or forest in Russian and although the restaurant Lesnoi takes its name from the traffic-choked prospekt where it is located, arborial associations remain. The glass-domed, purpose-built restaurant stands in a strip of birch-filled park between the road and a train line and makes the most of its location with a large circular garden at the rear. Here, with wooden booths covered in (fake) ivy encircling a stage for live music, Lesnoi wants to take you south to the Caucasus. If you squint and ignore the rattling of elektrichki suburban trains passing every few minutes, and let the powerful aroma of burning meat from its huge open-air kebab grills fill your nostrils, there's a chance this illusion may come off.
Indeed, Lesnoi's nearly English-language slogan - "We offer you the best Oriental Cuisine in town! Aroma of Oriental Fairytale!" - makes much of the mouth-watering appeal of the barbecued meat tradition of Azeri, Armenian, Georgian and Uzbek cuisines. It even claims to be the only restaurant in town with its own stock-raising farm with a "herd of rams of the Caucasus and pool with alive fishes." There is a small moat around the stage in the garden, punctuated with little fountains, but this doesn't seem to be where the fishes live, and the living flock of sheep is, perhaps thankfully, nowhere to be seen or heard either.
But it does make an appearance in grilled form on Lensoi's extensive menu. Featuring all sorts of shashlyk varieties, from pork, beef, and venison to salmon, and pike-perch, the undoubted star of the show is its sheep selection, from mutton to "fat-tailed lamb." Whole carcasses from the Caucasus can be cooked-up for parties.
Apart from the garden, which seats about 100 people, the 250-seat restaurant-proper is a marvel of Yeltsin-era "opulence." Its main scheme is green and gold, as seen in the satin pant-suits worn by the waitresses and the edges of the dishwasher-worn dinner services. From the thick tablecloths that will not soak up a spilt drink no matter how long you leave it, to the crude ruined-castle concrete arches and interior walls, everything about Lesnoi is heavy. That also includes its regular clientele: after 9.00 p.m. it is not unusual to see groups of large-girthed guys wearing "Putin-casual" black turtle-necks and suits gathering to discuss business at Lesnoi.
The menu has hundreds of items divided into "European" and "Oriental" categories. Although there has been the recent, rather half-hearted addition of a sushi selection, it is soon pretty clear that European versus Oriental means European Russian dishes versus Caucasian fare. It seemed fair to test out both.
A typical Russian selection might include the Salad Marelsky for 250 rubles ($8.60), cold borshch for 150 rubles ($5.17), a pork shashlyk for 250 ($8.60) and side order of fries for 60 rubles ($2.06.) The salad was a large pile of shredded lettuce with chunks of poached salmon, half a canned calamari for decoration, a lemon slice, parsly and, suprisingly, a fair drizzle of home-made mayonnaise. Not bad, but nothing special for the hefty price tag. The borshch serving was also generous, and contained a large amount of sliced meat, but was ultimately too watery - without the sweet, meaty aroma of the most well-crafted borshches. The pork shashlyk consisted of five pieces of char-grilled meat, about 5 cubic centimeters (not that big) in volume each, on a lettuce leaf accompanied by a small amount of hot red sauce, a small helping of pickled cabbage, a spiced and pickled "cheek" of pale orange capsicum, some raw red onion rings and a sprig of parsely.
While the meat was well-cooked, the dish looked no better than something you might get on a paper plate at one of the numerous temporary beer and shashlyk tents that spring up on street corners in St. Petersburg's residential districts each summer. In fact, the whole meal was typified by the saucer of 10 soggy fries which came eventually: they had the shocking metallic taste of flash-fried reconstutitied potato sticks direct from the freezer.
By comparison, the Oriental selection was better. Satsivi with lavash to start with for 230 rubles ($7.93) was followed by a lamb shashlyk for 250 rubles ($8.60). The satsivi, an eggplant pate served in its skin with pomegranate seeds and parsely sprigs, was light, creamy and carried its bittersweet taste without being excessivley oily. It perfectly matched the hot, steamy lavash bread, studded with poppy and sesame seeds, and was pleasantly filling. The lamb shashlyk consisted of five pieces of char-grilled meat, about 5 cubic centimeters (not that big) in volume each, on a lettuce leaf accompanied by - wait a second, haven't we been here already? - yes, it was accompanied by the identical small amount of hot red sauce, small helping of pickled cabbage, the spiced and pickled "cheek" of pale orange capsicum, the same raw red onion rings and matching sprig of parsely that had come with the pork shashlyk.
The inadequate amount of meat and pile 'em up, serve 'em quick presentation of the shashlyks is a real disappointment at Lesnoi. And, with a bottle of Soviet champagne to wash it down with at 300 rubles ($10.34), this meal wasn't particularly cheap. (Some of the meat extravaganzas on the menu cost up to 1,000 rubles ($34) a dish.)
However that doesn't stop the place reveling in cheap glamor. Large screen televisions inside the restaurant play tapes of the ex-Soviet "ethno-pop" acts that feature on its open air stage in summer. And downstairs, near the cloakroom, hang the signed photographs of entertainers such as Mikhail Boyarsky, Nikolai Baskov, Valeria and former St. Petersburg governor Vladimir Yakovlev who have paztronized Lesnoi in the past.
With its daffy, Disneyfied idea of a night out in the Caucasus, and adherance to rather touchingly old-fashioned notions of what makes a posh restaurant - lots of gold-effect fittings, in-your-face live entertainment and outrageous prices for average food - Lesnoi is worth the trip via nearby Metro Lesnaya, if only for its kitsch value. For that, however, it is worth its weight in gold.
