SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #980 (48), Friday, June 25, 2004
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TITLE: Women Add Glamour to Cloak and Dagger Profession
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: When Russian beauty Maria Konnenkova went to the United States in 1924, she had no idea that a few years later she would become a Soviet secret agent and date famous physicist Albert Einstein. 
 
She did so to gather information on the top-secret U.S. Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear weapons.
 A photograph of Konnenkova at an exhibition on Russian-Soviet female spies that opened in St. Petersburg on Monday demonstrates that the exquisite beauty of the country's female agents was very hard to resist.
 "Most Russian female spies were very beautiful, charming, well-educated, sly, and had good logic," said Lyudmila Mikhailova, director of the Russian Political Police Museum at 2 Gorokhovaya Ulitsa, who organized the exhibition.
 The exhibition features the country's female spies and the policewomen of the tsars' secret police, the NKVD and KGB right up to the contemporary heads of prosecutors' offices and bodyguard schools.
 Konnenkova was recruited to the cloak-and-dagger world of spying by another Soviet spy Yelizaveta Zarubina (Gorskaya), the second wife of spymaster Vasily Zarubin. 
 To gather information on the U.S. atomic bomb program, Konnenkova charmed Einstein, who had promoted the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, and became a friend of Robert Oppenheimer, who led the U.S. effort. 
 The Zarubins, who played key roles in obtaining the secrets of the U.S. bomb for the Soviet Union, were probably the biggest family of Soviet spies. Both of Zarubin's wives and his daughter worked for the secret services. 
 Another bright personality featured in the exhibition is Yelena Kozeltseva, a KGB colonel who also worked for the NKVD during Stalin's repressions, and finished her career as a deputy head of Moscow State University.
 Kozeltseva, an engineer by education, was 24 when she was offered a position as an NKVD investigator in 1938. Processing two sacks of cases eligible for rehabilitation was her first assignment.
 Mikhailova, who interviewed Kozeltseva in Moscow for the exhibition, said that when Kozeltseva checked the cases, she had been deeply surprised to learn that there were no grounds to arrest or shoot the people whose cases she had read. She did her best to rehabilitate them.
 During World War II, Kozeltseva was involved in exposing Nazi agents. She also investigated the infamous murder of Soviet scout Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, 18, who was hanged by the Nazis in 1941.
 In 1953, while a KGB agent, Kozeltseva was appointed a deputy head of Moscow State University, or MGU, the country's leading university. KGB representatives worked in many of the country's higher education institutions.
 "Students were always one of the most active parts of the country's population, who could be rather easily influenced," Mikhailova said. "Therefore the Soviet authorities, like the tsarist ones before them, wanted to have ideological control over them."
 Therefore in the 1960s, when waves of dissidence broke out in the Soviet Union, Kozeltseva's task was to prevent students from going to political meetings and taking part in actions or discussions that opposed the Soviet regime.
 When MGU students wanted to attend a protest against the arrest of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuly Daniel held on Pushkin Square in Moscow on Dec. 5, 1965, Kozeltseva gathered the students in order to convince them not to go.
 Mikhailova said Kozeltseva, who is now 90, does not regret her activities in NKVD or KGB.
 "While working there I saved the lives of many people who could have been exiled to camps or killed," she said to Mikhailova.
 Another female spy featured in the exhibition is Zoya Voskresenskaya, who is best known in Russia as a children's writer.
 It may come as a surprise to many to learn that the author of many stories loved by children was an elite secret agent. Voskresenskaya was among those who warned Stalin about Hitler's plans to attack the Soviet Union right on the eve of the invasion. 
 In May 1941, Voskresenskaya, using the name Madam Yartseva, attended a reception for German Ambassador Werner Von Schulenburg. The reception was in honor of the leading performers of the Berlin Opera, which was on tour.
 While waltzing with Schulenburg, "Yartseva," an impressive figure in a velvet dress, noticed gaps on the wall of a neighboring room, where pictures had been removed. 
 A glimpse of a pile of suitcases in the same room, and some remarks in the German diplomats' conversations put her on full alert, and confirmed other intelligence about the Nazis' plans.
 On June 17, five days before the invasion began, Voskresenskaya came to Stalin with a report. He didn't believe her.
 However, the history of Russian female secret agents started long before the NKVD. The first Russian female spy featured in the exhibition was Duchess Dorothea Lieven, the sister of police chief Alexander Benckendorff, opened a salon in Berlin in the early 18th century.
 Lieven, the attractive wife of a Russian ambassador to Germany, not only chattered about high society with the visitors, but also managed to gather important political information.
 Anna Serebryakova, a secret agent in the tsarist police, in her turn hosted a salon for revolutionaries so that the tsar would know what they were planning. Among her guests were the Marxist Pyotr Struve, Lenin's sister Anna Ulyanova, and the propagandist Anatoly Lunacharsky.
 Serebryakova was exposed in 1908, after which she was granted a lifetime pension from Tsar Nicholas II. She received 1,200 rubles a year - a small fortune in those times. In 1923, when the Bolsheviks were in power, Serebryakova was arrested and later sentenced to 10 years in a concentration camp where she disappeared without trace. 
 Among the exhibits, which feature the uniforms of female NKVD officers, medals, leather belts, letters, documents, and other accessories, there is also the uniform of Viktoria Korchagina, current head of the Northwest Bodyguard School.
 In her preparations for the exhibition, Mikhailova went to meet many of the featured personalities.
 Mikhailova said that despite the stereotype that people who worked for the NKVD and KGB were connected only with oppression, the women she had met made completely the opposite impression on her.
 "Those who I met were the women who had gone through World War II, and they all were characterized by devotion and love for their motherland," Mikhailova said. "They were in a difficult situation because they had to obey to the dictatorship of the law, which existed at that time."

TITLE: Evictions Loom for Artists
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In a city renowned for its art, the St. Petersburg Property Committee has told all local cultural figures using studios belonging to City Hall that they will be privatized.
 
Tenants will have to pay market rents or buy the studios if they want to stay. The artists were not ordered to vacate the studios, but the city's decree makes that virtually inevitable because most artists cannot afford market rentals.
 The artisans, bewildered by the decision, held a protest meeting at the headquarters of the Artists' Union on Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa on Thursday to discuss their response. 
 Street protests and even mass renunciation of Russian citizenship were mentioned as possible moves.
 The city boasts about 2,000 studios that belong to the city and are rented by the artists in perpetuity. The right to rent a studio is granted by a professional union. 
 There are 14 artists' unions in St. Petersburg, including the Union of Artists, the Union of Composers, the Union of Writers, the Union of Designers and the Union of Architects. 
 Many artists live in the studios as well as using them for their creative works. The studios can't be inherited.
 Prominent writer Ilya Shtemler urged the artists to take to the streets. 
 "Being delicate, quiet and tolerant is not going to help," he said. "The only way to confront this usurpation is to publicly protest outside Smolny and the Legislative Assembly. Even if we lose the studios we will keep our pride."
 Artist Sergei Usik was far more radical; all petitions, meetings and protests would be treated as voices crying in the wilderness, he said. 
 The issue is political and requires a political response - all artists kicked out of their studios should renounce Russian citizenship, he said.
 "To be effective, the measures must be sufficiently dramatic," he said. "If the authorities deprive us of our working space, they are clearly not interested in having artists here. That means we should go elsewhere."
 Alternatively, Usik advised sending an appeal to the governments of developed countries asking them to give "the wandering stars" a roof over their heads. 
 "I very much doubt that our governor could swallow several thousand artists exposing her to such shame at an international level," he said. "Valentina Matviyenko [the city governor] will have to reconsider."
 In the meantime, the governor has been sent a protest letter signed by the artists at Thursday's meeting.
 "The actions of the City Property Committee target destruction, rather than encouragement, of culture in St. Petersburg," the letter says. 
 "Most talented artists who rent studios can't afford market prices because they are not involved in commercial enterprises ... Political shortsightedness and a get-rich-quick attitude may result in the elimination of artists as bearers of spiritual culture and threaten to destroy the professional artistic unions in town."
 The decree that will mean the eviction of the artists, signed by Vice Governor Sergei Tarasov and dated June 15 orders the privatization of the studios.
 The St. Petersburg Times has a copy of the decree that makes exceptions for artists, including survivors of the Siege of Leningrad and World War II veterans, who have been granted free, lifelong use of the studios by the local go-vernment.
 The decree also entitles district real estate boards to visit all studios within a month to check how the studio space is being used. All contracts with tenants who misuse the studios or have debts on them that have stood for at least three months, will then be cancelled.
 Alexander Saikov, deputy head of the Artists' Union, said the monthly rent on a studio of 50 square meters is 1,000 rubles to 1,500 rubles. 
 "We haven't been offered any rates yet [for buying the studios out] but judging by average market prices, it is unlikely to be below $600 dollars per square meter," he said. 
 Smolny's press office refused to comment on the matter Thursday.
 St. Petersburg began the year with a budget deficit. Budget expenditures for 2004 are forecast at 83.9 billion rubles ($2.8 billion), but revenues are only 80.2 billion rubles. Expenditure is set 8.8 percent above last year's level and revenues at 6 percent more than for 2003.
 The deficit was put in the budget to keep capital expenditures at a level of 23 percent of the whole budget, or 19 billion rubles.
 During her first news conference as elected governor last year, Matviyenko said the deficit will be overcome by increasing the rent and sale price of land and office space, especially in the city center.

TITLE: Smooth U.S. Visas Process for Exchanges
AUTHOR: By Lisa Strid

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: "Can you swim?" was the question asked of Yekaterina Kovtunovich, a 22-year-old student of English and German at St. Petersburg State University at her interview at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, a required part of the visa-application process.
 
The question may not seem typical in an interview with a government official, however Kovtunovich will be working as a lifeguard in Mackinaw City, Michigan, over the summer.
 "I told them, 'Yes, I learned from my grandmother in the Black Sea,'" she said. "It was quite pleasant. I smiled." Thanks to clearer regulations, many more Russian students like Kovtunovich are trickling out of St. Petersburg on summer exchanges after last year's confusion and disappointment when several thousand missed out.
 This month most of the students participating in such programs will snap their suitcases shut and take off for around three months of trans-Atlantic adventures. More than 1,000 will be leaving St. Petersburg, though the exact number is still unclear. Armed with new regulations from the Department of Homeland Security, which included not only mandatory interviews but also a photograph and fingerprint scanning, the embassy and consulates undertook the yearly process of outfitting students with the visas they need to participate in summer exchanges to the United States. 
 The regulations have been made considerably stricter since the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the United States and last year resulted in fewer students being able to participate in work and travel programs.
 Interviews for student exchanges officially began March 1, and most took only two to three minutes. The St. Petersburg Consulate General has seen somewhere between 1,700 and 1,800 students this year, not only from St. Petersburg, but the entire northwest district, and about 90 percent of these applicants were granted visas.
 Before the interviews, a thorough background check has already been conducted by the consulate. That is why such a short time is spent with each applicant. These interviews seem to serve the purpose of checking the student's competency in English and suitability for their work, as well as seeing the students face-to-face.
 "We see 80 to 100 people a day. That's more than twice as many as two years ago," reported Chris Misciagno, Non-Immigrant Visa Chief at the Consulate, "It gives us a much better feel for the applicant pool."
 Travel agencies say numbers are up from last year. Steve Caron, founder of Sindbad Travel, and Vladimir Yankin, managing director of InterBridge, both reported about 95 percent of students going through their companies receiving visas.
 Caron, who has been working on the hosteling and travel scene since 1992, was pleasantly surprised at the high percentage.
 "We spend about five hours with the student before they even meet with the consulate, so we're pretty sure they'll get a visa," Caron said in a recent interview, but he still expected the percentage of accepted applicants to fall to around 90 percent. The acceptance rate this year was "way above average," he said.
 Yankin also reported the number as being a "much better one than last year."
 As for the students who were not granted visas, "The biggest stumbling block for students is not speaking English well enough," Misciagno said. "It's easy for us to tell if they have enough to get by and work in the U.S." 
 However, Caron said the main reason this year for his students being rejected was that they were not able to convince consular staff that they would return to Russia at the end of the season. Many of the usual ties to homeland, such as marriage, owning property or a business do not apply to students, so the embassy or consulate generally grant visas to students that are in the middle of their school careers, counting an unfinished degree as cause enough for a student to return. 
 Final year students are not eligible; they can apply, but will not get a visa. The official limit is set at 18-24.
 Caron said that very few students he had worked with had not returned home at the end of their stays. Yankin reported low numbers of St. Petersburg students staying behind in the U.S. as well - between 4 percent and 5 percent compared to a national rate of between 8 percent and 19 percent of students overstaying. 
 This, however, should become even less of a problem because of still more new regulations required upon entry, including being photographed at customs, and entered into a DHL database. The student must fill out a DS 2019 form, which gives the name and contact information of the sponsoring party in the U.S., and if the student overstays, the company can be held accountable.
 The first step in applying for a visa is to visit the courier company DHL, where applicants pay a $30 handling fee and are scheduled for a time slot for an interview at the consulate offices. Another $100 is required at the interview, though if students choose to go through an agency, they generally pay somewhere in the range of $1,500, which can include the cost of airline tickets, visa support, and insurance depending on the chosen company.
 Sindbad Travel offers insurance under which a student who fails to get a visa can recoup some of the costs. 
 Most students earn enough over the summer to cover their initial expenses, and come home with around $1,000 in their pockets.
 "I feel these kinds of programs are a great opportunity to promote international peace and understanding and are a long-lasting deterrent to problems such as terrorism," Caron said.
 He is not the only one either, as readers of The New York Times may have seen in a full page advertisement placed last year by The Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, a group that lobbies for educational and cultural exchange. 
 According to the ad, the communication that goes on during an exchange experience is invaluable in dispelling stereotypes and building strong diplomatic ties in the future.

