Month: October 2008

October 30, 2008

Russia’s Minority Shareholders Panicking

The RUXX Research Department has produced a new report related to foreign investors’ increasing concerns over the Russian business environment, with a focus on the dispute between minority shareholders of power generator TGK-4 and billionair...
October 30, 2008

Turkmenistan’s Gas Bonanza

(AFP/Getty Images) The Financial Times is reporting that an independent audit of Turkmenistan’s much lauded South Iolatan field has been completed, confirming it as one of the five largest deposits of natural gas in the world, boasting reser...
October 30, 2008

LSE Scratches Plans for Moscow Office

Just a few years ago, initial public offerings from Russia were all the rage on the London Stock Exchange, as well as its junior index, the AIM, accounting for the City’s chief competitive advantage of listing over Wall Street. Until the new...
October 30, 2008

The Rise of Russia’s State Oligarchism

This one comes from Prof. Craig Pirrong on the Streetwise Professor: In Darkness at Dawn, David Satter claimed that Yeltsin’s young liberal economists were actually prisoners of their Soviet educations. They believed Marxist dogma about primitive ...
October 30, 2008

Svetlana Bakhmina’s Right to Mercy

Thanks to everyone who signed the petition to free Svetlana Bakhmina yesterday – it appears that the number of signatures is rapidly approaching 80,000. It would be great to 100,000, so please forward this one around. Today the columnist Ale...
October 30, 2008

Energy Blast – Oct 30, 2008

Russia’s oil majors are putting pressure on the case for tax cuts in the oil sector, warning of a possible drop in output next year. Sibir Energy’s London High Court ownership dispute with Roman Abramovich has come out in the billionaire’s favor. ...
October 30, 2008

Today in Russian Business – Oct 30, 2008

The financial crisis is making itself felt in job losses. The Kremlin is trying to limit the amount of foreign debt taken on by its oligarchs in an attempt to prevent Russian companies from ending up in foreign hands. United Company RusAl will rec...
October 30, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct 30, 2008

TODAY: Duma votes to station troops in Georgia’s breakaway regions; WWF report pessimistic on Russia’s environmental footprint; Khodorkovsky appeal rejected; judges abusing rights to close trials. Russia’s State Duma has unanimously voted to...
October 29, 2008

The Chinese Takeover of Russian Oil

The economic crisis and drop in oil prices has really brought forward some interesting and contrasting views on Russia – from those who think this regime and their ways of doing things are toast, to those who believe the Kremlin will come ou...