By John Helmer, Moscow The first Dance with Bears appeared in the Russia Journal, edited by Ajay Goyal, a decade ago. It began as a short commentary appearing once or twice a week. The title came from Astolphe de Custine, the greatest observer of Russia ever to be obliged to conceal what he was writing […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
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by John Helmer - Sunday, January 15th, 2012
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Krissy, November 1994-December 9, 2011

by John Helmer - Sunday, December 11th, 2011
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By John Helmer, Moscow Michael Wilson, a Kazakhstan-based lawyer specializing in mining and natural resources, has won a judgement from Australia’s highest court, reinstating a December 2009 award of more than $11 million. The five-year record of litigation has nailed three Australian lawyers — John Emmott, Robert Nicholls, and David Slater – for nicking clients, […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 2nd, 2011
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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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