By John Helmer, Moscow Diamond prices have been growing in the global market since January, but depending on your choice of accounting period, the growth rate is either not much; or not at all; or negative since July. Alrosa, the state-owned diamond miner directed by Fyodor Andreyev (image left), reported its latest financial results this […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 18th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The international ratings agency Fitch has downgraded its assessment of the Ukrainian pipemaking group Interpipe, owned by Victor Pinchuk, warning that Russian action since July to impose penalty duties on Ukrainian pipe imports is causing a serious loss of sales and a grave shortage of cash for Interpipe. If that continues, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The takeover announced at the start of this month by Global Ports Investments (GPI) of the National Container Company (NCC) gives control of more than 72% of container transportation volume in Russia’s west, including the Black and Baltic Seas; and more than 82% of Russian box volume in the northwest, from […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 15th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow In Gogol’s well-known story Dead Souls, Chichikov (left), the central character and villain of the piece, makes a lucrative business of buying the names of dead serfs from local census rolls in order to cut the tax liabilities of landowners, accumulate fake collateral against which he intends to borrow, and then […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow To the disability of being unable to speak his mind in public Suleiman Kerimov has the added handicap of being unable to accept how short his arms are, particularly when handling money from state banks. In overreaching himself Kerimov has provided a case study of how President Vladimir Putin expects the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Nothing so reveals the character of the men on the commanding heights of the Russian economy than a lawsuit in an international court initiated by their wives against one of their tradesmen. In the case which recently came to light, Aleksandra Melnichenko (nee Nikolic), wife of the fertilizer oligarch Andrei Melnichenko, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 9th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow As larger cargo volumes and more international vessels move through Arctic waters, or the Northern Sea Route as the passage is generally called in Russian (SMP is the cyrillic acronym, NSR in English), the Kremlin’s strategy is to fund the construction of the most powerful nuclear icebreakers in the world, and […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 5th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, the steelmaking group owned by Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, has revealed that it cannot complete the sale of its South African steel subsidiary, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, on time, and that the South Africans are the reason for the fresh delay. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 5th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian tanker company, has reported that its vessel operating profit collapsed from $101.7 million to just $31.7 million in the six months to June 30, while on the bottom-line the company reported a net loss of $14.5 million; this compares with a profit of just $2 million in […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow After months of delay, Victor Pinchuk’s Interpipe group revealed in its financial report for last year — issued at the start of August but given a release date of May 23 – how much financial trouble the Ukrainian pipe and steelmaker is now facing. The impact of this on the international […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 2nd, 2013
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