By John Helmer, Moscow

In the game of cricket, nothing is rarer than a hat-trick. That is when the bowler for one side dismisses three batsmen for the opposing side in three successive balls. For the bowling side, it is a rare triumph, and almost never happens in international test games. For the batting side, it is one of the greatest of humiliations.

In Russia, cricket is almost unheard of, and up against the Russian oligarchic combines, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) rarely inflicts humiliation.
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by John Helmer - Friday, April 8th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

It’s nearly time for the peonies to bloom in China. But not for Oleg Deripaska’s plantings, at least not this season.

According to sources at Deripaska’s electricity company, Eurosibenergo, the Chinese government has so far refused to approve the investment of state-controlled funds by China Yangtze Power Company (CYPC) in Eurosibenergo, and thereby guarantee its initial public share offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Accordingly, the Eurosibenergo is off for the second time in four months.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, April 7th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

One man’s poison is another man’s meat – so long as he chews carefully and doesn’t swallow.

What’s been bad for Japan’s steel industry has accordingly been not so bad — you might say good — for the China market, and those who supply it with what it must have — iron-ore, coking coal, ferrous scrap, nickel, and manganese. These are the primary ingredients of steelmaking. Russian exports them, so does Australia.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

When we last put down the telephone to Maxim Finsky’s office at Intergeo in Moscow, he wasn’t saying much of anything about his attempt to persuade Canadian shareholders to accept his proposed merger of two junior goldminers he controls, White Tiger Gold and Century Mining.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

The Russian government has issued a new order listing the state shareholdings to be privatized this year and next. Order No. № 513-p, signed on March 24, omits Sovcomflot from the privatization list, thus barring the sale of the shipping company’s shares: (Order No. 513p).
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by John Helmer - Friday, April 1st, 2011
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United Company Rusal has awarded John Helmer the highest honour it can bestow — its fear of what he writes. The award is the first ever by the Russian corporation and state aluminium monopoly to a journalist specializing in the coverage of Russian metal, mineral and mining affairs.
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by John Helmer - Friday, April 1st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Are they real teeth in the tiger’s mouth, or are they falsies?

This is the question which shareholders of two Canadian-listed junior goldmining companies have been asking since the two companies, both apparently controlled by Russian mining entrepreneur Maxim Finsky (image), proposed an all-share merger on the basis of valuation of assets buried in the wilds of eastern Siberia.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, March 31st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Russia’s price watchdog, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), plans soon to impose a hefty fine on the Evraz group’s lead mill at Nizhne Tagil (NTMK) for rigging the prices of steel profiles or sections in violation of the law on competition and non-discriminatory pricing. Maxim Ovchinnikov, head of the FAS industry department, said the agency had completed its investigation and issued its ruling against Evraz last November, judging the company in violation of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition “in setting and maintaining monopolistically high prices for Z sections of steel , grades 09G2S and 12G2FD.”
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Elena Baturina won an unusual battle against Rupert Murdoch’s journalism last week. It is yet another demonstration that when it comes to dispensing Russian justice, the London courts are the only ones who do.

The court case, decided by a three-judge panel of the UK Court of Appeal on March 23, concerns the meaning to be ascribed to the homes of the wealthy, in particular the house Murdoch’s men claimed to belong to Baturina, when apparently it didn’t, and they were wrong. The Court of Appeal has ruled that in this case, the mistake of fact also constitutes a case of innuendo whose defamatory meaning Baturina is now free to litigate against the Times.
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by John Helmer - Monday, March 28th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In bringing to a close yesterday six years of investigation and litigation, and more than $800 million worth claims by state shipping company Sovcomflot, Justice Andrew Smith of the UK High Court has issued two batches of rulings, totaling 478 pages of findings of fact and judgements of law. Together, they represent the most thorough due diligence ever attempted and published of a Russian state company, or of an international shipping company for that matter.
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by John Helmer - Friday, March 25th, 2011
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