By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska demanded, and received from Roman Abramovich, a warranty that in his takeover of Rusal shares, he wasn’t buying stolen goods. Testimony by Deripaska’s London lawyer, Paul Hauser, followed in the UK High Court last week with details which Deripaska himself claimed in his testimony he couldn’t remember at all. […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 28th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow To gauge the future welfare of Russia and the Russians, nothing is more telling than the Cat Test. Michel de Montaigne (left) originated it in one of his 16th century essays, when he wrote: “When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 24th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The junior Australian iron-ore miner, Flinders Mines, announced a halt to trading in its shares today amid market speculation that Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK), the Russian steelmaker owned by Victor Rashnikov (image, right), is preparing a bid to buy part or all of the Flinders Mines shares, adding up to a […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently conceded that the oligarchs who were running Russia behind the shaking hand and raddled brain of Boris Yeltsin had caused such chaos, Putin was obliged to use what he called “manual control” to recover the country. The evidence given last week in the UK High Court […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 21st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska has made his debut in the witness-box of the UK High Court, testifying for almost three hours on Friday afternoon, after being called as a witness by Roman Abramovich against the claims of Boris Berezovsky. So precise and painstaking were Deripaska’s responses to some of the questions asked by […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 18th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow At a time when mass protests against the greed and criminality of bankers have spread from from the US to Greece, Italy and the UK, and on across the world, the London Daily Telegraph headline, “Financiers are being forced out of Russia”, might be widely applauded by a certain section of […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
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Q [Laurence Rabinowitz for Boris Berezovsky] Mr Abramovich, in the course of that answer you said when you visited him — talking about Mr Patarkatsishvili — in February [2003], you told him that you were selling [Rusal] because Oleg [Deripaska] was trying to squeeze you out. Is that now your evidence?

by John Helmer - Monday, November 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow An unusual moment occurred on Wednesday this week in Roman Abramovich’s testimony in the UK High Court when he refers to the seigneurial right – that historically doubtful power a feudal lord claimed for first sex with young virgins on his estates, who were, by feudal law, his property. Abramovich says: […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 10th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Charlie Drake’s hit song has been celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in London, where it was created and first recorded, not far from the law courts on the Strand. Play it before you read another word, and listen carefully to the lyrics.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow One of Russia’s richest men, and by some accounts one of the cleverest, claims he has no idea whether the principal source of his income is taxed. The admission came just a few minutes after three in the afternoon in London last Friday. Roman Abramovich may have been tired, having been […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 7th, 2011
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