By John Helmer, Moscow Anonymous reports about Alisher Usmanov usually appear because he is selling or buying something, and wants to advertise his price. Or else they are there because Usmanov’s rivals and critics are at work. A report from London on Sunday that Usmanov is about to clinch a deal with the Japanese trader […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow A year ago in Moscow, the Queensland state premier, an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician named Anna Bligh, was threatened that if she didn’t give Oleg Deripaska what his United Company Rusal wanted from the state, he would punish the state treasury with the withdrawal of millions of dollars in […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 24th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), which in Soviet days dominated dry-cargo shipping, has reported another loss in the first half of this year. What makes this news is that the red-ink line came in at $28.1 million; one-quarter of the loss reported for the six months to 2009 at $124.1 […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Today the news comes to you from Homer, with Odysseus doing the talking: “We came to the land of the Kyklopes race, arrogant lawless beings who leave their livelihoods to the deathless gods and never use their own hands to sow or plough; yet with no sowing and no ploughing, […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The owner of the stranded Russian cruise ship, Lyubov Orlova, has failed to meet a deadline this week for selling the vessel and paying its debts.

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot (SCF), the state oil tanker company and currently the 5th energy shipper in the world, has made its first detailed public disclosure to investment markets in a multi-million dollar debt prospectus. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and VTB are the arrangers.

by John Helmer - Monday, October 18th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The US Government has decided not to let Victor Vekselberg off so easily. The US District Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) has filed for an extension of time to allow the Justice Department in Washington to consider a detailed brief, arguing that Vekselberg should face the […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 17th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Prospectuses are like lap dances. It’s necessary to keep one’s distance so that the baser instincts don’t cloud one’s better judgement. In a recent West Country court ruling, a lap-dancing bar lost an appeal of the revocation of its adult entertainment licence. The club claimed its lap-dancers were lawfully adhering […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 15th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow With just a week to go before Oleg Deripaska asks Norilsk Nickel’s international shareholders to vote in favour of his hostile takeover of the company, the UK High Court has ordered an end to Deripaska’s tactics towards former patron and partner, Michael Cherney (Chernoy); dismissed more of Deripaska’s claims about […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 14th, 2010
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