PREMIERE EDITION

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013

The Russia left behind

Senate talks inch toward deal on U.S. debt ceiling

WASHINGTON

Populism called threat to stability in Europe

ROME

Negotiations speed up as government nears a default on Thursday

BY JONATHAN WEISMAN

Italian premier warns of risk to euro zone and its financial institutions
BY JIM YARDLEY

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DMITRY KOSTYUKOV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A churchgoer at the Iversky Monastery, which has had a lustrous renovation financed by state-connected companies. President Vladimir V. Putin has a vacation home nearby.

Between 2 cities, signs of a nation in decay

LYUBAN, RUSSIA

BY ELLEN BARRY

Ryoma Michai, 13, and Mariuka Rudel, 14, before their wedding ceremony in the village of Chudovo. Many children no longer attend school and child marriage is making a comeback.
ONLINE: THE OTHER RUSSIA

Find an interactive account of Ellen Barrys multiday road trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow. A slide show from Dmitry Kostyukov illustrating the journey.

An interactive map showing the day-byday stages of the trip. Join Aleksandr Chertkov, a truck driver who has spent years on Russias highways, as he travels toward Moscow. inyt.com

A few times every day, the high-speed train between St. Petersburg and Moscow barrels through the threadbare town of Lyuban. When word gets out that the head of Russias state railway company a close friend of President Vladimir V. Putin is aboard, the stations employees line up on the platform standing at attention, saluting Russias modernization for the seconds it takes the train to fly through. Whoosh. But Vladimir G. Naperkovsky is not one of them. He watched with a cold, blue-eyed stare as the train passed the town where he was born, with its pitted roads and crumbling buildings. At 52, having shut down his small computer repair business, Mr. Naperkovsky is leaving for another region in Russia, hoping it is not too late to start a new life in a more prosperous place. The reasons are many, but his view boils down to this: Gradually, he said, explaining his view of Lyuban, everything is rotting. At the edges of Russias two great cities, another Russia begins. This will not be apparent at next years Winter Olympics in Sochi, nor is it visible from the German-engineered high-speed train. It is along the highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg a narrow

RUSSIA, PAGE 14

stretch of road that is a 12-hour trip by car that one sees the great stretches of Russia so neglected by the state that they seem drawn backward in time. As the states hand recedes from the hinterlands, people are struggling with choices that belong to past centuries: to heat their homes with a wood stove, which must be fed by hand every three hours, or burn diesel fuel, which costs half a months salary? When the road has so deteriorated that ambulances cannot reach their home, is it safe to stay? When their home cant be sold, can they leave? Clad in rubber slippers, his forearms sprinkled with tattoos, Mr. Naperkovsky is the kind of plain-spoken mans man whom Russians would call a

Aleksandr Chertkov, a trucker, says he wants a return to the order of Stalins time.

Senate negotiators moved toward a deal on Monday that would reopen the United States government through the end of the year, raise its borrowing limit into 2014, start broader budget negotiations and offer only token concessions to Republicans on President Obamas health care law. The progress was unfolding even as the clock continued ticking toward a default on United States government obligations that economists warn could be devastating. Senate talks were accelerating on Monday with the aim of sealing an agreement by Tuesday, just two days before the federal government exhausts its borrowing authority. But even if the Senate quickly musters the votes to pass a compromise agreement, daunting obstacles remain. The House leadership must decide to bring the deal to a vote over the almost certain objections of some conservatives aligned with the Tea Party movement; sufficient Republicans must be found to join the Democratic minority for passage; and all this must be done in the narrow window before federal borrowing authority runs out on Thursday. Even a close brush with default is certain to jolt financial markets and could threaten the U.S. credit rating. Mr. Obama, speaking during a visit to a soup kitchen in Washington, spoke of some progress by Senate negotiators but coupled that to a stark warning to lawmakers. If we dont start making some real progress, both the House and the Senate, and if Republicans arent willing to set aside their partisan concerns in order to do whats right for the country, we stand a good chance of defaulting, and defaulting could have a potentially devastating effect on our economy, he said. He also called the government shutdown completely unnecessary. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat, said: There are always lots of perils, but there does seem to be a possible path forward. And a Republican senator, Bob Corker of Tennessee, told an NBC interviewer: There is a lot of concern about whether were going to meet this deadline. I think at the end of the day we will. Two key negotiators, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, met on Capitol Hill on Monday, and Mr. Reid emerged to say a deal was not yet done. Mr. Reid and Mr. McConnell, along with other top congressional leaders, were to meet later at the White House with Mr. Obama. Asked whether senators would have something to present to the president, Mr. Reid responded, Sure hope so.
CONGRESS, PAGE 7

