Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Yury Trutnev said that the Russian government should ease foreign investors' access to the country's natural resources, as the world has changed considerably since the commodities boom. Trutnev said: "I believe that today there is a need to think about legislative changes, about investment attractiveness...on investments of foreign companies in the exploration and development of resources." A source with a foreign energy lobby in Moscow told Reuters that Trutnev's remarks were a "sign that restraints would ease further". Valery Nesterov, an analyst at Troika Dialog, added that: "There is a problem of underinvestment in the Russian oil industry. Investments will match last year's level at best. Only foreign participation will guarantee an acceleration in exploration."