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OIL AND STRIFE
CHINA INVESTS
IN RISKY REGION
ROGER COHEN
WHAT WILL
ISRAEL BECOME?
MEDIEVAL ART
YOUNG BUYERS
BUOY MARKET
PAGE 15
PAGE 8
PAGE 11
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BUSINESS
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OPINION
|
CULTURE
....
MONDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2014
Russia seeks
a revival for
its last major
Soviet brand
Cuba looks
for new role
after losing
an old villain
TOGLIATTI, RUSSIA
HAVANA
Chief using experience
in Detroit to turn around
a much-maligned Lada
Realignment of relations
with U.S. comes at time
of rising expectations
BY NEIL MACFARQUHAR
BY DAMIEN CAVE
AND VICTORIA BURNETT
Ladas are the family cars that Russians
love to hate.
Loathed as outmoded rattletraps,
they have long inspired more punch
lines than passion: How many people
does it take to drive a Lada? Four; one
to steer and three to push.
Conversely, Russians cherish Ladas
as the last major Soviet brand producing cars from scratch. Of the estimated
40 million cars in Russia, more than onethird are Ladas, and the Granta, a small
sedan, outsells every other car.
Yet they are endangered. The company’s market share diminished steadily after the Soviet Union collapsed,
dropping to 17 percent from 70 percent.
Long before the recent oil price collapse
pummeled Russia’s economy, the
Kremlin decided Lada needed rescuing.
It recruited Bo Inge Andersson, a
blunt Swedish-American executive with
long experience in Detroit, to overhaul
Avtovaz, Lada’s corporate parent and a
signature Russian industrial company.
‘‘The biggest focus for us is to bring
back the pride in Lada,’’ Mr. Andersson,
59, said during what seemed like a
speed-walking race through one of the
world’s largest auto plants.
President Vladimir V. Putin has said
repeatedly this month that Western
sanctions meant Russia has to go it alone.
So resurrecting Avtovaz is a parable for
changes needed by all Russian manufacturing. It is not quite ‘‘As Avtovaz goes,
so goes the nation,’’ but close.
‘‘It is a problem that the entire country faces,’’ said Aleksey Y. Buzinny,
GORDON WELTERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Goblins are making a comeback in Germany as younger Germans promote Christmas customs that defined their childhoods and those of their parents and grandparents.
Naughty or nice? The Krampus knows
MUNICH
Bavarians bring back
Santa’s evil counterpart,
spreading Christmas fear
RUSSIA, PAGE 17
BY MELISSA EDDY
EUROPE FEELS EFFECT OF FALLING RUBLE
Long before parents around the world
relied on the powers of Santa Claus to
monitor their children’s behavior, their
counterparts in Alpine villages called on
The currency’s dive has jangled nerves
in Russia, but the reverberations are
being felt far beyond its borders. PAGE 15
a shaggy-furred, horned creature with a
fistful of bound twigs to send the message that they had better watch out.
Tom Bierbaumer recalls the trepidation he felt every Dec. 6, when the
clanging of oversized cowbells signaled
the arrival of the Krampus, a devilish
mountain goblin that serves as an evil
counterpart to the good St. Nick. He
would think back over his misdeeds of
past months — the days he had refused
to clear the supper table, left his homework unfinished or pulled a girl’s hair.
‘‘When you are a child, you know
what you have done wrong the whole
year,’’ said Mr. Bierbaumer, who grew
up in the Bavarian Alps and now heads a
Munich-based club, the Sparifankerl
Pass — Bavarian dialect for ‘‘Devil’s
Group’’ — devoted to keeping the
Krampus tradition alive. ‘‘When the
Krampus comes to your house, and you
are a child, you are really worried about
getting a hit from his switch.’’
Besides visiting homes with St. Nicholas, the Krampus has for centuries run
through village and town centers
spreading pre-Christmas fear and chas-
ing away evil spirits. That tradition
dwindled across much of Bavaria in the
1960s and 1970s, as postmodern society
moved away from its rural past.
But with cultural homogenization
spreading across an increasingly unified Europe, and concerns festering
about the dilution of local ways, a new
generation is bringing back the customs
that defined their childhoods, and those
of their parents and grandparents.
A decade ago, Mr. Bierbaumer, 46,
persuaded the Munich authorities to
KRAMPUS, PAGE 5
U.S. asks China to help block hackers
WASHINGTON
Response to Sony attack
could include economic
sanctions on Pyongyang
BY DAVID E. SANGER,
NICOLE PERLROTH
AND ERIC SCHMITT
ILYESS OSMANE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tunisian runoff
A voting station in Tunis for the presidential elections.
A spokesman for Beji Caid Essebsi, a former cabinet minister, said late Sunday that
Mr. Essebsi was leading against President Moncef Marzouki. nytimes.com/africa
The Obama administration has sought
China’s help in recent days in blocking
North Korea’s ability to launch cyberattacks, the first steps toward the ‘‘proportional response’’ President Obama
vowed against the North for the assault
on Sony Pictures, according to senior
administration officials. The move is
also part of a campaign to issue a broad-
INSIDE TO DAY ’S PA P E R
er warning against future hacking, the
officials said.
