SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #993 (61), Tuesday, August 10, 2004
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TITLE: Property Developer Polonsky Reaches for the Sky
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - If there's a more uniquely grandiose way to convert fortune into fame than flying to outer space, St. Petersburg real estate developer Sergei Polonsky can't think of one.
"It's not hard to have a lot of money," he mused. "It's hard to know how to spend it with style."
Polonsky, the young and wealthy president of city construction firm Stroimontazh, is negotiating with the Federal Space Agency to buy the right to fly to the international space station Oct. 9.
Space officials were left scrambling to fill the third seat on the shuttle after U.S. businessman Gregory Olsen, who was originally slated to fly, dropped out of training for medical reasons in late July.
Polonsky, 32, is in the final running with cosmonaut Yury Shargin. Pending a decision, Shargin and Polonsky traveled to Houston in late July for NASA training.
Polonsky said he is "90 percent sure" he will get to go. Of the many would-be space tourists, he is the only one who has completed all the necessary training. And, unlike Shargin, he would be a paying passenger.
The only two space tourists so far - Dennis Tito, an American, and Mark Shuttleworth, a South African - each reportedly paid $20 million for the privilege - roughly enough to cover the cost of an entire Soyuz mission. Pop singer Lance Bass was going to do the same but dropped out of training when funding fell through.
Polonsky, however, is driving a hard bargain with the cash-strapped space agency, reportedly negotiating to pay a cut-rate $8 million.
Are Russian space officials content to offer a patriotic discount for the first Russian space tourist? "No," Polonsky said, flashing a coy smile in a recent interview. "It's simple supply and demand."
The negotiations concern more than the price tag, even though the space agency is demanding the cash up front and has given him until Aug. 16 to pay, according to NBC News space analyst James Oberg.
Height was initially an issue, because at almost 2 meters, Polonsky is about 6 centimeters taller than the maximum allowed for Soyuz crew members. But that technicality was nothing a little money couldn't solve, Polonsky said. "They have a normal business approach: 'If you pay, we'll find a solution.'"
Polonsky set his sights on space in 2002 and completed a four-month training course in September that year.
He bought training at Star City through a firm called Atlas Aerospace, which sells the chance to try out various aspects of the cosmonaut preparation regime, as if it were an expensive amusement park.
Price lists on its web site (www.atlasaerospace.net) show, for example, that a 17-minute spin in a centrifuge approximating the additional weight of gravity during a shuttle's lift-off goes for a steep $6,900.
Moskovsky Komsomolets has reported that Atlas was created by Polonsky, but his spokeswoman, Irina Opimakh, would not confirm that. Atlas itself is elusive and does not publicly list its telephone number.
Polonsky himself did not discuss Atlas. Polonsky likes to show off a music-video-style clip of highlights from his training, produced by his Stroimontazh's in-house movie studio. Viewers get to see Polonsky doing everything - from striding around high-tech labs in a spacesuit and mugging for the camera in the weight room to taking diligent notes in lectures and doing somersaults with a flag with Stroimontazh's logo in the weightlessness simulator - all to the blaring strains of Fastball's radio hit "The Way."
That same logo of a cartoon man in red overalls is also sprinkled around Moscow on billboards advertising space in apartment complexes like Korona inYugo-Zapadnaya . In St. Petersburg, the company's flagship project is the Petrovsky Fort business center.
As part of contract negotiations, Polonsky must agree with space officials on how he would occupy himself during the week or so of handover activities between the incoming space-station crew, Salizhan Sharipov of Russia and Leroy Chiao of the United States, with whom he would fly out, and outgoing crew Gennady Padalka and Michael Fincke, with whom he would return.
There is also some haggling over how much luggage he can bring. Olsen had intended to test his firm's infrared lenses and had been granted 10 kilograms of baggage.
Polonsky is keen to provide souvenirs of some sort for his top clients, though he recognizes it would be "inappropriate" to use the ISS as an advertising vehicle for Stroimontazh - or Mirax, as the company will be named after its current rebranding campaign is complete.
Stroimontazh is technically two separate corporations called Stroimontazh - one in Moscow, which Polonsky heads, and one in St. Petersburg, headed by a business partner. Each is a 100 percent subsidiary of the other.
The name change is timed to coincide with the company's first foray into the French real estate market. It recently acquired land to build a residential complex on the outskirts of Paris, becoming the first Russian developer to launch a project in Europe.
Polonsky started the company 10 years ago in St. Petersburg, and its motto at one point was "We were chosen to build capitals."
But he rejects widespread speculation that political patronage from President Vladimir Putin, another native son, was to thank for the company's strong standing. Vedomosti puts Stroimontazh's annual turnover at $310 million.
"I've seen him only once," Polonsky said, referring to Putin, "and it was last year, at the Paul McCartney rock concert on Red Square."
His relations, however, appear to be quite good with Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who named Polonsky as an adviser in 2002.
Stroimontazh won a lucrative contract to build the Federation Tower skyscraper in the planned Moskva-City complex near the White House on Krasnopresenskaya Naberezhnaya, which City Hall hopes will become a bustling financial district. Since there were no open tenders, projects were effectively assigned.
Polonsky's reputation, meanwhile, is at best mixed. On the record, his peers say he is known for keeping his word and there's no project he has started and not finished. Off the record, they paint a less rosy picture, describing him as young and arrogant, someone known to stand-up important business partners.
Polonsky's net worth is not public, so his ranking alongside other Russian businessmen is hard to estimate. During the recent interview, he said off-handedly that it would take a personal fortune of $100 million or $200 million for a person to allow himself to fly to space. The upper end of that range would put him just shy of Russia's richest 100, as calculated this spring by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.
Polonsky is known for his love of extreme sports and extreme adventures. He spent a recent vacation on a camping trek with friends through the Cambodian jungles.
He's also received a slew of awards that seem designed to look good on paper, as much as anything. A charity ball he sponsored in March named him philanthropist of the year for his support of children's homes. No details about how he supported the homes were presented.
According to Kommersant's account of the ball, Polonsky - whom tabloids once reported to be smitten with former Bolshoi ballerina Anastasia Volochkova - made the most of the spotlight. Award in hand, he proposed with great flourish to his now-wife, Natalya Stepanova, the president of Stroiconsultgroup.
Polonsky said the reason others haven't gotten as far as him in life is that they aren't hungry enough. He added that one day he'll combine that and other pieces of wisdom into a book of his personal philosophy.
"Every day, you have to wake up and say these are my goals and what have I done to get closer to them?" he said. "If you don't see the next summit, you start to drink or get depressed."
TITLE: Prosecutor 'Was Told To Quit'
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A Kremlin cabal that is behind the Yukos affair and covets lucrative deals in St. Petersburg is behind the resignation of City Prosecutor Nikolai Vinnichenko, sources at the Legislative Assembly said Monday.
Vinnichenko, a Putin loyalist who took up office in April 2003, on Friday told heads of departments at the City Prosecutor's Office of his resignation, city media reported last week, citing unnamed sources at the office.
Vinnichenko's successor is expected to open several criminal investigations in relation to property issues in the city, media reported Friday.
City media said Valery Bolshakov, deputy head of the presidential representative office to Russia's Northwest, or Petrodvortsovy district prosecutor Boris Markov are likely successors.
"I have to say directly that some of our colleagues don't have enough of a sense for the duties they are responsible for," newspaper Vremya Novostei on Monday quoted Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov as saying at a meeting with staff of the Prosecutor General's Office in July.
"Such a prosecutor sits in his armchair and gets big ideas about his own importance, but if you dig any deeper there is neither serious analysis nor any progress [in his work]," Ustinov said.
"A prosecutor's job is not an easy one. There's just a hell lot of work and a great responsibility. Those who don't understand this won't stay in their armchairs for long."
According to St. Petersburg media, Ustinov was not happy that city investigators had made few breakthroughs in tackling organized crime in the city. But sources in the Legislative Assembly say Vinnichenko's resignation had no connection to his job performance.
"It is well known that there are two conflicting groups in the presidential administration, one headed by [Igor] Sechin, [head of the presidential secretariat] and [Dmitry] Medvedev [head of the presidential administration]," said a city legislature source, who declined to be named.
"According to information I have, it was Sechin who initiated the resignation after Vinnichenko refused to open cases over property issues in St. Petersburg, saying he had his hands full with killings and other crimes in the city," the source said.
"Medvedev tried to resist it, but it looks as if he has failed if Vinnichenko has already announced his resignation," the source said.
Sechin's group is likely to be interested in a deal between a major energy equipment production plant in St. Petersburg and a German high-tech company, which was about to be signed but was unexpectedly delayed recently, the source said.
