By John Helmer, Moscow For the first time Moscow analysts have issued precise estimates of the ferrous scrap sold in the domestic Russian market by the major scrap companies, and identified the market shares of the leading companies by name. The disclosures also confirm that the state-owned Russian Railways (RZhD) is one of largest scrap […]

by Editor - Thursday, March 12th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Next to prostitution, collecting scrap metal is the oldest trade in the world. Like prostitution, it prefers to do its business in the dark. Because it’s so easy and cheap to turn sex and stolen goods into cash, the expensive capital requirement for both lines of business is in protection from […]

by Editor - Sunday, March 8th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow When you have been the target of assassination by a powerful figure in Russia, as I have, and you survive the hit, as I did, you learn one thing or two things before; more in retrospect. One is that the Moscow police act quickly and competently, as they would elsewhere – […]

by Editor - Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow The President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades agreed last week with President Vladimir Putin on what is reported in London and Washington to be a military basing agreement with Russia for Russia’s naval and air forces in the Mediterranean. In the aftermath, Putin did all the talking to the press, making it […]

by Editor - Monday, March 2nd, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow The Kremlin doesn’t want to say so exactly. But right now it is as reluctant to support the Greek Government in its conflict with Germany, as Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Politburo wanted to back the Greek Communist Party during the Greek civil war between 1946 and 1949. So, when Foreign […]

by Editor - Thursday, February 26th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska (left), chief executive of the Russian state aluminium monopoly Rusal, makes a practice of thriving when everyone else is suffering. That’s because the Russian government and the state banks cast a more protective cover over heavy debtors when times are bad than when times are better. Rusal owes $9 […]

by Editor - Tuesday, February 24th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Central Criminal Court have reported that Nikolai Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian businessman and twice the minister of state for oil and gas licences, is the controlling shareholder of the Ukrainian gas producer Burisma. So what are employees of Igor Kolomoisky, warlord of Dniepropetrovsk and […]

by Editor - Thursday, February 19th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow South African government officials have attacked Russia’s bid to supply South Africa’s new nuclear reactor programme, accusing Rosatom, the state nuclear power agency, of imposing financially and legally disadvantageous terms which the South Africans, speaking anonymously, term “scary”. The attack was launched Friday in the Mail & Guardian, a local newspaper […]

by Editor - Monday, February 16th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow It is eleven weeks since President Vladimir Putin visited Brisbane, Australia, for a summit meeting of the G20 states. Putin was escorted in the Coral Sea, east of Brisbane, by a Russian Navy flotilla making the longest deployment of the Russian surface fleet ever displayed. Including Russian submarines shadowing the flotilla, […]

by Editor - Sunday, February 15th, 2015
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By John Helmer, Moscow Greece, with Cyprus, is the only member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to have suffered, and to continue to suffer, military occupation of its territory by another NATO state, Turkey, supported by the rest of the alliance. It is the only alliance member to have suffered from British and […]

by Editor - Tuesday, January 27th, 2015
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