Russia 090310 Basic Political Developments Russia, Hungary pms to discuss energy coop'n, gas issues

Bunge buys Russian wheat for Brazil, May delivery

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0946163520090309
Mon Mar 9, 2009 1:47pm EDT

SAO PAULO, March 9 (Reuters) - Bunge bought 25,000 tonnes of Russian hard wheat for delivery to Brazil's northeast in May, trade sources said on Monday.

The Russian wheat was priced at a $60-per-tonne discount on a cost-and-freight basis to U.S. hard wheat, the sources said. Freight costs for shipment from the Black Sea are estimated at around $24 a tonne.

A Bunge spokesman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Reese Ewing in Sao Paulo and Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by David Gregorio)
Russian Drugmakers More Likely to Merge, Goldman Sachs Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ahYyhBvjv84s

By Stephen Kirkland

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Mergers and acquisitions look “increasingly likely” in the Russian pharmaceutical market, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc., citing the industry’s profitability and fragmentation.

“We highlight Veropharm as a potential M&A target,” analysts including Anton Farlenkov in wrote in a report today.

The brokerage, which has a “buy” recommendation on Veropharm, cut its price estimate for the shares to $30.30 from $51. OAO Pharmstandard, Russia’s biggest drugmaker, had its price estimate lowered to $13.70 from $21.60 at Goldman Sachs, which also rates the stock a “buy.”

Editor: Roger Neill

Last Updated: March 10, 2009 03:22 EDT
Studio Borrowing to Expand

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1009/42/375165.htm

Russian World Studios, billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov's film production company, wants to borrow about $150 million to expand its St. Petersburg movie studio.

The production unit of Yevtushenkov's Sistema is in talks with Russian banks about "long-term" loans, Andrei Smirnov, chief executive officer of Sistema Mass Media, said in an interview in Moscow on March 4. Russian World Studios produces "Ambulance," a popular soap opera about ambulance employees, and worked on Woody Allen's "Match Point."

Box office revenue in Russia and the former Soviet states excluding Ukraine climbed 47 percent to $830 million in the year through November, according to the Russian Film Business publication.(Bloomberg)

Komi oil spill

http://www.barentsobserver.com/komi-oil-spill.4565080-16176.html
2009-03-09

2,000 cubic meters of oil might have leaked out from a pipeline owned by Lukoil-Komi.

The leakage at the Kyrtayel-Chikshinio pipeline in Russia’s northern Republic of Komi occurred on February 22th. When investigators from the prosecutors’ office in Komi travelled to the place the day after they found oil leaks in confined trench-like areas dug out along the pipeline in eight spots, reports Interfax.

If all this data is confirmed, the accident can be called an ecological disaster," the source in the Pechora inter-regional environmental prosecutor's office told Interfax.

Russia to establish natural park in Baltic borderlands

http://www.barentsobserver.com/russia-to-establish-natural-park-in-baltic-borderlands.4564994-16176.html
2009-03-09

Russian Minister of Natural Resources Yury Trutnev in last week’s meeting in the Baltic Marine Environmental Commission confirmed that a new national park is to be established along the border to Finland.

The Ingrian Natural Park will include almost 18,000 hectares of land covering nine islands or island groups at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, Rosbalt.ru reports. The park will be established by the end of 2009, Mr. Trutnev told the members of the Baltic Marine Environmental Commission (HELCOM) in a meeting in Helsinki last week. He added that the park will be established together with funding agencies from the neighboring countries.

-The Russian decision to set up the nature park is a very important one, Ilkka Heikkinen from the Finnish Ministry of the Environment says to Helsingin Sanomat.

Cooperation in nature conservation between Russia and Finland is moving forward in other ways as well. Heikkinen says that preparations for a letter of intent for a green zone of Fennoscandia have proceeded in a positive spirit and that this will be a string of pearls of conservation areas extending from the Barents Sea to the Gulf of Finland, the newspaper writes.

Read more about the meeting in HELCOM on the organisation website

Eco-groups call for hunt on high profile poachers

http://www.russiatoday.ru/Top_News/2009-03-10/Eco-groups_call_for_hunt_on_high_profile_poachers.html/print

10 March, 2009, 09:55

Wild life activists in Russia are calling on the government to punish officials who they claim were poaching rare animals in Siberia. The practice only came to light after a helicopter carrying the hunters crashed.

Argali, a rare species of mountain sheep, are close to extinction in Russia, and hunting them is illegal. It was only when a helicopter-load of men chasing a flock of these sheep crashed, killing seven people, that the story made the headlines.

Irrespective of the hunt, what made the story even more scandalous was the fact that the rifles were not fired by ordinary poachers. On board the helicopter were officials from the Russian Republic of Altay in Siberia, where the hunt took place.

Among them were the deputy Prime Minister of the Republic, who survived the crash, and a representative of the Russian President, who did not.

Official comments have been scarce. The deputy PM, named Anatoly Bannyh, has supposedly resigned – but no criminal investigation has formally been launched.

Organizations such as Greenpeace and the WWF worry that the high profile status of the hunters will shut this case down altogether.

”We got together with the WWF and filed a report with the General Prosecution, but almost one month on, there has been no reply. This has happened in Russia many times, but never has there been an official investigation, never has a VIP been publicly reprimanded for his actions,” said Greenpeace activist Mikhail Kreindlin.

Various eco-groups have held protests, demanding action be taken against the surviving hunters. Their cry to separate the black sheep from the flock has so far gone unheard, but they're not giving up hope:

"The media has really picked up on this story and it helps. These are beautiful, rare animals that are deeply respected by the locals. Nothing could make them take a shot at the argali – they are almost sacred," Kreindlin said.

Following the helicopter crash, the ensuing media scrutiny has uncovered many similar crimes.

Game warden Sergey Matveev tried to stop a high-ranking official from hunting deer out of season. Matveev said:

"When I drove up, and saw several deer and hares lying dead in the snow, I asked to see their documents. They told me, in no uncertain terms, what would happen to me if I didn’t let them go or made a fuss about it."

Hunting has always been a status symbol in Russia, but while there are millions of officials in Russia, there are only about 30,000 of argali left in the country. The hunters on the chopper had reportedly shot 28 of them.

The scandal generated by the crash may indeed prove to be the saviour of the beautiful animals.