by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Alrosa announced last week that it has appointed Vasily Grabtsevich as a special senior executive for managing relations between the two controlling shareholders of the company, the federal government in Moscow and the Sakha republic government in Yakutsk. The federal government controls almost 51% of the closed shareholding of Alrosa; Sakha controls 40%.

The creation of the new executive post at the vice president level, and the naming of a trusted subordinate of regional president, Vyacheslav Shtirov (centre figure), indicates the extent to which the new Alrosa CEO, Fyodor Andreyev (rear right), is intent on eliminating informal mechanisms and mediators, who have dominated the sensitive inter-government relationship under previous chief executives, Alexander Nichiporuk and Sergei Vybornov.
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by John Helmer - Monday, December 28th, 2009
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At the Reichenbach Falls, May 4, 1891

This is how the two greatest criminal minds of the 19th century came to grips, and set the course for the history of Russia in both the 20th and 21st centuries.

Sherlock Holmes (right) met James Moriarty (left) in hand to hand combat, and the two of them followed Holmes’s hat (extreme left) downwards. But despite the appearances, not to the death of either of them. And so it is hardly an exaggeration to say that the plaque at the Falls today, which reads “at this fearful place, Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty, on 4 May 1891”, is a piece of Swiss confectionery, and not a very tasteful one at that.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, December 27th, 2009
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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, December 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Evraz, the largest of Russia’s integrated steel and mining groups, has reported that an underground detonation of explosives in a shaft of its mine Yestyuninskaya — part of the group’s Vysokogorsky iron-ore combine — has killed at least nine miners, and another four are still missing. The incident near the city of Nizhny Tagil, in the Sverdlovsk region, where Evraz operates its lead Russian steelmill, occurred Wednesday at a depth of 180 metres. A local police source said that about 4 tonnes of ammonium-based explosive had detonated while being trasnsported in shaft trolleys.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Sovcomflot (SCF), the state owned Russian tanker operator, released this week a board-approved strategy for the next five years, proposing to invest $5.5 billion with a combination of new borrowings and share sales over a six-year period. This capital outlay on a fleet that already counts 146 vessels, with another 16 on shipyard order, is unprecedented.

According to Sovcomflot board chairman, Sergei Naryshkin, a career associate of Prime minister Vladimir Putin and a deputy prime minister in the present Russian government, the “strategic tasks for SCF Group from 2010 to 2015 include both further growth in the SCF Group’s share of servicing Russia’s seaborne exports , the provision of integrated logistical solutions for offshore upstream oil and gas projects, and the continuing expansion of traditional shipping services in the global market.” The statement is cited in the company’s posting of the results of its final board meeting for the year, on December 18. The full text can be read here: http://www.sovcomflot.ru/npage.aspx?did=57531
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Hong Kong Exchange executives and the Hong Kong stock market regulator appear to be cracking and splitting under the strain of a phantom share listing and sale for United Company Rusal, Russia’s aluminium monopoly and one of the world’s leading producers of bauxite, alumina and primary aluminium. Although anonymous sources insist in press leaks that Rusal’s listing application has been approved, the exchange and the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong refuse to say this, or issue any of the notices, announcements, and public disclosures that are standard in such cases.
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by Editor - Monday, December 21st, 2009
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by John Helmer - Sunday, December 20th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Russia’s state stockpile agency Gokhran has this week released details of next year’s state funding for rough diamond purchases from Alrosa, revealing for the first time the average price per carat that will be paid.

According to a direct Gokran source and to an Interfax briefing by another Gokhran official, Gokhran says the 2010 budget allocates the rouble equivalent of $1 billion for purchase of about 14 million carats. This is an unprecedented public disclosure of the dollar and carat totals, allowing the first-ever calculation that Gokhran is paying, or plans to pay Alrosa, an average of just over $71 per carat.
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by John Helmer - Friday, December 18th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

A powerful 6-point storm on Monday did an estimated $60 million worth of damage, and severely set back the construction schedule for the new Sochi cargo port, being built for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at Imeretinsky Bay. The new port is being built by the holding company of bankrupt Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, and funded from the federal budget.

Liebherr-Werk Nenzing has the contract to supply mobile harbour cranes and other cargo handling equipment.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, December 17th, 2009
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