Page 75 - RusRPTJune18

legal expert of Skolkovo Innovation Centre Anton Pushkov. According to Pushkov, the crypto deals would be completed only with the use of digital wallets opened by digital financial assets exchange operators. He added that accumulation of crypto assets through Internet placement would be possible with the use of nominal accounts of these operators, who in turn would be regulated by the Central Bank of Russia. In the end of 2017 German Gref, the head of largest state bank with ambitious digitally-driven strategy Sberbank, argued that the introduction of blockchain technology in Russia will take between eight and ten years . "Maybe, in 2018 we will be able to introduce some products on a large scale," he went on to say. "I estimate the implementation horizon of the technology in 8-10 years." Currently Russian legislation does not allow the trading of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are quickly developing in Russia and the regulation of the crowdfunding and the ICO market has been on agenda since the end of 2017. The government and the Central Bank of Russia had a July 1 deadline set by President Vladimir Putin to legally define the status of the cryptocurrencies, blockchain registries, and ICOs.
9.1.10 Utilities sector news
Russia’s electric power consumption rose 0.7% on the year to 86.4bn kilowatt-hours (kWh) in April , dispatching company System Operator said in a statement on Friday. In January–April, Russia’s power consumption increased 2% to 382.7bn kWh. In the Unified Energy System, which comprises 70 regional power systems, including power systems of Russia’s East, Siberia, Urals, Volga River, South, Central, and Northeast regions, power consumption grew 0.6% to 84.7bn kWh in April and 1.9% to 375bn kWh in January–April. Power production increased 0.4% on the year to 87bn kWh in the month and rose 1.7% on the year to 385.8bn kWh in the period.
9.1.11 Metallurgy & mining sector news
Russia's largest gold miners plan to seriously increase their output,
possibly pushing Russia from third- to second-largest global gold miner, Vedomosti daily said on May 30 citing estimates of Aton Equity and the Institute of Geotechnology. In 2017 Russia mined 8.8mn ounces of gold or 8.3% of global output, behind Australia and China. But commissioning new mines by 2025 the output could be boosted 1.5-fold by 4.94mn ounces and by 7.76mn ounces by 2030. This would help Russia beat China that is seeing a declining trend in gold output, down by 7.4% in 2017 to 13.8mn ounces. Already in 2018 Russia's largest producers plan to notably boost output, with Polyus Gold's target up by 11.6% and Polymetal planning 8.4% increase. Smaller player GV Gold plans to hike output by 29%, and Highland Gold the only one seeing flat output growth. The trend is expected to continue in 2019, with Russian and Chinese central bank securing solid demand by wiping all the excess gold supply off the market, Aton analyst Andrei Lobazov argues. Both Polyus and Polymetal confirmed that their main clients are commercial banks. Prices for gold in 2018 are expected to rise by 11.5% to $1,450 per ounce, according to the estimates by Metal Focus, supported by forex fluctuations, equity markets' volatility and general gloomy global economic outlook. However, gold price is historically hard to predict and is impacted by a wide number of factors, Lobazov noted.
75 RUSSIA Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com