By John Helmer in Moscow Denmark-based fleet operator Norden has hit United Company Rusal, the Russian aluminium monopoly controlled by Oleg Deripaska, with claims for shipping contract violations since last September. The liabilities total $98.3 million. Court documents break publicly for the first time the code of silence which usually covers Russian commodity trades, the […]

by Editor - Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
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Starting in the third quarter of last year, United Company Rusal started cancelling shipping contracts for cargoes of bauxite between Australia and Sardinia. On February 4, 2009, Norden, a Danish company with whom Rusal had a long-term contract for vessel delivery of its bauxite, filed suit in the federal US Court in New York, seeking […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow And the winner of the Slumdog Millionaire award goes to….Oleg Deripaska, Moscow oligarch, London mansion owner, and controlling shareholder of United Company Rusal, for announcing in Moscow over the weekend that he does not need any financial support from the state. Rusal, in which Deripaska holds a control stake of […]

by John Helmer - Monday, February 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow It is commonplace for foxes to take chickens where they find them. It is rare for the fox to stay on, and appoint himself chief executive of the hen-house. It is unprecedented for the fox to sell the bird carcasses for a premium to the poulterer. From inside the coop, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 19th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Herbert Smith is the large London-based law firm whose role in representing the Tajikistan Aluminium Company (Talco) has helped set one of the highest fee-charging cases in the UK High Court in recent history. The law firm also helped itself to some of the judge’s personal notes and papers in […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow In a stunning repudiation of Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, lawyers for the Tajikistan Aluminium Plant (Talco) agreed overnight to halt their High Court case in London. They have settled with Avaz Nazarov, the Ansol company, a former manager and traders of the aluminium plant, whom Rahmon and his cronies ousted […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 27th, 2008
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The news has just been received from London of the capitulation overnight of President Emomali Rahmon and the Tajikistan Aluminium Plant in their court case against Avaz Nazarov and a group of former managers and traders of the aluminium plant. The terms of the settlement, and details of the circumstances, which put a stop to […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 27th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Financial collapse inside Oleg Deripaska’s aluminium empire in Moscow is triggering fresh moves by rivals and critics to oust his company from Nigeria and the Republic of Guinea (Conakry). A costly electricity failure at the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) has already paralyzed operations there for several weeks, while […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow In some cultures it is considered entertaining sport for a crowd to watch roosters tear each other to death with specially-fitted steel talons. In other cultures, the crowd prefers to watch a man in fancy-dress stab a bull that has been specially bred to do nothing unpredictable with its horns. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow When United Company Rusal, the international aluminium producer controlled by Oleg Deripaska, invited a 37-man delegation of Chinese reporters and cameramen to Russia last month, the aim was to get across the message that China is the central kingdom in the Deripaska empire; that as much or more investment is […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
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