Search Results for: Russian

The investment to build the interconnector will amount to EUR2.8 billion, with the EIB set to contribute up to EUR400 million for the financing construction of the section within the European Union (EU).  Other financiers include the UK Infrastructure Bank, which will focus on the stretch within UK maritime and land territory, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).…

A former DEA agent who laundered money undercover to attack the Medellín and Cali cartels has called for a root-and-branch reform of AML, so that its vast resources target the most suspicious transactions and the professional launderers who facilitate them. Speaking to MLB, Robert Mazur, who offered ML services to drug kingpins such as Pablo Escobar in the 1980s and 1990s to undermine their criminal networks, said that many laundering techniques used then are still in use today.…

Anti-corruption group Transparency International (TI) has called on the British government to stiffen AML controls for the UK’s booming electronic money institutions (EMI) sector. It has concluded that ML risk red flags are present at one third of such licenced businesses.…

In 2019, before Covid-19 knocked the industry off a seemingly unstoppable growth trajectory, 95 billion gallons of fuel was burned by commercial airlines worldwide said statistical service Statista.

Speaking to Petroleum Review, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) deputy director for environmental protection Jane Hupe said analysis undertaken by the UN agency found “that, by 2050, it would be physically possible to meet 100 percent of international aviation jet fuel demand with sustainable aviation fuels, corresponding to a 63 percent reduction in emissions.”…

The huge offshore finance leak unveiled last month (October 3) by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has highlighted the risks major companies face when doing business in offshore jurisdictions. Keith Nuthall and Andreia Nogueira report.

Major companies undertaking international business must comply with increasingly tough beneficial ownership transparency laws, and risk reputational damage if they are associated with particularly elaborate devices to avoid tax, even if it is legal.…

The huge offshore finance leak unveiled yesterday (October 3) by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its media partners has highlighted the pressures AML reporters face in complying with increasingly tough beneficial ownership transparency laws.

Reports generated from 2.94 terabytes of data within 12 million documents leaked to the ICIJ from the confidential records of 14 offshore service providers have been analysed by 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries.…

Hubris comes in many forms, but surely the rushed exit of American forces from Afghanistan to meet an artificial political deadline of the 20^th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the USA is a breathtaking example.

Rather than strengthening the agents of reform in Afghanistan, upon which the US and its allies have inefficiently spent trillions of dollars, this helter-skelter exit has undermined them, leaving at the mercy of a resurgent Taliban.…

WHILE the imposition of age limits on the consumption of tobacco and other nicotine products remains very much a national, and in some cases sub-national jurisdiction decision, there is no doubt that the general trend worldwide is for tighter restrictions on younger consumers, even if they are often tough to enforce.…

Aviation has always been regarded as a tougher sector to convert to low carbon fuels than road transport, because of the high intensity burn required to power planes – which traditionally been supplied by fossil-based kerosene. And a lot is burned.…

In five years, the Europol-hosted website ‘No More Ransom’ (NMR) (1) “prevented criminals from earning almost a billion euros through ransomware attacks,” the European Union (EU) police agency claims. Launching a new more user-friendly home for its ‘Crypto Sheriff’ app on Monday (July 26), Europol said that through 121 free tools, able to decrypt 151 ransomware families of this malware, the NMR repository has helped more than six million people recover locked files for free.…

Companies breach sanctions laws at their peril. Fines of many thousands of dollars, and even jail terms, await the unwary or careless. Fortunately, an Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) has been created to advise businesses on negotiating the complex world of international sanctions compliance.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission in June (2021) signalled it was running out of patience with Malta and Cyprus over their ‘golden passport’ schemes which allow people investing in these small island nations to effectively buy citizenship. The European Union (EU) executive has long warned that such policies contain significant ML risks, releasing a detailed report in 2019 that highlighted concerns that governments failed to properly screen the source of funds used to gain golden passports.…

Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced amendments to the island’s Registration Procedures for New Chemical Substances and Existing Chemical Substances. In addition to delaying a registration period for the standard registration of existing chemical substances in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has added a number of simplified administrative and convenient measures to optimise registration applications, review and reporting requirements.…

INTRODUCTION

Graphene has been hailed as a wonder material by its promoters – and for once in the tarnished history of scientific hyperbole – these claims seem to have significant merit. The reality is that graphene does not only offer textile manufacturers the ability to improve the functionality of their products, it helps them achieve this in an environmentally sustainable way.…

CONCERN about continued Russian meddling in American elections, the ‘SolarWinds’ backdoor hack into major US institutions, and targeted assassinations of dissidents abroad, have sparked the imposition of major new sanctions powers by President Joe Biden,

Declaring a national emergency to fight the cyber-crime threat posed by Russia, Biden released an executive order giving his administration wide-ranging powers to freeze and block asserts of Russian individuals and companies deemed associated with these Russian intrusions.…

The US new administration of President Joe Biden has a real opportunity to help forge peace in Syria, and if it succeeds, it could reap a series of important foreign policy goals.

This Levant country needs calm and reconstruction. For that to happen, the Biden team needs to recognise that the Baathist regime of President Bashar Hafez al-Assad has won this conflict, and still has rights in areas controlled by Kurds.…

The US new administration of President Joe Biden has a real opportunity to help forge peace in Syria, and if it succeeds, it could reap a series of important foreign policy goals.

This Levant country needs calm and reconstruction. For that to happen, the Biden team needs to recognise that the Baathist regime of President Bashar Hafez al-Assad has won this conflict, and still has rights in areas controlled by Kurds.…

The medieval scholar Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, a famous Tunisian historian of the 14^th and 15^th centuries, created a model for the history of states, which he said had a natural life of birth, maturity and death.

His Muqaddimah, published in Arabic in 1377, written as a prelude to an ambitious survey of global history, said states went through three stages, always ending – as the adage about politics says – in failure.…

Russian food retailers are expanding their offerings of ready-to-heat food in response to growing demand from consumers. The Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged sales, as an alternative to eating out, but it is building in longer-term trends among Russian consumers, particularly in large cities, to seek out convenient food product options.…

WITH market researchers such as Polaris predicting that the global vegetable-based meat product market will generate USD35.4 billion in sales by 2027, major and small food tech companies are working hard to tap this growing niche. Polaris predicts that the segment will expand with a compound annual growth rate of 15.8% between 2020 to 2027, so there is space now for innovative products to attract market share.…

Traditionally a society of meat lovers, Russians are now developing a taste for vegetable and cereal-based products that reflect the taste and texture of meat – food manufacturers are eager to cater to this trend.

International companies have been entering this segment in Russia, while ambitious local startups are rapidly expanding their production capacities.…

THE USA’S Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has settled two cases involving Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, accused of breaching US sanctions designed to impede companies and individuals aiding Russia’s contested annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

DB has agreed to pay USD425,600 and USD157,000 to the US Treasury to settle these cases, where OFAC found the German bank had not deliberately sought to flout these financial controls, but failed to apply correct legally-mandated due diligence.…

THE WORLD has become used to large leaks of confidential data from intelligence services and banks, but the latest dump, from the files of the USA’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) may have impacts beyond the unveiling of wrongdoing. Keith Nuthall explains.…

THE UK’s overseas territories are struggling with something of an existential crisis, as they face an effective 2023 deadline for introducing publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers that could undermine their ability to offer confidential financial services to companies and wealthy individuals.…

AS a key part of the food production supply chain, the international can manufacturing and filling industry has largely stayed open, with some exceptions, during the Covid-19 crisis, not just in developed economies, but also in key emerging markets such as the BRICS countries.…

Moscow’s action on 90% demineralized whey powder followed up an announcement made in March 19 by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that from March 20 “for one month, all restrictions on the supply of essential goods, including customs, are cancelled”. This was followed up by a government plan allowing for the easing of sanctions-related restrictions – see http://static.government.ru/media/files/vBHd4YRxpULCaUNNTFLVpPSZbMCIA2Zq.pdf…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled measures to help food and drink manufacturers and their suppliers cope with the Covid-19 crisis. It has, for instance announced that dairy (skimmed milk powder, butter and cheese), and meat (beef, sheep and goat meat) producers will be paid ‘private storage aid’ to warehouse such products for between two and six months to reduce current excessive supplies.…

With low labour costs and stable local demand, Ukraine has long been one of the favoured bases for major tobacco companies. However, even without taking into account before the disruption caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the market has been in flux in recent months as the new Ukrainian government has made efforts to change tobacco taxation while ramping up its fight against tobacco smuggling.…

Derisking through the dismantling of correspondent banking relationships continues to be a problem, according to the latest data, prompting concerns that informal transaction networks may grow, whose AML checks may be less robust than those applied by traditional banks.

The European Union (EU) is concerned, with the European Banking Authority (EBA) in October 2019 issued a report on risks affecting the financial sector, with derisking one of its biggest concerns regarding money laundering.…

The coronavirus pandemic, which is yet to hit its peak in Russia, has put increasing pressure on the country’s food manufacturers by increasing health and safety operational costs and a related decline in the value of the rouble. Major food manufacturers continue to operate at full capacity despite President Vladimir Putin announcing a nationwide lockdown, telling Russians to remain at home on April 2, an order that currently expires on May 11.…

While new financial technologies and associated developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence offer AML/CFT solutions, anti-money laundering specialists are concerned about new risks being posed by new business and industrial innovations.

Banks are starting to adopt AI-based machine learning, but terrorists and criminals can use technology too: “It is really an AI arms race in financial crime”, said Kamer Yüksel, chief data scientist for Munich-based artificial intelligence start-up hawk:AI’s and author of more than 35 publications on AI.…

The European Union (EU) needs to step up enforcement of its anti-money laundering legislation, not just the fourth and fifth directives (AMLD 4 and 5), but earlier provisions from AMLD3 that are still not being applied in the member states, according to speakers at a February 19 breakfast event on ‘Money laundering and financial crime’ staged at the European Parliament in Brussels.…

THE RUSSIAN government, while being praised for improving its AML/CFT efforts, has been asked by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to better probe complex ML cases and root corruption from banks and even AML institutions.

In its latest mutual evaluation report on Russia released today (December 17), FATF noted that “some parts of Russian law enforcement agencies have a corruption problem, including agencies charged with investigating ML” (although it did not name the tainted bodies).…

Businesses across the personal care product sector have expressed concern about a comprehensive national digital marking and traceability system that the Russian government plans to comprehensively put in place by 2024. A limited selection of products are being used to trial the system from the New Year and this includes perfumes.…

Indian steel manufacturers think that the Indian government will trim its support for their exports following the release of an adverse World Trade Organisation verdict in a subsidy dispute brought by the United States.

“The [Indian] ministry of commerce was already looking at revamping trade and tax policies, which includes scrapping certain export incentive schemes that have been now been termed as subsidies” by the United States, Arnab Kumar Hazra, assistant secretary general of Indian Steel Association told Metal Bulletin, “It might expedite the process after [the new] WTO announcement.”…

DISTRICT heating is an efficient way to provide heat, that can reduce carbon emissions compared to individual property-based heating. So, it is maybe heartening to learn that the Chinese central government and its municipalities are both growing district heating and encouraging the use of cleaner energies to power them.…

THE INCOMING European Commission may seek to further harmonise European Union (EU) food labelling rules on sugar content. This pledge comes from the nominee for new EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, a Cypriot parliamentarian, whose EU role includes being responsible for food safety and standards.…

RUSSIA’S dairy industry has been trying to develop its size and sales while its government’s restrictions on European Union (EU) dairy imports remain, but there are questions about how well producers would cope with imports once these sanctions are, eventually, lifted.…

WITH anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls becoming ever more comprehensive, strategic and widespread, the demand for trained AML/CFT professionals is growing. Salaries are increasing, as a result. This good compensation reflects the fact that AML work is becoming increasingly demanding because of regulatory requirements, said Michael Harris, director, financial crime compliance, at LexisNexis Risk Solutions.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

WOLLASTONITE has been described by a Canadian producer as “a white mineral for a greener world,” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite is set to see increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.…

MARCH’S approval by the European Parliament of new European Union (EU) electricity market rules, designed to increase consumer choice, boost renewables access and cap power subsidies, were hailed by the European Commission as a new dawn for the creation of the EU’s much vaunted Energy Union.…

MONGOLIA’S grassland ecology has always lent itself to livestock and hence milk production, so it is no surprise that the development of a dairy industry has been a priority for its government and international institutions.

A five-year loan worth USD12 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development via Mongolia’s XacBank announced in February (2019) is just one such related initiative.…

BANKS worldwide are having to take increasing care lest they be fined for violating sanctions and not having adequate regulatory compliance regimes in place. With the USA expanding sanctions against Venezuela and Iran, financial institutions need to not only have adequate screening software but anticipate potential new regulations and that regulators will be pouring over past activities.…

RUSSIA’S paint industry is slowly growing but upcoming chemical regulations could limit the output of some potentially hazardous products. There are two such laws in the pipeline. One is a technical regulation ‘On the safety of chemical products’. This was adopted and ratified by the Russian government in 2016, and will come into force in 2021 (on July 1), and bans the use of a range of hazardous chemicals, some used by Russian coatings manufacturers. …

THE BALTIC States, being European Union (EU) member states adjacent to Russia and Belarus have been exploited by Russian criminals as a gateway for their illicit funds into the EU and beyond.

This is despite that as EU member states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must implement EU anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance legislation.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed a 272% increase in liquified natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States to the European Union (EU) since a landmark meeting last July (2018) between President Donald Trump and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Releasing trade data at a High-Level Business-to-Business Energy Forum staged in Brussels, where LNG executives from Europe and America discussed increasing this trade, the Commission said EU imports of US LNG in March hit a record 1.4 billion cubic metres.…

EXPORTS of nonwovens products from the European Union (EU) to the rest of the world are on the rise, with in 2018 such overseas sales of nonwovens (whether or not impregnated, coated, covered or laminated) within the 28 members of the European Union (EU) accounted for EUR4.33 billion, up from EUR4.19 billion in 2017.…

Russia has criticised Mexico at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for maintaining anti-dumping duties on Russian steel exports, which it claims are outdated, being based on pricing assessments using data from a different country.

The Mexican government used this method for past dumping calculations on Russian steel because it is permitted under WTO rules where a government dominates an economy that does not operate as a free market.…

THE RUSSIAN government has in the past decade has a policy priority of re-establishing it country’s industrial base, and reducing its reliance on imports, paid for by Russia’s energy exports.

These goals cover its paints and coatings sector, and by 2021 Sibur, a Russian petrochemical company, plans to launch production of key ingredient maleic anhydride, with a plant in Tobolsk, Siberia, producing up to 45,000 tonnes a year.…

GREECE’S cosmetics sector showed significant resilience during the country’s long financial crisis and is currently expanding, as the country’s overall economy pulls ahead (1.9% GDP growth in 2018 and 2.1% projected for this year). However, problems afflicting the country’s personal care product regulations and a duty imposed on cosmetic producers might impact the sector going forward.…

ON the face of it, Japan and Russia are perfect partners for growing trade in liquified natural gas (LNG). Japan has always had few fossil fuel resources for powering its sophisticated industrial economy, and Russia has plenty of gas to export.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved a new European Union (EU) directive drafted to extend EU gas market competition rules to pipelines that enter the EU from non-member states. The legislation may impose conditions on the operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, and should the UK quit the EU as it currently plans, the law would apply to pipelines linking Britain with the remainder of the EU.…

Russian law enforcement authorities opened 487 investigations for bribery in 2018, leading to 439 convictions and fines totalling RUB691 million (USD10.7 million), according to recently published statistics. Russian general prosecutor’s office figures show over 300 new entities were added to the public bribery register last year, bringing the number of offenders listed to 1,700.…

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017. This follows launches in Ukraine in 2015, and Bulgaria in 2016. Having branched abroad into Estonia first in 1996, now has 207 overseas outlets in eight countries (also including Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as Germany, close to 271 it has in Finland.…

RUSSIAN telecoms company Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS) will pay USA regulatory and judicial authorities USD850 million to clear charges that it bribed its way into the Uzbekistan telecommunications market. MTS will pay USD750 million in fines and forfeits following a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice and an additional USD100 million penalty to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). …

A FINNISH burger chain that has taken the plunge into some of Europe’s most challenging eastern markets now has almost as many outlets abroad as in its home market.

Turku-based Hesburger is now building sales in Belarus, having announced it would move into this country in 2017.…

MAJOR western banks have been linked to the ‘Troika Laundromat’ scandal, which saw USD4.8 billion funnelled out of Russia via Russian investment bank Troika Dialog. The latest revelations published March 4 by newspapers linked to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) said that Troika was one of at least 75 companies that formed a complex financial web from 2006 to early 2013 and not only shifted billions out of Russia but also USD4.6 billion into the country.…

THE JAPANESE nuclear sector may have the backing of its government, but a combination of technical challenges and public unpopularity is impeding plans to restore the country’s nuclear capacity towards its generation before the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

During a news conference on January 1, Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, was pessimistic about the industry’s future.…

During a news conference on January 1, Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, hinted at a bleak future for Japan’s nuclear energy industry – it is a gloomy view that is hard to contest, when examining the facts, despite the Japanese government’s continued backing for the sector.…

THE GLOBAL art trade’s exposure to abuse by money launderers is to come under scrutiny as the European Union (EU) countries have started adopting the 5th EU anti-money laundering directive (EU 2018/843 – 5AMLD), which brings cultural artefacts trading under AML controls.…

It may not have been widely noticed internationally, but Dublin has become a key cog in the Russian economy’s financial system. That exposure – while profitable for the city’s accountants and lawyers – also risks becoming a liability due a lack of transparency over the source and use of funds.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) must create a central agency to supervise banks and non-banking institutions to combat rising risks posed by money laundering, a European Parliament hearing that focuses especially on the threat posed by Russian dirty money, has been told.…

EASTERN Europe remains a highly diverse market, where major beauty brands must think strategically to achieve economies of scale and a regional presence that really deliver profits. This is also a region where some markets are significantly bigger than others – with Russia and Poland being key targets.…

There are two displays in the Moscow office of the CFO of Volvo Car Russia, Vladimir Lagutin, that catches the attention, immediately: a large elegantly-framed poster of UK electronic music band Depeche Mode and a case of tennis balls.

“Those things – music and tennis – keep me from being stressed,” says Lagutin.…

THE ENFORCEMENT of Russian anti-money laundering laws is in the rise, although there are concerns that some AML cases have political motivations behind them, even if – ultimately – the evidence demonstrating ML offences took place stands up in court. Between 2012 and 2016, according to research of Russian press reports and official law enforcement agency statements, more than 30 Russian governors and state officials, former and serving, were accused of fraud or [and] corruption.…

With different forms of fraud skyrocketing, demand for surveillance is not only growing but becoming more diverse, with companies offering services ranging from old-fashioned stakeouts to high-tech detection. A Market Guide for Online Fraud Detection, released in January (2018) by research and advisory firm Gartner Inc, forecasts that the fraud detection and prevention marketplace is expected to grow significantly by 2022.…

Companies in Russia that help the law enforcement authorities uncover and investigate misconduct could be exempt from corporate bribery charges under a new Russian law. The law amends provisions on bribery by legal entities in the Russian Code on Administrative Offences (Administrative Code) to lay down conditions for exempting companies from liability.…

Leading Russian cosmetics and perfume producers have called on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to block the introduction of mandatory security labelling rules in the country’s personal care product industry to help the fight against counterfeiting and piracy.

This follows the May 3 approval by the Russian government of a list of goods, that will become subject to mandatory labelling, with each product unit assigned a unique code, creating a labelling system where all identification information will be stored digitally.…

COUNTERFEIT foodstuffs were the most common fake good seized by European Union (EU) customs in 2017 – making up 24% of the total – as fakers increasingly look the Internet to sell their illicit wares. Keith Nuthall unpicks the latest EU data on pirated products.…

THE RUSSIAN government has said that its promotion of manufacturing capacity to deliver raw materials for both the domestic standard textile and technical textile industry will fill structural shortages by 2020-2021.

Statements released by the ministry of trade and industry have stressed the potential impact of a project promoted by the federal government, the Ivanovo oblast and private investors, to build an Ivanovo Polyester Complex, north-east of Moscow.…

THE SERIOUS challenges affecting the growth of the Indian nuclear industry – including the falling cost of competing renewable energy, scarcity of finance, a shortage of skilled manpower and negative public perceptions – have concentrated the minds of industry leaders meeting at the 10th Nuclear Energy Conclave 2018, held in New Delhi.…

THE Russian textile industry is facing a new crisis due to a decline in demand this year, brought about by ever-increasing prices for local textiles and the low purchasing-power of Russian consumers, business analysts and producers have warned.

According to Anna Lebsack-Kleimans, chief executive of the Fashion Consulting Group, one of Russia’s leading analysis agencies in the textiles and clothing sector, prices for the majority of textile products available in Russia have increased by 20% year-on-year since the beginning of the year and those elevated prices are expected to remain in place into next year.…

THE RUSSIAN textile industry will grow by almost 5% annually until 2030, but this will not be because of exports, but mainly due to growing domestic demand, according to recent report from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) released on July 30.…

The latest edition of the biannual China International Trade Fair for Technical Textiles and Nonwovens (Cinte Techtextil China), held September 4-6, in Shanghai, showed how Chinese manufacturers are more than holding their own in these technically demanding markets.

The fair, a spin-off from the Techtextil show in Germany, attracted a diverse range of some 500 exhibitors from around 20 countries, covering 12 different application areas with protech, mobiltech and geotech, spanning wovens, knits and nonwovens, arguably being most prominent. …

EASTERN Europe is always a tough market for major paint and coating manufacturers to crack, containing multiple national markets, some in the European Union (EU), some outside, and all with differing cultural and language requirements for marketers to master.

Poland, with its 38 million population and robust economy (projected by the World Bank to grow at 4.2% this year – 2018), remains the region’s most important market, with researcher Euromonitor International saying that Polish paint and coatings sales were worth Polish Zloty PLN1.29 billion (USD352.7 billion) in 2017, up slightly compared to the PLN1.25 billion (USD342.5 billion) sold in 2016.…

CONSUMERS in Nordic countries commonly prefer quality environment-friendly products and the paint and coatings sector is no exception.

Denmark is a case in point, being home to major Hempel A/S, which launched its advanced water-based technology range of decorative paints under the Crown Trades brand in January 2017, group president and CEO Henrik Andersen told PPCJ.…

China seems to have given the world nuclear industry back its mojo this summer with two big moves: the signing in June of an order for four Gen 3+ VVER-1200 reactors from Russia’s Rosatom. This certainly got the bubbly flowing at the World Nuclear Exhibition, in Paris, in late June, following two years of sluggish investment in this globalised industry.…

THE RUSSIAN government has confirmed plans to double its country’s exports of textile products by 2025, according to the state press-service. In comments sent to WTiN.com, Russia’s deputy minister of industry and trade Viktor Yevtukhov, currently responsible for the development of Russia’s textile sector, said his administration was optimistic, with exports of Russian textile products currently show good results.…

RUSSIA, the Ukraine and the European Union (EU) have agreed to negotiate to forge a long term trilateral deal on exporting Russian gas via Ukraine to the EU, with the goal of striking an agreement by the December 31, 2019, expiry of the current agreement.…

THE RUSSIAN and European Union (EU) meat industries are beginning to accept Russia’s ban on meat and livestock as a fact, with President Vladimir Putin extending the existing embargo on imports of meat and other food products to Russia from western countries and allies until December 31, 2019.…

THE RUSSIAN financial conglomerate AFK Sistema, owned by billionaire Vladimir Evtushenkov, plans to expand into the country’s textile manufacturing business through the acquisition of a controlling stake in Vologda Textile, one of Russia’s largest and oldest textile producers. According to sources close to AFK Sistema, the company is interested in a 51% stake in the mothballed north-west Russia-based Vologda Textile – its first investment in the textile sector.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission and Gazprom have struck a deal where Brussels ends its anti-trust proceedings against the Russian gas giant in return for some key pledges on competition. The Commission said that Gazprom has agreed to remove restrictions placed on customers to re-sell and export is gas; Gazprom will enable gas flows to and from central and Eastern countries – such as Bulgaria and the Baltic States – that lack interconnectors to other EU states; Gazprom customers will be allowed to demand prices reflect those in competitive Western European gas markets; and Gazprom promised not to leverage potential influence gained through its extensive gas infrastructure network.…

THE NONWOVENS sector has always been at the cutting edge of materials production, and so established developed economy manufacturers have often had the edge. But with global markets integrating, and emerging economies becoming increasingly sophisticated, new nonwovens manufacturing bases are growing all the time.…

THE ALUMINUM Association of Canada is assessing the list of aluminium products that could be subject to retaliatory duties following the USA’s imposition of tariffs to identify lines that maybe re-exported multiple times during complex manufacturing processes. The industry group will request that these lines are reduced from the Canadian government safeguard duty list.…

SOUTH Korean conglomerate Lotte Group has announced a major expansion of production at its plant in Kaluga, western Russia, which will involve building a new manufacturing line and double the capacity of an existing line.

A statement sent to just-food said that the construction and installation work should be completed by this November.…

WITH its huge agricultural hinterland and distinctive products – tvoroh (curd cheese), sour cream, kefir (a fermented milk drink) and syrniki (fritters made with curd cheese) – Ukraine has a unique local dairy market with an appeal beyond its national borders.…

THE VOLUME of counterfeit and contraband textile products, reaching Russia via nearby countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia), last year (2017) amounted to Russian roubles RUB30 billion (USD500 million), according to Russian government officials and textile producers.…

A report prepared for the European Commission has questioned whether a planned EUR3 billion pipeline across the Pyrenees linking France and Spain would be commercially viable, unless Algeria reduced exports of gas to Europe. Brussels asked consultancy Poyry to assess the Midi-Catalonia (Midcat) pipeline, which it has supported as a way of easing European reliance in Russian gas through boosting access to Span’s LNG terminals.…

Food products with colour-coded packaging, informing the consumer about the sugar, salt and fat content will soon appear on the shelves of Russian retail stores, according to draft voluntary regulations written by the national consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor.

