By John Helmer in Moscow The decision of the Estonian government to remove the city’s Soviet war memorial and the graves of Red Army soldiers who fell in the last war against Germany has been an on/off thing for months. Now that it’s on, clashes between protesters and supporters, have already cost one life (Russian); […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 18th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Never complain, never explain — that was the advice of the worst loser in modern American politics, Richard Nixon. Norilsk Nickel, the lead mining company of Russia and biggest nickel producer in the world, appears not to understand how to lose, now that its bid for LionOre has been topped […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 18th, 2007
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Yury Trutnev, the Russian minister in charge of issuing mining licences, had a youthful reputation he was proud of in the martial arts. Very recently, he was so keen to test his prowess as a big-game hunter, he insisted on going on a safari in a South African game-park. Victor Vekselberg, the metals magnate who […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
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It is unprecedented in corporate takeover practice for white knights to beg to pay more for the privilege of rescuing those who appeal for help; and positively quixotic for them to accept less for their chivalry. However, Russian steelmaker Alexei Mordashov appears so keen to sell out his assets, and ride his rapidly thinning charger […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
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By John Helmer in Moscow Francois, the Duc de la Rochfoucauld, came to his famous book of maxims after a career in regular soldiering, and then in warfare between factions of the French court in the mid-17th century. He lost his home, his health, his love, and his fortune, but not his courage or wits. […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 6th, 2006
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Lithuania, the little state on the shore of the Baltic Sea, has a proud, and under Adolf Hitler, an unpleasant history of hostility towards Russia. If its accession to the European Union was an understandable attempt to conserve, and build on its post-Soviet independence, Lithuania’s application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sharpened […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 13th, 2006
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By John Helmer in Moscow The two dominant Australian vices are not indigenous. Envy came with the Irish Catholics, who were at first the convict, then the indentured, and finally the working class. Hypocrisy came with the English Protestants, who began their economic enterprise in the country by declaring the land unoccupied (“terra nullius” was […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 21st, 2005
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com)-Despite the visit this month to Moscow of a 64-person delegation of South African government and corporate officials – the largest ever to come to Russia – the outcome appears to be a cooling in mutual sentiment. One-sided lobbying by Russia’s natural resources minister, Yury allies is one of the reasons. Reluctance to challenge […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 21st, 2005
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) –Among the world’s top producers of aluminium, all are public companies regulated by the laws, securities market and anti-trust regulations, and disclosure requirements of the United States and the European Union, save one. The exception is Russian Aluminium (Rusal), which is owned by Oleg Deripaska, a young Russian. What Deripaska allows to be […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 14th, 2005
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By John Helmer Richard Cheney, the outgoing vice-president of the United States, is the modern version of Mime, second in command of the Niebelungs, the bad dwarfs of the mythical German underworld. It was Mime who forges a magical helmet to give his brother Alberich, the chief dwarf Niebelung, the power to change into anything […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 30th, 2005
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