SOURCE: The St. Petersburg Times
DATE: Issue #998 (66), Friday, August 27, 2004
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TITLE: 89 Die as 2 Flights From Moscow Crash Simultaneously
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Two southbound airliners fell from the sky almost simultaneously Tuesday night after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, killing all 89 people aboard and raising fears of a terrorist attack.
The first plane, a Tu-134 jet operated by small regional carrier Volga-Aviaexpress, went off radar screens at 10:56 p.m., and eyewitnesses reported hearing an explosion before it slammed into the ground about 200 kilometers south of Moscow in the Tula region, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Three minutes earlier, at 10:53, a Sibir Tu-154 jet flying near Rostov-on-Don triggered a hijack alert, said Yury Batagov, a Rostov air traffic controller.
Attempts to contact the plane failed, and it disappeared from radar screens moments later, Batagov said by telephone.
Sibir said the plane crashed six minutes later, at 10:59. Early indications suggest it exploded in midair, it said.
The first jet was headed to Volgograd with 35 passengers and eight crewmembers. The Sibir plane, carrying 38 passengers and eight crewmembers, was flying to Sochi, the Black Sea resort where President Vladimir Putin was on vacation.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Putin ordered the Federal Security Service to investigate the crashes. He returned to Moscow later in the day.
Federal Security Service spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said an initial study of the wreckage showed no terrorist act was carried out aboard the two planes, Channel One television reported.
"At the moment, the main theory is a violation of civilian aircraft rules," said another FSB spokesman, Nikolai Zakharov, Interfax reported.
He said technical failure, low-quality fuel, fueling violations or pilot error may be to blame. But Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told Putin that terrorism has not been ruled out.
"We are examining a number of versions, among them a terrorist act and human and technical factors," Ustinov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.
Fears of terrorist attacks have been high ahead of Sunday's vote in Chechnya for a president to replace Akhmad Kadyrov, killed in a bomb blast in May.
Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev told Ekho Moskvy radio from London that Chechen rebel forces and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov had nothing to do with the crashes.
Security at Moscow's four airports was stepped up before the two planes took off because of an explosion Tuesday at a bus stop on Kashirskoye Shosse, which leads to Domodedovo Airport, a Domodedovo spokeswoman told Interfax. Four people were injured in the blast.
The spokeswoman said the extra security measures were in place when passengers checked in for the two flights. Six passengers missed the Sibir flight, and the one bag they checked in was removed from the plane, Interfax said.
Airport security refused to let them fly after they became drunk after checking in, airport spokeswoman Yevgenia Chaplygina told Strana.ru. The FSB questioned the six people Wednesday, Strana.ru said.
Sibir said an experienced crew was at the helm of its Tu-154. The Volga-Aviaexpress Tu-134 was being piloted by the airline's general director, Yury Baichkin, whom an airline official called "a professional pilot," Interfax reported.
FSB agents were poring over the passenger lists for the two planes and questioning Domodedovo officials and witnesses Wednesday, the FSB said.
Putin appointed Transportation Minister Igor Levitin to head a state commission to investigate the crashes.
An unidentified aviation expert told Interfax that the last time a minister had been named to a crash commission was 20 years ago, showing "special attention is being given to these catastrophes."
The Volga-Aviaexpress crashed near the village of Buchalki, 80 kilometers southeast of Tula, the Emergency Situations Ministry said, Interfax reported.
The plane apparently did not issue a distress call.
State television, Interfax and The Associated Press carried accounts from eyewitnesses who heard several loud explosions before the plane came down.
The Sibir plane went down 1 hour and 24 minutes after departing from Domodedovo and about 30 minutes before it would have landed in Adler, the airport that serves Sochi. Its wreckage was scattered over a 40-to 50-kilometer area around the Rostov region village of Gluboky, the regional emergency chief told AP.
Sibir said the scattered debris suggests the plane had blown up in midair.
"The wide distribution of large fragments indirectly confirms the conjecture that the plane broke up in midair because of an explosion," it said in a statement.
Sibir confirmed that the plane had sent out a hijack alert before crashing, saying it had been notified about the alert Tuesday night by military air traffic controllers, who monitor national airspace in conjunction with civilian controllers. The Emergency Situations Ministry, however, said the Sibir pilots had radioed an SOS, not a hijack alert.
Two residents of St. Petersburg were among the passengers of the Volga-Aviaexpress aircraft. Israeli citizen David Cohen, an activist with the Jewish community and Muslim Alanov, commercial director of a pharmaceutical company, were flying to Volgograd on business.
Governor Valentina Matviyenko expressed her condolences to the victims' families Wednesday and said the relatives will get financial compensation from City Hall. No exact sums have been announced.
The second plane crash may have claimed the lives of more St. Petersburgers. Sergei Kuznetsov, deputy governor of Rostov, said remains of a boy wearing the uniform of St. Petersburg's Suvorov military school, was found among the debris. The remains have yet to be identified.
In the meantime, local airports heightened security measures promptly. All passengers will go through an additional search before boarding. Flight schedules in both Pulkovo I and Pulkovo II have not been affected by the security measures.
Staff Writers Lyuba Pronina and Galina Stolyarova contributed to this report.
TITLE: Kremlin: It Was Very Fast
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - Flight recorders from two planes that crashed just three minutes apart Tuesday night are providing few clues to investigators but indicate "something happened very fast," a Kremlin representative said Thursday.
The crashes of the Volga-Aviaexpress Tu-134 and Sibir Tu-154 after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport is increasing looking like a terrorist attack, said the official, Vladimir Yakovlev.
Thursday was a day of mourning across the country for the 89 people who died on both planes. National flags flew at half-mast. Theaters closed their doors, and television channels canceled entertainment shows.
Yakovlev, the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, which includes a region where one jet went down, said the flight recorders "turned off immediately" in "probably the main affirmation that something happened very fast," Channel One television reported.
He told Itar-Tass that the recorders "went out of service before the airliners fell."
The main theory about the crashes "all the same remains terrorism," Yakovlev said.
But the Federal Security Service continued to downplay any link to terrorism.
Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that he could not rule out the terrorist angle.
A senior air traffic controller said Thursday that all signs point to an organized terrorist attack.
"Apparently explosives rigged with a timing mechanism were somehow delivered onboard or suicide bombers were onboard," said Anatoly Telegin, head of the Transportation Ministry's Urals air traffic control, according to Nakanune.ru, a regional news agency.
"A plane can't fall instantaneously," Telegin said.
If an aircraft has technical problems, pilots usually have time to report it to traffic controllers, he said.
Speculation has swirled that the crashes might have been organized by Chechen rebels ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Chechnya. A rebel representative has denied this.
In a sign that authorities suspected a terrorist act, Putin ordered the Federal Security Service, which is responsible for counterterrorism, to investigate immediately after he learned about the crashes. Aviation authorities are usually assigned to investigations connected to pilot error of technical problems.
In another sign, Putin on Thursday ordered the Interior Ministry, which includes the police and paramilitary troops, said take over security at the country's airports. Security had been handled by the airports.
The Federal Security Service has good reason to distance itself from terrorism theories as an attack would deal a heavy blow to its reputation.
Kommersant, citing rescuers and experts, said the Sibir aircraft broke in two at an altitude of about 2 kilometers, and the two parts landed about a kilometer apart. The parts fell straight down, judging by the absence of traces of friction on the grass, Kommersant said.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said on its web site that passengers, their belongings and smaller pieces of the plane were found scattered across a 20-kilometer radius.
The bodies of all 46 people on the plane had been recovered by Thursday afternoon.
Suspiciously, no relatives had called as of Thursday afternoon to inquire about a female passenger with a Caucasus-sounding last name - Dzhabrailova - on the Sibir flight, Levitov said, Interfax reported.
Levitov said his commission was investigating the woman, but added, "We have no information that she was a terrorist." Sibir said the cockpits of its planes are shielded by armored doors.
Rescuer Vyacheslav Starostin said the cabin did not show any signs of fire, Kommersant reported.
Levitin said the debris of the two planes was scattered in a similar pattern, Interfax said. He didn't elaborate.
He also said the "human factor" in both crashes was the same but did not elaborate, Interfax reported.
Levitin said he did not see "a fatal coincidence" as the reason for the crashes because the planes were bound for different destinations and were at different locations when they fell, Interfax reported.
He said, however, that investigators have to find out what happened "between the tail and fuselage," Rossia television reported. The tails of both planes were torn off.
The five flight recorders recovered at the crash sites were badly damaged and data could not be retrieved from some of them, Levitin said.
Investigators on Thursday were gluing together the tapes in the other recorders, said Oleg Yermolov, deputy chairman of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which is responsible for decoding recorders, RIA-Novosti reported.
Levitin said investigators hoped to be able to start decoding those recorders by Saturday.
Relatives of those who died began arriving near the crash sites Wednesday night from Sochi, Volgograd, Moscow and the Altai region, home of the Sibir crew. Levitov said relatives will be banned from visiting the sites for two to three days due to the investigation.
TITLE: No Venue for 'Nord-Ost' in St. Petersburg
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: As Russia recovers from two plane crashes that are seen as likely caused by terrorists, St. Petersburg is facing a scandal centered upon a musical that became the center of world attention when Chechen terrorists captured the theater where it was being performed two years ago.
"Nord-Ost," based on a 20th-century classic novel "The Two Captains" by Veniamin Kaverin, is a moving story about love, rivalry, justice and polar explorers. The musical, which features a plane settling on the stage, was scheduled to be performed at the St. Petersburg Music Hall starting Sept. 24.
But with less than a month before the curtain was due to go up, the performances were canceled Thursday.
Last week the hall's director Anzhela Khachaturyan protested against the show and refused to allow performers on the stage. She suggested the weighty sets of "Nord-Ost" would damage, if not destroy, the venue's modest stage.
The musical's producers criticized her actions as farcical and said the administration of the Music Hall was looking for excuses to force the show out of town.
"Nord-Ost," was first staged in Moscow's Dubrovka Theater. Chechen militants seized the theater in October 2002, taking more than 700 people hostage for three days.
After federal forces stormed the theater all the militants were killed and 129 hostages died from the effects of a gas released in the theater. The theater was renovated and the musical resumed, but flagging audiences meant performances ceased.
But the performers and producers didn't want the show to go for good. The plan was to create a renewed version of the production, tailored to travel, starting its tour in St. Petersburg in September and visiting 17 Russian towns.
But the Music Hall refused to let that happen.
"Our stage is far from being in its best condition," Khachaturyan said. "The highly complicated sets simply can't be mounted here."
City Hall assigned a special commission to review the staging of the musical, and released its verdict Thursday. The official conclusion was that the Music Hall's stage was not strong enough to support the production.
Irina Shcherba, spokeswoman for Vice-Governor Sergei Tarasov, said the Music Hall will be closed for renovation soon.
A spokeswoman for the theater troupe, Darya Morgunova, said the production company was not represented on the commission, which was mostly made up of city government officials.
Yelena Dubina, head of the capital renovations department of the St. Petersburg Culture Committee, was the commission's president.
The musical's commercial director Kirill Larin questioned the commission's verdict.
"We disagree with their decision," Interfax reported him saying. "The stage has been examined by our technical specialists, the stars in their business. If they felt the stage wouldn't suffice, they would have asked for the production to move to another venue."
After Khachaturyan publicly declined to continue with "Nord-Ost," City Hall intervened, arranging a meeting between Tarasov, who oversees cultural issues, and the musical's representatives.
The company's actors have been unnerved by the doubts about the staging of the show as the conflict dragged on, the show's managers say.
"Every day of uncertainty ... was corroding our preparations and feelings, like rust," the musical's producer Georgy Vasilyev said.
Audiences were confused and stopped buying tickets, but 3,500 tickets had already been sold, Vasilyev said Wednesday in anticipation of the refusal to stage "Nord-Ost."
