LOCAL NEWS

MARIINSKY SETS DESTROYED IN BLAZE

A fire early Friday morning in a warehouse belonging to the Mariinsky Theater destroyed scenery for at least 30 of the theater's productions, causing damage valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars and jeopardizing the start of the theater's new season.

COURT SET TO HEAR ELECTION LAWSUIT

The St. Petersburg City Court on Friday accepted a lawsuit filed Thursday by Vice Governor Anna Markova against Valentina Matviyenko, the frontrunner in the race for city governor, accusing her of violating election legislation and abusing adminstrative resources at the highest level, and demanding that her name be removed from the ballot papers.

WHEN IT'S ICY COLD, HERE'S THE HOTLINE

Leaking roof? Rats running around the building? No hot water, or no water at all? Any of these problems sound familiar? They do to thousands of St. Petersburg residents.

Now, the common complaints that are such a fact of life here are being collected and published by an organization that says it is trying to force city authorities to take action on the often desperate conditions that have plagued some of the city's buildings for years.

RUSSIANS CLAIM THE TOP PRIZE AT VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

VENICE, Italy - A Russian film about the harrowing reunion of a father with his sons after a 10-year absence, won the Venice Film Festival's top prize, the Golden Lion, on Saturday.

NATIONAL NEWS

FIRST SAILOR FROM SUNKEN SUB BURIED

The first burial of a sailor who died when the K-159 submarine sank took place at the Serafimovskoye Cemetery on Friday.

Over a hundred people, including relatives, colleagues, friends, came to pay their last respects to Yury Zhadan, 29.

Zhadan's mother, Nadezhda, was hysterical with grief at her son's funeral, and needed medical attention beforehand.

DUMA GEARS UP FOR KEY BUDGET SESSION

MOSCOW - After a two-month summer break, the State Duma returns for its fall session on Tuesday to discuss the draft 2004 federal budget and dozens of other bills, including those on foreign trade and commercial secrets.

COMMUNISTS FINALIZE DUMA ELECTIONS LIST

MOSCOW - The Communists on Saturday picked an anti-Semitic nationalist and an Agrarian to join Gennady Zyuganov at the top of their party list, as they shaped their electoral bloc going into the Dec. 7 parliamentary election.

After a 14-hour congress held on the premises of the agricultural company Rosagropromstroi, which is headed by party financier Viktor Vidmanov, some 300 party members approved the trio.

REGIONAL VOTES PROVIDE NO SURPRISES, INCUMBENTS WIN

MOSCOW - Two out of the three incumbent governors held onto their seats in weekend regional elections that offered no surprises.

Novgorod Governor Mikhail Prusak and Omsk Governor Leonid Polezhayev won 78.

Zhirinovsky Picks Academics To Run

MOSCOW - Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the flamboyant leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, will run for parliament on Dec. 7 alongside two obscure scholars, he said Monday.

The No. 2 and No. 3 names on the party's list are Pavel Chernov, a political science professor and retired security service colonel, and Zhirinovsky's spokesman Alexei Ostrovsky, a 27-year-old graduate of the Moscow Institute of International Relations.

LOCAL BUSINESS

U.S. CALLS ON GAIDAR'S EXPERIENCE IN IRAQ

MOSCOW - The architect of Russia's at times disastrous transition to a market economy, Yegor Gaidar, has been invited by the American-led coalition authority in Iraq to help craft a recovery plan for that country's war-torn economy, Union of Right Forces co-leader Boris Nemtsov announced at his party's congress Monday.

PENSIONERS ABOUT TO BE SWAMPED BY 55 OPTIONS

MOSCOW - The Finance Ministry announced Friday a list of 55 private companies with the right to manage billions of dollars in pensions savings, amid criticism that such a profusion will confuse people and leave control of the funds in the government's hands.

UES LOOKING TO MOVE INTO EX-USSR POWER

MOSCOW - Russia's national power monopoly is planning an "aggressive" expansion into the former Soviet Union, the company's chief said on Sunday night.

"We have very aggressive plans, and these plans concern most of the [Commonwealth of Independent States] nations," Unified Energy Systems CEO and State Duma candidate Anatoly Chubais told Rossia television late Sunday.

RUSSIANS LOOK TO LAUNCH LEANER SATELLITES

MOSCOW - Russian scientists say that they could slash the price of putting satellites into orbit around Earth by a factor of 10, simply by making them 10 times lighter.

Belarus Sees Gazprom Price Hike

MOSCOW - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Saturday ordered the government to analyze a proposal by government-controlled Gazprom to stop selling to neighboring Belarus at low Russian prices.

Gazprom threatened on Friday to charge Belarus more for gas after the landlocked country refused to set up a joint venture to manage pipelines running through it to Poland and Germany.

OPINION

TOUGH TO DETERMINE WHO IS IN THE MINORITY

What really matters in the political life of the country has nothing to do with "virtual electoral passions" and everything to do with the conflicts raging within the executive branch. Our Whigs and Tories do not do battle in parliament, but behind the scenes in the Kremlin.

IT SEEMS GUSINSKY'S DEAL HAS DISINTEGRATED

Greek law-enforcement organizations handed their Russian colleagues a most unexpected gift on Aug. 21, when they arrested Vladimir Gusinsky at the Athens international airport.

PROPERTY REDISTRIBUTION IS NOT THE SOLUTION

According to some surveys, 77 percent of Russian citizens support the idea of revisiting the results of privatization. It should come as no surprise that the majority of the population favors a redistribution of property, as it simply reflects the fact that the majority is poor, while a minority is very rich.

TWO DIFFERENT PRICE TAGS FOR THE SAME OIL MAJOR

Foreigners tend to get fleeced in Russia. They end up paying inflated prices for hotel rooms, museum tickets, taxi rides - simply because they have much more money.

Chris Floyd's Global Eye

Strange Attractors

Who carried out the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States? People in the pay of Saudi Arabia, trained and maintained by the secret services of Pakistan. What did George W. Bush do to punish these accomplices to mass murder on American soil? Nothing. Instead he killed more than 30,000 innocent people - in Iraq.

WORLD

BRITAIN TO SEND 1,200 MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON - Washington's closest ally, Britain, announced on Monday a reinforcement of some 1,200 soldiers to Iraq as U.S. President George W. Bush warned of a long fight ahead on the "central front" of the terror war.

Following a U.

NEW RUSSIA COACH GETS FIRST POINT

DUBLIN - Ireland's hopes of booking an automatic place in the finals of Euro 2004 next summer suffered another setback when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Russia at Lansdowne Road on Sunday.