The source seemed to be referring to Siemens' attempt to raise its stake in electrical engineering company Power Machines (Siloviye Mashiny).
"The situation is quite clear as it is with Yukos," the source said. "When a western partner is ready to buy a stake of shares in a Russian company, this means the company is transparent in its business.
"So this is a very attractive piece acquisition," the source added.
The source also mentioned the Ust-Luga cargo port and Baltiisk oil refinery terminal as among alleged interests of the group headed by Sechin.
Yevgeny Sharygin, deputy head of the city prosecutor's office, refused to comment on the issues surrounding Vinnichenko's situation "because he is overloaded with work," his receptionist said.
The Kremlin press service said "it has no information" that Sechin played a role in the resignation.
Meanwhile, Ivan Kondrat, the former Kostroma region prosecutor's office, has been approved as head of the Northwest region prosecutor's office, a position left vacant after Vladimir Zubrin quit the job on July 15 and was appointed to work at the Federal Anti-Drug Service, Interfax reported Monday.
Kondrat is already in St. Petersburg familiarizing himself with his future responsibilities in the region, the report said.
Kondrat had worked in the Kostroma region since March 2001 and came to Ustinov's attention after he resolved a hostage taking this year.
In June, Sergei Novoseltsev, a convict who had been sent to a hospital for a medical examination , locked a nurse in a hospital room, threatened her with a knife and demanded a meeting with his sister.
Kondrat arrived together with Novoseltsev's sister and persuaded Novoseltsev to hand over the knife and free the nurse after four hours of negotiations.
Kondrat was entangled in a dispute with Kostroma governor Viktor Shershunov.
After heavily criticizing Shershunov for failing to finance crime-fighting measures, Kondrat filed a lawsuit against the governor this summer to defend his reputation, saying that the governor insulted him 80 times in letters to the Prosecutor's General Office.
TITLE: Moscow Sculptor's Gallery Plans Fall on Stony Ground
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Moscow's "court" sculptor and the rector of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts, Zurab Tsereteli, has offered to create a Museum of Contemporary Art in St. Petersburg.
"I have already opened three such museums in Moscow, and I now want to establish one here," Tsereteli said during a visit to St. Petersburg last weekend.
Tsereteli's vision of the museum is that it should represent the last century of Russian art, from the avant-garde to the present day. The sculptor, who is looking for a building to accommodate the collection, wouldn't elaborate on sources of funding for the project.
Patronized by Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, and often criticized for his overblown, ostentatious creations, Tsereteli is infamous for his ambitious costly projects, which have on several occasions gone nowhere.
Tsereteli's has offered his giant works as presents to cities across the globe. But the scale and might of his projects appear frightening to many potential recipients, who often refuse the gifts.
His statue of Columbus made 12 years ago was rejected by five U.S. states because of its bulk and aesthetics. The sculpture is twice as high as the Statue of Liberty without her pedestal. Similarly, the state of New Jersey never accepted a titanic tear drop, "The Tears of Sorrow" in commemoration of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks, which offered as a present this year.
Last year, Tsereteli promoted a plan to present St. Petersburg with a huge park full of his works, including 74 life-size busts of Russian Tsars and princes, 120 lanterns and benches, a fountain, a memorial chapel containing a metal book bearing the names of victims of the World War II Siege of Leningrad, and a statue of Peter the Great. The idea collapsed as no one could be found to cough up the $15 million essential for the project to take shape. Tsereteli, whose works have sprouted around the Russian capital, enjoys strong support from the Moscow authorities. Luzhkov is the sculptor's close friend.
Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the three Moscow museums of modern art are co-owned by Tsereteli and the Moscow city government. The museums house a substantial amount of Tsereteli's own art, which, as arts historian Natalya Milovzorova, of the Marat Gelman Art Gallery in Moscow, points out, are not identified.
"This is not a very modest thing to do," she said. "Arts critics can reasonably easily figure this out but ordinary visitors would be perplexed."
The general public has been much less enthusiastic about Tsereteli's art than the Moscow authorities. His giant 94-meter high bronze monument of Peter the Great installed on Sept. 5, 1997 on the Yakimanskaya embankment in Moscow as part of the celebrations of Moscow's 850th anniversary was branded Godzilla and caused a wave of protests. Many people demanded that the colossus be dismantled, while more extreme protesters plotted to blow it up.
Irina Kukovitskaya, head of the exhibitions department of city's Yelagin Palace Museum, welcomed Tsereteli's proposal for the museum, but said she wished Tsereteli would not call the shots on the development.
"It is not just about bad taste, it is also about lacking vision," she said. "Ideally, one should just ask living artists to pick their favorite works and make suggestions."
A museum has to have a soul, but if it is only about bragging then it never does, she said.
The three Tsereteli museums in Moscow have been criticized for chaotic representation of art and the lack of a consistent concept, she added.
"It is a total, highly confusing, mish-mash of names and styles," Milovzorova said. "Having works by Joan Miró and Salvador Dali is, indeed, prestigious, but displaying them alongside items of questionable value by little-known artists produces a bizarre impression. A visitor to these museums is unable to get a clear idea of the development of modern art over the past century."
Local artist and designer Nika Dranitsyna, said Tsereteli's initiative is set to be but one of several modern art museums, which, she believes will flourish in St. Petersburg in the future.
"I feel that Tsereteli's taste is out of sorts with the St. Petersburg mentality, but this museum, if it appears, is not going to affect the state, or development of modern art in our city," Dranitsyna said.
TITLE: Dental Floss Maker Plans To Sue Over Ban on Its Ads
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: A producer of dental floss says it will sue City Hall's Center of Advertisement Placement, or CCAP, for banning its ads of Flosstic teeth cleaning threads, NTV St. Petersburg reported Friday.
The Flosstic street posters, which appeared on Aug. 4, featured a woman with Flosstic, a product made by city company Prosperity, with the text of "I take it into my mouth and easily and effectively clean between my teeth."
City media were first to ring alarm bells about alleged sexual innuendo in the text and drew the attention of CCAP. CCAP informed the company Taler, which had placed the ads.
In the next few hours, eight posters with the ads were partly covered with gray paper, which closed the controversial part of the text - the words "I take it into my mouth."
Later Taler also had to cover a second version of the ad - six posters that showed a woman in a transparent gown, next to which there were the words, "Why would you need stringy underwear if you have yellow teeth?"
Dmitry Znamensky, deputy head of CCAP, said Monday that the CCAP did not forbid the ad. The decision to block off parts of the ads was the decision of Taler, his office quoted him as saying, adding that he considered Taler's actions to be correct.
CCAP intends to sue Prosperity for saying the contents of the poster had been approved by CCAP - there was no such action because CCAP does not provide such service at all, he added.
The recent scandal is not new to St. Petersburg's street ad market.
This year, household appliance chain Eldorado placed an ambiguous advertisement for LG vacuum cleaners.
"Pyl sosu za kopeiki" or "I suck dust for kopeks," was the text written in large red letters on Eldorado posters. The word "dust" was separate from the rest of the text and harder to read.
The ambiguous ads bothered city residents.
Two Legislative Assembly deputies appealed to Governor Valentina Matviyenko to ban such ads, even though they do not apparently break any laws, "so that they would not corrupt the city's citizens."
In 1999, an ad for Serenata tights portrayed a young woman in a short black dress with a slogan of "Raise His Mood."
The ambiguous ads often have to do with double meanings of certain phrases in Russian. Experts say companies often create such adverts on purpose because a scandalous ad attracts a lot of attention to their products.
TITLE: Rights Activists Plea For Benefit Bill Veto
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Human rights activists handed an eleventh-hour appeal signed by 80,000 people to President Vladimir Putin on Monday, asking him to veto a bill replacing benefits for socially vulnerable groups with cash payments.
The Kremlin-backed social reform bill is awaiting Putin's signature to become law after being approved by the State Duma last week and the Federation Council on Sunday.
"If the president gets information not only from his close circle of advisers but he himself keeps an eye on what is going on in the country, he should not sign this bill," said Lev Ponomaryov, head of For Human Rights, which helped collect signatures for the appeal.
"In the long run, this bill will play against him, his image and the image of the government because it offends thousands of people," Ponomaryov said.
Dozens of human rights and trade union activists, united under the auspices of the Council for Social Solidarity, or SOS, gathered 80,000 signatures across the country in 10 days, said Ponomaryov and Carine Clement, a French sociologist who heads the Institute of Collective Actions.
"People were eager to sign. It wasn't a problem to gather the signatures," said Clement, who went to the Kremlin to hand over the appeal.
SOS comprises leading organizations like Memorial, For Human Rights and independent trade unions, veterans, youth, environmental and Chernobyl organizations.
