It could only happen here

A selection of news stories that didn't make a big splash in the Western pressA tsar is born, Part IA man who calls himself Emperor Paul II of Russia (by birth, Eduard Shabadin) says it's about time he received his royal inheritance. According to the would-be monarch's accounting, he is due 500 tons of gold, $4 trillion and property in Greece, Israel and Bulgaria. Paul II says he has all the documents to support his claims. "If I am able to obtain my land and money, Russia will climb out of its financial crisis," he says. He has written Russian vice-premier Anatoly Chubais offering to pay $1 billion for the right to privatize Moscow's Research Institute of Aviation Technology. The choice of buildings was no fluke -- Paul II works in the institute as an engineer. (Segodnya)A tsar is born, Part IIGreat Prince Nikolai Alekseevich Romanov, another self-named monarch, told a press conference last week at the Russian Army Center he is the genuine successor to the Russian throne. The tsar-in-waiting explained that he is the son of Tsarevich Aleksei who, contrary to what historians have written, did not die when the tsar's family was executed in 1917 following the Russian revolution. Nikolai said that his father was whisked away before the execution; later, Aleksei changed his name, fought at the front and was decorated. He died in 1965, leaving behind his wife, a Greek princess, Nikolai said. "I am ready to take the throne and govern this state if it is God's will and the people are not opposed," he said. (Segodnya)Dupes of the nation uniteNovosibirsk is home to a new political organization -- The Movement of Deceived Russians. The group is demanding the Russian government index state bank accounts to make up for losses suffered from inflation. Anatoly Sukhanov, head of the philosophy department at the Novosibirsk Nautical Institute, predicts the organization will quickly become national. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Young pioneersThe majority of teenagers in a St. Petersburg school who work after class sell newspapers in the metro or wash cars at intersections, a survey found. Teenagers say they earn up to 20,000 rubles a day selling papers. Pollsters gathered the information by circulating an anonymous questionnaire in the school's grade eight and 10 classes. Other jobs the students named include: walking a neighbor's dog; sticking advertisements and posters on walls and trees; sewing together small toys: collecting discarded electronics; installing computer programs; taking care of and selling hamsters. Only four percent of those in the grade 10 class believe they should get an education and career training before making money. (Argumenty i Fakty)Study at homeTeachers have cut lessons to 20 minutes in many schools in Minusinsk, Nazarov and other areas of the Krasnoyarsk region. The teachers began abbreviating classes in mid-February to protest shrinking salaries. "We work as much as they pay us," says one of the teachers. (Segodnya)I couldn't find a seatA unique transportation route has begun operating in the central Russian city of Kazan: a bus runs over two kilometers from the headquarters of a new firm to ... a toilet. The firm's building has no washroom facilities and the bus operates twice a day. (Izvestia)The people's armyA group of citizen volunteers in the far eastern port city of Vladivostok have begun keeping watch outside the mayor's building. They became security guards after two private security companies withdrew their services. The security firms were angry after the city threatened to revoke their business licenses. The Vladivostok mayor's building has been without local police protection for some time; City officials rejected police service after officers raided the building as part of an investigation into corruption at the mayor's office. (Segodnya)  -- Compiled by George Nikides