By John Helmer in Moscow
Sergei Pugachev, the owner of Northern Shipyard and Baltic Plant, two leading St. Petersburg yards, is closing a deal to sell the properties to the state, following pressure from creditors on Pugachev’s holding, United Industrial Corporation (OPB), and its associated bank, International Industrial Bank (IIB).
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By John Helmer in Moscow
A bold move by two of Russia’s largest companies to fly General Sékouba Konaté, the acting head of the Guinean state in Conakry, to a rendezvous at the Kremlin with President Dmitri Medvedev has failed after a blaze of publicity caused the general to get cold feet.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
In cockfighting there is a hard and fast rule – if your bird won’t fight, no matter how hard you push it, you forfeit the contest, and bets on the other bird must be paid.
When it comes to fighting and hiding, Alexei Mordashov, the Russian steelmaker, appears to have been outwitted by the Ukrainians. The more he hides, the more the Ukrainians push him, the more he loses. This is the first time since the presidential election of January that the new Ukrainian government has beaten off a major Russian business figure, who has the backing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
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The Moscow police disclosed this week that they have decided not to investigate Alfa-Inform, a Moscow security agency, after an individual describing himself as an employee of the company made a telephone threat to put John Helmer in a wheel-chair unless he removed documents relating to Alfa-Inform and Rusal from this website.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The Evraz steel group, the large Russian steel group owned by Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, is negotiating an undertaking to build a new steel rolling-mill in Kazakhstan, according to an announcement by the Kazakh deputy minister of industry, Berik Kamaliev.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Russian wheat exporters are increasingly confident of beating US wheat imports in the Egyptian import market after a new deal for 180,000 tonnes of Russian grain, priced at $178.50 per tonne, was announced this week in Cairo, and confirmed by grain trade sources in Moscow. The sale undercuts the US offer price by more than $10 per tonne.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
O dear! Noddy can’t make the loop the loop. After his last adventure in the jungles of northeastern Guinea, Noddy found that he still owed so much money to his bankers, he wasn’t allowed to make big-ticket plane rides without their permission.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
When two of Russia’s most reclusive oligarchs are publicly reported to be in a big shareholding transaction, rumour of which suddenly drives up the share price of the asset by 25%, the least that can suspected is that someone is manipulating the market for personal gain. So, when Suleiman Kerimov is reported to be in talks to buy all, or much of Dmitry Rybolovlev’s control stake in potash producer Uralkali, it is reasonable to suppose at least one of them is aiming to make a killing – to use a figure of speech.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The Russian state bailout bank, VEB, chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has defended the pricing of two Arctic ice-class, Panamax sized tankers ordered by Sovcomflot, which analysts and brokers have criticized as substantially above market price.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The last of the titans who have dominated Alrosa, Russia’s diamond monopoly, since its founding in 1993 has handed in his resignation, and had it accepted by the Kremlin. Vyacheslav Shtirov (also spelled Shtyrov, right image) has left for “personal reasons”, announced an aide to President Dmitri Medvedev. The reasons are his health and his family, claims a high-level Sakha diamantaire. He hasn’t been pushed out, claims another.
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