Search Results for: Russian

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE CLUTCH of much-maligned offshore financial centres (OFCs) on remote Pacific islands have been swamped by so many accusations of impropriety, they are now struggling to stay afloat.

Labelled as palm-fringed, sun-drenched laundries for the world’s dirty money, these tiny island states and dependent territories are trying to fend off attempts by international organisations to excommunicate them from the global financial church.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RUSSIA has unambiguously staked its claim to territorial rights to wide swathes of the Arctic Ocean between its northern coast and the North Pole, waters that are currently frozen for most of the year, but which may become more navigable thanks to global warming.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE RUSSIAN agriculture minister Alexei Gordeyev is flying to the United States later this month (May) to secure a formal end the poultry dispute between the two countries. Russia banned US chicken imports last year over health concerns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s funding institutions are increasingly financially assisting the former USSR’s oil industry. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending US$80 million loan to a key subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil group – CSJC Lukoil-Perm – to help it cut gas flaring to 20 per cent by 2005, compared with 52 per cent at typical Russian oilfields.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA has ordered its farmers to destroy almost 90,000 chicks it fears comes from the Netherlands because of the avian-flu outbreak in that country. The virus was founding in imported Dutch hatching eggs in two towns south of Moscow and the Russian agriculture ministry has asked European veterinary services to provide additional safety guarantees about egg and chick exports.…

KEITH NUTHALL
AN INITIATIVE to transform natural gas burnt off in Russia’s oil fields into electricity and consumable heat has been developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It is granting a six year US$80 million loan to a key subsidiary of Russia’s Lukoil group – CSJC Lukoil-Perm – to help it cut gas flaring to 20 per cent by 2005, compared with 52 per cent at typical Russian oilfields.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA and vodka are inseparable bedfellows but is there room for a ménage-a-trois? Its domestic market for beer is booming, while abroad both Russian immigrant communities and western European and north American drinkers are enjoying the novelty factor of a quality brew from the traditional home of vodka.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS AMERICAN and British military forces secure control of Iraq from the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein using the latest military technology, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a cautionary report confirming for the first time that depleted uranium shells can and have contaminated drinking water.…

BY MARK ROWE
MORE than 100 gold mining companies had their licences revoked in the far eastern Russian region of Magadan last year for violating procedures and legal guidelines on excavation. In addition, 69kg of illegally mined gold were confiscated during 2002 in the region, according to the Russian interior ministry.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERPOL has agreed to a request from Russian authorities to help locate the missing vodka magnate Yury Shefler, wanted by Russian prosecutors in connection with allegations of threatening to kill a government official.

A spokesman for the organisation’s Moscow bureau confirmed that Interpol offices across Western Europe were now liaising in the search for SPI Group owner Shefler.…