LOCAL NEWS

CITY SET TO ISSUE VISAS AT AIRPORT

Officials at the St. Petersburg branch of the Foreign Ministry and City Hall announced last week that they are ready to begin issuing tourist visas directly at Pulkovo International Airport for foreigners planning to spend less than 72 hours in the city. However, representatives of the Foreign Ministry in Moscow cautioned that the new system could still take some time to get started.

Local officials, though, think that the system could begin operating on Sept.

POLL HIGHLIGHTS MEDIA'S WEAKNESS

Twelve percent of St. Petersburg journalists "regularly" produce stories involving hidden advertising, according to a survey conducted by the locally based Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Scientists earlier this year.

One Expat That Even Stalin Couldn't Scare

PODOLSK, Moscow region - Gulag prisoner No. 3566 once opened a letter from his wife that was smuggled into the camp and found a small black-and-white photograph of a little girl. He knew it had to be his daughter, who was born three months after his arrest in June 1949.

One of his fellow prisoners was an artist and drew him a picture of the girl in colored pencil.

NATIONAL NEWS

PUTIN CELEBRATES WITH UKRAINE

KIEV - Rows of tanks rolled and columns of soldiers marched to a central Kiev square on Friday as the leaders of Russia and Macedonia attended the display celebrating 10 years of independence made possible by the demise of the Soviet Union.

About 6,000 troops marched in a four-hour parade up the chestnut-tree-lined Khreshchatyk Street to Independence Square, along with about 300 pieces of military equipment, including new Ukrainian-made T-84 tanks and three types of rocket launchers.

IN BRIEF

Weather Warning

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - The State Hydrometeroloical Center issued a storm warning for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast for the period from Aug.

LOCAL BUSINESS

MINISTRY RULES UES SCUTTLED POWER DEAL

MOSCOW - The Antimonopoly Ministry said on Friday that it had found Unified Energy Systems (UES) guilty of engaging in noncompetitive business practices by refusing to grant grid access to Rosenergoatom, the owner and operator of nine of Russia's 10 nuclear power plants.

IN BRIEF

$1 Bln Jeep Plan

MOSCOW (Vedomosti) - Steel giant Severstal plans to build a new $1 billion jeep facility at its subsidiary Ulya novsk Automotive Plant (UAZ) by 2008.

BALTIC OIL SCENE NOT SO SIMPLE

IN a recent Washington Post comment the confrontation over Russian crude-oil supplies to Lithuania was presented as an important political choice for President Vladimir Putin. I believe that this choice is a false one.

While the overall conclusion that Russia should choose economic engagement over bullying its neighbors is sound, the situation in Lithuania should not be used as a litmus test of Russia's progress toward civilized behavior.

DIRTY LAUNDRY A BLESSING FOR SEVERSTAL CHIEF'S FOES

THIS month, Russian housewives who had so far only read in glossy magazines about divorce scandals in the West had the opportunity to watch a homegrown version of "Santa Barbara.

OPINION

THE CREATION OF A NEW INFORMATION OLIGARCH

AUGUST has become an ominous season for Russian politics. This year, even though the month has thankfully so far been free of crises and catastrophes, is no exception. Two major events occured, both of them closely connected to one another.

The first was President Vladimir Putin's denunciation of the country over which he presides.

OFFICIALS ARE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE

IT is late August and so, naturally, that means it is time for the national lumberjack championship held in Karelia. More than 100 professional lumberjacks from all over the country will compete to see who is the fastest and best at climbing, and chopping down, trees.

Police Encounters Spark Reader Commentary

In response to "Diplomats Allege Police Brutality," Aug. 17.

Editor,

It is unfortunate that our police do not seem to have been given the order from above. President Vladimir Putin is popularizing our city by inviting global politicians here and helping to prepare a tourist boom for our tercentennical - and then something like this.

WORLD

WORLD WATCH

Taliban Bans Internet

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's hardline Taliban ruler has banned international aid organizations from using the Internet in a country that has no proper postal service and few working telephones.

In an edict issued Saturday, Mullah Mohammed Omar also barred government departments and domestic aid organizations from using the Internet, including to send e-mail.

SPORTS WATCH

Maier Improving

VIENNA (Reuters) - World Cup and double Olympic ski champion Hermann Maier is no longer in danger of losing his broken lower right leg, the Austrian state broadcaster ORF said Sunday.