TITLE: Putin: Military Benefits Stay
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that the military will continue to enjoy Soviet-era benefits, even though the government is drawing up social reforms to replace most benefits received by the population with cash payments.
 
Putin, visiting the Pacific Fleet's submarine base at Kamchatka's Rybachy on the second day of a trip to the Far East, promised that the military will continue to enjoy "most" existing benefits, such as free vacation travel and healthcare.
 Military personnel, however, will no longer be allowed to ride on municipal transportation for free and will get a special allowance as compensation, the Defense Ministry's finance chief, Lyudmila Kudelina, said at Rybachy, Interfax reported.
 "The only condition that I can agree to is an improvement rather than a deterioration of the situation for military servicemen," Putin said, referring to the replacement of a handful of military benefits with cash payments.
 The State Duma is to pass legislation scrapping Soviet-era benefits for retirees, veterans, the disabled and others this summer in a move that is expected to be greeted with widespread protests.
 Putin, who observed a war game with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday, also said Thursday that the Defense Ministry will continue to increase the intensity and frequency of combat training and pledged to develop the nuclear and conventional components of the Pacific Fleet. Russia has four fleets and one flotilla, in the Caspian Sea, but most of its strategic nuclear hardware is with the Northern Fleet.

TITLE: Expert on Extremism Buried
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A prominent expert on ethnic and racial issues Nikolai Girenko, who was shot dead in his apartment over the weekend, was buried in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
 
"The death of Nikolai Girenko shocked us," said Girenko's boss, Yury Chistov, director of the St. Petersburg Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology, at the civil funeral in the St. Petersburg Center of the Russian Academy of Science.
 "We've been through situations when our scientists were killed for jackets, miserable pensions or political activities. But it's the first time that a scientist was killed for his professional work," Chistov said, website Fontanka.ru reported.
 Girenko, 64, was killed when he went to answer the doorbell in his apartment at about 9 a.m. Saturday. The killer fired a rifle at him through the closed door.
 Girenko's colleagues and human rights advocates believe political extremists were behind the attack.
 Girenko assisted the city prosecutor's office in several high-profile court cases, including the 2002 murder of Azeri watermelon vendor Mamed Mamedov and an ongoing investigation of a local skinhead group known as Schultz-88.
 Over the past two years he carried out about two dozen studies of neo-Nazi and skinhead groups for Moscow and St. Petersburg authorities. The work has helped lead to several convictions.
 "I simply do no see any other possible reason," Chistov said Monday.
 Andrei Zhukov, head of African Studies at St. Petersburg State University, said at the service "he was ashamed" that neither the city police nor administration did anything to protect Girenko.
 Zhukov said in November of 2003 unknown people hit Girenko on his head with a baton. Then a threatening note, written in a clumsy handwriting, was nailed to the doors of the academy.
 "We'll kill you, scientists!" the note went in slang, Zhukov said.
 "Girenko died for the truth, because he wasn't afraid to tell that truth, nobody has provided his safety," Zhukov said.
 Hundreds of people came to pay their last respects to Girenko. Among them were people of different nationalities.
 Meanwhile, Yelena Ordynskaya, chief assistant city prosecutor, said Thursday prosecutors are checking a declaration by a nationalist groups, who claimed responsibility for the murder of Girenko.
 The organization, which calls itself Russkaya Respublika (Russian Republic) said on its website that it was in charge of the murder.
 "On June 19 ... the verdict of the Tribunal on the fact of the genocide of Russian people was executed against the enemy of the Russian people Nikolai Girenko," the message said.
 It said the verdict was issued under the order of the so-called "Upper head of Russian Republic" on June 10 of 2003.
 The extremists blamed the scientist for "providing expert evidence in about two dozen cases while working for the punitive organs" in Moscow and St. Petersburg. 
 His evidence had resulted in imprisonment on false charges, they said.
 Ordynskaya said the message was placed on the Internet on Wednesday.

TITLE: Piotrovsky Wants to Ban Concerts in Palace Square
AUTHOR: By Irina Titova 

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Sir Paul McCartney's concert on Palace Square may be the last given in the city's main square.
 
Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum, located around Palace Square, said Wednesday that the city should ban concerts in the square.
 McCartney's concert made the walls of the Hermitage shake, he said.
 The loud music and its vibrations set off numerous alarms in the museum, dinner service sets jingled, while paint and plaster was falling off the walls, witnesses said.
 "It was something horrible - everything was shaking [in the museum]," Interfax quoted Piotrovsky as saying.
 "We were preparing for the concert in the same way we prepare for a flood," Izvestia quoted the museum director as saying.
 Museum workers always worry about the damage vibrations may cause to their exhibits. For this reason, exhibits are almost never flown because of fears about vibration, he added.
 "McCartney's concert, his show, had a destructive level of noise that could be produced by any airplane," he said.
 "Besides, so many people - 60,000 - should not be allowed to in Palace Square at one time. It is simply dangerous. In addition, they started setting off unplanned fireworks, which are strongly forbidden in that area."
 Piotrovsky, who spoke out against McCartney's concert at the Palace Square from the very beginning, said the city should clarify the status of the Palace Square, and decide "what can be done at St. Petersburg's main square, and what cannot." 
 However, the Hermitage press service reported no noticeable damage in the museum during the concert. Nevertheless, microscopic cracks as a result of the noise may reveal themselves in a year or two.
 "One can put up with anything, even a war, but nothing good will come out of it," Piotrovsky said. Large concerts should not be taking place in the historical centers of cities, he said, adding that Red Square was also unsuitable.
 "The great scenery that attracts organizers of such concerts is what suffers from those events," Piotrovsky said.
 In the past few years Palace Square has hosted several big concerts, including ones by opera star Placido Domingo, the Mariinsky Theater and local singer Alexander Rozenbaum.

TITLE: 'Venetian' Gondolas Ply City Waterways
AUTHOR: By Simone Kozuharov

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: St. Petersburg finally has just cause to be called the "Venice of the North" with the six new gondolas and one enterprising attorney.
 
Although founder Peter the Great had planned for a city based on Amsterdam, St. Petersburg's canals and the work of Italian architects have lead it to become known as the Russian version of its Italian cousin.
 Starting this summer, those canals have gondolas to match.
 The idea came after Alexander Smirnov, a local attorney, heard that Venice, had presented St. Petersburg with its very own romantic gondola. The gift is sitting in the History Museum at the Peter and Paul Fortress, but isn't for hire. 
 That's where Smirnov comes in. 
 "It will be great if the black swans of Venice go along the canals of St. Petersburg," Smirnov said.
 As general director of Venetsia Nord, he took great care to model his gondolas, made in St. Petersburg, after those found on the Venice canals. He would not reveal how much they cost, but said they didn't come cheap.
 Lithe young men, sans uniforms or matching hats with tassels, stand on the helm of the boat, dipping their paddles into the water and stroking it slowly. Italian gondolas are usually equipped with long poles, used to push off from the bottom of the canals. 
 Smirnov said the gondolas were made to match their Venetian counterparts, even down to the poles, however the gondolier navigating one of the boats Wednesday seemed to be paddling.
 The gondolas don't venture out into the Neva river, where they could get caught in the wake of larger vessels, but three make the journey around Peter and Paul Fortress. Tourists can catch one from a dock near the entrance to the fortress. 
 Smirnov's partner, Alexei Alyokhin, said a tour aboard the gondolas costs about 10 euros for about an hour. 
 "The trip costs what it costs in Venice, not more, not less," Smirnov said. But he's willing to give tourist firms "a serious discount."
 Another three gondolas are expected to start a new route near 11 Naberezhnaya Reki Moiki, touring the canals in the next few days. Working hours are 10 a.m. to "whatever time necessary," Alyokhin said.
 The gondolas will operate until September or October, depending on the weather.

TITLE: Tikhvin Icon Returns to Russia
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: One of the most significant Russian Orthodox icons, the miracle-working Virgin of Tikhvin, arrived from the United States and was displayed in the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow on Wednesday.
 
Russian Patriarch Alexy II led the welcoming ceremony for the icon.
 "Today we have a great event - a Russian sacred relic has returned to our motherland after 63 years of being outside," Alexy said.
 About 5,000 believers gathered to greet it, as well. 
 The Tikhvin icon, claimed to be painted by the St. Luke, is one of the most worshiped Russian Orthodox icons along with the icons of the Virgin of Vladimir, Smolensk, Iversk and Kazan. 
 It will arrive in St. Petersburg on Monday.
 During World War II, Tikhvin, located in the Leningrad Oblast, was occupied by German troops for a month. The icon was found in the Assumption Cathedral, where services had ceased under Communist rule, and was taken to Pskov. In 1944 monks took the icon to Riga.
 They gave the icon to Bishop John Garklavs, who headed that diocese at that time. 
 After the war, he fled the return of the Soviets and went to the United States, taking the icon with him. Later he received the title of Archbishop.
 Archbishop John adopted Sergei Garklavs, who is now aged 75, and asked him in his will to return the icon to the Tikhvin monastery if it reopened.
 The monastery was revived, so the decision was taken to return it to where it had hung for many centuries. 
 The icon, which is to arrive at its homeplace in Tikhvin on July 8 will be placed in a specially reinforced case, and will be protected by guards.

TITLE: Death Toll 98 In Ingushetia
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia - Ninety-eight people were killed in this week's militant attacks in Ingushetia, regional officials said Thursday, and a senior military officer said three militants had been detained on suspicion of taking part in the violence. 
 
Ingush Prime Minister Mogushkov said the majority of those killed were from law enforcement agencies, Itar-Tass reported. Twenty-nine were police officers, 19 were soldiers, 10 were from the Federal Security Service and five were prosecutors, he said. 
 Sergei Artemyev, an adviser to Vladimir Yakovlev, President Vladimir Putin's envoy in southern Russia, said 125 people had been wounded. 
 Three days after the Monday night attacks, questions still swirled about where the militants came from. Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, a former senior FSB official, said in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Thursday that "it was, so to speak, an international squad" intent on destabilizing Ingushetia.

TITLE: GT Shifts Regional Center to the City
AUTHOR: By Sophia Kornienko

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The leading telecommunications and internet service provider, Golden Telecom, plans to shift its main coordinating center for the Northwest region development from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the company's vice-president Andrei Patoka said Wednesday. 
 
