LOCAL NEWS

NATO IN BALTICS 'DUBIOUS'

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said NATO's expansion into the Baltic States is of dubious merit and, although Russia is not bothered by it, it fears NATO air patrols over the former Soviet republics could accidentally spark confrontations.

"From a military point of view, NATO military jets are no threat for Russia," he said Saturday. "The problem is not the planes, the geography cannot be changed even though they are capable of reaching St. Petersburg in 2 to 3 minutes."

"The thing is these four plans can not intercept al-Qaida, Taliban or anyone else," he added. "The only thing they can intercept is a mythical Soviet threat.

GYMNAST RECALLS 1954 OLYMPICS

MOSCOW - Galina Shamrai, a member of the first Soviet team to go to the Olympics, says the Russian team has it much easier this time around. Her team endured blatant hostility from referees and other athletes at the 1954 Helsinki Games and knew defeat meant more that just returning home without a medal.

In-Fill Construction Spreads Into Center

In-fill construction that is already destroying trees, open spaces and yards on the outskirts is about to spread into the center of St. Petersburg, with a leading city construction company announcing last week its intention to build an elite residential complex in the Mikhailovsky Park behind the Ethnography Museum.

NATIONAL NEWS

IN BRIEF

Convict Recaptured

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) - A convict Denis Nikitin, who escaped from the hospital of a city prison on Wednesday morning, was detained the next afternoon, Interfax reported Monday, citing the police.

Nikitin, 27, was serving his fourth term in prison after being convcited of theft.

MONKEY FAMILY ROBINSON GETS FRIGHT

Two of six monkeys that were transferred from the Leningrad Zoo to an island in the middle of the Yelagin Island's Central Park of Culture and Rest in early July tried to escape their temporary home early this month.

PUTIN SLASHES THE TOP BRASS

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has signed a classified decree cutting the number of deputy defense ministers from 10 to four and restructuring the ministry's central staff, the Kremlin press service and ministry officials said Monday.

The presidential press service posted a brief statement on the Kremlin web site saying the number of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov's deputies will be slashed to four, including two first deputies, and that there will be four departmental heads with powers similar to that of a deputy defense minister.

KURSK FAMILIES EYE STRASBOURG

Families of sailors who died in the Kursk submarine disaster in August 2000 are going to the European Court of Human Rights next autumn to force Russian authorities to reveal the truth about the cause of the disaster, Itar-Tass reported Thursday, the 4th anniversary of the disaster.

LOCAL BUSINESS

SELA FOUNDER SAYS HONESTY AND ACTIVE LIVING PAY

A businessman should be honest about his goals in order to succeed, says Arkady Pekarevsky, the co-owner and vice president of the popular clothes store chain Sela.

"I am convinced that in order to be successful, a businessman should be sincere, and honestly express his position and the final goals. [Business] shouldn't be run through a set of complicated intrigues, because people are smart and feel when someone is trying to deceive them," he said.

NESTE STATIONS SWITCH TO CITIBANK ATMS

Neste St. Petersburg gas stations will be equipped with Citibank automatic teller machines, replacing the International Moscow Bank ATMs.

Citibank will install 30 cash machines at Neste gas stations by the end of 2004, said Citibank's spokesperson Lyudmila Botsan in a telephone interview Monday.

IN BRIEF

Pulkovo Rail Link

ST. PETERSBURG (Prime-Tass) - Construction of a rail link to St. Peters-burg's Pulkovo Airport from the Balti-isky Station will cost an estimated 1 bil-lion rubles ($34 million), the regional Oktyabrskaya railroad reported Friday. Construction costs do not include the costs of the carriages, the railroad noted. Currently, the railroad company's experts are preparing a feasibility study for the link, which will be considered by state-owned Russian Railways.

Meat Imports Down

KURSK (Bloomberg) - Russia, the world's largest poultry importer, has bought 30 percent less meat from abroad this year, as import quotas took effect, Itar-Tass said, citing Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev.

GALLERIES AIM TO DEVELOP THE CITY FINE ART MARKET

... His dark, strange images are masterworks of technical virtuosity. Russians still place a heavy emphasis on mastering the craft of one's art, something that has, regrettably, been lost in the West.

OPINION

THE WINNING 'SPIRIT' OF THE 1930S?

Two seemingly unrelated events happened last week, which taken together explain a lot about the essence of current domestic and foreign policy. First, Hamburg University decided not to award an honorary doctorate in economics to President Vladimir Putin, as was originally planned for Sept.

MEDDLING RATHER THAN REGULATING MAKES LAND PROBLEM WORSE

The policy being implemented by the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast governments on the use of land set aside for agriculture is strange.

As is well known, with the passing of the Land Code and the federal law on agricultural land, buying and selling land is legal.

CHRIS FLOYD'S GLOBAL EYE

Unnatural Acts

After months of bad press, here at last was an act of genuine humanitarianism by U.S. troops in Iraq that could have been trumpeted to the skies: a unit of National Guard troops - part-time citizen-soldiers from Oregon - rescuing a group of prisoners from sadistic torture by the security forces of the newly "sovereign" Iraqi government.

CEC WANTS ALL DEPUTIES ON LISTS

MOSCOW - The Central Elections Commission will propose a raft of amendments to the elections law this fall to make all the seats in the State Duma elected by proportional representation, the country's top elections official said.

WORLD

OLYMPIC DIARY

BOXING - Britain's one-man boxing team, Amir Khan made a fine start to his Olympic campaign by outclassing local hope Marios Kaperonis on Monday.

The gifted 17-year-old lightweight, a title contender after spectacular performances in the run-up to the Games, soon recovered from a tentative start to show off his dazzling skills.