By John Helmer in Moscow In theory, Russia’s economic performance is correlated with global supply and demand for mined materials and commodities, and thus with the rate of global economic growth, especially China. In the Russian market, 80% of earnings come from commodity stocks. Before the collapse, the enormous gains in market capitalization of Russian […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Novlipetsk Metallurgical Company (NLMK), the third ranked Russian steelmaker owned by Vladimir Lisin, is considering whether to cancel two recently announced US acquisitions — John Macneely Corporation (JMC) and Beta Steel. JMC was purchased for $3.54 billion in August; Beta Steel for $400 million in September. The deals are not […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 20th, 2008
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Delay and new cost conditions may persuade De Beers to abandon the Grib pipe By John Helmer in Moscow Unclear conditions set for De Beers’ s new Archangelsk region diamond project, and unexplained delays by the Russian government in communicating them, are likely to trigger the cancellation of the $172 million fund-raising, held last June […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 20th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow The first sign of a Russian economic crisis is a line of desperate people, pushing and shoving outside a locked door, on which a scribbled sign has been posted indicating that the cash those outside thought they owned would be unavailable until further notice. In the classic Soviet tradition, a […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Norilsk Nickel investigation of asset spinoff leads to questioning of shareholder intention Mikhail Prokhorov’s holding company, Onexim, has officially confirmed that Mikhail Prokhorov will not proceed with the asset division agreement he signed on September 14 with former partner, Vladimir Potanin. A statement issued to Mineweb by the holding’s chief […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Oleg Deripaska is not having a good week. On Monday, he revealed he was at maximum stretch to garner just enough shareholder votes for two seats on the Norilsk Nickel board, plus a seat for his highly unpredictable and unreliable shareholding ally, Mikhail Prokhorov. On Thursday, Justice Christopher Clarke issued […]

by Editor - Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
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On Saturday May 17 this site was attacked by a Russian, who left behind a trail of technical identifiers, and whose identity is known. The feedback confirms the accuracy and value of the materials posted on the site during the past week. We appreciate the backhanded acknowledgement.

by John Helmer - Sunday, May 18th, 2008
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The document is available here.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
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Many things can make a person greater than he or she really is, except for time. Time activates the bacteria that strip the flesh off the bones, until only a forensic pathologist can detect the tiny signs of individuality; and even they add up to nothing more than a catalogue of pain and death. Time […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Mystery American company takes concession to mine large antimony reserves in Tajikistan. Antimony is one of the rare metals for whom new applications are being devised in electronics, battery manufacture, and flame retardants, but whose worldwide supply is fast running out. That imbalance between supply and demand makes for highly […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 22nd, 2007
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