By delegating main control functions over the Northwest to St. Petersburg, Golden Telecom hopes to promote its distance connection programs more efficiently, he said. 
 Golden Telecom has 4,000 corporate clients in St. Petersburg and 32,000 subscribers. Patoka named the Eldorado retail chain, Promstroybank, Menatep bank, and the Baltika brewery among Golden Telecom's largest clients in the region. While headquartered in St. Petersburg, those clients also need to have their regional offices connected to the same network. 
 "The region is difficult to work in, mainly because of the climate. Some of the towns we are working with in the Northwest had never had any communications as such. We are relying on the sputnik segment in those areas," Patoka said. 
 Golden Telecom's revenues in the Northwest grew by 40 percent, from $32.4 million in 2003 to an estimate of $50.7 million in 2004, Patoka said. 
 Golden Telecom controls more than half of the corporate market in telecom services. The stake has gone up with the company's recent purchase of West Balt Telecom, operating in Kaliningrad, said Leonid Konik, editor-in-chief of Com.News, in a telephone interview Wednesday.
 Hardly any other operator can compare to Golden Telecom in regional expansion - the company is an absolute leader among independent operators all across Russia, Konik said. There are 26 regional subsidiaries forming the Golden Telecom Group. Five of the subsidiaries were recently purchased in Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kaliningrad and Nizhny Novgorod. Golden Telecom also owns three companies abroad - in the Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
 Although Golden Telecom will hardly be able to shake the positions occupied in the Northwest by Peterstar, St. Petersburg's largest telecom operator, Konik said he does not rule out the possibility that Golden Telecom may purchase Peterstar one day. 
 Peterstar's owner Metromedia is finding itself in quite a volatile financial state, Konik said, and even though it said Peterstar is a company that it was definitely going to keep, any statement can be changed.
 Sergei Savchuk, director of Golden Telecom St. Petersburg said that besides corporate clients, Golden Telecom also receives revenue from providing transport nets for rent to Internet and mobile operators. This service accounts for 20 percent of the company's profits in the Northwest. Golden Telecom's main competitors in the field are Metrocom and Peterstar, which owns most of the channels for rent in the city in Savchuk's estimate. 
 Golden Telecom is building ground channels for mobile operator Vimpelcom, a project that doubled the length of Golden Telecom's fiber channels in St. Petersburg to 1,000 kilometers. The project for Vimpelcom should be completed this summer, Savchuk said.
 Cliff Gauntlett, Golden Telecom's head of Russia OnLine project said at a press conference in Moscow Tuesday that the company will be launching a ROLBox computer, which should cost about $300 and will allow the numbers of internet users to increase.
 Golden Telecom, founded in 1999 in the U.S., belongs to Alfa-Telecom (30 percent), Norwegian Telenor (20 percent), Rostelecom (11 percent), the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (8 percent), ING Barings (7 percent) and Capital International Global Emerging Markets Private Equity Fund L.P. (6 percent).
 The four minority shareholders are planning to place 10.68 percent of Golden Telecom's shares on the market, reported Rosbalt information agency Wednesday. 
 Alexander Vinogradov, Golden Telecom's president, explained that the sale is connected with the company's plans to raise the liquidity of its stock from 17 percent up to 30 percent.

TITLE: Finnjet Vessel Sails En Route to Rostock
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A new ferry route linking St. Petersburg with Rostock in Germany via Tallinn began operating Wednesday as Silja Line, the leading ferry operator in the Baltic Sea region, launched its ferry vessel Finnjet on the new route with the first 500 passengers on board.
 
The route will operate all year round. The journey between St. Petersburg and Tallinn takes about 14 hours, and the trip from Tallinn to Rostock takes another 2 hours. 
 Silja Line has invested 15 million euros in the St. Petersburg route project, which took two years to take shape. Another 2 million euros will be put into business expansion and marketing.
 Pekka Helin, senior vice president of Silja Line's passenger services, said the company expects to carry between 1,000 and 1,300 passengers on each trip between Rostock and St. Petersburg.
 "From the Russian market we are expecting an annual volume of 30,000 to 40,000 passengers in the future, but of course the first years will need more market building," Helin said in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times.
 The company pins their expectations on the German market, where Silja Line is well established and holds a strong position. "We have chosen to start with Germany because they know Finnjet very well and also have a great interest in Russia," Helin said.
 Russia is perceived as a potentially booming market. Some 200,000 Russian passengers travel with Silja Line on various routes every year. The Helsinki-Stockholm and Helsinki-Turku routes are particularly popular.
 "We know the Finnish and Swedish markets very well, and there is a strong demand for ferry travel there," Helin said. "We consider that the Russian market demonstrates similar trends, especially now that average Russians are becoming wealthier and have more money to spend on leisure activities." 
 Silja Line first decided to bring Finnjet to St. Petersburg in 2002 but back then the vessel, made in 1977, required modifications to be able to navigate local waters. 
 &quot;The channel leading to the city is very narrow and rather shallow,&quot; Helin said. &quot;We had to examine<br> it to see what changes should be done to Finnjet and whether we can afford it.&quot;
 Vladimir Malik, general director of the sea passenger port welcomed Finnjet with much enthusiasm. &quot;Back in 1995 Russian ferries were going to Helsinki, Stockholm and Germany but now the Russian ferry business is virtually non-existent, so we are thankful our neighbors can fill the niche,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;We have made every effort to improve the infrastructure for the ferry business. Construction of a new modern sea terminal is now underway to be completed in 3 years.&quot; 
 Malik said that 350,000 passengers are expected to travel to St. Petersburg by sea this year.
 The next step for Silja Line's expansion in the local market is a two-night cruise to Helsinki, which the company is hoping to launch in the next two years. 
 A return trip to Rostock costs from 219 euros off-season (mid-October to mid-December) to 304 euros in the high season (mid-June to the end of July) in a budget class cabin holding 4 people,while the same trip in a seaside class cabin for two people costs 925 euros in the high season and 668 off-season.

TITLE: Russia: No. 1 Retail Target
AUTHOR: By Denis Maternovsky

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Russia is the No. 1 destination for retail expansion, according to a new industry ranking of 30 emerging markets.
 
For the second consecutive year, Russia ranked as the most attractive investment choice in an annual study released Tuesday by management consulting firm A. T. Kearney.
 This year's list is heavily dominated by Eastern Europe, with Slovenia, Croatia, Latvia and Slovakia making it in the top 10. 
 The Global Retail Development Index ranked countries according to economic and political risks, market attractiveness, market saturation and time pressure, or the urgency to enter a market.
 After Vietnam and Turkey, Russia is still perceived as the riskiest of the top 10, but by overall market attractiveness it places well ahead of No. 2 India and No. 3 China.
 Country risks include relatively low per capita consumer spending, poor regional infrastructure and bureaucratic hurdles.
 However, the study found that the risk of investing in Russia is decreasing as the country &quot;took steps to improve economic and political stability and moved closer to entering the World Trade Organization.&quot;
 Ranked according to how urgently retailers wanted to invest, Russia and Slovakia were the only countries to receive the maximum possible score. 
 &quot;For international retailers interested in the Russian market, the time to act is now,&quot; Fadi Farra, an A. T. Kearney manager who worked on the study said in a statement.
 &quot;Competition is rising as both domestic and international retailers speed up their expansion plans in new retail sectors and in new cities.&quot;
 Among European countries, only Ukraine - which placed No. 11 in the overall ranking - had a less saturated retail market than Russia.
 Between 1999 and 2003, Russia's consumer market grew by nearly one-third, to an estimated $280 billion, the study said.
 Natalya Zagvozdina, a retail and consumer goods analyst at Renaissance Capital, said she &quot;wholeheartedly agreed&quot; with the study's findings. 
 &quot;Even low per capita consumer spending does not slow down the growth,&quot; she said. &quot;Last year the retail sector, along with construction and telecom sectors, grew by over 10 percent - well ahead of the rest of the economy.&quot;
 Russian GDP grew 7.3 percent in 2003.
 The A. T. Kearney study comes on the heels of similar rankings placing Russia as a high-priority expansion target for international firms. 
 The country ranked as the continent's second most attractive investment target in Ernst &amp; Young's Attractiveness of Europe survey published last month. 
 A September study by A. T. Kearney placed Russia in eighth place in terms of overall investment attractiveness worldwide. 

<strong>TOP RETAIL TARGETS </strong>

<strong>Rank Country Score
 </strong>1. Russia 100
 2. India 88
 3. China 86
 4. Slovenia 84
 5. Croatia 83
 6. Latvia 82
 7. Vietnam 76
 8. Turkey 75
 9. Slovakia 74
 10. Thailand 73
 Ukraine 73
 
 <i>Source: A.T. Kearney </i>

TITLE: Sibir Airlines Launch Makeover Campaign
AUTHOR: By Lyuba Pronina

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOCSCOW - The nation's fastest-growing airline wants its passengers - and planes - to lighten up.
 
Sibir, the Novosibirsk division of Aeroflot in communist times, plans to shed its Soviet image with a re-branding campaign that will turn its conservatively painted fleet of jets into a flying canvas of colors and silhouettes.
 The company will replace its traditional livery - a single, blue stripe over a white background - with bright and dark greens, bright red balls and silhouettes of people appearing very much at ease.
 The wings will stay white underneath, and the name Sibir will be painted on the side in cherry red. Next to the airline's name and on the tailfin, S7, Sibir's international flight code, will appear inside a circle that is also cherry red.
 &quot;There is so much drab and gray in the country and we would like to bring people a sensation of celebrating,&quot; one company executive said in a recent interview.
 He said the silhouette concept in particular is a unique touch that will help Sibir distinguish itself. &quot;It will reflect our strategy where we see people, the passengers, as being at the centre of our attention,&quot; he said. &quot;You will be able to recognize us straight away... some 30 percent of the planes at Domodedovo airport belong to us.&quot;
 Inside, the seats will be purple up front and bright blue in the back. The color concept, which still needs final approval from Sibir's board, was developed by Landor Associates, a London-based company that won a tender last year to run the re-branding campaign.
 The Sibir executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company is even thinking about changing its name after the transitional period is over and passengers get used to the new look.
 The transformation of the company began in 1998, when a new management team, headed by Vladislav Filyov, a former officer of the Strategic Missile Force, was appointed to run the company. Filyov has since groomed what was a mid-level regional carrier into the largest operator of domestic flights in the country, and No. 2 overall behind Aeroflot.
 Aeroflot has also been busy crafting a new image for itself. Last year, the airline swapped its traditional white and blue color scheme for orange, metallic silver and dark blue. (Orange was chosen to &quot;spark images of sunrises, golden domes, golden autumn and poetry;&quot; metallic silver was chosen to represent &quot;modern times;&quot; and dark blue was picked to &quot;convey professionalism.&quot;)
 Aeroflot also toyed briefly with the idea of abandoning its decades-old hammer-and-sickle logo.
 &quot;Re-branding is a natural step,&quot; said Aeroflot deputy general director Lev Koshlyakov. &quot;Airlines are trying to get a new face and reflect it in a new visual image. [But] it has more to do with the quality of the product and service - it's not just about repainting the aircraft,&quot; he said.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Call for Law on Charity
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - In order to preserve and protect city monuments, a new law regulating the activity of charities must be passed, Interfax quoted Ivan Sautov, the director of the Tsarskoye Selo complex, as saying Wednesday.
 "Cultural curators have been trying to initiate such a law for years," Sautov said. "Why it hasn't been passed doesn't make sense."
 Germany has a similar law that had aided in the restoration of the Amber Room, he said. Using charities is a way for many western companies to reduce taxes and gain publicity, he added. 
 Sautov made the comments during a round table discussion called "The Fate of Monuments: Between Culture and and Economics."
 His remarks come on the heels of President Vladimir Putin's recent harsh criticism of NGOs working in Russia. 
 
 
<b>Suspended Sentence
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Vladimir Golikov has received a five-year suspended sentence for attacking the office of human-rights organization Memorial with a hammer in August last year, Interfax reported Tuesday.
 The Kuibishevksy federal court announced the sentence on Friday, the report said.
 The court also fined Golikov 15,000 rubles ($508) to be paid as compensation to an individual who suffered in the attack and 4,500 rubles for the organization.
 Golikov styles himself the head of a nationalist Slavic sect called Perun. <b>New Yukos Chief
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - The Russian government's bid to impose a $3.4 billion back-tax claim against oil major Yukos got bogged down again Thursday amid wrangling over the chief judge trying the case. 
 Lawyers for the tax authorities tried to have tribunal chairman Valeri Korotenko removed, expressing concerns over his impartiality. But the Moscow Arbitration Court's three-judge panel threw out the petition as groundless. 
 Yukos, meanwhile, tried to put on a show of business as usual at its annual shareholders meeting, naming former central bank head Viktor Gerashchenko to the board. 
 Chief executive Simon Kukes said the tax bill would have no impact on oil output and investment. 
 Output will rise to 90 million tonnes (1.8 million barrels per day) this year from 81.5 million in 2003, while capex will rise slightly to $1.9 billion, as planned. 
 Yukos shares were flat in a slightly firmer market. 
 
 
<b>Spam To Be Outlawed
 </b>

MOSCOW (SPT) - Russian lawmaker Vladimir Medinsky will try to outlaw unsolicited e-mails by introducing amendments in parliament that could fine or jail the senders, Vedomosti reported, citing Medinsky. 
 Offenders may be fined as much as 100,000 rubles ($3,445) for sending unsolicited e-mails, while for sending e-mails under someone else's name, they may be fined as much as 1 million rubles, the paper said. If a group of people uses someone else's name, they may be jailed for as long as 2 years, the paper said.
 
