Top stories from the Russian press on Thursday, August 12th, prepared by TASS

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Meeting of Putin, Sandu to decide fate of Transnistria

Moldovan President Maia Sandu has kept her word - after forming a government she began talks about meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. To enable this, Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Staff Dmitry Kozak was invited to Chisinau on Wednesday. Former Moldavian Ambassador to Russia Anatol Taranu told the newspaper that an agenda for a meeting of the two presidents was discussed at Sandu’s initiative and, according to him, the meeting will happen and will focus on the issues of Transnistria and the presence of Russian troops on its territory.

The Moldovan authorities, formed by President Maia Sandu, said the priority is to ensure a rewarding, constructive and conflict-free international and regional climate as its priority in order to conduct successful reforms, fight corruption, restore the economy and the social sphere which means developing links with all countries of interest to Moldova. According to Taranu, who heads the Chisinau-based Politicon Center for Strategic Studies and Political Consulting, Russia is within the sphere of Moldovan interests.

"Moldova is a country with a Russian-speaking population, its citizens watch Russian media outlets, use the Russian-language Internet and work in Russia. Additionally, Moldova’s eastern region is the Russian-speaking Transnistria over which Russia has influence. Sandu promised to resolve the Transnistrian issue immediately after the new government begins working in the republic. The cabinet of ministers has been formed already and Sandu invited Dmitry Kozak to Chisinau with whom she discussed Transnistrian prospects on Wednesday which the Moldovan president hopes to discuss with Putin soon," Taranu said.

Sandu already talked about the necessity of withdrawing Russian troops from Transnistria and was criticized by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for this. Yet, according to the expert, everything depends on the meeting of the presidents. "It is not excluded that they may reach an agreement on Transnistria," the expert suggested.

He noted that "Moldovan-Russian relations are an important element of the Moldovan president’s agenda and that’s why she is not making political moves or statements that may lead to a situation of conflict." "Moldova and Russia have many differences in approaches to various issues, sometimes opposing views on a situation. Despite that, Sandu is intent on developing relations with Moscow. Kozak was finding out what she can offer Putin," the expert asserted. He reported that Moldova’s Foreign Ministry is currently selecting a new ambassador to Moscow. "This will be a supporter of Sandu’s who will implement her agenda in Russia."

The official information on the meeting of Kozak and Sandu was brief - it was reported that they discussed the issues of the Moldovan-Russian bilateral agenda. Dmitry Kozak became the first foreign high-ranking official to visit Chisinau after the parliament approved the new government on August 6.

Izvestia: Black Sea oil spill

Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko instructed the heads of Russia’s environmental and natural resource watchdogs to conduct an inspection of the operators of Russian sea ports performing oil shipments following an oil spill in the Black Sea near Novorossiysk.

The incident occurred on August 7 six kilometers off the coast during the loading of a Greek tanker from the CPC terminal. According to the Space Research Institute and the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the polluted area amounts to 80 square kilometers. WWF-Russia said that the oil slick was 94 square kilometers. The incident is under the control of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.

According to the CPC, the incident was caused by damage to the inner cavity of a hydraulic damper. CPC representatives insist that just 12 tonnes of oil products were spilled while the size of the oil slick is 200 square meters. This data contradicts the data obtained from the satellites of the Space Research Institute and the Institute of Oceanology as well as from other sources. Specialists reported that the area of the oil slick is 400,000 times larger and amounts to 80 square kilometers.

"As soon as we received a message from the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage about this accident we engaged our system of social monitoring and as early as that evening were able to determine the polluted area via a radar image," head of the program for the Business Environmental Responsibility at WWF-Russia Alexey Knizhnikov said. "At the time it amounted to approximately a quarter of a square kilometer, while exactly 24 hours later at a different satellite image we saw a colossal increase in the area of polluted water surface of 94 square kilometers."

According to him, "the spill is serious" because it occurred not far from the shore. He suggested that the surface pollution would be removed in several days while it may take weeks and months to deal with the coastal pollution.

According to media outlets, the inspectors of Russia’s sanitary watchdog studied the sea water samples in Novorossiysk recreational areas and did not detect violations of the maximum allowable concentrations of oil products there.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Sputnik V may become key export article

The Sputnik V vaccine which was certified in Russia on August 11, 2020, over the past year has fully proved its quality and safety and was approved in 69 countries. In Russia, 40 mln doses of the shot have been introduced into circulation and, according to experts, exports of the medication may bring Russia $15 bln this year and twice is much in the next one.

Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology that developed the jab, noted that the vaccine has proven its high efficacy and safety with this data confirmed by foreign studies in Argentina, the UAE, Hungary and San Marino. No delayed adverse effects were recorded in relation to the vaccine, including blood clots and myocarditis. Over the year certain restrictions were lifted - the shot is now indicated for cancer patients, pregnant women and people over 60. Soon it will become available to teenagers and children. However, the approval procedure is still underway at the WHO and the EU.

Yesterday, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko also reiterated the advantages of the vaccine, noting that it shows the most effective results on preventing the Delta strain which is dominating today in Russia and in many countries. Its efficacy against Delta amounts to about 83%, while it protects against a severe course of COVID-19 by more than 95%. "The vaccine remains effective and continues to work," the minister stressed.

