By John Helmer in Moscow

Today the news comes to you from Homer, with Odysseus doing the talking: “We came to the land of the Kyklopes race, arrogant lawless beings who leave their livelihoods to the deathless gods and never use their own hands to sow or plough; yet with no sowing and no ploughing, the crops all grow for them–wheat and barley and grapes that yield wine from ample clusters, swelled by the showers of Zeus. They have no assemblies to debate in, they have no ancestral ordinances; they live in arching caves on the tops of high hills, and the head of each family heeds no other, but makes his own ordinances for wife and children.” The countryside is empty of men, because the Kyklopes (Cyclops) eat them.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The owner of the stranded Russian cruise ship, Lyubov Orlova, has failed to meet a deadline this week for selling the vessel and paying its debts.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Sovcomflot (SCF), the state oil tanker company and currently the 5th energy shipper in the world, has made its first detailed public disclosure to investment markets in a multi-million dollar debt prospectus. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, and VTB are the arrangers.
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by John Helmer - Monday, October 18th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The US Government has decided not to let Victor Vekselberg off so easily.

The US District Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) has filed for an extension of time to allow the Justice Department in Washington to consider a detailed brief, arguing that Vekselberg should face the full force of the American racketeering statute. This is the start of an attempt by the government to override a ruling by three appeals court judges last month that whatever Vekselberg had done, for good or ill, was beyond the jurisdiction of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
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by John Helmer - Sunday, October 17th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Prospectuses are like lap dances. It’s necessary to keep one’s distance so that the baser instincts don’t cloud one’s better judgement.

In a recent West Country court ruling, a lap-dancing bar lost an appeal of the revocation of its adult entertainment licence. The club claimed its lap-dancers were lawfully adhering to the “three-feet rule”set down in its licence. To keep the dancers entertaining rather than prostituting themselves, the rule requires the customers to keep three feet from the performers. But the club had found a loophole in the regulation. This allowed the girls to get very close if they weren’t performing their licensed dances. In the clinches, the club testified the girls were doing no more than exercising their freedom of association, without commercial benefit for the bar. The court didn’t buy it.
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by John Helmer - Friday, October 15th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

With just a week to go before Oleg Deripaska asks Norilsk Nickel’s international shareholders to vote in favour of his hostile takeover of the company, the UK High Court has ordered an end to Deripaska’s tactics towards former patron and partner, Michael Cherney (Chernoy); dismissed more of Deripaska’s claims about his opponent; and fixed the timetable for Deripaska to face trial on charges of fraud, deceit, and breach of trust.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, October 14th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

Gennady Timchenko and his allies in state-controlled companies in the Russian oil business are gradually consolidating their dominance over much of Russian oil from the wellhead to the tanker enroute to international markets, and much of the transportation network in between. As the largest energy exporter in the world, Russia naturally aims to be a reliable supplier to its clients. And Timchenko, who lives in Switzerland and France and reportedly carries a Finnish passport, is by all accounts a very reliable fellow. The London law firm Schillings vouches for him – and that says a lot.
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

How much gold should potential investors in Alexei Mordashov’s gold-mining venture, now named NordGold, think they are buying into?
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow

The Severstal steel and mining group, owned by Alexei Mordashov, has issued a prospectus this week for the issue of up to $3 billion in loan participation notes to restructure the group’s current debts. The issue is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Mordashov’s group reports its current long and short-term obligations at $6.3 billion, with $1.8 billion in cash and equivalent on hand, making a net debt level of $4.5 billion.
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by John Helmer - Monday, October 11th, 2010
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