By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian wine market has been drying up, though it’s on account of falling incomes, not because of recent exhortations by mental health specialists and President Dmitry Medvedev to curb drinking. “The average statistical man in our country is a drunkard,” according to Alexander Nemtsov, a department head at the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 4th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow De Beers has accepted a new plan which makes litigation in a Denver, Colorado, courtroom against LUKoil the centrepiece of the diamond-miner’s survival strategy; and the prospect of multi-million dollar compensation the Toronto-listed company’s most valuable asset. A new document, filed this week in the US Bankrupty Court in Denver […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Depending on how fanciful you wish to be, the Flying Dutchman is either a reference to the nautical refraction phenomenon that makes phantom ships appear at sea, like mirages, in conditions of temperature inversion; or else it’s a tale of a half-mad Dutch sea captain, whose 17th century navigational ineptitude […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Ronald McDonald is the most famous brand-name franchise in the world. It operates 32,000 sales points, with more than 58 million clients, in about 118 countries around the world. Currently, the McDonald’s Corporation has a market capitalization of $61 billion; this is only 16% below the peak of its pre-crisis […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow A blindfold has been tied over the whereabouts of Russian member of parliament and steelmaker, Vadim Varshavsky, as estimates of his liabilities multiply, and questions are raised of how his borrowings were spent, and where the money is now. The Rostov Electrometallurgical Works (REMZ), the newest of the mills of […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s industrial and mining sectors are so thoroughly dominated by the handful of proprietors known as oligarchs, the only time that federal government regulators dare to interfere with their operations by attempting to enforce the law is when the regulators get their cue from a senior government official. And the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Despite sinking Russian consumer incomes, the banana is holding firm, enabling the St. Petersburg-based Joint Fruit Company (JFC), to increase its share of sales at the expense of its domestic rivals. With turnover of $500 million in 2007 (the latest figure JFC has released), JFC says there has been no […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow An application by three of Russia’s most powerful steelmakers to have the government impose penalty duties on imports of coated steel, primarily from China, has failed. This is the first sign from the Kremlin that applications by Russian steelmakers that threaten political and trade relations with Beijing, and risk Chinese […]

by John Helmer - Friday, August 28th, 2009
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  Marshal Sergei Fyodorovich Akhromeyev   “Everything I have worked for throughout my life is being destroyed.”   — August 24, 1991

by John Helmer - Monday, August 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), owned by Sergei Generalov, is likely to run a loss of at least $72 million this year, before foreign exchange losses and writedowns are counted, according to a new report on the company issued today by Moscow investment bank, Renaissance Capital. With total debt […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
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