By John Helmer, Moscow Let’s hear it for Polymetal’s control shareholders – they have devised a scheme that appears to have fooled much of the Moscow market, but few in the London market. By moving Polymetal to the main board of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), they have camouflaged a free floating share bloc which […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 9th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Charlie Drake’s hit song has been celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in London, where it was created and first recorded, not far from the law courts on the Strand. Play it before you read another word, and listen carefully to the lyrics.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow One of Russia’s richest men, and by some accounts one of the cleverest, claims he has no idea whether the principal source of his income is taxed. The admission came just a few minutes after three in the afternoon in London last Friday. Roman Abramovich may have been tired, having been […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 7th, 2011
No Comments »

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
No Comments »

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
No Comments »

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
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Intelligence quotient tests are not required for visas to enter Russia temporarily, especially not if you are running another country. The last certified fool to be received by the Kremlin at the head of government level was Ronald Reagan. In retrospect, it is now clear that he was in an early […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
No Comments »