SOS was founded "to defend Russia as a socialist state and to oppose the attack on social-economic and environmental rights of the citizens," the group said in a statement.
But activists said they doubted their initiative would sway Putin.
"We have no hope that it will help to change the situation, but we will show everyone that the president is at least ignoring the opinion of 80,000 citizens," Clement said.
"We know that this is Putin's initiative, but we want him to understand that people oppose it," Ponomaryov said.
From January, when the legislation is due to come into effect, recipients will be entitled to a basic cash payment of 450 rubles ($15) plus other benefits ranging from 600 rubles to 2,400 rubles.
From January 2006, recipients will be asked to choose between taking the 450 rubles in cash or in the form of a basic package of free medicine and free commuter train rides.
TITLE: Red Tape Stalls Airship's Passage Across Russia
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Red tape is delaying the flight of the first of a new generation of airships, which had intended to cross Russia to Japan last month.
The attempt to fly the German-built Zeppelin NT airship across Russia partly to commemorate a round-the-world flight by the Graf Zeppelin in 1929, 75 years ago, began on July 4.
However, the helium-filled airship has been stuck in Helsinki for almost three weeks while owners try to deal with Russian bureaucratic hurdles, the airship's representatives say.
"Besides weather, the delay is primarily due to [the] Russian bureaucratic process and the need to slightly alter the flight path across Russia," Ian Aitchison, group communications officer for NYK Europe, which owns a 53-percent stake in the airship, said in a statement. He said he was also speaking for the other owner, Nippon Airship Corporation.
The airship was scheduled to make the transcontinental flight to Japan after Japanese company Nippon purchased it at the beginning of March for $11.7 million, including training and equipment, from Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH. Nippon physically acquired the Zeppelin NT in mid June.
Among the alleged reasons for the three-month delay is the pilot's citizenship, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Monday. He holds a German passport and Russian laws require the ship to be accompanied by a Russian pilot. Russian law also specifies that the airship's equipment should correspond with Russian navigation systems, the article quoted Airship Club of Russia President Gennady Oparin as saying.
"We do not believe any of this to be true," Aitchison said.
The initial reason for the delay was a storm in the North Sea, including heavy winds and rainfall.
The delay has cost an estimated 600,000 yen daily - more than $5,400, which means the delay has already cost about $100,000.
Aitchison said he expected the airship to pass clearance in a few days' time after having amended flight plans at the Russian military's request.
"A delay beyond the end of August will pose serious problems due to climatic conditions over the mountains near Lake Baikal in southeast Russia," Aitchison said.
He was unable to be specific, but asserted that the former route could have been over sensitive areas and thus the Russian military rejected the initial plans.
"We believe it is good publicity [for Russia], the trip has attracted a large degree of media interest," Aitchison said. "But it is also perfectly normal for hundreds of civil aircraft to fly over Russia each day."
Once in Japan, Nippon and NYK plan to use the airship for advertising the first year and then for sightseeing, Aitchison said.
TITLE: Verdict Over Frozen Recruits
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: MOSCOW - A military court handed a high-ranking officer a three-year suspended sentence Monday for his role in the sickening of border guard conscripts who were forced to withstand freezing temperatures while their plane was being refueled.
Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Kostryukov was found guilty of violating health rules in the death of a conscript who contracted severe pneumonia, Itar-Tass and Interfax reported. Ninety other conscripts fell gravely ill with pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses in the incident, which took place in the Far East region of Magadan in December.
Kostryukov, a regional border guard commander, was one of 250 officials, including 22 generals, who were questioned or charged in the case that prompted wide outrage and led President Vladimir Putin to order an investigation. The suspended sentence means he will not be imprisoned.
Doctors said the conscripts became chilled en route to the Far East in mid-December. The young guards complained of a lack of warm clothing as well as unsanitary living conditions.
The demoralized and cash-strapped armed forces see numerous violent deaths and suicides even in units far from conflict zones. Conscripts complain of vicious hazing by older soldiers and abuse by officers.
The country's chief military prosecutor, Alexander Savenkov, reported last month that 420 servicemen in the armed forces died in noncombat situations in the first half of the year. He also said suicides increased by more than one-third over the same period in 2003, and that 60 of the 109 who servicemen who killed themselves were driven to suicide, suggesting hazing was to blame.
TITLE: Watermelon Vendor Attacked
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: An unknown attacker shot an Azeri watermelon trader with a airgun on Monday morning, Interfax reported citing the city police.
The police immediately denied the attack had any racial motive.
The trader was shot on Narodnogo Opolcheniya Prospekt in the Kirovsky district.
"Most likely it was the result of an argument between the trader and a customer as a result of which the customer shot him with an airgun, took all his cash and fled," Interfax quoted Pyotr Sidorenko, head of 14th police department, as saying.
"An investigation is under way, but I can already say there is no consideration that it could be linked to a national hatred of some sort," the policeman said.
The report did not specify the trader's condition.
The killers of Azeri melon trader Mamed Mamedov, killed in 2002 after he was beaten to death by dozens of skinheads, were accused of racial motives and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Gas Poisons Residents
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Five St. Petersburg residents have been poisoned by an unidentified gas, Interfax reported Monday, citing local Emergency Situations Ministry officials.
Late on Sunday evening, residents of a building at 7/1 Komendantsky Prospekt called the emergency services to report a strong smell on their staircase. Eight people asked for medical help, five of whom, including some children, were delivered to a local hospital where they were diagnosed as having poisoned breathing systems, the report said.
Forty bags of a crystal-like construction material were found in the building's basement when it was searched after the incident. The inspection later found the reason for poisoning was a pocket gas security device that had been sprayed in the staircase, the report said.
Mironov Shuns Smolny
MOSCOW (SPT) - Federation council head Sergei Mironov says he is not going to change his job any time soon and denied rumors that he will return to St. Petersburg as a governor, Interfax reported Mironov as saying Monday.
"I believe I am a professional lawmaker and would like to work in this area," Interfax quoted Mironov as saying.
"To be honest, the school of the Federation Council has allowed me to gain a rich experience of work in the area of legislation and I will be useful here," Mironov said.
Police Officer Killed
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A policeman was killed early Monday morning after he tried to stop a street fight in the Central district, Interfax reported Monday quoting the police.
The policeman Vitaly Kovalyov, was seriously beaten up while he was trying to stop the fight in a yard on Borovaya Ulitsa. He died after being delivered to the hospital with multiple injuries.
After his colleague fired pistol at one suspect and injured him, all the attackers left.
One suspect has already been detained, Interfax reported.
Nine Held at Border
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Border guards of the Northwest branch of the FSB last weekend detained nine people for violating border regulations, Interfax reported Monday, quoting FSB officials.
Two detainees had tried to sail a boat on the Narva water reservoir located on the Estonian-Russian border. They were fined and released.
A couple from the Netherlands was warned and let go after they cycled into a border zone on Sunday.
Five people had been detained after a boat belonging to a Latvian citizen breached the Russian border the same day. After the border guards found that only the captain had documents, all detainees were handed over to Estonian authorities.
Teen Muggers Caught
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Two teenagers were detained Saturday after tried to steal mobile phones from two women in the Admiralteisky district at the weekend, Interfax reported Monday, quoting the police.
The first attack occurred about 5 a.m. Saturday outside 79 Moskovsky Prospekt, when a 14-year-old schoolgirl tried to strangle a 24-year old woman and steal her phone, Interfax reported.
The second attack happened by the same building about 5:40 when a 15-year-old schoolboy used a chain in a failed attempt to strangle a 21-year-old woman with the same intention. Two suspects are detained, the report said.
TITLE: Fortune List Ranks Two of Russia's Rich
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Multibillionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky might be Russia's richest man, but in the view of Fortune magazine his influence is not even worth mentioning.
In a ranking of Europe's 25 most influential business people published in its Aug. 9 issue, the magazine lists only two Russians - Alfa Group's Mikhail Fridman, No. 10, and Sibneft's Roman Abramovich, No. 21.
Khodorkovsky, who was the only Russian to make it on last year's Fortune list of the 25 most influential non-U.S. business people, at No. 15, has been dropped off completely. The former Yukos CEO has been imprisoned since October and is facing charges of tax evasion and fraud.
This year the New York-based magazine subdivided the non-U.S. ranking into Europe and Asia lists.
The Europe list is led by oil giant BP's John Browne, followed by Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis' Daniel Vasella and French oil major Total's Thierry Desmarest. It also includes Swedish IKEA's Ingvar Kamprad, London-based metals mogul Lakshmi Mittal and Italian designer Giorgio Armani.
Also present on the list are representatives of such business giants as Allianz, Nestle, Siemens, Nokia, Deutsche Bank, BMW and L'Oreal.
