‘No mercy’ for killers of Russian journalist : Lavrov

Dhaka August 24 2022 :

Inside Russia : Outside Russia : News Digest by the Embassy of Russian Federation in Bangladesh on August 24 2022

INSIDE RUSSIA

Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan strike deal to ease trade

Moscow, Tehran and Baku have signed a memorandum on facilitating the transit of goods, the Russian trade mission in Iran announced in a statement published on its Telegram channel on Monday.

“A memorandum between Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan on the facilitation of transit transportation was signed in Tehran on August 22. This document should contribute to the simplification and acceleration of customs procedures for foreign trade participants,” the statement reads.

Currently, the main overland route for cargo transit from Iran to Russia passes through Azerbaijan. This is a part of the so-called International North-South Transport Corridor, a 7,200-kilometer-long multi-mode transit system that connects ship, rail, and road routes for moving cargo between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe.

Though the corridor existed back in Soviet times, developing it further has taken on newfound importance in light of the fact that Western sanctions have forced Russia to shift its trade routes from Europe to Asia and the Middle East.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in May that trade turnover between Iran and Russia soared by 81% last year, reaching almost $4 billion. In the first quarter of 2022, volumes continued to grow, jumping by more than 10% from the previous quarter.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section

Ministry drafts list of friendly foreign special economic zones for locating Russian businesses

MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) – Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry has drafted a list of special economic zones (SEZ) in friendly countries where Russian companies could potentially set up production amid sanctions and sent it to business associations.

The list, which the ministry sent to leading business associations in a letter at the end of July, includes SEZs in 14 countries, including Iran, China, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Uzbekistan.

The ministry decided to compile the list due to the sanctions imposed by “unfriendly” countries and difficulties with purchases of imported raw materials, components and equipment that are used by Russian manufacturers, the letter said.

The ministry confirmed to Interfax that it has compiled such a list. “As a result of the Industry and Trade Ministry’s work with Russian trade missions abroad, information has been compiled on special economic zones in friendly countries (95 potential sites). Information about the sites abroad has been conveyed to major Russian industrial companies and business associations,” the ministry said.

“Localization of production in the following areas is being considered: transport engineering, energy equipment, construction materials, chemical products and so on,” the ministry said.

Russia secures right to export some animal products to Morocco

MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) – Russia has secured the right to export certain animal products to Morocco.

Veterinary certificates have been agreed with Morocco’s food safety authority for Russian exports of pork casings and cattle, sheep and goat raw materials, edible fats and oils, as well as natural, unprocessed food products of plant origin intended for use in animal feed, Russian plant and animal health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said.

Businesses that plan to export these products must be inspected and included in the VetIS-Cerberus information system’s registry of exporters for Morocco.

Moscow blasts US reaction to murder of Russian journalist

The response to the killing of Darya Dugina shows Washington’s lack of credibility on human rights, Russia’s Foreign Ministry says

The US has no moral right to lecture any nation about human rights after downplaying the assassination of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said. Moscow has accused Kiev of masterminding the car bombing that resulted in her death.

The reaction of the US Department of State to the high-profile murder and the evidence that Russia released in the investigation discredits Washington’s claim that it is concerned about human rights, Zakharova said on Tuesday in a social media post.

“Washington has no moral right … to judge the state of human rights in faraway places if they don’t even comment on the murder of a journalist,” despite claiming to care about protecting the media, she said. “They simply did not take notice that she was a public figure.”

Dugina was killed by a bomb planted under the car of her father, controversial Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. She was a notable figure in her own right, working as a journalist and advocating for nationalist causes in Russia.

Russian investigators said they identified the killer as a Ukrainian woman, who allegedly cased out her target beforehand, going as far as renting an apartment in the same block where Dugina lived. Open-source data indicate that the suspect, Natalya Vovk, serves in the Ukrainian military. Moscow accused Kiev of ordering the assassination, which the Ukrainian government has denied.

Ned Price, the spokesman for the US Department of State, commented on the death of Dugina on Monday, stating that Washington “unequivocally [condemns] the targeting of civilians,” be they in Ukraine or Russia.