ITALY, PAGE 7

With European parliamentary elections less than eight months away, Prime Minister Enrico Letta of Italy on Monday warned that the rise of angry populism poses the greatest threat to stability on the Continent and could undermine critical efforts to build and strengthen the euro zones political and financial institutions. We have the big risk to have the most anti-European European Parliament ever, Mr. Letta said in an expansive interview at Palazzo Chigi, his office in central Rome. He said mainstream, pro-Europe parties must win at least 70 percent of the seats to avoid a nightmarish legislature. The rise of populism is today the main European social and political issue, Mr. Letta added. To fight against populism, in my view, is a mission today in Italy and in the other countries. Mr. Letta, 47, who became prime minister in April, is scheduled to meet President Obama in Washington on Thursday to discuss free trade efforts, instability in Libya and the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean. During the interview on Monday, Mr. Letta said Italy would soon announce details about a new government plan to expand air and sea patrols in the Straits of Sicily, following two tragic accidents in which hundreds of migrants died after their smuggler boats capsized while trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italy will work without waiting for European decisions, he said. We know that, at the European level, it is impossible to have on these issues timely decisions. But people are dying today, not waiting for bureaucratic achievement in six to nine months. In recent weeks, Mr. Letta has emerged as a newly empowered figure in Italian and European politics, after he fended off an attempt by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to bring down the coalition government, winning a resounding confidence vote for his government on Oct. 2.

TURNING THE PAGE

The pace of change in our times can upend ways of life with little warning. We peer around the corner at what might be coming next. The second installment of a special report. INSIDE

LET TER TO O U R R E A D E R S
Today we celebrate the debut of The International New York Times, a news report tailored specifically for the valued members of our global audience. Edited from Paris, London, Hong Kong and New York, The International New York Times will continue to serve the many loyal readers of The International Herald Tribune by maintaining its tradition of journalistic excellence and innovation. Only a few decades ago, The New York Times was a well respected but metropolitan newspaper. My father, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, had the vision to make The Times a national newspaper in 1980. Though seen as a gamble at the time, it was clearly the right decision. Today, our future is global. The need for high-quality, authoritative, on-theground reporting and analysis from
INTRODUCING INY T. COM

ONLINE AT INY T.COM

Europe weighs U.S. debt crisis

around the world has never been greater. Over the past year, we have built one news-gathering operation by combining the journalistic strengths and the newsrooms of The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, with continuous news desks and a 24/7 global news flow from Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York. Our commitment to providing quality global journalism is steadfast. We have more international correspondents reporting from more locations than ever before. With todays action, we are creating a single, unified global media brand, which will allow us to expand our digital hubs, grow our editorial team, add more international voices in news and opinion, and increase the coverage provided by some of our best writers from around the globe. To celebrate the launch of The International New York Times, we are offering complimentary access this week to our digital readers on inyt.com, iOS mobile apps and all mobile devices via a Web browser. Additional details on how to access The International New York Times can be found on Page 2. It is our belief that The International New York Times will help you experience the world, while connecting and engaging with a global community of politically and culturally passionate people. Thank you for reading The International New York Times. Sincerely, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., Publisher International New York Times European finance ministers were to meet Monday and Tuesday. They are concerned about whether the United States can avoid a credit default.
inyt.com/business

Why sovereign debt matters

New York Times reporters explain in a video why going over the U.S. debt limit on Thursday would be such a big deal, and how defaulting could send world markets spinning. inyt.com A new report from European regulators shows broad improvement in air pollution across Europe, with some notable exceptions in the East. inyt.com

Judging Europes air quality

Introducing Sinosphere
Our new China-focused blog delivers timely and authoritative dispatches from this fast-changing country.

Enjoy complimentary digital access to The International New York Times this week. Experience it now. COURTESY OF
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