GEMKEY.COM
		Moscow on the Rhine Perestroika is over a decade old, but Russian jewelers are still scrambling to gain a foothold in Western markets. Their first pavilion at the Basel show should go a long way towards that effort.

In a press conference at Messe Basel 2000, a panel of industry heavyweights from Alexandr Rybakov, president of the Jewelers Guild of Russia, to Sergei Ulin of Alrosa offered thanks to fair organizers for their Basel opportunity and expressed a desire for expanded business with the international gem and jewelry industry.


Representatives ran the gamut of Russian jewelry production, with the Moscow Experimental Jewelry Plant and Ural Jewelers standing firmly for the traditional craft of Russian jewelry making and upstart Adamas, the largest producer of gold and platinum chains in Russia, holding the fort for mass-production and progress.

Yuri Byrdin of Ural Jewelers described the time-honored artisanship of the Russian jeweler, handed down from generation to generation since the time of the czars. "We invite you all to our booths," he said, but warned "the finest examples of Russian jewelry are not at the booths but rather travelling throughout Europe [in museum shows]." Exquisitely brocaded tiaras and necklaces, with materials garnered from the Ural Mountains and steeped in an unmistakably Russian aesthetic were countered by the pump-them-out chains of Adamas, so popular amongst Russian youth. Is there a conflict here, a movement away from the artistry of the past? Rybakov doesn't think so. "There's really no conflict. This forum was simply an opportunity for all the producers to present their company in their own way.

"The more competition there is, the more beautiful the jewelry that will be produced."

And with the US jewelry market booming beyond all possible expectations, will Russian jewelers' associations try to target that market more heavily in the past?

"We're just focusing on the consumers that would like to buy our product. Russian jewelry is very unique - we want to approach all the markets of the world, not one in favor of the other," says Rybakov.

Another exciting aspect of the Russian presence at Basel - perhaps even more so than beefed up public relations and posh press conferences - is a dedication to spreading information, and business, via the Internet.

Konstantin Lukyanov is director of the Internet department for the Moscow Jewelry Group (www.jewellernet.ru), a burgeoning network of Russian jewelers interested in making business contacts, checking up on trade news and trading wares.

The team has big plans for the future: "Right now it's just jewelry, but diamonds, we'll be offering in the near future, maybe one or two months from now."

Moscow Jewelry Group is looking for partnership deals with other industry websites to gain access to outside markets, and provide a pipeline to the Russian industry for their partners. The website is dual-language, with the Russian side thus far more fully developed than the English version, but that's changing says Lukyanov.

And at a trade fair where the Internet has been the hot topic - several hundred visitors paid for entry to the first Basel Internet Forum - that seems like a smart move.

WWW.GEMKEY.COM