“I don’t have anything to share beyond what you have all heard publicly, and that is that Ukraine has denied any involvement,” he said. Price added that he has “no doubt that the Russians will put forward certain conclusions” after investigating the bombing.

‘No mercy’ for killers of Russian journalist – Lavrov

The Russian foreign minister warned that retribution will come for everyone implicated in the murder of Darya Dugina

Moscow will show no mercy towards those responsible for the death of Darya Dugina, Russian Foreign Minister Segey Lavrov has said. Investigators have accused Kiev of masterminding a plot to kill the journalist and political commentator in a car bombing.

“I consider it a barbaric crime for which no forgiveness can be granted,” Lavrov said on Wednesday, when asked about the murder, which took place on Saturday evening. 

The Russian investigation into the assassination will hopefully identify all the culprits soon, the minister added.

“Certainly, the organizers, the middlemen and the executors can get no mercy,” he said.

When asked whether the killing was “an act of terrorism or personalized retaliation,” Lavrov declined to offer a judgment. He made the comments during a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, in the Russian capital.

The FSB, Russia’s domestic security agency, identified a Ukrainian woman, Natalya Vovk, as the suspected assassin. She had entered Russia with her teenage daughter and rented an apartment in the same block where Dugina lived. She had allegedly been present at the same public event as the journalist, upon the conclusion of which the latter’s car was blown up, according to investigators. Vovk fled to Estonia before she could be apprehended, the FSB said.

There is an image of an ID bearing the suspect’s name circulating online indicating that she is a member of a Ukrainian National Guard unit known as the Azov Battalion, which has been widely reported as enlisting radical Ukrainian nationalists in its ranks.

Russia believes that Vovk acted on an order from the Ukrainian government. Kiev has denied any involvement in the bombing.

Dugina was the daughter of philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, a controversial thinker known for his advocacy of Russian exceptionalism. He is often described in the Western media as having behind-the-scenes influence on the Kremlin’s foreign policy. Darya, a public figure of some prominence in her own right, shared some of her father’s ideas about Russia’s place in the world.

The car targeted by the killer had belonged to Dugin, who was reportedly supposed to accompany his daughter but at the last moment ended up taking a different vehicle.

Russian Sputnik V vaccine tailored for Covid variants

The updated vaccine is “the most promising” version of Sputnik V yet, the developer says

The Moscow-based Gamaleya National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology has developed a version of the Sputnik V vaccine tailored for the Delta and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.

“The Delta and Omicron-adapted version of Sputnik V is the most promising version of the vaccine specifically adapted to new variants as compared to those tailored against the combination of the original strain and Omicron variant,” the Gamaleya Center and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which bankrolled the development of the vaccine, said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

After becoming the world’s first-registered Covid-19 vaccine in August 2020, the Sputnik V has been approved for use in around 70 countries.

According to a Russian study published in the peer-reviewed Vaccines journal in June, the existing version of Sputnik V is 97% effective against hospitalization with Omicron in patients vaccinated with three or four components (revaccination with Sputnik Light or Sputnik V after Sputnik V).

Russians increasingly disillusioned with Western values – poll

The number of Russians who believe Western values to be beneficial to the country has fallen drastically in the last 20 years, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) and published on Tuesday.

“The West is not only a culture, but a whole system of socio-political and economic patterns and models,” wrote the pollsters, noting that while Russian society largely looked to the West in the 1990s, it has since changed its attitude towards Western values.

Back in 2000, only 10% of respondents felt that Western democracy and civilization were “harmful for Russians,” according to the poll. Now, however, that number has risen to 26%.

Another 33% said that Western civilization and culture were “unsuitable for Russia,” up from 25% in 2000, while over half of those polled, or some 59%, said they didn’t see any benefits to the Western model.

It was also noted that in the past 22 years, the share of people in Russia who hold a positive view of Western values has declined from 55% to 30%.

“The Western world has ceased to suit Russians as a source of reference points and development vectors. This opinion divides society into two groups,” stated VCIOM.