"Measuring power is a tricky and subjective business. Money, of course, plays a big part. So does executive level. But those aren't the only metrics. The ability to influence others counts, as does the type of business someone runs," wrote Janet Guyon, Fortune's editor.
Commenting on Fridman's ranking, Fortune called him a "Russian businessman who does his best not to offend the Kremlin" at a time when "other Russian oligarchs endure jail or self-imposed exile," referring to jailed Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, and some of their fellow Yukos shareholders, currently living in Israel.
"Fridman has taken out an insurance policy - selling half of his TNK oil company to BP," Fortune noted, adding that it gave him "powerful allies in the form of BP and the British government, which blessed the February 2003 deal."
Abramovich, who is widely known in the West as the owner of London's Chelsea soccer club, is unlikely to follow Khodorkovsky's path, Fortune said.
Fortune magazine is known for its rankings of world companies, including the Fortune 500 listing of the largest corporations that it has been publishing since 1955.
Last September, Fortune's "40 under 40" annual survey ranked Abramovich, then aged 36, and Fridman, 39, as world's richest and third richest business people younger than 40 outside the United States.
According to Fortune, Abramovich is worth $10 billion and Fridman $4 billion.
In a recent ranking by Forbes Russia, Abramovich was listed as the country's second richest man after Khodorkovsky, while Fridman was No. 6.
In a survey released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Financial Times in January, only two Russians were ranked among the world's 64 most respected business leaders. They were Unified Energy Systems' Anatoly Chubais, No. 54, and then-CEO of Simon Kukes.
Europe's
Most Influential*
Name Company
01. John Browne BP
02. Daniel Vasella Novartis
03. Thierry Desmarest Total
04. Michael Diekmann Allianz
05. Peter
Brabeck-Letmathe Nestle
06. Heinrich von Pierer Siemens
07. Arun Sarin Vodafone
08. Jorma Ollila Nokia
09. Josef Ackermann Deutsche
Bank
10. Mikhail Fridman Alfa Group
*Source: Fortune
TITLE: Kremlin Picks 'Strategic' Enterprises
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin's official web site on Friday published a list of 1,063 enterprises - ranging from regional airports to the state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft - which the Kremlin considers strategically important.
The list was approved by presidential decree on Aug. 4.
The list included 514 enterprises that are wholly state owned, and 549 in which the state owns more than 25 percent.
In addition to Transneft, other enterprises on the list were the Alrosa diamond monopoly, the Gazprom natural gas monopoly, Rosgosstrakh insurance giant, Vneshtorgbank, the defense firm Sukhoi and a number of airports across the country, including in Murmansk, Sochi, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and Rostov-on-Don.
Also on the list was the government's 51.17 percent stake in national airline Aeroflot, its 52.68 percent state in United Energy Systems, the Mosfilm film studio, and Rosoboronexport weapons exporter.
The government said the list concerns enterprises that have "strategic significance for ensuring the defense and security of the state, (and) the protection of the morals, the health, rights and legal interests of Russian citizens."
Some of the companies on the list, such as Alrosa and Aeroflot, had previously been cited as possible targets for privatization.
But their inclusion on the list does not mean that their privatization is now "forbidden," said Arkady Dvorkovich, head of the presidential administration's Department of Experts.
"What this means is that any transactions involving these companies' shares would need to be approved by the president," he was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.
Every year, Russia privatizes a number of state-owned or state-controlled enterprises. Next year, about 1,324 enterprises are expected to be sold, Itar-Tass reported. Additionally, the state plans to sell about 566 share packets that it owns in various firms. In late July Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said the government was likely to sell its shares in several companies including Aeroflot and Svyazinvest, as well as in several ports, but added that the final decision would be made by October.
TITLE: Fradkov Gives $17M for Dam
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The federal government will allocate 500 million rubles ($17 million) to resume the construction of the St. Petersburg dam after a 17-year break, the government's press service reported Friday.
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov decided to reanimate the city's flood protection project as part of the government's corrections to the state capital investments planned in this year's federal budget.
The measure is also meant to reassure the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD that promised to provide a loan of $240 million for the dam construction. EBRD had to delay the loan twice due to the government's inability to confirm their share in financing the project.
The first money transfers from the EBRD were expected in the autumn of 2003, given that the federal center would finance the project at par. However, in the light of little activity on behalf of the federal government, the EBRD gave the dam only $3 million in 2003. This year's estimated tranche of $40 million from the EBRD remains yet to be made.
The Northwestern division of the State Committee on Construction and Architecture, or Gosstroi, had originally requested 600 million rubles ($20.5 million) from the federal budget this year, but 500 million will be enough to cover the main works scheduled for 2004, Kommersant wrote Monday.
In the opinion of Kommersant's analysts, what matters most is that federal support will help return the loyalty of the project's Western creditors.
No comments were available from the EBRD's divisions in Russia and the U.K. on Monday, as most of the authorized staff were out of office.
Meanwhile, Gosstroi Northwest is planning to request 900 million rubles from the federal budget for next year's works at the dam construction site.
The list of works to be commissioned using the money received this year and the call for tenders will be announced within ten days, general director of Gosstroi Northwest, Boris Paikin told Kommersant.
The idea to build a dam was first voiced in 1955, after the city was severely flooded earlier that year. The dam was engineered in 1968-1977, and the project has undergone no serious changes since - a 26-kilometer dam is supposed to cover the narrowest part of the Neva Bay.
Dam construction started in 1980 and was expected to be completed within a decade, but met with protests from the city's public organizations. Ecologists wrote a letter to the president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, saying the dam had a negative affect on the environment of the Gulf of Finland. Due to the public pressure works were stopped in 1987. By then the dam was more than half-finished.
In 2001, the damage that the operating dam was going to cause to the local environment was calculated by the Transboundary and Environmental News bulletin . The dam's share in the pollution of the general reservoir, including both the Gulf of Finland and the Neva Bay, was estimated at 0.6 percent, the bulletin reported .
According to specialists from several countries, the bulletin said, the unfinished dam was going to harm the environment to a much greater extent, as in the case of another flood, it would create much debris. In the absence of the dam, a flood can bring the waters polluted with city waste into the gulf, it said.
After the economic crisis in the beginning of the 1990s, Gosstroi had little hope of resuming the construction. Meanwhile, up to 150 million rubles ($5 million) was being annually allocated from the federal budget for the maintenance of the constructed part of the dam.
The State Duma first approved the plan to obtain a loan from a Western bank to partially finance the project in 2001. The total cost of the project is estimated at $420 million, Kommersant said.
TITLE: City Sells Hotel Shares, Industry Set to Benefit
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The St. Petersburg Property Fund's sale of its shares in several local hotels will benefit both the hotels and the city, experts say.
At the first sales auction, scheduled on Sept. 7, the city is selling its shares in Vyborgskaya, Kievskaya and Chaika hotels, while its shares in Tourist and Yuzhnaya hotels will be sold at the second auction following on Sept. 22.
The starting price for the city stake in Vyborgskaya hotel is 135 million rubles, or $4.5 million, while the packages for Kievskaya and Chaika hotels cost 70 million rubles and 100.5 million rubles respectively.
The city's stake in Yuzhnaya hotel is valued at 53 million rubles, and the stake in the Tourist hotel is offered at the same starting price.
Before the end of the year, the city is also intending to sell its remaining 30 percent of shares in the Astoria hotel but the price hasn't been annouced yet.
Luba Aprelikova, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel, said foreign investors are unlikely to be lured by the auctions.
"Foreign companies come to the Russian hospitality market as hotel managers, refraining from direct investments, which most of them find too risky," she said. "Therefore, the shares are most likely to be sold to Russian companies."
Olga Litvinova, office managing partner of Ernst & Young in St. Petersburg, said the city's participation in hotel ownership proved inefficient and the sale of shares would give a boost to the industry.
Sergei Korneyev, director of the Northwest branch of the Russian Union of the travel industry, concurs. "In the case of these hotels, the city was not more than a nominal shareholder, not possessing sufficient knowledge of the market," he said. "The hotels would benefit even more from the deal, if they go to the investors offering a fitted scheme of reconstruction."
All experts agree that the city, which urgently needs economy class hotels, would greatly benefit from the sales.
Thomas Noll, general manager of the Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel, said the potential investors who will purchase the share packages will have a stronger interest to renovate and upgrade these hotels.
"This will have a competitive and positive effect on the hotel market of St. Petersburg in general and it will also help to improve the image of the so called 'Soviet style' hotels," he said. "The city participation was only inefficient in regards to maintaining an international hotel on a high standard by following a preventative maintenance program as per international hotel chain standards, where a 5 star hotel should undergo a soft renovation every 5 years and a full room renovation every 10 years.
