SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #973 (41), Tuesday, June 1, 2004
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TITLE: FSB Tells NTV to Cut Clip
AUTHOR: By Caroline McGregor
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - At the request of the intelligence services and the written instruction of NTV's deputy general director, an interview with the widow of Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was cut from the Sunday night broadcast of "Namedni," Kommersant reported Monday.
"I do not know what level the instruction came from, but I can say that the request came from people on a level that you don't argue with," Leonid Parfyonov, the anchor of the weekly current affairs program, was quoted as saying.
During the five-minute segment that was scrapped, Malika Yandarbiyeva spoke of sitting in on the trial of two Russian secret service officers charged in connection with her husband's killing in a car bomb explosion in Qatar in February.
She described the physical appearance of one of the Russian defendants, but did not dwell on the legal proceedings, though that was not the point.
Parfyonov said that he understood from deputy general director Alexander Gerasimov that NTV had been asked not to air any report related to the Qatari trial before a verdict is issued, likely in late June or early July.
The reaction from journalists and media observers was one of indignant outrage over what they decried as censorship.
"It's a written act of censorship, strictly forbidden not only by the media law but by the Russian Constitution," said Yevgeny Kiselyov, a former television journalist and now editor of the newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti. "It's an unprecedented scandal. I can't remember a single other case like it."
Nor could Anna Kachkayeva, a television analyst for Radio Liberty, who said it has been more than 10 years since she last saw such a written ban and the reappearance signals a certain "tightening of the screws."
But she said there are other cases we never learn about, "because they stay behind the walls of editorial offices - or the walls of the Kremlin."
The segment may have been judged too sensitive to air, but only after half of the country - the half east of the Urals - had already seen it.
"Namedni" goes out live twice every Sunday, once in the afternoon to catch the prime time hours in the Far East, and again at 9 p.m. Moscow time, for the European part. The first broadcast is taken as a practice run for the more important second, and between the two, there is time to adjust and improve the show.
Or to limit it, Kachkayeva said. "Probably by someone called Gerasimov on Sunday afternoon."
And Gerasimov called Parfyonov, who told Kommersant that he had insisted that his superior put the instruction in written form so that, as a journalist, he could be spared from the implication of censorship.
Kommersant published a copy of the terse memo ordering Parfyonov to can the piece, along with a transcript of the report by "Namedni" correspondent Yelena Samoilova, taped in Doha, the Qatari capital, in early May.
The bulk of Yandarbiyeva's comments concern her grief, her children and the assistance and hospitality offered to her family by Qatar's rulers. She also tearfully recited a few verses written by her late husband, who was a poet as well as president of a de facto independent Chechnya at the end of the first war there, in 1996. He fled to Qatar at the beginning of the second, in 1999.
By law, material that encourages violence or spreads extremist sentiment may be censored.
Neither of these conditions were met, Kachkayeva said, and it was hard to see how preventing Yandarbiyeva's remarks from going on air was worth the scandal it has sparked.
It wasn't the first time NTV has cancelled a "Namedni" segment at the last minute. In November, the station's general director, Nikolai Senkevich, pulled a piece that Parfyonov planned to run about Yelena Tregubova, a former Kremlin reporter who published a sensational memoir called "Tales of a Kremlin Digger." Senkevich at the time said the "vulgar" material would not be of interest to viewers.
And Parfyonov isn't the only journalist to be put under pressure for material that strikes a nerve among station managers or Kremlin spin doctors.
Vladimir Pozner, the anchor of "Vremena," the weekly news show on Channel One, has publicly bristled at attempts by the Kremlin to modify the tone or content of his program.
Kiselyov, for his part, said, "I'm happy to be out of television. There are too few ways to resist political pressure. You inevitably have to make compromises, and you inevitably lose face."
"This is interference in the editorial policy of a private - I emphasize private - company," Kachkayeva said. "With the state channels, it's understood that there's a certain influence."
At Channel One and Rossia, "there's no need to censor anyone," Kiselyov said. "They manage their journalistic views. They're already censored."
Kachkayeva said the pressure on Parfyonov was "completely intolerable" if it came from high-ranking government officials.
But there was an alternate possibility, she said - that Gerasimov made the decision himself, simply on the basis of how he anticipated the intelligence services would react, as a way of playing it safe.
"If that's the case, then it becomes more morally complicated," she said, because Gerasimov, who oversees political and informational programming for the channel, technically has the right to make editorial decisions that Parfyonov must obey.
In the face of such an order, a journalist's only leverage is to threaten to walk out, issuing an ultimatum that either the show run in its entirety or not at all, she said.
TITLE: Admirer of Russian Avamt-Garde Wins Pritzker
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Baghdad-born British designer Zaha Hadid, whose work is inspired by the Russian avant-garde, received the Pritzker Prize, world's top architectural award at the Hermitage on Monday.
Often described as the architectural equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the award was established in 1979 by the Hyatt Foundation, and is named after its founders Cindy and Jay Pritzker. The family owns the Hyatt hotels, which are noted for their exceptional architecture.
For the first time in its 25-year history, the award ceremony was held in Russia. The ceremony is held in a different location every year.
"We try to move it around to areas where we can get the message out about the importance of great architecture," said Thomas Pritzker, president of the Hyatt Foundation and the eldest son of Jay and Cindy. "For us St. Petersburg has been a very interesting opportunity because this is a city that was built on a concept of architecture, and it is a city that is going to see further development in that field. So the ability to come here during this period of the city's history was particularly unusual."
The ceremony has been held in Paris, London, Rome, Jerusalem, Mexico and Prague, with the organizers aiming to touch not only different countries and continents but also different cultures.
At 53, Zaha Hadid was the youngest ever winner of the prize and the first female winner.
"There has been a great deal made of me being the first woman to receive the award and of me being an Arab," she said. "But I am not a 'female architect.' Nor am I an 'Arab architect.' On the other hand, coming from that part of the world I never for a moment thought I would ever have a professional career. So I hope that my example encourages more women to pursue professional dimensions in their lives."
Jury chairman Lord Rothschild said the jury members don't think of Hadid as the first woman to receive the prize, which includes $100,000 and a bronze medallion, but as one of the great architects of the world.
"Our job is really to celebrate great architecture, and this is how Zaha came to receive the prize," he said.
Thomas Pritzker said his parents founded the prize in 1978.
"It came out of both their interest in architecture and a desire to do something special for that field," he said. "What they wanted to do was to create an architectural prize to heighten people's awareness of and understanding of the importance of architecture to our everyday lives. In addition, the mission of the Pritzker Prize is to create a greater awareness among all people in how we proceed and interact with our surroundings."
Hadid came ready with many warm words about Russia.
She said she first came across the Russian avant-garde in the mid-1970s when she was studying in London. She said it had a tremendous influence on her work.
"It was a triggering point for me," she recalls. "It was critical for my work to learn about new, different ways of organizing space and order, so on this visit to Russia I'd like to thank the Russian avant-garde for really inspiring me."
However, Russia's avant-garde architects, who thought that the Bolshevik Revolution would allow their ideas to be developed freely, were suppressed by the Soviet authorities, who saw themselves as the architects of a new society.
The avant-garde designs remained mainly on paper. Konstantin Melnikov built a few Constructivist buildings in Moscow, that are today neglected, but post 1930s Soviet architecture is usually described in reference to who was in charge in the Kremlin.
Stalinist-era buildings built in the 1930s to 1950s were inspired by classical models of architecture rather then the modern, international ideas of the avant-garde.
Some of Hadid's works include the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, a fire station in Switzerland, a car park in Strasbourg, France and a ski jump in Innsbruck, Austria.
Although she lives in London and has won a string of architectural prizes and grants, none of Hadid's designs have yet been built in the British capital.
Fragmented, revolutionary and radical, they least of all remind one of the arched shapes and ornamental style of Muslim architecture.
Culture and Press Minister Alexander Sokolov said the Pritzker Prize award ceremony draws attention to every city where it takes place.
"It is very encouraging to see St. Petersburg hosting the event," he said. "The issue of the architectural outlook of Russian cities is now intensely discussed, and the case of St. Petersburg is perhaps the trickiest."
"I can think of at least four architects in your city who would easily qualify for the Pritzker Prize: Quarenghi, Rossi, Rastrelli, Tresini," was Lord Rothschild's joking response to the question if any Russian architect merits consideration for the award.
In a city originally designed by foreigners, architectural designs by modern foreign architects are of more than theoretical interest.
It took just under a year for the government to sign a contract with French architect Dominique Perrault, who won an international competition for the best project for the second building for the Mariinsky Theater.
(see story, page 3)
TITLE: Bellona Wins Case on Secrets of Nuclear Submarines
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Environmental Rights Center Bellona on Thursday won a court case over a dispute with the Defense Minister and the Navy Commander on declassifying information about accidents on board Soviet nuclear submarines.
The presidium of the Moscow City Court said that the information requested by environmentalists cannot be classified and that Bellona can demand its release.
"This ruling establishes a precedent," said St. Petersburg lawyer Ivan Pavlov, head of the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information, who was hired by Bellona to work on the case. "In the past the courts had no idea at all how to get documents declassified."
"After we have dealt with some formalities, the case will be handed over to the Presnya District Court [in Moscow]," he said Thursday in a telephone interview. "In theory, it should be heard within the 10 days after the case is submitted, but it is unlikely to happen so fast judging from how our courts work."
Bellona is seeking information on nuclear submarine accidents that occurred between 1961 and 1985.
It sent its first request to Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in mid-2002. Within a month Navy head Vladimir Kuroyedov replied, telling the environmentalists he refused to supply any information about the accidents.
Bellona then used a court system that demonstrated its unwillingness to tackle such a sensitive matter as that of classified information.
"This case is full of interesting moments," Pavlov said.
Bellona filed its first case in August 2002 to Presnya District Court, which has jurisdiction over cases involving the Defense Ministry. But the court refused to hear the case, saying that state secrets were a matter for the Moscow City Court.
In August last year, the city court ruled that Bellona's request was outside the jurisdiction of "a court of a city of federal significance" and said the case should be heard in the Presnya court because it "does not concern state secrets."
"We found ourselves in an absurd situation with two rulings that completely contradicted each other," Pavlov said.
Thursday's ruling has paved the way for the requests to be answered.
"It is more or less known what happened, when and on which submarines," Bellona representative Rashid Alimov said Monday a telephone interview. "There is information in our reports, but we wanted it to be confirmed officially."
"According to our information taken from different open sources there were failures on nuclear reactors between 1961 and 1985 on submarines with tactical numbers K-19, K-387, K-208, K-279, K-447, K-508, K-209, K-210, K-216, K-316, K-462, K-38, K-37, K-371, and K-367," Bellona's request for information says. "It is known that there were human casualties and also that radiation leaked into the atmosphere. But to this day information on the consequences of the accidents is hidden from the public."
Kuroyedov said he "does not know which open sources were used to get information on accidents, and what is more, the tactical numbers of submarines" and has confirmed only one, that of K-19. In his letter to Bellona Kuroyedov said only that all measures necessary to take care of victims had already been implemented.
Bellona treated the letter as an attempt to avoid having to supply the information requested.
The Navy press service could not be reached for comment Monday.
Bellona's report on the Murmansk-based Northern Fleet mentions 18 cases of technical failures involving Soviet nuclear submarines from 1961 to 1985, including cases in which people died.
According to the report, 39 sailors died Sept. 8, 1967 in the Norwegian sea as a result of a fire on board the submarine K-3; 28 sailors died a result of a fire on Feb. 24, 1972 on board the famous K-19 submarine, which was on its way back from service in the Northern Atlantic; on Sept. 26, 1976 another 8 sailors died in the Barents Sea as a result of a fire started by old rags catching fire on board the submarine K-47; 13 sailors died on June 18, 1984 after an electrician's clothing caught fire on submarine K-131, and two crew died on K-387 in 1976 as a result of a condenser failure.
All this and the rest of the disasters linked to different leaks and technical problems with reactors on submarines are described in detail on the web site bellona.org.
TITLE: Lappeenranta and Imatra: Finnish Cities Linked to St. Pete
AUTHOR: By Robin Munro
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Two provincial Finnish cities are the closest pieces of the West to St. Petersburg and offer recreation, medical treatment, dentistry, car registration, shopping, postal, banking and trade facilities to visitors from just over the border.
Russian can be heard in the shopping centers of Lappeenranta and Imatra, and many staff catering to tourists speak Russian; Russian-language radio station Sputnik broadcasts pop and news across the southern end of Lake Saimaa, the third biggest lake in Europe, and Russian newspapers and magazines are widely available.
Imatra has two 18-hole golf courses that are among the best in Finland.
About 150 managers cross the border daily to work in enterprises just inside Russia.
St. Petersburgers have holiday homes in the area and expats can drive away for a weekend in its clean surroundings, a far cry from the rubbish-strewn forests that dominate the Russian side of the border.
But while crossing the border has become far easier since the demise of the Soviet Union, the two cities' ties to St. Petersburg, about 200 kilometers away, are long-standing.
For centuries Finnish-speaking people have occupied the lands to the north and west of Lake Ladoga, but over the centuries the borders have shifted many times, primarily as the Swedish empire contracted and expanded. Lappeenranta and Imatra are now in the Finnish province of Southern Karelia while Northern Karelia is inside Russia.
"At various times, Finnish people just a few kilometers to the east of here could be recruited into the Russian army and sent to fight the Turks, while Finns a few kilometers to the west might be recruited into the Swedish army and sent to fight in Germany or elsewhere," Matti Lohko, marketing manager for the city of Lappeenranta, said in an interview in the city.
Lappeenranta was the site of the Lapvesi market place in the Middle Ages.
In 1649, the Swedes founded a city on the site. They called it Villmanstrand or the Wild Man's Shore, the name apparently reflecting their disdain for the "primitive" locals.