Lesnoi, 48 Lesnoi Prospekt. Tel: 245 6357. Open from 11.00 a.m. until the last customer leaves. Secure parking. Menu in Russian and English. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two with alcohol: 1,829 rubles ($63.)
TITLE: vorobei's route
TEXT: The opening of the "Giotto in Padua" exhibition in the Atrium of Komendantsky House within the Peter and Paul Fortress, which features photographic reproductions of the famous frescos of Scrovegni Chapel (Cappella degli Scrovegni) by the significant Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), is the inspiration for this walking route. With this marvelous Giotto masterpiece of the Early Renaissance represented in St. Petersburg, it is possible to combine experiencing the Early Renaissance with the High Renaissance, as found in the State Hermitage Museum's collection.
Since it's almost impossible to enjoy the myriad wonders of the Hermitage if you visit it without a goal in mind, the Giotto show offers a fruitful theme to explore its rich collection.
Start at the Peter and Paul Fortress (see map, pages vi-vii). The Scrovegni Chapel's frescos (created in 1303-1305) are among the most celebrated works in the history of art and are a perfect illustration of Giotto's radical innovations. Giotto was the first painter known to make the breakthrough into depicting three-dimensional space in painting (a little bit later perspective was invented by his Italian followers). In other words, Giotto was the first painter in the history of Western art to set figures within a coherent space and give them structural consistency.
One might say that there is little sense in mounting a show of reproductions of Giotto's works when you can find these in many books and catalogues, or on the Internet. But not after you have seen the exhibition. The innovative project consists of a three-dimensional photo-reproduction of Giotto's decoration installed into a 1: 4 scale model of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
You can go inside and imagine how it is in reality. To some degree the show has the taste of Las Vegas, well-known for its faked world monuments, but if you take into account that frescos, being wall-based art, cannot be transported then the exhibition has interest for those who not able to see Giotto's work for real.
When leaving the Atrium of Komendantsky House you should go to the bridge nearest to the venue (there are two bridges connecting the fortress to the city) which means taking the gate between the Zotov and Golovkin bastions. Cross the bridge and turn left along the embankment past the new party galleon "The Flying Dutchman" and other floating nightclubs. Cross the Birzhevoi Bridge where you will reach the Strelka (spit) of Vasilyevsky Island.
The little park between the bright red Rostral Columns - with their characteristic decorations of the prows of boats - has the best views of the city and is the perfect place to stop for refreshments at the temporary cafes set up there. On Fridays don't be surprised to see bridal party after bridal party arrive, trot down the cobbled ramp to the Neva's edge and raise a toast with champagne, a time-honored ritual for Petersburg newlyweds.
Cross Dvortsovy Bridge to the unmissable sea-green Winter Palace, the main building of the Hermitage.
The Italian Renaissance exposition is located on the first floor of the museum on the side which looks out over the river. In contrast to the Giotto show, the Hermitage exhibition comprises original works by contemporaries of Giotto (like Simone Martini) and great masters of the High Renaissance, such as Raphael, Giorgione, Titian and Michelangelo. Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna with a Flower"(The Benois Madonna, 1478) is a highlight.
- by Andrei Vorobei
"Giotto in Padua" runs through June 13 at the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Links: www.spbmuseum.ru; www.hermitage.ru
TITLE: 50-day fiesta of classical music, dance
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The 12th International Festival "The Stars Of The White Nights" opens Sunday to be followed by a 50-day fiesta of distinguished classical music and dance. Established and run by the Mariinsky Theater's artistic director Valery Gergiev, this annual event has successfully served as a window to the world of opera and ballet for the local audience. Over the festival's history, the list of globally renowned participants has featured tenor Placido Domingo, conductor Riccardo Muti and the orchestra of Milan's La Scala Opera House, Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the John Neumeier Ballet, the Royal Ballet from London's Covent Garden, the New York City Ballet, conductor Esa Pekka Salonen and pianist Alfred Brendel.
Ironically, however, it has often proved difficult in the past for Gergiev to feature a strong field of former or current Mariinsky-based talent since performers regularly tour the globe. Not so this year, as St. Petersburg's top summer event will also feature top St. Petersburg stars.
For example, don't miss tenor Vladimir Galuzin in Verdi's "Othello" (July 10) and Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades" (July 13) and mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina in Saint-Saens's "Samson et Dalila" (July 9) and Verdi's "Requiem" (July 12). Bass Nikolai Putilin appears in Tchaikovsky's "Mazeppa" (June 18).
Look out also for soprano Anna Netrebko in Verdi's "La Traviata" (July 8) and Puccini's "La Boheme" (July 5) and baritone Vasily Gerello in Verdi's "Don Carlos" (June 30), Verdi's "La Traviata" (July 8), Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" (June 25) and Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades" (July 13).
Ulyana Lopatkina dances in Balanchine's "Jewels" on June 5 and in Petipa's "Swan Lake" on June 28, while Diana Vishnyova - who also appears in "Jewels" on June 5 - dances in Ratmansky's "Cinderella" on July 17 and in Petipa's "Sleeping Beauty" on June 17.
