First evidence of flour price collusion exposed in central Russia.

MOSCOW, August 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The first pieces of evidence of a
price collusion in the flour and bakery products markets have been
gathered in central Russia, an inter-departmental conference at the
Prosecutor-General's Office department for the Central Federal District
was told on Friday. The conference was called to look into unjustified
hikes in the prices of cereals and flour and other foods.
As ITAR-TASS has been told at the Prosecutor General's Office, the
conference, chaired by Deputy Prosecutor-General Vladimir Malinovsky,
discussed measures to implement the presidential instruction to monitor
the prices of basic products and eliminate violations of the antimonopoly
legislation.
Since the beginning of the harvest season the price of grain in some
regions has grown more than 60 percent. The unprecedented increase in
prices, speakers at the meeting said, is "primarily a consequence of the
low crop due to abnormal climatic conditions prevailing in the current
year, and unfair pricing by stock exchange traders."
Alongside this "there have been instances of collusion, too." In
Moscow, the city department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has
studied monthly results of daily price monitoring to open an anti-monopoly
abuse case against three major bakeries.
In the Kursk region in the first ten days of August there was an
increase in the prices of commercial and controlled varieties of bread (by
1.9 rubles to 2.2 rubles). The wholesale price of flour rose by an average
of 70 percent. The FAS office in the Kursk Region has begun to inspect
businesses. A similar situation was in the Vladimir region.
In connection with the government resolution restricting the growth in
food prices, prosecutors have been instructed to focus on real-time
monitoring of prices of basic foods (flour, bread, meat, milk) in the
domestic market charged by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, and
to take exhaustive measures at their disposal in case prices prove to be
overcharged.
The meeting was attended by the deputy presidential representative in
the Central Federal District of Russia, Nikolai Makarov, prosecutors and
representatives from the executive authorities and territorial FAS offices.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday said that Russia had no
shortage of grain and there were no factors for growth in domestic grain
prices.
"Due to crop failure, of course, the question arose whether there will
be a shortage in agriculture. There will be none," Putin said, adding that
in Russia, large reserves of grain had been accumulated over the past two
years.
On August 12 the Prosecutor General's Office told the regional
prosecutors to act in close contact conjunction with the FAS to take
measures against price collusion in the grain market.

.Search for missing crew of sunken tugboat resumes in Laptev Sea.

VLADIVOSTOK, August 28 (Itar-Tass) -- In the Laptev Sea the active
phase of the search resumed at dawn on Saturday for missing crew members
of the sunken tugboat The Alexei Kulakovsky.
On the day when the tugboat was lost near the port of Tiksi, where the
sea is 20 meters deep, of the 14 crewmembers only the captain and two
sailors were rescued alive. Five sailors were found dead. The fate of the
six others remains unknown.
According to the Vladivostok maritime rescue coordination center, the
search operation on Saturday for the missing crew will be carried out by
two helicopters, the Lenaneft 1264 oil tanker, the icebreaker The Kapitan
Borodkin and the hydrographic ship The Nikolai Yevgenov.
The tugboat The Alexei Kulakovsky sank when it was hurrying to the
rescue of a distressed fishing boat. When it was already near the site of
the incident, the tugboat's electric supply system suddenly failed, all
fires went out, the boat developed a portside list and sank about 20 miles
away from Tiksi.
The tugboat The Alexei Kulakovsky was built in 1992. It belonged to
the Lena United River Shipping Company.

-0-str