[spectre] Men in camouflage ...

[stephen kovats]

(this via AP/cnn.com)

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/11/06/russia.raid.ap/index.html

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Men in camouflage have stormed the Moscow offices of
the Open Society Institute and began seizing documents and computers in
connection with a dispute over rights to the building, a foundation lawyer
said. 

Pavel Kuzmin, a lawyer for the foundation started by philanthropist George
Soros to bolster civil society and the rule of law, said about 30 men
entered the building Thursday around 10:30 p.m. (1930 GMT), blocked several
employees in their offices and began loading property into trucks.

"The police we called said it was a property dispute, so they could not
interfere ... and they left," he told The Associated Press.

Property disputes in Russia frequently bring raids on buildings by
representatives of one of the disputing factions.

Open Society has been caught in a long-running feud over the property in
Moscow. 

It signed a lease in 1999 with an option to buy the building from a company
called Sector-1, which later sold the property to Noble Technologies.

A disputed clause stipulates that the lease runs out August 1, 2001 if the
property is not purchased. Citing that clause, Noble Technologies said in
2002 that the old agreement is no longer valid.

Open Society officials contended the lease was signed for 10 years.

Kuzmin said the head of Noble Technologies, Kantemir Karamzin, was on the
property early Friday.

The executive vice president of Open Society, Stewart Paperin, said in a
statement from the foundation's main office in New York that "This lease has
been upheld in every decision by the arbitration and appeals courts ... this
individual has used illegal means to take over the office."

In June, Soros said that he was reducing his activities in Russia because it
was up to the state to work in the areas his foundation has previously
supported. Soros opened the Open Society foundation branch in Moscow in 1987
with the aim of helping the Soviet Union make the transition to democracy.