By John Helmer in Moscow Many things can make a person greater than he or she really is, except time. Time activates the bacteria that strip the flesh off the bones, until only a forensic pathologist can detect the tiny signs of individuality; and even they add up to nothing more than a catalogue of […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 24th, 1999
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The only thing more stupid in politics than a stalking horse is a stalking ass, as Sergei Kirienko is proving by his campaign against Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Don’t get me wrong -I am very fond of the donkey family, in their place. Aesop thought the same when he told the fable of the ass […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, June 13th, 1999
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Not long ago, at a luncheon meeting of foreign businessmen in Moscow, the question was asked: Does anyone believe his business would be better off if Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was sacked? The answer was unanimous. Primakov was viewed as the most stable, and also the most honest, candidate for leadership of Russia today. Now […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 12th, 1999
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Suppose, just suppose, that the real reason for running $50 billion in Russia’s Central Bank cash reserves through the accounts of a shelf company registered in the Channel Islands, was not to hide the money from foreigners intent on seizing state assets, but rather to hide from Russians trying to steal them. And suppose, just […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 20th, 1999
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What leads fine performers of Bach cello sonatas, Rachmaninov piano concertos, and Chekhov plays and stories to imagine they can enter Russian politics as nimbly as they move their fingers over their instruments and scores? One answer Rostropovich the cellist, Petrov the pianist, and Mikhalkov the film-maker have given is that they have the right, […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 19th, 1999
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For years now, officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), of Russia’s Finance Ministry, and of the Central Bank of Russia have been conducting a discreet conversation among themselves they intended no-one else to hear — at least not in Russia. Mikhail Zadornov — who complained this was unprincipled and undemocratic when he was a […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 16th, 1999
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As the well-known Engish screenwriter, Dennis Potter, was in his last days, dying of pancreatic cancer, he agreed to an interview on television. There he said: “I call my cancer Rupert. I would shoot the bugger if I could.” Potter was speaking of Rupert Murdoch, the media proprietor. Five years after Potter’s death, in a […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 12th, 1999
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By answering questions the way he’s been doing, the Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, Viktor Gerashchenko, has unfortunately aroused people to ask whether he’s a good man, or bad. A good man is good inside, they say in Russian villages — a good horse is good outside. No one investigating the Central Bank […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 9th, 1999
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Rogues aren’t always criminals. Take rogue elephants, for example: if they threaten to go on the rampage, it’s neces sary to immobilise them; and if that doesn’t work, to shoot them. After the rampage, that’s a waste of bullets — unless they threaten to come back. The evidence being patiently assembled at the moment by […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, February 2nd, 1999
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By John Helmer in Moscow There is still time in the Moscow season to catch a performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s last great opera, Zolotoi Petushok (“The Golden Cockerel”). It may be the only way to sing in tune with the Russian leadership, as it finalizes its agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That’s […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, May 17th, 1997
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