By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s aluminium and nickel oligarchs go to the mat for state bank funding. A fierce battle has begun for access to state bank cash to determine who ends up in control of Russia’s largest metal and mining companies, Norilsk Nickel and United Company Rusal. Rusal spokesman Vera Kurochkina disclosed officially […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 9th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Smelter pollution charges fly in Rusal-Norilsk clash. The fight for control of Russia’s largest mining company, Norilsk Nickel, has turned into a battle over smelter emissions and environmental safety. UC Rusal (Russian Aluminium), the Russian aluminium monopoly, fired the first shot as part of its hostile takeover attempt of Norilsk […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
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Tajik publication attacks Mineweb’s Helmer and his reporting on aluminium group. Johannesburg – On September 11, Mineweb published a report by John Helmer, entitled “IMF Attacks Tajikistan Aluminium Co – orders international audit”. Publication followed attempts by Mineweb’s Moscow office to ask the following questions of Talco in Dushanbe: 1. According to an IMF country […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 19th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow A new IMF report reveals for the first time where Tajikistan’s aluminium revenues are going. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a report that is sharply critical of the Tajikistan Aluminium Company (Talco), the leading enterprise of the Central Asian republic run by President Emomali Rahmon; and has ordered […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 11th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Oleg Deripaska, controlling shareholder of United Company Rusal, the world’s largest producer of primary aluminium, has reason to be an unhappy man. On Thursday evening, he called in a group of sympathetic reporters to explain how unhappy. “You can sit a cat and dog next to each other,”he said, “but […]

by John Helmer - Friday, August 8th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Leading Tajikistan figure ordered to testify by London judge or “evidence will fall away”. A London High Court judge warned this week that unless one of the leading figures in Tajikistan appears in London in October for cross-examination on oath, the key evidence in the high-profile Tajikistan aluminium case “will […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Despite a brace of judicial rulings from the English courts against blackening reputations as a business tactic, United Company Rusal has reacted to the defeat of its candidates for the Norilsk Nickel board with this blistering ad hominem attack: “Moscow, 8 July 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium […]

by Editor - Saturday, July 12th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow MOSCOW – The spear points of the fence that guards the Royal Courts of Justice, off Fleet Street in London, haven’t been used to display the severed heads of criminals for half a millennium. They remain sharp, and deterring, nonetheless. Inside, and upstairs to the left, the swinging oak doors […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Fate of Rusal shareholding hinges on evidence in UK, Swiss and Israeli courts In what is shaping up as the most significant case against the Russian business oligarchy ever argued in an international court, Oleg Deripaska, Russia’s richest man, has told the UK High Court, in his defence, that he […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the good old days, when intrepid Englishmen competed with Russians for commercial and military footholds in Central Asia, the object of their Great Game was to fill the local bazaars with English manufactured goods, and extract in exchange as much treasure as the locals could be gulled into giving […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 12th, 2008
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