Later the Finnish name of Lappeenranta, which in Finnish means "the shore of the lake," took precedence.
The symbol of the city to this day is a wild man with a club.
However, Olli Immonen, director of the Lappeenranta Museum, said that the Swedish Queen, Kristina, had been reading a lot of classical tales of Rome and Greece and the figure actually represents a kind of hero "like Hercules."
The Swedes and Russians fought the Great Northern War from 1700 to 1721, with Peter the Great displacing the Swedes from much of their former territory and founding his new capital of St. Petersburg on the Neva delta.
The Swedes strengthened the defences of Lappeenranta, but when war broke out again in 1741 the city fell in one day in a battle in which thousands died.
The Russian army was led by mercenaries Field Marshall Peter de Lacy, an Irishman, and General James Keith, a Scot. In the early stages of the battle in front of the fortress, the Swedish commander General Carl Henrik Wrangel was wounded. The Swedes retreated into the safety of the fortress.
There was a lull in the fighting and the Russians decided to try to negotiate a peaceful surrender.
Three men, including a drummer, approached the fortress with a white flag. The Swedes shot them.
After that the Russian artillery fired from a hilltop inside the fortress walls, killing many of the Swedish troops inside. Some escaped by swimming across the lake, but when Russian troops entered the destroyed fortress only about 30 women and children remained alive.
Lappeenranta became part of Russia and the city was the border point between Russia and the Swedish-Finnish Kingdom - the rest of Finland did not come within the Russian empire until 1809.
During the reign of Catherine the Great, famed field marshal Alexander Suvorov strengthened the city's defenses and built a ring of fortresses around Lappeenranta to protect St. Petersburg from Swedish attacks. An Orthodox church, the oldest in Finland, was built inside the fortress in 1785.
"The fortress is rather similar to the Peter and Paul Fortress," Immonen said. "It was a fortress built to protect St. Petersburg. The architects and the military engineers were the same ones who built in St. Petersburg and Vyborg."
The Russians also had a Lake Saimaa navy, and mounted troops exercised in the city until just before World War II.
The last tsar visited Lappeenranta once in 1893 when his father Alexander III ruled Russia. An exhibition about Nicholas II with items from Tsarskoye Selo will be displayed in the Lappeenranta Fortress from June 1 to Aug. 28.
In the late 19th century, Imatra was a favorite destination for day trips by nobles from St. Petersburg, especially after a railway line opened to there in 1892.
A major attraction was the rapids on the Vuoksi River that flowed freely until 1929 when a hydroelectric dam was built. Tsars from Catherine the Great to Nicholas II came to see the torrents of water.
The rapids still draw crowds and the water has already been allowed to pour down the usually dry bed several times this year. A total of 83 day, evening and night shows are planned this summer with the average flow 500 cubic meters of water per second.
"The whole of Finnish tourism began in Imatra at the waterfall," said Hannu Sarinen, Imatra's tourism and service manager. "The hotel Imatra was very famous; a beautiful building built in 1903."
Other nobles built grand dachas, including the Rantalinna dacha that was built by Prince Alexander von Oldenburg.
Sarinen said that in the 19th century Russians found it difficult to travel abroad, but in Imatra where they could receive spa treatments, they could have a sense of being abroad without having to travel too far or leave the country.
Lenin granted Finland independence from the Soviet Union on the last day of 1917, with Lappeenranta far from the border, but that changed in 1940 after Stalin attacked the young country and took large parts of Karelia.
Although the Finns reclaimed the land they lost in 1940 during the Continuation War, they were forced to surrender it again in 1944 as a war-hardened Soviet Union attacked it in full force.
Vyborg, then Finland's second-largest city and the capital of Southern Karelia, was incorporated into the Soviet Union and Stalin demanded and received the Enso paper mill that was built on the outskirts of Imatra. The mill and surrounding town have since been renamed Svetogorsk.
The battles cost many lives, but Finland's resistance earned it the respect of the Soviets and the country was able to survive and even prosper from its ties across the border.
Sarinen said that although many Finns lost their lives fighting the Soviet Union and that many still regret the loss of their home territory, most have adopted a practical attitude toward their neighbor.
"Our attitude must be positive toward Russian people," he said. "I think we have succeeded."
"We have to learn the Russian language and we have many Russian people working here. We are taking all the good things that come from our location between the East and West."
Lappeenranta, which had once been second-string to Vyborg, an international city that used to have Russian, Finnish, Swedish and German churches and schools, replaced the larger city as the regional capital and still benefits from people who want to visit Vyborg.
"Many have said that Vyborg is our best site," Lohko said.
In the 1960s, the 43-kilometer Saimaa Canal that connects Finland to the waterways of the world was opened. It is heavily used by vessels carrying Russian timber to Lappeenranta's and Imatra's giant pulp and paper mills and is a popular travel route for tourists.
In the last decade Finns were able to travel on the canal without a visa. Some 50,000 Swedes came to visit Vyborg, which they recognized as a city similar to those in their homeland.
However, their perception of Russia and its dangers meant that they were reluctant to sleep in Vyborg, so they spent several nights in Lappeenranta around their canal journey.
Lohko said about 30,000 people used to take the canal trip a year, including Finns who used it to stock up on duty-free alcohol, but the introduction of visas in 2001 had deterred people somewhat.
Although obtaining a visa from the Russian consulate in Lappeenranta is merely a formality, it is a barrier, he said. "It's only 35 euros, but people don't feel that they get anything for it."
Lappeenranta's population is about 60,000, while Imatra's is about half as big.
A special European Union-funded Tacis technical assistance program called City Twins has been running between Imatra and Svetogorsk since 2002 and will continue to 2010.
"The objective ... is to become a European-Russian model of territorial, national and international cooperation, where mutual collaboration will utilize the opportunities of the City Twins in order to develop the territory and to improve the welfare of its inhabitants," a written description of the plans says.
It says the cooperation can follow the example of the International Paper plant at Svetogorsk where production is in Russia which gives access to the Russian market and low production costs. Meanwhile, western support services are close and western staff can live in Imatra or elsewhere in South Karelia.
While the traditional forestry-related industries are still a key part of the two cities' economies other branches are developing rapidly.
The Lappeenranta University of Technology, founded in 1968 in a wooded suburb of Lappeenranta is a key to the growth and sophistication of the city. It has some 5,000 undergraduate students who study engineering, management and economics.
It has a rising number of foreign students, including Russians, and offers some courses entirely in English.
As the retail trade expands in Russia, so does demand for efficient and economic logistic and storage services. The Lappeenranta Free Zone at the end of the Saimaa Canal offers such services. They are used by some Asian producers who bring their goods right across Russia on the trans-Siberian railroad and then use the zone, perched on the EU border with Russia, before shipping them back to St. Petersburg.
TITLE: Visitors With Swastikas
TEXT: Imatra was the site of an unusual meeting between Adolf Hitler and Finnish military leader Marshall Karl Mannerheim in 1942, about a year after Germany launched its attack on the Soviet Union.
Mannerheim, an aristocratic former officer in the Tsar's army who was trained in St. Petersburg, was little impressed by the German dictator.
Fiercely independent Finland was caught between two aggressive great powers. It had lost many lives and much territory when Stalin attacked it in the Winter War of 1939-40 and, presented with an offer to receive some captured armaments in exchange for allowing German troops to cross its territory, Finland had agreed in 1940 and became a somewhat reluctant ally of the Nazis.
On June 22, 1941, when Operation Barbarossa was launched, Finland declared itself neutral, but after the Soviets bombed several Finnish towns for letting Germans attack from its territory, Finland declared war on the Soviet Union.
The Finns advanced to reclaim the territory down to the former border at the Sestra river on the outskirts of Leningrad, but there was little movement thereafter.
In 1942, Hitler wanted to congratulate Mannerheim, Finland's national hero, on his birthday on June 4. Mannerheim did not want to meet Hitler at his headquarters in Mikkeli, and anyway the landing strip was too small. Nor did he want to receive him in Helsinki because that would make it look as if the dictator was on an official state visit. The Immola airfield near Imatra was one of the few long enough for Hitler's aircraft to land on.
Hitler, stationed in what was then the German province of East Prussia, took a risk in flying close to Soviet territory from where his aircraft could have been intercepted and shot down. The flight was secretly prepared at one day's notice.
The Finns on the airfield were not even told who the most important passenger was in the fleet of German aircraft that landed at Immola.
Hitler's plane, a Focke Wulf FW 200 Condor, was met over the Gulf of Finland by eight U.S.-made Brewster fighters from the Finnish air force.
When the Condor landed, the pilot braked too hard tyring not to overrun the runway and a wheel caught fire - an accident that could have resulted in a fatality, but the dictator barely paid any attention.
The Finns watching were surprised to see Hitler leave the plane.
He was met by Finnish President Risto Ryti, and proceeded to inspect a motley Finnish Air Force guard of honor - reservists who wore British uniforms and bore Italian rifles.
Ryti and Hitler then drove several kilometers to where Mannerheim was waiting at a railway siding.
When Hitler saw the Finnish marshall he ran toward him.
"An officer doesn't run, only corporals do that," Mannerheim is said to have remarked disdainfully to the officers accompanying him.
Hitler, who was much shorter than Mannerheim, was wearing special high-heeled shoes for the meeting and had asked his photographers to snap him only from an angle that showed his height favorably alongside the marshall. Finnish photographers, who were not subject to such instructions, snapped less flattering images of the two men.
Mannerheim was not impressed by Hitler, although his guest was highly taken with the marshall's bearing. The meal seems to have been somewhat awkward - Mannerheim is said to have smoked a cigar, something Hitler could not stand, and Mannerheim did not like the way the Fuehrer ate.
"While the rest of us enjoyed the good but simple dishes, Hitler ate his vegetarian meal washed down with tea and water," he was quoted as saying afterward.
Although the main reason for Hitler's visit appears to have been to ask the Finns to boost their operations against the Soviet Union, the uncomfortable chemistry with Mannerheim appears to have deterred him from making any political demands.
In June 1944, the Soviets attacked the Finnish positions again. The Red Army was now a mighty force with battle-hardened troops and experience leadership and its tiny neighbor was fully stretched to oppose it.
The Finns called on the Germans for help and were provided with Stukas, Me109 Messerschmitts and the new antitank bazooka weapons called Panzerfausts.
Finnish and German air crews worked at Immola to support the beleaguered ground troops under the leadership of German commander Kurt Kuhlmey.
The small Border Museum at Immola, which features the history of the Finnish Border Guard since Finland's independence, has a small room dedicated to Hitler's visit and Kuhlmey's operations.
"Some people, including Russians and Finns, don't think we should have anything about these things in the museum," said Mika Albertsson, a border guard, who opened the museum specially for a small group from St. Petersburg a month ago. "But I say it's part of our history whatever you think of it.
"Many people, especially Russians, come to this museum to find out what really happened, because they are not sure they have been told the truth."
TITLE: St. Petersburg's 301st Anniversary
TEXT: St. Petersburg marked its 301st birthday over the weekend with a string of high-spirited events including a colorful carnival along Nevsky Prospekt, and the premiere of a new production of Mikhail Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar" at the Mariinsky Theater.
Saturday's parade was given a musical boost by the participation of brass bands in town for the 9th International Military Band Festival. One of the most popular guests was a military orchestra from Vaduz, Liechtenstein, which was performing in St. Petersburg for the first time. Military bands performed at many sites in the city, including the Peter and Paul Fortress, the courtyard of the Cappella, the monument to Catherine II, and others.
Sunday's Mariinsky premiere included performances of music by Glinka - marking 200 years since his birth - and a dedication at his statue on Teatralnaya Ploshchad outside the theater.
The festivities began with a wreath-laying in honor of Peter I, founder of the city, at the Bronze Horseman on Thursday.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Plaque to U.S. Envoy
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The unveiling ceremony of a memorial plaque to John Quincy Adams, the first official U.S. envoy to Russia, will take place in St. Petersburg on Thursday, Interfax reported.
U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow will attend the ceremony. Adams, later the sixth president of the United States, was appointed the first American minister to Russia in 1809.
The plaque made by sculptor Alexander Spivak will be unveiled on the house where Adams lived with his family for a year beginning in July 1810.
Killers 'Not Skinheads'
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - None of the youths detained for the murder of a nine-year-old Tajik girl in St. Petersburg are members of a radical group, Itar-Tass quoted Vladislav Piotrovsky, head of the criminal police of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region as saying to Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev on Friday.
A group of young people severely beat a Tajik citizen, his nephew and nine-year-old daughter Khursheda Sultanova, who later died of 11 knife wounds on Feb. 9.
As the result of an undercover operation, it was found 12 people were involved. Nine of them have been detained, five are under arrest, and two have been released on sureties. A search for their accomplices is underway, the report said. All the detainees are St. Petersburg residents aged 16 to 20. They have confessed and are cooperating with investigators, Piotrovsky said.
Quebec Migration Info
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The International Organization for Migration and the Quebec Migration Service will offer free advice to prospective immigrants in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
Guy Nolin, an attaché with the service, will present the information at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the Golden Room at the Shuvalov Palace. The session is directed at French-speaking Russians who are interested in migration.
More information about Quebec and about the sessions can be obtained on the official Quebec Government web site www.immigration-quebec.ca/russie
New Bridge Completed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) -A new bridge across the Neva River, the first that will not have to open for ships to pass, was completed on Friday.
The bridge is to form an important part of the Ring Road around the city that is designed to clear the inner city of much traffic.
At 3 kilometers, the new bridge located in the southeast near the Murmansk highway will be the longest in the city. It is one of only four suspension bridges of its type in the former Soviet Union, with the others in Riga, Kiev and Surgut. It is due to open in October.
TITLE: Greenpeace Takes Vodokanal to Court
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Greenpeace has filed a lawsuit against city water utility Vodokanal, saying the state-owned monopoly has failed to provide information about its planned waste disposal plant northwest of St. Petersburg, environmentalists said last week.