Its proposal would instruct food manufacturers to marking meat, fish, bread, dairy and other food products with ‘traffic lights’ symbols indicating their intrinsic healthiness.…

RUSSIAN airport holding and cooperating company Basel-Aero, which is owned by the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska may sell some of its airport assets, government officials have told Jane’s Airport Review.

The spark for the sales is likely to be financial problems caused by the recent inclusion of Deripaska in a new USA sanctions list of Russian companies and plutocrats the US, said senior officials at the Russian ministry of transport and air industry analysts. …

THE DECISION of the Polish government to build a 1,200-kilometre-long fence along the country’s eastern border as a tool to fight African Swine Fever (ASF) by blocking the migration of infected wild boars has been condemned as too-little-too-late by Poland’s meat sector.…

RUSSIA’S oil and gas sector has been targeted in new USA sanctions rolled out on oligarchs and companies linked to a Russian government.

Seven Russian oligarchs and 12 companies they own or control; 17 senior Russian government officials; a state-owned Russian weapons trading company and its subsidiary, a Russian bank, will have their US-based assets frozen.…

India’s petrochemicals industry is preparing to exploit its growth potential and can benefit from lessons learned in Europe. Indeed, India’s intertwined petrochemicals and refining sectors received a significant endorsement of their future potential in April 2018 in the shape of major foreign investment in what will be one of the world’s biggest integrated sites for these twin purposes.…

WITH President Donald Trump angered by the Syrian government chemical weapon attack near Damascus, the US government has rolled out additional financial sanctions on oligarchs and companies linked to a Russian government that Washington blames for abetting such outrages in Syria.…

RUSSIAN airports are intensifying preparations for a flood of passengers in the run up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup from June 14 to July 15, having expanded their carrying capacities and modernised operations, according to Russian transport ministry officials and airport bosses.…

RUSSIAN airports are intensifying preparations for a flood of passengers in the run up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup from June 14 to July 15, having expanded their carrying capacities and modernised operations, according to Russian transport ministry officials and airport bosses.…

THE RUSSIAN government plans to allocate up to USD250 million on the design and production of technical textiles and nonwovens for the country’s military forces.

It is planning to fund production at facilities run by some of the leading Russian manufacturers in the next financial year (2018-19).…

IS the Caspian Sea a sea or a lake? A definitive answer may bring a resolution to the thorny issue of just who gets to access to which parts of its lucrative oil and gas reserves. And last December (2017), the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov unexpectedly announced that an agreement had been reached.…

Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg has confirmed plans to invest about Russian Roubles RUB8 billion (USD140 million) in developing an international airport at Novy Urengoy, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, a major oil and gas production centre in northern Siberia.

A concession agreement, signed between Vekselberg’s investment company Renova Holding and the Yamalo authorities, involves the billionaire promising to redevelop the existing Novy Urengoy airport by 2021.…

A RESUMPTION of flights from Russia to Egypt has been postponed to April, Russian state news agency TASS has reported, with procedural issues holding up the launch. Direct airlinks have been suspended since a 2015 terror attack on an airliner taking off from Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh.…

SENOR Russian government officials have conformed to GlobalMeatNews plans to build Russia’s largest duck meat production unit, in the Iskitimsky district of Novosibirsk region (oblast), south-western Siberia.

Russian ministry of agriculture and Novosibirsk oblast bureaucrats said the unit would be constructed by the Ulybino Poultry Factory Company, a major Russian poultry producer.  …

A NEW multi-million dollar textile and clothing manufacturing hub is set to be established within the Crimea as a pressing Russian government priority to halt the annexed region’s trade in illegal textile products, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Boosting domestic textile production – initially in garment fabrics and subsequently technical textiles – is aimed in part to depress demand for illicit goods in the peninsular, predominantly from China and Turkey.…

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to build 16 nuclear reactors, both small and large, to generate 17GWe by 2040. While no tenders have yet been awarded, the kingdom is working with numerous international partners to develop its nuclear infrastructure and safety systems.…

INDIA’S 12 newly sanctioned nuclear reactors with 9,000-megawatt (MW) capacity may use imported fuel, but most of the equipment will be made in India, government officials have told Fuel Cycle Week.

“We will see what is the maximum [amount of fuel] we can get from within the country and then what will be the external input of fuel,” Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan, member of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, told Fuel Cycle Week.…

DANISH Idavang A/S, a European meat producer, has announced plans to build a new pigmeat processing complex in Russia’s St Petersburg region this year (2018), according to the company.

To generate funds for the project, the company has issued EUR85 million’s worth of Eurobonds.…

A NEW polyester plant is to be built in a Russian textile production hub to overcome a shortage of domestic technical textile and nonwovens raw materials and, ideally, launch the export of those materials to the European Union (EU) market. 

The Russian federal government, together with the Ivanovo regional government (oblast), north east of Moscow, are now building an Ivanovo Polyester Complex, which they hope will become a major supplier of raw materials once it starts operations in early 2019.…

Efforts to safeguard the security of supply of gas to the European Union (EU) and its countries are gathering pace after recent EU regulatory changes. Gas transmission system operators (TSOs) are now developing a new, collaborative system for managing supply crises.…

THE DE-RISKING by banks of their correspondent banking relationships is a long-standing problem and is today becoming a truly global phenomenon. From the Caribbean to the Pacific Islands, to Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, banks have lost correspondent relationships with international financial institutions.…

A new terminal will be built at the Crimea’s Simferopol International Airport by summer 2018, according to the autonomous Crimean regional government, whose peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014.

With the planned capacity for the facility being 6.5 million passengers-a-year, the project reflects confidence that visitor numbers to this tourist region will continue to grow.…

THE RUSSIAN government has said it will fight an application by the European Union (EU) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for permission to impose retaliatory trade sanctions worth EUR1.39 billion over Moscow’s longstanding ban on EU exports of pigmeat products and pigs.…

A new manufacturing hub for producing pork and poultry meat, oriented towards exports to Asia Pacific markets, will soon be established in the Russian Far East by the Rusagro Group of Companies, one of Russia’s largest meat and agricultural producers.

A Rusagro statement released last Tuesday (January 16) said the investments required would exceed Russian Roubles RUB40 billion (USD705 million), the majority internally sourced.…

THE RUSSIAN government has said it plans to significantly increase its beef exports from Latin American states (except from Brazil) to compensate for potential domestic supply shortages created by the existing ban on imports of meat from western countries and a recent ban on beef imports from Brazil.…

The Thailand-based agricultural holding Charoen Pokphand Foods has announced plans to invest up to Russian Roubles RUB2.5 billion (USD44.5 million) to build two poultry breeding units in Russia this year (2018). The first will be established at Charoen’s existing Severnaya poultry farm, a major production centre in the St Petersburg region (oblast).…

FINANCIAL fraud, as all practitioners know, has become increasingly international, a trend that will doubtless continue. For law enforcers based on national units of theoretically sovereign countries, this poses challenges, and one particularly tough nut to crack are procedures to extradite suspects to face trial in the country where their alleged victims reside.…

RUSSIA’S ministry of agriculture is planning to invest up to USD200 million this year and next (2018-2019) in developing breeding stock and systems for the country’s dairy cattle industry. According to a ministry spokesperson, these plans will be implemented by experts at the ministry department of livestock, as well as some leading Russian research institutions in cattle genetics, although specific participants will be announced later this year.…

THE UKRAINIAN market of personal care products is steadily growing, with a rise in sales and an ongoing economic recovery, according to marketing research firm Nielsen analyst Rostislav Stepanchuk. Last year (2017), the personal care product market grew by 26%, compared to 2016, with the estimated year-on-year growth amounting to Ukranian Hryvnia UAH10.2 billion (USD355 million) in value terms, and the growth could be even higher this year, predicted Nielsen analysts.…

Eurodon, one of Russia’s largest turkey producers, is planning to diversify its business through investing up to Russian Roubles RUB20 billion (USD338 million) in the building lamb production units within the country, the company has announced.

The risk benefits of expanding its risk portfolio have been made all too apparent in the past year, with Eurodon facing a series of outbreaks of avian influenza, which have helped saddle it with financial losses of RUB2.6 billion (USD44 million).…

AS much as USD200 million is to be invested by the Russian government in the local manufacture of raw materials used by the domestic textile industry over the next two years (2018-19).

Funds will be allocated to boost production of cotton, flax and wool in specific areas across the country, thus allowing for the reduction of imports of such products by between 25% and 30% as early as next year, said Russia’s minister of industry and trade, Denis Manturov.…

THE PRICES of cosmetics and perfume products in Russia may double next year, as a result of the planned introduction of an excise tax on perfume and cosmetics products that should come into force on January 1, 2018, experts warn.

A spokesman for the Russian federal government told Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics that the introduction of the tax reflects how alcohol is present within perfume and cosmetics products manufactured in Russia and will bring Russia into line with internationally-accepted practices.…

UKRAINE meat exports have increased by 1.5 times this year to USD397 million in value terms, looking at sales for January-September compared to the same period during 2016, with the country shedding its previous reliance on Russian markets. A report from the Ukraine Institute of Agrarian Economics said that the biggest growth in overseas sales was in the poultry segment, where exports for the first nine months of the current year grew by 38.2% in value terms year-on-year to USD294.86 million.…

A ‘NO deal’ or ‘hard Brexit’ scenario when the UK leaves the European Union (EU) on March 29, 2019, will be catastrophic for the European meat and livestock sector – eliminating jobs, increasing consumer prices and destroying the livelihood of small business owners, Europe’s top meat sector association has warned.…

OPERATIONS are now under way at three airports in China expected to carry significant levels of tourist traffic. Songyuan Chaganhu Airport is one, in Jilin province, in China’s far-northeast, in a declining industrial region. It is 27km from Chagan Lake Nature Reserve, which tourists visit to watch ice fishermen on China’s largest freshwater lakes – the airport can handle 400,000 passengers-a-year.…

THE RUSSIAN Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) may impose a ban on all imports of beef and pork from Brazil, the largest meat importer to Russia, in coming days over concerns about the detection of a forbidden hormone, government officials have warned.…

RUSSIAN textile manufacturers aim to double the country’s production of synthetic fabrics from next year with the aim of reducing dependence on imports, according to the government and industry insiders.

Over the past three years, the production of synthetic fabrics has become one of the most promising segments of Russia’s textile sector, due to ever growing domestic consumption.…

CHINA’S imposition of temporary safeguard duties to protect its sugar industry have been challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with sugar giant Brazil arguing Beijing’s tariffs break global commerce rules. In a signal that Brazil might be considering launching a disputes case against China, diplomats for the South American country told a WTO safeguards committee meeting that the duties broke the WTO agreement on safeguards and the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). …

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) meat sector has said it is disappointed by the decision of the Russian government to widen its meat and livestock ban from western exporters. Speaking to GlobalMeatNews, the secretary general of the European Livestock and Meat Trades Union (UECBV), Jean-Luc Mériaux, said: “It is a big disappointment for sure, there is nothing to negotiate.…

THE RUSSIAN government has expanded the range of meat and livestock imports that it is blocking from the USA and the European Union (EU) and other associated countries who have been imposing sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of the Crimea and support for Ukraine separatists.…

A SENIOR official at the US Meat Export Federation has told GlobalMeatNews how he regrets small signs of recovery in the US-Russian meat trade have been snuffed out by the latest expansion of Moscow’s meat import ban. US exporters, said Thad Lively, senior vice president – trade access, had been “shipping a little fat to Russia”.…

MOSCOW region’s Zhukovsky International Airport aims to become the first Russian airport to list an Initial Public Offering, with plans to float shares on a stock market within the next two to three years. According to Tomas Vaisvila, CEO of Ramport Aero, which operates Zhukovsky, the airport could list an IPO as early as spring 2019.…

A NEW terminal being built at Gelendzhik Airport is expected to service its first passengers visiting the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik by the end of 2018, the airport’s operating company Basel Aero has stated.

This project is designed to more than double the capacity of Gelendzhik Airport to service 314 passengers per hour.…

The Russian government is to postpone implementing plans to consolidate Moscow airports into a single aviation hub under a single owner, hoping that the hands-off approach will encourage private investments in the country’s domestic airport industry. 

The Kremlin had earlier been vocal in calling for a united ownership of Moscow’s four airports, but the move has been resisted.…

MOSCOW region’s Zhukovsky International Airport aims to become the first Russian airport to list an Initial Public Offering, with plans to float shares on a stock market within the next two to three years. According to Tomas Vaisvila, CEO of Ramport Aero, which operates Zhukovsky, the airport could list an IPO as early as spring 2019.…

AS one of the world’s leading financial centres and a traditional bridge to mainland China for international business, Hong Kong has long been in the crosshairs of global money laundering investigations.

Hong Kong featured in the infamous ‘Russian laundromat’ scandal, uncovered by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), that saw USD20 billion moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 through a web of shell companies.…

French prosecutors have accused Denmark’s leading bank Danske Bank of playing an organised role in a Russian fraud and money laundering scam. Prosecutors, from the Paris High Court, allege that an Estonian branch of the bank helped to move EUR15 million “from organised fraud and tax evasion” in Russia into France and other European Union (EU) jurisdictions between 2008 and 2011.…

THE RUSSIAN government plans to significantly increase Russian exports of textile and technical textile products to foreign markets over the next few years, officials have told WTiN.com.

Planned export volumes have not yet been disclosed, however, according to some sources close to the ministry of industry and trade, the government is targeting an increase of 100,000-150,000 tonnes in 2017-2018, with the possibility of a three to four-fold increase over the next few years.…

Industrial minerals experts in Somalia are calling for the passage of laws to guide exploration and mining for the sector, now that the country is at last moving towards stability after decades of civil war.

There is a consensus that Somalia has huge potential for producing industrial minerals, that could help re-establish the country’s economy.…

RUSSIAN law-enforcement agencies have said they will conduct a detailed investigation into criminal allegations against Cherkizovo, Russia’s leading pork and poultry producer.

The management of the company is suspected of using illegal offshore financial schemes for paying dividends and lowering taxes, according to a spokesman of the Russian interior ministry has recently said.…

Airports within the 11 Russian host cities of the 2018 World Cup are in the final stages of major reconstruction programmes helping them serve this major international sporting event.

Moscow’s three airports – Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo – will be the main ports of entry into Russia for the tournament.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and China have struck a geographical indications deal preventing the names of 100 traditional food and drink items from either jurisdiction being used by manufacturers based outside their historic production regions or following standardised production techniques. Without complaints from manufacturers, the agreement will be formalised later this year.…

Russian scientists have developed a diagnostic drug that may prevent anthrax outbreaks in livestock by identifying which animals need to be re-vaccinated against the disease. The medicine has been developed because of concerns over statistics gathered by the Russian ministry of agriculture indicating that despite the mandatory vaccination of livestock in the country against anthrax, about 30% of these animals remain susceptible.…

THE RUSSIAN meat industry has reported that its profitability rose by 2.2 times between 2013 and 2016, actually benefitting from the tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by Russia and its western trading partners, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture.

In a report released on August 11, the ministry said state support for Russia’s meat industry increased following the imposition of sanctions.…

THE GLOBAL increase in commodity prices for beef and veal has dampened demand in Russia for imports of these meat products. The country’s agriculture ministry has said imports fell 18.6% this January-May compared to the same period in 2016, That was mainly due to a rise in import prices, which since the beginning of the current year have grown by almost 25%, said ministry officials.…

Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia’s largest in terms of traffic, will invest up to Russian Roubles RUB147.1 billion (USD2.5 billion) expanding its capacity from its current 35 million to 80 million passengers per year by 2026, according to a new development plan.…

RUSSIA plans to become one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of tin in the coming years, expected to take place through the investment of up to USD250 million developing some of the country’s largest tin fields.

According to officials at Russia’s energy ministry, some of these funds will be provided directly by the state, with the remainder allocated by private investors, who will be responsible for the implementation of the project.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is planning to lend up to USD100 million to LUKOIL Overseas Shah Deniz Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia’s PJSC LUKOIL, helping it take part in developing Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field. This investment is a rare EBRD financing of a Russian company.…

Amid concerns about a growing shortage of workers in Russia’s textile industry, leading companies are looking to recruit staff from India, China and other emerging market nations.

According to latest data from the Russian ministry of industry and trade, the current vacancy rate across the country’s textile industry is 36%.…

RUSSIAN clothing and textile consumers are increasingly choosing to buy products with natural materials and brighter colours, grassroots retail managers in Moscow have told WTiN.com.

Speaking from the major wholesale and retail complex ‘Textile Profy Moscow’, which commands 120,000 square metres in selling areas, its managers said Russian consumers are increasingly eschewing subtle and muted colours.…

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has decided to extend for 18 months the existing bans on imports of food and agricultural products to Russia from the European Union (EU), according to a Kremlin spokesperson. Putin has ordered that the ban will now last until December 31, 2018.…

Russian airports may have to pay tens of billions of roubles in compensation to local landowners, if proposed amendments to the Russian Air Code by the national parliament (the Duma) are approved. They would allow owners of plots within 30km of airports to demand payments over air safety-related restrictions on building high-rise buildings.…

A MAJOR Japanese corporation with significant meat trading interests – Mitsui & Co Ltd – is undergoing talks on potential business opportunities with the Rusagro Group, one of Russia’s largest vertically integrated livestock and agricultural holding companies.

Hiroo Yoshida, of Mitsui’s corporate communications division has confirmed that Mitsui has acquires a token amount – 0.005% – of Rusagro’s capital and the companies are “exploring the possibility of co-operation”.…

THE RUSSIAN government is planning to promote exports of Russia-produced poultry meat and pork to China and has already started talks with the Chinese government to secure the necessary health approvals to increase exports beyond current low volumes.

Impetus for the move has come from the top, with Russian President Vladimir Putin stressing in a speech that the government has high hopes for selling poultry to the Chinese, as, according to predictions of the Russian agriculture ministry, China may face with its shortage this year.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) meat industry has expressed disappointment over the decision by Russia to extend by 18 months its ban on EU exports of meat and meat products, but is optimistic that producers will continue finding alternative markets.

Leaders of EU farm industry association Copa-Cogeca and the European Livestock & Meat Trading Union (UECBV) stressed to GlobalMeatNews that the European Commission, food industry companies and EU member states had successfully adapted to Russia’s actions.…

THE CHAIRMAN of the Cherkizovo Group, one of Russia’s largest meat producers and processors, is to consolidate his stake in the company through the acquisition of 21.3% of its shares, which are currently owned by Prosperity Capital Management, one of Russia’s largest investment funds.…

Japan and Russia are to start trading meat products in earnest during the second half of this year, following an agreement between Tokyo and Moscow.

According to Japan’s ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, imports to Japan will be limited to beef that has undergone heat treatment in Japanese government-approved Russian factories.…

DEMAND for men’s personal care products is growing in Russia – a stark change for a country where men’s grooming was traditionally limited to the bare hygiene essentials, with any additional attention to physical appearance spurring fears of appearing too effeminate.…

THE RUSSIAN Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) may impose a ban on all imports of beef and pork from Brazil, the largest meat importer to Russia, in coming days over concerns about the detection of a forbidden hormone, government officials have warned.…

HUNGARY has signed an agreement with Russia’s Gazprom involving the central European country linking its gas distribution networks to the planned TurkStream pipeline, routing Russian gas via Turkey into Europe. Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto struck the deal with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, which involved Hungary building infrastructure to link with TurkStream, which will also cross Bulgaria and Serbia.…

Russia and three Gulf countries are planning to establish an aluminium industry association whose goal is reducing overproduction in the global market, raising prices for the metal.

Despite the ongoing diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its neighbours, the Russian government says it has already started talks with the governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, regarding establishing the new association.…

Russia and three Gulf countries are planning to establish an aluminium industry association whose goal is reducing overproduction in the global market, raising prices for the metal.

Despite the ongoing diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its neighbours, the Russian government says it has already started talks with the governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, regarding establishing the new association.…

The Russian government, together with private investors, plans to invest up to USD300 million in developing the Usinskoe manganese field, the largest manganese reserve in Russia, located in Kemerovo Oblast, in southwestern Siberia.

The project is expected to be implemented by a local mining company, CJSC CHEK-SU.VK,…

THE UKRAINE government has proposed a package of policies aimed at supporting domestic textile manufacturers who continue to struggle with the country’s ongoing economic and political turmoil.

Ukraine Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman announced the initiative on June 20, which involves spending USD150 million between 2017 and 2020.…

THE RUSSIAN government has announced that is planning to invest an additional Russian Rubles RUB145 billion (USD2,5 billion) into rejuvenating the country’s textile manufacturing sector. In the latest initiative designed to kickstart this ailing industry, the ministry of industry and trade has release a new approved strategy (on May 25) – it is designed to run until 2020.…

CJ CHEILJEDANG Corp, South Korea’s leading maker of processed foods, in a Korea Exchange (KRX) filing on June 12^th announced KRW541 billion (USD479.3 million) investment into the construction of a processed food production facility in Jincheon County in central South Korea.…

Vnesheconombank (VEB), one of Russia’s largest state-owned banks, may gain control over much of the Eurodon Group, the major Russia-based turkey producer, from its current owner, high profile business leader Vadim Vaneev, according to regulatory sources. The move, should it happen, would be because of money owed by Eurodon to VEB.…

Global meat majors including Germany’s Tönnies Denmark’s Danish Idavang are planning to invest in major Russian projects – government officials say the scale of Russia’s 144 million market could be overcoming reluctance by overseas players to develop Russian operations because of its economic recession and sanctions.…

THE RUSSIAN government has declared publicly that it is strengthening its fight against corruption, promising the adoption of new laws fighting graft and expanding the powers of law enforcement agencies.

These measures should cascade from an existing national anti-corruption plan, which was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 20 this year, and which was updated on April 7.…

A banker with the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has been jailed for six years by London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court of England and Wales on June 20 for taking USD3.5 million in bribes from a consultant, plus two years for money laundering to run concurrently.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

EUROPE’S nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry.

As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

THE NETHERLANDS-based Hendrix Genetics plans to build a complex producing hatching eggs for turkey chicks in Russia this year, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture.

Ina report, it has said the new complex will be able to produce 6.5 million hatching eggs per year, and the potential to increase volumes in future.…

THE CONSTANT roll out of Russian government plans to diversify its industrial base has now turned its focus to textile raw materials, with Moscow unveiling plans to resume large-scale production of flax and wool.

These sectors, according to agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev, have been neglected over the past 30 years, since the fall of the USSR in 1991.…

The Russian government has told Industrial Minerals of its plans to help boost rare earth element (REE) production across Russia in upcoming years.

The government is initially setting aside USD350 million for direct and indirect support for the sector, said an official at the ministry of industry and trade.…

The volume of tungsten production in Russia will be significantly increased during the next several years, due the planned development of the Tyrnyauz field, Russia’s largest tungsten and molybdenum reserve, which is located in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic of the country, north of the border with Georgia.…

AMERICAN meat major Tyson Foods is expanding within the Russian poultry breeding sector through the planned signing a deal with Samuel Lipman, a former board member of Cherkizovo Group, one of Russia’s largest meat and poultry producers and processors. Tyson plans to buy his 48.25% stake at the Broiler Budushego (Broiler of the Future), which controls about 40% of the Russian poultry breeding market. …

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

THE CONSTANT roll out of Russian government plans to diversify its industrial base has now turned its focus to textile raw materials, with Moscow unveiling plans to resume large-scale production of flax and wool.

These sectors, according to agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev, have been neglected over the past 30 years, since the fall of the USSR in 1991.…

RUSSIAN air traffic controllers in Smolensk have been blamed by Poland’s Deputy Prosecutor, Marek Pasionek, for the 2010 air crash in Russia that killed Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski and 95 other senior Polish politicians. Speaking at a press conference on April 3, Pasionek said that a detailed investigation had revealed “evidence that has allowed prosecutors to formulate new charges against air traffic controllers, citizens of the Russian Federation”.…

Investing and doing business in Bulgaria is not for the faint-hearted. Overseas companies are not only likely to encounter a few rotten and corrupt business partners, but rather systemic bribery, tough access to financing, policy instability, and an inefficient government and judicial system.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) exports of textile products to Russia have stabilised, despite a sharp fall between 2014 and 2015, as diplomatic relations between Brussels and Moscow worsened amidst financial sanctions imposed on Russian companies and banks over the Ukraine crisis.

New figures passed to WTiN.com…

The oil and gas industry is reshaping its strategies, practices and values as it responds to global agreements on climate change and sustainable development. The 2015 United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – which came into effect in January 2016 – are prominent among global governance challenges driving change in the oil and gas industry, but pressure just keeps building.…

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) judgement has confirmed the legal right of the European Union (EU) and the UK to subject Russian oil companies to financial sanctions and implement them using criminal law. These rights had been challenged by Russian oil and gas major Rosneft, and the case had been subsequently referred to the ECJ by the High Court for England and Wales.…

A EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) judgement has confirmed the legal right of the European Union (EU) and the UK to subject Russian oil companies to financial sanctions and implement them using criminal law. These rights had been challenged by Russian oil and gas major Rosneft, and the case had been subsequently referred to the ECJ by the High Court for England and Wales.…

With the value of Bitcoin skyrocketing over the past year, up from USD525 per Bitcoin last August to USD1,200 in mid-April, with one unit now being able to buy an ounce of gold, finding ways to efficiently regulate decentralised and independent virtual currencies (VCs) has become a top priority among governments and regulators worldwide.…

Europe’s nonwovens producers again served up a solid performance in 2016 against the background of (uneven and) uncertain trading conditions for the industry. As usual, the just-published returns from EDANA, the representative organisation for the USD30 billion nonwovens industry in Europe, show some important national variations.…

RUSSIAN non-wovens material producer the Thermopol company is planning to launch by May 27 (2017) a new thermal-insulating material which is flame-resistant, including to burning combustible liquids such as gasoline, alcohol or even a Molotov cocktail.

