By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has presented two bears to Switzerland, with the warning that if any harm comes to them, or to Victor Vekselberg, a Russian oil and aluminium oligarch, all the Russian money that goes into, or is presently sitting in Switzerland, may vanish. The Swiss Foreign Ministry says […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 18th, 2009
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Compiled by John Helmer in Moscow The Financial Times Gunvor, Putin and me: the truth about Russian oil trader May 22 2008 03:00 From Mr Gennady Timchenko. Sir, Your article “On the offensive” (Analysis, May 15) purported to explain the rise of the oil trader Gunvor. However, it contained many inaccuracies and false claims. In […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 30th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Caspian Energy Group, led by Ilya Kokarev, said this week it is confident the Russian courts will rule shortly to uphold its right to seats on the board of the Red Barricades Shipyard. This is the only standout among the Astrakhan yards to resist consolidation by Caspian Energy, which […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian and Azeri governments have taken the air out of a scheme to provide Europe with an alternative source of gas supply to Gazprom, which signed an agreement on Monday with the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). When it comes to putting the gas into high-priority […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the chapbooks of the medieval Finns, it was reported that pygmies lived in the Arctic Sea regions. The men there were dwarfed, so the Finns and Lapps thought, because of the effect of the North Pole and ice cap as a low-hanging roof over the world that made it […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 29th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Following the weekend European Union (EU) summit meeting with Russia in Khabarovsk, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller warned yesterday in Moscow that if the Ukraine cannot pay the tab for past-due bills for gas, or for future deliveries for winter storage, and if the European Union won’t lend the money, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s maiden LNG terminal became operational in late 2008, after years of controversy over seismic and ground contamination onshore; threats to whale habitats at sea and tax evasion claims in Moscow. Gazprom, Russia’s dominant gas producer and monopoly exporter, now has shareholding control of the project operator, Sakhalin Energy, replacing […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian oil industry. and the state treasury too, have breathed a sigh of relief as the Chinese and Russian governments announced this week their agreement on a revolutionary shift in future Russian crude oil flows. According to the announcement from Beijing on Tuesday, where Deputy Prime Ministers Wang Qishan […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow It was the the 19th century German politician Otto von Bismarck, who famously claimed that politics is the art of the possible — before he sent his armies to invade westwards. To judge the outcome of this month’s “gas war”, initially between Russia and Ukraine, but then involving many of […]

by John Helmer - Friday, January 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow There can’t be too many young children, who were still awake when the Ukrainian gas pantomine finished its traditional January run on Monday evening in Moscow. The problem was that those presiding at the curtain-fall, the Prime Ministers of Russia and Ukraine, and the heads of their respective gas companies, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 19th, 2009
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