On the other hand, having managed the Corinthia Nevskij Palace hotel under a joint venture with the city administration, Noll compliments the city about the excellent co-operation.
"The key is, to maintain a property in such a condition at all times that we are on a competitive level with hotels in other cultural destinations such as Paris, Rome, Madrid etc., with hotels in the same category," Noll said.
"It would be useful if the new owners turn the ventures into the economy or tourist class hotels," Korneyev said. "More affordable and better equipped accommodation would encourage more tourists to come to St. Petersburg."
TITLE: Legends Help Sell Real Estate in Karelia
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: In the attempts to win the hearts (and money) of potential customers, out-of-town real estate agencies in Karelia often appeal to the public affection for tragic legends.
Finland's first president and national hero, general Karl Gustav Mannerheim had his troops positioned in Karelia - a former Finnish territory and a forefront of heavy fights between the Soviets and the Finns during the Winter War. Many cottages remaining in the area from that time are thus claimed to have a connection to the famed general.
"This cottage Mannerheim built especially for his daughter, and she really lived here. And several years ago, a 90-year-old man came here and sat on the doorstep for a long time, crying. We don't know why he was crying - he spoke only in Finnish," a local resident told Delovoi Peterburg Monday, referring to a deserted white mansion at the picturesque lake of Glubokoye in Karelia.
However, historians say, it is unlikely that any of the local cottages have a connection to Mannerheim. He never owned real estate in Karelia, but lived at the general headquarters in Mikkeli during the war and in a house the Finnish government rented for him in Helsinki the rest of the time, official reports say.
Many cottages sold as "Mannerheim's summer cottages" are in fact the former houses of the Russian aristocrats, Delovoi Peterburg said.
The myth about the numerous Mannerheim's cottages originated from the propaganda spread among Soviet soldiers after they occupied Karelia. Most of the soldiers saw Western Europe for the first time and it was not considered politically correct to tell them the houses they occupied belonged to common Finns and Russian intelligentsia. Instead, the soldiers were led to believe they were taking over the houses of the rich, primarily baron Mannerheim, historical reports say.
"I know eight 'Mannerheim summer cottages'. Houses connected with such legends are easy to sell," Yuri Vorontsov, director of the Northern branch of the Bekar Out-of-Town Real Estate agency, told Delovoi Peterburg. "Many people have some sort of nostalgia towards the region's history. That's why they often choose real estate with some story about it," Vorontsov said.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Lenenergo Outlook Up
ST. PETERSBURG (Reuters) - St. Petersburg-based utility Lenenergo raised its profit outlook for the year Thursday despite a decline in first-half profits by Russian accounting standards.
First-half net profit fell to 46.1 million rubles from 442.1 million in the same period of 2003 due to higher provisions for equipment repair and other items, said Dmitry Troshenkov, the utility's financial director
For the full year, he said, "500 million rubles ($17.1 million) is the pessimistic scenario, and under the optimistic scenario we will have an 800 million ruble profit."
The company's previous Russian standard profit forecast for 2004 was 350 million to 400 million rubles.
Lenenergo, in which state power utility Unified Energy System is the main owner and Nordic energy company Fortum holds a stake, also publishes accounts to international financial reporting standards. It had a loss last year under international standards.
Nokian Tyres Sales Rise
HELSINKI (SPT) - Nokian Tyres, the biggest Nordic tiremaker, said second-quarter profit almost doubled as the company increased sales in Scandinavia, Russia and Eastern Europe.
Net income at the former unit of cellular-phone maker Nokia rose to 13.5 million euros ($16.3 million), or 1.09 euros a share, from 7.6 million euros, or 72 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a Helsinki Stock Exchange statement.
The introduction of new products, such as Hakkapeliitta winter tires, and a focus on Russia to boost sales outside the domestic market lifted earnings at Nokian Tyres. The company's new plant near St. Petersburg, Russia, is scheduled to be completed next year to take advantage of the country's lower costs.
Sanoma Eyes Russia
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Sanoma Magazines could enter Russia in the next couple of years as the biggest unit of the Nordic region's top media house. Sanoma continues to look east for growth, its head said in an interview on Thursday.
"We are still tuned primarily to the east because there the growth opportunities are still clearly more numerous than in the mature western markets," CEO Eija Ailasmaa said.
"In Russia, the recent trend has been for extremely strong growth and the market there is established. Russia interests me the most because it's so big. And Russia offers a good vantage point into nearby neighboring markets like Ukraine or Belarus further in the future," she said.
Ailasmaa said a move into Russia could come in the next couple of years, and while the firm would like to see magazine distribution networks expand beyond the biggest cities, the size of Moscow alone made Russia an interesting market.
TITLE: Russian Entrepreneur Teaches Business Skills
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Running a company isn't just about money, says Lyudmila Murgulets, co-founder and vice president of the St. Petersburg branch of Stockholm School of Economics.
"Human capital, social capital, emotional capital, and intellectual capital are all much more important than financial capital," she said speaking in her office, which has one of the best views in town overlooking Kazan Cathedral.
Murgulets has been working at Stockholm School of Economics Russia or SSERU since it opened in 1997.
SSERU aims to incorporate Western academic standards and business modules into the education system, so as to support business development in northwest Russia.
"Our mission in Russia is to support companies in developing sustainable businesses using Western experience," Murgulets said.
Born and raised in St. Petersburg during Soviet times, Murgulets graduated from what was then Leningrad State University with a degree in psychology in 1973.
She spent the next 18 years working in the psychology department of the university teaching and doing research. It was during this time that she completed a PhD in social psychology at the university.
The death of her husband in 1991 and the need to support her two young children led Murgulets to take steps that changed her life.
During the time when many expats were coming to Russia to try establishing businesses at the beginning of Russia's major economic shift in the early 90s, Murgulets also decided to give the business world a shot. She became the co-founder and the co-owner of Designi, the first ever fashion company to be opened in Russia.
Having no previous business experience, she resorted to baptism by fire in learning the ins and outs of the industry.
She created a joint venture with a Russian and an American partner, which gave Murgulets the opportunity to learn about Western business and management, and apply it to her business in St. Petersburg.
Designi, which she refers to as "her baby," was a huge success as well as the cornerstone to developing the fashion industry in Russia. Until that point Murgulets had spent the majority of her life working with psychology theory and she embraced the opportunity to learn something completely new. "When I started to work in business I gained such a rich experience along with so much new knowledge," Murgulets said about her career change.
After five years of working at Designi in 1996 she decided to leave the company because of a conflict of interests among the owners.
Regardless of Designi's profitability, due to problems with human relations and communication the company went bankrupt in the year 2000. Teamwork is very important within a company, said Murgulets, adding that in Russia people are still more adopted to a hierarchical style of management compared with the West, where teamwork is the focus.
Murgulets knew after leaving Designi that she wanted to remain in the business world, but she was not sure in what capacity.
She met with several friends from the Psychology Department at the University, who introduced her to some of their Swedish colleagues interested in opening a new branch of the Stockholm School of Economics in St. Petersburg.
One of the Swedes Murgulets met was Jan Eklof, a former professor at the SSE, who became the president of SSERU.
In 1997 the Stockholm School of Economics to Russia opened and Murgulets assumed the position of administrative director for this project.
"My colleagues knew of my previous business experience and thought this project would be a good opportunity for me," Murgulets said.
SSERU opened with a program in Modern Economics and Entrepreneurship. Over the next few years Murgulets applied the Western skills she had adopted along with the experience she had gained from working at Designi in order to promote the growth of SSERU. "We got a great opportunity to develop a new educational institution on a very solid academic platform in Russia with Western experience," Murgulets said.
Murgulets is an associate professor at SSERU as well, which allows her to combine her love for teaching and business into one career. She teaches courses in the field of relations management and entrepreneurship.
Murgulets attributed the quick growth of the school to Russia's ever-changing market and the need for superior education to keep up. "You have to run very fast in Russia because of all of the changes," she said.
Murgulets has seen a fair share of economic crises over the last decades but she keeps a good attitude in the face of adversity and has found that the process of moving through it helps to keep her on her toes. "When you have a crisis you can always find new opportunities and new experiences. Difficulties make you more active, more entrepreneurial, more flexible and more experienced," Murgulets said.
Russians are by nature easily adaptable and quick learners, but it is important for them to use the best of what tools, knowledge, and technology already exists, Murgulets said.
Stability is another key factor, Murgulets said, that is still lacking in Russia. She emphasized that when working with a Swedish company you can be sure you will get what you pay for without fail, but "value for money" is a concept that does not yet always hold true in Russia.
