By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s ports used to be run by gangsters, because it was one of the easier assets in post-Communist Russia to control by simple violence. The history of the International Longshoremen in the US and Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters make this feature of port life unexceptional the world over.

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 16th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow An announcement last week by LUKoil’s number-2 executive and shareholder, Leonid Fedun (see image), that the Russian oil producer expects to find more crude oil in Africa than in Russia was intended to set off alarms bells at the Ministry of Finance in Moscow. That is where Fedun is negotiating […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 10th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Among the squares of 17th century London, St. James’s is one of the least pretentious, even if several of the buildings on the square have made a reputation for themselves as pretenders to such things as wealth management, war-fighting, and diplomacy. For them, the equestrian statue of King William III, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow As Russian villagers used to say in olden times, when the tsar is kind, the wait to see him is long; when he is cruel, there is no delay at all. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s explicit attack on steel prices at the start of this week, and the commencement of […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s energy chief, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, has disclosed that the Black Sea oil export plan he launched in Milan last October, with much applause from Turkish and Italian interests, is going nowhere fast – err, I mean, slow. He was speaking on the sidelines of President Dmitry Medvedev’s […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 13th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow The Lithuanians tried it more than a decade ago. The Belarussians are trying it again – noone in Moscow believes it can be done. In fact, the Russians say it’s childish to try. When the Russian noose goes round your neck, they say, you either beg forgiveness, or you choke […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow A gas supply agreement signed yesterday by the presidents of Russia and Ukraine dramatically changes the prospects for both oil and gas shipment across and under the Black Sea; extends Russia’s Black Sea Fleet lease of the Sevastopol base by another 25 years; and costs Gazprom nothing.

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tried sweet-talking the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Jabr al-Thani, in Moscow this week on “closer coordination” between the world’s leading exporters of natural and liquefied gas (LNG). At stake are the growing deliveries of shipborne Qatari LNG to European ports, versus the shrinking deliveries […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 26th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow The chief executive of Russia’s pipeline company Transneft, Nikolay Tokarev (left), has told Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin that there is not enough Russian crude oil to make commercially feasible the proposed trans-Balkan pipeline to a new tanker terminal at Alexandroupoli. Tokarev’s opinion, conveyed privately last September, appears to have […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Negotiations under way between Russian gas exporter Gazprom and Romania may result in a dramatic shift in the routing of the South Stream gas pipeline under the Black Sea, and in current relations between the Russian and Bulgarian governments, Bulgarian officials have told Fairplay.

by John Helmer - Monday, March 1st, 2010
No Comments »