By John Helmer, Moscow

Alexei Mordashov’s plan to revive the initial public offering (IPO) of his goldmining group Nord Gold has been reported to be aiming at a relaunch date before Christmas; his first attempt at selling shares on the London market was called off in February when market conditions were much more favourable to him than they are now. The current volatility in gold and other metals prices – Nord Gold documents are forecasting a 10% decline in gold prices between 2010 and 2012 — and in mining share prices, may compel another postponement for Nord Gold.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, September 29th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In retrospect, Alexei Kudrin, deputy prime minister and minister of finance, has turned out to be less stupid than Mikhail Prokhorov, when offered President Dmitry Medvedev’s poisoned chalice. On the other hand, by declaring yesterday the race for prime minister is now wide open to all-comers, Kudrin invites a chancy political replay, in which the only certain votes Kudrin can count on are in the Anglo-American financial media, and in Washington, where Kudrin has just issued his bid for Vladimir Putin’s endorsement. In Russian politics, that makes a chalice even more poisoned than the one Kudrin refused and Prokhorov swallowed in June.
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by John Helmer - Monday, September 26th, 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 ship-shape. More, they say — it’s British justice and five High Court judges who are at fault for JFC’s troubles. Kekhman owns 80% of JFC through Cyprus and British Virgin Island-registered entities, Huntley and JFC Group Holdings. Bank of St. Petersburg owns a 20% stake.
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by John Helmer - Friday, September 23rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Until now the principal reason Russian businessmen ran for election to parliament was to secure legislator’s immunity from criminal prosecution. Lobbying their business interests into legislation, or drawing money out of the federal budget into their company projects and pockets, didn’t require getting elected or taking a parliamentary seat.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 21st, 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?
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Michael just isn’t cracked up to be George.

The warrior qualities of Russia’s patron saint could come in handy in politics – aim, endurance, fearlessness – but Mikhail Prokhorov has managed in his three-month political career to demonstrate their opposites, and to prove – stunningly if you calculate his personal wealth — that he’s innumerate: his capacity to count – votes, not money – is pathologically unformed.
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by John Helmer - Monday, September 19th, 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 more, the company board chairman, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin, remains at his post. This is despite the decree signed on April 2 by President Dmitry Medvedev requiring senior state officials to vacate their seats on state company boards.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, September 15th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

There is no negotiation under way and no agreement between Alrosa and India’s state-owned Minerals and Metals Trading Company, MMTC, for a private placement of Alrosa shares in Indian hands, Russian sources, including a high Alrosa official, told PolishedPrices.com today.

They were responding to a string of recent press reports from Mumbai claiming MMTC has been discussing a share buy with Alrosa worth an estimated $2 billion. The last valuation of the state-owned Russian diamond miner, whch was made public by its chief executive Fyodor Andreyev in March, indicated a target range of between $6 billion and $12 billion.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

The big difference between the penny dreadful and the novels of the great crime writers is not the characters who wind up dead, nor who did it to them, nor how; but rather what truth the tale reveals about the society in which the crime takes place and the humankind responsible for the dirty deeds.

Originally, in the mid-19th century, the penny dreadful was a type of mass-market syndication of stories that would cost their readers only a penny to read in weekly serializations. That was at the time in England when Charles Dickens’s value-added serializations cost one shilling, twelve times the price. The lower the cover, the simpler the tale, the cheaper the paper, and the more lurid the details. In other words, maximum sex and violence, minimum sociology, politics, and moral philosophy.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
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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 stage of clinical brain damage. But in the case of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the symptoms appear to have been evidence when he was just 19 years of age.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
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