By John Helmer, Moscow For long enough already, Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky have been trading mutual recriminations and accusations of bribery, blackmail, extortion, fraud, breach of trust and breach of contract, set out in the latter’s UK High Court claims against the former, so that the biggest surprise at the commencement of the trial […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow If Sergei Frank, chief executive of Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian shipping company, had not been judged recently in the UK High Court to be dishonest, vindictive, and unbelievable, a warning from a global ratings agency of potentially bad news to come about his company may not be as serious as the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 30th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Joint Fruit Company (JFC), once the owner of Russia’s largest fleet of banana boats and the largest importer of bananas in the Russian market, is slipping on something much bigger than one of its own fruit skins. But the company and its owner, St. Petersburg entrepreneur Vladimir Kekhman, insist everything is […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 23rd, 2011
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1. It looks like there’s going to be a hot autumn in Moscow? Or is that just an illusion due to very vocal electioneering and of course the media accompaniment?

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The state-owned Russian tanker company Sovcomflot revealed this week that its profits are sinking, and that despite months of effort Morgan Stanley, Sovcomflot’s banker and broker, has been unable to attract market demand for its shares. As the much delayed privatization and initial public offering (IPO) of Sovcomflot shares fail once […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 15th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sergei Frank (bottom image), chief executive of Sovcomflot, is hanging on to his job despite judgements by the UK High Court last December and this March that he is a liar and worse. Sovcomflot, one of the largest oil tanker companies in the world, has sought leave to appeal against the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 15th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow If you’re feeling peckish, but the price of fish is too high to swallow, whom do you call? Gennady Timchenko (right image), that’s who – the man who has settled with several English newspapers out of court that he’s not a friend of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and benefits commercially in […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow It was just five weeks ago that First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was pledging his allegiance to President Dmitry Medvedev and his unswerving compliance with the April 2 presidential decree ordering ministers of state to vacate their seats on state company boards. In Shuvalov’s case, he insisted that under no […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 20th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Vladimir Lisin (far right), owner of Russia’s powerful Novolipetsk steelmaking group and one of the country’s richest men, is the choice of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (3rd from left) for new board chairman of the state shipyard conglomerate, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC).

by John Helmer - Friday, May 13th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The primaries for the Russian presidential campaign have already begun, and there are three contenders – Igor Sechin, Dmitry Kozak, and Dmitry Medvedev. Vladimir Putin isn’t a contender – he is the convention with all the votes; he makes the choice.

by John Helmer - Monday, April 11th, 2011
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