By John Helmer, Moscow

The Jackal’s Wedding is an old Bedouin expression. It means that the beasts will love each other so long as their fallen prey is ample enough to feed the pack. And if there’s no meat, they will attack each other.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, February 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Alisher Usmanov’s enthusiasm for the earnings in the bush has always been more infectious than his success in getting his hand on the bird.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

The Russian government’s price watchdog, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), confirmed today that a new complaint charging unlawful price-fixing for steel sheet has been received. The complaint has been filed, according to FAS spokesman Victoria Livanova, by Chelyabinsk Pipe (Chelpipe, ChTPZ) against Severstal and Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Company (MMK). Industry sources claim that TMK, Russia’s largest pipemaker, has also filed a complaint against the two steel sheet suppliers.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

It is the most famous argument in favour of suspending disbelief in the history of the United States.

Every year the trillion-dollar retail sector of that country turns several billions of dollars in profits by merchandising the belief through the cash register. That is, the belief in Santa Claus, first raised in a letter by Virginia O’Hanlon (left image), an 8-year old, to the editor of the New York Sun in September of 1897 – well before she was due to receive her presents. The original editorial in response to her letter can be read below.
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by John Helmer - Monday, February 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

China’s appetite for iron-ore to make steel is one of the engines driving the entire industrial world. No mystery there, and no news.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, February 13th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

How real is the downturn in Russian company valuations and the sell-off in Russian stocks ?

Here’s what the Financial Times reports today, following the cancellation in London of the three Russian IPO’s – Koks, Chelyabinsk Pipe, and now Nord Gold:
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by John Helmer - Friday, February 11th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

The key figure behind years of allegations against three Russian partners — Oleg Deripaska, Michael Cherney (Mikhail Chernoy), and Iskander Makhmudov — appears to have turned turtle, and sought a meeting with Cherney in Israel late last month.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, February 10th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Not even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a smelter inauguration, Bloomberg promotion, lashings of gold paint on the factory walls, and fourteen hundred spotless white worker uniforms have given Chelyabinsk Pipe (Chelpipe, ChTPZ), Russia’s third largest producer of steel pipes and tubes, the dressing-up required to attract international buyers for its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Chelpipe is the property of Andrei Komarov (rabbit), whom Forbes reports to be a billionaire, if Chelpipe is worth what he says it is. Only it isn’t.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, February 10th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Note to readers: The Australian dollar has been at or above parity with the US dollar for several months. All dollar amounts reported in this story are in Australian dollars unless indicated otherwise.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In the Naughty-Boy School of Government, it is required for the boys to apply for the master’s permission to sit; stand; ask a question; refill their inkwells, and leave the room to answer the call of nature. In the history of the great English Public Schools, a great deal of bladder control was taught by this method, along with a certain callosity across the knuckles and on the buttocks.
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by John Helmer - Monday, February 7th, 2011
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