The survey revealed that Western values are embraced the most by younger people aged 18 to 34, 55-50% of whom believe the West is necessary for Russia and has much good to offer. However, after the age of 35 people start to hold opposing views, which intensify among those over 60. Some 70% of respondents in this age group regard Western values as unsuitable or destructive.

Over a third of those polled also believe that Western culture has a significant influence on the tastes of Russians, with some 44% saying this influence is “somewhat negative” or “very negative.” The number of Russians who see the influence as positive dropped from 17% in 2000 to just 9% in 2022.

The poll revealed that Russians who watch TV are more likely to hold a negative view of the West (78%), while active internet users are almost evenly divided: 44% expressed a negative view, while 48% see the West in a more positive light.

The poll was conducted by phone on August 5 and surveyed over 1,600 people from different regions of Russia.

OUTSIDE RUSSIA

Russian diplomat accuses Ukraine’s envoy of undermining interethnic accord in Kazakhstan

MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan Pyotr Vrublevsky is openly engaged in undermining interethnic accord in his host country, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Tuesday.

“It is impossible to imagine how an ambassador – a person who is supposed to strengthen bilateral relations – is openly engaged in undermining interethnic harmony in the host country, calling for the destruction of citizens of this country on ethnic grounds,” the diplomat said in comments on public appeals from Vrublevsky to kill “as many Russians as possible.” Over three million ethnic Russians live in the country to which he is the ambassador, she emphasized.

“The telling silence on the part of Kiev about these calls is very revealing. It can’t be called anything other than an endorsement,” the diplomat stressed.

“Pyotr Vrublevsky’s statements once again prove the terrorist, anti-human nature of the Kiev regime, especially against the background of the recent murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina by Ukrainian special services,” the diplomat said.

Moscow expects Nur-Sultan to react to the Ukrainian ambassador’s public call to kill ‘as many Russians as possible’, the spokeswoman went on to say.

“We are sure that Nur-Sultan will react to these statements of the Ukrainian ambassador. We know that he has already been summoned to the republic’s Foreign Ministry. As far as we know, there are also petitions from the citizens of Kazakhstan that demand deportation of this ‘diplomat’ who violated not only elementary diplomatic rules and ethics, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, but also Article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which envisages up to seven years in prison for ‘inciting social, national, tribal, racial, class or religious hatred’,” the diplomat noted.

UN team to visit Zaporozhye nuclear plant ‘within days’ – IAEA chief

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday he intends to personally visit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine in the coming days as part of a fact-finding mission. Europe’s largest atomic power station, under Russian control since March, is at risk of radioactive release due to repeated Ukrainian artillery attacks.

Grossi told the BBC on Tuesday that he expects to personally lead the IAEA mission “within days, not weeks.” He would not say whether they would travel through territory controlled by Russia or by Ukraine, saying only that such matters need to be “set aside” given the urgency of the situation.

The IAEA wants to inspect the integrity of the Zaporozhye NPP, speak to both Russian and Ukrainian staff there, and establish a permanent presence on the ground, Grossi said.

Moscow has repeatedly called for an IAEA inspection since the Zaporozhye NPP came under attack in mid-July. The Russian Defense Ministry says Ukrainian artillery is shelling the plant, using guns and rocket launchers provided by NATO. Kiev has denied responsibility and accused Russia of shelling the nuclear site to discredit Ukraine.

Kiev has insisted that the IAEA team can only travel to the site through Ukraine. Russia’s permanent envoy to the organization, Mikhail Ulyanov, said last week that he could see an inspection happening “in early September,” provided there was no interference from “external factors that have nothing to do with the goals of the IAEA visit.”

Russia wanted an IAEA visit in June, Ulyanov said, but that proposal fell through and “in a sense, things have to be done from scratch now.”

The Zaporozhye plant is located in Energodar, a city in southern Ukraine under the control of Russian troops since March. The plant’s civilian staff continued operations unhindered until the artillery attacks began in July.

While the US and its allies have demanded that Russia hand the plant back to Ukraine, Kiev has floated the idea of a 30-kilometer demilitarized zone around it. Russia has rejected both demands as unacceptable, citing repeated “provocations” by Ukrainian forces.

