DRAGONFLY GLOBAL PRODUCTIONS, LTD., Blog

Tuesday, May 25:

$1 BILLION JET PURCHASED BY CAREFREE & FUNLOVING RUSSIAN OLIGARCH ROMAN ABRAMOVICH, 2nd. RICHEST MAN IN RUSSIA.

"He Who Has The Most Toys (When He Dies),Wins." ANONYMOUS.

37 year old Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich is at it again.

Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Seemingly not too concerned that he and the Russian province where he is Governor are both being audited by the Russian government, and already having spent US$250 Million on the London football club Chelsea (Ref: my blog September 13, 2003), he has now purchased a Boeing 767.

Boeing 767.

Citing the British Times Newspaper, The Russia Journal reports that the Boeing was purchased for roughly US$100 Million and is now sitting in Switzerland where it is being completely overhauled over the next seven months, bringing the total bill for the jetliner to US$1 Billion. Besides the standard, necessary accoutrements of the very rich (His est. fortune by forbes:US$7.2 Billion) such as spacious living quarters with lots of mahogany and gold, bedrooms,plasma TVs, etc, etc. It will also boast an anti-missile defense system.

Thus, Abramovich will have the closest aircraft in the world to President Bush's Air Force One.

Not bad for a 37 year old brought up in abject poverty.

Oh, yes, besides the 767, which he traded in his 737 for, he also has the requisite yacht with a helicopter landing pad (must also have the helicopter tucked away somewhere.) and , of all things, a submarine. It is unknown whether the sub is nuclear powered and nuclear tipped.

On top of all this, Mr. Abramovich has recently purchased a Palace on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg, which just happens to be the hometown of President Putin.

Officials in the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historic and Cultural Monuments in St.Petersburg rave that Mr. Abramovich is a very good owner.

Regards,

Charlie
Charles B. // 9:14 AM

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Thursday, May 13:

MOSCOW HAS MORE BILLIONAIRES THAN NEW YORK ACCORDING TO FORBES RUSSIAN EDITION.

Forbes released today, in its Russian edition formed only last month, that Russia has a grand total of 36 billionaires.33 of these billionaires live in Moscow putting it atop the list of billionaire cities.New York comes in 2nd. with a total of 31 billionaires.

The combined wealth of these billionaires is US$110.2 billion up from US$79.4 billion in February, an increase of two-fifths in the number of billionaires, which was 25 then, since only February of this year, 2004.The average age of these billionaires is 47, they are male, and married.

It must be mentioned on a more somber note that 20% of Russians live in poverty.

Click Above Billion Dollar Image To learn More About The Russian Oligarchs.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is still the wealthiest person in Russia with a personal fortune of US$15.2 billion. He is also currently in jail. It seems President Putin was a bit miffed at Mr. Khodorkovsky's political agenda before the recent Russian elections.

Now, though, after his landslide victory in the elections President Putin has become not just president of Russia, but also the unofficial Czar, and also the proclaimed Godfather of ROC(Russian Organized Crime).

The Moscow gossip on the current controversial Oligarch, Vladimir Potanin (my blog: May 1) and the 5th. wealthiest person in Russia with a personal fortune of US$5.4 billion, and who is the head of Norilsk Nickel is that President Putin is going to take over Potanin's company because of its vast gold holdings and Potanin will share the same fate as Khodorkovsky: Prison. Gold is hard to resist, especially when it is available for easy taking.

Gold has been history's constant when it comes to a commodity to exchange for other goods, regardless of any era's commodity of exchange. In today's markets it is the fiat currency the US Dollar, which the world is awash in.

Regards,

Charlie
Charles B. // 9:01 AM

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Saturday, May 1:

A VERY, VERY NERVOUS CITIBANK FINDS THAT GREED IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD; ESPECIALLY WHEN DEALING WITH A RUSSIAN OLIGARCH.

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind."Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in the film" Wall Street."

Last month Citibank, owned by Citigroup, by far the largest bank in the world in terms of capital (US$59 Billion), arranged a US$800 Million loan for Norilsk Nickel. It is the largest producer of nickel in the world. Nickel is used to make stainless steel rustproof. As an update Norilsk Nickel released its first quarter earnings On May 6, which showed a profit of nearly 100% over last year's same quarter.

This massive loan was arranged in less than ten days and is unsecured.

What Citibank executives either didn't know or where more consumed with greed than anything else, was that they were aiding the largest shareholder and Chairman of Norilsk Nickel, the Oligarch Vladimir Potanin in his plan to cash out somewhere between US$3 and US$5 Billion worth of his fortune.

Oligarch Vladimir Potanin.

If Mr. Potanin succeeds, he will have achieved the biggest transfer of Russian wealth offshore ever - beyond the reach of the Russian prosecutor, courts, tax authority, or Kremlin - than any of the other Russian billionaire oligarchs, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Roman Abramovich (Ref. My blog of: September 13, 2003), etc.

With that US$800 Million Citibank loan and US$316 Million from the coffers of Norilsk Nickel, for operating capital, Mr. Potanin bought a 20% stake in the South African mining company Gold Fields for US$1.16 Billion.

Now Mr. Potanin wishes to purchase the additional 30% in Gold Fields that will give him control of the mine.

Meanwhile, Citibank knows it is caught in the middle of a major financial disaster as well as publicity disaster and is trying to unload the US$800 Million on a syndicate of other banks.

Mr. Potanin realizes he may have a future credit problem with Citibank, so he has made a tender for Sukhoi Log, the world's second largest unexploited gold deposit located in the remote Russian region of Irkutsk.

With that ownership , he wishes to combine all his mining properties into his holding company,Interros, and fly the coop with the entire "Mother Lode," if you'll forgive the pun.

And the only person that can give his Ok or Not in the entire country is President Putin. No one else dares to speak against or for the transaction for fear of reprisal, even the head of the Russian Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov.

And while all this is happening, Citibank is so nervous it refuses to give any details of the loan and is running scared as it tries to unload the loan, as mentioned above, to a syndicate of banks. Good Luck.

Citibank has found out the hard way that Greed is not always good.

Regards,

Charlie
Charles B. // 10:13 AM

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