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By John Helmer, Moscow The three greatest Canadians of all time are Glenn Gould, Pierre Trudeau, and Dudley Do-Right. A poll of Canadian businessmen in Moscow recently recommended Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr to displace the first two. The Canadian Broadcasting Commission nationwide poll of 2004 put Tommy Douglas and Terry Fox at the top. […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Vadim Moshkovich – Senator from Belgorod, owner of Rusagro (aka Ros Agro Plc), which sold its shares in London last week — has been singing this golden oldie from The Searchers (1963). Don’t miss the last chorus line: “I’ll never ever let you go…Oooooo, Oooooo, Ooooo” Rusagro was 94% owned by […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Euroset, the Russian mobile telephone company, failed at its attempt at its initial public offering (IPO) in London this week. Officially, the company is struggling to absorb the punch, and is blaming the markets, not itself. “Despite the fact that in the investment community there was an increased interest in Euroset,” […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow To modernize, privatize, incentivize, and win the votes of Russians yearning to be free, President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the senior ministers of the federal government to vacate their seats on the boards of state companies. First to go – on his own resignation, eleven weeks ahead of deadline – is […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow On Monday morning, we reported: “Supposing Fridman has convinced Sechin to put the Deripaska squeeze on Dudley, the buy-out price to remove AAR from TNK-BP, allowing BP to proceed with its Rosneft deal, would add 50% to TNK-BP’s market cap – that’s an extra $25.7 billion. AAR’s half-share of the new […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow When it comes to transparency of corporate practice and accountability for the spending of state money, Alrosa, the Russian state diamond monopoly, isn’t famous. But one thing is finally clear – Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has at long last gotten his wish to be relieved from having to serve as chairman […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow The primaries for the Russian presidential campaign have already begun, and there are three contenders – Igor Sechin, Dmitry Kozak, and Dmitry Medvedev. Vladimir Putin isn’t a contender – he is the convention with all the votes; he makes the choice.

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By John Helmer, Moscow In the game of cricket, nothing is rarer than a hat-trick. That is when the bowler for one side dismisses three batsmen for the opposing side in three successive balls. For the bowling side, it is a rare triumph, and almost never happens in international test games. For the batting side, […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow It’s nearly time for the peonies to bloom in China. But not for Oleg Deripaska’s plantings, at least not this season. According to sources at Deripaska’s electricity company, Eurosibenergo, the Chinese government has so far refused to approve the investment of state-controlled funds by China Yangtze Power Company (CYPC) in Eurosibenergo, […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow One man’s poison is another man’s meat – so long as he chews carefully and doesn’t swallow. What’s been bad for Japan’s steel industry has accordingly been not so bad — you might say good — for the China market, and those who supply it with what it must have — […]