The lawsuit was filed after Vodokanal failed to respond to Greenpeace inquires for six months, justifying its refusal by saying the environmentalists are officially registered as a commercial organization, but not as a public one.
Late last month, Greenpeace submitted a letter to Vodokanal attesting to its status as a public organization, but was again refused.
"In St. Petersburg, waste from residential buildings [sewage] is mixed with industrial waste that has chemicals in it so there is a danger that dioxins will be released into the atmosphere when it's burned," said Dmitry Artamonov, deputy head of Greenpeace in the city.
"We have information that about dioxins are being removed at an existing plant on Bely Island, but we can't say anything for sure because they won't let us go there," he said.
On May 13, Vodokonal said its plans are safe at a public meeting on the new waste incinerator to be built in the Olgino settlement, but Greenpeace was unconvinced, saying the utility has released no specific data.
As a result of the meeting, more than a hundred residents of Olgino said no to the project and joined Greenpeace in condemning Vodokanal for failing to comply with federal laws that require public hearings on such developments.
"Such legally illiterate and illegal moves show that Vodokanal was trying to hide some facts that are not in its favor," Artamonov said. "This means Vodokanal's plans are ecologically unsafe."
Vodokanal management has responded by attacking Greenpeace. It said the environmentalists are "fulfilling their obligations to their paymasters," a reference to President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address last week in which he suggested non-governmental organizations serve the interests of "dubious groups and commercial interests."
"They will fulfill their obligations ... [But] they use unscrupulous methods and it looks shameful," Vodokanal head Felix Karmazinov said Friday at a briefing.
Vodokanal's conflict with Greenpeace goes back more than three years to April 2001, when Greenpeace activists tried to land on Bely Island to test emissions coming out of the chimney of a waste incineration plant, he said.
Karmazinov said the city needs plants to burn waste because St. Petersburg is running out of areas to store it. About 110 hectares of city land is covered with sludge from both residential buildings and industrial plants. City Hall used to spread about 10 hectares with the waste each year before its first waste incinerator was built on Bely Island in 1997.
"Since then we have only needed about 3 hectares a year," Karmazinov said.
The new plant is due for completion in 2006, according to Vodokonal's development program for 2004 to 2011. It will allow 85 percent of the sludge to be disposed of, freeing more land for developers to build more residential buildings, Karmazinov said.
TITLE: Contract for Second Mariinsky Signed
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Culture Ministry on Saturday finally signed a contract with French architect Dominique Perrault to use his design for a state-of-the-art building housing a second stage for the state-owned Mariinsky Theater.
Perrault won an international competition to design the building almost a year ago, but the government has been in no rush to get things started.
Some insiders say this embarrassing procrastination is due to a lack of money. Since the competition, the projected cost of the building has gone up from $100 million to $244 million.
Perrault's design is a non-symmetrical, many-sided golden metal structure built around a new theater building. The architect has said that he sees himself as a fashion designer, and his design wraps the black marble facade of the building inside a light, transparent golden tunic.
The new building is intended to harmonize with the existing theater building built in 1860 to a design by Italian Albert Cavos. A bridge over the Kryukov Kanal will connect the two buildings.
"We are talking about creating some kind of a theatrical quarter, similar to what we have in Europe," Perrault said Saturday. "There, the city's history and the rhythm of modern life should be equally felt. My project will be as open to the world as possible. There will be a gallery intersecting the building, accessible at any time of day or night."
While supporters of Perrault's project welcome the idea, comparing the new building's silhouette with the golden cupolas of Orthodox churches, opponents make totally different associations.
Many St. Petersburgers still haven't accepted the French project, branding the design as too revolutionary, or at the very least, lacking taste. One of the more harmless nicknames applied to the new building is "the golden potato." Critics say Perrault's design is too elaborate and out of keeping with the classical lines of the neighborhood.
Even after winning the contest and being in possession of a signed contract, Perrault's plans are far from being realized.
While assuring audiences that St. Petersburg will definitely acquire "the best theater in Europe," Governor Valentina Matviyenko issued a warning after the signing ceremony.
"What you saw is not the final version," she said. "We are going to ask the architect to make his project a harmonious component of the part of the city surrounding the historical building."
The Mariinsky's artistic director Valery Gergiev is convinced that the second building will become one of the leading concert halls in the world, both visually and technically. The new hall, which will accommodate 2,000 spectators, twice as many as the new Bolshoi Theater hall in Moscow, will rate among the world's top five venues for its acoustics, he said.
"We have never envied anyone in terms of artistic talent," he said. "But I have to admit that, especially over the past several years, we have watched the technical and technological side of the venues where we perform very closely. Anywhere we went on tour, be it Europe, Asia or America, we studied their resources and capacities very carefully, and this experience will be of enormous help for our new building."
Discussions about a second stage for the Mariinsky started over five years ago.
Gergiev says the technical capabilities of the existing theater do not match the troupe's artistic potential. The Mariinsky has to close for several days to erect sets for operas such as Andrei Konchalovsky's rendition of Sergei Prokofiev's "War And Peace," while many foreign directors working with the company have to adjust their bold designs to the modest capacities of the Mariinsky's stage.
Perrault laughed at Matviyenko's question about when impatient audiences will be able to enter the new hall. "The autumn of 2009 is a realistic date," he said. "If, that is, we work in efficient cooperation."
TITLE: An Oil Sheikh for the Amber Craftsmen?
AUTHOR: By Cornelia Riedel
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The Amber Room, for years the world's most valuable missing art treasure was restored with the help of German financing and reopened a year ago in time for St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebrations. A symbol of German-Russian relations, the amber-lined chamber was given by Prussian King Freidrich Wilhelm 1 to Peter the Great and installed in the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo in 1755. During World War II it was dismantled and taken to German-held Koenigsberg where all trace of it was lost.
A visit to the workshop that recreated the panels for the room, found the staff busy and upbeat - and rather interested in Germany.
PUSHKIN - After the last panels were screwed on in the Amber Room on May 31 last year, Oleg Murashyov boarded a ship.
With a bicycle in his luggage he headed for Germany, riding the ferry from Finland to Rostock. The amber worker turned his back on the amber workshop next to the Catherine Palace to pedal 1,100 kilometers across Germany.
That was a year ago. In the meantime, crowds of tourists have passed through the legendary Amber Room and marveled at the handiwork of the craftsmen from the town of Pushkin located 30 kilometers outside St. Petersburg, In the workshop right where new amber was crafted to match the original room, people are still working with files and planes, sanding machines and tweezers on 40-million-year-old stones.
Under his gray-beige smock Murashyov is wearing a tie. The qualified electrical engineer laughs and speaks some German words.
"Of course, a year ago we were worried what would happen to us [when the restoration project was finished]," he said.
He said to a German journalist then that he hoped an oil sheikh would order something similar to the Amber Room. The workshop had been specially created 20 years earlier to recreate the original Amber Room that disappeared during World War II.
"We have almost found our oil sheikh because we have work for the next eight months and even after that it is guaranteed that we will get more," he said.
"Yes, we all thought that once the Amber Room was finished that the workshop would close. But we still haven't had to let a single worker go," says Vladimir Mesentsev, the workshop foreman.
He strides though the dozen rooms in which the 40 Russian craftsmen are turning the stones into art forms.
Mesentsev's mobile telephone rings.
"Keep an eye on things, I have to go to the boss," he says as he walks between boxes full of unpolished amber.
As if it is in ancient Russia, the workshop has a samovar and colorful icons on the walls, but there are also glossy color photographs and historic snapshots of the Amber Room. Plastic models of the decorations hang overhead.
"Groups of German visitors sometimes recognize me from the television," Mezentsev says, sounding proud.
He has exchanged the leather jacket for a green smock. His glasses hang from his neck on a chain made of tiny balls of amber.
"I had really had enough of all this amber," he says. "But you just can't break up a team like ours."
He has made it a labor of love to keep his workers busy for the last year.
The two largest projects the workshop is working on are the Agate Room in the Cameron Gallery of the Catherine Palace, which is actually made of jasper, and the malachite columns of the St. Petersburg landmark, St. Isaac's Cathedral.
"Right now what we have to do is find another sponsor and experiment a bit more with the jasper," Mesentsev said.
He is responsible for the Agate Room. It will cost $6.5 million to restore and take eight years. In addition, the artisans are working on dozens of private contracts and making souvenirs for the shops in the Catherine Palace. A sales hit is an amber jewelry box for $1,000.
"The workers can't make more than two of them a month," the 57-year-old says.
Half of the craftsmen have an arts background while others are architects.
In the corridor filigree rings of egg-yolk yellow amber are sorted out.
"We do this for a German pencil maker," says Mesentsev. "A ballpoint pen made with those rings costs 1,300 euros. But 99 percent of the amber goes to waste, because you can only use the best quality for rings. It makes me wince."
Despite his love for the material, Mesentsev doesn't have any in his St. Petersburg home, "To work it every day is enough for me, even if my wife would gladly have one or another piece in a display case," he says.
One kilogram of best-quality amber costs $500. Only 200 kilograms of amber out of every metric ton can be used; the rest is rubbish, "because amber is moody. But the pen production is a profitable contract, that's why we have accepted it," Mesentsev says. His own workbench stands in the corner at the end of the masterskaya (workshop).
Mesentsev picks up a carafe made of amber and glass. Satisfied, he turns the impressive work in his hands.
"I worked on this for a foreign order," he says. "I can no longer remember who exactly it is for and what is supposed to go in it, but creating it took quite a while."
The raw material for the amber art works comes from a quarry near Kaliningrad. Mountains of the material are piled up in the corridor of the workshop.
"Look here, the amber becomes honey-yellow like this after 20 years' exposure to the air," Mesentsev says, and weighs a fist-size glimmering stone in his hand.
"When it's cracked it can't be used for art work," he adds, testing the stone's strength with a spatula-like tool.
A German private customer has arrived. "I have ordered a side table out of lapis lazuli, my favorite stone," he says.
The wages of the staff of the workshop have gone down a little since the Amber Room opened, but in comparison with the usual wage for artisans, theirs are above average.
Murashyov pulls an old chocolate box out, lifts the lid and orders the individual parts of the amber carving lying in it with the end of his finger.
"This decoration is exactly the same as one in the Amber Room. And I'm making it for a private order. This is absolutely my favorite job. Only after I have done it 100 times will I get bored of it," he says.
In 1999, when German gas company Ruhrgas started spending $3.5 million to finance the reconstruction of the Amber Room, the hobby jeweler gave up his job as an electrical engineer and started working in the workshop.
"Where do you come from?" he asks this reporter, "From Dresden? I spent three years living near there in Waitzdorf. At the end of the 1950s my father was a soldier there. And I saw our old house when I was there last summer on my bicycle tour."
"I went right through Germany. After all, this country gave us the contract and I always wanted to have a closer look at it. Some day I'll go back again."
TITLE: Kremlin 'Arranged Ransom'
AUTHOR: By Simon Ostrovsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Kidnapped Dutch aid worker Arjan Erkel was freed after the Kremlin arranged a ransom payment of 1 million euros, a source close to his employer, Medicins Sans Frontieres, said Monday.
Erkel, the MSF mission head in Dagestan, was released unharmed near the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, on April 11 after being held hostage for 20 months, in what local security services said at the time was "a special operation."
The source said MSF officials believed the ransom - 1 million euros in cash - was brought into Russia by plane from the Netherlands after the Kremlin called the Dutch government and told them how to secure Erkel's freedom.
The money was to be handed over to the Veterans of Foreign Intelligence, an association of former KGB agents hired by MSF to help secure Erkel's release, the source said.
"The Kremlin called the Dutch government, told them to do it through the ex-KGB people and told them to do it for a million," the source said. "There was a certain amount of money that went to Dagestan in an airplane the Dutch hired."
The veterans gave the money to Erkel's kidnappers, the source said. A spokeswoman for the Kremlin press service said Monday she could not comment on the case.
The veterans' organization denied it had given the ransom money to Erkel's captors, saying it was only contracted by MSF to collect information.
"I don't know what the Dutch government did or if they paid anybody any money, but our relationship was with MSF and as we said before, no ransom has been paid," said Valentin Velichko, president of the veterans' association.
The Dutch government did have a relationship with the veterans' association, the source said, and gave the money to them without MSF's knowledge. "You could say they went behind MSF's back," the source said.
The Dutch government admitted on Friday it had paid an unspecified sum to secure the release of Erkel, and said it wanted the money back from MSF, after a report in France's Le Monde newspaper alleged the Dutch government was threatening the organization in order to recover the money.
"We just helped [MSF] out," Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Jochems said. "MSF had a quarter of the money needed and we gave them the rest as a loan because there was a good chance that Erkel would be freed in the next 24 hours. We had an agreement that they would pay it back."
But the president of MSF International, Rowan Gillies, said Monday that the Dutch government's version of events was untrue and that MSF did not know to whom the ransom money had been given.
"Everybody is pushing us to pay the Dutch government, but the crux of our argument is that we don't know what happened to [the money] and need clarification from the government," Gillies said. "We definitely won't talk about money while we're being threatened."
The Dutch government said it would petition the European Commission to withdraw funding for MSF in Russia if it did not pay back the ransom money, MSF said.
Two senior officials have left MSF over the affair in recent weeks. MSF Switzerland's general director, Thomas Linde, was fired and its operational director, Thomas Nierle, resigned.
TITLE: Moscow Sent Findings on Original Room
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The findings of a three-year research project into the fate of the original Amber Room have been sent to the State Duma and the German Culture Ministry, the publishers said Friday in a statement.
"It had been thought that the Amber Room, the world's most valuable missing art treasure, valued at $250 million, had been concealed by the Nazis after they stole it during their invasion of Leningrad in 1941. The book reveals that while the Nazis did loot the Amber Room, the Red Army accidentally destroyed it after the fall of Koenigsberg, between April 9 and 11, 19405," the statement said.
