By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska is flying to the rescue of the Fatherland, again. Russia is now a war economy, even if not all the Kremlin officials in charge will admit it publicly, as they squabble privately over what to do, and who will gain. “A new industrialization for the country”, Deputy Prime Minister […]

by Editor - Sunday, September 28th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow What do Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Anders Aslund, Steven Pifer, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the Brookings Institution have in common? Answer: they drink unpasteurised milk from the Ukraine. Lots of it. How damaging this may be for the health depends on how Victor Pinchuk (image left, right), […]

by Editor - Saturday, September 27th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Ukrainian government and commercial interests are lobbying the US Government to support a stealth sanction against VSMPO-AVISMA, the Russian supplier of titanium to Boeing and other US aerospace companies. Instead of VSMPO, the Ukrainians are seeking US government financing for the establishment of new high-grade titanium production lines at Zaporizhye Titanium […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 17th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow On Sunday, September 14, Victor Pinchuk signed a declaration with a group of leading Russian and German businessmen, calling for decentralization of regional power in eastern Ukraine; self-determination and constitutional guarantees of minority rights; military non-alignment and neutrality barring Ukrainian membership of NATO or foreign military deployments, bases, advisors on Ukrainian […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 16th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Petro Poroshenko disappointed most of the audience at Victor Pinchuk’s Kiev party on Friday and Saturday by suggesting that he is ready to trim the terms of Ukraine’s partnership agreement with the European Union in order to meet President Vladimir Putin’s demands. But that’s exactly what Pinchuk (front row, 6th left) […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 15th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Mikhail Abyzov (centre) is the man in charge of keeping the Russian government transparent, accountable and so far as the name of his ministerial commission can be stretched through 235 government press releases since his appointment in May 2012, open. But the Minister for Open Government has a secret he keeps […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 11th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Interpipe, the steel and pipemaking group owned by Victor Pinchuk (lead image, centre) and based in Dniepropetrovsk, is high and dry, according to the latest financial report signed by the auditors on June 30, 2014. That is despite having suffered a 14% downturn of sales revenues for the year to $1.5 […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 29th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Rinat Akhmetov (lead image, above left and right) is still the Ukraine’s richest man. If you believe the financial reports just issued by his Metinvest group, Ukraine’s largest steel, iron-ore, coal and coke maker, it’s a case of his singing all the way to the bank in Switzerland — without the […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 24th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow In a decision announced last week, the US Department of Commerce did Victor Pinchuk, owner of Interpipe, the Ukraine’s leading pipemaker and exporter, a favour worth between $6 million and $9 million per annum for the next three years. At the same time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has ordered the […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 17th, 2014
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow United Company Rusal has admitted that one large international bank is refusing to accept the restructuring terms the company has offered for loans totaling $5.15 billion which fall due for repayment by July 7. Until now, there has been speculation that state-owned Chinese banks had been pressing for repayment in cash, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 30th, 2014
No Comments »