By John Helmer, Moscow
Vladimir Lisin (far right), owner of Russia’s powerful Novolipetsk steelmaking group and one of the country’s richest men, is the choice of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (3rd from left) for new board chairman of the state shipyard conglomerate, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC).
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By John Helmer, Moscow
The comic book character known as the Gambit was kidnapped from the hospital where he was born and raised by a gang of thieves. He got his way with unusual powers, like kinetic energy and hypnosis. He was also famous for his skill at card-throwing and combat with a long stick. He was distrusted by his peers, but loved by the ladies. He ranks 65th on the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
Despite the enormous publicity for Glencore’s initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange this month, and participation in the underwriting and book-running of the Russian state savings bank Sberbank, the massive Glencore prospectus says almost nothing about the trading company’s Russian business. And on the key question grain traders have been discussing for months – how many billions of dollars did Glencore lose last year after the Kremlin imposed an embargo on grain exports? – Glencore’s documents say nothing at all.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
After the report appearing yesterday on Rusal’s negotiations with the Government of Guinea was published, the following fresh information was communicated by a member of staff of President Alpha Conde, and confirmed by other Guinean sources.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
In a series of preemptory dismissals, the head of global alumina operations for United Company Rusal, Yakov Itskov (left image), and his chief executive Oleg Deripaska (right image), have been ordered out of the rooms of Guinea’s two mining ministers, Mahmoud Thiam, and his successor, Mohammed Lamine Fofana, after the ministers told them they had insulted the Guinean government. A Kremlin salvage operation was then despatched to Conakry, the Guinean capital, headed by Russia’s mining minister Yury Trutnev. But that hasn’t stopped the new Guinean president Alpha Conde, ordering his negotiators to demand Rusal surrender half or more of its billion-dollar Dian-Dian bauxite concession, and pay $860 million in compensation for past tax and customs duties avoidance at its two other Guinean mines, Kindia and Friguia.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
When self-proclaimed strategic allies like Russia and China fail to see eye to eye, they do their best to mask their differences, issuing communiqués promising amicable solutions at the next round of negotiations, or the one after that. If Moscow and Beijing fall out, the cordiality dries up, and the mutual silence can be deafening. But not this time round. Just four months since the first Russian crude oil started pumping into Daqing, the northeastern Chinese oil town, the Russian pipeline company Transneft has charged the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) with violating their supply contract, and is threatening to open court proceedings in London.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
If Yandex, Russia’s leading search engine and internet portal, tells potential share buyers and investors that it is at risk of a hostile takeover by a man like Alisher Usmanov, who owns a stake in the competing Mail.ru portal, then the charge is a serious one. And if to that, Yandex adds the warning that the president of the country may be behind a scheme to consolidate competing public companies like Yandex into a national search engine, then the initial public offering (IPO), launched last week on the US NASDAQ exchange, is a unique test of what otherwise may be called Russian modernization – and the price of betting on it.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
On Wednesday, the Russian Grain Union, representing most of the country’s grain traders and exporters, said that if the export embargo on grain is extended from July 1 to the year’s end, the expanding surpluses of grain in the southwestern growing regions will force domestic prices down to the Rb3,000 ($107) per tonne level, too low to be profitable for growers and traders, and risking a $3.3 billion loss of trade earnings in the coming season.
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By John Helmer, Moscow
When the electricity bill goes up in Russia, that is called “liberalization”. Editorialists in countries which don’t enjoy cheap electricity call that a good thing. By which they mean that Mother Nature’s special discount for Russia should be erased, and its competitive advantages in global trade destroyed.
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