By John Helmer, Moscow The Russian fertilizer oligarch Andrei Guriev (lead image) lives in less than seclusion in London in the largest house of that city except for the Queen’s residence at Buckingham Palace. In 2015 the running costs of Guriev’s establishment were large but stable. But it occurred to him that the prospects of […]

by Editor - Tuesday, March 14th, 2017
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  By John Helmer, Moscow This is not a story about the past, nor about blaming the crimes of the fathers and grandfathers on their sons and daughters, or granddaughters.   This is a story of the moment when the crimes of the past and the criminal intent today turn out to be  the same […]

by Editor - Monday, March 13th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow The Australian Government refuses to declare the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 a terrorist act, and is withholding state payments of $75,000 to each of the families of the 38 Australian nationals or residents killed when the plane was shot down in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. The Australian […]

by Editor - Thursday, March 9th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Alrosa, the largest diamond miner in the world, and a public shareholding company listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange, has replaced its chief executive, Andrei Zharkov (lead image, left) , twelve months before his contract was due to expire.  On Monday the company refused to announce the change, or explain the […]

by Editor - Tuesday, March 7th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow There are large departments at the Pentagon and NATO headquarters for fabricating lies and faking news. They create the threats against which military forces are the defence. The more threats there are in circulation, the more it costs to produce them, and also to defend against them.  So President Donald Trump […]

by Editor - Sunday, March 5th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Sovcomflot, the wholly state owned shipping company, is to be privatized by the sale of 25% less one share on the Moscow stock exchange, the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said at the Sochi investment forum this week. The announcement, decided last month in the government’s privatization plan for 2017, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, March 1st, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow On March 1, the Brussels art dealer Bru Sale has announced it will auction  184 lots in a collection the dealer in charge,  Didier Sacareau,  is calling Russian art paintings and drawings. Works by some of the best-known artists among the Russian avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century are on […]

by Editor - Monday, February 27th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow For the first time Canadian mine stock investors say that Russian mining and metals oligarch Alexei Mordashov has run into resistance to his takeover schemes by a combination of share dilution, insider rewards,  and share price manipulation —  tactics which  have succeeded for Mordashov when he acquired the last three Canadian goldminers […]

by Editor - Friday, February 24th, 2017
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  By John Helmer, Moscow Gold reserves are handy in wartime, especially when your enemies are the United States Government and the US dollar banking system operating worldwide.   So, since the war to overthrow President Vladimir Putin began in 2014, the Central Bank of Russia has accelerated its purchases of gold bullion by more […]

by Editor - Tuesday, February 21st, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow As intelligence agencies must, after a mole, security breach, hacking, or leak has exposed state secrets, they re-read and re-interpret their archives to determine when the penetration started and the extent of the damage.  US intelligence reassessments today of the extent of Russian penetration in the recent past aren’t the only […]

by Editor - Friday, February 17th, 2017
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