IF YOU HAVE seen longer queues at the local bread counters or witnessed housewives stuffing bags of flour into their supermarket trolleys lately, you might want to blame the Russians. Or, better still, the recent freak weather patterns in the former Soviet regions of Kazakhstan, Russia and the Ukraine, the bread basket of Europe which accounts for 20% of global wheat exports. The panic buying of flour and wheat-based products around the world came in the wake of a Russian ban on wheat exports, which in itself followed a long drought that had sent wheat futures skyrocketing. At one point in early August, wheat futures were up 56% for the year. That was enough to push hedge funds, speculators and even sundry hoarders into a buying frenzy.