By John Helmer, Moscow There are at least five million tonnes of aluminium in storage at the moment hidden from count in order to prevent the price of the metal from collapsing. Much , if not most of that aluminium comes from the Russian aluminium monopoly, United Company Rusal. Investigators for the US Commodity Futures […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 25th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow It’s been three years almost to the day since Vladimir Putin (left), then Russian Prime Minister, visited the Gremyachinskoye potash mine in southwestern Volgograd region. The mine, the newest in construction in Russia, with one of the country’s largest potash reserves, and one of the most costly ever to be built, […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 24th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Moe (Moses Horwitz) of Three Stooges fame stuck his fingers so often in Curly’s (Jerome Horwitz) eyes, it was Curly the audiences loved — until he died of too much drinking and eating. No chance that if Russia’s President Vladimir Putin keeps giving French President Francois Hollande the two-fingered, two-eyed poke, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 22nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Following last week’s report on the stockpiling of aluminium belonging to United Company Rusal, a source close to the London Metal Exchange has written to say he recalls a similar scheme for storing Russian aluminium in Estonia a decade ago. He reports that the warehouse used was located in Tallinn and […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, July 21st, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow A decision this week by the Kremlin to raise duties on imported pipes from the Ukraine will hit Interpipe, the heavily indebted pipemaker owned by Victor Pinchuk (left), particularly hard as it faces debt default negotiations with the Ukrainian government, headed by Victor Yanukovich (right), and with a syndicate of European […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 18th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The share price of United Company Rusal, the Russian state aluminium monopoly, has again dropped below the three-dollar (Hong Kong) level, and is heading towards oblivion – that’s the Citi Bank forecast of HK$1.80. In London and Moscow the market calculation is that, despite the company’s announced cuts to production of […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 16th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow An attempt by Siberian Anthracite, a little known Russian coal producer, to list and sell its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) collapsed today, just hours after Reuters reported the sale was going ahead. According to the report from the Reuters Moscow Bureau, the initial public offering “has been subscribed […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 12th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow According to the announcement issued yesterday in Moscow, Ahmad Mohamed Al-Sayed (centre), head of the Qatar emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, was appointed by Kirill Dimitriev (bottom right), head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), to join the RDIF international advisory board. An application by Dmitriev for several billion dollars of […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow When you are between the hammer of the Nigerian Navy and the anvil of the Nigerian Government, what is a Nigerian judge to do, if not make a very public show of doing nothing? In a new hearing in a Lagos court yesterday, Nigerian judge James Tsoho (centre) repeated the pattern […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian fleet operator, intends to sell a 25% bloc of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to a leak to Moscow business newspaper Vedomosti this week. However, the source identified as “close to the board of directors” does not know for how long the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
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