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The Regions This Week
May 3, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Eastern Europe
Russian gas giant Gazprom is preparing legal action against Danish regulators that delayed the issue of construction permits for pipeline Nord Stream 2. At the end of March, the Danish regulatory authority mentioned that it did not plan to examine the previous two Nord Stream 2 route applications until the company had considered an alternative route in the waters south of Bornholm.
One year after the Russian authorities decided to block it, the instant messenger Telegram contin- ues to be widely accessible from Russia, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN). Almost half of Telegram users in Russia do need to use VPNs to access the service, according to Telegram Analyt- ics; but the number of daily users of the service in Russia grew from 3.7mn in April 2018 to 4.4mn in February 2019, according to Mediascope data.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed “the ambassador of war” Mikhail Babich, Moscow's ambassador to Belarus by a special decree, less than a year after his appointment. Babich was also dismissed as Russia's special presidential envoy for development of trade and economic cooperation with Belarus.
Russian online retailers are lobbying for an amendment to the current import duties for foreign parcels from a differentiated duty scale depending on the value of the package to a flat fee of 15%-20%. The move would strengthen the positions of local online retailers amid foreign competition on a largely foreign-dominated e-commerce market, as it would significantly increase the duty for even small and cheap online purchases from abroad.
The external state debt of Belarus totalled $16.6bn as of April 1, down by $300mn or 1.7% from early January, according to data from the finance ministry in Minsk. Minsk borrowed $187mn abroad in the first quarter of 2019.
The capital metrics of Oriental Express Bank
(OEB aka Vostochniy) sharply deteriorated,
posting the worst capital adequacy ratios in all of Russia's banking system and dropping to be the second less profitable bank, Kommersant daily reported citing data from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) for March 2019.
Russia’s oil production fell to 11.23mn barrels per day (bpd) in April from 11.3mn bpd in March, but remained above levels targeted in a deal on output cuts by major producers, energy ministry data showed.
Ukraine's largest poultry producer MHP reached a final settlement price of €22.34 per share in a deal to acquire a 90.69% stake in Perutnina Ptuj, a poultry meat and a meat-processing company based in Slovenia. MHP also confirmed it is cur- rently in the final phase of the deal after complet- ing an audit of the company's 2018 financials.
The former co-owner of Ukraine's largest lender PrivatBank, controversial oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, filed five new lawsuits against
the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and nation- alised PrivatBank to the business court of Kyiv. The lawsuits dispute five loan agreements and Kolomoisky's personal guarantee under them.
Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom reported a two-fold net profit increase in 2018 to RUB1.46 trillion ($22.6bn) under IFRS, the company said. Revenues of Gazprom increased by 26% year-on- year to RUB8.22 trillion, due to higher sales of gas, refining products, and crude oil. Most recent- ly Gazprom recommended a record-high dividend in absolute value terms.
Kazakhstan’s state-run power operator Samruk- Energo and energy holding company Inter RAO reached an agreement on the sale of Russian Inter RAO’s 50% stake in Kazakhstan’s Ekibastuz GRES-2 power plant to Samruk, Kommersant reported, quoting managing director of Samruk- Energo Almasad Satkaliyev.