By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Listen to today’s discussion with Nima Alkhorshid as we inspect the defences being built now against President Donald Trump’s ultimatums from the Ukraine to Iran, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, India, and China.    Before we start, though, ask whether there is any evidence in what Trump himself says to show he understands any negotiating […]

by Editor - Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with President Donald Trump had just turned nineteen in June 1965 when he heard on the radio the Rolling Stones sing the song which made them world famous.  “I can’t get no satisfaction,” the song began, and repeated the line, and then repeated more words.   “I can’t get no satisfaction/’Cause I try, and […]

by Editor - Monday, August 4th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The Russian oligarchs created by the Yeltsin Administration and continued by the Putin Administration (with a handful of deductions) have never trusted Russia. That’s why they have been willing to pay exorbitant prices for offshore assets – mines, steelmills, jet planes, motor yachts, Old Master paintings, and mansions with sea views […]

by Editor - Thursday, July 31st, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with No one in their right mind fights four wars on four separate fronts at the same time, three of them against nuclear-armed adversaries. But President Donald Trump doesn’t have a right mind. He has delegated that to an under secretary of Defense named Elbridge Colby  and his business partner, Wess Mitchell.  They […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 30th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with During his long weekend in Scotland, President Donald Trump announced that nothing but the capitulation of both his allies and his adversaries will satisfy his MAGA and MEGA aims. Make America Great Again, Make the Empire Great Again come to the same thing: capitulation to Trump’s terms or die. Trump’s term […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 30th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with President Vladimir Putin has held three telephone calls with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this year so far.  What matters most now, after the third of these calls on July 28, is that Putin has omitted to put on the Kremlin record what he told Netanyahu – and what Netanyahu has […]

by Editor - Tuesday, July 29th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Capitulation or obliteration: The President of the European Commission and the British Prime Minister have just demonstrated to President Vladimir Putin that there are only two options in dealing with the US President, and negotiations aren’t one of them. Read the verbatim record of what Trump told Putin during his press conference […]

by Editor - Monday, July 28th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with President Donald Trump’s long weekend trip to Scotland wasn’t to meet King Charles III; that meeting has been set for mid-September. He met the President of European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, not to negotiate trade terms but to announce the conclusion of what Trump called “probably the biggest deal ever reached […]

by Editor - Monday, July 28th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with No one in their right mind puts himself or herself in a zugzwang. Zugzwang is the German word which has become  the name in all languages for the well-known position in politics, warfare, and games of chess which is the last one before capitulation.  Literally, it means “being forced to move”. […]

by Editor - Thursday, July 24th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The third round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul came and went in just one hour, and the Russian plan to continue the meeting on Thursday was dropped.   A face-to-face meeting between the two delegation heads, Vladimir Medinsky for Russia, Rustem Umerov for the Ukraine, was held before the plenary session; it […]

by Editor - Thursday, July 24th, 2025
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