LOCAL NEWS

KHODORKOVSKY PLAYING POLITICAL HAND

MOSCOW - Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky is openly raising the political stakes in his fight against snowballing investigations into his company, warning that the state risks turning back the clocks to totalitarianism and defending his moves to fund opposition parties as being key for maintaining stability.

"For me, the situation is clear - the law-enforcement structures decided that this was the best moment to show they could come to power," Khodorkovsky said in an interview broadcast on TV Center late Sunday.

"Today we must definitely decide if our country's future will be totalitarian. If we hold strong, this will be resolved once and for all," he said.

SELEZNYOV RUMORED TO GRAB MATVIYENKO'S JOB

Should Presidential Representative in the Northwest Region Valentina Matviyenko win the race to become St. Petersburg's next governor, sources within the Russian Renaissance Party say that it's leader, State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov, would be interested in replacing her.

NATIONAL NEWS

MOSCOW POLICE PAN SERIAL-KILLER THEORY

MOSCOW - At least seven young women have been strangled to death this month in Moscow, prompting fears that a serial killer is on the loose.

But investigators said Monday that they doubt that the murders are the work of one or even two different serial killers because they have little in common with one another.

IN BRIEF

Dirty Cops

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - At a meeting with journalists Monday, Vladimir Zubrin, the deputy general prosecutor for the Northwest Region, said that last week's arrests of two St.

LOCAL BUSINESS

REPORT: PUTIN TARGET TO BE WITHIN REACH

The size of the country's economy can be doubled much sooner than the deadline set by President Vladimir Putin, according to the Interactive Research Group, or IRG.

According to IRG, the State Statistics Committee greatly underestimates the shadow economy and all that is needed to see gross domestic product rise is to cut taxes and calculate GDP in dollars rather than rubles.

IN BRIEF

Sibur Ups Tire Output

MOSCOW (Prime-Tass) - The country's top petrochemical company Sibur saw its tire production increase by 9.5 percent on the year in January-June to 8.

PIRACY PEDDLERS FEEL THE PINCH

According to amendments to regulations on the sale of goods that were signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Tuesday, every CD, DVD and cassette must now display the name and location of its manufacturer and that manufacturer's license number.

"I think the Press Ministry has done a great job to push this legislation through," said Chris Abel-Smith, a film industry veteran and a founding member of the Russian Video Association and Russian Anti-Piracy Organization.

TWO FORMER OFFICIALS CONVICTED OF BRIBERY

MOSCOW - Two former high-ranking Economic Development and Trade Ministry officials were convicted of bribery Friday by the Moscow City Court.

Anatoly Lifanchikov served as head of the ministry's agriculture-industry department from 1992 to 2000.

OPINION

IF NOT HUSSEIN OR BIN LADEN, THEN WHO IS IT?

In all of the debate over the disputed claims in U.S. President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, we must not forget to scrutinize an equally important, and equally suspect, reason given by his administration for toppling Saddam Hussein: Iraq's supposed links to terrorists.

PUTIN FALLING SHORT IN EMULATING EXAMPLES

With an eye toward December's State Duma and May's Presidential elections, President Vladimir Putin used his annual address to the nation to put forward a new national goal - to double Russia's GDP in the space of only ten years.

OIL MAJOR TREATED AS A TRAITOR

Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, officially Russia's richest man, has been financing opposition parties and has expressed ambitions to leave business in 2007, which has been read as an intention to enter politics and perhaps one day run for president.

So the Kremlin decided to curtail Khodorkovsky's ambitions by arresting his long-time associate Platon Lebedev and searching Yukos offices.

TIME TO TURN WEST AND TO START PLAYING BY RULES

It is a sight that a few years ago would have been unthinkable: liberal human-rights and civil-society activists publicly defending a Russian oligarch against attacks on his business empire.

WORLD

SPORT WATCH

Armstrong Again

LUZ-ARDIDEN, France (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong showed extraordinary determination to recover from a fall on the final climb of the 15th stage of the Tour de France on Monday and seize back control of the race.

The American, bidding for a record-equalling fifth Tour victory after dominating the last four years, appeared to get his brake lever snagged on a young spectator's bag as he duelled with German rival Jan Ullrich.