All that doesn't mean foreign celebrities have not been included in the program. The renowned Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto of Vienna's Staatsoper and the prominent Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli, who shares her time between Opera Bastille, Vienna's Staatsoper, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera are intending to pay their first visits to the city. Also not-to-be-missed artists are the celebrated pianist and conductor Christoph Eschenbach; virtuoso American pianist Tzimon Barto; Ethan Stiefel, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater and Jose Martinez, a principal dancer in Opera de Paris.
On certain days it will be possible for dedicated music lovers to literally spend all day in the Mariinsky. This year's festival features quite a number of early afternoon shows and offers an array of late evening piano recitals by some of the world's most outstanding musicians, including Mikhail Pletnyov (June 5, 10.00 p.m.), Alexander Toradze (June 21, 11.00 p.m.), Vladimir Felzman (June 22, 10.00 p.m.) and Tzimon Barto (June 24). Audiences shouldn't be intimidated by the late performance time as it has been designed for the concerts to run without a break to ensure everyone can get home safely before the Neva bridges open at about 1.00 a.m. cutting off parts of the city from each other for hours at a time.
The central operatic event of the festival is the revival of "A Life for the Tsar," Mikhail Glinka's 1836 opera, which marked the opening of the Mariinsky theater. Commonly considered to be the first Russian historical opera, which is believed to have launched the national classical opera in this country, "A Life for the Tsar" is set in 1612, and is loosely based on famous Russian legend about a peasant coming for the rescue of Mikhail Romanov, the founder of the Romanov royal dynasty.
In the story, Ivan Susanin, a native of the provincial town of Kostroma, saves the tsar by misdirecting the Polish troops, who invaded Russia during its "Times of Troubles" (1605-1613) plotting to murder Romanov before he succeeds to the throne. In the finale, the bewildered Poles murder the courageous peasant.
The new production, showing on May 30 and June 1, commemorates the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth, and is staged by a bold, young director, Dmitry Chernyakov. Winner of several Golden Mask Awards, Russia's top theatrical prize, the director is responsible for the Mariinsky's 2001 rendition of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and Maid Fevronia," which won rave reviews, along with several Masks.
The director's main ambition with the opera is for members of the audiences to recognize themselves in the production. The sets and costumes will be an eclectic mixture of elements of various times, from 17th century dresses to enlarged documentary photographs from 1950s.
"The opera explores the issue of self-identification of the Russians, and naturally so does my production," Chernyakov said. "The opera became the first operatic work where the national consciousness of Russians is acknowledged. But the last thing I would want for my work is to be seen as a social fact, rather than a work of art."
In Soviet years, the opera's libretto was altered to downplay the nobility and replace the tsar with partisan leader Kuzma Minin and his warriors (who fought for liberation of Moscow in 1612.) The opera was seen across the Soviet Union under titles like "Hammer and Sickle" or "A Life For the Soviet," with the most neutral name being "Ivan Susanin," which, by the way, can still be seen at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
The festival is preluded by a rather extravagant event, connected to the "Stars of the White Nights" through the name of Glinka. Called the "Glinka-Party" and taking place in the trendy Tinkoff brewpub on Kazanskaya Ulitsa on Friday, the concert features a mixed bag of performers of all genres taking on songs and romances of the famous Russian composer, whose name is obscure to most foreigners.
The venue's three halls will be decorated with fragments of sets from Glinka's operas from the Mariinsky's repertoire. The idea is to bring classical to a younger audience in the form of jazz, rock or disco interpretations of the Glinka legacy. Students get in free.
TITLE: un-dubbed movies are no mirage
AUTHOR: Sophia Kornienko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Screenings of films in their original languages will join the list of St. Petersburg's evening attractions this summer, in a project announced by one of the city's most innovative film theaters, the Mirage Cinema. This should shorten the delays in the premieres of non-Russian films in the city and treat audiences to actors' original performances - usually distorted by dubbing.
Starting from June 12, to coincide with the offical birthday of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, the Mirage Cinema will run three original language shows per week. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons and on Friday evenings, the theater's luxurious Venetsia VIP lounge will accommodate up to 20 moviegoers a showing, with tickets priced from 300 rubles ($10.34) to 500 rubles ($17.14.)
Now non-Russian speakers will be able to go to the movies regularly in St. Petersburg, project organizers said at a press conference Wednesday, which they tried to style as a "five o'clock British tea ceremony."
For Russians brushing up their foreign-language skills, watching films is also an ideal and pleasant way to learn a language, said Kathy Butler, deputy director of the British Council in St. Petersburg, who visited the event to extend moral support to the project.
Even though it is being presented as a "made-in-London" project, the screenings are destined to be mainly limited to American blockbusters.
"We accept Britain's preeminence in linguistic matters," American journalist John Varoli, another native speaker invited to the conference, said in an attempt to justify the venture's British branding.
In its first phase, the project, fully financed by the Mirage Cinema, can only pay off if it runs blockbusters, said the man who thought up the idea, Viktor Rudman, expressing concerns about viewer turn-out.
The Radisson hotel's 300-seat film theater in Moscow has been showing original English-language films for a decade to large audiences. An equally successful project has been running in Tallinn, Estonia, for several years, featuring films in several languages with Estonian and Russian subtitles. Expat movie fans in St. Petersburg have reportedly made the trip to Tallinn specifically to see a film in their native language.
"But we decided to start [the Mirage screenings] on a smaller scale [than those in other cities]," Rudman said.
Contrary to Rudman's concerns, many exchange students and expats populating the city have told The St. Petersburg Times they miss movie-going.
