By John Helmer, Moscow Evraz, the Russian steelmaker listed on the London Stock Exchange main board, is being sued in the UK High Court for $35.8 million by a group of Swiss investors over a failed project to build a terminal for iron-ore and coking coal at Yuzhny port, on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Roman Trotsenko (centre), chief executive of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), has resigned suddenly. No reason has been announced by USC, which has confirmed that Trotsenko is leaving by July 1. First appointed by the Kremlin in 2009 to oversee the consolidation of state stakes in shipyards around the country, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 18th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the tarot pack, the card of the Hanged Man is not one everyone wants to be dealt. To some it portends doom. Others believe it symbolizes the great awakening to occur the moment after death when, if, there is a resurrection. As cards go, it’s a big bettor who wants […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, May 19th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sergei Generalov, the controlling shareholder and president of Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), has apparently decided to sell the company, once the leading dry-cargo shipping company in Russia. The buyer negotiating for the takeover is reported to be the Summa Capital holding of Ziyavudin Magomedov, a rival of Generalov’s in the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 18th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow In Russia, and at sea aboard Russian ships, it’s common for crews not to be paid; the shipowners usually get away with it, at least as far as the General Prosecutor, Yury Chaika, is concerned.. The tale of the Lyubov Orlova, whose two Russian owners abandoned the cruise ship at a […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow From the Bo Xilai case it can be inferred that at the senior level of the Chinese government, the only things done really fast there are taking bribes and poisoning squealers. By contrast in Moscow, not having a Russian government for several months and not having capital punishment should be the […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 19th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow On October 12, 2004, Sergei Frank, a former federal Minister of Transport, was appointed chief executive of Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest oil tanker company and one of the top five in the world. Frank confirmed, said the company on its website, “that the Company’s management will take all necessary steps to enhance […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow I know, I know. It’s old fashioned to regard the celebration of February 23 as Red Army Day. And for all the awards heaped on my head for defending the Fatherland from its enemies, foreign and domestic, on this anniversary I plead paucity of means, and defer to those who have […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russia’s government-owned fleet operator Sovcomflot, run by Sergei Frank, has announced that international commodity trader Glencore will take over, market and operate five of its newest oil tankers as they come out of the shipyard and put to sea. The history of Glencore in Russia since 1991 is a simple one […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, February 19th, 2012
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By John Helmer, Moscow There is no family relationship between the fish and the bacteria; the latter are named after their discoverer, Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850-1914). But how much of a relationship there may be at the moment between salmonella in Norwegian salmon and Russian fish-eating security depends on another creature, the land-based red herring. […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 9th, 2012
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