By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The game of tell-and-consequences begins with a prompt. In response each player must then write down a word or phrase without knowing what word or phrase has been written by the previous players. When the sequence and accumulation of words and phrases from all the players around the table is complete, […]

by Editor - Sunday, June 8th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with With the Oreshnik Moment on pause, who will say what is to be gained, what risked, what lost when President Vladimir Putin decides to play Molotov (lead image, lower right) to these two Ribbentrops (lead image, top left and right)? “We have so much in common”, President Donald Trump was told […]

by Editor - Thursday, June 5th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Lenin hasn’t been a favourite of President Vladimir Putin’s. He’s derided him: “Ukraine appeared in 1922…Now the grateful descendants are smashing monuments to Lenin, the founder of Ukraine.”   The second last time he mentioned Lenin, in February 2024, Putin blamed him. “For some unknown reasons, he transferred to that newly established Soviet […]

by Editor - Wednesday, June 4th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The point is not whether the June 1 attack on the Tupolev nuclear bombers across Russia can be called a terrorist operation or an act of war; nor is the point whether President Donald Trump was knowing in advance, during or  afterwards; nor is the point whether a proxy intelligence service […]

by Editor - Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with On the one hand, there are the words. In the analysis of  Oleg Tsarev, the leading Ukrainian opposition leader now in Crimea, the end-of-war terms presented by the Russian side at Istanbul on Monday afternoon  are “’not an ultimatum at all,’ [Russian delegation head Vladimir] Medinsky has stressed. Of course, Medinsky (lead […]

by Editor - Monday, June 2nd, 2025
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By John Helmer  @bears_with Born with a large Russia-hating chip on his shoulder, Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb has been the ideal US Government recruit to be president of Finland. And so, since March 1, 2024, he is. No one in Finnish politics has done as much as Stubb to cancel Finland’s post-war neutrality, drive the country into […]

by Editor - Sunday, June 1st, 2025
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By John Helmer  @bears_with Tomorrow, Monday June 2, the second round of “direct” negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will open with the exchange of term sheets, the Russian memorandum and what retired US Army General Keith Kellogg calls the twenty-two points which have been drafted by the US and FUGUP (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine […]

by Editor - Sunday, June 1st, 2025
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By John Helmer  @bears_with The first report came from RIA-Novosti, the Russian state news agency, on May 25 at 13:24. “President Vladimir Putin’s helicopter (lead image, top) was in the epicentre of repelling a large-scale attack by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones during a visit to the Kursk region, said Yury Dashkin [Major General in command of […]

by Editor - Friday, May 30th, 2025
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By John Helmer  @bears_with There is a risky way of being an American against the wars that President Donald Trump is aiming to fight, especially the one Trump claims not to be fighting against Russia on the Ukraine battlefield. The risk is that you may have to use words like imperialism, oligarchy, false consciousness, revolution.   […]

by Editor - Wednesday, May 28th, 2025
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By John Helmer  @bears_with Russian officials will ignore President Donald Trump’s tweets in order to focus on the main chance. “We do not consider the infantile attitude of Trump as a problem,” an official source said, responding to Trump’s statement and tweets of May 26 and 27. “We consider he is the legitimate counter party [for end-of-war […]

by Editor - Tuesday, May 27th, 2025
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