These properties maybe particularly useful given that the Moscow-based manufacturer’s key customer for the material is the National Guard of Russia, the country’s domestic military force, policing borders, fighting terrorism and dealing with civil disturbances.…

The European Commission and the Russian giant Gazprom have moved closer to striking a deal over the company’s competitive behavior in the European Union (EU). On Monday (March 13), the EU competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager invited all interested parties to comment on Gazprom commitments to address concerns that the company is breaking EU anti-trust rules.…

A CONSORTIUM of investigative journalists has claimed to have identified a model showing how a Russia-based money laundering scheme moved at least USD20.8 billion out of the country, via Moldova and Latvia. Significant portions of this money was transferred to accounts held by western banks including Britain’s HSBC and Coutts, the Bank of America and other major financial institutions, said the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).…

The Russian government is planning to significantly increase the volume of the country’s domestic vanadium production, according to a statement sent to Metal Bulletin by Russia’s minister of industry and trade Denis Manturov.

He said: “Russia has the world’s largest deposits of vanadium-titanium magnetite ore.…

IMPROVING airport management is often a matter of examining good practice overseas and for airports wanting to improve the time taken to move transfer passengers from one flight to another, their executives might learn from Helsinki Airport.

Finland’s key international airport has the fastest passenger flow in Europe for transfer passengers going on to other European destinations, with a minimum connecting time between flights of just 35 minutes, according to Finavia, the state company that operates Finland’s 21 commercial civilian airports.…

DIGITAL printing is all about potential for production flexibility and creativity, and the technology can unleash new design, even in countries were higher tech manufacturing and finishing is rare – such as Russia.

Take Alexandra Kaloshina, the owner of the Moscow-based Solstudio Textile Design – she is pushing ahead with developing and printing innovative collections for a Russian market that is always hungry for new designs, and if they are locally-made – so much the better.…

THE ANCIENT Celts has a saying: “To the brave belong all things.” And in business, this remains true. Companies prepared to take big risks, can reap big spoils. But they can also stumble into disaster. Such calculations are always made when foreign companies consider trading or investing in so-called ‘failed states’ or those at risk of failure.…

Deutsche Leasing Vostok, a member of German company Deutsche Leasing Group, has encouraged Russian textile manufacturers attending Russian Textile Week events, staged February 20-24 in Moscow, to lease rather than buy manufacturing equipment.

Deutsche Leasing Vostok representative Yulia Grukhanova told WTiN.com…

THE EUROPEAN beef sector must keep its direct payments at a time when the European Union (EU)’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is under review, according to new research highlighted by the European Parliament.

‘The EU cattle sector: challenges and opportunities – milk and meat’ report, published February 27 by the parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee, says these payments play an important part in farm-household income.…

TALKS that could see Charoen Pokphand Foods (overseas) LLC the Russian arm of Thai food conglomerate CP Foods, acquire the Ostankino Meat Processing Plant (OMPP), one of Russia’s largest meat processing facilities, may be concluded next month.

Russian newspaper reports have suggested that the potential deal could cost CP USD150 to USD200 million, although the companies have not confirmed this.…

SHEREMETYEVO International Airport has strengthened its commanding position in the Moscow civil aviation market, posting a 7.6% growth in passenger traffic during 2016 to 34.03 million passengers. By contrast, its rivals Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports saw their passenger numbers fall last year by 6.6% to 28.5 million and 11.8% to 13.94 million respectively.…

THE CONTINUED success of Europe’ major technical textile fair, Techtextil, Frankfurt, (the next event runs from May 9 to 12) illustrates how the continent’s technical textile sector is thriving on its innovation.

“We don’t know what the future brings. We only know where it will be exhibited.…

COMPANIES want to avoid hiring fraudsters, but can trained HR professionals weed out the scammers at interview through detected personality traits? It is a tough call and cybercrime makes this job so much harder. Lee Adendorff reports.

IT has never been an easy job for company personnel managers to detect fraudsters before they embezzle, counterfeit, bribe and steal.…

Terrorist financing is continuing in the Middle East, highlighted by the devastating attack in Istanbul over the new year. Radical Islamic groups still operate in Iraq and Syria, notably the Islamic State and the Levant, or ISIL (also known as ISIS), and the source of funding for these terrorist groups is a contentious issue.…

THE ISRAELI natural gas sector is undergoing significant expansion, with the country pushing ahead to plan to develop and commercially exploit new fields. Indeed, “this past year in energy has been the most dynamic year we have ever had,” said Dr Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of energy, at the annual Energy & Business Convention, held in Tel Aviv in November (2016).…

THE VALUE of crime-tainted money moved through Russian banks has been falling fast – to Russian roubles RUB200 billion (USD3.3 billion) in 2015, down from RUB350 billion in 2014, according to data provided by the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring).…

The Syria conflict is into its sixth year, as are the multilateral sanctions imposed on the government in Damascus. How effective have the sanctions been, given the Syrian regime’s survival? And where may have funds from members of the regime, and those linked to it, gone?…

Arab Gulf governments are repeatedly accused of aiding terrorist financing on and, more often, off the record. Calls to get tough on these states have been sidelined by political and economic expediency, while Gulf moves to curb terrorist financing have been lacklustre and there may be risks ahead, reports Paul Cochrane, in Beirut.…

Oleg Deripaska, the Russian industrialist who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, plans to secure a 100% stake in Yemelyanovo airport, in Krasnoyarsk, the largest airport in central and eastern Siberia. Russian-language newspapers suggest the cost will be Russian Roubles RUB5 billion (USD83 million).…

THE RUSSIAN government has said it will ensure the construction of a third runway at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, Russia’s busiest airport, prior to the FIFA World Cup 2018, despite the project having been approved since 2009. Dmitry Peskov, press-secretary of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, stressed that the new runway will be 3,200 metres long and 60 metres wide.…

AN INTERNATIONAL consortium of investors led by Singapore’s Changi Airport Group, the Russia-based Basic Element holding company and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) sovereign wealth fund have agreed to acquire Vladivostok International Airport from owner JSC Sheremetyevo International Airport.

The takeover is expected to cost Russian Rubles 6 billion (USD100 million).…

Companies want to avoid hiring fraudsters, but can trained HR professionals weed out the scammers at interview through detected personality traits – or sensitive managers pinpoint an employee who has an inbuilt propensity for graft?

Research can certainly help employers know who is more likely to turn fraudster than not, but it is far from a precise science.…

FRENCH luxury group conglomerate LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) has consolidated its position in Russia by acquiring a 100% stake in Ile de Beauté, one of Russia’s leading cosmetics chains.

The deal was signed on January 16 with Igor Denisov, a Russian businessman and the founder of Ile de Beauté, which, to date, has operated the retail business together with LVMH, in the form of a joint venture.…

The Italian beauty and personal care industry has headed into 2017 with optimism, on the heels of a still slow yet solid recovery in the domestic market and the strengthening of its competitive edge in foreign markets. Although the most recent confirmed data goes back only to 2015, industry association Cosmetica Italia’s latest forecast for the sector, released in July 2016 and entitled, ‘Economic Forecasts, Trends and Investments in the Cosmetics Sector – July 2016’, gives a good idea on the 2016 year-end results we can expect from the Italian cosmetics industry.…

HONG Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have put listed companies on notice that they will closely monitor rights issues and open offers that substantially dilute the interests of non-subscribing minority shareholders.

In a joint statement, the SFC and the exchange have said they fear in some cases deals have been conducted without complying with requirements to give fair and equal treatment to all shareholders. …

FINLAND’S independent contract car maker Valmet Automotive (VA) is experiencing a remarkable renaissance thanks to orders from Germany’s Mercedes-Benz, growth that is expected to continue with support from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

VA’s breakthrough came when it signed a deal with Daimler in July 2012 to make more than 100,000 Mercedes Series A models between 2013 and 2017.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is lending EUR4.2 million (USD4.4 million) to Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan, to help fund the installation of a new ventilation and heating system to meet international standards. The USD10.7 million project at this Kyrgyzstan government-owned airport, which serves the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, will also be funded by a USD5.5 million loan from the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund.…

A new high tech clothing factory has been opened in the city of Pohar, in southwest Russia by the regional government of Bryansk, which will boost demand for technical textiles worldwide, potentially boosting Russia’s hard-pressed textile sector.

The Bryansk oblast operates the plant – which started operations in October – through an afflicted company in which it shares control with private investors.…

Russia’s economic woes are well-documented, yet, rather than mirroring the financial downturn, its personal care market and industry has remained comparatively healthy. Beneath these encouraging figures, however, strong currents appear to be instigating long-term changes to the sector, notably an increasing preference for cheaper products by hard-pressed consumers.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and its member states have been keen adopters of rules restricting how tobacco companies make, market and sell their wares, but to what extent have the EU’s neighbours to the east and southeast followed suit?

The answer is – largely – yes: controls have increased – but the extent to which this has happened and the details of restrictions vary widely from country to country.…

THE NEW York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has fined the Agricultural Bank of China USD215 million for violating the USA state’s anti-money laundering (AML) laws. The regulator will also install an independent monitor, reporting to the DFS, to address serious AML deficiencies within the bank’s compliance programme at its New York branch.…

Technical textiles will be a key driver of growth within the Russian textile and light industry in the coming years say experts at the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs of Textile and Light Industry (Soyzlegprom). A spokesman for Andrey Razbrodin, president of the industry body, said that its market research has confirmed that the share of technical textile sales within the output of Russian light industry has increased significantly continues to grow.…

With the country in political turmoil following an attempted coup in the summer and a subsequent economic downturn, the current situation in Turkey is having a negative impact on spending, particularly on luxury items including personal care and pampering products. Consumers, instead, are tending to stock up on essential items such as basic foodstuffs as concerns about the present crisis continue, but personal care products, especially higher end lines, are a lower priority for consumers.…

AB InBev and Turkey’s Anadolu Efes are considering merging their Russian businesses, which would create Russia’s second largest beer producer, according to a spokesperson for the country’s industry and trade minister Denis Manturov.

He said: “Currently two possible scenarios of the merging of Russian assets of the companies are discussed, one of which involves direct purchase of the Russian assets of Efes by AB InBev, or the sale of the Russian business of AB InBev to Efes, in exchange of the increase of a stake in the Turkish company, where AB InBev already holds 24 percent.”…

A senior official at Indonesia’s industry ministry has told WTiN.com of its plans to boost the effectiveness of newly established warehouse storage systems for textile industry inputs, helping the country’s manufacturers source supplies swiftly and efficiently.

Achmad Sigit Dwiwahjono, the industry ministry’s director general of chemical, textile and various industries, hailed the government’s new bonded warehouses, where supplies can be admitted without paying excise duty, as a major advance, hailing improvements in operations facilitated by a cotton handling logistics centre.…

The Russian government is planning to facilitate up to USD300 million in private investment for the development of the national textile industry, according to an official spokesman of Denis Manturov, Russia’s minister of industry and trade.

He told WTiN.com that funds would be invested in the establishment of large-scale facilities specialising in textile production, with the aim of ensuring that such plants would be located across the country.…

Turkey’s rocky political situation following the failed military coup of July 15, the following massive purges and recurring terrorist bombings may have a negative effect on the country’s large textiles sector, experts are warning.

“It’s likely to lead to some uncertainties, obviously, in the general economy,” Turkey-born economist Ozan Şakar, of managing director of London-based Descartes Capital.…

LLC Kamyshinksky Textiles, one of Russia’s largest textile producers, plans to become a leading player in the market in the next few years following its extensive expansion programme, according to its general director Alexander Borisenko.

“Modernisation of our production capacities has been carried out since 2011 and is expected to be finally completed by 2018-2019,” Borisenko said.…

Heineken has announced that it will stop the production of beer at one of its oldest breweries in Russia, in the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad, starting from January 1, (2017). In an official statement, Heineken said this followed a decline in Russian demand for beer and growing government-imposed administration costs imposed on business within the country.…

Leading Russian clothing designers are developing plans to start significant volumes of domestically-produced exports to Western markets during the next several years, potentially boosting demand for upstream suppliers based in the country. Alexander Serafimov, one of Russia’s leading fashion designers, has said that particular attention will be paid on increasing exports to the European Union (EU) and the USA, because of the potential to generate larger profit margins than in Asia.…

The Russian government will by the end of this month (September) appeal the recent ruling of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) opposing Russia’s swine fever-related ban on European Union (EU) exports of pigs, pigmeat and related products by the end of September, according to the Russian government.…

Growing competition across the world for clothing outsourcing contracts, with China not only being challenged in Asia, but by sub-Saharan African and even Russian suppliers, is pushing Asian governments to sharpen their industrial policy to retain market share, a major international conference has heard.…

RUSSIA is banning imports of fruit and vegetables from Egypt as of September 22. The Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (‘Rosselkhoznadzor’) confirmed the ban and noted it is the result of Egyptian exporters’ non-compliance to Russian phytosanitary rules.…

There is “irrefutable evidence” the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that crashed over war-torn Ukraine on 17 July 2014 was hit by a Russia-made BUK missile from the 9M38 series, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) told a Wednesday (September 28) press conference for relatives of the 298 victims.…

RUSSIAN police have arrested Dmitry Zakharchenko, a senior anti-corruption official, charging him with abuse of power, obstruction of justice and accepting bribes in Moscow’s Presnensky district court on September 10. This followed police raids seizing more than USD122 million in cash – USD120 million and EUR2 million – allegedly held by the deputy head of the energy industry department of the General Administration of Economic Security and Combating Corruption (GAESCC).…

THE DEVELOPMENT of electricity interconnectors crossing national borders is simultaneously a technical and geo-political act, requiring careful planning and skilled installation of technology, along with an eye towards promoting security of power supplies.

Such investments are a priority of the European Union (EU) and its member states under its Energy Union programme.…

Russia is ready to lift the existing embargo on the imports of food and agricultural products from Turkey imposed last year after diplomatic relations between the two countries soured following the shooting-down of a Russian fighter jet last November (2015). Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia’s first deputy prime minister.…

A key element of Russia’s bans on European Union (EU) food exports was challenged today, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) saying the country’s bans on European Union (EU) exports of pigs, pigmeat and related products, imposed over African swine fever (ASF) cases, breach global trade laws.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) council has prevented member countries from freely posting warnings to a global database regarding threats to civil airliners in conflict zones, without first consulting the government of a country mentioned in such a declaration.

The change comes in amendments to procedures to ICAO’s Conflict Zone Information Repository (CZIR), which was set up after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down while flying over pro-Russian rebel held territory in eastern Ukraine.…

IN an ever more interconnected world, where reliable energy flows are of critical importance to sophisticated developed economies, the role of diplomacy in helping keep oil and gas flowing is perhaps more important than ever before.

Of course, oil and gas has always been an international business.…

BANGLADESH has secured a strategic financial reserve to build its first nuclear power plant after Russia lent the south Asian country USD11.38 billion to push ahead with the project. But experts have warned Fuel Cycle Week that progress on the project could be “long and winding” and, unsurprisingly, “expensive”.…

The Russian ministry of industry and trade is claiming that the country’s steel manufacturing sector will receive a significant increase in orders through its new plans to invest up to USD300 million in developing Russia’s civil shipbuilding industry.

According to its minister Denis Manturov, the majority of funds will help pay for the construction of new ships such as container shops, trawlers and other commercial vessels, within Russian shipyards, notably boosting demand for high-strength steel, which is currently produced at small volumes in Russia, (roughly 10% of output according to ministry officials).…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed Friday’s (Aug 19) ruling from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) opposing Russia’s bans on European Union (EU) exports of pigs, pigmeat and related products, imposed during 2014 because of outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF).

Russia, meanwhile, has said it is studying the ruling and may yet appeal.…

India will start manufacturing fuel components and other equipment for its Russian-designed nuclear reactors within the next 10 years, Indian authorities have told Fuel Cycle Week. “There will be certain range of equipment that could be made much earlier, but others like pressure vessels for a large steam generator could take that period of time [10 years],” Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan, member of India’s Atomic Energy Commission told Fuel Cycle Week.…

A DROP Chinese domestic pork production, generating more demand for pigmeat imports, has become major boon for Danish pork farmers who are ready to double exports to China this year, industry experts have said.

This “has been a game changer for the farmers, as we have seen the prices on slaughter pigs rise nearly 20% this spring,” meat processor Danish Crown head of press Jens Hansen told GlobalMeatNews. …

Turkey may resume supplies of its textile products to Russia thanks to the recent improvement of relations between the two countries, according to the Russian ministry of industry and trade.

Despite the fact, that Turkish textile products were not formally included in the list of sanctions on goods imposed after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter plane last November, shipments to Russia have almost ceased with border controls impeding imports.…

A DRAMATIC year for Pyrenees micro-state of Andorra has highlighted a debate over whether the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has excessive power over financial institutions outside America.

The American financial intelligence unit (FIU) issued a Notice of Finding (NOF) in March 2015, saying Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA), one of only five banks in the principality, was a financial institution of “primary money laundering concern.”…

THE ENTRY of Froneri, the joint venture company formed on a 50-50 basis by Nestlé and UK-based manufacturer R&R, into the Russian ice cream market, is poised to boost competition in a segment that has been showing increasing dynamism.

Russian ice cream sales have not only been increasing, they have become more diverse, with consumers being offered more choice from Russia-based and international food corporations.…

Large Russian and foreign aviation businesses may start a new fight for the ownership of Moscow Domodedovo airport, Russia’s largest and one of its most profitable airports. The stakes are not purely commercial as Domodedovo is a key Russian airport asset which is not currently controlled by investors affiliated with the President Vladimir Putin’s government in the Kremlin.…

Banking security chiefs and their opponents in their opponents in the underworld of cybercrime are fighting a “cold war arms race” with no long-term solution in sight, fraud specialist academics have told Fraud Intelligence.

And if anyone should doubt that this threat is not just profound, but global in scope, witness that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB – Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti) announced last month that it had arrested 50 members of a gang believed to have been responsible for a Russian Roubles RUB1.7 billion (USD 26.6 million) bank cyberhack using the Trojan programme ‘Lurk’ to collect customer data.…

THE RUSSIAN government is considering ways of preventing a potential halt to deliveries of foreign alcohol into Russia, caused by delays in providing sufficient quantities of new-style excise stamps to importers.

The new stamps took effect on July 1 and all alcoholic drinks imports should now carry them.  …

Specialist health and nutritional foods are set to become more important in the European market in future, according to Nestlé executive vice president and head of EMENA zone (Europe, Middle East and North Africa), Luis Cantarell, who singled out foods for the ageing population as a key priority.…

The Russian government has decided to ease its extended embargo on imports of food and agricultural products to Russia from Western countries, according to the Russian ministry of agriculture. 

An official statement said exports from the European Union, USA, Norway, Australia and Canada of poultry meat, frozen beef, plus dried and frozen vegetables used to make baby food in Russia would be allowed into the country.…

The Russian government has now approved its proposed programme of state support for Russia’s textile manufacturing industry, covering the current financial year, as it seeks to protect the industry against foreign competition. The volume of support has been set by the ministry of industry and trade at Russian Roubles RUB2 billion (USD30 million).…

Russia’s decision to extend its import ban on a wide range of European Union (EU), US, Canadian, Australian and Norwegian food exports until December 31, 2017 has met with widespread disapproval from the EU meat industry. “Overall I can say we are very disappointed,” EU farm body Copa & Cogeca spokesperson Amanda Cheesley told GlobalMeatNews.…

Russian automotive consumers suffering in their country’s current economic recession are delaying vehicle purchases and investing in single, more expensive family cars rather than buy several small cars for individual use, experts have told wardsauto.

They are commenting on data that has confounded predictions that the country’s volatile financial situation would mean a return to purchasing cheaper and smaller car models, such as the Ladas driven during the Communist years.…

Russia and Turkmenistan have discussed selling an increased level of textile and cotton products from this central Asian country on the Russian market, according to a report from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

At a high-level meeting in March between the chamber’s vice-president Alexander Rybakov, and the Turkmen ambassador to Russia, Berdymurad Redzhepov, the two countries raised the prospect of greater cotton exports.…

Chinese investors are considering expanding their presence in the Russian textile industry, according to Russia’s ministry of industry and trade. The move is expected to take place through the Chinese financing of new production facilities within Russia and the relocation of existing China-based textile plants to Russia, ministry officials told WTiN.com,…

As the European Union (EU) dairy industry continues to face challenges, it is calling for EU institutions and member governments to have a greater focus on resolving Russia’s ban on EU agricultural goods, while continuing to open up new markets. In the meantime, the Russian ban has not helped an oversupply problem that is depressing prices.…

Leading Russian publishing houses have filed a petition to the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), asking it to prevent the ever growing domination of Prosveshenye publishing house in the domestic market, especially educational textbooks.

The move follows a recently issued recommendation from the Moscow city government’s education department to its secondary schools to give preference to Prosveshenye books when procuring literature for their school curricula.…

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström refused to confirm earlier reports suggesting Commission negotiators had agreed to remove beef from negotiations for Mercosur, the trading bloc that includes Brazil and Argentina.

In response to questions from members of parliament, Commissioner Malmström said, “I will not confirm what is in and what is not in the offer because we are still finalising it.…

RUSSIA’S agriculture ministry has announced that it is drafting a decree that will extend the country’s ban on imports of a wide range of European Union (EU), US, Canada, Australia and Norway food exports until December 31, 2017. Russian agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev said in Moscow today that his ministry did not plan to expand the number of products covered by the ban.…

GLOBAL personal care product giant L’Oréal will invest more than Russian Roubles RUB2.5 billion (USD37 million) to increase production in Russia, with the company saying its current plant is operating at full capacity. L’Oréal’s Russia spokesperson Valeriya Murygina told Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics that the company would expand production facilities at its existing Russia factory, located at the Vorsino industrial park, in the Kaluga region, 85 km from Moscow.…

How to remain competitive in the face of falling meat consumption is the main challenge facing the meat and livestock industry today, Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of European Union (EU) farmers’ organisation Copa-Cogeca, has told GlobalMeatNews.

In an exclusive interview held as the EU body launched its #livestockcounts #enjoyagrifood campaign, promoting quality European meat consumption, Pesonen said: “We must ensure the added value of eating high quality meat as part of a balanced diet is communicated effectively to the consumer.”…

A COST of maintaining nuclear generation capacity of between 95 GWe and 105GWe in the European Union (EU) until 2050 and beyond will cost between EUR350 and EUR450 billion over the next 35 years, the European Commission has concluded. (That is between USD398 billion and USD511 billion at current exchange rates).…

THE ARAB Spring has certainly been a mixed blessing for North Africa, with political instability as common as progress towards democratisation, and the region’s paint sector has not been insulated from these changes. Sales have swung up and down, with North Africa’s economies performing unevenly as the Arab Spring’s political changes shake out.…

The world of mergers and acquisitions in the Russian oil and gas sector can sometimes be as opaque as a matryoshka doll: political interference and considerations are often almost as important as business ones; and takeovers can fall through at the last moment, even as parts of the Russian state’s energy holdings discuss mergers with private national players.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have told the European Commission to devise detailed assistance measures to help European pigmeat producers, following a debate at the EU Council of Ministers for agriculture yesterday (March 14).

A communiqué said that the Council and Commission had agreed to “take decisive actions without delay” building on the EUR500 million aid package for farmers approved last September (2015).…

THE UNITED Arab Emirates’ (UAE) fragrance retail market (unisex and those targeted at female and male consumers) experienced healthy growth in 2015 compared to 2014, increasing 8% in value terms to reach Emirati Dirham AED2.23 billion (USD607.2 million), according to market researchers Euromonitor International.…

The Russian government has approved a proposed state programme targeting a significant increase in the domestic production of rare-earth elements (REE) by 2020. The news was announced by a spokesman for Denis Manturov, Russia’s minister of industry and trade, whose ministry oversees the development of REE.…

Poland has requested measures to help boost its struggling pigmeat sector at an European Council of Minsters’ agriculture and fisheries meeting, expressing “deep concern at the development of the situation in the pigmeat market.

A document circulated to EU ministers by the Polish delegation to the council said additional financial resources, or “exceptional support”, from the EU for the pigmeat sector to compensate for producers’ continuing losses resulting from Russia’s embargo and a drought in 2015.…

Leading Russian oil and gas producers, along with the national government, are considering investing up to Russian Roubles RUB100 billion (USD1.4 billion) into developing drilling and related upstream technologies during the next several years, amidst an shortage in technology supplies.

Prior to the sanctions war between Russia and Western countries sparked by the Ukraine crisis, the majority of drilling technologies were imported into Russia.…

The Russian government has drafted detailed plans to tax palm oil, to reduce consumption of an ingredient it deems unhealthy and to boost revenue. The idea, finance ministry officials have told just-food, is supported by President Vladimir Putin.

The plans involve introducing an excise tax on palm oil from July 1 are already in place, with a USD200/tonne rate being approved by the finance ministry.…

Germany’s leading meat processor Tönnies Lebensmittel GmbH has agreed to take over up to 10 state-owned pig breeding businesses in Serbia, giving an additional supply capacity of up to 700,000 animals. The goal is to breed and process up to 4 million pigs by 2026.…

UKRAINE authorities have admitted detecting a malware attack on IT systems at the country’s Kiev Boryspil International Airport, with its government claiming Russian hackers could have been to blame. A communiqué from Boryspil said a virus linked to Trojan programme Black Energy was discovered on an operational computer.…

ON January 29 this year, the IT systems of Lincolnshire County Council – one of the UK’s larger local authorities – were shut down by a ‘ransomware’ attack, as a precaution while the attack was investigated. Staff went back to using pens and paper after around 300 computers were seized up, spewing messages that money needed to be handed over to hackers or these computers would remain unusable.…

WITH advances in technology making it increasingly possible for malware kits to be bought and used by people with relatively little IT knowledge,

‘cybercrime-as-a-service’ systems are causing anti-fraud professionals sharper and sharper headaches. This is regardless of whether they work for banks, police forces or in company IT departments.…

Organisers of the 13th annual Istanbul Yarn Fair remain optimistic about the future of Turkey’s yarn segment, despite the country’s recent diplomatic crisis with Russia depressing this year’s turnout.

