Johnson's Russia List
#7163
1 May 2003
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A CDI Project
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#1
FEATURE-St Petersburg anniversary facelift generates criticism
By Ron Popeski

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, May 1 (Reuters) - The governor of St Petersburg
becomes very irritated at suggestions that he is not doing all he can to
ready Russia's second city for its lavish 300th anniversary this month.

"Get over here and look at this," Vladimir Yakovlev, standing by a display
of city projects, snaps at a reporter who dared to ask about reports of
incompetence and corruption.

"We're tackling things as best as we can. There are so many things to be
done in this city. We can't do everything at once."

With President Vladimir Putin due to host a prestigious gathering of world
leaders in his home town at the end of this month, the onus has been on the
governor to prove that he can deal with the city's numerous problems and
put on a good show.

Leaders of G8 industrialised countries, who admitted Russia to their ranks
as a full member last year, will gather for two days at a tsarist palace on
the Gulf of Finland being renovated virtually from scratch -- but still
unfinished.

Altogether 45 world leaders are expected, with Moscow authorities pumping
in 40 billion roubles ($1.3 billion) to spruce up the city and stage a
worthy party.

Workers are only beginning to dismantle plastic sheeting shrouding showcase
buildings in the city founded on marshland in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great
as a "window on Europe."

Scaffolding has only just been removed from around the Alexander Column in
the vast Palace Square commemorating Russia's 1812 victory over Napoleon.

But much remains to be done. Still under repair are the 18th century Peter
and Paul fortress, burial place of tsars on the river Neva and the
Admiralty building on the opposite bank.

Much of the riverside Winter Palace, focal point of the Bolshevik
revolution and home to the Hermitage's vast art collection, is undergoing a
major face-lift.

Other projects, like restoring the Smolny Cathedral outside the city
government headquarters, have been postponed to ease tension on tight
deadlines.

FEVERISH ACTIVITY AT THE PALACE

Outside town at the Konstantinovsky Palace, there is plenty of resolve --
and feverish activity -- as planners urge a workforce of 7,000 to press on
to the wire to emulate the elegance of several other 18th century
residences in the city.

Begun in 1720 by Peter, who had little regard for expense or human life in
undertaking grandiose projects, it was handed by later tsars to lesser
relatives in favour of residences further down the Gulf of Finland.

In Soviet times, it served as a school and then a merchant seamen's college
and suffered severe damage as the area repeatedly changed hands in the
900-day Nazi siege of the city then known as Leningrad. The ceiling
collapsed in a 1986 fire.

But this site, brimming with guards checking even visitors accompanied by
site architects, is funded by sponsorship money channelled through the
federal government in Moscow. Some jobs are proceeding round the clock.

Long queues of heavy trucks dump cargoes of gravel and earth and
immediately set off for further loads. Bemused soldiers struggle with heaps
of marble floor slabs up a grand stairway still covered in sheeting as
restoration experts put craftsmen through their paces in two vast halls.

A dozen restorers perched on hoarding beneath chandeliers meticulously
paint gold leaf on wall motifs, oblivious to the din of saws and chisels.
Full-length mirrors and four fireplaces stand in a side room awaiting
installation.

Outside, landscapers and engineers are completing a network of canals and
fountains extending to the Gulf of Finland.

GOVERNOR PAYS THE PRICE

Back in St Petersburg, Yakovlev has paid the political price for a host of
unresolved problems going far beyond the anniversary and the president's
drive to portray the grandeur of his home town to the world.

Disliked intensely by Putin, he abandoned a plan to run for a third term
next year after the Kremlin leader appointed a regional prefect seen as a
heavy favourite to take over his job.

Many thousands of St Petersburg's 4.5 million residents remain in
"communal" flats with shared bathrooms and kitchens, elegant buildings on
its much-loved canals are in disrepair and suburbs not benefiting from
funds become ever more dilapidated.

Streets are riddled with potholes. Two major projects intended to relieve
city centre congestion have been repeatedly delayed -- a ring road around
the city and restoration of a metro line blocked by a landfall.

Worse, Russia's financial watchdog, the Audit Chamber, accused Yakovlev's
administration of failing to account for some $15 million earmarked for
roads. Further scandals surround the construction of a railway station many
residents say is not needed.

Yakovlev, still one of the country's most powerful regional bosses, denies
any wrongdoing and dismisses the allegations.

"Go and have a look on the street yourself," he told reporters. "Just
because work is still proceeding on these projects it does not mean they
won't be completed."

Public opinion is split down the middle on Yakovlev. Some residents say
high-profile preparations mask real problems, while others praise his
honesty in tackling a difficult legacy.

"We should not be unfair about the governor," said Alexander Skvortsov, a
retired builder. "There are certainly problems, but let's not forget this
place was built on a swamp. And unlike Muscovites, St Petersburgers are
genuinely proud of their city."

Yakovlev incurred the president's animosity in 1996 by challenging St
Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak -- Putin's mentor while he worked in his
native city and one of the main liberal advocates of the final days of
Soviet rule.

Sobchak was defeated by Yakovlev in a subsequent election and when he died
of a heart attack in 2000, Putin told mourners he had been "killed."

Yakovlev easily won re-election three years ago. Putin's bid to have
trusted aide Valentina Matviyenko run against the governor ended in her
humiliating withdrawal from the race.

But with Matviyenko's appointment as prefect last month, observers see her
as a sure bet for next year's gubernatorial election -- now that the
incumbent has ruled himself out.

The elegant and sometimes haughty Matviyenko, the most prominent of
Russia's handful of women politicians, has praised the governor for bowing
out graciously and quietly set about grappling with local issues, including
the celebrations.

"We should not let criticism of preparations overshadow the celebration,"
she told reporters.

But, perhaps with one eye on voters next year, she added:

"I do not think, however, that all our residents' hopes have been met.
Everyone wants his own area done up properly. And we are seeing only the
start of the job."

But prominent city figures have tended to be tolerant of the way in which
Yakovlev has approached the celebrations.

"The governor is naturally worried because much of the criticism is
political and directed at him," said Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the
Hermitage Museum. "And he often gets blamed for mistakes made a very long
time ago."

(Additional reporting by Konstantin Trifonov)

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