The findings, published in a bookcalled " The Amber Room: The Untold Story of the Greatest Hoax of the Twentieth Century" are to be released on Thursday. The findings will be sent to President Vladimir Putin, to Iosif Kobzon, chairman of the Duma's culture and tourism committee, and former culture minister Nikolai Gubenko, as well as to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and German Culture Minister Christina Weiss, the statement said. The research draws on 12 crates of new files from Russia and more than 18,000 pages of material from the former East German secret police, the Stasi. The latter material had been misfiled by the German Federal Archives for more than 10 years, the statement said.
Authors Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy also conducted interviews with more than 100 eyewitnesses in Germany and Russia, which finally enabled them to end the speculation that has surrounded the disappearance of the Amber Room.
Among their findings are orders that confirm how the Soviet Council of People's Commissars in Moscow knew about the Amber Room's destruction at the end of June 1945.
"The council quashed this information; it preferred to promulgate in April 1946 a fictitious story that the Amber Room was still missing and lay concealed in a Nazi hiding place in the Kaliningrad province [formerly part of the German province of East Prussia that had Koenigsberg as its capital]or central Germany," the statement said.
A Soviet team charged with locating the Amber Room petitioned Moscow secretly in 1984, asking why it had been prevented from freely investigating the fate of the room, complaining that the Soviet military and KGB had hampered it, the statement said. "The false story continues to be used by the Russian authorities today as a basis for undermining German-Soviet talks on the restitution of missing art treasures," it added.
After Germany's defeat, Soviet soldiers such treasures home with them. Many Russians say the works are compensation for the destruction wreaked by Hitler's armies.
The German government considers the treasures, many of them removed from museums, as its property. Its case is based on three Hague conventions that the Soviet Union and Russia as its lawful successor have joined. The conventions say an army of occupation may only confiscate property that may be used for military operations.
Former president Boris Yeltsin made an agreement in 1992 that would have allowed the art's return. The State Duma, however, opposed the deal and passed a law that made trophy art the property of Russia. President Vladimir Putin approved that law in May 2000.
TITLE: Eliseev Joins Small Hotels Association
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Eliseev Palace Hotel, which opened last year at the former merchant Eliseev's house at 59 Moika embankment, has become Russia's first hotel to join the prestigious Leading Small Hotels of the World association.
Completed in the spring of 2003, the hotel boasts 29 rooms and provides the only opportunity in town to enjoy the atmosphere of 19th century tsarist era.
The project has cost $45 million already, and an additional $70-80 million is expected to be investmed into expanding the place into a 100-room hotel by 2006. The Eliseev is owned by the Center For Humanitarian and Business Cooperation, the company that owns Taleon club which is located in the same building.
The Leading Small Hotels of the World is a subdivision of the Leading Hotels of the World, an umbrella group uniting 420 hotels across the globe. There are fsix members of the association in Russia, including Baltchug, Kempinski and Le Meridian Royal National in Moscow and Grand Hotel Europe, Astoria and Eliseev Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg. In this respect, St. Petersburg is not far off Paris, which is home to 7 member hotels.
Most of the members of the association worldwide are leisure hotels, and, according to Helen Lloyd, marketing director of Tourism, Marketing & Intelligence agency in Moscow, the Eliseev, with its prestigious location, careful settings preservation and obsessive attention to detail, paves the way for St. Petersburg's future development.
"People mostly go to Moscow for business reasons, simply because they have to, and Moscow is not really promoted as a leisure destination while St. Petersburg is a different case," she said.
In the expert's opinion, it would be very beneficial for the city to have more historical hotels similar to the Eliseev where guests could plunge into the romance and legend of the city, though not necessarily in the luxury range.
"The only thing to pay attention to is keeping design both on the inside and the outside," she said. "Preserving the facade is not enough for keeping the spirit."
Each hotel willing to participate in the Leadings has to be evaluated on a 1500 point scale.
"For instance, breakfast alone is evaluated by 150 points," said Svetlana Samarianova, regional manager of the Leading Hotels of the World in Moscow. "It is checked whether the staff address the guest by name, whether the guest is offered a choice between a smoking and a non-smoking hall, which side the staff choose to place the napkin and so on."
An expert from the Leadings travels incognito to the candidate hotel, sending back a voluminous report upon return.
"The decor was richly finished with light gold wall covering, cream painted walls, ornate plasterwork features and hand painted effect peach and green border illustrations," reads the Eliseev report, describing the room. "[...] Numerous pieces of good quality reproductions, furniture with marble tops, inlaid decoration, and guilt work [are remarkable.] Several high back chairs, a caramel leather sofa and coffee table were provided. The claret patterned carpet was immaculate."
The criteria are the same for all hotels, size notwithstanding.
No other Russian hotel is currently being considered for membership in the association. "Quite honestly, I don't suppose any hotel is ready to apply in the near future," Samarianova said. "The requirements are too hard to meet."
The hotel's owner Alexander Ebralidze turned down several offers from major international hotel chains to manage the place, convinced that Russians can meet the highest industry standards.
Ebralidze solves the personnel issue, widely considered to be the trickiest for the Russian hospitality industry, in several ways.
"First of all, there are specific standards and requirements," he said. "In line with these standards, personnel are employed with an initial two-month probationary period. The next step is teaching two basic disciplines: the history of the house, and etiquette for staff behavior. Finally, every employee sits a certificate examination and is either invited to sign a contract with us or is let go."
Training is on-going at Eliseev, and certification takes place every six months.
"In addition, we participate in The Leading Hotels of the World seminars as well as invite foreign specialists with vast experience of training in the local market," Ebralidze said. "A crucial point is that there is potential for growth. This applies to everyone, without exception. If there is the desire to grow, then a career is guaranteed."
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: $52 M Nokian Plant
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The Finnish tyre manufacturer, Nokian Tyres plans to start construction of a new factory in Vsevolozhsk, located in the Leningrad Oblast on June 23. The factory will cost around $52 million, the company said in a press-release.
Nokian signed a contract on May 28 with Lemcon Ltd (Finland's Lemminkainen Group division) for the building of the factory. The cost of the contract is $21 million.
The new factory is planned to start operating in 2005, and should produce 1.5 million tyres by 2006. The Nokian factory in Vsevolozhsk will produce tyres to be sold mainly in the Russian automobile market, the press-release said.
Nokian Tyres has a 14 percent share of Russian tyre imports. Over 75 percent of Nokian products are sold outside of Finland in over 60 countries.
H&M Eyes Russia
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - One of the world's biggest fashion retailers, Hennes & Mauritz of Sweden may open shops in Russia and Japan in its expansion drive, which may also include acquisitions, the company's chairman and main owner said.
Stefan Persson told the Dagens Industri daily the company, which is to open its thousandth shop later this year, had no geographic or financial constraints for growth and that it had been receiving many proposals to start operating in Asia.
"It is possible that we will go in that direction, for example to Japan. Russia is also a possibility," Persson said. "We do not exclude acquisitions if the right opportunity will present itself," he said.
$63M Sludge Contract
ST. PETERBURG (SPT) - French utilities group Veolia Environnement said Friday it has won a 52 million euro ($63.29 million) contract from Russian water firm Vodokanal to build a sludge treatment plant in St. Petersburg.
It said in a statement that the plant would be commissioned in 2006.
Poultry Ban Lifted
MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Russia has ended a ban on poultry imports from the Netherlands, imposed in March because of concerns about bird flu, Interfax reported.
The ban was lifted after the Netherlands contained the outbreak and gave safety guarantees to Russia's veterinary service, Interfax said, citing Sergei Dankvert, the veterinary service's director.
Russia maintained its bans on poultry imports from the U.S. states of Delaware, Maryland and Texas, as well as from China, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Hong Kong and Pakistan.
TITLE: Enthusiast Leads Britts to the City
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Kovalev
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Dan Kearvell, a rugby player at heart and the former commercial manager of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, came to head the St. Petersburg branch of the Chamber in April this year.
The Chamber started operating the same month Kearvell arrived in St. Petersburg, with an official opening planned for June 25.
Kearvell says that unlike the energetic capital of Russia, St. Petersburg appears to be a more relaxed city, with a slightly different approach to running local business.
The rule "time is money" does not really work in the northern capital, but it is not so bad if changes happen step by step, Kearvell said.
"It was always my belief that the Chamber should have an office in St. Petersburg. I always had a very special feeling for St. Petersburg as a city," Kearvell said. "I think this is a wonderful place and, as a city of 5 million people, it has the potential to be a leading business destination," he said.
Kearvell said the presence of British businesses in the city has been growing, especially in the years preceding St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebrations, which gave a jump-start to local businesses.
"The time [for entering the city] was right for us at the British Chamber of Commerce. We've been quite successful in the past couple of years in attracting Russian membership. We have been committed to the regions, offering Russian companies the bridge to get into the UK and to the West, and, of course, bringing UK businesses here as well," he said.
Guiding British companies to Russian regions is one of the main things for the Chamber, because, as Kearvell pointed out, businesses in Britain are generally convinced that Russia starts and ends in Moscow.
The task of the St. Petersburg branch of RBCC is to demonstrate that there are other parts of Russia offering many diverse possibilities, Kearvell said.
"Moscow accounts for 90 percent of the business activity in Russia. To some extent that reflects the current situation accurately. That is not to say that the regions don't have potential and that we shouldn't look at them. We believe they are very interesting for the UK business," he said.
The main area for British investment has been the oil sector, which attracted such companies as British Petroleum, Chevron and many consulting services.
Kearvell said that a few cooperation agreements have also been made with the Moscow government after the Chamber conducted a conference with officials of the Central Federal District in London.
"It's our job to promote business relationships in every region. I have been to Krasnodar and Rostov. In Rostov we have very good connections and a lot of business is going down there. The Northwest has tremendous potential," Kearvell said. "I think there is an extremely knowledgeable and educated work force in the Northwest and it is seen in the IT field. Technology sectors are very developed here," Kearvell said.
Kearvell noted that St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko should pay more attention to developing small businesses,which, he believes, are under-represented in the city at the moment.
"We would like to see the same attitude towards small and medium businesses here as in the Leningrad Oblast. The Oblast has favorable conditions for any small sized businesses, providing them with tax breaks, which essentially embraces foreign business. I think the enterpreneurial development is crucial in the Northwest," Kearvell said.
Foreign community representatives in the city say that if Kearvell wants something he is going to get it. Peter Langham of the British Consulate first met Kearvell during his visit to St. Petersburg over a year ago, while Kearvell was still working in Moscow.
"Dan, in my view, is an extremely energetic and sharp businessperson.
"His heart is very much in St. Petersburg. I know he studied for some time here and he has always been keen to come back to the city to work," Langham said in an interview last week.
"I know that he put a lot of effort into lobbying for the opening of an office in St. Petersburg and I know that the Moscow British Chamber of Commerce was always slightly concerned about the financial side of such an opening," Langham said. "But Dan has worked very hard over the last year to prove to the RBCC that it is economically viable to run an office here. Since his move to St.Petersburg he has worked long hours trying to recruit new members to the chamber and he has been very successful."
Langham said he hopes Kearvell's idea to launch a local rugby team in St. Petersburg comes through, as it could, in the future, attract some local residents to participate in the game as well.
"Dan says that he is very serious about it. And I know anything Dan says he wants to do, he will be keen on doing. He played rugby when he was in Moscow full time," Langham said.
The American Chamber of Commerce has also welcomed Kearvell's move to St. Petersburg.
"Dan has been keen on opening the office here for quite a while and he finally succeeded. I am very glad for him and wish him every success," said Elena Berezantseva, director of the St. Petersburg chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce.
"He is a very enthusiastic person and will work aggressively on the market. We have discussed the options of joining our efforts on a number of issues. I feel confident that Russian-British business relations will benefit from this extra "business-link" opportunity in St. Peterburg," she said.
TITLE: VIP Banking Services Emerge Russian Style
AUTHOR: By Maria Levitov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Private banking services, aimed at helping the wealthy conserve and multiply their assets, are beginning to emerge in Russia. But while such services have an exclusive image it is often difficult to distinguish private banking from other widely available consumer banking services.
Alan McGregor, partner with AVC Advisory, an investment and financial planning agency, explains that private banking is different from regular consumer banking in that it offers one point of contact to high net-worth clients for investment advice and all of their transactions with the bank.
"These services are more personalized [than regular consumer banking], but they are not cheap," said McGregor. "Private banking also requires a minimum level of assets."
Zenit Bank, one of the few banks that already offer private banking in Russia, requires a minimum deposit of $100,000. For now, it offers investment advice and a personal financial manager who is always on call at no extra cost, but service fees indexed to the sum being managed will start to be charged in approximately one month's time.
"Regular bank customers are mostly concerned with the reliability of the bank," said Zenit's director of private investment development, Vladimir Romanov. "In contrast, private banking clients are more sophisticated and are primarily interested in the efficiency of investments, a wide range of products, security and confidentiality."
But while sophisticated clients may know what they want, many do not know what private banking really entails. AVC Advisory's McGregor said that his customers are often interested in private banking, but do not know what level of service they should expect from it.
Services branded as "private banking" in Russia have an air of exclusivity, but they often lack the global investment services and total confidentiality guarantees that define leading Western private banking institutions.
"In the Russian legal environment, unlike Switzerland, it is impossible to create a climate of absolute secrecy that defines private banking," said Vladimir Melnikov, director of Guta Bank's private high-net-worth clients department. "Russian legislation makes bank transactions transparent for tax authorities and other governmental organizations."
Guta bank does not offer private banking, but plans to roll out a VIP service that will allocate a personal, high-level financial adviser for each high-net- worth client. Unlike private banking, which focuses on managing global investment opportunities, Guta's VIP service will specialize in day-to-day financial matters, including bill payments, credit cards, savings and domestic investment management.
