Last week, when we last visited Mikhail Fridman and Viktor Vekselberg, the controlling shareholders of Tyumen Oil Co. (TNK), we found them in the shrubbery desperately trying to sell off their loot. For more than a year, they had been offering minority-sized stakes in the oil company. But, after doing their due diligence, Chevron-Texaco and […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 14th, 2003
No Comments »

It was during the brief period of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which began in 1921, that Lenin and the Soviet authorities had the thought that, in order to improve the redistribution of wealth, it was necessary to generate some wealth to start with. This hilarious idea produced a dazzling display of satirical writing by […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 7th, 2003
No Comments »

For the first time ever, Russian workers are threatening to strike in a dispute union leaders directly blame on the tactics of the oligarch who controls the shareholding of Norilsk Nickel. Also for the first time, the unions are demanding that corporate transparency include the disclosure of the oligarch’s perquisites, including the salaries paid to […]

by John Helmer - Friday, January 24th, 2003
No Comments »

The Kremlin has decided to curtail its support for a new pipeline proposed for oil shipments to China after six months of appearing in public to want to accelerate the project. According to Moscow industry sources and a blitz of Japanese media leaks ahead of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to Moscow last week, some […]

by John Helmer - Friday, January 17th, 2003
No Comments »

The four Russian oil producers, which signed an agreement a few days ago to build a new oil terminal at Mur-mansk, Russia’s Arctic port, are taking on not only the state pipe-line operator Transneft, but also the Russian government’s power to regulate and limit the volume of oil exports. If you believe what you read […]

by John Helmer - Monday, December 16th, 2002
No Comments »

Russian insurers and Moscow-based international insurance analysts are critical of a recent report by Moscow-based United Financial Group (UFG) suggesting that fiction is larger than fact in the share valuations, balance-sheets and premium revenue reports of the leading Russian insurance companies. UFG is one of a handful of Russian investment banks and brokerages with an […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 6th, 2002
No Comments »

It is rare for a local investment bank to expose an entire commercial market as a compound of tax-avoidance schemes, phony revenue statements, paper transfers and intentionally misleading valuations. But that is what the United Financial Group (UFG) manages to do for the Russian insurance market with a new report titled “Russia’s Insurance Industry: Enter […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 15th, 2002
No Comments »

With grain exports likely to reach 8 million metric tons this year, Russia’s ports admit they are having trouble coping. This is forcing the government in Moscow into opting between the policy of favoring Russian over Ukrainian and Baltic ports, or letting the surplus of grain eat into farm prices, farmer’s incomes, and farm planting […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 1st, 2002
No Comments »

When there is trouble, Russians hide and hoard whatever they can. And since there has always been trouble in Russia, Russians are the world’s biggest hoarders. In the 1930s, one of the legendary heroes manufactured by Kremlin propagandists was Pavlik Morozov, a young Pioneer who denounced his own father, a peasant landowner, for hoarding grain […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 27th, 2002
No Comments »

In 1708 George Friedrich Handel was just starting out on his brilliant career as a composer, when he spent a fortunate year in Rome. Fortunate because a wealthy Roman commissioned him to compose music for regular performance on Sundays at the patron’s home. One of the most beautiful pieces Handel wrote at the time – […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 18th, 2002
No Comments »