Kyiv’s restaurant scene never ceases to amaze. You can easily eat at an extremely posh place in the city center, and leave it feeling angry and ripped off. At the same time, you might stumble upon an obscure eatery in some far-off part of Kyiv that instantly becomes one of your favorites.
This time, I am glad to be spreading the word about one of the city’s hidden gems – Device Cafe which is located almost at the very end of the red metro line off Zhytomyrska station. I was lucky to have discovered the place along with other members of the Ukrainian Connoisseur Club (TUCC) on Feb. 24.
When I drove up to the place, it wasn’t easy to spot the restaurant. Its sign blended in with others on a messy-looking building in a typical residential area mall that also houses a supermarket, shops and cafes.
As I pushed open the door to Device Cafe, I was genuinely mystified as to why Connoisseur Club management, known for its refined tastes, chose this spot for the first TUCC meeting this year.
My encounter with a security guard downstairs was not a pleasant one: He claimed there were no free hangers, so I’d have to find another solution for my coat. But I as walked up to the main dining area, I started to thaw in the restaurant’s welcoming ambience. My coat was promptly taken by one of the waiters. Once I sat down, I was offered a drink. It was getting better by the minute!
Overall, Device Cafe has several halls. One boasts a ceiling dotted with Swarovski crystals to imitate a starry sky. Another is a lounge with an arch-like transparent ceiling. The third one is a winter terrace with huge windows, kept warm all year around. The TUCC meeting was taking place in the fourth room – the main hall with a bar, and that’s where I made most of my observations.
Device Cafe's art nouveau interior is pleasantly eclectic. Its furniture is all in retro style: chairs with rounded backs, tables and low sofas with cushions. While the background colors were soft beige and ivory, the contrast was added by red, green, brown and striped patterns on couches and chairs. A chic shiny chandelier hung overhead and the walls were busily decorated with very different types of pictures: large paintings of sunny blue, pink and yellow colors, photographs of restaurant guests, and several black-n-white pictures of Audrey Hepburn, including a still of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” passionate finale.
As the waiters brought out the bread and butter, it was immediately clear we were dealing with an original chef. There was nothing too strange about bread – though it was absolutely delicious – but instead of regular butter plate, each was served a syringe-like plastic container with several layers of butter of different colors (and different tastes) inside. Indeed, as the chef Victor Tymchyshyn confessed himself, he was fascinated with the latest culinary technologies he learned while training abroad. Clearly, Device Cafe became his field of experiments. From what we saw and tried that night, those experiments were usually perfectly successful.
The first to arrive was a mise en bouche, courtesy of the chef. It was a veal carpaccio stuffed with Parma ham and truffles. It was as good as I, a big carpaccio fan, have ever tried, with thin slices of Parmesan, Parma and truffle adding that special flavorful touch.
Next we were served a cold appetizer dubbed “creme brulee,” but it was actually made of seafood. Basically it was an absolutely delicious mousse of crab meat and salmon, garnished with an airy heap of Italian herbs, and tobiko caviar.
Hot appetizer was likewise a fishy one – a combination of several kinds of seafood including shrimp, mussels and tuna, all cooked to perfection and served bathing in a tender creamy sauce with shrimp and saffron flavor. The garnish was a somewhat odd mixture of mashed potatoes and wasabi.
After a break and some orange sorbet, came the time for main course, veal prepared by a very complex method at low temperature, stuffed with truffles, and sprinkled with a Spanish sauce with morels. The meat was such an extraordinary pleasure to the palate that it makes my mouth water even now as I write these lines. It was aptly combined with mashed potatoes with Mascarpone cheese and poppy seeds and some ratatouille.
“Black Square” chocolate dessert was served as a perfect grand finale for our extraordinary dinner. The look of the dish itself was a food design masterpiece: a cube of chocolate mousse topped with vanilla espumas (foamy sauce-like substance) stood in the neat square of a strawberry coulis (a French sweet sauce), accompanied by a mandarin sorbet stick in velvety glazing and a tiny jar of vanilla sauce laying on its side, with lid open. As for the taste – let me say, it was just as beautiful.
Not only did Device’s chef do a great job – the rest of staff tried to impress the gourmets. While the restaurant has its own sommelier, on the night of our dinner he was assisted by a representative of the Sommeliers of Ukraine Association, who made a full-scale professional presentation for each of the drinks of the night: Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc of 2008 from New Zealand – perfect for the seafood appetizers, Italian Argenina Chianti Cassico, 2006 – a great companion for the meat, and Armagnac Saint-Vivant going fine with the sweets.
Finally as an additional treat that night, we were offered to sample the products of Device Cafe’s very own confectionary, including tiny cheesecakes, macaroons, truffles and much more. In conclusion I can only wish the restaurant to keep up the good work and gain new patrons who can appreciate its extraordinary cuisine, and not be put off by its not-quite-so-central location.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Adventures at the Sky Quest Rope Park
If you want to test your physical fitness, strength and coordination, visit Sky Quest Rope Park – the first indoor ropes course in Kyiv. You can conquer its challenging obstacles or relax, relieving stress from the office.
