By John Helmer, Moscow Arkady (right image) and Boris Rotenberg are under investigation by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for running a cartel and price-rigging to cheat Gazprom, their longstanding business partner and patron. This is unusual for several reasons. One of them is that the Rotenbergs neither produce the goods in trade targeted by […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 28th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska, denied regular visa entry into the US for many years on US evidence of his business practices, has claimed in a Moscow press announcement this week that the barrier has been lifted. It hasn’t. Instead, he’s being escorted through a trapdoor.

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 27th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow And now for a Classical breather. According to the Greek myth, Orion was a giant hunter who could walk across the Mediterranean. One evening he pulled one of those drunken turns that give dinner parties a bad name – he tried to make a dessert out of the daughter of his […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 25th, 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 A website property sales agency, calling itself “specialized in urgent and forced sales of Luxury Properties, Super Cars & Yachts”, is offering Suleiman Kerimov’s holiday residence at Medy Roc, at Cap d’Antibes on the French coast. The sale notice is dated October 20, last week. A number of notable Russian-owned properties […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 24th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow A Canadian Supreme Court judge has ruled that Alexei Mordashov rode roughshod over the rights of minority shareholders in Crew Gold, when Mordashov’s gold group completed its takeover of Crew Gold, and paid $4.65 per share to buy up minority shareholders. Justice Ronald Veale, the senior judge of the Supreme Court […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the long history of English justice, it has happened before that candidates for the seats of the highest court in land have been obliged to rehearse their talents and qualifications before the monarch on his throne (aka the Crown). And not only their qualifications, technical and professional, but also their […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Renco and its subsidiary RG Steel, the defendants in Severstal’s New York court claim, have a month to file their reply, and for the time being they are saying nothing. Bette Kovach, spokesman for RG Steel, and Andrew Shea, spokesman for Renco, say they “will not comment on matters in litigation.” […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 16th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Severstal has issued a claim in US Federal Court (Manhattan Southern District) against RG Steel, a unit of the private American steelmaking group, Renco. Severstal owner Alexei Mordashov (left image) wants it to be known in the Russian media that he thinks he’s been stiffed. But he doesn’t want anyone to […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Now for those who think the appetite for due diligence and accountability deadens the taste for opportunity, the good news from the Russian goldmines comes today from Alfa Bank’s metals analyst Barry Ehrlich, in a set of three fine reports. The global supply and demand balance for gold is stable: the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
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