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repeatedly used the investment in Zvezda as an excuse to keep accumulating funds in quasi-state holding Rosneftegaz and dodge the government's demands for dividend payments. After sending the first container ship Venta Maersk loaded with 3,600 containers through the Northern Sea Route , Maersk representatives told the Financial Times that "we do not see the Northern Sea Route as a commercial alternative to our existing routes," noting that Venta Maersk shipment was a test one. The main problem of the Northern Sea Route, which became possible due to thinning of ice, is that only narrow container ships with limited capacity accompanied by atomic icebreakers can pass, while the standard ships circulating between Asia and Europe fit about 20,000 containers. The route does not pass many markets, allowing little uploading diversification, and is not available all year long. Nevertheless, the route is well suited for tanker transportation of oil and gas, with most of the total turnover so far accounting for oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments of Novatek Russian gas producer. In 2017, the cargo flow via the Northern Sea Route amounted to 10.7mn tonnes, and its capacity is planned to be expanded to 40mn tonnes by 2020 due to the projects that developed in the ports of Sabetta and Murmansk.
9.1.13 Other sector news
The share of "black" medical services, or services that have not been officially paid for and received through bribing doctors and healthcare providers, increased by 6.6% in Russia in 2017, reaching RUB179bn ($2.7bn) or 7.7% share of total medical services market, Vedomosti d aily said on October 15 citing the data of BusinesStat analysts. The authors of the survey note that bribery is rampant in state-run hospitals and clinics, while professional management and staff motivation schemes make the share of "black" payments considerably smaller in private healthcare sector. Another important finding is that improvements in the way the Obligatory Medical Insurance (OMS) and the Complementary Medical Insurance (DMS) work have cut the likelihood of bribery by undermining its main motivations: to speed up treatment delivery or improve the quality of medical services. In private clinics, mostly uninsured patients are more likely to bribe the doctors rather then pay more officially. The survey authors believe that the total volume of bribes in the sector will continue to rise, but its share in the total market will decline. Russian patients are expected to bribe more, but less frequently for more complicated medical procedures, as the development of the healthcare sector will eliminate the need to resort to bribing in most cases. The analysts of Renaissance Capital also believe that in 2018 the volume of the black medical services market will shrink to RUB171bn and further to RUB158bn by 2021.
The Russian government may establish a single supplier of imported medicine and pharmaceutical products , Vedomosti d aily reported on October 15 citing internal memos between presidential aide Andrei Belousov and the Ministry of Healthcare. The Russian constitution guarantees citizens free medical services and the state procurement of medicine is a huge business. In 2017 in Russia RUB344bn ($5.3bn) of foreign medicine was imported, up by 6% year-on-year. Three largest suppliers were R-Farm (RUB30bn), Pharmstandard (RUB28.4bn), and Biokad (RUB17.1bn). Soon a single state player could be importing medicines that have no Russian analogues worth up to RUB200bn ($3bn) and profit from the economies of scale and cutting out private middlemen. The discussion was also confirmed by an unnamed top manager of large domestic pharmaceutical producer.
99 RUSSIA Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com