By John Helmer in Moscow Uralchem is the latest of Russia’s fertilizer producers and exporters to ask the London stock market to subscribe funds on trust. Between $496 million and $642 million worth of trust, according to the document entitled “Preliminary Prospectus” issued for Uralchem on April 19. The offerors are Renaissance Capital, Morgan Stanley, […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
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On February 24, 2010, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was critical of Mikhail Prokhorov for failing to meet his investment obligations in the electricity generating sector.

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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Before modernization

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the long history of collapsing empires, there is a golden rule. If and when the outflow of wealth to the foreign concessions or colonies exceeds the wealth that flows back to Empire HQ, the empire is on its last legs. There is one modification of this rule; it’s for […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Negotiations are close to a deal announcement for the takeover of the Donetsk Electrometallurgical Works (DEMZ) by Russia’s Mechel group, controlled by Igor Zyuzin (right figure). A report today from George Buzhenitsa, steel analyst at Unicredit Securities, discloses that Mechel is “in the final stages of completing the acquisition”. He […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Victor Chernomyrdin, one of the creators of Gazprom and Boris Yeltsin’s prime minister from 1992 to 1998, once famously said :“we wanted to do the best, but it came out as always”. What the sly duffer meant was: “we tried to serve a better interest than our own, but only […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, January 31st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Alexei Mordashov (left figure) has a special thing for the Italians. He’s been rewarded for it in a number of ways. Last July, he was awarded the Order of Merit from the Italian Ambasador to Russia. The order, according to a Severstal release, is the highest award in Italy. It […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Mikhail Prokhorov has been honoured, he has announced, by the apology of the French government. The Sunday Times of London reported this month that “three years after his arrest in the ski resort of Courchevel on charges of pimping [January 9, 2007], Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man, has received an […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 18th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Gennady Timchenko, a powerful Russian businessman, was identified this week in Helsinki as behind International Petroleum Products (IPP), a small trader which won the first 100,000-tonne crude oil loading assignment at Kozmino, Russia’s new oil port on the Sea of Japan. The news, which a Timchenko spokesman in London is […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 14th, 2010
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