The course is located in the hall of IMAX-Utel 3D Cinema in Blockbuster entertainment center, not far from Petrivka metro station. It looks like a cross between a gym and a ship, with all its rope ladders and nets. The sky of an evening city painted on the walls creates a marvelous atmosphere. The park consists of numerous obstacles made from nets, ropes and steel ropes. They form five interconnected walkways of different complexity levels. You can start testing your fitness on three tracks, at the height of four meters, and feel the adrenaline on the two paths, eight meters above the floor. It sounds easy -- just until you put your leg on the thin rope for the first time and grasp the steel rope with your trembling fingers.
I had to put on the special safety belt and helmet. The assistants then instructed me on how to use the carabines. I faced the walkway made of swings, ropes and nets. The world was turning upside down as tried to make the next step across the sky. I learned not to be afraid of falling down, hoping that the belayers would hold me anyway. I was not so sure of my hands before and was surprised with their unexpected strength. Then I felt pleasure mixed with adrenaline. Sometimes the rope bridge happened to have rolling details or fake footsteps creating extra drama. Every step and every new obstacle became a new target. Finally I reached a net on the border and could rest, feeling subtle support under my feet.
My instructor told me to climb up the rope ladder to the highest walkway. It feels like you are climbing on air. I reached the rope bridge and crawled across it. It is easy if you can forget that you’re hanging eight meters above the floor and avoid looking at little figures of people below, watching you as if it was a circus show. I hardly got to the next trial – it was two parallel ropes, one of which you hold and one to walk along. I felt like a ropewalker trying to maintain equilibrium on the thin stretched steel rope. Time seemed to stop and I concentrated on my hands, grabbing knot after knot.
After these adventures, I got to a little platform, protruding from the wall. Just as I finally had something firm under my feet, the instructor ordered me to jump. I had to make a true Tarzan leap and grab a swinging rope a few meters ahead. It seemed insane, to stand on the edge and prepare to leap, but when you do, you are not falling but flying in a rope jungle. I saw one girl trying to overcome her fear for 15 minutes, gathering a crowd with photo cameras, watching her hysterical doubts. Then they had a bet with the instructor and finally she jumped and got a Hr 20 award for being bold.
In Sky Quest, there is also an artificial rock wall for mountain climbers. You scramble up the wall clutching stone by stone and abseil down. Some of these projecting stones are too small to make them a point of rest, so it’s not easy to reach the sky climbing the painted skyscrapers.
The last walkway is the most complicated. It is a row of narrow swings and rope loops large enough for only one leg. I was balancing on these unstable rope swings using all my arm strength to go ahead and not fall down. There were also hanging wooden stakes with small platforms for your feet. Moving from loops to wooden swings, I got awfully tired but could not relax until I reached the end of the path. It was a real test of willpower. Quest Event Network also offers corporate teambuilding activities at Sky Quest. Overcoming rope obstacles as a team may develop communication, co-operation, dexterity and confidence, and teaches people to be persistent and reliable. Fear is a key factor here, but it’s all very safe. “The ropes are changed once a month, and all equipment is under inspection,” expert instructor Vitaliy Zorin assured me.
There is also a special rope playground for kids, but children usually choose walkways for adults. They climb rope-ladders like little monkeys and are not afraid of heights or falling down. There are no clear age restrictions: it depends on the child’s level of development and the parents’ permission. The youngest visitor was three and a half years old, his parents were extremely enthusiastic rock climbers. Young couples enjoy it as well because walking on ropes seems to be very romantic.
Twenty minutes of climbing in the Rope Park costs Hr 50, but Sky Quest has a system of discounts. On Mondays instructors conduct rock-climbing master classes, and Alpinism classes are on Thursday. One-hour master-classes start at 5 p.m., 7p.m. and 9 p.m. and cost Hr 100. On Tuesdays all tickets are Hr 25. On Wednesdays there is a special discoutn for couples: ladies get in for free.
The course is located in the hall of IMAX-Utel 3D Cinema in Blockbuster entertainment center, not far from Petrivka metro station. It looks like a cross between a gym and a ship, with all its rope ladders and nets. The sky of an evening city painted on the walls creates a marvelous atmosphere. The park consists of numerous obstacles made from nets, ropes and steel ropes. They form five interconnected walkways of different complexity levels. You can start testing your fitness on three tracks, at the height of four meters, and feel the adrenaline on the two paths, eight meters above the floor. It sounds easy -- just until you put your leg on the thin rope for the first time and grasp the steel rope with your trembling fingers.
I had to put on the special safety belt and helmet. The assistants then instructed me on how to use the carabines. I faced the walkway made of swings, ropes and nets. The world was turning upside down as tried to make the next step across the sky. I learned not to be afraid of falling down, hoping that the belayers would hold me anyway. I was not so sure of my hands before and was surprised with their unexpected strength. Then I felt pleasure mixed with adrenaline. Sometimes the rope bridge happened to have rolling details or fake footsteps creating extra drama. Every step and every new obstacle became a new target. Finally I reached a net on the border and could rest, feeling subtle support under my feet.
