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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska has told the Chinese to carry his water while he waits for the British to decide what he owes to the individual who, once upon a time, trusted him more than anyone else has done ever since.

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By John Helmer, Moscow When Transcontainer, the state rail company, started selling its shares in the form of global depositary receipts (GDR) on the London Stock Exchange on November 11, the price fixing was $80 per share, $8 per GDR. “We are very pleased that the first IPO of a subsidiary of Russian Railways has […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow After announcing early in the week that 50% of Sovcomflot’s shares will be sold over the next two years, between 2011 and 2013, government officials today refused to tell Fairplay what valuation the government has put on the shipping company, and how much cash the sell-off has been targeted to raise.

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By John Helmer, Moscow According to the announcement from Wikileaks, and confirmed by the US State Department, next week there will be the public disclosure of approximately 2.8 million classified US cables and internal government reports identifying foreign government corruption and other criminality; and also what US-allied governments, such as the UK, Canada, Norway, and […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Lawyers for the US Government have filed a court brief in New York this week, arguing that an earlier ruling by three federal appeals court justices was mistaken in deciding that the US law against racketeering cannot go after racketeers outside US territory, in Russia.

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By John Helmer, Moscow Deep inside the Russian government there is a chamber of secrets where officials have gathered just eight times since April 29, 2008, the day when then-President Vladimir Putin signed the law that created the chamber. The law was entitled “On Procedures for Foreign Investments in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Gazprom, Russia’s largest company and the world’s leading exporter of natural gas, says it will delay all investment spending in Nigeria at least until next year’s Nigerian presidential election result is decided, and new legislation enacted to secure foreign investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. The statement of Gazprom’s nervousness […]

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By John Helmer, Moscow Russian poultry producers hope to reduce next year’s poultry import quota to as little as 300,000 tonnes, with just 50,000 tonnes of US chicken legs for direct consumption. Before too long, the domestic growers are also hoping to start exporting Russian poultry abroad.

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By John Helmer, Moscow After months of speculation that the recent Rothschild family flotation Vallar Plc would buy a Russian iron-ore or coalminer, Vallar has announced in London that instead it is buying an Indonesian steam coal group owned by Aburizal Bakrie (right image). Bakrie is described in the Financial Times as “arguably Indonesia’s most […]