By John Helmer, Moscow

For those with a taste for the burlesque, politicians speaking for the cash interests of the perishable food trade are hard to match. The smaller the politician’s country of origin, the louder the petomane, and the bigger the pratfall.

Russia’s chief food inspector Gennady Onishchenko (left image) yesterday ordered the ban on imports of European Union-produced vegetables lifted with special conditions, following negotiations with EU public health officials in Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday. Reacting to the outbreak of fatal e.coli infections from tainted food in Germany, and misleading information from the German and European Commission (EC) authorities in Brussels, the Kremlin first ordered a partial ban on imports of cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce on June 1. This was followed a day later by a ban on all European vegetable imports, backed by a warning from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on European “cucumber poison.”
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by John Helmer - Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

A decade ago, when Oleg Deripaska trusted Gulzhan Moldazhova, his principal money-changer, to negotiate with China, the authorities in Beijing were reluctant to agree to permitting what was then called Russian Aluminium (Rusal) to open a representative office in Beijing. Until then Rusal had exported aluminium to China through international traders and warehousers in Hong Kong. The Chinese method for saying no to Rusal at the time was to say nothing – and delay.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Transneft, the state-owned Russian oil pipeline company, is now refusing to pay state-owned oil producer Rosneft $26 million in money Transneft claims that the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) should pay for pipeline deliveries of crude oil, but won’t or hasn’t.

The conflict has also revealed discounting tactics affecting all shipborne cargoes of crude oil between the world’s largest energy exporter and the world’s largest energy consumer.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

There are three golden rules for valuing Russian initial public offerings (IPOs) in the international market.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Who would buy a share in a diamond-mining company whose board of directors lacks anyone with the career experience of mining anything; or of managing a public shareholding company; or of selling commodities in a global market? That’s not a question, the answer to which the Russian Finance Ministry cares if anyone asks; or cares to answer. The Finance Ministry supervises the Russian diamond sector, and the world’s largest diamond miner, Alrosa. And regarding its property, the ministry considers that to be as private as the Oppenheimer family regard De Beers, world’s second largest diamond miner.
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by John Helmer - Monday, June 20th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Monday, June 20th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

When money is at risk, open stock markets generally insist on openness, although there are murky exceptions, especially in Canada.

It also turns out that business secrets are much harder to keep in the Russian market than elsewhere. That’s one reason the Russian risk discount is so high: the ability of Russian stakeholders to conceal material facts of asset value and title, related party transactions, and tax, transfer price and other administrative sanctions is far weaker than you will find in the developed stock exchanges or even in other emerging markets.
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by John Helmer - Friday, June 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In Mother Goose’s original nursery rhyme, the trio at sea got there by jumping out of a rotten potato. Mother G. also didn’t rate highly their options for surviving at sea. But that’s kids’ stuff.

Buying shares in Russian transportation companies – rail, shipping, ports, containers – is a grown-up bet on the growth of the Russian economy. If gross domestic product (GDP), crude oil prices, real and disposable income are all rising, then it’s likely that moving container-loads of goods inward to feed consumer demand will also grow. Terminals to unload and load the boxes should prosper. That, at least, is what Russian port promoters would have you believe. On current prospects, with first-quarter GDP growth at 4.1%, crude oil up by 24% (Urals, year to date), and imports surging 41% over last year, investors don’t have to be gulled.
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by John Helmer - Friday, June 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In European folklore, will-o’-the-wisps are lambent flames seen flickering over bogs and fens, and known by many different names and stories. Usually explicable as methane igniting, in some Baltic mythologies the will-o’-the-wisp is believed to signal buried treasure. In others, the ignition is believed to be the trick of a mendacious imp intent on leading unwary travellers to misfortune.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, June 16th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

It’s impossible to celebrate independence of oneself. It is possible to take leave of your senses.

День России, Russia Day, for which Russians take off today, is one of those cynical inventions for which Boris Yeltsin was responsible. It was on June 12, 1990, when, manipulating his control of the Russian republic parliament, Yeltsin declared Russia’s sovereignty from the Soviet Union, i.e, the start of his destruction of Mikhail Gorbachev, and almost everything else. A triumph of meretriciousness over sanctimony. In time, the insecurity from which the one seemed to be offering liberation from the other will deserve a different quality of relief – and apter memorial.
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by John Helmer - Monday, June 13th, 2011
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