China Concerned by Murder of Russian Political Scientist Dugina, Envoy to UN Says

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – China is concerned by the murder of Daria Dugina, daughter of Russian political analyst Alexander Dugin, Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun said on Monday.

“I have noted the media coverage, I’m really worried, much concerned about they happen to have such tragic events. But I will definitely continue to hope that through investigation we know what happened, definitely such attacks are in nobody’s interest at this critical moment,” Zhang told a UNSC meeting.

The car Dugina, 29, was driving caught fire on Mozhayskoye Highway in the Odintsovsky District on Saturday night. The Russian Investigative Committee established that an explosive device was planted under the bottom of the car.

On Monday, Russia’s Federal Security Service said that Ukraine’s special services were behind the deadly car accident. According to the FSB, Ukrainian citizen Natalya Vovk perpetrated the killing and then fled from Russia to Estonia.

UK PM hopeful ‘ready’ to use nukes

Liz Truss said she was prepared to unleash nuclear destruction during Conservative leadership debate

Liz Truss feels “ready” to launch Trident nuclear weapons, the frontrunner for Conservative leadership declared at Tuesday’s hustings in Birmingham, confirming that making such a decision was an “important duty of the prime minister.”

The foreign secretary did not elaborate on which country the UK might be persuaded to use nuclear weapons against. She has delivered plenty of hawkish rhetoric along the campaign trail, primarily targeting Russia, and is an avid booster of the Ukrainian cause.

Both candidates have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the dismal state of the British economy, plagued by high inflation, high gas prices and an increasingly unaffordable cost of living, widely seen as resulting from unilateral restrictions imposed by London and its allies.

Truss and Sunak have also taken issue with Putin’s planned attendance at the upcoming G20 summit in Indonesia, though Sunak wants to see him barred entirely and Truss said she would prefer to personally confront him at the event.

As of Tuesday, Truss is 26 points ahead her rival and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, according to Politico. Whoever wins will replace Boris Johnson as the British prime minister.

While Sunak was among the first to quit his post in Johnson’s cabinet, Truss was among the handful of high-ranking officials who refused to do so despite the mounting scandals, citing loyalty as her reason.

Russia comments on Israel’s attacks on Syria

Moscow demands that West Jerusalem respect the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity

Moscow has demanded that the Israeli government immediately cease attacks on the Syrian Arab Republic and respect the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference with his Syrian counterpart on Tuesday, Lavrov said Moscow “strongly condemns” Israel’s “dangerous practice of carrying out strikes on Syrian territory.”

Moscow’s top diplomat cited the “disturbing” episodes of an attack on Damascus International Airport back in June and the more recent attacks on the Damascus and Tartus regions.

“We demand that Israel respect the resolution of the United Nations Security Council, and, above all, respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic,” Lavrov said following bilateral talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Moscow.

The statement comes after Israel’s top general revealed last week that a “third country” was targeted during a recent military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Palestinian militants.

Although the general did not specifically name Syria as the “third country,” his announcement came just a few days after the Syrian authorities reported three soldiers dead following an Israeli air attack on the suburbs of Damascus.

Despite launching hundreds of attacks on Syrian territory over the years, Israel has generally avoided publicly acknowledging its actions. When it does admit to the strikes, however, it explains them as self-defense against Iranian proxies.

SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE

Russian troops make signficant advance in Ukraine – Moscow

The military has reported that it took 12 square kilometers in the southern Nikolaev Region

Russian troops have made advances into Ukraine’s Nikolaev Region, a strategically important area in the south of the country, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Tuesday.

According to the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, Russian and allied forces have destroyed Ukrainian military units defending the town of Aleksandrovka and managed to reach the administrative border of Nikolaev Region.

The town is in Ukraine’s Kherson Region, which has mostly been under Russian control for months. It lies on the coast of the Dnieper-Bug estuary, through which the waters of both rivers flow into the Black Sea.

The Bug River comes from the north, where the city of Nikolaev, the capital of the eponymous region, an important industrial and port city, and major stronghold of the Ukrainian military, is located.

Konashenkov also said that elsewhere in southern Ukraine, Russian troops have advanced into Nikolaev Region and have taken control of 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles). He identified the location of the advancement as near the village of Komsomolskoye.