"People heard all these contradictory statements and speculation about the possible cancellation of the show, and naturally they thought it would be unwise to get their tickets at this point," Vasilyev said.
Earlier this month, the show's producers and the Music Hall's managers gave a joint news conference, where they stated the venue was ready to host the production and happy to do so. But just two weeks later, the Music Hall's managers announced their venue was in a state of disrepair. Vasilyev said he is convinced that the Music Hall and City Hall didn't want to have the ill-fated production in town from the start.
"They just couldn't dare say it directly," he said. "Instead, the Music Hall started by requesting huge numbers of various papers and documents, equipment certificates and so forth. It was absolutely unnecessary, and the hall's further actions only confirmed our suspicions."
"I don't see any logic behind it at all," Vasilyev said. "I just hope that the Governor Valentina Matviyenko introduces a note of common sense and settles the problem."
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Starting School Costly
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Parents must spend up to $100 to provide their children with all things they need to start studying in schools for their first year, Interfax reported Tuesday, quoting City Hall's economic development committee.
Parents of girls spend about 3,500 rubles ($120) while boys' parents can expect to fork out 3,000 rubles ($103).
The school year starts Wednesday.
Consultation Promised
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - City Hall won't make any decisions related to a construction project for an elite apartment bloc in Mikhailovsky Garden behind the Museum of Ethnography without public discussions, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing City Hall.
The decision was made after public protests and discussions flared up in the city this month after local media reported on plans to build an two additional exhibition halls, a storage premises and a house for 6 elite apartments, initiated by Korporatsiya S, local construction company.
Extradition Plans
MOSCOW (SPT) - Latvian authorities are hoping that Vladimir Linderman, leader of Latvia's National Bolsheviks, will be extradited from Russia, under an agreement on judicial assistance signed by the two countries, Interfax reported Tuesday, quoting Latvian embassy officials.
Linderman is charged by Latvian prosecutors with plotting to assasinate Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga in November 2002.
In 2003, the Prosecutor General's Office declined Latvia's extradition request, saying Linderman was being prosecuted for political reasons.
Zeppelin Flight in Doubt
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A plan by the Japanese owner of the largest airship in the world to fly it across Russia to commemorate the 1929 flight of the Graf Zeppelin around the world, appeared Thursday night to have faltered.
Fritz Guenther, the pilot of the aircraft, which has been in Helsinki for weeks waiting for permission from Russia to fly to St. Petersburg, said the flight had been canceled. This could not be confirmed with owners NYK Europe and Nippon Airship Corp.
Starovoitova Trial
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - After two days of hearings following a summer break the trial of the alleged killers of Galina Starovoitova, the State Duma lawmaker killed in November 1998, was adjourned until Oct. 5, Interfax reported Thursday.
TITLE: Still No German Consulate in Kaliningrad
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: More than six months after being sworn in as Germany's consul general in the Kaliningrad region, Cornelius Sommer is still operating from a hotel after repeated refusals to approve a building for his use as consulate general.
Flying in the face of reports of friendly relations between Germany and Russia - the latest sign being the announcement last week that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had adopted a St. Petersburg orphan with the approval of Vladimir Putin - Sommer has found five suitable buildings to issue visas from, but Kaliningrad governor Vladimir Yegorov has turned them all down.
"Everything that we proposed has been turned down without our being given any reasons," Sommer said Thursday in a telephone interview from his temporary consulate in the Albertina hotel in Kaliningrad. "The governor just says 'no' and that's all."
"I cannot speculate [about the reasons]," Sommer added. "At one time the Foreign Ministry in Moscow told me that it's a decision that must be made in Kaliningrad. The governor of Kaliningrad says publicly on television that it is Moscow that has to decide. He says this is an international practice, which is not true."
"The Foreign Ministry in Moscow says that if you helped us in with our problems in Germany it will be a bit easier for you, but they don't specify how," Sommer said.
In the meantime Kaliningrad residents who want German visas have to send their documents to the German Embassy in Moscow, which is located 1,200 kilometers away, almost twice as far as it is from Kaliningrad to Berlin.
A little over 8,000 Kaliningrad residents applied for German visas in 2003, but the diplomatic mission expects the number to grow if Kaliningraders can get their visas just around the corner. The consulate plans to issue from 10,000 to 15,000 visas annually.
"I do have a hope that they would understand that we are looking for the building not for our sake, but because we want to offer visas to the Kaliningrad population and we can not do so because of this building problem," Sommer said. "Here in Kaliningrad everybody is talking about problems with borders, visas and so on. We came here to offer this service."
Igor Rudnikov, a Kaliningrad region duma deputy, who has been helping Sommer to find a suitable building, said the consulate's opening has deliberately been made difficult.
"It is not in the interest of either local and federal authorities to let people get visas more easily," he said. "[Making opening a consulate difficult] is an easy way to stop local people from developing wider contacts with the European Union rather then with the rest of Russia.
"Obstacles have already been placed in the way of the Latvians, Swedes and the Dutch," Rudnikov said in an interview March this year.
The Kaliningrad regional government refused to comment Thursday.
"I don't know who you are," said Svetlana Dinisenko, acting head of the Kaliningrad region's property committee Thursday in a telephone interview from the exclave. "You should come here and show your press ID,"
"The question is under consideration and to comment on this I have to look through documents, but you must understand, I'm an official and can't do such things over the phone," Dinisenko said.
The long search for a suitable premises for a consulate is "a normal process," said Dmitry Lyublinsky, deputy head of the Third European department at the Foreign Ministry.
"There's nothing wrong about it," he said Thursday in a telephone interview from Moscow. "They are in a process of selecting a building, approving it with the local authorities. Lithuanians, Swedes and Latvians have also looked for quite a while.
"That's because there's a bad real estate market. What else can I say?" he said.
TITLE: New British Consul General to St. Petersburg an Old Hand
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: George Edgar, a career diplomat who has spent 20 years in Britain's Foreign Service, has arrived to head the British Consulate General in St. Petersburg.
Edgar, whose last posting was for three years as Britain's ambassador to Macedonia, speaks Russian and has long-standing ties to the country, he said Thursday in an interview in his office near Smolny.
"I chose [the posting]," he said. "I was keen to come back to Russia."
Edgar, 44, spent two years at the British Embassy in Moscow in the mid-80s and another several years working with the EU's TACIS program as a technical assistant in the mid-90s. He has also spent time in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, where he met his Russian wife.
The couple have two children, aged nine and 12, who also speak Russian. The children will be attending a British school in the city, Edgar said.
Edgar said his posting to St. Petersburg is for about three years. He intends to strengthen Russian-British business ties and oversee the issuing of visas.
"Its obviously part of my job to make sure that it [the consulate] provides an effective service for the people who need it," he said.
Edgar also intends to boost British involvement and recognition in the city.
"I would like to see Britain having a high profile here," he said. "There is significant British business presence here ... the most notable one is through the brewing industry."
But, he noted, "there is certainly room for expansion," namely in the consumer goods, food processing and retail industries.
Dan Kearvell, director of the St. Petersburg and North-West Russia chapter of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, said he looks forward to continuing cooperation with the consulate under Edgar's leadership.
"We are delighted that someone with George's experience of Russia and Eastern Europe has taken up such an important post, and, in particular, look forward to jointly taking the positive message of the Russian regions out to U.K. business," Kearvell said in a statement.
Although he has made frequent trips to Russia since his last posting in the 1990s, this is his first time in St. Petersburg in 20 years, he said.
"It was a posting that was available at the right time for us," Edgar said. "We're very pleased to be in St. Petersburg ... It's a fantastically beautiful city."
TITLE: Court Reinstates Morozov
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Supreme Court has overruled a city court ruling and reinstated Alexander Morozov, a United Russia member, as the representative of the city's electoral district No. 207 in the State Duma deputy.
Morozov had appealed the city court ruling that had annulled his election on March 14. That ruling was based on a complaint by Morozov's rival candidates Sergei Andreyev, Anna Markova and Elvira Sharova, and a voter Alexander Anikin.
The city court ruled in June that a difference of 8,000 votes that gave Morozov his victory over "against all" was invalid because the results from polling stations of the district results of the State Duma elections March 14 were annulled.
The opponents said 12,000 votes cast at the polling stations could have changed the final result if they had been counted.
Morozov gained 23.99 percent of votes, while 20.79 percent voted "against all." The election in the district was held in March because "against all" received more than any candidate when the vote was first run in December.
"I'm very happy about the Supreme Court decision," Morozov said Thursday in a telephone interview. "It's just a shame that so much time was lost on the dispute. This time could have been spent to work in my district."
The Supreme Court decided Wednesday that the number of voters at the six polling stations was less than 25 percent of the total number of 450,000 eligible voters in District No. 207 and the election could therefore not be annulled, according to the federal election law.
"As for those I fought against, these people are just doing it to stay in the public eye," Morozov added. "The outcome is not that important for them."
His rivals are considering appealing the Supreme Court ruling.
"This decision was not made in accordance with the law, but for expediency," Markova said Thursday in a telephone interview. "They just don't want to organize another election and spend more money."
"Before we challenge the ruling we will have to examine the documents from the court," she added.
TITLE: Compensation Offers Bolster Voter Numbers in Chechnya
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: GROZNY - Yakha Bisayeva, a 36-year-old Chechen refugee, did not want leave the relative safety of Nazran, Ingushetia, to go home to Grozny. But the unemployed mother of three reluctantly got in a gypsy cab this week to return in time for Sunday's presidential election.
But the vote for to replace slain President Akhmad Kadyrov was not what brought her back. It was a promise from Chechen authorities to pay compensation for homes destroyed in fighting to those who reported to a bank in Grozny two days ahead of the election.
"Many are supposed to receive the money on Friday. Up to several thousand will need to be there on that day," Bisayeva said.
Paying compensation on the eve of the election is one of several ways the pro-Moscow Chechen administration is trying to boost voter turnout Sunday.
The Kremlin's favored candidate, Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov, is widely expected to win after his strongest potential rivals refused to run or were disqualified - much as when Kadyrov was elected president last October. Kadyrov garnered more than 80 percent of the vote, according to official results.
As in the last election, state media have been churning out positive reports about the favored candidate, including a get-together between Alkhanov and President Vladimir Putin last Sunday for a trip to Kadyrov's home village and talks about Chechnya's future at Putin's Sochi residence.
Moreover, Alkhanov's spin doctors are the same people who Kadyrov relied on last year, and his campaign strategy is being shaped by the Kremlin, Alkhanov campaign adviser Vladimir Suvorov said in an interview.
Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of the presidential administration, is personally issuing instructions to Alkhanov's campaign team, Suvorov said.
A Kremlin spokesman declined immediate comment about the campaign Thursday.
TITLE: Russian Car Maker Shows Off a New Model
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - AvtoVAZ, the maker of the clunky Ladas that ply the nation's pot-holed roads, unveiled a new line of modern-looking passenger cars at the 8th Moscow International Motor Show on Wednesday.
AvtoVaz promised to bring the new full-length, manual transmission Priora sedan into mass production in 2006.
Painted in a glistening chameleon gray, the Priora doesn't cover any new technological ground - it is equipped with a similar engine available in current models - but at least it looks like a normal car.
"I'm pleased to say every car shown here will one day be available to the Russian consumer in mass production," AvtoVAZ chairman Vladimir Kadannikov told a crowd of onlookers.
Tolyatti-based AvtoVAZ, the country's largest car maker, currently produces a line of curiously shaped sedans, hatchbacks and station wagons, which get their looks from communist-era designs. AvtoVAZ also makes the Chevy Niva in a venture with General Motors.
The sprawling AvtoVAZ stand seemed to attract the most visitors, thanks to the Priora, the popular "No. 10" line and the affordable Kalina series, due to be in stock with dealers by the end of the year.
