Good Fellow Vladimir Putin

What do you know, Russian Prime Minister Putin Is one of the Good Fellows.

And when he talks, investors listen. Some also head for the door.

Speaking at an industry conference this week, Mr. Putin, the former Russian president and now prime minister, spoke five sentences critical of a Russian steel company, Mechel, and its billionaire chief executive, Igor Zyuzin.

In a sign of Mr. Putin’s enduring power, the criticism cost shareholders about $1.2 billion a sentence.

Such is the power of Mr. Putin’s words — even after “stepping down” to prime minister in May — that shares in Mechel, a coal mining and steel company, plunged almost 38 percent on the New York Stock Exchange after Mr. Putin complained at a conference in Nizhny Novogorod, southeast of Moscow, that the company was charging domestic customers more than its foreign ones.

The comments wiped out, at least for a day, about $6 billion in shareholder value.

Mr. Putin’s $6 billion speech began simply enough.

“We have a respected company, Mechel,” Mr. Putin said in introducing his subject.

“By the way, we invited the owner and director of the company, Igor Vladimirovich Zyuzin, to today’s meeting, but he suddenly got sick. Meanwhile, it is known that in the first quarter this year the company exported raw materials abroad at half the domestic, and world, price. And what about the margin of tax for the government?”

He added: “Of course, sickness is sickness, but I think Igor Vladimirovich should get better as quick as possible; otherwise we’ll have to send him a doctor to clear up all these problems.”

Igor must be pleased as hell to be on a first name basis with Vladimir.