By John Helmer in Moscow The Evraz steel group, the large Russian steel group owned by Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, is negotiating an undertaking to build a new steel rolling-mill in Kazakhstan, according to an announcement by the Kazakh deputy minister of industry, Berik Kamaliev.

by John Helmer - Monday, June 7th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian wheat exporters are increasingly confident of beating US wheat imports in the Egyptian import market after a new deal for 180,000 tonnes of Russian grain, priced at $178.50 per tonne, was announced this week in Cairo, and confirmed by grain trade sources in Moscow. The sale undercuts the US […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 4th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow O dear! Noddy can’t make the loop the loop. After his last adventure in the jungles of northeastern Guinea, Noddy found that he still owed so much money to his bankers, he wasn’t allowed to make big-ticket plane rides without their permission.

by John Helmer - Friday, June 4th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow When two of Russia’s most reclusive oligarchs are publicly reported to be in a big shareholding transaction, rumour of which suddenly drives up the share price of the asset by 25%, the least that can suspected is that someone is manipulating the market for personal gain. So, when Suleiman Kerimov […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian state bailout bank, VEB, chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has defended the pricing of two Arctic ice-class, Panamax sized tankers ordered by Sovcomflot, which analysts and brokers have criticized as substantially above market price.

by John Helmer - Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The last of the titans who have dominated Alrosa, Russia’s diamond monopoly, since its founding in 1993 has handed in his resignation, and had it accepted by the Kremlin. Vyacheslav Shtirov (also spelled Shtyrov, right image) has left for “personal reasons”, announced an aide to President Dmitri Medvedev. The reasons […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, with several government ministers, met on Monday [May 31] with representatives of Russian steel mills, carmakers, and state companies to discuss steel-pricing mechanisms. Putin started off wagging the stick, but it isn’t obvious that anyone in the audience thought he was serious. Putin began the session […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow This sequence of picture-frames was taken by cameramen of RenTV, a Moscow television channel, of a vote on first-reading legislation by the State Duma, the initiating chamber for federal laws in Russia, on May 19.

by John Helmer - Monday, May 31st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Alrosa chief executive Fyodor Andreyev has attempted to persuade the Sakha region to lift its veto on restructuring the shareholding of the company, and then selling shares in a public privatization or initial public offering (IPO).

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 27th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow As Russian villagers used to say in olden times, when the tsar is kind, the wait to see him is long; when he is cruel, there is no delay at all. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s explicit attack on steel prices at the start of this week, and the commencement of […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
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