With a starting sticker price of $7,000 and better fuel efficiency than its predecessors, the Kalina is likely to please domestic consumers who cannot afford cheap foreign makes due to high import tariffs.
The compact family car will boast better safety features, higher emissions standards and a slicker appearance than anything AvtoVAZ has ever produced.
"Its new fuel injection system gives the engine more elasticity," AvtoVAZ engineer Sergei Kharitonov said in an interview. AvtoVAZ plans to make 30,000 Kalinas next year.
Other Russian carmakers made a less impressive showing. A representative of Izhavto, the Izhevsk-based carmaker specializing in rugged station wagons, had only one new model to show for itself.
The Izh Fabula, in mass production since February, looks like a rip-off Volvo station wagon, but at a price tag under $6,000, buyers won't be expecting Swedish quality.
The country's No. 2 carmaker, Nizhny Novgorod-based GAZ, also had little new to show in the passenger range.
The 185 horsepower GAZ 3106 - an SUV the company said would go into production in 2006 or 2007 - was the only new design on display.
However GAZ did wheel out its regular auto show fare of souped-up Volga sedans - not meant for mass production - including the hefty Volga Cardi, with the exterior of a Bentley and the inside of a Moscow yellow cab.
While the motor fair is the main showcase for domestic carmakers, it has also drawn manufacturers from Germany, Japan, France, Italy, South Korea, Britain and Sweden.
Classic car aficionados should be pleased with the show's display of oldies in the riverside wing of the exhibition complex. On display are everything from a U.S. Lend-Lease army jeep to a Nazi-era Mercedes.
Another curiosity is a 1973 Nissan President, once coveted by its erstwhile owner, Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.
Well-heeled visitors to the auto fair are welcome to make a bid for it, the current owner said, as he can no longer afford to pay taxes on it.
TITLE: Uncertainty Prevails Over the Ban on Prime-Time Beer Ads
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: MOSCOW - With most provisions of the prime-time ban on beer ads taking effect in less than two weeks, confusion reigns over the impact the new law will have on the industry.
"I doubt that even government authorities could explain now what the law will mean in practice," said Alexander Troitsky, deputy head of the Russian Brewers Union.
It was officially announced Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin has signed the bill into law. Keeping with the standard practice of enacting a law ten days after its publication - most of its provisions will take force on Sept. 5.
Yet market players do not have a firm grasp on the ramifications of the ban and disagree on who will end up footing the bill for the law's severe restrictions on beer ads.
"No one wants to totally rape the industry," said Vladimir Yevstafiev, head of the Association of Communications Agencies of Russia, explaining why the prohibition on using people or animals in beer ads will be postponed until January.
In less than two weeks, however, it will be illegal to advertise beer on TV and radio between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and to imply that the drink is connected with social success, athletic ability or quenching thirst. Beer ads will also be banned from the front and back pages of magazines and inside or near sports facilities, schools and cultural institutions.
"Cynically speaking, advertisers will only make more money on this ban, so we shouldn't complain too much about it," said Yevstafiev. "Brewers will have to make up for losing prime-time contacts."
Prime-time ads are the cheapest way to reach consumers, Yevstafiev said. Although the air time is most expensive during this time slot, ads are viewed by the greatest number of people.
"Brewers will be forced to spend more to reach the same tens of millions of people by other means," he said. "Creativity will also go up in price because having a memorable ad that stands out will become more important."
Russia's premium brewer Tinkoff said it was not concerned with the restrictions.
"Every target audience has its own prime-time," said Oksana Grigorova, a spokeswoman for Tinkoff. "Prime-time for us begins after 10 p.m."
Grigorova said the ban will not translate into unforeseen expenses. The company planned to shoot new commercials anyway, she said, because their ads "have done their job."
Currently beer commercials are estimated to account for one-tenth of the television ad market, which in the first half of this year amounted to more than $720 million, up 36 percent from the same period last year.
Market players said that with the booming ad market, someone does stand to lose.
Tinkoff, whose ads caused a stir earlier this year for their raciness, is a special case, said Anton Charkin, spokesperson of Video International, the intermediary between advertisers and networks.
"Brewers who appeal to more of a mass audience may lose," said Charkin.
Beer commercials account for more than 7 percent of STS' nationwide ad revenues, the channel said. Brewers sponsor the station's daily 9 p.m. movie.
The legal implications of pulling prepaid ads from the air remains unclear, as well as programming sponsored by brewers.
"It's hard to say what the exact ramifications will be," said STS vice general director Sergei Petrov.
TITLE: Finnish Clothes Stay in Vogue
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Over a decade after Finland became an easily accessible destination for many St. Petersburg residents, the demand for Finnish clothing continues to boom in the city, with St. Petersburg dealers being among the leading purchasers at the Helsinki International Fashion Fair held last weekend.
Over 400 Russian companies dealing in ready-made garments regularly make purchases at the HIFF, held in Helsinki twice a year to present the winter collection at the end of August and the summer collection at the end of January. And up to 80 percent of the Russian dealers visiting the HIFF come from St. Petersburg, Olga Ekstrem, project manager at Suomen Messut, the Helsinki Fair Center, told Delovoi Peterburg on Tuesday.
A total of 326 manufacturing companies from 14 countries were represented at this month's HIFF, selling garments, textiles, shoes and accessories. Meanwhile the St. Petersburg companies, who have tried selling Russian-made clothing at the previous fairs, quickly realized that buying Finnish clothing is much more profitable, Delovoi Petersburg wrote.
Finland's textile exports to Russia in 2003 amounted to 70.4 million euros, including 45.2 million euros worth of ready-made clothing. Based on a recent marketing research, Delovoi Peterburg said, Russia is the leading importer of Finnish clothing, with St. Petersburg's share reaching 40 percent.
Olga Bobrikova, marketing chief at Moskovsky Univermag, one of the city's leading department stores said that St. Petersburg developed its profound affection for Finnish clothing back in the Soviet times, when Russians ran themselves ragged in their efforts to find quality garments.
Bobrikova said the reasons for the popularity of Finnish garments in St. Petersburg are simple, the most important of them being the quality of the garments. Finnish manufacturers heavily invest into environmentally friendly technologies, she said, and while hardly any of today's modern fabrics are 100 percent natural, Finnish fabrics are constructed in such a way that synthetic threads are hidden inside and do not come in contact with skin, Bobrikova said.
"We have been working with the same Finnish producers for years, and they come up with technological innovations every season," Bobrikova said.
The secret to the success of Finnish clothing manufacturers is the unique niche they've managed to secure. The exported Finnish garments are mainly designed for leisure activities and that helps such Finnish brands as Luhta, Rukka and Skila to avoid overlapping with other major garment exporters, such as Italy, in the target market, Bobrikova said.
Besides the focus on the environmentally friendly active lifestyle, Finnish manufacturers pay extra attention to children's garments.
Such kids' brands as Kuoma and Reima, designed for a northern climate, sell very well in St. Petersburg, Bobrikova said.
Finnish clothing makes up a large part of Moskovsky 's collection and the store sends a whole delegation to make purchases at the HIFF on a regular basis, Bobrikova said. "We have already compiled our Finnish collection for the spring-summer 2005 season," she added.
Meanwhile, it is designer prét-a-porté clothes that still remain the all-times favorites among the Russian women, not the casual leisure wear. By the estimate of international experts, the amount of ready-to-wear clothing in Moscow is annually growing by 30 to 50 percent, reported the Intermoda.ru fashion portal in the spring.
As opposed to many westerners, Russian women prefer stunning outfits to simple casuals, so many Western designers of pret-a-porte hope to expand to Russia, Intermoda.ru wrote.
Russian PR specialists who met at the "Image Making 2004" symposium held in Moscow in May, said that one of the drawbacks in Russia's image today is that Russians continue to have a soft spot for everything imported, RosBusinessConsulting reported.
TITLE: City Collects $1.7M for Gas Stations
PUBLISHER: The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: A total of 52 million rubles or $1.7 million will be transferred to the city budget by gas station operators Shell and Neste St. Petersburg, the winners of the first land leasing rights auction held by the city property committee on Wednesday.
Though land-leasing rights auctions are becoming a regular practice for real-estate land plots, Wednesday's auction was the first one for gas station areas. Of the three leasing contracts put up for sale, two were purchased by Neste, one for $466,000 (starting price $75,000) and another for $266,000 (starting price $110,000).
The third land plot, located closest to the city center, by Volodarsky bridge, was awarded to Shell for $1.07 million - the highest price ever to be offered for gas station land, business daily Delovoi Peterburg wrote Thursday.
Shell's director general Edgars Zalitis said that he believes the company is not overpaying for the Volodarsky bridge land plot, news agency Au92 reported. "The offered price is a market price," he said in an interview with Au92. "We do not see a queue of land sellers lining up before us," he said noting that Shell has its own methods of pricing the value of the land, with business coming first. The initial price for the Volodarsky bridge location was $200,000.
Though the leasing rights auction was open to all the interested companies, the bids had to be submitted in sealed envelopes before the start of the sale, thus an open auction procedure was not followed, news web site Fontanka.ru reported. The web site cited "being pressed for time" as a reason for rules change given by city administration officials.
The areas allotted for auction were initially a part of the 60-land-plot package Smolny intended to sell to oil giant Lukoil, Delovoi Peterburg quoted the president of St. Petersburg oil club Oleg Ashihmin as saying. However, at the auction Lukoil made only one bid for the Volodarsky land plot, which it lost.
The city intends to auction off leasing rights to two more gas station land plots in the nearest future, Fontanka.ru reported.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: TNK Donates $5.2M
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Oil major TNK BP has transferred 155 million rubles or $5.2 million to the city development fund for the reconstruction of the historical city cetner, Interfax reported Thursday.
The announcement came from the governor's press office, adding that TNK BP will transfer an additional 25 million rubles before the end of the year.
The establishment of the development fund came as part of the agreement between the Tyumen region, where TNK BP is based, and St. Petersburg that was signed in July this year.
The agreement provides for large annual monetary transfers for conducting reconstruction and renovation works in St. Petersburg.
Baltiisky's New Project
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - Baltiisky Zavod, one of the largest shipbuilding plants in the city, has begun the construction of two ships suited for car and trailer transportation that will be operated by Swedish company Stena RoRo, said the plant's press service.
The ship building will be done "on international scale," said the Baltiisky Zavod's press release, as the project has been developed by Finland and Norway, and the party comissioning the construction is a Norwegian operator Fosen Mekaniske Verksteder or FMV.
Baltiisky Zavod will complete the initial stages of the construction and the furnishing works, while FMV will finish the project and present the new ships to Stena RoRo. Similar ships are priced at bout $50 million to $70 million on the world's market.
Bicycles Promoted
ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The center of ecological initiatives believes the development of bicycle infrastructure in St. Petersburg absolutely necessary, said the head of the center, Alexander Fyodorov at a news conference Thursday, Interfax reported.
Fyodorov said that more St. Petersburg residents own bicycles than cars, based on the results of the survey conducted in July. However, he said, there are practically no bicycles seen on the city streets due to the lack of supporting infrastructure for bicycle riding.
Fyodorov said the center is working on a plan for introducing bicycle tracks on the city roads, and it will approach the city administration with the proposal.
At the same time he said that Smolny "takes a negative stand toward introducing bicycle infrastructure. It had opposed building bicycle tracks in the city during the city general development plan discussions, saying that there is not enough room for them and that the northern climate does not allow bicycles to become a transportation alternative."
The head of Helsinki's bicycle department, Antero Haskila, who also participated in the conference, said that European countries are doing everything possible to promote bicycle use, as they did in the 70s, when the number of cars on the roads began growing dramatically. European cities had faced the same problem St. Petersburg is facing today: constant traffic jams and the ecological damage.
