More Soviet than City, said Ken Olisa when he left the board of Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, the Kazakhstan-based copper miner that is a member of the FTSE 100 index. The charge stuck because it looked fair: three local oligarchs owned 43.5% and the Kazakh government had just voted Sir Richard Sykes off the board.
One review later, ENRC intends that nobody can now accuse it of being run as a private fiefdom. Chairman Johannes Sittard is staying, which is a surprise, but a new non-executive has appeared in the form of the respected Terence Wilkinson (ex-Lonmin), and banker Mehmet Dalman is promoted to senior independent director. The outbreak of peace is welcome. Now let's see it last.