“Although the recent political issues have affected the number of Russian buyers who come to the fair, the relationship between Turkey and Russia is very strong and [built on a long history],” said Gülbin Bozkurt, project group director of Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc, which organised the fair.…

Considering the ongoing doldrums within the global economy, 2015 was not a bad year for South Korea’s coatings manufacturers. The sector’s cautiously positive sentiment mainly survived because Korean coatings consumption has been boosted by a domestic construction boom that made up for lacklustre demand from the east Asian export powerhouse’s carmakers and shipbuilders.…

A shortage of raw materials and domestic equipment is making import substitution difficult for the Russian textile sector. Indeed, instead of seeing rising production amidst increased rhetoric about localising production, fabric output has slumped across all categories. According to industry insiders, manufacturers are still years away from replacing imports with locally-made products.…

GERMANY has been trying to soothe opposition to plans to double the capacity of the current Nord Stream 1 and 2 lines. The country’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel travelled to Warsaw to mollify Poland’s new conservative government, which has been upset by the proposal.…

The ongoing diplomatic row between Turkey and Russia over the Syria civil war continues to take a bite out of Turkish textiles exports, a bilateral trade which had already been declining.

After Turkey downed a Russian jet near its border with Syria in November, Moscow introduced an array of economic sanctions, including tightened custom checks on textile imports.…

The Russian government is considering setting up new credit mechanisms for the country’s textile industry and increasing incentives for manufacturers to use domestically produced fabrics, according to the new support programme approved on January 29. But Russian textile industry representatives are sceptical about its short-term effectiveness.…

Organisers of the 13th annual Istanbul Yarn Fair remain optimistic about the future of Turkey’s yarn segment, despite the country’s recent diplomatic crisis with Russia depressing this year’s turnout.

“Although the recent political issues have affected the number of Russian buyers who come to the fair, the relationship between Turkey and Russia is very strong and [built on a long history],” said Gülbin Bozkurt, project group director of Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc, which organised the fair.…

The Russian government is reviewing the role of independent trade unions in the country, highlighting their current weak position within Russian textile industry.

Officials within the Russian ministry of industry and trade told WTiN.com that reforms under consideration may include the expanding their functions beyond workplace liaison to giving them the right to be consulted and have influence over proposed laws that affect the domestic textile and light industry.…

Egyptian clothing companies that were restricted from using air cargo for exports to North America are getting around the ban. In December, 2015, national carrier EgyptAir suspended cargo shipments on passenger planes as a precautionary measure following the downing of a Russian aircraft in October at Sharm el-Sheikh.…

FOOD and drink export subsidies are to be scrapped after a World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, agreed to phase out these trade sweeteners. Developed country members have promised to remove export subsidies immediately for basic food products, with a slower phase-out for many processed foods and drinks, pigmeat and dairy products.…

THE HONG Kong government has signed an avoidance of double taxation agreement with Russia. It will prevent Hong Kong companies with a permanent establishment in Russia being taxed in both jurisdictions. Russian tax paid by Hong Kong companies will be credited against the tax payable in Hong Kong.…

RUSSIAN textile producers abandoning the use of fur trim on their fabrics, especially more expensive fur, according to Andrey Razbrodin, president of the Association is known as the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs of Textile and Light Industry, which includes Russia’s leading textile producers.…

An unofficial ban on the import of raw textile materials from Turkey has left Russian textile enterprises struggling to find alternative supplies among local manufacturers and maintain their production cycles. The situation has escalated so far that Russia’s ministry of industry and trade has recently asked industry representatives to compile a ‘white list’ of Turkish exporters who would be able to continue shipments to Russia, while the government in Moscow weighs the possibility of an official embargo on Turkish textiles.…

AN AGREEMENT has been signed between Bulgaria and Greece to build a 182-kilometre interconnector gas pipeline between Greece’s Komotini and Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora, which will help funnel Azeri gas sent via Turkey to eastern and central Europe. The pipeline will also ease Bulgaria’s energy exposure to Russia – it relies heavily on Russian gas exported via Ukraine.…

WHILE Russia has signed an agreement deal to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) in Egypt, a move that would give the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region its only NPP with third generation plus technology, significant obstacles remain before operations could be launched.…

The Money Laundering Bulletin has assessed the impact of western financial sanctions on Russia – looking at the impact on anti-money laundering regulation – but what of the compliance demands on financial institutions?

These sanctions are complex, showing how governments can increase the risk of making honest citizens and organisations break the law by imposing complex financial regulations.…

A year after the Russian rouble suffered its worst single-day drop in exchange rate value in 16 years, Russians are more cautious about buying cosmetics and are showing a tendency to downgrade to cheaper products or seek out sales items. Experts are expecting increased competition in these lower cost segments in the coming years, as well as growing consumer interest in local brands and natural cosmetics. …

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has given its political support for strong action by the European Commission in the coming year to propose and implement concrete actions to create an ambitious Energy Union. Its goal is to freely trading power between the European Union’s (EU) 28 member states.…

RUSSIA has launched a double-pronged diplomatic assault on European Union (EU) and Ukraine anti-dumping duties that restrict its exports of key mine explosives and fertilizer chemical ammonium nitrate. As for Ukraine, Moscow has formally launched disputes settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), requesting formal consultations with Kiev over the issue.…

The conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea has had significant ramifications for both countries’ oils and fats industries. These are sizeable sectors in Russia and Ukraine, and the industries – and consumers – have certainly felt the impacts of these often traumatic geopolitical events.…

A Brussels-based Russian energy diplomat dismissed the notion that his country uses energy policy as a political tool. Speaking at a European Policy Centre (EPC) seminar on the 28-member bloc’s proposed energy union, which is still in its early stages, Dmitry Semenov, first secretary of energy for Russia’s EU permanent mission said of Russia’s supposed strong-arm tactics: “If it does, I would like to see the results.”…

GAZPROM has agreed to drop gas prices charged to Lithuanian utility Lietuvos Dujos until the end of 2015 following European Commission charges of dominant position abuses in central and eastern European gas markets. The Russian giant is also now facing competition for cheaper liquid natural gas (LNG) supplies in Lithuania via the Klaipėda terminal on the Baltic Sea.…

The Russian Union of Entrepreneurs of Textile and Light Industry, together with some of the country’s leading textile producers have called on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to suspend the fulfilment of some Russia’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) obligations affecting the textile industry.…

Uruguay’s meat exports are rising, with growing production, aggressive promotions and wide access to global markets boosting sales despite a slump in Russian sales. Exports of offal, meat and byproducts increased 8.2% to USD659 million in the year through May 9, compared with USD609 million year-on-year and rose 16% in volume terms to 171,401 tonnes from 147,868 tonnes over the same period, according to the country’s National Institute of Meat (INAC – Instituto Nacional de Carnes).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have suffered unevenly from Russia’s ban on EU food exports from last August, according to European Commission data.

While Finnish and Estonian extra-EU food and drink exports fell sharply in August-November 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 (32% and 22% down respectively), other EU food exporters saw only moderate falls in such sales, or even gains.…

The fall of the Russian ruble is pushing leading Russian textile and clothing brands into considering abandoning outsourcing abroad, shifting production back to Russia and away from China and other Asian countries, government officials claim.
According to analysts at the Russian ministry of industry and trade, the decline of the ruble (RUB) (1 ruble now buys 1.9 US cents, compared to 2.9 cents last June) through weak oil prices and western sanctions, has made Russian textile production 15%-20% cheaper than Asian imports.…

GOVERNMENT help in encouraging struggling auto markets can be very effective, but assistance needs to be phased out carefully so that sales booms do not turn into slump, the leader global automotive manufacturer federation OICA has told wardsauto.
In an exclusive interview, OICA (Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles) secretary general Yves van der Straaten pointed to the phenomenal growth in the Spanish car market as an example.…

GAZPROM has declared that it will fight the European Commission inquiry into possible dominant position abuses, even though the Russian position could be weak. The European Commission sent Gazprom a ‘Statement of Objections’ on April 22, accusing the Russian energy giant of abusing its dominant position in central and eastern European gas markets, a charge the company denies.…

Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, which followed swiftly on the heels of the Ukrainian Maidan revolution, triggered a rapid chain of events, and the country’s energy sector is likely to be transformed as a result. Recent weeks have seen tentatively positive political developments, with a ceasefire more or less observed in eastern Ukraine.…

Gas companies have been asked to comment on a new 10 year strategy for developing European Union (EU) gas distribution released by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).
The network stresses that Europe faces supply and pricing challenges, mitigated by investment in its pipeline and interconnector networks.…

The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), Moscow’s financial intelligence unit (FIU), has singled out individual and commercial customers using Russian banks from 41 countries for special transactions reports. Among these countries on the “blacklist” are the U.S., Canada, the European Union (28 states), Australia, Norway, Iran, Syria, Sudan, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico Switzerland, North Korea and Zimbabwe.…

TO discover the best intelligence on money laundering, sometimes it is best just to ask the money launderers. Take China. There are numerous ways of getting dirty money out of China. The most common include smuggling a satchel of banknotes to Hong Kong (where Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) is convertible), where it is washed through an over-priced (for quick transaction) purchase of real estate in the city, several Hong Kong real estate agents told the Money Laundering Bulletin.…

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected a bid by two Russian ferro-silicon manufacturers to lift anti-dumping duties charged on their exports to the European Union (EU).
Chelyabinsk electrometallurgical integrated plant OAO (CHEMK) and Kuzneckie ferrosplavy OAO (KF), of Novokuznetsk, were appealing against a refusal by the European Commission to review and remove the 22.7% duties, which were imposed in 2008.…

MONEY launderers are always looking for a new opportunity to clean dirty money, and have been exploiting sales of French vineyards for the purpose. Criminal networks have to this end leveraged a combination of a flagging domestic property market, increasing foreign interest in French property and wine, and a general ignorance among the real estate professional community about money laundering risks.…

THE POLISH, Scottish, Austrian and Belgian meat sectors are significant winners in the latest announcement of European Union (EU) marketing financing designed to help food companies seize more sales within and outside the EU.
They will benefit from multi-million Euro sales and marketing programmes, 50% funded by the EU, announced yesterday (Tues April 21).…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a revising the EU authorisation procedure for genetically modified food and feed allowing individual member states can opt out and ban EU-approved GM foods and feed on their territories. But the proposals face stiff opposition from the biotech industry, which says Brussels is effectively renationalising EU-wide GM authorisations.…

Of all the countries that made up the old Soviet Union, the central Asian republics have proved the slowest to open up to the outside world. For the personal care product industry, this represents opportunities, but also significant hurdles and barriers.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) health and food safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis called yesterday (March 23) for solidarity between EU countries in dealing with the Russian ban on exports of EU pig and food products.
“We cannot accept any situation under which different conditions might apply to different member states,” the Commissioner told the European Parliament’s agriculture committee yesterday evening in Brussels.…

AMERICA’S chances of promoting pigmeat exports by striking trade agreements under discussion such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are slim, if President Barack Obama is not given authority to present deals to Congress for simple yes or no votes.…

A senior Russia textile industry analyst has claimed that the country’s textile market will face a significant decline this year, due to Russia’s ongoing economic crisis and the devaluation of national currency. With western sanctions and oil and gas prices still low, the industry’s prospects are gloomy, according to Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of the Fashion Consulting Group, one of Russia’s leading advisory agencies for the textile and fashion sector.…

THE RUSSIAN government and the country’s textile industry will establish a Council for the Development of the Textile Industry, a private-public industry group charged with growing the sector. This initiative, announced on February 21, will involve leading Russian textile producers, including the BTK Group Co and the Tchaikovsky Textile Company.…

In the latest in a string of bans on cheese products entering Russia, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights and Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) has banned cheese products made by Poland’s Ostrowia.
But this latest dairy ban is not all it seems, and Milkiland, the Netherlands-based dairy products producer owning Ostrowia, has called for “dialogue” with Russian authorities because its banned ‘Wesola Krowka’ (‘Jolly Cow’) is made from vegetable fats.…

Milkiland, a Netherlands-based dairy products producer with operations in Poland, has called for “dialogue” with Russian authorities after Moscow’s consumer rights agency put an embargo on all non-dairy cheese imports from Poland, after examining one of its products.

The Russian agency, Rospotrebnadzor, released a statement in late February declaring that it had found that the ‘Wesola Krowka’ (‘Jolly Cow’) imitation cheese product did not meet Russian requirements for dairy products.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers today (Tuesday 24th Feb) approved a new pigmeat storage aid system, helping EU producers deal with low prices caused by the Russian trade embargo and rising production.
The system was proposed by the European Commission and allows producers to apply for temporary storage aid for six categories of pigmeat products, when market prices are too low.…

DAIMLER has told wardsauto that its move to streamline its commercial vehicle operations in Russia will put the company on a sounder footing in this market that has been severely hit by the fall in oil prices and Western economic sanctions.…

THE RUSSIAN government and the country’s textile industry will establish a Council for the Development of the Textile Industry, a private-public industry group charged with growing the sector. This initiative, announced on February 21, will involve leading Russian textile producers, including the BTK Group Co and the Tchaikovsky Textile Company.…

The Egyptian energy sector is facing numerous challenges in the immediate and long-term, mirroring how the country is struggling to secure political stability. Insufficient power supply is resulting in sporadic power cuts in the major cities, driving up sales of private generators.…

In a country embroiled in an ugly armed conflict, the issue of confectionery may seem at first glance to be superfluous. In Ukraine, though, that is anything but the case.

Not only is confectionery a key industry for the country, but it is a highly politicised one.…

The Russian government is considering restoring the fire-damaged library of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION), a major centre for research in social studies and humanities.

The Russian Federal Agency of Scientific Organisations (FASO), a federal executive body, said the January 31 fire damaged about 5.42 million books, of which about 2.32 million were destroyed.…

THE EUROPEAN Committee of Sugar Manufacturers (CEFS) has called on the European Union (EU) and US negotiators for a Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) to exclude sugar and high sugar products from this planned trade agreement.

“The US market is a mature and saturated market, not attractive for the EU,” Marie-Christine Ribera, CEFS director general, told TTIP negotiators during an event dedicated to interest groups affected by the agreement, held in Brussels on February 4.…

TEXTILE exports from Serbia to Russia have been increasing, as European Union (EU) exports fall amidst the continuing diplomatic standoff between Brussels and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. The Serbian government has also been working to prevent EU exporters using Serbia as a backdoor conduit for textile re-exports to Russian markets, taking advantage of the 2000 Serbo-Russian free trade agreement.…

Finland’s Atria is pushing ahead with plans to reduce its cost base in the face of lower revenues that are mainly being generated due to lost meat trade with Russia, following European Union (EU) and Russian tit-for-tat sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission stood by its position on Friday (January 30) that the European Union (EU) member states were united regarding talks with Russia about the possible lifting of the latter’s ban on EU food products such as pork meat.

A Russian official said last week that his country was ready to resume inspections with the goal of lifting the ban on pork meat from France, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to allow individual European Union (EU) member states to reject the cultivation of genetically modified food on their territories, independent of what the situation is at EU level. This law, negotiated with the EU Council of Ministers, leaves room to national governments to ban the GMOs from being produced in their countries for other reasons than environmental or health risks.…

High demand for home grocery deliveries in large Russian cities and the success of such services in Western countries are helping create a buzz around online grocery retailing in Russia. But complexity and high cost of operating this model in Russia means few retailers have so far launched online sales channels.…

BOOK sales in Russia during the Christmas and New Year holiday period may have been disappointing, but the country’s President Vladimir Putin is helping keep the industry afloat, with books about the strongman leader topping the best-seller list. Russian book sales reached Russian Roubles RUB1.65 billion (USD27 million) in the festive season.  …

The Islamic State (IS) is increasingly acting like an established state, needing access beyond its territory to acquire spare parts, machinery and goods to keep the economy of its territories going. With regulatory enforcement more focused on funds going in to the Islamic State than out, this trade is being exploited, particularly via Turkey.…

The president of the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA) has told WTiN.com that it is anticipating a slowdown in the Turkish textile and clothing industry’s export growth in 2015 due to difficulties in some of Turkey’s most important markets. Cem Negrin said that the Turkish clothing industry has reached its exports target of USD19 billion for 2014, representing growth of 9.2% on 2013.…

THE RUSSIAN government is continuing its optimistic stance over the future of its textile industry, despite the fall in the Rouble, which will make imported inputs far more expensive for Russia-based manufacturers. Plans announced by the Russian ministry of industry and trade go as far as to claim the share of domestic producers in the Russian market for textile and light industry products will increase from 25% to 40% over the next three to five years.…

Rising electricity prices and growing fears around security of supply are driving Russian industrial power users to construct their own onsite power and CHP (combined heat and power) plants. “On-site generation is known as a highly profitable option to improve industrial energy efficiency and for the industry to cover its own power supply needs,” said the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) in a 2013 report Unlocking Investment Opportunities in Industrial On-site Generation in Russia: “Russian industries are particularly attractive for combined heat and power production, since there are significant industrial heat loads available for CHP production.”…

FIVE more Chinese companies have filed requests with China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) to export meat products to Russia as China’s meat sector sees growing export opportunities in Russia.
The five companies are Shunxin Agriculture Co Ltd, in Beijing; Linyi Xincheng Jinluo Meat Products Group Co Ltd, in Hunan; the Delisi Group, in Shandong; China Yurun Food Group Ltd, in Jiangsu; and Sichuan Gaojin Food Co Ltd, in Sichuan.…

UKRAINE has lost some USD4 million (EUR3.2 million) in revenues following Russian cattle and pork meat import restrictions imposed in 2013 and 2014, data provided by the European Commission shows. A regime of intensified laboratory control over bovine meat from Ukraine starting in 2013 and a ban on the previously permitted annual import of 40 tonnes of frozen beef from Ukraine to Russia imposed since July 14 (2014) has cost the Ukraine meat sector USD3 million (EUR2.4 million), according to Brussels.…

Ukraine has been losing export earnings as its ferro-alloy industry suffers from rebellion in its eastern region and Russian trade restrictions on ferroalloys, European Commission officials have claimed.

Ferroalloys “are by far one of the main exports for Ukraine to the EU and they remain a significant export position,” a Commission spokesperson told Metal Bulletin.…

RUSSIA’S combined heat and power sector is poised to undergo a radical transformation that will use the open market to rejuvenate and update the industry, according to the country’s energy minister.

Speaking to the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, energy minister Alexander Novak announced last November that creating a competitive market for combined heat and power (CHP) was a key priority.…

Rising electricity prices and growing fears around security of supply are driving Russian industrial power users to construct their own onsite power and CHP (combined heat and power) plants. “On-site generation is known as a highly profitable option to improve industrial energy efficiency and for the industry to cover its own power supply needs,” said the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) in a 2013 report Unlocking Investment Opportunities in Industrial On-site Generation in Russia: “Russian industries are particularly attractive for combined heat and power production, since there are significant industrial heat loads available for CHP production.”…

While eastern Europe’s cosmetics sector seems in general to be emerging from its post-recession doldrums, the conflict in Ukraine has begun to significantly impact that country’s cosmetics industry. Analysts warn that tit-for-tat sanctions with Russia and uncertainty over the annexed Crimea and the future of the contested east of the country is halting investment.…

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the continuing conflict in the east of Ukraine overshadowed international events last year. But Russia’s cosmetics industry has proved resilient and even maintained ties with Ukraine.

Despite the concerns and challenges, the forecasts for the calendar year 2014 are buoyant.…

ALMOST two years since its establishment in January 2013, the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) created as part of Europol, has delivered on its objectives, but still faces numerous resource challenges. Set up by the European Commission to support the 28 European Union (EU) countries in cybercrime investigations targeting online intrusion, fraud and child sexual abuse and to disrupt the operations of organised crime networks that commit a large share of cybercrimes, the EC3 is now receiving more requests for support that it can handle, its head, Troels Oerting, told Fraud Intelligence.…

DOCUMENTS obtained by Confectionery Production from the European Union (EU) indicate that Ukraine has lost up to USD126 million’s worth of confectionery export sales to Russia this year, because of Russian trade restrictions.
EU briefing papers note that Ukraine has been complaining to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since October 2013 about alleged “unjustified barriers to trade caused by the measures of the Russian Federation, in particular, on Ukrainian confectionery products.”…

As a matter of urgency, the European Union (EU) should get involved in the common purchase of gas, Maroš Šefčovič, newly installed European Commission vice-president for energy has told an international meeting of experts in Brussels.

The meeting was called to discuss energy policy and competitiveness, topics claimed as one of the top ten priorities of the new Commission of president Jean-Claude Juncker, and policies that Šefčovič is charged with coordinating, with new energy and climate action Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.…

Denmark’s ministry of food, agriculture and fisheries has commenced talks with the country’s farming and meat industry organisations to forge a new state emergency support package for the sector. This follows rising financial losses arising from European Union (EU)-Russia trade sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.…

The Russian government is planning to nationalise the textile sector of Crimea, the former Ukraine region it annexed in March, helping spark a series of sanctions against Moscow by the European Union (EU), the USA and others. These restrictions include a ban on western companies trading with the Crimea, intensifying economic problems that have worsened since the Russian takeover.…

THE FIRST detailed reforms dedicated to creating a global set of tax rules to prevent multi-national companies shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions to avoid paying tax have been released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). It has been working with the G20 group of nations under the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project (BEPS) to achieve that goal.…

Beef and poultry production in the European Union (EU) have been growing steadily this year, putting the sectors on track for further growth in 2015, says a new report released today by (Wed Oct 8) the European Commission.
Its directorate-general for agriculture and rural development says the EU beef sector has seen impressive growth after a two-year slump, with beef and veal production likely to increase by more than 134,000 tonnes by December 31 to 7.6 million tonnes for all of 2014, compared to 2013.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s response to Europe’s African swine fever (ASF) crisis was criticised at the European Parliament yesterday (Tuesday Oct 7) for being too weak. The disease has brought about considerable economic damage to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, members of the parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee warned in Brussels.…

IRELAND has been especially hard hit by the latest expansion of Russia’s ban on European Union (EU) meat exports, figures released today by the European Commission reveal.
Moscow has expanded its existing import restrictions to cover beef offal and beef fats.…

NOMINATED European Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has promised an urgent review of “unfair practices” by supermarkets, which can hold meat producers to price ransom when negotiating with farmers.

He acknowledged to members of the European Parliament (MEPs) that the present voluntary discussions between producers and retailers are unsatisfactory in many cases, agreeing with one MEP “that producers are still in fear of supermarkets.”…

RUSSIA’S federal veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance service Rosselkhoznadzor has accused European Union (EU) regulators of collaborating with smugglers sneaking meat into Russia, breaching its EU import ban. An official spokesperson for the agency was speaking after 575 tonnes of meat and fat back pork in 26 refrigerated containers from the EU were confiscated by the Russian Federal Customs Service at the Kingisepp customs point, east of Estonia, near St Petersburg.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has proposed revised restrictions on the use of cadmium and its compounds in paints, allowing trace elements under certain circumstances.

The revised proposal also bans cadmium where it is more than 0.01% by weight of a paint, (0.1% for paints with a zinc content of more than 10% by weight), while the earlier proposal had no maximum, simply saying that cadmium “shall not be used in paints”.…

Multilateral talks over Iran’s nuclear power programme have partly and temporarily eased certain sanctions against the country. Yet while businesses worldwide are keen to get into the lucrative Iranian market to offer all kinds of good and services, the overarching sanctions regime put in place by the United States, the European Union  (EU) and the United Nations still remains, as do the risks of doing business with Iran, considered one of the world’s riskiest jurisdictions.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ended the special measure giving private storage aid to manufacturers of cheese of bearing European Union (EU) geographical indications suffering from Russia’s import ban, but it continues it for butter and skimmed milk powder.

Brussels decided on September 23 to end the cheese storage aid scheme “following a disproportionate surge in interest from cheese producers in certain regions not traditionally exporting significant quantities to Russia”, a statement released on the day reads.…

THE NEW European Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan has promised to start preparing to abolish milk production constraints as a matter of urgency when he takes up his post on November 1. At a confirmation hearing in Brussels on October 2, he promised European Parliament agriculture committee members that small farmers with limited incomes would be particular beneficiaries of the planned end of the dairy quota regime from March 2015.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has ended the special measure giving private storage aid to manufacturers of cheese of bearing European Union (EU) geographical indications suffering from Russia’s import ban, but it continues it for butter and skimmed milk powder.

Brussels decided on September 23 to end the cheese storage aid scheme “following a disproportionate surge in interest from cheese producers in certain regions not traditionally exporting significant quantities to Russia”, a statement released on the day reads.…

THE NEW European Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner has promised to carefully prepare for the planned abolition of EU sugar production quotas in September 2017. Speaking at a confirmation hearing at the European Parliament on October 2, former Irish environment minister Phil Hogan, 54, said he welcomed the liberalisation which is part of the recent reforms to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).…

A leading carpet producer in Gaziantep Province, which lies in Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Region, and a major carpet production hub, has told WTiN.com that the industry is facing a number of challenges as the Turkish sector becomes increasingly competitive.