Haskil said that Finland's government had placed its bets on bicycles and public transportation, and, for the 560,000 Helsinki residents, there are only about 200,000 cars and 400,000 bicycles.
TITLE: Too Much State Secrecy Is Unsafe
TEXT: The question of whether the two airliners that crashed Tuesday night killing all 89 people aboard were brought down by terrorists or some other cause is fast becoming a rhetorical one.
The Federal Security Service says it has not uncovered any signs of an explosion in its examination of the wreckage and maintains that there is no evidence to suggest a terrorist attack. But the circumstantial evidence of terrorism is mounting, starting with President Vladimir Putin's decision immediately to assign the investigation of the crashes to the Federal Security Service, the government's lead agency in combating terrorism. Putin also ordered the Interior Ministry to take charge of providing security at the country's airports.
On Wednesday, Sibir announced that someone inside the cabin of its Sochi-bound aircraft, which went down near Rostov-on-Don, sent a hijacking alert to ground control. The plane's wreckage was strewn over a wide area, suggesting that the plane had blown up in the air, the airline said.
And on Thursday Vladimir Yakovlev, Putin's envoy in southern Russia, said terrorism remained the most likely cause of the crashes. Yakovlev revealed that the information recorded in the black boxes of both planes broke off abruptly, providing "probably the main affirmation that something happened very quickly."
Russian newspapers played up the terrorism angle in frontpage coverage, several calling the crashes Russia's 9/11.
We may never know exactly what caused the two planes to fall from the sky or whether investigators have pursued all the available leads with equal diligence in order to determine if Tuesday's tragedy was caused by terrorists, human error or a mechanical malfunction. Whatever they conclude, the time has come for the public to ask some hard questions. Are Russia's intelligence and law enforcement agencies optimally structured for fighting terrorism? Do they cooperate effectively? Is their performance scrupulously evaluated? Are the personnel in these agencies properly trained and supervised? Do they have the funding and powers they need to get the job done?
The public and the parliament cannot answer these questions because adequate civilian oversight of the intelligence and law enforcement community is lacking. In fact, it seems unlikely that even Putin, who is nominally in charge of all these agencies, knows the whole story, because no commission is known to have conducted a comprehensive review of its structure, budget, leadership, personnel or ability to cooperate. The overall performance of these agencies has never been independently assessed.
Major threats to national security in developed democracies lead almost automatically to a search for solutions that involves not just the government, but the academic community, the press and the public at large. The authorities establish nonpartisan commissions of experts, academics and former government officials in an effort to determine how best to respond to such threats in the future, as was the case in the United States after Sept. 11.
This sort of broad discussion produces a wide range of policy options and recommendations that the country's leadership can draw upon, be it the complete overhaul of the intelligence services, as happened in the United States, or calls for bigger budgets and more agents.
In Russia, however, discussion of law enforcement, the military and the security services is increasingly suppressed under the pretext of safeguarding the swelling domain of state secrets. Instead, the president asks these agencies to reform themselves, offering such meaningful guidelines as a cap on the number of deputy ministers they can have. This approach has been repeated time and again, even though it is an axiom of public administration theory that when bureaucracies are asked to reform themselves they respond by asking for more staff and more money.
The federal government responds to each new catastrophe and terrorist attack by giving the intelligence and law enforcement agencies more money and broader powers. And the parliament obediently approves its requests. But taxpayers are kept in the dark about how efficiently these agencies operate and how they spend the money they already have.
Occasionally, legislators offer their own proposals. Valery Draganov, head of the State Duma committee on the economy, maintains that the crashes Tuesday were caused by mechanical error and has proposed that in order to improve safety, all of Russia's airlines should combined into a single, Soviet-style monopoly.
The point is not that the current system doesn't work. Law enforcement and the security services have thwarted a number of terrorist attacks, and no government is capable of stopping every attack.
The problem is that we have no way of knowing when an attack might have been averted if not for poor intelligence or tactics, lack of cooperation or sufficient resources.
The current policy of regularly broadening the already enormous power wielded by the intelligence and law enforcement communities and increasing their budgets will function at peak efficiency only if Russia once again becomes a totalitarian state in which everyone is encouraged, if not required, to inform on everyone else. Even the hardliners who dream of a return to totalitarianism know that this cannot happen without enormous sacrifices.
The people have a right to know what is being done to protect them and to shape the policies aimed at ensuring their safety.
TITLE: Being 'European' Demands New Type of Attitude
TEXT: This summer I have noticed a very positive development in the city that at first glance could be taken as a sign that St. Petersburg is getting close to matching the European standards that Governor Valentina Matviyenko has alluded to as the goal of her administration.
Surprisingly enough, a clean up of dirty yards in the city center has started. This year City Hall plans to spend 300 million rubles ($10.3 million) to put in order 10 yards on Nevsky Prospekt and clean up and paint 46 buildings on the city's main thoroughfare.
I have also noticed quite a lot of work being done in some yards on Gorokhovaya Ulitsa, one of the dirtiest areas in the heart of St. Petersburg close to Sennaya Ploshchad. And even half of the yard of the apartment where I live near Ploshchad Truda, which looked as if it had been abandoned for future generations to deal with, suddenly received a new layer of asphalt one day this month.
Even though, it covers only a half the yard, this is better than nothing.
That's what I thought until I saw a huge pile of excrement between the first and second floors of my staircase, which was obviously left by a construction worker who had been paid from the city budget to ennoble my living area. Good job.
It would be hard to imagine seeing the same thing on the staircase of a residential building in some European city, such as Vienna, London or Prague. My imagination might be bad, but it couldn't go that far.
A couple of weeks later, European standards seemed to have moved even farther away in my mind after I became a victim of a booby trap left by some dog right by the entrance to the staircase. Only a puddle, that appeared early morning in one of the numerous holes in newly laid asphalt, saved my shoe.
Unfortunately, the presence of such booby traps is one of the key indications how far St. Petersburg and its residents are from the state Matviyenko wants the city to be in.
More than three years have passed since the Legislative Assembly took action to force dog owners to equip themselves with small shovels and paper bags to clean up their pets' droppings. The idea died shortly after it was introduced as a bill in 2001, because legislators had no right to pass more or less sensible fines on this matter, according to the old federal Administrative Code that was still in force that year.
The new code says nothing that suggests the hands of officials are tied on such a matter.
This year, City Hall together with the local veterinary service is about to make another move. At the end of October, the Legislative Assembly expects to receive from City Hall a bill on keeping and protecting pets in St. Petersburg that introduces some rules and fines for people who like their dogs more than other citizens.
It is not clear why, but the authorities are cagey about announcing the exact size of the planned fines. Though Legislative Assembly officials are quite skeptical about discussing possible fines, the main question will be whether the police will bother to tackle such minor violations as fouling the sidewalk.
"Just try to imagine a policeman trying to get a fine from a Caucasian sheepdog," Yabloko member Boris Vishnevsky said. "Would he be brave enough to demand money while standing close to a creature that is ready to eat him?"
"It would be possible if it was a poodle of some sort, but I don't think it would work in general," he added. "You won't assign a policeman to follow each dog in the city."
Vishnevsky has a dog himself, so maybe this is the reason for his skepticism. I don't have one, so the only conclusion I have looking at the city's pavements and yards is that the city parliament should pass a law that would introduce very high fines for dog owners who ignore the interests of their neighbors. Maybe this would also be the way to influence the development of the civility for some construction workers who put themselves on the same level as pets.
TITLE: A Conflict That's Right Out of a Gogol Play
TEXT: Russia has disgraced itself in Chechnya. Now it seems bent on disgracing itself in South Ossetia.
The world community has never recognized the republic of South Ossetia, regarding it as Georgian territory. The fact that most residents of South Ossetia have been given Russian passports changes nothing. Imagine that Iran were suddenly to issue passports to the residents of Chechnya. Would that be sufficient grounds for Iran to annex the region?
Georgia needs to establish control of South Ossetia for economic as well as political reasons. The country had three gaping holes in its national borders: the port cities of Batumi and Sukhumi and the Roksky tunnel, through which narcotics and alcohol travel north into Russia, while oil and arms move south into Georgia. Nothing goes through the tunnel without the knowledge of the Russian peacekeepers.
The Ossetians and Georgians will never try to wipe each other out. But there is also a well-armed faction that has a vested interest in stoking the conflict. This powerful faction has done nothing to improve their standard of living.
At stake is more than just contraband. The budgets of Russia's southern regions contain generous funds for providing assistance to South Ossetia. Yet no legal mechanisms exist that would allow South Ossetia to receive these funds. I don't know how this money is divided up between the puppet regime of Eduard Kokoity, the Russian peacekeepers who in fact control the region, and the mercenaries who are now flowing into South Ossetia through the Roksky tunnel, but I'm sure there's plenty of money left over for the hired guns.
If the Russian Army knew how to fight, none of this would matter. And if the head of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, Major General Svyatoslav Nabzdorov-the modern-day Suvorov-is so great, maybe we should send him to Chechnya.
I'm no liberal. In fact, I'm an imperialist. I'd like to see Russia restored within the historical borders of the Russian empire. But before that can happen, the country must be fortified within its existing borders.
In this situation, can it really be in Russia's national interest to defend the Roksky traffickers?
To wage war successfully, you need three things: an army that knows how to fight; a strong country in the rear; and, preferably, a decent pretext for starting the war in the first place.
Russia has none of the above.
All we have is Nabzdorov, who tells us that the Georgian soldiers are shooting at themselves. Reminds you of the governor in Nikolai Gogol's play "The Inspector General," who assures Khlestakov that the noncommissioned officer's widow "flogged herself."
Do we really expect to win a war when we've got a character from a Gogol play leading the charge?
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.
TITLE: back on track after diversion
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: Dva Samaliota (the band's official English spelling), St. Petersburg's seminal 1990s band, is to play a concert to officially launch "Kar-Ra-Bas," its first album in four years.
Behind the album is the long history of difficult relations with a Moscow production team and a tragedy when Vadik Pokrovsky, the band's singer and guitarist, died of a liver condition last September.
Though released in late June, the bulk of the album was recorded in the spring of 2002 in a studio in the village of Gavrilkovo near Moscow after Dva Samaliota had signed a contract with a Moscow company, which the group describes as "profitable," while admitting that the band had to give away a lot of artistic control.
Since then another album, "Poo," was recorded but was only released in a limited number of copies to be given away to friends because of the contract that the band had signed with the Moscow impresarios. The production company also prohibited the band from performing because an overhyped comeback was being planned.
Dva Samaliota's members have mixed feelings about the album, which was considerably reworked in Moscow without the band's involvement.
"It's like remixes on unrecorded songs," said Anton Belyankin, who sings and plays bass with the band.
"I listened to one song, where a portion of the lyrics was simply cut out. There is the first verse, but it doesn't develop as it should. Then it is repeated again, and that is all. It's somewhat strange. It's not clear what the song is about."
Drummer Mikhail Sindalovsky sounds a little less critical.
"A lot of changes have been added to our work. It's not what Dva Samaliota really is, but anyway it's the songs written by Dva Samaliota and we play them in our own version ... It's still our work and our album, not anybody else's."
The album has been built around Pokrovsky's vocals, even if he did not take part in the band's previous studio work, the 2000 "Podruga Podkinula Problem" ('My Friend's Dumped Her Problems On Me'), as Pokrovsky quit the band in 1997 due to his drug problem, only to return in late 2000.
"The producers had an idea that Vadik is a star, and that's why he should sing all the songs," said Belyankin of the late singer.
The contract was finally dissolved earlier this year, "by mutual agreement," Belyankin added.
"Just imagine - we were not allowed to play at all; we'd only play at corporate parties, and of only one corporation at that," he said.
According to Belyankin, the release, first scheduled for fall 2002, was delayed many times because of the Moscow producers' approach.
