By John Helmer, Moscow Now for those who think the appetite for due diligence and accountability deadens the taste for opportunity, the good news from the Russian goldmines comes today from Alfa Bank’s metals analyst Barry Ehrlich, in a set of three fine reports. The global supply and demand balance for gold is stable: the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sergei Naryshkin (right image), the Kremlin chief of staff, who has been chairman of the board of Sovcomflot, the state-owned tanker operator, has been replaced by Ilya Klebanov (left), a former federal minister of industry, according to a Kremlin release last Friday, October 7. The appointment appears to have taken Sovcomflot […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 10th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Alrosa, the Russian state diamond monopoly and world’s largest producer of rough, moved last week to resist price-cutting and discounting pressure across global diamond markets by announcing it will reduce its supply of rough for sale instead.

by John Helmer - Monday, October 10th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Mukhamedshin, the man in charge of raising money and covering debt for United Company Rusal, was spotted last week in London carrying bags into his mansion. This is what has been happening to the aluminium he has been selling:

by John Helmer - Friday, October 7th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Mikhail Prokhorov – Russia’s no-fault oligarch, according to a dozen people familiar with the matter at Bloomberg – was tossed out of Russian politics for his incompetence last month. Yesterday it turned out that the only company he controls with an international share listing and a positive profit line, Polyus Gold, […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow For long enough already, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky have been trading mutual recriminations and accusations of bribery, blackmail, extortion, fraud, breach of trust and breach of contract, set out in the latter’s UK High Court claims against the former, so that the biggest surprise at the commencement of the trial […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Last week, on September 26, Justice D.M. Brown of the Ontario Superior Court threw out a suit challenging the terms of the White Tiger Gold takeover of Century Mining, aka “the Arrangement”, which has been orchestrated by the Russian duo, Maxim Finsky and his career patron, Mikhail Prokhorov. An oral hearing […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 3rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the case of the late Andrei Burlakov of FLC West Holding of Luxembourg (middle image), the death weapon was, apparently, what is called травматический пистолет. This can be licensed to be carried by ordinary Joes as a defensive weapon, as if it cannot be lethal. But when fired at the […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 3rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow If Sergei Frank, chief executive of Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian shipping company, had not been judged recently in the UK High Court to be dishonest, vindictive, and unbelievable, a warning from a global ratings agency of potentially bad news to come about his company may not be as serious as the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 30th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Alexei Mordashov’s plan to revive the initial public offering (IPO) of his goldmining group Nord Gold has been reported to be aiming at a relaunch date before Christmas; his first attempt at selling shares on the London market was called off in February when market conditions were much more favourable to […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 29th, 2011
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