The technical team, which is responsible for security of this website, reports that 830 MB of logs of malicious software have been identified as having been launched recently against this website. For internet technicians, this is a highly unusual, possibly a record-setting volume. Most specialists report that 5 to 10 MB of such logs is unusual. The trail left by the attempted attackers is being traced to source.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Victor Chernomyrdin, one of the creators of Gazprom and Boris Yeltsin’s prime minister from 1992 to 1998, once famously said :“we wanted to do the best, but it came out as always”.
What the sly duffer meant was: “we tried to serve a better interest than our own, but only fools believe it.” That was what made Chernomyrdin famous, and also rich, in that benighted time.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Evraz, Russia’s largest vertically integrated steel group, has been ordered by the federal mine safety agency Rostekhnadzor (RTN) and a Kemerovo court to stop production at the Esaulskaya mine, in the Kemerovo region, until inspectors have resolved reported methane problems. Esaulskaya is one of several mines in the wholly owned Evraz subsidiary, Yuzhkuzbassugol (YKU — “South Kuzbass Coal”).
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By John Helmer in Moscow
A deteriorating personal relationship between chief shareholders, and growing financial pressures on loss-making Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), the Russian multimodal transportation leader, have led to a buyout offer for Fesco’s 50% stake in the National Container Company (NCC), which operates the First Container Terminal of St. Petersburg, the biggest box facility in Russia.
First Quantum, the controlling shareholder of NCC, has offered to pay Fesco $440 million for its stake. Industry sources have told Fairplay that Fesco paid $100 million less when it bought into NCC in 2007. In addition to the St. Petersburg terminal, NCC also owns and operates the NUTEP terminal in Novorossiysk; Ukrtranscontainer in Ilyichevsk, Ukraine; and Baltic Container Terminal, which is still in construction at Ust-Luga, on the Gulf of Finland.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Russia’s anti-trust buster, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), has established a record of making much ado about little; and of regulating only those corners of the Russian market where no oligarch-sized interest is threatened – unless the threat is pre-authorized by the Kremlin’s running orders. But this week the agency announced there is one Russian trust it feels on safe ground challenging — Russia’s wine importers.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Tax-free exports of crude oil from Kozmino, on the Sea of Japan — Russia’s newest oil tanker loading terminal — may be eliminated by April, after a showdown last Friday between the oil industry tsar, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, and the budget tsar, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. For the moment, Kudrin’s pocket derringer is given no chance of prevailing against Sechin’s six-shooter.
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Alexei Mordashov (left figure) has a special thing for the Italians. He’s been rewarded for it in a number of ways.
| Last July, he was awarded the Order of Merit from the Italian Ambasador to Russia. The order, according to a Severstal release, is the highest award in Italy. It had been presented to the chief executive and controlling shareholder of Severstal, “for considerable services to the [Italian] nation in the fields of literature, arts, and economics, as well as for social, philanthropic and humanitarian activities.” Owning steelmills in Italy can require the philanthropic and humanitarian impulse, not to mention literary and artistic panache. |  |
Cutting-edge recognition machines – supplied by the Russian state corporation, Nanotechnologies, courtesy of chief executive Anatoly Chubais – report that one of the largest groups of readers of this site uses the Rusal company server to gain access and read the reports. If to these are counted Rusal’s civil litigation lawyer Bryan Cave and Rusal’s London libel lawfirm Schillings – the number of people charging Oleg Deripaska and his corporation for reading the materials is currently running into several hundreds each week, and costing many thousands of dollars and pounds per chargeable hour. The Dancing Bear welcomes this display of interest, and congratulates Rusal on its newfound capacity to pay its bills. Evasion of the toll is no laughing matter. Please note that an actor has been employed in this surveillance clip, and the number-plate has been masked, to protect the real driver and car-owner. The real number is y115AM (190).
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Tatiana Borisovna Yumasheva (aka Dyachenko) has been the politically active of the late President Boris Yeltsin’s two daughters. After shunning publication for years, preserving her privacy, her residence abroad, and her domestic political interests, Yumasheva began publishing a blog on December 3. New essays or comments appear every one or two days – altogether, 38 to date. Over the course of these despatches, Yumasheva explains her publishing intentions at length, but without precision. This has led to speculation that she is launching a public political career for herself. Since she talks about whether Russia is ready to vote for a woman as president, her target may be her father’s old post. For the time being, though, Yumasheva’s basic theme is to present herself as the political heir to Yeltsin’s reputation and votes. Critics of the two of them claim they are electoral liabilities now. But the Levada polling organization says it has never measured public opinion towards Yumasheva; the blog may be the first step towards building a poll rating. If not that, there is the possibility that Yumasheva is bringing Yeltsin back from the dead as the stalking-horse for someone very much alive. Who that might be isn’t clear, yet. But it isn’t likely to be President Dmitry Medvedev, and it is certainly not Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. For they are not only alive; they are making their pact with the Russian electorate without needing Yeltsin at all. Here are some excerpts from Yumasheva.
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