By John Helmer, Moscow

Does he or doesn’t he? Is S&M best practice in his management thinking — cutting-edge in the literal sense?

Mikhail Prokhorov has a funny way of answering questions about his tastes, and ingratiating himself with reporters at the same time. When interviewed recently by a special reporter for the New York Times – the Times editors were reluctant to commit one of their regular byliners to the job – Prokhorov showed how he is able to break a man’s leg in just three furtive moves.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
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“One oligarch, One divorce, Two abysses”, Pierre-Alexandre Sallier, Le Temps, Geneva,
October 30, 2010 — translated from the French

In Geneva, the wife of Dmitri Rybolovlev demands half of his wealth of 12 thousand million Swiss francs ($12.1 billion)

This affair leaves two big holes, one in Cologny, the most upper-crust hill of Geneva, the other one in the Urals
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by John Helmer - Monday, November 1st, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Now children, this is a story of the boy who was so keen to go on holiday, he packed his bag too soon.

The three insiders familiar with the matter, on whom Bloomberg relies, seem to have got the story wrong, at least so far as the timing of Alexei Mordashov’s (right image) initial public offering (IPO) of Nord Gold shares. They were reported as saying last week that the company had lodged its application to the Listing Authority of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the London regulator headed by Hector Sants (left image): “OAO Severstal’s gold-mining unit is seeking regulatory approval for a $1 billion initial public offering in London, according to three people with knowledge of the plan. The IPO, managed by Credit Suisse Group AG, Morgan Stanley and Troika Dialog, may start as early as this month, pending approval from regulators in London, two of the people said, declining to be identified because the information is private.”
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by John Helmer - Friday, October 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Evraz, Russia’s largest steelmaking group, has announced this week the creation of a special internal committee on health, safety and environment, and will appoint a new vice president to supervise these issues. A company statement says it “is focused on increasing the level of industrial safety, labour protection and care of the environment across its international operations.”
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by John Helmer - Friday, October 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow

One of every ten dollars Alrosa is hoping to borrow from investors this month has been provisionally set aside to advertise Alrosa at the next three Olympic Games – London, Sochi, and Rio de Janeiro. This is the largest purse of Russian philanthropy, advertising, or giveaway ever publicly offered to western bond buyers to approve, and to fill.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 28th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow

An order by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to extend the current ban on wheat, rye, barley and corn exports until July 1 next year — announced last week — will make an exception to allow Russian millers and traders to ship milled flour abroad. Allowing 1.4 tonnes of wheat to make one tonne of flour, the tonnage of wheat not allowed to be exported, which may be shipped as flour, may reach a million tonnes, triple the volume of the flour trade in the year before the drought.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Anonymous reports about Alisher Usmanov usually appear because he is selling or buying something, and wants to advertise his price. Or else they are there because Usmanov’s rivals and critics are at work. A report from London on Sunday that Usmanov is about to clinch a deal with the Japanese trader Mitsui is probably an advertorial.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

A year ago in Moscow, the Queensland state premier, an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician named Anna Bligh, was threatened that if she didn’t give Oleg Deripaska what his United Company Rusal wanted from the state, he would punish the state treasury with the withdrawal of millions of dollars in bauxite mining royalties. Bligh has been doing her best to give him what he wants – and keep her deal secret.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, October 24th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), which in Soviet days dominated dry-cargo shipping, has reported another loss in the first half of this year. What makes this news is that the red-ink line came in at $28.1 million; one-quarter of the loss reported for the six months to 2009 at $124.1 million.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Today the news comes to you from Homer, with Odysseus doing the talking: “We came to the land of the Kyklopes race, arrogant lawless beings who leave their livelihoods to the deathless gods and never use their own hands to sow or plough; yet with no sowing and no ploughing, the crops all grow for them–wheat and barley and grapes that yield wine from ample clusters, swelled by the showers of Zeus. They have no assemblies to debate in, they have no ancestral ordinances; they live in arching caves on the tops of high hills, and the head of each family heeds no other, but makes his own ordinances for wife and children.” The countryside is empty of men, because the Kyklopes (Cyclops) eat them.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 21st, 2010
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