Search Results for: Russia

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
THE RUSSIAN Tax Ministry has recommended the reintroduction of licensing for cigarette and tobacco wholesalers, which was abolished last year. Officials say the move would reduce the market share of low-quality cigarettes. The ministry also wants to start charging excise tax on cigarettes and tobacco at a rate based on the product’s maximum retail price instead of on the wholesale price.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STORAGE of CO2 deep underground in uneconomic coal seams is one key option being considered by the (carbon) Sequestration Leadership Forum, which has just been joined by the European Commission. Other members are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Norway, China, Russia, Britain and the US.…

BY MARK ROWE
ISRAEL’S Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company is swapping Egyptian crude oil for Russian this month (June), the final stage of a plan to transport Russian and Caspian crude to Eilat, on the Red Sea, for easier sale into Asia. The company last month awarded a tender to swap Egyptian crude oil for Russia’s sour Urals crude.…

BY MARK ROWE
SALES of the Order of the Pheonix have proved swift at the Moskva chain’s flagship bookstore in Moscow. In Russia, a book that sells 50 copies in a month in a shop is considered to have a good run but the Phoenix, has already far outstripped that with sales topping “several hundred” according to staff at Moskva.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA is to resume imports of Brazilian boneless beef and pork. Russia, a major new market for Brazilian beef exporters, banned purchases from Brazil last December because of concerns over the disease bovine vesicular stomatitis. Brazil says the export herds have been free of the disease for at least one year.…

BY MARK ROWE
IN the days of the Soviet Union, many millions of men and women had a choice of one state-manufactured brand of shampoo, toothpaste or soap. If anything, the authorities managed to limit even further access to such “indulgences” as perfume.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIAN Aluminium has confirmed that it has been in discussion with officials in Sierra Leone about a possible takeover of a bauxite mine in the country.

Officials at Sierra Leone’s Mineral Resources Ministry said that RusAl had put together an investment project for a bauxite mine in southern Sierra Leone and that the plans formed part of a wider strategic co-operation between the government of Sierra Leone and RusAl.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PARLIAMENTARY Assembly of the Council of Europe is debating a plan to extend the European Convention on Human Rights with an additional protocol, guaranteeing European citizens decent environmental standards. If the proposal is carried forward, it would entail international lawyers drafting a clear definition of “a healthy environment” and the convention extension would “oblige states to protect individuals from environmental nuisances harmful or dangerous to health;” it is being promoted by the council’s committee on environment, agriculture and local and regional affairs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been authorised to negotiate a cooperation agreement with China on developing peaceful uses of nuclear energy. With the decision following Beijing’s move to become involved in the international fusion energy project ITER, one of the areas of joint-effort between the European Union (EU) and China will be “controlled thermonuclear fusion.”…