My instructor told me to climb up the rope ladder to the highest walkway. It feels like you are climbing on air. I reached the rope bridge and crawled across it. It is easy if you can forget that you’re hanging eight meters above the floor and avoid looking at little figures of people below, watching you as if it was a circus show. I hardly got to the next trial – it was two parallel ropes, one of which you hold and one to walk along. I felt like a ropewalker trying to maintain equilibrium on the thin stretched steel rope. Time seemed to stop and I concentrated on my hands, grabbing knot after knot.
After these adventures, I got to a little platform, protruding from the wall. Just as I finally had something firm under my feet, the instructor ordered me to jump. I had to make a true Tarzan leap and grab a swinging rope a few meters ahead. It seemed insane, to stand on the edge and prepare to leap, but when you do, you are not falling but flying in a rope jungle. I saw one girl trying to overcome her fear for 15 minutes, gathering a crowd with photo cameras, watching her hysterical doubts. Then they had a bet with the instructor and finally she jumped and got a Hr 20 award for being bold.
In Sky Quest, there is also an artificial rock wall for mountain climbers. You scramble up the wall clutching stone by stone and abseil down. Some of these projecting stones are too small to make them a point of rest, so it’s not easy to reach the sky climbing the painted skyscrapers.
The last walkway is the most complicated. It is a row of narrow swings and rope loops large enough for only one leg. I was balancing on these unstable rope swings using all my arm strength to go ahead and not fall down. There were also hanging wooden stakes with small platforms for your feet. Moving from loops to wooden swings, I got awfully tired but could not relax until I reached the end of the path. It was a real test of willpower. Quest Event Network also offers corporate teambuilding activities at Sky Quest. Overcoming rope obstacles as a team may develop communication, co-operation, dexterity and confidence, and teaches people to be persistent and reliable. Fear is a key factor here, but it’s all very safe. “The ropes are changed once a month, and all equipment is under inspection,” expert instructor Vitaliy Zorin assured me.
There is also a special rope playground for kids, but children usually choose walkways for adults. They climb rope-ladders like little monkeys and are not afraid of heights or falling down. There are no clear age restrictions: it depends on the child’s level of development and the parents’ permission. The youngest visitor was three and a half years old, his parents were extremely enthusiastic rock climbers. Young couples enjoy it as well because walking on ropes seems to be very romantic.
Twenty minutes of climbing in the Rope Park costs Hr 50, but Sky Quest has a system of discounts. On Mondays instructors conduct rock-climbing master classes, and Alpinism classes are on Thursday. One-hour master-classes start at 5 p.m., 7p.m. and 9 p.m. and cost Hr 100. On Tuesdays all tickets are Hr 25. On Wednesdays there is a special discoutn for couples: ladies get in for free.
A great place to walk off stress
Even before the inhabitants of Kyiv started walking around with gauze masks on their faces to avoid catching the flu, the city seemed to suffer from a lack of oxygen. Not long ago praised as one of Europe’s greenest urban centers, the medieval town is now besieged by cars and their aggressive drivers, who sometimes recall ancient steppe warriors in their contempt for civilized pedestrians. The sidewalk is often no safer than the side street.
But if you really like to walk – to burn off stress, get some fresh air, or just get to know Kyiv, head toward the city’s hem: Podil.
There are several ways to get from the center to Podil, but the best ways are by foot. For most people, this means a meander down Adreyivsky Uzviz, whose cobblestone road islined by day with artisans, artists and the tourists who feed them.
As you wind down the Uzviz toward Podil, you may notice that the landscape begins to rise to your left. Once you’ve passed the Blah Blah Bar, with its blue tent decorated with Christmas lights, and just beyond the black door of the Pyscho Art center [both on the left], you will see a steep metal stair case leading up along an even steeper embankment.
Climb the staircase and you will find yourself commanding an excellent if alternative view of the city. There are also some grave stones and what looks like some kind of bunker up there – of course filled with trash and graffiti to subdue any swelling of romanticism in the curious.
Getting down from this high ground, which, depending on what historical sources you believe, might have been the scene of all sorts of significant events during the days of Kyivan Rus, can be a bit tricky, as some of the trails lead only to rooftops of buildings below. Suffice it to say that it’s best not to go up there in dress shoes or high heels.
Another way to get down to Podil without having to negotiate your every step against the advances of an Avar in a Mercedes, a Hun in a Jeep, or a Cuman in a Lada, is to turn left at the top of the Funicular.
Yes, instead of paying Hr 1.5 and possibly subjecting yourself to the flu of fowl, swine or Californians, you can walk from Mykhaylivska Ploshcha to the River Port along steps under a canopy of trees and leaves.
The first part of this descent is actually a brick ramp with little ridges every meter or so to keep you from slipping in wet weather. The second stage is stairs – as uneven, uprooted and cracked as any other steps in the city. This staircase used to take one all the way to the lower entrance of the Funicular but now exits to the left of a new building under construction next door.
But the foot adventure doesn’t have to end here. Looking up at the embankment that you’ve just descended could be a trip back in time: Medieval Princess Olga awaiting the tragic return of her husband; the men of Prince Vladimir, the Christianizer, tying the statue of the pagan god Perun to the tail of a horse to be dragged down to the Dnipro. Or, if you look down the cobblestone road leading to European Square – an endless army of Mongols is overrunning the city again – this time in cars.
