MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – When we last left our Great White Hunters, the Anglo American chief executive and two of his companions, they had arrived in Moscow for two days of meetings, Monday and today. Like the legendary Allan Quatermain himself, they were intent on covering their tracks, while manoeuvering into position for their prey. But […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 30th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -The headline in the Moscow newspaper came straight out of Rider Haggard’s century-old adventures. “Renova masters Africa”, it said, going on to describe how Victor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch behind the Renova company, recently visited South Africa to arrange local approval of a plan for the largest manganese mine in the world, and […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 29th, 2004
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By John Helmer in Moscow Laundering a man’s reputation is a little like laundering money. The more you churn the facts, the harder it is to remember them; the less damage they can do; and the whiter the outcome. It is for this reason that Russia’s oligarchs have spent so much effort bringing defamation cases […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 22nd, 2004
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Laundering a man’s reputation is a little like laundering money. The more you churn the facts, the harder it is to remember them; the less damage they can do; and the whiter the outcome. It is for this reason that Russia’s oligarchs have spent so much effort bringing defamation cases against their critics and investigators […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 18th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – Brian Gilbertson, the South African appointed a few months ago to head SUAL, a Russian mining and metals company, has run into a problem from a direction he couldn’t have anticipated — from the past. And unless he can quickly resolve the problem, the company he was hired to sell to foreign […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 18th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – There is an old Russian tradition of never speaking ill of the powerful. But in March, when President Vladimir Putin plucked Yury Trutnev from provincial obscurity to become his minister of natural resources, it was far from clear whether Trutnev had been chosen because he was already a powerful figure, or because […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
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