Natalya Kudryavtseva, Executive Director of Saint Petersburg International Business Association for Northwestern Russia or SPIBA has known Murgulets since 1998, and has been very impressed with Murgulets' enthusiasm.
"Lyudmila is really helpful, creative, and she has good ideas. She always has a positive attitude and a readiness to resolve any problem," Kudryavtseva said.
Murgulets is a grandmother with two young grandchildren. Her daughter, 32, also lives in St. Petersburg and runs her own business with a Swedish partner. Murgulets' 16-year-old son lives in the city as well.
Murgulets loves to travel and especially enjoys visiting Scandinavian countries, namely Sweden, where she feels very comfortable because of those countries' similarities to Russia in culture and climate.
All in all Murgulets is very satisfied with where she is right now. "I love my job. You see now I'm on vacation, but I am still here." Her job has given her the opportunity to work with a region of the world that she truly admires.
"I love Swedish mentality. They are modest, hardworking, they like to live comfortably but they never show off for others. We should have the same in Russia."
TITLE: Traders Foiled by Yukos Shares
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: MOSCOW - Yukos shares jumped as much as 25 percent after the Arbitration Court ruled Friday against the state's plan to seize shares of its largest oil-producing unit, Yuganskneftegaz, easing the threat of bankruptcy.
The shares rose 16.38 rubles, or 15 percent, to 125.99 rubles as of 11:44 a.m. on the Moscow interbank currency exchange or MICEX, and reached as high as 136.95 rubles. Trading was halted for one hour, after the stock breached trading limits.
The stock leveled at 123.7 rubles after the trading resumed. The court ruling was announced Friday after MICEX closed.
The Justice Ministry on July 20 said it would seize and sell Yuganskneftegaz to recoup a $3.4 billion tax bill, sparking a 63 percent drop in Yukos stock over the following seven trading days. Yukos said last month the seizure and sale of Yuganskneftegaz may bankrupt the company by removing its largest generator of cash.
"This decision makes it much less likely that Yuganskneftegaz will be sold quickly at a very low price,'' said Jean-Louis Tauvy, who manages $200 million worth of investments, including Yukos shares, at Moscow-based Atria Advisors Ltd. "This is positive."
This decision,. however was overturned in a later report Monday, "due to the state not finding enough money on Yukos' accounts," RIA Novosti reported. The announcement came after the markets have closed.
Yukos owns 100 percent of Yuganskneftegaz, which pumps 1 million barrels of oil a day, about the same as OPEC member Indonesia. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has said the unit is worth about $20 billion. A Yukos official last month said the state planned to sell it for as little as $1.75 billion, sparking the share decline.
The Moscow Arbitration Court on Friday lifted the Yugansk share freeze on appeal, Yukos spokesman Alexander Shadrin said Friday in a telephone interview in Moscow.
The ruling appeared to be a rare bit of good news for Yukos, but there still was little reason to believe the state was easing its assault on the oil major, though the court was due to hear similar appeals from Yukos on two other key production units Monday.
Friday's ruling immediately followed an array of confusing reports suggesting that Yukos had gained access to its accounts and which were strongly denied by the Justice Ministry less than 24 hours later. Overall the flow of alternating good and bad news for the oil company has only made its stock the most volatile on the market.
"It is very frustrating, very annoying and very suspicious," said Christopher Weafer, chief strategist with Alfa-Bank on Sunday, adding that there is growing belief on the market that the news flow is being orchestrated to somebody's benefit.
Friday's ruling, which was issued after Russian trading floors had closed, drove prices for Yukos shares on Wall Street up by 20 percent to the equivalent of $4.50 per share, compared to the closing on RTS at $3.75.
The Yukos saga has also become a source of international embarrassment for the government. Last week, fears of supply shortages that could result from the dismembering of Yukos caused world oil prices to rally.
"The pressure on the government to bring the Yukos affair to an end has been cranked up," Weafer said. "With Russia's ambitions to be integrated into the global economy the situation is potentially embarrassing for the government on the international stage."
"We see the legal victory as more an aberration than a sign the situation has changed for the better, as in recent months good news has quickly been followed by negative events," Aton brokerage said in a morning research note.
Aton has stopped rating Yukos.
"No one understands what is happening and there is still more emotion on the market than clear understanding of the situation," Renaissance Capital trader Oleg Dobritsky said
Meanwhile, Russian Railways, the country's state-owned rail monopoly, said Yukos won't be forced to stop railway shipments that carry about 400,000 barrels a day of crude, after the company managed to pay its fees.
Yukos said last month the company may have to stop exports.
(Reuters, SPT)
TITLE: Kyoto's Future Lies in Putin's Hands
TEXT: With the withdrawal of the United States, Russia has now been given the power to decide whether or not the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change will become international law.
Just a few months ago, prospects for Russian ratification seemed grim. On the eve of a crucial Russia-European Union summit in mid-May, the Russian Academy of Sciences came out with its "Preliminary Findings" on the science and economics of the Kyoto Protocol, declaring it to be "without scientific basis" and liable to lead to "a fundamental reduction in Russian GDP growth."
As he sent this preliminary report to President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, academy president Yury Osipov also emphasized, however, that the academy had not reached its final position on the protocol, which is aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.
The Industry and Energy Ministry and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry were known to support ratification of the protocol.
Having won EU backing for Russia's bid to enter the World Trade Organization at the May summit, President Putin famously promised to "accelerate" the Kyoto ratification process, charging the Industry and Energy Ministry to put together a consensus report with the Russian Academy of Sciences by Aug. 1. Given the ministry's pro-Kyoto stance and the opposition expressed by the academy in its "Preliminary Findings," however, a compromise seemed unlikely.
Then, on July 20, in the wake of a controversial Russian Academy of Sciences seminar on the Kyoto Protocol, a number of prominent Russian academics - including nine of the most respected economists at the academy - released a statement through the Center for Russian Environmental Policy voicing their strong disagreement with the conclusions reached in the academy's "Preliminary Findings."
The academics also sent the following message to Professor Osipov and Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko: "Overall, Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would facilitate the improvement of environmental and social conditions in Russia, as well as the modernization of Russian industry, by attracting financial support from the international community. Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol by the Russian Federation will not pose any economic risks or put constraints on the development of the national economy. On that basis, we conclude that the Russian Academy of Sciences should support the early ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the Russian Federation."
Russia's Kyoto target - to keep below its 1990 carbon dioxide emission level - is well within reach. According to official figures provided to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Russian emissions fell dramatically during the economic collapse of the 1990s. Because GDP declined more rapidly than emission levels, the carbon intensity of the Russian economy - the amount of carbon emitted per unit of GDP - by 1998 had increased 15 percent.
When economic recovery got underway in 1999, this worrying trend was rapidly reversed. Carbon emissions grew much more slowly than GDP, and within a year carbon intensity had returned to its 1990 level. It has been falling ever since. Since Russian carbon dioxide emissions are already 31 percent below the Kyoto target level, most forecasters - including the Russian government - do not foresee the country exceeding this limit.
In fact, the July 20 statement notes that "detailed calculations confirm that Russia will not jeopardize its carbon dioxide emission reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. ... This holds true for any plausible scenario of economic development, including the scenario under which the Russian GDP will double by the year 2010."
The carbon intensity of the Russian economy is nearly twice that of the United States and three times that of the European Union and Japan. This indicates significant economic inefficiencies that ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would help to reduce. We support the view, expressed by the economists in their July 20 statement, that Russia could benefit from Kyoto's flexible mechanisms and obtain significant international financial support for modernization of its industry. The economic benefit from sales of greenhouse gas emission quotas and investments in joint implementation projects could reach into the tens of billions of dollars.
Mitigation of the common pollutants associated with greenhouse gas emissions would also be an important benefit. Air pollution is now responsible for more than 60,000 deaths annually in Russia. The damage that poor environmental conditions cause to public health are of the same order of magnitude as Russia's annual GDP increment.
In short, we believe that the July 20 statement by leading Russian economists and academicians should lay to rest concerns about the ostensible threat to Russia's continued economic recovery posed by the Kyoto Protocol. An English translation of the statement can be found online at www.OxfordClimatePolicy.org.
In draft recommendations prepared on behalf of the Russian government, the Industry and Energy Ministry concludes that Russia can meet its obligations under the protocol, and that participation in the flexible mechanisms will generate between $500 million to $5 billion in annual revenue.
These positive findings are, however, contradicted in the same draft by recommendations that Russia postpone ratification because of remaining uncertainties, and continue to develop its emission forecasts and assess further the potential for investment in the Russian economy if the protocol were ratified. Yet, since no one will ever be able to predict exactly how much investment Russia - or any other country - will receive, this wait-and-see stance would leave Russia no closer to ratification than it was a few years ago.
