“I never did understand the difference between a cannon and a culverin,” the Empress Catherine II once said to one of her generals. “There is a big difference,” he replied, “which I will now explain to Your Majesty. The cannon, you see, is one thing, while the culverin is quite another.” “Ah,” said Catherine the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 9th, 1999
No Comments »

It was an unlaughing German who said, more than a century ago, that when history repeats itself, it returns the first time as tragedy; the second time as farce. The Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov recently released his state-financed film about the Russian army between the defeat by the British and French in the Crimean […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, July 3rd, 1999
No Comments »

The only thing more stupid in politics than a stalking horse is a stalking ass, as Sergei Kirienko is proving by his campaign against Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Don’t get me wrong -I am very fond of the donkey family, in their place. Aesop thought the same when he told the fable of the ass […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, June 13th, 1999
No Comments »

According to a fresh Moscow anecdote, President Boris Yeltsin comes out of the banya feeling energetic. Over the protests of his driver, he insists on taking the wheel of his limousine. But he drives too fast, and unable to stop in time for a red light, he crashes into another limousine. That one is occupied […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 11th, 1999
No Comments »

Not long ago, at a luncheon meeting of foreign businessmen in Moscow, the question was asked: Does anyone believe his business would be better off if Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was sacked? The answer was unanimous. Primakov was viewed as the most stable, and also the most honest, candidate for leadership of Russia today. Now […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 12th, 1999
No Comments »

It’s just as well Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov will appear for his meetings in Washington next week clean-shaven. A recent history of the human face came to the conclusion that, at least in the earliest systems of human government, men with beards did well, because it was thought they could negotiate better, conceal their real […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 18th, 1999
No Comments »

Suppose, just suppose, that the real reason for running $50 billion in Russia’s Central Bank cash reserves through the accounts of a shelf company registered in the Channel Islands, was not to hide the money from foreigners intent on seizing state assets, but rather to hide from Russians trying to steal them. And suppose, just […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 20th, 1999
No Comments »

Until the thunder strikes, the Russian saying goes, the peasant won’t cross himself. Neither cross nor double-cross is what the Russian government claims it did when the Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan, most recently flew from Athens to Russia, then back to Athens, and then towards Minsk, only to be turned back. According to the head […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 20th, 1999
No Comments »

What leads fine performers of Bach cello sonatas, Rachmaninov piano concertos, and Chekhov plays and stories to imagine they can enter Russian politics as nimbly as they move their fingers over their instruments and scores? One answer Rostropovich the cellist, Petrov the pianist, and Mikhalkov the film-maker have given is that they have the right, […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 19th, 1999
No Comments »

For years now, officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), of Russia’s Finance Ministry, and of the Central Bank of Russia have been conducting a discreet conversation among themselves they intended no-one else to hear — at least not in Russia. Mikhail Zadornov — who complained this was unprincipled and undemocratic when he was a […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 16th, 1999
No Comments »