By John Helmer in Moscow Vadim Varshavsky, the owner of the bankrupt Estar group of midsize, specialty steel mills, has been hit with court bankruptcy orders in Moscow and Novosibirsk to sequestrate half of his salary as a member of parliament, and at least two apartment residences he maintains in Moscow. The orders by the […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 9th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow High River Gold (HRG:CN) is being prepared for a sale, along with other goldmine assets of the Severstal Resources group belonging to Alexei Mordashov, to a Chinese buyer. At least, that is what Moscow sources report as the rationale behind a proposed swap of equity for loan, announced by HRG […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Billy Bunter was a fictional schoolboy character well-known to British and colonial schoolboys of my generation. Like most of us, his eyes were bigger than his stomach. Unlike many, by the age of ten Bunter had grasped the concept of leverage — to feed himself he was always borrowing against […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 26th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the very small world of Russian steelmaking genius, Dmitry Pumpyansky (see right figure) has always been thought a bright bird at managing his pipemills, rather than for picking the right ones to buy, or the right price to pay. As the history books show, the acquisition of the Russian […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 19th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Chinese checkers may be the closest Russia’s metal oligarchs, Igor Zyuzin (right) and Vladimir Lisin (left), have come to understanding Chinese strategy. The problem is that the game is neither Chinese, nor checkers. It’s actually an American invention, dating from the 1880s. It is based on the simple tactic of […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The board of Vnesheconombank (VEB), the state bailout bank chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, agreed yesterday to extend for a year a $1.8 billion loan to the Evraz group, controlled by Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse holding. The loan was first issued in mid-November 2008, and is the largest single government […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 9th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Noone can say that Alexei Mordashov (pictured left), owner of Severstal, Russia’s third largest steelmaker, and Anatoly Kruchinin, the chief executive of the Russian steel operations (right), are overdoing it when it comes to human sacrifice. In 1487, when the Aztecs had rebuilt the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan after flooding, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian government’s quid pro quo for state financing for the Mechel group’s coalmining operations appears now to include the takeover of a fourth steel plant from the bankrupt Estar group, owned by Vadim Varshavsky. According to Dmitry Teplov, the head of the industry department in the Perm region, Mechel […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 1st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Vadim Varshavsky, the owner of the bankrupt Estar group of midsize, specialty steel mills, has made his first public appearance in Russia since his financial group collapsed with debts of up to $4 billion. Until recently, he had been thought to be staying in London, or in another location abroad. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, was last elected in December 2007. The outcome was the following distribution of seats: United Russia, 315; Communist Party, 57; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, 40; and Fair Russia, 38. Vadim Varshavsky, 49, was elected to the Duma in 2005 […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
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