By John Helmer, Moscow Andrei Melnichenko has extra reason to be concerned about the sunlight — and we aren’t talking financial transparency. The owner of Eurochem, a large Russian producer of fertilizers, says he has evidence that sunlight on his surfaces reveals rash, blotches, separations, lines, starring and sagging. He says he’s paid to see […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, December 15th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Interpipe, the heavily indebted Ukrainian pipemaker owned by Victor Pinchuk (centre), owes at least $120 million to Russian banks, led by state-owned Sberbank controlled by former Minister of Economic Development, German Gref (wall picture, left). But the Russian bankers are not represented in any of the loan restructuring negotiations which are […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 13th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Russian justice being what is, it is exceptional when the chief executive of a company owned by Oleg Deripaska (right) is arrested and carried off to prison on charges of fraud. As the days lengthen through which Deripaska’s man must spend behind bars – 16 as of today — interrogated by […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, December 8th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Victor Pinchuk, the owner of Interpipe, the Ukrainian steelmaker which defaulted on its debts on November 1, has called his first-ever public business meeting. The date is December 9, and the meeting will be telephonic. Deutsche Bank, which is acting as trustee for Interpipe’s $200 million Eurobond issue, is promising to […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 5th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Interpipe, the Ukrainian pipemaker owned by Victor Pinchuk (left), son-in-law of ex-President Leonid Kuchma (centre, right), has released its first official acknowledgement that it is in default on $106 million of debt owed to its banks. In a statement yesterday on the company website, Interpipe said negotiations are under way with […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 27th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow According to United Company Rusal, the Russian state aluminium monopoly, it is one of the most transparent multinational corporations in the world – that’s to say, in the emerging markets of the world, and across sixteen countries. A report of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI), issued on October 16, has ranked Rusal […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 13th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Interpipe, the leading Ukrainian pipemaker, failed to meet last Friday’s deadline for repayment to its international bankers of $106 million, sources in Kiev have confirmed. Interpipe, owned by Victor Pinchuk (image above) and his wife Elena, daughter of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, is the largest steelmaker in the former Soviet […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 8th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Oligarchy versus democracy is a very old game, and so are the seven deadly sins. Why exactly men like Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Alisher Usmanov, Andrei Melnichenko et al. should calculate that advertising their standard of living should help them keep it is difficult to say. Maybe their pockets are under […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 20th, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow Victor Pinchuk (right top) is the Ukrainian oligarch who last month hosted Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and other political wannabes or has-beens, to promote himself as the champion of Ukrainian independence. This week he stands in the UK High Court charged by two other Ukrainian oligarchs with […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow If the common Russian opinion of who runs the country matches the evidence of who really runs Russia, that’s a reliable test of a democratic culture. There’s a catch. If just one man and a handful of his trusties run the country, and noone else, not even the very rich or […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 25th, 2013
No Comments »