Temporary Truce Set In Battle For Hotel

The three feuding sides in the fight to control the Radisson Slavjanskaya Hotel declared a temporary truce Wednesday, allowing one of the American partners who had been forcibly barred for the last 12 days to enter the building. "Everything is in full truce," said Paul Tatum, the president of Americom after he was allowed to return to his office and apartment in the riverfront four-star hotel. Despite the agreement, however, Tatum plans to go ahead with a multimillion dollar defamation suit against the joint venture's general director, Vladimir Draitser, according to Sean Wood, an Americom spokesman.The Moscow City Property Committee, the Russian side in the joint venture with Americom and Radisson Hotels, remained angry Wednesday and said a representative of the committee will oversee hotel operations to prevent alleged financial mismanagement by the two American partners."From the side of the Moscow City Property Committee there were many complaints about Paul Tatum and the Radisson," said Nikolai Shevyolkin, president for Mosintur, which represents the city in the joint venture. "They have brought the hotel to the edge of financial collapse."Shevyolkin th pute their shares in the venture. All sides in the conflict -- several appear to dislike one another -- have accused the others of legal improprieties.Even though the Russian side charges that the hotel is on the edge of financial collapse, Tatum said the joint venture enjoyed gross revenues of $44 million last year, with $12.5 million in net operating profits. He estimates Americom should realize $100 million in the venture over the next 17 years.Draitser declined to confirm these figures but said the company is financially sound. The hotel, the only major American-managed hostelry in the capital, has one of the city's highest occupancy rates and is used by most visiting U.S. officials. President Bill Clinton stayed there during his January summit meeting with President Boris Yeltsin.Americom runs the business center and shops and other services in the hotel while the Radisson Moscow Corp. manages the hotel rooms and restaurants. In their fight, all sides have waged public campaigns, often issuing press releases to chronicle every blow. "Radisson Partner Retakes Office in Moscow's Slavjanskaya Hotel," a headline in an Americom release Wednesday announced as though describing a military skirmish over a strategic hill.Representatives of Americom and Radisson are scheduled to continue meetings Thursday to resolve some of their differences and reconvene with the Russian side of the joint venture on Friday, the three sides said.In a hearing on the dispute last week in Minnesota where Radisson is based, a U.S. district court judge suggested the partnership should be dissolved.reatened that the Moscow government, which owns the building and property, will close the hotel if the American partners do not satisfy the city's demands.The three-sided battle is over money and personality, the various sides say. The two American partners dis