Ultimately, the grave responsibility for ratification will be with President Putin. But it could also be a golden opportunity, not only to help create prosperity for the Russian people, but to go down in history as the man who saved the Kyoto Protocol.
So far 124 nations - representing over 70 percent of the world's population and including 90 percent of all industrialized countries - have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and are hoping for Russia to bring it into force. Whether or not these hopes will be frustrated now lies in his hands.
Ultimately, the undeniable fact is that whatever Vladimir Putin decides, his name will be indelibly linked in history with the fate of the protocol and of the entire UN effort to combat climate change, one of the most serious threats to our planet's long-term prosperity and security.
Professor Alexander Golub is director of the Russian National Strategy Study on Greenhouse Gas Mitigation. Dr. Benito Muller is author of "The Kyoto Protocol: Russian Opportunities," published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. They contributed this comment to The St. Petersburg Times.
TITLE: Success of Self-Government Initiatives Shows the Way Ahead
TEXT: The theme of today's article was prompted by a recent publication in our newspaper dedicated to the rebirth of run-down villages in the Archangelsk region.
The further we come, the more obvious it is that the government is prepared to change only the macroeconomic conditions of our lives. To change life itself, we have to do it ourselves.
Even in the "hotbeds of civilization" - the big cities - the government is unable to show visible results from its reforms. In the countryside, the situation is even more serious. In the more or less highly populated areas of power they are at least doing something, the small villages, especially those far from any roads, have seemingly abandoned themselves to the arbitrariness of their fate. The article I mentioned paints a horrific picture. The majority of almost four thousand Archangelsk villages (where around 40 percent of the region's population live) now look as if war has swept through them: derelict, empty houses and destroyed life-support systems. In many small villages not even the most basic things - water, roads, bridges, shops, and sometimes even lighting - are available. The few attempts by the government to pull the countryside out of the crisis have, as a rule, not yielded any results. Thus everything has to be started from the beginning - and by the citizens themselves.
A problem arises here which, if it is not overcome, will make any progress impossible. It appears that the population on the whole is not prepared to engage in the development of their own lives. Attempts by a few enthusiasts to rally the people into undertaking the most elementary activities (repairing the only bridge over the river linking the village with the outside world, digging a well due to lack of water, etc.) meet with a lack of will on the part of the majority to do anything. Some, in spite of their common sense, set their hopes on the government, while others simply do not believe that together they can accomplish such elementary things. As a result, the children run off to the cities, and the villages inexorably die out.
Yet when they arrive in the city, young Russians do not acquire (at least by modern standards) a normal life. Having opted out of problem-solving in the countryside, they bring this social passivity with them to the city, where they join the mass of those with the same passive mentality. There is still hope here, but interruptions are already happening. Increasingly heating is being turned off, rubbish is being cleared less and less often, and rats are multiplying at an increased rate. The government, having recognized its weakness, is attempting to attract the population to the housing and communal services reform.
In St. Petersburg, the concept of this reform is oriented, in the main, at the efforts of the inhabitants. Governor Valentina Matviyenko is increasingly calling on the population to take the servicing of housing into their own hands. The government stresses that it will, first of all, help those St. Petersburgers who show initiative. Without such initiative, as Matviyenko admits honestly, they will not succeed in bringing the housing and communal services into order.
However, initiative takes time to stir - even when the situation is critical. Not along ago a regional television program showed one village in the Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad region where, in one derelict house, someone had accumulated a huge scrap-heap of mercury luminescent lamps. The mercury content in the air because of this is 100 times higher than the maximum permissible concentration. The inhabitants of the village have suffered seriously from mercury poisoning. Adults have began to develop cataracts, while children are being born with acute bodily defects. All the program's participants heatedly discussed the situation. Yet nobody, not even the journalists, thought of getting rid of the fatally harmful scrapheap by combining the efforts of the villagers.
It is only now that the major damage caused to Russia by the Soviet government is being understood. Not the squandering of national assets, not even the eradication of democratic freedoms caused Russia such harm as the corroding of people's skills in self-organisation. A systematic destruction over many decades of anyone who "stood out" destroyed the very ability of Russian society to show initiative even when the situation is critical. The instinct for self-preservation of the nation was virtually neutralised.
The only hope is for the emergence of new individuals who "stand out."
In the Arkhangelsk region, one such unique individual, Gleb Tyurin, has been found. He has set up a social organization, The Institute of Social and Humanitarian Initiatives. Employees of the institute began traveling to villages and, using the methods developed by Tyurin, persuaded the inhabitants to better their own lives collectively.
Tyurin's methods turned out to be effective, and so the process began. The main thing is that the process has already sparked off a chain reaction. Tyurin and his co-workers do not have to go to every village, as housewife gossip performs the same function. Glancing at the successes of their neighbors, more and more Arkhangelsk villages are awaking from their slumber. Thank God the Russian people are still capable of producing people like Tyurin. They are fully capable of becoming the "growth points" of new life.
There are also reasons for optimism in St Petersburg. As is being claimed by the housing committee, more than 2,600 housing committees have already been created on the initiative of tenants. Cleaning of staircases, rubbish removal, building of porches, etc. have all been arranged by the tenants themselves. It is expected that the ethos of hard work and effort being put in to this newly awakening self-government will gradually spread. While they acquire a taste for this ethos, these housing committees will start taking on the running of a whole building by themselves. The moment will arrive when, turning up at the polling station, Russians will vote not "with the heart" but "with the head". This is when, to paraphrase Vladimir Pozner, we will see the onset of "entirely different times."
Vladimir Gryaznevich is a political analyst with Expert Severo-Zapad magazine. This comment was first broadcast on Ekho Moskvy in St. Petersburg on Friday.
TITLE: Chris Floyd's Global Eye
TEXT: All About Eve
Look out, ladies! The divinely-appointed duo of George W. Bush and Pope John Paul II are on the prowl again, bringing their patented one-two punch to boudoirs and back alleys everywhere. Last summer, the pious pair launched simultaneous broadsides against the apocalyptic threat of gay marriage; now they're firing their missiles of moral correction at the ultimate source of the world's distemper: uppity females.
This week, the pope's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (known as "The Inquisition" back in the glory days) released a "major statement" on the status of women. The Inquisitors declared that women who resist their subordination to men too strongly are "giving rise to harmful confusion" and perverting their "natural characteristics" of "listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting."
It seems these pushy broads should instead be focusing on the "deep intuition" planted in them by God that makes them want to breed and nurture. (As opposed to intuitionless men, who apparently have no role whatsoever in reproduction or parenting - which, come to think of it, might well seem a logical conclusion to the lifelong celibates luxuriating in the Vatican.) Today's "gender-blurring" agitation for equality is not only making men feel all wiggly and "antagonistic," the Inquisitors say, it's also having "lethal effects on the structure of the family."
And you probably thought that wife-beating, child neglect and all the single mothers living in poverty had something to with men abandoning their responsibilities. You probably thought that family breakdown had something to do with the systematic destruction of community ties, local economies, stable employment and social programs by corporate power and its government toadies. But no, it's all the fault of those brazen hussies, same as it ever was: "She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, and he did eat."
This unctuous moralizing about family life and sexuality is pretty rich coming from a gang that has presided over the most widespread, elaborately concealed child abuse scandal in the history of religion. But then, rank hypocrisy has never been a bar to militant self-righteousness. Witness John Paul's fellow public scold in Washington. Not content with the pope's merely rhetorical flourishes, Bush takes a more pre-emptive approach to inconvenient women - condemning thousands of them to gruesome, entirely preventable deaths with a simple stroke of his pen.
Just days before JP pitched his holy hissy fit, Bush quietly performed his now-annual gutting of appropriations aimed at helping the world's most vulnerable women gain a bare minimum of reproductive healthcare. For the third straight year, Bush cut $34 million of Congressionally approved money for the UN Population Fund, which runs maternity hospitals, provides family planning advice and dispenses sterile emergency birth kits for refugees and other destitute women in developing countries.
The fund is not involved in abortion in any way, but because it has a tiny operation in China - trying to stop the dwindling practice of forced abortions there - it has been damned to hellfire by the hard-right Christian culture warriors now in charge of U.S. health and social policies. Bush has not only anathematized the fund, he has also cut off all U.S. money for private women's health groups with even the slightest, indirect connection to the "tainted" UN agency.
The centers operated by the fund and the other Bush-banned groups provide the only maternal and postnatal care available for millions of poverty-stricken women and their children. They are the only place where the world's most downtrodden and uneducated women can receive information about reproduction and birth control, or treatment for AIDS, genital mutilation and rape. Starved of U.S. funding by Bush, many clinics have already been forced to shut down; dozens more will close or be decimated by this year's cuts. The result, of course, will be more women dying in childbirth, in illegal abortions, of untreated disease, violence, malnutrition, more infants and children dying of birth-related illnesses - an annual death toll in the hundreds of thousands.
