By John Helmer in Moscow Yury Humber and the Bloomberg bureau in Moscow run by Bradley Cook have a special relationship with United Company Rusal.

by John Helmer - Monday, July 26th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Loose Canadian stock listing rules, a compliant exchange regulator, and rubber-stamp directors have made it easy for a Russian raider to attack minority shareholders of High River Gold (HRG:TX), and threaten them with dilution and delisting, unless they give in to a low-ball buyout offer. That is what minority shareholders […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 16th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The buyout offer for minority shareholdings in Toronto-listed High River Gold (HRG:TSX) now looks double-doomed. A combination of minority shareholders has now formed that is numerically strong enough to prevent the Russian Severstal group, owned by Alexei Mordashov, from suceeding in his 22-cent offer for the 42.7% of shares he […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow You don’t have to be a child with an especially good memory to remember this one, which is pre-Mother Goose: Jack Sprat could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean. And so between them both, you see, They licked the platter clean. What four hundred years of nurses, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the world of mining, it can be much more profitable to leave the gold in the ground, and take out the cash from booming share or equity value. According to Oleg Mitvol, the mine regulator for the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources until last month, Russian goldminers are guilty […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow For the first time since Russian goldminer listings began on the London Stock Exchange more than a decade ago, Russian shareholders have taken a major Russian goldminer to the UK regulator, alleging asset stripping and share value dilution, along with the charge that no justice is possible in the Russian […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow In 1930, at the start of the Great Depression, a story was published in the US with the purpose of convincing children that if they worked hard, they would be rewarded. That idea being none too original, it turns out that the tale of the small anthropomorphic locomotive, who pulls […]

by Editor - Friday, March 27th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Moscow has been having much the same week for the past four months – everyone down at the pier tossing streamers, and waving goodbye, as the flagship investment funds toot their horns and pull away, to sail swiftly over the horizon. It’s cold comfort to the flag-wavers of the Moscow […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 27th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Premature ejaculation is not usually an event which gentlemen call a public meeting to disclose. At least, not unless they are selling a cure. The announcement this week in Moscow by Tye Burt and Yevgeny Ivanov, chief executives of Kinross Gold (KGC:US) and Polyus Gold (PLZL:RU), that they have signed […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Polyus Gold waits for the green light – or is it red? Glenn Gould, the world’s greatest pianist, and a notorious automobile driver, once admitted: “It’s true that I’ve driven through a number of red lights on occasion. But on the other hand, I’ve stopped at a lot of green […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
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