- 
Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
Alrosa has been attempting to boost its share price, following the start to regular share trading on the Moscow MICEX exchange at the beginning of this month. On December 13, the company released a forecast for next year of rising mine volumes and higher revenues and profits.
But four days earlier, on December 9, Alrosa’s chief executive Fyodor Andreyev (image left) met Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for his first-ever solo session with the head of government (image right). While Putin meets from time to time with heads of the Sakha republic, where Alrosa’s mines are concentrated – the last of those was on January 18 of this year — Putin has not met one on one with a chief executive of the company since 2004. That was when he discussed moving the then chief executive, Vyacheslav Shtirov, from the company to the presidency of the Sakha republic.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Friday, December 16th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
Shipments of Norwegian salmon and trout to Russia, the biggest global consumer of Norwegian fish, have been illegally restricted by the Russian government veterinary and phyto-sanitary inspectorate, Rosselkhozdnadzor (RSKN), according to a report by the government’s competition watchdog, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
The FAS told Fairplay that regulations issued by RSKN limit imports of the fish to Russia to companies on lists accepted by the Norwegian government, and submitted for complementary approval by RSKN. This cumbersome administrative procedure is unlawful, according to the FAS, because it restricts free trade in the Russian market.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Thursday, December 15th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
Russia’s competition watchdog believes that a merger between two of the country’s top steelmakers, Evraz and Severstal, is a “pipe dream”, and will veto it if it is attempted. The swift, explicit reaction from one of the Russian government’s top market regulators indicates there has been no preliminary signal from the Kremlin of backing for the merger, announced in a carefully contrived placement in the Financial Times of London yesterday.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
Investbank, the Russian banking group which was formerly the property of Vladimir Antonov, was asked to clarify its position in relation to the charges now pending against Antonov in Lithuania; the extradition case under way in London; and balance-sheet examinations of banks associated with Antonov in Lithuania, Latvia, and elsewhere. Here is the story.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
While Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska are hard at work changing the British courts’ interpretation of the law on corruption, Vladimir Antonov has come along to challenge the British law on asylum and extradition.
Antonov, along with his Lithuanian partner Raimondas Baranauskas, were arrested in London on November 23, and charged in connexion with a Lithuanian extradition warrant. In Lithuania they are accused of embezzlement of several hundred million dollars from Bank Snoras, the bank they control in Lithuania, and the second largest in that country. The forensic auditors are reported to have found that Snoras’s books are short by $1.4 billion.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Monday, December 12th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
Krissy, November 1994-December 9, 2011
by John Helmer - Sunday, December 11th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
On November 29, following up Russian media reports and after an investigation lasting a week, the Moscow Times published the following article, which speaks for itself. A week later, on December 7, the newspaper’s editor, Andrew McChesney, sent this letter:
(more…)
by John Helmer - Saturday, December 10th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
BHP Billiton (BHP), the world’s dominant producer of manganese, last week slashed the price of manganese for delivery to China, the world’s dominant consumer, by 14%, arousing the suspicion that the Big Australian is aiming to drive rival producers from the business, and when Chinese steelmaking is expected to revive next year, corner a larger share of the market. Ironically, the price action may also accelerate the exit of the Australian independent Consolidated Minerals from Australia, where costs are now close to the break-even level, towards African operations.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Friday, December 9th, 2011
No Comments »
- Print This Post
By John Helmer, Moscow
After the episode of the Louis Vuitton fountain-pen given in San Francisco in friendship, not favour, Dmitry Rybolovlev (left) has redirected his generosity to another seaport, this time Monaco. There the welcome appears to have been decidedly warmer than he got in California, where Rybolovlev said he was thinking of investing ; or in Florida, where he’s said he was thinking of living. The weather is also warmer in Monaco than in Geneva, where there has been icy wind blowing at Rybolovlev from the cantonal divorce court, which has issued a freeze order over Rybolovlev’s worldwide assets , and a contempt of court threat against Swiss reporters for reporting the claims and counter-claims, and legal manoeuvering.
(more…)
by John Helmer - Thursday, December 8th, 2011
No Comments »
