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By John Helmer, Moscow Now children, this is a story of the boy who was so keen to go on holiday, he packed his bag too soon. The three insiders familiar with the matter, on whom Bloomberg relies, seem to have got the story wrong, at least so far as the timing of Alexei Mordashov’s […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, Russia’s largest steelmaking group, has announced this week the creation of a special internal committee on health, safety and environment, and will appoint a new vice president to supervise these issues. A company statement says it “is focused on increasing the level of industrial safety, labour protection and care of […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow One of every ten dollars Alrosa is hoping to borrow from investors this month has been provisionally set aside to advertise Alrosa at the next three Olympic Games – London, Sochi, and Rio de Janeiro. This is the largest purse of Russian philanthropy, advertising, or giveaway ever publicly offered to western […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow An order by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to extend the current ban on wheat, rye, barley and corn exports until July 1 next year — announced last week — will make an exception to allow Russian millers and traders to ship milled flour abroad. Allowing 1.4 tonnes of wheat to make […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Anonymous reports about Alisher Usmanov usually appear because he is selling or buying something, and wants to advertise his price. Or else they are there because Usmanov’s rivals and critics are at work. A report from London on Sunday that Usmanov is about to clinch a deal with the Japanese trader […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow A year ago in Moscow, the Queensland state premier, an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician named Anna Bligh, was threatened that if she didn’t give Oleg Deripaska what his United Company Rusal wanted from the state, he would punish the state treasury with the withdrawal of millions of dollars in […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), which in Soviet days dominated dry-cargo shipping, has reported another loss in the first half of this year. What makes this news is that the red-ink line came in at $28.1 million; one-quarter of the loss reported for the six months to 2009 at $124.1 […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Today the news comes to you from Homer, with Odysseus doing the talking: “We came to the land of the Kyklopes race, arrogant lawless beings who leave their livelihoods to the deathless gods and never use their own hands to sow or plough; yet with no sowing and no ploughing, […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow The owner of the stranded Russian cruise ship, Lyubov Orlova, has failed to meet a deadline this week for selling the vessel and paying its debts.

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