By John Helmer, Moscow As famous hoaxers go, Igor Sechin (lead image, centre), the chief executive of Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, is at least as clever as Clever Hans (right), a German horse of the late 19th century. Hans was apparently good at arithmetic. If his owner asked him to multiply three by four, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, December 14th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Russian champagne is like fake news in the Washington Post; and Gresham’s Law on counterfeit money.  The supply of fake champagne, including fake bubbles, is now driving the genuine stuff out of the market. A study, released in Moscow last week by the new state agency, Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo), reveals […]

by Editor - Sunday, December 11th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Amazon.com Incorporated makes annual sales of $107 billion, growing at a rate of 30% so far this year. The market capitalization of its shares is currently $366 billion, increasing by 14%. Imagine what would happen to both if the control shareholder and chief executive of the company, Jeffrey Bezos (lead image),  […]

by Editor - Wednesday, December 7th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Oleg Deripaska, control shareholder of Rusal, the Russian state aluminium monopoly, is the leading investor of Russian funds in offshore businesses which have failed. He is also Russia’s largest corporate debtor.  Noone else in the circle of President Vladimir Putin has performed so improvidently and unpatriotically. When the costs are counted […]

by Editor - Tuesday, December 6th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow If you can read this, you missed an attack on this website. It started, coincidentally, when the Moscow office day commenced. The general commanding our rocket forces forbids us to reveal  the method of attack and  how it was intercepted and zapped, restoring our coverage of stories like this one on […]

by Editor - Monday, December 5th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow The price of Russian art this week at the bellwether London auction house sales has risen by more than a third over a year ago, signalling that more money is available to spend, with more confidence that Russian paintings will more than hold their value for investors in the year ahead.  […]

by Editor - Thursday, December 1st, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow  For empires to rule, their agents must hang on to their monopoly of force, fraud and subversion, inside the home country as well as in its far flung dominions. Subversion means persuading people to believe what is true and good, when that’s false and bad for them. Propaganda, in short. It […]

by Editor - Wednesday, November 30th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the criminal fraternity it’s believed that light fingers are a juvenile condition it’s best for the practicioner to grow out of when more serious property transfers are in contemplation. Alexei Mordashov (lead image, right), the Russian steelmaker and goldminer, is a quick learner and a grown-up. With a net worth […]

by Editor - Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Naturally, war is about winning and losing. So there are songs to pick up your courage in advance, and songs of grief for what comes after.  There are also songs to help you forget what is happening. Since the destruction of Russia which Boris Yeltsin and the Clinton family began, together, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow In the dark of Monday night before light broke on Tuesday, Cyprus, the small Mediterranean island invaded and occupied for 42 years  by Turkish troops with US and UK backing,  began a revolution its president, Nicos Anastasiades (lead image, 4),  doesn’t want. The collapse of negotiations between the Greek Cypriot and […]

by Editor - Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016
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