The lack of global service is, in fact, an important distinction between private banking in Russia and abroad. A Western institution, Citigroup Private Bank, offers global investment opportunities to its clients worth $5 million or more, but its services are unavailable in Russia. A similar local service, Citibank Russia's CitiGold, offered to customers depositing at least 1.5 million rubles (approximately $50,000), also provides personalized wealth management. However, CitiGold does not offer offshore investment products to its customers in Russia. Instead, it helps them open an account in London if they want international diversification.
"Local administrative and financial barriers are the main deterrents to private [Russian] investment abroad," the Institute of Financial Studies' Galina Kovalishina said.
Kovalishina said that current legislation stipulates that Russian citizens can only open foreign bank accounts with the permission of the Bank of Russia. And while investing in foreign securities is legal, "highly bureaucratic procedures [required by Russians for this type of investment] serve as a deterrent."
But while legal barriers for Russians are one reason for the domestic focus of local private banking, because banks like Zenit serve both Russians and foreigners living in Russia, the high return on domestic investments is another factor.
"In the past, high-net-worth investors preferred to manage their assets at banks abroad," Zenit's Romanov said. "But since investment returns are much higher in Russia and the risks are decreasing, they are investing at home more now."
Romanov said that conservative Russian portfolios have an annual return of 16 percent, while riskier ones yield 66 percent.
"Investors compare this with the average 5 percent to 18 percent annual return on investments abroad," Romanov said. "They also understand that risks in the West are not as low as previously believed, especially in light of recent corporate scandals with Enron and Parmalat."
In addition to the Russian banks, Western institutions including Credit Suisse, UBS and Deutsche Bank also offer private banking in Russia and HSBC plans to begin offering such services here in the future.
With lifestyles becoming increasingly mobile, however, it is not uncommon for clients in Russia to use banks abroad.
"You don't necessarily have to be here to have clients here," AVC Advisory's McGregor said. "People today move often, but are likely to keep their existing bank, managing their finances over the phone."
TITLE: Local Banks: Where the Risks Lie
AUTHOR: By Sophia Kornienko
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: There exist a limited number of efficient investment projects available in the Russian market today. At present, banks can only invest in projects that pay off quickly, such as construction of trade centers. Without state support or any defined governmental policies to back them up, banks are limited to short-term projects that bring profit within two to three years.
Executive authorities do not seem to have a clear strategy regarding investment projects. On the one hand, much is being said about doubling the GDP, on the other hand, the initiatives put forward by private businesses are caught up in the web of bureacracy.
Besides the absence of state guarantees, the risks are aggravated by the poor conditions of the country's industry and technology, said Viktor Titov, executive director of the North-Western Bank Association. Apart from the simple fact that borrowing western money is cheaper than borrowing money in Russia, the level of science and technology developed in the West also helps to guarantee investments. This is why large companies often prefer to purchase western technologies using western loans, Titov said.
Another barrier to Russian banks' involvement in investment projects is the low level of their capitalization. When financing is required for large-scale projects, loans are usually provided by foreign banks, Titov said. To Russian banks, a loan of several million dollars is already a problem, he added. The problem could be solved by syndicated loans, but here again - the country lacks clear regulations on syndicates. "There are probably no more than a dozen banks taking part in syndicates - this is nothing in comparison with the American market. The practice is slightly more developed in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, syndicates are formed only with the participation of foreign banks," Titov said.
NATURALLY SHORT TERMS
Short-term loans are a natural tendency in today's Russia, said Richard Hainsworth, an analyst at Rus Rating. The reality is that the funds available are also short-term, he said. "As most of the funds at the country's banks today are from individuals who can get their deposits back on demand, a bank cannot afford to get involved in a 20 year project - if an unstable situation arises in Russia in one year's time, depositors can come to claim their money back immediately, but the bank has them tied up in the project. So the bank fails even though it is financially solvent. This a form of liquidity risk," Hainsworth said.
Banks have to match their liabilities and their assets by term, and therefore cannot lend long term. In Hainsworth's opinion, the solution would be for Central Bank to lengthen effective liabilities by agreeing to fund long-term loans in the event that a bank has a short-fall of deposits, but it is not currently looking at those.
"Central Bank should issue a regulating document on the rules of syndicating. It should also come up with actions to stimulate syndicating," Titov said.Syndicated loans are not going to help with the liquidity mismatch - long term or short term - because banks will still have to find long-term funds to lend out, Hainsworth said. However, he added, syndication is the one way through which loans can develop in Russia in the near future.
Legislation governing syndicates is difficult and this means that most syndicates to date have been based on international and not local law, Hainsworth said. Meanwhile, terminology is very important when discussing project finance, he said. Long term and short term mean different things to Russians and to international bankers, Hainsworth said. "Despite all the talk, banks indicate there is only a small demand from commercial companies for loans longer than five years," he said.
The current situation around bank loans can also be improved by creating trustworthy databases containing creditor information, Titov said. A bill to regulate such databases is in the works and should be reviewed this fall, he added.
Titov named ten banks most active in investments, as rated by the Association. The list is topped by Sberbank North-West and Promstroybank, then come Menatep, Baltiysky Bank and St. Petersburg Bank, followed by International Bank of St. Petersburg. Numbers seven and eight are banks with foreign capital - Credit Lione RusBank and Drezdner Bank respectively. Alfa Bank and Uralsib Bank complete the Association's top ten.
RATING FACTORS
Rus Rating analyzes the solvency of Russian banks on a monthly basis. Among the factors that have a negative effect on the banks, the agency cites the high level of political risk, found with such giants as Gazprombank and MDM Bank, and also with Bank Moskvy and Menatep St. Petersburg.
Excessive dependency on the biggest shareholder is reported at Zenit Bank, Petrocommerts, Promsvyazbank, NIKoil Bank, Guta Bank in Moscow and Baltinvestbank in St. Petersburg.
TRUST Investment Bank, Moscow and Russian General Bank are tied to a limited number of big clients, which is also harmful to a bank's solvency. Some regional banks, such as Kazan's Ak Bars and Tumen's Zapsibcombank, seem to be dependent of regional authorities.
Unstable or low liquidity is another common drawback among Russian banks, alongside with low diversification of resources. Quite a few banks are undergoing reorganization - like Gazprombank, MDM Bank, Ingosstrakh-Soyuz, International Bank of St. Petersburg, Uralvneshtorgbank - or have a high personnel turn-over - Avtobank-Nikoil in Moscow.
Finally, another problem for Russian banks is the lack of publicly available company information. Such is the case for Guta Bank, Promsvyazbank and Interprombank.
While these negative factors are characteristic of a country with a short free market banking management history, the factors boosting solvency and raising the ratings are classic signs of civilized management. Most common among them are stable clients, a well-developed market position, a rational strategy and a sound international reputation.
Among Russian banks that have developed a good level of cooperation with other banks Rus Rating named Dialogue Optim. Zenit Bank, Petrocommerts, Dialogue Optim, Impeksbank, and Orgres-Bank in Moscow are referred to as the banks with adequate liquidity.
Name of Bank Rating
Gazprombank (Moscow) BBB- (Forecast: stable)
MDM Bank (Moscow) BBB- (Forecast: stable)
Rosbank (Moscow) BBB- (Forecast: stable)
Avangard (Moscow) BB+ (Forecast: stable)
Zenit Bank (Moscow) BB+ (Forecast: stable)
Petrocommerts (Moscow) BB+ (Forecast: stable)
Promsvyazbank (Moscow) BB+ (Forecast: stable)
Uralsib Bank (Ufa) BB+ (Forecast: stable)
BIN (Moscow) BB (Forecast: stable)
Dialogue Optim (Moscow) BB (Forecast: stable)
Impeksbank (Moscow) BB (Forecast: stable)
TRUST Investment
Bank (Moscow) BB (Forecast: stable)
NIKoil (Moscow) BB (Forecast: stable)
NOMOS Bank (Moscow) BB (Forecast: stable)
Ak Bars (Kazan) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Guta Bank (Moscow) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Zapsibcombank
(Tumen Region) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Orgres-Bank (Moscow) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Probusinessbank (Moscow) BB- (Forecast:
possible decline)
Russky Standart (Moscow) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Surgutneftegazbank (Surgut) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Chelindbank (Chelyabinsk) BB- (Forecast: stable)
Ingosstrakh-Soyuz (Moscow) B+ (Forecast: stable)
Menatep St. Petersburg
(St. Petersburg) B+ (Forecast: stable)
Russian General Bank (Moscow) B+ (Forecast: stable)
SDM Bank (Moscow) B+ (Forecast: stable)
Severnaya Kazna (Yekaterinburg) B+ (Forecast: stable)
Khanty-Mansiysky Bank
(Tumen Region) B+ (Forecast: stable)
Bank Moskvy (Moscow) B (Forecast: stable)
International Bank of St.
Petersburg (St. Petersburg) B (Forecast: stable)
Metallinvestbank (Moscow) B (Forecast: stable)
Moscow Bank of Reconstruction
and Development (Moscow) B (Forecast: stable)
NBD Bank (Nizhny Novgorod) B (Forecast: stable)
Uralvneshtorgbank (Yekaterinburg) B (Forecast: stable)
Baltinvestbank (St. Petersburg) B- (Forecast:
possible decline)
Vozrozhdenie (Moscow) B- (Forecast: stable)
Interprombank (Moscow) B- (Forecast: stable)
Ural Bank of Reconstruction and
Development (Yekaterinburg) B- (Forecast: stable)
Garantia (Nizhny Novgorod) CCC+ (Forecast: stable)
Sarovbusinessbank
(Nizhny Novgorod) CCC+ (Forecast: stable)
Avtobank-Nikoil (Moscow) CCC+ (Forecast:
possible increase
According to the analysis prepared
by Rus Rating in May 2004
TITLE: RTS Drops At Yukos Concern
AUTHOR: By Catherine Belton and Svetlana Skibinsky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The RTS index decreased 7.01 percent to 583.17 points in the period from May 24 to 28, the press service of the RTS exchange reported. Tatneft with a 10.25 percent gain was the leader of growth.
Common stocks of Yukos led the decliners last week and lost 20 percent of their value. RAO UES common shares had the largest trade volume in the reported period ($47.403 million); Lukoil and Sberbank common stocks followed them with $17.596 million and $9.943 million respectively. The share of these securities of the total trade was 37.87 percent, 14.06 percent and 7.94 percent respectively.
Yukos shares were down almost 10 percent to $7.60 - a loss of more than 20 percent in just two days. The index's 23 percent drop this quarter made it the worst-performing of 51 national benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg; just last quarter it had been ranked as second-best.
Analysts said concern was mounting over the likelihood of the state pushing the country's biggest oil company into bankruptcy. On Thursday, Yukos officials warned it could be insolvent by the end of the year if forced to pay the $3.5 billion tax bill. Fears over arbitrary behavior by the state in a conflict seen as the lynchpin of a Kremlin attempt to establish greater control over big business were spreading to the rest of the market, analysts said.
With several key court cases lined up over the next two weeks, investor jitters are on the rise as the Yukos conflict appears to be entering the endgame, they said. Hearings in tax evasion and fraud trials against Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are set to start again on June 8.
"People have lost confidence in Russia because of the perception of events around Yukos. It's contagious," said Stephen O'Sullivan, cohead of research at United Financial Group. Even blue-chip companies normally considered safe because of their closeness to the state lost value in the market slide Friday. Surgutneftegaz fell 7 percent and Gazprom was down 6 percent.
O'Sullivan said investors Friday were particularly spooked by a court hearing into the validity of the Federal Tax Service's claim that Yukos still owes it $3.5 billion for 2000. During the hearing at the Moscow Arbitration Court on Wednesday, court officials did not accept any evidence from Yukos and gave the company just three hours to defend itself after tax service officials had been granted three days to present their case, the company said. Following that hearing, "now the market believes the government does want to bankrupt the company," O'Sullivan said. "The market believes that all the decisions are preordained and they are just going through show trials."
U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley downgraded its price target for Yukos following the details of the hearing and the company's bankruptcy warning Thursday, saying Yukos' fate was in the hands of the government, Reuters reported.
Some analysts said they doubted the government was aiming to bankrupt the company, but instead was using the tax bill, asset freeze and the threat of further tax claims to pressure Yukos' core shareholders into handing over their stake to the state.
"In the end, the government wants to repossess the 42 percent that's been frozen from Group Menatep," said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital.
He said Yukos' warning about insolvency was an attempt to launch a counteroffensive by spooking the market and showing the government the disastrous impact a bankruptcy would have on Russia's investment reputation.
"They've taken the brinkmanship one step further," Nash said. "In this game of chicken, Khodorkovsky just accelerated. What's really interesting is what happens when they hit."
Whatever the eventual outcome, analysts said, it is unlikely the market slide is over yet.
"This isn't getting better tomorrow," said James Fenkner, head of research at Troika Dialog. "It's going to be a long, protracted struggle. It's going to be a real test of the Russian legal system. There are so many things the government could do to screw up."
Yukos' appeal against a court ruling to invalidate a share issue for its merger with Sibneft was due to be heard Monday.
TITLE: Daylight Thefts, Tourism and Architecture
TEXT: In response to "Police Checking Roma to Protect Tourists," an article by Vladimir Kovalev on May 25.
Editor,
I am from Australia, and have toured your beautiful city on two occasions. Once in 1996 and again in 2002.
I loved it very much, however, both times as a traveler, we were warned about the local police. When I asked why, I was told that they were robbing backpackers, both in Moscow, and St. Petersburg, under the pretext of suspected drug raids.
I didn't believe this, until I had several people tell me, it wasn't the Mafia I had to worry about, in Russia, but the police.
While being questioned by two officers recently, a friend had one officer look through his wallet for identification as the other officer asked what their movements had been.