"While living in Russia, I have missed 12 years of development in colloquial English - something I could have easily picked up if I watched English-language films," Varoli said. "Besides," he added, "I know what the real [Arnold] Swarzenegger and [Quentin] Tarantino sound like, so it felt strange to watch them dubbed by Russian actors."
Furthermore, films to be shown at the Mirage Cinema's Venetsia screen won't even be subtitled in Russian. Getting subtitled copies would take too long, while the Mirage wants to show new releases at the same time as they are shown in the rest of the world, Rudman explained.
The trick of timely and subtitled releases, as is done in most European countries, seem to remain a mystery to Russian theaters. Most cinemas in Russia, to say nothing of the nation's television channels, stay loyal to the expensive dubbing procedure because Russians demand it, Rudman said.
"Russian viewers are too lazy to read the subtitles and this tendency is hardly going to change in the near future," Rudman said. The Mirage Cinema was one of the few film theaters in St. Petersburg that refused to show the 2002 Oscar-winning musical "Chicago" dubbed by Russian pop singers and ran the film with its original soundtrack.
Although advertised as an unprecedented project by the Mirage, original-language films have been showing in the city for a number of years at Dom Kino. Undubbed screenings of classic movies also used to gather quite an audience at Spartak - a theater that burned down two years ago. However, while the Mirage is launching a powerful marketing campaign to advertise the project, Dim Kino's films in Korean, Japanese, French, Danish and many other languages, including English in a variety of dialects, are not marketed as original language films. Moreover, Dom Kino rarely even notifies the audience or the press whether the film is dubbed or subtitled. In most cases this comes as a surprise.
The Mirage will also accept group bookings for extra shows at requested times and dates. As for film festivals and other thematic programs, it may be possible to run those in cooperation with consulates or language institutes once the project gets rolling, Rudman said.
One of the juiciest original-language releases, although coming to St. Petersburg two months later than to the rest of Europe, will be the long-anticipated "Kill Bill Vol. 2" directed by Tarantino. The showing will begin at midnight on June 17, preceded by a performance by the Lera Gehner Band and a party featuring darts-throwing at a picture of Bill and blond one-eyed waitresses serving sake, tequila and nachos.
TITLE: deciphering young russia
AUTHOR: By Michele A. Berdy
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: You've been studying Russian for years, and living in the city for nearly a decade. You watch television, read the newspapers, enjoy evenings with Russian friends and communicate competently with your business partners. And then, one day, your 22-year-old office assistant says, ç++o/ooÓ Á++.ÓÏ.ËÚ, Ë Ú@Ó"++Ú,. We have to bomb them and touch them? Or your teenage step-daughter tells you, x'++ÚËÚ ÍÓÎ.++ÒËÚ,Òfl! That's enough sausage-making? What on earth are they talking about?
Welcome to the world of Russian slang. "The Big Dictionary of Youth Slang" (ÅÓÎ,-ÓÈ ÒÎÓ'++@, ÏÓÎÓo/oofiÊ-ÌÓ"Ó ÒÎÂÌ"++) by Svetlana Levikova, published by Fair Press, can guide you through the thicket of this jargon. For the uninitiated (i.e., anyone older than 30, regardless of nationality), Ì++o/ooÓ Á++.ÓÏ.ËÚ, Ë Ú@Ó"++Ú, means "We have to grab a bite to eat and get out of here," and i'++ÚËÚ ÍÓÎ.++ÒËÚ,Òfl means "Quit joking around." Don't feel bad if you didn't get it. Your Russian spouse and colleagues didn't get it either.
To help us we have Svetlana Levikova, the Professor Henry Higgins of Russian youth slang. Levikova has been eavesdropping for years on teenage Russian Eliza Doolittles and jotting down what they say. Unlike Higgins, however, she is not a linguist. She holds a doctorate in philosophy, teaches at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, and has spent her academic career studying youth subculture as a social phenomenon. When the Fair Press publishing house asked her if she would compile a dictionary of youth slang, she was "in shock." "I wasn't a linguist, and I thought I'd come up with about 100 words or so." But she asked her children - now aged 19, 21, and 22 - if they would help. "Sit down and start taking down dictation," they said. Levikova started writing, and, after nearly three years of work, she had collected over 10,000 words and expressions.
Levikova gathered words from her children, their friends and her students. She pulled them out of newspapers for young people, television shows and the Internet. "I don't know why other people watched the [Russian 'Big Brother'] television show 'Behind the Glass,' [Za Steklom] but I watched it for the language. I sat in front of the television with a pen and paper." Regional and institutional expressions quickly become universal. "Young people are extremely mobile. If a teenager comes to Moscow from Khabarovsk, he brings his slang with him. And it gets passed around in the mass media."
Why do young people develop their own dialect? "For the same reason we spoke pig Latin in childhood," Levikova notes. "To encode their language, to conceal what they are saying from us. There's nothing wrong with it. We all did this when we were younger." Should we insist they speak standard Russian? Levikova says no. "Everything has its place - we shouldn't fight it. Let them play around with language. They'll grow out of it later."
In compiling the dictionary, Levikova consciously broke several canons of academic lexicography. She left out time determinants - that is, what years a particular word or expression appeared and was used. "The slang changes quickly. At first, kids said, á++.ÂÈ! (Forget it.) Then they started saying, á++.ÂÈ Ì++ ~ÚÓ. It's hard to say exactly when the second expression appeared. And then, words and expressions keep coming back, sometimes with different meanings. In the '60s we used the word ÒÚËÎfl"Ë, which meant guys with greased-back hair, tight pants, and platform shoes. Now the word is used to describe anyone who is a hot dresser."
