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by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The Russian grain trade is complaining that there has been another outbreak of the weevil wars delaying large consignments of Russian export wheat from being landed and sold at ports in Syria and Egypt, ostensibly for reason of infestation.

This time, two vessels and 110,000 tonnes of grain, originally loaded at Novorossiysk, are reported to be standing at the Syrian port of Tartus. The Russian Grain Union president, Arkady Zlochevsky, revealed the shipping problem at a meeting in Moscow yesterday of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
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by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Yury Privalov, the former head of Sovcomflot’s London-based shipping operations, wound up his testimony in the High Court this week with half a dozen new allegations undocumented before in court, or since his release on parole from a Moscow prison on October 10, 2008.

Testifying over eight days by videolink from Moscow, Privalov, who has already served 22 months in Swiss and Russian prisons, revealed that his sole employment now is as a consultant to Sovcomflot chief executive, Sergey Frank (right figure). Details of hidden commissions he admits skimming from newbuild contracts and bank loan transactions were admitted in court, with deal percentages ranging from 1% to 4.3%. In total, Privalov’s bank account balances were identified in testimony at $14.5 million at the end of 2004, when Frank started an investigation.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The Russian government has decided to underwrite the refinancing of pipemaker TMK’s loan portfolio with state repayment guarantees. TMK is controlled by Dmitry Pumpyansky (see right figure).

A curt statement, issued Tuesday by Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy, Andrei Dementyev, said “the necessary papers are being processed by the Finance Ministry”. What the official didn’t say was how much debt the guarantee (and taxpayer obligation) will cover; and whether it will be limited to Russian state bank loans, or TMK’s entire loan portfolio. At present, TMK’s debt is more than $3.6 billion, of which $2 billion is short-term, and must be repaid within six months.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

A flurry of sales and revenue claims posted on the Alrosa website have yet to be substantiated by the chief executive, Fyodor Andreyev, or his spokesman, Andrei Polyakov. Their silence four months into Andreyev’s term in office recalls the claims, issued in June and July by the former chief executive, Sergei Vybornov, that he had fixed from 6 to 15 sales contracts for a total value of $900 million. The pricing formula, according to Vybornov, was “the price-list of the Ministry of Finance plus 17 %”. Each contract, according to Vybornov, had been for not less than $200 million, and for terms of 3 to 5 years. The buyers, Vybornov claimed, included Tiffany of the US; Dali Diamonds and Diarough of Belgium; and some unidentified Israeli companies. “We have begun with [the Belgian companies],” Vybornov said publicly, “for the simple reason that the Belgian government declared the granting of guarantees to the diamond banks for a total of $1 billion A bit later, this initiative got the [additional] support of the Flemish authorities, declaring guarantees for $250 million.”
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

In the business of boxing, a pugilist’s hands are not only his stock in trade, but weapons as potentially lethal for him to wield as a pistol is for a stickup man. If a boxer uses his fists outside the ring, he may have difficulty proving self-defence, while his adversary will have less trouble justifying having to shoot him.

So in the business of banking, if a banker offers a mining company not money, but advice, what exactly is the service rendered, and what is the banker’s word worth? How dangerous might it be for the financial health of a business to take the advice, and who carries liability, especially if the banker doesn’t perform any other service except being on the losing side of a takeover bid? And what of the practice of bankers charging twice and three times over for the same advice, plus signing fees, monthly retainers, and personal expenses on top?
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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The Bank of Moscow disclosed today, without comment, that in obtaining court orders in Moscow and Novosibirsk to seize Vadim Varshavsky’s salary and Moscow apartments, it has also obtained legal sanction for “the restriction of V.E.Varshavsky’s departure from the Russian Federation.”

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Vadim Varshavsky, the owner of the bankrupt Estar group of midsize, specialty steel mills, has been hit with court bankruptcy orders in Moscow and Novosibirsk to sequestrate half of his salary as a member of parliament, and at least two apartment residences he maintains in Moscow.

The orders by the courts are in relation to debts claimed by the Bank of Moscow, which is owed more than Rb364 million ($13 million) in defaulted loans to the Estar trading unit and to Novosibirsk Metal Works (NMZ), one of the mills in Varshavsky’s Estar group. NMZ was transferred on a 5-year lease to Metallservis, a metal trading company owned by Oleg Tyurpenko, in July. But creditors have continued pursuing Varshavsky, who had given his personal guarantee to secure the Bank of Moscow loans.
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by John Helmer - Monday, November 9th, 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 - Sunday, November 8th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Ronald Knox’s “ten commandments” that summarize all stories in the detective genre were published in 1929. Here they are:

1. The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
2. All supernatural or praeternatural phenomena are ruled out as a matter of course.
3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
4. No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
5. No Chinaman must figure in the story. (more…)

by John Helmer - Friday, November 6th, 2009
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