By John Helmer, Moscow The Supreme Court, the UK’s highest court of appeal, has dismissed an application from Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian shipping group, to appeal against earlier judgements in favour of former chief executive, Dmitry Skarga (right). A three-judge panel issued its ruling on October 29, saying Sovcomflot’s application “does not raise an arguable […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 31st, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The Greenland government is about to open court proceedings against Greenpeace for attempts to occupy an offshore oil rig two years ago, the chief police prosecutor in Nuuk, Morten Nielsen, has disclosed. Russian sources say that Gazpromneft or parent Gazprom may be considering a similar move. These legal actions are targeted […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 30th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Private letters from foreign governments to President Vladimir Putin usually go into the Secret box. Applications by foreign governments for large-value arms deals from the Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport, usually go to the Security Council of the Russian Federation for review, and there they are kept in the Top Secret box. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 29th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow “Greenpeace has broken the safety zone. Greenpeace activists have forced their entry into the drilling rig. This constitutes an obvious illegal act that disregards the democratic rules. It furthermore constitutes a severe violation of the safety regulations put in place to protect human lives and the environment. The Greenpeace action [is] […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 24th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Once in a blue moon it is crystal clear – McChrystal clear, for reason shortly to be explained — why Anglo-American warmaking is bound to fail, and why Russian resistance to it – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Chechnya, Georgia, Libya, Syria – is the model the rest of the world should […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow A mystery company in London, doing millions of dollars’ worth of mystery business for United Company Rusal, has reappeared after being struck off the UK Companies Register in June for failure to report its annual accounts. Except that now the company auditor says he can’t explain the revenue and cost claims, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oligarchy versus democracy is a very old game, and so are the seven deadly sins. Why exactly men like Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Alisher Usmanov, Andrei Melnichenko et al. should calculate that advertising their standard of living should help them keep it is difficult to say. Maybe their pockets are under […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 20th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The conflict between state pipeline company Transneft and Summa Capital over which of them will control the Novorossiysk Seaport Company is almost over, and the winner is — the Russian state. But wait – who is at the sharp end of the state, and who has got hold of the handle? […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 18th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Struggling with a rising debt burden of more than $8.2 billion, the Evraz group, owned by Roman Abramovich (left), Alexander Abramov (centre) and Alexander Frolov (right), has suspended production at its Claymont steelmill in Delaware. The production halt is indefinite. A company announcement from Moscow on Monday says that “due to […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 17th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Last week, on October 7, United Company Rusal – the state aluminium monoply managed by Oleg Deripaska (right) — was due in the Nigerian High Court at Abuja to start trial on the claim by a Nigerian-American group, BFIG, for the handover of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (Alscon). BFIG […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
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