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With preparations well underway for a Nov. 21-22 Kremlin-backed congress of nongovernmental organizations, local NGOs - like many of their counterparts throughout Russia - are sharply divided on the question of whether or not to participate. According to congress organizers, the purpose of the $1.5-million Civic Forum is to help establish a dialogue between the state and the fledgling NGO sector. About 4,000 NGOs from around the country have been invited. At a Moscow news conference earlier this month, congress organizers stated that the Kremlin needs "advice and support from society for the upcoming, difficult structural reforms." "We need a functioning society, not a society of passive channel surfers who don't believe that anything depends on them," said the head of the organizing committee, Kremlin-connected political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky. |
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 Slim, dark-haired, 12-year-old Yegor Putra knows that someday he might just become president of the Russian Federation. "There are three things I'd like to change in the country," Yegor said. |
All photos from issue.
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Worry over anthrax-infected letters like those discovered in the United States has prompted the Kremlin to step up scrutiny of its mail, Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman said. Reiman said letters received from abroad are coming under careful scrutiny, with checks taking place at the international post office, the Moscow office and the final destination. |
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A Tank for Moscow PSKOV, Northwest Russia (SPT) - A World War II-era Soviet tank was recently recovered from a swamp in the Pskov Region will be installed as an exhibit at the World War II memorial at Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow, Interfax reported Friday. |
 MOSCOW - The Prosecutor General's Office said Monday that it has charged Railways Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko with abuse of office that resulted in the loss of 70 million rubles ($2.3 million) in government funds. The prosecutor's office also said it was looking into the nonpayment of $370 million in taxes by the Railways Ministry in 2000 and whether ministry money went to build homes for individuals with no connection to the ministry. |
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 MOSCOW - The Russian Orthodox Church offered prayers this weekend for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States, following Orthodox tradition of commemorating the dead on the 40th day. |
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MOSCOW - The State Duma has given preliminary approval to a new presidential bill on citizenship that critics say will cause problems for migrants and former Soviet citizens who hope to obtain Russian passports. The bill, passed in a first reading last Thursday by a vote of 273-117, increases the period of time a foreigner must live in Russia before being able to apply for citizenship from three years to five. |
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ISS Blast-Off BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Two Russian cosmonauts, a French astronaut and her teddy-bear mascot blasted off Sunday for the International Space Station to replace its escape ship and conduct other experiments. |
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 The Interros group has announced that it is going to sell an 80-percent stake in St. Petersburg's BaltUNEXIM bank to a number of companies affiliated with the president of the bank, Yury Rydnik. According to a press release issued by the bank, the purpose of the sale is to broaden the bank's circle of strategic investors, increase its capital and to strengthen its position as one of the leading banks in the Northwest region. |
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MOSCOW - A jet-lagged President Vla dimir Putin returned from China via Tajikistan on Monday and showered praise on his government for what he called "better than expected" economic results this year. |
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The City Property Committee (KUGI) has reached agreement with the northwestern office of state savings bank Sberbank to repay in kind its $20 million that was used to finance construction of a new arena for the 2000 World Ice Hockey Championship. According to the agreement, which came into effect on Monday, the company that operates the arena, Sports Palace, will hand over the responsibility for its debt to KUGI in exchange for 20-percent ownership in the arena property, while Sberbank will not be called on by KUGI to pay rent for the 260 offices it has in St. |
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THE world's biggest problem at the moment is terrorism, and Russia's is falling oil prices. At least this is the impression one gets from reading the Russian and international press. |
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RUSSIA'S new Profit Tax Chapter comes into effect on Jan. 1, and I thought it would make sense to discuss some of the changes the new provisions will have on the taxation of foreign legal entities. Foreign legal entities are taxed on the profits they generate from engaging in activities through a permanent establishment or on the income from Russian sources. One of the goals of the drafters of the new chapter was to clarify the rules governing those activities that give rise to the creation of a permanent establishment, and to ensure that these conform with international tax practice as recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). |
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 The Tengiz field in Kazakhstan is considered one of the greatest petrochemical finds ever. But it is also one of the most challenging. As Christopher Pala reports, there's a lot more to extracting oil there than boring a hole in the ground - like dealing with 200-meter towers of fire and millions of tons of eye-burning sulfur. |
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Wall of Steel WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. trade panel is about to decide whether the beleaguered American steel industry has been seriously harmed by foreign imports, a first step toward imposing tariffs. Representatives of foreign steel companies say they expect that the U.S. International Trade Commission, meeting Monday, will find that the American industry has been hurt. |
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Editor, As I sit and watch the U.S. response to the inhumane acts of terrorism carried out on Sept. 11, I find myself haunted by the sentiments spoken by Henry Kissinger more than two decades ago. Astute readers will recall that Kissinger wore two hats during his service in the Nixon administration, as a secretary of state as well as national security adviser. |
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FIFTEEN years separate us from the time when any voluntary association of citizens was the object of the most intense scrutiny on the part of the state. |
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I'VE noticed that people who are waiting to get new apartments from the city usually start going mad after about the second or third year of futile attempts. Their efforts, which initially were focused on finding a suitable place to live, gradually change into a desperate quest to find any place to live. |
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Idiot Wind Anthrax is riding the autumn winds in America. Where does it come from? Some say from Osama bin Laden's terrorists - although for people who can murder 7,000 victims in a matter of minutes, this piecemeal parceling out of spores seems a bit on the retail side. |
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 KEIZESS, Omsk Region - For Christian, a 12-year-old boy from Germany's Ruhr River valley whose childhood was destroyed by his sexually abusive father and brothers, peace and safety must have seemed a distant dream. After years spent in juvenile facilities and reform schools, Christian finally has a chance to realize that dream. But it proved more distant than even he could have imagined. Christian now lives in Keizess, a village about 300 kilometers north of Omsk in Western Siberia, and more than 4,000 kilometers from home. |
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 Mafia-types, thieves, beggars, fortune-tellers - these are a few of the stereotypes that Roma tend to inspire today in Russia. It is precisely this kind of thinking that Margarita Marshinnikova, head of school No. |
 One figure from Russian history who needs no introduction, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is without a doubt the most commemorated person in St. Petersburg. Ten years after the collapse of the system he helped create, plaques recording the places he visited can still be found all over the city. |
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Helicopter Crash KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban said Monday they had found the wreckage of a crashed helicopter in southern Helmand province, as well as indications two other helicopters had come in to try to remove it. |
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Sampras Pulls Out STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - Pete Sampras' season has come to an abrupt end after he pulled out of next week's Swiss Indoors tournament. An ATP spokesperson said Sunday that the former world No. 1 had informed the organizers of the event in Basle that he would not take the wild card they had offered him. |
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Fifth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic pounded his way past unseeded Chilean Nicholas Massu to advance into the second round of the St. Petersburg Open on Monday evening at the Sport and Concert Complex. |
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