By John Helmer, Moscow Desperate measures by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma this week sharpened the focus on what the Russian state company Rosgeologia (Rosgeo) and state banks, VTB and Gazprombank, are doing to arrange a $400 million contract for a new gasfield off the South African coast – and pipe promises of billion-dollar royalty […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, DwB, Interviews by Editor - Tuesday, October 17th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Rosgeologia is a small Russian state company which once held the record for drilling the deepest hole in the Earth’s crust. Its biggest discoveries of oil, gas and hard-rock minerals lie in its Soviet past. Even with current contracts from the state oil and gas companies Rosneft and Gazprom, it holds […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, DwB by Editor - Tuesday, October 3rd, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s asset-holding company Sistema has not inspired investor confidence since September of 2014. That was when Yevtushenkov was arrested in Moscow and charged with fraud and money-laundering in connexion with Sistema’s takeover of Bashneft, a Volga region oil producer.  That year, Sistema’s market capitalization on the London Stock Exchange dropped […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, DwB by Editor - Tuesday, June 13th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, the steelmaking group owned by Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, has revealed that it cannot complete the sale of its South African steel subsidiary, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, on time, and that the South Africans are the reason for the fresh delay. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Mining, Steel by John Helmer - Thursday, September 5th, 2013
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By John Helmer in Moscow South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said there has been a breakthrough in negotiations with the Russian government over terms for the Russian space agency to launch a South African communications satellite. She said she hopes to “see the launch of the satellite by the end of this year.” Dlamini-Zuma […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia by John Helmer - Friday, May 23rd, 2008
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with On March 5, in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR), there was a fire-bombing of a French–owned brewery which destroyed 50,000 bottles of beer. On August 23, a private jet of the Wagner Group was bombed in the air north of Moscow, and the Wagner leaders, Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Oligarchs, Ukraine by Editor - Tuesday, September 5th, 2023
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By John Helmer, Moscow When it comes to support for President Vladimir Putin’s international positions, the South African (SA) Government has been among the most consistent and enthusiastic of any in the world. However, Russian policy in South Africa has been damaged by the behaviour of Russian oligarchs and state businesses implicated in the corrupt […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, Skripal by Editor - Thursday, July 26th, 2018
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By John Helmer, Moscow President Vladimir Putin (left) has appointed his deputy chief of staff Sergei Kirienko (right) “Hero of Russia”, the highest award for personal valour in the table of Russian state decorations.    Kirienko’s career includes presiding as prime minister over the 1998 default by the Russian  treasury, the only sovereign default since  […]

Filed under: DwB by Editor - Friday, July 6th, 2018
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By John Helmer, Moscow Johnny Appleseed, an eighteenth century nurseryman and orchardist, is honoured in his American homeland for being a patriotic soldier in the  war against the British, and for going barefooted in the mission of Jesus Christ to convert the native Indians, whose tribal lands he enriched with apple nurseries.  It’s the job […]

Filed under: DwB, Foodstuffs, Poland by Editor - Wednesday, June 14th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow South African government officials have attacked Russia’s bid to supply South Africa’s new nuclear reactor programme, accusing Rosatom, the state nuclear power agency, of imposing financially and legally disadvantageous terms which the South Africans, speaking anonymously, term “scary”. The attack was launched Friday in the Mail & Guardian, a local newspaper […]

Filed under: Africa-Russia, DwB, Russian Politics, US-Russia by Editor - Monday, February 16th, 2015
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