 
<b>More Troubled Banks
 </b>

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) - Commercial Savings Bank may go out of business and Dialog-Optim Bank is limiting deposit withdrawals after the country's banks closed some credit lines to each other earlier this month, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.
 Commercial Savings Bank, the country's 351st by assets, suspended operations, the paper said. More than 90 percent of its employees were laid off, an unidentified banking official told the paper. A Commercial Savings Bank representative told the paper the bank is not working because of "technical reasons."
 Dialog-Optim Bank, the country's 58th by assets, is limiting deposit withdrawals by private clients by 10,000 rubles ($345) per day, an unidentified official at the bank told Vedomosti.
 Moscow-based Sodbiznesbank and CreditTrust missed bond payments last month, increasing the chances of the country's first defaults since 1998. <b>Sunway Goes to Ecuador
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Sunway group, a group of fruit and vegetable companies is prepared to make large investments into the city market, the company said in a press-release statement. 
 In September the company plans to begin a fruit terminal construction in the village of Shushari in the Leningrad Oblast. 
 Sunway also said it is establishing transportation and air-fumigation companies in Ecuador to ensure the quality of produce exported to Russia and lower exporting costs.
 
 
<b>Maritime Trade Grows
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - <br> In 2003 the maritime transport between Rotterdam and Russia rose by 17%, from 15.7 million tons in 2002 to 18.3 million tons, according to Rotterdam sea port statistics.
 The main driving force is the growth of crude oil and oil products imports, of some 12 million tons, Rotterdam port officials said.
 The throughpup of general cargo, almost 50/50 incoming and outgoing, rose by the same percentage. 
 Last year, two of the Russian oil majors strengthened their contacts with Rotterdam. Lukoil started redeveloping a terminal for the delivery of bunker oil in co-operation with FTS-Hofftrans, and Petroval, a trading company selling Yukos products, signed a long-term storage contract with Vopak.
 Furthermore the port of Rotterdam appointed a Rotterdam Representative, Mr. Karl Gofman, to St. Petersburg.
 
 
<b>EBRD Dam Tender
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The winner of the first tender for the city dam construction conducted by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will be announced in two weeks, Interfax reported Thursday. 
 The costs of the construction planned to start this summer will amount to about $7.5 million, the general director of the northwestern branch of the federal construction agency Boris Paikin told Interfax. 
 Paikin said that in September or October of this year EBRD will conduct two more tenders for the construction of the dam's structures that will allow vessels to pass. The results of those tenders are to be announced in November. 
 "In total, $245 million of EBRD's loan is planned to be spent on dam construction,'' Paikin said.
 
 
<b>New Volkswagen Spot
 </b>

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Auto center Pulkovo, the largest Volkswagen dealership in the Northwest, opened Thursday. 
 The construction of the center, which began in August of 2003, was completed in May this year. The total area of the center exceeds 5,000 square meters, making it one of the largest car dealerships in the country. 
 The center's show room will sport 20 automobiles, with a complete line-up of the Volkswagen models presented for sale.
 
 
<b>Lukoil Confirms Profit
 </b>

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Profits at Russian oil major Lukoil more than doubled in 2003 to $3.7 billion, the firm said on Thursday, as sales rode on thehigh world oil prices and cost cutting kept operating expenses lower than expected.
 



TITLE: No 1998 Echo in 'Crisis'
AUTHOR: By Richard Hainsworth
TEXT: Contrary to the feverish hyperbole of some commentators, Russia has not been experiencing a banking crisis, let alone anything comparable with the scale of the 1998 financial meltdown. Nevertheless, the nerves of depositors and companies, still raw from the trauma of 1998, have been so shaken by hype and rumors that one or two banks have been hit by runs on their deposits.
 
However, there is almost no point of similarity between now and 1998, either in terms of the economic situation or in terms of the banking system. In 1998, the government had almost no control over spending, tax revenues were completely inadequate and an expanding budget was financed by &quot;risk-less&quot; short-term debt. Russia's main exports - its commodities - were at record lows with demand hit due to economic problems in the Asian tigers. From the vantage point of 2004, Russia has experienced a tax reform that that has resulted in increasing government revenues, the economy is growing, the budget is under control and inflation is falling. Oil prices are at an all-time high, the economy is growing and with it the demand for banking services.
 In 1998, Russian banks faced the double-edged sword of devaluation. For over two years, they had been attracting loans from global capital markets, arbitraging between low interest rates globally and high ruble interest rates. So they had borrowed in dollars and lent in rubles. Any ruble devaluation would wipe out their capital. At the same time, devaluation served the interests of the raw materials exporters which, in reality, owned most of the banks. Adding fuel to the fire, Russian banks had been playing wildly with derivative contracts and taken massive bets that the Central Bank would not devalue the national currency. Today, there is no derivative overhang, there is no currency mismatch, lending by foreign investors to Russian banks has only just started, and there is a freely floating currency currently appreciating rather than devaluing.
 On the regulatory side, the Central Bank in 1998 had just taken strides towards international accounting standards by introducing a new system, however it remained a triumph of form of substance and was a long way from any sort of convergence with international best practice. In 1998, Russian banks had found that central bankers were willing to overlook infringements of the Central Bank imposed prudential ratios. It was even discovered that the Central Bank itself was profiteering on government bonds by recycling the country's foreign reserves through a Russian-owned foreign bank. Given that the CBR also managed the short-term government debt trade, some bureaucrats almost certainly made small fortunes. The CBR had established a currency corridor with the aid of the IMF, the ruble exchange rate was forced into a narrow trading band, so derivative contracts could be written for just that narrow band. The CBR controlled the currency trades and the exchange rate and future rates became known to selected players in the market ahead of time. 
 Today, by contrast, the general consensus of economists working for global agencies is that while there may be differences of emphasis regarding banking reform, the Central Bank's overall strategy adheres to international best practices. 
 The greatest criticism has come from banking theorists who are opposed to deposit insurance per se on moral hazard grounds. Yet the model the CBR has backed, with a strong regulatory stick alongside the insurance carrot, is one that only rigid purists can object to. Moreover, the CBR has been implementing its reforms in a systemic and careful manner. If the pace is slow - a common complaint - that is the speed dictated by the political process, which is no bad thing if that is the price of ensuring that the country's leadership is committed to the reforms. 
 Finally, in 1998 a crisis was expected. The currency had to be devalued, it was only the timing that was unclear. Consequently, when the news broke, there was no fundamental surprise. However, as soon as one bank failed, there was a domino effect. Only very strong, smaller banks escaped the chaos. Now there is no sign of systemic crisis. There has not been a single case of failure. Indeed, virtually all the 43 banks covered by RusRating have continued to do business with barely any negative impact. 
 However, the CBR pulled the license of Sodbiznesbank without waiting for a triggering default event. Moreover, it cited money laundering issues for the first time. By doing so, it effectively changed the rules of the game. Although supervisors had long been warning they would be act on the basis of substance not form, it had all been words up until then.
 The reaction amongst Moscow bankers was to panic. If CBR action could occur without a concrete default, who would be next? Since nearly all - if not all - banks had at one time offered &quot;exotic services,&quot; where was the line between CBR acceptability and action? If the CBR pulls a bank's license, any money lent to that bank on the very short term interbank market is as good as lost. In the newly risk-conscious world of Russian banking, the knee-jerk reaction was to stop doing business except where the counter-party was well understood. Russia's interbank market contains about 30 core banks and 170 second tier banks. 
 When the jitter bug infected the market, the core banks stopped working with the second-tier. Smaller and more dependent on interbank funds, the second-tier banks frantically bid up the cost of money that was available to them. 
 So what remains to be done in the banking sector? The &quot;almost&quot; crisis can be put down to excessive reliance on rumor and the obvious solution is for bankers to find ways of getting and utilizing sober economic analysis.
 A real crisis will occur for a related reason, namely excessive optimism in the face of real economic weaknesses. Strong growth, which must happen given the governments plans to double GDP, leads to weaknesses in any loan portfolio. These will materialize when there is an economic contraction. A banking crisis can be averted if the Central Bank continues to move firmly (as it has done with Sodbiznesbank) and Russian banks learn to think independently about their risks and asset quality.
 
 <i>Richard Hainsworth, banking analyst at Renaissance Capital and CEO of RusRating rating agency, contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
 </i>

TITLE: Anniversary Desecrated By Murder
TEXT: Russians this week observed the anniversary of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, a date still engraved on the national consciousness 63 years later.
 
The Nazi attack was unprecedented not only in its scale but for the racist ideology behind it.
 It is thus a bitter paradox, considering the sacrifice of millions of Soviet citizens in the hard-won victory over Hitler's forces, that Russia's new neo-Nazi threat is homegrown, and growing. 
 Last weekend, Nikolai Girenko, perhaps the leading expert on neo-Nazis and skinheads in Russia whose participation in trials involving extremism had helped lead to several convictions, was gunned down in his St. Petersburg apartment. 
 His colleagues and human rights activists have no doubt he was killed by nationalist extremists. Investigators acknowledge this is likely, though they also shamelessly suggest that the murder could have been hooliganism.
 The stabbing to death of a 9-year-old Tajik girl in the city in February by a gang of teenagers was written off as hooliganism, as were numerous other killings of dark-skinned foreigners that appear to have clear racial overtones. 
 Twenty to 30 people have died annually in extremist attacks in Russia in recent years, and the numbers are going up 30 percent a year, according to a study by human rights groups. The same study estimates the number of skinheads in Russia at 50,000 and on the rise.
 By dismissing racially motivated attacks as hooliganism, the police are burying their heads in the sand. Reluctant even to acknowledge the dangers of the growing neo-Nazism, they can do little to combat it. As evidence of what little importance is attached to the problem, the Prosecutor General's Office, usually so quick to take over the investigation of a high-profile crime, has so far ignored an appeal from human rights activists to lead the search for Girenko's killers. 
 President Vladimir Putin has occasionally paid lip service to the fight against the evils of racial hatred, but it has remained just that.
 At Putin's urging, a law on extremism was passed two years ago, but human rights groups say it has proved toothless. 
 And while decrying extremism, Putin has overseen a rise in the nationalism that it feeds it. Politicians supported by his administration, most notably the leaders of Rodina, openly played the nationalist card in December's parliamentary elections, tapping into a deep vein of ethnic resentment to bolster the Kremlin's victory.
 Racism is not peculiar to Russia, but Russia more than most should recognize the evil of those who see Hitler as their hero and stop their advance.

TITLE: Ryzhkov as Yet Untainted By 'Democrats'
AUTHOR: By Alexei Pankin
TEXT: According to the results of an opinion poll released last week, Unified Energy Systems CEO Anatoly Chubais is no longer the most hated man in Russia. That honor has now gone to exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The analysts attribute this change to Chubais' lower profile following the defeat of his party, the Union of Right Forces, or SPS, in the parliamentary elections last December.
 
SPS spent nearly 220 million rubles on the State Duma campaign, according to official figures released by the Central Elections Commission. Only United Russia spent more - over 250 million rubles. In other words, SPS sank $7.6 million into a campaign that left them with no chance of success at the polls. It seems to me that if Chubais and the other SPS leaders, Boris Nemtsov and Irina Khakamada, had just stayed home rather than campaign, they would have fared much better on election day.
 This conclusion provides serious food for thought concerning another high-profile liberal, Vladimir Ryzhkov, a Duma deputy from the Altai territory.
 A few months ago, Ryzhkov debated against Lyudmila Narusova, widow of Anatoly Sobchak and a member of the Federation Council, on NTV's political talk show &quot;K Baryeru!&quot; I don't remember what the topic was exactly, just that Narusova defended President Vladimir Putin and that Ryzhkov was critical of him. Viewers of the show are invited to call in and vote for one of the two contestants. On this occasion, Ryzhkov won by a mile.
 &quot;You're not going to believe this,&quot; a journalist friend told me the next day. &quot;I called in and voted for the first time. I just loved the way that Ryzhkov was going after Putin.&quot;
 &quot;You're going to laugh,&quot; I replied, &quot;but I also voted for the first time. I just loved the way Ryzhkov was laying into Narusova and, through her, into the whole democratic set.&quot;
 Having exchanged views of the show, we drank a toast to the political future of Ryzhkov, a man who arouses such varied expectations.
 But why is a politician with such splendid potential constantly drawn into the company of the democratic ne'er-do-wells? Lately he has joined the Committee of 2008 and co-founded Democratic Alternative, a club that threatens to grow into a political party by 2007.
 A &quot;democrat&quot; is someone who views Russia in much the same way that foreigners do. But while Russians respect foreigners, they have little sympathy for homegrown knockoffs. Muscovites are just as unpopular on the whole. And the worst sort of Muscovite is the one who moves here from the provinces. He quickly takes on the city dweller's traditional arrogance and snobbery, but his inordinate pride at having made it in Moscow makes these traits all the harder to bear.
 Ryzhkov is pure SPS in his political views. And he has worked in Moscow since 1993. But until recently Ryzhkov was not perceived as a &quot;democrat&quot; or a Muscovite. Statements that came across as cynical or merely shallow from the lips of Khakamada or Nemtsov did not arouse such disgust when they were voiced by Ryzhkov.
 If Ryzhkov cannot curb his evident desire to become a Muscovite, the &quot;democrats&quot; will undoubtedly be all too happy to step in and bankroll him. But this would spell the end of a promising political career. Foreigners will declare him the next last hope for Russian democracy, and ordinary Russians will write him off.
 There is a way out of this dead end, at least in theory: The democrats could bankroll Ryzhkov and then quietly retire into &quot;monastic seclusion,&quot; as the prolific progressive journalist Yevgenia Albats put it in her farewell article a few years ago. But this is just a theory. Expecting our &quot;democrats&quot; to sacrifice their own egos in the name of democracy is completely unrealistic.
 
