The employees who were arrested for stashing the stuff claim that it was being reserved for a staff New Years party. Here’s why the St. Petersburg police were after the caviar:

Most of the red caviar was from salmon, but 38 kilograms (84 pounds) of the stash was black caviar from sturgeon, an endangered fish. Amid heavy restrictions on sturgeon fishing, black caviar is increasingly produced and sold illegally.

A day after the morgue discovery, St. Petersburg police said they seized an additional 100 kilograms (220 pounds) intended for illegal sale at local markets.

On Friday, the Interfax news agency reported that border guards in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv confiscated 249 cans of caviar worth almost $22,000 that was allegedly being smuggled from Russia to Ukraine.

In the far eastern region of Khabarovsk, a vehicle inspection turned up 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of caviar, leading police on a weeklong investigation, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. They raided a village home on Friday and found another 26 kilograms (57 pounds).

At two different spots along the Amur River basin, police found 47 sturgeon carcasses and 2.5 tons of live sturgeon. Sturgeon fishing in the Amur basin is prohibited.

Apparently, the war on drugs in Russia includes battling the sale of illegal caviar. I wonder if they have dogs trained to sniff out the fishy stuff?

Link

Scientists in Russia have developed techniques for successfully farming “bester” (a hybrid of beluga and sterlet) and successfully harvesting the roe without killing the sturgeon.

Rather than being culled, like elsewhere in the world, the female fish is what can best be called “milked”, gently and harmlessly. Each time a fish is milked it can produce up to a quarter of its weight in caviar. This approach not only makes caviar more accessible but also helps preserve this increasingly scarce and beautiful fish… Russia halted commercial harvesting in 2002. Five years later, the sale of sturgeon and black caviar were banned altogether. Poaching escalated, and so did the prices. Now, the country is trying to return to the heady days of Soviet caviar abundance.

A video at the link illustrates the process, which appears to be similar to that used in this country at state-sanctioned fisheries and trout farms.  The photo comes from English Russia, which has a photoessay with several recipes utilizing caviar.

Link.

Newspaper Corriere Della Sera says the caviar had an estimated value of $550,000 (£370,000).

Tests showed the caviar to be edible, so it is to be given to canteens, hospices and shelters for the poor.

Beluga caviar is the most expensive variety of the delicacy.

Link -Thanks, Justin!