By John Helmer in Moscow Insomniacs count sheep to get off to sleep, but after that, dreams come plentiful and cheap. When Oleg Deripaska lays his head on the pillow these summer evenings, wishful thinking appears to have led him to a colossal miscalculation. Even worse, Deripaska appears to have been dozing, when he made […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 13th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Base metals – Twelve lines that may make Rusal’s Deripaska a poor man LONDON RULINGTwelve lines that may make Rusal’s Deripaska a poor man John HelmerDisclosure of the Chernoy-Deripaska agreement confirms US charge, and could put London share listing in doubt.MOSCOW In twelve brief lines of less than impeccable Russian, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
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By John Helmer An out of court settlement has been reached between Oleg Deripaska and his Russian Aluminium (Rusal) group, and Avaz Nazarov and a group of firms associated with the Tajikistan Aluminium Plant (TadAZ). The confidential deal was announced on Friday in London by law firm Clyde & Co, which has represented Nazarov and […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, May 20th, 2007
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -According to the Aesop fable, an ass and a dog happened to be travelling the same road together, when they found a sealed document on the ground. The ass picked it up; broke the seal; and read it out, as the dog listened. The text was all about hay, barley, and straw. The […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, August 31st, 2006
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By John Helmer in Moscow It will take more than a pair of silken toe-shoes for Russian Aluminium (Rusal), sponsor of the Bolshoi Theatre’s programme at Covent Garden this month, to dance its way out of serious drama in the English courts.

by John Helmer - Sunday, July 30th, 2006
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian strategy for extending its alliance for energy production and energy transportation into the backyard of the United States — a region Washington views as off-limits for foreign powers, since the 19th century Monroe Doctrine — marched several paces forward this week in Moscow, during the state visit of Venezuela’s […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 28th, 2006
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By John Helmer EBRD says bauxite and aluminium loans innocent until proven guilty MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a London-based lender for resource development in Russia and Central Asia, is covering up allegations of corruption in a Russian-directed takeover of an aluminium smelter in Tajikistan, the largest in Central […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
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Hardly anyone can remember the Baroness Emmuska Orczy these days, and were it not for a Broadway musical, her best-selling novel would have been forgotten, too. It was called The Scarlet Pimpernel, and it concerned the adventures of an apparently witless, secretly intrepid English knight, who defied the French Revolution to save aristocrats, who may […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 6th, 2006
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – From one banker’s point of view, lending Russian aluminium oligarch Oleg Deripaska $22.5 million is peanuts – too little to warrant much concern about the creditworthiness or asset risk of Deripaska’s principal production company, Russian Aluminium (Rusal), the world’s no.3 producer and largest exporter of primary aluminium. To be sure, if Rusal […]

by John Helmer - Friday, January 20th, 2006
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) –On the eve of Good Friday, President Vladimir Putin called the leaders of Russia’s major businesses to meet with him at the Kremlin. The oligarchs were hoping that Putin would go long on resurrection, and short on crucifixion, at least of the type that has kept their colleague, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in prison, and […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, March 26th, 2005
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