Madasafish: I think AB (and his backers) have a fair bit of direct experience with Russia, including Anglo Siberia and Sibir. Yuri Shafranik seems, to me, to represent a kind of insurance policy in the event of Emerald getting involved with 'Russia' (as opposed to other former USSR countries, not falling under the Kremlin's direct control) but nobody does the same job forever, and it's always possible to fall under the proverbial bus...so I'm inclined to think that any investment made by Emerald in Russia would need to be relatively modest. In which case, why bother doing it? bob