In the other direction, Sahaydachnoho Street welcomes the visitor to coffee houses, sushi bars and the other accouterments of capitalism. In some sense, these establishments, and the business district growing up around them, are in keeping with Podil’s commercial history.
But again, if you want a place to really walk, keep heading toward the water, past the McDonalds and across the overpass to the river’s edge. Just like the hills above are being crowded out by banks, business centers and housing developments, the water front is being infested with floating eateries and hotels.
But if you brush dismissively past the tawdry beer tents and air gun ranges, beyond the first couple of ballroom barges toward the foot bridge across the Dnipro, you will find yourself walking along a cement dock between a high wall and low water. The fishermen aren’t exactly romantic, and in the summer there’s much trash lying around, but in the colder months you still get a nice mile of relatively peaceful strolling along the water, with no cars (and virtually no boats) to bother you.
If you take the boardwalk away from the center of town, there is a quaint little Orthodox Church called the Blessed Miracle Maker Mykola perched right above the water’s edge, just past the barge featuring a Japanese restaurant. Behind this church is a nice spot to just look at the Dnipro and try to forget about the cars roaring past behind you along Naberezhna, the embankment.
On the weekend, most of Podils’ numerous streets between Kontraktova Ploshcha and Taras Shevchenko Metro stations are also nice to stroll along, with the sidewalk car parks having receded to Podil’s main thoroughfares. Here you can walk between the hills and the river that created the city almost 1500 years ago, when most people got around by foot.
But if you really like to walk – to burn off stress, get some fresh air, or just get to know Kyiv, head toward the city’s hem: Podil.
There are several ways to get from the center to Podil, but the best ways are by foot. For most people, this means a meander down Adreyivsky Uzviz, whose cobblestone road islined by day with artisans, artists and the tourists who feed them.
As you wind down the Uzviz toward Podil, you may notice that the landscape begins to rise to your left. Once you’ve passed the Blah Blah Bar, with its blue tent decorated with Christmas lights, and just beyond the black door of the Pyscho Art center [both on the left], you will see a steep metal stair case leading up along an even steeper embankment.
Climb the staircase and you will find yourself commanding an excellent if alternative view of the city. There are also some grave stones and what looks like some kind of bunker up there – of course filled with trash and graffiti to subdue any swelling of romanticism in the curious.
Getting down from this high ground, which, depending on what historical sources you believe, might have been the scene of all sorts of significant events during the days of Kyivan Rus, can be a bit tricky, as some of the trails lead only to rooftops of buildings below. Suffice it to say that it’s best not to go up there in dress shoes or high heels.
Another way to get down to Podil without having to negotiate your every step against the advances of an Avar in a Mercedes, a Hun in a Jeep, or a Cuman in a Lada, is to turn left at the top of the Funicular.
Yes, instead of paying Hr 1.5 and possibly subjecting yourself to the flu of fowl, swine or Californians, you can walk from Mykhaylivska Ploshcha to the River Port along steps under a canopy of trees and leaves.
The first part of this descent is actually a brick ramp with little ridges every meter or so to keep you from slipping in wet weather. The second stage is stairs – as uneven, uprooted and cracked as any other steps in the city. This staircase used to take one all the way to the lower entrance of the Funicular but now exits to the left of a new building under construction next door.
But the foot adventure doesn’t have to end here. Looking up at the embankment that you’ve just descended could be a trip back in time: Medieval Princess Olga awaiting the tragic return of her husband; the men of Prince Vladimir, the Christianizer, tying the statue of the pagan god Perun to the tail of a horse to be dragged down to the Dnipro. Or, if you look down the cobblestone road leading to European Square – an endless army of Mongols is overrunning the city again – this time in cars.
In the other direction, Sahaydachnoho Street welcomes the visitor to coffee houses, sushi bars and the other accouterments of capitalism. In some sense, these establishments, and the business district growing up around them, are in keeping with Podil’s commercial history.
But again, if you want a place to really walk, keep heading toward the water, past the McDonalds and across the overpass to the river’s edge. Just like the hills above are being crowded out by banks, business centers and housing developments, the water front is being infested with floating eateries and hotels.
But if you brush dismissively past the tawdry beer tents and air gun ranges, beyond the first couple of ballroom barges toward the foot bridge across the Dnipro, you will find yourself walking along a cement dock between a high wall and low water. The fishermen aren’t exactly romantic, and in the summer there’s much trash lying around, but in the colder months you still get a nice mile of relatively peaceful strolling along the water, with no cars (and virtually no boats) to bother you.
If you take the boardwalk away from the center of town, there is a quaint little Orthodox Church called the Blessed Miracle Maker Mykola perched right above the water’s edge, just past the barge featuring a Japanese restaurant. Behind this church is a nice spot to just look at the Dnipro and try to forget about the cars roaring past behind you along Naberezhna, the embankment.
On the weekend, most of Podils’ numerous streets between Kontraktova Ploshcha and Taras Shevchenko Metro stations are also nice to stroll along, with the sidewalk car parks having receded to Podil’s main thoroughfares. Here you can walk between the hills and the river that created the city almost 1500 years ago, when most people got around by foot.
Australia: Uranium allows sales to Russia, but not to India
CANBERRA, Australia — Any Australian uranium sales to Russia would meet nonproliferation requirements, but the government remains firmly against sales to India, Trade Minister Simon Crean said Friday.
