Russia Letter 鈥� Moscow 鈥� week beginning April 25
- Oil prices
The echoes of the failed agreement in Doha last week, on freezing oil production levels, has resumed in Russian markets this week.
Most experts believed that the failure of a production level agreement would cause a drop in oil prices once again. Consequently, the Russian ruble once again climbed up 70 levels against the dollar.
However fears of a price plummet did not materialize and oil prices remained around the same levels as previous, while the ruble closed last week at the level of 66 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia was not planning a meeting with OPEC countries before the June meeting, which will take place in Vienna.
鈥淲e do not think there will be an agreement. There are huge differences of opinions among OPEC members,鈥� the Russian minister said.
- Shrinkage of oil giant Rosneft
Russia鈥檚 largest oil company Rosneft announced that it would downsize its HQ in Moscow by 20 percent, due to unstable market conditions.
The Russian government plans to privatize 19.5 percent of the company by the end of this year. The Russian government currently owns 69.5 percent of Rosneft, which became the most valuable Russian company two weeks ago, in terms of market capitalization, surpassing Gazprom.
- Turkish officials in Moscow
Russian and Turkish officials will attend an important meeting on Tuesday to discuss Turkey鈥檚 vegetable and fruit exports to Russia.
A team of officials from Turkey鈥檚 Ministry of Agriculture will meet with the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia, to discuss technical aspects of the vegetable and fruit trade.
Russia claims that Turkish products have high levels of pesticides and other harmful substances and says it will stop the import of such products if the required standards are not met by Turkey.聽