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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By John Helmer in Moscow When Tony de Almeida, the musicial director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, telephoned in January to say I’d be sure to enjoy his next concert at the Conservatoire, he was doing what Tony did naturally and energetically. He was promoting the orchestra and the music he believed in to those […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, February 22nd, 1997
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Drive north from Moscow, and the road passes Foolish Women Ville (Durikino). Drive east, and you will come upon the village of Silly Lady (Durovo). What misfortune or humourlessness in their rural past induced Russians to fix the stigma of stupidity on their places of living — and put the blame firmly on women? In […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, May 27th, 1993
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Russian food is to Russians as gypsy music is to gypsies — no-one wonders how it is done or whether it is authentic, so long as you can dance to it. This is one of the commo¬nest mistakes made by visitors to Moscow. In the evenings they look for restaurants with good Russian food. When […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 21st, 1990
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