By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, the most famous English portraitist of the 18th century, have almost nothing to do with Russia at war today. Almost, but not quite nothing.

by Editor - Monday, October 25th, 2021
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By Marios Evriviades, Cyprus, translated from Greek by John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with From time to time we read that Russia will recognize the separatist faits accomplis of Turkey’s occupation in Cyprus, in exchange for Turkey’s recognition of the accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation. And each time the Russian government categorically refutes the existence of such […]

by Editor - Wednesday, October 20th, 2021
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by John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Computer programmes used in universities to detect student plagiarism, along with semantic, style, and cognitive tests, reveal that Putin’s People, a book published by HarperCollins and bylined Catherine Belton, has another author or authors. Comparison testing of the vocabulary of Belton’s book and of transcripts of podcasts when Belton has been […]

by Editor - Tuesday, October 19th, 2021
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Translated and introduced by John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with In official testimony to the European Parliament last week, the European Union Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, attacked Russia for “exacerbating the tight [supply] balance” and thus causing “the rising prices”. Responding to allegations against Gazprom, Simson promised an investigation. “We are looking into this claim, through our […]

by Editor - Thursday, October 14th, 2021
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By Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, Boston*  @bears_with George Bernard Shaw once said if you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh otherwise they’ll kill you.

by Editor - Wednesday, October 6th, 2021
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with When it came to ingratiating American presidents, no Russian leader tried harder than Mikhail Gorbachev followed by Boris Yeltsin. Vladimir Putin did his best to match their examples with Bill Clinton.   Putin was slow to learn, slower to anger. That began in 2008 when Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, broke a […]

by Editor - Tuesday, October 5th, 2021
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Investigations by US government officials, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), of Christopher Steele’s (lead image, right) Russiagate dossier have identified Catherine Belton (left) as one of the targets for his fabrications. Belton was herself investigated as one of the journalists Steele recruited to plant his allegations of Russian interference […]

by Editor - Monday, October 4th, 2021
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with There’s a lot to be afraid of in life. Mine has been dominated by the fear of suffocating to death. Compared to that, verbal insults, the headmaster’s cane, my father’s screaming, army camp, police on horses, Harvard University, the doorman at Fortnum’s, bad reviews, Russian gunmen, Georgian gunmen, and threats by […]

by Editor - Monday, September 27th, 2021
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Following last week’s meeting in Washington of Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne (lead image left), the Australian defence minister and their US counterparts, a strategic military and basing agreement was announced between Australia, the UK and US (AUKUS). This is being reinforced with summit  meetings in Washington this week. The declared […]

by Editor - Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021
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By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with It was noticed after the first few years of the French Revolution that the population of goats were gorging themselves and then reproducing out of control. Napoleon tried to cull them to save the forests the goats were taking over, and thereby preserve the timber he needed badly for his navyto […]

by Editor - Friday, July 30th, 2021
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