By John Helmer in Moscow

In an unusual break with the traditional hold Russian steel companies like to keep on their domestic coking-coal sources, and secure the future expansion of their steel capacity with ample reserves, the Evraz group is reported to be considering the sale of two of its Kemerovo mines to global and regional rival, ArcelorMittal. If they are good mines, why is Evraz selling? And if they are bad ones, why is ArcelorMittal buying? ArcelorMittal, which initiated the industry reports of the asset deal, has firmly silenced the tongue that was wagging; Evraz refuses to open its mouth at all.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

It’s fashionable in trade these days, especially when delicate consumer sensitivities are involved, to call a slaughter-house a meat-packing plant, as if what goes in the front-door can be made to seem as tasteful as what goes out the back. The German slogan, “Arbeit Macht Frei”, tried the technique on human beings. For the livestock concerned, the smell is always the giveaway.

In Russian business, it’s the prospectuses which release the tell-tale odour. What’s remarkable about this tell-tale prospectus is who is doing the telling – one of the largest and most powerful of Russian state companies, accompanied and advised by the state-controlled bank, VTB, pointing the finger at the Prosecutor-General.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tried sweet-talking the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Jabr al-Thani, in Moscow this week on “closer coordination” between the world’s leading exporters of natural and liquefied gas (LNG). At stake are the growing deliveries of shipborne Qatari LNG to European ports, versus the shrinking deliveries of Russian natural gas to the same market, across land by pipeline.

Qatar more than doubled its shipments of LNG into the European market last year, to 15.9 billion cubic metres. Gazprom is estimated to have suffered a reduction of 19 bcm delivered to Europe in the same period; about half of that loss was made up by Qatar.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 26th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Visits by politicians to banana boats are almost unprecedented outside the tropical climes; no Russian prime minister has ever boarded one before. Almost as rare is it for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to favour a foreign-owned shipping enterprise when it is competing against a Russian enterprise owned, not only by a fellow St. Petersburger, but the oligarch in his sector.

So who gained, and why, from Putin’s presence aboard the Maersk Niamey in St. Petersburg port on Monday?
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who also chairs the Russian bailout bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), asked Friday for the US Government to signal its support for at least two oligarch-owned Russian companies in the US.

The remark, which has taken State Department officials by surprise, mentioned Norilsk Nickel and steelmaker Severstal, whose controlling shareholders are Vladimir Potanin and Alexei Mordashov, respectively. But Putin is believed to be thinking also of two other, heavily indebted oligarch groups with American interests and US bank obligations — steelmaker Evraz, controlled by Roman Abramovich (left image), and Oleg Deripaska (right image), owner of United Company Rusal and the Basic Element automobile group.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 22nd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

In the first of a worldwide series of trials scheduled against JP Morgan Chase, the US-based banking colossus, a judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney decided last week that an attempt by JP Morgan to claim A$50.18 million (dollars are Australian unless noted) in fees was “capricious, unreasonable and unjust”. He also ruled that, before JP Morgan launched its lawsuit, the bank had received a $20 million payment for services rendered that was too much, with the balance to be refunded.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, March 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Russia’s dominant diamond miner, state-owned Alrosa, has grabbed the crown from De Beers as the world’s largest diamond producer – and most profitable one, too.

According to a press release, reporting what was said at the executive board meeting of Alrosa in Mirny, early this week, a draft annual report for last year was recommended for approval by the Supervisory Board, as Alrosa’s board of directors is known. Since the board has yet to meet and vote its approval, no report has been issued yet. However, the company release claims this report contains an aggregate diamond sales result for 2009 of $2,212.6 million. If this includes sales of polished, as well as rough, then it marks a decline of 5.3% on 2008. when Alrosa reports selling $157.6 million worth of polished, and $2,178.8 million of rough.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 19th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The US federal district court judge hearing the multi-billion dollar damage claim by Archangel Diamond Corporation (ADC) against LUKoil has been replaced this week in Colorado, after an ADC shareholder discovered that the judge, Christine Arguello, had once worked for a law firm which has been associated with LUKoil.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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We interrupt this news bulletin to bring
you a broadcast from Captain Obvious
on location live above the Kremlin
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The chief executive of Russia’s pipeline company Transneft, Nikolay Tokarev (left), has told Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin that there is not enough Russian crude oil to make commercially feasible the proposed trans-Balkan pipeline to a new tanker terminal at Alexandroupoli. Tokarev’s opinion, conveyed privately last September, appears to have encouraged Sechin to announce the following month that he, Russia’s chief decision-maker for oil, gas and the energy sector, favours replacing the trans-Balkan pipeline route between Burgas, Bulgaria, and Alexandroupoli, Greece, in favour of a much bigger-capacity pipeline delivering Russian crude from the Turkish Black Sea port of Samsun, across land, to Ceyhan, the Turkish tanker terminal on the Aegean.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
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