By John Helmer in Washington When Hank Greenberg owned and ran AIG as his personal fiefdom, he was credited in the industry with originating the policy of never paying out claims unless the claimants threatened costly recovery litigation. When Greenberg tried the non-payment ploy himself recently, his reputation has come back to haunt him in […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, March 31st, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow The worst-ever coal mine disaster in Russia, with a death-toll of at least 102 miners, and not less than another 8 still missing, hit the Ulyanovsk mine in Siberia on Monday afternoon. Owned by Yuzhkuzbassugol (“South Kuzbass Coal”), one of the largest coal and coking coal producers in Russia, the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Athens this week – his second in six months, a Russian presidential record – is so unusual, its meaning may not be fully understood. Moreover, few Russians accompanying Putin are able to put into clear perspective the relationship which the president himself is trying […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 16th, 2007
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It was the 19th century English poet William Wordsworth who once warned that “in modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most; it is the honest man who doesn’t know what he is doing.” Since self-proclaimed presidential candidate Sergei Glazyev isn’t a crook, and he sues television broadcasters for moral […]

by John Helmer - Monday, February 12th, 2007
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Ahead of official announcements by Severstal and Lucchini, sources close to the Russian steelmaker expect that Severstal will sign an agreement this week to pay $570 million for a 62-percent stake in the Italian steelmaker, Lucchini. The family-owned business has been losing more than a quarter of a billion dollars per year, and is carrying […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 10th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Limits on the transfer of shares between Russia’s state-controlled tanker companies, Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship) and Sovcomflot, will fall short of the ambition of Sergei Frank, former Transport Minister and chief executive of Sovcomflot for two years. An international IPO of what may be, potentially, the third largest oil tanker […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 10th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Less than a year after announcing the purchase of major coalmine group Prokopievskugol for about $100 million, Vladimir Lisin, one of Russia’s richest men and proprietor of the country’s most profitable steelmaking group, Novolipetsk, is selling the coamine back to the state for a rouble. That is considerably cheaper than […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Did Nicolas Sarkozy, the small rightwing candidate for President of France, benefit from the brief imprisonment in Lyon of one Russian billionaire, and from the award of a medal, days later in Paris, to another Russian billionaire, who happened to be the business partner of the first? And was Sarkozy […]

by John Helmer - Monday, February 5th, 2007
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Yury Trutnev, the Russian minister in charge of issuing mining licences, had a youthful reputation he was proud of in the martial arts. Very recently, he was so keen to test his prowess as a big-game hunter, he insisted on going on a safari in a South African game-park. Victor Vekselberg, the metals magnate who […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -According to the Aesop fable, an ass and a dog happened to be travelling the same road together, when they found a sealed document on the ground. The ass picked it up; broke the seal; and read it out, as the dog listened. The text was all about hay, barley, and straw. The […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, August 31st, 2006
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