Russian forces were already in control of a small southeastern portion of Nikolaev Region, which borders Kherson Region.

Earlier in August, Nikolaev’s regional authorities announced a major crackdown on suspected Russian sympathizers in the provincial capital. The city was placed on a two-day lockdown while law enforcement screened for potential “collaborators” reporting intelligence matters to Russia.

Vitaly Kim, the head of the administration, said he did not trust anyone in the city to be loyal to Kiev and hinted that he could order a Bolshevik-style purge of “traitors.”

Medvedev says Russia’s special operation shot down Ukraine’s NATO aspirations

MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. Ukraine’s chances of joining NATO are equal to zero thanks to Russia’s special military operation, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.

“It’s clear to everyone that no neighbors will ever be able to give them any guarantees, however fiercely they may hate Russia. And now nobody will agree to Ukraine’s admission to NATO. Although there are some Russophobes in the alliance, they are not suicidal. This is a direct result of the special military operation,” Medvedev wrote.

The regime in Kiev “continues to invent some kind of ‘security guarantees’ for itself it would like to enjoy in the future.”

“From time to time they hold meetings with individual insignificant neighbors, chaired by long-forgotten retirees, or recall NATO again,” he noted. That being said, Medvedev is certain that “only an agreement with Russia could provide security guarantees.”

“But the Ukrainian authorities, stimulated by Western money and missiles, rejected it.” As a result, the prospects of guarantees for Ukraine are “very bleak.”

“The regime in Kiev understands that for it (the current leaders of Ukraine) that there are no guarantees of security at all and there cannot be any. Even the United States will not offer guarantees of a bright future to [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky. It makes no sense,” Medvedev stressed.

He believes that for now the situation in Ukraine plays into the Biden administration’s hands, but “it will end soon.” The next team that will take over in Washington “will not hesitate to dump the corrupt Ukrainian scheme along with its stooges,” Medvedev concluded.

Evidence of Ukrainian shelling of Zaporozhye provided to UN

The Russian envoy briefed the Security Council on recent attacks on the nuclear plant and submitted photos

Russia has submitted photographic evidence of Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant to the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Tuesday. He also briefed the Security Council on the most recent attacks, some of which involved NATO-supplied weapons, and insisted that Russia does not use the site as a military base.

“Despite the false statements of the Kiev regime and its backers, Russia has not placed heavy weapons on the territory of the ZNPP and does not use the station for military purposes,” Nebenzia said during the council’s emergency session on Tuesday afternoon.

“The Russian Ministry of Defense is ready to provide the IAEA with high-resolution images, which show that weapons, especially heavy ones, are not placed on the territory of the station,” he added.

In addition to the photographic evidence of Ukrainian shelling of the plant, Nebenzia entered into the record a timeline of strikes, named the Ukrainian artillery unit involved, and specified which strikes featured M777 howitzers given to Ukraine by the Pentagon.

“It seems that our colleagues exist in some kind of their own parallel reality, in which the Russian military shells the NPP it is protecting, using American systems at that,” Nebenzia said.

Contrary to insinuations by Kiev and its Western backers, Nebenzia noted, Moscow had given assent to the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit the Zaporozhye NPP back in June, before the Ukrainian drone, artillery and rocket attacks began.

Nebenzia blamed the US and its allies for tolerating “criminal” behavior by Ukraine – from the shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP to the car bomb that killed Russian journalist Darya Dugina in Moscow over the weekend, and was cheered by some NATO officials he mentioned by name.

The Zaporozhye plant is located in Energodar, a city in southern Ukraine under the control of Russian troops since March. The plant’s civilian staff continued operations unhindered until the artillery attacks began in July. Kiev has denied responsibility for the attacks and accused Russia of shelling the nuclear site to discredit Ukraine, but also of placing troops and heavy weapons inside the NPP’s perimeter and thus making it a legitimate target.

The US and its allies used the meeting to demand Russia withdraw from the plant, accuse Moscow of a plot to “steal Ukrainian electricity,” and demand the immediate end of all military operations in ukraine.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday he will personally head the mission to the ZNPP in the coming days, and that the UN nuclear watchdog intends to establish a permanent presence on site.