"The owner of the company is a most honest, decent and respectful man, but he has no real understanding of show business," he said.
"So he hires typical Moscow producers, who are not interested in a product, they are interested in a process. For them it's important to spend as much money as they can."
The former management's last act was the album's launch concert at a Moscow club in June, which, as the band discovered, turned into something else.
"In reality it turned out to be Vadik Pokrovsky's memorial, mixed with the spirit of Moscow's show business, with portraits and candles," said Sindalovsky.
"It was not clear why we were playing our songs there. It was a memorial night to which the band was invited, being told that it was a launch concert for the new album."
Over the past 12 months the lineup has changed. Without Pokrovsky, vocals are divided between bassist Belyankin and trombone player Alexei Lazovsky - backed by drummer Sindalovsky - all of the band's classic lineup, plus trumpet player Andrei Kogan, a former jazz musician who joined the band in 1999. The most recent additions are Armen Chikunov, formerly of pop-rock band Ulitsy, on keyboards, and guitarist Andrei Gradovich who used to play with guitar-based indie band Jugendstil.
The band's brass section is frequently augmented by ex-Leningrad trombone player Vasily "Vaso" Savin, now with Chirvontsy.
"I sing the most songs now, because Vadik is no longer with us," said Belyankin.
"I think the band sounds very lively now, it's real rock and roll. We failed to grow up, that's why we keep on playing guitars." Belyankin also co-manages the trendy bar Datscha where he conducts rock parties on Saturdays as DJ Mirny Atom.
"I've always been a rock fan and now it is easier to agree with my friends," he said. "Gradovich is a real rock guitarist, even if he looks strange for a rock guitarist."
Sindalovsky agrees.
"Now we have the strongest sound in the past five years," he said.
"We've never had a real rock guitarist; he's a rocker, he plays solos, he turns up the volume, so we have to turn it down a little. It's loud and strong."
Dva Samaliota will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday at Red Club.
Links: www.dvasamoleta.ru.
TITLE: banned belarussian film plays in city
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: In the week that U.S. Senator John McCain called Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko a "dictator," the first post-Soviet independent film out of Belarus, "Mysterium Occupation," is showing in St. Petersburg after it was banned by authorities in its home country.
The film, showing at Dom Kino, deals with the Nazi occupation of Belarus during the World War II and the Belarussian guerilla movement.
The theme of guerillas - or partisans as they are known in this context - has always been crucial for Belarussian cinema during both Soviet and post-Soviet times. The country's main film studio, Belarusfulm, unofficially renamed "Partisanfilm," kept producing films about the courage and selflessness of the Belarussian people's resisting the enemy. Except for a few artistic masterpieces such as "Come and See" (1986) by Elim Klimov, the vast majority of such films developed along proscribed lines which did not allow doubts or ambiguous suggestions about the role that partisans played during the war.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union Belarussian cinema was dominated by Russian films and TV series. According to "Mysterium Occupation" director Andrei Kudinenko, all "state" Belarussian films are shot in Russia.
"In our official cinema, even the policemen are disguised as Russians policemen, while Belarussian car license plates are replaced with Russian ones," he said with irony. "Mysterium Occupation," however, represents a different trend. The film, whose budget barely topped $20,000, comprises three episodes about love taking place in Nazi-occupied Belarus.
The first, "Adam and Eve," tells the story of an experienced partisan recruiting a younger one named Adam. On their way to the forest, an old partisan decides to take his revenge on a "traitor," a deserter who prefers to stay with his mistress, Eve, rather than remaining with the troops. He tries to use Adam as a weapon but the boy develops a strange relationship with Eve.
The second story, "Mother," is about a dumb woman who loses her child and transfers her maternal feelings to a wounded Nazi soldier, while the third, "Father", is about a boy looking for his lost father.
The characters in all three episodes are seen by the director as archetypes, or metaphors, while every story is prefaced by a quote from the Bible.
"The stories which we tell in this film could have happened anywhere - in ancient Rome, in Chechnya, in any extreme conditions," the director adds.
Kudinenko says that the film does not judge who's right and who's wrong, "because war happens not only on the level of armies and ideologies, but also on the level of human beings, and even inside people."
This cold reflection makes viewers estimate the characters' deeds according to their personal characteristics and not according to which side of the war they were on. This is why it provoked the Belarussian government to put a ban on public showings of the film in Belarus.
According to an official letter the Belarussian Ministry of Culture decided that "the version of partisan movement in the film contradicts the true state of events, may offend feelings of veterans of war and have a negative influence of the upbringing of youth".
"Mysterium Occupation" was shot and produced by an independent Minsk-based studio "Navigator," known more for its production of advertisements promoting energy and water saving schemes, and financed by the Dutch fund "Hubert Bals Fond."
The original short version of the film was shown at the Rotterdam festival where it was highly acclaimed by the critics.
Encouraged by the response, Kudinenko turned it into a full-length feature film.
The film, already described by some critics as "contemporary folklore," was keenly awaited back in Belarus - until it was banned.
Kudinenko says the topic of occupation is crucial for the country; throughout its history Belarus was occupied - by Poland, Germany and Russia. This "traditional" theme has to have a significant impact on Belarussian culture, he says.
"We can't make national Belarussian cinema without first having discussed occupation. Even in our own way."
"Mysterium Occupation"
(Okkupatsiya. Misterii) (2004, Belarus) is showing at Dom Kino
through Sept. 1.
TITLE: chernov's choice
TEXT: "Coffee and Cigarettes," an off-beat film by Jim Jarmusch opens at the Avrora movie theater on Friday. The charming film, which the indie director made over 17 years, features all sorts of people that Jarmusch knows and has used in other films. Many of them come from the field of music.
Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, RZA and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes, all of whom essentially play themselves, have conversations over the coffee table in the 95-minute film.
So as not to hurt the audience's feelings, Russian promoters have not dubbed the film for once, but provided it with Russian subtitles. Although the film is already available on DVD in the city, the disk only features a dubbed Russian translation - so it is worth making the trip to the movies.
Red Club returns from its summer holiday with new art management and a concert by Dva Samaliota, who will launch its long-awaited new album on Friday. See article, this page.
Red Club has announced it will host gigs in the weeks to follow by the Legendary Pink Dots on Sept. 18, Jan Akkerman on Sept. 22 and Michael Gira on Sept. 22.
Meanwhile, Dva Samaliota bassist/singer Anton Belyankin has ended "Heavy Monday," his weekly rock party that the Griboyedov bunker club held on Mondays.
"The Griboyedov folks did not like rock," he explained this week.
Belyankin, aka DJ Mirny Atom (or "Peaceful Atom"), continues to spin his rock favorites, which include bands from Deep Purple to the Sex Pistols, at Datscha, the place he co-manages. He appears there, alongside DJs Mono and Denis Ska Messer, aka Spitfire/Leningrad drummer Denis Kuptsov, on Saturdays.
Incidentally, Kuptsov will be out of the city until mid-October while Spitfire and Leningrad tour Germany.
GEZ 21, an experimental music venue and a discussion club, part of the Pushkinskaya 10 alternative arts center, will reopen with a students' party on Sept. 1. National back-to-school day is officially known as the "Day of the Knowledge" but many students mark it with heavy bouts of drinking.
This is exactly what the venue offers - with some music from the formed-for-the-occasion band the Freak Pedagogues.
Fish Fabrique turns 10-years old this week, a fact that the club will celebrate with a "secret" friends-only party, contrary to tradition. Tequilajazzz, which usually marks its birthday with a concert on the same night, will not be playing this year.
"It's because we'll fly back on the very same day," said Tequilajazzz frontman Zhenya Fyodorov, adding that the band has been scheduled to play two concerts in Vladivostok this week.
"But we'll be there drinking and we'll arrange some funny music program on records."
However, according to the club's management, a bigger concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the oldest surviving local alternative club is being planned.
After the Scissor Sisters' live Russian debut earlier this month, there is a new reason to go to Moscow. The Fall, possibly the most influential of surviving British bands, will play its first and, sadly, only Russian concert at 16 Tons on Sept. 18.
Local club highlights this weekend include Wine (Fish Fabrique, Friday), Markscheider Kunst (Moloko, Saturday) and Billy's Band (Red Club, Saturday).
- By Sergey Chernov
TITLE: baby crocodile has a nice bite
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: Usually, sequels of successful productions rarely live up to the high expectations set upon them - at least when it comes to the movie industry. However, sometimes the contrary can be the case, and "little brother" turns out to be even more successful than "big brother." A good example is Krokodil ("Crocodile"), which recently opened its second restaurant at 24 Kazanskaya Ulitsa, formerly the location of a Brazilian restaurant. Apart from vestigal Latin American ornamentation on the walls there are few reminders of the former eatery. Guests dining at Krokodil II can choose from among three rooms, all differently furnished and decorated. The first room, done up in warm earth colors, is fitted with a bar and an open fireplace. Subdued light from two big chandeliers and decorative details like plants, paintings on the walls and two aquariums behind the bar lend a cozy atmosphere to this room.
The second room is predominately blue and provided with a screen and a small stage. The third room is the smallest and most intimate of the three and is decorated in bright red.
We chose the first room and were seated next to one of the windows looking out onto Kazanskaya Ulitsa. Our attentive waitress immediately handed us two menus and we took our time rifling through the restaurants impressive range of cocktails. This includes classics like Long Island Ice Tea and Pina Colada but also offers more extravagant and unusual drinks like Shosse v nikogda ("Highway to nowhere") an absinth and tequila-based mix with orange lemonade that might indeed lead to nowhere if you underestimate the strong effects of an absinth based cocktail. Since neither of us particularly likes the strong green liqueur so we both decided to order something less risky. While I finally settled on a sweet and fruity "Lambada" with Blue Curacao, banana liqueur and peach syrup (210 rubles, $7.19), my friend decided to go for the classic White Russian, made from vodka, Kahlua and cream (100 rubles, $3.42). Krokodil II not only has a wide selection of cocktails but is also able to boast of an impressive assortment of wines and liqueurs.
Like its forerunner on Galernaya Street, the restaurant serves a broad range of European and Russian dishes which makes selection difficult. For friends of vegetarian cuisine, Krokodil II offers a number of fresh and healthy starters such as the Italian "Mozzarella salad" comprising avocado and tomato slices and fresh mozzarella cheese on green lettuce seasoned with spicy Italian pesto (110 rubles, $3.77). My friend decided to have a "Swiss meat salad," a combination of cheese, mushrooms, thinly sliced ham and cabbage, and thoroughly enjoyed this light dish (120 rubles, $4.11). Since both my friend and I are soup lovers neither of us could resist trying a bowl of soup. My friend fancied the slivochny sup s ryboi i krevetkami, a thick cream soup made from prawns and salmon (100 rubles, $3.42), which was declared the unchallenged highlight of the evening - a mouth-watering experience! I did not regret my choice of ukha iz lososya, fish soup with salmon (120 rubles, $4.11), although it could clearly not compete with the cream soup. I felt it was a bit too lightly spiced.
Since Krokodil is not stingy with its portions we were both already full after our starters. And we did not have much time for digestion as our soups were followed immediately by the main dishes. We both had settled on shashlik from the grill - salmon shashlik garnished with fried vegetables (250 rubles, $8.56) for me and chicken shashlik (180 rubles, $6.16) with fried-potatoes (40 rubles, $1.37) for my friend. Again, we were not disappointed. The salmon was not a bit dry, as is often the case, but juicy, well seasoned and crispy on the outside. My friend was happy with his chicken shashlik, which was tender and evenly grilled, although he had to give in after a few bites since he was too full to finish it. The dessert section looked tantalizing but we could not for the life of us have one more bite.
