By John Helmer, Moscow If Russia’s Agriculture Minister, Elena Skrynnik, went to the trouble last week of decrying adulteration of Russia’s milk, then one thing is certain – the Franco-American syndicate which sells most of Russia’s milk and dominates the market is having trouble pricing down or buying up milk producers in the regions where […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 26th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Valued correspondent (aka Boris Bear) has written in to point out an odd typo which crept into the texts of two recent stories involving Victor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik. They are the two shareholding partners of United Company Rusal, with a 15.8% stake between them, who appear to have uncovered cooking […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, March 25th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Commanders of empires like the French, British, American and Russian suffer from an identical blind spot. They all believe their power (arms, cash) is or should be great enough to destroy their adversaries decisively, totally, so that they can’t get up to fight again. The Americans lost the Vietnam war, as […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 23rd, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow BC Iron is a small but promising iron-ore miner from Western Australia, which is China’s mineral supply province and rival of Russian suppliers to China. The company is now testing the share price at which it was the target of an abortive takeover attempt a year ago. The bidder at that […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Alrosa has announced that the privatization plan for sale of its shares on the open market should be restricted in order to preserve government control of the company. The announcement was released Friday after a meeting of the Supervisory Board, Alrosa’s board of directors. Now why exactly would this group of […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Ahead of the March 16 election of a new board chairman for United Company Rusal, President-elect Vladimir Putin did something that isn’t widely known; has never happened before; and has not been disclosed by Rusal. The story of what happened in the run-up to the board vote can be read here. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 20th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Barry Cheung (second left), the new board chairman of United Company Rusal and the first non-Russian chairman of a Russian monopoly, is viewed by his countrymen and business peers as a technocrat, a politician, and a businessman, in that order. The one business he reports in the curriculum vitae released by […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 19th, 2012
No Comments »

Because the JFC company spokesman refused to confirm the name of Vladimir Kekhman’s wife, and thus clarify whether she has played a role in the management and board direction of JFC, it was incorrectly reported that Tatiana Litvinova, until very recently a board director at JFC, was Kekhman’s wife. This appears to be incorrect, based […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 19th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Vladimir Kekhman, the controlling shareholder of Joint Fruit Company (JFC), Russia’s biggest banana trader, has received a summons to appear in the UK High Court to face charges of contempt of court. If he is found culpable, he may be jailed. If he doesn’t appear and is convicted, he may be […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 15th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska (image top right) has always had trouble with his business partners when money rewards, administrative pressure, threats, or rigged courts failed to be persuasive. So he might have been more cautious announcing yesterday that the replacement of Victor Vekselberg as chairman of the board of United Company Rusal will […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
No Comments »