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By John Helmer in Moscow
Crew Gold, the Toronto and Oslo-listed junior miner whose gold reserves and mining operations are mostly in the West African republic of Guinea, is facing a legal challenge from Guinea’s mining minister, Mahmoud Thiam.
The bad news from Guinea has landed immediately after Crew Gold’s controlling shareholder, Norwegian Jens Ulltveit-Moe (right image), agreed to share his loss-making mining company with Alexei Mordashov (left image), the Russian oligarch who runs steelmills in Russia, Italy, and the US; and whose Severstal Resources owns Canadian-listed High River Gold, as well as an iron-ore mine in Liberia.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, February 18th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou (left image) met in Moscow on Tuesday with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (right image) in hope of reviving Russian plans to deliver a new crude oil pipeline from Burgas, on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, to the Greek terminal of Alexandroupoli, on the Aegean; as well as confirm Gazprom’s future gas delivery plans across Greece.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow
Mahmoud Thiam, the US investment banker who has served for the past year as Guinea’s Minister of Mining, Energy and Hydraulics, has been reappointed to his post, according to an official government announcement from Conakry, the Guinean capital, late last night.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
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Question: What measures are being taken to ensure the safety of foreigners [in Russia]?
Prime Minister: That is a big problem. Unfortunately, we have all heard of very sad cases, even tragedies, that happened to foreign students in our country in the past. I think the authorities have shown a response that is commensurate with the threat. As a result, in 2009 interethnic and interfaith crimes were halved compared with 2008. Crimes against foreign students fell by 34%. We have set up an interdepartmental group at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other regional bodies.
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by John Helmer - Monday, February 15th, 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 - Monday, February 15th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The federal mine inspectorate in Russia, Rostekhnadzor (RTN), has cleared Evraz’s mine subsidiary Yuzhkuzbassugol (YKU) to reopen the Esaulskaya mine, after a methane accident on January 20 led to a regional court-ordered closure on January 25. Evraz is owned by Roman Abramovich’s Millhouse holding, and Alexander Abramov.
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by John Helmer - Monday, February 8th, 2010
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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 - Thursday, February 4th, 2010
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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 - Sunday, January 31st, 2010
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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 - Friday, January 29th, 2010
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