By John Helmer, Moscow Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (image centre), the overseer of Russia’s ports and shipping, as well as of the trade which passes through them, has recommended that the state shareholdings in Novorossiysk Commercial Seaport Company (NMTP is the Russian ticker, NCSP the English) be sold to Rosneft, the state oil company. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska appears to have lost a nine-year long battle to take control of Vanino, an eastern seabord port on which Deripaska depends for imports of alumina to feed his aluminium smelters in Siberia, and to load finished aluminium for export to buyers in the US and East Asia. The man […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow The state-owned maritime conglomerate, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), will acquire the Vyborg Shipyard, on the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg, the USC spokesman Alexei Kravchenko confirmed to Fairplay in Moscow on Friday.

by John Helmer - Monday, January 23rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russian labour unions have been crippled since the end of the Soviet Union. With the exception of the coalminers and the seafarers, they have been incapable of defending their members’ wages, terms of employment contracts, or work safety standards. This week the Seafarers Union of Russia – affiliated with the International […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow There are two ironies in Sergei Frank’s latest outing in the London courts on November 4. One is that Frank, chief executive of Sovcomflot, is not lodging an appeal against rulings last December and March by High Court Justice Andrew Smith, judging Frank himself to have been dishonest. Nor is he […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 7th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow A leading shipbroker confirms that Suleiman Kerimov’s 90-metre motor yacht Ice is for sale at €200 million. “It is quietly on the market, but it is not being actively marketed,” the source revealed on Monday, days after the sale notice went up for Kerimov’s French beach house at €20 million.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Fitch Ratings issued a modified warning on Sovcomflot this week, claiming that the big Russian’s tanker revenues were at risk of coming up short against the company’s obligations. In that event, Fitch London analyst Jeannine Arnold reports, Sovcomflot may have to sell off the hulls and newbuildings which are on order, […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 13th, 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 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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