INSIGHTS

Africa could become a significant buyer of Russian agricultural products

MOSCOW. Aug 22 (Interfax) – Africa could become a significant buyer of Russian agricultural goods, experts at the Agriculture Ministry’s Agroexport center said in a statement.

Last year, Africa accounted for 12% of Russia’s agricultural exports, the center said. This includes deliveries of 11.9 million tonnes of wheat worth $3.3 billion, 244,000 tonnes of sunflower oil worth $318 million, 223,000 tonnes of soybean oil worth $260 million, and 944,000 tonnes of barley worth $231 million.

From 2017 to 2021, exports of meat products grew 13-fold in volume terms (to 25,000 tonnes) and 19-fold in value terms (to $38 million).

“At the moment, the main focus of Russian exporting companies s is to ensure sustainable growing supply volumes to North African countries. At the same time, there are nations in East, West, South and Central Africa which are currently underdeveloped as trade destinations, but are extremely interesting in terms of their potential,” Nikolay Lantsev, director of the advisory services practice of Trust Technologies, was quoted as saying in the statement.

In order to expand the presence of Russian products, Agroexport, together with Trust Technologies and the industry and expert community drew up a concept for the development of exports of principal agricultural products (grain, dairy, butter, meat and confectionery products) to promising markets of African countries. The goal of the project is to prepare a practice-oriented model for increasing supplies and enhancing the competitiveness of Russian agricultural goods.

Nine nations – Tunisia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana were chosen as target markets in the concept. These countries account for 40% of the continent’s population and one third of all African imports of agricultural products. According to ITC Trade Map, the total volume of imports of agricultural products in these countries in 2021 amounted to almost $33 billion.

Russian grain is competitive in the markets of target African countries and is already in demand. At the same time, grain crops have a high potential due to the expected increase in their purchases. Due to a growing population and limited opportunities to increase domestic production, grain imports are expected to grow by 8 million tonnes from 2021 to 2030. In Nigeria and Kenya alone, the baking market has grown at an average annual rate of 38% over the past 5 years.

Another strategic area is deepening of cooperation in trading of oil products, primarily vegetable oils. Since 2016, oil imports in the target countries have grown twice as fast as agricultural imports overall, and by 2025, oil sales to the target countries will grow another 67%.

The African countries that are being studied together import more than 1.3 million tonnes of meat products a year. The leaders by volume of imports are South Africa, Ghana and Angola. “Analysts estimate that consumption of meat products is expected to increase in many countries of the African continent. And while poultry meat will account for the bulk of growth as the most affordable and technologically advanced, organic growth will also be seen in all other types of meat,” Konstantin Korneev, executive director of Rincon Management, saw cited as saying in the report.

According to estimates, the potential supply of meat products from Russia to priority African countries by 2030 could reach 148,000 tonnes.

There is also potential for boosting the supply of Russian dairy products. The first dairy product for which stable supplies from Russia have been established was ice cream. However, significant opportunities are opening up for shipments of milk powder, whey, cheese and butter, experts said.

According to forecasts, the milk deficit in Africa in 2025 will increase to 12.9 million tonnes (in milk equivalent) from 8.9 million tonnes in 2019. In 2030, it will reach 17 million tonnes. Africa currently imports $4.8 billion worth of dairy products, with the target countries among the top 20 importers.

As for the supply of finished food products, experts believe that for a long-term presence in Africa, the optimal scenario is to localize production to meet market needs. South Africa, Ghana and Kenya are identified as priority countries for this scenario. The volume of consumption of finished food products in the target countries exceeds $29 billion a year.

“The African continent is an interesting and promising area for the development of Russian food exports. However, when working in this market, it is important to take into account a number of factors: strong differences in the level of welfare of the population, political instability in some countries, state regulation of prices for a number of goods, etc. The materials of the concept can help Russian business determine priority countries for organization of supplies and choose the focus range taking into account market peculiarities,” Agroexport head Dmitry Krasnov was quoted as saying in the statement.

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