The government on Thursday rejected a 2008 parliamentary report's recommendation that Australia not proceed with an agreement to sell uranium to Russia.
The report expressed concerns that the uranium could be stolen or diverted for weapons use.
The government said it has not yet made a final decision on whether to ratify the agreement, signed in 2007 by former Prime Minister John Howard and Russian President Vladimir Puton, who is now Russia's prime minister.
But it said the agreement met Australia's long-standing condition that the country's uranium only be used for peaceful purposes.
"We have taken considerable time on our part to ensure we're satisfied, the International Atomic Energy Agency is satisfied, that the strictest of safeguards are in place," Crean told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television on Friday.
But Crean said Australia would not restart negotiations with India on uranium sales to fuel its expanding nuclear power industry.
Howard's conservative government started negotiations with India on uranium sales just months before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's center-left government was swept to power in 2007 elections but ruled out exports unless it signs the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
"The signal to India ... is that this is the way in which they can be recipients of our supply and it's for India to respond to that," Crean said.
If the Russian agreement is submitted to Parliament for ratification, it is expected to easily pass because the main opposition party backs nuclear trade with Moscow.
Environmentalists including the Australian Conservation Foundation, however, oppose uranium exports to Russia.
The government on Thursday rejected a 2008 parliamentary report's recommendation that Australia not proceed with an agreement to sell uranium to Russia.
The report expressed concerns that the uranium could be stolen or diverted for weapons use.
The government said it has not yet made a final decision on whether to ratify the agreement, signed in 2007 by former Prime Minister John Howard and Russian President Vladimir Puton, who is now Russia's prime minister.
But it said the agreement met Australia's long-standing condition that the country's uranium only be used for peaceful purposes.
"We have taken considerable time on our part to ensure we're satisfied, the International Atomic Energy Agency is satisfied, that the strictest of safeguards are in place," Crean told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television on Friday.
But Crean said Australia would not restart negotiations with India on uranium sales to fuel its expanding nuclear power industry.
Howard's conservative government started negotiations with India on uranium sales just months before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's center-left government was swept to power in 2007 elections but ruled out exports unless it signs the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
"The signal to India ... is that this is the way in which they can be recipients of our supply and it's for India to respond to that," Crean said.
If the Russian agreement is submitted to Parliament for ratification, it is expected to easily pass because the main opposition party backs nuclear trade with Moscow.
Environmentalists including the Australian Conservation Foundation, however, oppose uranium exports to Russia.
Putin tells Clinton to help Russia with WTO bid
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia, March - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday that full cooperation with the United States was impossible unless Russia was let into the World Trade Organisation
At his first meeting with Clinton since she was appointed as Washington's top diplomat, Putin listed a litany of economic complaints against the United States and said Russian companies needed more assistance to penetrate the American market.
Putin, speaking to Clinton at the end of her two-day trip to Russia, said trade between the former Cold War foes had more than halved last year to $16 billion from $36 billion and scolded her for U.S. sanctions against Russian companies.
Russia's most popular politician, who stepped down as president in May 2008, reminded Clinton that Russia remained outside the WTO, more than 17 years after beginning its bid to join the 153-member body.
"We have been negotiating this issue for 17 years now," Putin told Clinton. "Three questions remain and yet we keep on going round and round this triangle. But these questions really have no serious significance for the U.S. economy."
Putin complicated Russia's WTO membership bid last year by saying it would only join along with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Moscow has since sent conflicting signals on the issue.
"We are very committed to Russia joining the WTO and have spoken with the president and cabinet members about how we can help to facilitate that happening," Clinton said.
Putin told Clinton that the WTO bid needed to be resolved before full cooperation with Washington could take place, his deputy chief of staff, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters.
"If we really want to cooperate then this question (WTO entry) needs to be resolved," Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. "This question depends on the political will of the Washington administration."
More than a year after Barack Obama launched an effort to "reset" ties with Moscow, bilateral trade has plummeted, a major arms reduction agreement remains unsigned and Moscow is still unhappy about U.S. plans for a missile defence shield in Europe.
Putin did offer some hope on the relationship, saying that common ground had been found on some of the biggest issues.
"Despite some differences on particular issues, we have been able to reach agreement on most important ones," he said, though he also rapped Clinton for U.S. sanctions against Russian firms.
"Five Russian companies are still under the sanctions that were initiated by your very agency," Putin said.
A senior U.S. official said he not know precisely which sanctions Putin referred to, but said he assumed they were U.S. government sanctions against companies believed to have violated U.S. non-proliferation rules.
The official, who spoke on condition his name was not used, said he suspected Putin was referring to companies that may have sold prohibited technologies to Iran, North Korea or Syria.
Putin said that companies such as General Electric Co and Boeing Co had been working well in Russiafor years.
He then asked for U.S. help to smooth the path into the U.S. market for Russian companies such as metals giant Norilsk Nickel and steelmaker Severstal.
"They of course need escorting. They need signals that they are welcome," Putin said. He added that the United States ranked eighth in terms of investment in Russia. "This is not much."
