By John Helmer in Moscow Russpetstal (“Russian Special Steel”, RSS), the steel affiliate of the state-owned Russian Technologies holding, has decided to acquire up to 4 new operating mills if the price is right, and it can raise the finance from Russian state banks. Details of the targets of RSS’s 18-24 month strategy were recently […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 18th, 2008
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Oligarchs put hand in till By John Helmer in Moscow. It is a time of extreme paradox. In Soviet style, the US Government is nationalizing its financial instututions to stave off massive default. The Russian Government, by contrast, is encouraging free-market operations to prop up the indebtedness of the oligarchs, while the Finance Ministry, having […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Mining entrepreneur Mike Nunn says First African Diamonds, a company he owns, was illegally expropriated, and that he is taking the DRC government to arbitration in Geneva. President Joseph Kabila’s review and reorganization of controversial diamond-mining licences and concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) apparently took a new […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 15th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s space agency Roskosmos has agreed to launch the South African Sunbandila satellite by the end of this year at the Baikonour cosmodrome, Roskosmos sources have told Business Day. They confirm earlier statements by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma that an earlier controversy over launch agreements between the two governments for […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 14th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow A new IMF report reveals for the first time where Tajikistan’s aluminium revenues are going. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a report that is sharply critical of the Tajikistan Aluminium Company (Talco), the leading enterprise of the Central Asian republic run by President Emomali Rahmon; and has ordered […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 11th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Udokan copper contest has been won, but by whom? In April, Mineweb reported that Russia’s biggest copper contest was going to be a very private affair. Even if there are just two, possibly three contenders — we said at the time — predicting who will win over the next […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow In antique legend, Icarus was the boy who, ignoring his father’s prudential warning, flew too close to the sun, melting the wax from his wings, and plummeting to his death as a consequence. In W.H. Auden’s modern reflection on the incident, noone witnessing the plunge cared much, while “the expensive […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow BHPB’s Russian relationship hostage to Canberra uranium threat as Australian govt invokes Caucasus war to stir uranium sale opposition. A threat last week by Australian politicians to revoke a year-old agreement for Australian uranium concentrate to be processed into fuel in Russia has been met with calm in Moscow, where […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 8th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow If anyone needed convincing, the paper which British Petroleum (ticker BP:LN) signed yesterday with Mikhail Fridman and his Russian shareholding partners proves that defying the law of gravity is unlikely to succeed for long; even if the world’s weakest prime minister, Gordon Brown, and his foreign minister David Miliband, have […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 5th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Vladimir Kirillov, the new chief of Russia’s mine licence inspectorate, Rosprirodnadzor, has tried to fire Oleg Mitvol, his independent deputy, this week — after failing to oust Mitvol for the past seven months. In the annals of the federal Ministry of Natural Resources, Mitvol’s resistance is unique; as is the […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 4th, 2008
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