 <i>Alexei Pankin is the editor of Sreda, a magazine for media professionals. </i>

TITLE: neoangin: man of many talents
AUTHOR: By Sergey Chernov

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Neoangin, a Berlin-based one-man band, is actually Jim Avignon, a singer, keyboard player and pop artist, who sometimes uses music in his art projects, just as he adds his art to his lo-tech musical performances. 
 
A frequent visitor to Moscow, he will make his first trip to St. Petersburg to spend a few days in a studio with the local ska band Dva Samaliota and perform at the band's bunker club Griboyedov.
 In a recent exchange of emails, he described his music as &quot;basically classical songwriting with some neoexistentialistic texts.&quot; 
 &quot;But as I spent more than 10 years in all kinds of electronic music clubs that left its trace in my sound,&quot; he added.
 &quot;I would say it's a wild style mixture of song music with all kinds of weird electronic sounds and beats.&quot;
 Avignon's quirky concerts frequently see him wearing colorful masks and decorating the back of the stage with paintings that he changes in the course of the show. &quot;My shows are always very different from each other, so you never can predict how they end up,&quot; he wrote.
 A prolific artist, he uses money that he gets from commercial jobs, such as designing cars (the new Rover) or a watch (Swatch), for radical exhibition projects, for instance, building a giant brain in a greenhouse, according to his official biography.
 &quot;Some of my ideas go straight into art and some into music and some into both,&quot; he wrote. 
 &quot;Simply speaking, I do art more with the brain and music more with the heart.&quot;
 Speaking about his musical influences, Avignon admitted that he is mainly interested in less popular names.
 &quot;Music has always been more influential to me than art,&quot; he wrote. 
 &quot;I was more into new wave than punk in those days and more early hip-hop than Kraftwerk. I've never been looking for the big names. I'm always more into the small bands and half forgotten names. There are so many exciting things to discover.&quot;
 Avignon borrowed his band's name from a medical preparation. 
 &quot;It's a medicine,&quot; he wrote.
 &quot;Big red pills that you take when your voice is disappearing. Very sweet. There were times when I was addicted to them.&quot;
 Avignon released a CD collaboration called &quot;Gonki&quot; with Moscow-based cult singer/songwriter Psoi Korolenko, which was launched at a concert in Moscow in April.
 According to Avignon, he had listened to Korolenko's two CDs, but experienced difficulty finding out what his typically obscene lyrics were about. The collaborative work was done by correspondence.
 &quot;I got MP3s with only his voice and sometimes a little drum track on it,&quot; he wrote.
 &quot;It was a really difficult thing to find the right rhythms that fit his voice and I spent hours and hours cutting the voice and the rhythm track.
 &quot;I liked his voice a lot when I started doing it, and of course the idea of collaborating with someone you never met, and then it's the idea of two completely different maniacs doing a show together. I just was tempted a lot to do it.&quot;
 According to Avignon, the record received some radioplay in Germany, but there are doubts if the performance will be repeated frequently.
 &quot;After the show we did together I wasn't too sure if we will repeat that too often because it came out that we are very difficult kinds of people,&quot; he wrote.
 Avignon's other recent exploits include a book, which he describes as a &quot;fake science handbook with pictures explaining the world from all aspects from religion to chemistry to philosophy,&quot; and a new issue of his magazine &quot;Attack/Delay&quot; with &quot;more graphic stuff and photos and obscure ideas.&quot;
 He is getting ready for some big exhibitions in Germany in the fall and a big festival in Singapore with 10 artists from Berlin which will also feature bands such as Stereo Total.
 &quot;[There is] no new album out yet but there will be one in August or September, so I arrive with many new songs when I come to St. Petersburg,&quot; he added.
 
 <i>
Neoangin performs at Griboyedov at 10 p.m. on Sunday. 
 Links: www.jimavignon.com </i>

TITLE: film festival opens with 'bad' movie
AUTHOR: By Galina Stolyarova

PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Pedro Almodovar's award-winning &quot;Bad Education&quot; opened the 12th International &quot;Festival of Festivals&quot; on Wednesday, heralding the start of a week-long movie fiesta. The annual event assembles highly acclaimed films represented in major international film festivals across the globe during the previous year. 
 The organizers are choosy: the films on the menu come from the festivals in Venice, Berlin, Montreal, Locarno or Cannes, where &quot;Bad Education&quot; was awarded the Palme d'Or this year. Over its history, the event has featured screenings by the cream of the world film industry showing films by, among others, Roman Polanski, Lars Von Trier, Oliver Stone and Pedro Almodovar. Retrospectives have showcased works by Ingmar Bergman, Wim Wenders and Francois Ozon.
 
Running concurrently at three venues - Dom Kino, Rodina Cinema and the Molodyozhny Cinema - the &quot;Festival of Festivals&quot; features Gulshad Omarova's &quot;Shiza,&quot; Kim Ki-Duk's &quot;Samaria,&quot; Gus Van Sant's &quot;Elephant&quot; (see review on page x), Ferzan Ozpetek &quot;Finestra di Fronte&quot; and Pavel Chukhrai's &quot;A Driver For Vera&quot; among the highlights.
 Most of the movies will have their Russian premieres at the festival, although some of them have already been shown locally, as is the case with Emily Young's &quot;Kiss of Life&quot; starring Ingeborga Dapkunaite.
 According to the festival's director Alexander Mamontov, the annual event typically screens more than 100 films from all over the world, and is attended by more than 80,000 people.
 Launched in 1993, the &quot;Festival of Festivals&quot; was inspired and influenced by the Rotterdam and Toronto film festivals that focus on the best contemporary European and American cinema.
 &quot;Our festival has grown from the festival-of-festivals principle - screening the best films from the past several years,&quot; Mamontov said.
 For the past four years, the &quot;Festival of Festivals&quot; has coincided with Moscow's International Film Festival, and thankfully, this brings benefits, rather than another reason for inter-city rivalry. Some of the celebrated guests attending the Moscow events consider a trip north to St. Petersburg while they are here. This year, the city welcomes Oscar-winning U.S. actress Meryl Streep as a special guest. Streep arrived from Moscow on Tuesday - incidentally her 55th birthday - later delivering a small speech to open the festival. 
 &quot;The New Russian Cinema section will show new works by Russian filmmakers, while the retrospective of films by Robert Lepage will offer the opportunity to see the best of Canadian cinema,&quot; Mamontov said. 
 The Robert Lepage retrospective showcases &quot;Polygraph,&quot; &quot;Far Side of the Moon,&quot; &quot;No,&quot; and &quot;Possible Worlds.&quot;
 &quot;Traditionally, we continue screening films made at the Lenfilm Feature Film Studios [in St. Petersburg],&quot; Mamontov said. &quot;This year the section includes films plunging the audience into the atmosphere of the creative work of the film directors Ilya Averbakh and Vitaly Melnikov. A special screening to honor the centennial of the film director Valery Solovtsov will feature his films, as well as pictures made by his daughter Maria Solovtsova.&quot; 
 Vladimir Mashkov's new film &quot;Papa,&quot; a screen version of Alexander Galich's play &quot;Matrosskaya Tishina,&quot; will also be part of the &quot;New Russian Cinema&quot; section. Mashkov, who is also an actor, played the main character, Abraham Schwarts, in Oleg Tabakov's theatrical staging of the play in the '90s.
 &quot;It is about a father who loves his son very much and wants him to become a great violinist,&quot; Mashkov told The Moscow Times. 
 &quot;It is also a play about the fate of Soviet citizens between 1929 and 1944. It is a story of love, betrayal and farewells, and a life that is sacrificed,&quot; he added.
 A grand prize, the Golden Gryphon, is awarded every year to the film which received the highest praise from both guests and participants of the events.
 There are several additional awards: the Silver Gryphon is the audience prize, while the Bronze Gryphon goes to the best experimental film.
 The Prize of Art Support named after Nikolay Ovsyannikov is granted for the best debut, and the St. Petersburg City Prize is awarded for a filmmakers's contribution to world cinema. 
 
 <i>
Links: http://www.filmfest.ru </i>

TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: Berlin-based pop artist and musician who calls his one-man band <strong>Neoangin,</strong> after a throat medicine, will spend four days in the city to play a concert and record a CD with local ska band Dva Samaliota (see article, this page), but this week will also see another pair of foreign acts performing as well as a pair of music festivals, plus the first ever local <strong>Kiker Tournament.</strong>
 
Kiker, or table-football, provided by such underground venues as Fish Fabrique, Cynic and Datscha is a favorite treat for certain clubgoers - including local bands such as Spitfire, Markscheider Kunst, and Tequilajazzz. 
 Members of those bands will take part in a competition, as well as teams made up of underground club staff and members of the public. Promoters also promise a concert, but have not yet decided which band will play. The event will take place at Fish Fabrique at 7 p.m. on Friday. See www.kiker.ru for more information.
 <strong>MU330,</strong> a U.S. quintet which describes its style as &quot;psycho-ska,&quot; will perform at Red Club on Saturday. Its story began in St. Louis, Missouri in 1988, and it owes its name to the section number of the high school jazz class where many of the group's members first met, according to Allmusicguide.com.
 Saturday will also see <strong>Natacha Atlas,</strong> a prize-winning world music singer and belly dancer, who divides her time between Belgium and the U.K. The event is the next in the series that the upscale brewpub Tinkoff, which is not famous for its great acoustics, organizes from time to time in order to please its clientele.
 The local band <strong>Kolibri</strong> will reunite with its founder, Natasha Pivovarova, at PORT on Thursday for a show which will feature the current Kolibri line-up, Pivovarova's grunge-pop band S.O.U.S., and a reunion. DJ Re-disco will add beats to the set.
 The <strong>NuJazz Festival,</strong> promoted by the house club Par.spb, will feature acts which combine electronics, Latin and improvization, on Friday and Saturday, featuring both local acts (even if they are so far from the genre as the Afro-rock band <strong>Markscheider Kunst </strong>is) and some foreign visitors, such as U.K. band <strong>Da Lata.
 </strong>The <strong>Okna Otkroi,</strong> or Open Your Windows Rock Festival on Saturday is a weird annual affair supposed to showcase local rock talent. Starting at 10 a.m. (sic), the open-air stadium marathon, which features everything from pop singer Pavel Kashin to Russian-style punk band Korol I Shut, is mostly boring because there are simply not that many interesting acts in the city to sustain the public's interest for the 11 or 12 hours of the festival. However, judging from reviews, many go there just to drink beer and relax with friends, so the event's success depends on the weather on that particular day.
 Following last week's Peter and Paul Jazz Festival comes the older if smaller <strong>White Nights Swing Festival,</strong> promoted by David Goloshchokin's Jazz Philharmonic Hall and this year centered around the figure of the local jazz patriarch.
 Starting on Thursday, it will run for four days traditionally ending in an open-air gala on Ploshchad Iskusstv, near the Russian Museum, on July 4.
 
 <i>
- By Sergey Chernov
 </i>



TITLE: <b>in need of a little french dressing </b>
AUTHOR: By Katya Golubeva

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: As June days pass, feelings once frozen during the eternal winter and St. Petersburg's somber spring become fully revitalized and the desire for a delicate and enchanting locale in which to indulge newly-aroused romantic spirits takes hold. A French restaurant is the answer.
 