At his first meeting with Clinton since she was appointed as Washington's top diplomat, Putin listed a litany of economic complaints against the United States and said Russian companies needed more assistance to penetrate the American market.
Putin, speaking to Clinton at the end of her two-day trip to Russia, said trade between the former Cold War foes had more than halved last year to $16 billion from $36 billion and scolded her for U.S. sanctions against Russian companies.
Russia's most popular politician, who stepped down as president in May 2008, reminded Clinton that Russia remained outside the WTO, more than 17 years after beginning its bid to join the 153-member body.
"We have been negotiating this issue for 17 years now," Putin told Clinton. "Three questions remain and yet we keep on going round and round this triangle. But these questions really have no serious significance for the U.S. economy."
Putin complicated Russia's WTO membership bid last year by saying it would only join along with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Moscow has since sent conflicting signals on the issue.
"We are very committed to Russia joining the WTO and have spoken with the president and cabinet members about how we can help to facilitate that happening," Clinton said.
Putin told Clinton that the WTO bid needed to be resolved before full cooperation with Washington could take place, his deputy chief of staff, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters.
"If we really want to cooperate then this question (WTO entry) needs to be resolved," Ushakov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. "This question depends on the political will of the Washington administration."
More than a year after Barack Obama launched an effort to "reset" ties with Moscow, bilateral trade has plummeted, a major arms reduction agreement remains unsigned and Moscow is still unhappy about U.S. plans for a missile defence shield in Europe.
Putin did offer some hope on the relationship, saying that common ground had been found on some of the biggest issues.
"Despite some differences on particular issues, we have been able to reach agreement on most important ones," he said, though he also rapped Clinton for U.S. sanctions against Russian firms.
"Five Russian companies are still under the sanctions that were initiated by your very agency," Putin said.
A senior U.S. official said he not know precisely which sanctions Putin referred to, but said he assumed they were U.S. government sanctions against companies believed to have violated U.S. non-proliferation rules.
The official, who spoke on condition his name was not used, said he suspected Putin was referring to companies that may have sold prohibited technologies to Iran, North Korea or Syria.
Putin said that companies such as General Electric Co and Boeing Co had been working well in Russiafor years.
He then asked for U.S. help to smooth the path into the U.S. market for Russian companies such as metals giant Norilsk Nickel and steelmaker Severstal.
"They of course need escorting. They need signals that they are welcome," Putin said. He added that the United States ranked eighth in terms of investment in Russia. "This is not much."
North Korean loggers in Russia making defection bids
The North Korean's note, scrawled in pen, was simple: "I want to go to South Korea. Why? To find freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom of life."
The ex-logger, on the run from North Korean authorities, handed the note over to a South Korean missionary in the Russian city of Vladivostok last week in hopes it would lead to political asylum.
Just before he was to meet Thursday with the International Organization for Migrants, a team of men grabbed him, slapped handcuffs on him and drove off, rights activists in Moscow said Friday. He was spirited away to the eastern port city of Nakhokda, where he is sure to be handed back over to North Korean officials and repatriated to his communist homeland, activists said in Seoul.
Police in Vladivostok refused to comment. A senior South Korean diplomat in Vladivostok said he had no information. Officials from the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok could not be reached for comment.
The 51-year-old would be the third North Korean logger in Russia in a week to make a bid for asylum. On March 9, two other North Koreans who had fled their jobs as loggers managed to get into the South Korean consulate in Vladivostok.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported last week that two North Koreans climbed a fence, ran past the guards and entered the consulate, saying they wanted political asylum. ITAR-Tass carried a similar report.
The incidents focused attention on the precarious existence of tens of thousands of North Koreans sent by the impoverished regime to work in neighboring Russia.
Russian government figures from 2007 put the number of North Korean laborers at 32,600, most of them working in logging in the remote east.
The Rev. Peter Chung, a Seoul-based activist, said there are about 40,000 North Korean loggers in Russia, but that some 10,000 of them have fled their work sites. Some are finding work as day laborers while others are in hiding as they try to map out how to win asylum in foreign diplomatic missions.
North Korea has been exporting workers to make hard cash since natural disasters and mismanagement destroyed the country's economy in the 1990s. Laborers have been sent to Russia, Mongolia, eastern Europe and elsewhere, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said Friday.
The logger seized Thursday in Vladivostok represents a grim picture of life as a lumberjack in remote Russian outposts, according to Chung, head of the Seoul rights group Justice for North Korea.
The man, surname Kim, told activists he first went to Russia in October 1997, leaving behind a wife and two daughters, and worked there for four years. He went back to Russia in 2006, said Kim Hi-tae of the International Network of North Korea Human Rights Activists in Seoul.
The North Korean described the conditions as unbearable. His government took half his meager wages, while the North Korean company operating the logging camp took 35 percent. He kept just 15 percent —about $60 a month — an arrangement that rendered him "virtually a slave," he told activists.
He eventually fled the logging camp, taking odd jobs to survive. He also became a Christian, Chung and Kim Hi-tae said, which could draw severe punishment, even execution, back home.
The successful asylum bid of two other former North Korean loggers inspired Kim to make a similar attempt, Chung said.
He turned up at a safe house that day, saying he wanted help seeking asylum. The missionary asked for a statement, so he scribbled down his name, date of birth and hometown in Korean.
