By John Helmer, Moscow Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, last Wednesday, January 20, with US Secretary of State, John Kerry. The meeting-room and press opportunity were set up by State Department officials. One of the Kerry delegation was Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian affairs. She is […]

by Editor - Sunday, January 24th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow The European Court of Human Rights is refusing to act on a year-old case from the daughter of a Dutch passenger killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014. Denise Kenke, daughter of Willem Grootscholten, accuses the Ukraine Government of failing its legal duty to prevent […]

by Editor - Wednesday, January 20th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Former President Boris Yeltsin’s passion for killing moose (boar, duck, hare, bear, deer) to feed his appetite for their small body parts, cooked or pickled, has been repeatedly attested in the memoirs of his staff . But the state-financed Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre, run by deputy executive director Vladimir Shevchenko, Yeltsin’s […]

by Editor - Tuesday, January 19th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the time of President Boris Yeltsin, there was no difference between loose lips and moose lips. According to newly released records of President Bill Clinton’s secret conversations with Prime Minister Tony Blair, at a luncheon on January 13, 1994, Yeltsin served Clinton “roast pig and told me real men hack […]

by Editor - Sunday, January 17th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Every autumn, as regularly as trees change their colour, Alexei Kudrin (lead image), the one-time finance minister of Russia, attempts a putsch. And as regularly as leaves fall to the ground, he fails to seize the high office he thinks he deserves. Counting the number of self-advertisements he has issued, Kudrin […]

by Editor - Thursday, January 14th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash defeated a US government attempt last year to extradite him to the US for trial on corruption allegations. But now, encouraged by the US Government and by Ukrainian government officials in Kiev, a new group of US investors, led by Stephen Lynch (lead image) and the law […]

by Editor - Wednesday, January 13th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Entitled “The Yellow Airplane”, this is a Russian painting of the late Socialist Realist epoch. The artist signs himself Kazak, and dates the work 1960. I found it in Moscow in 1998. Later it disappeared for more than a decade. But several months ago it was found, and I’ve had it […]

by Editor - Thursday, December 31st, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow At the very beginning of his presidency, in March 2000, Vladimir Putin said the state – he meant himself – should be “equidistant” from the oligarchs. He also promised “compliance with [market] rules, without offering any advantages or privileges or preferences to anyone”. The president, Putin added, “should stand above this […]

by Editor - Tuesday, December 29th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Leonid Lebedev (lead image), the former Russian senator and energy trader, has lost fraud and deceit claims against Len Blavatnik and Victor Vekselberg in a New York Supreme Court ruling. After considering the case for eight months, state judge Salliann Scarpulla has also rejected Blavatnik’s and Vekselberg’s application to dismiss Lebedev’s […]

by Editor - Wednesday, December 23rd, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Eponymously, much of The Netherlands is close to or below sea level. So it’s susceptible to inundation by sea storms and heavy rains. So long as the man-made dykes hold the water back, the country can be saved. According to a well-known Dutch history lesson from the 19th century, it took […]

by Editor - Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
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