By John Helmer in Moscow South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said there has been a breakthrough in negotiations with the Russian government over terms for the Russian space agency to launch a South African communications satellite. She said she hopes to “see the launch of the satellite by the end of this year.” Dlamini-Zuma […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 23rd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia has been locked out of the largest nuclear power contract ever prepared in Africa, despite two years of promises from the South African government that it would invite Russia’s nuclear industry to join a competitive tender with the French and American companies, Areva and Westinghouse. The lockoutappears to be […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Drilling into SA diplomatic communiqués comes up empty for manganese and platinum An unusual meeting of South African (SA) and Russian government ministers two weeks ago in Moscow has triggered recriminations in Pretoria and Moscow. These follow the refusal of SA officials to clarify an upbeat description of co-operation in […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow RUSSIAN government officials have revealed that relations with SA are in crisis, after cancellation by Pretoria of the two largest commercial agreements ever negotiated between the countries. The crisis directly affects SA government plans for nuclear energy to increase Eskom’s power supply, and for SA military and civilian satellite communications. […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, March 1st, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Yury Trutnev, the Russian minister in charge of Russia’s economic relations with South Africa, is visiting South Africa, Angola and Namibia this week, in anticipation of President Vladimir Putin’s visit currently scheduled for the first week of September. Among the meetings Trutnev has arranged, the ministry told Business Day, was […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, July 27th, 2006
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By John Helmer In the Russian folk tradition, Dyed Moroz (Father Christmas) doesn’t give children their presents because they have been well-behaved all year. Instead, he responds to those who shout the loudest to catch his attention.

by John Helmer - Friday, July 14th, 2006
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