LOCAL NEWS

CITY TO CHOOSE GOVERNOR ON SEPT. 21

In a vote confirming what most political analysts had been suggesting would be the case, the Legislative Assembly voted in favor on Monday of a regulation setting Sept. 21 as the date for gubernatorial elections.

The regulation passed by a vote of 41 for and only one against, while a competing version, suggesting Oct. 5 as the date and submitted by Yabloko faction lawmaker Natalya Yevdokimova, drew the support of only 11 deputies in the chamber. Yevdokimova had backed her proposal by saying that it would provide prospective candidates more time to campaign.

"This is one of the most acceptable versions at which we could have arrived," Vadim Tyulpanov, the Legislative Assembly speaker, said at a briefing in the parliament Monday.

MARIINSKY DESIGN WINNER RAISES EYEBROWS, DOUBTS

The future of the Mariinsky Theater is black marble and translucent golden glass to a design by a French architect - but jury members were not entirely happy with the choice.

Limonov Set Free From Jail In Saratov

MOSCOW - Eduard Limonov, the writer and head of the radical National Bolshevik Party, walked free Monday after serving almost 25 months of a four-year sentence on an arms conviction - and immediately headed for the Volga River for a dip.

Four hours after his 9:20 a.m. release from the Engels correction colony - and after the swim - Limonov called a news conference in nearby Saratov to announce he will put writing on the backburner to focus on politics.

NATIONAL NEWS

MOSCOW'S POLICE FACING INVESTIGATION

MOSCOW - The entire staff of the Moscow police force's criminal investigations directorate was suspended Monday as federal investigators continued to look into allegations that officers from this unit were running an extortion ring.

As many as 700 officers from the unit, known as MUR, were suspended while city-police inspectors review their personal files to determine whether or not they are qualified for their jobs.

CEREMONY REMEMBERS EARLY PRISON CAMPAIGNER

MOSCOW - A ceremony on Friday at the German School in Moscow in honor of Friedrich-Josef Haass, who, until his death 150 years ago, worked to improve the lot of Russia's prisoners, featured a speech by the man who perhaps most carries on his work today: presidential adviser on pardons Anatoly Pristavkin.

IN BRIEF

Seleznyov Long Run

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov announced on Monday that he intends to run for President in the 2008 Presidential Elections, Interfax reported.

Seleznyov made the announcement on Monday while meeting with students of the Surgutsky State University as part of a working tour of the Khanti-Mansyly Autonomous Region.

LOCAL BUSINESS

JAPAN SWEETENS PIPELINE DEAL

VLADIVOSTOK, Far East - Japan, keen to become a major Russian oil importer, has decided to provide Moscow with aid of up to 900 billion yen ($7.54 billion) to develop an oil field in Eastern Siberia, a Japanese economic daily reported Saturday.

The planned aid comes after Russia and China vowed last month to beef up cooperation in the oil and gas sector - including the construction of a huge Russia-China oil pipeline.

MANCHESTER DELEGATION BUILDING BUSINESS LINKS

A Manchester business delegation, in St. Petersburg from June 29 to July 4 as part of the official Manchester Week in St. Petersburg program, will place an emphasis on creative industries, according to the delegation's head Anil Ruia.

U.S. COURT RULES RUSSIAN FRAUD RING GUILTY

MOSCOW - Four executives of a currency-trading firm that was run by a former adviser to Moscow region Governor Boris Gromov and had offices in the World Trade Center were found guilty last week of cheating investors out of more than $100 million in a scheme that surfaced soon after the Sept.

MEGAFON WINS TENDER FOR SPY PHONE

MOSCOW - The government has asked GSM operator Megafon to operate a secure network especially for government agencies such as the security services, the Defense Ministry and the police.

BP SEALS HISTORIC TNK TIE-UP

LONDON - BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, agreed on Thursday to invest $6.15 billion in its joint venture with Tyumen Oil Co., $600 million less that initially planned, in part because of debt its partner took on to purchase additional assets.

DERIPASKA BUYS UP FARMS IN HIS CHILDHOOD REGION

MOSCOW - Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska is returning to his roots, buying up a number of collective farms in the region where he spent his childhood.

Deripaska has created an agricultural holding in the Ust-Labinsky area of the fertile Krasnodar region, where he grew up while living with his mother's parents.

Russia Making a Risky Gambit For Leadership in Gas Business

MOSCOW - Russia and the United States are locking horns in Central Asia in a politically charged battle for global gas supremacy that will largely determine the fate of Gazprom, the government's single largest source of budget revenue.

Moscow, via its "commercial foreign ministry," has been moving to regain control of the vast gas reserves of Central Asia in order to buy Gazprom time to replenish its own reserves at home and maintain its role as a dominant player abroad - particularly in Western Europe, where Russian gas accounts for a quarter of the market.

OPINION

BANKING SECTOR REFORM: WORK STILL IN PROGRESS

Russia's banking sector and its development are frequent topics of vigorous debate, and the range of views and opinions expressed tend to be very broad.

It is safe to say that implementation of the strategy for banking-sector development, approved by the government and the Central Bank at the end of 2001, is progressing apace.

FEDERALISM IS NOT THE BEST FUTURE FOR RUSSIA

The perception of bureaucracies as inherently conservative and inert is common, but mistaken. Bureaucracies welcome change because they tend to grow as a result, to sprout new divisions and subdivisions.