By John Helmer, Moscow The Central Bank of Russia has called for state prosecutors in Moscow to investigate its most costly bank takeover and bailout,  the three-year refinancing and reorganization of National Bank Trust and Otkritie Bank, on suspicion of multibillion-dollar fraud by Vadim Belyaev, the former chief executive  and leading shareholder of Otkritie. In […]

by Editor - Thursday, December 21st, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow A man who hates the subject of his writings is as pitiable as a coprophagic with haemorrhoids. The more he consumes of what he desires, the more painful he knows will be the consequence. Termites and rabbits do plenty of the former, but Mother Nature has relieved them of the latter.  […]

by Editor - Monday, December 18th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow This isn’t news:  President Vladimir Putin (lead image, right) is running for re-election on March 18. According to the latest national polls, he is likely to win with a larger majority of a smaller turnout than in 2012. As Tiny Tim (left) almost said in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, God bless […]

by Editor - Thursday, December 14th, 2017
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  By John Helmer, Moscow Russia’s leading state banker German Gref (lead image, left) and members of the Russian intelligentsia have written to the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announcing their judgement that Suleiman Kerimov (centre) is innocent of the indictment the French prosecutor has filed in Nice. This charges Kerimov with laundering  more than […]

by Editor - Monday, December 11th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Carl von Clausewitz, the 19th century German soldier and military strategist, famously remarked that war is the continuation of policy (politics) by other means. By war, von Clausewitz meant the old-fashioned idea of running people through or making them run away, so they give up their territory, treasure, and women.  By […]

by Editor - Thursday, December 7th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Extracting guilty pleas from the innocent was the specialty of the Spanish Inquisition and its Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada (lead image, centre). Extracting guilty pleas from the dead is the specialty of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (right), and Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov (left), head of the Church commission investigating […]

by Editor - Tuesday, December 5th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Since the American war against Russia began in 2014, the market for Russian art has been driven by rich Russians running away, both buyers and sellers, as well as Americans making disposals. This week, in the semi-annual London auctions, there was a surge of demand for the art which American Russia-haters, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, November 29th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow  The arrest and indictment of Suleiman Kerimov in Nice last week on charges of tax fraud and money laundering have begun loosening the tongues of international bankers and commodity trade financiers who have done business with Kerimov in the past, and who have been  guests at his Cap d’Antibes villa parties. […]

by Editor - Tuesday, November 28th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow The Russian state bank VTB has corroborated its role in managing a complicated set of loans, insider transfers and repurchase agreements for Oleg Deripaska’s aluminium and electricity holding, EN+, which issued global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange last week. Since the listing, the Russian group has lost $140 million […]

by Editor - Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow It’s possible Donald Trump meant the little he has said about who was responsible for the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014.  If he did, he didn’t mean it for long.  If he didn’t mean what he said, with the retrospect of two years that comes […]

by Editor - Friday, November 10th, 2017
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