Shareholders gave Interros and its allies seven out of 13 seats on the Norilsk board at an extraordinary general meeting last week. Interros won four seats, Norilsk management won two and Trafigura, the commodities trader that bought 8 per cent of Norilsk last year, won a single seat.

Rusal, which has been seeking to strengthen its hand by gaining parity with Interros on the Norilsk board, won only two seats, however it welcomed the new board, saying it was pleased that all candidates it supported had been elected.

Rusal's setback was softened by the appointment to the board of Alexander Voloshin, the former chairman of the company and favoured by Rusal.

The week before the shareholder meeting the London High Court rejected a claim filed by Rusal to access confidential documents on Norilsk's deals from the metal giant's lawyers, Debevoise & Plimpton.

RusAl filed several suits in Britain and the U.S. in February to suspend Norilsk's $4.5 billion buyback program, claiming the program would distort the company's structure

The buyback program was launched on January 27 and was to be completed on February 10, but Norilsk has said that a ruling by a court in the Caribbean island of Nevis  blocked the program following a suit from RusAl. Corbiere Holdings Ltd, a Norilsk subsidiary, which is in charge of the buyback, has said it suspended actions to complete the decision.

As Deripaska licks his wounds he can take comfort that Alisher Usmanov, the controlling shareholder in Russian iron miner Metalloinvest, has revived a pre-crisis plan to merge his firm with Norilsk Nickel and has pledged to work together with RUSAL on questions related to the company's management.

The Russian billionaire, who also owns Kommersant and part of London's Arsenal soccer team, mooted the plan prior to the 2008 downturn as a way to create a Russian rival to global mining giants such as BHP Billiton. However, as the financial crisis  dried up liquidity and metals prices collapsed,the plan was shelved.

In early March, Rusal rejected a $12.8 billion offer from Norilsk to buy back 20 percent of its shares.

In a sign that business gboes on, Norilsk Nickel has meanwhile bought the Nordavia airline from Aeroflot for $17 million plus assumption of some $200 million of debt.

Alisher Usmanov