Search Results for: Russia

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA’S Norilsk Nickel has announced long-terms plans to boost its modernisation plan begun last year across its plants and products. Norilsk spent US$351 million on modernisation in 2002 and plans to invest the same amount in 2003, the company said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BOARD of Russia’s Gazprom has approved the creation of an offshoot company that will participate in an US$18 billion West-East multinational joint venture helping to build a 4,000 kilometre trunk-line to pump gas across China, from west to east.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA has called on the European Union to adopt a single veterinary certificate to accompany exports from any country in the block. Such a procedure would replace the current system of different certificates issued by separate countries. The demand reflects Russia’s increasing concern about guarantees on the safety of imported livestock and animal products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE REFORM of the world’s anti-money laundering campaign is continuing apace. Defying critics of its alliance with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Action Task Force of the OECD has issued a revised set of its key 40 Recommendations to fight the crime.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE RUSSIAN government has threatened barring Turkish construction companies from operating in Russia unless Ankara reverses its refusal to buy gas via Gazprom’s US$3 billion Blue Stream pipeline. Ankara cut imports of Russian gas through the pipeline in a payment dispute.…

Keith Nuthall
FRANCE is giving Euro 40 million to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to help it fund Russia’s cleansing of the radioactive contamination in the Barents Sea caused by its aging decommissioned nuclear fleet. The money will be channelled through the nuclear-related budgets of the EBRD-managed Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) Support Fund, the principal financing arm of European Union policies aimed at cleaning up pollution in its neighbours to the north.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RUSSIAN poultry outfit Stavropolsky Broiler has been lent US$15 million by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. The money will help the Agros subsidiary rehabilitate and expand commercial broiler production in the Stavropol region of Russia, improving bird breeding, strengthening management, increasing production, providing working capital, and expanding distribution networks.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE LONG-RUNNING row between Russia and the United States has taken another twist with Moscow reducing the number of its approved American suppliers from 341 to 266. The Russian government cited concerns about health standards in the US poultry industry, the reason for an earlier blanket ban, which was lifted recently.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA’S Natural Resources Ministry has ordered the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, the world’s largest chewing gum producer, to stop work at its St. Petersburg factory for unspecified ecological violations. Ministry officials have not disclosed what regulations Wrigley has allegedly violated but the company vigorously denies any wrongdoing and is continuing to operate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ROYAL Dutch/Shell Group has said its US$1.16 billion joint venture with Sibir Energy to tap west Siberian oil fields was told by Russia to halt work because of alleged breaches of licence conditions and Russian objections to changes in the companies’ development plans.…