According to data from the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters’ Union (GAİB), Gaziantep’s annual exports of carpets are currently worth around USD1.5 bilion, with 227 carpet companies in Gaziantep that are members of export unions.…

European Union (EU) wine harvest volumes for 2014 have dropped by almost 10% from last year, a news conference in Brussels heard today (Friday). Speaking at the headquarters of the European farmers and their cooperatives lobby, Copa-Cogeca, French wine producer Thierry Coste said this year’s harvest may only reach 157.7 million hectare litres (hl), some 9.9% less than last year.…

Russia may ban imports of cars from the European Union (EU), the United States and maybe Japan if Brussels and Washington impose additional sanctions because of Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

An aide to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told wardsauto that the Russian government would be especially monitoring a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers for foreign affairs on October 20.…

Spanish meat producers seeking new export sales to compensate for repeated bans on deliveries to Russia have stepped up efforts to woo importers and agents in Greece.
Business meetings last week in Athens were arranged after an introductory series of presentations delivered there in May.…

Russian health regulators have now approved the import of pork from five Chinese suppliers, including two subsidiaries of the Shuanghui Group, globalmeatnews.com has been told. The move comes as Moscow seeks to replace supplies from Europe and America, which it is blocking because of its diplomatic standoff with the west over the Ukraine conflict.…

CANADA will start developing capacity to produce hormone-free meat for the European Union (EU) market following the conclusion of an EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a senior European Commission official has said. The end of technical negotiations was formally announced on Friday (September 26) during an EU-Canada summit in Ottawa.…

ARMENIA is trying to increase its garment and textile market share locally and internationally, with the Russian government trying to help with a USD1 million grant. This will fund a project ‘Improving Competitiveness of Export-Oriented Industries in Armenia through Modernisation and Market Access’, which will be implemented by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).…

For international dairy exporters, India remains an attractive destination, but they face serious challenges related to supply chain and distribution networks. “For an international company to come in and start from scratch, [it] has to struggle with the portfolio, procurement and distribution,” said Siva Nagarajan, managing director of Mother Dairy Fruits & Vegetables Ltd, owned by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB): It would take at least 10 years to build such a network, he told just-food.…

INDIAN dairy cooperative Amul has told just-food it is hoping to soon secure Russian government approval to export products to this market, which is currently lacking European Union (EU) supplies. Returning to India following a meeting in Russia, Rupinder S. Sodhi, the managing director of Amul’s marketing arm the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) told just-food.com:…

Danish meat industry organisations estimate that Russia’s meat embargo will cost the country’s pig farming industry around Danish Krone DKK 1.6 billion (USD282 million/EUR215 million) in 2014. The industry is becoming increasingly concerned that lost revenue could potentially deepen should the existing trade sanctions escalate in to a full-force trade war in the event of a further deterioration in political relations between the European Union (EU) and Russia over Ukraine.…

THE EUROPEAN meat market is not in crisis following the embargo imposed by Russia on meat from the European Union (EU), a European Commission expert has told globalmeatnews.com.

Looking at price levels and producers’ margins, Dr Kai-Uwe Sprenger, market officer for animal products at the European Commission’s directorate general (DG) for agriculture, said that there are no significant variations in these two areas so far.…

THE UNITED States is trying to come up with a tailor-made international marketing strategy to tap a bigger share of pork sales, now growing at an estimated 12% between 2013- 2018 globally, the country’s National Pork Board (NPB) vice president for strategic communication Kevin Waetke said.…

THE SLOVAK diplomat nominated to become the next European Union (EU) transport commissioner has told MEPs he wants to postpone further launches of Galileo satellites until an inquiry reveals why the first two were left in the wrong orbit.

Maroš Šefčovič, currently the EU’s inter-institutional relations and administration commissioner, told a European Parliament confirmation hearing for his new job that “we need to take care of the technical glitches” for the EUR8 billion-plus project.…

BRITAIN might not be reliant on Russian gas to keep warm, but British utilities are only too well aware that if Moscow turns off the taps this winter, there will be significantly increased demand for alternative gas supplies.

As a result, utility executives will have been keeping a close eye on talks in Berlin this weekend, where the European Union’s (EU) energy commissioner Günther Oettinger has been trying to broker a deal with Russia and Ukraine to head off a supply freeze.…

THE RUSSIAN government is considering imposing a ban on the imports of textile and non-wovens machinery after October 20, if the European Union (EU) and the USA further tighten their economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia as a result of the Ukraine conflict.…

RUSSIAN meat importers have started soliciting meat from Switzerland as its ban on European Union (EU) food imports looks set to stay in place for months. With allegations emerging today of direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine, the chance of any kind of deal to ease the sanctions stand-off between the EU and Russia looks slim.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is currently assessing the impact of Russia’s ban of beef, pork and poultry meat imports from the bloc, which was announced today by the Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in response to sanctions over the situation in Ukraine.…

The Russian government had ordered that public procurement from overseas of textiles, knitwear, non-wovens and some clothing should cease from September 1, as it tightens the screws on imports following the imposition of western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Government documents obtained by WTiN.com…

Moscow has already said that it will not allow the import of EU clothing and textile products for government purchasing contracts. It has also banned the import of a wide-range of clothing and textile inputs.

At the same time, according to some sources at the ministry speaking to WTIN.com,…

THE SALE to Russia of multi-directional, multi-dimensional knitting and interlacing machines, including adapters and modification kits, specially designed or modified for weaving, interlacing or braiding fibres, for composite structures has been banned by the European Union (EU).

This is because the EU considers such machines of potential use to the Russian military, which has been involved in the Ukraine crisis.…

Officials at Russia’s industry ministry have said should additional US and EU sanctions be imposed, Russia may impose a complete ban on imports of clothing and textiles from the European Union and the US.

According to an official spokesperson from the industry and trade ministry, the government is planning to ensure free access of domestic textile producers to cheap bank loans with interest rates no higher than 5%.…

A new round of sanctions against Russia has been announced by the European Union (EU), which reduces Russia’s ability to raise money in EU financial markets and prevents EU companies and businesses working and trading with Russian banks, arms manufacturers and oil companies.…

The Russian government had ordered that public procurement from overseas of textiles, knitwear, non-wovens and some clothing should cease from September 1, as it tightens the screws on imports following the imposition of western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Government documents obtained by WTiN.com…

Moscow has already said that it will not allow the import of EU clothing and textile products for government purchasing contracts. It has also banned the import of a wide-range of clothing and textile inputs.

At the same time, according to some sources at the ministry speaking to WTIN.com,…

The European Commission is poised to intervene in Europe’s fruit and vegetable markets following Moscow’s food embargo and may withdraw supplies of vegetables to avoid a collapse in prices, a Commission spokesman told just-food.com

Roger Waite, a spokesman for the Commission, said the measures would be proposed within days and could also include free distribution of vegetables to charitable groups.…

A POSSIBLE closure by Russia of Siberian airspace for European Union (EU) airlines could impact up to 100 flights a day, according to Eurocontrol’s preliminary estimates.
“The Eurocontrol Network Manager is examining possible scenarios including re-routing options in cooperation with our partners which include of course the airlines and the air navigation service providers,” a Eurocontrol spokeswoman told Jane’s Airport Review.…

Switzerland’s Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft (BLW – the federal office for agriculture) has turned down requests from European Union (EU) fruit, vegetable and dairy product associations to export products to Russia through Switzerland to bypass Russia’s trade embargo on EU goods. Under present rules, EU food products would have to be registered in Switzerland and this is “quite a long process,” said Jürg Jordi, a BLW spokesman.…

A RANGE of plastics-related chemicals have been included in a draft list of new substances subject to special authorisation by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for their manufacture or use in the European Union (EU). ECHA is now consulting on these planned additions to its ‘authorisation list’, because of concerns about their potential impact on human health and the environment.…

THE BAN imposed by Russia at the beginning of August on dairy products from the European Union (EU), US, Canada, Norway and Australia will cause disturbances on the European and world markets, the European Dairy Association (EDA) warned the European Commission on August 13.…

ECUADOR, an important confectionery exporter to the European Union (EU), has struck a new bilateral free trade agreement with the EU, which will eliminate tariffs on imports to Europe. The new trade deal is supposed to take effect in late 2016, and until then a system of preferential tariffs will be in place.…

The cogeneration market in Turkey is in flux. Overall combined heat and power (CHP) capacity has dropped over the past decade from 15% of total energy capacity in 2004, to 14% in 2013, primarily due to high oil and gas prices in the wake of market liberalisation that made CHP less cost effective.…

European Union (EU) meat production is projected to start growing in 2014, according to the European Commission, as Europe’s economic recovery solidifies. This could be up 0.7% year-on-year for beef, veal, pigmeat, poultry, sheep and goat meat. However, exports might fall for pigmeat and poultry, with Russian import bans especially causing problems for pigmeat.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission will renew its request for a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel to investigate Russia’s ban on European pigmeat imports later this month, after Moscow blocked an inquiry on Thursday. The requests for a WTO panel come after talks between both sides aimed at ending the import ban broke down in April without resolution and signals an escalation of the dispute.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has today forced the creation of a disputes panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which will examine the legality under world trade law of Russia’s ban on imports of EU live pigs, pork and other pig products.…

Latvia became the third EU state to report instances of African swine fever after 13 wild boar and four farmed pigs tested positive for the disease. This is the first instance of the African swine fever in the country following outbreaks in nearby Poland and Lithuania in January. …

THE RUSSIAN ban on imports of processed beef, pork, lamb and horsemeat from the Moldova is rather “symbolic” and will not have a major impact on the country’s meat exports, a Moldovan foreign ministry official has told globalmeatnews.com.
The country’s export of processed meat to Russia has only amounted to a few tonnes per year on average, the official said, noting that the country mainly exports fresh meat to Russia, which is currently not affected by the ban.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched the second phase of its fuel cells and hydrogen joint undertaking, sinking EUR1.33 billion into hydrogen-based energy and transport fuel technology until 2020. The European Union (EU) is planning to contribute up to EUR665 million, leveraging at least EUR665 million from private sources.…

The governments of the Eurasian Customs Union – Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia – are considering designing a collaborative package of measures aimed at developing their national textile and light industries. One key element of this programme will be combatting illegally produced and imported textiles and textile products into customs union territory.…

Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has justified its new ban on imports of dairy products from Ukraine, as it yesterday (Monday) announced another ban on imports from its neighbour of canned vegetables, fruit and fish. Dismissing claims that this decision – which comes into force today (Tuesday) – was politically motivated, it said canned foods exported from Ukraine had been discovered being incorrectly labelled regarding weight and content of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamin C, salt and other ingredients.…

THE EUROPEAN Union has decided to ask a World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel to rule on the legality of Russia’s ban on its exports of live pigs, pork and other pig products. The European Commission claims formal talks with Moscow over two days (April 30 and May 1) failed to resolve the issue.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has delayed the creation of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel to rule on Russian complaints that the EU is illegally restricting its fertiliser exports. EU diplomats rejected a Russian move to set up panel at a meeting of the WTO disputes settlement body (DSB).…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a new European Energy Security Strategy, aimed at further reducing Europe’s reliance on energy imports, notably on politically unreliable trading partners such as Russia.

Its new policy plan was to be debated at the next European Union (EU) summit (European Council) on June 26-27, in Brussels.…

The European Union (EU) has delayed the creation of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel to rule on Russian complaints that the EU is illegally restricting certain exports of Russia-made steel tubes and pipes.

EU diplomats rejected a Russian move to set up panel at a meeting of the WTO disputes settlement body (DSB).…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) launch of a disputes proceeding at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over Russian anti-dumping duties on German and Italian van exports might seem like diplomatic overkill. But experts say there are good geo-political reasons behind the case brought by the EU executive, the European Commission.…

Russia might be have signed a series of intergovernmental agreements with China, but the Russian textile sector will not be a direct beneficiary, the Russian ministry of industry and trade has confirmed to WTiN.com. Initialled during the May 19 – 20 visit of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to China, the agreements will focus on Russian energy sales, and instead, Russia’s government is to design a package of measures aimed at substituting of Chinese textile and clothing imports with domestically produced clothing and textile products.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is increasing its assistance to Ukraine, because of its ongoing political and military crisis, the development institution’s annual meeting has been told. The country is a core part of the EBRD’s eastern, central Europe and central Asia region of operation, along with Russia, which recently annexed Crimea, sparking a diplomatic firestorm.…

One of the main drivers of the Ukrainian revolution of February this year was the monumental levels of corruption within both the private and state sectors. Transparency International last year placed the country in 144^th place on its ‘corruption perceptions index,’ at par with Papua New Guinea and the Central African Republic.…

WHEN it comes to subsidies in the European Union (EU), the representatives of the fossil fuels industries and those of the renewable energy sources have long pointed the finger at each other about who receives more support from the public purse.…

Is the party over for China’s frenetic airport development? Hardly. There are new airports being built in Beijing and the central city of Changsha. And new airports opening in the past year included Bijie Feixiong Airport, Chizhou Jiuhuashan Airport, Gannan Xiahe Airport, Daocheng Yading Airport, Kaili Huangping Airport, and three regional airports in the Alxa region of Inner Mongolia.…

Compliance experts believe the sanctions imposed thus far by the USA and European Union (EU) on Russia over the Ukraine crisis will have a mixed effect. One of the biggest criticisms is that the sanctions were publicly discussed before being implemented giving targeted individuals time to get their finances to a safe haven.…

Compliance experts believe the sanctions imposed thus far by the USA and European Union (EU) on Russia over the Ukraine crisis will have a mixed effect. One of the biggest criticisms is that the sanctions were publicly discussed before being implemented giving targeted individuals time to get their finances to a safe haven.…

SINGAPORE has been working hard to lose its past reputation for lax anti-money laundering (AML) controls.

Its ‘steering committee for combating money laundering and terrorist financing,’ jointly headed by the ministry of home affairs, ministry of finance, and the monetary authority of Singapore (MAS) published the country’s first ‘national risk assessment report’ on money laundering and terrorist financing in January 2014.…

THE RUSSIAN Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), the federal executive body responsible for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, is considering developing a new package of anti-money laundering measures.

According to Yuri Chikhanchin, the head of Rosfinmonitoring, despite all the state’s efforts in recent years to fight money laundering, it remains a pressing problem.…

RUSSIA is challenging the European Union’s (EU) third energy package at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), claiming its requirements for market access and unbundling break EU WTO commitments for open trading with other countries. Moscow is concerned the law will, for instance, allow competitors access to infrastructure such as the South Stream pipeline it wants to build across the Black Sea.…

The European Commission has proposed that Euro EUR3.6 million be taken from the European Union’s (EU) globalisation fund to help 1,000 former steel workers in Romania get back to work. The sum must be formally approved by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers.…

Russia’s leading textile producers are pressing the Russian government to approve a package of measures aimed at supporting the industry, which were developed at last month’s International Forum of Light Industry: “Russia : Light industry : Present and Future,” staged in Moscow.…

Events in Ukraine continue to unfold in dramatic fashion: a government overthrown, Crimea annexed by Russia, pro-Russian separatists stoking unrest and grabbing government buildings in eastern Ukraine, and worries of a full-scale invasion. Weaved into these crises – and in many respects at the heart of them – is Ukraine’s oil and gas sector.…

THE RUSSIAN nonwovens industry has shrugged off the potential impact of tougher sanctions that maybe imposed against Russia by the European Union (EU) and the US because of the Ukraine crisis, although there is concern about the loss of valuable imported inputs.…

NORWAY may have suspended military cooperation with its neighbour Russia over the Ukraine crisis, but it seems less keen to mothball its coordination on energy policy, notably in the high Arctic.

Norwegian and Russian energy companies have long been eyeing the potential hydrocarbon resources in the Barents Sea to the north of the Russo-Norwegian border, and both sides want to exploit them without causing major environmental problems.…

Russia is well placed to export more nickel, aluminium, ferro-alloys, lead ores and zinc ores to China, should the US and European Union (EU) impose sanctions because of the Ukraine crisis.

With pro-Russian activists yesterday seizing another police station – in Horlivka, near Donetsk – and the Ukraine military now reacting – retaking the regional airport in Kramatorsk, tensions are rising. …

RUSSIA has today (Monday April 7) effectively extended its African Swine Fever (ASF)-justified ban to include processed pork meat products from Poland and Lithuania, two Polish members of the European Parliament (MEP) have revealed.

Speaking during a meeting of the European Parliament’s committee on agriculture held today in Brussels, the Polish centre-right MEP Czesław Adam Siekierski said that last week the Russian Veterinary Office released an order saying it would ban processed pork meat products coming from Lithuania and Poland as of April 7, extending the existing Russian ban on fresh pigmeat products from the whole European Union (EU).…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Russia’s import ban on pigs and porkmeat sourced from across the EU, following four cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) detected in Lithuania and Poland.

“We are forced to take this matter to the WTO because we have exhausted all diplomatic avenues to try and find a solution,” the European Commission’s trade spokesman John Clancy told journalists in Brussels today.…

The Russian government has shrugged off the risk posed by possible economic sanctions from the US and European Union (EU) over the Ukraine crisis, but admits a poultry export expansion plan has been shelved.

In comments sent to globalmeatnews.com, Nikolai Fyodorov, Russia’s agriculture minister said: “At present the majority of Russian meat production is supplied to the domestic market, while the share of exports in overall structure of production remains small.…

THE RUSSIAN government has criticised the European Union (EU) for filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Russia’s import ban on EU pigmeat and pigs. The Russians have imposed the ban following four cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) detected in Lithuania and Poland, but the EU claims Moscow’s actions are not based on science, as required by WTO rules.…

THE RUSSIAN publishing and bookselling sector is shrugging off the risks posed by potential wide-ranging economic sanctions that could be imposed on their country by the European Union (EU) and USA over the Ukraine crisis.

Thus far, asset freezes and visa bans have been introduced against a number of Russian and Ukrainian officials, and some Russian banks have seen their international payment systems shut down.…

These are testing times for everyone in Ukraine: a revolution followed by the annexation of Crimea by Russia; pro-Russian separatists stoking unrest and grabbing government buildings in eastern Ukraine; and worries of a full-scale invasion. Just as pertinently, these hugely destabilising political upheavals have merely added to the existing turmoil of a state plagued for decades by corruption and low living standards.…

THE INSTABILITY prompted by the crisis in Ukraine is increasing the risk of crime-tainted Russian assets being moved into new safe havens to avoid the effects of possible sanctions. With EU member state Cyprus long favoured by Russian investors, and likely to be covered by any sanctions, could the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) offer an attractive alternative?…

These are testing times for everyone in Ukraine: a revolution followed by the annexation of Crimea by Russia; pro-Russian separatists stoking unrest and grabbing government buildings in eastern Ukraine; and worries of a full-scale invasion. Just as pertinently, these hugely destabilising political upheavals have merely added to the existing turmoil of a state plagued for decades by corruption and low living standards.…

THE CRIMEA crisis and potential imposition of economic sanctions on Russia will not damage the Russian textile industry, partly because the government in Moscow is likely to respond by erecting textile import restrictions, experts and officials have told WTiN.com.

According to Sergey Nefedov, a spokesperson for Russia’s ministry of industry and trade, the Russian government may increase current 9.9% duties on many textiles, if restrictions are imposed on Russian textile exports by the US or the European Union (EU).…

THE RUSSIAN Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), the federal executive body responsible for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, is considering developing a new package of anti-money laundering measures.

According to Yuri Chikhanchin, the head of Rosfinmonitoring, despite all the state’s efforts in recent years to fight money laundering, it remains a pressing problem.…

REPRESENTATIVES from Europe’s food and drinks industry have backed an “ambitious and comprehensive” Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union (EU) and the USA However, they have asked negotiators to find creative ways to deal with technical trade barriers restricting EU-US food and drink commerce, including sanitary and phytosanitary rules.…

The impact of any American and European Union (EU) sanctions on the non-ferrous metal trade with Russia could be significant, although US and EU industry associations contacted by Metal Bulletin are thus far refusing to comment on the potential consequences.

The EU and the US last week (Wednesday March 26) agreed in Brussels to work on the imposition of sanctions against Russia and with Russian nationalist activists occupying civic buildings in eastern Ukraine, the diplomatic stakes are again rising.…

Ukraine’s revolution and subsequent Russian intervention might have disrupted much of its economy and politics, but the country’s meat and livestock sector has so far emerged unscathed. Indeed, the industry is optimistic about its prospects, should its new pro-west government survive and sign an association agreement with the European Union (EU).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states yesterday (Wednesday) approved detailed restrictions on the handling of pigs and pigmeat in border areas of Poland and Lithuania to try and prevent the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF). Veterinary officials have this year confirmed four cases in districts close to Belarus, sparking a Russian pigmeat import ban that has been roundly criticised as an overreaction by the EU.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has called a Russian ban on pork imports “disproportionate” and has appealed to Russian authorities end it as soon as possible. Russia stopped a number of exports from European Union (EU) member states when two wild boars were diagnosed with African Swine Fever (ASF) last month in Lithuania.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) health commissioner has blasted Russia for maintaining a ban on EU pigmeat exports because of two sick Lithuanian wild boars, when weak Russian health controls could have caused these illnesses anyway.

Signalling increased frustration in Brussels over what he regards as a “completely disproportionate” action, Tonio Borg has repeated his offer to meet “swiftly travel to Moscow to reach an amicable solution to resume trade flows”.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has intensified its diplomatic struggle with Russia over Moscow’s import ban on European Union (EU) pigmeat exports, tightening health controls on Russian and Belarus livestock lorries entering the EU.

It has passed a regulation, using its own powers, insisting on “appropriate cleansing and disinfection of all ‘livestock vehicles’ which have transported live animals and feed and which enter the Union from Russia and Belarus…” And the new law insists that “such cleansing and disinfection is to be properly documented.”…

A RUSSIAN ban on European pork imports is having serious consequences, the European Union (EU) health Commissioner Tonio Borg warned last night (Monday) in Brussels. “The price of meat in Europe is going down and the price of meat in Russia is going up”, he told journalists after an EU Council of Ministers agricultural meeting.…

The Russian government is to draft fresh state measures to support domestic producers of wool and flax fibres.

Acting on direction from the office of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian ministry of industry and trade will boost Russian wool production through the creation of special trading centres that will buy wool from farmers at prices that are high enough to encourage production.…

THE SUPPLIER of clothing to the Russian Olympics team and associated retail spin-offs has told WTiN.com how their sourcing has been global, despite the patriotic nature of their contract.

Russia-based Bosco di Ciliegi has been an official exclusive supplier of clothing for the Russian national Olympics team since 2001, including the ongoing Sochi winter games.…

THE EUROPEAN Cybercrime Centre (EC3), created one year ago as a wing of Europol, has helped dismantle three international credit card fraud rings, and has assisted in two ransomware international investigations and several online child sexual exploitation cases, it and the European Commission announced yesterday (Monday, Feb 10).…

TURKEY’S tobacco leaf industry enjoyed a boom year in 2013, with total tobacco production for the 2012 crop (purchased in 2013) up 52.6% to 69,348 kilogrammes (kg), according to data from Turkey’s Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Authority (Tütün ve Alkol Piyasası Düzenleme Kurumu – TAPDK).…

PepsiCo has launched a patent claim in the Russian kvass market against the X5 Retail Group, one of Russia’s leading retail chains, alleging its recently registered Russkiy Kvass brand apes PepsiCo’s Russkiy Dar, in label design and marketing. 

PepsiCo last week filed an objection to the Russian Chamber of Patent Disputes, asking to annul X5’s kvass brand, Anton Drushchits, PepsiCo’s Russia intellectual property protection chief.…

The Russian government is developing plans to boost the training of specialists for the country’s textile sector, helping to achieve a goal set by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to modernise what has been a struggling industry. Indeed, Putin’s goal – if achieved – would require significant numbers of trained staff, as he wants to see 15 million jobs generated in Russia’s textile and related industries by 2020.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

AS peace-talks finally got underway in Geneva, aimed at ending Syria’s bloody civil war, one economically devastating consequence is all too clear: Syria’s energy sector has come to a near standstill. The government has lost control of key oil producing areas to the rebels, international oil companies have left the country, and the regime has had to resort to round-about methods to secure energy imports to offset production losses.…

BRAZIL, Russia, India, and China are eager to boost biofuels production, with their governments laying out energy targets and detailed plans to achieve them. And while each country has made progress, manufacturers in all the BRICs countries can still struggle with irregular feedstock supplies and spotty regulation.…

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has announced that it will sell its stake in Russian vaccine producer NPO Petrovax. The bank had made a EUR15 million equity investment in the country in 2008, having lent it USD25 million in 2004 to finance developing a modern plant in Pokrov, near Moscow.…

THE DIPLOMATIC stand-off between the European Union (EU) and Russia over their respective links to Ukraine throws into stark light the EU’s desire to secure energy security of supply and to decrease its reliance on an unpredictable Russian government. These needs were reflected in the announcement in October of a list of 248 energy infrastructure projects that the EU wants built in in the next decade, all in some way connecting EU member countries through electricity, gas and oil links.…

A SENIOR official within an organisation charged with increasing European textile exports to Russia has told WTiN.com that Russia’s 2012 accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has created real opportunities for European manufacturers to score Russian sales.

Igor Salomakhin, head of the Moscow liaison office of the Russia-Europe Textile Alliance (RETA), has told WTiN that it is helping a growing number of European textile businesses expand their sales in Russia by helping establish direct contact with new customers in Russia.…

OIL, gas and petrochemical companies can bid for an increased pot of European Union (EU) funding for research projects under the new Horizon 2020 programme, which was approved in November. It has an overall budget exceeding Euro EUR78.6 billion and will run from January to 2020.…

AUSTRALIAN beef exporters are nervous about a decision by the Russian government – confirmed directly to globalmeatnews.com – that it is planning to lift the existing ban on imports of US beef. It has been banned since this February (2013), with the official reason being the use of beta agonists in US beef production – and since then, Australian exports of high-end (chilled, not frozen) high value beef exports to Russia over the last 10 months have soared.…

A SALUTARY lesson learnt by the western world since the financial meltdown in 2008, is that there is no easy formula for ensuring economic growth. Despite the resilience of the United States and European institutions, markets and skills, restarting the economic engine has proved sluggish.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) and Canadian confectioners can look forward to increasing their trans-Atlantic trade once a new free trade agreement between the EU and Canada comes into force, probably in 2015.

