By John Helmer, Moscow

Standard Bank is close to selling out its Russian bank interests, along with its 36.43% stake in Moscow-based Troika Dialog, to Sberbank, the Russian state savings institution and dominant retail bank in the country.
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by John Helmer - Friday, February 4th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Alrosa, Russia’s state diamond monopoly, will be ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO) by late 2011 for a 20% stake in the company, Alrosa’s chief executive Fyodor Andreyev said cryptically on the sidelines of a Moscow investor conference on Wednesday. But will international investors be ready to buy shares of Alrosa by then, and at what discount to the share value of Alrosa’s global mining peers?
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by John Helmer - Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In December, when we last visited with Mikhail Prokhorov, the only Russian to own an American basketball team, he appeared to be announcing that he prefers his ball to his shovel, and is getting ready to sell Polyus Gold, Russia’s leading goldminer, to “one of the leading gold companies in the world”.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

At the gentlemen’s club bar, within stone’s throw of BP headquarters in St. James’s, the world famous investor confessed to having a tighter grasp on his gin and tonic than on the benefits he can count from BP’s deal with Rosneft, at least for shareholders of the former company.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

According to what Morgan Stanley has written on page 7 of the Nord Gold prospectus just released , the goldminer owned by Alexei Mordashov – this week trying to sell its shares on the London Stock Exchange — “has entered into a relationship agreement with OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder to ensure that it will be able, at all times, to carry on its business independently of each of OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder and that all transactions and relationships between the Company, OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder are at arm’s length and on a normal commercial basis.”
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by John Helmer - Monday, January 31st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

If you stroll past BP’s London headquarters at night, and glance up, to the right of the top storey you will see an office window illuminated in bright blue. This may be the playroom of the former BP chief executive Lord Browne, whose departure from the company was accelerated by the intimate games he played. Bob Dudley, the current incumbent (image), may keep the blue light on in the evenings while he practices his footwork for dance tunes.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, January 27th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Mother Hubbard, one of the most popular old English nursery rhymes, was a hard-luck case. Her kindliness and generosity were ruthlessly exploited by her conniving dog, who played dead for sympathy and then took her for everything she was worth.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Moscow commercial court documents, filed on December 29 and 30, reveal that Franco-Swiss bank BNP Paribas is suing leading Russian grain trader RosInterAgroservis (RIAS) for $20.1 million. The claim, formally lodged against the RIAS subsidiary ZAO Kubankhleboprodukt, as well as its parent OOO RosAgroInterservis, refers to loans made earlier which remain unpaid.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In its 20-year history, the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been notoriously slow to process borrower applications and disburse funds. Insiders say this reflects the problems of adjusting the commercial imperatives of the bank’s €53 billion project financing book, to the political realities and demands of the 63 shareholders who were on opposing sides of the Cold War until 1991.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, January 20th, 2011
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Medvedev wants journalist’s attackers heads torn off

Published: 19 January, 2011, 10:20: http://rt.com/politics/medvedev-wants-heads-torn/

Pavel Kashin (RIA Novosti / Michail Pochuev)

“The president promised to tear off the heads of those who attacked me” said Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who was severely beaten last November.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
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