She also took out the grammatical notes. "Take the word ÍÓÈÍ++ [literally, 'bed'] which is a noun, feminine gender. But it is used to mean 'having sex with someone.' Putting in the grammatical form had no meaning." Finally, she insisted on including stress marks. "ä@ÂÚËÌ, with the stress on the second syllable, means an 'imbecile,' but when it's on the first syllable, it is a mild term used to describe someone who has done something foolish," she explains.
The dictionary is organized into three parts: The first section gives "standard Russian" definitions of slang words and usages; the second section is made up of expressions and phrases, also "translated" into standard Russian, and the third is a reverse dictionary - standard Russian words are listed alphabetically with translations into youth slang. Levikova is particularly proud of this last part. "It allows you to find the right word - so you can talk to a young person in a language he understands. But it also shows what kids are concerned about. Some words only have one or two slang expressions, but others have lots of them. Where there are lots of words, we know it's something that concerns young people."
So what are Russian teenagers concerned about? Pretty much what has interested young people all over the world for decades: sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Plus one modern addition: computers. If you are Russian and aged 16 to 24, you call your computer ++ÔÔ++@++Ú, ÍÓÏÔËÍ, ÍÓÏÔÛiÚÂ@, Ï++-ËÌ++, Ú++~ËÎ++ or ~ËÒÎÓ"@(o)Á (the last is something like a "number cruncher" - a number gnawer). If it's not working well, it's "ÌËÎÓÈ (literally, "rotten") or Û.ËÚ(o)È (literally "killed"). If it's slow, it's Á++o/ooÛÏ~Ë'(o)È (literally, "thoughtful").
When life is going great, young people say it's .++Îo/oofiÊÌÓ, Á(o)ÍÓ, ÌÂÒÎ++.Ó, ÓÚÔ++o/ooÌÓ, ÛÎfiÚÌÓ, Ù++ÈÌÓ, ~fiÚÍÓ, or ~ËÒÚÓ Ú++Èo/oo. Here we can see the influence of English (Ù++ÈÌÓ is a Russified version of "fine") and the ad industry (~ËÒÚÓ Ú++Èo/oo - pure Tide). English can also be found in several words for sex (Ù++Í++Ú,, Ù++~ËÚ,) as well as a plethora of words for a young woman: "fi@Î++, "Â@ÎfiÌÓÍ, "fi@Î(o)-Í++, "Ë@ÎË^++. French is represented by the cheerful ÒÂÎfl'++ (accent on the second syllable) - from c'est la vie. However, it has been corrupted - perhaps due to the rhythmic echo of i++Îfl'++ (freebie, something good attained free of charge) - to mean "life," as in the phrase, ãÂÚÓÏ Û Ì++Ò .(o)Î++ Ô@ÓÒÚÓ ÍÎfi'++fl ÒÂÎfl'++. (This summer life was just great.)
If a young person of your acquaintance says, å(o) .(o)ÎË ' ÔÓÊ++@Â (literally, "we were in a fire"), you should get out your pamphlet on "How to Talk to Young People About Drugs"; it means "we got high." And if you hear him talking about Äo/oo++Ï, .~ÚÏ++Ì, 'ËÚ++ÏËÌ Ö, ÔÎÂÈ.ÓÈ, ÒÎÓÌ, Ò'ËÌ,fl, or ~ÍÒ (literally Adam, Batman, Vitamin E, playboy, elephant, pig or Ex) - these are references to the drug Ecstasy.
Pay attention if your child or step-child talks about ++ÌÚËÍ'++@Ë++Ú, Ì++ÙÚ++ÎËÌ, -ÌÛ@ÍË or .ÓÚËÌÍË (literally antiques, mothballs, shoelaces or boots) - that's you; these are all slang terms for parents. The witty -ÌÛ@ÍË Á++'flÁ++Ì(o) - my shoelaces are tied - means "My parents aren't home." òÌÛ@ÍË ' ÒÚ++Í++ÌÂ (literally "the shoelaces are in the glass") or Ô@Âo/ooÍË ' ÔÂ^Â@Â ("my ancestors are in the cave") both mean "my parents are at home."
If hearing this makes you feel like a dinosaur, Russian kids would agree. In their slang, o/ooËÌÓÁ++'@ is "an old fogy."
TITLE: the word's worth
TEXT:
One of the rites of passage for foreigners in the United States is hearing one's date say, "I'm going to see a man about a dog." What man? What dog? Why can't he say something straightforward like: ü ÔÓÈo/ooÛ ÚÛo/oo++, ÍÛo/oo++ ^++@, ÔÂ-ÍÓÏ iÓo/ooËÎ (I'm going to the throne room, literally, "I'm going where the tsar went on foot").
Why can't people just say they need to go to the bathroom? Taboos against talking openly about one's bodily functions exist in both Russian and English (although I think more in English), producing a certain amount of confusion for non-native speakers - but also a wealth of euphemisms, from delicate to crude.
The toilet (room) in Russian can be referred to as ÚÛ++ÎÂÚ (toilet), Ûo/ooÓ.ÒÚ'Ó (facilities), Û.Ó@Ì++fl (lavatory), ÒÓ@ÚË@ (crude: crapper, shithouse, privy, often in reference to an outhouse), ÚÛ.ÁËÍ (potty, used in speaking to children), ÍÎÓÁÂÚ/'++ÚÂ@ÍÎÓÁÂÚ (rare: water closet, WC), ÓÚiÓÊÂÂ ÏÂÒÚÓ (latrine, literally, "place for waste") or simply Óo/ooÌÓ ÏÂÒÚÓ ("a certain place").
