By John Helmer, Moscow A three-judge panel of the UK Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed a claim by the Sovcomflot subsidiaries, Intrigue Shipping and Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship), for court and legal costs against former fleet charterer Yury Nikitin (second image). Endorsing the earlier judgements of High Court Justice Andrew Smith, the new ruling […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 1st, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Koros Trading Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), a false front company created in London to receive regular monthly payments of millions of dollars from Rusal, the Russian aluminium monopoly, has been struck off the UK Companies Register for failing to report its annual revenues and income. Details of Koros transactions have revealed […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow It has been known for a long time that the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has been intercepting millions of Russian telephone calls, SMS texts and internet traffic, along with the communications of other target nationals, including Americans and the British themselves. Older eavesdropping operations, such as ECHELON, have been documented […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow It isn’t known whether Dmitry Shatokhin (right), the chief executive, board chairman, and apparent control shareholder of Siberian Anthracite, reads the news. Not the commodity price reports showing that the demand and price for the coal he is selling are falling. Rather, the news that President Vladimir Putin, along with the […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow What can have motivated Vladimir Yevtushenkov (image right) of the Sistema conglomerate of Moscow to hire for his board of directors last week a man who is a magnet for negative British press coverage, and who was judged last year by the UK High Court for an action brought, and lost, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 3rd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow United Company Rusal has been defeated in a brief but powerful ruling by the US Court of Appeals in New York last week. The order by three judges, issued on April 15, quashes a lower-level US court order for discovery of bank and other evidence against shipping companies Rusal used to […]

by John Helmer - Monday, April 22nd, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow When Nathaniel Rothschild sued for libel in the UK High Court in 2011, he was claiming that a report in the Daily Mail, published by Associated Newspapers on May 22, 2010, had libelled him for reporting that he had taken Peter Mandelson on a private jet-plane trip to Moscow to eat […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 21st, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The UK High Court and the Court of Appeal have now ruled three times to dismiss almost eight years of legal claims by state shipping company Sovcomflot, adding up (with interest and costs) to about one billion dollars. On top, Sovcomflot’s chief executive Sergei Frank (image left, left, tree) has been […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 11th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The UK Court of Appeal yesterday cut short Russian tanker company Sovcomflot’s 7-year lawsuit, ruling that two earlier High Court judgements exonerating the conduct of former chief executive of Sovcomflot, Dmitry Skarga, must stand. The dismissal by the High Court of most of Sovcomflot’s claims against former chartering partner, Yury Nikitin, […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 7th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Andrei Borodin claims that the case against him for fraud and grand larceny from the Bank of Moscow is politically motivated, and that he is the target of persecution by the Russian law enforcement authorities, acting on the orders of senior officials. He alleges that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is the […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 4th, 2013
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