During this questioning, one officer removed all money, American and Russian, from their wallet and handed it back empty to the backpacker.
They were shocked by this; what is a person to do? If you complain you are certain to end up in the lockup? Do you say nothing and move on? After being verbally harassed, they moved on.
This sort of behavior has happened on many occasions, apparently over many years.
My question is simply this....if foreigners are scared of the police and make every effort to steer clear of them, then who can we trust when we visit your beautiful cites? Who do we rely on?
It seems safer to stay close to the Mafia, than to be robbed by police who pick on drunken or lost foreigners.
Russians in general, are a hardworking and lovable people. If we are to visit your cites and spend our money ... should you not protect us too?
G. Wolter
Melbourne, Australia.
Editor,
I wonder if the police get some money from the Roma people? How can we tell?
The police also rob tourists. The police demanded our documents, saying they were searching us for drugs, but they stole our mobile phone and money.
Where is Russia heading?
Anonymous
Spain
Editor,
Having personally experienced the trauma of being robbed in St. Petersburg, a beautiful city with superb historical appeal, I am warning all of my American friends not to travel to Russia until this problem is resolved.
My wife and I were part of a 15-person group from the U.S. to visit Russia from May 7 through May 16. We were invited to participate in the Victory Day events on Red Square to honor fallen WWII pilots. Our group of U.S. aviators were honored to be admitted to Red Square along with our hosts, Russian pilots who served in the war. We later celebrated with them in Moscow at a separate event on May 14.
We took a night train to St. Petersburg to enjoy this beautiful city for two days before the May 14 event in Moscow. The day of our arrival our group was attacked twice by gypsy robbers and once by at least six Russian men aged 20 to 30. After they attacked my wife, I intervened and the six young Russian men attacked me. They called me a brute for trying to defend myself, but in the end their numbers and wolf-pack tactics allowed them to steal my wallet with all of my pilot identifications and over $200.
Next day some members of our group met up with this same band of Russian thugs again. The Russian thugs were encouraged to pursue members of our group by a large group of gypsies because on the first day we managed to run down one of the gypsy children who tried to rob us on Nevsky Prospekt in front of the Chocolate Museum. We held him captive until the police arrived.
The Russians who pursued our group in near to the Russian Museum taunted us with the words "come and get the money we took from you" while waving some paper currency at our group. The Russians pursued our group into a vendor market near the Church on the Spilled Blood. The vendors protected our group from further attack.
We left St. Petersburg with reluctance since the city offers so much to visitors. We were very careful to not invoke our full capability to defend ourselves because we wish to leave a favorable image with our newfound Russian friends and the citizens of St. Petersburg. The Russian thugs and gypsies know that most visitors are not prone to be aggressive, and for this reason take full advantage of the visitors as targets of opportunity. Unless St. Petersburg cleans up this threat to visitors, the tourist trade will vanish. The city already has a reputation as a "city of thieves."
Michael Smyser
United States
Editor,
I am an Australian living and working in Britain who has traveled extensively in the last three years.
I too was attacked by three Roma on Nevsky Prospekt in February. I did not report the attack to any official, which made me think that there are probably many others who are victims of this violation, but don't report it. What are the true numbers?
It is such an amazing city with much to offer tourists - but is marred by such incidents.
Andrea Cottman
Britain
Editor,
In 1727, Leonhard Euler traveled to St. Petersburg to take his first job with the newly created St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and Sciences. Daniel Bernoulli had managed to secure a position for him and Euler left the confines of the Helvetic republic to stretch his scientific wings.
Empress Catherine I died the day Euler arrived on Russian soil but Euler stayed and his history of association is long and involved. His first stay in St. Petersburg was for 14 years. Great names had made Peter's institution one of the great continental academies. Names such as Antiokh, Bullfinger and Lomonosov, these are the men that brought Newtonianism to Russia, and both Bernoulli brothers and Euler continued at an institution that began by Leibnitz for Peter in 1700.
Euler was eventually to leave St. Petersburg left for two reasons. The political unrest in 1741 made him and the rest of the foreign community feel very unsafe and he was openly solicited by Frederick II of Prussia to be a pivotal scientist and administrator in a re-constituted Berlin Academy of Arts and Sciences. He stayed in Berlin for 25 years. Euler was wooed back to St. Petersburg by Catherine II in 1766.
Euler would live out his life as busy as ever, surrounded by a strong and settled nation now that Frederick and Catherine were no longer belligerents. By the time Euler died in 1783 he had produced over 30,000 pages of scientific papers.
In 2007, the scientific community worldwide will be preparing celebrations to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his death and Basel, Berlin and St. Petersburg each have a reason to claim him as their own.
If St. Petersburg is going to prepare for this great jubilee following in the heels of its own 300th anniversary of its founding, then it should provide a better sense of security and accommodation to the world community or else the unrest that chased Euler from Russia in 1741 will be the same keeping the guests away in 2007.
John Glaus
Rumford, Maine
Tourism Joys, Ills
In response to "Tourism Ills Listed By Agencies," an article by Galina Stolyarova on May 25.
Editor,
I feel that you are judging your country, in particular St. Petersburg, fairly harshly.
In October 2003, I organized a high-end incentive tour for 50 guests to St. Petersburg. A poll taken after the event showed St. Petersburg was the best destination ever visited, with most of the guests planning on a return visit.
The group stayed at the Grand Hotel Europe, and whilst I felt the rates were high, they were totally in line with other European markets. The standard of service was excellent, as was the food in all restaurants and venues visited.
While entry fees into some of museums and churches were high, the problem was the additional charging of visitors to take photographs or videos inside these venues. This was construed as an act of further revenue raising, but coupled with the high entry fee, left a slight discordant note on the visit.
I agree that the window of opportunity for visiting St. Petersburg and indeed all of Russia, is fairly narrow due to the weather. I would suggest the programs are built around the weather, not to see it as a negative, but to enhance it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Offer programs or activities that include skating along the Neva River, fishing through the ice, the use of horse-drawn troikas for transport, and, if funds allow, build ski resorts and then advertise these along with a city visit. While the weather may be a negative to people living in Russia, for overseas guests it presents an opportunity to experience something not found in their own country.
The only negative comment I have is the process of obtaining visas. The Russian Embassy here in Sydney, not only made the issue of tourist visas a drama, but also actually lost two passports in their care, and then shrugged their shoulders when asked to track and find where the passports were lost in the embassy. This did not occur and five days prior to departure, the clients had to pay considerable costs not only to have new passports issued, but also to pay again for the visa. While I realize you need tourist visas, I believe this process should be streamlined, and your international embassies made aware, that their hard line, sours the initial contact with the Russian people.
I will certainly be promoting St. Petersburg to my clients in Australia, secure in the knowledge that it heads my list of the top 10 destinations in the world.
Carol Howard
Sydney, Australia
Costly comforts
In response to "Planned Car Purchases Reflect Administrators' Arrogance," a comment by Vladimir Kovalev on May 21.
Editor,
I do love America, but both our governments think much more of themselves rather than the people. Each summer I host several Russian government officials who come to America to learn about federalism.
Mr. Kovalev, your idea about using helicopters is not a new one. We in America would love our government officials to use helicopters. If helicopters were used, our government officials might fly to another country. In both Russia and America, happy days would return to both our countries.
Al Arnold ,
Owensboro, Kentucky
Crash Report
In response to "Report Faults Skyguide, Pilots," an article by The Associated Press on May 21.
Editor,
The report is a whitewash. The main problem was the air traffic control system failure and lack of professionalism of the air traffic employees.
It was quite obvious that there was a failure of leadership, training and communication at the air traffic facility. The system failure should have had a backup system to take up the slack till the main system could have been repaired. The employees at the air traffic system should have been adequately trained to handle such system failures and know the limitations of the systems failures.
The pilots in command of both aircraft had collision avoidance system working in place. Had they followed the system collision advice, the accident would not have occurred. The pilot in command made a decision based on the best information at that moment. Had the air traffic facility issued an emergency notice to airman (NOTAM), the flight dispatchers would have relayed this information to the pilots.
The pilot erred because he was not aware of the total situation and made a judgment to assure the safety of his aircraft and passengers. Had the pilot in command known of the air traffic system failure I can guarantee you the pilot would have followed his avoidance. This was a life and death issue that had only a very short time to respond.
This was a fatal accident that did not need to occur. The air traffic controller and system holds the major share of the blame. The pilot in command of the Russian aircraft made a decision based on bad information from the controller. The pilot in command made split-second decisions.
Had the air traffic controller not intervened, the aircraft systems would have prevailed. I am sad at the tragic loss of life.
It is very easy to blame the Russian pilots, but based on the facts , circumstances and information they had at that moment , they erred on the safe side. Had the Russian pilots known of the air traffic system failure they would have made a different decision. Had the air cargo aircraft transmitted that they were descending on the frequency, the controller may have changed the air traffic advisory.
The main problem was the failure of effective communication.
Anonymous commercial pilot
Decaying Splendor
In response to "Photos Show City's Seedier Side," an article by Edmund Harris on April 30.
Editor,
Photographer Alexei Titarenko hits the spot with his statement, that St. Petersburg's charm lies, not in it's imperial splendor, but rather in its decaying remains of another era.
I have visited the city on a somewhat regular basis over the last years, but after the 300-year-celebration something in the city changed. My first thought was that I no longer could see the city as exotic, due to the fact that I was getting used to its special quirks and appearance. But there is something else as well. Every city has its soul, and the "remont" done on the outside of the central public buildings over the past years does not strengthen St. Pete's soul, rather it's an attempt to hide it.
Today the city is turning into some strange, Soviet-style replica of Stockholm or Helsinki or Copenhagen - or rather a mix of the three Scandinavian capitals. When a city reaches a certain age, let's say 300 years for argument's sake, it's bound to have some dents and bruises. St. Pete had that, a few years ago, and still has them, but the bruises are becoming harder to spot.
Allowing a city to grow old without letting it decay is a hard task for city architects. One problem is the contradiction between preservation of the old and demands for modern standards by the present day inhabitants. But on the other hand - what's the point of living in a historical city if the actual historical events aren't allowed to leave traces anywhere. Raising the standard of living of the population of St. Petersburg does not necessarily mean that city officials should turn the city into a replica of Stockholm, or Helsinki, or Copenhagen. These cities have a common appearance for historical reasons.
St. Pete does not share the same past. It should not follow in their architectural footsteps.
Mathias Stáhle
Eskilstuna, Sweden
TITLE: Putin the Great?
AUTHOR: By Jose Pinera
TEXT: President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address could be called the "speeding troika" speech. His vision may well be that of Gogol in the classic "Dead Souls":
"Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika? Russia, where are you flying? Answer me. There is no answer. The bells are tinkling and filling the air with their wonderful pealing; the air is torn and thundering as it turns to wind; everything on Earth comes flying past, and looking askance at her, other peoples and states move aside and make way."
No wonder nobody knows Russia's final destination, because in a free society that depends on the hundreds of daily decisions taken by each of Russia's 146 million citizens. But as long as that "wonderful pealing" accompanies people living their lives in liberty, the future is bright.
In his speech, Putin pledged all his efforts to produce a growth rate of 7 percent per year. On a fundamental point he is right: That is the only way to substantially reduce poverty and provide prosperity to all. To achieve that growth he needs to unleash the creative strengths of the people. Not only could he leave an economy twice its current size, but his legacy could also ensure that in 20 years' time, the economy could quadruple in size. That would unleash the forces needed to achieve an economic and political status consistent with Russia's extraordinary cultural achievements.
Now, the key element for that vision to be realized is for Putin to understand that economic freedom under the rule of law is the road to high growth. He needs to implement the structural reforms necessary for the transition to a modern free economy and do that in a coherent way. As someone said, the "third way" (that is, middle-of-the-road reforms) only ensures that a country remains a Third World economy. For Russia to grow at self-sustaining rates of 7 percent for two decades, the guiding concept should be to eliminate the system of state-sanctioned privileges that prevails throughout the economy.
A key reform is that of the bankrupt pension system. A reform that allows Russians to have real ownership over their pension contributions and to invest them, in the safest possible way, both at home and abroad sends a powerful signal about the openness of the country's economy and the government's commitment to capital being permitted to flow into and out of the country, something that would itself encourage greater foreign investment in Russia. Done properly and accompanied by advances in related areas (such as capital markets regulations, creation of a mortgage market allowing more labor mobility, and protection of minority stockholders' rights), pension reform can stimulate a virtuous cycle of investment and growth. But the most important impact of pension reform is the paradigm shift it produces by creating a country of property-owning workers who favor free markets and free minds. Put simply, the rise of "worker capitalism" would turn Marx on his head.
Russia's task is awesome and daunting, but it is possible. Structural reform is actually much harder in rigid societies such as those of France and Germany (where the single currency may provide the opportunity and catalyst for much-needed radical change in such areas as labor and pensions). Of course, Russia should be granted full membership in the WTO now and one day could even be a reinvigorating force inside the European Union.
The main obstacle to reform may be the opposition from special interests whose privileges would end under a competitive and transparent market economy. Thus, some business leaders may oppose real competition and the fair and even application of taxes, some unions a more flexible labor market, and some bureaucrats the needed drive toward a smaller, smarter state. Overcoming those obstacles requires a coherent economic program and direct appeals to the people. By clearly communicating the purposes, costs, and benefits of the reforms - and by emphasizing that the reforms aim to eliminate privileges not for one group but for all equally - the government could make it difficult for special interests to prevail. Once the heretofore opaque process of policymaking is exposed to the scrutiny of media and debate, it becomes very difficult for entrenched interests to demand monopolies, protection and subsidies from the state.
The president was re-elected with more than 70 percent of the vote, has the political support of the State Duma, and, as I can attest after participating in a brainstorming session with Putin in Moscow last month, he is open to new ideas to solve Russia's old problems. He should also reach out, even to those who have opposed him on the grounds of wishing for a faster liberalization, because no honest, talented person should be spared in this noble cause.