The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), announced on October 18, will remove most tariffs for confectionery and sweet bakery products imposed by both sides on each other’s exports.…

Turkish textile company Kivanc Tekstil, which recently secured a EUR3.7 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) to expand its weaving capacity and boost its energy efficiency, has told WTiN.com that it is targeting Russia and China as key growth markets.…

MORE than year after Russia’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession on August 22, 2012, the country’s textile industry is calculating its losses following the resulting decline of customs duties on imports of textile and clothing, and the associated influx of cheap textile products from abroad.…

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to reduce the support the European Union (EU) gives to the traditional biofuel sector, backing European Commission proposals to amend the renewable energy directive (2009/28/EC). MEPs agreed that the law should insist that first-generation biofuels (from long-standing sources, notably food crops) should not exceed 6% of EU energy consumption in transport by 2020, compared to the 10% target for all biofuels in the existing legislation.…

THE BALTIC States’ proximity to Russia and their position as a border between eastern and western financial markets, renders Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania particularly at risk as regards money laundering.

Hard hit during the global financial crisis they have still made considerable strides towards improving anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) legislation while transitioning into the Eurozone: Estonia joined January 2011; Latvia will join this January; Lithuania wants to join by 2015. …

A Lithuanian MEP has accused the Russian government of political motivations behind its ban on Lithuanian dairy products. Leonidas Donskis noted diplomatic friction between Russia and Lithuania, particularly in its current role as president country of the European Union (EU): “There is no doubt that what is happening now is a revenge campaign,” he said.…

The Dutch Dairy Association (NZO) spokesman yesterday attacked Russian officials for publicly criticising Dutch dairy food standards, without making formal complaints. Spokesperson René van Buitenen told just-food the NZO “expected [the Russians] to inform Dutch authorities soon if they really have serious concerns”, instead of commenting to media.…

The Russian government has once again questioned the quality of Polish meat imported into its territory, raising concerns in Poland that Russia might impose import restrictions or a ban. On October 4 Russia’s meat inspectorate, Rosselkhoznadzor, said laboratory tests had turned up pathogenic bacteria in poultry and frozen pork from two plants in Poland.…

THE LITHUANIAN meat industry has said pressure applied by its government and the European Union (EU) on the Russian government could ease customs trading problems with Russia.

Egidijus Mackevičius, president of the Lithuanian Meat Processors Association told globalmeatnews.com of problems supplying ready-to-eat meat products to the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) regulators are tangling with the difficulty of tightening rules-of-origin for meat products, given the potentially significant number of manufacturing stages required. The European Commission and European Parliament have been considering their response to the horse meat labelling scandal.…

*Gazprom International is one of the world’s largest energy companies, handling oil and gas geological exploration, production, transportation and storage; processing and selling oil, gas and oil and gas-based liquid fuels; while providing heat and electric power services.
*The state-owned company holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves: 18% and 72% of global and Russian reserves respectively.…

While Syria is mired in its bloody civil war, it remains targeted by multilateral sanctions. But despite being essentially cut off from the international banking system, Damascus is evading these sanctions by using Russian banks, and is being financially propped up by Iran.…

A EUROPEAN Commission-ordered report has highlighted significant

shortcomings in gas interconnectors crossing national European Union (EU)

borders that are restricting the development of an EU gas market.

This ‘Study on Entry-Exit Regimes in Gas’ by the Netherlands’ DNV KEMA and

COWI Belgium said the absence of virtual trading points or short-term capacity

products are “highly critical barriers for the development of a well-functioning

entry-exit system”.…

THE MOLDOVA government was quick to respond to the latest Moneyval assessment (December 2012) of its anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) policies, adopting a five-year strategy and action plan in June. This responded to Moneyval’s recommendations that Moldova improve its anti-money laundering legislation and law enforcement.…

THE WESTERN Balkans has long been considered as having weak money laundering controls. But, Croatia’s accession to the European Union (EU) on July 1 and tighter legislation in Serbia has focused criminals’ attention on a smaller number of looser jurisdictions – Montenegro is one of those.…

BANGLADESH is planning to import 200,000 tonnes of cotton annually from Uzbekistan in a new multi-annual deal to be finalised shortly. Negotiations are underway to set its terms in a Memorandum of Understanding between the two governments, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Atiqul Islam told just-style.…

THE RUSSIAN government is planning to boost the health of the country’s commercially weak textile industry through two major orders for the supply of uniforms for Russia’s secondary schools, army, police and security services.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been the main instigator behind the school uniform project, and his office has said the plan would involve Russian textile companies being asked to produce uniforms for 13 million pupils for during the 2013-2014 financial year.…

THE CAPACITY of Moscow airports will increase nearly threefold during the
next three to four years under a Russian Rubles RUB600 billion (USD18.7 billion) plan unveiled by the Russian ministry of transport at a June 15 meeting of the State Council, which advises President Vladimir Putin.…

THE RUSSIAN market for technical textiles is developing steadily, with the government seeing this as a growth area serving increasing local demand while it looks for a way to kick start a traditional textile industry that has been stagnating in recent years.…

PROSECUTORS in the USA last week revealed the largest case of alleged credit card fraud in American history. New Jersey US Attorney Paul J Fishman said the alleged fraud has cost companies more than USD 300 million.

The indictment against four Russians and a Ukrainian lists corporate victims including, among others, Citigroup, Dexia Bank Belgium, Euronet, Nasdaq, PNC Financial Services, Visa Jordan, 7-Eleven Inc, Carrefour, JC Penney and JetBlue Airways.…

PERSONAL care product market in the Middle East can be divided into two current trends: sales in the affluent Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are booming, while on the other side of the region, in the Levant, markets are feeling the effects of the Syrian conflict, with the loss of tourists and low consumer confidence impacting bottom lines.…

THE RUSSIAN lace-making industry is on the verge of recovery after the long crisis, caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The resulting economic instability ruined many of the country’s leading lace producers, damaging a historically important fabric sub-sector in Russia.…

THE CITY government in the Russian capital Moscow is planning to introduce a comprehensive traffic control system, with the aim of reducing stifling congestion. Government statistics say the number of private cars in the city is growing by 300,000 each year and is currently estimated at 4.5 million, out of an 11.9 million population.…

As befits a country as connected online as South Korea traffic controls in its capital Seoul are organised centrally and in an integrated way. As one of the world’s largest cities, with a population exceeding 10 million, Seoul has notoriously heavy traffic.…

the Russian nonwovens market expanding, producers and industry experts say supportive government measures and decreased bureaucracy could help domestic companies increase their competitiveness against western rivals.

While the country’s domestic textile market is growing at a slow 1% to 2% annually, nonwovens have posted phenomenal growth of 74% over the three years since 2009, according to estimates of the US-based Discovery Research Group released last July (2012).…

RUSSIAN government is developing a range of policy measures to make Russia’s textile industry more efficient. They are expected to be implemented by presidential order during September. This initiative follows June 7 criticism of the sector by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during a government meeting in Vologda, north of Moscow, dedicated to problems in Russian textile and light industry.…

A PUSH by the G8 group of the world’s seven most industrialised nations plus Russia to improve extractive industry transparency and openness can help industrial minerals companies manage the payments they make in developing counties, as they will only have to follow one set of rules, according to Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh.…

KYRGYZSTAN’S promising textile and garment industry increased “textile and garment exports 17-20% between 2010 and 2011,” a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) official in the Kyrgyz capital Bishtek has told just-style, quoting most recent available figures. Indeed he claimed the Kyrgyzstan government’s goal of increasing garment and textile exports by 60% from 2012 to 2015 is “achievable”.…

Diageo is accelerating its expansion into the Russian rum market with a launch in May of a Russia version of its low-cost Shark Tooth brand. The spirit is being manufactured for Diageo by Russia’s Ladoga Group with a 40% alcohol content.…

Although proper accounting is important for developing and emerging economies – for instance, informational transparency decreases transactional costs – obstacles remain, said Evgeny Buben, Gazprom Nigeria’s CFO: “There’s a lack of political will to start the process of harmonisation and control implementation; a lack of  professionals capable of performing proper implementation; resistance from local accounting bodies and other local influential groups; resistance of local accountants and auditors to changes.”…

THE RUSSIA tax manager at energy giant Shell has called for comprehensive financial and business practice reforms in his country, so that companies can reduce costs and operate in a more predictable environment. Speaking to Accountancy Futures, Andrey Sukhov said: “We need to improve the whole investment climate.”…

Poland confirmed plans in 2012 to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with a view to importing supplies from Qatar, it seemed like the latest example of eastern European energy ministries trying to avoid energy dependence on Russia. Plans to develop shale gas in Poland and the Baltic States fall into the same category, along with policies to build energy infrastructure linking Poland and its Nordic and Baltic neighbours.…

Drinks packaging design has always been about communicating with consumers – whether it is broadcasting a brand image or delivering information. And with new technologies aiding communication in many ways, interaction is a key theme with international beverage packaging designers today.…

The Russian government is considering investing up to Russian Rubles RUB3 billion (USD90 million) to support its domestic book publishing this year, taking the money from a federal ‘Culture of Russia’ programme.

According to the Federal Press and Mass Communications State Agency, whichis coordinating this scheme until 2018, these funds will enable the publication of at least 550 new book titles, mostly by Russian authors.…

the wall for multinationals using current international tax laws to reduce their fiscal exposure. Speaking at the eighth meeting of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development) Forum on Tax Administration, hosted by Russia’s federal tax service from May 16-17, experts noted that public anger was building over cases such as the low level of taxes paid by Google, Amazon and UK energy company NPower.…

In the West Bank, everyone calls him ‘The Godfather’ or ‘The Duke of Nablus’ – Munib al-Masri, 79, is the richest Palestinian, the patriarch of a prominent Palestinian family that has produced bankers, consultants and politicians, and also one of the most influential.…

THE ARAB Spring may have increased short-term doubts about the political stability of Europe’s southern and eastern Mediterranean neighbours, but the long-term case for energy cooperation between these regions is surely unarguable.

Europe needs more energy than it can generate, and it has (for the time being at least) money to buy energy from north Africa and the Levant.…

WHEN a titanium Russian flag was audaciously planted on the seabed 4,200m below the North Pole in 2007, it took the world by surprise, suggesting Russia was serious in its claims to the Arctic.

Russia is not alone. In all five Arctic coastal nations – the USA, Canada, Norway, Russia and Denmark (through Greenland) have laid claims to a slice of the Arctic.…

THE RUSSIAN government says it has stamped out two outbreaks of sheep and goat pox using a mass vaccination, movement control and disinfection campaign. Dr Evgeny Nepoklonov, deputy head of the federal service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance at Russia’s ministry of agriculture said there were “no more cases”.…

ONE of Russia’s few pharmaceutical companies developing original innovative and biotechnological medicines is receiving a Euro EUR5 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The Russian-owned and managed GEROPHARM-Bio, a subsidiary of OOO Geropharm, will use the five-year financing to expand and modernise its Obolensk plant, near Moscow, to help it comply with international standards.…

IT seems for all the world like the setting for a Graham Greene novel: a British-trained chartered accountant in charge of an almost unfathomably wealthy state-owned holding corporation in a distant outpost.

Yet Greene would barely recognise the 21st century context in which Our Man in Kazakhstan operates.…

The latest financial crisis to hit the Eurozone – hitting the diplomatically-recognised portion of Cyprus – is perhaps a case study in how to mismanage a banking-reliant economy and of how the international community can err when applying a fix.

As Accounting & Business went to press, the divided Mediterranean island was faced with the prospect of having to stop all government payments unless fresh money pours in by April 24.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states have suffered unevenly from Russia’s ban on EU food exports from last August, according to European Commission data.
While Finnish and Estonian extra-EU food and drink exports fell sharply in August-November 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 (32% and 22% down respectively), other EU food exporters saw only moderate falls in such sales, or even gains.…

A COMPLEX international supply web supporting an illicit business of tobacco counterfeiters, losing European Union (EU) governments Euro EUR50 million in duties, has been unveiled in a German court. Details were revealed in a case at the Berlin-Moabit criminal court convicting a German-Russian co-national to nine years jail.…

IS the suitcase or manila envelope full of cash still a favoured means of exchange between briber and bribed, or has bribery become so sophisticated that such basic methods are now foresworn? It would appear so – at least, third parties are now readily employed to obscure a bribe trail.…

AMERICAN auto makers have welcomed a judicial crackdown on selling counterfeit parts, accessories and diagnostic devices following a rapid succession of recent court cases in which China-based manufacturers and online sales have figured prominently.

“We support very stringent safeguards – the average vehicle on the road is 11 years old and has 30,000 components so the aftermarket parts business is so lucrative and there are an awful lot of ways to cheat the system,” said Dan Gage, director of communications and public affairs for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (Auto Alliance), the leading advocacy group for the industry, representing the makers of 77% of car and light truck sales in the US.…

REGULATORS worldwide are waking up to anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism financing (CFT) vulnerabilities posed by complex financial instruments such as futures, options, contracts-for-difference, depository receipts, and so on.

Contemporary case studies are scarce, scant and usually sanitised for release into the public domain, for instance typologies published in recent years by: global AML/CFT body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF); the European Union’s (EU) FATF-style body Moneyval; the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering; and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).…

WITH AREVA celebrating 30 years of operations in China in 2013 its head of operations in the country is hoping for an expansion of joint ventures as well as overseas collaboration with Chinese partners in uranium sourcing.

Speaking in Beijing, Rémy Autebert, senior executive vice-president for Asia, explained how he hopes to see a doubling in the number of joint ventures with Chinese partners, from the company’s current four.…

CENTRAL Asia has long been a focus of the European Union’s (EU) geopolitical efforts to wean itself off Russian oil and gas dependency and the European Commission has steadily wooed the nations in the region: first Kazakhstan, then Turkmenistan have been given audiences, trade agreements and social programme funding in return for opening channels for talks on energy.…

A DEAL has been struck on the shape of a European Union (EU) directive aimed at preventing major oil and gas offshore drilling accidents happening in EU waters. Under the text agreed by European Parliament and EU Council of Ministers representatives, oil and gas firms seeking a drilling licence must submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans proving they can deal with potential accidents.…

LITHUANIA’S plans to build the Visaginas nuclear power plant, hailed the first modern nuclear alternative to Russian energy in the Baltic States, have been stalled since Lithuanian voters opposed the idea in an October 2012 referendum.

However, a general election held the same day as the referendum and the resulting newly elected Social Democrat-led government has formed a commission within the energy ministry to recalculate the project’s cost estimates, reporting in March.…

TRANSLITERATION and translation have become inescapable challenges for financial institutions and other companies striving to comply with international sanctions.

Precise identification of a sanctions target named in a foreign language is often difficult, but is essential for efficient screening of transactions that should be controlled or blocked in line with blacklists issued by national authorities (and the European Union (EU)), and those based on the comprehensive list issued by the United Nations (UN) Security Council.…

Strengths:

China has a booming e-commerce sector, and growing online drinks retailers are building more warehouses nationwide. They need to balance ‘just-in-case’ and ‘just-in-time’ demands and also the need for flexibility versus low inventory. Negotiating these logistical pressures is vital in this huge yet highly fragmented market.…

WHAT impact could uncertainty in the run-up to a promised British referendum on continued membership of the European Union (EU) have on investment flows from the UK into commercial property and developments in the rest of the EU?

What might the impact be if a referendum did indeed take place and voters told their government loud and clear to quit the EU and free up the UK to make its own laws and regulations covering important aspects of finance, investment and tax?…

RUSSIA is now the world’s highest value market for super premium fragrances, in a development that appears to reflect the fabulous wealth of the burgeoning Russian middle and upper class.

The price of premium fragrances ranges wildly. At the top end, the latest super premium fragrance from Giorgio Armani (Armani Prive La Femme Bleue) is limited to only 1,000 bottles, and retails in Moscow with a price tag of around USD600 for a 100ml bottle.…

IT is a long way to the UK from the German terminus of the Russian-dominated Nord Stream gas pipeline – but major energy companies are seriously considering building a fixed link to Britain. BP has been in talks with Gazprom, the UK and the Russian government.…

WHEN it comes to the oil and gas sector, few countries can match Russia’s investment opportunities. The country’s oil production in 2012 reached 518 million tonnes while reserves grew by 681 million tonnes. This multibillion dollar industry accounts for about half of the Russia’s budget revenue, but just as it is lucrative, it is also difficult to manage.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked oil and gas companies to participate in a major public consultation designed to help it draft reforms promoting the development of new energy technologies. Brussels is planning to release a new policy paper on the subject in the middle of this year.…

THE BIDDING for a contract to expand Temelín nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic is approaching decision time, with the winner of the four-year long tender process to be chosen in 2013. Worth USD10 billion, the contract represents the largest public tender in the country’s history and has generated considerable debate, from safety issues and the distinctions between the various reactor designs and their technologies, to political and economic issues regarding everything from energy security to the deal’s transparency.…

COUNTERFEIT cash can be a most useful tool for money launderers. When made properly, high value notes can be moved around the world and spent without recourse to banks, credit card operators and other financial institutions.  And with the increasing sophistication digital counterfeiting technology, this criminal industry is today a truly global enterprise: high quality banknotes can be faked almost anywhere in the world.…

CYPRUS is under intense pressure to clean up its act  – at least on the south of the island, controlled by the internationally recognised government- in battling what some foreign creditors, with Germany at the forefront, see as a widespread money laundering problem.…

DECLINING demand from the USA and European Union (EU) for Bangladesh knitwear has not dampened the world’s second largest clothing exporter from aiming high. Rather, Bangladesh is planning to more than double its current knitwear exports, to USD20 billion by 2020, seeking out new markets.…

BY MARK ROWE

TO describe recent times as difficult for the eastern European cosmetics industry would be something of an understatement. Since 2010, some countries have experienced dizzying declines in production and sales that indicated the industry was more or less in tune with the wider economic mood across the region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REPORT released by the European Union’s (EU) umbrella groups for gas and electricity regulators has claimed wholesale energy prices within the EU are beginning to converge, as cross-border sales develop. Consumer prices still varied significantly between the EU’s 27 member states, however.…

BY MARK ROWE, MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS, AND MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI

INTERNATIONAL civil aviation procedures are designed to create predictability. But they are not usually applicable for airports in territories that have declared independence, but have not achieved full international recognition, or a seat at the United Nations.…

BY MARK ROWE

ANYONE looking for straightforward conclusions about the impact of the recession on eastern Europe’s cosmetics market is likely to be disappointed. Some countries, such as Poland, fared relatively well in the crisis, while others such as Latvia faced punishing economic contraction, therefore signals coming from the region in these uncertain and ever-changing times, are hugely varied.…

UNTIL now, much of Russia’s exploitation of lucrative Siberian gas and oil deposits has targeted the western sectors of this vast region, rather than the central heartlands or the distant east. The reasons are clear enough, as the abundant fields of western Siberia have fed strong demand from Europe.…

BY LENA SMIRNOVA, IN MOSCOW

BUSINESS coaching classes may not require students to swallow pills, don ear muffs and wiggle in straightjackets, but for some Russian businessmen this is a novel practice that appears similar to a traditional psychological experiment. And it is one they are often hesitant to participate in.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

EVER since the European Commission announced last month that it would stop subsiding food-based biofuels from 2020 and support the production of secondary biofuels based on waste matter and algae, Europe’s biofuel sector has been preparing to fight for survival.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE SATURATION of mobile devices, telecommunications and social networking in today’s digital age has created a society of real-time connectivity, where the Internet and its applications are no longer confined to a desktop computer. However, an increasing dependency on digital identity has also generated new risks in terms of cybercrime, where technology users have become more susceptible, depending on the number of devices and applications they use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament’s energy committee has rejected attempts to introduce a moratorium on offshore gas drilling in the Arctic, overruling a contrary vote by the EP’s environment committee last month. Instead, the committee proposed new amendments to a proposed law on European Union (EU) oil and gas exploration, ensuring that companies have ‘adequate financial security’ to cover liabilities from any drilling accidents in all EU waters.…

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional. Both commercial markets and governments are swayed by sentiment as well as hard cash – and currently both influences are failing to pull in co-gen’s favour.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Steel First has been told by Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Chief Executive Officer Major General Mohammad Javed that there are no plans to sell off the ailing state-owned industrial giant, backing up recent comments from Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

Outside the EU, Finland’s neighbour Russia is also expected to witness a growth in its co-gen market, due to ever growing electricity demand and an increase in state support for CHP projects.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

IT is a curious irony that for an industry as technical as cogeneration that maybe the biggest handicap to its sustained growth in Europe is actually emotional.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

RUSSIA’S ban on certain live cattle and pig imports from the European Union (EU) is being used by the European Commission as a method to assess whether Russia will deliver on the commitments it made when joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO).…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; ALICE TRUDELLE, IN WARSAW; CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG; ROBERT STOKES, IN MALAGA; GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI; LEE ADENDOORF, IN LUCCA; ALAN OSBORN; MJ DESCHAMPS; AND KEITH NUTHALL

In eastern Europe, with its Soviet-era reliance on communal heating systems, co-generation continues to have strength.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, IN LONDON; AND KHRISTINA NARIZHNAYA, IN MOSCOW

A DEAL agreed between the 27 member countries of the European Union (EU) and Russia to help safeguard European sales of auto parts to that country is set to underpin the assault by the European motor industry on one of its biggest export markets targets.…

BY ROBERT STOKES IN MÁLAGA

THIS year I have abandoned my premium brand sun screen in favour of a Deliplus private label product sold by the Spanish supermarket group Mercadona for around EUR 5.00, saving around EUR 12.00 into the bargain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament yesterday (Wednesday July 4) approved a deal with Russia enabling its imminent accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where Moscow promised to give two months’ notice of any increase in export duties on key industrial mineral supplies.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Retired Major General Mohammad Javed, chief executive officer of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), has said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the governments of Pakistan and Russia where Moscow would help PSM’s expand production capacity from 1.1 million to 1.5 million tonnes per annum.…

BY NICK HOLDSWORTH, IN KALUGA, RUSSIA

CARMAKERS were celebrating on July 4 when the first of four new models rolled off a state-of-the-art production line in a 145 hectare plant in Kaluga, western Russia. The latest in an ongoing expansion of Russia’s auto sector, a bright, clean, airy and surprisingly quiet car assembly plant is surrounded by fields and forests: Peugeot Citroen’s Russian joint venture with Mitsubishi, PCMA Rus has pressed the button to start full scale production that will deliver 125,000 a year vehicles specially designed for the Russian market.…

BY ZLATKO CONKAS, IN SERBIA

AS Russian energy giant Gazprom begins construction work on the South Stream pipeline project by the end of this year for an operational launch in 2015, its final route across the Balkans has yet to be decided and governments are jostling for position.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER

DENMARK’S government and financial regulators have been increasingly busy since 2005 reinforcing the country’s relatively relaxed anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Despite the introduction of the Danish Act on Measures to Prevent Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in March 2006, and legislative amendments since, reports of suspected money laundering incidences have continued to increase year-on-year in Denmark.…

BY ANDREW KURETH, IN WARSAW

MAJOR international nuclear-energy technology providers are signing a wave of agreements with Polish energy companies and research institutes to curry political favour as they compete in the race for the tender to supply Poland’s first nuclear power plant, set to come on line in 2023.…

BY E BLAKE BERRY, IN POLAND; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; MONIKA HANLEY, IN RIGA; AND MJ DESCHAMPS,

WHILE southern and western Europe’s economies falter, being mired in debt, eastern Europe’s coatings market is now growing solidly amidst economic performances that are recovering from a recession that hit the region hard.…

BY MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE

EASTERN and central Europeans often have mixed feelings about dealing with the Russians – and for good reason, given their 40-plus-year domination of the region after the Second World War. It has encouraged many governments to seek alternative energy supplies other than Russian gas, but – as the Cold War recedes into memory, old scars are healing and joint energy ventures with Russia’s energy giant Gazprom are increasingly being assessed on their merits.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT; AND MARK GAO, IN ISTANBUL

MOST states in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) have mulled developing nuclear power over the past decade, from Morocco to Egypt, and Jordan to Saudi Arabia, but only the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is coming close to embarking on the nuclear option thus far.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

A TOUGH legislative response to the rising problem of money laundering-related crimes in Sweden appears to be having a meaningful impact on curbing illegal activities within the country – with the latest statistics from Finanspolisen, the Swedish financial crime police, revealing that while the number of reports pertaining to money laundering grew by 30% to 11,892 in 2010 (year-on-year) that figure dropped to 11,135 in 2011.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

CARIBBEAN jurisdictions are stereotypically seen as information black-holes whose minimal filing requirements for companies and trusts facilitate fraud.

Think Stanford International Bank and Westbond International Bank, two Antigua based vehicles for high-profile Ponzi schemes. Also, the Madoff scandal in the USA led to the liquidators of Fairfield Sentry – a British Virgin Islands (BVI) domiciled hedge fund that was among Madoff’s main victims – unsuccessfully trying to claim back money from investors who had legally withdrawn money from Sentry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is preparing to release calls for research proposals commanding millions of Euros of European Union (EU) funding, offering opportunities for innovative liquid fuel and oil production. The initiative is the last batch of funding under the outgoing EU seventh framework programme on research, which ends next year.…

BY MARK ROWE AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S oils and fats exporters probably drew a sigh of relief when Russia secured agreement for it to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last December. The country has a history of using unpredictable and, some say, arbitrary bans on food imports to punish exporting countries with which it is unhappy.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

LAST year the Turkish government announced it had set a target of building a "minimum" of 20 nuclear reactors by 2030. Detailed plans have been developed to commission two nuclear power plants, and the Turkish government has announced plans for three more plants to meet rising power demand and ensure energy security.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is launching an inquiry into establishing a European civil liability regime for offshore oil and gas companies involved in major accidents. They could then fund repairs and compensation for damage they cause without relying on local governments.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

RUSSIA has agreed to lift restrictions on the import of Ukrainian solid and semi-hard cheeses, just as soon as the Ukrainian side can provide evidence of proper control over product quality.

"We are ready to grant a right to the Ukrainian authorities to check the quality of the product in accordance with our requirements," said Gennady Onishchenko, head of Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

SWITZERLAND just signed a so-called ‘Rubik deal’ with Austria to safeguard Swiss banking secrecy in return for it levying withholding taxes anonymously on undeclared savings and investments held in Switzerland by Austrian nationals.

