By John Helmer, Moscow If you could make more money turning bananas into ballet, it’s likely that you couldn’t do it in places where the supply of bananas is plentiful and the price cheap, but the demand for ballet non-existent. But what if in places where the supply of ballet dancers is large and their […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 24th, 2011
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For readers who have been experiencing interruptions of internet connexion and seeing instead notices of 404 error, the explanation is a series of denial-of-service (DOS) attacks launched against this website in an attempt to stop publication. Technical evidence reveals that the attacker began bombarding the website server about 20 minutes after a story was published […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, November 6th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow If you are just back from the beach with your sachel of books dog-eared, riddled with beach sand, even read to the finish, you may have missed the latest in this year’s crop of thrillers with Russians for villains. Mark Mills’s House of the Hanged was released in July. The Independent […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, September 4th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
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by John Helmer - Saturday, April 30th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In its 20-year history, the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been notoriously slow to process borrower applications and disburse funds. Insiders say this reflects the problems of adjusting the commercial imperatives of the bank’s €53 billion project financing book, to the political realities and demands of the […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 20th, 2011
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by John Helmer - Monday, January 17th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow In Oleg Deripaska’s short career history, his Russian partners don’t last for long. The record for sufferance is held by Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney), whose agreement to lend Deripaska money and grant him trustee rights over Chernoy’s 13% shareholding in United Company Rusal lasted for more than five years – between […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 17th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow The Prime Minister has asked Russians to send him their choices of a name for a young Bulgarian shepherd dog, which was presented to him by the dog fancier, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, when the two met in Sofia on November 13.

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 16th, 2010
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