By John Helmer, Moscow United Company Rusal, the Jersey-registered aluminium monopoly of Russia, has announced that “Mr Barry Cheung resigns as Chairman of the Company with effect from 1 October 2012, but will remain as an independent non-executive director of the Company. The Board is pleased to announce that Mr Matthias Warnig, an independent non-executive […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Wednesday September 26 was Yom Kippur – the annual Day of Atonement for Jews, the most solemn holiday on the Jewish calendar, when according to the relevant Scripture, God opens his Judgement Book, and takes applications from everyone with an interest in having the black mark removed from his name. God’s […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 27th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow The full text of Justice Dame Elizabeth Gloster’s judgement in the UK High Court case of Boris Berezovsky v Roman Abramovich runs to 356 pages, 1253 sections, one appendix, and 555 footnotes. She is kindly toward the case lawyers, the computer system operators, the courtroom administrators, and the simultaneous translators. She […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 21st, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer,Moscow Russian government investigators are focusing on a tiny, little known Latvian bank through which Oleg Deripaska (front) has been holding and moving billions of dollars. The Latvian Trade Bank (LTB), as it was known for many years, has recently been renamed Expobank, after it was taken over by Igor Kim, who bought […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 13th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow In the wasted human life department, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom are currently the front-runners. With one down (Libya) and three and a half wars on the go – Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran – how can the scoring be in doubt? So it’s always surprising when […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow That Boris Berezovsky (image upper right) is a self-delusional liar is no news, particularly not in Moscow. That Justice Dame Elizabeth Gloster (image lower right) should have made this point the crux of her August 31 judgement, dismissing Berezovsky’s claims against Roman Abramovich (lower left), should come as a surprise only […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 2nd, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Once upon a time, Oleg Deripaska was the protégé of Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney). In that relationship, Cherney, the older, taller one, called Deripaska, the younger, shorter one, Zaichik (“hare”). When he grew up, Cherney made him his business partner. In the year 2000, the man who is today Deripaska’s principal […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 27th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Iskander Makhmudov (right image) is cultured, charming, gracious, hospitable, polite, discreet – he has more of these qualities than his oligarch peers. But for Oleg Deripaska, his junior in the division of the Russian metals businesses that took place between 1995 and 2000, before the formation of Russian Aluminium (Rusal), here’s […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Look carefully at who is in the driving seat. The records of RTI Limited (formerly Rusal International Trading), the next to highest control entity in the corporate organization of United Company Rusal, show that it was registered on October 27, 2006, one day after the parent company was registered. At the […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, July 15th, 2012
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Fifteen years ago, the American Journal of Psychiatry reported research that not all obsessive-compulsive disorders are alike. Two individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the scientific evidence showed, may have totally different and non-overlapping symptom patterns. For example, the obsession with counting, hoarding, arranging and collecting doesn’t usually accompany the compulsion for hand-washing, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
No Comments »