Russian

ODESSA, Ukraine -- If the potent forces of frustrated nationalism, economic distress and political division continue unchecked in Ukraine, what happened here April 10 could someday be remembered as the Fort Sumter of the Black Sea War.Late that day, Ukrainian airborne commandos stormed the small Russian-controlled navy base here, ousted Russian officers' families from their homes at gunpoint, ransacked their apartments and took control of the base....

"Why on earth didn't I know that one could write a violoncello concerto like this?" exclaimed Johannes Brahms after his first perusal of Antonin Dvorak's Cello Concerto. "If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!"Brahms was excited for good reason. Introduced in London in 1896, the great Dvorak B-minor quickly became the sine qua non of the cello repertoire.Imbued with lyricism and exuberance, it is, above all, a work that sings.In the hands of a master cellist, a performance of the Dvorak is one of music's great events.

MOSCOW -- The Russian Federation parliament scheduled yesterday a presidential election for June 12, setting the stage for the first popular election of a Russian leader in history and handing front-runner Boris N. Yeltsin a political triumph.In a convincing 607-228 vote, the parliament also gave final approval to expanded powers for Mr. Yeltsin, now the parliamentary leader, until the first elected president with full executive powers takes office."I want to thank you for your confidence," the big, white-haired Russian leader told the Congress of People's Deputies after prolonged applause.

Visiting an American courtroom yesterday for the first time, a group of Russian judicial officials sampled views from the lawyers' trial table, the clerk's station and a Baltimore judge's padded chair. They filled the seats in the jury box, and laughed as the translator relayed their question: How do you discourage jurors from snoozing on the job?Judge Edward J. Angeletti retrieved a red tin, smiled and answered, "We give them a piece of candy in the afternoon. You'd be amazed how effective it is to keep people awake."

MOSCOW -- Extolling the strength of Russian culture and the wonder of the American dream, President Clinton treated all of Russia to a civics lesson yesterday.He did it in an extraordinary electronic town hall meeting that put his signature on this Moscow summit."Once, every generation or two, all great nations must stop and ** think about where they are in time," Mr. Clinton said in a televised address to the Russian people. "They must regenerate themselves. They must imagine their future in a new way. Your generation has come of age at one of those moments."

The question for today, readers, is whether merit can survive politics.The idea was this: Aspiring Russian capitalists would move into a brand new hotel with a Russian restaurant to be constructed on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park.Arriving in classes of 20 to 30, the Russians would learn about the market economy from professors, bankers, factory managers and others.All of this was to be paid for by the U.S. and Russian governments and by the state of Maryland.Then came politics.

St. Petersburg, Russia.-- Among the street vendors of souvenirs, pornography and political newspapers in the heart of this city built by Peter the Great are unobtrusive little men with signs that say only, "Vouchers."They are the running dogs of Russia's re-established capitalism, hustlers who hunt for investment certificates that President Boris N. Yeltsin's government gave to all citizens last year in a massive effort to privatize the country's economy.Millions of Russians have used their vouchers to participate in auctions to buy newly issued stock in local enterprises.

Russian and American officials are still trying to determine exactly how much oil has spilled from a leaking pipeline near the Russian Arctic coast. Estimates range from just over 100,000 barrels, the figure offered by Russian industry officials, to more than 2 million barrels, which U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy William H. White cited as the more likely figure. The latter is some eight times the size of the spill created when the Exxon Valdez ran aground off Alaska in 1989. This would make the Russian spill one of the worst environmental disasters of its type in history.

BERLIN -- They came as brutal conquerors. Then they posed as liberators, only to betray the cause by overstaying their welcome and helping prop up an infamous wall.And even as the last of 380,000 departing Russian soldiers said goodbye to eastern Germany yesterday after 49 years of uneasy occupation, they left an odd, ambivalent legacy: barracks stripped of every item of value; fields polluted by jet fuel and kerosene; a black market in surplus hats, medals and weaponry; grandiose monuments to a bygone Soviet empire; a lingering east German taste for left-wing politics; and, strangest of all, hundreds of stray cats.

MOSCOW -- Russian government and Chechen separatist negotiators agreed yesterday to a cease-fire that would disarm Chechnya's rebels and withdraw Russian troops from the rebellious republic.Although the accord marks the biggest step toward peace in the 7 1/2 -month-old war, it was considered by both sides to be a fragile and incremental deal because it doesn't address the dispute that caused the war: Chechen sovereignty.Chechen rebels want to be recognized as independent, and Moscow wants some control over the region as part of the Russian federation.