On our way out, we also threw a glance at the restrooms to find another reminder of the Brazilian restaurant once located here - they were done up in dark blue from floor to ceiling and covered with yellow bananas. Whatever the merits of the place before Krokodil snapped it up, it can safely be said that the new owners have done a superb job. We both thoroughly enjoyed our evening, impressed by the quality of the food, staff and service.
Krokodil II, 24 Kazanskaya Ulitsa, Tel: 320-8777. Menu in Russian and English. Major credit cards accepted except for American Express. Open daily from 12 p.m. until the last guest leaves. Dinner for two, with cocktails: 1,280 rubles ($43.84).
TITLE: baltic countries parade top talents
PUBLISHER: Staff Writer
TEXT: The Baltic Sea Festival, which was held for the second time in Stockholm last weekend, showcases classical music, highlights the Baltic identity and campaigns for the endangered marine environment.
St. Petersburg's renowned Mariinsky Theater brought its acclaimed new production of Dmitry Shostakovich's "The Nose" to the Swedish capital to join Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir in the festival, which is hoped to become one of the region's top classical music events in the future.
As Esa-Pekka Salonen, the festival's artistic director and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, points out, the idea of the festival had been in the air for almost a decade, but a long conversation with his close friend Valery Gergiev three years ago helped to shape up the project.
The Baltic Sea is one of the most polluted on the planet. Bathing in its toxic waters, swarming with dangerous toxic algae, is a rather chancy enterprise. The marine environment is in an extremely serious state, and several species in the Baltic's ecosystem already face extinction. For instance, many female seals have been unable to reproduce because of high levels of pollution.
Salonen, however, had a more direct experience of Baltic pollution to discuss with Gergiev. The prominent Finnish conductor, who spends the summer months on the coast of his home country, had to forbid his own children from swimming in the polluted sea.
The first festival in 2003 was well-received and introduced musicians from Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Denmark and Germany. The Financial Times wrote about last year's event that the Baltic Sea Festival more than proved its artistic worthiness as a contender in the annual summer marathon of European music festivals.
The ultimate goal of the Baltic Sea Festival is to get all countries with Baltic coasts involved.
"Music is a universal language, it has no political leanings, and it effortlessly crosses the language barrier to reach people everywhere. That is why a major festival of this kind can develop unity around the Baltic Sea," Salonen said.
This year, owing to financial restrictions, the festival was held in a slightly reduced form, but the idea of holding it for a second time was to keep its central idea alive.
"Originally, we wanted to organize the festival once in every two or three years, but the first event proved such a success that we have reconsidered," Salonen said.
But both time and funding were limited for preparations this year.
"Basically, this year it was left to me and Valery to improvize," Salonen smiles. "But next year there will be more countries involved."
The Mariinsky's two performances of "The Nose" in Stockholm's Royal Opera House on Aug. 20 and 21 won rave reviews and an enthusiastic reception from the audience.
The production felt different, however, in the confined area of the Swedish venue from the way it had in its St. Petersburg home. The Mariinsky's spacious stage and hall give the show more air and flair, whereas certain episodes in Stockholm appeared almost claustrophobic. This wasn't damaging to the performance but gave it a different, somewhat suffocating, touch. This worked much to the show's advantage considering the plot of Nikolai Gogol's original short story, in which the tormented Major Kovalyov, semi-awake, rushes in a nightmarish fever across St. Petersburg to chase his runaway nose.
Verdi's "Requiem" was performed at the famous Blue Hall of Stadshuset, Stockholm's City Hall, where Nobel Prize winners gather for the festive dinner.
Berwaldhallen, the home to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, hosted the festival's opening with Salonen conducting Mahler's Second Symphony on Aug. 19 and the final performance on Aug. 22. This was designed as a virtual musical duel between Salonen and Gergiev. The concept of cultural integration and cross-fertilization reached its apogee during that performance, with Salonen conducting the Russian Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gergiev offering his take on the Finn Jean Sibelius' First Symphony with the Mariinsky.
The Mariinsky Symphony orchestra under the baton of Gergiev unveiled a vibrant, resonant and powerful interpretation of Sibelius's romantic and youthful yet ponderous First Symphony. The overwhelming Russian treatment, vigorous and forceful, was an astounding departure from the traditional sublime and soft approach to the sentimental work, which is often believed to pay tribute to Sibelius's admiration for Tchaikovsky. Following the rhythms with ease and precision, the orchestra stormed through the score to create a profound, full and resounding performance.
Similarly, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, offered a fresh and ingenuous take on Stravinsky's "The Firebird."
Unlike most Russian conductors, Salonen refrained from emphasizing the fairy-tale mysticism of Stravinsky's work which thrives in emotion and drama, and created a rich, intense but not at all dark sound with a distinct romantic touch and energetic radiance.
The concert on Aug. 21, in the Blue Hall in Stadshuset, with Manfred Honeck conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he is artistic director, offered an opportunity to make a comparison to the orchestra's sound under Salonen, who is its former artistic director.
The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra appeared remarkably softer and velvety under Honeck. The musicians produced a smooth, flexible and distinct sound under delicate Honeck's direction, whereas Salonen was aiming at a more dynamic, cerebral and emotional approach.
As the festival develops, new music is going to take a greater share in its program. Its organizers intend to commission works specifically for the event.
The organizers are also thinking of widening the festival's scope by creating satellite events in other places across the region. There is the possibility that next year a small series of events will be incorporated into St. Petersburg's annual "Stars of the White Nights" festival. Salonen is also keen to make the program more versatile by attracting jazz, rock and popular musicians to the event for a fuller, more embracing picture of the cultural scene.
This year's festival was jointly funded by the Swedish and Russian governments, and Russia has already confirmed its participation in next year's event.
Anita Makinen of the Finnish branch of the World Wildlife Fund, which held an environmental seminar concurrently with the festival, is pinning her hopes on the cultural heavyweights behind the festival to raise awareness of the plight of the Baltic.
"In my opinion, well-known and respected cultural people ... can establish good contact with the governments of their countries, and can convince them to make a difference," she said.
As St. Petersburg contributes in large measure to the contamination of the Baltic, being the biggest single source of pollution, the participation of Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater has a further meaning beyond the obvious desire to include one of the world's greatest classical music outfits in the event.
Russia is the only country on the Baltic Sea coast that is not a member of the European Union, but, at least in the opinion of Michael Tyden, director of Berwaldhallen and the festival's co-organizer, this doesn't hamper cultural integration within the region.
"We simply don't think borders; we think neighbors," he said. "Whatever the political climate may be, culturally we should become closer. Last year, at the first Baltic Sea Festival, it was the first time ever that the Mariinsky Theater came to Stockholm."
The festival's environmental element presents a wholesome concept with its artistic philosophy, yet the musicians aren't willing to set precise political goals.
"I am not naive to think that classical musicians can save the environment of a whole sea," Salonen said. "But I do think that if we bring the ideas into the minds of the people with this ecological theme running through the festival, we have a better chance to improve the situation in the future."
Salonen's attitude is very close to Gergiev's, who is not new to peace initiatives. Seven years ago amid the first Chechen war he brought renowned classical musicians to a festival in the rebel republic. Stressing that he refrains from expressing political motives and perceives his efforts as entirely humanitarian, he believes the arts are capable of bridging the hearts of leaders and citizens.
"Personally, I am ready to be a bridge but there are people who have to do what they are supposed to do," Gergiev said, referring to politicians. "I am a musician but I stopped my festival in Eilat, Israel, because too many people wanted the war. [The Israelis] said they didn't want to do it with the Arabs but I said I won't do it with just you, because it is meant to be a bridge of peace."
Tyden believes in the "Baltic identity," a historical and cultural affinity between the nations around the Baltics in a similar way to that which is said to exist between nations around the Mediterranean. "We share the history, we have been through wars and unifications, and much of the land around the sea has changed hands multiple times," he said. "Now it is the time to make it serve collaboration and closeness."
"We'll never become a great homogenous mass of people," Gergiev said. "Finns are different from Swedes, Swedes are different from Germans, and Germans are different from Russians, but because of our position we are close. Of course, we can close our eyes and pretend we are important on our own and don't needs friends - but this attitude leads nowhere."
Gergiev is convinced it is culturally important to bring the festival to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, also a Baltic territory, and hopefully as soon as next year.
"To build relationships we all need to see a wider picture," he said. "Russia and Kaliningrad should be a part of Europe culturally. The Mariinsky Theater already is but we all should be. Next year, I have invited the Finnish National Opera to bring Einojuhani Rautavaara's new opera, "Rasputin," to St. Petersburg.
TITLE: yekaterinburg's regal ghosts
PUBLISHER: Special to The St. Petersburg Times
TEXT: More than a refresher stop on the Trans-Siberian train route, there is at least one good reason to visit the historically rich city of Yekaterinburg. As well as being the final place on earth where Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II, stood and breathed, Yekaterinburg was during the Soviet era a closed military city - the scene of the famous U2 affair of 1960 when U.S. pilot Gary Powers was shot down and forced to admit to 'spying' on local military development plants. Now it is a fun, youthful city well worth the 38-hour train ride from St. Petersburg.
THE ROYAL CONNECTION
Endowed with a long history, the face of Yekaterinburg surprises by its broad Soviet-era avenues, regular jaunts of cafes and produkty shops (Groceries, or Food Store), and rather ordinary, if clean appearance. For many years Yekaterinburg was a Soviet army town and its exposure to tourism, especially foreign tourism, has occurred only in recent years.
Tourism rightly centers around the last royal family, the Romanovs. The family of Nicholas II were moved to a merchant house in the city in May 1918 and held under house arrest. Their last months before being shot on the orders of the Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov, in whose name the town was renamed Sverdlovsk during Soviet times, were pitiful and oppressive. Together with the three permitted servants, they were under constant abuse from the guards who mocked the former tsar as the vampire of the people and pronounced sexual fantasies involving the imperial princesses. Finally, on the night of July 16, 1918, the family was executed, taken to the Four Brothers Mine, 40 kilometers outside the city, and their abused corpses set aflame.
Although that prodigal son of Yekaterinburg, former president Boris Yeltsin (an inspiration for simple but unprintable graffiti all around the city), ordered the leveling of the merchant house when he was party boss of the city in 1977, some material salvaged from their house reconstructs the picture of a quiet, pious and kind family who were never quite grandiose enough for their birth-proclaimed situation, or pragmatic enough for the revolution-induced conditions. At a special ceremony in Moscow in 2000, Patriach Alexy II canonized the tsar and all members of his family.
Recently, a wooden chapel has been installed on the site of the former merchant house, and a memorial - a suitably splendid Church on the Blood - erected by its side. Not to be confused with St. Petersburg's faux-medieval style Church on the Spilled Blood, erected in memory of Alexander II's assassination in the late 19th century, the Yekaterinburg church built of marble and granite, and follows a 19th century-style of church architecture.
ORIENTATION
The long thoroughfare from the railway station - Arsenevsky Prospekt (formerly Ulitsa Sverdlova) that becomes Ulitsa Karla Libknekhta - will see you as far as Glavny Prospekt (Prospekt Lenina). All useful and interested buildings stand between this and the next parallel road, Prospekt Pokrovsky (Ulitsa Malysheva). A hundred meters on the right as you exit the railway station is Yekaterinburg's central metro station. For 10 rubles you travel two stops along the main line to the center .
There are budget hotels at the station and the Hotel Sverdlovsk immediately opposite. The convenient position by the station makes them useful for short stopovers. Otherwise, there is the 3-star Oktyabrskaya Hotel (from $69 per night) usually favored by foreign groups looking for a reassuringly comfortable pillow for the night. The nearest metro station is Ploshchad 1905 Goda. Visit www.hotels.msk.ru for cheap and easy-to-book accommodation.
For the more adventurous traveler the touts at the railway station that offer B&B-style "homestay" at private flats. The rate can range from $15 to $40 per person per night, depending on how much you can negotiate and how "expensive" you look to the tout.
