LOCAL NEWS

PUTIN FOCUSES ON HIS ACHIEVEMENTS

MOSCOW - In what sounded like an early campaign speech, President Vladimir Putin announced ambitious plans for boosting economic growth and revamping the government - goals that extend far beyond the 10 months he has left before the presidential election.

Putin used Friday's state of the nation address, the fourth and final one of his term, to sum up the achievements of the past three years and set three impressive objectives to be met by 2010: doubling gross domestic product, eliminating poverty and modernizing the armed forces. (Stories, page 3.)

The president also stirred up a political buzz with the kicker at the end of his speech, when he promised to consider forming a cabinet of party members loosely based on the results of December's parliamentary elections.

GARDENS GO UP IN SMOKE FOR 300TH

A number of people who tend garden plots on municipal land in the Petrodvortsovy region received an unwelcome 300th-anniversary surprise from the local administration when they discovered that many of their plots and the small sheds located on them to store their instruments had been burned out.

PUTIN'S NAME TURNS UP IN GERMAN CRIME PROBE

MOSCOW - Caught in the center of a Germany-wide money-laundering investigation is a St. Petersburg real estate company whose advisory board once included President Vladimir Putin.

The Hessen, Germany-based company SPAG was among the 28 firms and homes raided by police in Hessen, Hamburg and Munich last week.

GOOSE-MIGRATION CENTER UNDER HUNT THREAT

OLONETS DISTRICT, Northwest Russia - The Olonets district in southern Karelia hosts the largest springtime stopover of migrating geese in Europe, when hundreds of thousands of white-fronted and bean geese rest and feed on their way to their summer home in the Arctic.

NATIONAL NEWS

PETERSBURG TAKING NO CHANCES OVER SARS

While there has yet to be a confirmed case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Russia, St. Petersburg health officials are trying to ensure that the city's 300th-anniversary celebrations don't change this.

With a large influx of visitors expected to come to the city for the jubilee, including tourists and official delegations from other countries, health officials are distributing questionnaires to foreign officials in an attempt to determine which of these might present a greater danger of having been exposed to the virus during their travels.

KALININGRAD CELEBRATION SQUASHED

MOSCOW - With an eye of St. Petersburg's 300th birthday extravaganza, Kaliningrad decided to throw a big bash next year to celebrate the city's founding 750 years ago as the German settlement of Konigsberg.

DUMA-BASED CABINET IS PUTIN'S HIGHLIGHT

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin's proposal to form the next cabinet "based on the parliamentary majority" was the political highlight of his state of the nation address Friday. But, even in setting this goal, the president's speech was strategic rather than tactical and short on concrete details, politicians and analysts said.

IN BRIEF

Unscheduled Stop

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - One of the first commuter trains to arrive at the new Ladozhsky train station, which was officially opened on Saturday in the southeast of St.

LOCAL BUSINESS

G8 AGREES TO STALL ON IRAQ DEBT

DEAUVILLE, France - The top world economic powers do not expect Iraq to start any kind of debt repayments before the end of 2004 at the earliest, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and European officials said Saturday.

In a development that may affect United Nations negotiations on a U.

UES PLANS TO ORGANIZE SHARES-FOR-SHARES TENDER

MOSCOW - UES jumped more than 5 percent, reaching a 17-month high Friday on news that the company stock may be swapped for shares in generating companies that will emerge from sector reforms.

CITY'S EXCHANGES COMPETING WITH MOSCOW'S

Although there are three stock exchanges currently operating at present in St. Petersburg, the city's stock-market sector being the second largest in the country after Moscow, for the most part, their importance remains dependant on the capital's trading floors. And even when St. Petersburg's exchanges manage to produce outstanding results in the development of a particular sector, they soon find themselves faced with a need to work closely with the Moscow stock exchanges if they want to expand the scope of their activities.

PUTIN AND CHUBAIS ATTEMPTING CLEAN UP FOR HOUSING SERVICES

MOSCOW - It is the last sector of the communist economy untouched by reform, and with each passing day it creaks closer to collapse. It is, in the words of President Vladimir Putin, "a complete mess.

OPINION

WHERE TO GO NOW THAT WAR IS OVER?

Editor,

Given the corrupt nature of the former Iraqi regime, any company or government foolish enough to have entered into an agreement with that government should not be surprised that the contracts would have no validity. LUKoil can waste its money on high-priced lawyers, but LUKoil should be realistic and forget the legal machinations as it will bring the company nothing.

PUTIN'S POLITICAL FICTION

IN the best traditions of the genre, President Vladimir Putin saved the main domestic policy sensation of his state of the nation address for the very end.

IT'S TIME FOR REFORM FROM THE TOP

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin's fourth annual address was interrupted by rounds of applause seven times. The clapping, though lukewarm, was meant to commend Putin for what he has achieved since taking the reins of power from his increasingly impotent predecessor.

CHECHNYA WAR POSITIONS NOW MORE EXTREME

AS the war in Iraq was developing, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's chief spokesperson on Chechnya, told journalists that Moscow's staunch support of the Iraqi regime could help solve the Chechen problem by "consolidating the people" of the rebellious republic.

Chris Floyd's Global Eye

Language Barrier

"How best to govern the state? First rectify the language."

- Confucius.

Last week, we learned that the U.S. administration lied about the extent of Halliburton Corporation's involvement in the "reconstruction" of Iraq. Officials in the administration of U.

WORLD

Concerns in China Over SARS Diagnosis

BEIJING - China on Monday reported its lowest toll of fresh SARS cases since since April 16, four days before officials admitted a SARS cover-up and began reporting more openly, but the WHO said it was still failing to include "a lot" of suspected sufferers with milder symptoms.

Just 12 new cases of the deadly flu-like disease in the 24 hours to 10 a.