By John Helmer, Moscow

White Tiger Gold (WTG) was supposed to be the curtain-raiser on the Canadian stock market for Mikhail Prokhorov and Maxim Finsky, his childhood playmate, to sell shares in their collection of little known gold and other mineral prospects and mining licences in Russia. That collection is called Intergeo, and it cost Prokhorov and Finsky play money.

At one time, Prokhorov’s former shareholding partner in Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin, accused him and Finsky of filling Intergeo with stolen goods—licences originally acquired for Norilsk Nickel and the latter’s money. That case never went to court because Prokhorov and Potanin managed to settle between themselves which side each would get out of the bed they had shared together. Finsky got out too on Prokhorov’s side, and became boss of Intergeo.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, May 17th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

The Fitch ratings agency today issued a warning that growing debt at Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK), owned by Victor Rashnikov, is at a “higher level than previously expected”. With prices for MMK’s products falling, the company’s free cashflow is under pressure, the Fitch report claims, as it downgraded its outlook forecast for MMK from stable to negative. The agency said also that it has made no changes to MMK’s long-term and short-term issuer default ratings, which are BB+ and B, respectively. It may issue a downgrade of those, the agency adds, if the negative cashflow persists.

MMK’s version of the Fitch warning attempts a cosmetic makeover. That is as convincing to investors as French silicone is to breasts.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, May 17th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In Russia, and at sea aboard Russian ships, it’s common for crews not to be paid; the shipowners usually get away with it, at least as far as the General Prosecutor, Yury Chaika, is concerned.. The tale of the Lyubov Orlova, whose two Russian owners abandoned the cruise ship at a Canadian port, defaulted on their port, agent and fuel debts, and marooned the crew without salary or food, is a salutary example.

Not paying Russian seamen, and forcing them to work without pay, forcibly preventing them from leaving the ship, denying them medical treatment if they are injured, and locking them up to die – well, Chaika’s Vladivostok bureau for prosecuting transport offences has decided to bring charges under Article 127, Part 2, of the Russian Criminal Code. This follows the deaths of two Russian mariners aboard the Russian-owned, Tuvalu-flagged motor ship, SS Ross. It is the first time in living memory that illegal deprivation of an individual’s freedom for the purpose of compelling him to work – slave labour – has ever been charged in a Russian court.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

By all accounts, particularly his own, Alexander Lebedev, aged 52, has been one of those clever KGB agents whose training inculcated the Protestant work ethic, and whose tour of duty in London the wits, to enable him to make a fortune without stealing from anyone; without bribery or administrative resources; without even being on favourable terms with President Vladimir Putin, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, or indeed anyone of significance in post-communist Russia. A private bank belonging originally to Gazprom, and Aeroflot, the state airline, are said to be the hidden hands by which Lebedev helped himself to his plenitude.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, May 10th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In the Kremlin corridors under the new management, it is generally acknowledged that one of the stupidest things former President Dmitry Medvedev ever did was to order Russia’s representative on the UN Security Council to abstain from the vote and veto of the no-fly zone resolution aimed at the Muammar Qaddafi regime in Libya. That was on March 17, 2010. The Russian intelligence services already knew that US and British submarines were in place under the surface of the Mediterranean, ready to fire missiles to start a war that was intended to end in Qaddafi’s death. It did.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, May 6th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Whoever Elena Egorova may be, she and Victor Rashnikov, owner of Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK), share exactly the same desire for personal anonymity and business secrecy as the Chelyabinsk court case against MMK’s half-billion dollar purchase of an Australian iron-ore mining project reaches its climax later this month. This is their story so far.

If anyone imagined that MMK is a public shareholding company with conventional accountability and corporate governance standards for spending $9 billion in annual revenues and $16 billion in assets, the action by a purported shareholder, with a name, a share, and nothing else, to halt the offshore acquisition has exposed a total blackout of information by Rashnikov’s company, and the refusal of Rashnikov, with 86% of the company shares, to explain his decision-making to his co-shareholders. But from the court file released this week, it now appears the plaintiff shareholder is as keen as the defendant oligarch to keep the evidence and the proceedings secret.
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by John Helmer - Friday, May 4th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

A former high-ranking Russian government official with an influential history has emerged behind the group of Russian shareholders who control RusPetro, the small oilfield operator which has managed to reach a market capitalization of ₤640 million ($1.04 billion), since it first listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on January 18.

Kirill Androsov (image left), 49, a St.Petersburger by training and early career, was a deputy chief of staff under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin between May of 2008 and April of 2010. That was his highest and last government post. For the next nine months he beat a path through the money markets to launch an investment fund called Altera Capital. Registered in Luxembourg, and with a Moscow office, Altera was reportedly launched with $300 million in capital. Russian reports indicate the stakeholders are Russian and foreign structures, but the fund itself does not identify them. Working with Androsov is a former government colleague, Vyacheslav Pivovarov.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Every competent gardener knows that horse shit makes valuable fertilizer, so long as you give it at least two months of airing and composting to get rid of the acidity which kills plant roots, and the seeds which grow weeds where you don’t want them. Chicken shit is more balanced, biochemically and horticulturally speaking, because fowls do all their excreting through a single hole. The same can’t be said of the Sunday Telegraph of London or their Russian heroes, Oleg Deripaska and Alexei Mordashov.

That’s because Deripaska and Mordashov pay PR men to place their droppings, all too fresh, in the newspaper; from where energetic reporters, Kamal Ahmed and Elaine Rowley, shovel the product straight on to the Sunday breakfast tables of judges and investors.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

If you believe what RusPetro Plc says, this loss-making venture on a small oil patch in Khantiy-Mansiysk — a patch no major Russian oil company has wanted to bother with — is already worth a billion dollars, and is bound to be worth multiples of that. The reason, also according to RusPetro, is the brilliant technical performance of a group of American oilfield engineers. They can be trusted to manage the RusPetro miracle, they claim,because it’s a miracle they have pulled off at least once before – for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Yukos. The president of RusPetro doesn’t know much about oil wells, but he too comes from the miracle workers of Khodorkovsky’s Menatep Bank. And the spokesman for this company of miracle-makers is also part of the old Yukos team.

If not the ghost of Khodorkovsky, what makes the miracle believable? Sberbank has continued to lend more than $330 million to finance the dream — with collateral that sold for just $305 million, and despite breaches of loan covenants, violations of oilfield licence and concession terms, and the expiration of one of the licence terms within months.
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by John Helmer - Saturday, April 28th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Judge Natalia Bulavintseva ruled yesterday in Chelyabinsk Arbitrazh court that the hearing she had previously fixed for argument by lawyers on the substance of the case against Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine’s (MMK) purchase of Flinders Mines will be delayed for another month. Instead of April 25, this hearing has now been set for May 24.

On April 12, when ruling to dismiss a motion by MMK to lift her injunction against proceeding with the deal, Bulavintseva had written: “The validity of [the plaintiff’s] arguments (abuse of discretion) can be verified in court when considering the merits of the case… the court considers [these] issues that should be ascertained when considering the merits of the case.”
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by John Helmer - Thursday, April 26th, 2012
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