By John Helmer, Moscow

In the finale of the film Casablanca, the Humphrey Bogart character has shot the German officer to enable his ex-lover Ilsa and her husband, a Resistance man on the run, to make good their escape. Captain Renault sees an opportunity to do the right thing for a change, protecting Bogey and his friends. He orders the subaltern off to “round up the usual suspects.” Ilsa flies away, and Renault and Bogey walk into the fog, heading south for Brazzaville, in the Congo.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, July 24th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Russia, it turns out, has the only government in the world able and willing to do real damage to Rupert Murdoch – and throw him out.

While the UK and US governments hold their breaths as squads of policemen poke through the Murdoch media files to find evidence of corrupt entertainments and backdoor understandings with powerful politicians – some of them still hanging on to power — the Russian state bank VTB has put together a consortium and obliged Murdoch to accept $270 million for his 79% control stake in the outdoor advertising company, News Outdoor Russia.
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by John Helmer - Friday, July 22nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), owned by Sergei Generalov, announced yesterday it has acquired MetizTrans, a small railcar operator in eastern Siberia. No value for the transaction was disclosed; MetizTrans owns 971 railcars, used mostly for delivering Russian coal to Sea of Japan ports for export.

The announced purchase makes a small increment to Fesco’s railcar fleet of 19,000 units, according to a Fesco release. “We believe the acquisition … will further boost our presence in rail transportation in these regions”, Fesco quotes Alexey Grom, its Vice-President for Rail, as saying.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

EN+, one of Oleg Deripaska’s holding companies, announced today it has swapped $500 million of its debt to VTB, the Russian state bank, for a 4.35% shareholding which the bank will now hold in EN+. Oleg Deripaska, who owns all of EN+ through another of his holding companies, Basic Element, was the seller. The transaction price means that Deripaska accepted a valuation by VTB for all of EN+’s assets of $11.5 billion:
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

On Saturday, while the controlling shareholders of Sky News, Rupert Murdoch and his son James, were having to eat their words and apologize for invasion of privacy, bribery of policemen, lying to parliament, and other law-breaking — losing control of Sky News in the process — one of their ace reporters was claiming to have uncovered this scoop: “Exclusive: Hayward Eyes £8bn Russian Deals.”
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Not since the Biblical one – 5 (loaves) x 2 (fish) ÷ 5,000 (mouths) — has the division of assets proved to generate a value multiplier like the one Igor Zyuzin, owner of the Mechel steel and mining group, is trying to pull off. Or proved less convincing to the crowd in the market place, who over the past few weeks has chopped 20% off Mechel’s share price:
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by John Helmer - Sunday, July 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Sergei Frank (bottom image), chief executive of Sovcomflot, is hanging on to his job despite judgements by the UK High Court last December and this March that he is a liar and worse.

Sovcomflot, one of the largest oil tanker companies in the world, has sought leave to appeal against the rulings, and the trial judge’s dismissal of its first appeal application. The final judgement in the case has been delayed until October.
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by John Helmer - Friday, July 15th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In the wake of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s negotiations in Washington this week, US State Department documents have leaked from 2009 and 2010, revealing that American and other international banks were given an ultimatum by Deputy Prime Ministers Igor Shuvalov and Igor Sechin – either roll over the debts Oleg Deripaska had run up, or else the Kremlin would see they would get nothing at all.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

According to the Kremlin website, on July 11 President Dmitry Medvedev met with “representatives of major private and state-owned companies”. The Kremlin website has identified them:
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

If Vnesheconombank (VEB), the state bailout bank chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, really has agreed to pay $5.3 billion for the 80% control shareholding of Raspadskaya, the coking coalminer, then this is going to be Roman Abramovich’s lucky day. His second lucky day, if to count the September 2005 transaction when state-owned Gazprom paid $13 billion for Abramovich’s 72.6% stake in the oil company Sibneft. Well, it’s everyone’s lucky day, because Abramovich is known to be a sharing kind of man. With almost everyone.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
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