Food options are evenly spread throughout the city center: most of the Russian, Georgian, and Asian cuisine restaurants crowd the junction of Ulitsa Karla Libknekhta and Glavny Prospekt. If you have little time and money, and Yekaterinburg is just a day stop, then a useful place to eat would be the stolovaya or diner diagonally opposite the Church on the Blood, and the other side of the road from the Molodyozhny Theater.
As for shopping, do it in Moscow.
THE CENTER
As well as the main post office, and the city's few Internet rooms, Glavny Prospekt is decorated with endearing cafes, bistros, shashlyk (kebab) bars, and open air beer halls. Strolling on a weekend evening will reveal a vibrant and exciting part of the city. Most locals tend to gather around the river, which Glavny Prospekt and Prospekt Pokrovsky cross. During the summer and early autumn the river banks are busily filled with beer tents, food vendors, and amusements. There you can even hire horses that seem completely oblivious to the amount of manure they generate for the ungrateful asphalt embankment.
Next to the dam on Pokrovsky Prospekt, there is a cultural center and the Museum of Decorative Arts. Most local heritage museums bring all the wrong kind of tears to my eyes, but this establishment has a superb collection of jewelry and furniture ornaments made from semi-precious stones, and an intriguing collection of iron sculpture, which includes an impractical but impressive iron pavilion that took first prize at the 1900 Paris World's Fair, the one that gave us Art Nouveau and the Eiffel Tower. For beef dish fanatics, a portrait of P.A. Stroganov also hangs there.
Another good option for more information about the Romanovs is the Museum of Local History, just behind the main post office at 46 Pokrovsky Prospekt.
FAKE JOY
Tour companies will continuously plug a big geographical factor of this Urals city. If you take a city tour (enquire at any hotel for details), you will probably be chaperoned to the Europe-Asia border stone, Yekaterinburg being by some estimates on that border. The municipal authorities have recently published plans to build a spectacular and gaudy installation-artwork there, about 40-50 kilometers from the city, for the benefit of tourists. Well, once they do, you can rush to visit it, and the restaurant, arcade, and bowling alley add-ons that are planned for the artwork. For now, all there stands is a plain, small stone, which will probably deflate rather than reward the determined tourist who make his way there now. The same could be said for the other trap often staged by tour operators to spice-up Yekaterinburg: the real Russian village of Koptelovo which has real Russian izba huts, and real Russian peasants. Almost any small village in Russia can cater for that charming want. Your calculations should include the fact that it is almost a day trip to Koptelovo from the city, and, unless you travel yourself by elektrichka train, it will cost a hefty fee.
EXTREME YEKATERINBURG
Determined to get more from the city? For nature treks, dog-sled or troika rides, or winter fishing trips that are professionally organized by a western company, you would do well to check on www.monkeyshrine.com. The Beijing-based operator is aimed at young, enthusiastic Americans, and perhaps plays a little on likely financial abilities. The website, however, is informative as regards to Yekaterinburg as well as to their services. HOW TO GET THERE A manageable 38-hour train ride from St. Petersburg will comfortably deliver you for the price of 1,284 rubles platskart (open wagon), or double that for a coupe. Trains leave on even dates of the month. By plane, Pulkovo has an under 4,000 ruble- single ticket deal, if you book ahead. Links: for wide-ranging tourist info in English www.ekaterinburg.tv/index.htm
TITLE: the word's worth
TEXT: Kakaya naglost`!: What a nerve! What gall! What cheek!
H++"ÎÓÒÚ, is one of those tricky words. It's easy to spot, difficult to define and often miserable to translate.
You know what it is when you see it. ç++"ÎÓÒÚ, is when the guy in the Mercedes 600 SL uses the nanosecond as you switch gears to zip in front of you. éÌ ~ÛÚ, Ì ÔÓo/oo@ÂÁ++Î ÏÂÌfl! ä++Í++fl Ì++"ÎÓÒÚ,! (He nearly clipped me! The nerve of the guy!) Or it's the co-worker who promises to finish a report before leaving on vacation (a camping trip in the wilds of the Urals, where there is no cellphone coverage) and instead sends a few assorted notes by e-mail - which you get after he's left the office. éÌ Ì++ÔËÒ++Î ÏÌÂ: "ü Ì ÛÒÔÂÎ o/ooÓÔËÒ++Ú,, ÌÓ ÏÓË Á++ÔËÒÍË - "ÂÌË++Î,Ì(o)Â. "T(o) 'Òfi Ì++ÔË-Â-, Á++ '(o)iÓo/ooÌ(o)Â." ä++Í++fl Ì++"ÎÓÒÚ,! (He wrote to me: "I didn't finish writing it up, but my notes are brilliant. You'll write it all up over the weekend." What gall!) Or the cheeky date who expects you to pay half the bill for dinner (since you're an American feminist), but also take care of his other needs before the last metro car leaves the station. éÌ ÒÍ++Á++Î, ~ÚÓ Ï(o) ÛÒÔÂÂÏ o/ooÓ Á++Í@(o)ÚËfl ÔÂ@ÂiÓo/oo++ ' ÏÂÚ@Ó! ÑÂÒflÚ, ÏËÌÛÚ! ä++Í++fl Ì++"ÎÓÒÚ,! (He said we'd have time before they closed the subway passages. Ten minutes! Can you believe the cheek of the guy?)
ç++"ÎÓÒÚ, is insolence, impudence, gall, brass, balls and sheer chutzpah taken to the nth degree. It can refer to actions, words or manner - or an infuriating combination of all three. It used to be rare, but now seems to be Moscow's official motto.
In conversation, not only people, but institutions and places can be Ì++"Î(o)Â. åÓÒÍ'++ ÒÚ++Î++ Ì++"Î(o)Ï "Ó@Óo/ooÓÏ (Moscow has become an obnoxious city). åÓÈ Üùä - Ò++Ï++fl Ì++"Î++fl ÍÓÌÚÓ@++ ' åÓÒÍ'Â (my housing office is the rudest office in Moscow).
The person who does this is Ì++"ÎÂ^: Depending on the context and the affront, he is an upstart, a wise guy, a smart aleck or a brassy SOB. éÙË^Ë++ÌÚ - Ì++"ÎÂ^. èÂ@ÂÔÛÚ++Î Ì++-Ë Á++Í++Á(o), Á++.(o)Î ÔÓÎÓ'ËÌÛ .Î,o/oo Ë Â^fi Ó.Ëo/ooÂÎÒfl Ì++ ÚÓ, ~ÚÓ Ï(o) Ï++ÎÓ ~++Â'(o)i ÓÒÚ++'ËÎË! (The waiter was a real SOB. He mixed up our order, forgot half of it and then was offended that we left a small tip!) éÌ Ì ÚÓÎ,ÍÓ Ô@ËÒÚ++'++Î ÍÓ ÏÌÂ, ÓÌ Â^fi ÏÂÌfl Ë Ó.Á(o)'++Î. ç++"ÎÂ^! (Not only did he make a pass at me, he called me names on top of it all. What a SOB!)
Sometimes it seems that people are just born this way, but according to Russian, you can pick up this nasty trait over the years. The verb is Ì++"ÎÂÚ,/Ó.Ì++"ÎÂÚ,. ü Ò ÌËÏË .ÓÎ,-Â ÌÂ .Ûo/ooÛ ÒÓÚ@Ûo/ooÌË~++Ú,. - Ì++~++Î++ ÔÎ++ÚËÎË 'Ó'@ÂÏfl, ÔÓÚÓÏ - ÓÔ++Áo/oo(o)'++ÎË, ÌÓ ËÁ'ËÌflÎËÒ,. "ÂÔÂ@, Ô@ÓÒÚÓ ÌÂ ÔÎ++ÚflÚ. é.Ì++"ÎÂÎË! (I'm not going to work for them anymore. First they paid on time, then they were late but apologized. Now they just don't pay. They've really gotten out of hand!)
The problem with people like this is that you can't fight them; they play too dirty. ãÛ~-Â Á++ÔÎ++ÚËÚ, ËÏ ÔÓ Ò~fiÚÛ. "ÌËi i'++ÚËÚ Ì++"ÎÓÒÚË ÒÛo/ooËÚ,Òfl Ò ÚÓ.ÓÈ Á++ ÌÂÛÔÎ++ÚÛ. (You'd better just pay their bill. They'd have the nerve to take you to court for failure to pay.) In these cases, Russians say: á++.Ûo/oo,, Í++Í ÒÚ@++-Ì(o)È ÒÓÌ (forget about it, like it was a bad dream).
However, when some Ì++"ÎÂ^ blocks your car for an hour in the parking lot, you might do what a Russian cop once suggested to me: Take your darkest red lipstick and write something edifying on the windshield.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
TITLE: Investigation Faults Tens in Abu Ghraib
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: WASHINGTON - More than two dozen soldiers and contractors attached to a military intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq approved or took part in abuses of Iraqi detainees, an Army investigation has found in one of the most comprehensive looks to date at the scandal that damaged America's image around the world.
A few of the abuses amounted to torture, Major General George Fay, one of the chief investigators, said Wednesday.
"This is clearly a deviation from everything we've taught people on how to behave," said General Paul Kern, who oversaw the investigation. "There were failures of leadership, of people seeing these things and not correcting them. There were failures of discipline."
Officers in charge of the prison were negligent in the training and management of their troops, and some may face criminal charges, Army officials said. Until now, just seven lower-ranking military police soldiers have been charged.
In Philadelphia, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry repeated his call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign and for President Bush to appoint an independent commission.
"Harry Truman had that sign on the desk and it said, 'The buck stops here,'" Kerry said. "The buck doesn't stop at the Pentagon ."
The White House has blamed the scandal on a group of rogue soldiers who, it said, were acting on their own.
The new report identifies 27 people attached to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, which oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib, who are accused of complicity in the abuses. Of those, 23 were soldiers and four were civilian contractors working for the unit.
The investigation report says the violent and sexual abuses-particularly those captured in the now-famous pictures of naked and frightened prisoners-were mostly the work of a group of guards and military intelligence personnel who were not conducting interrogations but instead amusing themselves.
The report distinguishes this group of abuses from mistreatment committed during actual interrogations, which also occurred.
Some 15 of 23 soldiers from the 205th who are accused of abuse were interrogating prisoners and wrongly believed they were using approved techniques to question them, Army officials said. One such unapproved technique was interrogating a detainee naked, the report said.
The Army's findings appear to widen the number of people who may face charges or disciplinary action for the abuses at Abu Ghraib to more than 50 . Criminal allegations against civilian contractors will be referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
Investigators recommended that five officers with command responsibilities, including Col. Thomas Pappas, commander of the 205th, and Lieutenant. Col. Stephen Jordan, director of the Abu Ghraib interrogation center, face possible disciplinary action, Army officials said.
While these individuals did not directly take part in abuses, their poor leadership contributed to the conditions that allowed them to occur, officials said.
Most of the people are not identified in the investigation report. All of them may face charges or disciplinary action for abuses that occurred between late July 2003 and early February 2004.
"We discovered serious misconduct and a loss of moral values," Kern said.
The report blames the abuses on several factors: "misconduct (ranging from inhumane to sadistic) by a small group of morally corrupt soldiers and civilians, a lack of discipline on the part of leaders and soldiers" and a "failure or lack of leadership" by higher command in Iraq.
Kern said Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior U.S. officer in Iraq when the abuses occurred, was responsible for "the things that did or did not happen" but not directly culpable for the abuse.
The report attributes some problems to the influence of officials with "other government agencies"-a term frequently used by the Pentagon for the Central Intelligence Agency . CIA interrogators and contractors were also at Abu Ghraib.
