There is no better test of the maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely than Russia’s Finance Ministry. Take the silver tax of May 1999, for example, and its predecessor in absolute folly, the silver edict of France’s King Louis XIV of May 1709. At that time, Louis’ treasury was empty and his armies and administration […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, July 27th, 2002
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When it comes to evasion, Alexei Kudrin, deputy prime minister in charge of the diamond sector, could take a lesson from the French bard, Jean Racine. According to the tale told by Madame de Sieving, Louis XIV once appointed Racine as his royal historian, only to rebuke him for failing to do enough to learn […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 26th, 2002
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There are 72 regional electricity-producing utility companies – energos, for short – in the state-controlled holding known as Unified Energy Systems (UES), run by Anatoly Chubais. None in Russia can be confident in predicting the outcome of the so-called reform of the power sector, except that Chubais and the government say they are committed to […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, July 7th, 2002
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In nautical circles it has always been said that rats leave a sinking ship. On pirate vessels, however, the custom was to make the better type of crewman walk the plank. At the Ministry of Finance under Alexei Kudrin, there is no sign whatsoever of a sinking feeling. The ministry’s man now runs the Central […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, July 6th, 2002
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The World Bank in Russia is a long-running soap opera full of starlets demanding astronomical fees for playing scenes charged with intimate advice and suspenseful mistakes that keep the plot alive, episode after episode. When we last tuned in, a year ago in May, the Bank had just engaged Anders Aslund, the paid Romeo of […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 1st, 2002
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MOSCOW – “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” – the more things change, the more they stay the same. After Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to make the most of two summit meetings in a week with European leaders, it’s time to remember the dictum coined by Frenchman Alphonse Karr more than a […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, June 4th, 2002
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Over growing protests from Iran, Russia has decided to draw a fine line in the Caspian Sea to enable oil companies to drill, but avoid the legal problems of setting up national sectors in the sea. The Russian strategy is also to settle the status of the northern Caspian oilfields without antagonizing Iran, by pressuring […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 24th, 2002
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The haste with which President George Bush announced this week’s arms control treaty with Russia -minutes after negotiators for the two sides claimed to have been working on the text, and days before they had finished work on the side document on missile defense – must have been embarrassing for President Vladimir Putin, The disclosure […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 17th, 2002
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MOSCOW – Had Adolf Hitler won his war against Russia, he had a market and land reform plan that should ring a bell. That’s because the policies that have come closest to the targets Hitler envisaged have been implemented by well-known officials of the Boris Yeltsin administration, many of whom still occupy high posts in […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, April 20th, 2002
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By John Helmer The newsletter from the US Embassy warned recently that middle-aged American males should be on the lookout for a dangerous thief in Moscow who puts them to sleep before he or she steals their wallets, and any other property that can be carried off. At the start of the last century in […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 29th, 2002
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