Soon after my boyfriend and I, smartly dressed and trendily perfumed, passed through the glass doors of Bistrot Garcon on Nevsky Prospekt we noticed that the spirit of 1940s France is thoroughly preserved in this <i>petit coin.</i> The waiter, perhaps the <i>garcon</i> of the restaurant's name, is dressed in the traditional waistcoat and long, ankle length apron and he greeted us with a friendly smile, settling us in a tiny hidden corner, table for two. 
 The twinkling of a candle's flame and the touching <i>chanson</i> strains of familiar French singers from the 1950s and 1960s create the most appropriate atmosphere for a romantic dinner. 
 <i>Le chef</i> of the restaurant is, naturally, a Frenchman and he personally rings a bell when the dish is ready to be served. 
 So that I wouldn't be disappointed in my choice of example of authentic French cuisine, I started with the favorite dish of the bellringing chef.
 Unimaginatively called <i>Salade du chef,</i> it is made of little cubes of ham, minced potatoes, peas, tomatoes, eggs served with a homemade sauce (232 rubles, $8). The ingredients - save the tomato - suggest the classic &quot;Russian&quot; salad, Olivier, which was itself invented by French chef Monsieur Olivier in Moscow around 1860, and left me wondering how French this selection really is. And my boyfriend's starter looked and tasted much more amazing. 
 The <i>Salade Mercedes' </i>constituents were quite plain, but their combination gave it a really unpredictable taste. Beet, celery, tomato slices, green peas, chicory, onion, boiled yolks, is served with nut oil, vinegar and fennel (203 rubles, $7).
 The restaurant's interior is reminiscent of an antiques shop. There is an old cupboard full of expensive champagnes and wines, china plates on massive kitchen shelves, and copies of impressionist pictures on the walls. 
 The bell rang and the main courses arrived. Trying to avoid the stereotype of frog's legs and snails I chose something more fishy. 
 <i>Coquille Saint Jacques Bombay</i> turned out to be sauted sea scallops, stewed tomatoes, cream, onion in a curry sauce (580 rubles, $20). The scallops were served in their shells and baked in the stove <i>au gratin</i> - with melted cheese. 
 My companion ordered <i>Escalope au gratin de fromage, </i>a dish of cutlets fried in oil and stuffed with ham au gratin (406 rubles, $14).
 To accompany our exquisite meal we selected <i>Muscadet Sevre De Maine sur lie Chateau de l'Hyverniene 2002</i> at 928 rubles ($32) a bottle from the extensive wine menu.
 Once, a Parisian friend had invited me to try an authentic French dessert that he cooked himself. Enchanted by the magical name of the dish I anticipated something outstandingly French. But the tricky dish turned out to be a mere mixture of egg yolk and sugar. Ever since that time I don't trust &quot;delicate&quot; French sweets.
 Garcon's dessert selection did not change my view.
 Its caramel cream with honey (87 rubles, $3) was exactly as I had tasted it before, and not to my taste. My boyfriend's choice of <i>crepe suzette</i> (174 rubles, $6), two pancakes with orange jam, didn't impress him much.
 We could not leave the bistro without drinking <i>cafe au lait</i> (116 rubles, $4). This machine-made coffee was a nice addition to our French romantic dinner for two, which had done much for the midsummer's spirits although the food was not quite a midsummmer night's dream.
 
 
<i>Bistrot Garcon. 95, Nevsky Prospekt. Tel: 277 24 67. Open daily from 9.00 a.m.-1.00 a.m. Menu in Russian and English, priced in conventional units (y.e.). 
 Dinner for two, with two coffee and wine: 2,842 rubles ($98). Links: www.garcon.ru </i>

TITLE: vorobei's route
AUTHOR: By Andrei Vorobei

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A happy coincidence has given birth to the following suggestion for an exciting walking route. On nearly the same day exhibitions of work by the artists Ilya Kabakov, Viktor Pivovarov and, last week, Eduard Gorokhovsky opened in St. Petersburg.
 
In the 1970s and '80s, these artists had similar social and artistic trajectories - they had the same official occupation of children book's illustrator that they each combined with an unofficial, artistic conceptualization of everyday Soviet life. This underground art movement (which included many other Moscow artists) was known as Moscow Conceptualism, part of the international Conceptualism movement. In the West it appeared in the 1960s as a response to the domination of Pop-Art and in Russia, namely, in Moscow as a response to Socialist Realism. During perestroika all three artists at different times emigrated to the West. And now all three are back in Russia. 
 It is best to start the walking route at the Mikhailovsky (Engineers') Castle (<i>see map, center pages, museum reference 10</i>) which is displaying the &quot;Steps of Mechanic&quot; project by one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism, Viktor Pivovarov. His early dreamlike, lyric, and literary-charged works of the '70s, and especially the '90s, perhaps demonstrate why the movement is sometimes called Moscow 'romantic' conceptualism. 
 Leaving the Castle you should go towards Marsovo Pole (Mars Field) and cross it on the diagonal in the direction of the Marble Palace (<i>reference 16</i>).
 At the Marble Palace, in the exhibition &quot;The Limits of the Rectangle - My Unlimited Space&quot; by Eduard Gorokhovsky, you will find another conceptual approach, but to Soviet photography.
 After leaving the palace you should go just straight along Millinonaya Ulitsa to its end on Palace Square. Then turn left (away from the baroque building of State Hermitage on the right, <i>reference 29</i>) and towards Empire-style General Staff Building - the final, main, destination of the route (<i>reference 6</i>), and a building used by the Hermitage. Ilya Kabakov, who is considered to be the &quot;father of Moscow Conceptualism,&quot; has been at the center of international acknowledgement and is now the best-known living Russian artist in the West. His famous albums and large installations are strongly charged with the essence of the human environment in the Soviet Union. Kabakov's installations and models form the content of the Hermitage exposition &quot;The Incident in the Museum and Other Installations&quot; made by Kabakov in cooperation with his wife Emilia Kabakov. 
 
 <i>
Links: www.rusmuseum.ru; www.hermitage.ru </i>

TITLE: komi: the undiscovered russia
AUTHOR: By Joseph James Crescente III

PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: The fate of a foreigner living in Russia is frequently attached to one of the two big cities: Moscow or St. Petersburg. But secretly everyone seems to be looking for an escape, a place untouched, free of foreigners and the hustle of the big cities. Someplace markedly less cosmopolitan and more Russian. We came to Russia, after all, to experience &quot;Russia,&quot; and life in the twin capitals these days looks less and less different from home. 
 
Recently, I visited with a friend the city of Syktyvkar, the capital of the Republic of Komi. Most foreigners have never heard of it. Most Russians have never heard of it and when they have, they know very little about it, except for the fact that they have no desire to go there. Many will gasp. Some will question their friendship with you. These and other reasons make Syktyvkar an attractive place to visit.
 Syktyvkar was formerly known as Ust Sisolska, which translates roughly to the &quot;Mouth of Exile.&quot; Founded in the 16th century, it was the largest village in the region in the late 1920s when the Soviets began building a gulag system known as Ukhtpechlag, which ran from Kotlas in the southwest to Vorkuta in the northeast at the top of the Ural mountains. The city gained its current name in 1930, around the time that prisoners were designing and constructing this new city.
 The gulag no longer exists and nobody's forcing you to visit this pleasant provincial city of around 225,000 people. It is accessible by Aeroflot from Moscow three times daily, and St. Petersburg once a day. One way fares from both cities hover around $100-$120. However, the budget and adventure traveler will spring for the super <i>platskart</i> open sleeping car train deal. Leaving from St. Petersburg three times a week, a one way ticket to Syktyvkar knocked us back only 460 rubles ($16) for the 38 hour journey through the taiga. We traveled alongside young army guys fresh on leave and pensioners.
 There are few cities along the way from St. Petersburg. However, there is a three-hour stop in Kotlas, a sleepy town west of Syktyvkar. Walking through Kotlas is taking a walk through time, when the place to go was the House of Culture, and to get milk you had to line up early in the morning and wait for the trucks to arrive. There is one hotel, with a cafe opposite the train station. To set the record straight, the army guys seemed to have great luck with the local ladies.
 You arrive in Syktyvkar at night if you have taken the train from St. Petersburg. The station lies at the western - that is the &quot;Western&quot; - end of town. Hail a taxi to a hotel. Fifty rubles should get you anywhere. One option is the Hotel Yugor at 2, Ulitsa Gorkogo. It's on the corner of Ulitsa Kirova. A double room with two beds and a balcony overlooking a park costs 760 rubles ($26) a night. It has a bar, restaurant and sauna. Other options include the Hotel Syktyvkar, near the train station on the city's largest street, Kommunisticheskaya, at number 67, or the Hotel Tsentralnaya at 83, Ulitsa Pervomaiskaya. A modern 24-hour supermarket can be found directly next to the latter hotel.
 The first thing a visitor will notice is that all signs in the city are written in two different languages, Russian and Komi. They look nearly identical and Komi also uses Cyrillic, with a few extra characters. One of the pleasures of being in Syktyvkar is that it is a compact city. It is difficult to think of another place in the world where the airport is a 10-minute <i>walk</i> from downtown.
 The first place to visit is &quot;the square.&quot; Sure, there are several squares in the city, but everyone refers to Ploshchad Lenina as &quot;the square.&quot; On the square is a large statue of Lenin, a few ATMs, at least two internet halls, the main post office, and the philharmonic theater. The philharmonic seemed to be keeping a full schedule, featuring everything from chamber music and acrobatics, to orchestras composed of Russian national instruments, a beauty contest and the touring Fabrika Zvyozd (&quot;Star Factory&quot;) talent competition. The square has a small monument recognizing Komi's autonomy since 1921. Those people we spoke to didn't seem too worried about the proposed upcoming administrative merger with the Perm region. They seemed to believe it would be beneficial. The merger plan was passed by referendum last year and takes effect at the end of 2005.
 Moving west from the square on Ulitsa Kommunisticheskaya you will hit Dom Byta, a Russian shopping mall with everything from electronics and CDs to beauty products and clothes. A note to fans of piracy: don't come to Syktyvkar in the hope of buying cheap counterfeit music. The city seems to be at the forefront of the anti-piracy movement in Russia. There were several propagandistic billboards displayed around the city denouncing piracy, and cassettes and CDs were noticeably more expensive and legitimate than elsewhere in Russia.
 If you see a place to eat, well, you should probably eat there. Syktyvkar is for Russians, not tourists, and Russians tend not to eat out so much. However, just outside Dom Byta is an excellent pizza tent, serving pizzas and beer. Also located on the pavilion outside is a shaverma (kebab) stand, serving the world's first &quot;mini-shaverma.&quot; For those wishing to sample traditional Komi dishes, which are mostly fish based, check out the Spasky Restaurant at 24 Sovietskaya Ulita. Apart from these, there are the hotel restaurants, a few <i>stolovayas</i> (cafeterias), and the occasional bistro.
 Across from Dom Byta, you will find the stadium, which features a sports bar and fitness club. Walking up the hill, you will come across the World War II memorial, featuring massive &quot;Motherland&quot; statues, an eternal flame, engravings of officers enlisted from the area and the lists of the dead. The memorial is located on what once was the war commissars building where soldiers left for the front. Continuing up Kommunisticheskaya, a Dom Knigi, the bookstore so named in every Russian city, can be found. This one is worth a visit for two reasons. The first is that it features a pet shop and there are birds flying throughout the store. Second, this house of books features the largest selection of Russian pop star calendars and posters that has ever been spotted. Further up is the state theater of opera and ballet. 
 Being the capital of an ethnic republic, Syktyvkar hosts a number of museums. The most interesting is the National Gallery at 44 Ulitsa Kirova, featuring a sculpture park in the surrounding gardens. Other options include the Komi National History Museum at 28 Lenina Ulitsa, and the museum of Komi writer Kiratov at 10 Ordzhonikidze Ulitsa. No dual pricing system for foreigners exists here. 
 Nightlife abounds in Syktyvkar. The recommended choices include Relax inside the Hotel Syktyvkar, which features dancing, bowling, billiards and occasional concerts by groups such as Ruki Vverkh, a video cafe and dance club at 14/1 Ulitsa Dimitrova, and the local youth hotspot, Gorod, at 214 Tentyukovskaya Ulitsa.
 Drinking alcohol on the street is forbidden and punishable by a 300 ruble ($10) fine. But of course, like most Russian cities, open containers are a common site. However, this law intimidates people from drinking too much on the street and public drunkenness is rare. 
 We weren't the only tourists in town on our recent visit. There was a group of Italian tourists staying in our hotel. Things are looking brighter for this isolated hamlet since Komi leader Vladimir Torlopov was elected three years ago. Industry is booming, a rail link to Arkangelsk is planned, and a 5-star hotel is being constructed in the center. Things are changing daily. Now is the time to visit. 
 Syktyvkar is an ideal stop for those continuing on to the gulag sites farther north, or those wishing to continue into Siberia. To link up with the Trans-Siberian railroad, catch a bus south to Kirov. There are three buses a day leaving from the bus station which is adjacent to the airport. It is about an 8 hour ride through a very undeveloped and rustic stretch of Russia. The train station in Kirov is about a five minute walk from the bus station, and from there you can travel as far as Vladivostok or Beijing. 