TITLE: Thatcher's Son Under Arrest
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was arrested Wednesday and charged with helping to finance a foiled plot to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.
Thatcher, a 51-year-old businessman who has lived in South Africa since 2002, was arrested at his Cape Town home shortly after 7 a.m. and taken before the Wynberg Magistrate's Court, where he was charged with violating South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act.
"We have evidence, credible evidence, and information that he was involved in the attempted coup," police spokesman Sipho Ngwema said before the arraignment. "We refuse that South Africa be a springboard for coups in Africa and elsewhere."
Thatcher was placed under house arrest and given until Sept. 8 to post bail of 2 million rands, or nearly $300,000.
Defense lawyer Peter Hodes said Thatcher was arrested on suspicion of providing financing for a helicopter linked to the coup plot.
"He will plead not guilty," Hodes said.
TITLE: IN BRIEF
TEXT: Bush's Lawyer Resigns
WASHINGTON (AP) - One of President George W. Bush's top lawyers resigned from his campaign Wednesday, a day after disclosing that he had given legal advice to a veterans group that has been airing TV ads challenging Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War service. The guidance included checking ad scripts, the group said.
Benjamin Ginsberg, who also represented Bush in the 2000 Florida recount that made the Republican president, told Bush in a letter that he felt his legal work for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had become a distraction for the re-election campaign.
The Kerry campaign portrayed Ginsberg's departure as another sign of ties between the Bush campaign and the veterans group.
No Protest in the Park
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A judge on Wednesday denied anti-Bush protesters permission to rally in Central Park on the eve of the Republican National Convention, leaving open the question of where possibly hundreds of thousands of demonstrators will go after a march through midtown Manhattan.
The decision by New York Supreme Court Justice Jacqueline Silbermann is the latest in a running legal battle between the protest group and the city. She sided with city officials, who say they fear the grass on the park's Great Lawn would be damaged and security could not be ensured for the huge crowd.
Republicans are holding their convention in the famed Madison Square Garden from Saturday to Thursday.
Expert on Death Dies
PHOENIX (Reuters) -- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-born psychiatrist and author who gained international fame for her landmark work on death and dying, has died in her suburban Phoenix home. She was 78.
Kubler-Ross, who wrote the groundbreaking 1969 book "On Death and Dying," died Tuesday night of natural causes while surrounded by close friends and family, colleague David Kessler said on Wednesday.
Kessler said Kubler-Ross, also known for her pioneering work in hospice care, died with children playing in the room and the television she loved to watch on in the background.
TITLE: Ex-Russian Lashko Diving for Australia
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATHENS - Irina Lashko will try to make it another g'day for the Australian divers.
Lashko, who represented Russia at the 1992 and '96 Olympics before becoming an Australian citizen, advanced to the final of 3-meter springboard with the top score from Thursday's semifinals. Chinese stars Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia were second and third.
Chantelle Newbery already pulled off an upset on the 10-meter platform - the first diving gold medal for Australia in 80 years. Lashko hoped to give the divers from Down Under a sweep of the women's individual events.
Rachelle Kunkel of West Valley City, Utah, barely qualified for the final, holding off Olena Fedorova of Ukraine in the final round.
Both ended with the same dive - a reverse 1 1/2 somersault with a half twist. Fedorova received slightly better marks, but it wasn't enough to overtake Kunkel for 12th place. The American totaled 504.51 points in the preliminaries and semifinals, edging Fedorova by 1.23.
"Totally nerve-racking," Kunkel said. "I knew it was going to be tight coming down to that last dive. To be among the top 12 in the world is unbelievable."
The top 12 advanced to the final, with scores from the preliminaries wiped out. Kunkel went to the evening with 209.76 points, still just the 11th-ranked qualifier and a long shot to end the U.S. drought at the diving pool.
America's top springboard diver, Kimiko Soldati, was eliminated in the preliminaries.
Kunkel was hopeful that she could make up ground on the leaders with her tougher dives, which are not allowed in the semis.
"My optional dives are my better dives," Kunkel said. "I can go out there relaxed, spin hard and fast."
The United States divers have yet to win a medal in Athens, and there was just one event left after the women's springboard. The only time the Americans failed to win a diving medal was the 1912 Stockholm Games.
TITLE: Medalist Kozlova Sparkles Across Oceans
PUBLISHER: The Associated Press
TEXT: ATHENS - Different countries, different routines, different partners. Always the same results.
Anna Kozlova wondered if she would ever win an Olympic medal.
The Russian emigre from St. Petersburg finally broke through Wednesday night, earning a bronze medal with American teammate Alison Bartosik in the duet final of synchronized swimming.
Russians Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Yermakova won the gold with 99.334 points. Japan's Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda took silver with 98.417.
Kozlova and Bartosik totaled 96.918 points for their tribute to Greek mythology, featuring a Medusa theme. The pair had snakes on their sequined green, gold and white suits and headpieces.
The United States bounced back from Sydney, where it failed to win a medal for the first time since the sport was added to the Olympics in 1984.
"A lot of it is actually feeling you can get there, not feeling like you're the underdog," Kozlova said. "I think this will really encourage the young swimmers a lot. They know there's a chance to break through."
Kozlova was fourth in duet with a different partner four years ago. She sat out in 1996 after moving from Russia to the United States, and was fourth in the event competing for the Unified Team in 1992.
"I thought I was extra-cursed," she said. "I thought I was always going to be in fourth place."
The Americans knew it would be nearly impossible to surpass the Russians and Japanese in Athens, so they set their sights on a bronze medal. Kozlova, who now lives in San Jose, California, and Bartosik, have been fourth at most international competitions since they teamed up three years ago.
"It's incredible," Bartosik said. "It's our first medal together."
The final 12 teams repeated everything they did in Tuesday's preliminary free competition, only this time there were medals to be won.
The Americans created serpent images by intertwining their legs and arms in the water while music from "Gorky Park" and three other dramatic compositions blared on the loudspeakers.
"We tried to emote and not just swim the technical part of our program," Kozlova said.
They climbed out of the outdoor pool to await their scores, then gave synchronized waves to the sellout crowd as a fan shouted "Way to go, USA!"
The red-sequined Russians scissor-kicked their way through a lively routine to "Don Quixote," popping out of the water at exactly the same time.
"It has not sunk in yet that we're the gold medalists," Davydova said. "All those years of preparation and it's over in a flash."
Davydova and Yermakova held up the red, white and blue Russian flag as their scores flashed on the board - three 10.0 marks for technical merit from the U.S., Ukraine and Swiss judges, and 10.0 marks from all five judges for artistic merit.
"We've been preparing for this for 15 years," Yermakova said. "We're both 21, so imagine what a chunk that is out of our lives. It's a great joy to win the Olympic medal."
The Japanese duo, who have been competing together for eight years, jumped into the water, landing nearly on all fours, instead of the usual entry dive.
Synchronized swimming is a judged sport, where marks often seem like they're based on a country's reputation as much as they are on what happens in the pool. It can take years for lightly regarded nations to move up in the rankings.
TITLE: China Says Russia Could Win 20 More Golds
PUBLISHER: Combined Reports
TEXT: ATHENS - China, guarding against complacency despite its strong showing, estimated Thursday that Russia could still win 20 more Olympic golds and grab second place in the Athens medals table.
"The risk of China not being able to hold on to second place is very great," Xiao Tian, a Chinese Olympic Committee vice president told a news conference.
"I am not being falsely modest here, but speaking after analyzing numbers," he said, citing boxing, rhythmic gymnastics and a range of athletics events where Russia has title hopes.
On Tuesday afternoon, Russia had fallen to a new low, slumping to 11th place on the medals table after Irina Korzhanenko had her shot-put gold withdrawn after testing positive in a drugs test, leaving the team with a mere six gold medals.
But by the end of Wednesday's action, Russia had climbed back up to fifth by winning eight golds in just over 30 hours.
Nineteen-year old Mikhail Ignatyev led the charge, coming from nowhere late Tuesday afternoon to win the men's track cycling points race.
Weightlifter Dmitry Berestov then took the gold in the 105-kilogram class before Yelena Isinbayeva received a standing ovation in the Olympic stadium after winning the pole-vault final with a world record 4.91 meters. On Wednesday, Olga Slyusareva came in first in the women's cycling points race, Alexei Michine and Khasan Baroyev won their respective divisions in Greco-Roman wrestling, while favorites Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Yermakova won the gold in duet synchronized swimming (see above). Olga Kuzenkova rounded off Russia's best day yet in Athens, taking gold in the women's hammer.
As of 7.30 p.m. Thursday Russia had climbed to second in the all-medals table with 54 medals, behind the United States (77) and just ahead of China (52).
"Our rivals, the United States and Russia, are quite prominent in the remaining sports," Xiao said earlier. "We can clearly see that the Russians are catching up." Chinese sports leaders in Athens and officials back home have consistently sought to dampen gold medal mania, urging their often nationalistic media to curb the hype.
Xiao said Russia could still finish the Games with at least 30 golds, even if some titles did not pan out.
Asked if its success at Athens would cause China to raise its target for 2008 when Beijing hosts the Games, Xiao said: "We do not make gold medals the be-all and end-all of the Olympics and to do so goes against the guiding spirit of the Olympic movement."
"China still lags behind America and Russia in overall sports power and this gap cannot be shrunk in a short time."
(Reuters, MT)
TITLE: OLYMPIC DIARY
TEXT: WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS
HANDBALL - Croatia meets Hungary in Friday's semifinals, while Germany meets 2000 gold medal winner Russia. The final will be played Sunday.
EQUESTRIAN - The Olympic equestrian competition ends Friday with medals at stake in individual show jumping. (Reuters)
HOCKEY - Defending champions the Netherlands take on Australia in the men's final on Friday while Spain and Germany battle for bronze. (Reuters)
FREESTYLE WRESTLING - The final part of the Olympic wrestling competition gets under way Friday when the freestylers take over from the Greco-Romans on the mats at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.
The freestyle discipline permits holds and moves below the waist as opposed to the Greco-Roman style in which all the action is on the upper body, the added scope allowing freestylers more opportunity to throw their opponents.
Russia, the U.S. and Iran have traditionally been considered the powerhouses of the freestyle discipline which has a more international following, as opposed to the Greco-Roman style where mainly former Soviet bloc countries dominate.
As in Greco-Roman, bouts will be contested in seven weight categories up to 120 kilograms. Russia dominates the heavier categories with Buvaysa Saytiev, the leading competitor in the 74-kilogram class over the past decade, a threat in his weight. (Reuters)
TRACK AND FIELD - Win or lose, the women's long jump, which takes place Friday, is all about Marion Jones. After failing to earn the right to defend her sprint titles, Jones has just this one individual event to look forward to. She may struggle, however, to improve on her Sydney bronze in an event that she has never made a priority. Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva will challenge for gold. (Reuters)
- If Friday's women's 10,000 meters comes close to matching the entertainment of last year's world championships, the Olympic stadium crowd will be in for a treat. Ethiopia's Adere is unfit but Werknesh Kidane took the silver in Paris and will be backed up by 1992 and 2000 Olympic champion Derartu Tulu. No African has ever won three Olympic titles. (Reuters)
- The men's marathon will conclude the Athens Games on Sunday, just over two hours after the men start running in the dusty little farming town of Marathon 40 kilometers east of Athens. The runners will take a detour to get up to the 42.195 kilometers of the modern race. (Reuters)
CLOSING CEREMONY - They will be dancing in the aisles at the Olympic closing ceremony when Greece throws a giant Bacchanalian bash for athletes and fans.
The hosts have even laid on the most beautiful full moon of the year for the Games' spectacular farewell in their spiritual homeland. With 250,000 balloons cascading down on the futuristic stadium and fireworks exploding across the night sky, Olympians will finally get a chance to let their hair down on Sunday night to mark the end of the greatest sports show on earth. (Reuters)