Interestingly, you can also call the loo in Russian ~ËÚ++Î,Ì++fl or .Ë.ÎËÓÚÂÍ++ (reading room or library). Since we have the exact same expressions in English, it's nice to know that some bathroom habits are cross-cultural. You can also call it ÏÂÒÚÓ o/ooÎfl @++Áo/ooÛÏËÈ (place for contemplation), since, as everyone knows, it's the place where you get your best ideas.
One of my scatological informants told me that in school they called it the ÚÛ.ÁÓÓ.Ó@ÓÌ++ -- something like "latrine fortress" - since it was the place where they could hide from the boys.
The toilet fixture - ÛÌËÚ++Á in standard Russian - can be called ÚÓÎ~ÓÍ (crapper), Ó~ÍÓ (usually in reference to the kind of toilet that is a hole with footpads, a Turkish/Eastern toilet), or even .ÂÎ(o)È/Ù++@ÙÓ@Ó'(o)È o/oo@Û" or ÔÓÌË (white/porcelain friend or pony).
A men's urinal is (Ì++ÒÚÂÌÌ(o)È) ÔËÒÒÛ++@ (a combination of Russian and French - literally, a wall pissoir). In prison it is Ô++@++-++ (gut bucket, piss can). A chamber pot is "Ó@-ÓÍ (also a children's potty) or ÌÓ~Ì++fl '++Á++ (literally "night vase"). A bedpan is ÛÚÍ++ (literally "a duck," presumably because of the shape) or ÒÛo/ooÌÓ (literally "vessel").
So what do you say when you've got to go? In very polite company, you might say: ü '++Ò ÔÓÍËÌÛ Ì++ ÏËÌÛÚÛ (I'll just be a minute), ÏÌÂ Ì++o/ooÓ ÔÓÁ'ÓÌËÚ, (I've got to make a phone call) or fl ÒÂÈ~++Ò Ô@Ëo/ooÛ (I'll be right back). Or you might maintain the polite fiction that your make-up needs adjusting: ü ÔÓÈo/ooÛ ÔÓÔÛo/oo@, ÌÓÒ (I'm going to powder my nose), although these days this might be understood in some circles as "going to do a line of cocaine." Or you can say: èÓÈo/ooÛ ÓÒ'ÂÊËÚ,Òfl (I'm going to freshen up).
Also polite but less fictional are the expressions: ü ÔÓÈo/ooÛ ÍÓÂ-ÍÛo/oo++ (literally, "I'm going some place") or fl ÒiÓÊÛ ' Óo/ooÌÓ ÏÂÒÚÓ (literally, "I'm going to a certain place").
Among friends, you can say ÒÔ@++'ËÚ, ÌÛÊo/ooÛ (answer nature's call, literally "take care of a need"), Òo/ooÂÎ++Ú, Ò'ÓË o/ooÂÎ++ (do one's business), ÔÓÈÚË Ó.ÎÂ"~ËÚ,Òfl (go relieve oneself) or ÒiÓo/ooËÚ,/Ò.Â"++Ú, ' ÍÛÒÚËÍË (go behind a bush). Among good friends you can simply say, èÓÈo/ooÛ ÔÓÔËÒ++, (I'm going to take a pee/leak).
If you've really got to go, and you are among friends, you can say: ÏÂÌfl ÒÂÈ~++Ò ÎÓÔÌÂÚ ÏÓ~Â'ÓÈ ÔÛÁ(o)@,! (I've got to go so bad my back teeth are floating, literally, "my bladder is about to burst").
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
TITLE: Al-Qaida 'Close to Major U.S. Attack'
AUTHOR: By Curt Anderson
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida is close to completing its avowed plan to strike America again with a major attack, according to top U.S. law enforcement officials who want the public's help in locating seven terror operatives labeled a "clear and present danger" by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Ashcroft said a steady stream of "disturbing" intelligence, collected for months, indicates that could mean terrorists are already in the United States to execute the plan, though he acknowledged there is no new information indicating when, where or how an attack might happen.
"We do believe that al-Qaida plans to attack the United States, and that is a result of intelligence that is corroborated at a variety of levels," Ashcroft said Wednesday at a news conference with FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Ashcroft and Mueller announced an intensified level of counterterrorism activity for the summer. This includes:
. Interviews with individuals who could provide intelligence about terrorism.
. Creation of a new FBI task force to focus on the threat.
. An appeal to all Americans to be extra vigilant about their surroundings, their neighbors and any suspicious activity.
There was no immediate plan to raise the nation's terror threat level, now at yellow, the midpoint of the five-level warning system. Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security Department undersecretary for border and transportation security, said, "We don't have the specific information that would justify raising it or would cause us to do it."
Some Democrats charged that the administration was needlessly scaring people, perhaps to divert attention from the continuing problems in Iraq. Ashcroft's announcement came two days after President George W. Bush began a monthlong initiative to explain administration policy on Iraq and the war on terrorism.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry stopped short of charging the announcement was politically motivated. But he questioned the Bush administration's commitment to providing the resources necessary to protect the country, citing gaps in chemical and nuclear plant safety and inadequate protection for U.S. ports.
Ashcroft rejected talk of a political motive, saying greater public vigilance could help head off an attack.