The future will weigh more heavily than the past. Putin can begin creating that future by sparking a freedom revolution and thereby drawing on the energies of all Russians. Moreover, information-age technological advances continue to expose Russian society to new ideas, products and innovations, making central control of the economy increasingly difficult. And the country will benefit from its immense resource wealth and well-educated population once the proper policies and institutions are in place. Those, of course, include the rule of law, freedom of expression, the protection of all civil liberties and a strong stance against any kind of terrorism.
Fast economic growth and poverty reduction would make Putin a good president, maybe even a very good one. But to be a great one, he should also: a) announce that he will follow the lead of the Founding Fathers of the United States and serve only two terms, the only antidote against the dangers of too much power for too long; b) promise to abide by Alexander Pushkin's admonition: "Oh, kings, you owe your crown and writ/To Law, not nature's dispensation/While you stand high above the nation/The changeless Law stands higher yet."
What Russia needed at the beginning of the 20th century was not a Bolshevik Revolution, but an American one. The tragedy is that it got a Lenin instead of a Jefferson. Putin now has the historic opportunity to anchor the new Russia in the values of freedom and equality under the law. If he does this, the citizens of Russia may well consider him the founder of modern Russia. We will see.
Jose Pinera, president of the International Center for Pension Reform (www.pensionreform.org), contributed this comment to The Moscow Times. As minister of labor and social security, and minister of mining, he was responsible for several structural reforms in Chile.
TITLE: Flawed Approach Dooms Communal Services Reform
AUTHOR: By Vladimir Gryaznevich
TEXT: Despite all the beauty of the scheme for reforming communal housing services that City Hall is implementing, the reform is being handled highly questionably.
Officials have begun, as they did last time under former governor Vladimir Yakovlev in 1997, by increasing tariffs. What is worse is that no other real steps toward changing the principles of how the housing system functions have been taken.
Had it had wiser tactics, the administration would have first presented the whole idea behind the reform to the public, proceeding via discussion, listening both to experts and to opponents. Then it would have written up its conclusions that, granted, may not have suited everyone, but would have summed up the discussion. Nobody could then have said that their opinion had not been listened to. After that, the cost of the plan would have been announced and a public discussion started once more. Only then would a bill on tariffs have been taken to the Legislative Assembly.
But Smolny neglected public discussion of the reform and immediately began putting through an increase in tariffs. The cart was put in front of the horse. And the delegates have started being pressured. Vote quickly, they say, otherwise the city will collapse. It's no surprise that the deputies opposed the plans and openly delayed examination of the bills.
It is easy to see why.
The raising of tariffs equates to payment by the population for the reform. But nobody wants to buy something that they have not seen. Officials are saying all the right things, but if the documents that they then present are going to be much worse than the words they are using now - and such a danger, as we know from experience, is completely realistic - then we will have paid for a reform we consider to be incorrect.
Meanwhile, Smolny, as it turns out, is not hurrying in the slightest to prepare all the necessary documents. According to the plan, all five programs to reform the communal housing services sphere of the city's economy should have been examined by the government before June 1. The person responsible for the reform, Vice Governor Oleg Virolainen, publicly promised on March 25 that they would be ready within a month. Not one of them has appeared. The program should have appeared first, but it has not been examined even by the housing committee.
Although only a draft of the reform appears to exist, a program of concrete measures has, in essence, also been prepared. Both look extremely attractive. We have never had such a high-quality, well thought-out reform - either at city or at federal level. It's even more of a pity, therefore, that it only exists on paper - and, what's more, in the form of non-ratified documents.
It is understandable that a bitter battle is being fought within the administration. The conservative officials are striving with all their might not to permit the destruction of the current system, wanting, as usual, in the guise of reformers to bring in solutions advantageous to them personally and to their partners at the feeding trough. Initiators of the reform, together with Governor Valentina Matviyenko, should have foreseen this - since this is the way things always happen - and been ready to take the most decisive action, even if this meant dismissing the most persistent opponents.
However, the authorities are conducting themselves in a highly passive manner. As a result, despite Matviyenko's own fully defined position on the matter, her associates are not managing the process. Consequently, the reform is degenerating into chaos, reinforcing the certainty among skeptics that the authorities are again just robbing the people. All this is extremely regrettable.
From the experience of past reforms we know that genuine resistance normally begins when it comes to their implementation. It is precisely at this stage that the reforms of Yakovlev's administration failed. If Matviyenko's team lacks the strength and the will to get past the first stage, then it will be difficult to rely on its being successful in taking the reforms through to their conclusion. It will be a real shame if, this time too, the whistle gets blown on all the new administration's zeal for reform.
Vladimir Gryaznevich is a political analyst with Expert Severo-Zapad magazine. His comment was first broadcast on Ekho Moskvy in St. Petersburg on Friday.
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
AUTHOR: By Chris Floyd
TEXT: Down by Law
"Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going." - William Shakespeare, "Macbeth."
In January 2002, official White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales warned George W. Bush that he faced the possibility of execution under the U.S. War Crimes Act for the "new interrogation procedures" and other "flexible measures" he had authorized for the "war on terror," Newsweek reports.
However, because Gonzales regarded himself as the consigliere for the Bush criminal family and not as a public servant sworn to uphold the Constitution, instead of denouncing Bush's policy of state terrorism - torture, kidnapping, indefinite detention, hostage-taking, assassination and aggressive war-making - Gonzales urged Bush to abandon the international Geneva Convention and use weasel words to cover up his deliberate violations of American law.
This dereliction of duty comes as no surprise. Back in Texas, Gonzales helped Governor Bush execute a record number of prisoners by preparing the scanty summaries of death penalty cases that Bush reviewed before giving his Neronic thumbs down. Knowing just what the boss wanted, Gonzales routinely omitted mitigating circumstances from the summaries, including recantations of testimony and evidence of flagrant prosecutorial misconduct and defense malpractice, The Atlantic reports. Bush, who continually stoked popular bloodlust for vengeance to enhance his political fortunes, never questioned the slanted reports.
The death-dealing duo then moved to Washington, where the "war on terror" put the whole earth under the shadow of Little Nero's thumb. At first, Bush was balked when he sought lawyers to do the nitty-gritty weasel-work he required, Salon.com reports. The military's legal corps refused to gut the Geneva accords that had protected U.S soldiers from abuses in so many conflicts over the previous century. As for American law, it was clear and unequivocal: Violations of the Geneva Convention are a capital crime under U.S. statutes.
But as he never ceases to remind us, Bush is a bold, decisive leader. He wasn't about to be thwarted in his urgent crusade to sink the United States into a festering pit of depraved brutality - the ideal condition for sustaining the power and privilege of a rapacious elite that regards itself "appointed by God" (as Bush's top military intelligence officer, Jerry Boykin, puts it) and beyond the law. So he turned to Attorney General John Ashcroft, the ruthless, democracy-scorning zealot whom Bush - in a supremely cynical but shrewd move - had appointed as the nation's chief law enforcer.
Ashcroft, ever-obedient to God's regent on earth, happily obliged. He called up his crack team of Constitution-shredders - including authors of the Patriot Act - and eagerly plunged into an orgy of legal perversion. In short order they handed the Pervert-in-Chief just what he wanted: a mendacious "ruling" that Bush and the U.S. military "did not have to comply with any international laws in the handling of detainees in the war on terrorism" - or indeed, with any of the "normally observed laws of war," Newsweek reported last week.
Think of it: the presidency, the Pentagon, the military, the mercenaries and the many secret armies, secret prisons and roving death-and-snatch squads run by the various U.S. intelligence agencies - all unleashed from any legal restraint, all operating outside "the normally observed laws of war." And all of it - the entire system of torture, abuse, atrocity and aggression - was ordered and approved and officially documented at the very highest level.
What's more, Bush and his warlords knew they were constructing a blatantly criminal operation; why else dig up legal dodges to shield the top conspirators from prosecution? Lower down, of course, it's a different story. The cannon fodder that Bush fed into his war machine - the "white trash," the immigrants, the urban poor, the part-time reservists - aren't blessed with the divine elite's exemption from law. When the system's true nature is inadvertently exposed - pictures leak out, a massacre gets reported, some honest soldier blows the whistle, etc. - a chunk of fodder is duly offered up on the altar of "justice," while the authors of atrocity mutter a few pieties and rush off to the next fundraiser.
However, the bitterest fruits of this deliberately lawless system are not actually found in the much-publicized prison abuses, as horrible as they are. Instead, Bush's willful abrogation of the laws of war has led directly to the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians in the ordinary course of the occupation.
The U.S. military's "rules of engagement" have been infected by the elite's criminality, countenancing "spray and slay" tactics, the mutilation of corpses, the killing of wounded and surrendering civilians - all detailed by anguished professional soldiers like veteran Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey.
When he saw the bodies of the American mercenaries despoiled in Fallujah, Massey's first thought was, "we do the same thing to them," he told The Independent. Iraqis "would see us debase their dead all the time." His unit was killing so many innocent people, including women and children, that he told his commanding officer he felt "we were committing genocide." The commander's response: "You're a wimp."
Massey said that he and his fellow soldiers first went into battle fired up by Bush's warmongering deceit. "My president told me they got weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam threatened the free world, that he had all this might and could reach us anywhere. I just bought into the whole thing." Now he feels betrayed, ashamed. "I killed innocent people for our government. For what?"
Massey, tormented by nightmares, has left the service he loved - but the killing goes on, "justified" by "rules" designed specifically, at Bush's order, to pervert the law. How many more cities will have to burn to keep this Nero in power?
For annotational references, see the Opinion section at www.sptimesrussia.com
TITLE: Summer Olympics $1 Billion Over Budget
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATHENS, Greece - The cost of hosting the Olympic Games is more than $1 billion higher than expected and the rewards less than Greece had hoped for, the country's new finance minister said in an interview published Sunday.
Giorgos Alogoskoufis blamed the higher costs on delays incurred by the Socialist government that successfully bid for the games in 1997 and was defeated by his own conservative party in March elections.
"The Olympic Games are costing us a lot more than we expected, because issues were left until the last minute," Alogoskoufis told the Athens daily Eleftherotypia.
He said the cost of the Aug. 13-29 Olympics had gone up by at least $1.19 billion and that the delays - mostly in construction - had harmed Greece's image.
The games were originally to cost $5.5 billion, but the security budget alone has doubled. Cost overruns because of delays also inflated costs.
Alogoskoufis said if Greece, one of the smallest countries to host the Olympics, was to bid for the games today "I don't think that we would be as excited."
Alogoskoufis was the second minister in a week to question the cost and rewards of hosting the Olympic Games.
Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias on Thursday questioned whether Athens should have been awarded the Olympics because of the amount of work needed to host them.
"I question if our country should have taken over the organization of the games, to get involved," Souflias told a Parliamentary committee on the Olympics.
Greece was awarded the Olympics in 1997 but failed to begin any serious work on venues, highways and other infrastructure projects until 2000, when the International Olympic Committee warned that the games were in danger.
Souflias said he was not worried about the success of the games, just of their cost to Greece.
"I am not concerned about not succeeding, but allow some people to be troubled about whether the games should have happened. I am working night and day for them to succeed," Souflias said.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Bush Holds Saddam Gun
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, a spokesman confirmed on Sunday.
Time magazine, which first disclosed the gun's location, said military officials had it mounted after it was seized from Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit last year, and soldiers involved in the capture gave it to Bush.
The gun is kept in a small study off the Oval Office where Bush displays memorabilia. It is the same room where former President Bill Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky.
Bush shows Saddam's gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.
"He really liked showing it off," Time quoted a visitor as saying. "He was really proud of it."
France Has Longest Bridge
MILLAU, France (AFP) - Engineers brought the two central ends of the Millau road viaduct in southwest France together, completing the span of the highest bridge in the world.
The road surface is 270 meters above ground, a world record, and the total structure, with suspension cables added will be 343 meters above ground at its highest point - 23 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower. The bridge, along the most direct route from Paris to the Mediterranean, is to be opened to general traffic on Dec. 17, 39 months after work began.
The French construction group Eiffage, which financed the cost of 310 million euros, has a concession to operate the bridge for 75 years. Motorists will be charged 4.6 euros for a journey, rising to 6.5 euros in the busy summer period of July and August, and heavy vehicles will be charged 19 euros.
Pakistan Tests Rocket
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium-range nuclear-capable missile on Saturday, a week after a new prime minister took office in nuclear-armed rival and neighbor India.
Senior officials indicated the test of the new version of the Ghauri V missile - a day after the fifth anniversary of the country's first nuclear test - was part of routine testing to improve its missiles and would not have a negative impact on the peace process with India.
An army spokesman said Pakistan had informed its neighbors beforehand, including India. Pakistan became a declared nuclear power on May 28, 1998, when it conducted underground nuclear tests, in response to earlier tests carried out by India.
Tiananmen Remembered
HONG KONG (AP) - Thousands of people marched through Hong Kong on Sunday to commemorate the killing of students by Chinese troops who broke up pro-democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square 15 years ago.
Demonstrations are held here every year to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown, but this year's protests marking the 15th anniversary were more highly charged because Beijing last month ruled out direct elections for the territory in coming years.
Rally organizers said 5,600 marched Sunday - doubling the previous year's turnout. Police estimated at least 3,000 participated.
China says its troops acted properly in stopping what officials have called a counterrevolutionary riot. Hundreds if not thousands of activists were killed.
TITLE: Americans, Dutch Gather to Honor World War II Dead
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MARGRATEN, Netherlands - Hundreds of Dutch and Americans gathered at the American Military Cemetery on Sunday to honor U.S. soldiers who died fighting to liberate the Netherlands from Germany in World War II.
It was the 60th anniversary memorial service for what the United States' Dutch Ambassador Clifford Sobel called the "red spring and summer" of 1944.
