By John Helmer, Moscow Mikail Shishkhanov (lead image, left and right) is the chief executive and control shareholder of B&N Bank (Бинбанк, BiNbank), one of the fastest growing banks in Russia today. What is driving that growth, however, is a combination of state money and influence in circumstances open to challenge from government regulators for […]

by Editor - Sunday, May 7th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Last year the government of Botswana decided to halt a 2-year old, multimillion dollar contract for its state mining company to purchase a nickel mine from Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest mining company. The government also decided to put its state nickel mining company into bankruptcy to protect against court claims from […]

by Editor - Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017
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  By John Helmer, Moscow Fifty years is enough time to tell the difference between a journalist whose memoir of growing up in Winnipeg failed to notice there were any Ukrainians in Canada; and another whose memory of growing up Ukrainian in Alberta failed to notice Canadians. The first was Melinda McCracken (lead images, left […]

by Editor - Tuesday, April 25th, 2017
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  By Max van der Werff, Amsterdam Original in Dutch and English translation, also by Max van der Werff, appear here.  On April 12, 2017, a thousand days had passed since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down above East Ukraine. Up until now, those who did it have not been identified, indicted or arrested, […]

by Editor - Thursday, April 20th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Like you, I have been a frequent commercial airplane flyer for years. I don’t have a bone break or concussion to report from airplane or airport handling, though like you too, my luggage has suffered that, and worse. My teeth are falling out from natural causes. I have not been beaten […]

by Editor - Sunday, April 16th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow When US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was telling the Russians and the US state press yesterday to stop hacking into American politics, sitting beside him was a former US Navy signals officer and  lawyer named Margaret Peterlin (lead image, red circle). Peterlin’s job for the last two years was managing […]

by Editor - Thursday, April 13th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow US Government officials and the official US media have wound up their meetings in Moscow with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin with one unexpected admission, one unprecedented demand, and a non-disclosure by the Kremlin which has never happened before.

by Editor - Thursday, April 13th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow How to rule a country which is a target of war by the mad figurehead of a military junta in another country?   This is not a historical question about Joseph Stalin’s options in August 1939, before he and Adolph Hitler decided on the time-buying ruse known as the German–Soviet Non-aggression […]

by Editor - Tuesday, April 11th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow It is well-known that the only certain method for diagnosing the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease is a post-mortem examination of slides of brain tissue. You have to be dead to be certain. In the case of President Ronald Reagan, in 1987 the cognitive explorer G. B. Trudeau (lead images) anticipated by […]

by Editor - Friday, April 7th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow How is it possible for a 25-minute meeting to cause Lionel Barber (lead picture, centre), current editor of the Financial Times, to report “one of the most fascinating interviews I have conducted during my 32-year career at the FT”, concluding with this last line:  “there are tentative signs that there is […]

by Editor - Wednesday, April 5th, 2017
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