Over the past year, it also became clear that Sputnik V may become one of Russia’s most successful exports.

The economic success of Sputnik V was evaluated by the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. "In the first five months of 2021, Russia delivered abroad 31.8-fold more vaccines than last year (in 2020, the value was only $9.5 mln). All vaccines were counted in export deliveries, without separating [those against] COVID-19. So it is noted that the main share in the export belongs to the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus developed by the Gamaleya Center. Because of the vaccine, there was such a sharp growth - almost 32-fold," Anna Tsvetkova, professor of the marketing department of the Plekhanov University said, evaluating Sputnik V’s export potential.

While Sputnik V has an excellent export potential, right now the priority is being given to domestic mass inoculation.

Now the vaccine is approved in 69 countries, and its production was launched in more than 10 countries, according to Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev. Next year, over 1.1 bln doses of the Sputnik V vaccine will be produced abroad for 550 mln people (two injections per person). At the same time, Russia concluded agreements with other countries on exporting over 205 mln doses of Sputnik V by May 2021. Only 16,300,300 doses have been exported so far since the priority was given to domestic distribution. The majority of foreign deliveries were to Argentina, Mexico and Hungary.

Foreign production of Sputnik V will grow: the RDIF concluded a contract with China’s Hualan Biological Bacterin for 100 mln doses and Egypt’s Minapharm for 40 mln doses. Currently, there are contracts for the production of 1.24 bln doses for 620 mln people. India will become the largest production site for Sputnik V. It is expected that in 2022 more than 60% of its production outside Russia will be in that country.

"According to specialists, in 2021 Russia may earn $10-15 bln from sales of the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus. And in two years of the deliveries of the preparation abroad the country may earn, according to the experts, up to $30 bln. Such values are comparable to the key items of Russian export. It is not excluded that in the next several years vaccine sales may become one of the major directions of Russia’s non-resource-based supplies to other countries," Tsvetkova concluded.

At the same time, the global promotion of the vaccine is not easy: Sputnik V has not yet been certified by the EMA, the European regulator, and is not included in the list of the vaccines approved by the WHO.

Kommersant: Online sales of food products may surpass $13 bln by 2024

Food products have become the fastest growing category on the e-commerce market in Russia. According to Infoline’s forecasts, this year online sales of food products will reach 400 bln rubles (over $5 bln), while by 2024 they will surpass 1.1 trillion rubles (over $13 bln) with almost 90% provided by the ten largest players. However, it will be difficult to achieve without expanding the selection, the geography and launching alcohol deliveries.

In January-June, the online sales of food products in Russia increased 2.5 times compared to the same time period last year. Food products will become a key driving force of the entire online market, with their share increasing from 5.3% to 18.8%, according to Infoline.

Analysts note that the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for the development of the online sales of food products in 2020, and one of the key results was the elevated trust of customers. Consumers have formed a habit of ordering food products on the Internet, Infoline says. According to the analysts, the share of active internet customers grew by more than 40% over the past year, surpassing 60 mln people. Infoline’s General Director Ivan Fedyakov added that companies continue to actively invest in the development and expansion to regions with some of those showing results comparable to Moscow. Additionally, the growing inflation allows food manufacturers to compensate the cost of development and increase deliveries, he added.

However, it is necessary to take into account other factors, since this business so far remains unprofitable, says Alexander Shurkayev, head of the online retail direction at NielsenIQ Russia. According to him, the experience of other countries shows that in Russia it will be very difficult to reach a two-digit share of the market in the next two years. In the UK, the share of the online FMCG market is at the level of 12%, in France - at 10%, in Spain - at 3%, in Germany - at 1% even with the "phenomenal" results of 2020, he said. According to the expert, the regional expansion of services, the expanded selection and the launch of alcohol deliveries may boost the further development of online sales.

Kommersant: Crimean winemakers face higher prices for raw materials

A ban on using imported raw materials to produce Russian wine led to expected consequences: the price of grapes went up sharply. Wholesale prices for winemakers in Crimea increased by 150%, while in the Krasnodar Region prices rose by as much as 66%. Market players do not exclude a further price hike with the decreased harvest while experts warn of possible refusal of discounts for Russian wine in stores.

Experts and market players reported a sharp price increase of technical grade grapes. The leader of the WineRetail information center Alexander Stavtsev said that the prices highly depend on the variety of grapes and the volume of purchase: small wineries have to pay more for raw materials. In general, the average price of grapes this year will go above 100 rubles ($1.35) per kilo, he says. President of the Winegrowers and Winemakers Union Leonid Popovich thinks that the price hike is not dramatic and the price of grapes on average grew from 80 to approximately 100 rubles per kilo.

The Agriculture Ministry noted that prices for grapes are determined by sellers and buyers and depend on many factors including quality, type, the period of purchase and so on, while the increased demand for Russian grapes was expected after the law was introduced. The ministry pointed out that the law stimulates the creation and development of successful winegrowing enterprises in Russia.