By John Helmer, Moscow

Following the Fukushima disaster in Japan early this month, Russian government safety checks of all operating and experimental reactors have triggered skepticism that the experimental floating nuclear reactor vessel, Academician Lomonosov (right image), will be commissioned shortly, then towed to the Sea of Okhotsk, off the Kamchatka peninsula. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced the order for the check of the 31 operational nuclear reactors, which produce about 22 gigawatts, or about 10% of Russia’s currently installed power capacity.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

At least two things are obvious about the Wikileaks disclosures on Russia – one is that a great many cables from the US Embassy Moscow are available in the quarter of a million files obtained by the Guardian newspaper of London; the second is that very few of these have been released so far, none of them of significance.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Budding actors are usually taught to beware the unintended effects of spotlights. By focusing light, they can bring out an audience’s curiosity in what is going on in the dark, off stage, especially if the actor delivers lines that have been heard before, or delivered weakly.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

It is now one week since Rusal obliged Norilsk Nickel to call an extraordinary meeting of shareholders for a fresh round of voting on the Norilsk Nickel board . This is the third such vote; the first was at the regular annual shareholders meeting of Norilsk Nickel on June 28, last year; the second followed on October 21. There will be a fourth when the Norilsk Nickel shareholders return for their annual general meeting in another 12 weeks.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 18th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Russia’s grain traders have applied to Mother Nature (image centre) for help in deciding whether Russia’s weather this spring and summer will be so mild, sunny and also wet as to produce a bumper harvest , allowing exports to resume and Russia to retake its place as the third largest grain exporter in the world. That is to say, at least one of the powerful domestic traders — Aston Corporation of Rostov-on-Don, headed by Vadim Vikulov (image right )– believes it knows Mother Nature’s answer well enough to publicly accuse the Russian Grain Union, headed by Arkady Zlochensky (image left), of failing to lobby hard enough for the Kremlin’s export ban to be lifted before the due date of July 1.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Russians have always appreciated a good strong watch, and until the collapse of the Soviet Union the domestic watch industry competed effectively against most foreign brands. But the past two decades have almost destroyed the value Russians themselves attribute to such domestic watch brand-names as Polyot and Vostok. The conspicuous display of foreign watch brand-names as an indicator of Russian power, success and wealth hasn’t helped.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

The disclosure that Alisher Usmanov has recently made a secret agreement with Oleg Deripaska to achieve improved corporate governance at Norilsk Nickel is more revealing than Usmanov intends to let out – but that additional revelation isn’t difficult to guess.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Russia’s largest coking coal producer independent of the major steel groups is for sale, as the two controlling shareholder groups — Gennady Kosovoy and Alexander Vagin, who run the management, and the Evraz group — have engaged investment banks to find a buyer for their combined 80% stake in the company. At least, this is the appearance of the story, after Kosovoy and Vagin announced their intention to sell just a few days after Evraz beat them to it, and following the former owner-managers’ declaration of their unwavering intention to remain precisely where they are.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 11th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

United Company Rusal has triggered three recent pollution crises in Ukraine, Russia and Guinea, and in the latest one, frozen red dust from alumina refining operations at the Ukrainian city of Nikolaev coated a five square kilometre area last week, making it look to residents like a Martian landscape.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 4th, 2011
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