LOCAL NEWS

SMUGGLERS CHEATED TAXMAN

Federal customs investigators have uncovered a criminal group of inspectors smuggled significant amounts of cargo from Finland into Russia, local media reported this month.

The group that was operating from the Torfyanovka and Brusnichnoye checkpoints located on the Finnish-Russian border about 180 kilometers west of St.

RUSSIA 'NOT WORST BALTIC POLLUTER'

Russia and St. Petersburg in particular are not to blame for the lion's share of pollution in the Baltic Sea, an expedition into the Gulf of Finland by a ship carrying representatives of the local office of the international environmental organization Green Cross has found.

MENTION OF PRUSSIA GETS POLITICIANS' BACKS UP

Russian politicians have given a sharp rebuke to a proposal by German Christian Democrat party deputies to develop the former German province of East Prussia, which was divided up and assigned to Poland, Lithuania and Russia after World War II.

Seventy-one CDU deputies, which is in opposition in Germany, offered to make Russia's Kaliningrad region and its capital Kaliningrad, which for 700 years was the German city of Koenigsberg, a territory with a special status expanding it to the borders of former Eastern Prussia.

IN BRIEF

Pumane Recognized

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The girlfriend of Alexander Pumane, a car bomb suspect from Pushkin outside St. Petersburg who died Sept.

NATIONAL NEWS

HALF OF CITY MEN DIE BEFORE PENSION AGE

Every second St. Petersburg man dies before reaching the official retirement age of 60, city doctors say.

"In Russia, among the working-age population, 3.3 men die for every woman that dies," Vitaly Dorofeyev, head of information and analytical center of the St.

NAMES FOR NEW BRIDGE SOUGHT

A public contest has been announced to name a new bridge across the Neva River, the first that will not have to raised for ships to pass, that is to open next month.

3 DETAINED FOR IRKUTSK MURDERS

MOSCOW - Three suspects have been detained in two Siberian cities in connection with last month's murder of two campaign workers for the nationalist-populist Rodina party in Irkutsk, authorities said Tuesday.

Irkutsk regional deputy prosecutor Igor Melnikov told Itar-Tass that two suspects had been arrested in Irkutsk and one in Omsk, and they were being questioned about the Sept.

INQUIRY URGED INTO SOLDIERS' MOTHERS

MOSCOW - State Duma Deputy Viktor Alksnis accused the respected Union of Soldiers' Mothers Committees on Wednesday of being "a foreign agent" seeking to undermine the defense capability of the armed forces and said he will demand a federal investigation.

Kommersant Ordered to Pay Alfa Bank $11M

MOSCOW - The Moscow Arbitration Court on Wednesday ordered Kommersant's publisher to pay $11 million to Alfa Bank for a report about "serious problems" at the bank during last summer's small banking crisis.

Alfa, the country's largest commercial bank and part of Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group empire, claimed the July 7 report in Kommersant caused its business to suffer and asked for 321 million rubles ($11.

LOCAL BUSINESS

U.S. FEARS A CHEAP, FORCED YUGANSK SALE

WASHINGTON - The United States has said it is concerned about reports that the main asset of beleaguered Russian oil giant Yukos might be sold at a price below its fair market value. The Russian government plans to auction Yuganskneftegaz next month to raise cash to meet Yukos' crippling tax bills.

LUKOIL EYES SHARE SALE

The head of oil major LUKoil, Vagit Alekperov, said Wednesday he expected U.S. oil firm ConocoPhillips to boost its share in the Russian company to 10 percent by the year end as planned.

Will the Real Phaeton Please Stand Up?

Faeton, the second largest gas station chain in the city, has launched a massive legal attack against German car manufacturer Volkswagen AG and its Russian subsidiaries for VW's use of the Phaeton name on its W12 and V6 luxury-class models.

At the same time Volkswagen AG has launched a parallel case against Rospatent (the federal agency for patents and trademarks) criticizing the agency's almost two-year delay in answering VW's request for the Phaeton trademark.

OPINION

Why Russia and the EU Need Each Other

Will Russia and the European Union build a lasting, productive partnership or will our relationship be based on short-term benefit only? That is a question to which there is only one sensible answer. We will be building a partnership that can weather the storms of the 21st century.

We are bound by geography and a common cultural heritage of which Pushkin, Shostakovich and Malevich form an inalienable part.

CULTURE

OUT OF AFRICA

The audience are static and silent, absorbed by the puzzling performance on the stage. A few whispers can be heard here and there as spectators try to figure out what is behind the exotic dances they are watching, dances seemingly based on unfamiliar themes.

"It's the revelation of a mysterious part of Africa yet to be discovered by most average Russians," a man with a painted face, dressed in a grass skirt, holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other announces in fluent Russian shortly after the performance.

ALL THAT GLISTERS...

A rendition of "Don Juan" by Bulgarian director Alexander Morfov at the Komissarzhevskaya Theater swept five awards at the Golden Sofit, the city's top theatrical awards ceremony this week.

JOINING FORCES

Dobranotch, an odd local folk band that blends Balkan folk, Klezmer music and Arab rhythms, is a far cry from the Irish-folk trio that it was when started out in the late 1990s. On its third album, "Dobranotch," released last month, the band documents its new style and lineup.

"We mix Moldovan and Balkan elements with Jewish and Oriental ones," said violinist Mitya Khramtsov, Dobranotch's sole original member.

NEWSPAPER MAN

When it comes to journalism, Vitaly Tretyakov has quite literally written the book. Pulling on Marlboros in his cramped office last week, the former newspaper editor parried questions about the recently released "How to Become a Famous Journalist" until he decided that he'd had enough.