The bilateral treaty with Austria, start date 2013, follows those with Britain and Germany, and has raised the hackles of the European Commission, which has questioned these agreements’ legality under the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive, which tries to erase loopholes allowing depositors to squirrel money away from tax assessors.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A 2010 report by the European Commission on the early operation of the European Union’s (EU) cash control regulation (1889/2005) which came into force in 2007 said implementation of the measure had been "generally satisfactory" but the jury is still out regarding its usefulness as an anti-money laundering (AML) tool.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is coming down hard on European Union (EU) member states which have yet to sufficiently liberalise their natural gas industries, breaching the EU gas directive, agreed as long ago as 2009.

It has sent legal final warnings to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia saying they have two months to show how they will comply, or face possible cases at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s plans to lavish Euro EUR9.1 billion on developing energy transmission networks that link the energy systems of the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states go to the heart of the EU’s raison d’être: that Europe’s compact countries can achieve more in concert than in competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BRITAIN may have introduced its Bribery Act, with supporters saying this was a gold plated regulation promoting commercial honesty with tough measures, but the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) does not seem that impressed.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has released a report that while commending "the UK for the significant increase in foreign bribery enforcement actions" included some serious criticisms and requests that Britain improves its anti-bribery performance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on Belarus to reverse a ban on exported horned livestock and pigs from the European Union, which it has imposed over the Schmallenberg virus. Noting that the disease has not been found in pigs, Brussels health spokesman Frédéric Vincent told the Meat Trades Journal that the move was "disproportionate": it was imposed after Russia launched a similar ban – the two countries are part of a new customs union and generally follow each other’s lead in such matters.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

THE PAKISTAN government has shied away from selling off Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in its latest privatisation announcement, with court proceedings and opposition within the company deterring a sale. PSM was not among the 23 public sector banks, insurance firms, electricity supply companies, postal services, hotels, railways, and other concerns listed for inclusion by the government’s Privatisation Commission in a new round of sell-offs beginning in April.…

BY JAMES FULLER, IN LONDON; AND EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

TIME was that automakers looking to expand electric car production worried about the price and scarcity of lithium – a key metal for many battery models. But no more: new production is being brought online and prices have softened dramatically over the past three years, with the recession knocking demand for other lithium-hungry products such as laptop computers and mobiles.…

BY JAMES FULLER

AUTOMOBILE manufacturers are preparing to make the most of an increasing supply of lithium-based batteries, as they look to ramp up their production of electric cars.

They have commented following the December launch of the USD430 million joint Russo-Chinese plant, Liotech, outside Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk, in Siberia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a second European Court of Justice (ECJ) case in six months where it is seeking the repayment of what it regards as illegal subsidies paid to metal companies in Sardinia, Italy.

Last September, Brussels started an ongoing ECJ case seeking the repayment of Euro EUR25 million claimed illegal fuel oil subsidies paid to Russian-controlled Eurallumina SpA, which operates the Mediterranean island’s Portoscuso aluminium plant.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

RUSSIAN authorities have defended their decision to temporarily restrict imports of cattle from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France from February 1 over the Schmallenberg virus and warn a meat ban may follow.

Alexei Alexeyenko spokesman for the Russian federal service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) told the Meat Trades Journal: "The risk of human infection has not yet been identified.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE recent rumours in Russian media that 7-Eleven, the US-based international chain of convenience stores, would be expanding into Russia, the company has denied the claims.

"There is no basis of foundation about 7-Eleven developing in Russia," a spokesperson for the company told just-food from its Texas, USA, headquarters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers is seeking an agreement with Russia and Belarus that would better coordinate the operation of their electricity systems with those of the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The council’s working party on energy is drafting a proposal for EU ministers that – if approved – would "authorise the [European] Commission to negotiate an agreement between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus and the European Union on electricity system operation of the Baltic States."…

BY MARK ROWE

ALTHOUGH it has been likened to a 21st century Silk Road, the southern gas corridor is currently making painstaking and troubled progress; inching its way through the political and economic strife that stands between the Caspian Sea and Western Europe.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

RUSSIAN book sales did not leap ahead this Christmas and New Year period – which in Russia officially ended on January 10, (Christmas is celebrated in the country on January 7). Oleg Dushin, a leading analyst at book market specialist consultants Zerich Capital Management, told The Bookseller that in Russia, festive sales surges cannot be compared with those in Western countries.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

A USD$430 million joint Russo-Chinese plant, the world’s largest high capacity lithium-ion factory, heralds a new global centre for battery production say its founders.

The plant, Liotech, is a joint venture between China’s Thunder Sky Limited and the state-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), with Thunder Sky owning 50.1% and Rusnano 49.9%.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FOLLOWING a remarkable expansion of solar energy output in Germany in 2011 the mood of this renewable energy industry in that country is firmly upbeat – in sharp contrast to that in the UK. In spite of a 13% cut in solar subsidies last year (to be followed by a further 24% reduction in 2012) German solar energy output rose 60% to more than 18 billion kilowatt hours.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FUTURE of the natural gas sector is guaranteed in any viable European Union (EU) energy mix, the European Commission has said in a major policy paper. In its ‘Energy Road Map 2050’, Brussels argues that gas is the relatively clean fuel that will buy the EU time to adopt new energy technologies.…

BY ROBERT STOKES, IN EDINBURGH

INVESTORS want to make the United Kingdom the hot spot for new gas storage projects in the European Union (EU). The UK tops the EU’s league table of projects either applied for or with official consent: 11.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of space compared with 4.6bcm of current operational capacity.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

IF truth be told, the international image of Russia could so with some burnishing: the Georgia conflict did not help, and the western view is often one of a backward country kept afloat by a sea of oil and whose sails are filled by plentiful natural gas.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS AND LENA SMIRNOVA

AFTER 18 years of negotiations, Russia has finally gained approval to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a key diplomatic move that could have profound consequences for the country’s textile market and industry.

A ministerial meeting of the WTO in Geneva anointed Russian accession on December 16, making the country the WTO’s 155th member.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, LENA SMIRNOVA and KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S personal care product industry is bracing itself for tougher overseas competition following the accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), anointed at a December 15-17 WTO ministerial meeting in Geneva.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INNOVATIVE plastics companies will be able to apply for European Union (EU) funding for cutting edge research and development projects from the new EU research programme called Horizon 2020 – which will run from 2014 to 2020. The European Commission has set out budgets totalling Euro EUR80 billion to push forward the EU’s scientific and research strategies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ACCESSION of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been sealed in Geneva, and this should help European utilities trade and invest in Russia. While the existing gas supply agreements between Russia and European Union (EU) member states will largely remain unchanged, crucially under the agreement, "price control measures [including for energy] would not be used for purposes of protecting domestic products, or services provided," said a WTO note.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and LENA SMIRNOVA

RUSSIAN steel makers have contested claims that their country’s planned entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) next year could precipitate a steep rise in competitively-priced Russian steel exports to the European Union (EU).

This is a key concern if EU producers given that these shipments are currently protected by an EU quota of 3.2 million metric tons which will lapse on accession.…

BY PETER DA COSTA

RUSSIA’S reform of its air traffic management systems were welcomed at an European Union (EU)-Russia aviation conference in Brussels on December 2. Philippe Lievin, market manager for Indiana-based avionics company Rockwell Collins, stressed difficulties had been created form European and Russian civil aviation by Russia’s sometime antiquated ATC systems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government has agreed to scrap trade rules insisting that foreign auto manufacturers must make 350,000 vehicles annually in Russia to secure duty reductions on imported component inputs. Moscow made the concession to secure European Union (EU) backing for its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) which was formally approved yesterday (Thursday) at a special WTO working party.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and KATHERINE DUNN

THE TECHNICAL director of European Industrial Minerals Association IMA-Europe has warned that the impending accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) may not be a bonanza for European bulk mineral importers, although it could help buyers of high value minerals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN steel makers are having doubts about the anticipated agreement allowing Russia to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), fearing a boom in exports of Russia rolled steel into the European Union (EU). Imports of coils, heavy plate, other flat products, alloyed products, alloyed quarto plates, alloyed cold-rolled and coated sheets, long products, beams, wire rods and other long products are currently capped by an EU quota of 3.2 million tonnes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PRESIDENT of American pharmaceutical industry association PhRMA has welcomed the imminent approval of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in December, as strengthening intellectual property protection for medicine manufacturers selling in Russia. John Castellani noted that under Moscow’s commitments to join the WTO – which is expected to be sanctioned by a December 15-17 ministerial meeting at Geneva – there will be six years’ protection of proprietary data.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

RUSSIA is planning to invest more than Russian Roubles RUB470 billion (USD14 billion) in reforming the country’s air traffic management system, bringing it into the line with European Union (EU) standards, according to November 25 statements made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a transport policy meeting in the city of Horki.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EU food producers organisation COPA-COGECA has welcomed the likely accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), following a weekend deal over membership struck with Georgia over the weekend. This was the last key obstacle preventing Russia joining the WTO, hopefully at a Geneva ministerial meeting, December 15-17.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Spirits Organisation (CEPS) has welcomed the likely accession of Russia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), following the deal struck with Georgia over the weekend. This was the last key obstacle preventing Russia’s membership being approved, hopefully at a WTO ministerial meeting at Geneva, December 15-17.…

BY PETER DA COSTA

European retailer organisation EuroCommerce has told just-style Russia’s looming membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) should help EU clothing retail brands establish themselves in this key emerging market. Russia’s weekend deal with Georgia should secure Moscow’s accession to the trade body at the WTO ministerial conference in Geneva December 15-17, if fresh Ukraine concerns over energy can be dealt with.…

BY LENA SMIRNOVA

AMERICAN nuclear energy giant Westinghouse has told World Nuclear News that it is studying Ukraine’s reforms to its nuclear energy market regulations, to see if they become reliable enough for them to bid for future reactor contracts. "Any decision on a programme of new nuclear build is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government," said Adrian Bull, media relations manager for Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a major political initiative to prevent European Union (EU) member states being played off against each other in energy negotiations with major suppliers, such as Russia. It has proposed legislation that would insist national EU governments give Brussels information on any current deals and negotiations regarding energy supplies, including, but not only, oil and gas.…

BY MARK ROWE and MJ DESCHAMPS

IN Russia, politics is everything, and politics invariably means what the state’s two figureheads – Dmitri Medvedev, the president, and Vladimir Putin, former president and prime minister – determine.

So when noises are heard coming from the Kremlin signalling a change in attitude towards green energy, the wise betting is that there is political weight behind such moves.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

INTELLIGENCE agencies by their very nature are secretive. So too are budgetary expenses and the ways in which agencies finance operations, especially in foreign jurisdictions and where they carry out so-called ‘black ops’. The techniques to quietly transfer funds do not in fact differ that widely from organised crime or terrorist groups, using banking services, front companies, charities and the like.…

BY MARK ROWE

WANTED: experienced, international oil majors to overhaul overlooked and possibly underplayed reserves in the Caspian. Apply to the government of Turkmenistan. An announcement to that effect emerged over the summer by the Turkmenistan government, in a move that suggested that the gas-rich country was finally looking to establish the depth of its oil reserves.…

BY MARK GODFREY

ALTHOUGH it has two reactors generation 5% of its electricity needs, South Africa is, like China, a developing country where energy needs exceed capacity. China’s emerging nuclear power giant China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co (CGNPC) has been trying to persuade Johannesburg officials to install its ‘CPR1000-plus’ reactors, derived from French technology.…

BY ELENA SMIRNOVA and KEITH NUTHALL

Russia’s automobile manufacturing sector could by the end of this year face tougher competition from abroad, if the current plans to agree the country’s membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) come to pass. The chair of the WTO working party charged with negotiating a complex agreement allowing Russia into the global trade body announced a timetable this summer that would see trade ministers approve Russian membership between December 15 and 17.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has lost patience with Italy over its failure to recover Euro EUR25 million illegal subsidies paid to a Sardinia alumina plant, taking its government to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Brussels wants judges to order compliance from Italy.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

RUSSIAN businesses could return to widespread borrowing from criminal sources in any repeat of the 2008-09 recession and credit crunch, the country’s financial watchdog has warned as continuing global turmoil hits interbank lending.

"We are facing a situation where criminal capital is increasingly being used for lending to business, thereby replacing the legal banking sector," said Yury Chikhanchin, head of the federal financial monitoring Service, Rosfinmonitoring.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is staging a re-evaluation of the sweetener aspartame after it agreed to bring forward from 2020 a scheduled inquiry, despite recent scientific assessments failing to reveal fresh concerns about the sweetener.

Indeed, EFSA reviewed the latest studies on aspartame only in April, but accepted a European Commission request for a new study.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is drafting legislation seeking to break regulatory and financial logjams preventing the European Union (EU) achieving ambitious planned gas infrastructure investments. A Commission working paper predicts the proposal will come in October and warned red-tape and financial shortages are potentially delaying cross-border interconnection and pipeline projects worth billions of Euros.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is making its first major investment in the eastern Europe district heating sector. It is buying Euro EUR100 million’s worth of shares issued by Dalkia Eastern Europe, owned by Paris-based energy firm Dalkia, to help modernise Russia and Ukraine’s district heating sector in Russia, while boosting energy efficiency in Lithuania.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, MARK ROWE, GERARD O’DWYER, ALAN OSBORN and MJ DESCHAMPS

COGENERATION has been something of a test-bed for European Union (EU) energy development policy, and like any experiment, some things have worked and others have not. Also, because other energy priorities have become the subject of more effective legislation recently, cogeneration has been left behind to some extent in the EU’s push for a cleaner, greener, sustainable and more liberal energy sector.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, KATHERINE DUNN, MARTINA MARECKOVA, GERARD O’DWYER and MINDY RAN

The Winter Olympics have proven to be something of a catalyst for funding and investment in co-generation in provincial Russia – right down to the 2014 venue itself: the Black Sea resort in the city of Sochi.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY, LEE ADENDORFF, MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN, MINDY RAN, GERARD O’DWYER and MARTINA MARECKOVA

FOR an industry that generates energy, heat and maybe cooling, the European cogeneration sector has been operating on a decidedly low output in recent years.…

BY MARK ROWE

SUPERFICIALLY at least, it sounds like an unlikely scenario: Russia, the 21st century’s face of fossil fuel sources, now wants to go green. The Russian Energy Agency last spring signed an agreement committing itself to help the country improve energy efficiency in industry and housing; develop a renewable energy market; and – the end goal – reduce greenhouse gas emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded Russo-German research project has been developing a plasma neutron source using a so-called ‘Gas Dynamic Trap’ to incinerate radioactive waste. Scientists from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), Novosibirsk, Russia, have been investigating the coupling a sub-critical fission reactor and a DT-fusion plasma device to generate 14 MeV neutrons: the aim to burn and transmutate long-lived isotopes of nuclear waste, including plutonium, minor actinides and fission products.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is considering lending Russian pharmaceutical company NOP Petrovax Pharm up to Euro EUR15.8 million to help commercialise three new innovative medicines fighting immunology and viral diseases.

Petrovax focuses on patented medicines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, has agreed to help the Russian Energy Agency improve energy efficiency in industry and housing, develop renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The IFC said targeted investments in energy efficiency alone could reduce Russia’s annual consumption of gas by 240 billion cubic metres, crude oil by 43 million tonnes.…

BY LENA SMIRNOVA

RUSSIA’S Dixy Group will spend US dollars USD25.5 million on a marketing overhaul that will start on June 1, the company announced in Moscow last night (May 30).

As part of the new strategy, the company will redesign the look of its stores and roll out a Russia-wide advertising campaign to solidify its identity as a friendly, neighbourhood supermarket.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PROBLEM of what to do with Kyrgyzstan’s depleted uranium problem has been passed around the international community for more than two decades, but it now looks like some degree of remediation action is set to take place.…

BY MARK GODFREY

China’s nuclear story began in Daya Bay, where two 944MW reactors designed and built by Framatone (now Areva) came online in 1993. By 2010, China had 9GW of installed nuclear power generating capacity. The government still wants this figure to grow, but departments differ about how much is achievable and when.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled the cost of its ambitious plan for cutting European Union (EU) greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% of 1990 levels by 2050. Brussels says that an additional targeted annual investment over the next 40 years is needed – equalling 1.5% of the EU’s GDP – or Euro EUR270 billion.…

CZECH PAINTS SECTOR BACK ON TRACK

THE CZECH paints industry last year experienced a second difficult year in a row – although it was not as bad as in 2009. Sales fell 14% year-on-year compared to 2009, but market players believe that the worst is over.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE FUEL pipeline network around the Caspian and Black Seas increasingly resembles a London Underground map, a comparison enhanced by the latest potential addition to the lattice, known as the AGRI scheme.

AGRI, the acronym for the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector, is a proposal for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transportation across the Black Sea.…

BY MARK GODFREY

China’s nuclear story began in Daya Bay, where two 944MW reactors designed and built by Framatone (now Areva) came online in 1993. By 2010, China had 9GW of installed nuclear power generating capacity. The government wants this figure to grow, but departments differ about how much is achievable and when.…

BY WANG FANGQING, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, MARK ROWE and PACIFICA GODDARD

THE BRICM countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Mexico) have long been regarded as sources of cheap quality fabrics and clothes, but as they grow wealthier they are increasingly being regarded as vital international export markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR cobalt-copper deposit in Russia being eyed by an Isle of Man based company, which could soon be part-owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The bank has released plans for an equity investment of US$21 million in the Isle of Man-registered Imperial Mining Holding Limited, which aims to explore base metal and precious metal resources in Russia and Mongolia.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, and EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

A PROPOSED joint venture under discussion between Japan’s Toshiba Corporation and Russia’s Techsnabexport (TENEX) is expected to focus supplying low enriched uranium, not only to Japan but to third-party markets, Fuel Cycle Week has been told.…

BY MARTINA MARECKOVA

WITH Russia’s economy booming again after a deep recession caused by the global financial crisis, its consumers are again indulging their strong taste for luxury clothing, especially of famous international marques. And Russians also like to travel, and when they do – they shop – with some assessments suggesting they set aside twice as much time for shopping as do American tourists.…

BY MARTINA MARECKOVA

*Last year, the total volume of tax free shopping in Prague by Russians increased by 22% year-on-year.

*However their average spending dropped from Czech Crowns CZK6,951 (US dollars USD400) in 2009 to CZK6,581 (USD378) last year.

*Prague luxury clothing retailers says a couple from former Soviet Union may often spend CZK300,000 (USD17,267) each on a mink fur coat.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s meat sector will continue to lose exportsto non-EU countries over the next 10 years, creating trade deficits for all major market segments, except pigmeat, a European Commission commodity forecast to 2020 has predicted. Even for poultry – which alone of major European meat sub-sectors increased production in 2008 and 2009 – exports from the European Union will be outstripped by imports over the next 10 years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DRAFT revised code designed to ensure European Union (EU) Commissioners behave ethically during and after they serves has been branded too weak by the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU). It said proposed changes "are too weak to prevent potential conflicts of interest when ex-Commissioners take up new roles."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PREPARATORY work for mining a major cobalt-copper deposit in Russia, could be funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The bank has released plans for an equity investment of US$21 million in Isle of Man-registered Imperial Mining Holding Limited, whose subsidiaries explore base and precious metal resources in Russia and Mongolia.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

THE MANAGEMENT of Moscow’s biggest airport Domodedovo has rebuffed claims from the Russian president that the recent terrorist bombing happened, partly because their security systems were too weak. President Dmitry Medvedev claimed: "There was just an anarchy in Domodedovo, when everyone could get on the territory of the airport without any problems.…

BY MARK GODFREY

FINANCING is the crunch issue in Armenia’s newly announced plans to build a new unit at its Metsamor nuclear power plant. The VVER (water-water energetic reactor) 1000 reactor to be built in a 50/50 joint venture with Russia’s Atomstroyexport will, according to Armenian government sources, be operational by 2018.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

WINTER always beings jitters to European utilities. Will Russia cut off gas to a neighbouring country because of a payment row? Until major new pipeline routes are in place, such as Nord Stream or Nabucco, this concern will continue.…

BY MARK ROWE

Recession forced eastern European smokers to ditch premium brands for cheaper smokes

Tobacco majors have long targeted eastern Europe as a soft emerging market for premium brands. But times got tough during the recession, when smokers swapped aspiration for economy.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

A MAJOR American poultry producer has accused Russia of effectively locking all kinds of chicken out of the Russian market through its promised ban on imports and sales of deep-frozen poultry. Russia’s Chief Sanitary Inspector Gennady Onishchenko has promised a new ban from January 1.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

THE INTRODUCTION of 10% fixed export duty on nickel and copper in Russia from November 2010 should not negatively affect profits of Norilsk Nickel, world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, thanks to high profitability of the company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLIMATE control concerns will be integrated into all investment and advisory services offered by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank. It has created a new ‘Climate Business Group’ to undertake this work and grow IFC climate-related investments to more than US dollars USD3 billion within three years.…

BY ALEX PESHKOV

A SPECIAL tanker built to haul radioactive waste from Andreyeva Bay, Russia’s Northern Fleet largest storage facility, will be launched at an Italian shipyard this month (November), Russian officials have told World Nuclear News. Russia hopes to completely clean up Andreyeva Bay, on the Kola Peninsular, near the Norwegian border, Europe’s largest radioactive waste burial ground, by 2020.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

THE NORD Stream natural gas pipeline, linking Russia with Germany, is not just making political waves, but inspiring technological innovations. Its developers appear to be taking environmental issues seriously. This could appease the project’s doubters.

When completed by the end of 2012, two parallel pipelines will stretch 1,224 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald on Germany’s Baltic coast, linking with EU networks, notably those run by DONG Energy (Denmark), Germany’s E.ON…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government received unusual praise from a Revenue Watch Institute and Transparency International assessment of public disclosures of oil, gas and other mineral management. It placed Russia third, out of 41 countries, behind Brazil and Norway. Mexico and Chile were fourth and fifth.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

SABMiller RUS, a subsidiary of SABMiller plc, has warned of declining beer sales in Russia, despite officially opened its third plant in the country. The new plant is located in the city of Ulyanovsk, on the River Volga, with an initial annual capacity of 3 million hectolitres, and costing Russian Roubles RUB7.2 billion (US dollars USD216 million) to build.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has been alarmed by coordinated ‘bot-net’ attacks on computer networks in Britain, Estonia, Georgia, France, and elsewhere, and is beefing up its cyber-defences. Keith Nuthall reports.

IT takes a lot to spark the lumbering bureaucratic behemoth known as the European Union (EU) into hasty action.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for his country to exploit the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism could lead Russia to issue142 million carbon credits for 2008-2012, researchers for French bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations have claimed. This would make Russia the second largest issuer of such credits after China, it said, possibly depressing global prices for purchasing emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INVESTMENT and introducing good practice in the Russian steelmaking sector so it matches European Union (EU) standards in natural resources consumption could save the industry up to US dollar USD3.3 billion annually, a World Bank group report has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SUGAR has been at the centre of continuing concern about fraud draining European Union (EU) budgets of duty revenue. The latest operational report from EU anti-fraud unit OLAF (which reviewed 2009) recalled how fraudsters made millions of Euros from exporting 3,400 tonnes of sugar from the EU to neighbouring non-member state Croatia via the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.…

BY MARK GODFREY

GEORGIA’S wine industry took every opportunity to bask in the limelight when the 2010 International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) Congress was staged in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. Opening the June congress, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT) even took the opportunity to praise local product as a "freedom wine", boasting that Russia’s four-year ban on Georgian wine has only improved its quality.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMAN consumer protection officials have warned of sales restrictions on Ivory Coast skin whitening products – European Union (EU) alert service RAPEX has reported. These include the G&G brand Dynamiclair Lightening Beauty Crème; Body White brand body clearing gel and HP.3 body clearing oil; and Bio Claire lightening body cream.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

GERMAN consumer protection officials have warned of sales restrictions on Ivory Coast skin whitening products – European Union (EU) alert service RAPEX has reported. These include the G&G brand Dynamiclair Lightening Beauty Crème; Body White brand body clearing gel and HP.3 body clearing oil; and Bio Claire lightening body cream.…

BY WANG FANGQING

LOTTE Confectionary, the Seoul-based subsidiary of South Korea’s top food conglomerate the Lotte Group, has opened a its first Russian food plant in Obninsk city, 102 km southwest of Moscow. It will manufacture Lotte’s signature Choco Pie confectionery to supply Moscow and the Ural-Siberian area, said Lotte’s spokesman.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THREE of the world’s major public financing institutions have started due diligence on the Nabucco gas pipeline project, work that could release billions of Euros into the troubled project. If they are happy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) could invest Euro EUR2 billion, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) EUR1.2 billion and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, EUR800 million.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE PROCESS of ‘unbundling’ in the European Union (EU) gas industry as called for under the EU’s third energy package, notably the gas directive 2009/73/EC, adopted in 2009, has come to a bit of a standstill. This will not last.…

BY MIRIAM ELDER

RUSSIAN commodity experts have told just-food they expect grain prices to rise significantly within Russia, despite the announcement by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that all exports of grain from the country would be halted from August 15 to contain domestic prices.…

BY WANG FANGQING

JAPAN brewer Kirin Holdings will begin manufacturing and selling beer in Germany in October. Working with Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, of Freising, Kirin hopes to lower logistics costs and improve quality for supplies to 23 countries in mainland Europe, including Germany, France and Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIAN consumer protection authorities are threatening a ban on Moldovan wine, which the exporting country claims is purely political. Russia’s chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko has attacked its quality, claiming "Moldovan wine should be used to paint fences" as customs officials this month impounded 170,000 bottles, claiming they contained too much dibutyl phthalate and metalaxyl.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMAGINATION and guile continue to help fraudsters milk hundreds of millions of Euros from the European Union’s (EU) well-stocked budgets, explains the latest report from EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, writes Keith Nuthall.

