We interrupt this news bulletin to bring you a broadcast from Captain Obvious on location live above the Kremlin

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Evraz, the largest of Russia’s integrated steel and mining groups, has reported that an underground detonation of explosives in a shaft of its mine Yestyuninskaya — part of the group’s Vysokogorsky iron-ore combine — has killed at least nine miners, and another four are still missing. The incident near the […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot (SCF), the state owned Russian tanker operator, released this week a board-approved strategy for the next five years, proposing to invest $5.5 billion with a combination of new borrowings and share sales over a six-year period. This capital outlay on a fleet that already counts 146 vessels, with another […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
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by John Helmer - Sunday, December 20th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s state stockpile agency Gokhran has this week released details of next year’s state funding for rough diamond purchases from Alrosa, revealing for the first time the average price per carat that will be paid. According to a direct Gokran source and to an Interfax briefing by another Gokhran official, […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 18th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow A powerful 6-point storm on Monday did an estimated $60 million worth of damage, and severely set back the construction schedule for the new Sochi cargo port, being built for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at Imeretinsky Bay. The new port is being built by the holding company of bankrupt […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 17th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian business is child’s play, and very forgiving too, if you are big enough to pay for your mistakes. That’s why Alexei Mordashov is smiling in the picture, taken in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s office on December 4. Mordashov is the owner of the second most heavily indebted steelmaking group […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 17th, 2009
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline company Transneft has upped the pressure on the controlling shareholders of Novorossiysk Commercial Seaport Company (NCSC) in what one Moscow maritime analyst calls today “an arm-twisting preliminary to next year’s contest over the sale of the 20% state stake in the port.” While in London the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow To all junior miners, resource project developers, and investors in the risky wilds of Kazakhstan, be of good cheer — a Supreme Court judgement issued on December 11 in Sydney, Australia, has awarded the equivalent of US$11.4 million in compensation, penalties, and costs against a group of lawyers who have […]

by John Helmer - Monday, December 14th, 2009
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