‘‘What we are looking for is a blocking
action, something that would cripple
their efforts to carry out attacks,’’ one
official said.
So far, the Chinese have not responded. Their cooperation would be critical,
since virtually all of North Korea’s telecommunications run through Chineseoperated networks.
It is unclear that China would choose
to help, given tensions over computer
security between Washington and
Beijing since the Justice Department in
May indicted five hackers working for
the Chinese military on charges of stealing sensitive information from American companies.
The secret approach to China comes
as American officials, convening half a
ONLINE AT INY T.COM
Heroin addiction grows in Kabul
Warren’s role: To push Clinton
As opium cultivation has soared in
Afghanistan, addiction levels have
risen and residents of Kabul have
watched the problems play out in
public. WORLD NEWS, 7
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has
denied plans to run for president, may
challenge Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her
own way, to focus on income inequality
in the campaign. nytimes.com/us
Real-life Rambo brought to trial
Putting electricity on ice
A former U.S. Army sniper captured last
year in Thailand is accused of managing
a team of contract hit men overseas, in a
case that could have been lifted from the
latest action thriller. WORLD NEWS, 5
In an unusual competition in California,
proposals for energy storage systems
— including devices called Ice Bears —
beat out hundreds of bids to construct
new power plants. nytimes.com/business
YouTube’s piece of the pie
Reprisals for questioning care
Viewers may be migrating from
traditional television to YouTube and
its rivals, but the advertising dollars
have not yet followed. BUSINESS, 15
Doctors, nurses and medical workers at
American military hospitals say they
have been punished for pointing out
problems with care. nytimes.com/us
Brave new country of Turkey
The government is going off the rails
even though it has been popular and
respected for doing the right things,
Andrew Finkel writes. OPINION, 9
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ABD DOUMANY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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IN THIS ISSUE
No. 40,987
Books 11
Business 15
Crossword 14
Culture 11
Opinion 8
Sports 12
Keeping Santa on schedule
Delivery companies have taken steps to
prevent a recurrence of last holiday
season, when a late surge in shipments
and bad weather left many homes bereft
of gifts to put under the tree. BUSINESS, 19
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority is taking on manspreading,
the lay-it-all-out sitting style that more
than a few men see as their inalienable
underground right. nytimes.com/nyregion
At 107, still a Buffalo Bills fan
A granddaughter wanted to better
understand her grandmother, a Bills
devotee. So they went to Ralph Wilson
Stadium for the Bills’ final home game of
the season. nytimes.com/sports
dozen meetings in the White House
Situation Room last week, including one
of the top national security team on
Thursday night, have been developing
options to give to the president during
his vacation in Hawaii. They include
new economic sanctions, mirroring
those recently placed on Russian oligarchs and officials close to President
Vladimir V. Putin, which would cut off
their access to cash — the one perk that
allows the elite surrounding Kim Jongun, the North Korean leader, to enjoy
lifestyles their starving countrymen
can barely imagine.
The sessions also included discussions of ‘‘information operations’’ directed at the North Korean people, officials said, but similar efforts by South
Korea to sway opinion in the North have
CYBERATTACKS, PAGE 7
John F. Kennedy, who strengthened
economic sanctions against Cuba in the
early 1960s, has a whole room devoted
to his sins. But the final exhibit, at the
Italianate palace that houses the Museum of the Revolution on the edge of
Old Havana, is ‘‘a gallery of cretins’’ —
cartoon-style wooden cutouts of recent
American presidents who are thanked
for ‘‘helping us strengthen the Revolution.’’
The line of rogues ends with George
W. Bush, raising the question: What
about President Obama? Will he eventually join the gallery, or has the parade
of the hated finally ended?
As Cubans absorb the news that the
United States will begin normalizing relations with their government after
more than five decades of hostility, they
are contending with a rush of both excitement and uncertainty about what
could be the end of a long global drama
in which Cuba has played a prominent
role.
Mr. Obama, in an interview broadcast
Sunday, said his diplomatic initiative
was coming at a critical time for Cuba.
‘‘If we engage, we have the opportunity
to influence the course of events at a
time when there’s going to be some generational change in that country,’’ Mr.
Obama said in a prerecorded interview
on the CNN program ‘‘State of the Union.’’
The country’s leaders in particular,
after decades of battling and blaming
the United States and powerful Cuban
exiles — calling them worms, ingrates
and far worse — now find themselves
without the usual excuse for Cuba’s economic failures and human rights restrictions, at a time when the population’s expectations are soaring.
The challenge of managing the opening up of Cuba will be colossal, forcing
the government to grapple with its own
faults and the possibility of becoming
just another sun-drenched Caribbean
island rather than an often-admired
CUBA, PAGE 4
ÁNGEL FRANCO/THE NEW YORK TIMES
WAVES OF DIVERSITY FOR MIAMI’S CUBANS
Elsa Riverón, who found her way to
Miami in 2011 via Spain, is part of a
newer generation of arrivals. PAGE 4