"My job isn't to worry about whether someone will be second-guessing," he said.
Six of the al-Qaida operatives, including two Canadian citizens, whose photos and backgrounds were highlighted Wednesday have been the subject of FBI pursuit for months. The seventh, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 25, is a U.S. citizen who grew up on a California goat farm and converted to Islam as a teenager. He was described by Mueller as having attended al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and served as an al-Qaida translator.
Each of the suspects, Ashcroft said, presents "a clear and present danger" to the United States because of their language skills, familiarity with U.S. culture and ability to travel under multiple aliases and use forged documents.
Ashcroft said al-Qaida has made adjustments to its tactics to escape easy detection, such as having operatives travel with their families to lower their profiles and recruiting people who can pass for having European ethnicity rather than Middle Eastern backgrounds.
TITLE: Nichols Guilty of Bombing
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: McALESTER, Oklahoma - Nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges Wednesday for helping carry out what was then the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. He could get the death sentence he escaped when he was convicted in a federal court in the 1990s.
The verdicts came just five hours after the jury began deliberations. The same 12-member jury will now determine Nichols' fate on the state charges: life in prison or death by injection.
Oklahoma prosecutors brought the case with the goal of finally winning a death sentence against Nichols, who is serving a life term on federal charges following the 1995 blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people.
Prosecutors contended Nichols worked with former Army buddy Timothy McVeigh, who was executed in June 2001, and is the only person convicted of murder in the bombing.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Dalai Lama in Britain
LONDON (AFP) - He has met him before, and he will meet him again, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicated he is not seeking face time with the Dalai Lama on Friday in London.
Tibet's spiritual leader in exile will be in the British capital to give a talk around the corner from parliament, before traveling north to Scotland for more lectures over several days. He is also to see Prince Charles.
Blair said he had no time to meet the Dalai Lama and it was not because he feared angering China.
Sudan Foes Sign Deal
NAIVASHA, Kenya (AFP) - Sudan's government and main rebel group signed accords that are crucial to ending 21 years of devastating civil war in the south of the vast country.
The three protocols leave only technical and military aspects of a ceasefire standing in the way of a comprehensive peace accord.
Kenyan chief mediator Lazarus Sumbeiywo said both sides had pledged to deliver this by late June or mid July.
The Kenyan talks, however, did not cover the western region of Darfur, where a separate conflict that began in February 2003 has created what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
NYT Admits Failures
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times acknowledged Wednesday it had failed to adequately challenge information from Iraqi exiles who were determined to show Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and overthrow him.
In an unusual note from the editors, "The Times and Iraq," the newspaper said it found a number of instances before the March 2003 U.S. and British invasion of Iraq and early in the occupation, of "coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been."
The Bush administration also has been faulted for relying on inaccurate or incomplete intelligence in asserting Saddam had an ongoing weapons program, a primary reason cited for the war in Iraq. No biological, chemical or nuclear weapons have been found.
Greece Wary of Attacks
ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece began deploying U.S.-supplied radiation detectors at strategic points across the country to prevent a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack during this summer's Athens Olympics, officials said Tuesday.
Greece is hosting the first summer Games since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and has put together the largest security plan in Olympic history, with a price tag of around $1.2 billion.
A "dirty bomb" is a device using an explosive like dynamite that is laced with radioactive material. When the explosive is ignited it disperses the radioactive material over a wide area.
Sharon Revises Plan
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , bolstered by reports that he will avoid prosecution for corruption, on Sunday will unveil his revamped Gaza Strip withdrawal plan to his cabinet, where aides say he is likely to win a tight vote.
Public radio reported that ministers were to receive written drafts of the proposal on Thursday, three days before the crucial weekly cabinet meeting.
The new plan calls for a phased military pullout as well as the evacuation of 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and a few in the northern West Bank.
TITLE: Bryant Plays Well On Court
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: When Kobe Bryant spends the day in court, he has a great game on court.
If that trend continues, Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers could put a stranglehold on their series with the Minnesota Timberwolves by taking a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Bryant is scheduled for a court appearance in Eagle, Colorado on Thursday, and is likely to learn when the trial will begin in his sexual assault case. He'll fly to Los Angeles directly from that hearing to join the Lakers, a situation that would seemingly distract most players but has somehow resulted in a number of high points in Bryant's professional life.
The last time he had to do it was for Game 4 of the semifinals against San Antonio, and Bryant scored 15 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Lakers to a 98-90 victory.
"It's very draining," Bryant said after that win. "It feels good to step out on that basketball court, get up and down, compete. ... It takes your mind away from so many things."
There were three other occasions in which Bryant played on the same day he appeared in court. He hit a 20-footer at the buzzer to give the Lakers a win over Denver on Dec. 19, scored 36 points in a rout of Sacramento on March 24 and had 31 points with 10 assists in a series-clinching win over Houston in the first round.
Bryant has been a key factor in the Lakers taking a 2-1 lead in this series, scoring all 22 of his points in the second half of a 100-89 win Tuesday. He took only two shots in the first half.
"They did a good job defensively," Bryant said. "They were just crowding me and trapping me every time I came off a pick and roll or when I was in transition.
"We were playing so well as a team - we had a nice lead. There's no reason for me to try to push through it or force shots."
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Bryant gave Los Angeles its biggest lead, 91-74, with less than five minutes to play.
That eventually led to Minnesota implementing the Hack-a-Shaq strategy, one which coach Flip Saunders intends to use again.