"Wife, two daughters. Sent to Russia in October 1997," he wrote, using the North Korean spelling for "Russia." He dated it March 9, 2010, and signed his name with an emphatic period in his characteristic North Korean script.
The note was obtained by The Associated Press after being scanned and sent by e-mail from Vladivostok to Seoul. Activists asked that he be identified by his surname only to protect his family.
The group Human Rights in Russia said on its Web site that a North Korean named Kim who had sought help from the International Organization for Migrants was waiting in a car outside a Vladivostok hotel to speak to rights officials.
"At this time, another car pulled up to the hotel. Several men in civilian dress got out of it and told the driver of the car that his 'passenger is a criminal,'" the group's statement said. They put handcuffs on Kim, sat him in their car and drove off.
It was unclear who took him, and where they went, it said.
The taxi driver who said he took Kim to the hotel on Thursday morning, told AP from Vladivostok on Saturday that he and Kim were waiting in the car for about 10 minutes, but suddenly about five to six Russian men came and put handcuffs on Kim and took him away in their car. The taxi driver only identified himself as Alexander.
A tapped phone call to the South Korean or U.S. consulate may have alerted authorities to Kim's plan, the Seoul activists said. Kim is believed to have been sent to Nakhodka, a port city not far from North Korea, for possible repatriation, said Chung and Kim Hi-tae.
On Friday, Chung, Kim Hi-tae and dozens of rights activists and North Korean defectors, some wearing black hoods to conceal their identities, rallied near the Russian Embassy in central Seoul. They urged Moscow to immediately release the North Korean and to let the U.N. refugee agency interview him.
Kim and other fugitive loggers "will definitely face political persecution if they are sent back home," Chung said.
The ex-logger, on the run from North Korean authorities, handed the note over to a South Korean missionary in the Russian city of Vladivostok last week in hopes it would lead to political asylum.
Just before he was to meet Thursday with the International Organization for Migrants, a team of men grabbed him, slapped handcuffs on him and drove off, rights activists in Moscow said Friday. He was spirited away to the eastern port city of Nakhokda, where he is sure to be handed back over to North Korean officials and repatriated to his communist homeland, activists said in Seoul.
Police in Vladivostok refused to comment. A senior South Korean diplomat in Vladivostok said he had no information. Officials from the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok could not be reached for comment.
The 51-year-old would be the third North Korean logger in Russia in a week to make a bid for asylum. On March 9, two other North Koreans who had fled their jobs as loggers managed to get into the South Korean consulate in Vladivostok.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported last week that two North Koreans climbed a fence, ran past the guards and entered the consulate, saying they wanted political asylum. ITAR-Tass carried a similar report.
The incidents focused attention on the precarious existence of tens of thousands of North Koreans sent by the impoverished regime to work in neighboring Russia.
Russian government figures from 2007 put the number of North Korean laborers at 32,600, most of them working in logging in the remote east.
The Rev. Peter Chung, a Seoul-based activist, said there are about 40,000 North Korean loggers in Russia, but that some 10,000 of them have fled their work sites. Some are finding work as day laborers while others are in hiding as they try to map out how to win asylum in foreign diplomatic missions.
North Korea has been exporting workers to make hard cash since natural disasters and mismanagement destroyed the country's economy in the 1990s. Laborers have been sent to Russia, Mongolia, eastern Europe and elsewhere, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said Friday.
The logger seized Thursday in Vladivostok represents a grim picture of life as a lumberjack in remote Russian outposts, according to Chung, head of the Seoul rights group Justice for North Korea.
The man, surname Kim, told activists he first went to Russia in October 1997, leaving behind a wife and two daughters, and worked there for four years. He went back to Russia in 2006, said Kim Hi-tae of the International Network of North Korea Human Rights Activists in Seoul.
The North Korean described the conditions as unbearable. His government took half his meager wages, while the North Korean company operating the logging camp took 35 percent. He kept just 15 percent —about $60 a month — an arrangement that rendered him "virtually a slave," he told activists.
He eventually fled the logging camp, taking odd jobs to survive. He also became a Christian, Chung and Kim Hi-tae said, which could draw severe punishment, even execution, back home.
The successful asylum bid of two other former North Korean loggers inspired Kim to make a similar attempt, Chung said.
He turned up at a safe house that day, saying he wanted help seeking asylum. The missionary asked for a statement, so he scribbled down his name, date of birth and hometown in Korean.
"Wife, two daughters. Sent to Russia in October 1997," he wrote, using the North Korean spelling for "Russia." He dated it March 9, 2010, and signed his name with an emphatic period in his characteristic North Korean script.
The note was obtained by The Associated Press after being scanned and sent by e-mail from Vladivostok to Seoul. Activists asked that he be identified by his surname only to protect his family.
The group Human Rights in Russia said on its Web site that a North Korean named Kim who had sought help from the International Organization for Migrants was waiting in a car outside a Vladivostok hotel to speak to rights officials.
"At this time, another car pulled up to the hotel. Several men in civilian dress got out of it and told the driver of the car that his 'passenger is a criminal,'" the group's statement said. They put handcuffs on Kim, sat him in their car and drove off.
