By John Helmer, Moscow In the research for its profile on Alisher Usmanov, BBC Radio-4 was told by its sources in Russia that claims Usmanov is close to the Kremlin have been invented; and that Usmanov has never been granted a personal audience with President (Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin. The BBC programme was broadcast on [...]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 30th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Pavel (Pavlik) Morozov, aged 14, was murdered on September 3, 1932, along with his 9-year old brother, Fyodor. They were stabbed to death. Four people were convicted of the crimes – their grandfather Sergei and cousin Danila did the stabbing; uncle Arseny plotted the crime beforehand; grandmother Kseniya covered it up [...]

by John Helmer - Monday, April 8th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Though their meaning and intent are identical, crocodiles are better known for their tears than for their smiles. So are Russian officials. Take Igor Shuvalov, the first deputy prime minister, for example. When the chief executive of one of the largest mining companies in the world came to Moscow, a member [...]

by John Helmer - Friday, April 5th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sergei Kirienko has a reputation which survives no matter how selfish his aims, destructive his methods, ruinous his results. He was small enough to be looked down upon by President Boris Yeltsin; he hasn’t grown under President Vladimir Putin. As prime minister in 1998 – the smallest, shortest PM in Russian [...]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 28th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow President Vladimir Putin will raise with African leaders this week the case of the Myre Seadiver and its 15-man Russian crew, who were arrested and imprisoned in Nigeria last October. The story so far. Putin will be in Durban, South Africa, on March 26 and 27. The Myre Seadiver crew have [...]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 25th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow The US, Germany, Turkey and the NATO allies think they have almost all the ordnance required to produce regime change in Syria, as they had in Libya. But they don’t appear to have the €5 billion required to do the trick in Cyprus, after the regime change the Cypriots themselves had [...]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Starting sometime this morning and ending by lunch hour, President Vladimir Putin called an urgent meeting of government ministers and advisors responsible for the economy. Reporters were not allowed at the scene; no list of those attending has been released by the Kremlin; no official photographs have been published. The Kremlin [...]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 18th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska’s airplane touched down in Cyprus on February 28. He wasn’t on holiday; that came a fortnight later, when he, his plane and his boat had a reunion at Male, in the Maldives. Deripaska left Cyprus on March 2. It isn’t known what was in the luggage offloaded on arrival, [...]

by John Helmer - Sunday, March 17th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow Who is Mark Kurtser, and what does he do for an honest living? According to the Kremlin, when he was introduced to President Vladimir Putin last August, Kurtser was Chief Physician of the Centre for Family Planning and Reproduction. Two months later, on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Kurtser sold a [...]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 15th, 2013
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By John Helmer, Moscow It is now clear, let’s say clearer, what business has been keeping the elected Russian official in charge of foreign affairs in the upper house of parliament, and in representing Russia in the affairs of Africa so active that he has been unable to respond to questions. According to his spokesman, [...]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 14th, 2013
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