Guess that'll teach them gals not to get above their raising - or subvert the "natural order" by seeking control of their own bodies, their own fertility and sexuality.
Of course, it's true that giving women in the developing world a few more choices on childbearing and sex - and enough health care to overcome the ravages of disease, neglect, poverty and violence - would actually transform the repressed, miasmic societies where terrorism now breeds so prodigiously. For female emancipation leads inevitably - if slowly, painfully - to new economic, political and social freedoms throughout any society where it takes hold. You'd think someone genuinely interested in ending terrorism - as opposed to, say, milking it for crony profits and political advantage - would support such efforts. Instead, Bush has taken sides with his supposed enemies - Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the whole sick crew - in throttling the freedom of half the human race.
This president-pontiff routine is drearily familiar. The pope has long fought to roll back the bodily freedoms won by Western women, while U.S. leaders armed, trained and financed the virulent fundamentalists who destroyed all traces of the budding secularism in Afghanistan - and have since taken their show on the road. Islamic extremism is thriving everywhere on the bloody chaos created by Bush's invasion of Iraq, as societies under threat rebel against the "Western values" his murderous belligerence claims to represent.
But this doesn't matter to our fine Christian mullahs; they share the extremists' sanctified misogyny: Eve plucked the apple, and her punishment is eternal. Upon this altar of willful ignorance, millions of women are being sacrificed.
TITLE: Georgia Orders Checks on Vessels
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian officials on Friday ordered that all ships arriving in the separatist Black Sea region of Abkhazia be screened by Georgian customs and immigration authorities, a move likely to strain relations with Russia.
The order is the latest effort by Georgia to assert control over its breakaway regions. Abkhazia has been de facto independent since splitting off in a war in the early 1990s, and has close ties with Russia. The region's lush Black Sea coast is a popular destination for Russian tourists, who commonly arrive by boat.
Meeting with U.S. officials in Washington, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili warned Russians against traveling to Abkhazia.
"Abkhazia is no place for vacationing. It is a war zone from which 300,000 Georgians have been expelled. Tourists have nothing to do there," Saakashvili said Thursday.
The Georgian border guard service on Friday ordered that ships entering Abkhaz ports must be searched and passengers must have their documents checked by Georgian authorities.
"Those ships which try to enter Abkhaz ports without fulfilling these demands - the crew and passengers included - will be considered in violation of Georgian borders," said Shalva Londaridze, a spokesman for Georgia's border guards.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted angrily, accusing Georgia of trying to damage the Abkhaz economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism. These are the peak summer months for travel.
The ministry also moved to reassure Russian tourists, saying they "can feel relaxed and confident."
"Russia will ensure their security," the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier in the week, Saakashvili ordered patrols to open fire on boats violating Georgia's waters. The previous weekend, a Georgian patrol boat fired at a civilian vessel off Abkhazia after it failed to obey orders to stop for a check.
Abkhaz authorities have warned they could fire on Georgian ships in return.
Meanwhile, Saakashvili said after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday that he will not succumb to Russian attempts to provoke a confrontation with his country.
"The last thing we want is some kind of confrontation," Saakashvili said, Powell at his side.
"That's exactly something that they would like to impose on us because they think now we're so vulnerable," he said.
Powell said the United States is trying to calm the situation. "I think there's a bit of tension there, but I don't think we're on the verge of a crisis of the kind that some have suggested," he said.
Powell added that U.S. officials are in close touch with both sides.
TITLE: No Charges for Katyn Slayings
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Russian prosecutors do not intend to charge any former members of the NKVD secret police over the 1940 Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia, the German Press Agency reported last week, citing Polish news agency PAP.
Russian authorities say that statute of limitations on the crime has passed, but Poland considers the massacre a crime against humanity and therefore no statute of limitations applies, the report said.
Professor Leon Kieres, head of Poland's Institute for National Remembrance war crimes authority, visited Moscow last week to discuss progress with Russian prosecutors.
He said Poland may open its own inquiry after it receives records of the Russian investigation when that investigation is completed this year, he said.
The murders have been a thorn in the side of Polish relations with Russian for the past six decades. Only in 1989 did then president Mikhail Gorbachev admit that Stalin had ordered the killings and blamed them on the Nazis.
TITLE: Bill Allows Officials to Hold Top Political Posts
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - With the Kremlin's blessing, United Russia deputies have drawn up legislation allowing senior government officials to hold top posts in political parties - a move that some analysts called a step back to the Soviet Party system.
The proposed changes would bring Russia closer to the Western model. But, analysts said, there would be a substantial difference: In the West, people first become party leaders and then ministers or presidents, while in Russia it is the other way around.
The pro-Kremlin United Russia party submitted the amendments to the law on government to the State Duma last week. It is expected to come up for a vote this fall.
United Russia Deputy Oleg Kovalyov, who heads the Duma's Regulations Committee, said the initiative was launched by United Russia and submitted to the Duma after consultations with the presidential administration, Izvestia reported.
Alexei Arbatov, a former deputy with the liberal Yabloko party and an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the government could end up resembling the Communist Politburo if the bill is passed.
"This is a situation similar to that in the Soviet Union, when it was impossible to have a leadership job without being a member of the Communist Party. In the same way, from now on it would be impossible to get a leadership job if you are not a member of United Russia," Arbatov said Friday.
Sergei Mikheyev, analyst at the Center for Political Technologies, said that while Russia wants to use the West's political experience, "the [bill's] aim is more to unite United Russia with the government than to create a united machine."
The law on government was passed in 1997 in an attempt by the government of then president Boris Yeltsin to completely destroy any association between his government and the governments of the Soviet past, when only party leaders could hold senior government positions.
But the law has been easily circumvented. United Russia, for example, has formed the higher council, which de jure serves as a consultative body but de facto leads the party.
TITLE: Chalabi Denies Forgery Charges
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: BAGHDAD - Former Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem dismissed charges filed against them by Iraq's chief investigating judge, calling the allegations part of a political conspiracy against them and their family.
Ahmad Chalabi, once a Pentagon favorite to take leadership of the new Iraq, was charged with counterfeiting. A warrant for his arrest issued Saturday pushed him further from the center of power, over which he seemed to have a firm grip until he fell out with the Americans in the weeks before the U.S. occupation ended in June.
The one-time Iraqi exile opposition leader was in Tehran, Iran, for an economic conference and said that despite his doubts about the Iraqi criminal system, he would return.
"I'm now mobilized on all fronts to rebuff all these charges," Ahmad Chalabi told CNN television news. "Nobody's above the law, and I submit to the law in Iraq ... despite my serious and grave reservations about this court."
Salem Chalabi, head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, was charged with murder after having been named as a suspect in the June murder of Haithem Fadhil, director general of the finance ministry. He said he too did not fear conviction.
"I don't think ... that I had anything to do with the charges so I'm not actually worried about it," Salem Chalabi told CNN from London. "It's a ridiculous charge, that I threatened somebody ... there's no proof there."
If convicted, Salem Chalabi, 41, could face the death penalty, which was restored by Iraqi officials on Sunday, judge Zuhair al-Maliky said. His uncle, who is in his late 50s, would face a sentence determined by trial judges.
"They should be arrested and then questioned and ... if there is enough evidence, they will be sent to trial," al-Maliky said about the warrants against each, which he disclosed Sunday.
In Washington, the Bush administration had no comment about the charges against the Chalabis. "This is a matter for the Iraqi authorities to resolve and they are taking steps to do so," White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis said.
Ahmad Chalabi is accused of counterfeiting old Iraqi dinars, which were removed from circulation after the ouster of Saddam's regime last year.
Iraqi police backed by U.S. troops found counterfeit money along with old dinars during a raid on Chalabi's house in Baghdad in May, al-Maliky said.
He apparently was mixing counterfeit and real money and changing them into new dinars on the street, the judge said.
The accusation is not Ahmad Chalabi's first brush with legal problems. He is wanted in Jordan for a 1991 conviction in absentia for fraud in a banking scandal. He was sentenced to 22 years in jail, but has denied all allegations.
Born in Baghdad, the younger Chalabi studied at Yale, Columbia and Northwestern, and holds degrees in law and international affairs. He served as a legal adviser to the interim Iraqi Governing Council and was a member of the 10-member committee framing the basic transitional law for the new interim government.
Ahmad Chalabi's star has steadily declined. He was once considered Washington's most likely choice for Iraqi president after Saddam's fall, but he was never popular in Iraq and ended up without a job in the new government.