<strong>Population:
 </strong>Approximately 1.25 million people live in the Republic of Komi, representing more than 70 different ethnic groups. Russians comprise the largest population group at 58 percent, followed by the indigenous Komi people (23 percent). Other groups include Ukrainians (8 percent), Belarussians (2 percent) and Tatars (2 percent).
 
 <strong>Languages:
 </strong>There are two official languages in the Republic: Komi, which belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages, and Russian. Nearly 75 percent of Komi people speak Komi.
 
 <i>source: unpo </i>

TITLE: the word's worth
TEXT: Koshatnik/Koshatnitsa: cat lover, cat fancier.

For Russians, human beings are divided into two categories: sobachniki i koshatniki (dog lovers and cat lovers). They allow for the odd fellow with a passion for guppies or parakeets (or who indulge in the fad for exotic pets, like pythons or marmosets), but basically they believe that you are destined to love a beast that thumps its tail or a beast that purrs — it’s one or the other.
It’s odd, however, that there is no simple Russian word for pets; they are called domashnie zhivotnye (literally “household animals”) or pitomtsy (literally, “foster child,” “charge”). But if you have ever watched a pensioner bring out a pot of lovingly prepared fish soup for the dining pleasure of the courtyard cats, or listened to a big burly guy coo to his German shepherd, you’ll know that some Russians are head over heels about their pets.
If you are a cat lover, you either have a pedigreed cat (porodistaya) or a mixed-breed (metis). Although you can now find virtually every breed in Russia, from Siamese (siamskaya) to an Egyptian Mau (egipetskaya mau), domestic breeds include sibirskaya (Siberian, with a thick coat and fur between the pads of its paws to keep it from slipping on ice and snow) and russkaya golubaya (Russian Blue, a silvery gray color). To find out a cat’s breed, you can ask: Kakoi porody vasha koshka (What breed is your cat?) Cats can be longhaired (dlinnoshyorstnaya) 
or shorthaired (korotkoshyorstnaya, gladkoshyorstnaya), tabby (polosataya) or spotted (pyatnistaya). 
Coloring is okras. Russian cat fanciers describe their cats’ coloring in such loving detail, you may have trouble keeping up with them. Ona cherepakhovaya s belymi nosochkami (she’s a brindle cat with white socks); ona lilovaya s chyornoi maskoi (she’s silvery gray with a black face); u neyo seryi podshyorstok i chyornye poloski (she has a gray undercoat and black stripes). Three-color cats (tryokhtsvetnye) are considered to be lucky — black cats are not. 
Keep in mind that when describing your cat (or any animal), its face is morda. You can also use this word to describe a person’s face in unflattering terms: U nego morda kak kirpich (he has a mug like a brick). 
Given the cost of a pedigreed cat in Russia, most people have mixed-breeds, often rescued strays: ulichnaya (a street cat), pomoeshnaya (literally, “a cat from the local dump”), broshenka (an abandoned cat, from the word brosat`, “to throw away”) or podkidysh (a “foundling,” from the word podkidyvat`, “to stealthily give someone something” — i.e., a cat in a basket on your doorstep). If you want to call over a street cat (or any cat), in Russian you say ks-ks-ks. 
Usually, Russian describes the gender of the cat with the words koshka (female cat) or kot (male cat, tomcat), but when you talk about breeding, you call them samka (queen) and samets (tom). A litter is pomyot: Skol`ko kotyat v pomyote (how many kittens are in the litter)? This shouldn’t be confused with a litter box, which Russians call lotok. You fill it with napolnitel` (cat litter, literally “filler”). 
Cats in Russia still fulfill an important task: catching mice. U menya koshka khoroshii okhotnik — na dache ona lovit do semi myshei v den`! (My cat is a great mouser: At the dacha she catches up to seven mice a day). Mouse-catching can also be used figuratively in Russian. If you say of a person, on myshei ne lovit, you mean: He isn’t too swift, he’s slow on the uptake. 

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.

TITLE: U.S. Revises Interrogation Rules
AUTHOR: By Curt Anderson 

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department is rewriting its legal advice on how far U.S. interrogators can go to pry information from detainees, working under much different circumstances from the writers of earlier memos that appeared to justify torture.
 
The first memos were written not long after the Sept. 11 attacks, while the new advice is being crafted against the backdrop of prisoner abuse in Iraq.
 Justice Department lawyers will spend several weeks reviewing and revising several key 2002 documents, especially a 50-page memo to the White House on Aug. 1, 2002, that critics have characterized as setting the legal tone for the mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
 &quot;The reason the original memo was so damaging was that it was consistent with a pattern of conduct from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay to Iraq,&quot; Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, said Wednesday.
 A day after releasing hundreds of pages of legal memos on the terror war, Bush administration officials reiterated that even though President George W. Bush signed a declaration in 2002 saying he had the authority to ignore international rules for the treatment of captives, no orders were given to torture or mistreat prisoners.
 The unusual decision to release the memos and disclose that some were being revised came amid intense political pressure from Democrats and other critics stemming from the Iraq and Afghan abuses. Yet no Bush administration officials flatly said the memos were wrong.
 One of the most controversial sections of a memo written by signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybethat appears targeted for change or removal is entitled &quot;The President's Commander-in-Chief Power.&quot; Over the next nine pages, Bybee lays out arguments that a key U.S. anti-torture law would be unconstitutional &quot;if it impermissibly encroached on the president's constitutional power to conduct a military campaign.&quot;
 &quot;One of the core functions of the commander in chief is that of capturing, detaining, and interrogating members of the enemy,&quot; the Bybee memo said.
 Critics say that reasoning goes too far. &quot;The administration has shown a stunning disregard for the law, resorting time and again to saying 'we are at war,'&quot; said Senator Edward Kennedy. &quot;We are not under martial law. ... The laws and the Constitution are not suspended because we are at war.&quot;
 Democrats on Capitol Hill are pushing to secure the release of more Bush administration documents, with some in the House calling for a special committee to investigate abuses at Abu Ghraib.
 The House Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to bar the Justice Department from issuing legal justifications for torture.
 The Senate, however, defeated 50-46 a measure that would have declared all U.S. officials bound by anti-torture laws and required Pentagon reports on interrogation techniques, the number of detainees denied POW status, Red Cross findings on U.S. military prisons and a schedule for trying terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.
 Although the administration released memos on interrogation techniques approved for military personnel, the advice given to the CIA and other intelligence agencies remains classified and will not be released, officials say.

TITLE: Terrorist Eyes Iraq's PM
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD, Iraq - The suspected mastermind of beheadings and bombings threatened to assassinate Iraq's prime minister a week before the new government takes power. 
 
Insurgents launched simultaneous attacks on police stations in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing seven people and wounding 13, officials said.
 The attacks on the police stations Thursday came a day after U.S. officials said that an airstrike killed 20 followers of the al-Qaida-linked militant, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 
 Militants focused their anger on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his government - the latest sign that the campaign of insurgent violence against the U.S. occupation is unlikely to end with the June 30 handover of power.
 Allawi brushed off the threats, saying al-Zarqawi was &quot;just a criminal who must be captured and tried.&quot;
 The threat against his life came in an audiotape purportedly made by al-Zarqawi, found Wednesday on an Islamic Web site. The message also denounced Allawi's government as a tool of the &quot;infidel foreigner.&quot;
 Al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg last month and Kim Sun-il, a South Korean whose decapitated body was found Tuesday.
 Hours after Kim's body was found, the U.S. military launched its second attack against al-Zarqawi in three days, with an airstrike on a suspected hideout in Fallujah late Tuesday.
 The al-Zarqawi recording warned Allawi that he had already survived &quot;traps that we made for you&quot; but vowed that the group would continue planning his assassination &quot;until we make you drink from the same glass as Izzadine Saleem,&quot; the Governing Council president killed by a car bomb last month.
 The voice sounded like al-Zarqawi, whose Tawhid and Jihad movement has been blamed for many of the bombings and assassinations that have killed hundreds of people, most of them Iraqis, in recent months.

TITLE: Gypsies to Sue IBM Over Holocaust
AUTHOR: By Jonathan Fowler 

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GENEVA - A Swiss court has cleared the way for gypsies to sue IBM over published allegations that the computer company's punch-card machines helped the Nazis commit mass murder more efficiently, the plaintiffs' lawyer said Tuesday.
 
The Geneva appeals court disagreed with a lower court that refused to hear the case last year on grounds it lacked jurisdiction, said the gypsies' lawyer, Henri-Philippe Sambuc.
 A gypsy group filed the lawsuit in Geneva because IBM's wartime European headquarters were in the city. They claim the office was IBM's hub for trade with the Nazis.
 &quot;IBM's complicity through material or intellectual assistance to the criminal acts of the Nazis during World War II via its Geneva office cannot be ruled out,&quot; said the appeals court ruling. It cited &quot;a significant body of evidence indicating that the Geneva office could have been aware that it was assisting these acts.&quot;
 In its June 2003 ruling, the lower court said IBM only had an &quot;antenna&quot; in the Swiss city. City archives, however, show that in 1936 IBM opened an office under the name &quot;International Business Machines Corporation New York, European Headquarters.&quot;
 No immediate reaction to the ruling was available from IBM's Geneva lawyers, who have previously referred requests for comment to the company's headquarters in Armonk, N.Y. Company officials there did not immediately return calls.
 IBM has consistently denied it was in any way responsible for the way its machines were used in the Holocaust.
 The company has said its German subsidiary, Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen GmbH - or Dehomag - was taken over by the Nazis before World War II, and it had no control over operations there or how Nazis used IBM machines.
 Sambuc maintains that the company's Geneva office continued to coordinate Europe-wide trade with the Nazis, acting on clear instructions from world headquarters in New York.
 The group represented by Sambuc - Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action - sued IBM for &quot;moral reparation&quot; and $20,000 each in damages on behalf of four Gypsies from Germany and France and one Polish-born Swedish Gypsy. All five plaintiffs were orphaned in the Holocaust.
 In addition to 6 million Jews, the Nazis are believed to have killed around 600,000 gypsies, although gypsy groups say the number could have been as high as 1.5 million.
 The Geneva case is the first Holocaust-related action against IBM in Europe, Sambuc said. A city court will likely hear the lawsuit in the fall, unless IBM lodges an appeal at the Federal Tribunal, Switzerland's supreme court.

TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: <b>Iran Frees Britons
 </b>

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Eight British servicemen who were detained after their boats strayed into Iranian territorial waters have been turned over to British diplomats, officials said Thursday.
 Protesters angry about the occupation of Iraq tried to approach the six Royal Marines and two sailors as they arrived at Tehran's airport accompanied by British consular officers, but they were kept away by police.
 The eight were detained Monday after their boats apparently strayed into the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, or Arvand River, that runs along the Iran-Iraq border while delivering a patrol boat to Iraq's new river police.
 
 
<b>Arroyo Is the Winner
 </b>

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine Congress proclaimed incumbent Gloria Mapacagal Arroyo the winner of last month's presidential election early Thursday after an all-night session.
 The opposition repeated claims that massive vote fraud stole the May 10 election from action film star Fernando Poe Jr. and warned of a "people's power" revolt like the ones that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001.
 "To my detractors, I appeal for unity," Arroyo told reporters. "To my supporters, I appeal for an open mind. This is a time for forgiveness, of letting go of the past."
 
 
<b>Pyongyang to Disarm?
 </b>

BEIJING (AP) - North Korea is willing to give up efforts to develop nuclear weapons "in a transparent way" if the United States ends its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang, the North's envoy said as six-nation talks on his government's nuclear program began Wednesday.
 The comments appeared to be a reference to the North's demand for a guarantee that it won't be attacked by the United States if it agrees to abandon its nuclear weapons development.
 Pyongyang will submit a proposal to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for aid and Washington's withdrawal of its demand for a complete dismantling of the program, said Kim Gye Gwan, a North Korean vice foreign minister.
 
<b>Saudi Amnesty Offer
 </b>

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia offered an amnesty Wednesday to al-Qaida militants not directly involved in recent killings <br> and bombings, but said those with blood on their hands could expect no leniency.
 "Those who surrender voluntarily within no more than one month from the date of this speech ... will be treated according to God's law," de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah said in a speech on behalf of King Fahd carried on state television.
 Saudi officials have repeatedly said the Islamic sharia law that is applied in the oil kingdom allows leniency for those who turn themselves in.
 
 
<b>Nader Taps Camejo
 </b>

WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential candidate Ralph Nader on Monday tapped longtime Green Party activist Peter Camejo to be his running mate.
 An investment adviser from Folsom, California, Camejo had been one of two leading contenders for the Green Party's presidential nomination this year. 



TITLE: English Rest Hopes on Rooney
AUTHOR: By Krystyna Rudzki 

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LISBON - Better than Pele? The accolades don't come much higher for England's 18-year-old sensation Wayne Rooney. 
 
