By John Helmer in Moscow Suddenly this month, Hydro Aluminum, the state-led metal producer of Norway, has been called to public account by senior members of the Norwegian Parliament; by independent Norwegian experts; and by Norway’s trade and foreign ministers over the terms of alumina and aluminum contracts the company signed last December with the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Suddenly this month, Hydro Aluminium, the state-led metal producer of Norway, has been called to public account by senior members of the Norwegian parliament; by independent Norwegian experts; and by Norway’s Trade and Foreign Ministers over the terms of alumina and aluminium contracts it signed last December with the Tajikistan […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 12th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Litigators and analysts look for cash inside Russia’s global aluminium giant. Most of the trouble Oleg Deripaska, controlling shareholder of United Company Rusal, has faced in the court claims confronting him in the past, and the one from Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney) he currently faces in London, comes from the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow In Tajikistan, the nexus between water, electricity, and aluminium turns out to be a dark secret — and a presidential treasure It’s difficult to run a country in the dark. Politicians who leave voters in the cold, unable to cook or keep warm, become unpopular with the flick of a […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Scoop! Rabbit overtaken by tortoise. The news that Oleg Deripaska – zaitschik, “rabbit”, as he was known when younger – has been overtaken, and overturned, by JP Morgan Cazenove and Goldman Sachs, was front-page on Friday. In a carefully worded despatch, the Financial Times claimed the world’s largest aluminium industry […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow LSE regulators and US government investigations trigger strategy differences on getting Rusal to market. US and European banks are fighting among themselves over the terms of the proposed initial placement offering (IPO) of shares of United Company Rusal, the Russian owned bauxite miner and world’s no.2 aluminium producer. The conflict […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, August 30th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Norway is one of those countries, inhabited by one of those peoples, which have exercised some of the greatest comedians in the English language – to little avail. John Cleese once explained his assignment on behalf of the Norwegian Tourist Board, as he stepped out of a wet summer fjord […]

by John Helmer - Friday, August 17th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Harry Lime was the character invented by novelist and one-time intelligence officer Graham Greene, who understood how an investment banker should operate when the breakdown of government makes the black market the only source of supply, trade, and profit. Lime’s racket in post-war Vienna, then occupied by the allied armies, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, August 6th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow The torch that Oleg Deripaska, controlling shareholder of United Company Rusal, is trying to pass to Alexander Bulygin, Rusal’s chief executive, is proving to be a hot potato. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that in its strategy for listing Rusal shares later this year on the London Stock […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
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MOSCOW – One of the oldest friends of Rusal owner, Oleg Deripaska, still calls him by the nickname, zaichik; that’s Russian for hare. The surname of Alexander Bulygin, Rusal’s chief executive, suggests the Russian for a cobble-stone (bulizhnik), but nobody calls him that for short. The ancient fabulist Aesop didn’t think well of either hares […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 23rd, 2007
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