By John Helmer, Moscow Intelligence quotient tests are not required for visas to enter Russia temporarily, especially not if you are running another country. The last certified fool to be received by the Kremlin at the head of government level was Ronald Reagan. In retrospect, it is now clear that he was in an early […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In case you’ve been missing the action this summer: the Russian wheat harvest is proving to be so abundant, Moscow experts and grain traders are forecasting that exports will reach up to 23.5 million tonnes in the trading season which runs until June 30, next year. Alexander Korbut, spokesman for the […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 11th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The last time Russia’s leadership assembled to listen to a piece of classical music was seventy-five years ago. It was on January 26, 1936, that Josef Stalin and the entire Politburo were at the Bolshoi Theatre to hear Dmitry Shostakovich’s opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Stalin was seen not to like […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 9th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Victor Rashnikov, owner of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine (MMK), appears to have done it to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin one more time. The latest financial report, issued last week by the company, reveals a whopping 93% plunge in net income – second quarter compared to first quarter — despite a 9% […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 8th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow   “Conversations with senior representatives of ALCOA indicate that SUAL was not Deripaska’s first or only choice for this merger (which is one possible reason why it has taken more than five years for the two parties to come together). Deripaska approached ALCOA in the first half of this year, but […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow The US State Department has been torturing Russian oligarchs into making admissions by seating them in the special chair devised by the Spanish Inquisition in September 1970.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow This time it seems to be clear that Transneft, Russia state-owned oil pipeline company, has had quite enough of both the Bulgarians and the Turks, and has told them it won’t build its planned pipelines across the territory of either of them. This puts an end, a temporary end probably, to […]

by John Helmer - Monday, September 5th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow If you are just back from the beach with your sachel of books dog-eared, riddled with beach sand, even read to the finish, you may have missed the latest in this year’s crop of thrillers with Russians for villains. Mark Mills’s House of the Hanged was released in July. The Independent […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 4th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Nostradamus, the 16th century French sage, doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his recipe for the Black Plague. He recommended swift removal of infected corpses; fresh air; clean water; and drinking copious amounts of Vitamin C in rose-hip tea. He was also against the then customary practice of bleeding patients. […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 4th, 2011
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Dmitry Rybolovlev’s interest in acquiring US assets is well-known in part because he paid the highest price in American history for a house. Take the tour. Compared to the asking price of $125 million and the transaction price of $95 million, Rybolovlev got a 24% discount. But the asset value of the house has done […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 1st, 2011
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