By John Helmer in Moscow It’s fashionable in trade these days, especially when delicate consumer sensitivities are involved, to call a slaughter-house a meat-packing plant, as if what goes in the front-door can be made to seem as tasteful as what goes out the back. The German slogan, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, tried the technique on […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot, the global tanker group run by Sergei Frank (left) and Russian government officials, received a negative rating report from the Moody’s international rating agency this week, as proceedings in the company’s half-billion-dollar claim against the former management wind up in the UK High Court in London. According to Moody’s […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, March 14th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot (SCF), the state owned Russian tanker operator, released this week a board-approved strategy for the next five years, proposing to invest $5.5 billion with a combination of new borrowings and share sales over a six-year period. This capital outlay on a fleet that already counts 146 vessels, with another […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline company Transneft has upped the pressure on the controlling shareholders of Novorossiysk Commercial Seaport Company (NCSC) in what one Moscow maritime analyst calls today “an arm-twisting preliminary to next year’s contest over the sale of the 20% state stake in the port.” While in London the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow   Confucius say – why buy a treasure from a man, if you can wait for him to lose it. The turmoil now affecting Oleg Deripaska’s United Company Rusal has become a critical test of the difference between the Russian and Chinese approach to resource concessions and national company value. […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 20th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Yury Privalov, the former head of Sovcomflot’s London-based shipping operations, wound up his testimony in the High Court this week with half a dozen new allegations undocumented before in court, or since his release on parole from a Moscow prison on October 10, 2008. Testifying over eight days by videolink […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow There is no evidence currently available that Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has anything like the hot-line to God which enabled Noah of biblical fame to master the surge of the Black Sea, and with the help of the birdie — the first spy satellite on record – to make […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 5th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s state-aid agent for struggling shipyards, the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), is to have another chief executive after the current one, Alexander Buzakov (right figure), was ordered out by the chairman of USC’s board, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (left figure). A newspaper leak, published in Moscow on Monday, reporting […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow It’s either a comedy starring Pinocchio, or a tragedy ending in Seppuku. According to Section 1 of Sovcomflot’s corporate code of governance — ratified by the company board in 2007, and posted on the company website — one of the principles is “prompt disclosure of complete and reliable information about […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 26th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow It’s not so surprising that religion tends to be humourless. Making people accept the impossible usually requires threats, not jokes. There is no record that Jesus Christ ever laughed out loud. His idea of humour was sarcasm, and puns he lifted from fishermen and carpenters. But for overdoing seriousness, the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 23rd, 2009
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