By John Helmer in Moscow Vadim Varshavsky, the owner of the bankrupt Estar group of midsize, specialty steel mills, has made his first public appearance in Russia since his financial group collapsed with debts of up to $4 billion. Until recently, he had been thought to be staying in London, or in another location abroad. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow According to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Nemone, Queen of the City of Gold, was one of those notorious Hollywood types – too beautiful, not enough brains, and a perverse streak that enjoyed making people suffer. Tarzan gets help from his pet lion, and together they despatch the worst Nemone sends after […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 27th, 2009
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Key: Rear left, Congressman Bill Pascrell, Democrat, New Jersey Rear right, NBA Commissioner David Stern Centre, Stuart Levey, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Intelligence Rack: Mikhail Prokhorov Front left, Senator Paul Sarbanes, author of financial accountability statute Front right, Daniel Goelzer, Chairman of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board For Immediate Release September 23, […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 27th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow A secret meeting in the middle of the night in the presidential palace in the Guinean capital of Conakry, requested by the Russian aluminium oligarch Oleg Deripaska, has triggered a Guinean court ruling and a tax investigation of claims amounting to $700 million. The claims catapult the Guinean government and […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Mahmoud Thiam, the US-trained banker turned resource policymaker for the Guinean government (pictured right), says that the nine-month review he has initiated of the country’s major mineral and mining concessions is not intended to reopen or renege on every deal done with foreign miners during the 25-year rule of Lansana […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The state-owned tanker company Sovcomflot will try to sell up to 20% of its shares in a public offering, the former board chairman Igor Shuvalov (pictured right) said yesterday. But the timing may be delayed if a UK High Court trial, focusing on the company’s internal affairs, goes against the […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, was last elected in December 2007. The outcome was the following distribution of seats: United Russia, 315; Communist Party, 57; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, 40; and Fair Russia, 38. Vadim Varshavsky, 49, was elected to the Duma in 2005 […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Mikhail Prokhorov is an accomplished athlete, whose sports include skiing, basketball, kickboxing, and waterskiing. He is also an upstanding Russian patriot, dedicated to the introduction of high-technology skills to Russians who have been crippled in their ball-handling skills by seventy years of Marxism-Leninism. In response to the reports appearing here […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Dying of laughter isn’t the worst way to go. In the ancient world, it befell to the Stoic philosopher Chrysippos to be contemplating one day the relationship between altruism and heroism. Into his viewfinder two donkeys appeared. It isn’t clear whether they started drinking wine from a cup Chrysippos had […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the original game of basketball, invented by Dr James Naismith in 1892, there were 13 rules. Rule 5 was the disqualifier. In the playbook of Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, there is just one rule – and that’s the disqualifier. Mikhail Prokhorov’s decision to buy into the American […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 18th, 2009
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