"It's far from being done," he said. "We'll foul Shaq[uille O'Neal] 50 times, if that's what it takes."
O'Neal's anger seemed to grow with each foul, and he stared down the Timberwolves bench while leaving the game in the final minute. He went 6-of-12 from the foul line in the fourth quarter after going 2-for-10 in the first three.
"My percentage isn't pretty, but I'm not going to miss them all," said O'Neal, who had 22 points and 17 rebounds. "That hasn't worked at all this millennium, and it's not going to work."
TITLE: Mauresmo Focuses on Game
AUTHOR: By Jocelyn Gecker
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - Amelie Mauresmo lives in her own little bubble during the French Open.
She stops reading the newspapers, she stops following world events - and on Wednesday she did not even want to dwell on what should have been welcome news: defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne's stunning loss.
"Well," Mauresmo said with a smile. "I haven't looked into it."
Mauresmo advanced to the third round by beating Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-0, 4-6, 6-1.
Her match ended just before Henin-Hardenne's bid for a second straight Roland Garros title ended in an upset by Tathiana Garbin 7-5, 6-4. Mauresmo now has no major challengers in her half of the draw; The Williams sisters - No. 2 Serena, No. 4 Venus - and No. 7 Jennifer Capriati are in the other half.
Widely seen as France's greatest hope for a trophy, Mauresmo has crumbled under the weight of expectations in the past. Loud partisan crowds at Roland Garros have left her rattled instead of inspired.
Mauresmo made her best showing at Roland Garros last year, reaching the quarters for the first time in nine tries. She lost that match to Serena Williams in a disappointing 6-1, 6-2 flop.
But now she says her outlook has changed and Wednesday's match marked a turning point. As the center court stadium erupted in chants of "Am-e-lie!" she felt something different inside - and liked it.
"In the past this sort of situation made me nervous and inhibited me instead of pushing me," Mauresmo said. "But today, I felt it as something positive and used it as positive energy."
"It helped me master my aggressiveness," said Mauresmo, a power player with a stinging one-handed backhand.
On court and off, she tries to block everything but tennis from her mind.
"I try to remain in my protective bubble," said Mauresmo, who tends to become the focus of France during the French Open. Her rules don't apply to the lead-up to the tournament, when she was, apparently, willing to feed the media frenzy.
She posed for the cover story of this week's Paris Match magazine, which published photos of the tennis player with a surfboard on the beach - and sitting provocatively on her motorcycle in an unbuttoned shirt, a studded bikini bottom and thigh-high leather boots.
Whether Mauresmo has become master of her nerves in the tennis spotlight remains to be seen. Her first two matches posed no great test. She cleared 75th-ranked Ludmila Vervanova of Slovakia in straight sets before overcoming Spain's Medina Garrigues, ranked 67th.
Mauresmo cruised through the first set against the Spaniard. Then the nerves crept in and she lost her first two service games en route to losing the next set.
She returned energized in the third set, dropping only one game before winning the last five for the match. Mauresmo exited the cheering stadium just as it started to rain.
o
Swedish tennis star Torsten Johansson, who set a record by shutting out two opponents at Wimbledon in 1946, died at 84.
Johnasson died May 14, Mats Hasselquist, a friend and former Swedish Davis Cup captain, said Wednesday.
A 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 victory is a tennis rarity, but Johansson produced two in a row at Wimbledon 58 years ago.
Johansson played for the Royal Tennis Club in the early 1940s and won more than 100 national titles for the club, a record that still stands.
He and Lennart Bergelin, who later became Bjorn Borg's coach, turned Sweden into a tennis power after World War II. Johansson retired after the 1962 David Cup series against Mexico.
Johansson played in senior tournaments until his death.
"He always wanted to die on the tennis court, but it didn't happen,"
Hasselquist said.
(AP)
TITLE: SPORTS WATCH
TEXT: Sex is Good, Players Told
ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia coach Otto Baric will allow his players to have sex during Euro 2004 in Portugal.
"Of course, sex is not forbidden," Baric told Croatian daily Jutarnji List on Thursday.
"After every match in Portugal, players will be given a full day off and will be able to see their wives and girlfriends," said Baric, who turns 71 in June.
Coaches have often banned sex during major tournaments because they feel it affects players' effectiveness. Many also think players are distracted by having their wives and girlfriends in the training camp. Croatia, in Group B, play Switzerland on June 13 followed by European champions France on June 17 and England on June 21.
Zimbabwe Elect to Field
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to field in the second one-day international against Australia on Thursday.
Zimbabwe replaced medium pacer Mluleki Nkala with Waddington Mwayenga. Australia brought in left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg and allrounder Ian Harvey for injured fast bower Brad Williams and Andrew Symonds. Australia won the first match by seven wickets in Harare on Tuesday. The three-match series was brought forward after the two-match test series was called off because of the weak side Zimbabwe would have fielded.
Zimbabwe have been forced to pick a second-string team since last month, when 15 white players made themselves unavailable over what they see as racially driven selection policies.
City Day Footie
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Soccer teams representing the Federation Council, the Leningrad Oblast administration, journalists, and local businesses will compete in a one-off mini tournament Friday.
The event is part of City Day celebrations that mark the 301st anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg on Thursday.
Peterovsky Stadium, the home of Russian premier league side F.C. Zenit, will host the 7-aside matches.
The journalists' team includes representatives of Peterburg and RTR television channels, Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper and others. Kick-off is at noon.