It was unclear who took him, and where they went, it said.
The taxi driver who said he took Kim to the hotel on Thursday morning, told AP from Vladivostok on Saturday that he and Kim were waiting in the car for about 10 minutes, but suddenly about five to six Russian men came and put handcuffs on Kim and took him away in their car. The taxi driver only identified himself as Alexander.
A tapped phone call to the South Korean or U.S. consulate may have alerted authorities to Kim's plan, the Seoul activists said. Kim is believed to have been sent to Nakhodka, a port city not far from North Korea, for possible repatriation, said Chung and Kim Hi-tae.
On Friday, Chung, Kim Hi-tae and dozens of rights activists and North Korean defectors, some wearing black hoods to conceal their identities, rallied near the Russian Embassy in central Seoul. They urged Moscow to immediately release the North Korean and to let the U.N. refugee agency interview him.
Kim and other fugitive loggers "will definitely face political persecution if they are sent back home," Chung said.
At least 1,500 rally against Putin in Russian Far East
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, March 20 (Reuters) - At least 1,500 people rallied against the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the Far East city of Vladivostok in the first of a string of opposition rallies planned across Russia on Saturday.
Kremlin critics declared a national day of protest in a bid to mobilize those angry at the government's handling of the worst economic slump in a decade, after local elections showed a drop in support for the ruling party.
To cheers from the crowd on a snow-covered square, leaders of a coalition of opposition groups read out a list of demands that included the dismissal of Putin's government and the return of direct elections for governors, scrapped in 2004.
Most banners focused on economic demands, including reversing recent hikes in charges for municipal services, increasing pensions, and cutting taxes on the import of used cars, a major industry in the Pacific port city.
"People have been left without the means to live, and they blame the government," said Alexander Krinitsky, an activist with the Solidarity movement and one of the protest leaders. "We have no choice but to take to the streets."
Protests in recent months have demonstrated that opposition to Putin's United Russia party has grown since the start of the economic crisis, which brought a sudden end to 10 years of growth and has driven unemployment above 9 percent.
Thousands of protesters were rallying in several cities across Russia to protest the government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms. Many participants in Saturday's rallies, dubbed the Day of Wrath by the opposition, are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
About 1,000 people rallied in St.Petersburg holding placards "Putin's team must resign!" Police didn't intervene. Similar protests were also planned in Moscow and dozens of other cities throughout Russia on Saturday.
Putin moved into the prime minister's seat in 2008 after eight years as president but retains much of his power.
Last year, gross domestic product fell by about 8 percent, Russia's worst performance since 1994.
"What the government has done to us is outrageous," said protester Sergei Khudenkykh who lost his job importing used cars when the government hiked tariffs to protect domestic producers. "I don't understand who my little business bothered."
Organisers complained that the authorities had made efforts to keep protesters away, including issuing reports to local media that the protest had been banned and seizing leaflets advertising the rally.
But only a few dozen police were visible, far fewer than in recent protests in Russia. In 2008, the Russian government flew riot police from Moscow to Vladivostok to confront an unsanctioned protest where they detained 100 people.
Organisers said they expected large protests in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Several other rallies have been banned by local authorities, raising the possibility of clashes with police.
Kremlin critics declared a national day of protest in a bid to mobilize those angry at the government's handling of the worst economic slump in a decade, after local elections showed a drop in support for the ruling party.
To cheers from the crowd on a snow-covered square, leaders of a coalition of opposition groups read out a list of demands that included the dismissal of Putin's government and the return of direct elections for governors, scrapped in 2004.
Most banners focused on economic demands, including reversing recent hikes in charges for municipal services, increasing pensions, and cutting taxes on the import of used cars, a major industry in the Pacific port city.
"People have been left without the means to live, and they blame the government," said Alexander Krinitsky, an activist with the Solidarity movement and one of the protest leaders. "We have no choice but to take to the streets."
Protests in recent months have demonstrated that opposition to Putin's United Russia party has grown since the start of the economic crisis, which brought a sudden end to 10 years of growth and has driven unemployment above 9 percent.
Thousands of protesters were rallying in several cities across Russia to protest the government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms. Many participants in Saturday's rallies, dubbed the Day of Wrath by the opposition, are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
About 1,000 people rallied in St.Petersburg holding placards "Putin's team must resign!" Police didn't intervene. Similar protests were also planned in Moscow and dozens of other cities throughout Russia on Saturday.
Putin moved into the prime minister's seat in 2008 after eight years as president but retains much of his power.
Last year, gross domestic product fell by about 8 percent, Russia's worst performance since 1994.
"What the government has done to us is outrageous," said protester Sergei Khudenkykh who lost his job importing used cars when the government hiked tariffs to protect domestic producers. "I don't understand who my little business bothered."
Organisers complained that the authorities had made efforts to keep protesters away, including issuing reports to local media that the protest had been banned and seizing leaflets advertising the rally.
But only a few dozen police were visible, far fewer than in recent protests in Russia. In 2008, the Russian government flew riot police from Moscow to Vladivostok to confront an unsanctioned protest where they detained 100 people.
Organisers said they expected large protests in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Several other rallies have been banned by local authorities, raising the possibility of clashes with police.
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