By John Helmer, Moscow

Note to readers: The Australian dollar has been at or above parity with the US dollar for several months. All dollar amounts reported in this story are in Australian dollars unless indicated otherwise.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In the Naughty-Boy School of Government, it is required for the boys to apply for the master’s permission to sit; stand; ask a question; refill their inkwells, and leave the room to answer the call of nature. In the history of the great English Public Schools, a great deal of bladder control was taught by this method, along with a certain callosity across the knuckles and on the buttocks.
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by John Helmer - Monday, February 7th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Standard Bank is close to selling out its Russian bank interests, along with its 36.43% stake in Moscow-based Troika Dialog, to Sberbank, the Russian state savings institution and dominant retail bank in the country.
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by John Helmer - Friday, February 4th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Alrosa, Russia’s state diamond monopoly, will be ready to hold an initial public offering (IPO) by late 2011 for a 20% stake in the company, Alrosa’s chief executive Fyodor Andreyev said cryptically on the sidelines of a Moscow investor conference on Wednesday. But will international investors be ready to buy shares of Alrosa by then, and at what discount to the share value of Alrosa’s global mining peers?
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by John Helmer - Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

In December, when we last visited with Mikhail Prokhorov, the only Russian to own an American basketball team, he appeared to be announcing that he prefers his ball to his shovel, and is getting ready to sell Polyus Gold, Russia’s leading goldminer, to “one of the leading gold companies in the world”.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

At the gentlemen’s club bar, within stone’s throw of BP headquarters in St. James’s, the world famous investor confessed to having a tighter grasp on his gin and tonic than on the benefits he can count from BP’s deal with Rosneft, at least for shareholders of the former company.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

According to what Morgan Stanley has written on page 7 of the Nord Gold prospectus just released , the goldminer owned by Alexei Mordashov – this week trying to sell its shares on the London Stock Exchange — “has entered into a relationship agreement with OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder to ensure that it will be able, at all times, to carry on its business independently of each of OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder and that all transactions and relationships between the Company, OAO Severstal and the Selling Shareholder are at arm’s length and on a normal commercial basis.”
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by John Helmer - Monday, January 31st, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

If you stroll past BP’s London headquarters at night, and glance up, to the right of the top storey you will see an office window illuminated in bright blue. This may be the playroom of the former BP chief executive Lord Browne, whose departure from the company was accelerated by the intimate games he played. Bob Dudley, the current incumbent (image), may keep the blue light on in the evenings while he practices his footwork for dance tunes.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, January 27th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Mother Hubbard, one of the most popular old English nursery rhymes, was a hard-luck case. Her kindliness and generosity were ruthlessly exploited by her conniving dog, who played dead for sympathy and then took her for everything she was worth.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow

Moscow commercial court documents, filed on December 29 and 30, reveal that Franco-Swiss bank BNP Paribas is suing leading Russian grain trader RosInterAgroservis (RIAS) for $20.1 million. The claim, formally lodged against the RIAS subsidiary ZAO Kubankhleboprodukt, as well as its parent OOO RosAgroInterservis, refers to loans made earlier which remain unpaid.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
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