Rooney scored two goals and set up a third as England beat Croatia 4-2 on Monday to reach the quarterfinals of the European Championships. 
 It was his second double and his second man-of-the-match performance after a standout showing in England's 3-0 win over Switzerland last Thursday. 
 England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson said he didn't think any other young player had made such an international impact since Pele at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Aged 17, Pele scored twice in Brazil's 5-2 win over Sweden in the final. 
 &quot;There was Pele in 1958 in Sweden but I don't remember anybody at 18-years-old since then,&quot; Eriksson said. &quot;I doubt it very much. 
 &quot;But he is not a [potential] talent anymore, he is ready. 
 &quot;He drops into midfield and can take [the ball] and hold it. He can turn with it. When we have problems he drops into midfield. I don't need to tell him how to score goals. It is better I don't say anything, his vision is incredible, he's ready for anything.&quot; 
 Rooney is now the top scorer at Euro 2004 with four goals. He was substituted on 71 minutes to deafening chants of his name to make sure he was available for Thursday's quarterfinal against Portugal after picking up a yellow card against Switzerland. 
 &quot;When you see him perform, you know nothing fazes him,&quot; England captain David Beckham said. &quot;He deserves all the praise that he is going to get.&quot; 
 Rooney has garnered praise from defenders to rival strikers and coaches alike. 
 But Croatian coach Otto Baric wasn't overly impressed. 
 &quot;Rooney is a very good player,&quot; said 71-year-old Baric. &quot;A phenomenon? I wouldn't say that. I think in Europe there are at least 10 players who can stop him.&quot; 
 Baric didn't elaborate on who and Eriksson wasn't worried. 
 &quot;Rooney deserves all the front pages and back pages for what he's doing here,&quot; Eriksson said. &quot;I'm extremely happy with him. We'll see on Thursday if Portugal can stop him or not.&quot; 
 Off the pitch, Rooney has been protected from the media and speaks in short, unpolished sentences that reflect his youth and working class roots in Liverpool. 
 Never one to hog the limelight or set fashion trends like Beckham, Rooney's England teammates all comment on how unfazed the teenager is by the growing obsession with &quot;Roomania.&quot; 
 It was the same Monday, with Rooney instead defending the form of strike partner Michael Owen, who hasn't scored a goal in Portugal. Ironically, Owen made a similar impact at the same age in the 1998 World Cup in France. 
 &quot;The team's done very well today and luckily enough I got two goals,&quot; Rooney said. 
 &quot;It was just going out there and trying to do our job the best we could. I think we played well together. Obviously Michael hasn't scored tonight but he set a few goals up for me and I think the partnership's done well.&quot; 
 Rooney had the record of being the tournament's youngest ever goalscorer taken away from him Monday by Switzerland's Johann Vonlanthen, a few months younger than Rooney. But that hasn't stemmed the growing Roomania. 
 In February 2003, Rooney became England's youngest international in 124 years when he came on as a second-half substitute in a friendly against Australia in London. 
 Two months later, he made his first international start in a vital Euro 2004 qualifying 2-0 win over Turkey in Sunderland. 
 At 17 years and 317 days, Rooney became the youngest player to score a senior goal for his country when he struck the equalizer in the 2-1 away success in Macedonia. 
 The records go on and on for the stocky teenager who has a tendency to lose his temper on the field. He is also the youngest player to be sent off in a Premier League game. 
 Eriksson said Rooney's temperament wasn't a problem. 
 &quot;Every person has his own character and to try to get Wayne to change would be very dangerous,&quot; Eriksson said. &quot;He behaves very well and I'm not worried about it. He knew he was on one yellow card tonight and there was no chance of another.&quot;

TITLE: Paralympic Sled Hockey Lets Everyone Perform Their Best
AUTHOR: By John Wawrow

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: GRAND ISLAND, New York - Strapped into the sled with an American flag painted on its shell, Alexi Salamone feels fast and free when he pushes himself onto the ice. 
 
Here, while playing the paralympic sport of sled hockey, the past doesn't matter and the future is wide open. 
 &quot;All the paras and all the people that can't walk in the world, they all got second chances,&quot; Salamone said. &quot;And so did I.&quot;
 Salamone, who was born with deformed legs because of the Chernobyl disaster and later had them amputated just below the knee, was orphaned shortly after birth. He came to the United States in 1993, just a shy, awkward 6-year-old who always felt out of place. 
 Now 17, strong and confident with a perpetual smile on his face, Salamone is an emerging star in sled hockey who knows all about taking advantage of second chances in life. 
 &quot;When I'm lying in bed and I can't sleep, it's like, 'Ah, man, I've really got it good,'&quot; he said. 
 On his sled, Salamone uses his muscular arms to chop at the ice with the two picks in his hands, balancing himself on the narrow foot-long blade that runs across the bottom of his compact sled. 
 &quot;Before, I didn't think I could do anything,&quot; Salamone said. &quot;I was the stupidest, most geekiest, ugly looking kid ever.&quot; 
 When he was adopted by Sue and Joe Salamone, he had no friends, didn't know the language and hobbled around in a crude pair of Russian-made prosthetics that had straps wrapping around him like a straitjacket. 
 How things have changed. 
 Salamone was the youngest member of the U.S. national sled hockey team that finished second at the world championships in Sweden in April, and he could play at the 2006 Paralympic Games in Turin, Italy. 
 He scored an important goal that sparked a comeback win against Japan during an early round game at the world championships, helping to solidify his reputation as a rising star. 
 Having a future - period - is something few would have once imagined for Alexi. 
 &quot;They told me that if Al stayed in Russia, he'd be a gypsy,&quot; Sue Salamone said, recalling comments from Russian doctors. &quot;There would be nothing for him. He'd be stealing, selling, that kind of a thing.&quot; 
 In the early 1990s, the Salamones decided to adopt a child. A friend had returned from Russia and told Sue about a bright-eyed boy named Alexi. 
 Sue made the trip and immediately fell in love. The Salamones eventually adopted a second orphan, Tatiana. Tatiana was about a year older and had become good friends with Alexi at the orphanage. 
 In 1993, both arrived at their new home in Grand Island, just outside Buffalo. The memories are fuzzy, but Alexi remembers one thing clearly: &quot;I know that I was happy.&quot; 
 In Russia, gymnastics lessons helped Alexi adapt to his amputations - and he learned to walk upside down on his hands. 
 His upper body strength and agility would prove important when he was introduced to sled hockey at age 10. It was just an activity at first, something that gave Alexi a chance to get out of the house and make friends. 
 As his self-confidence grew, so did his skills and passion. 
 Sled - or sledge - hockey has many of the same rules as ice hockey. The only real differences are the sleds and that players carry a stick in each hand. 
 On one side of the stick is a spike, which players dig into the ice to propel themselves. On the other is a regular hockey blade. 
 Competing at the 2006 Games is a goal of Salamone's, but his dreams do not stop there. 
 &quot;I want to get a good job, get good pay, and with that pay, I can do anything I want, including helping those in need,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;And I can do that by helping a little kid in hockey or helping a guy in the street or just anything.&quot; 


TITLE: Czech Win Sends Germans out of Champs
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: LISBON, Portugal - Three-time champion Germany was eliminated from the European Championship, losing its final first-round game to the Czech Republic 2-1 Wednesday night as the Netherlands advanced by beating Latvia 3-0. 
 
Germany, which would have moved on to the quarterfinals with a victory, was eliminated in the first round for the second straight European Championship. The Czechs had already clinched a berth in the quarterfinals. 
 &quot;It's a huge disappointment,&quot; Germany coach Rudi Voeller said. &quot;Two years ago, we were so happy to be World Cup runner-ups. Now we are out, that's bitter.&quot;
 At Braga, Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored twice for the Netherlands, tying England's Wayne Rooney for the tournament lead with four goals. 
 &quot;We deserve this. We worked so hard for it,&quot; Van Nistelrooy said. &quot;Our supporters were fantastic. The stadiums have been filled with orange, which gives us power.&quot; 
 Van Nistelrooy said the most important moment of the match came when the Dutch learned the Czechs had gone ahead. 
 &quot;We had hope and that was the most important thing,&quot; he said. 
 &quot;It gave us an incredible shot of adrenaline,&quot; added Dutch captain Phillip Cocu. 
 The Czechs (3-0) won Group D with nine points, followed by the Netherlands (1-1-1) with four, Germany (0-1-2) with two and Latvia (0-2-1) with one. Four years ago, the Germans finished last in their group. 
 The Germans went ahead on Michael Ballack's goal in the 21st minute, but Marek Heinz tied the score nine minutes later with a bending, left-footed free kick that curled around a defensive wall and beat diving goalkeeper Oliver Kahn. 
 The Czechs went ahead in the 77th minute when Milan Baros scored off a rebound after Kahn saved his initial shot. 
 Bernd Schneider and Ballack missed good chances in the second half for Germany, and Tomas Hubschman headed away a shot by Germany's Lukas Podolski at the goal line. 
 &quot;Our greatest problem is that we don't score goals,&quot; Ballack said. &quot;We gave it our best. We had many chances but it just wasn't enough. We have now to work hard to create a good team for the 2006 World Cup.&quot;
 Already assured of winning the group, the Czechs rested stars Pavel Nedved, Tomas Rosicky and Jan Koller. 
 &quot;There is no 'B' team,&quot; Czech coach Karel Bruckner said. &quot;They're all members of the Czech national squad. They played for their prestige.&quot; 
 In the other game, Van Nistelrooy converted a penalty kick in the 27th minute after Vitalijs Astafjevs was called for a foul on Edgar Davids in the penalty area, then scored on a header eight minutes later. Roy Makaay added a goal in the 84th minute for the Netherlands, the 1988 champion. 
 In the quarterfinals, England (2-1) plays host Portugal (2-1) on Thursday, defending champion France (2-0-1) meets Greece (1-1-1) on Friday, Sweden (1-0-2) plays the Netherlands on Saturday and the Czech Republic faces 1992 champion Denmark (1-0-2) on Sunday.
 
 o
 Spain coach Inaki Saez has tendered his resignation a day after saying he would not quit over his team's first stage exit from Euro 2004, Spanish media reported on Thursday. 
 Saez caved in to intense pressure, several newspapers said, after the media attacked his announcement on Tuesday that he planned to lead Spain's qualifying campaign for the next World Cup. 
 &quot;Saez throws in the towel,&quot; was the headline in AS sports newspaper. 
 A spokesman for the Spanish soccer federation declined to comment on the reports. 
 A statement on their website said Saez had met the head of the federation, Angel Maria Villar, on Wednesday to &quot;analyze the situation caused by [Saez's] announcement ... that he would lead the national team into the final phase of the 2006 World Cup&quot;. 
 Saez faced calls for his resignation over team selection and over-cautious tactics after Spain scored two goals in three games in Group A to finish behind qualifiers Portugal and Greece. 
 Despite defending himself at a heated news conference in Madrid on Tuesday, Saez was hurt by the media onslaught and offered Villar his resignation at Wednesday's meeting, several newspapers reported.

TITLE: Fame Awaits Myskina at Wimbledon
AUTHOR: By Steven Wine

PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WIMBLEDON, England - Now that Anastasia Myskina is the French Open champion, she's a magazine cover girl and chummy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
But a celebrity at Wimbledon? Myskina says <i>nyet.
 </i>At least not yet. 
 &quot;I don't really feel a star,&quot; the Moscow native said. &quot;In London the taxi driver recognized me once, so that was really nice. Compared to Tim Henman, I'm nobody, for sure.&quot;
 While Henman hopes to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, Myskina hopes to quietly work her way through the women's draw the way she did in Paris. 
 There was no work done Wednesday by Myskina or any other player. All 74 scheduled matches were postponed because of rain, the first Wimbledon washout in five years. Of 160 scheduled first- and second-round matches in the first three days, the tournament completed just 83, the fewest since 1991. 
 &quot;I expect this when I come here,&quot; said 2001 champion Goran Ivanisevic, one of 148 players who waited in vain to take the court. &quot;Wimbledon without rain is not Wimbledon.&quot;
 Organizers announced the postponement of play shortly before 7 p.m., ending a day-long wait that left the crowded players' lounge looking like an airport terminal during a blizzard. 
 &quot;[I'm] just really bored right now,&quot; Myskina said. 
 There's a suspicion that the 22-year-old might be another Iva Majoli, who won the French Open in 1997 and never reached another Grand Slam semifinal. 
 Myskina reinforces such a notion by acknowledging that the Williams sisters battled rust at Roland Garros following injury layoffs. &quot;Maybe I was a little bit lucky,&quot; she said.