By John Helmer in Moscow

In Russia it is traditional for the tsar to invite the culpable to assist him in finding and punishing the culprits; or to bargain for scapegoats.

On Thursday last, October 15, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told the regular weekly session of government ministers that he has ordered the Prosecutor General to investigate corruption in the state bureaucracy.

On Wednesday of this week, October 21, President Dmitry Medvedev invited a group of Russia’s oligarchs and figures of the Russian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists to give him their thoughts on government action to deal with the economic crisis.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Gazprom, Russia’s leading company, has told Fairplay that reports that Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin agreed this week with the Turkish government to reroute the South Stream gas pipeline on to Turkish territory do not mean that Gazprom has decided to lay a land segment of the pipeline in Turkey, and bypass Bulgaria altogether (for the route until this week, see map).
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Unprecedented disclosure of the financial intimacies of world tanker leader, state-owned Sovcomflot, continues in the UK High Court in London as Igor Borisenko, the former chief financial officer and deputy CEO of Sovcomflot, returns to the witness stand today and tomorrow.

Borisenko has told the judge that, although he was in charge of Sovcomflot’s finances, he could not remember offers of sale and lease-back transactions with Sovcomflot vessels from Clarksons, Boeing Capital, and other sources, at a time when Sovcomflot’s new CEO, Dmitry Skarga, was struggling to repay a Soviet-era loan debt of $500 million . “Are you saying that there was no discussion at all around this time, that you are aware of, about whether sale and lease-back might be a source of finance?” asked Justice Andrew Smith. “I do not remember, my Lord, that this matter was discussed with me.”
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by John Helmer - Monday, October 19th, 2009
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by John Helmer - Monday, October 19th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

In the very small world of Russian steelmaking genius, Dmitry Pumpyansky (see right figure) has always been thought a bright bird at managing his pipemills, rather than for picking the right ones to buy, or the right price to pay. As the history books show, the acquisition of the Russian mills comprising the TMK alliance was due in the first place to tough measures by tough men from the Urals, with an altogether different skill set.

Pumpyansky’s big flight test was last year and now, as the full cost of his acquisition of pipemills in the US and Canada has become grimly clear. Just how grim is spelled out by Ernst & Young in unprecedented warnings attached to the TMK financial reports, which were released on Friday. As they read the results, the stock markets chopped 3% off TMK’s share price.
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by John Helmer - Monday, October 19th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The key witness in the $800 million Sovcomflot (SCF) case against former CEO, Dmitry Skarga, and charterer Yury Nikitin, has contradicted a core claim by the company in his High Court testimony this week.

Igor Borisenko, SCF’s former chief financial officer, told the court he supported chartering of oil tankers to the shipping arm of the Kirishi refinery group, a company known as PNP, run by Yury Nikitin, before Skarga took over Sovcomflot in 2000, and afterwards as well. Borisenko was cross-examined about the written submission by Sovcomflot’s solicitor, Stuart Shepherd, that “Sovcomflot would not have done business with Mr Nikitin’s companies at all, had it not been for the bribes or other benefits provided by Mr Nikitin to Mr Skarga.” Borisenko told the court: “I think that Sovcomflot could charter vessels to PNP without bribes being paid.”
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by John Helmer - Friday, October 16th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

If the North American Treaty Alliance (NATO) takes seriously the threat the members believe the Russian military poses for the Saakashvili regime in Georgia, or the equally jumpy rulers of the Baltic shore, it might think twice about putting more North American beef into the borsch and pelmeni that Russian tankmen and parachutists eat each day to keep up their protein levels.

US purveyors of New York sirloins and T-bone steaks may take comfort from the defence that most US beef has long been ousted from the Russian meat market; their only sales go to the elite restaurants and hotels of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the Russian Army, USDA Prime goes only to the generals.

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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 15th, 2009
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On October 6, Sergey Frank criticized John Helmer in testimony in the UK High Court, condemning, as he has done before, Helmer’s reporting of the affairs of the Sovcomflot shipping company, headed by Frank since 2004.

On October 12, the Foreign Press Centre of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation telephoned Helmer in Moscow with a request to meet the next day with Boris Shardakov and Oleg Churilov. Shardakov is head of the office of work with foreign correspondents.

On October 13, at 4 in the afternoon, Shardakov and Churilov told Helmer that a letter addressed by Sovcomflot to the Foreign Ministry had been received. It was signed by the spokesman for Frank, Andrei Kechashin.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The Guinean government in Conakry has decided not to despatch a Foreign Ministry delegation to Moscow for the time being, while it gives negotiators from Russia’s aluminium monopoly, United Company Rusal, the chance to discuss privatisation, tax and accountingclaims next week.

Guinean sources have told Business Day that a planned trip to Russia, agreed with the Russian Foreign Ministry for last week, has beenpostponed on Conakry’s initiative. The Guinean proposal to Rusal aims at a meeting next week in a European city. Rusal mines bauxite at Kindia, and holds the mining right for the undeveloped Dian-Dian bauxite deposit. The company lost its Friguia concession and the Friguia almina refinery after a privatisation process held in 2006 was ruled invalid by a Conakry court last month.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

One of the reasons for pornography is that it provides a low-cost alternative to the real thing. Not to mention the chance to fantasize immediately about a future pleasure that isn’t likely to materialize — or to be affordable if it does.

The announcement on Tuesday of Russia’s agreement in principle to supply up to 70 billion cubic metres per annum of natural gas by pipeline to China is like that. Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin needs to show that his command of Russia’s energy concessions is capable of delivering cash into the counting-house. A UK High Court trial, also under way this month in London. of claims relating to the management of the state-owned oil shipping company Sovcomflot has exposed the lengths to which Sechin, other government officials, and commercial allies in oil trading, ports and tankers, have already gone for this cash. A damage assessment in Moscow of the disclosures in the London court has the potential to cause problems for Sechin, if on top of everything, the counting-house goes short.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
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