Prince Andrew, 44, is special envoy of the United Kingdom for foreign trade and capital investment. His upcoming Far Eastern tour has Russia and China on its itinerary. In Russia, he will appear in the Sakhalin Region. Russia's only insular province, it comprises the island to which it owes its name, and the Kuril archipelago, which divides the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific.
His Royal Highness is expected to meet Ivan Malakhov, Sakhalin regional governor, April 28. Mr. Malakhov recently won his post in a pre-term gubernatorial poll after governor Igor Farkhutdinov died in a helicopter crash in the Kamchatka peninsula, August 20 last year.
The Duke of York also intends to visit the British Centre in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, regional capital, appear on the headquarters of the Sakhalin power investment corporation, and have firsthand acquaintance with several Sakhalin-based commercial companies, and industrial companies of the petroleum-and-gas complex. British Petroleum Sakhalin Co. will receive the visiting Royalty at a business lunch in Hotel Sapporo, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
The Shell is among the most ambitious capital investors in the development of the fabulously rich Sakhalin 2 oil- and gasfield. Several other British-based companies also have interests in that lucrative part of Russia.