OLAF spends a lot of money sniffing out fraud in the institutions and programmes of the EU and the payment of duties earmarked to fund this spending.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is lending Russia’s largest glass bottle manufacturer Russian roubles RUB460 million (around Euro EUR12 million) to help reduce its foreign exchange exposure and swap maturing debts for a single longer-term local currency facility.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF last year opened 39 new probes into financial irregularities involving EU agriculture programmes and at least 25 could generate criminal charges says its new annual report. With OLAF investigations lasting on average two years, these inquiries are ongoing and reflect continuing efforts by Brussels-based OLAF to squeeze fraud from EU food subsidy spending.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MAJOR investment could be required by European Union (EU) gas utilities because of a new EU regulation insisting that member states have sufficient storage capacity to deal with supply crises such as the Russia and Ukraine dispute in 2008 and 2009.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

THE FOUNDER and CEO of the successful Russian Standard Vodka company has welcomed the planned vodka taxation increases announced by the Russian government. In a rare interview with Russian language media Roustam Tariko told the Vedomosti newspaper: "What the government is doing is absolutely correct.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

OFTEN lumped together, the three Baltic States (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) vary greatly in their anti-money laundering standards and risks and banking competencies. Estonia has a well-regarded financial centre with one of the most advanced and transparent banking systems of the newer European Union (EU) member states as well as newly adopted anti-money laundering laws, something the other two Baltic States cannot boast.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel has refused to set an advisory limit for the intake of sugar by European Union (EU) consumers. EFSA’s panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies has concluded in a comprehensive assessment of dietary requirements for EU consumers “there was insufficient evidence to set an upper limit for sugars”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MARK GODFREY

A CANADIAN company seeking to develop Mongolia’s largest uranium deposit is pushing ahead with legal action against the country’s government, which it accuses of illegally expropriating its mining licences. Accusations of favourtism towards Russia have soured relations between the Mongolian government and Toronto-based mining firm Khan Resources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is helping the USA deal with the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Coordinated by the EU emergency response group, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), the EU will send oil skimmers and oil spill experts.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

FOURTEEN years and five months after it was shut down in the wake of an accident, Japan’s Monju fast-breeder reactor resumed operations today (Thursday May 6).

After receiving final confirmation from the local and national governments that the controversial plant could be restarted, control rods were removed from the reactor, a process that was completed at 10.36 am Japan time, according to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).…

BY JOHN PAGNI

Russia has a strong drinks sector, for spirits, beer and juices, especially. Alcoholic beverage makers are having to deal with flat sales on the domestic market and a government determined to reduce alcohol consumption, forcing quality producers to look for export sales to boost profits.…

BY MARK ROWE and GERARD O’DWYER

CONCERNS over climate change often refer to the potential thawing of the Arctic permafrost, where large-scale releases of methane could significantly accelerate global warming. Yet at the same time, governments and energy companies are weighing up the potentially lucrative reserves of methane lying below the permafrost that covers the Siberian continental shelf, and extends up to 1,000 kilometres into the Arctic Ocean.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

THE IMPLEMENTATION of the India-USA civil nuclear agreement seems to face one hurdle after another. Despite the successful conclusion of nuclear fuel reprocessing agreement with India in March this year, the American corporations still cannot trade nuclear equipment and materials with Indian customers due to a lack of a nuclear civil liability regime in India.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, WANG FANGQING, JOHN PAGNI and KEITH NUTHALL

THE RISE of the world’s large emerging markets – Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico (or BRICM to give them a popular acronym) has been especially significant for the drinks industry.…

BY MARK GODFREY and KEITH NUTHALL

ACCUSATIONS of favourtism towards Russia have soured relations between the Mongolian government and the Canadian developers of the country’s largest uranium deposit. An ongoing spat between Toronto-based mining firm Khan Resources and the Mongolia Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is headed to the courts, with Khan claiming Russian pressure is behind the agency invalidating the firm’s licence for the Dornod mine, Mongolia’s largest uranium deposit.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPANESE industries in general have had a tough past couple of years and the cosmetics sector is no exception. That said, manufacturers here have largely stressed the positive and developed a range of innovative new products that meet the needs of ever-more demanding consumers and opened up new product areas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CALLS have been made for major additional spending on European Union (EU) energy infrastructure, now a new European Commission team is in office.

The European Parliament’s industry committee has strengthened EU proposals to ensure member states have sufficient interconnected energy links to deal with any unexpected winter shortages.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S near abroad appears to offer an A-Z of both money laundering activities – from low level corruption to more sinister opium-based profits – and of the wide spectrum of governmental attitudes towards tackling the problem.

"While Russian and Ukrainian gangs have a presence in a lot of the activity in the region, most money laundering is still done by indigenes," said Mark Galeotti, of the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…

BY MIRIAM ELDER

THE LUXURIOUS boutiques that line Stoleshnikov Pereulok (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT), one of Moscow’s premiere shopping streets, stand eerily quiet these days. Stern-faced guards appear to spend more time chatting on their mobiles than swinging open doors for the Russian capital’s once teeming clientele.…

BY MIRIAM ELDER

WHILE the government of the Russian Federation has made real efforts to fight money laundering – as documented recently in the Money Laundering Bulletin – the problem remains rampant in this resource-rich country, according to Russian and international experts.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, EMMA JACKSON, PAUL COCHRANE and JULIAN RYALL

INTRODUCTION

Professionalisation is a key trend in today’s drinks sector, particularly as export markets are growing fast in emerging markets. With brand loyalty up for grabs, it is critical for alcoholic drinks producers especially to maintain and raise quality.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE NEXT few years are likely to see several countries accede to the European Union (EU), with significant implications for the personal care sector. Local producers of toiletries, detergents and cosmetics, as well as multinationals in a number of countries, are closely following the negotiations conducted by their governments.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

RUSSIA is due to deliver a comprehensive account of its anti-money laundering system to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June – two years after a mutual evaluation report jointly undertaken by the FATF, Moneyval and the Eurasian group on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism (EAG) found both good and bad things to say about the country.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and MIRIAM ELDER

THE CANADIAN government has denied using its security forces to intimidate and terrorise a Russian immigrant, who later fled to Britain and committed suicide this week, jumping with his family from a Glasgow tower block.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government is welcoming anticipated talks with the European Union (EU) to negotiate a nuclear partnership agreement that would facilitate nuclear trade and exchange of knowledge on safety issues. The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission was given a mandate to begin talks just before Christmas, and the new college of commissioners taking office for five years this month (February) will be responsible for moving the process forward.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANADA – the world’s second largest country by geography – was created because of luxury clothing: the fur trade drove French and British explorers to its remote interior, creating ports and processing hubs, now major cities, such as Montréal and Toronto.…

BY ALAN OSBORN,ANCA GURZU and KEITH NUTHALL

THE GLOBAL trade in illicit tobacco is huge and growing and a significant source of dirty money worldwide. Tobacco multinational British American Tobacco (BAT) estimates that 6.3% of cigarettes worldwide are illicit products (either counterfeit, smuggled or sold domestically on the black market), which makes 332 billion sticks, and that is a lot of cigarettes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA and Ukraine appear to have headed off an oil transit dispute that could have created a repeat of last year’s major disruption of European natural gas supplies. Moscow and Kiev have signed an agreement increasing by 30% the fees Ukraine charges on transporting Russian oil to the European Union (EU) – this alters a 2004 contract and the change had sparked a diplomatic tussle.…

BY MARK GODFREY

IT has not traditionally featured on prospectors’ radar but Mongolia is quickly emerging as an Asian oil exporter. Thanks to rising oil demand from China, the Petroleum Authority of Mongolia has inked production-sharing agreements on 12 oil fields with explorers from north America, Australia and China.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SHIFT in European Union (EU) energy policy should become apparent from February 1, when Germany’s Günther Oettinger should become EU energy Commissioner. Replacing Latvia’s Andris Piebalgs for the next five years, the appointment of a German to this increasingly powerful position has been widely touted as shifting EU energy relations towards closer links with Russia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE PLANNED shape of a new European Commission for the next five years has been unveiled, and it includes recreating a new single directorate general (DG) for energy. Since 2000, the Commission has operated a joint directorate general for energy and transport, but with the growing importance of the energy brief to the European Union (EU), energy policy will receive a new separate directorate general.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

HAILING from arguably Europe’s most egalitarian country, Finns take equality seriously. So when it appears that some are being treated differently from others, even the normally phlegmatic, taciturn Finnish trucker may be roused into voicing an opinion.

Being a large country with a small population and a good road network, congestion is rare.…

BY GEORGE STONE

GHANA, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are Africa’s latest upstream hotspots as major energy firms seek new provinces outside of regional heavyweight oil producers Nigeria and Angola. But jockeying for position has already led to friction between governments and the industry.…

BY MARK ROWE

SHOWROOMS full of Bentleys and Ferraris continue to grace Moscow’s most salubrious boulevards, in a display of purchasing power that suggests global recession is a world away. The reality is somewhat different: the mainstream Russian car market has taken a swinging blow from economic collapse, its fortunes plummeting almost overnight.…

BY MARK ROW

THERE are 44 million smokers in Russia, and 31% of Russians smoke. Male smoking rates (61%) are among the highest in the world, while female smoking rates have more than doubled from 1991 to 2008 from 7% to 15%, according to Tabakprom, the Russian cigarette manufacturer’s association (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A HOPEFUL sign that European Union (EU) and American energy policies could become more complimentary in the future has come with the launch of a new EU-US Energy Council in Washington. It will formalise transatlantic discussions on strategic energy issues such as security of supply and developing low carbon energy sources.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE RUSSIAN government has ordered the country’s oil companies to slash their flaring of oil-production associated natural gas – using "up to 95%" of the by-product. President Dmitry Medvedev told the country’s parliament: "No objections from the production companies should be accepted."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ANDREA Perrone talks of when he was a child, and his father – a lawyer and the CEO of Brioni Retail – used to bring home customers from South America for lunch or dinner at the family’s residence in Abruzzi, Italy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

MODERNISED Lada models are expected to become available from 2012, with the Russian mark being bankrolled by its Renault and Nissan partners. The French car maker’s Christian Esteve told Russian state news agency Itar-Tass that his company’s US$1 billion investment in 2008 would lead to new "modern and appealing" Ladas, benefiting from Renault technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ONE of the lynchpins of the European Union’s (EU) single market is its public procurement rules, which try to ensure pubic authorities, and some utilities and transmission operators, openly tender for their major purchases. The aim is that all EU suppliers have a fair crack of the whip in offering them goods and services.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN automobile component manufacturers, who have been catering to international car companies, are taking additional value out of the supply chain by getting involved in the designing of auto parts.

With strong engineering skills, design and development capability, Indian companies such as Tata AutoComp Systems, Sundram Fasteners and Bharat Forge, have established their own brand names and registered intellectual property rights for their products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPOL’s Organised Crime Threat Assessments have not always contained a wealth of detailed useful information – but its 2009 report shows how crime groups are adopting innovative technology and organisational skills: international business should take note. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TURKEY – the lynchpin of European Union (EU) efforts to secure energy independence from Russia – has started negotiations to join the EU’s Energy Community. The organisation currently extends EU energy legislation to non-EU Balkans countries, but there are plans to add Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey to its membership.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SIZE of the planned international investment in Ukraine’s gas distribution system has been revealed in a European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) memorandum: up to US$3 billion maybe pumped in. Money would start flowing with a US$300 million working capital loan from the EBRD for purchasing gas, repayable after this winter heating season.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE SALE of General Motors’ European auto-manufacturing subsidiary Opel to a Canadian-Austrian-Russian consortium is developing into a bitter dispute over how job losses arising from the deal are allocated between European Union (EU) member countries and who provides the funds for Opel’s restructuring.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WHITE knight deal – sweetened by around Euro 4.5 billion (US$6.5 billion) in German government subsidies – to transfer control of Opel-Vauxhall to a Canadian-Russian consortium, is under fire. Britain’s business secretary Lord Mandelson has advised that alternative agreements are sought to save the ailing GM-controlled car maker, calling for a "commercially-based outcome rather than one determined by political intervention and subsidies".…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

DESPITE being one of the regions hardest hit by the global financial crisis and its resulting recession, the cosmetics industry of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) is doing surprisingly well. Although local sales have been under pressure, companies have begun expanding abroad in the last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TURKISH government has agreed Russian access to its Black Sea waters for its South Stream gas pipeline, just weeks after signing a deal with the European Union over hosting the rival Nabucco pipeline. The agreement has prompted claims of Turkish double-dealing and fresh doubts over the viability of Nabucco.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE NUCLEAR power authorities of Bangladesh deny they have reached terms with Russia’s Rosatom atomic energy corporation, despite Russian claims that it had secured the deal to build Bangladesh’s long-planned nuclear plant. Mohammed Muzammel Haque, chief engineer at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), claims Bangladesh has opted to build a 1,100 MW plant.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S belligerent approach to its neighbours in recent years has ranged from military conflict with Georgia to energy disputes with Ukraine and a string of commodity-based stand-offs, such as rows with Norway over fish products, Poland over meat supplies and Belarus over sugar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has called in a major economic report on Russia for it to scrap oil export taxes. Branding them "both the largest burden on oil companies in Russia and the least efficient fiscal instrument", the OECD said their application "distorts the price of domestic oil, which is depressed by the tax".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL talks are underway to secure Ukraine funding to pay Russia for natural gas to ensure deliveries to Europe can be guaranteed this winter.

The European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have been meeting with Russian and Ukraine officials to head off a repeat of last winter’s supply crisis.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S leading cosmetics company Kalina has been offered a US$40 million loan by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) to help it refinance short term debts during the recession. The loan will also provide it with long-term working capital, helping it sustain market share and attack new market segments.…

BY MARK ROWE

The expansion of the European Union (EU) continues eastwards – and the food and drink industry of the existing EU will inevitably be affected by the new competition, as will companies in the new member countries.

The next few years are likely to see several countries accede to the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CLOSER trade relations between the European Union (EU) and oil-rich Iraq are being negotiated, with a round of talks being held last month (May) in Baghdad aimed at forging a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). This would involve the creation of a special cooperation council and annual ministerial meetings to erase trade barriers – such deals are usually forged with eastern European neighbours of the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE COUNTDOWN is on for an almost total ban on seal fur and leather sales in the European Union (EU), with the European Parliament approving a new regulation coming into force by next March. This bans all sales of seal products for profit, unless manufactured from seals caught during traditional hunts of Inuit dwellers of the Canadian, Russian, Greenland and Alaskan Arctic and sub-Arctic.…

BY E. BLAKE BERRY

IT looks as though Buczek Automotive’s fate is sealed. The firm, a Polish producer of pipes for the auto industry, has been little more than a husk since June of last year, and industry experts say there is now no hope that it will return to the market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and EMMA JACKSON

IF the competition to build gas pipeline networks from Russia, the Caucasus and central Asia to central and western Europe were a horserace, commentators would say it was still too close to call.

For although politicians and diplomats in Brussels, Moscow and other European capitals would never admit it publicly, these multi-million investment projects are contests of power and influence.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and EMMA JACKSON

COUNTERFEITERS often claim their crime is victimless – the only losers are rich corporations who enjoy healthy profits anyway from their brands. But tell that to the families of the 1,069 duped Moscow consumers who died after becoming intoxicated by counterfeit alcoholic beverages in the city during 2008, according to the Russian capital’s board of health.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DELICATE state of European Union (EU) and Russia diplomatic and energy relations has been illustrated starkly by the inclusion of eastern European gas interconnection projects within the European economic stimulus package. National governments of these new EU member states threatened to torpedo the entire agreement – seen as the lynchpin of European efforts to shake off the recession – if their gas schemes were not included.…

By Lorraine Mallinder, in Montréal

As the polar ice cap continues to shrink, the five nations surrounding the Arctic Ocean are hurriedly positioning themselves for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest geopolitical brawls of the coming years.

Beneath the thinning ice lies the tantalising prospect of up to a quarter of the world’s untapped oil and gas reserves and the promise of new shipping routes between East and West. It’s enough to turn the heads of even the most placid nations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEPENDENCE of the European Union (EU) on imports to meet oil supply needs will rise to 95% by 2030, a European Parliament report has claimed. This will expose the EU to strategic dangers through buying oil from unstable or potentially hostile countries in the Middle East and from Russia, it warned.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

SOUTH Korean confectionery producer Orion Corporation is planning to construct a factory in the Russian city of Tver, northwest of Moscow. This follows the signing of a US$95.2 million agreement with the regional government, said a spokesman for the local governor’s office.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY recession has a silver lining: inefficient competitors are unmasked and forced out of business; and governments usually spend freely to pump prime an ailing economy. And for major essential industries such as the power sector, economic slumps can be good times.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

WHILE other companies are suddenly looking to cut overheads, trim the fat from their operations or find other ways to batten down the hatches to survive the global economic turmoil, Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido Co. claims it sees the downturn as an opportunity.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSSIAN food retail sector could provide a beacon of hope in a tough wider global food market in 2009. Major retailers posted high growth figures for 2008, and though all dipped in the last quarter, solid growth is anticipated this year.…

BY MARK ROWE

AUTO manufacturers and industry associations point to a significant dip in sales and production in Russia this year. JAMA, the Japanese Automobile Manufacturer’s Association, predicts auto sales will fall by 18%, while PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia forecasts a 25%-50% drop in Russia’s overall car sales this year, with Russian domestic car production dipping to 1.6 million vehicles from 3.2 million in 2008.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

STANDFIRST

Every country has its own food and drink regulatory body or bodies: in the first place to ensure that its citizens eat safely and in the second to help safeguard its position in the rapidly-growing world food trade.…

BY DAVID ANDERSON

ORGANISED crime is much more low-key in Russia today than in the wild-east days of the1990s. But that does not mean it has gone away. And, as David Anderson reports, the fluctuations in the price of oil are likely to provide plenty of opportunities for further illicit gains.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSH to tap the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Sea has seen governments, the European Union (EU) and producers shuttling back and forth between the major players in the region, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AGREEMENT has been struck over future European Union (EU) targets for CO2 emissions from cars, with an informal deal being forged by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. The agreement is a compromise, with energy and automobile companies securing a phase-in between 2012 and 2015 of an agreed 120g/km target.…

BY CRISTINA MUNTEAN

THE SECURITY of energy supply, including oil and gas storage capacity, dominates the current energy agenda of the Czech Republic, which took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) from January 1, 2009.

This is no surprise: on July 10, 2008, Russian oil pipeline operator Transnieft cut monthly contracted oil deliveries by almost half from 500,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes via the Druzhba pipeline.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the nuclear power plant industry, global economic crises can make for uncertain times. On the one hand, the long lead-in times associated with construction, along with copper-bottomed signed state contracts, should mean many projects continue as usual.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE CREDIT crunch may be about to apply the handbrake to the Russian economy, but its paint industry continued to flourish in 2008, mirroring the expansion of wealth in the country, and suggesting the sector may buck the expected downturn in the coming 12 months.…

BY JAMES FLYNN

RUSSIAN organised crime has left its fingerprints across eastern and western Europe in recent years. But now the gangs have begun to turn their sights on the international shipping industry, manipulating documents that are fundamental to the movement of international cargo for their own – usually money laundering – ends.…

BY MARK GODFREY

RUSSIA may have invaded Georgia this August, but its wine industry seems almost gung-ho about the import embargo on Georgian wines that the Russian government has imposed since 2006. It has proven a "huge stimulus" to local winemakers to improve quality, according to the head of a project tasked with opening new markets for the country’s wines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LITHUANIAN government has welcomed the backing by European Union (EU) heads of government at a summit in Brussels to connect the electricity grids of all the EU countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, to strengthen their energy security.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE UKRAINE is a key player in any effective plan for guaranteeing European Union (EU) energy security without tugging forelocks in Moscow’s direction. And while the country actually has 395 million barrels of proven oil reserves (the majority located in the eastern Dnieper-Donetsk basin), attention has recently focussed on the potential and actual role of the country’s six refineries as a reliable source of product internationally.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

GONE are the days of the disgruntled, Soviet style Baltic States truck driver, more interested in taking time off than pushing for more deliveries. Since the fall off communism and the coming of independence to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a new breed of truckers has come on to the scene, with new trucks and more ambitious attitudes, including the desire to drive west.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and ALAN OSBORN

ONE of the more colourful (and thankfully less deadly) aspects of Russia’s mini-war with Georgia in August was the simultaneous attach by hackers on Georgian Internet sites, especially those of its government.,

Ones of these were crashed by ‘denial of service’ attacks, where masses of data are sent to particular sites until they cannot handle the megabytes and closedown.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A WORLD Bank report has argued Russia should allow independent Russian gas companies to commercially exploit natural gas that is wastefully flared by the country’s oil producers. In particular, the ‘Using Russia’s Associated Gas’ study by PFC Energy said these companies should be given more transparent access to Russia’s gas transport networks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has frozen its partnership and cooperation negotiations with Russia over the Georgia conflict, just three months after the talks were launched following long delays. An emergency meeting of the EU Council of Ministers has ordered no meetings will take place with Moscow on the agreement until its "troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August", prior to its short war with Georgia.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSSIAN fishing fleet is to undergo the greatest restructuring of the industry since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Under the plans, which were approved by the Russian parliament – or Duma – this summer, a new, unifying state fishery corporation will have centralised control for all activities related to the industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has provisionally approved the installation of two new reactors at Slovakia’s Mochovce nuclear complex, saying the plans meet Euratom rules, but only if additional security and safety measures are implemented. Slovakia wants to commission by 2013 two type VVER 440/V213 Russian-design pressurised water reactors with a power capacity of 440 MWe each, costing Euro 1.6 billion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FUND managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) has agreed to grant aid Euro 70 million four projects cleaning up nuclear contamination in north-west Russia.

As manager of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) Support Fund, the EBRD signed the funding agreements with Rosatom, the Russian State Corporation for Atomic Energy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FORMAL negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Russia over renewing the 1997 partnership and cooperation agreement between them are under way at last: formal talks started in Brussels on July 4, following a successful EU-Russia summit at the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk..…

By Keith Nuthall

Research funding for a global project that seeks to harness the thermodynamics of the stars to create a sustainable and safe nuclear fusion reactor is starting to be released. A consortium of 14 research teams from across Europe has been formed to create a computer simulation of the international ITER fusion reactor, to model the technology required to operate it safely.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LAST May, a coordinated attack on essential computer networks in the tiny Baltic republic of Estonia set nerves upon edge amongst European Internet security specialists. Following the removal of a Russian war memorial from the centre of its capital Tallinn, a still unidentified group of computer users bombarded Estonian political, government, media and banking websites with so much data, they were forced offline.…

BY MARK ROWE

YOU are a young, thrusting oil company, sitting on vast reserves and anticipating an even more lucrative future. You’re looking to make a statement about your position in the world. What do you do? In the case of Gazprom Neft, you build a new mini-city.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SINCE the September 11 attacks, the control of terrorist financing has been an international policing priority. But businesses also need to be aware of the risks. Keith Nuthall reports.

TERRORISM may be an exceptional crime, but the money required to stage violent attacks on the public is – ultimately – just money.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London; LUCY JONES, in Dallas; JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo; and KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN the spate of oil tanker accidents in recent years involving substantial pollution of seas and coastlines around the world, it is no surprise that international organisations have weighed in with regulatory controls and guidelines on shipping standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FIRST meeting of a European Union-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on Research (in Ljubljana, Slovenia) has confirmed that discussions are under way to forge joint EU-Russian research projects on nuclear fission topics. These initiatives would be co-funded by Moscow and Brussels and be subject for formal calls for proposals from interested parties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LAST May, a coordinated attack on essential computer networks in the tiny Baltic republic of Estonia set nerves upon edge amongst European Internet security specialists. Following the removal of a Russian war memorial from the centre of its capital Tallinn, a still unidentified group of computer users bombarded Estonian political, government, media and banking websites with so much data, they were forced offline.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH Dmitry Medvedev becoming Russia’s new president, the European Union (EU) has been pushing ahead to secure oil and gas supplies independent of Moscow. EU energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and external relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner met with Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey diplomats and officials to discuss gas pipeline links.…

BY MARK ROWE

NUCLEAR energy production costs a lot of money and so it makes some economic sense for smaller countries interested in this climate-change friendly power supply to combine forces on major projects. So it is in eastern Europe, where in February 2007, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland provisionally agreed to build a new nuclear plant at Lithuania’s existing Ignalina site, initially with 3,200 MWe.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE OST-group – one of Russia’s largest alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks firms – has announced plans to secure a portfolio investor during the initial public offering (IPO) of its business this year. Speaking to just-drinks.com, a spokeswoman for OST group, which has more than 30 companies, said that IPO "was still in the early stages", but added: "We think this is an important development for us and we are anticipating strong interest from portfolio investors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted regulatory merger approval to Renault’s securing a US$1 billion 25% stake in Russia’s AvtoVaz, which manufactures the country’s long-established Lada range. The French carmaker is to share know-how and technology with AvtoVaz to boost the appeal of its models and improve marketing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has struck two natural gas supply agreements with Iraq and Turkmenistan that will enable the EU to reduce its dependence on Russian exports. EU external relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov (NOTE – CORRECT NAME) have agreed that the EU will buy 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually from Turkmenistan.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus and Beirut, and HELENA FLUSFELDER, in Jerusalem

INTRODUCTION AND THE GULF

THE DENIM sector in the Middle East is as diverse as it is fragmented, with strong demand in the Gulf and Israel for major brand names and the latest trends, while in the less economically developed parts of the Levant international brands are of less importance than style.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has granted regulatory merger approval to Renault’s securing a US$1 billion 25% stake in Russia’s AvtoVaz, which manufactures the country’s long-established Lada range. The French carmaker is to share know-how and technology with AvtoVaz to boost the appeal of its models to European and Russian consumers and improve marketing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IMPROVED cooperation between fisheries authorities in the European Union (EU) and Russia is to be established, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Brussels and Moscow. The deal covers fishing grounds in the Baltic and the north Atlantic and involves better contacts between the European Commission and Russia’s state committee for fisheries.…