The only American cemetery in the Netherlands contains the remains of soldiers who were killed in the fighting around Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, as well as others killed during the allied push toward Berlin and while flying bombing missions before D-Day.
The cemetery is located outside the Dutch town of Margraten, about six miles east of Maastricht. It holds the remains of 8,302 allied soldiers from all the U.S. states, as well as England, Canada and Mexico. Forty pairs of brothers are buried side by side. In addition, the site contains a "wall of names" listing 1722 men who died in action but whose bodies were never recovered.
Harry Hudec, 82, who was a corporal in the 82nd Airborne Division, wept as he looked among the graves for his former comrades.
Dutchman Jozef Mommers, attending the ceremony with his wife and children, laid flowers on the graves of three soldiers. He said he didn't have a personal relationship with them, but had "adopted" them out of gratitude for liberating his home town of Valkenburg when he was a boy.
Dutchwoman Jeanne Blom, who lives nearby, said she had been coming to the cemetery for as long as she could remember. "If you're feeling uneasy and stressed, then you can sit here a while and come to peace again," she said. "You remember the things that are important in life."
The cemetery is built on about 65 acres of green hills near the Dutch border with both Belgium and Germany. Graves are laid out in long arcs and marked by white marble crosses.
TITLE: Three Russians in French Open Quarterfinals
AUTHOR: By Steven Wine
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - Maria, Yelena and Anastasia might sound like the title of a Dostoyevsky novel, but instead they're compatriots and quarterfinalists at Roland Garros. Maria Sharapova, Yelena Dementyeva and Anastasia Myskina advanced with victories Sunday.
"We're still very young, and we're going to be doing this for many years to come," Sharapova, 17, said. Russians have been a growing presence in the WTA Tour rankings for several years. Five are in the top 15, and 10 are in the top 50.
All that's left is for the nation to claim a women's Grand Slam champion, which could happen as soon as Saturday.
The next hurdle will be the quarterfinals Tuesday. The sixth-seeded Myskina will play No. 4 Venus Williams; No. 9 Dementyeva will play No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo; and No. 18 Sharapova will play No. 14 Paola Suarez.
"I'm really happy all of us are in the quarterfinals," Myskina said. "It's great we're not playing against each other.''
The only match not involving a Russian will be the renewal of an all-American rivalry: No. 2 Serena Williams, the 2002 champion, against No. 7 Jennifer Capriati, the 2001 winner.
Sharapova has the lowest ranking of the Russian women still playing, but she might turn out to be the best. She reached the fourth round in her Wimbledon debut last year and beat Marlene Weingartner 6-3, 6-1 Sunday to reach the final eight at a major event for the first time.
"It's an amazing accomplishment," said Sharapova, who was born in Siberia, started playing tennis in Sochi and has been training in Florida since she was 9. "Nothing is out of reach for me. Every tournament I come into, I want to win, and I know that I can do that, especially with the way I've been playing this past week."
While Sharapova is a brash teenager, the 22-year-old Myskina acknowledged that she had the jitters in her fourth-round match. Still, she overcame a match point to beat yet another Russian, St. Petersburg native Svetlana Kuznetsova, 1-6, 6-4, 8-6.
"I was really nervous in the beginning," Myskina said. "It's not about a Grand Slam, it's about the Russian [opponent]. We always play against each other. It's kind of a nervous match."
Myskina is 0-3 in Grand Slam quarterfinals, with the most recent loss coming at the Australian Open in January. And she's 0-2 against Venus Williams, although it has been more than two years since their most recent meeting.
"For me it's nothing to lose," Myskina said. "I'll show people what I can do. I just hope I will do my best."
Dementyeva, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open in 2000, came to Roland Garros with a modest 10-9 record this year. She earned her first berth in the French Open quarterfinals by beating No. 5 Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 6-3.
Dementyeva knows she'll have the crowd against her when she faces Frenchwoman Mauresmo.
"It's going to be a very difficult match to play against her here," she said. "She has great support from the public."
o
After controversially dropping his shorts in celebration earlier in the week, Russia's Marat Safin advanced to the fourth round of the French Open accused of gamesmanship by his defeated opponent.
In a marathon that finished at dusk Saturday, Safin beat qualifier Potito Starace 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.
The demonstrative Russian kept his pants on throughout the 4-hour, 25-minute match. But he drew boos when he took an injury timeout to have blisters on his left hand treated and taped while Starace was serving for the match in the fourth set. Afterward, Starace accused Safin of gamesmanship.
"Surely, he did it to make me more nervous," Starace said.
Safin acknowledged that the timeout appeared suspicious but said he needed immediate treatment. To support his case at a postmatch news conference, he held up both hands, which showed eight splotches of orange medication on the blisters.
The former U.S. Open champion has totaled nine hours of tennis in the past two rounds while playing three days in a row. He'll have Sunday off before facing No. 8-seeded David Nalbandian in the fourth round, and he plans to wear tape to protect the blisters.
How will the fans greet Safin?
"No matter how they'll receive me next match," he said, "I will still be there."
(AP)
TITLE: Lowly-Ranked Drummond Takes Wentworth From Stars
AUTHOR: By Brian Creighton
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VIRGINIA WATER, England - Scotland's Scott Drummond, ranked 435th in the world, won the Volvo PGA Championship on Sunday following an 8-under 64 in the final round.
Drummond, who missed the halfway cut in six of his last seven tournaments, only found out he was playing at Wentworth the week before play began. He became the first golfer to win the European Tour's flagship event on his first try since Arnold Palmer in 1975.
Drummond's ranking was even lower than Ben Curtis's when he won last year's British Open. Curtis was No. 396. "I really can't comprehend it at the moment," said Drummond, who turned 30 on Saturday and recently celebrated the birth of his first child.
His 19-under total of 269 equaled a tournament best.
Argentine Angel Cabrera, the third-round leader, was two shots back after closing with a 67. Sweden's Joakim Haeggman, who also had a 67, was third, three shots behind.
Nick Faldo, Anders Hansen and Darren Clarke all finished four back.
Drummond earned $769,000 and a five-year exemption until 2009.
"I think my previous biggest check was about $26,000," he said. "This is going to change everything, obviously, with the exemptions I'm going to have."
"I stayed focused, and I wasn't thinking about winning. I honestly didn't know the situation coming up the last [hole]. I purposely didn't look at a leaderboard all the way."
Drummond didn't bogey a hole in the last round. He birdied at the long fourth, hitting the green in two and two-putting.
Drummond birdied the seventh from 20 feet, the eighth from 12 and the 10th from 15.
Another two-putt birdie followed at the long 12th, and he ran in 40-foot birdie putts at the 13th and 17th.
"This is surreal," Drummond said.
TITLE: Chechen Team Terek Grozny Wins Football Cup Final
AUTHOR: By Kevin O'Flynn
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - There can have been few sports occasions in Moscow as dramatic, politically charged or surreal as Saturday's Russian Cup soccer final.
Chechen club Terek Grozny joined the likes of Newcastle, Millwall and Monaco in Europe club competition after a last-minute goal snatched a stunning 1-0 victory over Krylia Sovietov Samara.
More than just a sports upset - the first division club beating the premier league side - Terek's win was also a political event, featuring the tears of a son for a slain father and Chechens dancing and cheering on the streets of Moscow.
Twenty days after a bomb explosion killed Akhmad Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya and also of Terek Grozny, during Victory Day commemorations at Dynamo stadium in Grozny, a 90th-minute goal from Terek's top scorer Andrei Fedkov gave his side an unlikely win.
"This is for the late president," said Terek coach Vait Talgaev after the game. "He did everything for the club."
Terek's win was an amazing result for a team that did not exist four years ago - and a huge propaganda coup for the Kremlin, which has masterminded the return of the club as part of its attempts to restore normality to Chechnya.
About 17,000 fans watched the match at Lokomotiv stadium, with more than 1,000 Chechen fans chanting and cheering their side on.
Many of Terek's supporters had traveled about 1,500 kilometers from Chechnya, passing through numerous military and police checkpoints and running the gauntlet of antagonistic Moscow authorities and the public.
As well as ordinary fans, watching from the most expensive seat in the ground was Ramzan Kadyrov, the 27-year-old son of the assassinated president, vice president of the club and first deputy prime minister of the republic.
Sitting nearby were Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov and controversial Moscow businessman Umar Dzhabrailov, the current Chechen representative in the Federation Council. All three are powerful players in Chechnya.
Before the match, a minute's silence was held for Kadyrov, then the Russian national anthem blared out. Chechens, with a few exceptions, and Russians stood up throughout. A huge poster of the late Chechen leader, with the words, "We Remember You," was spread over the seats in one section of the stadium.
Another poster said simply, "Death to Chechen Terrorism," but it was unclear if it was a message from Krylia Sovietov fans or loyal Chechen government supporters from Terek.
The game itself was not one that will be remembered as a classic. Krylia Sovietov was the better team for most of the game, only for Terek to snatch the winner in the 90th minute.
Terek players and trainers mobbed Fedkov, and Chechen fans roared their delight. Two minutes of injury time later, the final whistle was blown and Terek were Russian Cup winners, the first team outside the top league to win the trophy in history and only the second national cup winners from outside the top flight since 1968 when Ukrainian side Karpaty Lviv won the Soviet Cup.
The victory sparked enormous celebrations, with guns reportedly fired into the air in Grozny, in much the same way that automatic rifles were fired in the city's stadiums in the early 1990s.
Chaotic scenes followed the end of the match, with the thickset Ramzan Kadyrov running onto the pitch surrounded by bodyguards, cameras and journalists. Ramzan, whose security force has been accused of torture and murder in the republic, was lifted up and thrown into the air by the Terek players.
Before the trophy was handed to the team, Terek supporters dragged a huge banner showing a picture of Akhmad Kadyrov from the stand and spread it in front of the podium where the ceremony was taking place - seemingly to the annoyance of Russian Football Union chief Vyacheslav Koloskov.
Ramzan stopped celebrating on seeing his father's face spread out on the ground before him, and broke down in tears. Chechen Sports Minister Khaidar Alkhanov and a number of others also began crying.
As Ramzan pulled off his cap to hide his face and wipe his eyes, Dzhabrailov pulled out some tissues and handed them to him.
Meanwhile, the Terek officials who were holding up the picture of Kadyrov had to push people away as they stepped on the picture.
Outside the stadium, about 100 young Chechen men gathered in a circle as one fan beat out a Chechen folk song on a big drum. Inside the circle, a young boy wearing a Caucasus-style mountain hat danced enthusiastically as the crowd cheered and roared him on.
To one side, a group of policeman stood watching, slightly bemused but not interfering.
The return of Terek Grozny, resurrected by Kadyrov in 2001, has been seen by many as a propaganda move backed by the Kremlin.
The team were used in the PR campaign for the Chechen presidential elections last year, Russian media reported, and the Chechen rebel web site kavkazcenter.com condemned the team as "Kremlin Terek" in an article last year. Yet the team appears to enjoy broad support among Chechens, even from those opposed to the Moscow-backed government.
Terek's journey into Europe will begin this fall, although it remains undecided where the team will play its home games.
The team currently plays in Pyatigorsk, but will likely move to play at the stadium of premier league side Alania Vladikavkaz.
Although a return to Grozny is not ruled out, it looks extremely unlikely that visiting European sides would agree to play in war-torn Chechnya.
Asked after the game if the team would play its UEFA Cup games in Grozny, the head of the federal sports agency, Vyacheslav Fetisov said, "That's what we are going to discuss."
Talgaev said that Putin had promised that the Dynamo stadium in Grozny would be rebuilt when he flew into Chechnya the day after Kadyrov was killed. Terek hopes to play against a Chechen representative team on August 23, the birthday of the late Chechen leader.
Realistically, the chances of Terek attempting to play UEFA Cup games in Grozny are nil. Scottish side Rangers had their game against Anzhi Makhachkala in Dagestan moved because of safety fears and UEFA, European soccer's governing body, would hardly allow any team to go to Chechnya.
TITLE: Henman Through to Quarterfinals
AUTHOR: By Jerome Pugmire
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: PARIS - Tim Henman rallied from two sets down and saved match point before beating Michael Llodra 6-7 (2), 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 9-7 to advance to the quarterfinals of the French Open on Sunday to stand one win away from becoming the most successful British player at Roland Garros in Open era history.
If he beats Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela in the quarters, Henman will become the only British player to reach the Roland Garros semifinals since the Open era began in 1968.
"I'm trying not to look too far down the line," he said. "I've done that in the past and that's when you start having trouble."
He already has followed in his family's footsteps. Henman's grandfather, Henry Billington, reached the quarters in 1939.
Henman is 2-2 overall against Chela, with a victory each on clay at Monte Carlo. Chela, the No. 22 seed, advanced to a Grand Slam quarter for the first time, beating Olivier Mutis of France 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-2.
When Henman walked onto the court against Llodra, it must have felt as if he was home.
A green tarp had just been removed after early rainfall delayed the match - a scene reminiscent of his favorite grass surface, Wimbledon, where he has reached four semifinals.
Henman looked out of it early against Llodra.
"For 1 hour and 49 minutes, I played the wrong way," Henman said. "To find a way to come through that is character building. I take a lot of positives from the mental strength I showed."
Llodra, a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion, had some impressive moments. With Henman serving at 2-1 in the decisive set, Llodra retrieved two smashes.
The first was brilliant, the second - with Llodra stretching backward and volleying a passing shot down the line - bordered on miraculous.
"It was a one-in-a-million shot," Henman said. "What could I do about that?" In other men's play Sunday, No. 3 Guillermo Coria, No. 5 Carlos Moya and Xavier Malisse also won.
Coria led 6-0 before Nicolas Escude retired, citing tendinitis in his right shoulder. Malisse outlasted 2002 French Open champion Albert Costa of Spain 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-6(4), 8-6.